"There was not enough firepower in the air, we had to make up for it with the ground, the Italians left us with 3 armored trains, and now it's time." De Gaulle looked at Barton and said. The Entente helped Tycho in the war, so Tycho naturally had to help as much as possible, and three armored trains equipped with Andolsa's 149mm heavy cannon were one of Tycho's most valuable supplies for the US and French armies. THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS GUN IS SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE HISTORICAL TYPE 40 149MM HEAVY GUN, WHICH WEIGHS ONLY MORE THAN 11 TONS, AND CAN SHOOT 45 KG SHELLS AT A DISTANCE OF 25 KM! It is one of the few fine pieces of Italian army artillery. THE THREE ARMORED TRAINS EACH HAVE 28 CARS, AND IN ADDITION TO TWO LOCOMOTIVES, TWO TRAINS FOR STORING SLEEPERS AND REPAIR TOOLS, EACH TRAIN IS EQUIPPED WITH 8 149MM CANNONS, AND IS EQUIPPED WITH CORRESPONDING AMMUNITION WAGONS AND OTHER AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT, AND EVEN SPECIAL ANTI-AIRCRAFT CARRIAGES, WHICH ARE ARMED WITH 40MM AND 20MM GUNS. It is the most mobile heavy artillery unit in the hands of the US and French armies! With a single order, the artillery train can depart tonight and enter the attack position before dawn!

"Send out two columns, you have to leave some back, and how to solve the air defense problem?" Patton asked, the armored train was indeed well defended, and it was maneuvering quickly, and the high-speed train was not very afraid. After all, the aircraft is very ineffective against such armored mobile units, but once they enter the position, the situation is different. A fixed target of hundreds of meters is definitely the favorite target of the opposing bombers!

"The Italians gave us 8 squadrons of fighters, and we gave 4 to these two artillery units! Then there were mobile anti-aircraft guns to build positions around. Also, before that, Foinho was already the hub of my chosen second line of defence. Although the Germans took advantage of the lack of our forces to occupy the area this time, I still set up some pre-set artillery positions outside the city, surrounded by relatively undulating terrain, and there were underground ammunition storage places around it. It is not so easy for the other side to want to destroy. De Gaulle looked at Patton and saw that he had no objection, so he continued: "The problem of fire support is solved, but what about the attacking troops? It is certainly not possible to rely on infantry alone, and the tank units under my command are all on the front line. Your country needs to deal with armored forces, and we will provide some infantry and medium-range support firepower. ”

"Well, Grant isn't a good thing though. But that's all we have. We also have anti-aircraft fire for the offensive forces. Barton said. It was already difficult to get Foinho back in this situation, and the United States and France could only delay as long as possible so that Pescara's defenders could withdraw. In order to prevent the other party from copying the back road. so that the troops could redeploy the line of defense along the Terni and L'Aquila lines. Of course. This is the best-case scenario, and it's hard to say how it actually is.

"We still have troops around Foligno to get them to move together. Tomorrow will be the key, we must take the airport back or destroy it completely! De Gaulle said.

The Germans made great calculations, taking into account the air forces of the United States and France, the armored forces of the other side, and the strength of the other side in the vicinity. But I didn't take into account that the Italians actually had 3 train guns! However, this is not to blame for the lack of attention of the Germans, and these train guns are hidden in the rear. And after adding the top cover, the difference between it and ordinary trains is very small. Almost every three days, he changed places and used the Italian railway network to evade German detection and attacks. And when the command of the coalition forces gave the order to attack. Two train cannons, named Andolsa and Garibaldi, began to move towards Foligno. And when the train artillery was dispatched, the anti-aircraft artillery unit that provided cover for it had already taken the lead in entering the position and deployed in the preset anti-aircraft artillery position. By the next day, the air support promised by the Italian Air Force had already arrived at the field airfield 150 kilometers behind the position.

While train artillery and air forces can be assembled quickly, it takes a long time to assemble a large number of troops. It's a pity that the Luftwaffe won't let the other side's movement go too smoothly, and when the sun rises again, it is when the Luftwaffe's wings cover the sky, although the situation is still unsatisfactory after some transfers, but at this time De Gaulle and Patton can no longer wait, and the attack must be launched! At least get rid of the airport outside the city!

"If there are no accidents, after this wave of landing, this battle can be drawn to a perfect end." Sitting on the plane and watching the transport planes and gliders land on the airfields that had been occupied, Student finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the operation was almost perfect, perfect bombing, perfect airborne and perfect suppression. One more perfect follow-up landing and you're done!

The craters on the runway have either been filled in or are prominently marked. Attentive German paratroopers even marked out safe take-off and landing areas, unloading areas and transshipment areas. Under the cover of gunboat and attack aircraft, even if there were hidden artillery positions around, they would never dare to open fire lightly. In the face of German attack planes armed with bombs and cannons, nothing on the open ground could escape the eagle's talons.

The JU52 transport plane began to circle over the airfield and in turn aimed at the runway to prepare for landing, and the German soldiers, who had already been preparing to guide the runway, began to assist in the landing. The glider, on the other hand, is aimed at the open space next to the airport and directly lands with a belly skid, and after landing, it will open the nose of the aircraft and directly use a small car to drag the artillery or ammunition out of it. Today was unusually quiet, and the Luftwaffe did not even detect in the air the actions of the opposing side near the airfield. Maybe there is a proverb that nothing is wrong in Germany, there must be a demon. But as a veteran officer, Student smelled a hint of conspiracy, but he never knew what the problem might be!

At this moment, a fast figure suddenly crossed from a distance. The plane shook off the German fighter with drop fuel tanks and went around in circles near the airfield. Student recognized that this should be Huaxia's Foxbat fighter. A killer of heavy aircraft, but with this one alone, does he want to pose a threat to the huge German swarm? It's too much to overpower!

"Hawkeye reports that the target has begun to land, with more than 10 transport aircraft already landing, and five in the process of unloading. At the same time, there are no less than this number of gliders landing. Debriefing is complete. "Hawkeye radioed what he saw to the rear. As the radio waves reached the artillery position 20 kilometers away, the two train guns were awakened like dormant monsters! 16 THICK 149MM LONG-RANGE GUNS BEGAN TO BE UNCAMOUFLAGED AND ADJUSTED ACCORDING TO THE PRE-CALIBRATED FIRING ELEMENTS. I have to say that the armored train of the Italians is still very distinctive, each trailer loaded with artillery is equipped with an ammunition cart, the ammunition cart has armor protection on the top and sides, and the propellant is stored in metal cartridges. The fuse and the shell start were also separated. When firing, each gun can be picked up from the ammunition cart in the back. Moreover, there is also a fire door at the conveyor channel, which avoids the possibility of ammunition being ignited by shrapnel and detonating as much as possible.

"Attention gun emplacements, prepare to open fire and raze the airfield!" With the order to attack, the heavy artillery group of the Entente countries that came in the starry night finally came into full force! The guns spit out long flames, and even though they were covered in camouflage nets, the vibrations of the fire still threw the surrounding floating earth into the air. A reddish shell flew out of the muzzle at more than twice the speed of sound. A few dozen seconds later, shells with a death whistle began to fall on the busy airfield! The violent explosions and raging fire told the Germans that the battle was far from over!

"Damn, aren't all the artillery on the ground cleared? Did the French still have a special heavy artillery unit in the rear? What do they think? "Seeing that a JU52 transport plane that was landing was directly hit by a shell, the powerful shell smashed into the middle of the transport plane, and the entire plane, along with a platoon of soldiers and munitions on it, instantly turned into a scattered ball of fire. The first round of shelling by the Entente was mainly concentrated in the unloading and turnover areas. First destroy the cargo and planes that have landed, then the flight runway, and finally the surrounding bunkers and skirmishers. Supported by ample ammunition, each gun rained bullets at a rate of 2 rounds per minute. In a minute, these train guns can dump at least 1.5 tons of ammunition on the airfield!

The Luftwaffe reacted quickly, quickly determining the location of the enemy's fire through the light and smoke, and then a squadron of attack planes flew towards the target. These attack aircraft, armed with machine guns and bombs, excelled at low-altitude horizontal bombardment. Although they had to raise the altitude because of the undulating terrain of the enemy's artillery positions, this only allowed the Germans to spend some more time.

The improved attack aircraft of the DO17 bomber flew quickly towards the target at an altitude of 300 meters, and when they were still 7 kilometers away from the target, the Germans were caught off guard by a sudden fire snake erupted from the ground! AT LEAST TWO COMPANIES OF 90MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS LOCKED THE PATH OF THE LUFTWAFFE ATTACK FROM BOTH SIDES, AND IN THIS SHORT BUT FIERCE EXCHANGE OF FIRE, AT LEAST THREE ATTACK AIRCRAFT WERE DIRECTLY TORN APART BY A DENSE RAIN OF BULLETS. In such a low air, the bomber simply could not effectively avoid the ground strike, although 300 meters seems very high, but this area is a hilly area, counting the height of the mountain and the aircraft, I am afraid that it is only more than 100 meters, and the action is slightly larger and it may hit the mountain! The Germans did not expect that such powerful anti-aircraft artillery fire was still hidden here.

"Fly over, climb! Let's go through the surrounding area with a bomb first! Let the brothers in the back clean up these cannons! "The squadron that has lost a quarter of its strength has enough firepower left to completely clear the target, and there may be other anti-aircraft guns around, so it is better to suppress the surrounding anti-aircraft artillery first. But when these planes gave up their attack and began to climb, the enemy fighters that were diving from their own flanks and rear caught these targets whose maneuverability was greatly lost because of the climb!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward~~~, and the book friend does not have to send each other alone, Nanyue Manlong, Zsuzm's monthly pass support ~~~. (To be continued......)