When the sun shone on the earth again, hundreds of German bombers were as accurate as clocks, they appeared accurately above the target, after a week of preparation, Guderian's regiment, which received enough supplies and a large amount of support, finally began to attack this famous French harbor city, unlike previous bombing, this wave of bombers will focus on cleaning the support points and gun nests on the attack line, and the aircraft group is mainly composed of dive bombers, Carrying heavy reinforced concrete armor-piercing shells ranging from 500kg to 1000kg, they will carry out targeted killings of exposed critical support points. 【】

The war has reached the most critical moment, both sides are doing their best, when the German bombers appeared in the sky, the Huaxia and British aircraft groups that took off from the rear airfields began to intercept, just after the end of the Battle of the Bay of Biscay to today only 2 weeks, Huaxia has transported another 700 Casa Falcon planes to Britain by sea, these planes quickly entered the battle as soon as they arrived in Britain, the Germans still underestimated the mobilized Entente, The Allied air forces on the Brest Peninsula were replenished at least 1.5 times faster than the Germans had estimated, and the result of the error in the calculation was that the Luftwaffe dropped bombs almost bloodied

These extremely fast, agile aircraft boast some of the best aeronautical performance of their time. The Stone Tea Falcon is enough to deal with all targets except for the four-engine heavy bomber, and the number of FW190 fighters of the Germans is actually not too much, especially after the previous period of attrition, the number of available FW190 fighters has declined too quickly, so most of the front-line airfields are BF109F fighters, if the FW190 fighters can still compete with the Stone Tea Falcon, then it is difficult for BF109F to compare with the opponent, Why does the BF109F2, which has a maximum speed of only 630 kilometers per hour, fight with the Shicha Falcon 3 aircraft with a maximum speed close to 720? Whether it's high altitude or low altitude, you can be killed casually, not to mention the disadvantage of range, cannon sight and vision. So at the beginning of the battle, the Germans also overestimated their ability to stay in the air, and the combat effectiveness and number of the BF109 fighter group did not match at all, and the biggest victim in the end Even if the German bomber force was proportional, the proportion of bomber losses in the entire Battle of Saint-Nazaire was the largest in the war, of course, this is not only the record of the Ishcha Falcon. The anti-aircraft artillery of the Americans was also indispensable

"When did the German fighter force work so ineffectively, and the other side actually broke through their defense line in one attack" A JU88 bomber formation gave up the column formation of preparing for bombing, and was forced to adopt a circular defensive formation, all the machine gunners operated the 15mm machine guns in their hands, vigilantly watching the stone tea falcons flying in the air, these ferocious birds of prey would dive down from time to time and destroy a bomber in the distance with a clean point shot. The BF109 fighter unit is still fighting its opponents, and the Spitfire is responsible for pinning down the opponents. The British also seemed to have made a bloody investment, at least in this engagement, the Germans were surprised to find that they did not have a numerical advantage to "descend altitude, and were about to enter the attack area" after losing nearly 3 percent of their bombers. This bomber formation finally entered the attack zone, and the opposing fighters began to leave, and by virtue of this alone, the German commander could be sure that there was an anti-aircraft artillery position below.

"I'd rather face the Americans' anti-aircraft artillery than those Ishcha falcons, because they have always been inaccurate," the captain's words caused a burst of laughter in the channel, and this half-joking statement obviously relaxed the nervous German pilots a little. At this time, the entire fleet is flying at a low altitude of about 1,500 to 2,000 meters. Sure enough, the anti-aircraft artillery of the Americans began to fire, and one by one the artillery raised its head from camouflage and sprayed a deadly rain of bullets on the group of planes flying through the air

Orange fires lit up on the ground. Strings of shells of various calibers exploded in the air. "How did the Americans hit more accurately this time?" The captain muttered to himself with some suspicion, the enemy's firepower density is not high, and it is not even as high as the usual bombardment, but for some reason, how did the opponent's attack accuracy improve? In just 3 minutes from the time the other side opened fire, a JU88 bomber was destroyed. While the other two planes were wounded by shrapnel and withdrew from the combat sequence

"Maybe it's because our bombing route is relatively fixed, and the other side already has a certain understanding of our flight altitude and speed, so it specifically targeted us when setting the fuse?" The Germans thought of this for the first time, and this kind of thing happened before. But it's easy to deal with, just change the altitude a little and let the delay fuse explode too early or too late. "The altitude of the whole group has risen by 500 meters", and just as he was giving the order, a shell suddenly exploded next to him. Scattered fragments tore off half of the wing of a nearby bomber

Climbing could not save the German fleet, the American shells seemed to have eyes, they could always explode at the most suitable height and distance, one shell after another exploded in the German fleet, and the scattered fragments were like a steel storm The planes in the formation staggered, and the more fortunate ones could barely fly. The unfortunate ones dragged puffs of black smoke to the ground, and experienced German pilots had determined that the Americans must have used a special fuse, which sensed the outside world and detonated the entire German fleet at the right time, as if flying in a boiling cauldron, and the lethal music of flame shrapnel and death caused heavy losses to the elite of the Reich.

The final dive attack was not very effective, and the various 40mm and 20mm machine guns equipped by the Allies built a dense enough fire network at low altitude with the help of fire control radar. "Dropping bombs below 500 meters is almost killing me, and I have seen more than one plane hit a fireball by hail shells in the process of diving, and they used a new type of armor-piercing incendiary shell, which can easily penetrate the armor of the aircraft and then burn inside, and only one shell can completely destroy a single aircraft, and a double-engine aircraft cannot carry three shells," said a German pilot after the war. Eventually, when less than 40 percent of the remaining bombers returned exhausted and scarred, the Army was forced to attack without success, and the defeat of the Air Force hung over the Germans like a dark cloud, as if to foreshadow a difficult battle ahead

"Let's start" After the end of the bombing by the Air Force, the German Army's heavy artillery units finally appeared, if you look at it from the air, you can see columns of smoke rising from time to time behind the German positions, orange flashes one after another, Germany deployed its firepower in the order of 105mm light howitzers, 150mm heavy howitzers, 210mm heavy howitzers, 150mm cannons and 170mm heavy cannons. The artillery positions formed a circular network of fire, and the core of all the artillery attacks was aimed at Saint-Nazaire, the last fortress of the Allies in France

Countless scorching cannonballs flew in the sky, their steel-forged bodies falling on the heads of the Entente with death and destruction, and countless blasts and columns of smoke glittered and rose over the target area. The heavy shelling even turned the entire soil layer over. "In the place after the shelling of the Germans. If you bend down and grab a handful of dirt, you will find shrapnel inside," a post-war memoir used exaggerated terms to describe the most intense and bloody part of the entire French campaign

The dense artillery bombardment continued to extend forward like a drum, and rolling barrages rolled back and forth on the positions, destroying all kinds of minefields, obstacles, and trenches that the French had painstakingly set up in a matter of minutes. The fortifications were also suffering from the artillery fire, and some of the less fortified areas finally collapsed under the continuous attack of the artillery, and the broken passages and fortresses that were opened more and more opened. Faced with volcanic eruption-like firepower, the Germans even thought that they could bring the other side to their knees by shelling alone, but was this really the case?

"Let's hope these old guys from the First World War will still be useful. These big guys are the last railroad guns of the French Republic, they are all here, and some even participated in the Battle of Verdun in World War 1 "In a grove northwest of Saint-Nazaire, huge steel monsters are showing their hideous faces. Huge gun barrels began to rise gradually with the help of cranes and hydraulic equipment, and the camouflage nets that originally covered the surface of the guns were withdrawn. This is the real train gun, they are the last large-caliber mobile guns in the French Army, these big guys are probably quite old, they can be built even before the start of World War 1. But after a long period of baptism, the power of these big guys is still not to be underestimated

In total, the French had more than 30 various train guns left. Although the 520mm super-large caliber train gun that once appeared in the 1st World War is no longer among them, although this kind of artillery is powerful, but the range is very short, the French military top brass believes that in the future battle, the main role of the train gun is to suppress the opponent's heavy artillery troops, rather than relying solely on the power of the shell, the latter can be compensated by bombshells, and for artillery, Range is life, but these train guns converted from 12-inch L45 naval guns and 240mmL50 naval guns are still a deterrent force, especially the former. In the 1st World War, this artillery could shoot 432kg heavy artillery shells at an elevation angle of 23 degrees for more than 26 kilometers

Now, with the help of a series of measures such as optimizing the shape of the shell, using new propellants, and increasing the elevation angle, the maximum range of this gun has reached more than 39 kilometers, which has surpassed all German field artillery, and what is even more terrifying. The new armor-piercing shells used by this artillery can completely destroy all field artillery bunkers, not to mention the simple bunkers built with sandbags and civil engineering structure breastworks, even if you add a 2-meter-thick reinforced concrete cover to the artillery, this artillery can easily smash the bunker into pieces, and in order to improve the firing range of the artillery, the French specially placed circular rails for these big guys, with the help of rails. The 12-inch L45 railway gun is enough to cover most of the targets, and it was originally because there was no air supremacy and inconvenient maneuverability, so it has not been able to exert its might in the previous battle, but this time, under the full cover of the Allied air force, these big guys finally have a place to use

"The intelligence of the aviation reconnaissance has come down, the long-range artillery positions of the Germans have been marked, if the initial intelligence is correct, the artillery above 150mm put in by the Germans should account for about 4% of the total number of their first line, Guderian is still very careful, they may have thought of us these big killers" Major General Sovein, who commanded the train artillery unit, said to Dayan next to him, the latter's troops will be used as a general reserve, their station is very close to the train artillery unit, and the relationship between the two is good.

"Then let's get started, get rid of their cannons first, and give the howitzers to the Americans' long-legged Tom," Rear Admiral Sovein ordered. This wave of counterattacks concentrated more than half of the long-range artillery of the Entente powers, and the long-legged Tom of the Americans and the behemoths of France would form the main force of the counterattack, and they fought on the principle that I can fight you, you can't beat me. The total number of artillery of the Allies may not be comparable to that of the Germans, although the total number of artillery may not be comparable to that of the Germans, by suppressing the 170mm heavy cannon and the 150mm K18 cannon that the Germans were proud of, and then suppressing the various howitzers and 105mm cannons with the long-legged Tom with a range of nearly 28 km

The cannonballs were loaded into the thick barrel under the action of the crane and the loading servo, the thick barrel began to rise, and the gun mount also slowly slid on the circular rails, all the preparations were ready, these former kings will use their actions to prove that in this new era, they are still an indispensable part of the battlefield, the huge barrel shrank back sharply, a huge fireball erupted from the barrel, and then a thick smoke began to spread around, and then the suffocating wind pressure and violent vibration, A loud thunderbolt pierced through the jungle, and a shell weighing nearly half a ton whizzed across the city and the line of fire of the twin rounds to the German heavy artillery positions far behind

"What's the matter?" Guderian asked with some concern after looking at the huge fire that suddenly appeared in the distance and the column of smoke rising nearly a hundred meters high. "One of our artillery positions has been attacked, and the French have some heavy guns with a very long range, and we are firing at the enemy's naval guns, which is very unfair." The artillery major general next to him said with some frustration. And at this moment, the French counterattack gradually entered the **, more than 30 naval guns bombarded the artillery positions in the German rear, and under the cover of the air force, the French artillery school aircraft can actually provide more accurate information for the artillery in the rear, these terrifying guys poured a deadly rain of bullets towards the target area, and the artillery positions were reduced to ashes in the violent explosion. Even if the 450kg shell only misses closely, it can be said that a 170mm heavy cannon exploded into a pile of scrap metal, and the steel storm and strong wind pressure caused by the explosion made the German artillery around the artillery die

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward~~~, and the book friend "Ah" the moon clouds and the moon on the other side of the mountain for the monthly ticket support ~~~. To be continued