Chapter 434 Spring Awakening (10)
In the afternoon of April 5, after two days and two nights of galloping, the head of state train arrived in Spain and witnessed the final outcome of Gibraltar.
Since the beginning of the large-scale German offensive in early March, the Fortress of Gibraltar has been the most intense battlefield. Although foreign aid was cut off, the defenders did not automatically lay down their weapons and surrender as Germany and Spain expected, and were still determined to fight to the end.
The attack on Gibraltar was a rare large-scale army operation by the Germans on the Western Front after the end of the Western European Campaign. The last time it was carried out was the anti-landing battle in Dieppe. The beautiful results promoted the junior Zeitzler to the position of Chief of Army General Staff, so many people Eager to take the position of commander of the Battle of Gibraltar. In terms of qualifications, the one with the highest status on the Western Front was the old Marshal Lundstedt. However, he himself had been obsessed with studying deep counterattack and anti-landing tactics in Western Europe and did not care about the Fortress of Gibraltar.
Since most of the generals of the Wehrmacht were leading troops on the Eastern Front, Hoffman did not want to occupy their energy when selecting commanders. Therefore, on the list of commanders reported by Keitel, the former Sixth Army Commander and current Western Front Chief of Staff Paul General Luce was ranked first. When he saw the name at first, he instinctively disliked it, but after seeing the quite sufficient and complete combat plan and deployment submitted by Paulus, coupled with the information submitted by the intelligence system, There is a report on all aspects of Paulus's situation in the past six months - he diligently inspected various construction sites and strongholds in the Atlantic Fortress, doing his best to help Lundstedt mobilize various troops and resources, and worked very hard.
This made Hoffman's impression of him much better. Perhaps this person should have a role like chief of general staff (Paulus served as deputy chief of general staff of the army). It is not suitable to be placed as the head coach of the Sixth Army for field operations. He was too adaptable, so he decided to choose Paulus as the commander of the Battle of Gibraltar.
This appointment made Paulus very excited. Although he still does not understand why the head of state suddenly transferred him back from the position of commander of the Sixth Army, it seems that the head of state still trusts him. He suppressed his joy, played very methodically and patiently, and did not move hastily. The entire offensive line moved forward slowly but resolutely:
On the first day of the offensive, hundreds of artillery pieces opened fire in Spain, blowing the field fortifications and airfields in Gibraltar's northern district to pieces, and then thousands of aircraft flew indiscriminately every day, using bombs to clear away any visible areas. military objectives. Only half of the pilots were Germans, 35% were Italians, and 15% were Spanish pilots. Although Franco did not explicitly declare war on Britain, this did not mean that Spanish pilots could not take to the air to fight in their personal capacity.
Since Spain made its attitude clear towards the axis and provided an offensive site, Germany has provided a large amount of arms, including the Bf-1 anti-tank gun, which is slightly outdated for the German army, but is still excellent for Spain. The arms have entered the national The more advanced Bf-219, He-218, Joint Strike Fighter, and No. 4 tanks were also armed in small quantities by the elite troops controlled by the Falangists. Some industrial production capacity and orders were also transferred to Spain simultaneously. Generally speaking, Franco It was a big bargain, and of course Germany did not suffer. Not only did it gain the right to use military ports and airports in western Spain, but various Spanish resources were also delivered to Germany based on the principle of fair pricing.
If "universal transformation" is the first hidden talent of the Germans, then the second hidden talent is "Fortress Bike" - since World War I, those world-renowned, impregnable and impenetrable fortresses have been attacked by the German army one by one. The Liege Fortress and Eben-Emaar Fortress in Belgium, the Brest Fortress and Sevastopol Fortress in the Soviet Union, and the Tobruk Fortress in Libya are all testament to the German army's sharp offensive. Through continuous attack, The German army had accumulated a wealth of experience, and Gibraltar unfortunately became the ultimate test for the masters.
After clearing the airport and anti-aircraft firepower obstacles, the German army's temporary railway gun track in Spain was also fully completed. Heavy train guns began to appear one after another. In addition to 16 283mmK5 train guns with a range of up to 57 kilometers, the German army also used 4 super train guns. The giant guns are the 420mm fixed mortar "Gangma", the 610mm self-propelled mortar "Karl" and the two 800mm king guns - the train cannon "Gustav" and "Dora".
Paulus was very clear in assigning goals: the K5 train gun, which has a long range, a single bullet weighing 255 kilograms, and a fire rate of up to 15 rounds per hour, provides long-range suppression. He divided the 16 K5 guns into 4 groups to ensure that there are shells every minute. When it fell to the British, the exposed field fortifications and remaining air defense positions were contracted by the K5s, and artillery calibration planes were in the air to provide ballistic reference. In just three days, all the air defense positions and general defenses deployed by the British were destroyed.
The K5s also had targets that they couldn't attack. On the windmill platform in the northern section of the Rock Peak of the Gibraltar Fortress, the British built three very strong forts and deployed many 6-inch cannons. Because these artillery had a long range, Gus If Taff and Dora want to fight, they will be threatened first, so Paulus uses the second weapon-KG-300 special bombing brigade.
They were all equipped with Ju-188 bombers and carried the "earth driller" - SC2500+ giant bomb that had been successfully used in Malta. The earth drillers had a hard reinforced steel shell and a hard nose cone made of tungsten steel, which could maximize the penetration effect and ensure that the projectile body would not be deformed after penetration. At the same time, they also had remote control functions and had extremely high-precision bombing effects. After the early suppression coverage of the anti-aircraft artillery positions, no defenders could interfere with the actions of German aircraft, which provided great convenience for the throwing of the earth drillers.
One plane after another flew over the rock peak of the Gibraltar Fortress, which was only 100 meters above sea level, and threw down the earth driller weighing up to 2.5 tons. In just three days, the British exhausted the artillery fort and was blown into rubble - except for a few lucky ones, all the officers and soldiers serving in the artillery fort were wiped out.
On March 15, the German army shifted its attack focus to the southern section of Fengmo Terrace near the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. There were four large armored turrets on it, each equipped with a twin-mounted 233mm caliber coastal defense gun. Due to the limited number of drillers, Paulus did not intend to easily use them on these four turrets. He directly asked the railway engineers to build railways and use giant railway guns to deal with them. Although the coastal defense guns had a long range, they could only aim at the strait line and could not deal with the artillery fire from the north.
There were more than 2,000 people serving Gustav and Dora, and a large number of very valuable engineering and technical personnel were also occupied, but the power of the artillery was really extraordinary. Two 800mm caliber cannons alternately fired armor-piercing shells weighing 7.1 tons, which penetrated the more than 7-meter-thick protective layer constructed by reinforced concrete and armored steel, causing a huge explosion that shocked the entire fortress. After solving the first turret, the two cannons turned south along the temporary large railroad and attacked the other three turrets one by one. By March 20, all the coastal defense guns were destroyed one by one by the German army. During the whole process, the German infantry advanced synchronously, using assault rifles, flamethrowers, and iron fists to eliminate the British troops who were still resisting in the rubble and debris.
The two sides fought fiercely, and even some hidden British soldiers attempted to launch a surprise attack on the train guns, but this effort was undoubtedly frustrated. Keitel, who watched the battle at the front, commented: "... I saw in them the courage that the British officers and soldiers in North Africa and the Middle East did not have."
After solving the artillery positions on the Fengmo Terrace, the German army continued to advance to the Europa Terrace in the south. There was a small valley between the two terraces. Four artillery positions were built in the valley, three of which were equipped with 233mm coastal defense guns, and one was equipped with a 6-inch cannon. It took three weeks to capture the previous artillery positions, and it took more than a week to build a professional railway line to attack the last artillery position. The rugged and mountainous terrain caused great trouble to the German army, and the small firing range made it difficult for Gustav and Dora to deploy. Paulus ordered to use other equipment.
At this time, "Karl", known as "Thor's Hammer", appeared. The "Karl" had a fast firing rate, and the 2.2-ton 610mm high-explosive bombs were poured around the valley artillery positions, and the 5-meter-thick reinforced concrete protective plate was smashed into pieces. In order to suppress the British artillery counterattack, the 420mm caliber "Gangma" carried out carpet bombing around the artillery positions. The 1-ton shells fell like raindrops, smashing all the roads and positions around the artillery positions, and tearing the mobile 6-inch howitzers and anti-aircraft guns into pieces. The air force was dispatched in full force at the same time, carrying out more than 1,000 sorties of bombing every day. This time they used incendiary bombs. The sky-high flames and scorching air turned the entire valley into almost hell.
"Long live!"
When the swastika flag of the Third Reich finally rose high on the ruins of the southernmost artillery position, not only did all the German, Italian, and Spanish officers and soldiers burst into shouts, but even the officers and soldiers of the Japanese Combined Fleet who were watching the battle from a distance burst into cheers.
"Sir, the Germans have taken Gibraltar."
"Very good, follow the German Navy's ship!"
The merchant ships that had been waiting in the distance, one after another, struggled to pass through the strait, loaded with stones. The German Navy had no time to slowly clear the mines, and finally adopted the simplest and crudest method - directly using ships to wade through the mines.
With a "boom", an old Spanish transport ship triggered a mine, and a big hole was blown out of the bottom of the ship. The whole ship sank rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. The crew climbed onto the lifeboat in a hurry, and then watched other ships continue to line up in a column.
After paying the price of a total of 17 ships, the central waterway of the Strait of Gibraltar was cleared, and the combined fleet sailed out of the strait in a mighty manner, joined the German North Sea Fleet that had been waiting outside, and entered the Atlantic Ocean...