Battle of the Third Reich
v3 Chapter 38: Prologue
At 1:15 pm on May 31, 1940. Dunkel carved German position on the east side. "Cypress" Corps Command.
Mueller and his staff were sitting at the map table while casually drinking after-dinner liqueur and smoking the fine cigars sent from Berlin while chatting endlessly.
For these combat officers, the present day is really boring, they can only pass the time now. The same is true of the soldiers, and everyone is looking forward to the final decisive battle expected by General Commander General Reinhardt.
In fact, in the past two days, the entire legion was not idle. They rehabilitated their positions and facilities in accordance with the orders of the general headquarters. The arrival of a large number of heavy weapons has greatly increased the workload of the engineers. When the last batch of heavy weapons was sent to the position, even Mueller was taken aback. When he read the letter from Reinhardt brought by the commander of the **** force, he understood the commander’s intentions. In order to conceal the placement of these weapons and build their firing positions, half of the infantry of the Legion became engineers, finally hiding the big guys within the time specified by the general. Then they can only sit idle and wait for the final battle to come.
Ten hours have passed, and there is still no movement from the British. Yesterday the British flew two reconnaissance planes in bad weather. As a result, the artillery of their two regiments were excited for a long time. Now the wreckage of the two planes is still piled up by the beach. Prior to this, the anti-aircraft artillery unit had not opened, and the anti-aircraft artillery was so depressed that even those who saw the seagull wanted to fire.
The British Expeditionary Force was busy speeding up their bomb evacuation. Gott finally came up with a way to deal with that bomb. He installed a simple push in front of all his remaining "Matilda" tanks. Earth shovel to remove bombs from the port and beach. At the beginning, the Mueller artillery intervened their volleyball operations with heavy artillery. After knocking out more than a dozen British tanks, the British dared not come out during the day, and they began to use the night to deflect the bombs. . Then Mueller received an order from the headquarters to keep the British busy, not to worry about their bomb evacuation, and to build reinforcement works.
Now the sporadic explosions from the British have gradually disappeared, it seems that they have almost cleaned up the bombs. The intelligence recovered by the reconnaissance planes is that their troops are slowly gathering towards the port and the beach. Their concealment work is doing very well. At least they used camouflage nets to cover the open space near the beach and the port. Within a few hours General Reinhardt predicted that the final withdrawal of the British troops would begin. The wait before the war was really tough, and Mueller took another sip of sweet wine.
All the commanders under him suffered the same torment in their positions. Mueller thought that the **** officers were now showing a knowing smile as they bored in the trenches. In this way, it is definitely not an easy task to keep a force with a strong desire to fight quietly there. Mueller was eagerly looking forward to the final struggle of the British, at least at that time his soldiers did not need to be bored with machine guns. Rabbit playing.
"Colonel. Phone at the radar station."]
The communications officer in the outhouse ran into the command room and reported.
"Oh? Haha, I hope they really found something this time." Mueller jumped up from his seat and ran into the outhouse happily.
The radar was delivered two days ago. I heard that General Reinhardt sent someone to drag the prototypes of these four Wurzburg a-type radars directly from the production plant. This is a great radar. It takes months to equip troops. Now he is one of the first two troops equipped with this new type of radar in the German squadron. He is divided into two, and the nineteenth armored army is divided into two.
"Hey, this is Mueller. What did you find?" Mueller picked up the phone and asked.
"What? Are you sure? How many... How many of them are there... Now that you understand, you need to be closely monitored. Report to me as soon as possible... well, you are doing well, Wait for the medal, Lieutenant... that's it."
Mueller put down the phone, and then looked at his staff with excitement: "The beginning, the final decisive moment has arrived, the British use the d plan. Gentlemen. Start to act according to the general's plan ."
"Observe! Colonel!"
The staff rushed to the pile of phones on the table, and then the orders began to be issued to the various German troops and positions. Suddenly, the entire legionary position began to sweep away the previous decadent appearance, and began to operate quickly and precisely. Countless soldiers entered their respective combat positions. The officers began to issue a series of preparation orders.
Now the terrible "Cyprus" has been awakened from his sleep, it reveals its terrifying fangs waiting for the coming enemy.
"Understood, got it, okay, yes, we acted as planned immediately."
Wolfe put down the phone and looked at his Air Force Wing Captains with a look of expectation. He said seriously: "Gentlemen, the operation has begun. Immediately follow the original plan and dispatch. Duty Officer, Urgent report! Gentlemen, everything is for Germany!" Then he paid a solemn salute to those Air Force officers. The Air Force Wing Commanders immediately returned with a solemn expression, turned around, and quickly rushed out of the airport command room.
At 1.45 pm on May 31, 1940, the coast observation post of the "Cyprus" Corps first discovered the British Royal Navy Fleet from the northeast. Various small ships followed closely behind the huge ships, and the black smoke from countless large and small chimneys covered the sky.
Five minutes later, the observation post of the Armored Nineteenth Army discovered another British fleet from the southwest, but the fleet was not followed by small boats, all of which were all large battleships.
Mueller stood in front of the observation window of the solid concrete fortification, holding a telescope and sneered, watching the giant steel behemoths slowly heading towards his position.
"Attention, no fire was allowed without my order. All the personnel entered the position and were ready to receive the first round of shelling by the enemy. Are the naval observers ready?"
"Ready, they are calculating the azimuth and speed of those warships."
"Let them pay attention to picking the most valuable goals. We can't waste firepower."
"Comply, Colonel!"
Mueller was satisfied with his early preparations. He picked up the telescope and admired the majestic appearance of those overlords at sea.
"It's amazing, the British shipbuilders are really amazing guys. Look at those warships. If we had those warships in Germany, how good would it be." Mueller exclaimed.
"Colonel, anyway, they will be immediately scrapped into scrap iron, and it will be useless no matter how powerful."
A staff member smiled and said, "I didn't expect to really guess General Reinhardt. They really sent a battleship. What was unexpected was that the British would send such a large fleet. It seems It’s all their belongings. If we hadn’t been prepared to deal with them for a long time, maybe we would really suffer a big loss.”
"Of course, I now admire the general's strategic vision and tactics. I have admired the five bodies. He is simply the God of War that God has given to Germany." Another admirer said in full admiration.
"Don't talk about those, how many do you recognize now?" Mueller interrupted the staff's conversation.
"We recognized six battleships, three battlecruisers, twenty destroyers, and no cruisers."
"I am the same, it seems that they have pulled out the main force of the British local fleet. Where is the nineteenth armored army?"
Mueller turned around and asked the communications staff.
"They also have at least four battleships there. From the model point of view, the British pulled out the main force of their Mediterranean fleet."
"The elite of the British Navy is concentrated here. It seems that we can have a good time this time. Did the radar find the British Air Force?" Mueller asked.
"Please wait a moment, I will ask immediately." The staff immediately picked up the phone and asked.
"Colonel, the enemy stopped the ship!" an observer shouted.
"what?"
Mueller quickly picked up the telescope and looked towards the British fleet in the distance. I saw that the huge fleet stopped at the front of the German position 20 kilometers from the coastline. The giant ships lined up with their sides facing the coast. The destroyers began to circle around the battleships.
"It seems that they are about to start bombardment, ordering the troops to prepare for bombardment, and hope that our fortifications will be able to withstand the bombardment of the main naval gun. The naval observers were ordered to immediately determine their position and distance, so that the big guys were ready to charge Good first bombardment. Those 210-mm heavy howitzers were ready to shoot immediately after entering the new position."
"Comply, Colonel."
"Reporting to the Colonel, we have confirmed that the battleships are the battleships Rodney, Nelson, Collision, King, War Weariness, Revenge, and Determination. The battlecruisers are Hood, Prestige, and Counterattack. The destroyers are British eleventh, twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth destroyer squadrons." A naval observer ran into the command post excitedly: "The warships are the elite of the entire British navy's local fleet."
"Really? You have to choose the most valuable target to attack. I am not very familiar with naval ships. You can decide the target to attack."
"Comply, Colonel." The naval officer ran out quickly.
"Colonel, the radar station reported that British aircraft had entered their detection range and would be here in fifteen minutes."
"What about our plane?"
"They have arrived and are now seizing heights to prepare for the British planes."
"well....."
"Boom...Boom...Boom..."
A loud thunderous noise from the sea interrupted Mueller's words, and then a dull cannonball roar rang over the German positions. The British Navy used their cannons to greet the German positions for the first time.
Eighteen 406 mm and fifty-two 381 mm cannons fired more than 20 tons of deadly ammunition at the German position.
In an instant, the entire German frontier position trembled in roar. The shock wave of the air wave when the huge naval artillery shell exploded violently through the thick armored shell covered by the concrete, and the shell slammed by the dirt and sand that was brought up was slammed.
"It seems very powerful, I didn't expect it." Mueller was stunned by the power of the naval gun. He had never seen a bombardment by a large artillery of more than two hundred millimeters.
"Has the soldiers at the frontier position been withdrawn?"
"It was withdrawn long ago. Colonel. Are we going to fight back?"
"Wait again! The enemy hasn't started sending the boat out yet, and we must hit the target accurately for the first counterattack."
"Comply, Colonel."
Ten minutes later, the British carried out a second bombardment. This time they extended their firepower by about 50 meters and smashed 70 huge craters on the German position. Now the entire frontier position has been turned into a huge ruin, and the destroyed fortifications and various construction fragments can be seen everywhere.
However, because Mueller had already prepared, the soldiers in the front position had long been withdrawn. As a result, the British had two volleys and the result was nothing except plowing the land on the French coast again. The German casualties are still zero.
Mueller was deeply impressed by the destructive power of those two salvos in his armored command post. He thought that the already fortified work was as fragile as glass in front of that terrible power.
He felt it was necessary to start a counterattack now. If the British were allowed to fight again like that, his position and legion would sooner or later be wiped from the ground by those horrible artillery. However, he endured it. He must be patient, and he must not be able to fight back lightly unless it is absolutely necessary. He cannot wait until the enemy has really entered the general’s trap.
Mueller clenched his teeth and ordered: "All the soldiers on the second line of defense evacuated their positions and retreated to the third line of defense."
"Comply, Colonel."
"Colonel! The navies have calculated various parameters of the azimuth distance of the enemy warships and reported them to the artillery unit." A staff officer said by phone.
"Good, let those big guys stand by."
"Understood, Colonel."
"Colonel, those small ships are starting to dispatch. They are heading in the direction of Dunkel. Their air force is also here! They are also flying in the direction of the port. God, they have hundreds of them!" a staff officer shouted with a telescope .
"I'll see." Mueller rushed to the observation port and picked up the telescope.
I saw that the small groups of dense ships began to line up slowly in the direction of Dunker. A large group of British fighters were hovering over them to **** them.
"Great!"
Mueller yelled, "Order the big guys to prepare and start fighting back in five minutes. Now it's time for those warships to taste our heavy shells. Hell, they fired again."
A huge fire flashed from the muzzle of the distant warship, and Mueller quickly left the observation port, covering his ears with his hands.
After a few seconds, the observation post shook strongly again with a violent explosion.
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