Chapter 280: fortress

Biquge EbookFREE.me, update my latest chapter of the third empire as soon as possible!
German paratroopers also played a pioneering role in the invasion of Belgium. Almost at the same time as the Dutch paratroopers, the German paratroopers are everywhere in Belgium. They opened the way for German ground troops, and the 1st Cavalry Corps of the A Group Army entered Belgium from the north of Liege. The place extends southwards between Germany and Belgium and is called "Mastricht's appendix".
At the junction of the two countries is the famous Maas River, and not far away there is the Albert Canal in Belgium. These rivers are like fortresses that guard Belgium ’s fragile border line.
In 1914, the German team entered Belgium from the same road in the same place. In order to resist the next possible German invasion, the Belgians began to build a magnificent fortress project in the early 1930s.
This fortress is located in a small village called Eben-Emar, three miles south of Maastricht. It is the strongest fortress in western Europe. This Eben? Emar Fort is called the northern fulcrum on the connection of the main points, and the south of the fortress points directly to Liege, which is the only way to the hinterland of Belgium.
They invested a lot of money in the fortress, making the entire fortress solid, but ironically, they hired a German engineering team to complete the construction of the entire fortress. The meticulous German engineers copied the drawings of the entire fortress and gave them to the German Wehrmacht.
In order to occupy this important fortress, the Germans invested 500 trained paratroopers assault troops. The task of these troops is to guard this offensive line for the German 1st Cavalry Corps of Group A.
This time, the German paratroopers decided to attack with a more novel method-they directly landed on a glider. The reason why Studente chose gliders instead of parachutes for airdrops, the first is to fear the huge noise of the ju-52 transport aircraft engine to expose this operation in advance; the second is to fear that the paratroopers scattered in the air will not form an assault force, he needs these Soldiers can focus on landing and attack together.
In the early morning, they used 50 gliders to disengage from the Ju-52 transport plane at 7000 feet above Aachen. Each glider has 10 heavily armed paratroopers equipped with mp-44 assault rifles or g42 machine guns and flamethrowers.
When the sky was just bright and the first rays of light were slightly revealed, these box-mounted transport gliders made of iron, wood and rough canvas, with a landing sleigh, quietly landed like a ghost just 7 miles away from the target. They made all preparations. These paratroopers secretly trained for this operation for a full three months. The training content was harsh and abnormal. Two paratroopers were even sentenced to death for violating discipline.
The glider unit was divided into 4 contingents, codenamed concrete, steel, granite and iron. Their targets within 5 miles are the Albert Canal and three bridges.
The steel squadron landed on the west bank of the Albert Canal and quickly captured the northernmost junction: the Feldwizet railway bridge; the concrete squadron occupied the bridge in the middle, which was the Florenhaven concrete viaduct.
The two members of the detachment and the later paratroopers guarded the two bridges. They established bridgeheads on both sides, and the Belgian army's counterattack was quickly repelled.
At the southernmost bridge, the German paratroopers were in trouble. Kanne, less than 1 mile from the Eben-Emar fortress, was the target of the iron detachment. A few minutes before the glider landed, they were found by the Belgian defenders. More than 30 German soldiers. But the Germans laughed to the end, they captured the bridge and drove away the Belgians in one breath.
The unit mission code-named Granite is the most unusual. They were ordered to directly capture Eben? Emar fortress. This fortress covers 175 acres and is a pentagon. Usually there are 1200 Belgian soldiers stationed here, but this morning there are only 750 soldiers in the city wall because of the defense.
The cliffs along the canal guard the northeast side of the fort, and the other four sides also have anti-tank trenches and a 20-foot-tall wall defense. Inside the fort, there are many tunnels, and there are many forts. The rotating turret is equipped with a variety of weapons, the only drawback is that there are not many anti-aircraft guns, and there are no mines on the wide fortress surface.
Eben? Emar fortress is very vulnerable to air strikes, which is why Germany chose it as a target. Fifteen German gliders landed safely on the large lawn at the top of the fort under the vain artillery fire of the dumbfounded Belgian machine gunner. The German paratroopers jumped out of the plane bravely, rushing towards their target with gunfire.
All Germans are blasting experts. They brought two and a half tons of explosives. A considerable part of them had a new type of device, which was a concave hemisphere. This device allows the force of the explosion to be concentrated downwards, which can easily destroy heavy concrete fortifications.
Each of these explosives weighs 100 pounds and can blow up a few feet of steel plate at once. Since studying the aerial and fortress maps, the engineers knew where to put the explosives. In less than 10 minutes after landing, they blew up more than half of the selected targets.
And in the process of the explosion, they found that the Belgian defenders were cutting corners. Two turrets were simply equipped, and they did not have the ability to attack at all. They opened fire fiercely, and the Belgian defenders were forced to retreat into the ditch to seek concealment. They called the artillery forces outside the fortress and shelled their fortress from outside.
The German paratroopers were forced to hide into the bunkers they had just blown up and waited for the shelling to stop before killing them again. They threw the remaining explosives into the pits of the Belgian defenders and blasted the Belgian army in disgrace.
But because of the large number of Belgian defenders, they fought desperately. The German team was unable to control the entire fortress for a while. They had to wait for the reinforcements to arrive before they could complete the tasks that seemed impossible.
The reinforcements were faster than the best expected situation. These troops crossed the Maas at an unimaginable speed. Akado and his generals planned a small spy program that made them proud, the purpose of this plan is to cross the bridge on the Maas River with the fastest speed.
A special operations team wearing imitation Belgian military uniforms rushed to these bridges. The disguised troops approached the target, and then they opened fire at close range and captured several important bridges.
So the German infantry and cavalry were able to cross the Maas with the fastest speed, and a few hours later, the German paratroopers waited for their reinforcements. However, these supporters were blocked on the road by an important fort 17 of the Eben Emar fortress. The German paratroopers trapped on the top of the fortress had to destroy the fort to be rescued.
But the turret was so cleverly designed that the German paratroopers could not reach such a lower position, and there was no way to arrange explosives, so the Belgian defenders were able to continue to stick, firing shells one after another to attack the mules of the German 1st Cavalry Mahua infantry troops.
The engineers in the paratroopers quickly found a way. They asked someone to tie the explosive to the end of the rope, put a detonator on it, tie it to their stomach, and then they were dragged to the top of the turret. Then they used these explosives to block the gap in the fortress observation post. Soon the explosive pack exploded, destroying some important fortress parts and making the fort no longer operational.
The German paratroopers were actually very guilty. They were afraid that the Belgians would counterattack because of their limited strength. But until ten o'clock in the evening, the Belgian defenders did not have the courage to come out of their bunkers to counterattack, just stay in their trenches to make the final struggle.
Soon German infantry caught up, and they began to clear obstacles with flamethrowers. As they approached the bunker, the soldiers pulled the trigger, the flames were conspicuous in the dark night, and they rose into the sky under the moonlight. The guns in the Belgian garrison bunker suddenly became dumb.
The sound of the flamethrower awakened the tired German paratroopers above the fortress, and they were all asleep at this time. When they realized that their reinforcements had arrived, they rushed down the hillside and shouted to greet their comrades. They sang and danced with the German engineers who arrived, and the two dead guys even danced a dance in a dangerous place.
The next morning, more reinforcements arrived, German infantry surrounded the fortress of Eben-Emar, the Stuka bomber flew, and dropped a bigger bomb and destroyed more fortifications.
After a while, the radio horn of the defender rang, and the Belgian defender stepped out of his fortification, surrendered to the brave German paratroopers with a white flag. In this battle, only 75 people were killed by the Belgian defenders, more than 50 others were injured, and more than 600 others were unscathed. The German paratroopers miraculously killed only five people.
The Germans once again completed the offensive with the speed of running. The entire 1st Cavalry Corps took only two days to walk the road that was not completed in 20 days. The German Group A Army has firmly controlled its area of ​​advancement, creating the most favorable conditions for the launch of the sickle operation.
Akado decided to praise the paratroopers for airborne operations. Studen awarded all paratroopers. All paratroopers who participated in the attack and defense of the Eben? Emar fortress were awarded a promotion level, and the officers will be allowed to enjoy a long time. Up to a month of vacation.
Of course, Akado is even more gratified that Sedan is completely in the hands of the German armored forces. Those wolves of tanks will appear behind the British and French coalition forces and advance towards the English Channel at the fastest speed.