The more than 300,000 German troops deployed in France during the day were unable to maneuver at all, and carried out covert air defense all day long; at night, due to the interruption of railways, many roads were destroyed, and in addition to the lack of trucks and other means of transport, many troops could only march on foot or by bicycle or animal power vehicle, and the speed was extremely slow. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Anglo-American forces thus concluded that their bombing had seriously weakened the combat effectiveness of the Franco-German forces deployed, and the Anglo-American forces were extremely satisfied with the results of the bombing.

In addition, in the reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance battles, it was precisely because of the outstanding performance of the Allied fighter units that the German planes were completely prevented from reconnoitring and harassing the areas where the Allied landing forces were concentrated, and the Germans flew 525 sorties in six weeks, the vast majority of which were forcefully intercepted, and only a very small number flew to the British Isles, but they were unable to carry out reconnaissance after the Allied fighters, thus depriving the Germans of aerial reconnaissance, the most important source of intelligence.

The Allied navy and air force also carried out a joint offensive and minelaying off the French coast from April 17, 1941, and before the landing, a total of 2 minelayers and 6 torpedo boat detachments were dispatched under the cover of the air force to lay as many as 6,859 mines to blockade the port between Emuiden in the Netherlands and Brest in France, so as to prevent a possible sortie by the German navy. Now it is impossible for the German Navy to go to the English Channel to help, and the Allies have made meticulous preparations for the landing.

In early August 1941, the Allies organized the last large-scale joint exercises, under the command of British Admiral Ramsay, commander of the Allied Navy. The exercise was held at the training base of the US military, and except that it did not cross the strait, all other aspects were the same as actual combat.

The exercise was very successful, and after the exercise, the officers briefed the soldiers on the combat situation under strict secrecy measures, first explaining the tasks of their units and the landing position, and then combined with the photos of the landing beachhead and the sand table model, explaining the specific tasks, how to clear the mines, how to solve the German firing points, and which places to occupy.

With such an introduction, the soldiers fully understood their tasks in battle, and through training they mastered the methods of coping, so that they were confident in the landing battle, neither strange nor afraid.

The Allied forces paid more attention to the training of airborne troops, but the high-ranking generals of the Allied forces had different opinions on airborne operations, and some advocated the implementation of airborne parachuting in depth to contain the German reserves; Some advocated scattering and landing near the shallow rear of the beach to carry out a large-scale attack.

Others, such as the commander of the Allied Air Force, Admiral Mallory, believed that the airborne operation would suffer serious casualties, and simply advocated the cancellation of the airborne. Eisenhower believed that behind Normandy Beach was a swamp with only a few access roads.

If these routes were not controlled in time, the landing force would be trapped on the beach, and the German armored forces were deployed in shallow and deep depths, and if they could not occupy key points to block the attack, the landing force would be in danger of being driven into the sea.

These two vital tasks, in turn, must be completed at the same time as the landing, which only the Airborne Forces can do. Therefore, Eisenhower decided to use all the Allied airborne forces in Europe - three airborne divisions to seize key areas to cooperate with the landing at sea, even at a huge cost.

It is precisely for this reason that he paid great attention to the combat training of this airborne unit, which was tasked with arduous but important tasks, and adopted a special training method:

First of all, according to the topography of the planned airborne area, a certain scale of three-dimensional models are created, and the real scene of simulated airplanes flying over the sky is filmed, and the airborne troops are first shown a black-and-white film during training, and then a blue filter is added to simulate the scene under the moonlight, so that the airborne troops are familiar with and understand the airborne area, and each airborne unit is required to use maps and sand table models to clarify their own tasks, and also to understand the missions of friendly neighbors.

secondly, it strengthens targeted training for aircraft identification and seizure of enemy positions; Finally, an actual combat exercise was conducted to test the combat plan and strengthen the coordinated exercise with the landing force. In order to ensure that the Airborne Forces had sufficient equipment to stop the German armored forces, the Airborne Forces were also strengthened with anti-tank grenades, mines and rocket launchers.

In view of the fact that the first batch of landing troops amounted to 176,000 men and were put into combat from the air and sea, the troops were not only trained in the landing warfare, such as routine embarkation, sailing, transfer, and surprise landing, but also particularly strengthened the coordinated operations of the navy, army, and air force, so as to avoid accidental injuries caused by fratricidal killing during the landing.

Pre-war reconnaissance, the Allies began as early as March 1941, because neither the French resistance nor Allied agents could enter the landing beaches, and therefore did not have access to relevant information, so aerial reconnaissance became the most important source of intelligence.

From April 1 to August 16, 1941 alone, the Allies flew as many as 45,000 sorties to conduct extensive aerial photographic reconnaissance of northern France, obtaining relatively comprehensive and systematic intelligence.

In addition to aircraft, the Allies also used pocket submarines and torpedo boats to go to the landing area at night to gather comprehensive information on hydrology, geology, meteorology, vegetation, and German deployment.

In order to confuse the Germans, the Allies also conducted aerial reconnaissance of the Calais area and a reconnaissance of the beach of pocket submarines, in which the group that conducted reconnaissance on the beach of Calais was captured by the Germans on July 17, 1941, further reinforcing the illusion that Calais was a landing area.

Although the Allies obtained a lot of information through reconnaissance by various means, due to various reasons, they were still unable to obtain some important information, which had a certain impact on future operations.

The Allies also carried out large-scale psychological warfare, in addition to using the BBC's broadcasts to demoralize the German army and encourage the people of the occupied territories, especially the "Troop News" that regularly airdropped to the German army from April 25, 1941 to report the latest military news and domestic news in Germany, which further shook the morale of the German army.

Meteorology is one of the important guarantees for the smooth implementation of landing operations, so in early July 1941, the Allied High Command appointed Colonel British Air Force Meteorology Professor Stagg as the chief meteorological adviser, responsible for leading a meteorological group to report meteorological conditions to the High Command twice a week.

From July 20, the meteorological situation will be reported twice a day. Stalldo's reports of a storm on 25 August, the scheduled landing day, were worrying to all members of the High Command.

On 23 August, the longest-range U-formation began to board and depart as planned, and the weather forecast was that there would be strong winds on 25 August, and Eisenhower decided to postpone the landing by 24 hours and recalled the U-formation that had already departed.

On August 24, the English Channel was stormy, and at 21:30 p.m., the scientists of the meteorological group carefully analyzed that there would be a period of good weather lasting about 12 hours after August 25, followed by severe weather with violent storms.

At this time, Eisenhower, as commander-in-chief, was faced with a difficult choice: whether to land on August 25? If a landing is initiated, after the landing of the first echelon, the follow-up troops may not be able to land due to bad weather, and the troops that go ashore will be left in a situation of isolation.

…… (To be continued.) )