The speed of the German advance broke the common sense of the British army, and the command of the Dover theater of operations was in a panic. According to the original plan of the British army, they also knew very well that relying on the outer defense line was not enough to resist the German attack, especially the other side also had armored forces, even if these positions occupied a certain geographical advantage, but the defects in equipment and strength were difficult to offset, but according to the experience of the British army in France, these troops could delay the enemy for at least two to three days, because this area was full of trenches and hills, which was not suitable for the mobility of German armored forces.

The result was much more than they expected, the terrain outside Dover did pose a certain obstacle to the maneuver of the German armored forces, but the Germans were not only armoured, they also had the same elite infantry, and after the fire of the armoured troops, the German infantry units became the main force to break through the defensive line, as they had done in the French campaign. During the French campaign, the German armoured units were excessively glorified and publicized by the German government as a kind of intimidation and deterrent, and their brilliance obscured the glory of the German infantry units, making people ignore the fact that most of the achievements were actually built by these ordinary infantry units.

The wishful thinking of the Dover command was completely frustrated, and they did not expect that the three lines of defense would be wiped out in one night. In the eyes of the staff group of the headquarters, the collapse of the first line of defense was inevitable, after all, these positions were built too hastily and rudimentarily, and for this reason they deliberately strengthened their forces and equipment in an attempt to balance their combat effectiveness.

But the rapid rout of the last two lines of defense was a bit of a surprise to them, and they asked the officers and men who had been fortunate enough to retreat from the front to learn the secret of the rapid progress of the German army, and the answers they received sent chills to their hearts.

The Germans used a new type of tank, and the existing British tanks were defenseless against them, even the most heavily armored Matilda II, which was vulnerable to these German monsters. The German infantry used new types of incendiary weapons. At the same time, there is also a kind of individual artillery that can easily destroy tanks, as long as they get close to the position, the fortifications and fortresses that have been built hard will become like paper paste, especially after burning, it makes people have an intuitive understanding of this sentence.

To the officers of Dover's command, the reports of these men were like drunkard gibberish, but the unwitting soldiers, who swore by their Christian names, told the truth without any fabrication, and the reports of some of the junior officers among them convinced these high-ranking gentlemen of these terrible facts. Panic spread like a plague through the command. No one in the headquarters dared to pat their chests anymore and say that they could hold the city of Dover.

Major General Mason's heart was now filled with remorse, and it was only then that he realized what a foolish decision he had made, and one of his orders had pushed the remaining 7,000 or so British officers and men up and down Dover to the brink of hell. But the mistake has been made, the evil consequences have been done, and the bitter wine brewed by oneself can only be drunk hard. Mason had no choice but to urgently convene a meeting of his staff officers to discuss how to deal with the current crisis.

The British army then began a general mobilization, mobilizing all the logistics and reserve personnel at their disposal, including city civil servants, citizen volunteers, and police forces who could not be evacuated in time. These men, in conjunction with the sappers of the fortress, built a wall on the edge of the city.

It's not some street fighting position or fortress, as it literally is. It's just a blockade wall. On the way to the city, British sappers blew up buildings on both sides of the intersection, and then soldiers built short barricades out of rubble and abandoned vehicles to hinder the advance of German armored troops.

The rest of the troops began to dig ditches on various roads within the city. Laying mines and anti-tank traps. Using blasting canisters and prefabricated explosives, they destroyed the old stone pavement, and then organized infantry and citizen volunteers to dig trenches.

Excavations of the ammunition depot at Fort Dover are still in full swing, and one of the depots has been excavated. The garrison of the fortress happily carried out a batch of ammunition for the 25-pounder gun, which was at least in short supply at present, and this was the first thing that pleased the British that morning. Then when the sun rises, the whole city is bathed in sunlight. Another thing happened that made the British happy.

I don't know what happened, but the devastating German advance suddenly stopped, the German troops stopped moving on all fronts, and even in some areas, the German troops retreated some distance. This was a real relief to the British troops, who had been in a panic for half the night and were almost in despair.

It was not clear what the Germans were up to, but in any case, the British army was given a valuable respite, giving them time to continue to strengthen their positions and defensive lines, digging up and clearing more supplies and ammunition.

The atmosphere in the British command suddenly became lively again, and many staff officers believed that this should not be the German army playing tricks, but that the three lines of defense did play the role originally expected, although the German army broke through these lines in one night, but must have suffered great losses, they did not deliberately stop advancing, but had no strength to continue advancing.

Many people suddenly made a sudden realization, no wonder the Germans fought so smoothly and gestured like a bamboo, it turned out to be in exchange for the loss of troops and equipment, it seems that the commander of the German army is also a reckless man who can only do brute, and there is nothing to fear when landing on the German army. Some people even suggested that since the German army was already at the end of its strength and the army was already showing fatigue, could the troops in the Dothan theater consider taking the initiative to attack, taking advantage of the fact that the German army's strength was not restored, maybe they could defeat the enemy in front of them and regain the lost ground, and perhaps they could go further and directly drive the German army into the sea. If it can be done, all of you here will become the heroes who saved the British Empire from life and death, and will surely go down in history and be admired by the world for generations to come.

After all, the officers in the command headquarters have not yet gotten carried away, and it is one thing to make up for the darkness in their own brains, but it is another thing to actually go up and do it. Now that you can hold the Dover war zone, you can already go to Westminster Abbey to donate money and eat bread, where do you dare to take the initiative to provoke those German barbarians.

Even if the other party is really at the end of the crossbow as expected, but it is still a strong crossbow, not your slingshot can be folded around casually, those are extremely dangerous professional armies, legal violent gangs. It is a beast that can kill people at any time.

Now the top priority is to take advantage of the fact that the German army has not yet collapsed, strengthen the defense of Dover with all its might, and then ask London for help, which is already burning eyebrows, I don't know why London can still be so calm.

Since the Germans had landed on the coast, it was pointless to hold on to the port of Dover, and if London could not send reinforcements, then at least some ships could be sent over to withdraw the port garrison from the encirclement, not to mention that these were the only remaining mobile forces of the British army. These soldiers, who have received full military training, are an immeasurable asset to Britain today.

The Dover Fortress Command sent another distress telegram to London, and this time they finally did not need to be relayed by the Kent command post, and the soldiers of the fortress communications company re-entered the collapsed underground command post and snatched a 120-watt shortwave radio transmitter from it, and they set up an improvised antenna on the wreckage of the fortress with a metal flagpole and discarded wires, and finally made direct contact with the army general staff in London.

The result of this contact surprised everyone, and the London side directly rejected the proposal of the defenders of Dover, and they demanded that the Dover garrison hold the port of Dover for two days at all costs. And you can be sure that everything will turn around after two days.

At the same time, the Navy also replied to the order given to Rear Admiral Mason, which was similar to that of the War Department, except that Mason was asked not to sabotage the port unless absolutely necessary. The harbor berths and shipping lanes must be kept open, and the Navy will have a mobile force ready to provide him with full support when he needs it. The hidden meaning of this telegram is that if the times are bad. The Navy will find a way to get Mason out.

Then Mason received a telegram signed by Churchill himself, and he rambled on and on, first of all, Churchill said that the British Empire's wartime cabinet was deeply aware of the dangerous environment in which he was now found. The outstanding contributions and generous sacrifices made by Mason and the defenders of Dover for the British Empire were seen and recorded in the wartime cabinet and all the citizens of the Empire. Churchill personally begged Mason to dispel the idea of breaking out and retreating, and to draw the Germans to the Dover line for forty-eight hours, and that if he could do so, he and the defenders of Dover would be heroes to the entire British Empire. Finally, Churchill congratulated Mason, the Imperial Wartime Cabinet for his outstanding performance in the Battle of Dover, promoted Rear Admiral Mason to the rank of Vice Admiral, this is not a wartime rank that fools people, but a real regular military rank, this carrot is full of weight, Rear Admiral Mason struggled for six years at once.

Mason conveyed London's order to all the personnel of the Fortress Command, and at this point, even the most obtuse person felt that something was wrong. There must have been some new plan in London, the Dover garrison had become part of a plan, and there was not a word of reinforcements in the telegram, and it was obvious that they had become a decoy to catch the Germans, and the bait would be swallowed.

Just yesterday evening, they did not hesitate to send more than 1,600 British officers and soldiers to the outer defense line, these people are also bait and outcasts in their eyes, but they did not expect the retribution to come so quickly, and now they themselves have become bait and outcasts, in retrospect it is really ironic.

The fact is, when you use some of your subordinates as a tool, you are not a tool in the eyes of the people at the top. In the eyes of the Army Staff and the Wartime Cabinet in London, when it was confirmed that the Germans had landed from another landing site, the defenders of Dover had lost their strategic value, and if they still retained their combat effectiveness and mobility, then maybe they would still have some use, but now they were besieged by the Germans, not to mention the heavy losses, and they still needed London to send troops to rescue them, and these troops had completely become a burden and a burden in the eyes of the London General Staff. At the same time, it was labeled by Churchill as a waste with more than enough success.

London did not believe that these forces were capable of breaking out of the German encirclement, especially since they had learned that the Germans had at least one tank division of armored forces, which was simply an insurmountable wall, and in London's view, the fate of these forces was beyond anyone's control.

Originally, if the Royal Navy's home fleet was still there, it would have been possible to withdraw these troops from the port, and London felt that these well-trained soldiers were very important to the current situation. But now the home fleet has been destroyed, and the German navy is running rampant in the straits. Hunting down all the British ships they encountered, the British were no longer in a position to organize a Dunkirk-style rescue at sea.

Moreover, in addition to the fortress of Dover, there were also the defenders of Folkestone, the intelligence showed that the situation there was even worse, they had been cut off for twenty-four hours, and the last telegram was that there was a serious loss of food and ammunition, and there was no news for so long that London did not even know whether the troops of those two divisions still existed.

As a result, the Dover garrison was left with only one use, as an outcast and bait to exert the last residual heat and consume the German army's troops and supplies. If possible, it would be better to hold the Germans in that area to buy time for London to lay out its defenses.

Churchill still firmly believed that with the forces at hand, Britain still had a chance to turn the tables, and as long as it was properly arranged, it would definitely be able to withstand the German offensive. But it takes time to mobilize and deploy these forces and build defensive lines, and now for Britain, time is more precious than anything else, and it is worth paying any price to gain time. Even the lives of tens of thousands of British officers and soldiers.

Major General Mason, ah, is now a lieutenant general. Vice Admiral Mason didn't have time to change to his new rank, but the Military Services Department at Fort Dover had Vice Admiral's armband. But now, when there is still time to go to the tailor to re-sew the nails, he can only continue to organize a meeting of commanders in the uniform of a rear admiral.

Colonel Evans of the 1st Panzer Division was also promoted, but what annoyed him was. The commanders of the other two infantry divisions also received the rank of major general, and as a result, the commanders of these three units remained equal in rank, and none of them held the dominant position. However, at this time, there was Lieutenant General Mason pressing on top. The other two were stationed at Folkestone, and Evans was no longer dwelling on the issue.

Rear Admiral Evans' 1st Panzer Division was almost dead in name, and he had only one battalion of armored forces left, and most of them were Vickers ultralight tanks, similar to what the Japanese called the Bean Chariot. In Asia, it might be a scary thing, and at Dover, the German tanks on the other side were able to run over the top of these small tanks.

In Evans' view, the reports of tankmen who had fled from the front line were alarmist, but they could not all be dismissed as nonsense. The entire infantry tank battalion was almost completely wiped out, and only three Matilda II survived the disastrous night battle thanks to the platoon commander's timely order to retreat. Although these tankmen survived, they were also completely frightened by the German tanks. One of the tank drivers, after fleeing back to the city, refused to get into the tank again, so he shot himself in the leg in front of the divisional officers, and directly stepped the honor of the 1st Panzer Division into the mud.

Evans is certain that the Germans already have weapons that can destroy the Matilda II infantry tank at long distances, and from the information available so far, the Germans have at least two models of armored vehicles that can do this, one is an improved version based on the No. 4 tank, and the other is said to be a very low-profile vehicle, which should be a self-propelled anti-tank gun. Because the surviving soldiers were shocked one by one, and he couldn't say why, so he didn't think in the direction of the assault gun.

Now that Lieutenant General Mason's previous plan for street battles has become a piece of waste paper, the Germans are fully capable of winning in urban warfare. They had a very light flamethrower, and the equipment was so common that some even thought that the Germans were dispensed on a capitation basis, because these weapons were used so often at the front that it felt almost like a man.

The Germans also have an anti-tank weapon that can be used individually, some people think that it is a kind of individual artillery, I don't know what kind of black technology the Germans have come up with, which can allow a single soldier to have the firepower to destroy armored targets from a long distance. But the front line was littered with tank wreckage and the ruins of fortresses, and no one could deny the existence of such weapons.

Evans felt that if it was possible, the British army would find a way to capture a sample of this weapon at all costs, whether it was a copy or a foreign exchange of technology and resources, which would be a very good bargaining chip, and perhaps the key to turning the tide of the war on British soil.

It's just that Major General Evans's plan was also not achieved until the end, and the Germans did not give him any chance. While the officers and staff officers of the Dover Command were still struggling with how to fulfill the orders from London, the last straw that broke the camel's back was rushing towards the city of Dover in the suburbs. (To be continued......)