On a clear morning, near Port Jacksonville in northeastern Florida, a grass-green painted twin-engine monoplane bomber skimmed over fields and villages at treetop heights, and it was not difficult to tell from its catfish-belly shape that it was a B-10 bomber made by Glenn Martin. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 InfoThis medium bomber began service with the U.S. Air Force in the early 30s, and adopted a series of state-of-the-art designs - all-metal lower monoplane construction, closed cockpit, closed bomb bay, retractable landing gear, and semi-circular turtle-shell-like protruding turret, although the top speed was slower than the German Ju-30, but the bomb load, endurance and self-defense capabilities were superior.

Viewed from above, this five-seat medium bomber is neatly crewed, with bombardiers and forward machine gunners, pilots, navigators, radiomen and rear machine gunners performing their duties, and the fuselage is sprayed with the tactical number of the 3rd Air Force of the United States Air Force in Florida. Another example is that the pilots wore the blue-gray shirts of the German army instead of the white shirts of the American army......

This German reconnaissance plane, disguised as a US bomber, was a treasure that the Allied troops had found from the plane hangar after occupying Bermuda. Based on the British-made "Mountain Hawk" fighter, the US military has produced the "Eagle Falcon" with superior performance, and through technological improvement, it has developed a series of derivative models, such as high-speed interceptors, high-altitude interceptors, and rapid reconnaissance planes. Before the implementation of the Bahamas campaign, the Allied forces led by the German army conducted a large number of aerial reconnaissance of the combat area as usual, and the Fokker G-51H, Me-50F, and even the newly commissioned Fokker G-54D, which had nothing to do in the past, encountered unprecedented resistance when carrying out reconnaissance missions, and the loss ratio was far higher than that of the British Campaign and the Azores Campaign, and the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft converted from the Ju-30 failed 14 of the initial 21 reconnaissance flights, and later had to be changed to armed reconnaissance escorted by fighters. It barely met the needs of pre-war and wartime reconnaissance.

Before the launch of the Florida campaign that landed on the US mainland, the Allied air forces continued to carry out armed reconnaissance, but whenever an Allied plane group took off from an airfield in the Bahamas or Cuba, the US radar station in Florida would issue an early warning in a timely manner, and then either organize a group of fighters to intercept it or evacuate and conceal it in advance. As a result, the Germans came up with the Trojan Horse plan, secretly transferred the US military planes captured in the early stage to the Bahamas, and ordered them to act alone, avoiding the US military's warning radar by flying at low altitudes, and then carrying out reconnaissance on military targets in the deep zone -- before the launch of the Florida campaign, the "Trojan Horse" operations were all successful, and a large amount of direct intelligence on the US military's defensive deployment was collected.

On this Trojan horse, the navigator in charge of determining the route was one of the most experienced master officers of the Luftwaffe, and he informed his comrades with the help of the wired communication line in the plane: "In the right front is the port of Jacksonville, according to the available information, there are a large number of air defense deployments on the north and south banks of the harbor, there was a cruiser detachment stationed in the port, and our scheduled flight route is to fly west of the city, and to photograph and explore the port and the north and south banks at an oblique angle." ”

"Understood!" The pilot calmly replied, "The current flight altitude is 50 meters, and I am ready to climb to 150 meters." ”

The plane immediately raised its nose and slowly climbed up, and at this time, the bombardier at the nose of the plane, that is, the operator of the reconnaissance equipment, responded: "The camera lens has been adjusted." ”

After a moment, the radioman said loudly in a slightly hurried tone: "Attention, the US military radio communication signal has been received...... They were asking us for who we were! ”

The navigator immediately replied: "It's still the old way, pretending that the radio equipment is faulty and intermittent." ”

The radioman then responded in fluent American English, during which the specially installed electrical jammers on the onboard radio equipment were repeatedly activated, making it impossible for the other side to verify key information such as troop numbers and flight missions, thus delaying the response time of the other side.

In a few moments, the predominantly white, brown, and black tones of Port Jacksonville appeared on the outer edge of the wing on the right, and the blue harbor was at the far end of the view. Although it was not the best angle, it was able to try not to wary the harbor garrison - the anti-aircraft gunners saw a B-10 flying by from a distance, and usually did not face each other until they had identified it.

"There seem to be several black spots in the direction of the harbor, are they ordinary ships or enemy warships?" The navigator muttered.

The pilot, radioman, and scout at the nose were all focused on their own operations, but the rear-facing heavy, who was able to free his hand to look at the horizon with his binoculars, quickly replied, "It looks like a warship, but I can't be sure, the answer will only be revealed after the photo is cleaned and enlarged." ”

At the same time, at a distance

In the places where these outsiders chose to land, the sound of guns and cannons disappeared, replaced by the roar of machines and the boiling popularity, a large number of landing ships busily shuttled back and forth between the beach and the landing fleet, and the trestle bridges, whether simple or regular, were gradually extending into the depths of the sea with the efforts of the engineering troops.

But behind this hectic scene is the devastation left behind by a day and a night of fierce fighting. The smooth and beautiful sandy beaches, the lush woods and even the moss on the hills are gone, and there are only large scorched earth and some burnt wooden stakes as far as the eye can see, and in those places where fierce battles once took place, the strips of cloth and incomplete weapons that once belonged to military uniforms or battle flags are now in a fragmented state, and many of the incomplete weapons have simply returned to the state of parts, and the blood spilled by the soldiers has long been solidified into a dark black imprint under the combined action of cold and time, and there are many places that are no longer recognizable. Something that smells disgusting......

"Stop moving! The 2nd platoon is responsible for guarding, and the 1st, 3rd, and 4th platoons rest in place for 5 minutes! ”

After looking at the watch on his right wrist, the officer, standing in the compartment of a fully tracked K-28 open amphibious armored vehicle, with a silver-gray double-flower collar badge on a blue background and a single gold star epaulette on a blue-edged gray background, shouted to his soldiers. Soon, the Mark-IV tank in the front, followed by a K-27 armored personnel carrier and a 1924 half-track armored vehicle, stopped, and the more than 200 soldiers behind them who were marching north along the road in two columns sat down almost immediately, except for those who were ordered to carry out the guard duty. Although these were super-rigorously trained Marines, continuous combat and marching were a serious physical challenge for anyone, not to mention that the weight of these soldiers increased with the progress of weapons - in 1914, each German Army soldier only had to carry 45 pounds of equipment, about 20 kilograms, by 1933, the standard equipment of German soldiers had increased to 28. 5 kilograms, and two years later, in the Battle of Florida, each German soldier who participated in the battle needed to carry at least 35 kilograms of equipment.

Due to the mode of operation and logistical support, the individual marching weight of the Marine Corps even reached nearly 40 kg!

Compared with their predecessors, the individual weapons carried by German soldiers at this time were more advanced, and the Mauser 1898 rifle had basically been withdrawn from the equipment sequence, replaced by the M1927 semi-automatic rifle, MP25 submachine gun and MG-27/30 light machine gun. In this simple equation, 4. 4 kg M1927 semi-automatic rifle, 4. The 5-kilogram MP25-type submachine gun is clearly better than a 3. The 9-kilogram Mauser 1898 rifle weighs quite a bit, and another point of weight increase corresponding to this is ammunition. In the past, German soldiers armed with Mauser 1898 rifles only had to carry 50-60 rounds of ammunition with them in wartime, and the faster rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles consumed bullets much faster than the old hand-loading rifles, so German riflemen armed with GG semi-automatic rifles had to carry twice as much ammunition as their predecessors, and this extra 50 rounds or so should not be underestimated.7 92 mm rifle cartridges, they also weigh 1. 5 kg, during a long march, they are quite capable of being the last "straw" that crushes the "camel", and the shooter with an MP25 submachine gun carries more bullets, reaching 180-220 rounds, with a total ammunition weight of about 2. 5 kg.

Weapons are only an integral part of individual equipment, compared with the German soldiers who only need to wear leather helmets or M16 old steel helmets in the past, the current German soldiers have been better taken care of all over the body - M27 steel helmet, a new steel helmet specially prepared for the German-Russian and German-Japanese wars, divided into army type, marine type and paratrooper type, but in terms of ballistic performance, M27 can be regarded as the best steel helmet of this era, just 1. The weight of 2 kg still made the soldiers complain during the long march and combat.

In 1935, the square rucksack was still the iconic equipment of German soldiers, but compared with 20 years ago, the "content" in this rucksack can be said to be a lot richer, and the underwear is still one to two sets per person, in addition to a pair of spare military boots, an emergency ration for a soldier to eat for one to two days, firearm maintenance tools and a small number of personal items, it is worth mentioning that this rucksack also has a certain bulletproof function after improvement, that is, the former wooden underframe has been replaced with an alloy with a certain thickness, But the weight has also increased accordingly.

In addition, high-quality military coats, tents, and military blankets were folded and bundled to carry on the rucksacks, and the belts under the knapsacks were tied to common equipment such as daggers, sapper shovels, water bottles, leather ammunition bags, grenade backpacks, and more often German soldiers also had to carry another special piece of equipment - gas mask canisters.

While the soldiers sat down to rest, the previous lieutenant company commander was not idle, he quickly climbed the turret of the only chariot in the group and stood upright to observe the situation ahead with a high-powered telescope. At the end of the dirt road is a small town, which looks like a low square, and around it, the summer fields take on a vibrant emerald green. Although the sun had risen, the town was quiet, with no smoke, no pedestrians, not even a dog or a cow in sight.

Just as the burly officer was wondering, the communications officer below shouted:

"Lieutenant, the commander of the command wants to talk to you!"

At this time, the German ground forces were basically equipped with two types of radio communication equipment, one was a transmitter-type radio for long-distance communication, and the other was a backpack-type radio FM walkie-talkie he was using, which was produced by Siemens Electric in Germany, and the effective talking distance could reach up to 15 kilometers, and the only drawback was that the weight of 20 kilograms needed to be carried by a special soldier.

(End of chapter)