As soon as the British and American forces occupied Cherbourg, they sent a large number of engineers, salvage detachments, and minesweepers to carry out the clearance work, and according to the progress of the project, it was estimated that it would take about two months to restore the port's infrastructure. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Then it took a week or two to sweep away hundreds of mines and salvage more than 20 sunken ships, which could barely restore the throughput capacity of the port of Cherbourg, even if the British and American forces repaired the port of Cherbourg, but the breakwater of the port was completely blown up, and the port of Cherbourg could not be loaded and unloaded with a strong wind and waves.

All the ports along the coast of France were like this, all of them were completely blown up, but it was the Anglo-American artificial ports in Normandy that had the best throughput capacity, and it would be nice if the other ports had 20 percent of what they used to be.

Fortunately, the Anglo-American coalition forces are very well equipped with materials and manpower, and they are sparing no effort to repair these ports, so the logistics of the Anglo-American coalition are getting better and better.

This has undoubtedly delayed the supply of all the materials of the Anglo-American coalition forces, and the impact is not yet visible, and when the decisive battle comes, the material consumption of the Anglo-American coalition forces will increase by day, and at that time, these effects will be completely exposed, becoming the most troublesome problem for the Anglo-American coalition forces.

After the Anglo-American troops landed in Normandy, in order to invade the German mainland as soon as possible, they launched the "Dragoon Operation". ”

At the same time, the 3 paratrooper divisions that were almost completely annihilated in the Normandy area were also replenished, and in order to be ashamed, the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-American coalition had a bold plan, wasn't the German army frantically retreating to Belgium and the Ardennes Forest?

Then I will first land in the south of France, go directly to Belgium, and take the lead in seizing the main bridge over the Rhine with paratroopers, so that all the German troops who retreated to Belgium and the Ardennes Forest will be dumplings by the Anglo-American forces.

Eisenhower estimated that the German troops in these two areas were about 15 to 200,000, but in reality? Here are more than 1.5 million elite German troops transferred by Rommel from the Soviet front, plus about 500,000 from other parts of the European Union, and about 300,000 from France, which means that Rommel has assembled 2.3 million elite German troops in the Ardennes Forest, referred to as the Hook Force.

Rommel also placed 100 German reservists on the Maginot Line. In southern Italy, there were 23 German divisions originally garrisoned, 25 divisions reinforced by the European Union, 10 discontented divisions retreated from Normandy, and Rommel deployed 68 elite German divisions in northern Italy, including eight armored divisions, plus more than 300,000 German troops waiting to wear on the Maginot Line, and the total strength of Rommel's left hook troops reached 1.2 million.

In order to support the encirclement war, Rommel mobilized nearly 3 million elite German troops, more than 1 million reserve German troops, more than 8,000 tanks of various types, more than 6,000 aircraft, and more than 30,000 artillery pieces of various types.

If a strong force is deployed, as long as the Anglo-American coalition forces penetrate Rommel's encirclement, the Anglo-American coalition forces that landed in France will definitely not end well.

Germany originally bordered Italy, and the Anglo-American coalition failed to bomb the German mainland's railway system in the early stage, before the Anglo-American coalition began to log in, Rommel ordered some tanks produced by Germany and the European Union this month to give priority to replenishing the German army in northern Italy, because the German army here is Rommel's left hook, and it will definitely not work without sufficient armor.

By 6 August, all the German troops in northern Italy had been replenished, and training was being intensified to make final preparations for the next strategic decisive battle, but the British and American forces were at a loss to know all this, and Eisenhower, as the supreme commander of the British and American forces, only felt that the situation of the German army was very strange.

What worries Eisenhower the most is that many German elite troops have disappeared out of thin air, no matter how their spies search, they can't find the whereabouts of these German elite troops, and the war has been going on until now, and Eisenhower can't help but stop fighting.

Because at this time, more than 2 million Anglo-American troops had successfully landed in France, and they also had more than 10,000 planes and more than 10,000 tanks, and such a powerful force made Eisenhower believe that in the face of absolute power, all conspiracies and tricks were tofu scum.

Is it really what Eisenhower thought? Two months ago, more than 2 million Anglo-American troops did have the absolute strength to crush the French and German armies.

And two months later, it can be said that there is almost the same, the German army has surpassed the Anglo-American coalition in terms of strength, but it is slightly inferior in the number of tanks and aircraft, you must know that the ratio of combat losses between the German army and the Anglo-American coalition is almost 1; 1.5。

In other words, the Anglo-American coalition needed more than 1.5 times the strength to defeat the German army, and the bloody battle of Caen was the best proof of this.

"Operation Dragoon." It was originally intended to coincide with the Battle of Normandy on the French Riviera, but Eisenhower had to postpone it due to a lack of landing ships, and the attack was scheduled for September 15, 1941.

During the planning phase, the operation was codenamed Operation Dragoon to complement Operation Sledgehammer, which was the code name for the invasion of Normandy at the time.

Churchill considered Operation Dragoon to be a waste of resources, throwing it into the Balkans and Egypt, which invaded the oil-producing regions, and then possibly advancing to other Eastern European countries.

In addition to further restricting Germany's access to much-needed oil, it would also allow Western countries to better position themselves in peacetime after World War II and defend themselves against the Soviet Red Army by liberating areas occupied by the Germans.

The original plan was conceived as a force consisting of Free French and American troops to capture Toulon and later Marseille, with subsequent revisions to include Saint-Tropez.

But the clash with British military personnel who opposed the landing and believed that troops and equipment should be sent to the Middle East was part of a larger Anglo-American strategic disagreement.

After the Normandy landings in June 1941, it became clear that the Anglo-American forces had to acquire more port facilities along the French coast.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the chief commander of the Anglo-American forces in Europe, had the port of Marseille in southern France as the target of this strategy, but he was still inconclusive about Operation Dragoon until he was satisfied with the results of the Norman landing.

Because the Germans destroyed a large number of ports in northern France before retreating, and the daily consumption of the millions of troops who landed was sky-high, the Anglo-American forces could only launch "Operation Dragoon".

"Operation Dragoon" was set for September 18, 1941. The U.S. 6th Army, also known as Army Group South and Dragoons, was led by Jacob ? Lawx? Under the command of Lieutenant General Devers, he was organized in Corsica and was active from 16 September 1941 to plan the dragoon operations that were planning an invasion in the south of France.

At first the army group was subordinate to the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (the headquarters of the Anglo-American forces), and was led by Henry? Maitland? Commanded by Sir Wilson, he was also the Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Theater.

…… (To be continued.) )