Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 38: The prologue of the final battle
1:15 pm on May 31, 1940. German positions on the east side of Dunkirk. "Cyprus" Corps Command.
Müller is sitting on the map table with his staff, sipping dessert wine and smoking a fine cigar from Berlin while chatting endlessly.
For these combat officers, the days are really boring, and they can only kill time in this way. The same goes for the soldiers, everyone is looking forward to the final battle predicted by the commander-in-chief General Reinhardt.
In fact, the entire army has not been idle for the past two days. They re-fortified their positions and facilities in accordance with the orders of the headquarters. The arrival of a large number of heavy weapons greatly increased the workload of the engineers. When the last batch of heavy weapons arrived on the ground, even Mueller was shocked. He only understood the commander-in-chief's intentions after reading the letter from Reinhardt brought to him by the commander of the **** force. In order to conceal these weapons and build their launch positions, half of the infantry of the legion became engineers, and they finally concealed those big guys within the time set by the general. Then they can only sit there boringly waiting for the final moment of battle.
Ten hours have passed, and there is still no movement from the British. Yesterday the British braved the bad weather and flew two reconnaissance planes. As a result, they excited the artillery personnel of their two regiments for a long time. Now the wreckage of those two planes is still piled on the beach. Prior to this, the artillery unit had not opened, and the artillery soldiers had been depressed to the point that even those who saw seagulls wanted to fire.
The British expeditionary force is busy speeding up their bomb discharging speed. Gott finally figured out a way to deal with that kind of bomb. He installed one in front of all his remaining "Matilda" tanks. A simple bulldozer to remove bombs from the harbor and beach. At the beginning, Muller’s artillery intervened fiercely in their bombing 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 discharge bombs at night. . Then Mueller received an order from the general headquarters to let the British go busy, ignore their bomb platoons, and build fortifications with all their strength.
Now the sporadic explosions from the British have gradually disappeared, and it seems that they have almost cleared the bombs. The intelligence recovered by the reconnaissance plane is that their troops are slowly gathering towards the harbor and the beach. Their concealment work is done very well. At least they used camouflage nets to cover the beach and the open space near the harbor. The final British retreat expected by General Reinhardt will begin within a few hours. The wait before the war was really tough, and Muller took another sip of sweet wine.
All of his commanders are suffering the same in their respective positions. Mueller thinks about the **** officers who are now spinning around in the trenches with a knowing smile. Isn’t that the case? It’s definitely not an easy task for a unit with a strong desire to fight and wait there quietly. Mueller is eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the British’s final struggle, at least then his soldiers need not be bored. Playing with a machine gun to beat a rabbit.
" Colonel. Radar station call."]
The communications sergeant from 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 hurriedly ran into the outhouse.
The radar arrived two days ago. I heard that General Reinhardt sent someone to directly tow the prototype of the four Würzburg Type A radars from the production plant. This is a great radar. It takes four or five months to equip the troops. I am now one of the first two units in the German army to be equipped with this new type of radar. I have two units, and the 19th Armored Army has two units.
"Hey, I am Mueller, what did you find?" Mueller picked up the phone and asked.
"What? Are you sure?.... How many are there?.... Now their location.... Understand, you must closely monitor. As soon as there is a situation, report to me immediately... Not bad, wait for the medal, Lieutenant... That's it."
Muller put down the phone, and then said to his staff with a look of excitement: "It's here, the final moment of battle has arrived. The British are using plan D. Gentlemen. Start following the general's. Plan action."
"Yes! Colonel!"
The staff officers rushed to the pile of phones on the table, and then successive orders began to be issued to the various German troops and positions. In an instant, the entire legion's position began to sweep away its previous decadent appearance, and began to operate quickly and precisely. Countless soldiers entered their respective combat positions, and the officers began to issue a series of preparation orders that had been prepared countless times.
Now the terrible "Cyprus" has been awakened from sleep, and it has revealed its terrifying fangs waiting for the coming enemy.
"Understood, got it, ok, yes, we will act as planned immediately."
Wolf put down the phone, looked at the Air Force wing captains who looked at him with expectant eyes, and said solemnly: "Gentlemen, the operation begins. Immediately follow the original plan and dispatch it. It is worth it. Japanese officer, raise the emergency alert! Gentlemen, everything is for Germany!" Then he paid a solemn salute to the air force officers. The air force wing commanders immediately stood at attention with a serious face and paid a salute, turned and rushed out of the airport command room.
At 1:45 pm on May 31, 1940, the coast observation post of the "Cyprus" regiment first spotted the British Royal Navy fleet coming from the northeast. Hundreds of small ships of various styles followed closely behind those huge ships, and the black smoke emitted from countless large and small chimneys covered the sky.
Five minutes later, the observation post of the 19th Armored Army spotted another British fleet coming from the southwest, but that fleet had no boats to follow, and it was all large warships.
Muller stood in front of the observation window of the sturdy concrete fortification with a telescope sneer and watched the huge steel beasts slowly approaching his position.
"Attention, no fire is allowed without my order. All personnel enter the position and prepare to accept the first round of shelling from the enemy. Are the naval observers ready?"
"Ready, they are measuring the position and speed of those warships."
"Let them pay attention to choosing the most valuable target, we can't waste firepower."
"Yes, Colonel!"
Muller was satisfied with his adequate preparations, he picked up the telescope and then admired the majestic appearance of the sea overlords.
"It's amazing. The British shipbuilders are amazing guys. Look at those warships. If we had those warships in Germany, it would be great." Mueller sighed.
"Colonel, they will be beaten to scrap anyway, no matter how mighty they are, it's useless."
A staff officer smiled and said: "I didn’t expect it to be guessed by General Reinhardt. They sent a battleship, and what was more unexpected was that the British would send such a large fleet. , It seems that all of them have been taken care of. If we hadn’t been prepared to deal with them, we might really suffer a big loss."
"Of course, I now admire the general's strategic vision and tactics. He is simply the God of War given to Germany by God." Another staff member was full of worship and said.
"Stop talking about those, how many do you recognize now?" Mueller interrupted the staff's conversation.
"We recognized six battleships, three battlecruisers, 20 destroyers, and no cruisers."
"Me too, it seems that they have pulled out the main force of the British mainland fleet. Where is the 19th Panzer Army?"
Mueller turned to ask the communications staff.
"They also have at least four battleships there. From the model point of view, what the British pulled out is the main force of their Mediterranean fleet."
"The elite of the British navy are all concentrated here. It seems that we can have fun this time. Has the radar spotted the British Air Force?" Mueller asked.
"Please wait a moment, I'll go and ask immediately." The staff officer immediately picked up the phone and asked.
"Colonel, the enemy has stopped!" an observer shouted.
"What?"
Muller quickly picked up the binoculars and looked at the British fleet in the distance. I saw that huge fleet stopped 20 kilometers from the coast in front of the German position. Those huge ships lined up with their sides facing the coast. The destroyers began to circle the battleships.
"It seems that they are about to begin shelling. They ordered the troops to prepare for shelling, hoping that our fortifications could withstand the bombardment of the main ship’s guns. Order the naval observers to immediately determine their position and distance, and let the big guys pretend to be Good shells are ready for the first shelling. And those 210mm heavy howitzers must be ready to shoot immediately after they enter the new position."
"Yes, Colonel."
"Report to the colonel, we have confirmed that the battleships are the battleship Rodney, Nelson, Collision, King, War exhaustion, Vengeance, Resolution. The battlecruiser is Hood, Prestige, Counterattack The destroyers are the 11th, 12th, 15th, and 16th destroyer squadrons of the United Kingdom." A naval observer excitedly ran into the command post and said: "Those warships are the elite of the entire British naval fleet."
"Really? You have to choose the most valuable target to attack. I am not very familiar with naval ships. Let's decide the target of attack."
"Yes, Colonel." The navy officer ran out quickly.
" Colonel, the radar station reported that the British aircraft had entered their detection range and would be here in fifteen minutes."
"Where is our plane?"
"They have arrived, and they are now grabbing altitude and preparing to hit those British planes head-on."
"Very good..."
"Boom...Boom...Boom...Boom..."
A loud thunderous noise from the sea interrupted Mueller, and then a dull cannonball roar sounded over the German positions. The British navy used their cannon to greet the German positions for the first time.
Eighteen 406mm and fifty-two 381mm cannons ejected more than 20 tons of deadly ammunition at the German position in one salvo.
In an instant, the entire German forward position trembled with the roar. When the huge naval artillery shell exploded, the shock wave of the air wave passed violently from the thick armored shell of the concrete shelter, and the shell struck by the mud and sand blasted straightly.
"It looks very powerful, I didn't expect it." Mueller was stunned by the power of the naval guns. He had never seen a giant artillery bombardment of more than two hundred millimeters before.
"Have the soldiers in the forward positions withdrawn?"
"It was pulled down a long time ago. Colonel. Are we going to fight back?"
"Wait! The enemy hasn't started sending out the boat, and we must accurately hit the target for the first counterattack."
"Yes, Colonel."
Ten minutes later, the British carried out a second shelling. This time they extended the firepower by about 50 meters, and smashed 70 huge craters on the German positions. Now the entire forward position has become a huge ruin, and the wreckage of the destroyed fortifications and various construction fragments can be seen everywhere.
But because Mueller had prepared for a long time, the soldiers in the forward position had long been withdrawn. As a result, the British fired two salvos and they had nothing but ploughed the land on the French coast again. The German casualties are still zero.
Muller was deeply impressed by the destructive power of the two volleys in his armored command post. The fortifications that he thought were already very strong were just like glass in front of that terrifying power. fragile.
He felt that he had to start a counterattack now. If the British were to fight back inch by inch, sooner or later his position and legion would be wiped off the ground by those terrifying cannons. However, he still endured it. He must be patient, and he must not fight back easily. IndoMTL.com, he has to wait until the enemy has truly entered the trap of the general before he can fight back.
Mueller gritted his teeth and ordered: "The soldiers on the second line of defense all withdraw from their positions and retreat to the third line of defense."
"Yes, Colonel."
"Colonel! The navy has calculated the various parameters of the enemy's azimuth and distance and reported them to the artillery." A staff officer said on the phone.
"Very well, let those big guys stand by."
"Understand, Colonel."
"Colonel, those small ships are starting to dispatch, and they are heading towards Dunkirk. Their air force is here too! They are also flying towards the port. God, they have hundreds of them!" A staff officer held it. The telescope shouted.
"Let me see." Mueller rushed to the observation port, picked up the binoculars and looked.
I saw that the densely packed small boats began to line up in a neat formation slowly towards Dunkirk. Over them, a large group of British fighter jets were circling to **** them.
"Great!"
Muller yelled: "Order the big guys to prepare and start fighting back in five minutes. Now it's time for the warships to taste our heavy shells. Hell, they fired again."
The muzzle of the battleship in the distance flashed a huge fire again, and Mueller quickly left the observation port, covering his ears with his hands.
A few seconds later, the observation command post shook again strongly with a violent explosion.