Chapter 412 Airborne (Part 2)

The two regiments (505th Regiment and 504th Regiment) of the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States were divided into two echelons, responsible for the airborne missions before and after the landing respectively.

Similarly, the two brigades (1st Parachute Brigade and 1st Airborne Brigade) of the British 1st Airborne Division were also divided into two echelons.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the 505th Parachute Regiment of the United States in Tripoli set off. This team had a total of 3,405 people. Some of them took the C47 transport aircraft directly, and some took the CG4 glider towed by the C47.

This CG4 glider is mainly used to increase the delivery capability during parachuting and enhance the equipment capability of airborne troops... It can transport 13 fully armed soldiers, or a military jeep and 7 soldiers, or a 75MM howitzer and its gunner to the destination.

It can be imagined that it can greatly increase the firepower and mobility of airborne troops. The disadvantage is that the speed of the transport aircraft cannot exceed 200 kilometers per hour after towing the glider.

This is one of the reasons why the Allies had to choose to carry out airborne operations before dawn. If they landed by glider at dawn... a large number of transport planes carrying gliders flying in the air at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour would be an excellent target for the German Air Force.

The black fleet first arrived in Malta, and after contacting the British 1st Parachute Brigade that took off there, they rushed to Sicily separately... This was mainly to be able to carry out parachute operations in Sicily at the same time.

Then, at about 5:10, the British and American airborne fleets flew over Sicily respectively.

However, since the British and American airborne forces lacked actual combat experience, and in order to conceal the battle, radio silence was implemented since Malta, and it was a night flight, the two fleets of more than 200 transport planes could not stay concentrated, and the formation was very scattered.

The US military aircraft group could not find the designated landing site, so they had to return again and enter from the coast to find a landing point... In the process, 8 aircraft were shot down by Italian anti-aircraft guns, 10 aircraft were injured, and 3 aircraft had to return.

In a hurry, the US 505th Airborne Regiment could only force an airborne landing. As a result, the airborne regiments were scattered all over Sicily in the dark. Only one company landed at the designated location, and the farthest deviation was 100 kilometers.

Moreover, because the wind speed reached 15 meters per second during landing, many inexperienced US airborne soldiers parachuted onto rocks, woods and houses, and became injured as soon as they landed.

The situation of the British 1st Parachute Brigade was even worse.

They had a total of 2,578 people. Because the pilots did not master the altitude... Mainly because they could not see the target clearly in the dark, they could only look for a landing point at low altitude. When they found the landing point, they found that the distance was too close and they could not raise the altitude in time, so the glider had to be unhooked at low altitude.

The result of the low-altitude decoupling was that the gliders had landed before gliding to the landing point, so 69 of the 137 gliders fell into the sea on the spot, more than 600 paratroopers on board were drowned, and a large number of heavy equipment fell into the sea.

As a result, the first batch of British and American airborne troops failed to play a role.

This was not the worst. When the Allied forces began to land, the second echelon of airborne aircraft followed.

At this time, the British and American navies were in a tense moment of covering the landing of ground forces. These warships took it for granted that the fleet flying over them was the enemy aircraft of the German and Italian troops coming to bomb and prevent them from landing, so an order was given... The warships' gunfire roared together, and the fleet hurriedly made maneuvers or accelerated their speed, but it was very dangerous for the transport planes towing gliders to do these actions, so many planes collided and caught fire in the air, and the terrified paratroopers jumped in panic, and many paratroopers jumped directly into the sea and drowned.

The paratroopers who jumped onto the shore were not so lucky. They were either killed by the Italian soldiers defending on the shore or killed by their own landing troops who mistook them for enemies.

In fact, there was no need for the British and American troops to parachute in Sicily... because it was not difficult for them to land.

Although there were five Italian infantry divisions stationed on the coastline, most of them abandoned their positions and fled when they saw the dense warships and transport ships coming on the sea.

So much so that they failed to complete the only task Rommel gave them, which was to destroy the port equipment and the bunkers on the high ground.

This made Rommel unable to help but curse at Lieutenant General Guzzoni: "I only have one request for you, a small request... that is, to be able to destroy the fortifications and then withdraw when the enemy attacks, but you can't do it! God, I really should let you destroy the fortifications and equipment first!"

The result was that the port of Syracuse was occupied intact by the British army, and the British captured a landing field with a width of 100 kilometers and a depth of 10 to 15 kilometers as soon as they landed.

The inexperienced American troops were much more chaotic than the British troops. They were like a bunch of headless flies running around on the shore. Many troops could not find their own troops because they landed in the wrong place.

However, in the end, they still occupied a landing field with a width of 110 kilometers and a depth of 5 kilometers.

"Our landing was successful!" This is what Montgomery said when he received the intelligence.

Eisenhower did not think so, because the landing troops suffered more than 2,000 casualties. Incredibly, most of these casualties were not caused by combat, but by the disorganization and accidental injuries of the British and American troops.

Eisenhower had reason to believe that if it weren't for Montgomery's wrong plan, these casualties could have been avoided... Montgomery overemphasized the coordinated attack of the two armies, and insisted on landing the British and American armies in two adjacent landing sites, and chose to launch a surprise attack at night, which would inevitably cause chaos.

"This is probably the success of the 'Mincemeat Plan'!" Eisenhower said with a hint of displeasure: "The 'Mincemeat Plan' enabled us to successfully deceive the enemy and make them unprepared. All we have to do is go up with guns!"

"Anyway, we landed successfully, didn't we?" Montgomery replied.

"Yes!" Eisenhower ordered: "Now what we have to do is to consolidate our front and accumulate supplies to prepare for tomorrow's attack!"

In terms of accumulating supplies, the British army can do it easily. They only need to drive the transport ship into the port of Syracuse, and then they can unload cars, tanks, supplies, etc. on the shore.

The U.S. military, however, needed to use small landing craft to transport supplies from transport ships that could not enter the near sea to the shore. Due to the slow speed of material transportation, several U.S. troops even scrambled for supplies.

However, in the end, when the sun set, the troops stabilized and built a line of defense on the shore.