Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 124: The defeat is like a tide (Part 2)

The Fifth Infantry Division of the British Army is not a grass-fowl unit full of mobs, but a well-trained regular army. The surviving officers and soldiers of the Fifth Infantry Division after the war have been emphasizing this point. (Baidu search Geeli Literature.com has the fastest and most stable update) (The best experience in reading novels without pop-up windows is in [Fiction]) However, when they encountered a German raid that night, their performance was not much different from the mob.

The camp of the Fifth Infantry Division is a slender flat land that relies on a hill. One side is an intercity highway, and the other is a hill more than two hundred feet high. It stretches for five or six kilometers. There are not many trees on it, and the not steep slopes are full of various wild flowers and plants, and they look very pleasing during the day.

Due to the heavy losses of the infantry division’s personnel and materials after the German heavy artillery bombardment, the Fifth Infantry Division was mobilized to carry out self-rescue operations. The officers and soldiers have been busy rescuing personnel and counting all night, plus one day. Materials, transport and equipment supplies, clean up debris and condense the corpse.

Many people only ate a piece of dry combat food at noon. Fortunately, the city government organized a volunteer service team to bring hot water and drinks to the troops, otherwise they would not even be able to supply basic fresh water.

The logistics unit of the division was taken over at the train station. They lost most of the transport vehicles, including the equipment and medicines of the entire field hospital and all the field cooking vehicles.

Although four wagons of noodles and rice were finally preserved, and one wagon of canned food, it seemed that there were a lot of them, but in fact it was only enough to support the two-day basic rationing of two infantry divisions, and strict limits were required. , Otherwise these exhausted and hungry soldiers can consume all the food for you in one day.

Logistics is always the key element of a war. This is also the essence of the German Blitz. The German team is best at breaking through a point and then going deep and outflank behind the enemy, attacking the enemy’s material storage and transfer hub, and destroying the enemy’s rear. The ultimate goal of the command system is to cut off the enemy's supplies and destroy the organization and morale of the enemy in the shortest time.

A soldier consumes more than two thousand calories a day, and this consumption doubles if he enters a combat state. Therefore, feeding a soldier is the first element to continue the combat effectiveness of the army, and the second is the ration of ammunition and fire support from the rear.

If the soldier is hungry. The rate of decline in combat effectiveness is unimaginable for ordinary people. Combat is an activity that consumes physical and mental energy. Soldiers can only display their normal combat capabilities if they have sufficient energy. There has never been a unit in the world that can recover after a food shortage. Can win the final victory. All the battles ultimately point to a tragic ending.

Although the British Fifth Infantry Division has not reached the desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food, everyone can feel the crisis caused by the lack of supplies. Before the follow-up supplies arrive, they can only rely on the existing supplies. These foods are obviously not enough to survive. The officers have reminded the soldiers to be prepared to go hungry. This made the already sluggish morale even more shrinking, and the soldiers began to worry about their future involuntarily.

After a long day of fatigue, the soldiers finally had a hot meal at dinner. The field kitchen used a borrowed cauldron to cook a pot of risotto on the bonfire. The chefs really couldn’t get a better one. They could only stew the only canned lard, mushrooms and corned beef with rice on their hands. They did not expect to produce something unusually delicious. Perhaps because of hunger, the soldiers quickly put The whole pot of risotto was swept away, and fatigue came like a tide after being full. Many people didn't even bother to take off their uniforms, and fell asleep on the march in the tent.

In all fairness, the Fifth Infantry Division is indeed a regular, trained unit. The plan of the entire camp completely complies with the standards in the British combat manual. It does not cut corners. It is completely satisfactory and can be used as a model. It took a whole day for the engineering unit to build a camp for two infantry divisions, which is a remarkable achievement no matter what.

Each battalion company of the infantry division carries their own field tents. This is a rare event in a series of tragedies, because the troops finally don't have to sleep in the wilderness. In accordance with the regulations, the infantry dug drainage ditches and air-raid shelters around the tents, and filled thousands of five-pound burlap bags with the excavated soil. These earthen bunkers were used to build circular shooting fortifications and artillery bunkers, covered with a canvas roof, and also erected flagpoles and hung the Pozi flag.

For safety reasons, the ammunition was collected, and the engineers used earth bags to make a circle. An ammunition stacking point was created, and boxes of bullets and mortar shells were stacked to form square ammunition stacks.

The infantry division has lost 70% of its ammunition reserves. These are the backup ammunition carried by each company, that is, the ammunition capacity of the two combat bases, and it will not be able to support it even for half a day to enter the battle. Especially the artillery losses. The original division artillery regiments and battalion artillery suffered serious losses, especially the ammunition, which can't even reach a base number, especially the heavy artillery ammunition, almost all turned to ashes in the station.

The commanders of the division were very worried about this. They contacted London again and again, but the communication had been intermittent. Finally, they finally contacted the Kent Command Post. The commanders asked the Kent Command Post to relay their report. In the report, they repeatedly emphasized the danger of the troops’ current situation. If the ammunition and food supplies cannot be obtained in time, once the Germans land on Folkestone within 48 hours, the defense lines of the 5th and 6th Infantry Divisions are likely to be in a day. Will collapse.

As a result, that night, in the face of a surprise attack by the German armored forces, the Fifth Infantry Division failed to hold on for half an hour, and fell into a total collapse within 15 minutes.

The armored forces' attack on infantry is crushing, not only literally, but also mentally. The British infantry never thought that they would encounter German armored forces on their homeland. They set up standard field camps instead of combat positions. Therefore, the soldiers only dug some air defense trenches and individual bunkers, and did not excavate trenches and anti-tank trenches on the periphery. No one made similar suggestions because they would not be adopted by anyone, and they might even be regarded as mental disorders.

Because the British army believes that the threat comes from the sea, their combat position should be on the seashore, and this is only a temporary camp. Maybe it will become long-term in the future, but that will be the future. The officers and soldiers are confident that they can fend off the enemy on the beach, and this camp will never be used for combat.

When the German vanguard tank fired its first shot, the tank No. 224 on the front of the attack began to spray bullets at the British camp at the same time. The terrifying rate of fire of the mg machine gun made the gunshots continuous, which sounded like Roaring like a large wheel saw or similar machine, the tracer with its long flame tail is like a colorful meteor shower splashed on the British tent beside the fence. The tracer tore the canvas tent, penetrates the human body, and ignites the sleeping bag. In Hemat, several fires ignited soon, and pungent smoke began to fill the camp.

The first British unit to respond was a night guard outside the camp. This was a machine gun bunker equipped with two Vickers machine guns. The original mission was to undertake the night air defense of the camp. Of course, no one expected them. What kind of aircraft can be shot down with those two broken guns, but they can use tracer bullets to attract the attention of the Luftwaffe, and at the same time, they can issue air defense warnings to allow more reaction time for the camp.

The guard post has actually noticed the approaching German troops. The roar of tank engines and the harsh friction of track bearings are very harsh at night, but no one thinks that it will be the enemy's army. The Germans are still in the strait. While learning to plan, these armored vehicles that appeared in front of them were of course their own. The soldiers at the outpost were very excited to be able to see the reinforcements at the most difficult time. A sergeant on duty picked up the phone and prepared to inform the headquarters of the situation. As a result, the group of tanks suddenly opened fire in the next second, and the soldiers on the outpost watched in amazement as the hapless sentry was knocked to the ground by the machine gun, and then the hideous-looking tank ran over the poor man.

The people in the sentry were stunned for more than ten seconds before waking up. They almost thought they were dreaming. Up to this point, they still didn't know the identity of the tanks that fired. The sergeant hurriedly reported the sights they had seen to his superiors via a wired telephone, only to get scolded by the panicked boss.

German machine gun bullets have been flying all over the camp~IndoMTL.com~ The basic No. 4 tanks used their short-barreled artillery to cover the camp, and a 75mm high-explosive grenade set off a fire in the center of the camp. In the rain storm, the tents were torn to pieces in the explosion. The fierce storm lifted the soldiers who were still asleep in the tent high, and then slammed into the burning fire.

The battalion commander was already frustrated on the phone. He first made an incoherent complaint, asking the sentry post why he didn't give an early warning. He wanted to send everyone in this sentry to the military court. He then ordered the post to fire back immediately, and must block the enemy's attack.

The British sergeant tried his best to restrain the urge to throw away the microphone in his hand. This order was equivalent to sending himself and his brothers to death. He didn’t see the enemy pressing a group of tanks and letting him use something to stop the other’s actions. . However, the order is still to be carried out. The alarm issue is already a problem. If you blatantly violate the superior order and do not fight back when the enemy is attacking, it is a serious accusation that will kill people. Failure to issue an alarm will most likely involve malfeasance. Different people have different opinions. (To be continued.) WWW.GEILIWX.COM Happy reading every day