Chapter 707 Atlantic Strangulation War (16)

Time passed slowly, the night was getting darker, and the German army was trying to rest and replenish after a day of fierce fighting. Cape Verde, as an archipelago, has a total of 15 islands of various sizes, including Santo Antão, San Nicola, Sal, Boa Vista, Fogo, Santiago, etc., but except for the relatively flat terrain of Cour Island, the remaining islands are mostly rugged mountains. Due to the shortage of manpower and the only airport on Cour Island, the German garrison forces are mainly placed on Cour Island. The remaining several larger islands continue to be managed by the Portuguese authorities, and only the residents of Cour Island are relocated to other islands or Portugal.

While the Collins Regiment was fighting fiercely with the German army this afternoon, the US military occupied the remaining islands without bloodshed. After landing, the U.S. military and Portuguese civil officials were very embarrassed and didn't know how to face each other: for the Americans, Portugal was still a neutral country after all, and had always had a good relationship with the United States. It would not be good to occupy it so openly; for the Portuguese, after all, they "leased" the Cape Verde Islands to the German army as a military base (although the German army only used a part of it), so it was completely reasonable for the Americans to come to their door.

In the end, the two sides reached an agreement: the U.S. military would not ask the Portuguese about the German army, and the latter would not express their views on the arrival of the U.S. military, and maintain a peaceful situation. The islands managed by the Portuguese civil authorities agreed to the U.S. military's entry, and the latter said that they would restrain the troops. As for the question of what to do if the U.S. military took over the islands occupied by the German army, both sides avoided talking about it. Several major officers of the 5th Army Division believed that the U.S. military could also "coexist peacefully" with the Portuguese authorities if they were replaced by the Portuguese.

Although Collins thought it was possible to use the 3rd Division, Major General McDonald, the commander of the 5th Division, did not think so. After listening to the telegram sent by Collins, he set up the headquarters of the 5th Division on Santo Antão Island, the northwest corner of the Cape Verde Islands, and sent an optimistic report to Admiral Devers: After an afternoon of fierce fighting, our army controlled 90% of the territory of the Cape Verde Islands, successfully landed on Sal Island where the Germans were stationed, and established a solid beachhead position. We are preparing to launch a full-scale attack tomorrow and strive to capture it as soon as possible.

His idea is very simple: the Cape Verde Islands will be taken by the 5th Division independently. After the battle, the damaged division can be pulled back to rest, and then the 3rd Division will come to garrison. The news that Ridgway won the position of army commander and was promoted to lieutenant general after fighting in Bermuda made these officers jealous, and he also wanted to do the same in Cape Verde - Bermuda is at best just to recover lost territory, and Cape Verde can be regarded as a counterattack to expand territory. He believes that the bigwigs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can see the interests involved clearly.

He sent Collins an encouraging telegram and told him that he would find a way to send the other two regiments to cooperate with the attack tomorrow to reduce the pressure on Collins.

On the front line of Sal Island, large-scale exchanges of fire had long since subsided, with only cold guns and cold artillery still going on intermittently. Collins, who received the encouraging telegram from the division commander, was in a better mood. He took several major officers from the regiment to inspect the entire beach defense line and affirmed his subordinates' actions in building a defense line so quickly. On the artificial dock behind him, the engineers and baggage soldiers were still trying to transport supplies and equipment. Sal Island itself had a dock, but it had become dilapidated under the attack of naval guns.

Collins was satisfied with the overall progress and operation standards. Although the regiment suffered a setback in today's battle, the overall morale was still at a high level. The soldiers also played to their usual training level, and many links were even better and more complete than in training - for example, the emergency field fortifications were built faster and more professionally than usual. Hearing that more troops would come to support the regiment tomorrow, officers at all levels were full of confidence.

Only one thing made him upset: although most of the wounded soldiers attacked by the German steel ball bullets during the day were rescued, they basically lost their combat effectiveness. The bloody scene when they were rescued scared some people. The medical soldiers were short of manpower and could not take care of them at all, so they had to let some logistics soldiers help take care of them. There was wailing and groaning in the camp. Several military doctors told him with heavy faces that many soldiers had a large number of steel balls and iron pieces embedded in their bodies. If they were not removed quickly, there would be a risk of complications, and this kind of operation had to be done at least on a medical ship.

In other words, Collins had to find a way to transport these wounded soldiers as soon as possible, which would undoubtedly take up very valuable manpower. He thought for a long time and made a decision to transfer a whole company to assist the medical soldiers in transporting the wounded back. Rescuing and properly caring for the wounded is the tradition of the US military and the maintenance of the morale of the troops. He knew that the troops would face a fierce battle tomorrow, and high morale would help achieve the goal as soon as possible. Since the division commander said that reinforcements would be deployed early tomorrow morning, it would not be a big problem to reduce the number of personnel a little.

With a "bang", another flare flew into the sky, illuminating the area below. In order to prevent the German army from attacking at night, Collins' troops fired flares with mortars from time to time, and occasionally gathered all the light and heavy weapons that could fire at a specific time to fight for a while-this was the firepower moment learned from the Pacific battlefield, which was said to help alert the enemy and disrupt enemy infiltration.

However, Sal Island is an island with a radius of 30 kilometers after all. It is impossible for the flares to cover the entire island. Only the most important front line can be illuminated. The US military did not expect that the German counterattack force had actually been dispatched and was slowly approaching the US military positions.

Half an hour ago, Link, who was commanding in the bunker, received a report from his subordinates: "Sir, the S-boats report that they will arrive at the scene in about 75 minutes."

"Very good, the time is almost up, carry out the night attack according to Plan No. 3, and teach the new recruits on the opposite side a lesson they will never forget."

With his order, four tanks drove out of a secret passage on the left side of the air defense tower and approached the US military position, preparing to launch a night attack. Two of them were Tigers, and the other two were Shermans - yes, Link planned to launch a night attack with these four vehicles.

Of course, his brain was not broken, he knew what he was doing, and everyone was confident that this night attack would be successful. Because these four tanks were not ordinary goods, but the highest technology of the German army - tanks equipped with owl infrared night vision devices.

After the verification of use in the African battlefield, infrared night vision devices have been used by more and more German armored forces. The Cape Verde defenders received two. Unlike the SDK251 half-track armored vehicle used as an infrared light projection vehicle in the African campaign, this time the Sherman tank was used as the carrier, with an 18-fold magnification and a maximum detection distance of 2,500 meters. Coupled with the Sherman's 500-horsepower engine, it can provide sufficient power even without installing batteries. The Tiger tank crew is equipped with a one-to-three receiver, which uses cathode ray tubes under high voltage (working voltage up to 17,000 volts) to convert the received infrared images into visible images. The commander, driver, and gunner can clearly see the surrounding situation at night.

This modified Tiger tank is called the Night Fighting Tiger. Based on the experience of the African battlefield, a flame suppressor is also installed at the muzzle to minimize the fireworks after the tank shells are fired. After this modification, the Night Fighting Tiger has become the most handy black gun unit in the hands of the German army. They will soon let the Americans taste unparalleled bitterness.

"At 11 o'clock, a Sherman tank, 1709 meters away..." Another feature of infrared is that it can provide simple distance measurement. Combined with the high quality of the German crew, the sighting and observation reached a very high level.

With a "clang", an 88mm armor-piercing shell was loaded and fired immediately.

With a "boom", the Germans were surprisingly lucky. The first shell hit the turret and the front armor of a Sherman tank accurately. This American tank hiding behind the defense line never dreamed that it would suffer such a sudden disaster. All the crew members were dumbfounded. They clearly remembered that they used sandbags and branches to camouflage the tank. How could the Germans find them? Not only did they find themselves, but they also hit them accurately.

They didn't know that in front of infrared detection, those branches and sandbags were completely invisible. The vague appearance of the tank on the cathode ray tube was enough for the battle-hardened German armored soldiers.

The sudden destruction of the Sherman tank was like pouring a bucket of water into a boiling oil pan. This section of the US defense line was boiling. Mortars, heavy machine guns, rifles and even Thompson submachine guns were all roaring. The poor soldiers thought that the Germans had touched their noses. As they opened fire, the entire front line began to fire fiercely. The fierce and noisy firing covered the sound of another Tiger tank approaching. At a distance of more than 1,600 meters, he used 6 shells to kill a Sherman and an M10 tank destroyer. A slightly deviated shell also destroyed a heavy machine gun position.

Collins felt like he was going crazy. In 5 minutes, the entire U.S. defense line was a sea of ​​fire, but the enemy remained unmoved and continued to carry out calm roaming shooting on the battlefield. Two Tiger tanks used accurate artillery fire to kill 4 Sherman tanks, 2 armored vehicles and 3 M10 tank destroyers in one breath, and the U.S. military did not even find the shadow of the enemy. They could only roughly determine that one direction of shooting came from the left wing of the position and the other from the right wing.

The mortars fired flares in vain, trying to pull out this assassin in the dark night, and the surviving tanks roughly aimed at the direction where the Tiger tanks were and fired quickly, not seeking to hit, but only to suppress the opponent.