Chapter 661: The Great Cause of the Founding of the People's Republic of China

The Allied forces were approaching Germany from both the east and the west, which caused deep fear among the unstoppable people, especially Hitler. 1 (1) The Third Reich had come to an end in history, and Hitler himself understood that action had to be taken, otherwise the end of the Third Reich was imminent.

In order to avoid a complete collapse, Hitler concentrated 25 divisions (250,000 men) of Army Group "B", including the 6th SS tank army, and 900 tanks and self-propelled guns in the Ardennes, in an attempt to thwart the Allied forces in the territory of the Netherlands and Belgium with a sudden counterattack, stabilize the rear, and free up forces to engage the Soviet forces on the Eastern Front. At dawn on April 16, 1944, the Germans began the Battle of the Ardennes. The Germans launched a surprise attack under the cover of hundreds of searchlights, and the unprepared American troops retreated in panic without organized resistance, suffering heavy losses. The Germans organized a task force, wearing American uniforms, to infiltrate the American defense line to sabotage and riot, causing great confusion in the American army. After breaking through the American lines, the Germans advanced in the direction of the Maas River. On the 17th, the positions of the 106th and 28th divisions of the US army were broken through, and two regiments surrendered. By the 25th, the German army had penetrated westward to a depth of more than 100 kilometers, forming a salient. In the event of a serious threat to the American forces, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, D. D. D. Eisenhower, took decisive measures and Montgomery took unified command. At the same time, a large number of reinforcements were urgently dispatched to resolutely block the German offensive and actively prepare for a counter-assault.

In order to reverse the situation and cooperate with the actions of the large German forces, the German high command planned to use paratroopers on the night before the official offensive to parachute into the rear of the US forces to occupy a bridgehead, first, to cut off the ground communications of the US troops and block their reinforcements, and second, to create chaos in the rear of the US troops and to receive the large forces attacking frontally.

At the beginning of April, the German High Command appointed the battle-hardened von Murphy in the paratrooper unit. Morality. Colonel Haight commanded Operation "Eagle". Early days of World War II. German paratroopers descended from the sky and launched a number of surprise attacks: the first large-scale airborne operations in history were written in Denmark and Norway; Airborne capture of all Dutch airfields to provide a guarantee for the rapid occupation of the Netherlands by German troops; Raid on Eben, Belgium. The fortress of Emar set a record for the most daring airborne operation in World War II; The Battle of Crete is counted as the only siege in World War II in which a predominantly paratrooper unit was conducted. These airborne operations provided an important guarantee for the victory of the German "blitzkrieg". Mid-to-late World War II. Because Hitler forbade airborne operations on the grounds that paratroopers suffered too many casualties in airborne combat, German paratroopers were thrown into ground combat as ordinary infantry. Therefore, Colonel Haight was very excited after receiving this long-lost airborne mission, and he regarded Operation Eagle as an honorable battle to restore the prestige of the German paratroopers.

Years of conquest have resulted in the loss of veterans with airborne experience. He had to barely find some officers and non-commissioned officers in the 2nd Airborne Corps, which was severely understaffed, but most of the paratroopers recruited were newly trained recruits. This, combined with the inclement weather in the Ardennes, the difficulty of parachuting at night and the inexperience of transport pilots, made it a challenge to carry out the parachute accurately. To this end, Haight came up with a solution: in the airborne area, the bomber first dropped an incendiary bomb to indicate the location; The route is indicated by ground searchlights along the way from the departure airport to the airborne area, and where there are no searchlights, tracer shells are fired from anti-aircraft guns; When paratroopers are airborne, flares are dropped by transport aircraft. Ensure the accurate landing of paratroopers.

On 29 April, Haidt's paratrooper assault group assembled at Artun to prepare for the airborne. On the 30th, they received specific combat tasks: at 3 a.m. on the 30th, launch a frontal counterattack on the frontal units of the German army, parachute in the area of Baragmichiel in the direction of the attack of the 6th SS Panzer Army, seize and hold the local road intersection, and meet the frontal attacking troops. It was transported by 90 Junkers 52 transport aircraft from Paderborn and Lipstadt airports in Germany. **(.. ）

On the night of the 29th. Because part of the trucks responsible for transporting the paratrooper commandos did not arrive in time. As a result, half of the paratroopers did not arrive at the departure airport on time as planned, and Operation Eagle was forced to be postponed. At 0:30 on the 31st, the first batch of 10 Junkers 52 transport planes carrying the paratrooper commando took off and, under the guidance of ground searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, arrived over the predetermined area at 3 o'clock and parachuted. But after the first batch of transport planes, the searchlights along the line were turned off. The anti-aircraft guns also stopped firing tracer rounds, causing the subsequent groups of transport aircraft to lose guidance and deviate from their course. Some of them flew over the Allied anti-aircraft artillery defense area. Intercepted by intensive artillery fire, 10 were shot down. The rest of the transport planes were scattered in formation. Combined with winds over the Ardennes exceeding 6 meters per second, about 200 German paratroopers found themselves in Bonn, 50 kilometers away from their targets, after landing. Only 450 people reached the goal.

There was no turning back from the bow, and although there were only 400 men, the Germans were going to attack. Haight landed accurately with the first transport planes to Balagmitchell, and by the time he had assembled only 150 men and a mortar. With too few people, Haight ordered his troops to hide in the woods and wait for the other paratroopers to arrive. That night, the remaining 300 men finally arrived one after another, but all the communications troops and radio stations disappeared when they landed in the air. Unable to make contact with Command, Haidt nevertheless decided to capture the intended target. As a result, more than 400 German paratroopers, under the command of Haight, used FG42 paratrooper rifles and MP40 submachine guns to attack the American garrison near the intersection of the Balagmichiel road, and took the opponent by surprise.

By the morning of 1 May, the Balagmichir road junction was completely under the control of German paratroopers. Coincidentally, it was a company of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army that was attacked, and more than 40 of them were captured by the Germans. But many German paratroopers were also wounded in the battle, and their lives were in critical condition because they did not have any medicines. In order to give these wounded a chance to live, Haidt called the captured American soldiers and asked them to bring the German wounded back to the American positions and treat them. Haight knew very well that the release of American prisoners of war would inevitably provoke a large-scale counterattack by the American army, and he ordered his subordinates to immediately deploy defenses in the woods on both sides of the American garrison and the road. A few hours later, units of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, rushing to reinforce Bastoni, launched an attack on Haidt. Thus, at the beginning of the Ardennes campaign, when the Germans were attacking on a large scale, a German paratroop unit outside the main battlefield at Balagmichir faced an attack by several times the size of the American army. Since this is the only way to Bastoni, the American offensive is quite ferocious. The area on both sides of the road has changed hands several times, and the bodies of officers and soldiers killed on both sides are littered. By the 2nd day of the battle, there were less than 200 men left with Haight. And ammunition and rations are running out. The frontal attack of the SS 6th Panzer Army had not yet arrived, and Haight had a hunch that the prospect of a counterattack ordered by the Führer was not good.

On the 2nd, Haidt was forced to make a decision. Voluntarily abandoned the intersection of the Baragmichiel road, scattered the remaining subordinates, and withdrew to the German line 13 kilometers away to the east. However, many German paratroopers lost their way during the transfer. He was annihilated or captured by the U.S. military. On the 3rd, under the pursuit of the U.S. military, the guards accompanying Haidt were shot and killed, leaving only the wounded Haight to flee alone into the town of Mengshao, hiding in a private house. On the evening of the 3rd. As the U.S. forces began a massive search in the town of Monshaw, Haight, who was defenseless, gave his silver paratrooper assault medal to a young boy in the town, asking him to send a message to the U.S. military that he was ready to surrender. At noon that day, American troops came to take Colonel Haight away. At this point, the last airborne operation of the German paratroopers in World War II, Operation Eagle, ended in complete failure.

On 30 April, the Germans dispatched 1,000 planes to bomb Allied positions and airfields, destroying 260 Allied aircraft. To the S... [This chapter is not finished, please click on the next page to continue reading!] ］