"Oh, damn it, this one missed! It's only about two inches off, quick, give me another shot! It won't run away this time! ”

In a chariot abandoned by the Germans and then "reused" by the British, the British soldiers, who were temporarily gunners, were annoyed and anxiously urged their companions. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info But before he finished speaking, a cannonball came at him, and the impact point was slightly forward, and after landing, it bounced again, and then hit the "Teutonic Knight" who was not in the right position.

Hearing the dull sound of metal crashing and feeling the tremor of the car, the four tense hearts almost came to a halt. As a result, the guns and cannons rang out outside the chariot, but there was a deathly silence inside the chariot.

After a while, a weak voice asked, "Is anyone hurt?" ”

"I'm fine."

"I'm fine."

"Well, thank God, we got away with it, but it's hard to say if we'll be so lucky next time, and the only way out now is to defeat all the enemies. Alan, you reload the cannonballs with Jim; Bert, continue to debug the radio, if we can intercept the enemy's battlefield communications, we will have a chance to take the initiative! ”

With that, the British gunner repeatedly flipped the curved handle used to control the main gun's fire, and when the gun chamber was empty, a crisp clicking sound continued to sound in the dark space.

At the same time, in a foxhole not far away, Captain Wellington held a telescope in one hand and "Webley" in the other, staring ahead with a serious expression. It is difficult to tell exactly whether they were German or Irish, or both, from the attire of the soldiers alone, and as for the chariots and armoured vehicles that led the offensive, the silhouettes were Irish-made, but it was also possible that the German army had ordered and equipped them - these may not seem important, but Captain Wellington did not think so. Judging from the information disclosed in various aspects, the German Army's tactical thinking is still the word "attack" at the top, striving to effectively break through the enemy's defense line, and with weapons and equipment suitable for offensive operations, its field troops are full of impact. Although the Irish army inherited the German military system, and a considerable proportion of the middle and senior officers were Germans, based on the strategic environment of their country, they advocated defense and emphasized mobility in training exercises, and their frontal assault capabilities were relatively weak.

The fields were littered with bullets, and the retreating British soldiers, along with their colleagues who had deployed their defenses earlier, were overwhelmed by the heavy fire of the enemy, but even so, there were still people moving on the battlefield. An officer-like man crawled and crawled, swooped and ran, and finally squeezed dangerously into the foxhole where Captain Wellington was.

Seeing the visitor's face clearly, Wellington was surprised: "Mike Bryan, it's you?" You lunatic! What are you doing here? ”

The officer who squeezed in, wearing the same British Army captain's ornament as Wellington, did not answer immediately, but gasped for air, his piercing eyes repeatedly scanning ahead.

After a while, Captain Wellington asked, "I just saw your company retreat from the right side, and the casualties were not small, right?" ”

Si Ren narrowed his eyes, his expression was hideous and painful: "If I say that there are only about 30 people left in my company, do you believe it?" ”

"30?" Captain Wellington was surprised at first, and his face turned gloomy.

"It's an Irish army attacking us!" The second sentence made Captain Wellington look surprised again.

"Do you know which troop it is?"

"I don't know, we didn't have a chance to capture the prisoners, but there were quite a few people who were captured by them, maybe their commander already knew our details." "The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, a very ordinary British light infantry regiment, hum, is probably a vulnerable character in their eyes!" ”

Captain Wellington looked ahead a little blankly: "Even the elite troops of Ireland will not eat up most of your troops in such a short time?" What's going on? ”

"Don't look at the speed at which they are advancing now, they are like a herd of unrestrained wild horses when they sprint, this tactical rhythm is very similar to that of a cavalry charge, and it does not give the opponent a chance to retreat calmly. Among the people who survived, none of them were fast runners on weekdays. ”

"Uh-huh, I think you were the sprint champion of the military academy back then." Captain Wellington was not sarcastic, but his colleagues beside him looked pained.

The enemy's line of attack is getting closer and closer, and the enemy's helmet style can be seen directly with the naked eye, and the gunfire on the British front is almost impenetrable, but ordinary bullets pose little threat to enemy tanks and armored vehicles.

With a sudden bang, the "Teutonic Knights", abandoned by the Germans, opened fire again on the attacking enemy troops, and there was no vehicle exploding on the opposite side, but this did not mean that the shell deviated from the target - ordinary armor-piercing shells rely on the strength, weight and speed of the projectile to penetrate the armor, and then kill and injure the crew inside the target, causing the ammunition to detonate is only a low-probability situation.

Captain Wellington calmly picked up the binoculars to observe the effect of the shooting, and his companion next to him said happily: "Ha, you actually got a German tank that can still fire, it's great!" The artillery of this tank is very strong, and now the Irish are in trouble! ”

"Two to be exact." Captain Wellington raised the corners of his mouth, "I got a few helpers to get them, and now it looks like they're starting to work...... Lo and behold, an enemy tank was hit, it slowed down, stopped, and did not fire...... No fire was fired...... yes, I guess it was killed! ”

"I meant to remind you that if the situation is not good, give the order to retreat decisively, and everyone except the rearguard should run as fast as possible - it seems that this reminder may not be useful."

"The enemy in front of us still has six tanks, four armored vehicles, and at least one battalion of infantry, and with just two immobile German tanks, I am not fully sure that I can withstand the attack of this Irish army, and now I can only take one step at a time. To deal with the enemy's chariot troops, it is better to send in tanker units that are stronger than them. ”

Captain Bryan sighed: "Well, I just brought the not-so-good news: nearly half of the tanks of Major Duke's armored battalion were destroyed by enemy bombardment, and the remaining tanks were lost in the battle just now, and few were withdrawn. ”

"I haven't seen a single one."

"I hope that the main force of the 3rd Panzer Division did not suffer too much damage in the previous bombardment, so that they should be able to reinforce in time, so that we can not only withstand the enemy's attack, but also launch a counterattack."

"Now we have a piece in mind." Wellington responded positively, "I hope that our 3rd Panzer Division can show the might of the British Tiger, and let the enemy know that the British Army is not easy to deal with, so that the battle will be much easier." Then again...... Before dawn, we had less than 4 hours of 'free time'. ”

"Compared to our opponents, the British Air Force is too weak, the area to defend is too large, more than half of the fighters are protecting the southern region, and the British fighters are said to be inferior to Germany and Ireland." Captain Bryan muttered under his breath, like a resentful woman.

Apparently influenced by his companions, Captain Wellington said with dismay: "The present situation is so much worse than in the summer of 1914 that it always feels that victory is far away from us, and defeat is at hand." It's hard to persevere, but it's easy to give up. ”

"That's not what you're talking about, the people of the Wellington family shouldn't be afraid of enemies from the European continent!"

Although the other party did not mean to mock, it was Captain Wellington's turn to smile bitterly: "I'm just telling the truth." Moreover, when the first Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon, many of his allies fought alongside him, and now we are more isolated than ever. The Americans, although they entered the war, who knows when their troops will arrive in Europe? To put it bluntly, it will probably take months for the Americans to mobilize their troops, and whether they can take the Azores is still a big question mark. ”

A mortar shell suddenly landed nearby, and the two British captains bowed their heads in unison. As they spoke, the Irish troops attacking head-on quietly changed their rhythm, but instead of speeding up, they slowed down, and the chariots seemed to begin to concentrate their fire on the two "Teutonic Knights" controlled by the British, and the armored vehicles came to a steady stop, shelling the British line with mortars at a distance of three or four hundred meters, and the infantry took advantage of the situation to move forward and narrow the distance between them and the armored troops, and some battle groups followed directly behind the chariots, apparently to launch a rapid charge after clearing the enemy's fire points.

"Hide, everyone! Pay attention to the ammo and have grenades ready, the enemy may charge at any time. Captain Wellington reminded his soldiers in a loud voice.

Captain Bryan looked around, "Then I'll go and cheer up the boys, many of them were stunned just now." If we can withstand the enemy's attack, we will fight back side by side and beat them down, but in case the situation is not good, remember what I just said. ”

Captain Wellington subconsciously grabbed his companion's neck and pressed down, and in an instant, a cannonball landed and exploded a few feet away, and the violent impact shook the man's head blank. It was a long time before the two British captains shook the dust off their heads, and when their eyes returned to the battlefield, the situation changed unexpectedly: an enemy armoured unit had struck from the left flank of their position, advancing at the same speed as Captain Bryan had previously described - as if a herd of wild horses were rushing unrestrained. The chariots rushed forward, the armored vehicles followed, and the skirmish line of infantry rolled in like a rising tide, and the coordination between the chariots, armored vehicles, and infantry was so skillful and tacit that it was difficult for the British infantry to find the same opportunities as they had against the German armored forces.

(End of chapter)