The British Major General stationed in Jersey put down the phone in his hand, looked helplessly at the staff officer beside him, and said regretfully: "The coastal defense line has been broken by the Germans, and without the strength to counterattack, we estimate that it will not last until dark." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"There are hundreds of soldiers in the town, and if we hold St. Helier, we can probably hold out until night, right?" With a hint of luck, the staff officer looked at his commander and said.

The major general shook his head and gave his own judgment: "Even if there is still a battalion of troops, but the current situation in St. Helier, do you think our resistance is still meaningful?" ”

Originally, the only support for the British army defending St. Helier was the strength of the British Royal Navy, and the German army would not gain more than it would lose in capturing this small island.

Now that the British maritime forces were exhausted, they could no longer form a suppressive psychological advantage over the German navy - this superiority no longer existed, and the pressure to restrain the German offensive was gone.

Now that the Germans have taken the initiative to attack and really dare to invest their forces to attack, it is impossible to hold out for a long time by relying on the more than 2,000 defenders on the island.

The only chance to hold out was to crush the landing attempt by pinning the Germans on the beachhead and then forcing them to retreat.

Unfortunately, now that the German soldiers had established themselves on the beach, the only chance was lost.

Because of the distance, the Germans would rush to the beach in the afternoon, and it was conservatively estimated that there were tens of thousands of people -- the defenders could not withstand such an attack, and defeat was a matter of time.

Everything is too early or too late...... Now it seems that the surrender is still dignified, and at least the lives of more than half of the soldiers can be saved. If you wait until your own troops are defeated and then make a compromise, then how many people can be left will be left to fate.

Therefore, the major general looked at his staff officer and said: "We have lost at least 100 people, and there are no troops to fight back on the beach, and it is completely futile to hold on." ”

When the staff officer heard the words of the major general, he could only compromise: "Send a telegram to Mr. Prime Minister, and in addition, tell the local ...... as much as possible about the situation we have encountered."

Although the scale is not large, it can even be said to be very limited, but the British garrison has seen a lot of important things from this defeat.

On the one hand, the training of the German landing force can definitely be said to be very effective, and although the landing force suffered considerable losses, the attack was not disordered at all, and it was carried out in one go.

On the other hand, the level of the German army's ability to organize the crossing of the sea was obviously higher than the estimate of the British Army Command - this was definitely not good news, because the entire British mainland coastal defense line needed to be reinforced.

"Go and send a telegram yourself, and explain the matter in as much detail as possible, at least don't let us fight this battle in vain." The major general smiled bitterly, and then asked the staff officer to send a telegram.

……

In the telegraph room on the British mainland, Sir Deere, the chief of the army staff, was anxiously waiting for news from Zhexi Road with his hands behind his back.

Churchill was also on the side, and the two men had just had a meeting, and Deere thought that most of the Jersey defences were built after the home coast lines, and that they could hold out until at least noon.

And as long as the morning passed, and the Germans could not break through the coastal defense line by noon, it basically meant that the landing had failed.

It didn't matter if Jersey was lost or held, and both Churchill and Sir Deere knew that what really deserved their attention was the speed of the German attack.

"As long as we hold Jersey, the Germans will not easily choose to land on our soil." Dill explained to Churchill: "Defeat will break Germany's confidence, and it will be good for us." ”

"What if we lose the battle in Jersey?" Churchill looked at Sir Dill and asked uneasily.

Dill was silent for two seconds, and after thinking about it, he chose the words to reply, "So, sir...... We're going to have to strengthen the whole 300 miles of defense......"

Reinforcing the defensive line is not as simple as digging trenches, it requires concrete and sand, as well as a lot of steel and artillery and machine gun weapons.

It is a pity that there are a lot of steel bars and artillery and other weapons, and Britain is now in dire need of them everywhere. If these materials could be found, they would have been invested in the construction of coastal defense.

"Can you change the way to strengthen the defense of the coastline?" Churchill did not give up, and continued to ask Sir Diere.

Hearing the Prime Minister's question, Sir Dill shook his head and came to his conclusion: "Increasing the number of troops will not help, we now have an army of 1 million, but there are very few troops capable of fighting." ”

Churchill interrupted Diere's explanation: "I've heard enough of what you said, don't stress to me that only troops who have been trained for more than eight weeks have combat effectiveness, and the soldiers who went to the battlefield and won the war were all recruits!" ”

It's a pity that we had sufficient logistical supplies back then, and the war was fought on someone else's land, so we didn't mind sending some recruits to the front line so that they could use their lives to learn how to fight.

With such an answer in mind, Sir Deere's words finally softened considerably: "Times are different, Mr. Prime Minister...... Now we can't arm more troops. ”

Although increasing the number of troops can increase the combat power, there is a limit to this increase. Similar to the so-called 100 million jade fragments that Japan clamored at the end of World War II, it is just self-deceptive nonsense.

It would be even more nonsense to believe that the US military was afraid of landing in Japan and suffering too many casualties. Even if Japan could fight a good defensive battle on the islands of Kuah, Iwo Jima, and Saipan in Okinawa, it would have consumed too many elite troops.

Only a fool would believe that those refugees who have lost their houses and food on the Japanese mainland will really fight the tenacity and ferocity of the Japanese regular army.

Therefore, the excuse that the United States estimated that it would lose a large number of active troops when it landed in Japan was undoubtedly just a decent reason for ending the war in a high-sounding manner.

What really made the United States give up landing on Japan was still that the United States was burying its nails in Asia and playing a strategic card in advance to muddy up the situation in Asia.

It turned out to be the right card and continues to play an unexpected role to this day. From the time of the Korean War, the development of the Soviet Union and China has been contained, and Asian geopolitics has become chaos.

So, it's not that the British don't want to mobilize more combat troops, but they now find themselves no longer able to feed more troops.

Recruiting soldiers requires the support of food supplies, the training of weapons and ammunition, and the maintenance of these requires a lot of real money.

But now, the British army has begun to worry about the lack of food, and expanding the army can only dilute and consume the food reserves faster, which is absolutely harmful.

In addition, the European theater of World War II was not a low-intensity security war such as rifles and turrets and bunkers. The Asian theater mode, which relies on light infantry operations, is definitely self-defeating here.

The newly formed infantry would never be able to support the enemy without artillery support, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery reinforcement.

Instead of being sent to the front line to be defeated by the opponent and increase the chaos, it is better to strengthen a small number of troops to a limited extent to reach the level of real "capable combat", at least to ensure that there will be no chaos.

Blindly expanding the number of troops and building new units will actually have a very bad impact on the top level commanding operations -- if it is impossible to estimate the combat capability of a division or regiment in advance and to accurately grasp the actual situation of a formed unit, it will affect the entire war situation.

A considerable part of the responsibility for the chaotic command in Germany in the later stages of World War II was caused by the indiscriminate formation of various units and their own disturbances.

A national division formed later, even a regiment of the regular army can not reach the combat effectiveness, let them garrison the position, these flank troops lacking heavy weapons will be crushed at the first blow, will directly lead to the main force in front of the main force damaged or even annihilated.

Therefore, to a certain extent, the famous saying summed up by the ancient Chinese ancestors is still very reasonable.

"We can't prepare more food, weapons and ammunition, and even military uniforms and quilts." Dill was afraid that Churchill would not believe him, so he opened his mouth and added: "Moreover, the mess that went out in Canterbury before ......"

"That's it! I know! Don't mention Canterbury! Churchill waved his hand, interrupting Dill again.

The German navy disrupted British supply lines and put great pressure on the British, and this pressure erupted in the boot camp in Canterbury, which directly led to the vicious death of more than 30 soldiers in the scuffle.

And the impact of this incident went far beyond that, because the execution of some of the soldiers who caused chaos directly led to the dissatisfaction of the recruits, which has spread to the surrounding areas and caused headaches for Churchill and other high-ranking officials.

It is precisely because of this that when it comes to Canterbury, Churchill is so impatient and so taboo. He had been embarrassed enough by this incident, and of course he didn't want to mention it again.

"Report!" At this time, an officer awkwardly interrupted the conversation between the two men and handed the telegram in his hand to Churchill: "The telegram just came from Jersey!" ”

When Churchill saw the first sentence above, he gritted his teeth with hatred, and almost tore up the telegram paper in his hand and threw it to the ground: "Bastard! Don't they have a sense of military honor? ”

Without looking at the contents of the message, Dill probably guessed some of the things mentioned above. It is estimated that the defenders could not withstand the pressure of the German attack and were ready to surrender.

This is obviously not good news. For the British high-brass, who were using Jersey to judge the intensity of the Germans' landings, things seemed to be moving in a direction that was out of their control. And this kind of uncontrolled development is the last thing Churchill and Deere and others want to see.