Chapter 209: Fall

Major Jotland, the commander of the Eben-Emael Fortress, received a call from the 7th Infantry Division Headquarters last night asking him to be on high alert, and had already ordered his troops to enter a state of readiness for war. The Belgian military surveillance posts also meticulously monitored the dark surroundings.

The sky began to lighten slightly, and when the Stuka roared and swooped down, the Belgian troops in the fortress knew that they were under attack.

"Enemy attack! Hold on to your post!!"

Before the words fell, several dull explosions came from above.

"Damn it!" Major Jotland, who was patrolling various defense points through underground tunnels (there is a very complete tunnel system inside the Eben-Emael Fortress, similar to the French Maginot Line.), knew that the anti-aircraft machine gun position was blown up by the sound, and he couldn't help cursing. He complained in his heart which idiot designed it. Such a large fortress actually has only four 62mm anti-aircraft machine guns. Isn't this giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage?

But before he could curse, accompanied by a sudden loud noise, the ceiling in front of him suddenly collapsed, and a huge metal object fell down with the force of thunder and pierced into the floor.

"!!" Major Jotland stared at this unprecedented behemoth in amazement, and was stunned on the spot. The first thought that flashed through his mind was that this thing was more than 20 meters underground, how did it get in?

But the next second, all the hairs on his body stood up.

Wait, this shape looks like an aerial bomb? ! !

"Oh my God!" The next second, Major Jotland went to see God.

The earth-shaking explosion first destroyed everything around, and then the violent shock wave with scorching flames swept through the underground passages with a devastating force.

The Grand Slam is usually called an earthquake bomb. After the first successful test of the original time and space Grand Slam, the impatient British sent it to the battlefield. The 617th Squadron was ordered to bomb the Bielefeld Railway Bridge in the German-occupied area. The bomber dropped the Grand Slam at an altitude of 4,877 meters, and then the bombardier reported that the "bomb was off target", and the disappointed crew members set off on their return journey.

But after returning to the base, the bombing assessment report surprised the crew: the bridge was completely blown down. It turned out that although the Grand Slam was off target by more than 20 meters, the huge shock actually triggered a small earthquake, and the "earthquake" effect caused multiple span beams of the bridge to collapse. The more than 90-meter-long bridge deck collapsed in the shaking of the earth and could not be repaired at all.

Now, the strong shock wave made the entire fortress tremble.

The wires on the ceiling flashed a dazzling electric spark, and after the crackling sparks and the sizzling sound of the current, the lights suddenly flashed, followed by a series of bangs, and the light bulbs exploded one after another, and the entire fortress suddenly fell into darkness.

This is still a small problem. The weak links in the passages could not resist the attack of the shock wave and began to collapse. The fortress passage network that was originally connected in all directions was blocked into several sections.

The most terrifying thing is that the underground ventilation passages of the fortress have also been damaged to varying degrees, which can really kill people. You know, even if you are trapped, as long as you have food and water, you can survive for a long time, but if there is no air, it will be a problem to survive for a few minutes.

The explosion just now directly killed dozens of Belgian soldiers, stunned and injured hundreds of people, and indirectly injured many people; there were also trapped people, and only dozens of people who could resist (there were 1,200 officers and soldiers stationed in this fortress, and when the German army launched the attack, there were only 650 people in the fortress.).

"Bang, bang, bang." Several Belgian soldiers staggered to the entrance of the tunnel and were swept down by the oncoming bullets.

"What's wrong with these guys?" A German soldier muttered while changing a new magazine. "Can't even walk steadily?"

Another soldier replied casually. "Who knows, maybe he just drank." He placed a pack of explosives on the top of the tunnel entrance.

If the paratroopers parachuted down, they would not be able to carry a lot of equipment, but they came by glider and brought two tons of explosives.

Their mission was to use these explosives to blow up all the exits of the fortress and trap the defenders in the fortress. Fortunately, there were not many entrances and exits of this kind of military fortress, and they had already blown up half of the exits.

After placing the explosives and pulling the fuse, the two ran away quickly. A few seconds later, there was a loud bang and the tunnel entrance collapsed!

In less than half an hour, all the exits of the fortress were blown down. Just in case, they also destroyed all the artillery and military facilities on the top of the fortress, and completely controlled the surface position of the fortress.

"Lieutenant, we found several underground vents." Several soldiers reported to Lieutenant Weiqige who led the team.

Lieutenant Weiqige touched his chin and thought for a while, then gave an order. "Throw a few smoke bombs in there and block it!" Although smoke bombs are not as deadly as poison gas bombs, the smoke agents of smoke bombs are generally made of substances such as yellow phosphorus, tin tetrachloride or sulfur trioxide; the oxides produced by these things after burning are certainly not very healthy.

"Yes." Several soldiers ran back to the vents, took out smoke bombs and threw them in, and shoveled a few shovels of soil to block the vents.

At this time, the soldiers trapped underground were busy using their hands and shovels to move the fallen cement blocks and soil at the entrance of the tunnel, hoping to reopen the passage so that they can escape.

Suddenly someone stopped. "What's the smell?"

"What what smell? Hurry up and dig, do you want to be trapped here to death?"

"No, it really smells."

"Hey, I smelled it too. There's a burnt smell. Is there a fire somewhere?"

Several people took their flashlights and shone them around. Suddenly, they saw wisps of white smoke slowly falling from the vents above their heads.

Everyone screamed. "Oh my God, it's a gas bomb!!"

"Quick, go get the gas mask!!"

"The gas mask is in the storage warehouse, and the road to it is blocked!"

"Oh my God!!"

Just as the "Granite" commando successfully completed the mission, the "Steel" commando had already landed on the west bank of the Albert Canal and quickly captured the Feldwezelt Bridge; the "Concrete" commando occupied the Frohnhafen Bridge in the middle.

The "Iron" commando was unlucky. Although the glider was "silent", it was not invisible to the naked eye. It was discovered by the Belgian army on the ground a few minutes before landing. The glider could only force a landing under the enemy's dense firepower. As a result, the "Iron" commando lost nearly one-third of its soldiers before driving away the Belgian army guarding the bridge and capturing the bridge.

Later, the engineers found that the Belgian army had placed explosives on the piers of each bridge. If the German attack had not been unexpected, these bridges would have been blown up, and the German army would have had to work hard to cross the river.

The fall of the Eben-Emael Fortress surprised the Belgian senior officials who had patted their chests to guarantee that the fortress was impregnable. After they recovered, they hurriedly dispatched troops and asked the surrounding troops to support the Eben-Emael Fortress, trying to recapture the fortress before the main force of the German army arrived.