Chapter 178: Soldiers Arrive in London
"Tanks! Advance! "Martin. Major Heisler quickly swung his arms up and down, signaling for his battalion company to begin the attack.
"Sir! The supplies you have requested are already on the way, and the regimental commander asks you to take care to protect the supply lines on both flanks. "The battalion communications staff officer hurried to the tank to report to the battalion commander that he would stay at the assembly point with the logistics unit and the battalion communications office.
"Understood, tell the regiment commander that we are an assault force, and these problems should be handed over to the infantry to solve." Major Heisler turned his head and shouted "Forward!" to his men who rumbled by. Advance! Warriors! We're going to beat the British to the ground! ”
This is the vanguard of the 3rd Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division, as a newcomer who has just landed on the shore, they are full of eagerness for battle, and the morale of the whole army is like a rainbow. The first commander of the 2nd Panzer Division was the current commander-in-chief of the E Group Armored Forces, Lieutenant General Guderian, who was also fortunate to be under the command of this old commander in the French campaign, and once forcibly crossed the Maas River under the command of Guderian, and also created a miracle in the history of war that advanced 700 kilometers in 48 hours.
The 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Panzer Regiment was a meritorious performer, but this time it was not put into the first echelon of the landing, because the troops had not yet been fully reequipped, and most of the equipment used in the battalion was still the standard equipment used in the French battlefield.
Major Heisler personally commanded the battalion headquarters of the 2nd Battalion, a fully staffed 39-year-old lightly armored company. Different from the historical standard, the superiors finally replaced the No. 1 command tank used by all armored battalion commanders, which made the whole battalion breathe a sigh of relief.
Not to mention the weak armor of the original No. 1 command tank, it also has a square-headed and square-headed fool shape, with only a machine gun on the fixed hull, which is unusually eye-catching on the battlefield. This is simply to have the commander squatting in a cardboard box with a huge bull's-eye painted on it to direct the actions of the whole battalion, and any shelling of the battalion headquarters will make the whole battalion tremble. The battalion commander has been able to survive until now, which can really be regarded as a blessing. This time, the shotgun was finally replaced, and the battalion commander and battalion deputy were all seated in the brand-new No. 3 command tank, and the survivability of the command system on the battlefield was finally somewhat guaranteed.
This tank was modified on the basis of the No. 3 basic model, and the German army also gave the same vehicle three equipment numbers because of the difference in the installation of communication equipment. As the command core of an armored unit, this tank was equipped with two command radios. You can communicate with the higher command or issue orders directly to the bike.
In order to free up space for communication equipment, the command tank welded the turret seat and removed the main weapon, and only installed a wooden dummy cannon as a camouflage in the original position where the main gun was originally installed, which was exactly the same as the ordinary No. 3 tank in terms of appearance and maneuverability, so as to avoid targeted strikes by the command structure of the armored forces identified by the enemy.
Now standing on the turret of a command vehicle, the commander of a German tank battalion is in the most glorious moment of his career, and he will go down in the annals of German military history as the first Wehrmacht officer to lead his troops into the British capital.
"Ladies and gentlemen! We fought together on the Polish plains, and we tasted the wine of victory together in Dunkirk, and now. Before us is the heart of Germany's most formidable enemy, and I hope that you will join me in fighting faithfully and bravely, and we will be victorious. This time, we will be singing the triumphant song of the Wehrmacht on Buckingham Palace Square in London. Heisler held a radiophone and sent a pre-war mobilization to his subordinates.
In fact, he didn't have to do it at all, because everyone knew what they were going to fight. What a historic moment for Germany, if they can complete this mission. Everyone will be the great heroes they were like when they were children.
The fact that the 2nd Panzer Division became the spearhead of the assault to complete the encirclement of London was a complete accident. The original mission of this force was to outflank Maidstone from the south, and to cooperate with Manstein's Cyprus to take the last large town in the southern part of the London metropolitan area, and to open the door for the terrible three-headed dog to rush to London.
For three days, the German troops suffered greatly because of the bad weather. Of course, the British will not feel any better. The Germans had finally made some material preparations, but the British had to rely on what was left in the warehouses and struggled in adversity.
The British had made their attitude clear to the Germans by practical performance, and the Anglos would never give in if they did not suffer a little.
London finally can't hold the lid on it. At seven o'clock in the evening of the 23rd, Churchill made a radio speech on London radio, announcing to the outside world the terrible situation facing the British Empire, the Germans relied on trickery to deceive the defenders of Dover, they launched a despicable sneak attack, although the British officers and soldiers stationed in Dover fought bloodily without fear of life and death, but under the overwhelming superiority of the enemy, they finally failed to resist the attack of the powerful and evil enemy, the Dover area has fallen, and the evil iron boots of the Germans have set foot on English territory at this moment.
Churchill called upon all the British people to unite at once and put up a resolute resistance to the aggressor, and he declared that, from the moment the order was issued, and by virtue of the authority conferred upon him by His Majesty the King of the British Empire, he would have the right to command the armed forces of all the British Empire, its overseas colonies, and the members of the British Commonwealth, and that all the peoples of the Empire's territory, whether British or foreign, must obey unreservedly the orders of his wartime cabinet and the wartime cabinet he represented, He swore to fight the evil enemy in London until the last moment, he swore that he would never consider making peace with the enemy, let alone surrender to the invaders, and that he would lead the great nation to fight until the last Englishman or German on earth fell, and the war would not really end.
It's hard to describe how the citizens of London and the diplomatic missions in London reacted to the broadcast, which was roughly like the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the heart of the city.
The citizens of London never imagined that they would face the invaders head-on, even though their men of school age were organized to be trained as infantry by various community groups, and that was to walk in a queue in the community park with a stick.
That night, when the government finally opened the warehouse, community workers pushed carts and began distributing stockpiles of weapons to citizens, which had been stored in secret arsenals underground in the city of London, even when the army was at its worst.
These rifles, which had been mothballed for more than a decade or even decades, were distributed to the citizens, and their variety spanning the year was breathtaking, and some of the equipment could even be traced back to the Crimean War.
The citizen self-defense team members who got those brown basses whose oil was already as hard as a stone wanted to cry without tears, what were they going to do? Could it be that we will wear red uniforms in the suburbs of London and play the thin red line again? Then again, what about the matching bullets? Could it be that he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the German soldiers were laughing half to death, and use this iron bar to come forward and kill them? That's a vicious ploy.
The young men born after the war can be fearless because of ignorance, and the citizens who have encountered the First World War in their forties and fifties know it. What the last war was like, those old people knew very well that under the terrifying infantry heavy firepower and automatic weapons, the sea of corpses and blood could only be regarded as an appetizer.
The citizens of London have been only infested by German bombers, and these Heinkel and Spitfire you go back and forth, buzzing overhead day and night, which does make people feel a little annoying, but now compared with those terrible German infantry, these unruising flies on their heads have become indescribably cute, and I have not seen them for several days, and I am quite worried about them.
As time went on, things seemed to get worse and worse as the people expected, and the depressive downpour of rain began to pour in from various sources to hear of the crushing defeat of the British troops. These messages vividly showed the citizens the horrors of the front, the brutal German army armed to the teeth, and the barbarians seemed to be in no pain or tireless, and were advancing inland all night long.
No matter how hard the heroic British soldiers fought only to suffer a tragic defeat, these Germans were bloodthirsty madmen who were so focused on fulfilling the orders of their Führer that neither the rain nor the shells could stop them. The thought of meeting such a formidable enemy face-to-face made it impossible to know how many British families stayed up that night.
Beginning the next day, all factories and units in London and its environs were closed, except for the military industry. Workers and staff were organized and began to brave the rain to dig new trenches on the outskirts of London, and everyone who went to work was paid fifteen pence and a free lunch.
Beginning in the early morning of the 24th, troops fleeing from the front continued to enter the surrounding towns of London. These soldiers were often empty-handed, without the guidance of officers, without carrying wounded and baggage, and had only a set of soaked tweed uniforms and a steel helmet to protect them from the rain, if it weren't for the ugly piece of steel that still had this function, it would have been abandoned like everything else.
They walked on the streets of villages and towns in a state of embarrassment, their eyes wandering away and their expressions depressed, and many of them were seriously frightened, and it can be seen from the trembling bodies and frightened eyes of these people that these soldiers are gone, and they have lost not only their weapons on the battlefield, but also their glory and courage.
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