Caen.

A city in the north-west of France, part of the Normandy region, in the middle of the department of Cavados, on the banks of the River Orne.

Because of the flow of the Orne River and the excavation of the Caen Canal, it is an important town in France, with a developed economy and convenient transportation, and the railways and highways connect the surrounding areas, so it is natural that it has also become a transportation hub for the German army.

Soldiers and supplies need to pass through here.

Equally.

Because of the existence of the Orne River and the Caen Canal, these two natural river barriers, Caen is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the terrain around Caen is flat, suitable for the construction of field airfields.

So Caen is also strategically important.

At the beginning of the Overlord plan, the two old hooligans of Britain and the United States were very clear.

Caen, must be taken as soon as possible.

Therefore, in the Overlord battle plan, after the troops quickly seized the beach, the vanguard needed to occupy Caen as quickly as possible and build a field airfield, relying on this to continue to advance.

According to this operational policy, at the beginning of the battle, the army aviation forces first carried out a massive bombardment of Caen, and then sent paratroopers to establish a bridgehead north of Caen, on the east bank of the Orne River, so that the landing vanguard could capture Caen with an advantage.

But plans never keep up with changes.

Before Operation Overlord, the two hooligans released intelligence smoke bombs, and the main defense forces of the Germans on the west coast of France were attracted to Calais, and the Normandy defenses were empty, thinking that the vanguard could quickly land and go deeper.

But the difficulty of a large-scale landing was beyond the imagination of the two hooligans, and even if the German defenses were weak, the landing force did not succeed in making any rapid breakthrough, and the whole was stuck for a whole day.

When the army fights, every second counts.

Because of this day, the Germans strengthened Caen's defenses and had a day to build up sufficient positions, which led to the landing force being held back by a day late.

For a long time after that, Caen was at a stalemate.

The two hooligans had superiority in troops, supplies, and absolute air superiority, but they attacked for more than ten days in a row, but they failed to take Caen, and the attacking troops suffered heavy losses.

The Germans, with their pre-constructed positions and greater familiarity with the terrain and environment, resisted very stubbornly.

However, the Germans are not having a good time.

The total loss of air supremacy made it necessary for any unit to be brushed by the two rogue air forces before it reached Caen, a large number of heavy machinery was blown up on the road, and less than seventy percent of tanks and armored vehicles could reach the front line.

Supply convoys can only operate at night, concealed during the day, and their efficiency is greatly reduced, and even then, the supplies that reach the front line are at least a tenth lost.

Both sides are suffering from consumption.

Although Caen's incident was greatly unexpected, which made the two hooligans very angry, and scolded Montgomery, who was in charge of commanding the operation, the operations staff all over the place, but they were not panicked in their hearts.

The landing has been successful, more and more troops have reached the beaches of Normandy through artificial ports, and the coalition forces have become more and more powerful, and their own side has absolute air supremacy.

The Germans fought on two fronts, and there were not many troops on the Western Front, and the lack of troops and materials would only get weaker and weaker.

Sooner or later, victory will be their own.

But plans never keep up with changes.

In the late middle of June, that is, more than 10 days after the landing, taking advantage of the bad weather and the inability to unload supplies at the two artificial ports, the Germans suddenly rose up, took out more than 2,000 tanks, thousands of armored vehicles, and thousands of cannons of more than 100 calibers, and launched several waves of lightning raids on the Western Front under the command of the Desert Fox.

This hand, not to mention the total annihilation of more than a dozen divisions, but also to recapture a large area of territory lost in the past ten days, if it were not for the German air force pulling the crotch and the support of the two rogue naval guns, I am afraid that it would not be able to directly drive the coalition forces back into the sea and strangle the overlord plan to death.

Affected by this battle, Montgomery, who was attacking in the Caen area, also had to retreat in great strides, ceding territory to his old rivals, leaving behind a few divisions.

But the two hooligans have a deep background after all.

Although they couldn't figure out where the tanks and armored vehicles of the Germans came from, after the weather cleared, with the support of the absolutely superior air force and navy, the two hooligans still quickly stabilized their ground, and then organized dozens of divisions to attack again.

This time, however, a month has passed.

Shibei should be impressed for three days, let alone a month?

With the support of sufficient materials, at this time, the entire west coast was full of reinforced concrete fortresses, and the air defense tower group could not be built for the time being because of the huge amount of work and high construction requirements, or even only a plan.

But these small fortresses, sufficient materials of all kinds, coupled with a new standardized modular construction method, sufficient construction machinery, and fast-drying cement, the construction difficulty is actually very low, as for the workers.

There really is no shortage of workers in France.

Especially skilled workers in the construction industry, a handful of tricks are a lot.

After all, France has the Maginot Line, which has a group of fortifications that stretches for hundreds of kilometers, nearly 100 permanent large fortresses, hospitals, kitchens, power stations, and even factories, and is built over a period of 12 years, with a total budget of 5 billion francs.

Although it did not play its due role in the slightest, there was really no shortage of construction workers and engineers trained for such a huge project.

Because they lost so quickly, most of these people were in mainland France.

With sufficient to surplus food, medicines and other basic civilian resources, it is not difficult to mobilize these Frenchmen, and even after helping people to work, these people are still grateful to Dade, grateful, work hard, and give a good person card.

After several years of hard work, suddenly there was a job that allowed you to eat and drink, and even meat to buy medicines, clothes, and even scarce fuel.

Whoever does the work has to work hard.

Even if the inability to eat by themselves is caused by this group of people.

In this way, there was no shortage of materials, no shortage of equipment, no shortage of workers, and the construction of the fortification group was very fast, and when the two hooligans arrived again, they were greeted by a series of reinforced concrete fortress groups built at strategic points, as well as a well-equipped armored division.

Although the two rogue air forces still have absolute superiority, it is impossible to win the war at this time and the technical conditions at this time by relying on the air force alone, and after being supplemented by air defense weapons, the Germans are not without air defense capabilities.

The two sides are again engaged in fighting on the west coast.

The two hooligans have superiority in strength and air superiority, but the new hooligans of the Germans are not bad, they have supply superiority, as well as armor superiority, and the armored forces have sufficient anti-aircraft firepower and are more familiar with the terrain.

Yes, this time, in terms of the number of tanks, the German new hooligans really have an advantage, and even in terms of quality, there is a certain advantage.

The new No. 4 tank is really much better than Xie Mantou, not to mention that at this time, the new version of No. 5 and No. 6 also appeared, but this thing is given priority to the eastern front, and there are not many western fronts.

However, on the whole, the paper data of both sides is divided.

But the Desert Fox is clearly superior in command.

The old fox knew his advantages and disadvantages, so he gave full play to the home advantage, relying on the concrete fortifications built in various strategic nodes, focusing on defense, resolutely not advancing, and only occasionally came a few times at night to suddenly counterattack, and it was also a shallow taste.

During this period, full efforts were continued to be carried out, with the construction of fortifications and the construction of anti-aircraft towers.

Faced with this hedgehog-style play, Montgomery was dumbfounded.

On the west coast of France, the terrain is flat and suitable for armored troops to advance, but in order to attack, it is necessary to take those key nodes, such as Caen, Cherbourg, Montfort and other places.

But in these places, there are a large number of reinforced concrete fortress groups, 128, 150 and other long-range artillery, hundreds of heavy artillery, 20, 40, 88 and other caliber anti-aircraft gun barrels, and even 12-inch coastal defense guns.

More hedgehogs than hedgehogs.

Montgomery, the old adversary, attacked, the old fox hid in the fortifications, and the tank units were also hidden, revealing only anti-aircraft armored vehicles, relying on positions to defend.

And the old fox is not completely passive defense, he has eight armored divisions in his hands that although they are not fully manned, but they are fully equipped to overflow, and from time to time take advantage of bad weather or launch several attacks at night, and swallow the attacking two rogue troops in a small bite.

With this hand, the German new hooligans and the British and American old hooligans played a two-to-one, or even three-to-one battle loss ratio.

dragged the tide of the battle into a complete stalemate.

Of course, the new hooligans are actually not having a good time, more than three years of war, the Sixth Army, Kursk, etc., the number of casualties in the army exceeds two million, and the human resources are not as good as before.

This can be seen from the fact that a large number of children aged seventeen, eighteen, and even fifteen or sixteen have joined the army.

Because of the inferiority of troops, the old fox could not completely drive the enemy into the sea.

Although the battle losses were better, these victories also forced the last bit of human resources in the country to be squeezed out, and even because of the abundant equipment, weapons, and automobiles, even some high-ranking workers, skilled workers, and even engineers participated in the war.

Of course, now it's only a small range, a small amount.

Not everyone is blind and blind, and there are still people who try their best to prevent this from happening, but as more and more weapons are dragged out of the warehouses, they are becoming more and more advanced, and since August, they have become so many that they cannot be used up, and they have begun to fill the large and small warehouses in the country.

The scale of this kind of thing is getting bigger and bigger.

In this situation, the two hooligans were so angry that they jumped to their feet, but they had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue to attack, and then telegram after telegram, asking the allies on the Eastern Front to increase their efforts to contain the enemy and share the pressure.

As for the supreme boss who always makes trouble, the guy who always likes to command troops indiscriminately.

At this time, this attention was completely absent from the Western Front. His main focus was on the Eastern Front.

His fox marshal, and the air marshal brought such a large scale of support, and his importance increased greatly in his heart, although he was not satisfied that the Western Front could not be victorious, and that the old British and American hooligans could not be driven into the sea, but he did not care too much, and let the two continue to play, but devoted his attention to the Western Front.

And two other things.

This also allowed the old fox to get rid of the high-level constraints, play completely freely, and formulate the most suitable tactics.

······

"Marshal."

At this time, on a certain coast in the North Sea, in a hidden flat area, the busy Marshal Kesselring received a message from a staff officer:

"The Führer asked you, when will the bombing be carried out?"

"He asked to do it as soon as possible."

"It's best if the fleet takes off within three days."

Bombing the United States, this is one of the things that the Führer is most concerned about at this time, and apparently, the Führer is very angry that the Yankees are meddling in this matter, so he hopes that the consequences will also be serious.

"You reply to the Führer."

Kesselring replied without raising his head:

"Because there are more bombers than expected, the more time to prepare, the larger the scale of the bombing."

Orders cannot be disobeyed, but they can be persuaded appropriately with skill.

Of course, this is also true, originally there were only 180 planes bombed, but since August, the scale has suddenly increased more than threefold, and the number of aircraft in the fleet has reached more than 600 aircraft.

Each one requires fifteen crew members, that is, nine thousand people.

In order to mobilize so many crew members, Kesselring tried his best, because there were really not many pilots in his own house, and in the end, in order to make up the numbers, he even recruited pilots from other countries.

And in order not to attract the attention of the British and American hooligans, he also had to pay attention to secrecy, everything came quietly, so the speed of preparation was very slow.

Half an hour later, another message came:

"The Führer asked, when exactly it will start, and on what scale."

"Reply to the Führer."

Kesselring smiled and replied:

"It will take another thirty-three days, and the bombing will begin in early September."

"The scale of the bombing is, 10,000 tons."