"Bang! Bang! "As the BF-110 fighter opened fire during the dive, the B-17 bomber parked on the runway was shattered by metal and debris flew away. Flames erupted from their engines and bodies, carrying with them a twisting and tumbling black smoke. As the proud twin-shot heavy combat of the Luftwaffe, the improved BF-110 has the powerful firepower of four 20mm cannons and two 13mm machine guns; In this one-sided slaughter of the ground, its huge advantage in firepower is undoubtedly revealed!

The red sun hung high, the blue sky was like a wash, and countless white "clouds" suddenly appeared in the piercing roar of the engine; When you get closer, you realize that they are all hemispherical parachutes, and their dense and numerous numbers seem to completely occupy the entire sky. The German paratroopers dressed in Nohara gray uniforms were tethered by flexible ropes and landed at a constant speed of about 5 m/s; With a skillful roll, all the impulse carried when landing is unloaded. The commanders of the platoons and companies shouted loudly and quickly gathered their own fighters; After a short time, the German paratroopers who had assembled their ranks began to operate like a sophisticated machine, storming key areas such as airfields, docks, barracks, and warehouses. It was only then that the American defenders on the island reacted to what had happened. The Germans have parachuted here, and their goal must be to capture the entire island!

As an important U.S. base in the eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico is garrisoned by two fully fortified battalions with a total of more than 1,500 men, the vast majority of whom are concentrated around the San Juan base in the northern part of the island. After a short period of panic and confusion, the commander of the American army, who had soldiers in his hands, quickly calmed down. And orders were given to the divisions to defend the counterattack. Dense gunfire rang out suddenly. U.S. soldiers began to resist by relying on the island's architectural terrain; Since the United States imposed a military occupation of the island as early as 1916. After the outbreak of the war, some fortifications were built, and the American officers and soldiers who were familiar with the local terrain undoubtedly occupied the absolute convenience of the home field in this battle.

However, the sophistication of the German paratroopers was by no means comparable to these young soldiers who had been peaceful and peaceful on the American continent all year round. As a long-range airborne assault force, paratroopers have to fight in an extremely unfavorable environment with enemies on all sides and a huge disparity in numbers from the beginning of the battle; In order to win and survive in the harsh battle, the German airborne troops have been training day and night since the day they were founded. Even the most elite units of the German Army. In the case of equal numbers and equipment, it may not be able to outperform these air force counterparts. In addition to the improvement of their own personnel in marksmanship, physical fitness, patience and other personal qualities, the air force, which was particularly devoted to Qing Ying, also invested a lot of military expenses to improve their equipment.

At present, the standard equipment of the German infantry is still a semi-automatic rifle modified from the classic Mauser 98K, which can fire ten rounds at a single shot. With self-propelled anti-tank guns supporting operations and Air Force fighters on call, this firepower is already sufficient. However, in the hands of the paratroopers, their standard weapons have become MP-30 submachine guns and STG-36 automatic rifles, which are ten times more dense than the army's infantry counterparts. In particular, the STG-36 automatic rifle, with its effective firing range of up to 400 meters and a magazine for 30 rounds, already belongs to the category of light machine guns, while its weight is much lower than the latter. Even after reloading, it's just over 5kg! In terms of accuracy, this type of automatic firepower also maintains almost the same accuracy as a traditional rifle. Compared with the submachine gun, which has an effective range of only about 100 meters, it is even more like mud.

In addition to firearms, German paratroopers were armed with newly developed recoilless guns. Because the gun relies on the reaction force obtained by ejecting gas backwards when fired to propel the shell, it does not need the recoil and brake equipment of traditional guns, so the volume and weight of the gun are greatly reduced. The 75mm recoilless gun currently equipped by German paratroopers weighs only 130 kg, less than one-third of the infantry guns of the same caliber, but it can still fire 6 kg shells from a distance of 5 kilometers, which greatly exceeds the range that light mortars can achieve. Although the tail flame and sand caused by this artillery when fired will reveal its own existence, its achievement in making up for the fatal flaw of the paratrooper's lack of heavy firepower is enough for the paratroopers to worship it as a treasure and a sharp weapon!

As soon as the American soldiers exchanged fire with the German paratroopers, they were greeted by a violent rain of bullets that split their heads and covered their faces; A large number of recruits who were caught off guard were immediately beaten into a hornet's nest, blood and flesh splattered, and lives passed away from their bodies at a rapid pace. What shocked them even more was that these German paratroopers seemed to have regular artillery: a few kilometers away, the deafening sound of shelling explosions was already close in front of them! The American officers and soldiers, who thought that the other side had no heavy firepower, were under heavy bombardment from recoilless guns in the battle at this moment; Concrete exploded, sandbags flew away, and the few remaining fortifications and machine-gun positions were quickly blown into a pile of useless rubble. Amid the terrifying screams of the MG-34 general-purpose machine gun, the German paratroopers alternately covered and advanced layer by layer, and soon swept through the defensive positions where the American garrison camp was simply stationed.

"We were attacked by two divisions!" In the dense rain of bullets, Clarke, the commander of the American Major Battalion, reported hoarsely to Colonel Guard Commander Smith on the phone. Judging from the normal firepower, the German paratrooper regiment, each armed with an automatic weapon, does have a density of bullets that can be formed by a US Army division. Naturally, Smith was furious at Clark's unbridled exaggeration, and scolded him for his ignorance, stupidity, and cowardice. Soon however, Smith was speechless, for telephone contact had been interrupted after a violent explosion, and no matter how much he shook the dial, there was no sound in the earpiece!

Under the onslaught of the German paratroopers like a frenzied wave, the American garrison was quickly shattered and shattered. In less than an hour after a company was engaged in battle, more than 60 people were killed or wounded, and the rest were taken prisoner in front of the German attackers. Faced with the cold muzzle of the gun aimed at him from all directions, the battalion commander Clark threw away his matching gun in frustration and raised his hands high above his head. His troops had not lasted more than three hours before they were wiped out by this group of enemy forces who were like madness; No matter how much your remaining soldiers resist, the island will be in the hands of the enemy before sunset today!

"Boom!" A violent explosion shook the sky. The red light exploded, the air waves rushed, and a house temporarily reinforced by sandbags collapsed and collapsed in an instant, and the billowing dust flew up dozens of meters into the air. With the last machine-gun fort of the American base in San Juan destroyed by artillery, the remnants of the American army could no longer suppress the massive attack of the German paratroopers; At 5:28 p.m., the last desperate American troops surrendered to the German paratroopers. The gunfire on Puerto Rico subsided, and the tricolor iron cross was raised on the barracks flagpole at the San Juan base. The victorious German paratroopers began to clean up the battlefield, count losses, and interrogate captured American officers, preparing to dig out information from their mouths about the deployment of American troops on the nearby islands.

After more than seven hours of fighting, the German 27th Parachute Regiment completely annihilated 1,563 American defenders of Puerto Rico Island, and more than 300 ground staff serving the airport and port were also taken prisoner. In contrast, the German paratroopers, who did not have an advantage in total strength, paid the price of less than 200 dead and wounded. During the airborne landing, 3 JU-52 transport planes were shot down by US ground anti-aircraft machine guns, and another 4 gliders were damaged and unusable during the landing, but the US forces were destroyed as many as 16 B-17 four-engine heavy bombers on the ground. The German paratroopers slapped these American cowboys who had become empty because of their long-term solitary life in the Americas, and profoundly taught them what a real strong army is; Although the industrial power of the United States dominates the world, when it comes to the field of war, they can still only be regarded as a sparsely fledged eagle compared to the German army that has fought all the way from the Prussian era to today!

While the German paratroopers completely occupied the island of Puerto Rico, the 65th Airborne Regiment, which flew to Dominica, also achieved a decisive victory. They captured the southern port of La Romana on schedule, and thus established a forward position 8 km long and more than 5 km deep. Compared to the friendly Shunlì, the battle of this airborne force was much tougher: the Americans unexpectedly threw in as many as a company of M3 Stuart tanks in the subsequent counterattack, which made them ruthlessly suppressed for a long time.

However, the German paratroopers had in their hands an anti-tank weapon called the Iron Fist: this weapon was actually a pocket-sized recoilless gun, and its armor-piercing projectiles could penetrate more than 200 mm of armor through a guò liquid metal jet and inflict lethal damage to tank crews crowded into tight spaces. Although it had an effective range of only 50 meters and was a one-time use, it undoubtedly provided German paratroopers with an effective way to destroy enemy tanks. They hide behind buildings or bunkers, looking for an opportunity to fire grenades at close range; Since the U.S. military was completely unheard of of such weapons, they were unprepared and soon suffered one after another losses in battle, and finally had to stop their advance at nightfall.

With the outstanding performance of the paratroopers, the German army perfectly achieved the first step of the northward strategy, and the door of the Caribbean Sea was opened to Germany. German air forces began to move towards the island of Puerto Rico, and ships laden with troops and supplies sailed overnight to the newly occupied port of La Romana. The ambitious Kesselring already had his next goal: a full-scale capture of Dominica and an opportunity to land in Cuba. (To be continued......)

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