The night is the enemy of the paratroopers, because in the dark of night, the paratroopers floating in the air cannot see the situation on the ground. In many cases, they have to resign themselves to fate, and they are lucky enough to land in the fields, streets, and other suitable places to land. And the unlucky were hung in trees, puddles, and even ...... spire.

In the Lime Bay area, there are many churches, and the tops of the church buildings are almost always the top of the spire. Even in the houses, the steeply sloping roofs of the English buildings were not too comfortable for the paratroopers who fell from the sky and carried heavy equipment.

But the night is again a friend of the paratroopers, because in the dark of night, their whereabouts will be more hidden, and there are dense anti-aircraft positions distributed in the south of England, and for the paratroopers who are slowly descending, it is the smile of death.

The uncertainty of the airborne landing in the dark, combined with the very frequent Atlantic monsoon in southern England, cast a shadow over the operation, codenamed "Hibiscus", before departure.

20,000 paratroopers began boarding at 10 p.m. on June 21. However, the order to set off was not finally given until 0:16 a.m. on June 22.

The reason for the postponement of the offensive was that Jiang Yunzhi had received an urgent telegram from Director Mu: The US troops had begun a large-scale landing in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Scotland, in two directions, and its vanguard 12th Panzer Division had reached Hadrian's Wall on the Soviet-British dividing line.

This is really fatal news at this critical time. The generals of the Allied commanders did not dare to imagine what kind of disaster would be for the troops that had already landed if the Allied landing was unfavorable and the US troops moved south.

Jiang Yunzhi did not want the first large-scale battle after the Allied forces entered the Atlantic to be an embarrassing rout.

At the emergency meeting of the headquarters, the generals and marshals of various countries also had different opinions. The enthusiastic are in favor of acting according to the original plan, and even want to speed up the landing efficiency and fight with the US military for a while; The cautious ones believe that after the US troops join, the Allies have lost the best opportunity to land, and continuing to carry out the "Overlord" plan will bring unbearable losses to the Allies.

After some discussion, everyone finally fell silent and turned their attention to Jiang Yunzhi, the commander-in-chief of the "Overlord" operation and the marshal of the Han Dynasty, who had never expressed his position.

The opinions of others are only for reference, and the final decision still rests with the Allied Commander-in-Chief.

Jiang Yunzhi's heart was also very conflicted, the landing force of nearly one million Allied troops had all been prepared, and even the soldiers of the first two airborne paratrooper divisions were already sitting in the plane waiting for the final order. As everyone said, if this opportunity is missed, the US military can calmly deploy defenses along the southern coastline of the United Kingdom. Even Germany, which had already reached a series of agreements with Britain, was very likely to jump out and intervene to completely deprive the Allies of the opportunity to land in Britain. That kind of result, whether it is for the Grand Alliance or for the Han Empire, is unacceptable.

At least, the Han Emperor couldn't pass that level at all.

His Majesty has stressed on many occasions that the war in Europe cannot be dragged on any longer.

Thinking of the secret telegram he had just received from His Majesty, Jiang Yunzhi's gaze immediately became much more resolute.

Slowly stood up, looked at the senior generals on both sides of the conference table one by one, and repeated the content of His Majesty's secret message in a deep voice, with only four words: the arrow has been wound...... Uh, well, there are a few people here who can speak a little Chinese, but it's still hard to figure out the meaning of such a classic colloquialism.

Seeing the puzzled eyes of Giriziani, Gutierrez and others, Jiang Shuai had to say the last four words.

Turkish Army General Ilkel shrugged his shoulders after hearing the interpreter explain for a long time, "Commander-in-chief, Chinese is too difficult to understand. Wouldn't it be better for you to just say that you will act according to the original plan? Why do you want to say it so profoundly? ”

……

Each large Tyrannosaurus Rex military transport aircraft can carry up to 82 heavily armed soldiers or two airborne Warrior light tanks and Flying Leopard paratrooper armored vehicles.

In order to deliver the 19th and 23rd Guards Airborne Divisions at the same time, the Allies dispatched more than 500 "Tyrannosaurus Rex" to transport personnel and equipment, and more than 200 other small and medium-sized aircraft of various types were responsible for delivering ammunition and supplies. Together with the ten fighter squadrons escorting transport aircraft, the fleet of aircraft taking off from the airfield off the coast of Vizcaya, Spain, has reached the scale of nearly a thousand.

Sixteen "Spinosaurus" early warning planes, escorted by the "Raptors," also flew over the English Channel to coordinate the flight paths of various groups.

After the jet age of airplanes, it is rare to see a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, let alone more than 1,000 aircraft. Admiral Long Xiaotian, the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, was very fortunate that the Royal Air Force was able to have the "Spinosaurus" and the Beidou communication command system. Such a large-scale fleet operation, and it was a night flight, it was really unthinkable.

The paratroopers set off more than two hours later than originally planned, which meant that after they landed, the time to raid the intended targets at night became even more tense, and the paratroopers would have to deal with more British reinforcements after dawn.

The two division commanders of the Guards ran over and gave Long Xiaotian a military salute. Admiral Long did not return the salute, but hugged the two major generals tightly in turn! In the paratrooper unit, even a general has to go through the most dangerous period of falling from the sky during the operation, and the enemy's anti-aircraft fire will not recognize you as a non-commissioned officer or a general.

Every action of the paratroopers is walking on the edge of the cliff, and they are the real brave.

……

The RAF deployed more than three hundred aircraft in the south. However, less than 100 of them are relatively advanced fighters capable of launching missiles, and only 27 of the most advanced "Lightnings" are available.

These are all the remaining forces of the RAF. What is even more terrifying is that in the continuous air battles in the English Channel, the experienced fighter pilots in Britain, those aces who fought bravely with the Germans, have long been exhausted, and most of these pilots are now composed of cadets from civil aviation and aviation schools who have not yet graduated.

The only consolation to Montgomery was Prime Minister Churchill's trip to Washington, which finally convinced the Americans not to withdraw from the Atlantic Entente, but to continue fighting the fascist army to the end.

Thirty-six (UT) F-11 "Tiger" air superiority fighters, which are said to be capable of countering Han "Tianlong" fighters, have been transferred to Reigate Air Force Airport to strengthen air power in the London area.

More US Air Force will be stationed in Britain one after another, and in a week, it will only take a week for US troops to be deployed in place, and the defense forces on the British Island can be increased several times or more.

Montgomery, who had a grudge with Eisenhower in North Africa for the post of commander-in-chief of the multinational force, could not care about the face of the British in the face of the tremendous pressure of the Allies!

In other words, what kind of face does Britain have now? Churchill has already gone to Frankfurt to give Adolf a low name, and it is estimated that he is also designated in Washington as a nod. This is definitely the greatest shame for Britain for hundreds of years, "but in order for Britain not to fall under the iron heel of fascism, it is worth it!" ”

It's just that Montgomery did not wait for the week he needed to decide the fate of Britain, and at the same time as the landing of American troops in Scotland, the Allied operation "Overlord" officially began.

At 2:40 a.m. on 22 June, the Allied transport planes, at the cost of six "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and 11 other transport planes, broke through the British air blockade. In other words, the escort fighter fleet annihilated dozens of British fighters, opening the gate of Britain in the air.

The mission of the 19th Guards Paratrooper Division, after being airborne, quickly captured two iron bridges south of the city of Yeovil, one by road and the other by rail.

The process of airborne landing was not smooth, because of the rapid response of the British Royal Air Force, which suffered a lot of losses before the transport plane reached the airborne area, especially the downing of several "Tyrannosaurus Rex" carrying heavy equipment such as "Warrior" tanks, which would make the paratrooper division, which already lacked heavy firepower, even more difficult in the battle.

But this was only the beginning, because in several battles in Japan, in North Africa, etc., the paratroopers of the Guards Army repeatedly performed miraculous feats, and it just so happened that these battles were all commanded by Jiang Yunzhi. Montgomery, who was good at analyzing the characteristics of the enemy's commanders, had long concluded that as long as the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces was Jiang Yunzhi, then a large number of paratroopers would definitely be used in the landing campaign.

Therefore, in the south of Britain, in all areas suitable for paratroopers, the British army set up observation posts and brought many depressions into the river. This resulted in a large number of non-combat casualties among the Guards paratroopers who could not choose a landing site in the dark night, and many paratroopers were even drowned in knee-deep shallow water because they were carrying too much equipment.

In addition, under the threat of British anti-aircraft fire, many Tyrannosaurus Rex pilots had to increase their flight altitude, so that the paratroopers, who were already difficult to control the landing area in the monsoon, became more dispersed after landing.

Even if it was equipped with advanced individual communication devices, Major General Li Longdi, commander of the 19th Guards Division, had only gathered less than 1,000 troops in the scheduled two-hour assembly time, and more than half of them were officers.

Time was pressing, Li Longdi had to lead less than one-tenth of the division's troops to march in the direction of the railway bridge, and during the march, Division Commander Li laughed at himself: "This may be the only unit in the world that has more officers than soldiers!" ”

Fortunately, the paratroopers' plan of action was very detailed, and many soldiers who had deviated from the predetermined area after the airborne landing gradually rushed over, and to everyone's delight, when the troops had gathered more than four thousand people, they finally found the electronic signal of the heavy equipment.

At 5:30 a.m., the 19th Guards Division had gathered more than 6,000 troops and found four Warrior tanks and six Flying Leopard armored vehicles, as well as several 85-mm mortars.

This greatly increased Li Longdi's confidence, maybe when capturing the iron bridge, the paratroopers did not need to go through much trouble, but without these heavy weapons, it would be very difficult to face the counterattack of the British army.

"The devil knows when the second group of paratroopers will come back." Division Commander Li grinned, looking at the current posture, if the American air force entered the war, the two sides would definitely fight for air supremacy first. Without absolute air supremacy, even the most daring commander will not allow a large transport plane to take off again.

When the enemy's air force still has the offensive capability to carry out the airborne, it is not "daring", but murder.

"Lord Buddha's blessing, the second batch of paratroopers can be parachuted smoothly after dawn. Otherwise, my brothers and sisters will have to fight hard for many days without reinforcements! ”