The decisive battle against the Third Reich - #952 - Chapter 949 Forced crossing

The first thing Qin Chuan did after entering the position was to test the communication.

“Report the situation!” Qin Chuan said to the walkie-talkie.

“10 everything is normal!” Eberhard replied: “Two artillery pieces were blown up!”

“20 everything is normal!”

“30 everything is normal!”

The first number represents each “island”, and the second number represents each area on the “island”. If it is the headquarters, it is “0”, and other areas are arranged in sequence. In this way, when talking, you only need to report the sequence number, and you will immediately know what is happening in which position.

The sound of the artillery slowly stopped, and Qin Chuan realized that it was already light when the smoke dissipated a little.

Qin Chuan got into the trench with a rifle. Compared with the fortress bunker fortifications, Qin Chuan prefers the trenches built by soldiers.

This is not to say that the bunkers of the Metz Fortress are not strong enough. In fact, the Metz Fortress has the nickname of “Little Maginot”. In addition to the artificial canal as a “moat” on its three “islands”, there are many rotating turrets similar to the Maginot Line on the “islands”… It was obviously built when the French were stationed here. Although it has been rusted due to years of disrepair, and the artillery has been taken out by the students as a teaching aid.

But this thing only needs to set up a few machine guns on the firing holes to become a solid defense point.

However, Qin Chuan still likes to drill around in the trenches.

This may be the difference between veterans and recruits… Recruits always like to find a solid fortification to hide themselves from harm, but veterans always hope that they are free and have more space, and can use fast running to avoid bullets and shells at any time.

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

…

Seeing Qin Chuan coming up with a gun, the military academy students cast admiring eyes on Qin Chuan one by one.

“Don’t look at me, soldiers!” Qin Chuan reminded: “You should stare at the crosshairs and let it aim at the enemy, not at me!”

The soldiers laughed, and then turned their eyes to the muzzle again according to Qin Chuan’s order.

Qin Chuan chose a position, raised the telescope and looked forward. Nothing could be seen in the smoke, only the rumbling sound of some tank motors and the explosions one after another… This was the US military searching and advancing. The explosions should be the masterpiece of the US minesweeping tanks, or it could be that the US soldiers were clearing mines with grenades.

Qin Chuan observed the surrounding environment.

This is a line of defense on the Little Solcy Island. The Moselle River, which is more than 100 meters wide, flows from south to north through the west of the Little Solcy Island. When the French were stationed here, they dug an artificial river about 50 meters wide, circling the Little Solcy Island and then returning to the original river channel.

The other two “islands” are similar.

So, if the Americans want to pass through the Metz Fortress, they must at least cross the river in front of them. Qin Chuan wants to know how the Americans can do it.

“Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard and several signalmen came to Qin Chuan and reported: “We may have encountered the 3rd Army of the United States!”

“3rd Army?” Qin Chuan frowned, which meant that his opponent was Patton.

“Yes!” Eberhard replied: “Last night, Werner led two people to scout forward, and they brought back a prisoner. According to the prisoner’s confession… we are facing the 20th Army of the 3rd Army of the United States!”

Qin Chuan nodded.

Although this was unexpected, it was also expected, because only Patton could have such a fast speed… His combat motto is similar to Rommel, both of which are “attack, attack and attack again!”

Patton can be said to be luckier than Rommel.

Because Rommel often fought with insufficient supplies.

Patton can also be said to be not as lucky as Rommel.

Because Rommel always gets the trust of the head of state and has a lot of decision-making power, while Patton is restricted everywhere. His boss at this time, Bradley, is even Patton’s former subordinate, and this subordinate is still using Patton’s plan in some dishonorable way.

Just as he was thinking, tanks came out from the smoke on the other side of the river. The one in the front was a minesweeper tank. The sound of the iron chain hitting the ground and passing through the air could be heard on the other side of the river.

Perhaps it realized that it had reached the river bank, so the minesweeper tank slowly retreated… It didn’t dare to turn around, because turning around would expose its weak armor at the rear.

Then, one “Sherman” tank after another emerged from the smoke, one every ten meters, and there were at least dozens of them at a glance.

Then, dozens of tanks adjusted the angle of their turrets and spit out flames one after another towards the other side of the river.

At the same time, the mortars and howitzers behind the US military roared again, and shells poured towards the German positions again.

However, this bombing was somewhat different from the previous firepower preparation.

Because Qin Chuan saw in the telescope that the US soldiers lifted many assault boats and rubber boats from the back of the tanks, obviously intending to force a crossing of the Moselle River.

This is actually an offensive advantage in this terrain… There is a river between us, so the artillery and tank soldiers are very clear about the boundary between us, and they can accurately fire shells at the German positions.

Of course, the disadvantages are also obvious. US tanks cannot cross the river, and even the river with a width of more than 100 meters cannot be built by bridge tanks, so this method can only be used to force a crossing.

In fact, Patton also considered a method, which is to build a pontoon bridge.

But on the one hand, it was because the U.S. 3rd Army was poorly prepared… Before Patton obtained the detailed map from the French, he thought that the Metz Fortress was just a field fortification, so all he could think about was tanks covering the infantry advance and then everything would be over. .

Then I realized I needed to cross the river.

However, there was no time to prepare equipment such as pontoons. All Barton could do was collect as many assault boats and rubber dinghies as tools for forced crossing.

Even assault boats and rubber dinghies were seriously inadequate. In the end, U.S. soldiers could only use shell boxes and tires to build rafts to launch an attack. Some soldiers even blew condoms into balloons and used them as lifebuoys to swim across the river.

Of course, this was more of a way for Patton to preserve his strength. His real trump card was the 7th Armored Division.

Of course the Germans at this time did not know this.

When the U.S. soldiers rowed the famous rubber boats and assault boats into the middle of the river, Qin Chuan loudly ordered: “Fire!”

The German soldiers who had been prepared for a long time pulled the triggers and poured out a dense rain of bullets towards the American soldiers in the middle of the river.

The assault boats and rubber boats were defenseless, and U.S. soldiers were piled on the small boats in groups, so a bloody storm broke out immediately where the bullets passed.