The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The two regiments (505th Regiment and 504th Regiment) of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division are divided into two echelons, responsible for airborne missions before and after landing respectively.

Similarly, the two brigades of the British 1st Airborne Division (1st Parachute Brigade and 1st Airborne Brigade) are also divided into two echelons.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the US 505th Parachute Regiment in Tripoli set off. This team has a total of 3,405 people. Some of them took the C47 transport plane directly, and some took the CG4 glider towed behind the C47.

This CG4 glider is mainly used to increase the delivery capability during parachute landings and enhance the equipment capabilities of airborne troops... It can transport 13 fully armed soldiers, or a military jeep and 7 soldiers, or a 75MM howitzer and its gunners arrived at their destination.

It is conceivable that it can increase the firepower and maneuverability of airborne troops to a great extent. The disadvantage is that the speed of the transport aircraft cannot exceed 200 kilometers per hour after towing a glider.

This is one of the reasons why the Allies had to choose to carry out airborne landings before dawn. If they used gliders to land at dawn...a large number of transport planes with gliders flying in the sky at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour would be a great advantage for the German Air Force. target of attack.

The dark aircraft fleet first arrived in Malta, contacted the British 1st Parachute Brigade taking off there, and then rushed to Sicily... This was mainly to be able to parachute in Sicily at the same time.

Then, at about 5:10, British and American airborne groups flew over Sicily respectively.

However, due to the lack of actual combat experience of both the British and American airborne forces, and the fact that radio silence had been implemented from Malta Island to ensure the concealment of the battle, and because they were flying at night, the two fleets of more than 200 transport aircraft each were unable to maintain concentration. The formation was very scattered.

The US military fleet could not find the scheduled landing site, so they had to return again and re-enter from the coast to find the landing site... In the process, 8 aircraft were shot down by Italian anti-aircraft artillery, 10 were injured, and 3 had to return.

In desperation, the Chinese and American 505th Airborne Regiment could only forcefully carry out airborne landings. As a result, all the airborne regiments were scattered all over Sicily in the dark, and only one company landed at the predetermined location, deviating as far as 100 kilometers away.

And because the wind speed reached 15 meters per second during landing, many inexperienced US airborne troops parachuted onto rocks, woods and houses, and became wounded as soon as they landed.

The situation of the British 1st Parachute Brigade was even worse.

There were 2,578 of them. Because the pilots did not master the altitude... mainly because they could not see the target clearly in the dark night, they could only look for a landing point at low altitude. When they found the landing point, they found that it was too close to raise the base in time, so the glider I had no choice but to take off the hook at low altitude.

The result of the low-altitude decoupling was that the gliders landed before they could glide to the landing point. As a result, 69 of the 137 gliders crashed into the sea on the spot. More than 600 paratroopers on board were drowned and a large number of heavy equipment fell into the sea.

As a result, the first batch of British and American airborne troops failed to function.

That's not the worst of it, when the Allied forces began to land, the second echelon of airborne groups followed.

At this time, the British and American navies were in a tense moment of covering the landing of ground troops. These warships took it for granted that the fleet of aircraft flying over them were enemy planes from the German and Italian troops coming to bomb and prevent them from landing, so they issued an order. ...The warships' artillery fire roared together, and the fleet quickly made habitual maneuvers or speeded up. However, it was very dangerous for transport planes towing gliders to do these actions, so many planes collided and caught fire in the air, and the frightened paratroopers parachuted out in panic. , many paratroopers jumped directly into the sea and drowned.

The paratroopers who jumped to the shore were not so lucky. They were either shot dead by Italian soldiers defending on the shore or their own landing troops mistakenly thought they were enemies.

In fact, there is absolutely no need for the British and American troops to parachute in Sicily... because it is not difficult at all for them to land.

Although there were five Italian infantry divisions stationed on the coastline, most of them abandoned their positions and ran away when they saw the dense warships and transport ships approaching on the sea.

So much so that they failed to complete the only task Rommel gave them, which was to destroy port equipment and bunker fortifications on the highlands.

This made Rommel couldn't help but curse at Lieutenant General Guzzoni: "I have only one request for you, a small request... that is, when the enemy attacks, you can destroy the fortifications and then withdraw, but you are unable to complete it. ! God, I should have let you destroy the fortifications and equipment first!"

As a result, the port of Syracuse was completely occupied by the British army. As soon as the British landed, they captured a landing site that was 100 kilometers wide and 10 to 15 kilometers deep.

The American troops with no combat experience were much more chaotic than the British troops. They were like a bunch of headless flies scurrying on the shore. Many troops could not find their own troops because they landed at the wrong place.

But in the end, they still occupied a landing site 110 kilometers wide and 5 kilometers deep.

"Our landing was successful!" This is what Montgomery said when he obtained the intelligence.

Eisenhower did not think so, because the landing force suffered more than 2,000 casualties. What is incredible is that most of these casualties were not caused by combat, but were caused by British and American organizational chaos and accidental damage.

Eisenhower had reason to believe that these casualties could have been avoided if it were not for Montgomery's wrong plan...Montgomery overemphasized the coordinated attack of the two armies and insisted on landing the British and American armies at two adjacent landing sites. At the same time, they chose to launch a surprise attack in the dark, which would inevitably cause chaos.

"This is probably the success of the Mincemeat Project!" Eisenhower said with a hint of displeasure in his tone: "The Mincemeat Project allowed us to successfully deceive the enemy and leave them defenseless. All we had to do was hold the gun. Just go up there!”

"Anyway, we landed successfully, didn't we?" Montgomery replied.

"Yes!" Eisenhower ordered: "What we have to do now is to stabilize our front and accumulate supplies to prepare for tomorrow's attack!"

It is easy for the British army to accumulate supplies. They only need to drive the transport ship into the port of Syracuse, and then unload cars, tanks, supplies, etc. onto the shore.

However, the US military needs to use small landing craft to transport batches to the shore from transport ships that cannot sail into the offshore. Because the delivery speed of materials is too slow, several US military units even appear to be looting.

But eventually, as the sun set, the units stabilized and built a line of defense on the shore.