"It smells so weird, it smells disgusting!"

"It is the smell of the barbecue burnt......

"Stop, stop here, or I won't want to stay for a second. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Hey, the turret's wheels are too heavy, would it be better to find some lube to add it?"

"I guess the previous battle damaged the balls in the steering gear, otherwise with the seriousness of the Germans, they wouldn't have been able to take good care of their equipment?"

"Chances are, there's a crack in the sight, and a slight concussion wouldn't have caused such damage."

In the "Teutonic Knights", where the hull of a vehicle is pierced in many places, four British soldiers whisper in the dark. The German-made heavy tank was a trophy of the British infantry, and although the maintenance crews couldn't get its power system back up and running, it was still a sturdy little pillbox on the battlefield. After clearing the remains of the dead, the British "dove occupies the magpie's nest", although the temporary crew is not proficient in the operation of the tank, simple gun control and machine gun control are not a problem.

"There are a lot of shells that can be used, but I can't tell the type of them, if the flare is used as a high-explosive shell, and the high-explosive shell is used as an armor-piercing shell, the situation is estimated to be very troublesome......"

"Come, I know some German, who has a lighter to borrow for me...... Well, matches will do too...... Uh, hell, there isn't even a letter on these shells. ”

"As far as I know, the round-headed ones are flares, the pointed ones are grenades, and the longest shells are armor-piercing shells."

"Well, I hope you're right...... Let me see, the Germans left us 17 grenades, 14 armor-piercing shells, 6 flares...... It looks like we have plenty of ammunition! ”

"There are 4 boxes of machine gun ammunition, each box should be 1,000 rounds, enough for an infantry regiment."

"Don't rejoice too soon, guys, these ammunition are sitting us on a powder keg. You may not have noticed the vehicles that were destroyed after being penetrated, the multi-ton turret blew out, the hull of the vehicle was blown to scrap metal, and the people inside had no chance of survival, and it was thankful that the corpses could be saved. ”

"So, the Germans who were in this tank were lucky?"

"I'm not sure that the chance of the vehicle exploding after it is penetrated, maybe not as high as it seems, but even if the hull is only pierced by armor-piercing shells without detonating the ammunition, we could all be killed."

"Then pray, guys! Pray that God will bless us and that we will be able to return to our families in full condition when this war is over. ”

At the same time, in a foxhole not far from the vehicle, a member of the Wellington family, British Army Captain John Gretel Wellington, was facing up on his back, as if he were watching the stars in the field rather than coming to fight, his mind seemingly wandering for nine days, but in fact pondering a very real question: what was the purpose of this battle. Public opinion generally believes that it was the insatiable greed of the German ruling class that led to the outbreak of another great war, but there is a big logical loophole in this notion -- the Germans will need at least half a century to fully digest the land and population resources they plundered in the previous war, and at that time their national power will far exceed that of any other country in the world, including Britain and the United States, and the chances of winning a war will be much greater than it is now.

The aged Kaiser Wilhelm was already the most powerful ruler on the planet, and his victory over his rivals and domination of the continent was enough to take him to the grave with great glory, and the outcome of the last war had given Germany a solid foundation to surpass Britain in all its aspects. By the end of the 20s, Britain's economic, financial, political, and diplomatic strength continued to decline, and there was no aspect of the country that could be called truly "first-class" except for its deformed and prosperous military. Without the strong support of the United States, Britain would not have been able to compete with the Germans in Egypt and the Middle East......

The name of the war was a showdown between the United States and Germany, and what was the difference between Britain's role and Ireland's role against the Allies?

"It's coming, it's our people!"

Hearing the reminder from his subordinates, Captain Wellington quickly turned into a prostrate position like a loach. There were long shadows in the fields ahead, hundreds of them, and in the distance, the light of explosions and flying tracer bullets kept jumping.

The captain squinted and observed for a while: "It seems that the enemy is attacking very fiercely, otherwise they would not have withdrawn so quickly, and ordered each platoon to prepare for battle, first stabilize the battle line, and then find an opportunity to fight a counter-charge." ”

The order was quickly conveyed, and the soldiers, including those in the abandoned chariots of the enemy, were also notified at the first time, and everyone was on standby, but what they were waiting for was not the enemy's attack, but the rolling roar before the arrival of the summer rain and thunderstorm - a large group of fighters attacked from a low altitude in the direction of the St. George's Strait, and several planes in front of them whizzed by, dropping flares with parachutes, and they slowly fell, illuminating large fields as bright as day, and then colored signal flares drew a low arc over the field, landed at the position of the British troops, and led the coalition aircraft group to carry out a surprise bombing of the British front.

Faced with such a situation, the vast majority of British officers and men were unprepared, and their anti-aircraft artillery was basically deployed behind the battle line to protect the artillery and lines of communication. When enemy fighters appeared in a V-shaped formation, only sparse gunfire shells rose from the ground, which posed little threat to the air raiders. After a while, the black bombs fell intensively, and the loud explosions were one after another, and the violent explosions set off strong air currents, swaying the grass and trees in the fields, and the British soldiers could only lie on the ground tightly, trying to protect themselves from the bombing of enemy planes. However, the power of the enemy's aerial bombs was so terrible that many people were stunned and even died without external injuries. The vehicle's thick armor could withstand flying shrapnel, but it could not neutralize the terrifying impact of the blast. Compared to the people outside, the people in the chariot were nothing more than a small life raft on the stormy sea.

As the world-destroying explosion struck, the British quartet in the "Teutonic Knights" lost consciousness together. By the time they woke up one after another, there was a deathly silence outside the chariot.

"Hell, what's going on? Hey, hey, who can hear me? ”

"Jim, is that you?"

"It's me, of course it's me! Belch...... My head hurts, I feel like I was attacked in a bar, and I fainted all of a sudden, I don't know how long it has been. ”

While the two were talking, they suddenly heard the creak of the hatch opening, and they all shouted, "Who is it?" ”

In an instant, a cool air flow entered the cabin, and the dizzy head suddenly cleared up a lot. Immediately after, a familiar voice came: "It was I who opened the lid on the position above the driver's head, the bombing is over, there are gunshots in the distance, I don't know how the battle is going." ”

After a few seconds of silence, another familiar voice came from the darkness: "Shhh...... Don't speak, there are people in front of you, I don't know if it's friend or foe...... Damn, German helmets, it's the enemy! ”

As soon as the words fell, the rattling of Vickers' water-cooled heavy machine guns rang out outside the chariot. Looking through the observation hole, the figure in front of him shook a few times and quickly disappeared. But after a while, the heavy machine guns ceased firing, and at this time, another dull roar was faintly heard. Suddenly, a small flare was fired from the side of the British position, and it silently shone brightly, revealing the bodies of several moving chariots.

"They are not heavy tanks for the German army...... The 'Celtic warriors' of the Irish army! ”

Identifying the identity of the opponent, the British soldier who was temporarily serving as a gunner seemed to be in a steady mood. The main tank of the Irish Army is a level lighter than the German "Teutonic Knights", both in terms of armor protection and artillery power are much inferior, ignoring various human factors, the Irish tank units should be easier to deal with than the Germans. As he turned the heavy crank, he calmly ordered, "Jim, get an armor-piercing bullet!" ”

The Germans had emergency lighting for their tanks, but they were too short for the British, who knew little about their internal structures, to find their way out. Another British soldier struck a match, took advantage of its faint light to open the bolt, then struck a second one, found a bullet with a long tip on the ammunition rack, and shoved it into the chamber in the dark. The whole process was much less efficient than a well-trained German loader.

Fortunately, the rumbling coalition tanks did not see the abandoned tank as a potential threat, and they stopped from time to time to fire at the British machine-gun fire points, and the 50 mm caliber tank guns were more than enough to clear the general field bunkers, and it was a bit difficult to deal with the "Kitchener" and "Teutonic Knights" of the class.

"Okay, let's see if we can ...... one shot"

The British gunner squeezed this sentence out between his teeth, and it could be seen that he was far more nervous and apprehensive than excited and expectant. After careful aiming, he determined the timing of the shot, and the next thing to do was to pull the firing handle next to the pitch handle of the main gun. However, this guy didn't move as if he had been welded to death. The gunner was so worried about this accident that he wanted to find a hammer to fire the shells directly. He didn't know if the vehicle had a spare way to fire the main gun, so he tried to pedal left and right, but the left pedal did not respond, and the right pedal fired the main gun coaxial machine gun. In the night battle environment, the tracer bullet grid interspersed between ordinary bullets is particularly clear to verify the aiming effect of the main gun.

"Damn it!" The British gunner exclaimed, and as soon as the coaxial machine gun fired, the coalition vehicle on the opposite side knew that the abandoned "Teutonic Knight" had been repurposed by the British, and because it could not be activated, it still maintained its lying posture - the body was diagonally horizontal, the relatively weak sides and tail were facing the enemy, and only the turned turret was facing the enemy head-on. In desperation, he forcibly pulled the main gun firing handle, and this time he responded with a deafening cannon roar!

(End of chapter)