The theoretical airlift capability of 250 or more ZSO532 air assault transport aircraft is staggering, and if all of them are used to carry tanks, tank destroyers and paratroopers, up to 250 E25 tank destroyers or Type 4H tank 4 including crew members and 3,000 heavily armed paratroopers can be sent to the battlefield 2,500 kilometers away at a time Of course, it is not possible to use all ZSO532 aircraft to transport tank destroyers in practice.
Because tanks and combat soldiers alone cannot form a battalion or regimental battle group with real combat effectiveness, there are not so many tank tank destroyers actually loaded on ZSO532 and flying to Newfoundland, only about 150 units, of which 90 are E25 tank destroyers and 90 H tank No. 4, which belong to 5 air assault battalions.
The so-called air assault battalion is actually a composite battalion that includes tank, infantry, artillery and engineer detachments, and is the official version of the combined battalion-level battle group and regiment-level battle group that appeared in this war.
An air assault battalion usually consists of a tank company equipped with Type 4H tanks, a tank destroyer company equipped with E25 tank destroyers, a motorized artillery company, a combat engineer company and two motorized paratrooper companies, and a battalion headquarters platoon.
The total number of troops is not much, less than 800 people, but it has a lot of technical equipment.
Mountain artillery This is a new product developed by the French on the basis of the 19191928 type 105 mountain gun, the weight of the column is only 750 kg, the maximum range has reached 98 kilometers, 2 Brown 1943 type 120 mortars This is also a French artillery, in artillery manufacturing technology, now France and Germany are each with their own merits, 12 G44 type 105 recoilless guns and 40 wheeled vehicles of various types.
Before the start of the combat operation, these 800 heavily armed Germans and so many heavy equipment, as well as a large amount of ammunition, as well as some fuel and supplies, will be crammed into 50 "big-bellied" ZSO532 air assault transport planes.
And 250 ZSO532s can transport 5 synthetic air assault battalions to the battlefield at once.
According to the plan, the five air assault battalions will be dropped into the terraces on the eastern shore of Concepson Bay on the island of Newfoundland and the Vavarong Peninsula.
In addition to these five composite battalions, there were 18 other elite paratrooper battalions that landed on Newfoundland on the day of the landing operation, that is, on Day D, all of whom belonged to the two paratrooper divisions under the 1st Air Assault Army.
The paratroopers will fly more than 2,500 kilometres from the Azores in a Fokker 42 transport plane before parachuting to Newfoundland.
If all goes according to plan, 18 paratrooper battalions and 5 air assault battalions will be able to occupy a large area of the eastern shore of Concepson Bay before dark, clear the American forces guarding there, and establish a truly useful beachhead for the massive landing that will follow.
All the staff officers in the Wehrmacht General Staff were convinced that as long as 23 battalions of elite German troops and 180 tank destroyers were parachuted into Newfoundland, even 10 times the number of American troops would not be able to drive them away.
And they only had to hold out for a few days on the terraces near Concepsin Bay, and a fleet loaded with a German marine division and a White Russian tank division would arrive.
At that point, Operation Columbus could not have failed.
And the key to the success of this "Operation Columbus" is undoubtedly to seize air supremacy around Newfoundland.
According to the reliable information held by the German General Staff, the ground strength of the US Allied forces on the island of Newfoundland is not sufficient, but there are quite a few fighters on it.
Even with some of them moving to the Caribbean, there are still more than 1,300 warplanes, including those from the United States and other allied countries, in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island.
In addition, no less than 1,000 medium and heavy bomber attack planes capable of delivering "Baat" radar-guided gliding bombs and 300,400 reconnaissance planes are deployed in the above-mentioned areas.
Compared with the Allied forces in Canada with more than 3 million troops, not only the US military, but also the British army and the exiled armies such as Free Poland, Free Belgium, Free Norway, Free Denmark, Free Czech Republic, and Spanish Republican Army, it was these 26,700 shore-based aircraft that really made the General Staff of the German National Service feel prickly.
As far as the European coalition forces, which do not have shore-based airfields to take off fighters, the transfer of a considerable part of these 2,6700 planes is the guarantee of a victorious landing.
On the morning of April 1, 1945, the 20th Task Force of the Combined European Fleet left the port of Brest on the morning of April 1, 1945.
The "task force" under the EC Joint Fleet is not a permanent formation, but a task fleet under a sub-fleet, which is temporarily organized by various ship groups as needed before carrying out combat missions.
And on the morning of April 1, the fleet that left Brest in full view of everyone was also a temporary mission fleet.
Unlike the last Task Force 20, the newly formed Task Force 20 has a much larger aircraft carrier combat power Forming the core of the task force is the 201st Aircraft Carrier Group, the 202nd Aircraft Carrier Group and the 203rd Aircraft Carrier Group, which are three twin or triple aircraft carrier groups, with a total of 7 large fleet aircraft carriers, namely Adolf Hitler, Bernhardt von Bilow, Sedeliz, Seckert B41, Xiafei, Banville and Bainya, the French aircraft carrier is the No. 3 ship of Xiafei, which has just been commissioned at the end of 44.
Among them, the Hitler and the Bülow were equipped with 150 standing Type 262T carrier-based jet fighters, 20 more than Hersmann requested, and 144 actual ships.
The two new B41 aircraft carriers, the Sedeliz and the Seckert, are carrying 160 Fokker Type 636 carrier-based fighters on standby. , but all equipped with Fokker 636.
In fact, by 1945, the FW190 series of fighters, which appeared before the outbreak of the world war, was in many ways out of step with the times.
At least it is no longer an air superiority fighter and interceptor with satisfactory performance.
The FA152 series fighters completed all tests as early as the end of 1944 and began to enter the stage of trial production and troop trials.
By the end of March 1945, more than 20 squadrons of fighter squadrons in the Luftwaffe had been retrofitted with TA152H fighters.
According to the Luftwaffe's vision, the TA152H, which has excellent high-altitude performance, will form a new high-bottom combination with the Fokker 636, which has excellent low-altitude performance.
However, due to the emergence and increasing maturity of the jet 262, the fighters of the TA152 series are destined to be short-lived and cannot shine brightly.
As an air combat expert in naval aviation, Lieutenant Colonel Hersman Jr., who is now the aviation combat officer of the 201st Aircraft Carrier Group, directly suggested canceling the plan to board the aircraft carrier of the TA152 after the test flight of the TA152.
Because in his opinion, the TA152, an excellent fighter, came too late, and there was no way to complete the shipborne transformation before the end of the world war.
And the post-war sky must belong to jet aircraft Thinking of the jets, standing on the deck of the Hitler aircraft carrier, he waved goodbye to the families of the military and civilians on the port docks, and Little Hersmann couldn't help but look back, as if he wanted to find the figure of the 262T jet fighter from the deck of the aircraft carrier, but only 18 of them were placed on the flight deck on the side of the aircraft carrier island Type 810 twin-engine carrier-based bomber.
These 18 The 810s belonged to the French Naval Aviation, and they landed on the carriers Hitler and Bülow on their way back to their home port of Brest after completing their full pre-service intensive training program.
They were all taken into the hangar, and until now they left the port of Brest, they have not been seen again.
That is, the French residents of the port of Brest and the American agents were exposed to the viewing of only 2 supercarriers with beveled decks and twin engines Type 810 carrier-based aircraft.
It seems that these two 70,000-ton large aircraft carriers are tailor-made for twin-engine carrier-based aircraft.
In addition, there are also 10 of the three French "Xiafei"-class aircraft carriers belonging to the 203rd Aircraft Carrier Group Type 810 carrier-based aircraft. 5 ships on board Information that the large aircraft carriers of the Type 810 carrier-based aircraft, including two supercarriers with a standard displacement of more than 60,000 tons, and two other Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers left the port of Brest were quickly sent to the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, through hidden American agents.
The already tense atmosphere in the Pentagon soon reached a ignition point because of the arrival of this news.
The hearts of all American officers who were qualified to have access to this information sank: the Germans were finally about to attack, and the moment to decide the fate of the United States was about to come t1706231537: