Chapter 208 Eben Emar Fortress

"Drop the bomb!"

Daniel pulled the bomb button hard, and the huge Grand Slam bomb inside the belly of the aircraft broke away from the rack. At the same time, the body of the he-177 suddenly jumped up. Daniel even felt the tightness of the seat belt tied to his body being tightened, but his eyes never left the bomb sight, staring closely at the falling bomb and the target on the ground.

General bombers will immediately speed up and return after dropping the bomb. But this he-177 bomber slowed down instead. After all, if it just flew away, the bomb dropped would become a headless fly in free fall; it needs to slow down and become a stable operating platform so that Daniel can better control the bomb.

This is like a paradox. If the mother plane leaves quickly after dropping the bomb, the bomb without anyone to operate becomes an ordinary bomb in free fall; but if the mother plane hovers slowly over the target, it is easy to be blown up by the opponent's anti-aircraft firepower or fighter planes; at that time, no one can operate the bomb.

Therefore, it is safest to drop bombs on places like the Eben-Emael Fortress, which has no air defense.

Daniel stared at his target, the 120mm turret in the center of the Eben-Emael Fortress, while his right hand tightly grasped the joystick beside him, fiddling back and forth to control the trajectory of the bomb.

The cross-shaped luminous signal light at the tail of the bomb body kept flashing, and this signal light was to remind the operator of the location of the bomb.

And Daniel had to accurately hit his target based on this row of indicator lights! This is like the drone model of later generations, which uses radio control, and the joystick that Daniel is fiddling with is like controlling the drone handle, through which he sends signals and adjusts the posture of the bomb.

It sounds simple, but it is not easy to operate!

Even later generations have not completely solved the problem of radio signal delay, let alone the current situation where even transistors cannot be mass-produced.

The joystick can only send four commands, up, down, left, and right. Daniel saw that the trajectory of the Grand Slam was deviating to the left, and controlled the joystick to correct it. However, it took a full second for the electromagnetically driven control surface installed on the tail of the bomb to respond slowly. He found that he had corrected it too much, and the bomb suddenly deviated to the right again.

"Damn it!" He couldn't help but sweat beads on his forehead, and his heart beat more than a hundred times per second!

They belonged to the X-Force of the Guards, and their main task was to carry out various secret weapon experiments. On weekdays, they were training and simulated tests, and the actual combat was just a few days ago when they dropped one in the open space on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital.

Whether it was a test or actual combat, this thing was really hard to control. The bomb went left, right, up, and down, like a staggering drunk walking.

Daniel took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. His performance in daily training was the best, and that was why he was sent to carry out today's mission. Now he must not mess it up!

As the bomb continued to fall, the huge bomb body became smaller and smaller, and only the row of flashing signal lights at the tail could be seen to the left rear.

Daniel gradually calmed down and adjusted the joystick with smaller and smaller amplitudes.

Because of the delay, each correction would be overcorrected, and then adjusted in the opposite direction, and overcorrected again. The solution is to adjust only a little at a time, so that even if the adjustment is not in place, it can continue to adjust, and even if the adjustment is overcorrected, it will not be too outrageous.

Finally, the bomb has fallen to an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, and the speed is almost close to the speed of sound.

Daniel carefully released the joystick. First, the airflow at this altitude and speed can hardly affect the flight trajectory of the bomb. Second, as the bomb falls lower and lower, the delay will become more and more serious. If he continues to control, he may deviate from the target further.

He stared at the tail signal light nervously and saw the bomb hit the ground about 20 meters away from the 120mm turret.

"God bless!" Daniel took a few deep breaths and collapsed in the chair. In just over 20 seconds, it seemed like a century had passed.

"Daniel, what's going on?" The captain's voice sounded from the loudspeaker next to him.

Daniel picked up the communicator. "Mission accomplished, return home!"

The he-177 and the accompanying Stuka and BF-109 returned home, and saw a large group of ju-52 transport planes flying towards them from a distance. There was a towing rope hanging behind each ju-52 transport plane, and a dfs230 military glider was towed on the towing rope.

As if receiving some kind of signal, the ju-52 transport planes slowly divided into four formations and flew in different directions.

The Eben-Emael Fortress was surrounded by artificial canals. Since it was a river, there were bridges. There were three bridges on the Albert Canal on the northwest side of the fortress, namely the Canny Bridge, the Frohnhafen Bridge and the Feldwezelt Bridge, which were the only way to cross the canal from east to west. ?

In addition to this fortress, the three bridges must be captured to successfully complete the mission!

Therefore, the first echelon of the attack was divided into four commandos, codenamed Concrete, Steel, Granite and Iron.

The "Granite" commando was responsible for capturing the fortress; the "Concrete" commando was responsible for capturing the Frohenhafen Bridge; the "Steel" commando was responsible for capturing the Feldwezelt Bridge; and the "Iron" commando was responsible for capturing the Canny Bridge.

In a glider of the "Granite" commando, squad leader Fred looked at the HE-177 in the distance and muttered. "It seems that their mission has been accomplished."

"Attention, we are about to land." After a while, the glider pilot shouted loudly. The glider has no engine noise, so everyone can hear it clearly.

This glider needs to rely on wheels when taking off, but the wheels will be abandoned after taking off, because the wheels will add extra resistance and weight, and the wheels need a long enough runway to land when landing.

The best way to shorten the landing distance is to increase the resistance during landing. For this reason, they usually wrap a lot of wire on the landing skid of the glider. This practice has gradually become a common battlefield modification method used by the German airborne troops. Even a deceleration parachute can be added to the tail of the aircraft. These allow this glider to dive quickly at a steep angle in an emergency, land and stop in a very short distance.

But the impact force of such a hard landing is very strong. After being reminded by the glider pilot, everyone in the cabin grabbed the handles beside them.

Fred saw through the window that there was smoke over the Eben Emael Fortress. The center of the fortress was in a mess, and puffs of smoke and dust spewed out from the cracks in the ground from time to time.

"It's really interesting." Fred couldn't help but muttered in a low voice, because he noticed that a large piece of the ground of the fortress collapsed, forming a huge pit, but there was no trace of bombing by aerial bombs on the surface. The scene looked like a big explosion underground.

Before he could think about it, the heavy skid under the belly of the glider had collided with the platform on the top of the fortress.

Then, they felt a huge impact force coming. If he hadn't been tied up by the seat belt, Fred felt that he would be bounced up and his head would hit the top of the cabin.

There was a harsh friction sound under his feet, and the speed of the glider was getting slower and slower, and it stopped soon.

"Another safe landing." Fred secretly rejoiced in his heart.

Although the glider has the advantages of "silent", small dispersion range of airborne personnel, and can collect personnel for combat after landing, it is not very safe.

Friends who have watched the American TV series "Band of Brothers" about airborne troops know that airborne troops riding gliders not only face the same threat of enemy anti-aircraft firepower as paratroopers in the air. Moreover, landing is simply a "gate of hell" for glider troops. Any obstacle on the landing field may cause the tragedy of aircraft destruction and death.

However, he can't show this feeling on his face. As a squad leader, he must set an example and take the lead; otherwise, if he shows timidity, the soldiers below may be scared to wet their pants.

He unbuckled his seat belt quickly, pulled open the cabin door, and shouted. "Quick, quick, quick!"

The paratroopers in the cabin carried assault rifles and filed out of the cabin door, rushing towards the already assigned targets.