To get from Sandwich to Kvalbard, you have to climb an overland mountain that crosses the island. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIt is high and steep in the middle of the mountain, low in the east and west and gentle in the slope. A hill slope below forty degrees is not too difficult for an infantry carrying a full combat gear, but for an armored fighting vehicle that is on a rampage on flat ground and invincible, the climb is a very technical data. After theoretical calculations and repeated real-vehicle tests, the maximum climb of the German-made Hubert-14 light tank under combat load was 33 degrees, and considering that the real hill slope did not have a uniform slope like the test site, the tank driver was told to try to avoid long slopes with a visual gradient of more than 20 degrees......

With the dull, monotonous, boring roar of engines, a team of tracked combat vehicles crawled slowly on the north side of the mountain beam. The ridge separating Sandwich from Kvalbard is the second natural barrier from north to south on Sood, and similar undulating terrain can be found in the central and southern parts of the island. On the European battlefield, this is the ideal terrain to defend against enemy field forces, but on an isolated island like Sood Island, which is surrounded by the sea, the German army can move naval guns at will, and naval guns, which can often exceed 200 mm, are far more lethal than army field guns. It is no exaggeration to say that an accurate salvo of the main guns of a German capital ship was enough to destroy the main defensive positions laid on the mountain beams, and with the rapid-fire capabilities of the 100-150 mm secondary guns, the soldiers simply could not gain a foothold on the high ground.

The German chariot unit that set out from the Sandwich coast took a position to the west of the middle section of the mountain beam, where there was a 200-meter-wide gap, the altitude was several tens of meters lower than that on both sides, and the slope on the north side of the gap did not exceed 25 degrees, and the slope on the south side was about 40 degrees -- the steep downhill road could not be difficult for tracked vehicles with strong grip ability.

"I'm getting cramps in my legs!"

In the driver's seat of the chariot with the hatch open, the driver wearing a crash cap looked like he was grinning, which may seem a little funny in the eyes of others, but in the eyes of those who are familiar with this kind of chariot, his expression is not much exaggerated. Like cars on the market, the Hubert-14 uses a gasoline engine with three forward gears and one backward gear, and when the slope continues to climb and the slope exceeds 20 degrees, the driver must maintain a posture of pressing the accelerator deeply.

"We'll be at the top of the mountain in a few minutes!"

The entire ridge had been occupied by the Germans, and there was no need to worry about the British attack when moving on the north side of the hillside, so the commanders sat on the turret, encouraging their drivers to grit their teeth and persevere.

On the south side of the ridge, below the steep slope is Kvalbard, an E-shaped low-lying coast nestled between the ridge and the high ground, and the terrain is much more complex than Sandwich, and the British artillery has more shelter. The German naval infantry was bombarded several times when attacking Kvalbard, and the combat ships flying the Black Eagle cross flag bravely rushed into the fjord again and again, suppressing the British artillery positions, and during the counterattack by the British artillery, the thin hull of the 1898-class large torpedo boat T-92 was blown through by shells, and it was helplessly stranded near the German-controlled shoreline, and the crew wanted it to be used as a fixed battery, but the British field guns deployed behind the high ground did not miss the opportunity to avenge the fallen comrades, After several shellings, the T-92 was completely incapacitated, and the surviving crew had to swim to the shore and join the ranks of the land battle.

The battle lasted from the beginning of the night until late at night, and the fighting units of both sides engaged in a constant tug-of-war around Kvalbard, with every trench, every house, every gully and even the crater left by the shells becoming a position repeatedly contested by both sides. Not long ago, similar tragic battles had occurred in Paris and Rouen, and the bloody and tragic scenes shocked the world, but no one could have imagined that such a battle would take place on a remote northern island.

At Kvalbard, the two sides were locked in a constant shift, with German ships bombarding British rear targets to suppress and weaken their opponents, and the battle for the town and shoreline became a duel between the two Royal Marines.

The Royal Marines of Britain have a long history and glorious tradition, they have created countless glories, but there is no doubt that they followed the British Empire step by step to the top of the world, at the peak of prestige, they can influence the situation of other countries, and even decide the fate of other peoples.

The Royal Marines of Germany, like the Royal Navy of Germany, can barely make up a history of hundreds of years if they go back to their roots, strictly speaking, they were born very late, without traditional glory or traditional fetters, relying on the industrial strength and military system of the German Empire. The 1914 war in Europe was the ideal litmus test for distinguishing between good and bad, as the Royal German Navy won the world's awe through one thrilling and more heart-wrenching naval battle, and the German Royal Marines sharpened their blades on the brutal European battlefield.

The vast Kvalbard coast, with less than 1,000 permanent inhabitants, is popular on weekdays, but on this night it is a literal meat grinder, where people shed their blood and sacrifice their lives at every moment. The soldiers in front fell one by one, and the soldiers in the rear rose up in batches. If there really is Valhalla in this world, then most of the souls who went to Valhalla this night probably came from here.

The German officers and soldiers believed in honor and disregarded death, and the British Marines showed no less in this regard. They knew that the German machine guns were fierce, and the grenades were thrown far and accurately, and whenever the whistle blew for the attack, they still crawled up and rushed towards each other without hesitation, but more often than not, the British officers and soldiers were fighting with good fighting qualities against the elite equipment of the German army. Whenever the German army carried out a rapid assault or step by step infiltration, the British army did not resist it, but waited for the German soldiers to approach the position, and then fired a burst of Enfield rifles, if they could not stop the German offensive, the remaining soldiers would take their bayonets and bravely rush up and strangle with the German soldiers, until they repelled the opponent or were annihilated by the opponent. The tactics of the two sides have their own characteristics, but from a specific point of view, the offensive and defensive switch of the two armies is nothing more than a competition of perseverance, whether it is a German attack or a British counterattack, harvesting a trench and a stronghold, paying the price of dozens or hundreds or even hundreds of soldiers, and what is puzzling is that the commanders of both sides have no intention of stopping, turning the tug-of-war of repeated rushing and killing into a static confrontation.

It was not until more than a dozen German chariots crossed the mountain beams, took advantage of the situation, and rushed into Kvalbard with great momentum, that the tide of the battle changed decisively.

The machine guns deployed by the British army in Kvalbard were either abandoned to the Germans or ran out of ammunition, and the rapid-fire guns hidden in the nearby high ground were successively "unveiled", and then bombarded into slag by German naval shells, or they withdrew from the preset positions and moved to a safer but less ideal area. At this moment, the British did not have the weapons to withstand the onslaught of German tanks, and according to the British command, the German landing ships would not approach the coast of Kvalbard before dawn, and if they did so recklessly, the artillery groups hidden in the central and southern parts of Sood Island would make them pay a terrible price for this night landing.

The British commander and his staff apparently underestimated the operational capabilities of the German tanks.

The sound of gunfire from Kvalbard reached an unprecedented intensity, and the British Royal Marines who had entered the battle made their last efforts to hold their positions, and soon the rumbling of artillery behind them gave them a vague hope, and the heavy shelling effectively delayed the German attack and divided some of their chariots and troops, but this kind of artillery bombardment, which cheered the British officers and men, lasted less than five minutes, and the artillery fire of the mountain and tsunami and the explosion of shaking the ground were heard from behind them. The sea south of Sood Island suddenly appeared with flashes of naval artillery fire, and the night sky was stained with blood. The southern and central parts of Sood Island then turned into a hell of flames, and the fireballs from the explosion of heavy shells soared dozens of meters high, and the smoke from all directions showed strange shapes in the light of the fire.

Under the suppression of the powerful fire of the German battleships, the British artillery group completely fell silent.

The battle for Kvalbard returned to the rhythm of the Germans......

At 8 o'clock in the morning GMT, the sky on Sood Island was slightly bright, and the change of hands of Kvalbard made the German landing force occupy about a quarter of the island, and the British army seemed to have a lot of room for defense, but Sandwich and Kvalbard The two coasts were controlled by the Germans, and the German marines would continue to land on Sood Island, and the British troops were replenished from the outside at a drop in the bucket. Evacuation as soon as possible is possible to avoid the end of the total annihilation of the army - the operational report of the front command was submitted to London, Marshal Kitchener, who had not yet sat in the position of prime minister, offered to withdraw troops at the imperial military conference, and King George V of England acquiesced to this, and under the pressure of the situation, the Admiralty agreed to withdraw the combat troops from Sood Island, but due to the blockade of the German Navy, Churchill put forward two conditions, one was to use only submarines and destroyers to transport the retreating troops at night, and the other was to send a large number of troops to the French battlefield on the condition, In exchange for the French fleet going to the northern seas to contain the German fleet.

For both military and political reasons, most members of the British wartime cabinet did not agree with Churchill's second condition, but the focus of their argument had shifted from the return of French naval power to the North Sea to the British sending more troops to France, and the army generals were particularly worried that the French front would soon collapse completely, and if hundreds of thousands of British soldiers and their weapons and equipment were lost in France, Britain would lose its ability to defend itself, and Ireland was now in desperate need of more military investment.

The British Navy was so defeated that Churchill became the most troubled British Admiral of all time, and even those closest to him felt that he should resign, but this stubborn man who was like a cow was under great pressure to remain Lord Chancellor in the new wartime cabinet. In the presence of King George V and all the members of his cabinet, he said slyly: "The sending of a large number of troops to France is only a weight, and everyone knows very well that it will take half a month at the fastest to transport more than 200,000 troops across the English Channel, while the French fleet will only take about four days from the Bay of Biscay to the Faroe Islands—three days, if they wish." It would be best if the French Navy could help us withdraw more than 10,000 elite Royal Marines, but if not, then we have a valid reason to postpone the dispatch of troops, don't you think? ”

(End of chapter)