Chapter 379 The Sun Never Sets on the Sinking of the Empire 6
Chapter 379 The Sinking of the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets 6
The Portsmouth Attack Group's whimsical plan to "occupy" the Isle of Wight achieved initial success. After more than 40 German frogmen climbed out of the torpedo tubes and took control of the forward position, the British did not react. In the next half hour,
, a battalion-sized German army, masked by the sound of aircraft and battleship motors, took advantage of the darkness to land on the beach of the Isle of Wight.
The frogman troops with super combat power continued to expand their results in front of the army.
At this time, Major General Bullard, commander of the British 17th Infantry Division stationed on the Isle of Wight, had learned that the Germans were carrying out indiscriminate bombing of Portsmouth and Havant.
The first ray of dawn appeared in the eastern sky. For the British Empire, this was a bloody dawn.
Because, at this time, Major General Bullard had already learned that the Germans were not only bombing Portsmouth, but German army troops had already landed on the southern part of the Isle of Wight.
Thinking that he might be sent to a military court, Major General Bullard immediately sent a message to the Southern Command of the British Empire to report the situation and request support.
"Oops, the Germans have landed on the Isle of Wight!" Brigadier General Liddell, chief of staff of the British Southern Army, screamed after seeing the telegram.
"What did Bullard do?" Lieutenant General Harold Alexander, commander of the British Southern Army, shook off the telegram and "immediately order Harold to take back the forward position!"
Alexander thought for a while and then said to Brigadier General Liddell, "Chief of Staff, do you have any good suggestions?"
"Your Excellency, Commander, the current situation of the war is not clear. I suggest that we observe it for a while. It is estimated that the Germans may have other actions." Liddell said. In the opinion of the chief of staff, regarding the possible German attack, the high command and the navy must
The Air Force has carried out long-term repeated deductions and arrangements. Can the temporary adjustments made at this time be better than the results of long-term thinking? Therefore, Liddell advocated "remaining constant in response to all changes".
"Oh, okay then. Ask Brad to report the situation at any time." Harold Alexander thought for a while and felt that Liddell's idea made sense.
Liddell's idea is not somewhat reasonable, but very reasonable.
Major General Bullard, the commander of the 17th Division of the British Army, saw that the Southern Army Command would not send reinforcements for the time being, so he had to organize the only mobile regiment of the 17th Division besides the garrison troops, and ride in trucks along the road that had been bombed beyond recognition.
, go to the southern end of the Isle of Wight and regain the position.
However, since the Germans secretly landed on the island, there was no follow-up method. After discovering hundreds of trucks, the German Air Force reconnaissance plane quickly reported the German Portsmouth Attack Group. So, just 10 minutes later, 120 "Fire Dragon 1"
"Ground attack aircraft and 120 "Screaming Dragon 1" dive bombers began to appear over the British truck convoy.
Although the British were also intercepted by anti-aircraft guns along the way, and although the British quickly hid in the houses and dense forests on the roadside, in the face of the intensive bombing and the power of incendiary bombs by the Germans, a regiment of British Army was defeated in just half an hour.
The entire structure was lost during the bombing.
"Well done, Oren. The battle is over, I want to take credit for you!" At the German command post near Caples, France, the commander of the Portsmouth Attack Group, General Hervard von Kleist, heard this
The landing force had firmly controlled the southern part of the Isle of Wight, and when a division of German light infantry divisions was landing one after another, they happily patted the staff colonel who proposed the "Landing on the Isle of Wight" suggestion.
"General, it is my long-cherished wish to conquer Britain!" Colonel Oren said humbly.
"Okay, okay. I know you have stayed in China for more than a year and learned a lot of tricks. In the future, if you have any good suggestions, you can come to me directly." Admiral Kleist said.
Kleist is right. Oren did stay in China for more than a year. As a representative of the German Military Observer Mission in China, he studied almost all the combat cases of the Chinese National Defense Forces in China and also conducted research with his Chinese counterparts.
After extensive discussion. From Oren's own opinion, what he gained in more than a year in China was far greater than what he gained in 20 years of Army career in Germany.
The landing on the Isle of Wight was an idea proposed by the Chinese colleagues when they were discussing with Oren. Oren remembered clearly that at that time, the Chinese colleagues said that there could be two tactics for landing on the Isle of Wight, real landing and false landing.
.A real landing may be attacked by the British with all its strength. The landing troops must be prepared to make heavy sacrifices. Moreover, a real landing may not be able to cross the Solent Strait; the purpose is not to occupy the British mainland, but to annihilate it.
A "fake landing" for the purpose of having British troops is very feasible, because as long as there are German troops on the Isle of Wight, the British will definitely counterattack violently, and Germany can attack the British troops who have stepped out of the permanent fortifications.
At 7 a.m. GMT, the German radio station broadcast to the world in German and English: "The German Army has successfully landed on the Isle of Wight and is conducting landing operations in Portsmouth and Bristol Bay. Occupy the British mainland today!"
"
The German broadcast suddenly attracted global attention to the English Channel, and everyone, including the United Kingdom's hardcore allies, the Americans, raised a big question: Are the British really in trouble?
"Let the BBC quickly avoid the rumor and say that the Germans only had dozens of frogmen on the beach of White Island, and they were all wiped out by the 17th Division of our army stationed on the island." British Prime Minister Churchill originally did not want to express his opinion on this.
, because he felt that even if the Germans occupied the Isle of Wight, it would not necessarily be a bad thing. At most, it would just change the location of the decisive battle between Britain and Germany to the Isle of Wight.
The Isle of Wight only covers an area of 381 square kilometers. The Germans had no strategic space on the island. Moreover, its fortifications were also built by the British. It would be very easy for the British to destroy it.
In other words, if the Germans were allowed to concentrate all their armies on the Isle of Wight, and the decisive battle between Britain and Germany would take place on the Isle of Wight, Churchill would be happy to see what happened.
However, the German broadcast disrupted Churchill's thoughts. He had to change his plan and asked General Harold Alexander, commander of the Southern Army, to immediately send troops to cooperate with Major General Bullard of the 17th Infantry Division to drive the Germans into the sea.
go!
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Germans finally laughed when they learned that the British had begun to send a large number of troops to the Isle of Wight. Once the war reached this point, the British army was usually very well hidden, and the air force's bombing became more and more effective.
The weaker the German army was, and as soon as the British army came out of hiding, they naturally became the target of the Luftwaffe. Secondly, Portsmouth's feint attack attracted a large number of British mobile troops, reducing the burden on Newcastle's main attack direction.
At 12 noon, the German Navy's main fleet of 12 aircraft carriers and 10 battleships arrived on the sea about 15 nautical miles away from Newcastle. The first wave of 120 carrier-based aircraft from the 4 aircraft carriers began to bomb Newcastle's coastal fortifications; half
An hour later, the second wave of 120 carrier-based fighters began to take off in relay, and half an hour later came the third wave of bombing.
The German battleship continued to move forward, firing its guns about 5 nautical miles away from the coast, creating a confrontation with the British shore artillery.
In the past, battleships were at a disadvantage when fighting against shore guns. However, after the era of dreadnoughts, especially after the emergence of battleships, the advantages of shore guns in caliber and range became weaker and weaker. In addition, ships can move at sea.
The shore artillery can only be in a fixed position, and the two are almost evenly matched; however, when the attackers add bombing from aircraft, the passive defense method of shore artillery finally comes to an end.
Therefore, the German attack lasted only two hours, and the British defensive firepower began to weaken. The German troop transports also began to move forward.
"Prepare to land!" The German Army lowered its landing craft and began to attack the shore in squad and platoon units.
"Boom, boom..." The British small-caliber artillery position hidden on the shore began to fire violently at the landing craft!
Although the British's small-caliber artillery caused some damage to the landing craft, the 88mm or higher caliber artillery of the German Navy destroyer responsible for protecting the safety of the transport ship happened to be the nemesis of the British artillery.
This is inevitable for landing operations. What kind of counterattack means the defender may have, the attacker must have corresponding plans. If there is no countermeasures, then there is no need to land, and the ship may be beaten to pieces at sea.
.
In fact, when the German transport ship disembarked from the landing craft, the British did not think that Castle would be the main direction of the German attack. Similarly, Castle had never been the British's main defensive direction. If Newcastle was also the main direction
Regarding defense, Britain needs to defend everywhere. Does Britain have so many soldiers?
Because of this, after the British fought with the Germans for a while, and the Germans also sacrificed the lives of at least one battalion of soldiers, a landing craft finally rowed to the shore. The German army jumped into the sea and rushed towards the beach.
For the landing operation, the Germans had already planned. A platoon of soldiers climbed onto the beach. Instead of attacking deep inland like a death squad, they tightly controlled the beach dozens of meters wide, picked up the engineer shovel and started
Simple beach fortifications were built.
Although these temporary fortifications built with sand could at best protect against British heavy machine guns, it was this kind of fortification that put the greatest psychological pressure on the British.
Because this kind of fortification has the significance of a forward base, it also means that the Germans have officially set foot on British soil.
Before the simple fortifications were built, another German landing craft braved British artillery fire and rowed to the shore. The British defense line was in danger of collapse.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, on the beach along the coast of Newcastle, the Germans had seized a landing site about 3 kilometers long and 250 meters wide. A regiment of the German Wehrmacht had obtained its own light artillery and machine guns.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, four German tanks drove onto Newcastle Beach, surprising the British troops responsible for the defense: It turned out that Newcastle was the main direction of the German attack!
However, when the British understood the direction of the Germans' main attack, it was already too late. Because the nearest mobile unit was 15 kilometers away from the German tank landing site, and it was only one battalion in size. When they rushed to the scene, the Germans had successfully landed.
The number of tanks has reached 36, and a standard tank regiment is getting ready to attack the British mainland in depth!