Third, the accompanying firepower of the airborne troops is too weak, making it difficult to resist the enemy's armored units; in addition, the paratroopers are scattered when they land, and in some places they are even mixed with the enemy and us, and they cannot get effective support from naval and air firepower, so that some units fall into the predicament of being isolated and helpless. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Fourth, communications and liaison are too poor, and commanders are unable to understand the specific situation of the troops and the progress of the operation, so they can only rely on their personal experience to command, with the result that division-level battles have actually become battalion-level battles, thus reducing the power of airborne assaults.

Despite the problems with the Allied airborne, the initial success showed that Eisenhower was right. The Allied airborne landing, in the initial time of the landing, seized vital transportation hubs, bridges, beach access, destroyed the German artillery positions, undermined the stability of the German defense, pinned down the German reserves, and put the German army in a passive situation.

In order to create the conditions for the victory of the landing, Field Marshal Gluck could not wait to transfer the four armored divisions deployed in the shallow depth of Normandy, but at this time the Allied planes were soaring in the sky of Normandy like crows, but without a single German plane, Gluck's tanks could only continue to hide during the day, fortunately, before the war, Führer Rommel had already transferred these four armored divisions to a distance of thirty kilometers from Normandy, and they did not need to move far to reach the front line.

The Allied airborne troops were about 10 to 15 kilometers away from Normandy, and the two were less than 20 kilometers apart, and throughout the day, the Allied airborne troops were indeed very rampant, and once night fell, these four complete German armored divisions would teach these Allied paratroopers how to behave.

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On 1 August, the first landing forces began to assemble at 15 ports in southern Britain. The original plan was to set sail on August 3 and land on August 25. Due to bad weather, the landing was delayed for twenty-four hours. At 22 o'clock on 24 August, the U formation, which had landed on the beach of Utah with the longest voyage, set sail first, and the other formations set sail one after another as planned.

On 25 August, the landing formation began to cross the English Channel, and all ships departing from 15 ports first rendezvoused at the south of the Isle of Wight, codenamed "Area Z", and then divided into five formations and sailed along five safe lanes cleared of mines to five beachheads.

During the voyage, the Allies dispatched a large number of anti-submarine aircraft and warships to carry out strict anti-submarine vigilance, and also sent 95 bombers and 375 fighter planes to serve as air cover. Thanks to the well-prepared and well-organized Allied forces, there were no losses during the entire crossing.

Rommel had already hidden the main German fleet in the Mediterranean, and the Anglo-American forces would certainly have nothing to lose when they crossed. Originally, the commander of the German Navy, Dönitz, requested to send dozens of submarines out to attack the British crossing fleet, but it was vetoed by Führer Rommel, and Rommel's reply to Dönitz was:

"The time has not yet come."

In fact, the main reason for the safe and smooth passage of the Allied forces was that bad weather helped a lot, and the bad weather made Dönitz seriously affect the launch of torpedoes by submarines, while the depth charges that specialize in submarines would not be affected, so Dönitz completely obeyed Rommel's orders and did not send submarines to attack the British and American landing fleets.

At 2:30 a.m. on 25 August, the huge landing fleet arrived at the transfer zone 11 nautical miles from the French coast, and the soldiers descended from the transport ship along the rope net to the landing craft, which then formed a wave and struck the landing beachhead.

The landing time varies depending on the tide of each beachhead, with the earliest being 6:30 a.m. at Utah Beachhead and the latest being 8:00 a.m. at Juno Beachhead.

Preparations for fire began at midnight on August 5, with the first batch of about 1,000 heavy bombers dropping about 5,000 tons of bombs on targets such as German communications hubs, command centers, and coastal artillery positions.

A second group of about 1,600 medium bombers dropped about 4,200 tons of bombs on German defensive positions at 5 o'clock on June 6. These two aviation fire preparations flew a total of 2,775 sorties and dropped 9,276 tons of bombs, an average of about 96 tons per kilometer on the front of the landing. The third group of fighters mainly used low-altitude strafing to directly cover the landing craft and seize the beach.

At 5:30 a.m., a naval artillery fire support fleet consisting of 7 battleships, 24 cruisers, 74 destroyers, and 2 shallow-water gunboats prepared for 40 minutes of fierce naval artillery fire on the 80-kilometer landing front.

When the landing craft approached the coast, the naval artillery fire began to extend and turn into fire support, and the direct fire preparation was then undertaken by the artillery landing craft and rocket artillery landing craft in the landing craft, which continued to fire at the landing beachhead and cover the landing craft to rush to the beach.

The entire process of preparing for firepower, intensive, fierce and protracted, basically suppressed the German firepower and created conditions for the landing force to go on land smoothly.

Utah Beach is a 14.5-kilometer-long stretch of beach on the eastern shore of the Cotontan Peninsula from south of Quinneville to north of the mouth of the Carentan River.

The Germans built concrete forts on the dunes, and behind the beach were swamps ranging from 1.5 to 3 kilometers wide, with only a few passes, four of which the US 101st Airborne Division was trying to capture.

The Germans deployed 28 artillery batteries in depth, 8 of which were concealed in the fortifications of the bunker, with a total of 111 guns, the largest caliber of which was 210 mm among the 111 guns.

Landing here was the 4th Division of the 7th Army of the United States, the commander of which was Brigadier General Roosevelt Jr., the youngest son of President Roosevelt, and the U-formation commanded by Rear Admiral Moon transported the division.

On August 25, they arrived at the transfer area at 30 o'clock and began to transfer at 4:05 a.m., and the soldiers climbed from the transport ship to the landing craft along the rope net.

In order to ensure uninterrupted fire support for the landing force, eight tank landing craft were arranged in the first wave, carrying a total of 32 amphibious tanks.

Due to the strong wind and waves, the tank landing craft arrived at the intended launch of the tank half an hour later than planned, and if the slower amphibious tank was still launched as planned, it would have arrived at the beach later than planned, and the role of providing timely fire support would have been lost.

So the commander on the command boat decided to let the tank landing craft continue sailing until it was only 1 nautical mile from the coast before launching the tank.

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