In the warm afternoon sun, a group of German admirals and staff officers, led by Natsuki, sat around a picnic table covered with white tables, with stainless steel teapots, coffee pots, and ashtrays in front of them, and several rattan plates stacked with apples and nuts. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Ladies and gentlemen, in my personal opinion, if we are sure that we want to bypass Mulberry Island and attack Sud Island directly, it is better not to launch a feint attack on Mulberry Island, because the British may feel that we have the ambition to seize both Mulberry Island and Sud Island, and once the battle of Mulberry Island begins, they will take heavy combat alert on Sude Island, so that we lose the suddenness of our attack in the real direction of operation."

The officer who spoke looked to be thirty-six or seventeen years old, with a short-brimmed military hat resting on the table, revealing short, energetic blond hair, a long trench coat issued to naval cadets, and a vigorous armed belt with a special holster for a Ruger pistol.

The officer sitting on his right, his coat hanging on the shoulder of the chair, is directly wearing the navy-style collegiate of the officer, this field gray military uniform adopts the popular waist and collar design, which sets off the capable temperament and extraordinary bearing of the soldier. His blue collar medal with gold buttons, a military merit medal of the third class was tied around his neckline, and he wore a Red Eagle of the third class and an Iron Cross of the first class on his chest. The officer smoked a miniature cigar and said, "Personally, I very much agree with Colonel Weisman that the key to a true determination to fight this battle is to be taken by surprise." I believe that as long as we can send 2,000 infantry and three or four chariots to the shore and support them with naval artillery, we will be able to gain a firm foothold on Sood Island, and then quickly increase our troops on the basis of a solid beachhead, and the battle of Sood Island will be evident the next day - we will not have to annihilate all the British troops on the island, but we will only defeat them, and at the same time cut off their sea retreat, so that they have no hope of escaping, and we can force them to surrender. ”

Among the people present, the eldest was a vice admiral with an upturned beard, a majestic demeanor, and a well-eyed navy, his collar badge and cuffs were decorated in bright red, his epaulettes were decorated with gold flowers, and nearly ten medals and medals were neatly worn on his collar and left chest, which showed how outstanding his qualifications and merits were.

"Gentlemen, things on the battlefield are always more complicated than in the war books, and every decision we make is related to the lives of hundreds of soldiers. Of course, I am not saying this against bypassing the island of Mulberry and attacking the island of Sud, the more daring the idea, the more careful it is to consider the details and plan the steps, and the enemy may not act according to the line we envisioned. What if the enemy's strategy is to hold their positions during the day and fight back frantically at night? ”

After listening to the veteran's explanation, Natsuki spoke: "General Mayne is right, our enemies have independent thoughts, and their reactions may be in line with our expectations, or they may do things that we don't expect. At the end of the day, there are only two options left to choose from: either to launch a strong attack before the enemy is better prepared, or preferably in these two days; Either a long siege, constant artillery bombardment, bombardment, and gradually disintegrate the morale of the British army on the island. The former route was essentially to eliminate once and for all the enemy's threat to us, and it was possible to transfer the main forces deployed in the Faroe Islands to Ireland, but there was a risk of failure in doing so, and casualties were expected to be in excess of four thousand. The latter path is basically free from the risk of failure, and it can contain the enemy's strategic deployment, attract the enemy to continuously invest in the vital forces, and finally wipe them out. ”

"If I had to choose, I would still be inclined to the latter path that His Highness said, to win with absolute certainty, and in His Highness's style, I would definitely be inclined to the former path, which is certainly risky, but the strategic value obtained from winning is very considerable." The veteran obviously didn't blindly follow the other party because he was a member of the royal family, but his tone was tepid, and the way he spoke was also very skillful, without the slightest hint of refuting the criticism.

Natsuki refilled half a cup of coffee for himself, and said in a tactful tone, "But I'm only fifty percent sure." ”

This means that the outcome is evenly matched, and if you are unlucky, you may incur defeat in a combat operation that skips Mulberry Island and attacks Sood Island directly.

The officers at the table, who were originally eager to try, were silent when they heard this, serving cups and smoking cigarettes, and the warm atmosphere suddenly became cold.

Indeed, in the Faroe Islands, which were far away from the German mainland, our fleet had won the naval battle with great difficulty, maintaining the strategic superiority of the German army in the Faroe Islands, and the current war environment was more favorable to the Allies.

No, the veteran took out a tin soldier from his pocket and put it on the table. Silver peaked hats, blue tuxedodo uniforms, black high boots, and flintlock pistols with long bayonets can be found in many paintings and historical galleries, and are still worn by the guard guard of honor of the German royal family on important occasions.

In the war against Napoleon, the Prussian army went to the battlefield in this costume, and finally established the status of a military power and won the respect of the world.

"My father, who was a general in the Prussian army, once told me that before the war with Austria and France, His Majesty Wilhelm and Field Marshal Moltke feared the possible defeat of Prussia, but if they were afraid of fear, there would be no glorious victory, and there would be no German Empire that would be strong by unity."

In the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia and Austria were basically equal in military strength, but most of the German states supported Austria and regarded Prussia as an invader, so Prussia attacked on two fronts as soon as the war began, and at the same time used troops against Austria and neighboring countries such as Hanover, Hesse-Gassell, and Saxony; In the Franco-Prussian War, although the Prussian army was superior to the French army in terms of strength, the French army was already equipped with superior Shaspoo firing pin rifles, and Austria, which had just lost to Prussia a few years earlier, might take advantage of the emptiness of the Prussian army to intervene in the rear. As a result, Prussia's two ventures were successful, and Prussia rose from a regional military power to a major European power, followed by decades of golden development.

The eyes at the table were focused on the little soldier, whose paint was mottled and peeling, obviously some years old. It may have been a childhood toy for General Mayne, a profound inspiration to him, or perhaps a gift from an important person who inspired him to overcome all odds to achieve what he is today.

Xia Shu sighed slightly: "If the combat equipment that is about to arrive is included, our chances of victory may be increased to sixty percent." ”

The officers who actively responded to Natsuki's island-hopping tactics before were all dazzled at this time. The troop convoy, which had just arrived in the waters off the Faroe Islands, had not only brought two fully formed infantry regiments, but also heavy combat equipment of the Marine Corps, including an unknown number of artillery pieces and combat vehicles - only a few leading generals, including the Theater Commander, knew the contents of the list.

"In order to avoid the fire of our warships, the British dug a large number of trench fortifications all over Sood Island, including the northernmost coast of Sandwich." Natsuki used a coffee spoon to draw the outline of the beach on the table at hand, it was a U-shaped beach with an opening to the northeast, and the entire coastline added up to seven or eight kilometers, but the beachhead suitable for regular landing was less than five hundred meters, and the rest was a coast with no mud and sand beaches. These shores, a few of which are artificially filled seawalls, and most of which are naturally formed, have a slight slope and are only a metre or two above the sea, and can be climbed by soldiers with bare hands or with the help of improvised tools when small boats have landed. Combined with the situation of aircraft aerial reconnaissance, it is speculated that the British army has deployed one or two battalions of troops on this U-shaped coast, which is not a large number, and what really deters the German landing is the British artillery laid behind the mountain beam -- south of the Sandwich coast is a mountain beam that runs across the island in an east-west direction, and it seems to be a miniature version of the natural Hadrian's Wall, separating the northern part of the island from the central and southern parts, and one kilometer south from this mountain beam is Kvalbar, where the largest beach on the island is located, and the mud and sand beaches here add up to five or six kilometers. Most of the beaches are on the eastern coast of the island, a few on the western coast, and the two beaches are connected by a narrow strip of low-lying flatland. Geographically, Kvalbard was easy to attack and difficult to defend, so the British army dug trenches here were the largest on the island, and many artillery pieces were covertly deployed nearby.

"We launched an attack early in the morning, 1,000 naval infantry were put into the first wave of landings, and a platoon of chariots landed immediately, and in 40 minutes we captured the entire coast of Sandwich, transporting 2,000 infantry ashore in the morning and 2,000 in the afternoon. Capture Heights No. 2 south of Sandwich before noon and strafe British units in Kvalbard with infantry and machine guns. From early in the morning, one of our capital ships and one cruiser were deployed in the sea east of Kvalbard, and as soon as the British artillery fired, they were immediately suppressed by naval guns. In the afternoon, 2,000 infantry crossed the second heights to attack Kvalbard, captured Kvalbard before dusk, used the trench fortifications left by the British army to consolidate the defense, the light ships approached the coast, cleared the British ships in the waters near Kvalbard, and transported a platoon of chariots to shore before nightfall. On the first night, we fended off the British counterattack with Kvalbard as the main position, and bombarded the British troops who had left the trenches with naval guns. ”

Speaking of this, Natsuki's tone changed: "This is a battle plan under an optimistic situation, if the offensive cannot get the expected progress from the beginning, we will set the first day of combat mission to seize the Sandwich coast and the second height, the key is to take the second height, otherwise our landing force may be driven into the sea by the British on the first night." If necessary, we put all our tank troops on the coast of Sandwich, there is a gentle slope on the west side of the second height, I have seen, and the Hubert-13 light tank can climb up from here, and it is estimated that the whole journey will take two to three hours, and we have to pray that the British do not ambush the machine guns behind the high ground, otherwise it will ......"

Behind this "otherwise" is a cruel situation that the officers do not want to imagine.

(End of chapter)