Chapter 972 Normandy...

"Gentlemen, the Germans think we will reach Calais by the shortest distance from Dover, where they are most strongly defended."

"We will surprise them by reaching Normandy across the long channel. The enemy will counterattack violently on the first day, but we will defeat them."

"Gentlemen, this is our chance." Six months before the operation began, Eisenhower spoke as follows, and now they are doing just that.

June 3, Xia.

This is an extremely bad season, the sea is rough, the rain falls like a torrent, and the boat swings with the waves.

Not to mention the army, even some navies suffer from seasickness, holding iron buckets and vomiting all day long.

To make matters worse, the phenomenon was exacerbated by a sudden storm just 24 hours before the landfall date.

According to forecasts, the tides in Normandy will take two weeks to subside.

The high command issued an order to postpone the combat date, which also means that ships and soldiers need to float on the sea.

It was the worst-case scenario, and to the dismay and chagrin of the whole Allied High Command, the attack might be held back.

In the end, someone predicted that the sea conditions would improve on the night of the 5th.

The visibility is higher, the rain is less, there is enough time to launch an attack, and the duration...

unknown.

No one knew where this gamble would lead. During the day on the 4th, Eisenhower even had his secretary prepare a post-war speech for him on a typewriter.

Or in other words, if he failed, he would bear the consequences of this gamble.

On the night of the 5th, it was drizzling and the weather was very bad, not to mention the thick fog.

It was in such weather that sixteen DC-101 heavy transport planes carried the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to Messenger.

The Messenger cannon is the biggest threat to this landing.

Its power is enough to smash all the main warships of the Allied forces in one shot, and its range can cover the entire Strait of Normandy.

So, they had to get rid of the whole huge threat before the landing happened.

The task of the airborne division was to destroy the fort of Messenger, and there was not much time left for them. The army would launch an attack from the sword stand in 3 hours.

500 people, including an equal number of dummies, were loaded on board.

They need to distract the German army. After reaching the target, after the airborne division parachutes, the transport opportunity will let the dummies pretend to be paratroopers and land at another feint point.

They appeared over the target smoothly, but the air current on the sea surface made the flight journey a bit bumpy.

With the first shot, orange fireworks in the sky, the enemy's anti-aircraft guns opened fire on them.

"It's now..." As the order sounded, the hatch opened, and the humid air mixed with the smell of gunpowder shook people's spirits.

"Jump, hurry up, hurry up..." The urging voice was anxious, because on the right side, a DC-101 was shot on the right wing.

It was on fire as a flare, but that soon changed.

Upon finding themselves on fire, the pilots began to disengage from the formation and at the same time let the paratroopers leave as fast as they could.

However, they also lost their destination.

The tense time did not end with the skydiving. The first time after landing, Sergeant Otis, who was in charge of commanding the battle, really felt the pressure.

A team of 500 with weapons boxes and supplies.

But now there are only 100 people in front of him, no weapon boxes, no engineers.

In other words, 80% of his troops and toolboxes fell into the bloody, untraceable wrong place.

Waiting or continuing, Sergeant Otis's face looked pale and disturbed, but he soon realized that there were still many people counting on him.

With 2 hours and 40 minutes left, if he hadn't destroyed the battery by then, the landing would have turned into Good Friday.

Ortes led the troops forward,

The "paratroopers" who landed inland also successfully attracted the attention of the German army.

Otes, who arrived at the fort smoothly, fired the first shot of the landing battle by virtue of the 100 men in his hand and the carelessness of the German army.

The loud horn sounded, and the 101st Division, the most elite unit, charged towards the fort.

The bullets flew past the ears, the world in front of my eyes began to slow down, all the sounds began to fade away, some people fell down, and some people shouted something loudly.

None of this matters anymore, there is only one voice in my heart; rush forward and kill it.

After losing half their men, Ortes' troops took the first battery.

Facing the German soldiers hiding in the bunker, they chose to use phosphor powder grenades. The painful suffocation and burning from the body made some German soldiers choose to commit suicide.

Then came the second, and the third...

At 5:30 in the morning, the battle was over and all the batteries were destroyed.

In order to ensure that they were damaged enough that they could not be repaired in the short term, Sergeant Otis ordered the bunker to be blown up.

Even if the cannon was not completely destroyed, the ruined bunker passages would have prevented any of their intentions.

Twenty minutes later, a huge fleet appeared on the sea.

As the sun rose and the line of sight became clear, this large fleet was finally exposed to the sight of the obstructed German army.

It was like a wall erected abruptly on the sea, a huge iron wall pressing down on them from the sea.

The air began to become cloudy, thick fog rose from the entire sea, and the Allied fleet launched shelling on the beach frantically.

They need to destroy obstacles and potential enemies as much as possible to make landing soldiers safer.

At the same time, give confidence to those hesitant boys.

Most of them are only 18-20 years old, and they are all good guys who were drafted in 41-43 years.

And now they might never come back, this fucking, bloody, brutal war.

If there really is a Goddess of War, then she must be a bitch raised by Bichi...

The planes swooped overhead and continued inland after a round of bombardment of the beach.

Their task was to go inland, delay possible reinforcements and cause trouble for the Germans.

For this landing, a total of 8 Allied divisions were trained day and night for 6 months.

At the same time, the most elite American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were also trained, which was more brutal than any training they had done before.

In actual combat training, the Allied forces even destroyed 2 cruisers and caused 7,000 deaths due to negligence.

They thought they were fully prepared, but when the beach was right in front of them, everyone clearly realized that it was not enough, not enough.

After a terrible sea journey, accompanied by seasickness, vomiting and fear, what greeted them was not smiles, bread and milk, let alone coke, coffee and women.

Only the cold sea water and the breath of death greeted me, accompanied by the deadly hello of machine gun fire.

Landing ships cannot rush directly onto the beach, because the front is full of obstacles, it will only kill itself.

So they could only step on the icy sea water, bear the resistance brought by the waves, and rush forward against the flying bullets.