81_81266 When Montgomery read the report submitted to him by the poor Norwich armored brigade, there was still no joy or sorrow on his face. There are too few people in this world who understand the German team, and there are only him Montgomery and De Gaulle, who has no military power.

The German air force liked to operate at the front of the panzer forces, attacking all the targets they could find, slaughtering the opponent's army, destroying assembly points and logistical facilities, and causing the enemy's counterattack to collapse before it even began.

These were the words of de Gaulle to Montgomery, and the conclusion he had reached after several battles with the German armored forces. He believed that the use of superior air forces to compress the depth of the opponent's defenses and destroy most of the enemy's defenses was the key to the victory of the German armored forces.

Of course, there is a paragraph after him, in which the words are even more full of helplessness: And as far as I know, the combat effectiveness of the German armored forces themselves is absolutely world-class. They fought tenaciously and fiercely, often making bold and timely local responses - they could crush any opponent in terms of combat effectiveness, so don't underestimate any German armoured force, as they are capable of changing the tide of battle.

Montgomery remembered this evaluation, which can be described as full of praise, and remembered the leader of the French government-in-exile who was full of respect at the mention of German armored forces. He felt that even if he gave such an excellent evaluation to the German armored forces, he still could not fully describe this respectable opponent.

"This is a force that often performs miracles, they have a good sense of battle and a spirit of sacrifice, and the lesson learned from the numerous losses is that the German armored forces are fully capable of facing an opponent who is numerically superior. Therefore, I advise that even if I have twice the number of troops, I should not attack the German armored forces lightly. After thinking about it for a long time, Montgomery finally began to write his report, and at the beginning he evaluated the German armored forces in more straightforward words than de Gaulle.

The British had numerous holes, inadequate training, and command confusion in the Battle of the Grove, which were enough to fill dozens of pages of reports, if they were to sum up. These various problems directly pushed a Mitchell Wittman to the altar and allowed Germany to gain a firm foothold in the landing field.

For example, the nearly 100 tanks of the entire brigade actually left only two tanks to guard the direction of the road, and only armored vehicles were arranged in other areas as a perimeter guard line.

Then, after the massacre of the Wittmann crew began, the British soldiers were in disarray, and most of the troops who were not attacked on the other side of the road did not have a single tank rushing across the road to the opposite side to reinforce them.

At the same time, the confusion of radio also caused difficulties in the coordination and command of troops, and only about half of the British tanks were temporarily equipped with radio systems, and then many commanders did not even have the habit of using them. This lack of coordination led to the destruction of 20 tanks by the entire force, and more than half of them still did not know what was happening.

Originally, the British had a chance to destroy the German Tiger tank, which has now been rumored to be a dead reaper, but the lack of communication and scheduling allowed the British Norwich armored brigade to have a numerical advantage but did not play a single point, and finally helped Wittman complete a battle against the sky to destroy 25 tanks.

In fact, Wittmann's actions were risky and dangerous, first of all, he was not on an assault mission, but was responsible for identifying and reconnoitring, and after encountering the British armored vehicles, he should have immediately retreated, and contacted the armored reconnaissance vehicles waiting in the rear, but he took the crazy decision to continue the attack.

Then after he entered the camp of the British army, he found more British tanks than he imagined, and he still had a chance to retreat immediately, at this time he had completed the task very well, and found out the reality of the British armored forces, but he still did not choose to leave, but commanded his tanks to start an irrational attack.

I have to admit that it was not the superb technology and extraordinary ability that saved the German crew, but just the luck against the sky. All three times they were hit were not in the engine compartment behind the fragile hull, but in the more robust turret section. The deadliest two were on the clutter and bounced off the angle - if it weren't for luck, they would have had to die twice to complete the same fight.

His irrational and crazy actions proved to be very correct in the situation at the time, and they performed a miracle by destroying 25 tanks of the other side in one go. Disrupted the deployment of the British army, and let the only British armored unit in the vicinity, which had not yet gained strength, withdraw from the battle in the most unfortunate way.

Wittmann became the new icon of the German armored forces, but did a profound examination within his unit. He received the coveted Knight's Iron Cross of the Leaf-like Knight, but was forced to carry it with him to review the various mistakes he had made in battle in front of an entire regiment of tank commanders.

There is no need to think about the promotion, he is still a degraded second lieutenant, he is still the commander of the Tiger tank, and he is still the front-line commander of the only Tiger tank unit in the landing force, but he is strictly forbidden to charge single-handedly.

Montgomery supports the Norwich region on two main routes, one via London to Colchester and finally to Norwich, and the other via Harlow north to Cambridge and then to Norwich. Both routes have their advantages.

The advantage of taking the first route is that it is relatively short, and it is possible to reach the Norwich area in the shortest distance, but the disadvantage is obvious, the road is close to the coast, and it is easy to be bombed by the Luftwaffe.

The second route was relatively safe, in the heart of England and not easily attacked by German naval aviation, and although it was bombed several times, it was already a paradise compared to the first road. Of course, the road is relatively long, and the time to reach the Norwich area may not be much faster.

After some consideration, Montgomery took the reluctant step of dividing his forces in order to ensure that the time for reinforcements to Norwich was kept to a minimum. He himself led most of his army north from Harlow to Cambridge, a relatively long way, while an experienced armored regiment took Colchester, trying to evade the Luftwaffe blockade.

As for the Norwich Panzer Brigade, which was destined to go down in history because of the Battle of the Woods, Montgomery ordered them to reinforce Great Yarmouth in a different direction, so as to prevent the German Panzers from taking a second seaside city and expanding their transport throughput.

So the Norwich armored brigade, which was destined to be remembered by everyone because of its bad luck, began their unlucky journey. Poor enough to endure the Luftwaffe's bombardment, they barely managed to reach the outskirts of Great Yarmouth after losing 15 tanks, only to find that it had been captured by the 1st Division of the German Marines.

Helpless, the British armourers had no choice but to make a tentative attack, and after losing 2 tanks and 20 infantry, they came to the conclusion that Great Yarmouth could not be recaptured, and began to abandon their armor and retreat. It was only after the river that it broke all the way back to Norwich and was able to gain a foothold.

An armored force, departing from Norwich, marched south of Bacton to counter the German landing force - only to lose a third of its equipment and personnel by air strikes, and 25 tanks were killed by a German tank in an unnamed wood, and then retreated all the way to Great Yarmouth by air strikes, and finally returned to Norwich...... Having wasted the most precious 72 hours, this important armored unit returned to the starting point after losing two-thirds of its weapons and personnel.

If you think that the pitiful pathos of this ridiculous Norwich armored brigade is all over here, then you are very mistaken. When they returned to Norwich, they were ordered to reinforce Cromer without stopping, and the fact that such a defeated force had been sent on a mission shows how difficult the British had been in attacking and defending the beaches at this time.

The brigade had been replenished with 300 recruits and set off again, and they were along the railroad to reinforce Kromer, only to meet the troops of the German 2nd Panzer Division by another river, and after 15 minutes the Norwich Panzer Brigade broke out again, leaving behind the wreckage of 10 tanks and the corpses of 110 soldiers.

Montgomery, who had just arrived in Norwich to replace the veteran but slow to react General Powell, and took over the defense of the Norwich area, found that the German landing force had taken control of the vast landing field from Cromer in the north to Great Yarmouth in the south, and had also opened up a defense in depth of about a dozen kilometers. Two nearby field airfields have even been occupied...... It can be said that the Germans have completely established themselves on British soil.

There was no worse situation, the German armored forces had advanced to the river under the cover of a large number of infantry, and it was only a dozen kilometers away from the important town of Norwich. According to preliminary calculations, at least 100,000 German troops have landed ashore, and the entire landing site can be said to be impregnable as already being operated.

Montgomery really wanted to curse, and he wanted to lift the table and point to a group of British commanders who were full of foul language and asked if they were idiots and stupid pigs. Just as he was about to burst into a rage, the poor British Norwich Armoured Brigade retreated to Norwich with the remnants of the defeated general.

As if to vent the anger in his heart, and as if there was really no good way to deal with it, Montgomery's first order after taking command was to disband the poor armored brigade that had returned to Norwich and integrate it into his armored corps. Since then, this Norwich armored brigade has ceased to exist, ending its pitiful life