Chapter Eighty-Three
It's already the first weekend of July, and in these three days, the Allies have completely controlled the Normandy region and are transporting large troops to France. They quickly repaired the docks, and huge transport ships lined up to enter the battered port to unload countless supplies, equipment, and personnel. Many American soldiers were stepping onto European soil for the first time, curiously taking in the French scenery. In just three days, the Allied air force drove the German air force out of Normandy's skies, successfully covering the safety of the transport fleet. Meanwhile, the Allied forces in France rapidly expanded to over 500,000 troops and are now launching a full-scale attack on Calais and Cherbourg, aiming to occupy these two crucial port cities as soon as possible to prepare for the large-scale landing in Europe. However, it was precisely at these two places that the Allies encountered their first iron plate.
The Allies' tanks were generally equipped with the M4A3E8 Sherman as the basic armored unit, and a large number of M26s were equipped with 90mm cannons to serve as the backbone of the tank troops. The British had enlarged the turret of the M4 tank, mounted a 17-pound cannon, and called it "Firefly" as their own tank backbone. In terms of numbers, they benefited from the Americans' strong production capacity, far exceeding the German army facing them.
By July 6, the Allies had been in Normandy for a week, with nearly 800,000 troops landed, over 3,000 tanks and more than 4,000 artillery pieces. Half of the forces were gathering to attack Cherbourg and Caen. The German army facing them had less than 200,000 men, with only over 700 tanks and assault guns, and fewer than 1,000 artillery pieces. The gap in air power was also huge, many airfields and aircraft on them were destroyed, at that time the German Air Force on the Western Front could only maintain its existence, trying not to let the Allied air forces be too rampant over the ground troops.
The British tank troops first encountered the Iron Plate, and they met with Canadian mixed forces on the outskirts of Calais. They saw an unfamiliar tank that was a bit shorter than the Black Panther tank, very fast, invulnerable to the front, and the British M4 and Canadian M4 were destroyed by shells fired from 2000 meters away before they could react. By the time the British and Canadians finally discovered the distant German tanks, a quarter of their tanks had been crippled. The British and Canadians were also quite brave, opening up the battle line to encircle the German tank group, but sadly found that the German tanks were faster than them and could fire while moving. The firepower of the cannons on the German tanks was huge, with fast firing speeds, and their 76mm cannons had no way of penetrating the German tanks. Finally, when an M4 approached within 100 meters of a German tank, the shell fired was still deflected by the German tank's frontal armor, and it itself was knocked off its turret by a single shot. The Allied forces then collapsed... The British and Canadians fled in all directions, and those who couldn't escape could only raise their white flags to surrender. In just half an hour, two armored divisions of the British and Canadian armies were defeated, with over 270 out of 350 tanks destroyed. There was no record of German losses - it wasn't until after the war that records showed that the Germans had deployed a combat group consisting of the Armored Instruction Division and the 17th Armored Division, with only 17 E50s, 25 Black Panthers, and 28 No. 4 G-type tanks, losing just four Black Panthers and seven No. 4s, all of which were repairable...
"Huh? It's unexpectedly a good fight...... The British and Canadian guys can't fight at all? Compared to the Russians, they're really not worth looking at." Fawley sighed, he was in this combat group. Now he wore an Oak Leaf Knight's Cross around his neck - to commemorate his 200th tank destruction achievement, and on his body was a Golden Tank Assault Badge, all of which showed off his style as the number one tank ace of the Third Empire's National Defense Army.
After breaking through the Allied British and Canadian tank forces on July 6, they immediately turned southward a bit, merged with the remaining troops of the teaching group that arrived later, and launched a direct assault on the flank of the US Second Armored Division with a full combat group consisting of 35 E50 "Wildcat", 11 "Elephant", 25 Black Panther and 5 "Strong Tiger" 178mm self-propelled artillery, which was already the elite of the German armored forces that could be mobilized in northern France.
On the morning of July 17, they launched an attack. The US Second Armored Division had more than 1,300 tanks and armored self-propelled guns, making it the strongest Allied armored force after the Normandy landing. Although some tanks were lost during the landing and subsequent battles, there were still around 1,000 armored vehicles left, with the British Seventh Armored Division and Canadian Second Armored Brigade covering their flanks. The entire Second Armored Division was heading for Cherbourg, while Fauville's combat group aimed to pierce the flank of the US Second Armored Division and defeat it as much as possible to relieve the siege of Cherbourg.
The battle started unexpectedly smoothly, the Americans were completely stunned by the sharp E50 "Wildcat" composed of the spearhead. At a distance of 3000 meters, the "Wildcat" began to fire, using the new high-low stabilizer, the shooting was extremely accurate. One by one, the Shermans were shot into piles of torches, while the Shermans at this distance were completely powerless against German tanks - not to mention the E50, even the 4th tank could easily pop the American 76mm cannon shells at this distance.
The Americans, with their wealth and arrogance, began to use tungsten-core armor-piercing shells to attack, while also using their numerical superiority to surround the German assault group. The American attack planes in the sky also began to dive-bomb. The E50 was not afraid of the tungsten-core armor-piercing shells from 2000 meters away, and with its speed advantage, it was not afraid of the American 155mm heavy artillery bombardment. However, against the A-1 attack planes in the sky, it was completely helpless. Several 4th "Whirlwind" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and 5th "Flying Leopard" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns in the assault group fired desperately, but were unable to stop the A-1's attack... Fortunately, only four Black Panthers were destroyed in the first round of attacks due to the resistance from ground-based anti-aircraft fire. However, if this kind of attack did not stop, it seemed that the entire assault group would be sent to hell by the A-1 attack planes one by one.
At this time, several German planes appeared in the sky, causing chaos among the American attack aircraft. Favniel looked up and saw that there were not many German planes coming over, only about 4 or 5 could be seen, but one of them, an ME262 leading the way, had a black flower petal painted on its nose, with a peach heart on the side of the fuselage, covered in small black spades; another TA183 had a yellow head and a yellow body number "14", with white stripes painted all over the tail. These two planes each brought a wingman of the same type, advancing together to disrupt the American attack aircraft.
The ME262's attack was quite simple and effective, using its speed advantage to climb up, then dive down at the cluster of attacking planes and open fire, each dive could take out multiple enemy planes, and the wingman would follow suit, diving down and mopping up.
And TA183's attack was extremely spectacular, this plane used dazzling aerobatic flight to impact the formation of enemy planes, each shot seemed to be aimed at empty space, but Favniel keenly sensed that every time a bullet flew out, there would always be an enemy plane flying right into the trajectory of the bullet "What a great predictive deviation shooting ability!" Favniel exclaimed.
The only use of TA-183's wingman was to follow the leader and watch his back, occasionally picking off American attack planes that flew recklessly into his face.
The counterattack of the American attack planes and a few fighter planes was weak, completely unable to hit these four German jet fighters, especially the two leading long-range aircraft which were like entering no man's land, frequently shooting down their own planes. Soon, the American pilots lost the courage to fight - who would want to bear a one-sided slaughter? The remaining planes fled in all directions. And those four German planes seemed to have run out of ammunition as well, they shook their wings at the German tanks below and returned.
Fawzi was amazed at the high efficiency of the two planes "17 minutes, the two planes shot down more than 25 American planes, how many American planes were there in total? Were there even 50? It's indeed famous for a reason!" He didn't have time to think much and immediately threw himself into battle.
Until the distance closed to within 1000 meters, the American hit rate rose, and the E50 was also hit by several shells. Thanks to its good jumping shape, none of the American tungsten-core armor-piercing shells penetrated the "Leopard", but some losses appeared in the following Black Panther - five Black Panthers were damaged and had to be repaired before they could continue fighting. The ISU-152 benefited from its thick frontal armor and was unscathed.
Within 500 meters, the E50 continued to wreak havoc. The 88mm L71 gun of the Panther II took out an American tank with almost every shot, while the tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds of the Americans still couldn't do much damage to the "Panther". Just as the Americans finally managed to knock out a few Panthers with their tungsten rounds, they themselves retreated... The losses were too severe, the entire battlefield was shrouded in smoke, making it impossible to observe the outcome of the battle in detail - thinking that the Panther was still invincible.
In the late afternoon, after a fierce battle, the combat group finally broke through the entire US 2nd Armored Division and British 7th Armoured Division's lines, cutting off the column of over 40 kilometers in depth. The Americans and British were instead put into a pocket, cut off from their logistics. Throughout the day, the Allied forces suffered heavy losses, with more than 150 tanks destroyed during the German combat group's assault. The remaining tanks were mostly stuck on the front line near Cherbourg, unable to move, with supply lines cut off. Although there were still over 900 armored vehicles left, morale had taken a huge hit, and ammunition was insufficient. The overall situation was now very unfavorable for the Allies - although they would ultimately be able to occupy Cherbourg and Calais due to their overall advantage...
