Chapter 83: D-Day (3)
After daybreak, Guderian ordered the command guard battalion and the gendarmerie company to form a search platoon and begin a house-to-house search of houses in the occupied area of the landing.
This was the battlefield experience he gained in the French campaign, and on the French front, Guderian's troops often encountered the desertion of their homes and towns, leaving the Germans with only empty factories and mines. But the Germans found that in these villages and small towns, there were still some people who stuck to their ancestral profession and coveted their homeland, among them the elderly and small merchants. Among them, there are those who think that their time is short and do not want to bear the pain of turbulence and displacement, there are those whose ancestral business is difficult to bear to leave their homeland, and of course, there are also broken bowls and broken German Yankees who come to Lao Tzu, and most of the small businessmen are difficult to evacuate for a while because of the complicated family business, and there are also those who are obsessed with money and want money.
One of the most troublesome for the Germans is that there will be some desperate French soldiers and wounded soldiers hiding in these empty houses, these French soldiers can not fight head-on, secretly black hands black guns but very good, the most dangerous is some small units led by officers, the German army will suffer a big loss if not careful, Guderian's 5th Panzer Regiment suffered a big loss, in a similar village was ambushed by infantry at close range, and the French killed a tank platoon with Molotov cocktails and mines.
The gendarmes and foot soldiers searched house by house along the streets, and Guderian's caution soon paid off, when a platoon commander of the gendarmerie arrived to report that they had found something interesting, and he felt that the general should go and see it himself.
Guderian's only feeling at that time was very interesting, not because of what was reported, but because of the fact that this gendarme, a young gendarme with extraordinary courage, would go so far as to make a personal proposal to a German army general.
But when he took a pamphlet from the second lieutenant of the gendarmerie and flipped through a few pages. Guderian completely changed his mind, the second lieutenant had a keen eye, and this was indeed what he wanted to see at the moment.
"Inform General Bock immediately, and I think he'll want to see it for himself, too." Guderian gave orders to his own adjutants.
Soon, two German generals arrived in the central neighborhood of the town of Diel in shiny black Mercedes, escorted and led by four gendarmerie tricycles.
"Commander, general, that's what I want you to see, exactly like what is written in this pamphlet." The second lieutenant stepped forward and opened the door to show the two generals what he had found.
"It's a complete set of street fortifications, and every building we see in front of us has been specially remodeled. Concealed crossfire points were set up, and the British turned the street into a dangerous hunting ground, and any German soldier who walked into the neighborhood became prey, and fortunately, the hunters all fled before the prey arrived. I can't even imagine myself attacking this street, you should go inside, some of the arrangements are very subtle and clever. The second lieutenant of the gendarmerie pointed to the building in front of him, reporting to Bock and Guderian.
"Homekeeper Training Manual? I had read the British Army's Engineer Combat Manual for Urban Areas before, which demonstrated a lot of dangerous traps, but I didn't expect the British to come up with a new town defense tactic. This is supposed to be used to train the National Guard, and when we advance inland, we may encounter this kind of street fortifications, as we advance. This resistance will continue to grow, and we must study it and find a way to deal with it. Guderian said to Bock.
"Interesting, second lieutenant, your discovery is very timely. Very valuable, you will be rewarded by the command, what is your name. Bock said with a nod to the ensign.
"Liszt. General, Wilham. Liszt. The lieutenant replied with a chest held up.
"Oh? I know another Liszt, he is also a sharp-eyed soldier, you have done a good job, I look forward to your future realization, now can you show us this ingenious fortification? Lieutenant Bock said with a smile.
"Of course I do, here, please, Commander, General." The second lieutenant hurriedly took a step sideways, stretched out a hand to make an inviting gesture, and then walked towards the barricade with two generals and a group of staff officers.
"Turn left, I made it very clear, left, left, are you deaf? Left! Ensign Julian leaned against the fence of the commander's conning tower and yelled into the radio microphone.
"It's hard to imagine that the armored personnel carrier turned in the wrong direction again. Turn left at the junction from Wilkinson Road to Deville Road, where the English sign is placed, don't they think with their heads, turn right, are they going back to the sea? Julian returned the radio microphone to the signal corps.
"We have been delayed here for too long, and the order given to us is to arrive at Westerkaff Farm by eight o'clock and join the paratroopers there. It's already seven o'clock, and if the troop carriers haven't arrived yet, we'll have to hit the road first and let them pick up what they can. Julian leaned over to the sergeant major, who was standing next to the tank.
"There is no trace of enemy troops found nearby, but it should not be taken lightly, all vehicles pay attention to observe, there is no need not to leave the road, there is intelligence that the British have planted a lot of mines on the side of the road, let's go, don't wait for armored vehicles."
"Yes, platoon commander." The sergeant major gave a military salute and ran towards his car.
Julian's tank platoon was the third group of landed armored troops, a reinforced platoon with six No. 3 tanks, this small tank with weak firepower could no longer cope with the existing armored confrontation operations, but it still had a lot of use in attacking enemy infantry units and positional forts. The No.3 is lightweight and agile and manoeuvrable, making it ideal for navigating the narrow country roads and old stone bridges that are found all over the UK. The German tank platoon roared up the road out of the town and headed southwest to the cheers of the infantry in the trenches outside the town.
"We look forward to meeting you, Second Lieutenant." Major Parague hung up the receiver of the radio, then walked to the window of the farmhouse and looked through his binoculars at the British fortifications opposite.
The paratrooper battalion in Parag was in a very delicate situation, and they ran near a British base by mistake, so to speak, blocking the back door of this base.
After the paratrooper battalion assembled last night, it carried out a surprise attack on the rear targets of the enemy troops marked on the map, as planned. The course of the battle was remarkable, and more than a dozen intersection checkpoints and small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery positions were eliminated in succession, and because they could not carry prisoners in the battle behind enemy lines, the paratroopers were very ruthless, and fortunately there was not a single paratrooper casualties in several battles.
The troops marched along the road towards Dill Beach, intending to support and meet the landing force as planned, but when they approached the vicinity of the farm, they received the latest order from the landing command, ordering the paratroopers to stop their march to the beach and to set up a guard post and a blocking position on the intercity road between Dover and Dill. At the same time, the telephone lines were cut off, the messengers and scouts were intercepted, and the two places were cut off.
Paraagher immediately ordered the paratroopers to halt their advance, and the scouts immediately went to the farmstead ahead, where he prepared to set up the battalion headquarters, and then began to dig trenches and foxholes along the road, and perhaps set up a concealed observation post and a fire point on the top of the farm.
The scouts soon crawled back and came to the surprise of the paratroopers with the news that the farm had long since been requisitioned by the British. Looking at the vehicles parked in the yard, there should be no less than one platoon of infantry stationed in them.
Several paratroopers trained in Brandenburg were the first to touch them, using silent pistols and daggers to eliminate the doorway and flank sentry posts, and then a platoon of paratroopers quietly infiltrated the farm. The British infantry, sleeping in the barn, was defenseless. One by one, the German paratroopers cut their throats in their sleep, so much so that this bloody night was later called Dagger Night by the paratroopers.
In the main room of the farmhouse, the paratroopers captured several British officers who slept soundly, four ensigns and a lieutenant colonel. The paratroopers dragged the four officers into the farmstead cellar. A very Germanic interrogation ensued.
The British were at first confused, completely unaware of what was happening, and one of them shouted that he was Lieutenant Colonel Charles of the Dover Command. To complain to the paratroopers' superiors, it is absolutely impossible for the paratroopers to eat and walk around.
After more than a dozen consecutive slaps, this poor guy figured out the true identity of the group of fierce gods in front of him, and immediately collapsed into a puddle of mud. Then the German paratroopers were stunned, and the lieutenant colonel and four ensigns, who were shaking together, began to kneel on the ground and beg for their lives with tears streaming down their eyes.
This is all to blame on the uncrowned kings of Fleet Street, who have been publishing some nonsensical war stories in the newspapers for the sake of propaganda, in which the German paratroopers have always appeared as bloodthirsty and brutal, treacherous and vicious, murderous without blinking, and gnawing directly at what they grasp, and their reputation among the British people has been able to stop children crying at night, and finally even the army began to spread similar messages, and after talking too much, even the people who made up the stories themselves believed it.
For example, if you fall into the hands of German paratroopers, you don't want to leave alive, they have no mercy, they never leave prisoners, and they like to be scalped as a memento and so on.
It took a lot of effort for Parague to figure out what was going on, and then it took a lot of effort to convince the other side that a small part of the story was made up, and that the German paratroopers were still taking prisoners, and that if they were willing to be honest, if they could tell anything that would interest the paratroopers, then they could keep their scalps.
Several British officers immediately scrambled to tell the German paratroopers everything they knew, and Parague realized that he was in serious trouble.
After dawn, Parag stood in the attic of the farmhouse and looked out of the window, across the road from his farm, and the field on the opposite side was densely packed with semi-underground bunkers, large and small, and in the middle of the open space there were four large communication antennas of steel skeleton structure, which was obviously a large command center. At a glance, Parag could identify two large underground bunkers, as well as the mouth of the tunnel connected to the railroad tracks, and it was clear that there was an even larger structure underneath the ground.
Luckily, most of the perforations of these bunkers were directed towards the coast, and the paratroopers were actually on the back of their positions, but on either side of the base were several large machine-gun forts, and the crossfire of these machine-gun forts covered the entire base, apparently a killer for the infantry who broke through the frontal line and rushed into the base.
"The Kent Coastal Defence Command Post, which is also the Air Force Fighter Sector Command, was thought to have been completely destroyed, but now it appears that only part of the above-ground buildings have been damaged, and the main body is underground, and the British are trying to restore the operation of this facility. This base is right between Dover and Dill, and the two roads on the side are the only way for Dill to go in the direction of Dover, and the people in the base will soon find out that Dill is abnormal, and they must find a way to get rid of it. The paratrooper battalion commander secretly made up his mind. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)