Chapter 435: Cowardice
Werner and others were destined not to see the Americans swim back to the United States, although it was indeed very tempting to annihilate an infantry division and an armored division of the US Army.
However, Qin Chuan knew that the US Army had already made preparations on the beachhead.
Indeed, an infantry division and an armored division of the US Army certainly could not withstand the attack of an armored division and a mechanized infantry division of the German Army.
However, the US Army has a strong sea and air force: the United States has the world's most powerful air force and the world's second-largest navy... At this time, the US Navy is still nominally second, and the first is the British Navy, but in fact the British Navy can no longer compete with the US Navy.
The reason is as mentioned before, the United States has a strong industrial capacity, it can mass-produce a large number of advanced warships and aircraft carriers in a short period of time, and Britain has long lost this ability, of course, it is only the first on paper.
It is conceivable that if the German army launches an attack on the beachhead where the US Army is stationed, even if it can defeat the US Army, it will pay a heavy price.
This is not what Qin Chuan wants, nor what Rommel wants.
This time, Montgomery guessed the German target... That is, Syracuse, which Montgomery told Eisenhower.
Of course, Eisenhower would not believe Montgomery and certainly could not believe Montgomery.
Because if he believed Montgomery and moved all the warships and fighter planes to the British direction and prepared, the US military would be finished.
But Qin Chuan certainly would not let the US military so easily.
The German army drove the 1st Infantry Division of the United States back to the seaside, and the main force turned around and headed straight for Syracuse, leaving only a few small troops hiding in the palm grove in front of Trapa Harbor.
General Patton personally commanded on the beach. After all, this was the last position of the US military, and at least in the eyes of the US military, the situation was very serious... The enemy was in the palm grove, while the US military built fortifications on the empty beach. There was no place to dig trenches on the beach. The US military could only use it to make sandbags and put them together with thirty tanks, and then add mines and barbed wire to build a simple line of defense.
But General Patton knew that such a line of defense could not stop the German attack at all. The German artillery would turn the mines out of the beach, the tank tracks would easily run over the barbed wire and sandbags, and the rocket launchers would smash dozens of "General Grant" tanks with poor range.
The only thing the US military could rely on or survive on was the dozens of warships on the sea behind them.
"General!" The signalman handed the phone to Patton.
Eisenhower's slightly nervous voice came from the other end of the phone: "Can we stop them, Joe?"
Patton looked at the palm forest in the dark. A gust of sea breeze blew, and the palm trees swayed in the wind, like a giant army rushing towards the US troops guarding the beach.
"Who knows?" Patton replied, "But I will try my best!"
Eisenhower nodded on the other end of the phone: "Don't let them come. Remember, we have shells. We will do everything we can to ensure the supply of ammunition. The defense line is left to you!"
"Okay, Ike!" Patton put down the phone. He knew that his good friend was timid.
It is normal to be timid, because the responsibility for this matter is too great... As the supreme commander of the Mediterranean theater, Eisenhower is responsible for the victory or defeat of the entire battle in principle.
But this is not the worst, because victory and defeat are common in the military, and there is no general who always wins on the battlefield. What's more, everyone knows that American generals, including Eisenhower, originally supported another set of combat plans, that is, Patton's combat plan to directly attack Messina.
It was Montgomery who insisted on denying this plan for his own selfish reasons and proposed the current traditional, rigid, and laissez-faire plan to allow the enemy to reinforce Sicily... Quite a number of American generals thought that the German troops in Enna were reinforcing from Italy across the Strait of Messina. If the US had attacked Messina Port from the beginning according to the US plan, there would not have been a few more German divisions in Sicily.
Therefore, Eisenhower was not responsible for the entire battle.
However, if the Germans broke through the US defense line and occupied the beachhead, things would be troublesome.
This was not only a problem of position, but also a problem of the US 45th Infantry Division and the 2nd Armored Division having no way to retreat.
Behind them was the sea. Although there were many warships and many lifeboats, the two divisions had more than 30,000 people, and there was also German machine gun fire behind them...
What was more serious was that the remnants of the 1st Infantry Division that were defeated and scattered in the jungle and the 3rd Infantry Division in the direction of Palermo had no way to retreat.
By then, large numbers of American soldiers will be killed or have no choice but to surrender, which is definitely a great tragedy for the US military.
And all of this was caused by Eisenhower, because he agreed to this plan that was obviously unfair to the US military. The American military and civilians will vent all their anger on Eisenhower, and Eisenhower will completely become a "traitor" and a "traitor".
Patton took a cigar and put it in front of his nose to smell it, but he didn't dare to light it because he knew that the Germans were in the palm grove.
What are they afraid of?
Patton thought that they were worried about the fleet behind the US military and the large-caliber naval guns on the warships.
But in fact, even Patton himself was not sure whether these naval guns could stop the German attack... There is a common view in the military of this era that naval guns are not suitable for fire cover on the other side.
This sounds a bit absurd, because modern movies often use naval guns to bombard the other side and blow up the bunkers, cars, etc. on the shore into the sky in an instant.
But in fact, it makes sense...
Naval guns are on warships, warships are on the sea, and the sea is constantly fluctuating. Especially when warships fire, their huge recoil will cause the warships to shake violently on the sea surface.
Therefore, aiming at a target on a warship is different from aiming at a target on the shore:
The artillery on the shore can control the error within 100 meters according to the adjustment, that is, all the parameters are correct, and the shells may deviate from the target by 100 meters after firing.
The same situation with naval guns, that is, all the parameters are correct, but the shells may deviate from the target by one kilometer after firing. In addition, in actual combat, the target distance and speed are not accurately grasped, and it is normal for the shells to deviate from the target by several kilometers... This is also the reason why naval battles often require salvos, firing a row of shells at the same time, and relying on luck to hit.
According to the statistics of British battleships, the average hit rate of hitting the 15-inch (381MM) MARK1 naval gun is only 2.17%, that is, only two out of 100 shells hit, and this is just a hit.
It is also because of this that most modern warships' naval guns use extended-range guided shells... There is no other way, the hit rate of traditional naval guns is too unreliable.