Above the cloudless Rhine River, a military transport plane with a black and white cross on its wings was flying at an altitude of more than 300 meters.
The plane was filled with heavily armed paratroopers. Everyone was waiting. At this moment, the plane suddenly shouted," We have arrived at the scheduled location. Prepare to parachute."”
The hatch at the tail of the plane opened, and the soldiers jumped down one after another. After a few seconds, the paratroopers opened their parachutes. Looking down from above, one could see countless parasol flowers.
The parachuting was absolutely spectacular.
Li Zihao was looking at the sky through his binoculars. Beside him were the high-ranking officials of the Third Reich, as well as some foreign military officials. Han Linghua, who had left a deep impression on Li Zihao, was also there.
"Order them to destroy the defending enemy forces and occupy the target.”
Li Zihao's battle plan could be said to be a scaled-down version of Operation Market Garden.
They wanted to see if the paratroopers without heavy weapons could block the assault of the elite armored troops.
Of course, Li Zihao played the role of the rear commander. The battlefield commander wasn't him, but Stuart, who was airborne with the troops.
On the high ground, the field observation group could see the paratroopers using the few airdrops to arm themselves.
The only thing that could accompany the paratroopers were the 37mm anti-aircraft cannons. This was their stepping stone and their only heavy firepower.
There were also some barrel carts and motorcycles. There were not many of them, and they were all provided for the scouts.
The motorcycle was especially suitable for this kind of terrain. It was very difficult to be discovered when the two of them scouted together.
There were tower bridges on both sides, and they were very sturdy. If they were to set up machine gun positions on both sides, it would be a nightmare for the infantry. Without the use of artillery, it would be impossible to take down the tower bridges.
The defending Pu army was facing a great enemy. Although it was a military exercise, they also treated it as a war. Everyone's eyes were wide open, waiting for the enemy to appear.
Due to Li Zihao's attention, the Stuka dive bomber also joined the cover operation. They would be the support of the paratroopers and launch an attack on the enemy's position.
The defenders were still using hand-pulled 98K. The difference in firepower was too great, and the heavy machine gun positions were also destroyed by the paratroopers.
"General, the troops have occupied the bridge.”
"Very good. Order them to guard the bridge. The enemy's counterattack is coming soon. Let them hold on. Our reinforcements need time to break through the enemy's defense line.”
Before the drill, Li Zihao had told Stuart to prepare for the battle against tanks and to think of ways to counter them.
If the army could not break through the paratroopers 'position within the stipulated time, it would be their loss.
On the other side, the commander of the armored regiment, Rommel, poked his head out of the command module.
"Quick, speed up."
Time was the key to victory. Time was very important for both sides.
The paratroopers were frantically digging trenches and setting up all kinds of traps.
"General, the Ruler and Commander Golin are here.”
Li Zihao frowned when he heard his subordinate's reply. Why are these two women here? It's not time to fight yet.
Throwing the binoculars to the person beside him, Li Zihao put on a pair of sunglasses, adjusted his big brimmed hat, and went out to pick up the person.
Fortunately, the terrain here was not suitable for tanks to fight. This was good news for the paratroopers.
It was past three in the afternoon. Due to the heavy rain, Rommel's tank troops finally arrived at the scheduled location on the extremely muddy dirt road.
The paratroopers had completed the construction of the trenches. Although there was no reinforcement, the enemy did not have heavy artillery. Although there were some self-propelled artillery, they would not really fire.
After all, this was a drill, not a real war.
"Tanks are no good. There are too many stragglers.”Li Zihao said. Beside him, Manyettan nodded. The battle had not started yet, but because of the road problem, Rommel's regiment had already lost half of its strength. He probably did not want to wait any longer and directly launched an attack.
"What's your evaluation?" Shadia asked Li Zihao. She could handle the battle strategy, but her vision was not as good as those professional generals.
"Both have their shortcomings. Stuart relies too much on the support of the air force, while the army lacks time and launched an attack too early, resulting in insufficient troops and weak attacks.”
Li Zihao felt that it was probably a fight between noobs. Of course, he had never really fought a war. If they really fought, he did not know the outcome.
Too many problems had been exposed in this exercise.
The first was the paratroopers. There were problems with the parachutes from the beginning. Some people even parachuted to another bridge downstream. The biggest problem was that they could not accurately parachute. However, most of them still completed the goal of assembling. Only a small number of people were missing.
In addition, many things were broken during the airdrop. Some even fell into the Rhine River.
The Army performed even worse. Of course, most of the problems were due to the armaments, and had nothing to do with the quality of the soldiers themselves.
They couldn't push the tank when it was broken down. It weighed more than ten tons.
Li Zihao felt that he should conclude. Too many problems had been exposed. He was also preparing to send paratroopers to Iberia to participate in the civil war of the bullfighters.
After experiencing the baptism of war, the paratroopers would be transferred back and expanded. The veterans in the early stages would be the backbone of the battle. Such a newly formed paratrooper division would definitely not be weak in combat and would become the elite division of the Third Reich.
The paratroopers would definitely play a big role in conquering Europe.
It was especially useful for landing in areas where the enemy's forces were empty, blocking the path of the enemy's reinforcements and buying time for the enemy's main forces to attack. It would definitely be a great help to the blitzkrieg.
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