By September 6, 1939, the Luftwaffe aircraft was already the owner of the Polish sky. Due to the emergence of the Folk Zero, a large-range escort fighter, the Polish Air Force performed worse than in history. P.11 and P.7 could have relied on medium and low altitude flexibility to get entangled with the BF-109. But now when we meet the Folk Zero, the king who can fight in medium and low altitude, we can only be shot down.

So when Major General Theodore von Shiple soared above the clouds in a Ju52 transport plane, he was not worried at all about the threat of Polish fighters. If they only existed, the 36 Fokker Zero, who were on the escort mission, would solve them very easily.

However, he was somewhat nervous about this enemy airborne. Because the destination of the airborne Lviv was too far from the east. This airborne was not so much a "tactical task" but rather a "strategic task". The purpose of burning the war to the Polish free state was to stimulate Stalin and force the Soviet Union to declare war on Poland immediately, thereby greatly improving the strategic isolation situation currently facing Germany.

Therefore, the airborne troops must take great risks!

The risk not only comes from Lviv's geographical location too east, which prevents German ground troops from joining the airborne troops in a short period of time, but also comes from Germany's lack of enough transport aircraft to airdrop enough troops to Lviv at one time.

At present, the most transport aircraft of the Luftwaffe is the Ju52. This aircraft with a simple structure and strong structure is easy to produce and relatively cheap. Therefore, it was favored by the Luftwaffe before the war, with more than 1,000 aircraft produced by the Juncker Company and the BF-FK consortium. Currently, more than 500 aircraft have been delivered. 394 of them will be participated in the Lviv airborne.

However, the carrying capacity of the ju52 is not satisfactory, far from the four-engine transport aircraft such as Ju90 and Folk F.36. A ju52 can only carry more than 4 tons of cargo, 13 paratroopers or 18 infantry. In other words, 394 ju52s can only airdrop more than 7,000 paratroopers to Lviv. In the actual Lviv airdrop operation, these 394 ju52s carried about 6,000 fully armed paratroopers (from the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the 1st Miuta Regiment respectively) and 240 tons of cargo (mainly ammunition and supplies).

In addition, the Luftwaffe also mobilized two He-111 medium bombers to drag the DFS-0***. The net weight of this **** is only 860 kilograms and can carry up to 10 kilograms of cargo or 8 fully armed soldiers.

1,856 officers and soldiers of the Great German Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Von Stockhausen, were riding in these *******s. These 1,856 people were not all the personnel and equipment of the Great German Infantry Regiment, but only three infantry battalions of the Great German Regiment. The regiment was not an ordinary infantry regiment, but had an artillery battalion (4 companies, 6 75mm infantry cannons, 4 88mm infantry cannons, 12 37mm anti-tank cannons, 6 75mm mountain cannons carried by special vehicles) and an independent regiment of the Assault Engineering Battalion.

As for the artillery battalion and assault engineering battalion of the Great German Regiment, they were not in the sequence of the first wave of airdrop troops. According to the plan, they would airlift to Lviv with Ju52 transport aircraft after the first wave of airdrop troops occupied Lviv Airport. Moreover, before the German armored troops (the 19th Panzer Army) assaulted near Lviv, more than 9,000 people in the "Miuta Cluster" could only rely on air transport and airdrops to maintain combat.

And their enemies are likely to be as many as tens of thousands!

At this moment, the speakers on the plane suddenly rang out, and the voice of Captain Ju52 came: "We have arrived above the target!"

...

Lviv has arrived!

Below the plane that Major General Theodore von Shipur was riding is the only large airport in the Ukrainian Free State. Because the Poles concentrated all the planes on the western battlefield, there was no aircraft or advanced anti-aircraft guns at this dual-use military and civilian airport. There were only a few old anti-aircraft guns left by World War I. A squadron's Zero Folk threw 30 kilograms of anti-aircraft gun positions (a Fokker Zero can hang 2 pieces) and fired randomly for a while with the aircraft and cannons, which completely suppressed the firepower on the ground.

The airdrop operation can begin.

Major General Shipur was shaking constantly, and all the paratroopers had stood up and checked their equipment for the last time. Miuta special forces and paratroopers were both elite German troops, but their current equipment was limited to the ordinary infantry. Most people used K and mp-38, but K was not brought when parachuting. These were loaded into the "weapons and equipment container" together with the mg-34 mechanism and 81mm mortar. In addition to the mp-38 (only experienced paratroopers can carry mp-38 parachuting), they were also.

In addition, paratroopers' recoil-free guns and anti-tank guns are still under development. Therefore, the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the 1st Miuta Regiment do not carry artillery airdrops other than mortars. The two units are also equipped with artillery battalions. They are just mountain artillery battalions and ordinary anti-tank artillery companies drawn from mountain troops, equipped with 75mm mountain artillery and 37mm anti-tank guns.

They would airborne the Lviv Airport by ju52 after the airborne troops occupied Lviv Airport.

The red indicator light on the plane began to flash, which was the signal that the airdrop began.

A second lieutenant standing at the door of the aircraft cabin shouted: "For the last check of equipment! Everyone confirms the parachute! Start!"

"No. 1! Finished! No. 2! Finished! No. 3! Finished!..."

The green light lit up, and the major pushed open the cabin door hard, and the cold wind poured in, blowing everyone around for a while.

"Start the skydiving!" Then the captain shouted, "No. 1! Jump!"

The first Miuta warrior stepped out of the cabin in one step. The Miuta army has a very long history, which can be traced back to the end of World War I. The development of the twenty-one years has made this army synonymous with the elite of the German Wehrmacht. Now the paratroopers belonging to the Air Force and the navy's land special forces are actually derived from the Miuta army.

Parachute airdrops are nothing more than a piece of cake to these elite troops in the army.

Countless white flower-like parachutes appeared in the sky, blooming one after another, and soon covered the entire sky. The Ukrainian defense forces around Lviv Airport seemed to have never existed. Faced with the dense parachutes, the firepower on the ground was pitifully low.

Soon, German soldiers descended on the ground in broad daylight and began to form a temporary combat cluster and rushed towards important targets near the airport.

...

September 6, 1939, 6:00 pm British time.

At this time, nearly 8,000 elite German troops had occupied the Lviv airport and a large area around it. This was a very remarkable event, which meant that the Soviet Union would soon attack Poland!

However, since the Polish government was on its way to escape, the entire Polish army was in chaos again. Therefore, this key news was not promptly informed to London.

Therefore, the plan to "borrow" the Netherlands to bomb Berlin was not cancelled. If the Soviet Union declared war on Poland within a few days, then it would be very stupid to destroy the Netherlands' neutrality!

However, the British government did not know about this. Major General Arthur Travers Harris, the commander of the 5th bombing group responsible for bombing Berlin, did not know that he was doing something very stupid.

At this time, he was summoning the squadron leaders of his subordinates to arrange flight routes and missions to bomb Berlin.

"What? Flying over the Netherlands?" The squadron leader immediately expressed his objection, "The Netherlands declared war on Germany?"

"No."

"Then the Netherlands declared war on us?"

“No, either.”

"What's going on with us? Flying over a neutral country with 96 full Wellington bombers?"

"Yes!" Major General Harris nodded, "This is an order!"

"So...what should we do when we were discovered by the Dutch?"

"They won't find it," said Harris. "It's hard to find bombers in the sky at night without radar. Moreover, they don't have night fighters, and even if they find it, they can't kill you."

"But they have the Fokker D.21, which is a very good plane. If you take off and intercept us, you might be able to find us in the air."

A squadron leader expressed his concerns. Although the Netherlands does not have radars and night combat aircraft, the Fokker D.21 can also fly into the sky at night and can fight with ground searchlights.

"What if there is a Folk D.21 shooting at us?"

"Then fight back!" said Major General Harris, "This is nothing extraordinary, the Dutch are already acquainted with Germany!"

The official order of "can be fired back" is not that "borrowing the Netherlands" was a "mistake". The flight instruments of 96 bombers failed at the same time, so they flew into the Dutch air.

But when the RAF Chief of Staff General Neuval gave a "hint" when he issued the order, the British Empire did not mind the Netherlands on the side of Germany!
Chapter completed!