The decisive battle against the Third Reich - #929 - Chapter 926 Airborne

The Allied operation officially began three days later.

There was no large-scale bombing at the beginning of the war as in the past… This was obviously because Montgomery wanted to quickly break through Belgium and the Netherlands, so he was worried that the bombing would damage roads and bridges and affect the advancement of armored forces.

The “Market Garden” plan was divided into two plans, “Market” and “Garden”.

Among them, “Market” is an airborne operation, and “Garden” is the attack of ground armored forces.

The “Market” airborne operation was launched two hours in advance.

The 9th US Transport Command dispatched 14 transport aircraft squadrons, a total of 1,438 C47 transport aircraft and 321 modified bombers of the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom to perform parachute missions, in addition to 2,160 CG4A “Waco” gliders, 916 “Hosa” gliders and 64 “Hamilk” gliders.

These do not include Allied fighters, attack aircraft and bombers that serve as escort and small-scale air strikes.

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

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

The Dutch guerrillas jumped out and shouted unscrupulously: “The Allies are coming, the Allies are coming… We want liberation!”

“Arm up, and drive the Germans out of our country together!”

…

Obviously, the Allied troops’ grand show made the Dutch guerrillas believe that Germany would definitely lose.

Then the Allied airborne troops began to parachute, and large pieces of white parachutes were deployed under the transport planes.

In addition to the paratroopers, there were also packages containing various weapons, equipment and ammunition, which fell like snow all over the sky.

Colonel Slaine observed the sky with a telescope and sighed: “If we also had so many planes, this war would be won!”

Amid the shrieking sound of air defense alarms, the anti-aircraft firepower of the German army scattered in various places soon roared.

However, because the German army mainly set traps for the Allied paratroopers to jump down, the anti-aircraft firepower was not fierce… Of course, this was only relative to the planes in the sky. At this time, the anti-aircraft gunners were afraid that their eyes were blurred and they didn’t know which target to hit, or they just needed to fire shells into the air at random.

But the Allied airborne was not as smooth as expected.

First of all, the Allied aircraft flew too high.

It is well known that it is safer for airborne troops to parachute at a lower altitude, because this can shorten the time of paratroopers descending in the air as much as possible, thereby reducing the risk of being used as a target by the enemy in the air.

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

This may be because the American pilots were too nervous… The more American planes there were, the more pilots they needed. At the same time, American planes were flying everywhere, such as fighting the Japanese in the Pacific battlefield, stalemate with the Germans in the African battlefield, and air transport in the Sino-Japanese battlefield.

This made the overall quality of American pilots, especially the transport pilots who were needed in large quantities, not high. They knew they should lower the altitude, but they unconsciously raised the plane because they were afraid of being hit by ground anti-aircraft firepower… In fact, there was not much difference between 244 meters and 600 meters for anti-aircraft firepower. This was more of a subconscious action of the pilots in psychological fear.

If there was any difference, 600 meters would make the target look smaller.

The result was that a large number of paratroopers fell slowly from the air, and many of them were killed before they landed on the ground and became corpses hanging on parachutes.

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

Another mistake was that the airdrop point was too far from the target.

One problem caused by being too far from the target is that it is difficult for paratroopers without transportation to reach the destination quickly and with all the extra equipment. This is fatal for airborne troops who mainly engage in surprise operations, because the enemy has sufficient time to prepare for defense before the airborne troops arrive.

However, the impact of this is not very large, because the German army is ready anyway.

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

At first, the operation of the paratrooper division was relatively smooth. After landing on the ground, they immediately assembled and collected the supplies that landed with them.

Major General Redrick was relieved after waiting for a while, because no Germans appeared until then, which seemed to mean that Field Marshal Montgomery’s judgment on the Germans was correct… Their main force had retreated to the “Siegfried” line.

“The second paratrooper brigade will stay in place!” Major General Redrick ordered: “The first paratrooper brigade… target Arnhem Bridge!”

The reason for leaving a paratrooper brigade in place is that the US transport team will continue to airdrop supplies, and the paratroopers need to open up their defense to gain a larger area for airdropped supplies, so as to obtain as much supplies as possible.

Major General Redrick looked at the map while moving forward and found that the Arnhem Bridge was still 13 kilometers away from the parachute point.

“Damn it!” Major General Redrick cursed: “We are too far away from the target!”

13 kilometers, it would take an hour to reach the target even if it was forced to march.

More serious problems followed… The communication distance of the Type 22 radio equipped by the British Army was only 5 kilometers.

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 did not realize that these problems were all minor problems… The real problem was in front of them, and they were approaching it step by step.

An hour later, the British 1st Paratrooper Brigade arrived at the Arnhem Bridge panting.

Major General Redrick felt something was wrong at the first time.

It took the British army an hour to arrive. Originally, he thought that the German army would at least deploy several battalions here, and even tanks that the airborne troops were most worried about… Major General Redrick had already made the worst plan.

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

“No tanks!” The staff officer excitedly reported to Major General Redrick, “No armored vehicles either! General, order an attack!”

“No, William!” Major General Redrick stopped him, “This is most likely a trap!”

“Trap?” Major William looked around with a telescope and said, “General, I don’t see anything suspicious. Besides, if we don’t attack, what else can we do?”