GBP Chapter 315 Landing Day
Chapter 315 Landing Day
At dawn on July 1946, 7, on the Normandy beaches, the dark clouds began to dissipate, and the torrential rain that had persisted for over a week gradually subsided. General Friedrich Dollmann, commander of the German 5th Army, responsible for the Western Front, personally visited the Brittany front. Intelligence indicated an impending Allied landing operation, a fact well known to the German High Command. In addition to the so-called "Atlantic Fortress" defenses, meticulously cultivated over the years, the Germans had also forwarded their strategic reserves from mainland Germany to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and even Norway, where the 7th Army was stationed. The German General Staff believed that the focus of the Allied landing operation should be the Calais region. While there were signs of an Allied landing in Normandy, these were likely feints or diversionary measures.
The German Army's Commander-in-Chief on the Western Front was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commanding the 7th, 15th, 1st, and 19th Armies, organized into Army Groups B and G. These comprised 4 divisions, including 68 coastal defense divisions, 33 infantry divisions, 15 tank/armored divisions, 12 grenadier divisions, and 6 paratrooper divisions. Four strategic reserve tank divisions were transferred from mainland Germany, bringing the total force to nearly one million. The German Air Force also comprised the Western Front Air Force, comprising three air corps, 2 air divisions, and numerous regional garrison divisions and independent anti-aircraft artillery units.
After consulting with Field Marshal Rommel, commander of Army Group B in the West, and Colonel-General Blaskowitz, commander of Army Group G, Field Marshal Rundstedt decided to deploy the main force at a key assembly point 100 kilometers outside the landing zone. Colonel-General Dollmann's 7th Army would be deployed along the Brittany and Normandy fronts, commanding the coastal defense divisions of the zone. At this time, the German mechanized forces in the West were gradually declining due to losses on the Eastern Front. Of the 15 infantry divisions, only 7 were semi-mechanized, and 8 were nearly pure infantry. Only after the Allied High Command had largely confirmed the landing plan did it hastily transfer four strategic reserve tank divisions from the mainland to join Rommel's Army Group B.
Admiral Dollmann, apparently misled by the German General Staff, focused his attention on the Brittany front, preventing Allied landings there and supporting the large-scale landings on the Calais front. From his bunker observation post, he calmly observed the coastline through his gun scope. Although the rain had subsided and the winds were gradually fading, the storm surges still reached several meters high. In the gloomy weather, the sea and sky blended into one, with not even a bird in sight.
The intelligence officer came over and handed over the latest intelligence. Last night, a large number of Allied aircraft crossed the coastline, continuing their massive bombing campaign against important European industrial cities. Some areas reported large-scale Allied airborne drops, but after a night of fierce fighting, most of them were false Allied airborne dummies. Some key strongholds did indeed contain infiltrating enemy special forces, but they were largely annihilated.
For over three months, the Allies had been bombing dozens of railway targets in France and northwestern Germany, attempting to completely block the region's transportation routes. They dispatched a staggering 3 aircraft, dropping 15 tons of bombs, over 10 tons of which were used to attack railway hubs and nearly 1 tons to attack bridges. Eighty hubs were destroyed, 80 severely damaged, and 25 bridges, including 74 of the 24 bridges over the Seine, were destroyed. Furthermore, 18 of the 2000 locomotives in France were destroyed, and train cars were damaged. This resulted in a 1500% drop in rail transport, with 62 trains, 1600 of which were loaded with German supplies, stranded at the Franco-German border, unable to enter France. All this gave Dollmann a vague sense that the Allied offensive was drawing closer.
Dorman was particularly concerned about the airborne alerts that had been sounded in the Saint-Main-l'Iglise area and along the Metler River. Fierce fighting was still underway in the area, and multiple intelligence reports indicated that the Allies had indeed airdropped a large number of troops. Dorman was deeply puzzled as to the purpose of the sudden and massive Allied airborne drop. Could their landing site be Normandy?
Thinking of this, Dorman turned and asked the accompanying operations chief, "Is there anything unusual in the direction of the Pegasus Bridge? Also, how is Melville doing?"
The War Minister shook his head, knowing nothing about this either. Dolman immediately ordered him to contact and learn about the situation in key areas, such as bridges, as quickly as possible. He also ordered him to issue urgent orders to the coastal defense divisions along the Normandy line.
The German garrison on Omaha Beach was the first to discover the Allied large-scale landing ships. Due to the Allied electronic interference and the destruction of the ground communication network by the airborne troops, the German army was unable to transmit effective intelligence in a timely manner. Only when the Allied artillery fired thousands of artillery and launched the first wave of landing attacks did the German high command know that the Allied landing battle had begun.
Unlike the alternate time and space landings, this time, while still taking place in Normandy, saw significant changes in the forces and sequence of operations. The 5th and 112th Marine Corps, two units of the Chinese Expeditionary Force's 113th Army Group, were deployed to conduct the Juno Beach landings. The US Marine Corps' 1st and 3rd Corps were assigned to Omaha Beach, while the British Army was responsible for Sword Beach. Yang Hong felt very lucky not to be assigned to Omaha Beach, which was destined to be the bloodiest stage of the landings.
As expected, the 1nd Division of the 2st US Army and the 3th Division of the 8rd US Army launched the landing first. Although the Allied naval gunfire was countless times more powerful than that of the Anomalous Space, it was still unable to inflict fatal damage on the German bunkers. Coupled with the terrain of the landing site and the influence of the tide, the US troops still strayed from the landing zone, just like in the Anomalous Space, and were placed in an extremely awkward position. The German firepower was also far greater than that of the Anomalous Space. The first wave of American landings, especially the two regiments of the 2nd Division, left thousands of bodies in the tidal flats just 200 meters from the beach in less than 30 minutes. The entire beach was instantly dyed red with blood...
The 112st Division of the 201th Army was also the first wave of landing troops. It had many years of experience in island landings in battles against Japan. The advance regiment of the 201st Division adopted a phased beach landing approach. Under Yang Hong's advance arrangement, the armed helicopters assigned to the 112th Army accompanied the landing simultaneously and carried out targeted strikes on the exposed firepower points of the German army, providing strong support for the landing troops.
In less than an hour, two regiments of the 201st Division had successfully landed and seized a 500-meter-deep beach, breaking through multiple lines of defense of the German garrison. The second batch of tank armored forces had been deployed. It can be said that capturing the A and B landing points on Juno Beach has become a foregone conclusion.
The British landing was also very smooth. Sword Beach was spread out in a row. The landing area, which was several kilometers long, was already filled with various landing ships of all sizes of the British Army. More than 10,000 British troops were launching a fierce attack on the remaining enemies in the bunker.