"O Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Spirit is incomparably great, and thy mercy is immense, forgive me my sins, and bless me from the evil enemy......" Sheldon. Jacob knelt by the dark wall of the corridor and prayed reverently, the only thing he could do now.

As his prayers rang out, one voice after another joined in, and in a few moments everyone in the corridor began to recite sacred words. The prayer went on for a long time, four or five prayers in a row, and the sound gradually thinned out, and finally there was silence again.

Sergeant Jacob sat down against the wall of the corridor, he wrapped the military blanket he had been allotted, but he couldn't stop his body from trembling, he held his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees, and breathed hard, because he was afraid that he would cry out in the next second.

Suddenly, there was a dull roar overhead, and the thick chalk at the top of the tunnel was still clearly recognizable, and then the whole tunnel began to tremble wildly, and the wall wrapped in corrugated steel plates made a harsh metal friction and twisting sound, and the human body leaning against the wall could clearly feel the impact force from the rock, through the femur and spine, and chiseled an irresistible fear into people's hearts.

Those who have not experienced such a terrible scene will never understand the horror that directly hits the soul. You don't know if you're going to die, but you know very well that you're going to die at any time, waiting for death to fall from the sky every second, but hoping that it won't happen to you, this kind of psychology is somewhat similar to gambling, but it's your own life. The one who can persevere must have a big and tenacious heart, but many more can't bear this pressure and fall into a nervous breakdown and hysteria.

"Nope! I don't want to die here! I'm not a soldier anymore! I want to go home! With tremors and roars, a teenager's voice screamed in the darkness.

Jacob could tell that it was a new recruit, whether it was Crump or Colombo, and Jacob couldn't remember it clearly, and no one would take the time to memorize the names of these rookie recruits. Jacob had always thought that the War Office was messing around. These are still half-grown children at all, and several recruits have not even gone through the voice change period, and they sound like quacking ducklings, and the noisy people have a headache.

"Shut up, boy, sit back in your place, it's a damn war, it's not your game in kindergarten, if you don't shut your mouth again, I'll come and shut it for you." No one can stand to endure the threat of death. There's also the ordealy of a recruit, and a veteran scolds the rookie before Jacob.

The veteran knew very well that he could not blame the recruit, the other party was just a child, who had been in the army for less than two months, and had not even had time to complete the basic training. But being young does not mean having immunity, all people are equal in the face of war, every battle is a test of maturity, and you will become a man if you pass this hurdle, and you can't get through. That would just be a puddle of dog droppings.

"I don't want it, I won't shut up! I've had enough, you are all bastards! I'm going out! The recruit had gone out of his mind, and he had completely forgotten his old fear of veterans. Began to provoke the veteran with a sharp voice.

"Smack." A crisp impact sounded, and the rookie's scream stopped abruptly, followed by the sound of a human body falling to the ground.

"Hey, don't be too hard. It's just a scared little. Jacob rubbed his face with his hands and spoke loudly.

The rookie's loss of control inadvertently became a vent in his mind, allowing him to escape from his previous frustration and fear. He suddenly felt a little grateful to the recruit, if it wasn't for this kid's interruption, the next moment he might have collapsed by himself. Jacob tried his best to make his suggestions in a mocking tone, and at this time, people's mental pressure had accumulated to a critical point, and it was asking for trouble to stimulate anyone.

"Don't worry, sergeant, I just gave him a butt, and at most shattered the bridge of his beautiful nose, it was just a small lesson for him, and he will be grateful to me later." It was Charles, a veteran of Platoon A, a 6-foot-9-inch tall behemoth who spoke, and it seems that he did show mercy to his subordinates, otherwise the rookie would definitely not be just the bridge of his nose.

By this time, the roar overhead had died down, the walls and ceiling had stopped shaking, and people were beginning to rejoice that they had survived another shelling.

Jacob and his platoon of infantry were trapped in a fifty-meter-long tunnel in the underground tunnel network of the fortress of Dover. Dover Fortress, an ancient barracks built since 1066, has survived the ups and downs of the British Empire for 800 years, and has become a part of British history, along with Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.

William I crossed the sea from Normandy to set foot on English soil in Dover, and after becoming king of England, this narrow-minded fellow began to build barracks and forts in Dover in order to block the way of those who came after him and prevent other European lords from landing in England to seize his throne.

The English kings who thought of going with William I in the past dynasties continued to spend national resources repairing, reinforcing and expanding this military system. The construction of the fortress reached its peak under the threat of Napoleon, and the British made every effort to build a large defensive position here in an attempt to defend against the emperor's inevitable attack.

The fortress of Dover is built on a massive chalky rock overlooking the entire harbor. After hundreds of years of continuous construction, the British dug out a network of tunnels extending in all directions, and seven tunnels crisscrossed each other, forming a huge underground fortification with a total length of more than 5 kilometers, which could ensure that 2,000 officers and soldiers could live and live in it at the same time. Britain modernized again at the end of World War I, setting up advanced communication and command systems, and after 800 years of weather, snow and rain, the fortress of Dover has maintained its record of never falling.

But the record is now being challenged by one of the toughest challenges since the fort was built, and the Germans seem determined to shatter the myth of the fortress.

The Germans chose a very national approach, and they were ready to wipe the fortress off the map completely, using the largest large-caliber artillery complex ever built by mankind.

From the frenzied K5 to the huge French M1912, the German Army built a group of 47 super-heavy coastal guns of four calibers and seven models along the coast of Wissan. All guns have a range of up to 27 km, which means that the cities of Folkestone and Dover are all within range of the artillery group.

From one o'clock in the morning on D-Day, the artillery group, named Mjölnir, began its first all-gun salvo. Previously, the British only knew that the Germans had set up heavy artillery positions on the opposite bank, but all along, the Germans had only used three or four train guns at most to engage in a super-distance artillery battle with the two British heavy coastal guns.

Due to the tight blockade of the Luftwaffe, not a single British reconnaissance aircraft was able to break through the line of defense and enter the sky above the position. So until the moment of the shelling, the British always thought that the opponent would not have more than ten guns.

After a dull whistling, the Germans smashed a whole hell on the heads of the British. More than forty shells of more than 200 mm caliber hit the huge chalk rock in a matter of seconds. In an instant, it took an unbearable toll on the sprawling fortress complex, the ancient walls and bunkers dating back to the time of Henry II, using ordinary bricks and local sedimentary rock, although they looked thick and strong, and were originally designed to withstand the solid ammunition of early catapults and artillery, which were clearly outdated in modern times, and the masonry walls could not withstand the bombardment of modern artillery. Not to mention the bombardment of large-caliber heavy artillery, which stands at the pinnacle of artillery.

A 320-mm shell hit the ancient church right in the center of the fortress complex, scattering fragments of bricks and wood from the medieval building all over the fortress, and destroying the Roman lighthouse next to the church. Completely erase this 24-meter-high ancient ruin from the world.

The Dover Fort Command is a row of massive Victorian palace buildings with at least ten guns dedicated to it, huge fireballs rising up and down in front of and behind the building, and one of the three-story wings collapsed into a pile of burning rubble with a roar. This is the officers' quarters of the Dover Fortress. A large number of mid-level command officers who were sleeping were killed on the spot, and the fortress was cut off in the first place.

The commander of the fortress at this time was Rear Admiral Henry. Mason, who until two months ago was only the commander of a coastal artillery regiment. Churchill promoted him directly from colonel to rear admiral, and put this powerful fortress in his hands, only because of the heavy losses of senior naval officers, and he had accumulated enough seniority, and he was usually very disciplined, and seemed to be very honest and reliable, so when the position of commander of the fortress became vacant, he picked up a leak at this time.

Rear Admiral Mason was a strict self-disciplined man, educated in the orthodox naval elite, and his personality was somewhat old-fashioned and serious, he was very strict with the business requirements of his officers, but he was very kind to the soldiers, and often went deep into the grassroots troops to mingle with the soldiers, so he quickly won the love and respect of the garrison of the fortress.

At the beginning of the bombardment, Rear Admiral Mason did not return to his dormitory on the ground to sleep, but with his chief of staff and several staff officers, he conducted a battle flag deduction in the central command post of the underground bunker, simulating how the fortress should distribute forces and firepower to strike the first landing fleet in the event of a German landing. The Major's professionalism allowed him to escape, allowing the fortress of Dover to retain the supreme chain of command.

The German artillery bombardment was swift and accurate, and according to the firing table that had been surveyed and mapped long ago, the large-caliber heavy artillery slowly and reservedly threw shells weighing several hundred kilograms at targets 22 kilometers away at a rate of fire of one round per minute, and blew the targets on the map into pieces one by one.

Five minutes after the artillery strike, the Germans stopped firing a salvo of artillery on Dover, and only retained half of their firepower to launch a non-stop bombardment of the fortress of Dover and the fortress opposite the fortress, and the other half of the artillery began to turn in the direction of Folkestone, and began to bombard the port city, and soon the night sky in the direction of Folkestone was reflected in the burning firelight.

Jacob's company was training at night that night, and the soldiers were running around the side walls of the fortress in full gear, and when they ran near the entrance to the underground tunnel of the fortress, a heavy artillery shell whistled down and hit the battery next to them, and the violent shock wave instantly knocked down everyone present, and then the bricks and stones falling from the sky smashed the British soldiers to broken bones and tendons, fortunately all of them were wearing steel helmets. No one died because of it.

The officer crew standing on the side of the team at the time of the explosion suffered heavy losses, the company commander suffered severe internal injuries and began to vomit blood, and the medics believed that the shock wave had damaged his internal organs and that he needed to be resuscitated immediately. Three platoon commanders were thrown away by the shock wave, and then suffered a blow of masonry fragments, two platoon commanders were already in shock, and one platoon commander was lucky, only breaking his arm, but at the same time biting his tongue. His mouth was now a blur of flesh and blood. Both the company commander and the platoon commander fell, several other officers and non-commissioned officers were also injured in different ways, and finally the command of the company fell to the little sergeant Jacob.

The sergeant, who was not yet thirty years old, was unscathed in the violent explosion, becoming the only non-commissioned officer in the company who was still functional. Looking at the soldiers screaming and wailing all over the ground, Jacob completely lost his bearings, and did not know what to do, and then he saw the street sign on the side of the road, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. The uninjured soldiers were immediately ordered to take all the wounded into the underground tunnel, where there was a well-equipped field hospital where the wounded could receive first aid.

Although according to the regulations, there was no permission from the superiors. No one was allowed to enter the underground bunker at will, but seeing the huge explosions around them happen one after another, the soldiers didn't care about military law, and they dragged and carried each other. A swarm of bees ran into the deep tunnel.

The Germans attacked so suddenly that the tunnels had no idea what was going on, until Jacob's company appeared in front of them in disarray. Those people were completely frightened, and looking at the miserable appearance of this group of remnants of the defeated soldiers, everyone thought that the German army had begun to land.

It was only after Jacob reported their fate to the officer on duty that the panic in the tunnel began to subside, and the wounded were immediately taken to the field hospital for treatment, and since the ground was still under shelling, the officer on duty agreed that Jacob's company would remain in the bunker for the time being, and the troops were dispersed according to the platoon formation into several branch corridors, and after giving the order to stand by on the spot, the duty officer closed the blast door at the end of the corridor.

As a result, the standby lasted a full five hours. After five hours of torture and suffering, the British soldiers had reached the limit of their patience, especially after one of the most violent explosions, more than a dozen electric lights on the top of the tunnel were shattered at the same time, and the entire tunnel was plunged into darkness. The soldiers waited in the darkness, where the sound and vibration were more acute, and each shell exploded as if it were happening above their heads.

The soldiers were in a panic, and someone suddenly exclaimed that he had heard the sound of stones collapsing outside, and that they might have been buried in the ground, causing quite a commotion. Then someone proposed to send a few people out to investigate the situation, but even the guy who made the suggestion himself was unwilling to leave this Yongdao, who knows what the situation is outside, until now this Yongdao has withstood countless bombardments, proving its solidity, at least for the time being, it is still safe here.

A soldier was addicted to smoking, and when he took out a cigarette, he reacted, remembering that he still had matches with him, and the small fire immediately lit up, and the soldier ignited a few pieces of waste paper, and the people nearby quickly gathered around, and everyone greedily looked at this precious light. But soon the flame was extinguished by them, because it was suggested that the flame would consume precious oxygen, and who knew if the ventilation system of the tunnel was still working, and the soldier's father, a former miner, told him many stories of mine deaths, so he advised everyone to sit where they were and avoid consuming too much physical strength and oxygen.

Just as the soldiers' emotions fell to the bottom of despair again, a series of metal grinding sounds sounded, and the huge blast door was suddenly opened, and the bright light from outside the door dazzled the soldiers' eyes.

"Oh my God, you're still here and haven't heard the command announcement?" The second lieutenant on duty who had locked them into the tunnel exclaimed.

"What notice? No one came to inform us at all. Jacob grabbed his rifle and walked to the door.

"Hell, the loudspeaker in this auxiliary tunnel is broken again. Major General Mason gave the order for everyone to withdraw from the fort at once, and I would not have known that you were still in the tunnel if the other two platoons of your company could not find you to ask me. Now everyone pack up their things and follow me immediately, we are running out of time. The second lieutenant held a kerosene lamp in his hand and walked briskly towards the end of the tunnel.

"Dover Castle has been razed, all the buildings on the ground have been destroyed, the collapsed masonry has blocked exit 3, the top of tunnel 6 has collapsed, a whole battalion has been buried underneath, the telecommunications room and the telephone switchboard room have also been buried, the headquarters and headquarters have been blocked at the other end of the tunnel, hopefully the emergency exit there will still be used, the Germans have bombarded exit 1, all three shafts have collapsed, the pump house has also been buried, the tunnel has been cut off, we must now withdraw from exit 2 as soon as possible, If there is another problem there, we will be trapped like rats in this underground labyrinth. ”

With that, the second lieutenant pulled open a blast door, and then ran forward quickly down the tunnel, where Jacob and his men dared to linger, and they followed the second lieutenant and began to run towards the exit. (To be continued......)