Chapter 208 Eben-Emael Fortress

"Drop the bomb!"

Daniel forcefully pulled the bomb release button. Inside the aircraft's belly, the enormous Grand Slam bomb detached from its rack. Simultaneously, the He 177 surged upward abruptly, causing Daniel to feel the safety belt tightening around him. However, his eyes never left the bomb sight, tightly fixed on the falling bomb and the target on the ground.

Typically, bombers accelerate and return home immediately after dropping bombs. However, this He 177 bomber slowed down instead. After all, if it just flew away, the dropped bomb would become a freely falling, unguided projectile. It needed to decelerate, becoming a stable operating platform, allowing Daniel better control over the bomb.

It was a paradox; if the mother aircraft left quickly after dropping the bomb, the uncontrolled bomb became an ordinary free-falling bomb. Yet, if the mother aircraft circled slowly over the target, it could easily be destroyed by enemy anti-aircraft firepower or aircraft. In that case, there would still be no one to operate the bomb.

Therefore, such places where bombs could only be dropped in locations like the Eben-Emael Fortress, with little anti-aircraft capability, were the safest.

Daniel stared intently at his target, the 120mm gun turret at the center of the Eben-Emael Fortress. Simultaneously, his right hand tightly gripped the control stick, manipulating it back and forth to control the bomb's descent trajectory.

The cross-shaped illuminated signal lamp at the bomb's tail kept flashing. This signal light indicated the position of the bomb for the operator.

Daniel had to precisely hit his target based on this row of indicator lights! It was like a future unmanned drone model, using radio control. The control stick Daniel was manipulating was like a drone controller, sending signals through it to adjust the bomb's attitude.

Simple in words, yet not easy to execute!

Even in the future, the problem of radio signal delay had not been completely solved. Let alone in the current era where even transistors couldn't be mass-produced.

The control stick could only send four commands: up, down, left, and right. Daniel saw that the trajectory of the Grand Slam was leaning to the left, corrected it by manipulating the control stick, but it took a whole second for the electromagnetic-driven control surfaces mounted on the bomb's tail to respond sluggishly. He found that this correction had gone too far; the bomb suddenly tilted to the right again.

"Damn it!" Beads of sweat, the size of soybeans, appeared on his forehead involuntarily, and his heart rate soared to over a hundred beats per second!

They belonged to the Guard X Unit, mainly tasked with executing various secret weapon experiments. Usually, they engaged in training and simulation experiments, and real combat was just dropping a bomb in the suburbs of the capital of Norway a few days ago.

Whether in experiments or actual combat, controlling this thing was really challenging. The bomb swayed left and right, up and down like a staggering drunkard.

Daniel took a deep breath, forcibly calming himself down. In his regular training, he had the best performance, which was why he was assigned to carry out today's mission. Now, he absolutely couldn't mess it up!

As the bomb continued to fall, the huge projectile became smaller and smaller, and eventually, only the flashing signal lights at the tail were visible.

Daniel also gradually calmed down, and the amplitude of the control stick adjustments became smaller.

Due to the delay, every correction would overshoot, then readjust in the opposite direction. The solution was to adjust only a small amount each time so that even if it wasn't corrected precisely, it could be adjusted continuously without going too far off track.

Finally, the bomb had descended to an altitude of over 1000 meters, and its speed was close to the speed of sound.

Carefully, Daniel released the control stick. At this height and speed, the airflow had almost no impact on the bomb's flight trajectory. Moreover, as the bomb descended lower, the delay became more severe. If he continued to manipulate it, it might deviate even further from the target.

He nervously stared at the tail signal light, seeing the bomb fiercely hitting the ground about 20 meters away from the 120mm gun turret.

"God bless!" Daniel suddenly gasped for breath, slumping in his chair. In just over twenty seconds, it felt as if a century had passed.

"Daniel, how's it going?" The captain's voice sounded through the intercom.

Daniel picked up the communicator. "Mission accomplished, returning!"

The He 177, accompanied by Stuka and Bf 109, turned back. In the distance, a massive fleet of Ju 52 transport planes approached. Each Ju 52 had a tow rope behind it, towing a DFS 230 military glider.

Seemingly receiving a signal, the Ju 52 fleet slowly divided into four formations, flying in different directions.

Eben-Emael Fortress was surrounded by a canal artificially excavated, and where there's a river, there are bridges. On the northwest side of the fortress, across the Albert Canal, there were three bridges: Kanine Bridge, Vroenhoven Bridge, and Feldwezelt Bridge. These bridges were essential for crossing the canal from east to west.

Apart from capturing the fortress, those three bridges had to be seized to complete the mission successfully!

Therefore, the first wave of attacks split into four assault teams with the code names Concrete, Steel, Granite, and Iron.

"Granite" assault team was responsible for capturing the fortress; "Concrete" assault team was responsible for taking Vroenhoven Bridge; "Steel" assault team was responsible for capturing Feldwezelt Bridge; "Iron" assault team was responsible for taking Kanine Bridge.

In a glider within the "Granite" assault team, squad leader Fred looked at the distant He 177 and muttered, "Looks like they've completed their mission."

"Attention, prepare for landing!" Soon, the glider pilot loudly reminded. Gliders had no engine noise, making it audible to everyone.

This glider needed wheels for takeoff, but once airborne, the landing gear would be discarded. Landing gear increased extra resistance and weight, and during landing, it required a sufficiently long runway.

The best way to shorten the landing distance was to increase resistance during landing. For this reason, they usually wound a large amount of wire around the landing skid of the glider. This practice gradually became a common field modification for the German airborne forces. They could even add a braking parachute to the tail, enabling the glider to make a steep, quick descent in case of emergencies, landing and stopping within a short distance.

However, the impact force during such a forced landing was exceptionally powerful. After the glider pilot's reminder, everyone in the cabin gripped the handles around them tightly.

Fred saw through the window that there was smoke lingering over the Eben-Emael Fortress, the center of the fortress in complete chaos. Puffs of smoke intermittently spewed from cracks in the ground.

"Quite interesting." Fred couldn't help muttering softly because he noticed that a large piece of the fortress's ground had collapsed, forming a huge pit. However, there were no signs of bombing on the surface. This scene looked as if a massive explosion had occurred underground.

Without allowing him much time to think, the heavy sled under the glider's belly collided with the platform on top of the fortress.

Immediately, they felt a tremendous force of impact. If not for the safety belts, Fred felt he could have been bounced up and hit the top of the cabin with his head.

A harsh friction sound came from under their feet, the glider's speed slowing down, and soon it came to a stop.

"Another safe landing." Fred silently celebrated in his heart.

Although gliders had the advantages of being "silent" and enabling the concentrated dispersal of airborne troops, making it possible to gather personnel for combat immediately upon landing, they were not very safe.

Friends who have watched the TV series "Band of Brothers" based on airborne troops would know that soldiers riding gliders not only faced the same threat of enemy anti-aircraft firepower in the air as parachute troops but also landing for glider units was practically a "death gate". Any obstacle on the landing field could potentially cause a tragedy of the glider being destroyed with casualties.

However, he couldn't reveal such feelings on his face. As a squad leader, he had to set an example and play a leading role. Otherwise, if he showed a hint of fear, the soldiers below might be frightened to the point of wetting their pants.

He quickly released the safety belt, pulled open the cabin door, and shouted, "Quick, quick, quick!"

The paratroopers inside the cabin, clutching their assault rifles, streamed out of the cabin door and rushed toward their pre-assigned targets.