Chương 184: 184
Episode 184: Time between dogs and wolves (10)
August 19, 1942
New Fuhrer's Residence in Berlin, Germany
"Mr. President! "Mr. President!"
I had no choice but to wake up to Krause's urgent voice. I looked at the clock with half-asleep eyes and saw that it was 6:28.
There was still another hour and 32 minutes left until wake-up time, but the fact that Krause had woken me up now meant that something worthwhile had happened.
"News just arrived from Paris. "It is said that the Allied forces have landed in Dieppe and are currently engaged in combat with our forces."
Allied forces landing.
At those words, even the faint remaining sleep fled away.
***
Prior to the full-scale landing, the Allied forces indiscriminately bombed Dieppe, the landing site, and the Abbeville area, where the German Air Force base was located.
The Royal Navy's battleships, cruisers, and destroyers also fired their guns in unison, striking the German defense line on the coast.
"Reload!"
"Keep shooting! "Turn it to powder!"
While the naval guns devastated the beach, the British and Canadian soldiers, who would be the mainstay of the operation, moved into landing craft.
Naval gunfire continued even as the landing craft departed for the beach.
"Jerry, you guys should be all done by now."
A soldier on a landing craft said.
There was no voice denying those words. There would be no living being on Earth that could survive that terrifying naval gunfire.
The soldiers, seeing the beach engulfed in yellow flames and black smoke, were half nervous and half excited as they waited for the landing craft to arrive at the beach.
The landing craft arrives at the beach
The moment the landing craft ramp opens,
Hell broke loose.
-Tudadadadada!!!
"Wow!"
"Khaak!"
"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
The British air raid and subsequent naval gunfire were loud on the outside, but in reality they did not inflict a decisive blow on the German forces on the coastal defense line.
The German Army's Atlantic Wall was much stronger than the British expected, and the air raids and subsequent naval artillery fire were inaccurate and, to make matters worse, the time was too short.
To properly hit the Germans on the wall, they had to fire continuously for about an hour, but the Royal Navy stopped the bombardment in just 20 minutes and landed the troops.
While the bombardment was in progress, the defense forces who were trapped in the shelters came out of the shelters as soon as the bombardment ended and returned to their respective positions.
The enemy landing craft were still crossing the sea, and the Germans were fully prepared to attack them.
"You are putting a thorn in the tiger's mouth. "Stupid tommies."
"Please come quickly. "I'll give you a hole in your stomach for air."
German soldiers armed with MG34 and MG40 captured Czechoslovakian, Polish and French machine guns waited with their fingers on the trigger like hunters waiting for a deer to be ensnared.
When the landing craft finally stopped and the front ramp lowered, the officers gave the order to fire.
When permission to shoot was given, the soldiers pulled the trigger without any hesitation, as if to relieve their anger, and slaughtered the British and Canadian troops in the landing craft.
What was a human just a second ago became a tattered piece of meat after the barrage of bullets, staining the turquoise sea with blood.
The landing craft, which was unluckily located in the exact center of the MG40's aim, received concentrated fire from the MG40 as soon as the ramp went down, and all the soldiers on board the landing craft became minced meat.
The beach filled with pebbles was lined with corpses washed up by blood-stained waves.
A few lucky soldiers managed to escape the barrage of German bullets and set foot on the beach, but the obstacles they had to overcome were numerous.
"Cutter, get the cutter!"
Barbed wire.
-pop!
"Ahh! Aaaaa!!!"
"Everything, the legs!"
mine thrower.
"Tommies are here, shoot!"
Even the German troops inside the coastal cliffs.
Germany was thoroughly prepared for the Allied landings and generously displayed the results of a long period of time and effort.
"What does that mean? "Not even 10 minutes have passed and we are completely annihilated!"
"Sir, we have received a retreat request from the Black Watch Regiment. The damage is so severe that there is a risk of annihilation if we do not evacuate immediately... ."
"We can't even get in touch with the Cameroon Highlanders Regiment!"
The Allied Command was taken aback by the flood of reports coming from the troops who had landed on the beach.
Since it was a large-scale landing operation, some level of damage was expected, but I never dreamed it would be this much.
Operation Luther was heading downhill from the beginning.
***
Two hours after the first bomb was dropped on Dieppe.
Rundstedt at the Palace of Versailles in Paris listened to reports from Dieppe from his staff.
Although there were quite a few casualties due to the air raids of the Allied air forces, there was no major problem with our forces' power itself.
Abbeville's air force base will take some time to recover due to the enemy's indiscriminate air attacks, but the damage to the most important pilots is minimal and the spare runway is intact.
"The Goebbels battery east of Dieppe is repelling the attack of the enemy landing force without significant damage despite enemy air strikes and naval gunfire."
"Rommel's battery on the eastern flank is also being successfully defended."
"Hitler's battery on the western flank was destroyed by enemy naval artillery fire, but the enemy forces that landed are now blocked at Fourville."
However, not all defense lines were intact.
The Hess battery west of Dieppe was hit hard by enemy naval gunfire and air strikes, allowing the enemy to land.
The enemy forces who had successfully landed occupied the battery and rear anti-aircraft gun positions and were advancing inland.
The front of Dieppe, where the enemy's firepower was concentrated, was eventually breached.
Although they succeeded in inflicting heavy damage on the enemy during the landing, our forces were unable to withstand the pouring naval gunfire, enemy airstrikes, and attacks by the landing force and tanks and were forced to give up their positions.
The enemy forces currently advancing inland are the British, Canadian, and Polish forces. Subsequently, additional Free French and Czechoslovak troops landed on the coast.
"Your Excellency, your Excellency the President."
"Excuse me for a moment."
After receiving the receiver from his adjutant, Marshal Noh heard the President's voice coming through the receiver.
-Marshal Rundstedt. I have received reports that Allied troops have landed in Dieppe. How far has the enemy army advanced now?
Rundstedt relayed to the Fuhrer exactly what he had received.
-What does the enemy think the situation is like?
"So far, it is within the expected range."
-is it so?
At Rundstedt's calm answer, Hitler's voice, which had been stiff from tension, softened a little.
-How long will it take to drive the enemy back to the sea?
"I think it will take quite a while since the enemy is so large."
-exactly?
As Hitler's voice hardened again, Rundstedt chuckled.
"Don't worry too much. "The headquarters plans to drive out the enemy within 24 hours, or 48 hours at the latest."
-I will only trust my enemies. If we cannot stop the enemy from advancing inland, Europe is finished. I hope you do your best.
"Would it be possible?"
After finishing his phone call with the Fuhrer, Rundstedt returned to his seat. And looking down at his map, he said in a confident voice:
"Now then, let's cook our British gentlemen step by step."
***
Douglas Bader, commander of the 242nd Squadron he commanded, was known as a 'crazy guy' among his subordinates.
Bader enlisted in the RAF in 1928 and had both legs amputated in an accident during training in 1931, three years after enlisting.
Even after having his leg amputated, Vader did not want to give up his dream of becoming a pilot, but his superiors forced him to be discharged from the military, saying that the Air Force did not need a disabled person without legs.
Vader later requested to return to the Air Force whenever possible, but the Air Force mercilessly rejected his request.
What saved Vader from despair was none other than war.
When World War II broke out and more pilots were needed, the RAF reinstated Bader, and he was appointed commander of No. 242 Squadron.
His subordinates did not trust Vader, who appeared with a prosthetic leg, but soon changed their minds after seeing Vader's mesmerizing aerobatics.
However, the war ended before Vader could act properly, and Vader, who had no place to stand again, was sent to India.
Then, when the Pacific War broke out due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Vader was able to go to battle again.
Before receiving orders to return to his home country of No. 242 Squadron in June, Bader shot down 31 Japanese fighters and bombers in his Hawker Hurricane.
He returned to England, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and stood on the front lines when the second war with Germany broke out.
Even in the skies over Dieppe, the Spitfire he rode was ahead of other Spitfires.
"come! Everyone, come to your senses!"
Vader gritted his teeth as he watched the group of Bf109s and Fw190s rushing towards the Spitfires.
I felt like I was running towards a swarm of hungry wasps wearing nothing but shabby sleeveless clothes.
Even Air Force Fighter Command Commander Hugh Dowding acknowledged that the Spitfire's performance was inferior to the German Air Force's main Bf109 and Fw190.
An experienced and skilled pilot could overcome the differences in aircraft performance through skill, but not all pilots had outstanding qualities to overcome the differences in aircraft performance.
However, Vader was a top-class pilot among those rare pilots.
As the battle began, a Bf109 driven by an ambitious pilot rushed straight towards Vader's Spitfire.
Vader turned the throttle and moved the control stick to avoid the strafing fire from the enemy aircraft, causing the aircraft to descend. Then it also descended and followed Vader.
"Sigh!"
Vader, who was playing tag with the enemy plane chasing him, took a breath and turned the aircraft to the right.
Gravity and dizziness as if weighing down his body struck him, but he succeeded in sending the Bf109 that was chasing him flying.
The Bf109 pilot, who suddenly went from being chased to being chased, panicked and raised the aircraft.
However, Vader put a cannonball into the enemy plane's tail before it could escape through the clouds.
"I caught one!"
Vader succeeded in shooting down the enemy plane with skill, but there was no time for him to smile in remorse.
There were still too many enemies he had to deal with, and it wasn't even noticeable that he only shot down one plane.
"Fuck you fucking Jerry. "There are so many."
Vader cursed bitterly as he looked at the enemy planes that still filled his field of vision.
He and his comrades fought tooth and nail, but as time passed, the enemy forces showed no signs of slowing down.
The British army was shrinking as time went by.
-Timmy! Two guys followed behind you, ah!
-Chu, it's falling!
-Someone help me! Fuck, that fucking baby doesn't fall!
The RAF's radio outlook was soon stained with despair and screams. While one Bf109 or Fw190 fell, two or three Spitfires fell.
The aircraft's performance was a hindrance to British pilots, but geographical requirements were also a problem.
Unlike the German planes that took off from bases in France, the British planes took off from bases on the British mainland and consumed a lot of fuel to cross the sea, and considering the fuel to return to base, they could only fight within a very limited time.
Because of this, the Spitfires, who had seriously consumed fuel due to intense turns during the battle, had to give up the fight and turn around.
Even RAF's best ace, Vader, could not do anything about the fuel shortage.
However, the German planes had no intention of letting go of the British planes, which gave up the fight and fled.
The German planes tenaciously attacked the retreating British planes, and many Spitfires crashed in the process.
Even if they managed to avoid an enemy attack, there were fighter jets that consumed too much fuel during the evasion process and crashed into the sea.
-Oh, no!!
-Coburn!
Vader felt his heart break as he heard the sighs of his comrades as they saw their plane crashing in vain after running out of fuel.
As if stabbing a dagger into his heart, on the battlefield just ten kilometers away, dozens of Do 217s were dropping bombs on the heads of our troops who were landing.
***
"oh my god."
De Gaulle could not keep his mouth shut at the terrible scene unfolding before him.
It was a terrible sight that I could not bear to open my eyes to, as if it were a replica of Dante's Hell in reality.
"… .."
The pebble beach, which was filled with vacationers and tourists in the summer, was filled with holes-filled corpses and debris.
Smoke continued to billow from the hatch of the Churchill tank, which had been stretched out after being hit by a PaK 40 armor-piercing shell at the bottom of the hull.
Right next to the tank, the body of a Canadian tank soldier, bent in a strange position, was neatly laid out like mashed potatoes served with a steak.
Most of the bodies were British and Canadian soldiers, but there were also Free French soldiers mixed in.
De Gaulle stood in front of the corpse of a sergeant with his head blown off and only his torso remaining. There was bewilderment in De Gaulle's eyes as he looked down at his corpse for a long time.
Despite the pressure of those around him to stay in a safe rear area and go after the successful operation, de Gaulle went to Dieppe, insisting that he, as the head of Free France, should set foot on French soil in person.
It was nice to step on Dieppe Beach out of curiosity, but the sight was more gruesome than he expected and left him speechless.
Since it was an landing operation and the German defenses were formidable, he was prepared to make some sacrifices. But he had no idea there would be this many.
"It's like we're back in Verdun in 1916."
"dismissal."
Philippe Leclerc, de Gaulle's loyal subordinate and one of de Gaulle's most trusted officers, spoke insinuatingly.
"The battle begins now."
"Yes, that's right."
De Gaulle came to his senses after hearing Leclerc's words. The liberation of France begins now.
There will be more tragedies and sacrifices in the future, so we should not be shocked here.
De Gaulle, who had returned to his usual bold self, remained silent and continued walking.
As he crossed the barrier, which, like the beach, was full of corpses and blood stains, de Gaulle asked the British captain, a Canadian from Quebec who served as a liaison officer.
"How is the war going?"
"I don't know the details, but I heard that there are many batteries that have not yet been suppressed. "Our troops are trying to take a detour and attack the rear, but they are making no progress because there are German soldiers at every corner."
"Huh… ."
De Gaulle wanted to personally go to the front line and check how the war was going. If possible, he would like to command the troops himself.
"emergency! "It's an air raid!"
"Anti-aircraft fire!"
An enemy plane appeared and an air raid alarm sounded.
Engineers who were laying huge carpets made of woven linen on the gravel to allow tanks and armored vehicles to pass easily, and soldiers who were carrying wounded soldiers to the beach were all lying on their stomachs on the ground or running around looking for a place to hide.
De Gaulle also fell down to avoid the enemy's strafing.
The Bofors anti-aircraft gun fired fire at the enemy planes, but not a single shot could reach the enemy planes.
The Fw190 squadron strafed the Allied soldiers landing on the beach.
Soldiers with limbs blown off and holes in their bodies fell to the ground with blood pouring from their mouths.
"What on earth is our air force doing!"
A soldier who lost a comrade in a strafing screamed in rage.
There were no Allied fighter planes in the sky. The only things floating in the sky are clouds and German flags hidden behind the clouds.
The clear, light blue sky felt particularly cruel to de Gaulle today
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