Trojan war:
One hundred thousand troops, two kings and one woman. This is the most famous war in myth and history-the Trojan War.
In Greek mythology, Troy was originally the capital of the plain between the river and the sea after the descendants of Zeus became kings. This plain was later called the Trojan Plain. Legend has it that before the construction of Troy, the statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, fell from the sky, meaning that Troy would be protected by Zeus and his daughter. At the same time, the sons of Zeus, Apollo, the sun god, and Poseidon, the sea god, were exiled to the world because they rebelled against Zeus, the father of all gods. Therefore, they will build Troy according to Zeus' wishes to regain their father's favor. So, the two of them became human beings. Poseidon guided the construction of Troy for the king, and Apollo provided meat for the king to herd cattle. A year later, the magnificent and towering walls of Troy finally stood on the Troy Plain.
When Apollo and Poseidon left Troy, the treacherous king refused to pay them, so the eloquent Apollo began to argue with the king, but the king wanted to drive them away and threatened to tie them up and cut off their ears. Apollo and Poseidon left Troy angrily, hostile to the king and even all Trojans. Athena also gave up the protection of Troy, so with the acquiescence of Zeus, when Troy was just built, it plunged its residents into a disaster doomed to be destroyed by the gods.
As soon as the king's son Paris came into this world, he was abandoned in the wilderness by his mother, because he predicted horribly that the child would lead to the destruction of Troy. Finally, he was brought up by slaves and became a handsome and brave young man, struggling to protect herders from bandits, so he was honored as the savior of mankind. When Achilles' parents held a grand wedding, they invited all the gods, but did not invite Eris, the goddess of quarrel. Eris came to dinner and left a "disharmonious golden apple" which read "For the most beautiful woman". Hera, Athena and Aphrodite fought for each other, so they went to Zeus, who asked them to judge Paris, the prince of Troy. Among Hera, the mother of gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Paris chose the goddess of love, so she gave the golden apple to Aphrodite! This made Hera and Athena very angry and vowed to get back at Paris and all the Trojans. Sure enough, Cupid also fulfilled his promise, and Paris got Helen, the "most beautiful woman in the world", and became his wife. However, the struggle of the three goddesses for the golden apples involved mortals in God's gambling game, and the subsequent struggle for the beauty Helen brought the gods into the game of the Trojan War.
Paris came to Sparta and was treated by King Menelaus, but she had crazy ideas about Menelaus' wife Helen, who was the most beautiful woman in the world. So with the help of Aphrodite, Helen was induced to elope with him, and took away a lot of property and took her to Troy, which triggered the Trojan War for ten years. In the war, the Greek Coalition forces suffered numerous casualties, and the Trojans also lost their only home.
After learning that Helen was kidnapped, all the kings and leaders in Greece thought it was the greatest shame, so they wanted to invade Troy and take back Helen. The fleet led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, gathered at Ors. After many twists and turns, the Greek allied forces landed in Troy and Enemy at the Gates, but they could not be cracked for nine years. In the tenth year, Agamemnon had an argument with Achilles, the best soldier in the coalition. The latter stopped fighting, which made the Trojans (led by hector) win one after another, and arrived at Greek ships and tents. After hector killed Achilles' best friend Patroclus, Achilles returned to the battlefield and was forced to return to the Trojan army. hector was killed and Achilles died. Finally, Odysseus, the general of the Greek Coalition forces, designed to throw a huge Trojan horse and hidden soldiers outside the city and pretend to withdraw. The Trojan horse was dragged into the city as a trophy. At night, the Greeks got off the Trojan horse, opened the gate and occupied Troy from the inside.
This story provided great material for the Greek poet Homer, and the great epics Iliad and Odyssey came into being.
Battle of Normandy:
In World War II, the United States, Britain and Canada conducted the largest strategic landing operation in the history of world war II in Normandy, northern France, from June to July. 1944. An important part of the allied "overlord" action in Europe (see the war situation in Western Europe). The purpose is to seize the landing field of the army group, open up the second battlefield in Europe, and create conditions for developing the attack on western Europe and cooperating with the Soviet Union to finally defeat Nazi Germany.
The background of the campaign and the attempts of both sides
1943, after the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet army turned to counterattack in the Soviet-German battlefield; After the landing campaign in Sicily, the United States and Britain invaded the Italian peninsula; Italy surrendered in September of the same year and declared war on Germany in June of 65438+10; The allies also turned to the offensive in the Pacific battlefield. The whole war situation has undergone a fundamental change in favor of the allies. As early as July 194 1, the Soviet Union formally requested Britain to open a second front in western Europe. 1943 65438+ 10, the casablanca meeting between the United States and Britain decided to prepare for landing in western Europe. In March, the General Staff of Allied Supreme Commander, headed by British Lieutenant General Morgan, was established and made a battle plan. In May and August, F.D. Roosevelt and W.L.S. Churchill agreed at the meetings in Washington and Quebec, respectively, that the allied forces would land in Western Europe at 1944 to cooperate with the Soviet Union to carry out a strategic counterattack. 1 1 to 12, Roosevelt, Churchill and J.V. Stalin formally agreed at the Tehran meeting, 1944. In May, the United States and Britain landed in northern France and at the same time in southern France. Subsequently, the United States and Britain appointed General D.D. Eisenhower as the supreme commander of the Allied European Expeditionary Force.
1944 65438+ 10, Eisenhower went to London to take office and set up the headquarters: the deputy commander was British Air Force Admiral A.W. Ted, the chief of staff was American Lieutenant General W.B. Smith, the naval commander was British Admiral B.H. Ramsey, and the air force commander was British Air Force Admiral T. Lee-Mallory, commander of British ground forces. After Eisenhower took office, the landing front will increase from 40 km to 80 km, and the strength of 1 echelon in the campaign will increase from the original three divisions to five divisions. Due to the shortage of landing ships, other preparations were not completed on time, and the landing time was changed from early May to early June.
The defenders of the German western front are two army groups "B" and "G" under the command of Marshal K.R.G von Lundstedt, with 58 divisions (including 33 coastal defense divisions with poor mobility). The "B" Army Group was commanded by Marshal E Rommel to defend the coastal areas of northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Its main force was deployed in Calais, while Normandy had only six divisions (including three coastal defense divisions). At that time, the Germans had lost their superiority in sea and air, and the navy only used more than 500 small and medium-sized surface ships and 49 submarines moored in Biscay. The Third Air Force defending France nominally has 500 planes, but in fact there are only 90 bombers and 70 fighters.
In order to cope with the allied landing, A. Hitler ordered the construction of "Atlantic barrier" as soon as possible as early as 194 12, and built a permanent anti-landing defense line consisting of solid support points and field fortifications, with minefields and underwater obstacles. By 1944, the "Atlantic barrier" is far from complete, but it is still an impenetrable defense line. The fortification was focused on Calais, and Normandy was weak in defense. The German high command predicted that American and British troops would land in western Europe, but they never agreed on the estimation of the landing site. Hitler thought it was most likely to land in Calais. According to the situation of American and British troops laying mines in the English Channel, the admiral once thought it was possible to land in Normandy, but it did not attract the attention of Hitler and senior army generals. Shortly before the allied landing, Hitler estimated that he might land in Normandy, which strengthened the defense in this area. After the landing began, Hitler thought that the Normandy landing was a containment, and large-scale landings were still coming to Calais. Senior generals have always been divided on operational guidance. Rommel advocated relying on anti-landing defensive positions to destroy the enemy in the beach, while Lundstedt advocated using anti-assault to destroy the enemy in the deep area. All these have had a negative impact on the organization and command of the German anti-landing defense.
Activities to prepare
In order to cover up the campaign attempt, the United States and Britain carefully analyzed and compared the choice of landing areas, and thought that Calais was only 20 nautical miles away from the British coast, which was convenient for navigation and support, but the German defense was very strong. Normandy is 64.8 nautical miles from the British coast and lacks a good port. In the eastern part of Cotan Peninsula, there are rivers and marshes and fields covered with shrubs and hedges, which are not conducive to the action of troops. However, close to the British boarding port and fighter base, the German defense is weak, and the beach and inland conditions are good. Therefore, the Yi 'an River estuary at the southern tip of Cotan Peninsula was finally selected as the landing zone, which was divided into five landing zones from west to east, with the code names of Utah (American army), Omaha (American army), Gold (British army), Juno (Canadian army) and Sward (British army) in turn.
The landing troops were organized into 2 1 army group, which had jurisdiction over the US 1 army group, the British 2nd army group and the Canadian 1 army group. The navy is organized into two special mixed fleets in the west and the east: the western special mixed fleet is divided into "U" and "O" landing formations, which transport two divisions of the United States 1 Army to land, and the 9 th Air Force of the United States Tactical Air Force serves as air support; The Eastern Task Force is divided into "G", "J" and "S" landing formations, which transport three divisions of the 2nd British Army (including 1 Canadian Division) to land, with the 2nd British Tactical Air Force as air support. Each landing formation has a naval gun fire support team for fire preparation and fire support. The two special mixed fleets also have a follow-up landing formation ("B" and "L" formations) to transport the second echelon to land. In addition, before landing, it is planned to airborne two divisions and 1 division in the landing area of the United States and Britain respectively. In order to carry out the landing campaign and develop the land attack, Britain is required to concentrate nearly 3 million troops, more than 5,000 ships (more than 4,000 landing transport ships and10,000 combat ships) and more than 654.38+0,000 aircraft, so as to ensure that the speed of increasing troops after landing exceeds that of the German reserve.
The preparation before the battle is thorough and sufficient. Allied military aircraft and ships conducted long-term reconnaissance, found out the German defense system in the landing area, and mastered relatively complete intelligence data. A few months before landing, the Strategic Air Force and the Tactical Air Force bombed railway hubs, bridges, highways and other important targets in northern France and Belgium on a continuous and large scale. Twenty-four bridges on the Seine River were destroyed by 18, which paralyzed the German traffic system and greatly limited the mobility of the troops. Three weeks before landing, the airports around Normandy were bombed, destroying 85%. A week before landing, the British Air Force attacked the German long-range radar station and destroyed most of it, so the Allied forces basically met no resistance from the German Air Force when landing. The Allies also adopted a series of camouflage measures: in the east of England, an "American Army Group 1" was created under the command of Lieutenant General G.S. Barton, and after the troops originally stationed there were transferred, the camp was still disguised as usual; Many fake landing ships, tanks and gliders are set in places detected by German machines. Planes dropped twice as many bombs in Calais as in Normandy. On the eve of D-Day, small ships and planes pretended to attack and used electronic jamming equipment to simulate huge landing formations and fleets. In addition, strict confidentiality measures have been taken. The above measures are aimed at making the Germans think that the allied forces will land in Calais and deploy a large number of reserves in this area around D-Day, thus creating favorable conditions for the successful landing. In order to ensure the landing of a large number of follow-up troops, the allied forces also designed and manufactured an artificial port composed of hollow reinforced concrete caissons on the landing beach, and formulated a plan for laying submarine oil pipelines. At the same time, Britain has stored a large amount of combat materials, and the troops have carried out training that meets the requirements of actual combat and joint exercises of simulated landing of the three armed forces.
Activity implementation
On June 1 day, the landing troops began to board the ship at the port of South England 15. The original landing date was June 5, which was delayed for 24 hours due to bad weather. After the landing formation arrived at the southeast junction of the Isle of Wight from the boarding port, it sailed in five ways, with minesweepers as the guide and fire support ships and planes as the cover. After passing through the center line of the Strait, the navigation channels of each landing formation were changed from one to two, which were used by fast and slow ships respectively.
In the early morning of June 6th, the first echelon of the 82nd, 10 1 airborne division of the United States and the 6th airborne division of the United Kingdom parachuted in17000, respectively, at the southern tip of the Gotham Peninsula and near the mouth of the Yi 'an River, with the task of seizing the beach causeway and main bridges and occupying key points on the flank of the main landing area. The subsequent airborne echelon used gliders to land. The parachute drop was completed as planned, and the loss of aircraft drop was large. From midnight on the 5th to 5 o'clock on the 6th, 2,500 heavy and medium bombers prepared for air fire and dropped about 1000 tons to bomb the landing zone and its vicinity. Before the landing ship washed up on the beach, a large number of fighters and fighter-bombers bombed and strafed the German defensive positions. At 5: 30, more than 100 fire support ships prepared for the 80km landing front, and immediately turned to fire support, which achieved good results. In the deep battle after landing, the naval gun continued to implement effective fire support. The landing troops landed in five landing areas according to their respective landing time (H, 6: 30 ~ 7: 45), and basically broke through the German positions by 9: 00. Except for the "Omaha" landing area, all landing troops have gained a relatively stable foothold. The U.S. military was stubbornly resisted by the Germans in Omaha (Rommel ordered the fortifications in this section to be strengthened and transferred to the 352nd Division before the allied forces landed), and only advanced 1.6 ~ 2.4 kilometers before the end of the day. German resistance is mainly concentrated in Karantang and Caen. From June to July, the Allied Forces176,000 people and 20,000 vehicles landed. Two man-made port components have been towed across the channel, installed and put into use at 16 (severely damaged by the storm at 19).
By June of 12, all the landing areas will be connected into a landing site with a frontier of 80km and a depth of 13 ~ 19km. 17, Hitler flew to the western front, ordered Lundstedt and Rommel to launch a counterattack from Bayo to the coast, divided the allies, and held Cherbourg at all costs. 18, American landing troops cut off the ketan peninsula, and on 2 1 2, supported by naval gun fire, launched a general attack on cherbourg, forcing the German defenders to surrender on the 29th. However, due to fighting on the terrain covered by shrubs and hedges, the progress is slow. British troops plan to capture Caen on D-Day. Due to the tenacious resistance of the German armored division, it was not until July 9 that the north bank of the city was conquered, and it occupied the whole city on 19, attracting a large number of German reserves, which was conducive to the US military operations west of Caen.
The Germans are in critical condition. On June 10, G von Schweipenburg, commander of the German armored cluster on the western front, was wounded by the Allied Air Force; On 28th, F. dormann, commander of the German Seventh Army, died of a heart attack at the front. On July 3, Lundstedt was relieved of his post as commander-in-chief of the Western Front and was replaced by H.G. von Kruger; /kloc-in July of 0/7, Rommel was wounded by a British plane and returned to Germany, with Kruger as his post.
By the beginning of July, American, British and Canadian troops had landed 6,543,800 people, more than 6,543,800 vehicles and nearly 600,000 tons of materials. Because the landing site is too small, the allied forces launched an action to expand the landing site. On July 18, American troops captured the Sanluo transportation hub and divided the German "B" army group. After American, British and Canadian troops arrived in Caen, Comon and Lesai, they formed a landing site with a frontal area of 150km and a depth of 13 ~ 35km. By July 24, all preparations for the general attack on the ground were completed, and the first stage of the Normandy landing campaign to capture France ended successfully. In this campaign, allied casualties 122000, German casualties and prisoners 1 14000.
The Normandy landing campaign is of great significance for the allied forces to launch a large-scale attack in western Europe and accelerate the collapse of Nazi Germany, and provides useful experience for organizing and implementing large-scale landing operations. The main reasons for the successful landing are: the Soviet Union successfully counterattacked the Soviet-German battlefield, and the war situation was favorable; Make careful preparations before the war; Master the air and sea control rights; Successful camouflage and deception; Correct selection of landing direction and time; Concentrate superior forces and the main direction of weapons; The armed forces of the army, navy and air force work together to closely organize various campaign support and logistics support; Strong cooperation of the French underground resistance movement. In addition, the German army's weak defense, misjudgment of the landing direction and command errors caused the troops north of the Seine to be unable to mobilize and put into operation in time, which was also an important reason. The main problems exposed by the allied forces are: the attack power of the troops is not strong, the speed of establishing the landing site is slow, and the completion of the campaign plan is delayed by 43 days due to the impact of the storm.