Chapter 748 Atlantic Strangulation War (57)
Of course, the telegram was sent without the knowledge of Marshall. Although it would not sound good if it spread out, Admiral Jin was sure that Marshall would not get angry - he had personally said that if Sal Island could not be defeated within 48 hours, all regiment-level and above would be dismissed on the spot. If so, how many hours have passed? However, because he received Turner's telegram and believed that the fighting would last for at least five days, he rarely said a few words of justice for the two army divisions: "The dismissal order is granted, but it only gives them a chance to redeem themselves and meritorious service. The Germans can't escape anyway." , fight slowly..."
This delay lasted for another five days. The German army had been compressed in the core position on the island, surrounded by US troops. However, the US military's covering artillery fire and attack aircraft could not launch smoothly because they would hit their own people if they were not careful. , could only rely on the army's own artillery fire and attacks to gradually advance, and fought the most brutal positional warfare. The German army was completely surrounded. Not only could their ammunition and personnel not be replenished, but they had almost run out of medicine.
There were more than 1,300 Marines left in the encirclement. Link originally wanted to give up and lead his troops to surrender, but to his surprise, no one agreed with this idea. Everyone gritted their teeth and declared that they planned to fight to the end and never surrender. . What was even more unexpected was that just when he thought that the support promised by the head of state would finally be cut off, Machar suddenly sent a telegram - the fleet has moved towards Cape Verde and reinforcements are expected to arrive within 5 days.
As soon as these two news came out, the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and they actually gritted their teeth and persisted, and their morale seemed to be higher than that of the US military.
The core position of Sal Island is actually a continuous permanent fortification based on a simplified version of the air defense tower. In addition to the ground buildings, there is also a set of semi-underground permanent fortifications consisting of 1 main fort and 8 sub-forts. There are heavy machine guns and 88mm anti-tank firepower in the main fort, and light machine guns and 75mm anti-tank firepower in the sub-forts and side forts. It is surrounded by two layers of traffic trenches. The German army has a large number of K98 rifles, G43 rifles, STG43 assault rifles and MG42 machine guns, a large number of mortars behind the bunker, and the widely used Iron Fist rockets formed an airtight and dense fire net.
The main fortress is divided into three floors. The uppermost floor is a building exposed on the ground and connected to the base of the air defense tower. It is mainly used for suppressive fire shooting. From the second floor onwards, everything is underground, which contains various shelters, ammunition and food warehouses. However, the third floor does not go straight down. Instead, tunnels are dug diagonally to build a basement and become the entire core headquarters.
The upper parts of each fortress are made of dismantled old railway rails to form a skeleton. They are arranged in rows layer by layer and covered with 30mm thick steel plates. Then concrete is poured. The overall thickness is mostly more than 70 centimeters. The surrounding areas are covered with earth, which is more than 1 meter thick. The artillery with a caliber of less than 150mm was hit directly without any damage. The exposed part of the ground was filled with sea sand and arranged in three layers with a large number of discarded gasoline barrels. The barrels were covered with several layers of 30mm thick steel plates and supported by steel. This civil engineering method It is learned from Japan's Nanyang Morishima Island. Japan can use large logs locally. Germany does not have so many logs, but there is no shortage of rails (H-shaped steel).
Cape Verde is not the most heavily defended place by the German army. Some of the fortresses on the Azores directly use steel plates from the dismantled main armor belts of battleships as barriers. Not only do they include some components of the battleships that were transformed into aircraft carriers, but also the original components of the battleships. Steel plates pre-cut but not actually used for the construction of H-class battleships. These goods were originally intended for use in the Atlantic Barrier, but Hoffman's attitude was very clear. Instead of guarding the endless coastline of Western Europe, it was better to concentrate materials and manpower for island defense, so Cape Verde and the Azores got With a large amount of supplies and labor provided by the Todt Organization, the construction of the Atlantic Wall was more extensive and less complete than historically completed.
With this arrangement, the damage caused by medium and large-caliber howitzers, whether directly destroyed or caused by concussion, is very slight. During the bombardment, the German troops can hide in the fortress for cover. Once the artillery stops, there are spider-like traffic trenches around the perimeter of the fortress connecting the main positions for rapid transportation. When the troops were on the front line, there were a large number of foxholes around the communication trenches. Some German soldiers were lurking there, ready to give the U.S. troops a heavy blow with iron fists or grenades at any time.
It is very difficult to get close to this fortress system. There are three barbed wire fences and two deer fences in front of the fortress position. Mines are scattered all around. If the infantry breaks in, they must be prepared to peel off layers of skin. The firepower of the German infantry happened to restrain the U.S. military. Except for the 12.7mm Browning heavy machine gun, which had some advantages, the U.S. military was inferior to its opponents in other areas: the light machine gun was completely inferior to the MG42 general-purpose machine gun, which could continuously fire thousands of rounds. It maintains stability while firing bullets. In mid-range confrontation, the K98's accuracy and power exceed the US military's M1 Garand. When it comes to confrontation at about 400 meters, the G43 is not far behind. In intensive firefights within 200 meters, the STG43 will completely defeat Tom. Xun submachine guns were very powerful. When fighting at close ranges of 100 meters or even 50 meters, the endless iron fists of the German army killed Americans again.
The U.S. military has an advantage in bazookas and recoilless rifles, but those things are too bulky and large, and their targets are very obvious after being launched. They cannot suppress the Germans when they are far away, and they are directly killed by German snipers when they are close. And the US tanks are not powerful at this time. Not to mention that no US tank can withstand direct fire from an 88mm gun. Even a 75mm anti-tank gun is more than enough to kill M4\M6 tanks. The German army cleverly used the last two Tiger tanks to serve as fixed firepower points, and used its precise sniping to eliminate many armored targets. When the US Army angrily dragged the 90mm anti-aircraft gun and fired flatly, they were shocked to find that the German tanks were hiding in a layer of more than 1 meter thick. After the reinforced concrete construction was completed, it was of no avail.
What makes the US military most desperate is that the entire set of fortresses are connected to air defense towers. Although the destroyed air defense towers have lost their combat effectiveness, they still use their strong bodies to protect the fortress defense system. If they do not completely destroy the air defense towers, they will not be able to defeat the enemy. It is impossible to use long-range heavy firepower to destroy the fortifications, and the manual blasting method must first eliminate the fortress defenders, so a dead end is formed here: the fortress cannot be blown open without destroying the defenders, and the defenders cannot be completely eliminated without blowing up the fortress.
Trapping the opponent to death is also a way. Unfortunately, the US military does not have so much time. The last two US military divisions can only use the most traditional and bloody method - using human lives to fight for the land inch by inch, but this style of play is obviously not applicable. In the U.S. military, there is a huge difference in tactical literacy between the two sides. However, the side with superior combat skills still occupies favorable terrain and solid fortifications, which is simply a hard nut to crack. Both incendiary bombs and fire-breathing tanks have been tried. The former has very poor effect, while the latter is directly turned into a fireball by enemy anti-tank firepower from a long distance. After several trials, it had no choice but to give up.
If poison gas bombs were easy to use, the Americans would probably use them without hesitation. However, firstly, the troops did not carry this "sharp weapon", and secondly, because of Germany's "achievements" in the field of poison gas, the United States did not dare to open this Pandora easily. Magic Box - If German bombers dropped a poison gas bomb on the east coast, the world would be turned upside down.
After so many days, the U.S. military suffered a large number of casualties and it was not without results. At least the perimeter of the defense line had been cleared, and the mines and barbed wire fences had been removed. At the same time, they had also completely sealed the outer positions of the German fortresses during the bloody battle. In other words, the Germans must either die in battle or surrender, and there is no third way to go. Finally, and most importantly, a large amount of ammunition and supplies have been consumed by the German army. Now the defenders' ammunition can only last for 5 days, and the supplies can only last for 5 days. Being able to last for 10 days, Link believed that once the food or ammunition was exhausted, he was determined to lead the troops to surrender - the soldiers had done enough for the Third Reich and the Führer, and he wanted to give them a way to survive.
Turner also received the telegram from Admiral King. Without hesitation at all, he persuaded Admiral Ingersoll to lead the fleet to transfer. The admiral who was determined to resign did not hesitate to sign his name without any concern for the future. Worrying, Turner was thinking entirely from the interests of the fleet and the whole. He believed that Admiral Kim had a good reason for saying this. The naval guns continued to fire ammunition and were close to running out. They could neither provide support nor provide defense. The fleet should have freedom of movement as a matter of course.
However, the direction he moved was neither the northwest as Cunningham expected nor the southwest as Ozawa expected, but directly to the south, especially as several battleships retreated further. Turner's idea was simple. In this battle, the battleship force will not be of much use. He must protect them as much as possible. Only escort aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft can help Cunningham.
He laid out his strategy in the telegram: "After discovering the enemy fleet, the escort aircraft carrier formation will take the lead in attacking, even exposing itself to attract the opponent's sight and firepower. Finally, the main aircraft carrier will complete the interception! In order to win, no matter whether it is on the island, The Army is still the more than 10 escort aircraft carriers around Cape Verde. No one is inexplicable..."
Spruance murmured to himself: "It is indeed General Turner's consistent strategy. He is not sloppy, he is cruel to others, and he is even more cruel to himself!"
"Well, I hope the price we pay can be less. Too many people have died in this battle." Cunningham sighed, "Prepare to launch the reconnaissance plane at 5 o'clock. Be sure to search carefully..."
At dawn, the two armies launched reconnaissance planes at the same time and began large-scale reconnaissance. The U.S. military had a large number of planes and the German planes had strong reconnaissance capabilities. They were evenly matched with each other. However, until 10 o'clock, the reconnaissance results were all blank.
"No discovery?" Ozawa laughed, "Good news! No discovery is the best news! This means that we are one step closer to the success of the night assault."
Hearing Ozawa's confident assessment, Krank and others were stunned. It was not until the staff simulated it on the sand table with a warship model that they finally figured it out...