Chapter 243

Stuttgart was not in a good mood. He had just parachuted to the territory of the Netherlands with his glider, when he got the news of heavy losses of troops in various regions from his radio.

Due to the interference of air defense firepower, a ju-52 transport plane made a mistake when delivering paratroopers. Twelve fully armed German Paratroopers were thrown out of the cabin, only to find that they were falling in the direction of an aircraft warehouse destroyed by the first German bomber, where there was a raging fire - these German Paratroopers were desperate and slowly falling towards hell, They look at their feet in horror and listen to the wind and parachute take them to the hot core.

For this single mistake, the German Paratroopers paid the price of 12 deaths, not including the casualties caused by the fierce counterattack of the surrounding Dutch defenders.

Most of the paratroopers landed on the edge of the airport, and they quickly began to attack. When the first ju-52 transport arrived with infantry, the battle was in intense progress. Overhead, a German fw-190d has just smashed a British intrepid to pieces. On this day, 93 of the 125 Dutch fighter planes were shot down by the German air force, which became a record and was smeared on the fuselage of the fighter planes piloted by the German ace fighter pilots.

The German planes ventured to a forced landing at the airport, their feet resounding with the roar of Dutch anti-aircraft guns. The first ju-52 transport plane landed safely, while the second one was hit by anti-aircraft artillery, which instantly turned into fragments and fire, falling to the ground and emitting thick smoke.

About an hour later, nearly 100 ju-52 transport planes carrying three infantry battalions and a total of 1200 fully armed soldiers landed at valhavin airport. One of the battalions started moving north through the streets of the Rotterdam suburbs. The task of these airborne infantry was to reinforce the German Paratroopers who had taken over the Williams bridge crossing the new Maas River in the middle of the city.

The attack of these German Paratroopers was a bit incredible. They arrived at their destination in an old-fashioned seaplane, where they drove downstream with the help of the old Henkel 59 seaplane (which was also one of the early contraband of the national defense forces) through the water fog, trying to land before the Dutch garrison found them.

The German soldiers on the plane quickly inflated the raft and rowed to the shore by hand. After landing, they built simple fortifications and machine gun strongholds on both sides of the river to guard the Williams bridge. In addition, these people also seized the time to build a small floating bridge leading to the island in the middle of the river.

It is amazing that at first these German Paratroopers did not meet resistance as invaders. The Dutch who went to work through the Williams bridge thought that the seaplanes belonged to the British, and some well meaning Dutch citizens came forward to help the German soldiers transport the goods to the river.

But it didn't last long. When the Dutch realized that they had been invaded, they began to fight back fiercely. These German Paratroopers concealed themselves behind the piers and in nearby houses, tenaciously blocking the Dutch attack. There are few German troops, but they are highly motivated and well-equipped. They stick to places vulnerable to cross-strait attacks, and few people feel confused about whether they can stick to them.

The Dutch garrison stormed German positions from all directions, but the German army relied on the superior firepower to fight back fiercely. Mp-44 assault rifles and G43 semi-automatic rifles were obviously more suitable for the present situation than the bolt rifles used by the Dutch garrison. Although three or four German soldiers were killed, the Dutch also left more than 20 bodies.

Suddenly, a streetcar in the city rings its bell and rushes to the south side of the bridge. In the Dutch's dumbfounded, from the tram and the car behind, jumped a full 70 fully armed German soldiers. These soldiers are a company under the command of Wei Kefen.

Keffin's paratroopers were parachuted to the ground in a soccer stadium on the south bank. After landing, they occupied the surrounding buildings, and then forced the trams and several cars in the city. They drove the stunned Dutch civilians out of their cars and drove them straight to the bridge.

These German Paratroopers who came to support occupied the southern end of the bridge, while others ran across the bridge at full speed to support their comrades who were facing collapse. The frenzied fire of the Dutch Resistance blocked the infantry battalion coming from valhavin airport in the middle of the road. They were bombarded on both sides of the road and could not support the German Paratroopers in the north section of the Williams bridge as planned.

The Dutch did not sit at home and get beaten. On the contrary, they did not know how much better than the Polish army. All the weapons and equipment seem to be fighting for the Williams bridge near Rotterdam. Soon, a Dutch patrol boat and a torpedo boat arrived at the new Maas river. The Dutch on the boat bombarded the bridgehead positions of Germany with small caliber cannons and madly destroyed the seaplanes on the water.

But soon the two ships ran out of ammunition and were forced to leave the area of fierce fighting. Then the Dutchman brought in a more ruthless role: a destroyer and two gunboats from the Dutch Cape to the narrow water. The warships were ordered to bombard valhavin airport, attacking German field artillery and large caliber mortar troops that were landing there.

But this time, the German air force appeared in time to save the airborne troops that were about to fall into disaster - 20 Stuka dive bombers came over Rotterdam and began to cover the German Paratroopers and clean up the Dutch army targets around. The destroyer of the Dutch navy was forced to leave because the German air force would sink it if it found the destroyer firing guns. The Dutch fleet didn't want to fight the bombers in the narrow waters, so it had to run away in a hurry and didn't even have time to fire a gun. Most of the Dutch resistance forces that day were in a mess. German Paratroopers seem to be everywhere. They block roads, occupy fortresses, control bridges and railways, and kill Dutch soldiers in unexpected places. There are rumors everywhere that German Paratroopers are disguised as policemen, priests and even nuns. The Dutch garrison is bewildered by this information. The whole of Holland is burning. This kind of war confuses the defensive side. They don't know how to effectively defend and counterattack. This is one of general Stuttgart's tricks. He had some transport planes empty the fake paratroopers in the Dutch village and somewhere else. The scarecrows, dressed in old uniforms replaced by paratroopers and equipped with simple burning devices, set fire everywhere, causing chaos, and made Dutch commanders overestimate the size of the German airborne troops. After a few hours, the battle was white hot. The Dutch defenders finally found their real threat in the evening. In order to cooperate with the British forces in defense and counterattack, they thought that they must recapture the bridge of Fort Dordrecht between Rotterdam and murdyk. So they made the craziest counterattack against the German Paratroopers here. Here the German Paratroopers parachuted two companies of troops, they with favorable terrain and advanced weapons and equipment to beat back the Dutch attack again and again. But the price is almost unacceptable: a German company commander died, and more than 30 German Paratroopers died here. And at the end of the day, the Dutch took back the bridgehead on one side by virtue of their own number. They drove the Germans away from the side of the railway bridge and occupied several simple positions. However, these Dutch attack forces did not get the order to destroy the bridge, so they had to risk maintaining the confrontation across the bridge. The news reached Stuart's ears by radio, landing with airborne infantry at warhaven and setting up his operations headquarters at a nearby school. He stood on the platform and began to assign tasks one by one, gathering up the parachute troops everywhere - while his combat staff and officers sat on the bench, surrounded him like a group of over age repeaters“ How many reserves do we have? " Stuttgart stared at the map in his hand and asked the nearest commander, "you can fight now."“ General, we have a battalion of garrison troops nearby, but if we use them, the defense of the airport can only be completed by the remaining two companies - it's very dangerous. " The Officer immediately stood up and returned. Stuart covered his mouth with his hand and thought for a while. Finally, he made up his mind to gamble: "war itself is the biggest risk. There are not so many ways to have the best of both worlds for us to choose." He glanced at the officer: "you lead this battalion to doderecht at once! Stay there until we get here! Take all the ammunition you can take! Tomorrow night at the latest, I don't have any troops to reinforce you. "“ Yes! general! Make sure you get the job done! " The officer stood at attention and left the headquarters in a hurry with some of his men. It's a gamble. Stutton now has only two company soldiers to defend the important warhaven airport, which is the place where his reinforcements and supplies land the next day. The airport is full of ju-52 transport planes that don't have time to fly back to Germany. If something goes wrong, the German air force will suffer heavy losses. Taking advantage of the night, he risked sending reinforcements to the Dordrecht area to recapture the position. The news relieved Stuart's tension. Now his only worry is whether the Dutch garrison will attack his warhaven airport. The German Paratroopers destined to be in Holland that night, no one fell asleep. Another man who couldn't sleep because of excessive tension, akado, who was far away in Shibao, Germany, lost sleep. He stared at the battle map until dawn. Even Anna came in to persuade him, he didn't say a word. This is a big gamble on the fate of a country and a nation.