Chapter 38: Air Raid on the Pontoon Bridge

"Damn, did the French army know that Lao Tzu was ambushing him, and sent planes to bomb Lao Tzu so quickly."

Rommel couldn't help but nag, and Walder, the adjutant next to him, hurriedly asked:

"What's wrong with the division commander, could it be that your sixth sense feels the enemy's plane again?"

Rommel looked at Wald in disdain, this simple guy actually believed his nonsense, what the hell is the sixth sense? Can't the heads of the Germans turn? But their level of science and technology surpasses the world, which is not scientific!

"Yes, immediately let the artillerymen drive the self-propelled guns into the woods,...... Hurry up...... Also, hurry up and inform the Bismarck and pontoon guards to pay attention to air defense, there are quite a few French planes coming this time, at least three hundred. ”

"That's a lot! I immediately contacted them with a radio station......"

Wald immediately radioed Rommel's troops, and Rommel sent three telegrams to the telegrapher, one asking Catherine to shoot planes over the pontoon bridge to support, so many French planes must have come to the Germans and the pontoons, without the support of the air force, I am afraid that the anti-aircraft artillery in the hands of the German army would have suffered heavy losses.

Regardless of whether the French planes came to bomb Rommel, or to bomb Guderian who was crossing the river, or to bomb the pontoon bridge, the French army's attack range was not too large, as long as the German planes were over the pontoon bridge, they could support any battlefield at will.

The other two telegrams were sent by Rommel to the German troops crossing the river on the left and right flanks, which were the five most elite German panzer divisions, and if the losses were heavy, the French campaign would probably be difficult to fight, and it was likely to be the end of the First World War.

……

Colonel Marcel of the French Air Force, he is the deputy commander of the 5th Division of the French Air Force, the division commander has been killed in the German air raid, Marcel is temporarily the commander of the 5th Division of the French Air Force, and his division has been fighting with the Luftwaffe for several days.

The fighters in his hands were almost all biplanes, such as the Newport 17 and Spard 5, these fighters were all backward biplanes, and they were no match for the German BF109 fighters, so the French Air Force suffered extremely heavy losses.

If it weren't for the British Spitfire, the British and French air forces would have been wiped out by the German air force, but the British only had a total of 9 squadrons of Spitfires at this time, and the number was less than 120 planes.

The other three kinds of British battles, namely the Roc, the Dreadnought and the Thief Seagull, their speed is only more than 300 kilometers per hour, and the speed of the German BF109 is half slower.

At the beginning of World War II, Germany's equipment superiority did have certain advantages, coupled with Germany's mental calculations or unintentionalities, other countries could not have imagined that the war would break out so quickly, and they simply did not have time to develop and produce more advanced battles, and the result was that the two sides had about the same number of aircraft, and the Anglo-French air force lost almost half of its aircraft in just three days.

As a division commander, Marcel knew that France would not be able to win this war, but as a soldier, he must fight for his country, and it is the bounden duty of every soldier to protect the motherland.

The mission was personally given by the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French forces, Gammelin, who asked him to take three air divisions to attack the German pontoon bridges and river-crossing troops on the Meuse River, where he heard that there were countless German tanks and anti-aircraft guns.

Marcel led three French aviation divisions straight to the sky over the Meuse, and the three aviation divisions sounded quite scary, but the total number of battles in Marcel's hands was only more than 180, more than 120 bombers, and more than 1,100 planes when the three air divisions were fully established.

Marcel led the group to get closer and closer to the pontoon bridge over the Meuse River, but Marcel's heart became more and more empty, I don't know why, he always felt that there was a pair of eyes watching him, when he tried to look up and down, left and right, and did not find anything abnormal, his front and back were full of planes, and there was no such peeping eye at all.

This is a feeling that Marcel has never had, his more than 20 years of flying experience, so that he has an unprecedented intuition, this feeling of being peeped, makes him feel that this air raid is more likely to be more than lucky, even if it is dangerous, it must be hard-headed! All for France.

"Report to the commander, there are still five minutes left before the target, please instruct."

The navigator was constantly reporting to Marcel. No matter how anxious Marcel's heart was, at this time he must strictly carry out the air raid mission, otherwise what awaits him is to go to court-martial, in order to prevent several German elite armored divisions from crossing the Meuse River, in order to enter the million British and French troops in the Three Low Countries, Marcel must also go to the air attack on the German pontoon bridge without hesitation.

"All bombers lowered the altitude to three thousand meters, and all escort fighters set the altitude to five thousand meters."

Marcel made a very safe arrangement, he put the bombers at a low altitude, anyway, the bombers also need to reduce the altitude to bomb the German pontoon, and the fighters are placed in the middle of the air by Marcel, if there are German planes to attack the bomber group, they can dive down from the high altitude to hit the German planes.

Marcel also had no way, the speed of the fighter in his hand was only more than 300 kilometers, and the speed of the German BF109 was more than 680 kilometers per hour, if they did not use the tactics of diving, there was no way to fight at all.

Marcel's first targets were the two pontoon bridges erected by Guderian over the Meuse, but this target was carefully considered by Marcel, and from the reconnaissance situation, the German army on this road had the most tanks, and of course the greatest threat to the French army.

Soon Marcel's fleet flew to Guderian's river crossing site, and from the air, the two pontoon bridges were lying quietly on the Meuse River, but there was not a single passing vehicle on the pontoon bridge, which made Marcel wonder, could it be that the German army had long known that they were coming for an air attack?

How did the Germans know about such top-secret military intelligence? Could it be that there are German spies among our top brassips? Marcel really couldn't understand why the Germans knew in advance that he was going to attack the air, and it seemed that he had to report the anomaly to his superiors immediately.

Suddenly, numerous tongues of fire rose into the air on the ground, and the number of these anti-aircraft guns was not less than two hundred, and judging by the smoke from the explosion, the caliber ranged from 20 to 88.

The German anti-aircraft artillery fire was too fierce, and although the power of those small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns was not large, the rapid-fire performance was excellent, and the projectiles ejected by each anti-aircraft gun were an orange-red fire whip. What's even more terrifying is those large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, 88 mm large-caliber anti-aircraft shells explode in the air with a smoke diameter of at least ten meters, even if it is a heavy bomber with a huge body, it will be crushed by a single shot! An explosion at close range can also destroy the plane.

……