Vincent Brown, who served as a platoon commander in the 3rd Infantry Division of the British Army. Lieutenant Dill walked listlessly across the snow-covered plains, followed by a dozen or so soldiers as unmotivated as he was. www.biquge.info They were on a routine patrol west of Hartlepool, in the middle of the battlefield where the two armies were facing each other, leaving a large vacuum between the two sides of the frontier in order to facilitate the exchange of tanks. If the Germans or the Anglo-American forces were to launch an armored cluster attack, they would most likely set up a tank attack formation in this vacuum.

Therefore, both sides will send patrols to patrol this vacuum area to detect the enemy's armored clusters ready to attack as soon as possible.

In the early hours of this morning, they, the unlucky Britons, had to brave the bitter cold wind and goose feather snowflakes to walk 10 miles on the prescribed route, to be hit by bullets from somewhere, and then die miserably.

Dying for the country with a smile should have been the duty of a soldier. Having fought in France, shed blood in North Africa, and fought German tanks in Ireland, Lieutenant Dill was a true soldier who should not be feared to die.

But from the news of the "London protests" a few days ago, this soldier, who had fought for the British Empire for more than three years on the battlefield, suddenly felt that the battle had lost its meaning.

Fighting the most ferocious enemies on the front lines with his brothers, he couldn't sleep soundly for weeks, couldn't eat a hot meal, forgot what his wife looked like, and could die or be disabled at any time. But everyone still gritted their teeth and insisted, and no one would give up their responsibilities.

But in the rear of London, those who live in a comfortable big city, living with their families in a scarcity but comfortable enough, jumped up and shouted the slogan "Bread, milk, peace" and went out into the streets to make trouble, and not one or two, but a million! Churchill had to announce the dissolution of parliament and call a general election...... In fact, it is ready to hand over the country to the capitulation faction!

When Dill heard the news, he was shocked, then angry, then lost and sad—who am I defending? Who am I fighting for? The shameless people in London who are ready to surrender? Is it worth giving up your life for these people?

So from then on, Lieutenant Dill was scared to death, very scared!

And Lieutenant Dill saw fear in the eyes of everyone around him, including his superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. When the battle is meaningless, everyone is afraid of death.

"That's it! That's it! Distraught, Lieutenant Dill suddenly shouted, "We've done our job, now go back." ”

The patrol mission was not completed, only about half of the allotted distance was covered, but who cares?

The whole country is waiting to surrender, and who cares that there is a small group of British wretchants on the front line in Hartlepool who has not completed the mission?

Lieutenant Dill had just turned around to take his men back after giving the order when a shrill whistle rang in his ears, sounding as if something was flying through the air.

Immediately, someone screamed!

"Ahh God, I've been hit! ”

"Germans! Here comes the Germans! ”

"God, what are we going to do?"

German! I've met a German patrol! Lieutenant Dill immediately threw himself into the snow, and a feeling of fear immediately came over him from all sides. At this time, the gunfire rang out more intensively, and it sounded not German FG42 paratrooper rifles and MKB42 automatic carbines, but dozens of bolt-action rifles firing indiscriminately.

Then Lieutenant Dill heard shouts in about Italian, and it was then that he remembered that the shots were fired from Italian Calgano rifles.

Lieutenant Dill breathed a sigh of relief and shouted to his subordinates who were already lying in the snow: "Don't be afraid, it's Italians, let's fight and retreat." ”

Now the British army can only retreat while fighting when it encounters useless Italians! After a few minutes, however, Lieutenant Dill realized that he could no longer even hide from the Italians.

Because the gunfire on the side of the Italians is getting more and more intense, apparently there are quite a few of them. After a while, the Italians began to fire again with their small 45mm mortars, and at the same time there should have been several small 45mm mortars firing, and the shells fell like raindrops, kicking up patches of snow. Diere's soldiers soon became unable to bear it, and they stopped firing back and began to flee, and the firepower on the British side suddenly weakened.

The Italians, on the other hand, took the opportunity to charge, and dozens or hundreds of enthusiastic Italian fascists rushed forward with their old Calgano rifles, all loaded with bright bayonets.

"Hooray! Fascist party! Banzai! Mussolini! ”

Hearing the Italian charging slogan, Lieutenant Dill subconsciously took out his bayonet and wanted to charge, but when he held the bayonet in his hand, he suddenly thought of what slogan he should shout?

For the king? That guy who couldn't even speak clearly had already fled to Canada!

For the sake of the UK? The British government will soon be capitulating!

For the British people? Forget it, they only know bread and milk!

Thinking of this, Lieutenant Dill threw his bayonet and rifle away, and then sat down on the snow and covered his face and cried. His actions seemed to infect the others, except for those who had been killed or had already escaped, a dozen battle-hardened British men all threw their weapons and cried.

……

"Captain, it's time to move on, our Italian warriors have already eliminated all the British soldiers in front of us, and have captured 18 prisoners!"

Ten minutes after Lieutenant Dill and his men were captured, an Italian paratrooper ensign on a motorbike told Rudolph, who was on the radio about the surprise news to Rudolph, who was in contact with the 3rd Company of the 516th Heavy Battalion (equipped with the No. 4F tank). Feng. Captain Ribbentello.

"What?" Captain Ribbentrop was stunned by the news, and he was very uneasy about sending an Italian company of paratroopers to his tank company as the vanguard, so as soon as the front fought, he immediately asked the accompanying German marines to arm around the tanks. It was also wanted to use the radio to call a platoon of No. 4F tanks for reinforcements - a tank with a short-barreled 75mm gun designed to deal with infantry.

As a result, before he could tell the commander of the 3rd company behind him, the Italian paratroopers had already defeated the British.

"Ernst," said Captain Ribbentrop to the commander of the 3rd Company through the throat communicator, "there is no need for your tank, the valiant Italians have done their job." ”

"Rudolph, are you kidding?" The voice of the commander of the 3rd Company of the 516th Battalion came from the headset.

"No, it's true, I've seen the Italians coming with British prisoners!" Captain Ribbentrop said, "It seems that we need to get acquainted with the Italians again." ”

It is not the Italians who need to be reacquainted, but the British!

In the early hours of January 16, the collision of the power search screens between the two sides on the battlefield west of Hartlepool was decided in a very short time. The Germans' tanks and armoured vehicles were left unplayed, and small squads of infantry alone cleared British patrols and forward posts, and captured hundreds of prisoners.

Through the interrogation of the prisoners, the attacking German-Italian forces quickly figured out the location of the minefields and the approximate deployment of the British army's forward minefields.

On the basis of this important information, the German-Italian artillery group soon began a targeted bombardment, and the front on the western side of Hartlepool, which was defended by the British, was immediately overwhelmed by heavy artillery fire.

At the beginning of the bombardment, Major General Bradley, commander of the 28th Infantry Division of the United States, was having breakfast with Patton, and by the way discussed the question of attacking Stodonk. He had been busy from noon yesterday until the early hours of this morning, before settling his troops near Stodonk. According to Stilwell's plan, the 28th and 2nd Panzer Divisions would attack Stodonk three days later.

General Patton, who had been on the battlefield for a while, reacted quickly, and jumped as soon as the cannon sounded.

"Shoot! The enemy is firing artillery! He shouted to his chief of staff, Colonel Guy, "Go and find out if the enemy is going to attack." ”

Five minutes later, Colonel Guy ran from the war room into Patton's office in a panic.

"General, the forward positions of the British 3rd Division west of Hartlepool have been heavily shelled!"

"Hell! The Germans are fighting back! General Patton made an accurate judgment at the first time, "They chose an open area, and it was obvious that they were going to throw in the armored cluster...... The British's 3rd Division will definitely not be able to withstand for long! The Germans' armored clusters will soon rush behind our backs! ”

"Won't it?" Bradley had heard of the name of the 3rd Division of the British Army, "Isn't the 3rd Division of the British Army elite?" ”

"The British here are all elite before the damn London protests!" Barton shook his head, "But not anymore...... If you go around their positions and camps, you will know that they are finished. No, we can't sit idly by, and if we let the Germans rush behind our backs, it's all over. ”

Bradley looked at Barton who seemed to be panicking with some surprise, "George, is it that serious?" ”

"Of course!" Barton nodded in the affirmative.

"So...... Shouldn't we remind Lieutenant General Stilwell? Bradley disagreed with Patton's assessment of Stilwell, who was a subordinate of Stilwell when he was an instructor at West Point, and Bradley admired Captain Stitch's military scholarship.

"Come on, that optimistic fool won't listen." As he spoke, Barton walked out, walked to the door, and then turned back to Bradley and said, "Omar, I'm going to arrange for the troops to break out, and you can arrange it too!" ”

"Breakout!?" Bradley was stunned and stunned, when did Barton become so timid? I was bent on escaping...... (To be continued.) )