Chapter 243: The Big Gamble

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Student was not in a good mood. He had just landed in Dutch territory by glider and was already receiving news of heavy losses from various units over the radio he carried.

Due to interference from anti-aircraft fire, a Ju-52 transport plane had made an error while dropping its paratroopers. Twelve fully armed German paratroopers were unceremoniously thrown out of the cabin, only to find that the direction they were falling was toward an aircraft hangar that had been destroyed by an earlier German bomber attack. It was burning with a raging fire. These German paratroopers descended slowly toward hell in despair, looking down at their feet in terror, letting the wind and their parachutes carry them toward the scorching core.

From this single mistake, the German paratroopers had paid the price of twelve killed in action. This did not even include the casualties caused by the fierce return fire of the surrounding Dutch defenders.

Most of the paratroopers landed on the edge of the airfield and immediately began their attack. When the first Ju-52 transport plane, loaded with infantry, arrived, the battle was in full swing. Overhead, a German Fw-190D fighter had just blown a British Defiant fighter to pieces. And on this day, 93 of the Netherlands’ 125 fighter planes were shot down by the German Air Force, becoming kill markings painted on the fuselages of the German ace pilots’ fighters.

These German planes risked a forced landing at the airfield, the roar of Dutch anti-aircraft guns echoing beneath them. The first Ju-52 transport landed safely, but the second was hit by an anti-aircraft gun and instantly became a mass of fragments and a ball of fire, crashing to the ground and sending up thick smoke.

About an hour later, nearly 100 Ju-52 transport planes, carrying three infantry battalions—a total of 1,200 fully armed soldiers—had landed at Waalhaven airfield. One of the battalions began to advance north through the streets of the Rotterdam suburbs. The mission of these airborne infantry was to reinforce the German paratroopers who had inserted through the center of the city via the Nieuwe Maas river and had captured the Willemsbrug bridge.

The attack method of these German paratroopers was somewhat unbelievable. They had arrived at their destination in old seaplanes. There, under the cover of the river mist, relying on old Heinkel He 59 seaplanes (this plane was one of the Wehrmacht’s early contraband items), they had headed downstream, wanting to get ashore before the Dutch defenders discovered them.

The German soldiers on the planes quickly inflated their rubber rafts and paddled toward the shore. After landing, they built simple fortifications on both banks and established machine gun strongpoints to defend the Willemsbrug bridge. In addition, these men also raced against time to build a small pontoon bridge to an island in the middle of the river.

What was surprising was that at first, these German paratroopers, as invaders, had met with no resistance. The Dutch people who were crossing the Willemsbrug on their way to work thought that these seaplanes were British. Some kind-hearted Dutch citizens even came forward to help, helping the German soldiers carry their supplies onto the riverbank.

But the good times did not last long. When the Dutch realized they had been invaded, they began a fierce counter-attack. The German paratroopers hid behind the bridge piers and in the nearby houses, stubbornly resisting the Dutch offensive. The German forces were few in number, but their morale was high, and they were well-equipped. They held their ground in a place that was vulnerable to attack from both banks. Only a few of them felt uncertain about whether they could hold on.

The Dutch defenders attacked the German positions from all directions, but the Germans fought back fiercely, relying on their superior firepower. The MP-44 assault rifle and the G43 semi-automatic rifle were clearly more suited to the current situation than the bolt-action rifles used by the Dutch defenders. So although they had killed three or four German soldiers, the Dutch had also left behind more than twenty of their own bodies.

Suddenly, a city tram, its bell ringing, charged toward the south side of the bridge. To the astonishment of the Dutch, a full 70 fully armed German soldiers jumped out of this tram and the cars following behind it. These soldiers were a company commanded by an airborne lieutenant named Kerfin.

Kerfin’s paratroopers had been dropped onto an English football field on the south bank. After landing, they had occupied the surrounding buildings and then commandeered the city’s trams and several cars. They had driven the stunned Dutch civilians out of the vehicles and then had driven straight for the bridge.

These German paratroopers who had come to reinforce them occupied the southern end of the bridge, while others ran across the bridge at full speed to support their comrades who were on the verge of collapse. The artillery fire of the Dutch resistance was firing frantically, blocking the infantry battalion that was coming from Waalhaven airfield halfway. They were pinned down by the artillery fire on both sides of the highway and were completely unable to support the German paratroopers on the northern section of the Willemsbrug as planned.

The Dutch were not sitting at home and taking a beating. On the contrary, their performance was不知道 how many times better than the Polish army’s. All of their weapons and equipment seemed to have joined the battle for the Willemsbrug near Rotterdam. Soon, a Dutch patrol boat and a torpedo boat arrived on the Nieuwe Maas. The Dutchmen on board used their small-caliber cannons to bombard the German bridgehead and frantically destroyed the seaplanes that were parked on the water.

But soon, the two boats had run out of their ammunition and were forced to leave the area of intense fighting. Following that, the Dutch brought in an even tougher character: a destroyer and two gunboats set out from the harbor at Hook of Holland and headed for this narrow waterway. These warships were ordered to shell Waalhaven airfield and to attack the German field artillery and large-caliber mortar units that were landing there.

But this time, the German Air Force appeared in the nick of time, saving the airborne troops who were about to fall into disaster. Twenty Stuka dive bombers arrived over Rotterdam and began to cover the German paratroopers in clearing out the surrounding Dutch army targets. The Dutch navy’s destroyer was forced to leave, because once the German air force discovered the firing destroyer, they would certainly sink it. This Dutch fleet did not want to fight bombers in a narrow waterway, so they had no choice but to flee in a hurry, without even having had a chance to fire a single shot.

The Dutch resistance forces that day were mostly in a sorry state. The German paratrooper units seemed to be everywhere. They blocked roads, occupied fortresses, controlled bridges and railways, and sniped at Dutch soldiers in unexpected places. There were rumors everywhere that German paratroopers were disguised as police, priests, and even nuns. The Dutch defenders were completely disoriented by this intelligence. The whole of the Netherlands was burning. This kind of warfare confused the defending side. They didn’t know how to effectively defend or counter-attack.

This was a stratagem of General Student’s. He had some transport planes drop fake paratroopers in the Dutch villages and other places. These scarecrows were dressed in the old, worn-out uniforms of the paratroopers and were equipped with simple incendiary devices. They set fires everywhere to create chaos and also made the Dutch commanders overestimate the scale of the German airborne forces.

The battle reached a white-hot pitch a few hours later. The Dutch defenders finally found their real threat in the evening. In order to coordinate with the British forces for defense and counter-attack, they realized they had to retake the fortress-bridge at Dordrecht, located between Rotterdam and Moerdijk. So they launched their most frantic counter-attack against the German paratrooper units here.

Here, the German paratroopers had dropped two companies. They repelled one Dutch attack after another, relying on the favorable terrain and their advanced weapons and equipment. But the price was almost unacceptable: one German company commander was killed in action, and more than thirty German paratroopers died here.

And in the end, the Dutch, relying on their numerical advantage, still managed to retake the bridgehead on one side. They drove the Germans from one side of the railway bridge and occupied several simple positions. But these Dutch attacking forces had not received orders to destroy the bridge and could only risk maintaining this stalemate across the bridge.

All this news was transmitted by radio to Student’s ears. He had landed with the airborne infantry at Waalhaven and had set up his operational command post in a nearby school. He stood on a podium and began to assign tasks one by one, gathering the scattered paratrooper units. And his operational staff and officers sat on the benches, surrounding him like a group of over-aged, held-back students.

“How many reserves do we have left?” Student asked the commander closest to him, staring at the map in his hand. “That can be thrown into battle immediately.”

“General, we have one battalion of garrison troops nearby. But if we use them, then the defense of the airfield can only be handled by the remaining two companies—which is very dangerous,” the officer immediately stood up and replied.

Student covered his mouth with his hand and thought for a while, finally making up his mind to take a gamble. “War itself is the greatest adventure. There are not so many perfect solutions for us to pick and choose from.”

He glanced at the officer. “You will immediately lead this battalion of troops and rush to Dordrecht! Hold on there until we arrive! Take all the ammunition you can carry! At the latest, by tomorrow night, I will not have any more forces to reinforce you.”

“As you command, General! I guarantee the completion of the mission!” the officer saluted, and then hastily left the command post with his few men.

This was truly a gamble. Student now, including his own guard unit, had only two companies of soldiers to defend the important Waalhaven airfield, and this airfield was where his reinforcements and supplies were scheduled to land the next day. The airfield was full of Ju-52 transport planes that hadn’t had time to fly back to Germany. If anything went wrong, the German Air Force would suffer heavy losses.

Under the cover of night, he risked sending reinforcements to the Dordrecht area and retook the position. This news somewhat eased Student’s tense mood. Now the only thing he needed to worry about was whether the Dutch defenders would attack him at Waalhaven airfield. This night was destined to be a sleepless one for the German paratrooper units in the Netherlands.

And another person who could not sleep due to excessive tension was far away in the Felsennest in Germany. Akado was sleepless. He stared at the operational map until dawn. Even when Anna came in to persuade him, he did not say a word. This was a huge gamble, a gamble on the fate of a country, of a nation.