The Rise of the Third Reich

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

When the dull roar came, Major Hauptmann Walter Kirk's heart skipped a beat while sitting in a Ju52 transport plane.

"It was still discovered!" Major Hauptmann Walter Kirk muttered in a low voice.

This former Miuta special forces officer served as the commander of the 8th Paratrooper Company in the Polish campaign and led his troops to parachute in Lviv. He is now leading a team of 493 elite special forces (mainly from the The "Cork Commando", composed of a paratrooper regiment and the Brandenburg Special Forces, was conducting a daring surprise attack.

The target of their surprise attack was the Eben-Emel Fortress - a key stronghold of the Belgian army on the Albert Canal defense line. It guards three important bridges and can also use artillery to control Eben-Emel within a 16-kilometer radius. Albert Canal and all crossings on the Maas River.

If the German army could not seize this fortress in the early stages of the Belgian campaign, the German army that broke into Belgium through the Netherlands would be blocked in the "Maastricht Cecum" east of the Albert Canal - the Meas River. It passes through the city of Maastricht, and the Albert Canal passes through the west of the city of Maastricht. To the south of Maastricht, the canal and the Maas River will quickly approach each other. Becoming a "parallel river" North of Maastricht, the Maas River and the Albert Canal are connected by an artificial river, so it looks like an appendix on the map.

Because of the surrounding rivers, once the main bridges were blown up and the main ferries were controlled by artillery, it would be difficult for the Germans to break through quickly.

Therefore, the Eben-Emel Fortress has been the focus of research by the German Wehrmacht General Staff since its completion. Three plans to seize the fortress were formulated long before the outbreak of the world war.

The first option is to use super cannons for bombardment, which is a conventional method for taking over fortresses.

However, the Eben-Emel Fortress is very strong. It is a fortress built on a small granite plateau. Its northeast and northwest sides are almost vertical cliffs, about 40 meters high. The surging Albert Canal passes through the cliffs. Below; the south is separated by a wide anti-tank trench and a 6-meter-high and 2-meter-thick reinforced concrete protective wall. There are also large minefields outside the protective wall and trench.

It was impossible to destroy the granite cliffs in the northeast and northwest with artillery. Only the high concrete wall in the south could be bombarded. But to use cannon to directly bombard the high wall, the cannon had to be transported across the Maas River and the Albert Canal. This is a very difficult task!

The second option is to use heavy armor-piercing bombs to blow up several main forts of the fortress, destroying the fortress's firepower, and at the same time using infantry to seize three bridges erected on the Albert Canal.

The difficulty with this plan is that it is difficult for heavy bombs to directly hit the artillery base, and the infantry attack cannot succeed in a short time. Because the Belgians used 3 infantry brigades to guard 3 bridges respectively. Although they could not stop the German attack, they still had time to blow up the bridge.

The third option is to boldly use airborne troops! An air assault was launched to seize the fortress and dismantle the explosives planted by the Belgians on three bridges. Now this plan is the first choice to capture the fortress!

In order to ensure the suddenness of the air assault, Ms. Hannah Leich, the technical advisor of the Luftwaffe Staff (she had been a test pilot of the Luftwaffe since 1937) also proposed a method of using H aircraft to fly over the Eben-Emel Fortress. A bold plan to land on a flat top (because there was no radar in Belgium at this time, sound positioning was used to detect aircraft, and the H-glider did not make any sound when flying).

According to this raid plan that was finally adopted, the assault force will fly in 42 DFS-230B-1H gliders (a total of 445 people including H glider pilots) and several Ju52 transport aircraft (47 people), and will conduct the assault in two batches. First, the H aircraft quietly descended from the sky to launch a surprise attack, and then the Ju52 dropped paratroopers, ammunition and some weapons.

But when 41 Ju52 transport planes cut the ropes of the same number of DFS-230B-1H gliders and began to turn around and return, the Belgian anti-aircraft artillery fired.

"Major, the Belgians are firing on Aunt Juncker!" the voice of the H aircraft pilot came from the loudspeaker in the cabin.

Major Coker picked up the intercom and shouted loudly: "Ignore the Belgian anti-aircraft artillery, we continue to perform the mission! Go and win victory and glory for Germany!"

"Yes, Major!" The pilot's voice came from the loudspeaker again, "The H aircraft has begun to attack the intended target!"

"Okay!" Major Kirk said, "They'll make it! We'll parachute in 15 minutes!"

At 5:15 in the morning on April 10, 1940, 41 H gliders belonging to four attack teams (one H glider had its cable disconnected early and landed in the Netherlands) began to launch attacks on four targets. Air assault.

Among them, the "Steel Group" (the code name of the assault team) commanded by Lieutenant Gustav Altmann was tasked with seizing the Feldweizet Bridge; the "Concrete Group" commanded by Lieutenant Gerhard Schacht The mission of the "Granite Group" commanded by Lieutenant Martin Schacter is to capture the Fronhoven Bridge; the mission of the "Granite Group" commanded by Lieutenant Martin Schacter is to capture the Cannes Bridge; and the mission of the "Granite Group" commanded by Lieutenant Rudolf Witzsch is It was to airborne on the flat top of the Eben-Emel Fortress, with less than 100 troops to destroy the main fort and machine gun tower, clearing obstacles for the subsequent infantry attack!

…

A huge, dazzling fireball suddenly rose from a bridge over the Albert Canal, accompanied by a deafening roar.

"The Belgians blew up the bridge! The Belgians blew up the bridge!"

At 5:25, Herschmann's baby son Rudolf shouted in the cockpit of a Fokker Zero aircraft. He first witnessed a DFS-230B-1H aircraft being hit by Belgian ground artillery fire. The H aircraft broke into two pieces and fell to the ground on the spot. Two minutes later, he saw the bridge being blown up again.

"Rudolf! Concentrate, your mission is air cover!" Lieutenant Heinz Bahr's scolding came from his earphones.

"Yes, but there are no enemy planes..." Rudolf looked around. There was no sign of any enemy planes in the sky, only dozens of Fokker Zeros and BF-109s flying freely. So he wanted to use the Fokker Zero's 20mm cannon to support the airborne German commandos.

Lieutenant Barr continued to reprimand, "Second Lieutenant, today's air superiority cover mission has just begun. We have to fly in the sky for 5 hours. Please give me some strength."

The Fokker Zero is a fighter jet with an extremely long flight time and can hover in the sky for up to 7 hours. However, under normal circumstances, an air superiority cover mission will not last more than 5 hours, otherwise the pilot will be too tired and affect his performance.

"Understood, Lieutenant." Rudolph looked at the ground 3,000 meters below and saw fireballs rising near the bridge where the explosion just occurred. It seemed that a fierce battle was taking place. On the land belonging to the Netherlands to the east of the battlefield, countless tanks, armored vehicles and trucks were advancing in long lines on several roads connecting the bridge.

Obviously, the ground attack has now begun! As long as one of the three bridges is not destroyed by the Belgians, these German armored-motorized groups passing through the Limburg Province of the Netherlands can quickly break into the hinterland of Belgium.

"Kurt, Kurt, the bridge is still there! The bridge is still there!"

The voice of Hans Glazer, commander of the 17th Motorized Reconnaissance Company, came from Armored Meyer's earphones.

Kurt Meier's "Adolf Hitler" Guards Corps is now one of the vanguard units of the 18th Army attacking through Limburg, the Netherlands. After passing a bridge over the Maas River in the Netherlands, it immediately headed towards Albert. The Fronhoven Bridge on the river advanced, and it was the Cannes Bridge that had just been blown up by the Belgians. The Fronhofen Bridge is still there!

"Kurt, Kurt, let your assault gun go faster. There's a fierce battle happening here on the bridge! It's the airborne brothers who are surrounded!"

"Got it!" Kurt Meier shouted into the intercom, "We'll be there soon, let the damn Belgians taste the power of the No. 3 assault gun right away!"

In this time and space, the concept of assault gun was proposed by Hersman. As early as 1938, when the No. 3 tank was not yet finalized, the development task of the No. 3 assault gun (based on the chassis of the No. 3 tank) was issued. Before the Battle of Poland, the first No. 3 assault gun prototype equipped with a 24-caliber 75mm gun was manufactured. Subsequently, improvements were made based on the experience gained in the Polish campaign, and the No. 3 assault gun Type A was created.

Since this assault gun has no turret and its structure is relatively simple, it is low-cost and very suitable for mass production. Therefore, its monthly output soon exceeded that of the No. 3 tank itself. Not only was it equipped with 4 motorized infantry divisions and 3 elite SS standard forces, some of them were even directly assigned to armored divisions and used as tanks.

About a quarter of an hour later, 6 units belonging to the 16th Assault Artillery Battery of the SS "Adolf Hitler" Leibstandarte (the previous 14 units were incorrect, have been changed to 6 units, because the assault gun company is an artillery organization, and each company has 6 units). Taiwan Assault Gun) No. 3 assault gun has been deployed in a row in the wilderness east of the Fronhoven Bridge.

The motorized infantry following the assault guns also disembarked from their vehicles. Six squads of them followed behind the six assault guns. The rest also occupied positions and set up MG34 machine guns and 80mm mortars ( 34 year model).

Seeing that everything was ready, Armored Meyer leaned half out of the top hatch of a No. 3 tank, picked up the intercom, and loudly gave the order to attack: "The target is directly ahead, under the Fronhofen Bridge. Belgian position! Soldiers of the Guards, advance!”