When the moon is in the sky, the silver light is sprinkled all over the earth. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe battlefield was full of smoke and strange silence, as if the soldiers on both sides had been consumed by the ruthless flames of war. On the side of the coalition line, soldiers silently transported the bodies of the dead and the seriously wounded to the rear, while those who remained were either consolidating the trenches or sorting out ammunition. Listening to the roar of rolling thunder coming from the direction of the sea, it was known that a fierce battle was going on at sea, and the outcome of the battle was likely to determine the evolution of the war on land.

In order to reduce the damage caused by shelling, the trenches built along the road were dug in a zigzag shape, and a number of anti-shelling bunkers and material storage points were set up in depth. Somewhere in the forward position, the eyes of several soldiers wearing paratrooper helmets and clover armbands were focused on one person. The man spoke something quite quickly, his expression sometimes excited, sometimes solemn.

Evan Gallaher listened without saying a word, and if it weren't for the mention of his name by the speaker, this quiet and indisputable fellow would surely have kept the silence going to the end.

"Alternate commander?"

Gallaher lowered his head and rubbed his nose with his mud-stained fist. This 11-man paratrooper battle group was originally commanded by the sergeant squad leader, and in the first round of the British onslaught, they lost 1 man, seriously wounded 1, and slightly wounded 5 people, and the sergeant squad leader was the unfortunate one who died. Corporal John Reilly took over the command automatically, and the seriously wounded were evacuated from the line of fire, and the remainder were 2 privates, 1 private, 2 privates, and 3 privates. Of the two First Class Privates, Reilly chose Gallaher as the first alternate, meaning that if he was killed in battle, the surviving soldiers would be under his command.

Gallaher is a steady and down-to-earth man, as a paratrooper, he is absolutely competent, but to make him a commander, even if it is just the commander of a combat squad, is completely bottomless. He had never been trained in this area, nor did he play such a role in any form of training, but war is so brutal. When the flag bearer in front of you falls one by one and you are still alive, the battle flag will be in your hands, either with the flag held high or you will be a complete coward.

"Everyone's remembered what I said, right? If there is no problem, disband! Good luck to all! ”

With that, Corporal Reilly unbuckled his helmet and took out his handkerchief to wipe his sweat.

When everyone was in their positions, Gallaher stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Why don't you let Ward be the alternate commander?" ”

Reilly slipped his handkerchief into his pocket, pulled out his cigarette case and matches, looked left and right, shook out a cigarette with a quick movement, and squatted down to light the match.

The fragrance of tobacco suddenly diffused in this place filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood.

"He hit his head with a blow, maybe he will be confused at a critical time." Reilly replied in a whisper.

However, the sergeant had only been grazed by a bullet in the forehead, so the corporal's reasoning was a bit far-fetched.

"There's nothing to worry about, it's not that hard." The corporal handed Gallaher two puffs of cigarette. The Irish army was well supplied and paid, and the reason why the two shared a cigarette was because the field regulations prohibited soldiers from smoking at night, and lighting an extra cigarette meant an extra risk of being targeted.

Gallaher looked left and right before taking the cigarette from Reilly's hand, taking a quick puff and handing it back to the corporal.

Reilly grinned, "If I change Ward, he'll give me back the cigarette until he's got a little bit of his ass." ”

Gallah turned his head to look at his fellow Private First Class not far away, and realized.

"The war has just begun, hopefully we can all survive and watch the invincible British Empire fall in front of us, so you don't have to worry too much, it's just an appointment just in case." Corporal Road.

Gallaher nodded: "I hope so." ”

The corporal patted him on the shoulder, took a few hard puffs of his cigarette, and then twisted the end into the wet dirt.

"This battle is not easy to fight!"

Gallah did not respond, thinking back to the previous battle, his thoughts were still a little confused, and he was deeply impressed by the great shock of the enemy chariot running over the trench, and the trembling of the ground and the beating of the heart when the enemy shelled it.

Reilly made an analogy: "Britain is like a hornet's nest, the Allies have to dig out the honey that they didn't get last time, and we are the first to poke the hornet's nest." ”

Hearing this, Gallah suddenly realized: "Yes, there must be tens of thousands of British troops coming towards us now, and the battle we are fighting is probably the most difficult of this war." ”

"Hopefully we'll get through this battle and then march through the roads of England, into cities and ports with white flags raised, all the way to London, where we'll be victorious in visiting the British Empire Museum." Reilly longed for the beauty of such an idea, which had been a hot topic in the army before the outbreak of the war, and the environment in which he spoke changed from the barracks training ground to a battlefield filled with the smell of gunpowder, and his mood changed completely.

After a brief chat, the two of them went their separate ways. The hornets that had been stabbed in their nests would not rest on their laurels, and neither did the British, who made a comeback after less than two hours of the truce. As in most battles of the previous war, the artillery of both sides took the lead in playing the melody of battle before the attacking and defensive forces were close to each other. Between the two wars, the British Army maintained a large scale on the one hand, and on the other hand, stepped up the construction and development of tank units, and the replacement of conventional equipment was very slow, the main weapons of ordinary infantry were the Lee Enfield MK-II rifles and Vickers Mark I heavy machine guns, which had been in service for many years, and the field artillery was equipped with improved 13-pounder field rapid-fire guns and 4. The 5-inch rapid-fire howitzer was the majority, and these two guns were already behind the 1925 77mm field rapid-fire gun, the 1924 105mm light howitzer and the 150mm heavy howitzer launched by Krupp in the mid-20s. In order to keep up with the technological trend of artillery motorization, the British army developed and equipped several artillery tractors, but horses and ordinary trucks were still the main marching equipment of artillery units.

Britain was bound to become weaker and weaker in its own country, but in the early days of the war, this constraint was not yet apparent. The suppressive fire of the British artillery basically covered the allied defense line with a total length of nearly 12 kilometers, and it lasted for an hour and twenty minutes, not to mention two or three hundred thousand shells, but the night shelling and the distance was a little farther, the British artillery fire was dense but inaccurate, and the power of the field artillery was not as powerful as the siege heavy artillery, and the allied soldiers in the trenches could survive the shelling safely as long as they protected their hearing organs.

After a long wait, the sound of the artillery finally subsided. Signal corps began to weave through the trenches, relaying battle orders from battalion and company headquarters, and soldiers converged from their scattered bunkers to the front-line positions. Today, more than 40,000 Allied soldiers have amassed on this line, including paratroopers, marines and army soldiers, and about three-fifths of the German army, a little more than a few speak German. Fortunately, the front-line troops of Germany and Ireland were almost the same in terms of equipment and training, and there were many exchanges on weekdays, and several joint exercises were intensively conducted before the war, so there was no big problem in coordinating operations.

With his new mission, Gallaher no longer sees himself as a solitary combatant, and he begins to pay extra attention to the condition of his companions. In defensive operations, the paratrooper battle group usually uses the Hubert-22 light machine gun, or the Irish-made Browning M1918, as the backbone of firepower, but conventional tactics are only effective against infantry attacks. In the previous battle, the British tanks poured in like a tide, and if it weren't for the timely firing of the tank units and naval guns, the light machine guns would have only been crushed.

"The enemy is coming up, calm down, fire again when you hear the order, remember to aim at the enemy's infantry to shoot, the enemy's tanks will be handed over to our tanks and artillery first, and when they are close enough, I will tell you what to do."

The German officers in the adjacent positions reminded their soldiers in a cold tone. Gallaher was a native of Ireland, and he did not know foreign languages before he enlisted in the army, but he was somewhat gifted in languages, and he could understand Germans in four months after two basic German lessons per week, and his paratrooper course was taught by a German instructor, and his German language was much better than that of ordinary Irish soldiers.

Gallaher saw Reilly lying on the edge of the trench, staring at the front with blazing eyes, and at this time he didn't mean to speak, so he whispered to the two riflemen beside him: "Everyone, pay attention, calm down, and when everyone has fired, we will fight again, aim at the enemy infantry!" ”

The rifleman on the right hand is a private who has just turned 19 years old, with great physical fitness and a flexible brain, and was selected for the elite 1st Parachute Battalion with excellent parachute diving results, and this combat group is the shortest time he has served. Hearing Gallaher's advice, he replied attentively, and asked Gallaher how much to adjust the scale of his rifle at this time.

Gallaher served for more than two years, with mediocre parachute jumps and mediocre marksmanship, but he was careful and studious, and learned valuable combat skills from his more experienced colleagues and German soldiers, and he did not hesitate to teach others: "At the full moon, we can see objects 200 meters away, but it is almost impossible to aim accurately, so set the ruler at 50 or 100 meters and aim at the nearest figure, otherwise one out of ten rounds may not hit the target." ”

The private stuck out his tongue, and it seemed that most of the bullets he fired in the previous battle had been wasted.

Before the British attacking troops came into rifle range, the Allied field artillery deployed behind the line continued to launch artillery fire, one shell after another with a short whistling sound, bursting into the open field with a blazing fireball, the shelling barrage had a lethal effect on the infantry cavalry, only the chariot covered in armor steel plates could pass through the barrage coverage area.

The number of chariots that the British army put into the battlefield once again exceeded the expectations of the officers and soldiers of the coalition forces!

At this time, no one blamed their air forces for failing to effectively prevent the British from transporting troops and equipment to the Coen Peninsula during the day, because they saw with their own eyes how tragic the fighting in the air was. In the case of the two sides being well prepared and the difference in combat power is not huge, the head-on battle is often attrition, and any overly aggressive move will have to pay an additional price. From early afternoon to early evening, the coalition forces frequently launched air raids on the eastern part of the Coen Peninsula and other parts of North Wales, destroying British transportation facilities and attacking British reinforcements, for which they have paid a considerable price, and even if they increase their air raids despite losses, will the British slow down their support for the Coen Peninsula?

The answer is clearly no.

(End of chapter)