Although the German reserve force and the American reserve force arrived near the target at almost the same time, the strength of the two reserve groups was significantly different. The total number of German troops stationed in Cherbourg was only 4,000, and the area to be defended was very large, so in the end,

The strength left as a reserve force is no more than one company.

At one point, there are about 150 people. However, the U.S. military has very abundant troops, not to mention that General Collins, commander of the 7th Army, has as many as a division of reserves. Even Dalton, who is responsible for attacking this area,

The regiment commander also had a reserve of an entire battalion of infantry and five tanks.

Therefore, although the German army invested in reserves, it was not able to repel the Americans, or even block them. It only slowed down the opponent's advance. What's more terrible is that some other directions also failed.

It appeared that it could no longer hold on and was retreating steadily. At this time, General Schlieben no longer had any reserves available.

Now, for the Germans, the only consolation is that the fortifications at Cherbourg Port are very deep, so the Germans still have room to retreat. At least for the time being, there is no danger of the entire defense line being directly penetrated. Moreover,

The American losses were not small. As Clausewitz said in "On War", in most cases, defense is a more powerful way of combat than offense.

It's like, if in an unobstructed wilderness, several American soldiers holding M1 semi-automatic rifles encounter several German soldiers holding Mauser 98k bolt-action rifles. In the exchange of fire, the unlucky ones will definitely be the Germans.

Dude. Because the rate of fire of the semi-automatic in the hands of Americans is much higher than that of the Mauser 98k in the hands of the Germans. But if a few German guys are squatting in the trench with the Mauser 98k, a few Americans

Charge towards the trenches with an M1 semi-automatic rifle. The situation will immediately become unfavorable to the Americans. Because of the trenches, the area exposed by the German soldiers for shooting is much smaller. If you want to hit them, you

You must ensure that the bullets you shoot can hit a target the size of a head, otherwise the attack will be ineffective. In contrast, any part of the German's body that hits the Yankee is effective.

It is just the simplest fortification - a trench. If you add barbed wire, various machine gun bunkers and artillery bunkers, either overt or covert, plus minefields, anti-tank trenches, anti-tank cement piers and so on.

The advantage of the defending side will be more obvious.

Although the German army had to retreat steadily due to insufficient numbers, the US military had to pay a price for every step forward. Especially when the US military broke through the outer fortifications and began to face the German core fortifications, the battle became even more difficult.

.

Different from the peripheral fortification area, which is mainly used to delay the opponent and is mainly made of civil structures, the fortifications in the core fortification area are all reinforced concrete structures. Here, the traffic trenches are no longer open-air, the Germans built them on top

Reinforced concrete prefabricated cover plates. Although these cover plates cannot withstand direct hits from 203 mm caliber artillery, nor can they withstand repeated strikes from 155 mm artillery, the cover plates and the one covering them are

A layer of soil can block the sight of American pilots, preventing them from detecting the movement of German troops. Moreover, through these traffic trenches, sometimes the German troops can even move behind the Americans to launch sneak attacks. In area No. 5, several

The German soldiers used a traffic trench that was not discovered by the US military to sneak behind the US military, where they used the tank killers in their hands to kill four M4 Sherman tanks in one go.

In addition to the tunneled communication trenches, there are also more bunkers in the core fortification area. The strength of these concrete bunkers far exceeds those of the previous civil structure bunkers. Against those bunkers, the power of the M4 tank's 76mm gun has been

It's quite sufficient, but

Here we are, unless you can shoot the shell through the shooting hole of the bunker, otherwise, the 76mm high-explosive shell will only make a loud noise when it hits it. In less than 20 seconds, you will see the inside of this bunker.

The mg-42 machine gun once again spit out deadly tongues of fire.

If there are only these machine gun bunkers, that's it. The modified version of the M4 Spitfire tank can easily destroy them. However, there are more anti-tank gun bunkers here. The concrete shells of these bunkers can even withstand

A direct hit from the 155mm gun. The 75mm gun of the M4 tank hit it, just like scratching an itch. But these bunkers are equipped with weapons that can kill the M4 tank with one blow - the Pak-43 88mm anti-tank gun.

It is almost hopeless for a tank to directly challenge such an anti-tank gun bunker. Without such fortifications, if the attacker is the Soviets, they will probably let the su-152 assault gun solve the problem. If the su-152 attacks all

If they don't move, the Soviets will still risk artillery fire.

, pull up the 203 mm gun for direct aim. This method of attack will of course bring a lot of casualties. Although after the entire battle is completed, it will be considered a permanent loss, and the Soviets will not necessarily suffer. But when the Soviet army breaks through the German defense line

When playing, the Germans can always achieve a high exchange ratio.

The U.S. Army does not have large-caliber assault guns like the Su-152. In fact, the U.S. Army does not have the habit of attaching bayonets to suppressed artillery and rushing forward to fight the enemy. The Americans' method has always been to rely on air power to solve the problem.

However, bunkers equipped with Pak-43 anti-tank guns do not need to be deployed very far forward because of their powerful artillery and long range. These bunkers are located relatively far back, and rifle grenades can no longer launch smoke warheads near the bunkers.

However, this does not mean that Americans have nothing to do.

The air liaison officer Jim now discovered a bunker equipped with a Pak-43 anti-tank gun more than a thousand meters away. So he glanced at the other air liaison officer Sten, and the two nodded to each other.

They both took out a flare gun, and then separated from each other. When two people

After being separated for a while, they raised the flare guns in their hands and fired flares continuously in the direction of the anti-tank gun bunker. The two green flares pulled out two light strips, and these two light strips

At the extended intersection point is the German anti-tank gun bunker.

Carter piloted a PA-47 attack plane and flew forward along this green light strip. Under the belly of his plane hung a huge 1,600-pound special anti-concrete fortification bomb. He

Having discovered the anti-tank gun bunker, he dived down at an angle of nearly 90 degrees and dropped the bomb at an altitude of 800 meters.

This bomb did not directly hit the roof of the anti-tank gun bunker. It landed about 4 meters to the left of the bunker. The speed brought by falling from a high altitude made it completely penetrate into the soil, and then exploded violently.

.The violent explosion immediately tore open the side wall of the anti-tank gun bunker. The entire bunker also overturned.

However, there are still too few aircraft in Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing that can perform this kind of dive bombing mission. The firepower density they provide is far from enough to completely suppress those anti-tank gun bunkers. Therefore,

, around three o'clock in the afternoon, the US military's attack momentum began to weaken. At three-thirty, the US military's attack stopped.

After several hours of attacks, the US military has completely occupied the outer positions of Cherbourg, and launched several rounds of attacks on the core positions of Cherbourg, destroying many of the targets. However, now, if the attack continues, the losses of the US military will

It will also get bigger and bigger. Moreover, before dark, the US military also needs to establish a new line of defense that can defend against German night attacks. And this will also take time. So General Collins decided that today's attack would end here.

After the attack stopped, the artillery fire of the U.S. Navy fleet joined in again, covering the German positions. Under the cover of artillery fire, tank rescue vehicles towed back the M4 tanks that had been destroyed on the battlefield one by one.

Many of these tanks were not seriously damaged. They were dragged back for repairs. After a few days, they could return to the battlefield and shout: "Folks, my Sherman is back!"

After dragging the tanks back, the U.S. troops began to retreat and break away from the German troops. The U.S. troops withdrew very far back, giving away almost all the parts they captured today.

"General? When we retreated so far, didn't we give up all the gains we made during the day?" Ron asked Collins with some confusion.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, it would be great if the enemy is willing to come out and restore the old position." Collins replied, "There are defenses on the position that cannot be restored in one night. The defense strength of this area is

It is also impossible to recover in a short period of time. If the enemy runs to

Come here to fight with us. The exchange ratio will definitely make them feel distressed and want to commit suicide. There are only a few of them in total. If they play like this, it will be easy for us. But it is very possible that they will send people out to lay mines at night. We also

Troops should be sent out to hunt down these engineers."

"That's true." Ron nodded, "This is just like the airport we just got from the Germans. If the Germans put a wing of fighter jets on that airport a few months ago, we would definitely

So happy!"

"One of our major advantages lies in our personnel advantage. I estimate that the Germans will definitely suffer a lot of casualties today, and the troops must be extremely exhausted. If we harass them all night, we will definitely be able to invade the city tomorrow," Collins said.

Very confident.

"By the way, send military envoys again immediately to ask the Germans to surrender. They should also know that they will never be able to survive tomorrow."

…
Chapter completed!