Battle of the Third Reich

"My Lord **** Christ, your mighty spirit is immense and merciful and immeasurable. I pray that you will forgive my sins and bless me from being hurt by a fierce enemy..." Sheldon Jacob kneeled in the dark Yong Dao prayed religiously by the wall, which is the only thing he can do now.

As his prayer sounded, one voice after another gradually joined in. After a while, everyone in this channel began to recite sacred words. The prayer lasted for a long time, changing four or five prayers in a row, the voice gradually thinned out, and finally came to silence again.

Sergeant Jacob sat down against the wall of the corridor, and he wrapped the dispensed military blanket around him, but still couldn't stop the tremor of the body. He held his head in both hands, elbows on his knees. Take a big breath, because he is afraid he will cry out in the next second.

Suddenly, there was a dull roar above the head, and the thick white rock at the top of the tunnel was still clearly identifiable, and then the whole tunnel began to tremble madly. The wall covered with corrugated steel plate made a harsh metal friction distortion, leaning against The human body on the wall can clearly feel the impact force from the rock, and through the femur and spine, an irresistible fear is chiseled into people's hearts.

Those who have not experienced such terrible scenes will never understand the horror that directly impacts the soul. You don’t know if you will die, but you know that you will die at any time, waiting every second for death to fall from the sky, but expecting it not to happen to yourself. This kind of psychology is similar to gambling, but gambling. Is your own life. People who can persevere must have a big, tough heart, but more people can't bear this pressure and fall into a mental breakdown and hysteria.

"No! I don't want to die here! I'm not a soldier anymore! I'm going home!" With a tremor and roar, a young man's voice screamed in the darkness.

Jacob heard that it was a recruit who had just joined the army. Was it called Krump or Colombo? Jacob could not remember it. No one would take the time to remember the names of these rookies. Jacob has always believed that the Ministry of the Army is fooling around. These are still half-old children. Several recruits haven't passed the voice-changing period. It sounds like a little duck quacking. The noisy person has a headache.

"Shut up, boy, sit back and obediently. This is a **** war, not a game in kindergarten. If you don't close your mouth again, I will come over and help you." No one can. Endure when enduring the threat of death. Also tortured by the roar of a recruit, an old soldier scolded the rookie before robbing Jacob.

The veteran clearly knew that he could not blame the recruit. The opponent was just a child, and he had been in the army for less than two months. He didn't even have time to complete basic training. But young does not mean that you have immunity. All people are equal before the war. Every battle is a mature test. You will become a man beyond this level. It can only become a pool of dog dung.

"I don't want, I won't shut up! I've had enough, you are all bastards! I'm going out!" The recruit has become emotionally disturbed, and he has completely forgotten the fear of veterans in the past. Started to provoke the veterans with a sharp voice.

"Slap." A crisp impact sounded, the rookie's scream came to an abrupt halt, and then the sound of the human body falling to the ground was heard.

"Hey, don't start too hard. This is just a scared cock." Jacob rubbed his face in both hands and said loudly.

The little rookie's runaway accidentally became a vent in his mind, allowing him to escape from the previous depression and fear. He suddenly felt a little grateful to the recruit, and if there was no interruption from this child, he might be the one who collapsed the next moment. Jacob tried to make his own suggestions in a ridiculous tone. At this time, people's mental pressure had already accumulated to a critical point, and stimulating anyone was asking for trouble.

"Relax, sergeant, I just gave him a buttstock, and at most broke his beautiful nose bridge. This was just a little lesson for him. He will be grateful to me in the future." Veteran Charles, a 6-foot-9 behemoth, seems to have taken care of his men, otherwise the rookie will not just break the bridge of his nose.

At this time, the roar above the head had disappeared, and the walls and ceiling no longer tremble. People began to thank them for having survived another shelling.

Jacob and his infantry platoon were trapped in a fifty-meter-long corridor of the underground tunnel network of the Dover Fortress. Dover Fortress, this ancient barracks established since 1066, has experienced ups and downs of the British Empire for 800 years, and countless emperors have stayed here, it has become a part of British history, and Windsor The name of the castle and the Tower of London.

William I came across the sea from Normandy. It was when Dover set foot on the British land. After becoming the king of England, this narrow-minded guy began to build barracks and fortresses in Dover in order to block the road of the latecomers and prevent Other European lords landed in Britain to seize his throne.

Throughout the dynasties, all the British kings who thought to go with William I continued to spend a lot of national power to repair and expand this military system. The construction of the fortress reached its peak under the threat of Napoleon, where the British established a large defensive position, trying to resist the attack that the emperor must have.

The Dover Fortress was built on a large white rock, overlooking the entire harbor. After hundreds of years of continuous construction, the British dug out a network of tunnels extending in all directions. Seven tunnels criss-crossed to form a huge underground construction with a total length of more than 5 kilometers, which can protect two thousand officers and soldiers living and living inside. . In the latter part of World War I, the United Kingdom re-modernized its modernization and set up advanced communication and command systems. After 800 years of ups and downs, Dover Fortress has maintained its record of never falling.

But this record is now undergoing the most severe challenge since the establishment of the fortress. The Germans seem to have made up their minds to prepare to break the myth of not being fortress.

The Germans chose a method that was very much in their national style. They were going to completely erase the fortress from the map. The weapon used was the largest large-caliber artillery group ever built by mankind.

From the frustrated k5 to the huge legal m1912, the German Army established a super-heavy coastal artillery group with a total of 47 calibers and four models in the area of ​​the Wisang coast. Although these calibers have different calibers and different ranges Different, but there is one thing in common, that is, after using improved ammunition. The range of all artillery can reach 27 kilometers, that is to say, Folkestone and Dover are all within the range of the artillery group.

Starting at 1 a.m. on the d-day, this group of guns named Miao Nier began to fire for the first time. Previously, the British only knew that the Germans had established heavy artillery positions on the other side, but all along, the Germans used at most three to four train guns to launch an over-the-air artillery battle with the British two heavy coastal artillery. It's all a piece of sanda, and a dozen rounds of artillery shells will put an end to it.

Due to the German Air Force's tight seal, no British reconnaissance aircraft can break through the line of defense and enter the position. So until the moment of being shelled, the British always thought that the other party's artillery would not exceed ten.

After a dull howling, the Germans smashed a whole **** on the British. More than forty shells with a caliber of more than 200 mm hit the huge white rock successively within a few seconds. In an instant, it caused unbearable losses to this huge group of fortresses. The history of ancient walls and bunkers can be traced back to the era of Henry II, using ordinary bricks and local sedimentary rocks, although it looks heavy Sturdy, the design was originally based on the resistance to solid ammunition from early stone throwers and artillery. These standards are obviously outdated in modern times. These masonry walls cannot withstand the bombardment of modern artillery. Not to mention the bombardment of heavy caliber heavy artillery at the pinnacle of artillery.

A 320-mm cannonball directly hit the center of the fortress group, hit the old church accurately, and spattered the brick and wood fragments of this medieval building throughout the fortress, and this shell also destroyed the side of the church by the way. The masonry lighthouse built by the Romans. The ancient ruins of 24 meters high are completely wiped out from the world.

The Dover Fortress Headquarters is a row of huge Victorian palace buildings. At least ten artillery guns have taken care of it. The huge fireball rises up and down before and after the building. One of the three-story side building collapses after a roar. A pile of burning rubble. This is the officer’s quarters in the Dover Fortress. A large number of middle-level commanding officers who were in their sleep were killed on the spot, and the fortress was immediately amputated.

The commander of the fortress at this time was Rear Admiral Henry Mason, who was only the head of the Coastal Artillery Regiment two months ago. Churchill directly promoted him from colonel to major general, and put this powerful fortress into his hands, only because the senior naval officer suffered heavy losses, and his qualifications had been saved, and he was very regular. It is honest and reliable, so when the position of the commander of the fortress is vacant, he just picked up a leak at this time.

Major Mason is a strict self-discipline, has received orthodox naval elite education, has a somewhat old-fashioned personality, he has very strict business requirements for his officers, but he is very kind to soldiers, and often goes deep into the grassroots units and fights with the soldiers, so very It soon gained the love and respect of the garrison garrison.

At the beginning of the bombardment, Major Mason did not return to his dormitory on the ground and went to bed with his chief of staff to carry out a battle flag deduction in the central command post of the underground bunker, simulating the German landing. , How to allocate troops and firepower to the fortress to attack the first batch of landing fleet. Major General's professionalism made him escape from the disaster, making Dover Fortress retain the highest command system.

The German artillery bombardment was quick and accurate. According to the long-term shooting table, the large-caliber heavy artillery threw a round of several hundred kilograms at a speed of one shot per minute to a target 22 kilometers away. , Blow the targets on the icon one by one to pieces.

Five minutes after the artillery fire, the German side no longer fired a group of artillery shots at Dover, only half of the firepower was launched into the Dover Fortress and the bastion opposite the fort, and the other half of the artillery began to turn towards Folkestone. At the beginning, the port city was shelled, and the night sky in the direction of Folkestone was illuminated by the burning fire.

Jacob’s company was training at night that night. The soldiers were armed and running around the side wall of the fortress. When they ran near the entrance of the underground tunnel of the fortress, a heavy artillery shell whistled and fell and directly hit them. The turret next to it, a violent shock wave instantly knocked down all the people present, and the masonry tiles that fell from the sky immediately damaged the bones of the British soldiers. Fortunately, all people wore helmets. No one died as a result.

The team of officers standing on the side of the team during the explosion suffered heavy losses. The company commander suffered serious internal injuries and began to vomit blood. The medical staff believed that the shock wave injured his internal organs and he needed immediate rescue. The three platoon leaders were tossed away by the shock wave, and then suffered another burst of masonry debris. Two platoon leaders were already in shock. Another platoon leader was lucky, but he broke his arm but bit his tongue. There is now a blur of flesh and blood in his mouth. Both the company commander and the platoon leader fell, and several other officers and sergeants also suffered different injuries. Eventually, the command of the company fell into the hands of the little sergeant Jacob.

The sergeant was less than thirty years old. He was unscathed in this violent explosion and became the only non-commissioned sergeant in the company. Looking at the soldiers crying and wailing all over the floor, Jacob completely lost his square. He didn't know what to do. Then he saw the roadside sign, and suddenly the light flashed. Immediately ordered uninjured soldiers to bring all the wounded into the underground tunnel, where there is a fully equipped field hospital, where the wounded can get first aid.

Although according to the regulations, no superior permission was obtained. No one can enter the underground bunker at will, but watching the huge explosions happening one after another, the soldiers can't care about any military methods, they drag each other and carry them. A swarm of bees ran into the deep tunnel.

The German attack was too sudden, and the personnel in the tunnel did not know what was happening, and waited until Jacob's company appeared in embarrassment before them. The people were taken aback by surprise. Looking at the miserable appearance of this group of remnants, everyone thought that the Germans had begun to land.

The panic in the tunnel began to subside after Jacob reported their experience to the duty officer. The injured person was immediately sent to the field hospital for treatment. The officer on duty agreed to Jacob’s The company temporarily stayed in the bunker, and the troops were dispersed into several branches of Yongdao according to the arrangement of the platoon. After giving the order to be on standby, the officer on duty closed the explosion-proof door at the end of Yongdao.

As a result, this standby was for five hours. After five hours of torture and suffering, these British soldiers have reached the limit of endurance, especially after the most violent explosion, more than a dozen electric lights on the top of the tunnel were shattered at the same time, and the entire tunnel fell into darkness. Soldiers can only wait hard in the dark. In the dark, people feel more sensitive to sounds and vibrations, and every shell explosion explodes as if it happened above their heads.

The soldiers were in a panic. Someone suddenly exclaimed that he heard the sound of a rock collapsing outside. They may have been buried underground, and caused a lot of commotion. Then someone proposed to send some people out to inquire about the situation, but even the guy who made the suggestion was reluctant to leave this Yongdao. Who knows what was going on outside? Until now this Yongdao has endured numerous bombardments and proved its own Sturdy, at least for now it is safe.

A soldier became addicted to cigarettes, and he only reacted when he felt out the cigarette. He remembered that he was still carrying matches, and the small fire light immediately lit up. The soldiers ignited several pieces of waste paper. Gathered in the past, everyone gazed greedily at this precious light. But soon the flames were extinguished by them, because it was suggested that the flames would consume precious oxygen. Who knows whether the ventilation system of this tunnel is still working. The soldier’s father used to be a miner and told him There are many stories of mine deaths, so he suggested that everyone should sit still and avoid consuming too much physical strength and oxygen.

Just as the soldier's emotions fell to the bottom of the valley of despair again, a series of metal friction sounded, the huge explosion-proof door was suddenly opened, and the light shot outside the door stunned the soldiers' eyes.

"Oh my god, are you still here, haven't you heard the command notice?" exclaimed the lieutenant on duty who locked them into this channel.

"What notice? No one came to inform us at all." Jacob carried his rifle to the door.

"Damn it, the radio horn of this auxiliary tunnel is broken again. Major General Mason gave the order and everyone was evacuated from the fortress immediately. If you didn't find the other two platoons, you can ask me, I don't know. You are still in the tunnel. Now everyone has packed up and walked with me immediately, we are running out of time." The second lieutenant held the kerosene lamp in his hand and hurried towards the end of the tunnel.

"Dover Castle has been leveled, the ground buildings are all destroyed, the collapsed bricks blocked the No. 3 exit, the top of the No. 6 tunnel collapsed, a whole battalion was buried underneath, the telecommunications room and the telephone The engine room was also buried together, the headquarters and the headquarters were blocked at the other end of the tunnel, hoping that the emergency exit there could still be used. The Germans had collapsed the No. 1 exit, all three shafts had collapsed, and the pump room was also buried The water in the tunnel has been cut off. We must withdraw from Exit 2 as soon as possible. Once there is a problem there, we will be trapped in this underground maze like a mouse."

After the second lieutenant finished speaking, he pulled open an explosion-proof door, and then ran forward along the tunnel. Jacob and his men dared to stay. They followed the second lieutenant and started to rush toward the exit. (To be continued...)