"So, I've been promoted to second lieutenant now, and I'm in command of this platoon?" Borol looked at the letter of appointment and promotion sent by the battalion headquarters, and there was no joy on his face. He had been here all night, and the platoon of paratroopers, which was supposed to be 38 officers and men, was now only 21 men.

That is, the entire platoon of paratroopers lost 17 people, more than a third. Among the remaining 21 people, there were two wounded, one because the parachute was opened by the anti-aircraft gun, and the landing speed was too fast to cause the foot to be broken, and the other was able to fight, but his face was wrapped like a mummy.

Now he was appointed platoon commander, responsible for commanding a force of 20 men himself, defending a line almost a kilometer wide and narrow. To be honest, he would rather give this errand to someone else, after all, it is not a good position.

To the congratulations of his men, Borol walked out of the house with the MP-44 assault rifle he had taken from the corpse and a cigarette in his mouth. The good news is that he now has a Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun in his hands and an iron-fisted anti-tank squad reinforced from the battalion headquarters, and now he has a de facto 22 men at his disposal, including a paramedics.

As for why he was given an anti-tank group, it was very bad news: the Luftwaffe reconnoitred the southwestern part of the Netherlands in the early hours of the morning and confirmed a very bad news, the French army was entering the Netherlands, the road was being opened by the armored forces, and the government was moving towards the Valhavin area.

"The order of the division headquarters to set up a defensive position here to block the advance of the opposing troops for at least two hours. The officer who came to give the order followed Borol out: "Then you can retreat to the Williams Bridge, and meet the paratroopers there to continue to organize the defense." ”

"20 paratroopers, here to stop a French armored division?" Borol glanced at the officer and smiled, "If you can help me find some support, I might be able to try." ”

"We can't give you much...... But you can tell me that I'm trying to accommodate your request. The officer was stunned for a moment, then quickly said.

"Help me find a tank, from the 3rd SS Panzer Division, No. 113. Borol took out a photo from his jacket pocket, in which a big boy with a freckled face leaned against the No. 113 tank and smiled shyly: "The commander's name is Wren." ”

The paratrooper officer who came to give the order was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Okay! I'll go back and help you ask, if their tanks can fit into the plane, I'll let them come here to help." ”

"Just kidding. Borol handed the officer a cigarette and helped light the fire: "Fighting armored divisions is not our strong point, I need anti-tank firepower, the more the better." And ammunition, enough ammunition for us to break the machine gun. ”

"It should be fine. The officer patted the white ash on Borrol's shoulder, nodded and said, "I'll ask them to send some when I get back, and if there are good things, I'll try to get two for you." ”

With that, the officer got on a BMW, put on his goggles, lit a fire, and drove along the road in the direction of Valhavin.

"Balu! Call the second squad leader over and have a meeting! Assign tasks. Borol reluctantly shouted to his men who were wiping their guns in the distance: "Let your men check all the weapons of the Dutch and try it." ”

Balu was promoted to squad leader of squad 1, and the original deputy squad leader replaced the fallen squad leader of squad 2 and was appointed temporary commander of squad 2. Now it seems that the command structure of the 1st squad is the most well-preserved, because the leader of the other two squads was killed in battle, and the deputy squad leader of the other squad was killed.

At noon, Boroll, who was eating hot soup and brown bread, finally waited for his supplies. To be honest, he really didn't expect that there would be so many supplies and weapons to replenish him.

An artillery squad drove two Dutch civilian cars and pulled a 75-mm light anti-tank gun to the village. They brought with them 20 anti-tank mines, 20 infantry mines, as well as 7,000 rounds of ammunition and two boxes of grenades. And, of course, canned luncheon meat and hard brown bread.

"Second Lieutenant Borol?" The commander of the artillery squad was a sergeant with a bearded face that did not look young: "I was ordered to support you. The mission has been changed so that we have to stay here for at least 3 hours before we can retreat. ”

Borol touched his nose, and he knew that there was no way a pie could fall from the sky. The supplies he had been given from above would have been filled with more than he could have imagined, and he would have been given an even more difficult task.

"Did you lose the lottery, or did you beat your boss?" Borol took a puff of his cigarette, lowered his head and spat out a smoke ring, and asked a little teasingly, "Sent to carry out this kind of ghost mission." ”

He circled around the light anti-tank gun for half a circle, reached out and patted it on the barrel. In order to accompany the airborne troops in combat missions behind enemy lines, this cannon did everything possible to reduce its weight -- there was no artillery shield, the direction adjustment mechanism looked a little rudimentary, and the hollow bracket had to be fixed by digging a pit or finding a stone pad from local materials.

The design requirements for this artillery were such that a dozen paratroopers could propel this weapon, and that it was allowed to fire grenades to support paratroopers while fighting with anti-tank shells - apparently so many requirements made a nondescript monster, this mutated 75 mm cannon had mediocre armor piercing, and the range of grenades was very limited, only a short 5 km.

It is worth mentioning that the support task of this artillery was later replaced by a heavy mortar of 120 mm caliber, because the latter was obviously superior in terms of size and practicality. And its anti-tank tasks were also shared by the lighter Iron Fist bazooka. This is undoubtedly ironic for a weapon. But in line with the principle of non-waste, this weapon is still used in paratroopers, as a kind of supplementary firepower.

"I slept with my boss's wife. The bearded man was obviously quite humorous, and said with a cracked smile, "Of course, the other cannons have been sent to the main defensive position to the west. I heard that their side is the main attack area of the other side. ”

"Do you want to celebrate?" Borol smiled and pointed around the village, "You can choose your own place to set up anti-tank gun positions, and try to hide them as much as possible." I'll give you a Maxim, about 1,000 rounds of ammunition, you can arrange it yourself. ”

"Looks like you've got a lot of good stuff. The bearded man nodded: "We'll hide the cars behind the straw piles over there in a moment, and hopefully they'll be there when we need to retreat." ”

"Sniper team, find the best position for yourselves. Borol loudly gave a pre-battle arrangement: "The infantry will each take a mine and set up a minefield on the road to the village on both flanks." ”

"Balu, lead people to plant anti-tank mines on the front, arrange firing points on both sides, use Makqin on the first line of defense, and discard them directly after running out of bullets. Borrol pointed to the houses on both wings and said, "Move the sandbags from the Dutch trenches and build bunkers in the rooms, these houses are made of wood and cannot withstand bullets." ”

"Sir, if the other side has tanks, the building may not be safe. Balu pointed to the rooms and said, "It's better to defend the village with trenches outside the village......"

"Don't worry, if we repel a French attack on the perimeter, the artillery will turn this place into ruins, and then we will have plenty of places to take cover. Borol smiled and said, "Pay attention to saving our ammunition and fight an ambush first." ”

At this time the bearded man ran over: "Lieutenant, we found an excellent location by a small warehouse on the edge of the village, where there is a pile of straw where our anti-tank guns can be arranged. ”

He pointed in the direction as he spoke: "There is a drainage ditch at the main entrance of the small warehouse, which can be blocked on both sides to make a trench. We were able to guard the whole perimeter of the village and had a great view. ”

"Balu, you take two people to help and renovate the place. Borol nodded and said, "Second squad leader, you take that Bofors to the other side, form a cross-defensive fire, and if there are tanks trying to get close to the anti-tank guns, then you use Bofors to attack their tails." ”

"Everyone bring as much ammunition as possible! When they run out, there will be no replenishment! Don't move the bullet chains! Leave it to the two G42 machine gun crews. Borol pointed to the village behind him: "Collect all the food you can find, and divide the wine!"

The German paratroopers immediately began to search for them, and the chairs in the houses were carried into the trenches, and some furniture was piled up around the houses to thicken the walls as much as possible. Wine and food were stuffed into pockets and ready for picnics at the height of the fighting, if there was time.

More than a dozen kilometers away, on the road, dust obscured the sky. A French general put down his binoculars, stood on the high ground next to the road, triumphantly pointed to his troops, and boasted to the two British journalists behind him: "The Germans threw their paratroopers in Holland in an attempt to disrupt the deployment of our troops, but they overestimated themselves." My tank troops were able to sweep through the rifle-only Germans and retake important parts of the Netherlands in one fell swoop, a battle they had already lost. ”

"The German paratroopers have achieved excellent results in Poland, and I have heard on the way here that they have made a great deal of noise in the Netherlands, why are you so sure of dealing with these elusive German paratroopers?" asked a reporter as he took notes in his notebook.

"I have weapons that they don't have, isn't that enough?" the French general shook his head and pointed to the tanks advancing on the road below the hillside, "I have large-caliber artillery for support, and 200 tanks - how could they win me?"

Bang. Another French journalist pressed the shutter in his hand, leaving the arrogant French general with a moment of triumph.