Chapter 759 Landing in England 4
On January 1, 1943, the German and Italian air forces, contrary to their usual practice, carried out an unprecedented daytime bombing of the British hinterland. From 8 a.m. on that day, bombers took off from air bases along the coast of France and Belgium, forming a large fleet of more than 1,000 aircraft, and flew from an altitude of 10,000 meters through the southern part of England, where anti-aircraft firepower was dense, and penetrated into Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Hull in central England.
However, what surprised the British was that these bombers that penetrated deep into the British hinterland did not drop bombs in several densely populated cities, but focused on bombing railways, kilometers, transportation hubs and bridges.
In addition, some German planes carried remote-controlled gliding bombs, which were dropped from an altitude of less than 6,000 meters, accurately hitting several important railway bridges and highway bridges in central England. The land transportation in southern Britain was suddenly interrupted!
What's more hateful is that after dropping remote-controlled gliding bombs and ordinary heavy bombs to destroy roads and bridges, many SD-2 "butterfly" bombs were dropped. This is a cluster bomb, each bomblet weighs only about 2 kilograms, with two single wings like butterfly wings (used to reduce the falling speed), hence the name butterfly bomb.
This bomb has a delay fuse and an anti-operation fuse (actually a booby trap), which will fall on the area that has just been bombed to delay the opponent's repair work - because a large number of "butterfly bombs" appeared around the destroyed transportation facilities, it caused great interference to the British engineers and repair personnel, so the repair work was very slow.
While German planes were bombing wantonly, the British Fighter Command seemed helpless.
It turned out that in the past two or three years, the German Air Force had not organized large-scale bombings against Britain. There are two main modes of the Battle of Britain. One is a small-scale harassment attack at high altitude and at night; the other is a war of attrition in the Channel area (including ports, airports and radar stations near the Channel), and the scale of a single battle is usually not very large.
Therefore, the Royal Air Force Fighter Command lacked experience in fighting large-scale air raids, and the fighter squadrons under the command were scattered around London (which was the focus of harassment air raids), near the English Channel, and near Belfast in Northern Ireland.
And because the range of the Royal Air Force's main fighter, the Spitfire, was very short, the fighters deployed in various places rarely carried out coordinated operations. The Fighter Command also lacked experience in organizing large-scale air interception operations, so it was somewhat caught off guard when facing a large number of enemy aircraft with a large number of fighter escorts.
In addition, starting in the autumn of 1942, the German Air Force and Naval Aviation began to use Fokker Zero D to implement early clearing tactics, which also caused heavy losses to the already weak Royal Air Force. Many experienced pilots died in the battles in October, November and December, and coupled with the lack of fuel available for pilot training, the quality of Royal Air Force fighter pilots declined further.
Before the German and Italian air forces launched a massive attack on January 1, 1943, the Fokker Zero D deployed at the coastal airports in France and Belgium also launched a massive attack and implemented a round of "early clearing".
So when thousands of German and Italian aircraft flew over southern England, only dozens of P47s and P51s piloted by American pilots took off from airports near London to intercept them. But facing the dense German and Italian fighters and bombers filling the sky, what role can a few dozen P47s and P51s play?
…
On the night of January 1, 1943, when the bigwigs of the British Supreme Command and the Allied European Command stayed up all night to discuss the purpose of the German and Italian coalition launching a large-scale air strike.
In Wilhelmshaven, more than 300 nautical miles from the British Isles, the landing group of the German Marine Corps has completed boarding, and the supplies and equipment have been loaded. Ships are sailing out of the heavily guarded military port one by one and starting to form groups outside the port. All work is carried out strictly according to the schedule set by the 7th Army Command, where General Hader is the commander.
In the air, the night planes of the German Air Force and Naval Aviation fly along the patrol route in groups, and under the guidance of the radar station, intercept and destroy all enemy reconnaissance planes that try to approach Wilhelmshaven.
On the North Sea, farther away from Wilhelmshaven, hundreds of large and small combat ships have formed several large formations, or patrolled around to search for British submarines that may be close to Wilhelmshaven. Or they circled on the water at a speed of 5 knots, waiting for the landing fleet to be formed at sea.
The wind and waves on the sea are still a bit strong, and the sea conditions are about level 3-4. With the help of moonlight, you can see the ups and downs of the waves hitting the side of the ship. The landing ship weighing several thousand tons was constantly shaking with the waves, but for Captain Rudolf von Ribbentrop of the Marine Corps who had received rigorous maritime training, such wind and waves were nothing.
He was wounded again in the Battle of Kronstadt last fall and spent half a month in the hospital before recovering. After recovery, he did not return to his old unit, but was transferred to the newly formed 516th Heavy Armored Battalion - a heavy armored battalion exclusively for the Marine Corps, equipped with lightweight Tiger G tanks.
Compared to the 56-ton Tiger E tank currently used by the Army, the armor of the Tiger G tank used by the Marine Corps is relatively thin. The armor on the upper and lower front of the hull has been reduced from 102mm of the E tank to 82mm (45-degree inclination), and the armor on the side of the hull has been reduced from 82mm of the E tank to 70mm (20-degree inclination), and the armor on the lower side of the hull has been reduced from no inclination of the E tank. The armor on the gun shield and the front of the turret is also 10-15mm thinner than that of the E tank.
The chassis, engine and gearbox of the Tiger G tank have also been lightened to a certain extent, and more alloy materials are used. When the Tiger tank was designed, the supply of non-ferrous metals in Germany was still tight, so the use of alloy materials was restricted, making many parts used in the tank chassis overweight due to the lack of rare metals, and the reliability did not meet the requirements. However, on the latest Tiger F tank (another upgraded version of the E tank) and G tank, the reliability of the chassis and power system has been greatly improved, and the weight has been reduced.
After a series of "lightweight" modifications, the Tiger G-type, without adding bulletproof skirts and bulletproof grilles (bulletproof grilles are installed around the turret and also serve to deal with shaped-charge projectiles), has reduced its combat weight from 56 tons of the E-type to 48 tons.
In addition, the ammunition load of the Tiger G-type has also been reduced, from 87 88mm shells to 70 rounds (the number of machine gun ammunition remains unchanged), and the saved space is used to increase the fuel tank capacity, making the Tiger G-type's range significantly increased compared to the E-type, with the road range increased to 300 kilometers and the off-road range increased to 210 kilometers.
And because of the weight reduction, the maximum speed of the Tiger G-type is also faster than the E-type. The maximum speed on the road reaches 40 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed on the off-road reaches 21 kilometers per hour.
Such a "shrunken Tiger" is certainly not as strong as the original Tiger, but it is more than a little stronger than the Type 3 amphibious tank originally used by the German Marine Corps.
"Our Marine Corps finally has a decent tank. It would be great if we had it on Kotlin Island (Kronstadt)."
On the tank deck of the shaking tank landing ship, Captain Ribbentrop and a sergeant major named Hank Scheibler (a platoon leader) shuttled between Tiger tanks as if walking on flat ground, checking the vehicle preparations before landing.
"Install the side skirts and bulletproof grilles," Ribbentrop ordered, "It says that the British militia may be equipped with anti-tank grenade launchers similar to Panzerfaust and 75mm guns that can fire armor-piercing shells. I don't want the precious Tiger to be damaged by the British militia stationed on the beach."
"Yes, Captain." The sergeant major immediately gave Scheibler an order to the soldiers who were tying up the sundries box behind the tank body.
"Also, these boxes must be tied up with belts," Ribbentrop said, "Don't let them fall into the water. In addition, the fuel, batteries and ammunition must be checked again, and the spare fuel tank must be filled."
Little Ribbentrop suddenly put on an extremely proud face, raised his voice, and said to the officers and soldiers who were busy: "Everyone, this battle to land in England will be the pride of our lives. We will be the first foreign troops to set foot on the coast of the British Isles since the Norman Conquest! Our descendants will be proud of our glorious military exploits, and people a thousand years later will also know our feats. We will be the heroes of the Millennium Empire! Brothers, do a good job!"
When Rudolf von Ribbentrop gave his speech, Major General Walter Wenck, commander of the 1st Division of the German Marine Corps, was on the battleship Gneisenau, studying the latest version of the bombardment and landing plan that had just been received with General Karls, commander of the 3rd Fleet.
Because the climate over the North Sea is really changeable, the specific plan of "Operation Norman" has been changing.
According to the latest weather forecast, the 7th Army Command decided to carry out air assault and beach landing at the same time. The 7th Parachute Division will carry out airborne landing in Hartlepool, a port city in central England near the North Sea, to cooperate with the landing group to capture the city and port.