Ridgway's terrible battlefield instincts saved the fate of the 82nd Airborne Division on this night, and when the German roundabout troops pounced, they were shocked to find that the American troops on the battlefield had quietly retreated into the distance, and the roundabout troops did not hold the enemy troops, but were forced to retreat due to the intensive fire of the American army's third-line positions. www.biquge.info This situation is like a boxer who has the upper hand in a boxing match and throws a left hook violently, but I didn't expect the staggering opponent to just step back, and the hook that I thought was powerful not only threw myself into the air, but also took the opportunity to punch the opponent because the face was exposed and the distance was closer, not to mention how aggrieved it was.

"Sir, how do you see that?" Taking advantage of the gap in the battle, Adjutant Captain Green wasted no time in asking for advice, and this young man, who had only graduated from West Point in 1936, was very fond of Ridgway, and often called him for commanding experience.

"To be honest, I don't see it." Ridgie shook his head slightly, he didn't want to pretend to be profound in front of his subordinates, it was too pretentious, it was not interesting at all - the person who liked to do this the most was MacArthur.

"But I think the enemy must be thinking about tactical adjustments when they suddenly slow down their pace, although I don't know what they want, but I can fight them in a different battlefield environment, and retreating to a third-line position is a forced choice, at least we are more familiar with it there, so we will barely have a slight advantage. As for the tactics that happened to break the enemy, it was completely by mistake. Li Qiwei smiled bitterly, "Of course, this tactic cannot be abused, you must have enough control over the troops, and you can fully trust your subordinates, and let them trust the commander's adjustment, otherwise if you retreat in the front, you will think that you have failed and the whole line will retreat, wouldn't it be a mess and a waste of your previous achievements?" ”

The adjutant nodded in instruction. Ridgway's sudden hand delayed the time for more than 2 hours, and the German army, which could only continue the offensive from the front, continued to attack in turn, causing nearly 300 casualties among the American troops and more than 100 losses of its own, although the Germans had the upper hand in the exchange ratio and the scene, but the number of marines was too small, and the heavy losses made Lieutenant Colonel Baker realize that this offensive was about to be unsustainable - he had lost all his armored vehicles in two attacks, and almost ran out of 80mm mortar shells, Now he is completely relying on the captured or picked up US military equipment in use, and dragging it down is not good for him, and it is impossible for him to really hit the moment when the enemy plane appears, and then it will definitely be swallowed up by the US troops who have received follow-up reinforcements.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, Lieutenant Colonel Beck, who judged the situation, gave the order to retreat, and the German officers and men attacked with ferocious fire and then alternately covered the retreat. This fierce battle, which lasted more than 5 hours, exhausted everyone, the Germans paid a total of more than 300 casualties, and the remaining intact troops were less than 600, which is still counting all the armored troops who lost their tanks and were forced to participate in infantry combat, and the strength of the Beck battle group shrank from 3 battalions to one battalion, and the losses were very heavy.

The price paid by the 82nd Airborne Division was even greater, with a total of more than 1,600 men before the night battle began, and the reinforcements of more than 200 crew members when they came, the total number was nearly 1,900. However, when the two sides disengaged, it was found that the night battle had caused a total of more than 1,000 casualties on their own side, less than 900 intact troops, and even with the addition of the wounded who could barely take up arms to fight, the total strength was only a little more than 1,100, and the pilots who temporarily joined the team lost more than 60.

Thinking that when he set off yesterday, there was still a large team of more than 3,000 people, and the regiment commander Carney couldn't help but look gloomy, and wanted to cry out loud: all the battalion commanders under him were killed, only 2 of the more than 10 company commanders were intact, 3 were wounded, and the rest were all killed, and the officers of the entire regiment with the rank of captain and above lost nearly 80% in one go. Regardless of the country, the loss is enough to completely rebuild. But it is incredible that even so, this unit still maintains high morale and the courage to continue fighting.

"Sir, the chief of staff has sent a telegram that the group has begun to depart, and it will definitely arrive at dawn." The adjutant informed Li Qiwei.

"Good! Let's hold on for the last 3 hours and the final victory will be ours. ”

Almost at the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Baker, who was gradually retreating north, also sent a telegram to Masal, reporting the situation of the night battle and the losses of the marines, saying that the situation was very critical, and that he hoped that the fleet would be put into air or naval artillery cover today, at least to contain the enemy's airborne landing, otherwise the marines would be completely annihilated.

"What now?" Machar, who received the telegram, did not dare to ask Ozawa, and when he asked, there must have only one answer: to abandon the Marines and run away. He couldn't make that decision, the Marines had decided to move to the island to try to attract the Americans to attack, and at the same time had a day of delaying with the hope of luck, and now the responsibility for the increasingly dire situation was entirely his. The responsibility is too great for him to bear.

"Then there is only one way to dispatch carrier-based aircraft to cover the retreat of the marines, and during the day we need to help them resist one or two as much as possible, and the artillery fleet must hurry up its actions, and at the same time, the reconnaissance planes must pay attention to searching to see if the enemy fleet has entered the war zone." Cranke persuaded in a low voice, "If necessary, we can only make the intention of abandoning the marines, the fleet cannot stay around Bermuda for too long, either go back to the Azores, or turn around and go to Cape Verde to resupply and then go to the Falklands, no matter how you decide, there is only one position - the fleet is more important than the marines." Such a brave marine force can pull out at least 2 million in the whole of Germany, but we are the only one in the whole of Germany......"

"Okay, I see what you mean, hey, I don't know how to explain to General Weiss when I go back this time."

"General Weiss is a kind man, he won't be inconsiderate, let's find a way to explain to the Führer." Cranke sighed, "After today's battle, no matter whether you win or lose, you must report to the Führer, he is now the commander-in-chief of the navy, and he can't always know the battle situation last." ”

After some persuasion by Crank, the chaotic Machar finally regained his composure, and within a few minutes he issued 3 orders:

1. The aircraft carrier formation was ready, all reconnaissance planes were released at dawn, and 60 carrier-based aircraft were dispatched to Bermuda to cover the Marine Corps;

2. Telegraphed Lieutenant Colonel Baker to defend himself and that there was no need to attack again today, and hoped that they would hold out until the evening;

3. Inform Lieutenant General Pei to go to Bermuda to meet the Marines as soon as the situation permits, so that he can assume the posture of continuing the offensive;

A new round of the rising sun finally rose, and the Axis fighters rushed to the skies over Bermuda after the American group, and when they saw the huge transport planes in the air and the umbrella flowers floating from below, the German and Italian pilots knew that this was the second batch of airborne troops reinforced by the US army, and immediately pounced on the siege, while the P-51s who escorted the escort did their best to protect them. Under normal circumstances, fighter pilots do not attack their opponents who parachute, because this is not only not in line with chivalry, but also on the day of their own parachuting, they can imperceptibly stick to each other's bottom line, but the paratroopers are obviously not among them.

Speaking of which, the luck of the 82nd Airborne Division was really not good enough, originally according to Ridgway's assumption, the air troops should first attack the German troops on the ground, and then put troops under control of the scene, but because the German troops began to retreat at 3 o'clock, and by the early morning they had completely disengaged from contact, and the second wave of troops who were eager to reinforce them immediately landed in the air, but they did not expect that the Axis carrier-based aircraft, which had just landed a small part and disappeared all day yesterday, appeared, and the scene became chaotic.

Of course, bad luck depends on how to understand it, and there are many fish that can slip through the net just by attacking paratroopers, and if it is a fighter directly attacking a huge and clumsy transport plane, then the situation is even more troublesome -- as long as it is shot down, it is a pothole. Knowing that the situation was dangerous, the P-51 pilots did everything they could to protect them.

Of course, the P-51 is a good aircraft, even if it is only the P-51B and not the most prestigious P-51D, the overall strength is still much stronger than the BF-219 that has been changed and changed, but on this particular occasion today - the protection at low and medium altitudes is a bit difficult, although the number of P-51s is nearly 200, which is twice as much as the Axis aircraft, but the targets they want to protect are too fragile and eye-catching, and the German pilots with experienced air experience often take the opportunity to attack transport planes or paratroopers to lure the P-51 to take the bait, Then they used their excellent maneuverability at low altitude to take out one US fighter after another.

Although the German pilots were relatively small in the course of the air battle, they were generally more experienced and more skilled than the US pilots, and even if they were inferior to the enemy, they achieved twice as many results as the other side. This is all the more remarkable when you consider the need to attack transport planes and paratroopers who are barely able to resist.

This hooligan style of play deeply annoyed the airborne troops on the ground, but they couldn't help it from below. The German pilots also did not engage in ground attacks, but just found ways to go around in circles with the P-51, knocking on transport planes and paratroopers by the way, and occasionally hitting A-26 situation bombers.

In the half-hour battle, 38 P-51s were shot down, 6 transport planes were shot down, more than 800 paratroopers were killed (hit or fell into the sea), and the Germans lost 21 planes.

Due to the threat of German carrier-based aircraft, the third group of troops scheduled for the afternoon was cancelled, and General Arnold switched to the army aircraft to attack the German fleet, with reinforcements of the 82nd Airborne Division on the ground to attack.

Offense and defense are two different things, although yesterday's defense of the 82nd Airborne Division at night was quite orderly, but in the face of the German veterans who had experienced the Battle of the Holm Encirclement, their attack was like a dog gnawing on a hedgehog and had no way to eat, obviously having nearly 5 times the strength of the opponent, but they just couldn't get in, but they only forced the Baker battle group to retreat 2 kilometers, although they eliminated more than 100 opponents, but they paid the price of nearly 500 people.

The small Bermuda Islands are like a mill of flesh and blood, constantly devouring the lives of German and American soldiers...... (To be continued.) )