Heidt found an excellent vantage point in Saint-Como Dumont, the bell tower of the old church in the center of the town. From the afternoon of the 6th, he gazed from the top of the bell tower, hoping to grasp as much as possible about the situation on the battlefield. Two of his battalions were heading north as planned. Due to the wide area where the American paratroopers were scattered, the process of the German paratroopers moving to the "front" was actually a process of continuous close combat with the enemy "in the rear".

The 1st Battalion was about to go to the W5 bunker group, but stopped about 6 kilometers away from W5 – the bunker had been captured by the Americans. Faced with a large number of American infantry that had just landed, the 1st Battalion decided to wait and see for a while among the low bushes. This decision was extremely unwise, as about 150 gliders dropped the airborne regiment of the 101st Airborne Division into the rear of the 1st Battalion during the night, leaving the battalion almost encircled.

At the same time, the 2nd Battalion was also attacked by fire from Saint-Mel Eglis on its march. The city was originally occupied by a German anti-aircraft artillery unit, but they abandoned the city without informing the 6th Regiment.

Hydt climbed the church bell tower again early on the morning of June 7. As soon as the sun rose, he saw "the whole truth." As he peered out into the sea east of the town, a large Allied fleet appeared in his binoculars. Just as he was surprised, large-caliber shells from the naval guns whistled in, shaking the ground around the church. Hydt hurriedly ordered the headquarters to be evacuated to a farm near Carentham.

At this time, the 1st Parachute Battalion was struggling to withstand the attack of American tanks. The battalion commander, Emil Priechat, was helpless to find that the only "iron fist" in the battalion was quickly depleted. To make matters worse, telecommunication with the regimental headquarters, which had been easily restored, was met with the question, "Can your battalion send a force to join up with the 2nd battalion?" Priechtat responded in a telegram late on the morning of the 7th: "Our battalion has destroyed 5 American tanks...... Our unit is now surrounded and preparing to evacuate. ”

Receiving the message, Heidet knew that his subordinates were not doing well. He instead asked the 2nd Battalion to send a reconnaissance team to contact Priechat. The detachment had taken out 2 American tanks on its way, but it was no longer able to move any further.

Headert decided to use the 3rd Battalion, which was left in reserve, but the first company sent by the battalion soon became bogged down in a fierce encounter. At 22 hours, the battalion commander Horst. Trebes reported that his second company had engaged American tanks, and although two of them had been destroyed, only one "Iron Fist" remained in the entire company.

In the new headquarters on the farm, Hydet calculated the situation: under the surprise attack of the Allies, the 6th Regiment was in a terrible situation, and was oppressed by the American forces in all directions. Heidet decided to abandon the town of Saint-Como Dumont and put a new line of defense on the road between the town and Carentão.

Hydt gave the order immediately, but it was a little too late. The 1st Battalion, which was fighting hard, fell into despair, with only about 300 men left in the battalion, and not only did it not see any hope of a breakthrough, but the line of defense shrank smaller and smaller, and was finally compressed into the area around Rabakquet. The exhausted paratroopers were pinned down by American fire and could not move in the fields flooded with river water. The battalion commander, Priexiat, was a veteran who joined the paratrooper in 1938, received the Iron Cross of the 1st and 2nd degrees, and participated in the Cretan parachutes. But now two of his four company commanders have been killed and two are missing. At this time, he was forced to decide to surrender to the American army with the remnants of his army. (Only 25 remnants of the battalion narrowly escaped.) )

Although the 6th Regiment lost one battalion, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions retreated and concentrated on the three-way junction near the village of Beaumont. The Germans had the advantage of terrain here, and the road was lined with either swampy land or a watered bush belt, which was very suitable for intervening attacks.

The two roads that intersect at this fork in the road are the N13 and the D913. The N13 went north through Saint-Como Dumont to Cherbourg, along which the 6th Regiment was withdrawn, and south to Carentão. The D913 highway slanted northeast to Utah Beachhead. This fork in the road is about to become one of the most historic sites in the Battle of Normandy, and American soldiers called it the "Corner of the Dead."

There is a very abrupt small building at the fork in the road. In the ensuing battle, it will become a temporary headquarters for both warring sides and a treatment station for wounded soldiers. The old house miraculously survived the baptism of artillery fire and is now a museum dedicated to the battle.

On June 8, the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army arrived here, and a rare paratrooper ground duel was staged. American paratroopers found it difficult to get closer to the small building. The German paratroopers did not fire fiercely, but they were very accurate. Hedgerows of bushes gave the battle a more or less street character, and the ridges that had to be waded through provided the German paratroopers with easy aim.

The impatient U.S. military sent the 70th Tank Battalion to open the way. When the noise characteristic of metal tracks came, the American paratroopers, who could not move an inch, let out bursts of cheers. However, as soon as the M5A1 "Stewart" light tank arrived at the three-way intersection, it was hit by the "iron fist" and stopped in front of the small building and burned violently.

The German anti-tank ambush created a terrifying scenario, Captain "Stewart" ***. T。 Anderson's charred body swooped out, half-hung on the turret. Due to the suppression of German crossfire, the American soldiers were never able to go up to collect the corpses. This brutal sight irritated the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, who called it the "Horn of the Dead".

"The Horn of the Dead" accurately encapsulates the brutality of the fighting there. Under the natural cover provided by the bushes, the German paratroopers fired outwards from the individual bunkers prepared in advance. Anti-tank detachments of 3 to 4 people per group are even more elusive, they carry "tank killer" bazookas in ambush in the bushes, and when the American tanks speed by, they will let go of the first one and shoot the tank behind.

The toughness of the opponent shocked the American paratroopers. Duncan, a non-commissioned officer of Company D, 502nd Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, had captured a German officer. He put a pistol to the German man's head and told him to call out to the German soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender. The paratrooper officer yelled, and his men opened fire in the direction of the sound, killing both himself and Duncan.

But toughness can't replace ammo, and Hydt keeps getting reports of running out of ammo, which means he can't hold on for long. As the strength of the American paratroopers grew, Hydet ordered his troops to retreat to the outlying positions north of Carentham in order to be supplied with ammunition and artillery fire from the heights south of the city. The battle for the "Horn of the Dead" has finally come to an end.

Subsequently, the paratrooper unit began to reorganize, and the division was formed in Amiens (Amie) in June '44

s), which belonged to the 15th Army. At the beginning of its formation, the 16th Parachute Regiment of the division was being transferred to Ste

dal and finally arrived in Vil in Lithuania

aJoining the war. At that time, the regiment was renamed the 3rd Parachute Grenadier Regiment and was subordinate to the HG Paratrooper Panzer Corps. And the rest of the division, which was only one battle group, was hastily thrown into the battle of Normandy with heavy losses. The remnants were reorganized into a new paratrooper unit - E

dma

Paratrooper division, but this is only a temporary unit. After the reorganization, it was divided into the 16th paratrooper regiment

17th Parachute Regiment

18th Parachute Regiment

6th parachute anti-tank battalion

6th Mortar Battalion

6th Artillery Regiment

6th Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion

6th Parachute Engineer Battalion

6th Air Force Communications Battalion

6th Medical Detachment

Later integration into the army

6th Field Replenishment Battalion

On July 15, 1945, the 6th Parachute Division was rebuilt in Meppel, the Netherlands, and on top of a small part of the original remnants, the 2nd, 29th, 31st, 38th, and 40th Air Fortress Battalions were absorbed.

At the beginning of the reconstruction, the division had only two battalions of troops, after which it was hastily engaged in the Arnhem operation. After the battle, the remnants of the division remained in the Netherlands to fight the Canadian First Army, and then fought a defensive battle on the west wall to prevent the British from crossing the Rhine.

In the Norwegian Campaign, Germany put a large number of paratroopers into the battlefield for the first time, using the rapid delivery of paratroopers to achieve the suddenness of the attack; Take advantage of the mobility of paratroopers to quickly deploy behind enemy lines or to key targets. After the first successful use of paratroopers, the Germans began to use paratroopers massively in various campaigns. Holland, France, Brest, Stalingrad, rescue Mussolini...... Along with the pace of the German offensive, the paratroopers of the Third Reich bloomed in the skies of the European continent.

In the battle for Crete, the German paratroopers suffered heavy losses for the first time, and the elite was almost exhausted, and the German paratroopers came to an end. In the later stages of the war, due to the fact that the German army was fully turned into defense, the battle line was constantly shortened, the lack of aircraft, and the German army was no longer able to organize large-scale assault operations, paratroopers were incorporated into infantry units or garrison units, and the eagle emblem with folded wings never appeared in the sky of the World War II battlefield. German paratroopers with all their combat equipment.

Speaking of German paratroopers, we have to say that the German Air Force, in fact, the German Air Force was the first in the world during World War II, it can be said that through his own bombers, to Britain, France, and other occupying countries, the harm posed is very huge, and also through the strength of the Air Force, to the army is also less obstacles.

However, Hitler has never attached importance to the air force, nor has he paid attention to the German paratroopers, believing that the German army is invincible, and in the end if you want to occupy a country, you must have a strong army, so Hitler has always attached importance to the development of the army, as an aviation force, including paratroopers, only as a subsidiary of the army, must obey the army.

So when Germany occupied the Polish airfield, these paratroopers served only as a protection 。。。。。。。。。。。。。。