Battle of the Third Reich

"My dear Margaret, my dear, I am sorry to have sent you a letter for so long.: / / I am now writing to you in the barracks outside Dover, the situation here is a bit bad, but we still Without losing courage, the Germans will not defeat us. I miss you and our children very much. I really hope to end this cursed war as soon as possible. I don’t know..." As I write here, the pen ink seems to be exhausted and sharp The tip of the pen leaves only a faint impression on the stationery.

"Oh, God, don't do this again..." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood shook the pen hard, and then swiped **** the side of the document to finally confirm that the pen had indeed used up the last drop of ink.

"Henry, do you have ink here?" Edwood raised his head and asked loudly to the adjutant who was squatting behind the turret of the Matilda II tank, picking things in a pile of backpacks piled on the hood. .

"No, sir, I don't have ink. I'm looking for my spare bag. I remember there are still half a cigarette in it." Lieutenant Henry lowered his head and ripped off the strap of a canvas duffel bag. Look, smiled happily. "Found it, it was originally in this bag."

"It's a mess, I need a bottle of ink now, Lieutenant." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood stood up and gave an order to his lieutenant.

"Sir, I will go to Chief Henderson and ask if he may have some ink." Ensign Henry carried his spare bag on his body, tightened the mouth of the duffel bag randomly, and then jumped from the tank. Down.

"If there is no ink, just find a pen for me."

"Got it, sir." Edwood carefully folded half of the family book and put it in the map bag around his waist with the remaining stationery.

Edwood's situation was not as bad as he wrote in his home book, but it was terrible. The First Armored Division has fallen into chaos. The reason is all because of the strict orders issued by Churchill.

In order to rush to Dover Port within the time fixed by London, the First Armored Division abandoned almost half of its troops. Because only vehicles with off-road capabilities can leave the road march, the first armored division threw away all of his heavy tank transport vehicles, the entire logistics team. The two mechanized infantry battalions and the anti-aircraft artillery and heavy artillery hauled by trucks only carried tanks, tracked armored vehicles, wheeled off-road armored vehicles, and some off-road trucks from the wild through the blocked area and marched along the rural dirt roads.

Since the division, the division has never received news of these follow-up units. Edwood estimated that the troops were still marching along the road towards Dover. The problem is that the bulk of the tank division's supply is in those units. The division is now in a state of total shortage of oil, spare parts and food.

In order to march, all armored squadrons also abandoned their wheeled transport vehicles and carried only a part of their supplies and their luggage. Due to the small internal space of the British tank. Tankers can only stack materials on their tanks and vehicles as much as possible, because they have never considered this situation, they have no cargo straps, they can only use knapsack straps to fix each other. Due to the off-road march, too much material should not accumulate on the roof of the vehicle. Each vehicle group carried two days of emergency food and personal luggage, leaving the tent, ammunition, quilt, and food on the road. Follow the army march. They also abandoned their field cooking carts and left them with the chefs in the brigade. Now that the whole regiment can't even drink a hot soup.

When the Germans shelled Dover, the first armored division had just arrived in Dover less than two hours. After a long period of high-intensity off-road marching, soldiers and equipment have fallen into a state of extreme fatigue. Many tanks' walking systems have been worn to the point that they must be replaced immediately, and the vehicle's engine also needs to be maintained and maintained due to heavy load operation. Originally, these tasks were scheduled to be completed during the next day, because the people in the division command optimistically believed that the logistics supply unit could arrive before noon the next day. With the addition of those new troops, the maintenance and repair work could be completed quickly.

At that time, the only concern in the division was that the Germans would initiate landings before the arrival of the follow-up troops, but the Dover Fortress said that the defense force of Dover Port itself was already strong enough, relying on the fortress and more than a dozen defensive fortresses and shores around Artillery positions, more than one hundred cannons of various calibers. It can at least block the German landing fleet for more than 24 hours, which is enough time for the armored division to get rest.

The mission of the First Armored Division in Port Dover is actually very simple. It is to use these tanks as a mobile fortress in street fighting. These tanks will be scattered throughout the city. Construct shooting positions one by one in the streets and alleys, using the advantages of armor and firepower to destroy the German landing infantry in the city.

According to the estimates of the British Army, the first batch of German troops to land must be light infantry, before opening the landing situation and mastering a stable landing area. The Germans could not transport their armored forces ashore. The British tanks will only face German light infantry equipped with infantry weapons. They are equipped with small caliber mortars and grenades at most. As long as the tank commander responds carefully, plus the firepower of the army infantry, the German infantry will Encountered a massacre in Dover City.

Edwood also agrees with this view. Although his tank regiment has a variety of equipment models, some of them are very suitable for activities in these narrow roads and streets, that is to say, they are very suitable for street fighting. At the beginning, he was more worried about encounters with the German armored forces. His 7th Queen’s private cavalry was only a bluff. He didn’t expect to rely on this group of rookie tank drivers and a bunch of them from the reserve warehouse. The tank can confront head-on German elite armour.

The tank regiment of Edwood is placed in the German army, which is only a battalion scale, because the British army has only three divisions: battalion, battalion, and company. The other regiments and teams are more than just an administrative unit. The title is essentially a battalion establishment.

The army of Lieutenant Colonel Edwood has a very glorious title. The seventh queen is privately owned by the cavalry squadron. The earliest record of this ancient troop dates back to the seventeenth century when it was a cavalry troop converted from a Scottish mercenary. Because of his loyalty to the British royal family, he was first awarded the title of Princess Cavalry of Wales by George I. When King George II was enthroned, since there was no princess in the royal family at that time, he was given the designation of the private cavalry of the seventh queen (due to In English, the queen and the queen are the same term, because they do not understand the background of this unit. So some people later called them the queen’s private cavalry.)

This force served in India for a long time. It was once merged with the Turks in Baghdad during World War I. After returning to India for another 12 years after the war, this force was transferred to Egypt four years ago. There it was reorganized into an armored force, and all were replaced with Matilda II tanks. After several years of training, they can also be counted as elite.

However, Edwood only commanded the glorious designation. The original 7th Queen’s private cavalry is still eating soil in the Egyptian desert. Britain has no way to transport them from the Mediterranean. The bodies of the eight elite battalions of the elite battalions that were previously transferred are still reflected by the fishermen on the French coast. Found it. At the same time, because of the Italians' stubbornness, Egypt's military strength is already under the cordon. The main defense force of this long defense line is actually a group of Australian infantry, and it is really impossible to pull out.

The British Army decided to retreat second and continue to use this number. They believed that the Germans must know the name of this elite armored force. If it appears in the homeland defense war, it will cause great trouble to the other side. At least it can confuse the Germans that they have a loophole in their maritime blockade.

The Edwood regiment has 62 tanks and is divided into three squadrons. The first squadron is an infantry tank squadron. It has twelve Matilda i and five Matilda ii. The second squadron is cruise. The tank squadron has eighteen a9 cruise tanks and three latest crusader cruise tanks. The third squadron is a light tank squadron equipped with all seven models of Vickers light tanks known to Edwood , From the early 6 tons to the rare mkvi. It is simply the Vickers Tank Museum. These small tanks with weak armor will be vulnerable once they encounter each other’s tanks or anti-tank guns, but they will kill lightly armed infantry in small streets. This is precisely the strength of these little guys.

Just as the first armored division was stubbornly preparing for a big kill in this battle, the German heavy caliber heavy artillery gave them a head start, allowing them to wake up from their fantasies. It turns out that the war can still be fought like this.

The various tank squadrons scattered in the barracks, open spaces and streets of the city suffered heavy losses during the bombardment. The tankers and the houses they live in were torn to pieces under the large-caliber shells. Even the most sturdy Matilda tank is fragile like an egg.

Of the three tank regiments in the division, only Edwood’s regiment was completely withdrawn, mainly because his regiment had too many tanks out of the team. In order to wait for the waste wood, the entire regiment spent two hours in the suburbs and was delayed. Time to enter the city. So when the shelling came, the 7th Cavalry Regiment had just begun to enter the city. This group of guys escaped twice as fast as they entered the city, and the remaining two regiments in the division had already lost at least 20% of their equipment. The casualties of the personnel were even more difficult to estimate. Among them, two poor squadrons The formed system disappeared into the burning streets.

The more serious loss comes from the command system. A shell of more than 300 mm just hit the division communication station parked on the central square, and three large off-road communication trucks and the communication being sent on the car The officers and soldiers were completely swept away. At present, the entire division can only rely on the experimental armored command vehicle of the First Tank Regiment to keep in touch with the outside world. The radio power on this vehicle is not enough, and the terrain around Dover Port is complex, so it can only barely receive London’s Some signals, it is said that all the messages sent were like mud bulls entering the sea, and no response was received. But in the end, they finally got in touch with the Kent command post, and they rescued them from panic.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwood pulled the kettle from his waist and shook it slightly, feeling that there was still liquid in it. His regiment now lined up in a long row and stopped on a road outside Dover, with the front of the car facing Dover. Tanks are parked on the right side of the road, and armored vehicles are parked on the left side.

The second squadron of the division’s armored car regiment originally had 24 armored vehicles, half of them were Bren machine gun vehicles, eight Cadenroyd tracked transport vehicles, and the most rare were six wild dog reconnaissance vehicles. The performance of the small armored vehicle is excellent, and Edwood appreciates this small wheeled vehicle.

This armored car squadron now has only twelve Bren machine gun cars and two Carden Royds. The wild dogs all ran out completely, giving Edwood an updated understanding of the speed of this small car.

Because the organization of this squadron is best preserved, the division assigned it to the seventh strongest private cavalry team of the seventh queen. This unit will become the fist of the armored division and be invested in the most critical battles. Therefore, after dawn, the division constantly thought about trying to enrich the strength of this unit.

The team is now stationed on an asphalt road called Canyon Road. As the name implies, this road passes right through the bottom of a canyon. This is a two-lane country road with a 50-foot gentle **** on both sides. Local farmers reclaimed fields on the hillside, planted with alfalfa and wheat.

"Sir, I found the ink you want. Lieutenant Condy brought his oil painting toolbox with a full set of stationery." Ensign Henry shouted loudly beside a Caden Royd crawler in the distance, he held up A bottle of ink gestured to Edwood.

At this moment, a two-wheeled motorcycle roared quickly from the side of the valley towards the convoy. It quickly passed the second lieutenant Henry and almost knocked off the ink bottle in his hand. The driver skillfully pulled the handlebar, Depressing the brakes on the rear wheel, the motorcycle slid sideways for half a meter and stopped in front of the lieutenant colonel.

"Lieutenant Colonel Edwood?" the driver asked loudly.

"Yes." The lieutenant colonel stood up and stepped forward.

"An urgent order from the division, sir." The subordinate took out a piece of paper from the file pocket on the chest of the jacket and handed it to the lieutenant colonel.

"It's a shaggy guy." Edwood looked at the distant motorcycle and shook his head. He flattened the paper in his hand and looked at it carefully.

"Henry!" the lieutenant colonel shouted loudly.

"Immediately summon all the squadron commanders to gather here, we are going to fight." (To be continued.)