The Third Reich in Desperation

This is a conspiracy!Montgomery did not intend to turn the tide at all, and head-to-head with the Germans in order to win.What he wants is the current stalemate and fragmented situation, if you delay enough, just slip away.When the German army captures the villages and forests in front of them, the large troops should also withdraw a lot, and the strategic goal will be achieved.

It's a pity that Montgomery overlooked one point, that is, his troops were exhausted, and their combat effectiveness was far inferior to the cutting-edge German 13th Division.He was able to disperse troops to fortify a wide area, and the German 13th Motorized Infantry Division could also divide and attack.In the case of the division of the German army, it is somewhat difficult to fight steadily.

At present, a British infantry company in the woods has been pulled out, and more than half of its soldiers have been captured.And this small village with a short battalion garrison is already in jeopardy.

"Machine gun squad! Hurry up to the top floor of this three-story building that has just been captured and set up!" A German infantry platoon leader pressed several captured British surrendered soldiers from the building and walked out along the wall. The machine gun squad who came close to the wall ordered: "Go up as soon as possible to form a fire suppression!"

During the battle, the platoon leader was pleasantly surprised to find that the British soldiers did not have a strong will to fight. Once the German firepower surpassed them, the British troops who were alone should surrender.For example, the 8 British soldiers he just captured could still resist, but when they saw the German mp40 submachine gun blowing the head of their commander, they immediately threw all the guns on the ground.

That's why he urged the machine gun squad to occupy the commanding heights as soon as possible and form suppressive firepower against the British positions.Maybe, before long, all the British in the area within the range of the machine gun squad should surrender.

"Sudden! Sudden! Sudden!" The bullets fired from a distance swept across the ground around the platoon leader three times, splashing a burst of dust.

"Concealed transfer!" The platoon leader quickly waved his hand to signal the soldiers to move to the next position with him, and then ordered very quickly: "The precision shooter goes upstairs and suppresses the battlefield."

"Yes!" A soldier holding a G3 semi-automatic rifle equipped with a 43x mirror responded, then turned and ran into the three-story building, breaking away from the queue led by the platoon leader to run out.

At their respective positions, after the dust cleared, the bullets hit here just now left three deep bullet holes, which looked a bit shocking.

Inside the building, the precision shooter who ran to the third floor jumped to the window, and then through the broken curtain, quietly aimed his gun at the window.Through the triple mirror, he exposed the black muzzle of the gun by the window, looking for the prey within sight.

Downstairs, the German platoon leader, who had already led a dozen soldiers across the street and ran into the path between the two small buildings, bent over and trotted.This time, they bring a more violent Iron Fist anti-tank bazooka team, ready to raid a flickering second-story building window.

"Anti-tank team!" The platoon leader lowered his voice and shouted hoarsely: "Pay attention to concealment, come quickly!"

Pointing at the small building on the opposite side where the fire was still flashing, the platoon leader patted the iron fist anti-tank bazooka team leader who came running to him on the shoulder and said, "Did you see the window on the second floor of that building? The British have at least one machine gun team in there, and I want you to kill the Brit in that window now!"

"Understood!" The team leader nodded and replied in a low voice.

After seeing the team leader's loader put a rocket on him, the German platoon leader picked up the MP40 submachine gun in his hand and shouted: "Others cover fire!" He took a step across the corner of the building, and fired a round of bullets in the direction of the window on the second floor of the building regardless of whether he could hit it or not.

Other soldiers with G43 semi-automatic rifles also rushed out of the corner quickly, aiming at the opposite side and firing violently.And the real trump card, the team leader carrying the Iron Fist anti-tank rocket launcher, galloped out in two steps and one step at a time. A flying shovel slid to a big tree on the side of the road, leaning on the big tree and hitting a shot. rockets.

"Boom!" The rocket missed a bit, and instead of hitting the window directly, it pounced on the wall about one meter away from the window frame.However, the huge explosion still indicates that the effect of this cannon has been achieved.At least, in the building where a big hole was blown out, there was no longer the roar of the British Maxim heavy machine gun.

Main text Chapter 358 Considering the way out

"What?! Another position lost contact!" Montgomery looked at the combat staff in surprise.

This is already the seventh lost position. Thinking about combat, losing contact with the forward position is equivalent to losing that forward position.In other words, it was only noon, and the German army had already conquered 7 sub-positions in Montgomery.

7 positions, according to Montgomery's expectations, it will take 3 days to lose.However, the combat effectiveness of the German army obviously far exceeded his expectations.In other words, the combat effectiveness of his troops was much lower than he expected.

"Assemble the guard company. In addition, inform everyone in our division headquarters to prepare for transfer." Montgomery squinted his eyes, looked at the enlarged scale map by the wall and said coldly: "We can't stay here any longer."

Hearing that Montgomery himself said that he was going to withdraw, his adjutant almost didn't drop his jaw in fright.You know, last night, when Montgomery led them to build fortifications overnight, and spread out their positions, he also gave an ambitious order that they were not allowed to retreat, requiring the troops to hold out for at least a week.

But now, halfway through the first day, the cooking team in the division headquarters is still preparing lunch, and there are still six and a half days before the scheduled deadline, and Montgomery, the division commander, decides to run away? !

Once the division headquarters ran away, even if the troops on the front line didn't realize it for a while, they would find something was wrong sooner or later.By then, the blow to the morale of the defending troops would be devastating.

And the current location of the division headquarters is on the back of a small hill.Last night, Montgomery also personally arranged for the establishment of 17 scattered peripheral temporary blocking points centered on this hill.

Although there is no time to dig a complete trench to build a standard position, those blocking points have terrain advantages to rely on. It stands to reason that the blocking effect will definitely not be bad.

In addition, the division headquarters just got in touch with the military headquarters in Dunkirk this morning, and it is fully aware of the chaos in the rear.At this time, whether the 3rd Division of the Expeditionary Force can hold the sniper line established around this hill has become the key to whether the entire British Expeditionary Force can have time to withdraw to the mainland.

With this area, not only Montgomery, including its adjutants, including all the combat staff officers of the division, everyone thinks that it is completely okay to win three or five days.And these three to five days are the key to whether the entire expeditionary force, including the main force of the French army in the Dunkirk area, can jump out of the German encirclement.

According to Commander Brook's reply to Montgomery this morning, all coalition troops in the Dunkirk area have lost their morale and their morale has collapsed.Once the German army is allowed to rush in front of them, perhaps this will lead to the largest surrender since the war began!

All hopes were placed on the 3rd Division of the Expeditionary Force, and on Montgomery and his command team.

Until today, before the sun rose, Montgomery was indeed full of confidence and ready to become the savior of the coalition forces, determined to turn the tide and help the building to collapse!

But Montgomery's fantasies and ambitions lasted only one night before being shattered by the facts in front of him.

From the fall of the first position to the loss of contact at the seventh position, none of the remnants fled back to the rear line, and all the defensive forces on the lost position were wiped out by the German army.

Of course, these forces will not all be wiped out.The biggest possibility is that after seeing the powerful firepower of the German army, they chose to surrender.Or maybe they struggled for a while before surrendering.But in any case, the lack of this batch of troops has already caused the combat effectiveness of the 3rd Division to slide down by more than [-] percentage points again. This is the crisis before us!

Ordinarily, the position of the division headquarters is at the end of the blocking line, and there are ten strategic blocking nodes in front of which scattered troops are stationed between the German army and them.In terms of threats, there is still a long way to go.

"Master, why don't we retreat when there are only 3 blocking points left on the front line." The adjutant reminded in a low voice: "If we withdraw early, let the frontline troops know, it will affect their morale, thereby lowering their resistance."

The adjutant thought very simply, even though the Germans were attacking fiercely and advancing extremely fast, they were still far away from the division headquarters after all.As long as the three "inverted V" blocking node positions outside the division headquarters are still there, it is impossible for the German army to appear in front of them all at once.

That is to say, until the enemy's situation is discovered at the "inverted V" blocking point, the division headquarters is still safe.Then it is better to stay and command the frontline troops to stabilize the morale of the army.It's a big deal, let's slip when the last moment comes.

"Stay here?" Montgomery snorted coldly, rolled his eyes at the adjutant and said, "The German troops you see now are all infantry. The infantry's advancing speed is so fast, once their armored troops join us, we can still retreat. ?!"

Shaking his head, Montgomery seemed to be explaining to the adjutant, and he seemed to be analyzing for himself: "If you really wait until the last barrier of the division headquarters is attacked before withdrawing, if they can't stand it for a long time, then the division headquarters may be destroyed. Will be overtaken by German tanks during the evacuation...."

Montgomery has taken the situation into the worst possible step. Although these situations may not happen in the worst direction, it is not impossible.And as long as there is a slight possibility, Montgomery will treat it with 12 points of caution, which is his usual command style for many years.

The adjutant who knew the commander's character didn't argue, but he couldn't help reminding Montgomery: "But commander, even if we retreat to the rear, what can we do if we retreat to Dunkirk..."

The adjutant did not say the rest.But Montgomery knew that the adjutant wanted to remind himself that the end result was nothing more than being annihilated in another place.

"This is not something you should consider!" Montgomery paused, then looked directly at the adjutant and said in a somewhat bleak tone, "We have blocked the German army here for more than 24 hours, and we have given the coalition forces unexpected good news. Besides , the remaining 10 blocking points can withstand at least 12 hours, we have done enough for the coalition forces!"

At this point, Montgomery has completely lost the sense of righteousness he showed last night.At this moment, the adjutant felt more of a sinister aura from the general.

Under the watchful eyes of the adjutant, Montgomery slowly expressed his heart: "The Third Division is a unit with outstanding achievements. As its division commander, I have an obligation to prevent it from being wiped out by the Germans here. So... .....I have to take it to catch the flight back home!"

It seems that under the background of no hope of blocking, this teacher who seemed to be impartial before has also begun to consider the way out.

Text Chapter 359 Two Plans

"Master, the enemy's eighth blocking position has been captured by a battalion of the 8th Regiment of our division. The other two battalions of the 211th Regiment are about to capture the enemy's ninth blocking position."

"Understood. Let the other troops enter the battle as soon as possible, and continue to conquer the next British positions." Major General Cyric, the commander of the German 13th Motorized Infantry Division, ordered firmly and decisively.

"Master...the army has been fighting for half a day. It's already one o'clock in the afternoon, but many soldiers have not had time to eat lunch. Wouldn't it be too eager for quick success if we continue to attack at this time? ?” The combat staff officer who came to report added to Cyric.

In one morning plus half noon, they had captured 8 blocking positions of the British army and captured nearly 3 prisoners.From the infantry division's point of view, this kind of attack speed is already amazing.

Although, there are also the low morale of the British army and the favorable factors that the German 13th Motorized Infantry Division can call for air support to attack the enemy.However, a result of this level is definitely a very remarkable achievement.

At this time, there seems to be nothing wrong with letting the forward troops who have been attacking with tight nerves stop for a while to recuperate.

"The commanders of the frontline troops are not idiots. They don't have time to cook hot dishes. They know to let the soldiers fill their stomachs with compressed biscuits temporarily. At this time, it is very unwise to waste time on rest and eating." Xi Xi Rick said decisively: "After all, time is precious and should not be wasted!"

As the military commander of the 13th Motorized Infantry Division, Cyric considered issues at a much higher level than the staff officer.It is true that he also knew that his troops were beginning to be exhausted, and the frenzied attack all morning had drained a lot of energy from the soldiers.

However, he is more aware of how important every minute and every second is to the German army that is shrinking the encirclement.For every minute of delay, the British at Dunkirk might be able to withdraw an additional force.

The 13th Motorized Infantry Division rushed to the forefront, so naturally it should take on the heavy responsibility of breaking through the British blocking line in front of us.The responsibility is huge and cannot allow him to relax.