"1 hour, I need 1 hour!"

At the German command in Southampton, the veteran Hindenburg repeatedly repeated his only but very important requirement that the units attacked by the British must hold on to their existing positions for at least another hour before the reserves arrived and were deployed.

In that area, which was temporarily named "Heyuan Point", the ratio of forces between the German army and the British army was 1 to 1, which is probably the most disparity between the forces of the two sides on this front. Although the Germans at the front had built their positions, they were hit by a sudden blow, and their morale and advance deployment were affected to a certain extent.

However, there was no atmosphere of fear or despair in the German command, after all, the British counterattack was not so much a counterattack as a return to glory. The interval between the completion of the landing and the launch of the final campaign of the million-strong German army was not a sign of inefficiency, on the contrary, it was a strategic consideration. For one more day, the British faced an even greater shortage of supplies - 45 million Britons, plus hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Commonwealth countries and British colonies, the daily consumption was staggering in all respects, and the daily shipment of goods to Britain was a drop in the bucket under the excellent blockade of the German Navy. Tirpitz, the soul of the German Navy, even predicted that even if the German Army did not attack, this situation would continue for another 1-2 years, and Britain would be defeated by famine and riots.

The German Army General Staff did not intend to let Tirpitz's prediction come true, because that would have to cost Germany quite dearly - the supply of the four armies was equally staggering, the navy had to work at full capacity, and the unpredictable international politics led to the resumption of the battle at a time that most people thought was appropriate.

It was for these reasons that the German generals saw the British counterattack as an act to exhaust the last of their strength. The 68-year-old Hindenburg agrees with this view from the bottom of his heart, but his usual cautious style still makes him deal with it carefully. According to the latest intelligence from the front, the British 17th and 22nd Reserve Armies committed a total of about 300,000 troops west of Oxford. The troops that launched the counterattack launched an offensive along the upper Thames with the support of artillery. General Hellingen's 3rd Army, though not weak, suffered heavy losses so far due to the suddenness of the British counterattack - about a quarter of the men were incapacitated, a third of the light equipment and most of the heavy equipment were lost. The British forces that had broken through this area then split their forces in two directions, one to the west and the other to the flank of General François, and the troops of the two armies also sent reports of exchanges of fire with the British.

"1 hour ......"

A German general pulled out his pocket watch, and it was 5 a.m., one hour later. It's almost time for dawn in England.

Fierce battles are going on everywhere on the thin land, but who will be the stage for this land? Who will be the real winner? People are working hard and struggling......

The mustachioed sergeant, despite his beautiful face, not many people knew his name at this time. A few years later, he and his battle deeds were written into the textbooks of the military academy, because there are not many people in this world who can be like Oliver? Sergeant Haller leads 17 infantry against 2,000 enemies! The machine-gun massacre in the Boer War was a one-off massacre, but the natives were extremely inferior in their weapons, and Sergeant Haller was facing a fully armed English infantry regiment armed with rifles, machine guns, and grenades. There were originally two companies of German infantry defending the hill, but the attacking forces in front were engaged in a fierce battle with the British in a roundabout way. Other soldiers were ordered to go for reinforcements. Whether those soldiers changed the tide of the battle ahead is unknown. But Halle's position was attacked by another group of British troops a quarter of an hour later.

When the attacking British troops formed a skirmish line and began to advance this side, Sergeant Haller and his soldiers had only 18 Mauser 1898 rifles, a modified Firebird light machine gun, a G-14 machine gun, 1 Vickers-Maxim machine gun and 1 Lewis machine gun captured in the British position, 42 M24 grenades, and 2 boxes of British Hale grenades. In the face of the British army, which was not supported by artillery fire, the three machine guns looked like they could be relied on. But in reality the Vickers was almost devoid of bullets - except for the half of the cartridge belt that hung from the gun, and the Lewis machine gun also ran out of ammunition after firing two shuttles of bullets, so the only thing the German infantry had to use was the "Firebird" they had brought. Fortunately, this light machine gun is a very favorite weapon of the German infantry, the -14 is an improvement on the basis of the old Firebird machine gun, that is, the G11, because it was produced in 1914 and was named G-14, it changed the G11 barrel is easy to heat, continuous shooting is easy to jam and other shortcomings, although the weight of the machine gun has increased slightly, but there are many improvements in the rate of fire, range and shooting stability. For the vast number of German officers and soldiers, the only drawback when using this machine gun was that they always felt that there were not enough bullets.

After the second cartridge belt was "engulfed" by the G-14. The first exploratory offensive of the British army was repulsed. With the help of flares and fire, Sergeant Haller and his men were able to shoot well during this time, and more than 60 bodies of English men were left in front of their positions, most of them thanks to the G-14. However, Halle and the others could not rely on this machine gun for long, and its ammunition could only sustain two charges of this size, and if the British attacked more violently, perhaps one would be enough.

Before the British launched a second attack, Sergeant Haller made a very important and clever decision. He asked the Ming soldiers to carry 10 grenades and crawl forward to the foxhole dozens of meters in front of the position to wait. This tactic was later introduced into the German Infantry Combat Manual and was named Halle Tactics - a very effective means of skirmish defensive warfare.

With Halle's tactics, Haller and his soldiers repelled a second British attack, this time leaving hundreds of corpses behind by the British, and the power of the M24 wooden-handled grenade once again made the British officers and soldiers suffer again, and the poor British commander was even more confused by the battle scene - after being captured by the Germans, the colonel admitted that he had made an unforgivable mistake at that time, he believed that the Germans had a light mortar position behind the mountain, because manpower could not throw grenades a hundred meters from the trench - in general, The standard distance for a trained soldier to throw is about 30 meters. Therefore, the British colonel did not let his soldiers launch a tidal onslaught, but continued to attack the German positions in a skirmisher formation. "If I had known at the time that there was only 1 platoon of defenders there and no artillery cover, I would have had one of my battalions charge intensively, so that I could settle the battle in 10 minutes, unless I was a pig!"

The pig-stupid British colonel lived up to Sergeant Haller's name, and after exhausting all the grenades and machine-gun bullets, Haller and his soldiers did not hesitate to insert bayonets in the face of the approaching British soldiers, and a moth-to-fire charge almost consumed the lives of the German soldiers in this platoon. But also thwarted the attempts of the British to cut off the German troops from the front from here. When the British were about to occupy this position, the German reserves that had arrived from the rear finally arrived, and after a fierce battle, most of the British army was annihilated, and the remnants fled in panic.

Sergeant Haller, who had been seriously wounded in the battle, and the three surviving soldiers recovered quickly after receiving medical treatment, and the brave and tenacious sergeant was awarded a Max medal, which was a great honor for ordinary soldiers. Three other soldiers were awarded the Iron Cross of the First Class, and 14 soldiers who died were posthumously awarded medals.

In the early hours of April 22, there were many more similar battles, thanks to the defensive orders of the General Command. The forces of François and General Cluke halted the British detour after losing some positions. A large number of German reserves were rushing to the battlefield to reinforce - General Hindenburg had prepared a reserve of 200,000 men for the battle, which also allowed the Germans to survive a calm night.

After the initial success of the counterattack, the British forces that broke into the German line appeared too scattered - although a strategy of detouring on both flanks was developed. However, the British subordinate units were not given a clear line of operation, and many British infantry regiments were blind in their movements, except for the circuitous troops accompanying the main force, and they looked around like rats for opportunities. It is true that some of the German artillery and logistics units were lost by the British attack, but on the whole these British were only in a large cage - the German front-line offensive forces - 1 Panzer Corps and 3 Infantry Corps of François, 4 Infantry Corps and 4 Panzer Corps of General Herringen, General Cluc's Fiber Infantry Corps and Fiber Armored Corps, 4 Infantry Corps and 1 Panzer Corps of Hindenburg temporarily slowed down the attack, General François's 1 Infantry Corps, 2 Infantry Corps of Herringen, General Kluke's 2 infantry corps, 1 armored division of Hindenburg turned to the part of the British army that came forward, plus 3 infantry corps and 40 cavalry companies of the German army as the general reserve, and a huge box was being formed.

If Stevenne is given another chance, General Walter will have a thousand chances to choose again. He would not have crashed headlong into the woods with his infantry division, because behind the woods there were not only 3 elite German infantry regiments, but also a terrifying "beast".

The 48-year-old General Wout hails from Fort Augustus, Scotland, which is about to become the last bastion of the British king's resistance to the Germans, but even if the mountains can stop the advance of the German armoured forces, the German infantry can still cut the remaining British troops like butter, and there are huge differences in quality, equipment and history between the two armies. Although General Wout had a new infantry division under his command, it numbered only a measly 8,700 men, the equivalent of only half a German infantry division, and what was worse was that this force was entirely cobbled together from the broken forces of the Southern Campaign, and the officers did not know each other and did not trust each other. The lack of weapons among the soldiers is even less confident, and the morale of the entire unit is worse than the logistical supply. It was only the defeat of one of the German infantry corps that General Walter was able to drive the men towards the Settlement Grove.

"There's a supply base for the Germans there, I'm sure!"

Out of nowhere, General Walter's staff officer assured that there was an important German supply base behind the settlement woods, and that it was only guarded by some German reserves.

On the reserve forces of the Germans, both the British and the French made a mistake. In the original military system, only the youngest people who had just undergone the hard life and rigorous training in the barracks and training grounds were suitable for combat; Reservists have returned to civilian life from their compulsory military service and are considered weak and unusable on the battlefield. As a rule, all reservists will normally be formed into their own divisions and brigades, with the exception of those under the age of twenty-six, who will be integrated into the active forces, to serve as occupying forces and for other rear duties. But the German war artist Schlieffen changed this very early, and in order to increase the combat units available in the Schlieffen plan, many reserve divisions were added to the ranks of active divisions. After sufficient training and exercises, the combat effectiveness of these reserve units is not much different from that of active divisions.

No heavy artillery, no tanks, and with a feverish expectation of victory, General Walter's troops marched towards the woods. At first, their march seemed to be going very well, as German patrols, checkpoints, and small cordons were swept across, and groups of British soldiers marched along the path in scattered formations, and just as they were about to enter the woods, all the music in favor of the British came to an abrupt end.

"Small in caliber but as annoying as flies" shells fell from time to time, and General Walter's troops were shelled for the first time after breaking through into German territory. This harassing shelling irritated the British, who could not see each other and had very few infantry guns in their hands. These guns of less than 50 mm have as much range as they should be, and dragging them in trouble would be intimidating without them.

Before encountering the German assault tank No. 3 (according to the internal number, Stone Type 1 and Type 2 were No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, and Monster 1 was exactly No. 3), the British soldiers were indignant and vowed to tear the "German artillery" to shreds. But after seeing this grinning monster outside the woods, there was only one thought in everyone's center: God forbid!

Led by three No. 3 assault tanks, a stone 2 deformation car, and some armored vehicles, nearly 4,000 German infantry stood out of the woods, all of which surprised the British who had just come out of the woods. The previous harassing shelling came from three "Stone 2B" with long-barreled tank guns, and the "Stone 2C" with two 20mm machine guns brought down the British army in pieces with ferocious fire, but today the protagonist here is destined to be the latest Empire No. 3 assault tank.