A steamer docked in a small port in the northern Aegean Sea, and the British soldiers waiting in the harbor watched the ship dock with a nonchalant expression. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The order they had just received was to retreat as the main force of the British in Greece and to leave the place where they had fought.

The young soldier leaned back on his seat on the dock with a Greek motley cigarette in his mouth, so tired that he forgot to inhale the gray-white smoke.

Just letting the cigarette burn, he just leaned there lazily, and there was no weapon in his hand.

The task of retreating the British troops had just been sent to the Greek top brassips. The united resistance to enemy aggression is over, and the days when everyone united to fight are gone.

In order to appease the Greek high-brass, and also to relieve the pressure of transportation, these British soldiers left all their weapons in their hands before leaving the Balkans.

All ammunition, including bullets, as well as valuable artillery and various heavy weapons and equipment. The Greek defenders received the weapons and did not distribute them to the remaining Commonwealth troops.

"Board the ship! Board the ship! All stand up! Don't sit still, get up! A British officer held a document and shouted at his men in a loud confrontation.

His shouts alerted the soldiers around him, and some of the soldiers sitting on the concrete floor stood up with their hands empty.

These soldiers even left their lunch boxes and steel helmets in the Balkans as strategic materials. All they could take with them was the clothes they were wearing, and some food in their pockets.

The German army had not yet begun to attack, so the battlefield was now in favor of the British and Greek defenders.

Because of this, these first batch of soldiers who were selected to leave walked quite calmly. At least they didn't encounter the looming enemy and the Axis planes flying overhead.

"What a lucky bunch of people." The Greek soldiers, who stood on the harbor and looked at these standing British soldiers with their weapons in their arms, spoke with envy on their faces.

In his opinion, these people who have the opportunity to be ordered to stay away from the battlefield are people who are extremely fortunate and favored by God.

"Trust me, it's not going to be easy." Another Greek soldier sneered and sneered, "Cowards don't have to die in their beds. ”

The waters of the Aegean Sea are not peaceful and tranquil today, and Italian submarines often haunt the area, sinking transports and other ships.

As a small port city nearby, it is common to pick up lifebuoys floating on the seawall or crumpled corpses on the seawall.

"Get up! Get up! If you sleep again, you'll miss your ship! A sergeant kicked the boots of the soldier sitting in the chair and made the soldier who had fallen asleep to stand up.

The soldier who was woken up opened his hazy eyes, and only when he saw the commander in front of him clearly did he stand up and salute his commander: "Good afternoon! Sir! ”

Half of the soldiers wore loose overcoats, and this saluting soldier was no exception. Even the armed belts have been taken away and left for the so-called former allies as supplies for aid to Greece.

The saluting soldier still had a burned cigarette in his mouth, and the dirty appearance on his body was so dirty that it was easy to tell that he had really worn this dress to the front line.

The British Expeditionary Force in the Balkans was not a pretending force, they were actually at war with the Axis powers......

The British soldiers standing on the dock at this moment are all veterans of battle. Once they are equipped with the right weapons, their combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of a makeshift unit.

The removal of these veterans was significant for Montgomery's plan to replenish the Middle East. He now suffers from a severe shortage of elite soldiers, as well as heavy weaponry.

Weapons and equipment could not be solved for a while, so Montgomery started to think of increasing the number of veterans in his army.

At least 400 veterans had already stood up, and they were standing on the dock, looking black. Because there were no specialized transport ships and warships, they could only leave on such a scale.

There is not much space left in the ship for these land forces, because this ship is not specially designed to carry people.

The deck was littered with rudimentary tools, scattered fishing nets and other parts, and now stood a commander from the Navy.

"It's a shame that the Germans were scared away before they came." A soldier complained disgruntled to the people around him.

The soldier standing next to him also looked very relevant, and he opened his mouth and complained: "Isn't it, our Prime Minister, I heard that every morning I am awakened by the way the German tanks are in motion. ”

Anyway, it was a war era, and no one pursued it anyway, so everyone made all kinds of jokes about the leaders of their own countries.

The good-natured joke made several soldiers around laugh along. Because we could leave the Balkans, everyone was in a good mood, so they laughed as much as they could.

After all, in this damn war, there are fewer and fewer things that deserve everyone's laughter. Or rather, there are really not many opportunities left for them to laugh together.

Standing on the side of his ship, the captain of the ship docked in the harbor had a pipe in his mouth and looked at the smiling soldiers on the dock with a frosty expression on his face.

He took off his pipe, turned to his first mate and said, "They really think the sea is calm...... Damn it, I wish they could laugh when they saw those corpses. ”

The first mate glanced at his captain, his face turned pale, and without speaking, he waved his hand for the people farther away to lower the ship's hanging ladder. He'd seen so many tragedies that every time he thought about it, he felt uncomfortable.

"Board the ship! Board the ship! A British officer in the distance of the dock gave the order to board the ship in a loud voice, and several company commanders began to repeat the order in the same way.

These officers, who were standing on high places, began to emphasize safety and discipline over and over again: "Don't make a fuss! Embark in a column! Don't mess around! Don't mess around! ”

Because the ship was not large, and because there were not many people, more than 400 people quickly boarded the ship. With a long whistle, the ship left the port.

The waves were not heavy, but the ship shook slightly, and some of the soldiers began to lie on the railings and return their last meal in the Balkans to the water of the Aegean Sea.

After all, they are all landlubbers, and swimming is not a skill that everyone can skill. Seasickness is simply normal for Army soldiers, and this is a small reason why they can't just act as Marines.

Before dinner time, the steamer, which was mostly empty in the cargo holds, continued to rock on the sea, which was not rough.

"If I knew, I shouldn't have eaten those potatoes and damn jerky." Lying on the side railing, the young British soldier complained to his comrades with a pale face.

The jolting made his stomach very uncomfortable, and this level of shaking made his gastric juices tumble and pound his esophagus.

The feeling of vomiting was so bad that he even wanted to go back. He would rather face the heroic death of the enemy's tanks than faint and vomit on the sea.

"What's that?" The middle-aged veteran, who was holding the young soldier's back and kept patting, suddenly stopped, he looked at the sea not far away, and muttered.

The pale-faced young soldier raised his head slightly, and saw an orange-yellow lifebuoy, floating alone on the sea.

A short rope is tied to the lifebuoy, and on the circular body, in bold black letters, "Old Dino" is written.

Obviously, this lifebuoy belongs to a ship called Old Dino. It's just that now it's floating helplessly on the sea, which makes everyone who sees it feel inexplicably sad.

"Possibly, just a consistent lifebuoy that accidentally fell into the sea." The young soldier, whose face was still pale, forced himself to swallow the feeling of vomiting.

"That one also accidentally fell?" The middle-aged veteran pointed to the sea a little farther away, and asked rhetorically.

The young soldier felt the sourness in his stomach, and he covered his mouth and looked into the distance.

Several sailors in life jackets were floating on the sea, and they who had lost their lives were now corpses as cold as the sea.

Because I don't know how long they have been soaked in the water, the appearance of these corpses is really miserable. The disgusting feeling that had been suppressed with great difficulty rolled in the young man's chest again.

This time, he couldn't bear it anymore and vomited everything in his stomach at once.

Most of the food had been digested, hung on the railing, dripping onto the side of the ship, all the way down, and finally washed away by the sea and disappeared into the sea.

The young soldier, who seemed to be about to vomit out his stomach, groaned in pain again and again, until he vomited all the contents of his stomach.

And next to him, and next to him, the soldiers who kept vomiting like him, one by one.

In any case, the Balkan retreat planned by Montgomery and Auchinleck kicked off in this way. Before the start of the German offensive, the British began to organize their troops and retreat from the most dangerous places.

When they came to the Balkans, this is how they took a ship and endured seasickness along the way......

Now, they're going to leave like this again. It's just that they came hoping to go back with victory, and when they returned, their pockets were full of despair and defeat......

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