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Volume 2 Growth Chapter 742 Shift in the Balance of Power

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    "Our grassroots commanders and soldiers are seriously lacking in experience. ¡û Whether it is battlefield concealment, combat skills, or coordination between various arms, our officers and soldiers are far from comparable to the enemy. Although since the end of October last year, our  They have been learning how to fight from the enemy, but less than three months is obviously not enough; in addition, the only troops that directly confronted the Germans were a brigade defending the island of Haiti, and a large number of them were in Cuba.  The assembled main force has never been tempered, and its combat level is not fundamentally different from the beginning of the war. A young infantry battalion just transferred from the mainland launched an attack on the enemy's position with great hope of victory. Three hours later.  , less than 80 of the more than 700 officers and soldiers in the entire battalion were able to escape intact. The survivors were like zombies with dull eyes, and they just kept using cigarettes to numb their nerves. Some people suffered from mental disorders in the battlefield.  Every day, the hospital receives some soldiers with sound limbs but gibbering gibberish" Lieutenant General McCurry, commander of the U.S. First Army stationed in Cuba, wrote in a report sent to Washington.  After three days of fighting, the U.S. military only advanced an average of less than 2 kilometers in its offensive in eastern Cuba. The wreckage of nearly a hundred Sherman tanks and the corpses of more than 5,000 soldiers were exposed in the wilderness. The rotting flesh and blood had attracted people.  Thousands of vultures, mosquitoes and flies come to feed.  If the German army had not acquiesced to the American Red Cross members flying white flags to collect the corpses within their own firepower out of humanitarian and epidemic prevention considerations, this tragic scene would have continued.  Less than 800 German soldiers were killed or missing, and only a handful of tanks were destroyed.  Due to their internal defensive posture, the German tanks were not only able to conceal themselves in advance.  The time the flanks are exposed to the opponent's muzzle is also greatly reduced.  Reliable front armor allows German tank crews to face enemy tank attacks with ease.  Actually.  Even if the armor battle damage is only a fraction of the opponent's, it is largely due to the US air strikes. If those bombers had not been frequently dispatched and poured tons of bombs on the German positions, the US military would not have been able to achieve the current progress!  Starting from the fourth day of the large-scale U.S. military offensive, the German air resistance over eastern Cuba has also increased significantly.  With the continuous expansion of field airports, a large number of German fighter jets taking off from Haiti landed directly at the nearby Baracoa Airport after completing battlefield support missions. This undoubtedly tilted the air power balance in favor of the Americans.  It began to gradually shift towards the German side.  The ground crew, fuel, ammunition, and various spare parts that support the normal dispatch of these fighter jets are constantly transported by sea. Whenever the air defense alarm sounds, German pilots fly these war eagles through the sky to fiercely attack the incoming invaders.  U.S. military fighter planes.  Since the U.S. military dispatches a large number of fighter planes to carry out violent attacks on German positions every day, the increase in German air interceptions was immediately noticed by them.  In order to block this process, the US military launched many countermeasures: bombers began to violently attack German battlefield airports, using a large number of saturation bombings to blow up the flat runways into the moon's surface.  With a light fleet as the core, a large number of ships were assembled.  A night attack of unprecedented scale was launched against the German landing sites.  However, to the disappointment of the US military command, neither of these two operations achieved the desired results.  Faced with enemy bombing of the airport.  German soldiers moved earth and sand and refilled the runway with extremely high efficiency. The entire repair process was usually completed within 4 to 8 hours.  Under this situation, German fighter jets were still active on the battlefield for a considerable period of time during the day, but US bombers suffered far more than usual losses in the risky attack on the airport.  The airport has always been a key defense area for the anti-aircraft artillery force. After the supplement, the German army had a total of 16 anti-aircraft artillery batteries pointing the firepower at the sky of the airport; although the efficiency of ground air defense in this era was generally tragic, when a large number of anti-aircraft artillery was deployed intensively,  They can still knock down a batch of bombers raging in the sky by pouring out cannonball-like concentrated fire!  In the anti-strangulation operations at sea, the German navy, which had incorporated the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets, appeared to be even more capable.  Every afternoon, two to three fast transport ships left the military port surrounded by ten times the number of warships, and when night fell, they sailed out of the German Air Force's protective umbrella on the island of Haiti.  At this time, they were less than 50 nautical miles away from the landing site.  The radars and sonar of all German ships were fully activated, escorting the transport ship all the way to the beach. As long as the radar screen showed a sudden light spot in the distance, the German fleet would immediately prepare for battle and wait until the opponent showed signs of approaching.  The intention was then met with a head-on blow.  Even during the night artillery battle, the German commander did not ignore the threat from the underwater. A small group of destroyers always guarded the transport ship that implemented blackout to guard against possible sneak attacks by enemy submarines.  The tight defense of the German navy turned the night attack of US ships on the beach into a frontal war of attrition against superior enemy forces.  On January 21stIn the Battle of Baracoa that broke out in the morning, a total of 3 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 3 destroyers of the US military were sunk, and more than 1,500 officers and soldiers were killed; the Allied fleet also had 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 4 destroyers.  A destroyer sank, and the two sides were almost even in terms of losses.  However, almost half of the losses of the Allied fleet were Italian warships. The damage of the German fleet at the core was much lower than that of the US military. More importantly, the German night landing was not disturbed by this fierce battle.  While artillery fire continued on the sea more than ten kilometers away, a large number of landing craft delivered tons of supplies to the beach, and they were quickly received by the army that had been waiting here using various vehicles.  Although the U.S. bomber group appeared over the beach as always and dumped explosives in large quantities with the assistance of flares, the capture of targets in the dark was far inferior to that in the daytime; after a round of air strikes, most of the bombs were irrelevant, and a few  Several bombs that hit the target were unable to cause substantial obstacles to the German night supplies.  Another concern for US military commanders is that their own bomber units have suffered considerable losses in continuous sorties, and the number that can sortie has dropped significantly compared with a few days ago.  Although the battle losses of B-17s dispatched in large numbers are not as high as when small groups were dispatched before, this does not mean that they can take off and be used without restriction: due to the fierce interception by the German army from the air and the ground,  , many B-17s returned with light or heavy damage. Not to mention the large number of bullet holes in the body, some important wiring and equipment were also damaged.  In such a situation, the bomber obviously can no longer attack with injuries, and can only wait at the airport for repairs to be completed!  Just as the fighting in eastern Cuba was in trouble, the situation of the US military on the island of Haiti also deteriorated sharply.  The German mountain infantry commanded by Dieter once again launched a fierce offensive, but the supplies available to the US troops stationed on the island were dwindling.  The U.S. land-based aviation force, which used its main air force to fight in Cuba, was no longer able to compete with the main force of the German air force for air supremacy over the island of Haiti. Groups of JU-88 bombers immediately repeated the actions of their U.S. military counterparts in Baracoa.  Port-au-Prince, the most important cargo handling base of the US military, exploded into a sea of ??flames.  The Allied navies have also stepped up patrols in the waters southeast of Cuba, and with the assistance of radar, they continue to intercept U.S. destroyers transporting supplies to the U.S. military on the island at night.  Every destroyer loaded with supplies was forced to return halfway, which was a complete disaster for the American soldiers on the island of Haiti: without guns and ammunition, how could they confront the wolf-like German elites head-on?  ?  "The situation is now obvious. We must be prepared to abandon the island of Haiti and retreat those divisions to Cuba to deploy defenses. The German blockade of the waters southeast of Cuba has made our supply of supplies to the island of Haiti increasingly difficult.  It is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Instead of letting these troops be annihilated by the Germans when they are short of food and ammunition, it is better to retreat to Cuba in order to regroup and prepare for another battle. "Standing in front of a huge combat map, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet said.  Commander Johnson said calmly, "Currently, shipping between the mainland of the United States and Cuba can still maintain good smooth flow. After withdrawing to Cuba, they will definitely play a greater role than on the island of Haiti where supplies are scarce."  Not far away, the thin Marshall looked heavy: He originally planned to implement a delayed defense strategy by taking advantage of the mountainous terrain in Haiti that was not suitable for large corps operations, but now he was completely defeated by the German counterattack in Cuba.  Disrupted.  If this situation is allowed to develop, the island of Haiti will inevitably be declared lost before the German army in eastern Cuba is defeated, and the German army can use it as a rear base to launch an all-out attack on Cuba.  And if the naval and air forces are returned to the island of Haiti, the German army's expansion in Cuba will lose its due restrictions; once they gain a foothold in Cuba, the situation of the defenders of the island of Haiti, who are surrounded from front to back, will definitely change.  Becoming more miserable.  Whether it was the weak combat power of the army that caused Baracoa to be unable to attack for a long time, or the shortage of naval ships that could not provide sufficient supplies, the ultimate reason pointed to one thing, that is, the United States was not ready to engage in a full-scale war.  Be prepared to go there.  The lightning collapse of Britain and France caused the United States to rush into this war on its doorstep with only a rusty hatchet. Faintly, Marshall felt an unspeakable fear. The prosperous and powerful United States had great potential.  It may collapse in this catastrophe!  "Let the troops on Haiti prepare to retreat." After a long silence, Marshall finally said slowly.  (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster! ps: Thank you to book friends ranky and monthly ticket support, and Birdcheng and Shi Shui Wuhen 123 for their rewards~~~
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