On January 1, 1943, the German and Italian air forces uncharacteristically carried out daytime bombardments on the British hinterland on an unprecedented scale. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 From 8 a.m. on the same day, the bomber group that took off from various air bases along the coast of France and Belgium formed a huge fleet of more than 1,000 planes, from an altitude of 10,000 meters through the southern part of England where anti-aircraft fire is intensive, and went deep into Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Rieds and Hull in the middle of England.

To the surprise of the British, however, the bombers, which had penetrated deep into the heart of Britain, did not drop their bombs on a few large densely populated cities, but focused on railroads, kilometers, transportation hubs and bridges.

There were also German planes carrying remote-controlled gliding bombs, which were dropped from an altitude of less than 6,000 meters, accurately hitting several important railway and road bridges in the middle of England. The southern land traffic of the United Kingdom was suddenly interrupted!

Even more damnable, after dropping remote-controlled gliding bombs and ordinary bombshells to destroy road bridges, many SD-2 "Butterfly" bombs were dropped. This is a type of cluster bomb, each submunition weighs only about 2 kilograms, with two wings like butterfly wings (used to reduce the speed of falling), hence the name butterfly bomb.

These bombs have delayed fuses and counter-operation fuses (in fact, they are a kind of mine), and they will land in the area that has just been bombed to delay the repair work of the other side - the repair work is very slow because of the large number of "butterfly bombs" that appeared around the blown up transport facilities, causing a lot of interference to British engineers and repair crews.

And while German planes were bombing indiscriminately, the British fighter command was helpless.

It turned out that in the last two or three years, the Luftwaffe had not organized a massive bombing of Britain. There are two main modes of air combat in Britain, one is a small-scale harassing attack that occurs at high altitude and at night; The second is a war of attrition that takes place in the strait area (including ports, airports and radar stations near the strait), and the scale of a single battle is usually not very large.

As a result, RAF Fighter Command lacks experience in countering large-scale air strikes, and its fighter squadrons are scattered around London (where harassing air strikes are focused), near the English Channel, and near Belfast in Northern Ireland.

And because the RAF's main fighter, the Spitfire, has a small range, the fighters deployed in various places rarely work together. The Fighter Command also lacked experience in organizing large-scale air interception operations, so it was somewhat caught off guard by a large number of enemy aircraft escorted by a large number of fighters.

In addition, from the autumn of 1942, the Luftwaffe and naval aviation began to use the Fokker Zero D to carry out early clearance tactics, which also caused heavy losses to the already weak Royal Air Force. Many experienced pilots died in the October, November and December battles, and combined with a lack of fuel available for pilot training, the quality of RAF fighter pilots deteriorated further.

And before the German and Italian air forces attacked on January 1, 43, the Fokker Zero D deployed on the coastal airfields of France and Belgium also made a big attack and carried out a round of "early clearance".

So when a large German-Italian fleet of thousands flew over southern England, only a few dozen P47s and P51s, piloted by American pilots, took off from airfields near London to intercept them. But what role can dozens of P47s and P51s play in the face of German and Italian fighters and bombers that fill the sky densely?

……

On the night of January 1, 1943, when the British High Command and the Allied European Command were sleepless, meeting to study the purpose of the large-scale air raid launched by the German-Italian forces.

At Wilhelmshaven, more than 300 nautical miles from the British Island, the landing group of the German marines had completed boarding, the supplies and equipment had been loaded, and the ships were sailing out of the heavily guarded military port one after another to begin the marshalling in the waters off the port, all under the schedule set by the headquarters of the 7th Army, of which General Hader was the commander.

In the air, the night planes of the Luftwaffe and naval aviation flew in groups along the patrol course, and under the guidance of the radar station, intercepted and eliminated all enemy reconnaissance aircraft trying to approach Wilhelmshaven.

In the North Sea, farther away from Wilhelmshaven, hundreds of large and small combat ships have formed several huge formations, or patrolled in all directions, searching for British submarines that may be close to Wilhelmshaven. Or circle around the water at a speed of 5 knots, waiting for the landing fleet to complete the marshalling at sea.

The wind and waves on the sea are still a bit strong, the sea state is about 3-4, and with the help of the moonlight, you can see the waves turning up and down and slapping against the side of the ship. Thousands of tons of landing ships swayed with the waves, but for the marine captain Rudolph Murphy, who had undergone rigorous training at sea. Feng. For Ribbentrop, such storms are nothing.

He was wounded again in the Battle of Kronstadt last autumn and spent half a month in the hospital recovering. After recovering he did not return to his old unit, he was transferred to the newly formed 516th Heavy Armored Battalion, a Marine Corps heavy armored battalion armed with lightweight Tiger G tanks.

Compared with the 56-ton Tiger E tank currently used by the Army, the armor of the Tiger G tank used by the Marine Corps is relatively thin, the armor above and below the head of the hull has been reduced from 102mm to 82mm (45 degrees inclination) for the E model, the armor on the side of the hull has also been reduced from 82mm to 70mm (20 degrees inclination) for the E model, and the lower side of the hull has been reduced from 63mm to 55mm (without bevel), and the armor on the front of the gun shield and turret is also 10-15mm thinner than that of the E model.

The turf, engine and gearbox of the Tiger G have also been lightened to a certain extent, and more alloy materials are used - at the time of the Tiger design, the supply of non-ferrous metals in Germany was still relatively tight, so the use of alloy materials was restricted, so that many parts used in the tank chassis were overweight because there were no rare metals, and the reliability was not up to the requirements. However, on the latest Tiger F (another upgrade of the E model) and G model, the reliability of the turf and powertrain has been greatly improved, and the weight has been reduced.

After a series of "lightweight" modifications, the total combat weight of the Tiger G was reduced from 56 tons to 48 tons without the addition of bulletproof skirts and bulletproof grilles (which were installed around the turret and also used to deal with shaped armor-piercing shells).

In addition, the ammunition load of the Tiger G has also been reduced, from 87 rounds of 88mm shells to 70 rounds (the number of machine gun ammunition remains the same), and the space saved is used to increase the fuel tank capacity, so that the range of the Tiger G has increased significantly compared to that of the E model, the road range has increased to 300 km, and the off-road range has increased to 210 km.

And because of the weight reduction, the maximum speed of the Tiger G is also a little faster than that of the E type. The maximum speed on the road reached 40 kilometers per hour, and off-road reached a maximum speed of 21 kilometers per hour.

Such a "shrinking Tiger" cannot, of course, be compared with the genuine Tiger in terms of sturdiness, but compared with the No. 3 amphibious tank originally used by the German Marine Corps, it is more than a little bit stronger.

"Our Marines finally have a decent tank, if only we had it on Kotlin Island (Kronstadt)."

On the deck of a very shaky tank landing ship, Captain Ribbentrop was on the side with a man named Hank. Schybler's sergeant major, a platoon leader, weaves from Tiger tank to Tiger tank to inspect vehicle preparations before landing.

"Put the side skirts and bullet guards on them," Ribbentrop instructed, "and it says that the British militia may be armed with iron-fisted anti-tank grenade launchers and 75mm guns capable of firing armor-piercing shells, and I don't want the precious Tiger to be damaged by the British militia stationed on the beach." ”

"Yes, Captain." The sergeant major immediately gave the order to Schyibler to the soldiers who were strapping the glove compartment behind the tank hull.

"And these glove compartments must be fastened with belts," said Ribbentrop, "and they must not fall into the water when the time comes." In addition, fuel, batteries and ammunition should be double-checked, and spare fuel tanks should be filled. ”

Little Ribbentrop suddenly put on an extremely proud face, raised his voice, and said to the officers and soldiers who were busy with their work: "Ladies and gentlemen, this landing in England will be the pride of our lives, and we will be the first foreign troops to set foot on the shores of the Isles of Britain since the Norman conquest!" Our children and grandchildren will be proud of our feats, and a thousand years from now will know about our feats. We will be the heroes of the thousand-year-old empire! Brothers, do a good job! ”

Rudolph. Feng. While Ribbentrop was giving a speech, the commander of the 1st Division of the German Marine Corps, Walter Brown. Rear Admiral Wink was aboard the battleship Gneisenau, together with the commander of the 3rd Fleet, Admiral Karls, to study the latest version of the shelling and landing plan that had just been received.

Because the climate over the North Sea is so changeable, the specific plan of Operation Norman is constantly changing.

According to the latest weather forecast, the command of the 7th Army made a decision to carry out both an air assault and a beach-rushing landing. The 7th Paratrooper Division will be parachuted into the port city of Hartlepool, a port city in central England near the North Sea, to cooperate with the landing group to seize the city and port. (To be continued.) )