The Allied operation officially began three days later.

The war was not carried out with massive bombing as in the past...... This was obviously because Montgomery wanted to quickly break through to Belgium and the Netherlands, so he was worried that the bombing would damage roads and bridges and affect the advance of the armored forces.

The "Market Garden" program is divided into two programs: "Market" and "Garden".

Among them, the "market" is the airborne operation, and the "garden" is the offensive of the ground armored forces.

The "market" airborne operation began two hours ahead of schedule.

The U.S. 9th Transport Aircraft Command dispatched 14 transport aircraft groups, a total of 1,438 C47 transport planes and 321 modified bombers of the British Royal Air Force to parachute missions, as well as 2,160 CG4A "Waco" gliders, 916 "Hosha" gliders and 64 "Hamilcar" gliders.

This does not include Allied fighters, attack aircraft and bombers that served as escorts and skirmishes.

A total of more than 5,000 airplanes and gliders flew densely like locusts over Belgium and covered the sky over the Netherlands, blocking the entire sky so tightly that even the sun could not penetrate it.

Although the German soldiers were mentally prepared, they were still stunned when they saw this scene.

And the Dutch partisans jumped out unscrupulously and shouted: "The Allies are coming, the Allies are coming...... We're going to be liberated! ”

"Arm yourself and drive the Germans out of our country together!"

……

Obviously, the Arlied pomp and circumstance convinced the Dutch partisans that Germany would lose.

Then the Allied airborne troops began to parachute, and large white parachutes spread out under the transport planes.

In addition to the paratroopers, there were also packages with various weapons and ammunition, which fell like snow.

Colonel Slain looked at the sky with a telescope and exclaimed, "If we also have so many planes, this war will be won!" ”

Amid the screeching of air raid sirens, the scattered anti-aircraft fire of the Germans soon roared.

However, because the Germans mainly laid traps for the Allied airborne troops to jump down, the anti-aircraft fire was not fierce...... Of course, this is only relative to the planes in the sky, and the anti-aircraft gunners at this time are only afraid that their eyes will be spent and they will not know which target to hit, or they will only need to shoot shells into the air casually and hit them.

But the Allied airborne landing did not go as smoothly as expected.

The first is that the Allied aircraft fleet flew too high.

It is a well-known fact that it is safer for the airborne troops to parachute at a lower altitude, because this allows the paratroopers to shorten the time of descent in the air as much as possible, thus reducing the danger of being hit by the enemy in the air.

The standard skydive height in World War II was 244 meters, but the Allies even skydived 600 meters this time...... According to post-war surveys, the average height of the parachute was 457 meters, which is much higher than the standard skydiving height.

This may be because the US military pilots are too nervous...... At the same time, US planes also fly everywhere, such as fighting the Japanese army in the Pacific theater, stalemate with the German army in the African theater, and air transportation in the Sino-Japanese theater.

As a result, the overall quality of the US pilots, especially the pilots of the transport planes that are needed by a large number of them, is not high, and they know that they should lower their altitude, but they unconsciously raise the planes for fear of being hit by ground anti-aircraft fire...... In fact, for anti-aircraft fire, 244 meters is not very different from 600 meters, it is more of a subconscious action of the pilot in psychological fear.

If anything, 600 meters will make the target look a little smaller.

As a result, a large number of paratroopers slowly descended from the sky, and many were killed before they could reach the ground, as corpses hanging from parachutes.

However, because there were too many paratroopers and the German anti-aircraft fire was quite weak, the casualties were not large.

Another mistake is that the airborne landing point is too far from the target.

One of the problems caused by being too far away from the target is...... It is difficult for paratroopers without transport to get to their destination quickly and with all the more equipment. This was fatal for the Airborne Forces, which were mainly raid operations, since the enemy had ample time to prepare for the defense before the Airborne Forces arrived.

However, the impact of this was not very great, because the Germans were ready anyway.

The 1st British Parachute Division, known as the "Red Devils", was airborne under the leadership of Major General Redik.

At first, the operation of the paratrooper division was relatively smooth, and as soon as they landed on the ground, they gathered and gathered around to collect the supplies that had been lowered with them.

Major General Redrick could not help but breathe a sigh of relief after waiting for a while, because no Germans had appeared until this time, which seemed to mean that Field Marshal Montgomery was right in his judgment of the Germans...... Their main forces have retreated to the "Siegfried" line.

"The 2nd Paratrooper Brigade is stationed in place!" Major General Redrick ordered: "1st Paratrooper Brigade...... Aim for the Arnhem Bridge! ”

The reason why a paratrooper brigade was left in place was that the American convoys would continue to airdrop supplies, and the paratroopers would need to open their defenses to gain a larger area for airdrops, so that they could get as much supplies as possible.

Major General Redrick looked at the map as he moved forward and saw that the Arnhem Bridge was still 13 kilometers away from the parachute landing point.

"Damn it!" Major General Redrick couldn't help but scold: "We are too far from the goal!" ”

13 kilometers, and the forced march will take an hour to arrive.

More serious problems followed...... The communication range of the Type 22 radio, equipped by the British army, was only 5 km.

In other words, the two separate brigades of the British army could only communicate with each other by radio, and it was difficult to achieve effective coordinated operations.

But Major General Redrick simply did not realize that these problems were minor...... The real problem is in front of them, and they are getting closer to it step by step.

An hour later, the British 1st Paratrooper Brigade arrived at the Arnhem Bridge out of breath.

Major General Redrick felt something was wrong the first time.

It took the British an hour to arrive, and he originally thought that the Germans would deploy at least a few battalions here, and even tanks, which the airborne troops feared the most...... Major General Redrick was prepared for the worst.

However, there were only two companies of German troops on both sides of the Arnhem Bridge.

"No tanks!" The staff officer reported to Major General Redrick with excitement: "There are no armored vehicles either!" General, give the order to attack! ”

"No, William!" Major General Redrick stopped: "This is most likely a trap!" ”

"Trap?" Major William looked around with his binoculars and said, "General, I don't see anything suspicious. And, if we don't attack, what else can we do? ”

()

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Mobile version reading URL: