Chapter 320 France Don’t Cry 5
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
When the dull roar came, the heart of Major Hauptmann Walter Koch, who was sitting in a Ju52 transport plane, skipped a beat.
"We've been discovered again!" Major Hauptmann Walter Koch muttered in a low voice.
This airborne officer, who was born in the Miuta Special Forces, served as the commander of the 8th Paratrooper Company in the Polish Campaign and led his troops to parachute in Lviv, is now leading a "Koch Commando" composed of 493 elite special forces (mainly from the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and Brandenburg Special Forces) to carry out a bold surprise attack mission.
The target of their surprise attack is the Eben-Emael Fortress, which is a key stronghold of the Belgian army on the Albert Canal defense line, guarding 3 important bridges, and can also use artillery to control all the ferry crossings on the Albert Canal and the Meuse River within a radius of 16 kilometers.
If the German army failed to capture the fortress at the beginning of the Belgian campaign, the German army that broke into Belgium through the Netherlands would be blocked in the "Maastricht appendix" east of the Albert Canal - the Meuse River runs through the city of Maastricht, and the Albert Canal runs through the west of the city of Maastricht. To the south of Maastricht, the canal and the Meuse River will quickly converge and become "parallel rivers". To the north of Maastricht, the Meuse River and the Albert Canal are connected by an artificial river, so it looks like an appendix on the map.
Because of the crisscrossing rivers around, once the main bridges are blown up and the main ferry is controlled by artillery, it will be difficult for the German army to break through quickly.
Therefore, since the day the Eben-Emael Fortress was built, it has been the focus of research by the German Wehrmacht General Staff. Three plans to capture the fortress were formulated long before the outbreak of the World War.
The first plan is to use super cannons for bombardment, which is a conventional means of capturing the fortress.
However, the Eben-Emael Fortress was very strong. It was a fortress built on a small granite hill. Its northeast and northwest sides were almost vertical cliffs, about 40 meters high, and the Albert Canal, with its surging water, passed under the cliffs; the south side was separated by a wide anti-tank ditch and a 6-meter-high and 2-meter-thick reinforced concrete protective wall. There were also large minefields outside the protective wall and the trench.
It was impossible to destroy the granite cliffs in the northeast and northwest with artillery, and the only way was to bombard the high concrete wall in the south. However, to bombard the high wall directly with artillery, the artillery had to be transported across the Meuse River and the Albert Canal first. This was a very difficult task!
The second option was to use heavy armor-piercing shells to blow up several main artillery emplacements of the fortress, destroy the firepower of the fortress, and at the same time use infantry to seize three bridges built on the Albert Canal.
The difficulty of this option was that it was difficult for heavy bombs to hit the artillery emplacements directly, and the infantry attack could not succeed in a short time. Because the Belgians used three infantry brigades to guard three bridges respectively. Although they could not stop the German attack, they still had time to blow up the bridge.
The third option was to boldly use airborne troops! Assault from the air, seize the fortress and remove the explosives placed by the Belgians on the three bridges. Now this option is the first choice for seizing the fortress!
In order to ensure the suddenness of the air assault, Ms. Hannah Reich, a technical adviser to the German Air Force Staff (she has been a test pilot of the German Air Force since 1937), also proposed a bold plan to use H-flying planes to airdrop on the flat top of the Eben-Emael Fortress (because Belgium did not have radar at that time, it used sound positioning to detect aircraft, and H-flying planes would not make any sound when flying).
According to this assault plan that was finally adopted, the assault troops would take 42 DFS-230B-1H-flying planes (445 people in total including H-flying plane pilots) and several Ju52 transport planes (47 people) and conduct the assault in two batches. First, the H-flying planes would quietly descend from the sky to launch the assault, and then the Ju52 would drop paratroopers, ammunition and some weapons.
But when 41 Ju52 transport planes cut the ropes of the same number of DFS-230B-1H planes and began to turn around and return, the Belgian anti-aircraft guns still opened fire.
"Major, the Belgians are firing at Aunt Junkers!" The voice of the H plane pilot came from the loudspeaker in the cabin.
Major Koch picked up the intercom and shouted loudly: "Ignore the Belgian anti-aircraft guns, we continue to perform the mission! Go to win victory and glory for Germany!"
"Yes, Major!" The voice of the driver came from the loudspeaker again, "The H planes began to attack the designated targets!"
"Okay!" Major Koch said, "They will succeed! We will parachute in 15 minutes!"
At 5:15 in the morning on April 10, 1940, 41 H planes belonging to 4 attack teams (the cable of one H plane was cut off in advance and landed in the Netherlands) began to launch air assaults on 4 targets.
Among them, the mission of the "Steel Group" (code name of the assault team) commanded by Lieutenant Gustav Altmann was to seize the Feldwezert Bridge; the mission of the "Concrete Group" commanded by Lieutenant Gerhard Schacht was to seize the Fronhofen Bridge; the mission of the "Branding Iron Group" commanded by Lieutenant Martin Schacht was to seize the Cannes Bridge; and the mission of the "Granite Group" commanded by Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig was to parachute on the flat top of the Eben-Emael Fortress, destroying the main artillery and machine gun tower of the fortress with less than 100 troops, clearing the way for the subsequent infantry attack!
……
A huge, dazzling fireball suddenly rose from a bridge over the Albert Canal, accompanied by a deafening roar.
"The Belgians blew up the bridge! The Belgians blew up the bridge!"
At 5:25, Herschmann's baby son Rudolf shouted in the cockpit of a Fokker Zero aircraft. He first witnessed a DFS-230B-1H aircraft being hit by Belgian ground artillery fire. The H aircraft broke into two pieces and fell to the ground on the spot. Two minutes later, he saw the bridge being blown up again.
"Rudolf! Concentrate, your mission is air cover!" Lieutenant Heinz Bahr's scolding came from his earphones.
"Yes, but there are no enemy planes..." Rudolf looked around. There was no shadow of any enemy planes in the sky, only dozens of Fokker Zeros and BF-109s flying freely. So he wanted to use the Fokker Zero's 20mm cannon to support the airborne German commandos.
Lieutenant Barr continued to reprimand, "Second Lieutenant, today's air superiority cover mission has just begun. We have to fly in the sky for 5 hours, so please leave some strength for me."
The Fokker Zero is a fighter jet with an extremely long flight time and can hover in the sky for up to 7 hours. However, under normal circumstances, an air superiority cover mission will not last more than 5 hours, otherwise the pilot will be too tired and affect his performance.
"Understood, Lieutenant." Rudolph looked at the ground 3,000 meters below and saw fireballs rising near the bridge where the explosion just occurred. It seemed that a fierce battle was taking place. On the land belonging to the Netherlands to the east of the battlefield, countless tanks, armored vehicles and trucks were advancing in long lines on several roads connecting the bridge.
Obviously, the ground attack has now begun! As long as one of the three bridges is not destroyed by the Belgians, these German armored-motorized groups advancing through the Limburg Province of the Netherlands can quickly penetrate into the hinterland of Belgium.
"Kurt, Kurt, the bridge is still there! The bridge is still there!"
The voice of Hans Glazer, commander of the 17th Motorized Reconnaissance Company, came from Armored Meyer's earphones.
Kurt Meier's "Adolf Hitler" Guards Corps is now one of the vanguard units of the 18th Army attacking through Limburg, the Netherlands. After passing a bridge over the Maas River in the Netherlands, it immediately headed toward Albert. The Fronhoven Bridge on the river advanced, and it was the Cannes Bridge that had just been blown up by the Belgians. The Fronhofen Bridge is still there!
"Kurt, Kurt, let your assault gun go faster. There's a fierce battle happening here on the bridge! It's the airborne brothers who are surrounded!"
"Got it!" Kurt Meier shouted into the intercom, "We'll be there soon, let the damn Belgians taste the power of the No. 3 assault gun right away!"
In this time and space, the concept of assault gun was proposed by Hersman. As early as 1938, when the No. 3 tank was not yet finalized, the development task of the No. 3 assault gun (based on the chassis of the No. 3 tank) was issued. Before the Battle of Poland, the first No. 3 assault gun prototype equipped with a 24-caliber 75mm gun was manufactured. Subsequently, improvements were made based on the experience gained in the Polish campaign, and the No. 3 assault gun Type A was created.
Since this assault gun has no turret and its structure is relatively simple, it is low-cost and very suitable for mass production. Therefore, its monthly output soon exceeded that of the No. 3 tank itself. Not only was it equipped with 4 motorized infantry divisions and 3 elite SS standard forces, some of them were even directly assigned to armored divisions and used as tanks.
About a quarter of an hour later, 6 units belonging to the 16th Assault Artillery Battery of the SS "Adolf Hitler" Leibstandarte (the previous 14 units were incorrect, have been changed to 6 units, because the assault gun company is an artillery organization, and each company has 6 units). Taiwan Assault Gun) No. 3 assault gun has been deployed in a row in the wilderness east of the Fronhofen Bridge.
The motorized infantry following the assault guns also disembarked from their respective vehicles. Six of the squads followed behind the six assault guns. The rest also occupied positions and set up MG34 machine guns and 80mm mortars ( 34 year model).
Seeing that everything was ready, Armored Meyer leaned half out of the top hatch of a No. 3 tank, picked up the intercom, and loudly gave the order to attack: "The target is directly ahead, under the Fronhofen Bridge. Belgian position! Soldiers of the Guard, advance!”