427 relies on miracles

Facts have proved that once you have combat experience, the fear of the unknown will plummet. Although more than 100 German soldiers were killed in battle, the landing on Crete was indeed a practice of the landing operation itself for the army.www.biquge.info

Looking at the documents in front of them, the German marshals quickly found all sorts of problems and started discussions on improvements.

Sometimes, sitting in the office and dreaming, relying on guesswork to prepare all kinds of landing needs, the generals' imagination is really limited.

But if there is a landing case in reality, all kinds of links are in front of you, and let the generals check and fill in the gaps, things will become much simpler.

"Designing a special transport ship makes it easier for soldiers to get ashore...... At least some of the elites should be given this treatment! Rundstedt was the first to speak, cheering on the Führer.

His opinion was similar to the landing craft used by the United States during the Normandy landings, which could cover the front door of the soldiers and landing special transports that rushed directly onto the beach.

The reason why he thought of similar equipment was because he saw that during the Cretan battle, during the landing, the soldiers were unloaded into the water halfway, which really caused confusion.

Many people were thrown into deep water and drowned directly on the shore because of the inaccurate estimation of the distance they unloaded.

The troops' clothes were soaked with water and their movements became slow, making them ideal targets for enemy machine guns.

Although Rundstedt did not see the situation with his own eyes, soldiers had reacted to similar situations during the landing maneuvers and the Cretan landing, which attracted his attention.

Then Brauchitsch, who had just lost points again, hurriedly said: "I estimate that it should be feasible to use the towing method of the air force paratroopers to solve the problem of insufficient transportation capacity." ”

Inspired by the Luftwaffe's paratroopers, he was ready to use powered boats to pull back unpowered boats and load more soldiers to storm enemy beaches.

A lot of power equipment was dispensed with, and more wooden boats could be built. And these ships can be made disposable, and do not occupy the production capacity of the German army.

Wood is not a scarce resource in Germany, and there are plenty of forested areas in Poland and France that can be cut down. Even in today's tense situation, regions such as Russia and Spain can easily import qualified timber for processing.

For Germany, it is a very critical issue to be able to solve the transportation capacity and get more troops on the beach in the first time.

If the towing method is feasible, then here in the German Army, which is seriously short of ferries, it can undoubtedly easily expand the capacity by a third.

Of course, whether this method is easy to use or not depends on whether it can be used in the exercise.

But according to Brauchitsch's idea, even if this method does not carry people, it is still worth trying to haul some worthless materials.

The third to speak was Field Marshal Liszt, and what he said was much more practical. At least his 112th Division did go through a landing operation.

It can be said without modesty that even after a child's play, Division Commander Hermann is still the commander who knows the most about landing operations among the active German generals.

Liszt glanced at the Führer and said, "My Führer, in fact, the biggest problem in our landing battle on Crete is still in the procedural coordination. ”

"If we let the troops change at a distance of about 15 kilometers from the enemy's coastline, we run the risk of being attacked by the enemy's coastal defense artillery." He pointed to the map on the table and spoke.

This is also a very troublesome problem -- the question of choosing the specific location of the large ship for the small one: if the change is early, the speed of the landing of the troops will be affected; If it is too late, it will be taught to be a man by the British coastal defense artillery.

Obviously, the German army lacked experience in this area, and to be honest, until 1944, the American and British learned not much in this regard.

The only thing to be thankful for is that Germany in 1940, similar to the United States in 1944, both held air supremacy in the English Channel, and it should not be much of a problem to suppress the opponent's ground firepower at this time.

However, once the enemy encountered the trouble of shelling their landing fleet during the development stage, it was a question of whether the inexperienced German commanders would be able to maintain their composure and continue to allow the landing force to attack in an orderly manner.

"In addition, after we unfolded, we braved the enemy's artillery fire, and after the landing ships reached the beach, we ran into the dense fire attack of the British army, how should we deal with it." Liszt pointed to the line of defense behind the beach and continued to ask.

On the map, in order to deepen the impression of the generals and the Führer on the defense of the British coastline, there are also some aerial photographs, as well as obscure photographs taken secretly.

These photographs somewhat amplified the Army's concerns about the strength of British coastal defenses. Once the permanent fortifications are in front of the landing force, without the support of tanks and other weapons, the army will obviously have to pay ten times the price to take out these strong obstacles.

Li Le also had a headache, of course he knew that these problems were very tricky, but he really didn't have a good way to solve all the problems he was currently encountering.

Under no circumstances could even a genius like Napoleon command a landing operation on a massive scale. No one was able to calculate all the details, not to mention that the Führer was not a military expert.

There were many, many more headaches, such as the terrible British navy and the disastrous impact on the German landing grounds.

"The troops will be suppressed by machine guns on the beach and will not be able to raise their heads, but our navy will not be able to provide fire cover for the landing soldiers like the Italian navy." Liszt sharply pointed out the problems of the navy.

Once the matters related to the Navy were brought to the table for discussion, the faces of the German Army were not very good-looking.

I have to admit it, but what is very frustrating is that the German navy is not as good as the Italian navy in some aspects, such as the traditional support for the army.

On the premise that there was no interference from the British Navy, the Italian Navy still had several battleships that could come and show their faces when the Germans attacked Crete.

However, even if the main warships of the British Navy did not move, the German Navy in the Atlantic did not have the courage to demarcate the area of operation near the English Channel.

"The problem of not being able to support the army's operations is better solved, at least the Air Force can provide Stuka!" Accustomed to their own solutions, the army generals no longer put their hopes of supporting themselves on the navy.

They were more accustomed to the air force providing support, and that support was timely and seemed effective at the time of the French campaign.

Of course, Li Le also handed over the burden of supporting the army's operations to Goering's air force. However, in the process of landing operations, the cover of surface ships could not be completely dependent on the Luftwaffe.

Not to mention the main forces of the British fleet for the time being...... The small torpedo boats equipped with the British naval forces alone had already made the German Navy desperate.

These torpedo boats would come out of their nests when the Germans landed, and then use their nimble and small posture to storm the German landing fleet and sink the landlubbers.

The main reason why the German torpedo boats did not achieve great results at the time of the Normandy landings was that the United States and Britain had more destroyers than the German torpedo boats!

But Germany did not have so many destroyers to guarantee the absolute safety of the landing fleet -- during the Norwegian naval battle, the German destroyers were all cast a psychological shadow by the British fleet, how could they be in the mood to try again......

Therefore, Li Le just thought about it and knew what his landing operation plan would look like. Depending on the existing conditions, it can only be what it looks like.

First of all, the German landing force began to land on the beach during the day, under the cover of aircraft. Send the first batch of landing troops.

Then, like a tidal wave, British patrol boats and torpedo boat submarines will pour out and begin to counterattack the German landing grounds.

Goering's air force was forced to shift the focus of its attack and began to intercept these deadly British boats. The battle will be bloody and brutal, and the results are optimistic, and the Germans will also lose a lot of peripheral ships.

By the afternoon, when the second batch of German troops came ashore, there was almost news of what the outcome would be on the coast.

The German convoy on the sea was going to retreat at this time, no matter what. Otherwise they would have been wiped out at sea by the British fleet, which arrived at night, and not even a single ship would be left.

So the ships had to move quickly, and rush to Brest, or the Dutch coastline, as if they were fleeing, seeking the protection of the shore artillery.

Sadly, on the one hand, the Germans wanted to prevent the British Navy from jumping over the wall, storming these anchorages regardless of losses, and sinking these transports in exchange for their lives; On the other hand, the German landing force was completely left on the beach at this time, isolated and helpless.

Just think about it, and you know that this is not a fun thing to do, and if the German landing force does not advance to the ideal position before nightfall on the first day, they risk being shelled by the British Navy.

Several battleships, with cannons of caliber 356 and 381, hit positions with precisely corrected coordinates all night...... Whether the German landing force was in the mood to continue to hold out, only God knows.

The next day, the wary British navy would cruise around the landing site, preventing the Germans from continuing to transport troops ashore as much as possible -- although the air force fought until the afternoon, and it was possible to send a third army to it, but it was difficult to say whether there was a need for this.

On the whole, this landing plan is not fundamentally different from sending people to death. If you want to really land in Britain, you have to rely on the power of praying to God and miracles.