The decisive battle against the Third Reich

A burst of artillery fire hit the slope of Highland Zero, and as usual, the ground shook. However, because these shells were fired from the direction of Gafsa, most of the shells hit the reverse slope directly. It is above the tunnel fortifications, so the vibrations will be much more severe than before.

However, perhaps because they had had similar experiences before, or perhaps the French battalion had been inspired with morale, or perhaps they had just won a victory that gave them confidence, the soldiers were indifferent to the more intense bombing. In response, many soldiers were drinking water and eating bread in the falling sand... During the previous sneak attacks on bus stations and airports, most of them were too nervous to eat, but now they feel relaxed. Hungry.

Colonel Sline was wrong about one thing. The bombing was not violent and lasted only a few minutes.

Qinchuan thought that this must be related to the fact that a large number of British ammunition was blown up at bus stations and airports... It is true that the Allies could also use transport aircraft for airdrops or emergency transportation to Gafsa Airport.

But the transportation capacity was limited after all. The Allies had to choose between fuel, ammunition, food, and even ammunition, bullets and artillery shells, so they no longer dared to pile tons of ammunition on the enemy's positions as before.

After the sound of the gunfire subsided, Qin Chuan ran to the entrance of the tunnel and carefully stuck his head out to look down... Dozens of "Sherman" tanks majesticly raised their muzzles to cover the groups of British infantry behind them. Opened up. There were also several minesweeper tanks driving ahead. Apparently the British army was worried that the Germans would lay mines in front of their positions.

However, the British army worried too much about this. The German army had just regained the position from the British army not long ago. It was too late and there was no condition to lay mines... Laying mines is not a panacea. Although it is indeed very useful, it requires a large area to lay mines. Deployment can play a role in intimidating and delaying the enemy. However, the tunnel is very narrow and the space is very precious, so laying mines is a very uneconomical tactic for tunnel defense.

There were some changes in the British army's offensive tactics this time... Their engineers first used cars to transport a pile of steel triangular slopes and lined them up regularly at the foot of the mountain and reinforced them with sandbags. Then the tanks slowly moved under the guidance of the engineers. It drove up, so that the tank gun was raised high and aimed at the fortifications on Highland Zero.

This is a good idea. Seeing this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but secretly praise it. This can solve the problem of insufficient elevation angle of the tank.

But everything has advantages and disadvantages. Doing so will also not help the tank aim at the target... but it is better to be able to hit it than not to hit it.

Perhaps for a small test of their skills, these tanks fired a barrage of shells at the entrance of the tunnel on the high ground.

The tank's direct aim at close range is much more accurate than the long-range artillery, and a burst of smoke and dust was immediately hit near the entrance of the tunnel.

Then the British army began to take serious action. Following the commander's order, the soldiers of the 1st Airborne Regiment hiding behind the tanks rushed forward with guns in hand.

The commander of the 1st Airborne Regiment was Colonel Bader, who was also the frontline commander of the attack on Heights Zero.

Colonel Budd did not take the battle in front of him seriously, because in his mind, the Germans hiding in the tunnels were simply facing death... The military theory that Budd learned told him that the most effective confrontation between the two armies was to The important thing is the frontal deployment of troops.

This is obvious. The side that deploys its troops can exert greater firepower and combat effectiveness, while the side that fails to deploy its troops will only be restrained everywhere. Even if the total strength is greater than the opponent's, it will not help.

There are even those who believe that at a certain point, the failure to deploy troops unable to exert firepower is almost equivalent to none.

Now, the British army has fully deployed its troops and firepower on the front, and is also covered by tanks, while the German army... is hiding in the tunnel.

"God!" Colonel Bader said to the staff: "They probably only have one tunnel entrance per platoon, which means that there are only two or three soldiers in a platoon that can exert combat effectiveness. They actually want to block us?!"

"Colonel!" the staff reminded: "The general means, be careful of German ambush!"

Colonel Bader smiled disdainfully: "They are all hiding in the tunnel, I don't think they can have any ambush!"

Colonel Bader's point of view can be said to be right or wrong.

He was right because the German troops in the tunnel did not ambush.

To say that he was wrong was that these tunnels were not as simple as he imagined.

"Bang!" A gunshot sounded, and a bullet knocked down a machine gunner standing on the tank.

Colonel Bader looked behind him and cursed loudly: "Who did this?"

Colonel Bader's first reaction was that the machine gunner was knocked down by himself... This is not a rare thing on the battlefield, such as a gun misfiring or an accidental shooting.

But Colonel Bud soon discovered that he was wrong, because in the next second, bullets rained down on the back of the British army like raindrops, with a burst of howling of artillery shells... followed by a burst of "boom" With random noises, more than a dozen mortar shells exploded in the crowd of British soldiers.

Colonel Bader, who was lying on the ground, looked in the direction of the gunfire. It turned out to be White 217 Hill behind Hill 312. Soon, several artillery shells were fired at the British army from another high ground. The shells all landed very accurately. When he arrived at the crowd of British soldiers, he immediately killed dozens of them.

This is where the tunnel tactic comes in handy. Highlands are not independent from each other. They can of course cover each other. As long as the firepower reaches the adjacent tunnels, one or several tunnels will be dug.

The best among them is the mortar. Most of the mortars have a range of several kilometers. With the target highland as the center, a circle with a range of several kilometers as the radius is drawn. All highlands and locations in this circle can be used. Provide covering fire for target high ground.

In particular, mortars can be fired from another slope over high ground, so only a few artillery observers need to be placed on the hilltop position to fire artillery shells at the enemy without the enemy even being able to see where the shells are coming from.

"Conceal! Conceal!" Colonel Bud ordered loudly.

Of course, he would not order the withdrawal so easily. Even if it was a withdrawal, he thought that he only needed to hold on for a while, and his troops and the Australian division would be able to capture this high ground.

But Colonel Bud soon discovered that this was not the case. Just as the British soldiers poured into the high ground in groups, gunshots rang out one after another on the high ground... As mentioned before, the entrances of the tunnels also cover each other. , when the British army rushed to a certain tunnel entrance, they would inevitably show their backs or flanks in front of another tunnel entrance. There were even well-camouflaged shooting holes. Many British soldiers did not hesitate to die. Know where the bullets are coming from.