After a winter's rest, Gerd von Rundstedt made a comeback, came out three times and once again served as the commander-in-chief of the German Army's Western Front.
After last year's assassination incident, Mustache urgently needed Rundstedt's influence to rebuild the morale of the army.
Rundstedt did not betray Mustache's trust. He personally served as the presiding judge, tried the assassination case against Mustache, and presided over Rommel's state funeral on behalf of Mustache.
During the Normandy landing, Rundstedt and Rommel had serious differences, and the conflict between the two eventually ended with Rommel's "suicide."
I wonder if Rundstedt felt a chill in his lips and teeth at Rommel's funeral.
After returning to the Western Front, Rundstedt worked hard to adjust the defense line, using the dense water network in the Netherlands and the Rhine, the largest river in Western Europe, to deploy defenses, hoping to delay the Allied attack as much as possible.
As for victory, don't even think about it. After a difficult 1944, even the most optimistic Germans now don't think it is possible for Germany to finally win the war.
The only difference is that the defeat occurs sooner or later.
In the past winter, the Allied forces on the Western Front had many discussions about the spring offensive. Montgomery proposed landing in the coastal areas of Germany and driving directly into the German hinterland.
This crazy plan was strongly opposed by Patton and Eisenhower.
It was so difficult for the Allied forces to land in Normandy where the German defenses were weak. Launching a landing battle on German soil would make the difficulty infinitely greater.
After "close and friendly" discussions, the Allied forces on the Western Front finally decided to launch an attack on Germany via land. The Southern African Expeditionary Force would set out from Belgium, go around behind the Maginot Line, and launch a direct attack on the German mainland.
The British and American coalition forces immediately eliminated the German troops in the Netherlands and advanced northward along the coastline. The advantage of doing so was that they could get help from the Allies' superior navy and air force, and they could pass through coastal ports and the developed railway transportation network in Germany.
, to ensure the logistics of the Allied forces as much as possible.
When fighting on German soil, there is no such thing as fighting to support war. Patton and Eisenhower even believed that the German army might even implement scorched earth tactics to resist the Allied attack.
On March 7, the attack officially began.
According to the plan, the British and American coalition launched an attack from the Netherlands. Patton and Montgomery, the two best friends during the Sicily Campaign, once again partnered up to prepare to sweep the German army in the Netherlands and penetrate only into the hinterland of Germany from the Netherlands.
Before the attack was launched, Montgomery, who was extremely confident, even said triumphantly: We can definitely end the battle before the summer arrives and occupy Berlin before the Russians.
It is good to have confidence, but it is not a good thing to have confidence expanded to this extent.
Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on Montgomery. Judging from the news coming from Austria, the Axis forces have now completely lost confidence. Entire regiments and entire divisions have surrendered to the Allies, sometimes even before the Allies have arrived.
Lock yourself up in a military camp and be a prisoner without firing a shot.
Montgomery ignored the fact that the Austrian servants in Austria were indeed in no mood to fight.
However, the German troops defending Vienna were still very tenacious.
And a more serious mistake was that Montgomery and Patton seemed to have a soft spot for the airborne troops. After experiencing the failure in Sicily, Montgomery and Patton transferred the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the British 1st Airborne Division.
Division, as well as a Polish paratrooper brigade, were used intensively to try to use paratroopers to break through the German defense system.
This actually makes sense. After all, there are many rivers in the Netherlands. The large rivers include the Rhine River, the Waal River, and three other canals. In this environment, the Allied superiority of armored forces cannot be used at all, so the rational use of paratroopers may be
It can really work wonders.
The point is reasonable.
In order to achieve the surprise of the battle, Montgomery and Patton absorbed the "leapfrog tactics" that the East Asian Allies played an important role in attacking Japan, and successively attacked Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem with a battle depth of 63 miles.
Airborne in three places to seize the bridge over the Rhine.
The Rhine River is the largest river in Western Europe. It originates from the northern foothills of the Alps in Switzerland, flows northwest through Liechtenstein, Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and finally empties into the North Sea near Rotterdam, with a total length of 1,232 kilometers.
A total of 35,000 troops participated in the airborne landing. In addition, there were 568 artillery pieces, 1,927 military vehicles, and 5,230 tons of combat supplies.
In order to deliver these troops and supplies to the predetermined place accurately and at the predetermined time, the British and American coalition forces used almost all their assets, including more than 5,500 transport aircraft, 2,596 gliders, and more than 8,000 fighter jets and bombers.
Let’s not talk about the number and equipment of the airborne troops. If Marshal Malinovsky, who is fighting fiercely in Vienna, could also have such a large air force, then Malinovsky would probably laugh out of his dreams.
Montgomery didn't dare to laugh. This was another reckless gamble. If he won, Montgomery would become a famous general.
It doesn't matter if he loses, he is used to it anyway.
Like many previous battles, this battle started again by mistake.
Just a week before the Allied attack, Rundstedt adjusted the German defense line. In the planned landing area of the British and American airborne troops, the German army had deployed two armored divisions of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and the 1st Airborne Division.
Part of the army group.
The artillery and military vehicles of the airborne troops may still play some role against ordinary German infantry.
Dealing with armored troops equipped with heavy tanks will undoubtedly lead to death.
More importantly, not long after the battle began, the Germans captured the Allied combat orders from a downed glider. General Kurt Student, commander of the German 1st Airborne Army, immediately went to meet with the commander of Army Group B.
Commander Model, in accordance with the orders of the Allies, made targeted arrangements and tried his best to prevent the British and American airborne troops from converging with the ground armored forces. This brought huge difficulties to the British and American coalition's offensive.
Objectively speaking, after being tempered by the Battle of Sicily and the Normandy landings, the airborne troops have made great progress. Their advance in the early stages of the campaign was smooth. Although the casualties were a bit high, they achieved their intended goals.
There are reasons for the high casualties.
When the U.S. military is airborne, they practice high-altitude skydiving. The skydiving height is 366 to 457 meters, which is much higher than the standard skydiving height of 244 meters in World War II.
It is known that paratroopers descend about six meters per second in the air.
Taking the middle number of 400 meters, this means that the entire process from jumping out of the cabin to landing on the ground takes about one minute.
For other arms, one minute is not a long time.
But for the paratroopers, this is a fateful minute.
In the first 72 hours of the battle, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division suffered more than 4,000 losses, most of which were caused while parachuting.
The progress of these two forces was relatively smooth in the first 72 hours. However, as the German army made targeted arrangements for the Allied attack, the Allied ground forces advanced slowly, and the airborne troops also began to have logistics problems, and the attack was forced to stop.
Of the three airborne divisions of the coalition, the 101st Division airborne at the closest point, the 82nd Division was slightly further away, and the British 1st Airborne Division and the Polish Parachute Brigade airborne at the farthest point from the starting point, with the heaviest and most dangerous tasks.
The 1st Airborne Division was indeed unlucky. A large number of jeeps and other heavy equipment were lost due to glider crashes, and most of the communication equipment was unusable. What was even more unlucky was that there happened to be a German army stationed near the target Arnhem. The 1st Airborne Division
The division was attacked head-on by the Germans.
"So, the airborne troops of the British and American coalition forces are under heavy siege, and the ground troops are unable to advance. Who made this plan? Why is this happening?" Rock felt very sad.
When he was in Yalta, Winston laughed at the Russians every day for their heavy losses, the unreasonable fighting of the war, and no progress at all for five years.
Now it was the British army's turn to take action, but their performance was not as good as that of the Russians. Rock even blushed for Winston.
"There are many rivers in the Netherlands. It is already spring and the ice and snow have melted. Those rivers have become natural anti-tank trenches - smaller canals, engineers can build pontoons. Larger rivers such as the Rhine and Waal rivers have basically no pontoons.
Maybe, even if the construction is barely completed, it will be blown up by the German V2 rocket-" Yang Smozi was regretful, he wished he could have wings now and fly to St. Roch to command the battle.
In order to better coordinate the attack, the Southern African Expeditionary Force and the US military headquarters in Europe were both located in Saint-Roch.
British troops in London.
"Wait, you just said V2 rocket?" Rock was surprised.
"Yes, just yesterday, the German army used V2 rockets to destroy one of our pontoon bridges." Yang Smozi was also surprised when he saw the news.
Is the accuracy of the German V2 rocket already as high as this?
If this is the case, then the Southern African Expeditionary Force will really have to speed up the recovery operation.
Operation Recycling, like Paperclip in the United States, aims to collect scientific talents and related technologies from Europe and bring them and them back to southern Africa.
The V2 rocket is an upgraded version of the V1 rocket, with improved range and power. At the end of last year, the Germans began to use V2 rockets to attack London. However, feedback from various channels shows that the accuracy of V2 rockets is not enough and needs to be improved.
.
Now the V2 rocket can actually hit the pontoon bridge, which surprised Rock.
The rockets in southern Africa are not so accurate.
"——This should be just a coincidence, or an upgraded version of the V2 rocket." Sidney Milner once served as Bullard's chief of staff, and is no stranger to Germany's technological capabilities.
Coincidence makes sense.
I have never heard of the upgraded version, and Rock doesn't remember Germany having a V3 rocket.
This is not a red alert.
"Send a telegram to Patton and ask him to find von Braun as soon as possible. Even if von Braun cannot be brought to southern Africa, at least von Braun cannot be allowed to go to the United States." Regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not, Rock first
Press Saturn 5 to death before talking about it.
Without the Saturn V, let’s see how Americans will go to the moon.
Speaking of engines, Rock remembered that there had been news that the United States had approached Russia to purchase rocket engines. The Americans had also rented Russian launch vehicles, and the annual cost of this alone was about US$1 billion.
This is very strange. Isn’t one billion dollars a year enough for American suppliers to maintain a rocket engine production line?
"Not only V2 rockets, German jet bombers have appeared again, and remote-controlled bombs have also appeared on the battlefield. The difficulties we face are increasing day by day." Yang Smuts is worried that the Southern African Expeditionary Force will encounter the same dilemma as the British and American coalition forces.
This does not necessarily mean that compared with the British and American coalition forces, the Southern African Expeditionary Force is still very lucky.
After the spring offensive was launched, the Southern African Expeditionary Force set out from Belgium according to the scheduled plan, went around behind the Maginot Line, and launched an attack into the hinterland of Germany.
During the Battle of France, 700,000 French troops were trapped in the Maginot Line and watched the German army invade France through Belgium. In the end, they were dumped and the entire army was annihilated.
Rundstedt did not want to make the same mistake as the French. Before the Southern African Expeditionary Force was dispatched, Rundstedt voluntarily abandoned the Maginot Line, withdrew all German troops across the Rhine and relied on the Rhine to organize a defensive line.
This is correct. Even if the German army had a strong Maginot Line, it would not be able to cope with the repeated attacks by the superior air force and armored forces in southern Africa.
The British-made Grand Slam is quite useful when dealing with strong fortifications.
The "Grand Slam" was the British-made ten-ton bomb.
Even if they don't attack, the Southern African Expeditionary Force only needs a long-term siege to consume the German troops in the Maginot Line alive.
It was precisely because he understood this that Rundstedt withdrew all German troops. This not only preserved the actual strength, but also allowed him to fight with the Southern African Expeditionary Force on the preset battlefield, which was more beneficial to the German army.
Patton also didn't expect Rundstedt to be so decisive.
You must know that when Mustache gave orders to all the German troops before, he required the German troops to organize their defense on the spot, no matter what the circumstances, and would rather be annihilated than take a step back.
Rundstedt was able to withstand the pressure of Mustache and withdraw the German troops to the Rhine River, which was completely beyond Patton's expectations.
"We have to speed up. According to intelligence from Brad's office, Rundstedt has ordered that all bridges on the Rhine River be blown up if attacked." Guy was very worried that the equipment of the Southern African Expeditionary Force was
Heavy weapons, more than those of the British and American forces, relied more on the role of bridges.
"Blow it up - those bridges on the Rhine River, our heavy tanks may not be able to pass at all." Patton didn't care. The bridge technology in southern Africa was still very good. The British and American troops did not have the ability to build pontoons on the Rhine. South Africa
The African Expeditionary Force was relaxed.
"Then we will build the plank road openly and covertly, and send troops to seize the bridge cleverly. If we can, we will seize it. If we can't, we will build a pontoon bridge." Guy has a strong adaptability, and his cooperation with Barton complements each other well.
"Where is our air force? When will it be dispatched?" Patton was eager to give it a try. His British and American counterparts had already "shown their talents" on the battlefield, and it was time for the airborne troops in southern Africa to make their debut.
