Several German commandos began to advance slowly with the help of heavy artillery, they were not in a hurry, and some units even advanced only a few hundred meters a day, but their attack surface was very wide, and a large-caliber mortar and leveled howitzers crushed the French defense line like a crushing plate, turning pieces of reinforced concrete fortified areas into ruins, and the Luftwaffe did not break its promise. The Germanic eagles concentrated their fire on the train guns that had been invincible in the previous day's fighting. After losing their strong air cover, they escaped by relying on the cover of the dense forest like trembling rats, and now they did not even dare to enter the firing position easily, for fear of becoming the target of the German bombers. The air power of the Allies and China had begun to shrink, and they focused on the remaining ports, transportation arteries, and transportation hubs.

After an initial success, the Germans finally found themselves in trouble again under the city of Saint-Nazaire, as they were faced with a city that was no longer simply a makeshift defense built before the war, but a city that was centuries old! The city is vast and splendid. Its scale is definitely not comparable to that of the defensive line. As an important seaport city, the French built a number of heavy shore gun positions around the port, and today they use them to defend themselves against enemies from land! These fortified fortresses, built on the basis of height and terrain, became the final nail to stop the German advance! And by this time, the Karl equipment of the Germans finally came in handy!

"The French are really decisive, they have already lost, but at this time they are still willing to fight to the end with us for the destruction of the entire city! If I could, I would prefer to have the battleships of the Navy come over. Teach the French to face reality with naval artillery! Guderian looked at the towering city in the distance and said with some indignation, he didn't like siege warfare. Even in the entire military history, there are few military strategists who like siege and street fighting. Because siege warfare doesn't have too many skills, it's just a pile of words! Victory with firepower and life. No matter how good your equipment is, how elite the quality of your troops is, complex terrain and sturdy construction can minimize your advantage!

The German Army now regrets not being able to call for naval support. The carrier-based aircraft forces of the High Seas Fleet suffered heavy losses, but the battleships were almost all tailed, and if a few battleships could come, it would save a lot of trouble, but unfortunately, at first the German Army did not expect that Saint-Nazaire would be so difficult to fight, and if the Navy came from Crete, it was obvious that time would not allow it!

"The Germans are probably going to be the last bit of the old book. OTHERWISE, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BREAK THROUGH OUR LINES FROM SHORE AND LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY, AND THE OLD 12-INCH GUNS AND 240MM HEAVY GUNS COULD STILL DESTROY THE GERMANS' IRONCLAD TORTOISES EVEN IF THEY MISSED THEIR BULLETS. And we have several fortresses designed at the level of defense against naval artillery strikes. IT IS DIFFICULT TO DESTROY IT WITH A 240MM HEAVY MORTAR. De Gaulle estimated the situation on both sides, and Saint-Nazaire would be greeted with the sharpest attack of the Germans! The Germans' heavy bombs would easily destroy the fortified batteries and offensives, while more heavy mortars would crush the entire line. At this time, the long-range artillery in his hand had dropped to about half of what it was before the battle, and it was impossible to stop the opponent anymore, and the only thing he could rely on was the naval guns! "The rest is up to you, Lacroix."

Victory was in sight, and the Germans were a little impatient. At the request of the Army, the Air Force has made every effort to increase its ground support. Not only is fuel given priority to bomber units, but even some fighter units are used to carry out ground attack missions, and if the FW190 fighter is used to drop bombs, it is a bit too much for the BF109 to become a front-line support aircraft. THE SMALL BODY OF THIS KIND OF AIRCRAFT IS GENERALLY EQUIPPED WITH A 250KG BOMB, OR TWO MACHINE GUNS, WHICH IS VERY INEFFICIENT WHEN USED TO CARRY OUT BOMBING MISSIONS. And it's vulnerable. The Army, on the other hand, has pulled up all the heavy weapons they can collect, from the Karl to the Bantam and the Tiger. Medium to various self-propelled guns and self-propelled mortars. Small to medium-caliber mortars and recoilless guns, the Germans deployed as much firepower as possible on the fronts on which both sides were engaged. They're going to destroy the city with a rolling barrage!

"What if the French Navy intervenes at this time? They weren't far away, enough time to walk back and forth in one night. "To say that the German Army did not expect that the big guys of the French Navy were absolutely wronged, before launching the final attack, Guderian and Manstein discussed the possible actions of the French Navy on several occasions, after all, since Petain was wounded, the French capitulation faction and Darlan had never had direct contact with the French fleet. From the current point of view, the surrender of the French fleet to the Germans was out of the question. So will they do something about it at this critical juncture?

"The French fleet? Their aircraft carrier battle group has left mainland France, and according to information provided by our intelligence officers in the UK, quite a few warships have entered the dock for repairs and modifications. They shouldn't be coming. An officer in charge of intelligence swore an oath. What he said was true, and there were photos to prove it, which made people have to believe it.

"But I still hope that the Air Force can deploy some mines around the port of Saint-Nazaire to block the nearby seas." Guderian still said unrelentingly. "Do you mean that we should fill the mines today, and then remove them less than a week later? Maybe we'll be able to blow up a couple of ships of the High Seas Fleet, which would be a good idea. There was a hint of sarcasm in the other party's answer, and in his opinion, the army general was thinking too much. Of course, I can assure you that the Air Force is fully capable of destroying everything floating on the surface of the sea, from an aircraft carrier to a sampan. The Air Force assured.

After the breakdown of negotiations, the Air Force really thought about how to deal with the French fleet. And launched several exploratory attacks, but because of the distance, coupled with the full cover of the Allied air force, the French Navy was able to defuse these attacks without danger. Subsequently, with the departure of the French aircraft carrier, the air force found that the targets in the port were no longer of much value, and it was obviously not cost-effective to concentrate on bombing. So he finally abandoned the follow-up plan. But if you want to say that the Air Force is wronged by not staring at the remaining French battleships, even the French can guarantee this! During the day, they could almost see the Germans' reconnaissance planes swaying around the radar's scanning range!

"The shelling of the Germans during the day was almost a search for death. Their air force has a strong advantage on the front line and has sufficient reconnaissance capabilities to monitor movements within 100 kilometers of Saint-Nazaire. The entry of the Grand Fleet into this area will definitely be exposed, and before we enter the shelling position, the opposing bombers will fly over our heads, although the American and British aircraft carrier formations have expressed their willingness to provide certain air defense support, but at this time the American and British fleets have just experienced a big war, and the supplementary situation is not optimistic, I do not trust their air defense network! Lacroix said to de Gaulle on the phone.

"So, I propose that the fleet enter the shelling positions at night to carry out artillery shelling of the German Army, before the sun rises. We will withdraw from the war zone. This is the safest way to go. Lacroix then put forward his own opinion, the French army will eventually withdraw, since the army does not intend to defend to the death, then the navy naturally does not need to throw its main battleship into this pit, and the naval guns have a long range, if there are better coordinates and instructions, the efficiency of the navy's artillery bombardment can be regarded as a thing of the past, after all, the Germans have piled up their forces to the front line, even if the fire of the naval guns can only cover a part of the area. It was enough for the Germans to drink a pot.

De Gaulle was somewhat disappointed by the Navy's proposal, but after a short period of reflection, De Gaulle expressed his willingness to cooperate with the Navy's actions. The French Army handed over the information gathered on the German disposition to the Navy, while the Allied Air Force offered to provide night aircraft to help the fleet. And so. At a time when the Germans thought they were foolproof, a huge artillery formation consisting of 4 French battleships, including 2 new battleships Richelieu and 4 heavy cruisers and 2 light cruisers, sailed out of the military port first. Before nightfall, he turned south again, and it was 1 o'clock in the morning. The fleet, consisting of 10 main ships with a total displacement of more than 250,000 tons, finally reached the designated position.

It's not the same as a night naval battle. The navy uses covered artillery bombardment for land shelling, which does not pay attention to the hit rate, but just uses enough shells to cover the target area! And the French do have this capital! A battleship of the USS Richelieu was loaded with a total of 1,200 rounds of 16-inch shells, each weighing 1 ton. One battleship could theoretically throw 1200 tons of shells over the heads of the opposing side! A fleet of ammunition could be poured on the Germans with at least 6,000 tons of ammunition, and it would not be very long. Theoretically, within 3 hours, these steel behemoths could complete the shelling!

The Germans were very busy, and even at night they were constantly advancing and attacking. The fire from the artillery fire, the lights of the vehicles, and the busy center, etc., the French fleet and the American and British night planes easily found the target, the whole fleet was divided into 3 combat groups and began to attack the German defense line near the seaside, with the battleship Richelieu raised the battle flag, 9 thick 16-inch L45 main guns slowly pointed at the target, accompanied by a deafening loud noise and huge shock, 4 huge fireballs rushed out of the gun, and then the resulting air wave swept the deck, In the night sky, the orange flames that rose up were so dazzling, like the thunder of the end of the world, split the dark sky!

After more than half a minute of flight, the shells smashed into the target with a piercing whistling sound, and the huge explosion instantly overwhelmed the other sounds on the battlefield, neither large-caliber mortars nor howitzers in the rear could compare with the main guns of battleships. After a short calibration, the French fleet soon entered the rapid-fire phase, each of which was frantically tilting towards the target at a rate of one shot per minute, and soon the first German heavy artillery position to be hit was caught in a storm of fire and steel in just a few minutes! Columns of smoke up to dozens or even hundreds of meters rose in the target area, and the whole land was entangled in the furious artillery bombardment, this kind of power was irresistible, the German army did not dare to use its own "small artillery" to find trouble with these big guys, there was no need to order from above, fortunately the sea positions that had not been attacked began to move, and in the absence of strong fortifications, exposure to the fire of naval guns was to find death!

"Damn it! Where did all this firepower come from? Didn't the Air Force say that the train artillery of the French had already been destroyed by more than half? Aren't they conservative and absolutely able to suppress the long-range artillery positions of the French army, which lived northwest of Saint-Nazaire, even at night? No! The French don't have such a lot of firepower! It's possible that this is a naval gun! I warned the Air Force long ago to keep an eye on the French fleet! Guderian, who was preparing the battle plan for the next day, felt the tremors of the earth, and looked at the huge fire that was rising in the distance, and his heart was full of anger and fear. In the past, the army's 210MM land artillery was already considered a heavy artillery in his eyes, and this caliber was nothing in the navy at all! When dozens of artillery pieces above the 14-inch level roared, this kind of earth-shattering attack would definitely make 99.9 percent of the people in this world feel frightened and powerless!

"It's naval artillery! They attacked from the sea! Soon the reports of his subordinates confirmed Guderian's suspicions, and when the nightmare became a reality, a sense of powerlessness almost squeezed the German army elite! If you draw a circle on the map based on the deduced position of the French fleet, and then draw a circle on the map with its range of fire, then at least 7 divisions of German units are within the range of the opponent's strike! In the midst of the rush, God knows what a serious loss this night's shelling will cause!

"All the troops are evacuated, the farther you run, the better! Tell the Air Force to let them immediately strike at sea targets, this is the result of their negligence! Damn, I knew back in the days of the Italian war that the Air Force was unreliable! I actually believed them! "Guderian immediately began to evacuate his troops, and in the face of an almost irresistible force, the German army decisively coaxed!

And the Luftwaffe was not ambiguous after realizing its carelessness and causing a catastrophe, Kesselring personally deployed a counterattack plan, and also sent the Night Reaper Brigade in the Grim Reaper to be responsible for the sea attack, which was originally a newly trained night precision guided attack force, to be used as a trump card to attack the British, but this time the French were unlucky and hit the muzzle!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976, the book friend 140506011630908 for the tip~~~, as well as the book friend chen9458, the small soldier invincible 99, the Orphein, and the fourth dimension of the cold wind for the monthly pass support ~~~. (To be continued......)