The sky was blue, the morning light was dazzling, and on the wide and vertical dock, six transports full of cargo had slowly approached accompanied by four destroyers. The black, white and red Iron Cross flags hunted and displayed on the bow of the ship, proudly showing the world that they belonged to the camp; When the heavy iron anchor crashed into the water, the German seafarers on deck couldn't help but burst into a cheer of victory.

It was the port of La Romana in southeastern Dominica and the most important forward base from which Germany achieved its goal of seizing the entire island of Haiti. A little more than a month earlier, German paratroopers had made a surprise landing here and routed the American defenders by surprise; The transport ships that had been preparing for the rear quickly followed, and with the soldiers and supplies they unloaded, the port and the surrounding area became an important wedge for Germany to penetrate into the backyard of the United States. With the failure of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, the speed at which the Germans were sending supplies and troops to the port of La Romana increased dramatically, with a merchant ship carrying a large amount of building materials, supplies, and soldiers unloaded every other day. Today, this forward base has been expanded several times with the continuous support of follow-up troops, and the large number of German soldiers who have landed has become the greatest threat to the continued control of the island by the United States.

The U.S. military has also made strenuous efforts to nip this threat in its infancy. Their ground forces passed through the mountains and jungles of the eastern part of the island of Haiti and launched a fierce attack on the German-held coastal area; Air forces deployed in the north and west of the islands were deployed on a daily basis, either to provide air support to the attacking army on the front line, or to carry out large-scale bombing of the German-controlled rear ports, preventing the Germans from using the ports to obtain continuous reinforcement of the rear. However. The German military also quickly made a-for-tat strategy, and more than a dozen 88-mm anti-aircraft gun batteries were concentrated near the port. Together with hundreds of anti-aircraft searchlights, it forms a powerful anti-aircraft firepower during the day and at night; Camouflaged radar stations and airfields were also created. The FW-190 Temperabet fighter with superior performance has become the most reluctant enemy for the incoming US fleet.

Under the effective response of the German army, the loss rate of US fighters skyrocketed, and 7 of the 24 B-17 bombers in the latest sortie were shot down, and the battle loss rate was nearly one-third. Although the attrition of German fighters has also been rising due to the intensification of air battles, the low-cost single-engine fighters are far more numerous in terms of deployment and personnel losses than the sophisticated, complex and numerous four-engine bombardments, and it is a great advantage to conduct such a simple home defense battle. After more than a month of competition, the US military's land-based air force has finally suffered too much loss. They had to leave the skies over the port of La Romana during the day, and the bombing of the port was carried out at night. Although this improved the safety of the bombing process, the bombing accuracy was also greatly reduced. By the end of December, the Germans had firmly grasped the air supremacy of the port during the daytime, and the night was the time when merchant ships and port facilities were vulnerable to attack. However, with the entry into service of the BF-110 night fighter equipped with airborne radar, the situation is also expected to improve in the coming year.

"All units immediately went ashore and at the same time unloaded the supply guns loaded from the transport ship with all their might!" On one of the large transport ships, the German Major General Dieter was shouting orders to his troops. According to the new round of operational plans drawn up by the German military, the two mountain divisions directly under the General Staff will be the main forces of the offensive and carry out a complete attack on the island of Haiti. And the 3rd Mountain Infantry Division under his command is the absolute core of it. In addition to the mountain troops that would be the main force in the approaching dense forests of the mountains, the Germans also had two infantry brigades armed with assault guns that would also be on the offensive; Their task was to advance westward along the relatively flat southern part of the island. The capture of Santo Domingo and San Cristobal allowed the flanks of the mountain troops to be consolidated.

Under the urging of officers at all levels, the German mountain infantry, which had long been ready to stop, landed on the gangways on both sides of the guò ship: the unfamiliar tropical vegetation mixed with the unique giant leaf trees amazed and opened the eyes of these German soldiers who came across the ocean. However, they did not have the slightest free time to judge the scenery of this exotic land. The wide and sturdy wooden planks were placed at the door of the cargo hold, and the wooden boxes filled with ammunition, food, baggage, medicine and other supplies immediately slid quickly to the ground under the push of the soldiers in the cabin; The mountain soldiers on the docks, after logging in, transported the supplies to the pre-designated areas with pre-prepared carts and camouflaged accordingly. Since American bombers came to the port almost every night, the entire unloading process had to be completed before darkness came. From a bird's-eye view, the entire harbor and its vicinity are crowded with busy figures, with large quantities of supplies piled up on the docks into small hills, which are then quickly diverted away, and finally completely transferred in the starlight. The transports that had completed the unloading and escorted the destroyers were evacuated overnight, and if they stayed here for a moment, they would be in danger of being sunk by bombs.

In the middle of the night, the piercing sound of air raid sirens sounded over the port of La Romana. Hundreds of high-power searchlights bloomed into dazzling golden pillars of light, instantly piercing the pitch-black night sky; From a distance, it seems that countless bright golden dragons are soaring into the sky, intertwining and dancing. Even at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, the bright light emitted by the searchlight is still clearly visible, which makes the incoming bomber inescapable of searching for these pillars of light, and can only hope that the opponent's searchlight column will not sweep away itself in high-speed flight. However, because American bombers had to fly over German ports to drop bombs, they had to venture through the German searchlights. An American bomber was also locked by a searchlight column that rotated around the ground, and dozens of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns immediately fired fiercely into the air; After a sustained burst of fire, the American heavy bomber finally crashed to the ground in billowing smoke, becoming a human kamikaze with ten members on board. The explosion of bombs and the roar of anti-aircraft artillery, mixed with the shrill sound of air raid sirens and the flames of the bombs, made everyone in it feel as if they were in hell.

Thirty minutes later, all the U.S. bombers finally dropped their bombs and began to return home. The German soldiers who had lifted the air raid siren immediately threw themselves into the fire extinguishing and repairs, and there was a busy scene everywhere with water dragons in the sky. Although most of the bombs were lost in the high-altitude blind drops, due to the extremely large bomb load of the U.S. B-17s, several bombs still landed near the dock during the saturation attack. A wooden trestle was hit, and German engineers began repairs overnight after extinguishing the fire; According to a telegram from the rear base, a convoy of troop transports will arrive here in two days' time, and the various facilities in the port must be operational.

The cycle repeated, and the forces of two mountain divisions and two infantry brigades landed in ten days. Since transport ships can carry up to thousands of tons of supplies at a time, the logistical supply of these armies is also fully ensured. The only thing that had some trouble unloading was the 30-odd assault guns, and the German soldiers first assembled a large 30-ton crane boom on the dock before moving the 25-ton guys to shore. Although they use the chassis of the discontinued Tank III, they are still qualified to be active on the front line of the battlefield with the same firepower and defense as the Tank IV.

On December 17, the Germans, who had been gathering momentum for a long time, finally launched an attack on the American troops in front of them. The Luftwaffe, which had been on the defensive before, also attacked with unprecedented initiative, and the bf-109 and FW-190 roared through the air, which made every German ground officer and soldier who saw it excited. After nearly two months of accumulating strength, the German army's fighter lineup has also reached as many as two brigades, which are enough to form a tight air umbrella on the army's head and send some fighters to carry ground rockets and bombs to carry out tactical support. The fighters of both sides collided fiercely, and the neighing of engines and heavy machine guns resounded in the sky; The cannon on the ground rumbled, explosions were stacked, and countless birds perched in the mountains and forests were shocked and scattered into the sky, circling for a long time.

In this predominantly land-based battle, the Germans undoubtedly had an absolute advantage. A strong army cannot be trained in half a year at all, and even if it is as fast as the British Army, it took at least five years to go from the defeat of the Boer War to the elite of the European War. Compared with the navy and air force, which can be called a good Suzhì, the US Army, which has been stationed on the North American continent without any threat for many years, and has not been exposed to the smoke of war for 40 years, is not at all comparable in combat effectiveness to the elite of the German army. Once they lost their air and firepower superiority, the posture of these cowboys who had forged out their teeth and claws was like a deflated ball, revealing their fragile nature!

Three days later, the Germans, advancing west from the south, captured Santo Domingo, another important port in Dominica. The 9th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Colonel Modell, captured 1,500 prisoners who, after the failure of the initial resistance, surrendered to the Germans with their hands raised in an atmosphere of gloom and despair. The German mountain infantry also made good progress, and with less than 6,000 troops in history, they had blocked the onslaught of 22,000 British and French elites in the mountains and forests around Narvik for a month, and they had absolute confidence in front of these Americans. Despite the unfamiliar terrain and poor roads, they managed to defeat the fragile defenses of the American forces in front of them and advanced significantly. If this situation continues, within a month, 78,000 square kilometers of Haiti will fall into German hands. (To be continued......)

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