Look, trouble is coming.
"Boom -" there was a loud noise, and the right wing of the C47 military transport aircraft burst into flames. The high-speed rotating screw machine roared through the fuselage like a wild horse.
The paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Brigade who crowded the cabin were suddenly bloody and bloody.
"Ahhhh!!" An airborne soldier who was cut off from the waist howled as he watched the lower and upper parts of his body being sucked out of the cabin one after the other.
The flesh and blood rolled up by the disposable meat grinder even burst into the cockpit.
Anna Moffitt, the female secretary of the British army sergeant, who was sitting in the back seat of the four-person cockpit, was spattered with blood.
"Headquarters, we are under heavy shelling, and the plane is stalling!" The captain, who struggled to control the plane, shouted: "Repeat, at the headquarters, we are under heavy shelling, and the plane is stalling!"
"Bang -" The fragile wings were blown to pieces by anti-aircraft guns. The C47 military transport plane completely lost control and spiraled down, dragging thick smoke. As a result, it crashed into the plane below, which was unable to dodge, causing even greater chaos.
"careful!"
Anna Moffett, the female secretary of the British Army sergeant who was firmly tied to the seat, was dizzy and spinning, and the plane plunged into the sea as it fell upside down.
By the way, the landing in Sicily took place in strong winds. Although it was thought that the huge waves stirred up by strong winds seriously increased the difficulty, it also ensured the suddenness of the landing. As a result, when the British troops landed on the eastern and southern beaches, they encountered stubborn resistance from the German troops. In order to break the deadlock, the Allies decisively deployed paratroopers for reinforcements. The paratroopers who participated in the airdrop had really bad luck this time. All 2,500 people of the 1st Airborne Brigade of the British 1st Airborne Division took 137 gliders towed by 137 C47 transport aircraft and went straight to Pendege in eastern Sicily. Go to Long Bridge. Unfortunately, they encountered strong winds first, and 69 gliders fell directly into the sea, and 600 British paratroopers were buried in the belly of the fish. The rest of the transport planes also landed in an area far away from the target in a disorderly manner, and some even collided with each other and exploded in the air.
What's even worse is that German paratroopers have just landed in this area. 1,800 German paratroopers from the German 7th Parachute Division came on transport planes to block the British army. They set off early and landed on the ground first. Before the German paratroopers had finished gathering, they heard the sound of a new batch of transport planes overhead. Unable to identify them at night, the Germans mistakenly thought they were reinforcements. However, it was actually the British who landed. The confused British did not realize that the "comrades" around them were all Germans.
As a result, a miracle in the history of World War II occurred. In the chaotic situation, the British and German paratroopers mistakenly thought that what was in front of them was friendly troops, and they hid together in confusion. This is also because as airborne paratroopers, the two sides are so similar from equipment to helmets that it is difficult to identify them at night. Therefore, in silence throughout the process, both parties completed the assembly and concealment in an "intimate and friendly" manner. It wasn't until they crowded together and tried to communicate with their "comrades" that they discovered that the other side was the enemy. So the British 1st Airborne Division, known as the "Red Devil", and the German 7th Airborne Division, known as the "Green Devil", started a war in a confused manner. You can see British and German paratroopers fighting in a group everywhere. If they are far away, they will shoot with rifles and submachine guns. If they are very close, they will take out daggers to kill each other. The melee lasted until dawn before both parties gave up.
The same thing happened again in the battle on July 13. This time it was the British 1st Airborne Division. They once again took a glider and planned to raid the Blimaso Bridge. As a result, they were attacked by anti-aircraft fire from their own fleet midway and had to change directions five times before finally flying over the target and preparing to land. However, at this time, their old rival, the follow-up troops of the German 7th Parachute Division, had just parachuted here. As soon as they landed, they saw a British glider flying in the sky. So the scene on July 9 was repeated again, and the two sides fought all the way until July 16, when the British reinforcements arrived.
The British army had bad luck, and the American army had no good luck either. At 20:45 on July 9, 1943, the first echelon of the 82nd Airborne Division took off. Their mission is to parachute in the area east of Jela, cut off the road, and block enemy reinforcements. The second echelon is responsible for supporting the first echelon. However, in strong winds, it becomes very difficult to accurately control the aircraft, and the pilot's experience is so lacking that the entire fleet does not understand how to fly at night in complex weather. Not only did most of the planes deviate from their routes, they were also discovered by German and Italian troops because they were flying around in the sky, and were bombarded by enemy anti-aircraft artillery. The panicked pilots repeatedly flew over the coastline, and the transport aircraft group became a living target. 8 transport aircraft were shot down and 10 were damaged. In desperation, the paratroopers could only parachute one after another to avoid being annihilated by the enemy in the air. But when they jumped down in a panic, they found that they had no idea where they were. Most of the companions who landed together were missing. The commander could only gather the paratroopers while confirming their position. It took until the next morning to gather more than 200 paratroopers. At this time, most of the scattered paratroopers could only fight on their own, following the sound of gunfire to find their own people. It was clear that their mission had failed.
On July 11, seeing that the first echelon could not complete its scheduled mission, the Allied Command began to worry about the failure of the plan, so it hurriedly dispatched the second echelon. At 22:40, the second echelon of paratroopers took off in an emergency to reinforce their comrades. However, when they were about to arrive, they were met with more ferocious anti-aircraft fire. The unprepared cabin was suddenly plunged into disaster. Some transport aircraft that were extremely unlucky were instantly smashed into sieves, and paratroopers were killed or injured. What is even more tragic is that these anti-aircraft firepower actually come from the indiscriminate attacks of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns from our own fleet and beachhead positions! The reason turned out to be that the headquarters did not notify the landing troops and fleet that one of our own transport fleets would arrive! They had just been bombed by the Germans before, and before their tense nerves could recover, when they heard the deafening sound of propeller engines in the sky, the Allied troops suddenly panicked. After a nervous gunner accidentally misfired his gun, a chain reaction was immediately triggered. All anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns radiated dense lines of fire into the sky, and even the infantrymen fired into the sky with machine guns and rifles.
For a moment, the sky was filled with bullets and debris flying everywhere. Many transport planes were riddled with holes, and paratroopers died under the saturated firepower of their own people. Either stay in the plane and wait for death, or escape by parachuting immediately. In order to survive, the paratroopers did not bother to make an emergency landing before the transport fleet reached its destination.
Unfortunately, the Allied anti-aircraft firepower was too heavy. The airborne troops who forced their parachutes to open in the face of hail of bullets became completely targets. Many paratroopers were killed in the sky under our own intensive anti-aircraft fire. Even if the paratroopers who successfully landed lost their position because they deviated significantly from the combat zone after landing at the wrong time to parachute, they were mistook them for German paratroopers by their own army and beat them up. The most unlucky among them was Brigadier General Charles Kilance, the deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. It is said that the engine of the transport plane he was riding in stalled in the air and crashed into a cliff. To this day, the United States has not found the remains of the general. Afterwards, General Eisenhower could only reluctantly call it a "friendly bombardment."
In fact, in terms of the overall strategic design, as the airborne troops were officially put into the battlefield for the first time, the Allies really did not expect them to play a big role. Rather than asking them to achieve some results this time, it is better to say that it is a practical training similar to the filming of "The Great Battle". As expected, an accident occurred.
In this Sicilian landing battle, codenamed "Operation Husky," the Allied paratroopers and ground troops behaved as "clear and stupid" as convulsed huskies. The same thing is said. This operation also allowed the Allied paratroopers to learn enough bloody lessons, and it also made the Allies aware of the need to strengthen the unit's collaborative combat capabilities and the training of pilots. It was precisely because of the failure of this operation that the Allied paratroopers achieved great success during the Normandy landings.
