"The 1st Irish Armoured Brigade approached Heights 64? Good! That's great! As long as the breakthrough of the defense line from No. 64 Heights to Nafei is refilled, the whole line will be safe tonight! ”

At a field headquarters on the front line, Lieutenant General Maxi Weitek, commander of the Allied 3rd Marine Group and commander of the German 29th Corps, said this to his staff officers. www.biquge.info In the eyes of outsiders, this majestic and calm German veteran is sharpening his fists, and only officers who know the inside story can understand his complicated feelings.

According to the appointment of the German General Staff, Lieutenant General Rudolf Gerk, who led the 2nd Marine Group to land in Absoch, was responsible for the combat operations of the Allied forces on the Coen Peninsula, and the 3rd Marine Group under the command of Weitek was the first reserve for this campaign, and was under the command of Gerk after the landing. In terms of military rank, seniority, ability, and military exploits, Weitek was as good as Gerk, who obtained the order of the Zhengyin vanguard by virtue of his good personal relationship with the German Crown Prince Wilhelm, and when he was ordered to go on the expedition, several German veterans privately said that this was not a wise decision.

Judging from the organization and deployment of the early stage of the landing on the Cohen Peninsula, the command of Gerk played normally, and the landing operation on the first day basically achieved the expected goal, and the defeat that night was mainly attributed to the underestimation of the British counterattack capability by the coalition high-level before the war. Gerk was neither punished nor rewarded, but the new order from the German General Staff gave a sense of a subtle change in the mentality of the superiors -- the two lieutenant generals were divided into defense zones according to their units, with Weitek in charge of the northern sector and Gerk in charge of the southern sector, and the two had to work closely together to hold the existing front until the follow-up troops arrived.

In this way, the two German lieutenant generals changed from the original subordinate relationship to a parallel competition, so whether it was out of public or selfish intentions, Weitek did not want tonight's plate to be smashed in his hands.

By the time the 3rd Marine Group under the command of Weitek landed, Gelk and his 2nd Marine Group had been fighting fiercely for a day and a night, and the two armies had worked together to regain lost ground and annihilate a British force, and the morale of the army should have been in an ideal state, while the former was clearly superior in physical and mental strength, and was said to be stronger in combat than the latter. In fact, the lineup of the 2nd Marine Group has been repeatedly weighed and screened, representing the strongest level of the German Task Force in Ireland and even the German Army, and it is an elite division that is highly expected by the German military leadership, while the 3rd Marine Group has only one truly commendable unit, that is, the German 3rd Marine Division. The unit was formally formed on the basis of the original 3rd Marine Brigade, with 20% more personnel than the standard army infantry division, the same weapons and equipment as the light infantry division, and an additional naval tank regiment, so it is generally believed that the combat effectiveness of the Marine Division is comparable to that of the Guards Infantry Division. As for the 29th Corps under the direct command of Weitek, it was just an ordinary member of many front-line corps of the German army, and in the last major war, it participated in many battles on the French battlefield on the Western Front and the Belarusian theater on the Eastern Front.

A short time later, the communications officer presented a telegram he had just received that the advance unit of the 3rd Marine Division, supported by two chariot companies of the 7th Royal Guards Tank Regiment, had entered the town of Feuna, and was now engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy in the town.

This time, Weitek frowned slightly, and then asked his staff officer: "Where is Schweedler's main force?" ”

The staff officer replied: "According to the operational disposition, they should be deployed in front of Heights 64, with four regiments to attack the heights with the Irish 1st Armoured Brigade, and two regiments to support the Marine Division to capture Naffee." I'll check on their implementation right away. ”

Instead of looking at the map, Wetek walked quickly to the side of the bunker and observed the front line with a periscope gunner. It was clear that fierce fighting was going on at the moment in the places where the flames were most intense, and from the direction, the coalition counterattack on Heights 64 had already begun. It will not be long before it will be known whether Ireland's most elite chariot units will break through the British positions with the German infantry, or whether the British troops will stubbornly resist the allied counterattack.

Moments later, another telegram arrived from the communications officer.

Seeing that General Weitek had no intention of reading the telegram himself, one of his staff officers took the telegram and read: "The 33rd and 161st squadrons of our unit have taken off and are expected to arrive at about 2:10 p.m., and will launch a low-altitude bombardment of Heights 64...... Command of the 11th Air Wing. ”

After reading it, the staff officer and several officers next to him looked down at their watches.

"There are 20 minutes left, General, do you need to inform the 55th Division and the Irish troops to withdraw?"

I saw General Weitek turn his head sideways and ask with a displeased face: "Withdraw at this time?" What if they are now one step away from victory? ”

The staff officer was speechless.

General Weitek continued to stare at the periscope, and after a while left there and returned to the battle map, glanced at everyone present, and said slowly: "If they can stand on high ground 64 within 20 minutes, the bombing will not be necessary, and we will use signal flares to direct them to bomb the depth of the British army; If it is repulsed within 20 minutes, the new attack will definitely require some preparation time; If the battle continues after 20 minutes...... We might as well take some risks, even if there is a slight mistake, it is inevitable on the battlefield. ”

Seeing that the officers did not squeak, Weitek added a sentence: "As far as I know, the training level of the 11th Air Wing is first-class, and the error radius of low-altitude bombing can be controlled within ten meters. ”

The atmosphere in the field headquarters suddenly became solemn.

Weitek was very embarrassed, and he instructed his trusted staff officer: "******, you inform the 55th Division to let the assault force use blue signal flares to indicate the position of the British positions after our fighters arrive on the battlefield, and be sure to keep our personnel and the landing point of the signal flares for twenty ...... No, a safe distance of thirty meters. ”

The tall, square-faced officer hesitated for a moment, then replied reluctantly, "Yes, sir." ”

At this time, about three kilometers away, on the western slope of Heights 64, more than 5,000 German infantry divided into four horizontal skirmishers, like four waves rushing to the top of the hill in turn, in front of them were 35 combat vehicles, 9 full-tracked armored vehicles, 28 half-track armored vehicles, and hundreds of infantry of the Irish army.

This high point is at an altitude of 64 meters above sea level, the outline resembles an irregular round bench, the top is not a pointed head but a relatively open plane, the British army has long built a ring defensive position and a large number of concrete bunkers here, and even deployed two heavy guns with a very long range to prevent the enemy from landing in Nafei, most of these fortifications and heavy weapons were destroyed in the heavy bombardment of the Allied forces, and the current position is repeatedly repaired by German and British soldiers in the interval between battles, far from being "impregnable". The British soldiers basically relied on their fighting skills and mental will to resist the ferocious offensive of the coalition forces. Of course, the British forces at Heights 64 at this time were a big change from the previous situation in which the Allies had taken the area with a grenadier regiment and a reinforced battalion-sized airborne commando, and the arrival of a large number of reinforcements allowed the British commander to redeploy with ease. The dense defensive fire from the top of the hill not only caused a sharp increase in casualties among the attacking coalition troops, but also caused invisible psychological pressure on the coalition officers and soldiers, especially the endless roar of Vickers-Maxim, which made the scalps of the soldiers who participated in the battle on the first day tingle and their hearts drummed.

At this time, the combat vehicle with a real body of steel is duty-bound to take on the heavy responsibility of charging into battle. The Irish piled a lot of sandbags on their "Celtic warriors" to enhance their slightly insufficient battlefield protection, the coaxial machine gun on the turret constantly fired a rain of bullets with green tracer rounds, adding a touch of psychedelic color to the bloody and cold battlefield, every time they encountered a fire point that could not be eliminated by bullets, the chariot crew would solve the problem with accurate artillery bombardment, and the British were not unprepared, the "Kitchener" left to assist in the defense was the best anti-tank weapon, in addition to a large number of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, wait until the enemy tanks approach the position, and then greet them with a variety of individual anti-tank weapons. The two sides did not give in to each other, gritted their teeth and insisted, the British troops in the defensive position had a slight upper hand, the coalition forces suffered numerous casualties, and the attack line was driven back several times when it entered the 50-meter zone of the front of the enemy's position.

The Royal 1st Armoured Brigade is the elite of the elite of the Irish Army, and if the unit is fully deployed and does not count casualties, even without the strong cover of aircraft and artillery, there is almost no suspense in forcibly capturing Heights 64, but so far, only two armored battalions and a baggage logistics detachment of the brigade have landed on the Cohen Peninsula through Portercrane, and it is inevitable that it will be a little lonely to deal with such a hard bone. As the minutes ticked by, the tanks were constantly destroyed or the power system was damaged, and fewer and fewer could lead the Allied infantry to continue the attack, and seeing that the offensive was about to come to an end, a German detachment hurriedly came up from the rear, these soldiers in addition to their regular firearms, each armed with a flare gun, and when the dull roar came from the west, they crawled on the ground, constantly firing blue flares at the British positions on the top of the hill.

In the night sky, the sound of a powerful roar became clearer and clearer. The British troops at the top of the hill knew something was wrong and tried to distract the enemy's vision with several captured flare guns, but the jamming was not effective, as the German signal detachment marked the striking guiding arrows with a continuous and sufficient number of blue flares. When the roar sounded so close at hand, it was finally clear what was coming: a series of biplane fighters with the Iron Cross logo painted on their wings emerging from the night, flying so low that they were literally flying against the top of a mountain.

(End of chapter)