Battle of the Third Reich

Abu Ghee Fromm, the British Army’s top soldier, gasped and climbed the steep slope, over the mountain beam, and behind it was an empty platform. There was a spare airfield for the Royal Air Force, although it had been abandoned, but before The excavated trenches and fortifications are still there, which can give him a temporary shelter.

The superior soldier grasped the grass roots of the weeds on the slope, struggling hard with his tired legs, and climbed up tenaciously. As long as he crossed the mountain beam, he would be saved. That was his only way of life. Fromm once again turned up the strap of the Lienfield mki rifle. This heavy rifle now looks more weighty, as well as his marching backpack. He feels like he is carrying a solid iron block. Stretching his shoulders was sore, the arm straps blocked blood circulation, and his arms felt a little tingling.

A sharp howling passed through my ears, sounding like some kind of high-speed flying bug.

"God, they are catching up." A soldier shouted sharply. The British soldiers who were climbing the earth **** panicked. The frequency of alternating hands and feet began to speed up. Some soldiers began to remove their equipment and backpacks from their bodies. , Rifles, bullet bags and infantry spades, all things that were thought to slow down your escape speed were discarded, and various equipment and weapons were thrown everywhere on the hillside.

Fromm is not going to abandon his rifle. He keeps in mind what the squad leader confessed. Do not throw away your equipment at any time, otherwise you will regret it. Although he didn’t know what the squad leader said about regret, he decided to obey the veteran. For a soldier who had participated in the First World War, it was his reason to be able to come back alive from the battlefield.

The squad leader was not as lucky as he was last time. Just fifteen minutes ago, a 20mm machine gun shell cut the 49-year-old sergeant into two sections, and did not struggle as long as in the novel. The veteran died almost immediately.

It happened so quickly. Fromm still feels a little unrealistic. The gray German tank roared out of the night like a legendary monster roaring out of the night. The British infantry was completely unprepared. The outer defense lines of the temporary camp were virtually invisible. The checkpoint and machine gun barriers collapsed at the touch. With all the British targets they encountered, these scenes are like nightmares, so it feels incredible.

Folkestone's defensive strength is very impressive, originally there are two battalion army troops stationed here, and a naval coastal artillery battalion. With two 3mm shore defense guns and 24 25-pound army howitzers, the firepower is extremely fierce.

Folkestone is also a very good commercial port, and it surpasses Dover in size, and the two places are less than eight miles apart. Geographically speaking, if Dover is an English key, then Folkestone is English door handles, the two complement each other and form a horn. Rely on each other.

The terrain of Folkestone is different from Dover, which is covered by ditches. He is in a gentle hilly area with many broad terraces, and the city is built on a slope. It extends to the seaside with a large slope, and a natural beach head at the port. On both sides, like Dover and St Margaret Beach, there are towering ridges and white cliffs.

With enough flat land, she is more suitable as a trading hub than Dover. There is a railway dispatching center and a shunting yard in the city. It is an important transfer station for the British coastal railways. Trains from Dover are transferred from here. Entering the north-south trunk railway system, you can go directly to London and towns in the north of the UK.

There are also two medium-sized military airports and a radar station on the outskirts of the city, which are responsible for the regional air defense mission in the Dover area. However, after the war, as the target of the German Air Force’s end point, Folkestone’s airport and radar station were bombarded day and night. The repair speed of the airport could not keep up with the German’s destruction speed. The targeted hunting of the troops eventually withdrew the Royal Air Force across the board and abandoned the two bases. The radar station was completely destroyed. According to the German **, there were no two stones stacked on the land.

The coastal fortress was severely damaged, and two heavy artillery pieces were blown up in their fortifications. Fortunately, the coastal artillery responded in time, and most of the howitzers were transferred to the air defense tunnel. This was retained, but the loss was still impossible. Avoid, the number of artillery is only 20, but ammunition reserves are sufficient, enough for these artillery for a while.

The infantry battalion was hit hard. The Luftwaffe destroyed the military barracks on the outskirts of the city. Stuka attacked the surrounding bunkers built along the intercity highway. Even if the garrison carefully applied these camouflage paints and put on camouflage On the net, the Luftwaffe, as if it had a perspective function, did not hesitate to blast those semi-cement bunkers together with their camouflage into pieces.

The Germans attacked the material warehouses in the urban area, and torched all the military supplies stored in the warehouses with hidden gas bombs. At the same time, they also caused serious fires in the urban areas. The two most prosperous blocks in the city center were burned. Flat ground.

Citizens began to pull gangs to flee the city. At this time, the garrisons themselves were in a terrible situation. They could not control the situation at that time. When they began to appease the people, they found that only half of the residents remained in the city. The rest Half of them have embarked on the road to the north.

What worries the garrison is that the half who left include the entire wealthy and upper class of Folkestone. The resources they took away accounted for more than 80% of the city's material reserves, and the remaining half of the residents' natural material burden was naturally taken away. Pressed on the local government and garrison.

This was the situation faced by the British Army’s Fifth and Sixth Infantry Divisions when they arrived at Folkestone. Passenger trains carrying them entered the downtown railway station. The soldiers were arranged to live in the nearest barracks. With the help of starting to unload material and equipment from the train.

Although the fifth and sixth infantry divisions occupy the names of two division units, each division is actually composed of a light infantry brigade and an artillery battalion. Each infantry division has a total of about 8,000 troops, of which two More than a thousand people are the logistics units of each battalion. More than a thousand people are brigade artillery companies and anti-tank artillery companies. They have eight six-inch howitzers and twelve 2 pound anti-tank guns. The remaining more than four thousand people are rifles. The soldiers are divided into four infantry battalions. Each infantry battalion is also equipped with a battalion artillery platoon and an anti-tank platoon, equipped with four 18-pound infantry guns and three 2-pound anti-tank guns.

This is the latest infantry division establishment in the UK after the Battle of Dunkirk. These two infantry divisions are made up of the original left-behind troops and the newly recruited reserve troops. They are already rare in the existing British army. Most of these soldiers have undergone more than one year of technical and tactical training, including many veterans who have participated in World War I. These veterans of the reserve have valuable combat experience. Although they were only in the First World War, the experience is Experience, how to say it is better than those rookie soldiers who have never seen blood.

Due to the large number of personnel and equipment. The two infantry divisions were still busy unloading vehicles and placing troops until midnight. Then the German heavy artillery bombardment began. The first round of volleys of the heavy artillery group, whose shooting parameters were determined, overturned the cement fort at both ends of the harbor A full 50-meter-long breakwater disappeared into the sea, and at the same time, there was an anti-aircraft machine gun company and searchlight row attached to the seawall.

The train station was hit in the third round of artillery. Artillery and logistics personnel who were busy pulling heavy artillery were still wondering about the loud noise in the distance, because no one heard the sound of planes flying in the air, air defense warning Did not sound. This is obviously not an air strike.

While the soldiers were still wondering whether there was an accident, several large-caliber heavy artillery warheads hit the crowd with a train-like whistle. Then came the second and third waves of bombardment. When the British soldiers reacted, everything was irreversible. The station and the shunting yard became a crater with blazing flames. Ammunition continued to explode because of the high-temperature barbecue. The tracer flew like a fire meteor in the air. The large-caliber grenade exploded a ball of fire up to tens of meters. All kinds of steel shrapnel and debris were thrown into the air for hundreds of meters, and then hit the heads of the officers and soldiers who organized the fire extinguishment like a rainstorm.

German heavy artillery began to shift the shooting target, they began to bombard the barracks and government buildings in the urban area. An infantry battalion of the Fifth Infantry Division, who had entered the rest of Cheridon Street Barracks, had just had time to gather the troops. A heavy artillery warhead just hit the neatly arranged infantry phalanx, and the infantry of one battalion was killed on the playground. In addition to the poor people who had been torn to pieces in the middle of the crater, there were many dead soldiers who could not see any trauma. These people were naked, only wearing low-top leather shoes on their feet, and the violent shock wave ripped them off. In their military uniforms, their internal organs were ruptured through the body. Acute hemorrhage and organ failure caused them to lose their lives within half a minute.

The commander quickly ordered all troops to withdraw from the urban area, but in a panic, he could not contact the subordinate forces scattered in the semi-sitting city. Finally, when the remaining troops of the two infantry divisions withdrew from the city, they found that the two mighty infantry divisions that were originally mighty and magnificent now had only two incomplete infantry brigades.

Many soldiers lost their way while retreating, and some troops have disappeared forever in this city. The city government organized citizens to bring hot tea and coffee to the army. Both the soldiers and civilians watched the dreamy fireworks show in the distance.

Throughout the day the next day, the fifth and sixth infantry divisions were busy gathering troops and collecting supplies. Some of the logistics wagons did not enter the city. Due to the limited space of the platform, they stopped on the transfer branch outside the city. This is really a lucky luck, so that the two infantry divisions will not be caught on the second day of arriving at the destination. In an awkward situation.

Most of these trains of logistics vehicles are served and canned food, which happens to be the most needed things at present. Food and quilts are distributed to survivors and soldiers and citizens. Everyone feels hope again. As long as there is food and clothing, they have the basic guarantee of survival.

In the end, the city government and the council made a decision, and they plan to lead the surviving citizens to a safe rear after tonight. All local administrative power and public property are handed over to the two infantry divisions.

The surviving citizens dare not go back to the city again. Who knows if the frustrated Germans will fire again. The shelling last night has already scared their courage. Whoever has seen a shell can blow it up. Block? Well, the piles of smoke craters in the city center are proof.

These civilians were placed in a bunch of residential houses on the outskirts of the city, many of them are holiday villas for the rich, and now their owners may be already on their way to the United States or Canada. Breaking these locks is not something that makes people feel Guilty things.

The British Infantry Division built temporary camps along the roads outside the city. They used the remaining tents and some simple building materials to build a decent camp.

A battalion of the local garrison was set up on the outskirts of the city because of its anti-paratrooper patrol missions. They were almost completely preserved. They also defended two strategic storage warehouses. Only one of them was filled with wool after opening. Military uniforms, the other is piled with barbed wire.

Now the only thing the British Army does not lack is the woolen uniform. As the army of the world’s largest wool spinning country, their uniforms are always known for their thick materials and high quality. Looking at the new uniforms in this warehouse, the officers and men turned back silently and relocked. The door.

The barbed wire was immediately used. The engineers cut down a small grove and put a circle of wooden piles around the camp area. Then the dense wire was wrapped around the wire fence, which finally made the camp area more military. , No longer looks like a refugee distribution center.

Good news came one after another. The superior has reconnected with the Kent Command post. The other party asked them to be restless. London already knows what is happening here. They are deploying supplies and personnel. Arrived with supplies.

The officers and men of the two infantry divisions finally breathed a sigh of relief. Most people were optimistic that the crisis was over. As long as they passed tonight, everything would go in a good direction.

After a rough dinner, each infantry battalion arranged outposts and patrols at night, and the rest of the soldiers got into their tents because they had not closed their eyes last night. Today, they were busy all day again, and many people Tired and exhausted, he soon entered his dreamland, with snores in the camp, a peaceful scene.

But the peace in front of us did not last long. When the moon was dim, the Germans came... (to be continued...)