Chapter 478 The war begins with an air strike
The Allied forces air strikes against France, destroying 50 railway hubs, severely damaging 25 railway hubs, and 74 bridges. 18 of the 24 bridges on the Seine River were blown up. 1,500 locomotives in France were blown up. 16,000 train cars were blown up, resulting in a 62% decrease in railway transportation. The German supplies prepared to be transported to the French frontline were therefore very normal to stay on the German-France border and unable to enter France, which made the Allied commanders overjoyed.
On May 26, all railway traffic from Paris to the coastal areas was interrupted, and coastal areas such as Normandy became completely "isolated islands" without railways. The German army had to use automobile transportation to replace it, but during the day, under the fierce attacks of the Allied Air Force, it was impossible to organize effective transportation at all.
It was this air blockade that greatly affected the German army's construction of coastal defense fortifications due to the lack of steel bars and cement and other raw materials, and forced the German army to transfer the 26,000 workers originally used to build coastal defense fortifications for emergency repairs, which made the progress of coastal defense fortifications very slow and did not meet the predetermined requirements.
Li Mo did not pay attention to other areas and would do whatever he could. However, in the Normandy area, no matter how the Allies bombed, countless trucks always delivered various building materials and supplies at night. For this reason, Li Mo mobilized more than 10,000 trucks.
After paralyzing the railways and highway traffic in northern France, the Allied forces established two air blockade lines, focusing on blocking the reinforcements of the German 15th Army. The second phase was from late May, mainly blocking the Seine and Loi Rivers, preventing the German reinforcements from crossing the two rivers. During this phase, the Allied forces dispatched 30,000 aircraft and dropped 60,000 tons of bombs.
In this case, it is impossible for Li Mo to reinforce the German army on the Atlantic barrier defense line. On the surface, the Allies completely achieved the established tactical goals. They not only caused serious difficulties in the German supply, but also greatly restricted the German movement. They could not move during the day and carried out hidden air defense all day. Due to railway interruption at night, many highways were destroyed, and there were a lack of trucks and other transportation tools, so many troops could only hike or use bicycles and cyclists to march at an extremely slow speed. This would seriously affect the performance of the German combat effectiveness.
In addition, in the reconnaissance and anti-reconnaissance battles, it was precisely because of the outstanding performance of the Allied fighter jets that completely prevented German aircraft from reconnaissance and harassing the allied landing forces from the assembly areas that the German army dispatched 525 reconnaissance aircraft in six weeks, and most of them were strongly intercepted. Only a very small number flew to the British Isles, but they were unable to conduct reconnaissance under the front and back of the Allied fighter jets, which caused the German army to lose the most important source of intelligence for air reconnaissance.
The Allied Navy and Air Force also jointly launched an offensive and mine-laying on the French coast from April 17, 1941. Before landing, two mine-laying ships and six torpedo boats were dispatched to lay up to 6,859 mines under the cover of the air force, blocking the port between Emyden, Netherlands and Brest, France, to prevent the German Navy from possible attacks. Now the German Navy would not be able to help the English Channel, and the Allied forces had made meticulous preparations for landing.
In early May 1941, the Allied forces organized the last large-scale joint exercise, commanded by British Admiral Ramsey, the commander of the Allied Navy. The exercise was at the US military's training base. Except for the failure to cross the strait, the other links were the same as actual combat.
The exercise was very successful. After the exercise, the officer introduced the combat situation to the soldiers under strict confidentiality measures. He first explained the task and landing location of the unit, and then combined with the photos and sand table models of landing on the beach, explaining the specific tasks, how to clear the mines, how to solve the German firepower points, and where to occupy it, everything is clear.
Through this introduction, the soldiers fully understand their tasks in combat, and through training and mastering the methods of dealing with them, they are full of confidence in landing battles, neither strangers nor fears.
The Allied forces attached more importance to the training of airborne troops, but the senior Allied generals had different opinions on airborne combat. Some advocated airborne and restrained the German reserves in the depths of the enemy; some advocated landing in the shallow and rear of the beach and carried out large-scale harassment.
Some other people, such as the commander of the Allied Air Force, General Mallory, believed that the airborne operations would suffer serious casualties, so he simply advocated the cancellation of the airborne. Eisenhower believed that behind the Normandy Beach was a swamp, with only a few accesses for access. If these accesses were not controlled in time, the landing troops would be trapped on the beach. Moreover, the German armored troops were deployed in shallow depths. If they could not occupy key areas for blocking, the landing troops would be in danger of being driven into the sea.
These two crucial tasks must be completed at the same time as landing, and only the airborne troops can do it. Therefore, Eisenhower decided to use all the Allied airborne forces in Europe - three airborne divisions to seize key areas to cooperate with the sea landing, which is necessary even if it pays a huge price.
Because of this, he paid great attention to the on-the-fight training of this airborne unit, which is responsible for arduous and important tasks, and adopted special training methods:
First, according to the landform of the planned airborne area, create a certain proportion of three-dimensional models, simulate the real scene of the plane flying over the sky and shoot it into a video. During training, the airborne troops first watch black and white videos, and then add a blue filter to simulate the scene under the moonlight, so that the airborne troops are familiar with the airborne areas, and require each airborne troops to use maps and sand table models to clarify their tasks, and also understand the mission of their neighbors;
Secondly, we strengthened targeted training on identifying aircraft and seizing enemy positions; finally carried out practical exercises, tested combat plans, and strengthened coordinated exercises with landing troops. In order to ensure that the airborne troops have sufficient equipment to prevent the German armored troops, the airborne troops were also strengthened for the equipment of anti-tank grenades, mines and rocket launchers.
Considering that the first batch of landing troops reached 176,000, and they were put into combat from the air and sea respectively, not only did the troops conduct regular landing battles such as boarding ships, ferry, transfer, and assault landing, but also specially strengthened the coordinated combat of the sea, land and air forces to avoid the recurrence of accidental injuries caused by killing each other during landing in Sicily.
Pre-war reconnaissance, the Allied forces began as early as March 1941. Since French resistance organizations and Allied agents were unable to enter the landing beach and could not obtain relevant information, aerial reconnaissance became the most important source of intelligence.
From April 1 to June 6, 1941 alone, the Allied forces dispatched as many as 45,000 aircraft to conduct extensive aerial reconnaissance in northern France and obtained relatively comprehensive and systematic intelligence. In addition to the aircraft, the Allied forces also used pocket submarines and torpedo boats to the landing area at night to comprehensively collect information on hydrology, geology, meteorology, vegetation and German deployment.
In order to confuse the German army, the Allied forces also conducted aerial reconnaissance and pocket submarine beach reconnaissance in the Calais area. The team that conducted reconnaissance on Calais beach on May 17, 1941 was captured by the German army, further strengthening the illusion that Calais was a landing area.
Although the Allies obtained a lot of intelligence through reconnaissance through various means, due to various reasons, some important intelligence was still not available, which would have a certain impact on future operations.
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