Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 104: The Queen’s Private Cavalry (Part 1)

"My dear Margaret, my beloved, I am sorry that it took so long to reply to your letter. Super fast and stable update of the novel, this article was first published. I am writing to you in the barracks outside Dover, here The situation is a bit bad, but we still haven’t lost our courage. The Germans can’t beat us. I miss you and our children very much. I really hope to end this cursed war soon. I don’t know..." , The ink of the pen seemed to run out, and the sharp nib only left a faint mark on the letter paper.

"Oh, God, don't do this again..." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood shook the pen vigorously, then swiped a few vigorously on the official document on the side, and finally confirmed that the pen was indeed used up for the last drop. ink.

"Henry, do you have ink here?" Edwood raised his head and faced the adjutant who was squatting behind the Matilda II tank turret, digging through a pile of backpacks stacked on the engine cover Asked loudly.

"No, sir, I don't have ink. I'm looking for my spare bag. I remember there is half a cigarette in it." Lieutenant Henry lowered his head and pulled open the strap of a canvas duffel bag and opened the mouth of the bag. Looking inside, he smiled happily. "Found it, it was in this bag."

"It's a mess. I need a bottle of ink now, Second Lieutenant." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood stood up and gave orders to his adjutant.

"Hey, sir, I'll go to Sergeant Henderson and ask, he may have some ink." Lieutenant Henry carried his spare satchel on his back, slammed the duffel bag tightly, and then The tank jumped off.

"If there is no ink. You can get me a pen."

"I see, sir." Edwood carefully folded the half-written home letter, and put it in the map bag at his waist along with the rest of the letter paper.

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

In order to reach the Port of Dover within the time set by London, the First Armored Division abandoned almost half of its troops. Because only vehicles with off-road capabilities could leave the road marching, the First Armored Division threw away all his heavy tank transport vehicles, the entire logistics regiment, two mechanized infantry battalions, and truck-towed antiaircraft artillery regiments and heavy artillery regiments. With only tanks, tracked armored vehicles, wheeled cross-country armored vehicles, and some cross-country trucks from the field through the blocked area, marching along the country dirt road.

Since the separation. The division never received any news from these follow-up troops. Edwood estimated that those troops were still slowly advancing along the road towards Dover. The problem is that all the supplies of the tank division are in those units, and the whole division is now in a state of total shortage of fuel, spare parts, and food.

For the march. All armored squadrons also abandoned their wheeled transport vehicles and only carried part of the supplies and their luggage. Due to the small internal space of the British tanks, the tankers could only stack materials on their tanks as much as possible, because they never considered encountering this situation, they did not even have cargo straps, and could only tie each other with backpack straps. fixed. Due to the cross-country marching, too many supplies could not be piled up on the roof of the car. Each car group also carried two days' worth of emergency food and personal luggage, leaving tents, ammunition, clothing, and food all on the road. Follow the marching troops. They also abandoned their field cooking wagons and left them in the squadron with the cooks. Now the whole group can't even drink a mouthful of hot soup.

When the Germans shelled Dover, the First Armored Division had just arrived in Dover for less than two hours. After a long period of high-intensity cross-country marching, the soldiers and equipment have fallen into a state of extreme fatigue. The running system of many tanks has worn out to the extent that it must be replaced immediately, and the engine of the vehicle needs to be maintained and maintained due to heavy load operation. Originally, these tasks were scheduled to be completed the next day during the day, because the people in the division headquarters were optimistic that the logistics supply troops could arrive before noon the next day. With the addition of those fresh troops, the maintenance and refurbishment work would be completed soon.

The only worry in the division at the time was that the German army would initiate a landing before the follow-up troops arrived. But the Dover Fortress said that the defensive force of Dover Port itself is already strong enough. With the fortress and surrounding dozens of defensive fortresses and shore artillery positions, more than a hundred cannons of various calibers can block the German landing fleet for at least 24 hours, which is enough time for the armored division to get a rest.

The mission of the First Armored Division in Port Dover is actually very simple. It is to use these tanks as mobile fortresses in street battles. These tanks will be scattered throughout the city and set up shooting positions in the streets and lanes. Taking advantage of armor and firepower, the German landing infantry was wiped out in the city.

According to British estimates, the first batch of German troops to land must be light infantry. Before opening the landing situation and mastering a stable landing area, it is impossible for the German troops to send their armored units ashore. 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 is careful to deal with it, coupled with 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 is equipped with complicated models, some of them are very suitable for activities in these narrow roads and alleys, which means they are very suitable for street fighting. At first, he was more worried about encountering German armored forces. His private cavalry of the Seventh Queen was just a slogan. He didn't expect to rely on these rookie tankers and a bunch of dumped from the reserve warehouse. The tank can confront the elite German armored forces head-on.

Edwood’s tank regiment was placed in the German Army, and it was only battalion-level, because the British Army’s organization had only three types of organization, division, battalion, and company. Other regiments and squads were more than one organization. This title of administrative unit is actually a battalion organization.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwood’s troops have a very honorable title. The Seventh Queen is a private cavalry unit. The earliest record of this ancient unit can be traced back to the 17th century when it was a cavalry unit converted from Scottish mercenaries. Due to allegiance to the British royal family, George I was first awarded the title of Private Cavalry of the Princess of Wales by King George I. When King George II came to the throne, because there was no princess in the royal family at that time, they were given the title of Private Cavalry of the Seventh Queen (due to English Here, the queen and the queen are both 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 unit has long served in India. In World War I, he joined the Turks in Baghdad and returned to India for another twelve years after the war. This unit was transferred to Egypt four years ago, where it was reorganized into an armored unit, all replaced with Matilda tanks, and trained for several years. Can also be regarded as elite.

However, Edwood commanded only the appearance of this glorious designation. The original Seventh Queen’s private cavalry is still eating dirt in the Egyptian desert, and Britain has no way to transport them from the Mediterranean. Coming out, the bodies of the eight elite infantry soldiers from the previous battalion are still being discovered by fishermen on the French coast. At the same time, because the Italians were a little ready to move, the Egyptian forces were already under the cordon. Now the main defensive force of this long line of defense turned out to be a group of Australian infantrymen. It is really impossible to draw people out.

The British Army decided to step back and continue to use this designation. They believe that the Germans must know the designation of this elite armored unit. If it appears in a homeland defense battle, it will cause a lot of trouble to the opponent. At least it can confuse the Germans that there is a loophole in their maritime blockade.

Edwood’s regiment has 62 tanks divided into three squadrons. The first squadron is an infantry tank squadron with twelve Matilda I and five Matilda. The second squadron is Cruising tank squadron. There are eighteen A9 cruise tanks and three latest Crusader cruise tanks. The third squadron is a light tank squadron. Equipped with all seven types of Vickers light tanks known to Edwood, from the early 6 tons to the rare ones, it is simply the Vickers Tank Museum. These small tanks with weak armor will encounter the opponent's tank or anti-tank The artillery will be vulnerable, but the slaughter of lightly armed infantry in the narrow streets is precisely the strength of these little guys.

Just when the 1st Armored Division was preparing for a big kill in this battle, the German large-caliber heavy artillery gave them a blow, which made them wake up from their fantasies. It turns out that war can still be fought like this .

The tank squadrons scattered in the city barracks, open spaces and streets suffered heavy losses in the shelling. The tankers and the houses they lived in were torn to pieces, under the large-caliber shells, even the strongest The Matilda tank is also as fragile as an egg.

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 was in the outskirts for two hours. , Delayed the 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 at twice the speed of entering the city, but the remaining two regiments in the division have lost at least 20% of their equipment, and the casualties of personnel are even more unpredictable. Two of the poor squadrons have already The organized system disappeared in the burning streets.

A more serious loss came from the command system. An artillery shell of more than 300 mm happened to hit the headquarters of the division communications company parked on the central square. Three large off-road communications trucks were fired on the vehicle. The newspaper’s communications company was exhausted. Now 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 on this vehicle is not powerful enough, and the terrain around Dover Port is complex, so it can barely receive London’s Some signals, it is said that all the messages sent out are like mud cows entering the sea, and no response is received. But in the end, they finally got in touch with the Kent Command Post and saved them from the panic.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwood took out the kettle from his waist and shook it slightly, feeling that there was still liquid swaying inside. His regiment was now parked in a long line 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.

The second squadron of the armoured vehicle regiment originally had 24 armored vehicles, half of which were Bren machine gun vehicles, eight Carden Royd tracked transport vehicles, and the most rare also had six wild dog reconnaissance vehicles. The performance of the small human-seater armored vehicle is excellent, and Edwood admires this small wheeled vehicle very much.

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

Because this squadron’s organizational system is the most well-preserved, so the division assigned it to the strongest seventh queen’s private cavalry at the moment. This squadron will become the fist of the armored division and devote it to the most critical During the battle, the division kept thinking about trying to enrich the strength of this unit after dawn.

Now the team is parked on an asphalt road called Canyon Road. As the name suggests, this road passes through the bottom of a canyon. This is a two-lane country road with 50-foot-high gentle slopes on both sides of the road. Local farmers have cultivated fields on the hillsides and planted them with alfalfa and wheat.

"Sir, I found the ink you wanted. Lieutenant Condy brought his oil painting toolbox with a complete set of stationery." Lieutenant Henry shouted loudly from the side of a Carden Lloyd tracked vehicle in the distance. He gestured to Edwood with a bottle of ink.

At this moment~IndoMTL.com~ a two-wheeled motorcycle rushed towards the convoy from the side of the valley with a roar. It swiftly passed Ensign Henry and almost knocked off the ink bottle in his hand. The rider skillfully pulled the handlebars, stepped on the brakes of the rear wheels, and the motorcycle slid sideways for half a meter before stopping in front of the lieutenant colonel.

"Lieutenant Colonel Edwood?" the driver asked loudly.

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

"Emergency order from the division, sir." The messenger took a piece of paper from the file pocket on the chest of the jacket and handed it to the lieutenant colonel. After paying a salute to the lieutenant colonel, he turned the accelerator again and drove towards the road. Away.

"What a rough guy." Edwood shook his head as he looked at the motorcycle that was going away. He flattened the paper in his hand and looked at it carefully.

"Henry!" the lieutenant colonel roared loudly.

"Immediately summon all squadron commanders to gather with me. We are about to start war." (To be continued) () "The Battle of Resurrection in the Third Reich" only represents the author Feng Rui's views. Please delete the content that violates national laws and regulations. Our position is only to provide a healthy and green reading platform. 【】,thank you all!