Chapter 240

"Stand up." With a command, the soldiers sitting on the lawn began to slowly get up. They carry parachute bags on the backs of their hands, tactical vests on their upper bodies, grenades, bayonets and water bottles. There are also ammunition bags, field tents and raincoats, all kinds of food and so on.

This is the most standard configuration of German Paratroopers. They are carefully trained according to the requirements of the head of state. Two out of every ten of them have blasting expertise, and the other two have received radio training. Nearly half of the men were armed with the latest mp-44 assault rifles, while the other half used G43 semi-automatic rifles and mg42 machine guns.

Here, I have to explain why this machine gun, which was born in 1932, is called "42". This is a bad taste of akkado, the head of state. He likes mg42 universal machine gun in another time and space very much, so he named the machine gun which was born under his supervision as mg42.

The successful development of mg42 machine gun in Germany is actually an important breakthrough in gun production technology. The designer of this machine gun is not a gun designer himself, he is an expert in metal stamping technology.

When akado found him, he thought that according to the traditional gun manufacturing process, that is, using mechanical processing to process a solid metal with lathe, milling machine, etc., cutting off unnecessary parts. This method not only wastes materials, but also costs a lot of work hours, so it is difficult to meet such needs.

In this traditional manufacturing process, the metal utilization rate is only about 25%, so he said to akado that it is an inevitable trend for machine guns to adopt metal stamping process. The Fuehrer was very satisfied with his concept and ordered him to be responsible for the design of the new machine gun. In fact, mg42 produced by metal stamping process not only saves materials and man hours, but also is more compact, which is very practical for Germany, which is short of metal resources.

However, when mg42 was just born and equipped with troops, in the eyes of Western spies lurking in Europe, it was actually a crude weapon, a patchwork of several pieces of iron and an iron pipe. At that time, snowy reports flew to Washington and London, and the contents were the same: Germany was no longer good, they were extremely short of raw materials, and even their tactical core machine guns used such crude manufacturing technology.

This machine gun was used by the German military to describe its excellence with three superlative adjectives: "the shortest time, the lowest cost, but it is the best weapon.".

The minimum firing rate of mg42 machine gun is 1200 shots per minute, and the maximum firing rate is 1500 shots per minute. When the firing rate of machine gun exceeds 1000 shots per minute, people can't distinguish the sound of a single shot. The shooting sound of mg42 is not like the "daddada" sound of Czech or browning machine gun, but like the "hiss" sound of a high-speed rotating electric saw, a bit like the sound of tearing a large piece of linen.

Because of the high firing rate of mg42, every time the shooter pulls the trigger, he can shoot 12 to 15 rounds. If an unfortunate soldier is shot by mg42, he will be shot several times in an instant, and his life is very unlikely. In the actual combat in Poland, mg42, because of its high shooting speed, is not only able to deal with small target, but also very effective against group target.

The German Paratroopers helped each other to form a queue and began to board the ju-52 transport plane waiting for them in an orderly way. One plane can carry 12 German Paratroopers, that is, a class of fully armed paratroopers, and can also empty two large packages of supplies at the same time. In order to transport more paratroopers into enemy occupied areas at one time, the ju-52s also towed a wooden glider to transport six additional soldiers.

The German army used 610 ju-52 transport planes to transport paratroopers ready. In this war, Germany will drop 10000 paratroopers into the Netherlands at one go, and the second wave of attack will be no less than that. This operation will be the largest paratrooper operation in human history so far. Germany used two parachute divisions, a total of 30000 people, to ensure the capture of the whole Netherlands.

Winning Holland will be the key to the success of the whole western offensive. Lundstedt is very clear that if the Netherlands is not occupied in the first time, then as a huge port, Britain will transport batch after batch of troops to the European continent, and the whole group B army will lose its military superiority, and the whole operation of waving the sickle will be declared bankrupt.

So this time, general Stuttgart will be ordered to complete the most arduous task of airdrop. His paratroopers must cooperate with the group B military in front of Germany to capture the Netherlands in the shortest time. Stuttgart even went to the stone castle in person a few days ago, where he confirmed all the targets with the head of state akado.

As a veteran with actual combat experience, borol is now the monitor of a paratrooper class. This time, he is very experienced in fixing his rifle to his chest instead of tying it to the luggage bag under his leg. He sorted out the chest magazine and grenade, confirmed the position of the pistol, then pulled out the bayonet, carefully examined it, and fixed it back to the shoulder position.

The parachute squad he commanded had four veterans and seven recruits besides himself. This is the best configuration we can make now. As the monitor, he had to guard the position of the aircraft door, so his soldiers all walked in front of him. Soon he helped the penultimate soldier to climb on the plane, and then he had a little difficulty getting on the plane himself. It took the people on the plane a lot of effort to get him on the plane.

With the movement of the plane, they all know that their plane has taken off. Through the fuselage window twice, borol can clearly see another plane flying on their side. Soon their plane saw the wings cut through the white clouds, and at least a dozen ju-52s could be seen flying in formation in the distance. On the bumpy plane, borol was confirming his target with his deputy squad leader. The noise made their conversation loud“ After landing, if you can't find me, set up a defensive position here now, and then try to gather up the troops as much as possible. " Borol made a mark with a thick pencil on the map: "we have to occupy this village, understand?"“ The task of our platoon is to occupy the village and build a defensive position to protect the bridge. " His deputy yelled, "but if we are the only people, we will not have enough troops to take down this village."“ Don't worry, the air force won't leave us in a mess this time! " "In my absence, if the troops are not enough, you are responsible for taking people back to the bridge to report to the battalion. Is that ok?" he said with a laugh“ All right The Deputy monitor replied in a loud voice“ Enter Dutch airspace! Gentlemen, pay attention to your seat belts. " The co pilot of the plane looked back, through the open back door, and loudly reminded the paratroopers behind: "the air force just came to warn us that the Dutch air defense forces are attacking us."“ Check the seat belt! I need you to fix yourself firmly on the plane! Soon there will be enemy artillery attack, everyone need not be nervous... "Before borol finished, a shell exploded in the air not far away. The loud explosion could be heard even in the noisy cabin“ Don't panic! Keep your posture Borol stood up, walked to the cabin door, put his hand on the armrest, and looked at all his men: "this density of anti-aircraft gun fire is impossible to hit our plane!" Just as he said this, a glider flying behind the ju-52 transport plane on their left was hit by a shell. Six German Paratroopers in it were covered with fire and scattered in the sky. The glider had only one head left behind the tail of the ju-52 transport plane“ Who's going to start a song? " Borol felt that God was joking with him. He asked in a helpless voice. A soldier sang the song of German airborne soldiers, which was rejected by borol: "this song has been sung too many times! Another song“ Ah, who is marching in the enemy area and singing the devil's song? " A veteran sings with an mp-44 in his arms“ This is good! " Borol nodded and agreed, and then sang along: "a soldier stood on the Bank of the Oder River, humming silently. Whistling, we walked back and forth. And the whole world may curse or praise us - as they please. No matter where we are, let's move on! And the devil said with a smile, "ha ha ha ha." Along with the singing, it seems that everyone's mood became a little better, and the recruits also sang the German paratrooper March "green devil": "we fight for Germany, for freedom and honor. We will make it impossible for the enemy to rest. No matter how far the March is, we will soon fight. Determined, always ready to fight, attack by day and night! Hold the rifle firmly and bravely and attack the enemy's position! With the roar of "long live the Fuehrer", we face death. The enemy was eventually cleared and the bodies piled up. No matter where we are, let's move on, let's move on. And the devil said with a smile, "ha ha ha ha." The song was repeated, and as time went on, the red alert in the cabin lit up, and borol gave a loud order: "stand up!" The plane kept shaking, and all the paratroopers had stood up. They checked their equipment and fastened the messy equipment they carried for others. The red lights on the plane kept flashing, which obviously reminded the paratroopers in the cabin that this trip to Holland was a very dangerous task. Seeing that everyone stood up, borol continued to give his own order loudly: "check the equipment for the last time! Everyone confirm the parachute! Start“ Number one! Over“ Number two! Over“ Number three! Over“ Eleven! Over“ Gentlemen! get ready! We'll continue to sing this song when we parachute! Now? We'll go down and meet our Dutch enemies. " Cried borol.