Despite killing three gunners and forcing the British army to make the cannon bombard the opposite room so far, Hildeland’s mood is not very good. There are so many peers in a street grabbing business, and his high record has dropped a lot. It was originally planned to reach 45o people at the end of this battle. Now it seems that the morale of the British army has shown signs of slipping after paying a lot of casualties. Although on average, each German paratrooper shot less than four British soldiers, the British lost more than half of their troops.
Hillderand’s place is fresh, his sight is wide, and his snow can keep him awake. The only thing that worries him is that shells occasionally fall nearby. His right hand holds a gun and his left hand is placed in front of the sight to prevent the mirror from reflecting. The street was just struggling and moving. Several British soldiers have been moved away with white flags. After three consecutive waves of failed charges, British officers and men seem to retreat to the two streets they occupied to brew a new attack.
If you look at it from a higher place, the Hillderand gray army is very conspicuous on the white roof. The only shelter on the roof is the short chimney next to him. After observing the street situation, he slowly moved back behind the chimney.
In the alley behind the house where Hillderand is located, Major Richir has formed nearly 500 paratroopers, and these paratroopers are all armed with bayonets at gunpoint. They are also the first German soldiers who intend to use bayonets for hand-to-hand combat in the defensive war in Fuding town.
"People don’t worry about the number of British troops, but the road width here is limited and they can’t show it! Even if we fight against the Russians, we will not fall into the wind, let alone the British! "
Shields’s theory that "the brave win in the narrow road" encouraged the soldiers. He also held a bayonet rifle in his hand. After the Battle of Biavistock, many officers and men of the East Prussian Corps would be proud to talk about several of them. After all, their opponents were the Russian army, which claimed to be the strongest bayonet war.
However, shields’s attempt to organize these soldiers to prepare for bayonet fighting was not to be cool or to show the bayonet fighting ability of the German army. Although the British attempt to make artillery support at the street corner was destroyed by German snipers, most houses at the street corner were seriously damaged by British artillery, grenades on both sides of the offensive and defensive, and German mortars. Several houses were in a state of collapse and semi-collapse, and a few German soldiers were either killed or injured or forced to retreat and block the street corner. Compared with the initial fire power, the last wave of British charge just now was just one breath away from successfully capturing this area.
More importantly, at this time, Lieutenant Colonel garis has allocated more reserves to support the battlefield here. Two British cavalry regiments and a train have arrived from Southampton. Now the cavalry is slowly approaching Qiaodong Town, and the troops and artillery are unloaded at 6.
When there is a faint buzz from the east, shields and his soldiers are looking forward to looking up at the sky. Even if it is a German reconnaissance plane, they will be very happy. Hillderand on the roof turned to look for that kind of aircraft motive roar maker. However, it was an out-and-out British reconnaissance plane flying over their heads, with its crude fuselage, grass yellow paint and wings and fuselage logo that didn’t hang with the German army.
Hillderand slightly raised his gun on the British plane that was going away. He could see the figure of the British pilot from the scope. The distance was more than 3oo meters. Two seconds later, Hillderand shot with great expectation. However, the scene did not appear when he was waiting. The British reconnaissance plane still wobbled forward and flew right for a while. Even the title of ace didn’t let him shoot down a plane with a rifle.
The young shooter suddenly felt lost, and the paratroopers were covered with an ominous cloud.
Shh …
The sharp whistle suddenly broke people’s short-lived peace. As soon as British soldiers and Canadian soldiers poured out from everywhere, the streets several meters wide suddenly surged with people. Taking this opportunity, four or five gunners quickly ran to the back of the cannon at the street corner. One gunner just struggled to bolt his chest but was instantly penetrated by two bullets. He wanted to find something to support himself and retreat, but he tripped over a corpse, which eventually helped him stretch his arms and fell backwards in this sunny street.
Chapter 23 Bridge (6)
Dadada …
The continuous shooting makes the rifleman’s shoulders bear a great recoil. The light machine gun body and the rifleman’s body are vibrating rhythmically. Because of the obtuse angle of the foot bracket at the front end of the machine gun, two obvious scratches are left on the windowsill due to back and forth friction, and the shell casings jump out of the gun chamber and fall to the floor in strings like broken beads.
As a magazine was swallowed by the machine gun, the gunner could already feel the hot barrel. He quickly put the window of the machine gun on the floor and wore thick gloves. The assistant gunner immediately replaced the barrel that was hot and deformed. For a well-trained gunner, this process took 3o4o seconds to install a new magazine, and it took one minute to rejuvenate the light machine gun. However, the Firebird, a Lewis machine gun, is similar to the rough barrel, and its shooting and range are limited compared with the g42 machine gun made by stamping technology.
When the machine gun returned to the battlefield, the British infantry were still rushing forward and backward, and a fierce battle broke out in several houses around the street corner. However, the British zhan had a huge advantage and the number made this house-to-house battle suspense.
When the door of the building was slammed, the two machine gunners felt bad. Although their machine guns killed no less than 50 British and Canadian soldiers in the first few minutes, the British and Canadians rushed forward as if they had taken stimulants, even if they didn’t count as throwing grenades, the German paratroopers still felt like pulling their swords and cutting off water.
If Chen Tian sees this scene, he will definitely think of the dog sea tactics in a game. The British army here has indeed fallen into a state of fanaticism. They regard their lives as they do not hesitate to step over the dead, or many people of the dead will no longer stop to aim and shoot rifles and bayonets as their only weapons.
"Boys, it’s our turn!"
When shields rushed to the street with a gun in his left hand and a Grenade with a turned bottom cover in his right hand, the paratroopers followed him in the same posture. Later, some people clenched their rifles with their hands. These paratroopers were one in a hundred, and good soldier was one in a hundred. At this time, it was hard to say whether it was right or wrong for them to fight bayonet. After all, they were within reach after crossing the Fuding River Bridge in the street behind them.
After the teeth bit out the fuse, shields didn’t have much strength to throw the Grenade into the British crowd 20 meters away. The paratroopers threw the first wave of grenades and let the British charge queue suddenly fall to a piece. 6. The German paratroopers continued to enter the street, and their bodies and bayonets blocked the British troops from moving forward. In front of the German soldiers, the subsequent British troops also rushed through the Grenade one by one, which formed a smoke wall after the explosion. They obliquely ended their rifles with sharp bayonets, which also scattered terrible cold light.
"Oh …"
Before the intersection of the two armies, a battle broke out in the queue of both sides, shouting loudly and screaming. The narrow street where two completely different colors met instantly was suddenly packed with two crowds. In the era of cold weapons, the side with inferior forces sometimes chose to meet the one with superior forces in the terrain, which was a tactic that could not be ignored after many years in the era of machine guns and artillery.
Crowded streets make the root of hand-to-hand combat not enough to maneuver. The British soldier stabbed the bayonet in front of shields accurately. However, the bayonet of the other side was not stabbed by Geyuan shields, and then it was blocked by the other side’s gun body. After a few taps, shields made a small step forward and blocked the other side’s rifle. Both sides wanted to take this opportunity to push the other side’s face to less than 20 cm. They could see clearly that the bloodshot force in the other side’s eyes was slightly stronger than the wind hill. We strive to push the right hand immediately and lift it toward the British, that is, we give a hard shot at the butt of the gun, and the broken voice of the facial bones is unusually clear. After a scream, the British soldier buries his face and falls to the ground. shields does not hesitate to use a bayonet to make him completely quiet. The murderer’s body is immediately covered with blood from the murdered person, and the person looks ferocious and dies unsatisfied.
Right next to shields, the murderer was replaced by a British soldier. The color of the slain gray army did not change much after being stained with blood, but the pain did not decrease at that moment.
The soldiers who took part in the bayonet almost had no chance to have guns, so the guns and explosions in the streets were sparse. Instead, the winners roared and the losers screamed to help the dead cry. Although the bayonet war directly caused casualties to both sides, it was not as fast as a machine gun shooting, but the yellow attack trend of the British and Canadian troops almost stopped. A few German soldiers were like a gray dam in the middle of the street.
At this time, it should be the best time for snipers to expose themselves to the streets. The attacking officers are shot one by one according to their ranks. Sometimes a medium-range projectile can make a beautiful string of candied haws after hitting the original target. Hillderand’s first shot hit a Canadian major, but the Canadian soldiers next to him found his hiding place. More than a dozen rifles desperately shot at the roof where he was. It was only a matter of time when the bullets hit the boards and forced Hillderand to transfer the wooden attic and roof again.
Thousands of British and Canadian infantry make several nearby streets as full as rivers in flood season, almost overflowing. There are some German shelters left near the intersection, and the defensive soldiers don’t need to aim more. All they have to do is shoot, throw grenades and shoot the other soldiers, just like wheat in the autumn wheat field waiting for harvest.
Finally, the whole town became crazy with this fierce battle. A day ago, it was a quiet place, but now it has become a fighter’s shrine and a butcher’s slaughter field. Soon, the German paratroopers ran out of grenades and rifles, and they all pulled out their pistols and fired at each other. When only a few rows of pistols were exhausted, they did not hesitate to pick up their rifles and rush outside with bayonets.
Finally, after paying a total of nearly 20 thousand people, the British and Canadian Coalition forces successfully cleared most of the German shelters in this town. The defensive firepower has been able to curb the pace of the Coalition forces. The German soldiers on the street are still stubbornly resisting. However, there are more than 2,000 Coalition infantry, but their bodies form a sledgehammer, which gradually shakes the bloody dam with less than 3oo German paratroopers.
As the delegates retreated, three red flares rose in Ran Ran, and the German troops failed to resist in the town west of Fuding River Bridge.
"1 even 2 even behind the house! The rest of you withdraw from the bridge! "
Despite the surge of fighting blood, shields obeyed the evacuation order rationally. Besides, the situation here is quite clear. In the process of advancing, the British and Canadian Coalition forces kept cleaning houses on both sides of the street and deployed them nearby. German machine guns and gunners were either killed or forced to evacuate their original positions. Most of the riflemen directly joined the street in hand-to-hand combat, and most of the snipers stopped shooting and moved to the shooting point further back.
Fortunately, the paratroopers did not turn this retreat into a rout. After all, the town is the first line of defense to guard the bridge. With more than a hundred guards covering this town, the remaining German soldiers retreated to the bridge, where there was a relatively strong bridgehead defense position.
The German paratroopers in the west town lost a man, and the German paratroopers in the east town are also facing a very difficult test. The first two British cavalry units launched a tentative attack. After losing hundreds of people and horses, the British cavalry gave up the attack. They turned to help the infantry behind them carry equipment and guard the nearby area. From the first train, the number of British infantry was small, but from their marching queue, there were only 10 infantry companies. However, the artillery carried by their trains was the last thing German paratroopers wanted to see.
From the telescope, I saw that British soldiers pushed a large-caliber field gun three or four miles outside the town. Lieutenant Colonel garis looked very ugly, but more than 2,000 British cavalry wandering around the infantry and artillery cut off his idea of taking the initiative.
Just after 1 o’clock, a ship bomber came from the beach and appeared in the south of Fuding River Bridge like a savior. The continuous take-off and landing and bombing made the pilots and planes gradually tired, but they came anyway.
The British reconnaissance plane hovering nearby in front of the German fleet has long since escaped, but the allied infantry who just occupied Qiaoxi town ignored them and attacked the bridge like a wounded beast without waiting to clean up the battlefield. General Reese and his Canadian allies had a clear goal of winning the battle and chasing it with one drum. The Germans will defend the bridge and completely defeat the British troops in Qiaodong. There is not much to say that these British officers and men are all encountering each other’s planes on the battlefield for the first time, and there is no shelter near them. At most, they stop and watch the German bombers or continue to push heavy artillery at the rebuke of the officers.
At this time, the bomber group bombed the place, and the decision has been handed over to Lieutenant Colonel garis. Whether to throw the identification flare at the west of the bridge or form an arrow pointing to the east of the bridge, he must make up his mind as soon as possible. After careful consideration, garis decided to guide his own fleet to bomb the British infantry in the east, and at the same time transferred a battalion reserve to the bridgehead position in the west of the bridge to strengthen defense.
Soon paratroopers lit more than a dozen red signal fireworks at the entrance of Qiaodong Town. It seems that an irregular arrow points to the railway in the east, a train that has stopped, and there are thousands of British cavalry, infantry and many cannons nearby.
After seeing the ground guidance signal, the bomber group commander made a right turn attack gesture, and his leading "ostrich I" took the lead in turning and reducing the altitude.
Seeing this scene, General Riise felt sad on the west side of Fuding River. If he hadn’t been bombarded by the Germans, his artillery would have destroyed this town. Now the town is lying on the ground, he shouldn’t be his soldier.
Like Reese’s original bombing, the British army in the east was bombed on the spot, and most of the bombs were dropped on the train. Soon, the locomotive was blown up, and the steam was overflowing. The rear carriages were also blown up, and several sections of vickers machine guns were placed on the top of several carriages. However, in the face of the roaring German bombers, their bombs seemed to be alone. The British infantry in the car threw artillery and scattered to avoid the cavalry. The ground was constantly shaking in the explosion of German aviation bombs and British ammunition.
When the British army at least organized a decent fire prevention force, the bombing of the German fleet was also close to the mess near the tail train. The ground was still full of broken and disgusting things, and the clean snow was exposed. Several hills near the east and west were as ugly as dysentery heads.
The 2nd Bomber Squadron of the German Navy Ship destroyed a British train, destroyed two British 120 mm guns, damaged three guns, reimbursed 35 boxes of British ammunition, 37 British infantry, 29 cavalry and 26 horses, while the 13th and 17th British Cavalry Regiments of Scotland and the Sallito Infantry Regiment of England injured a German bomber.
When the German bombing ended, the British soldiers got up from the ground in a mess. They were not busy cleaning up the mess, but looked at the German bomber dragging black smoke to the direction of Fuding town. The plane really bore too much resentment from them. When it flew lower and finally landed on the ground hundreds of meters away from the town, the British officers and men cheered as if it had won a great victory. This atmosphere infected the British-Canadian Coalition forces on the west side of the bridge. They took advantage of the situation to organize a new wave of charges. Unfortunately, more than 200 people were thrown before the Germans contracted to defend the bridgehead.
At this time, the British cavalry are like a hungry fox, while the German bomber lying on the ground is like a wounded flying pigeon. Faced with such delicious and rare food, the foxes naturally don’t want to let go. Before regrouping, the cavalry rushed over in twos and threes. The German army immediately sent a small group of paratroopers to the rescue, but the German bomber group didn’t rush away from them. The British cavalry had to avoid or stop for short rifles to fight back again and again.
When the paratroopers arrived at the side of the plane, two pilots in it were badly injured. The motive of the plane was still braving black smoke and making an emergency landing, which almost destroyed it. Fortunately, it tilted to the right and broke its right wing during taxiing. After rescuing the pilots, the paratroopers threw several grenades into the cabin to blow it up.
"It’s nothing to capture a plane on the ground!"
Looking at the burning German bombers, the sour foxes looked disdainful and comforted each other.
After running out of ammunition, the German bombers set sail home. They did a lot of mental and material damage to the British, but they were far from stopping the British attack. Soon after, the second and third trains arrived at the east of Fuding River Bridge. On the front, more and more guns aimed at the muzzle of the small town.
"I ordered the soldiers’ department in the township to return to the vicinity of the bridge!"
Garis has no doubt that the British army will raze this small town, although there are still many British residents in the town. After all, the lives of just a few hundred people are far less important than a battle that largely determines the fate of a country. The only British army that won’t shell is this bridge which is of great strategic significance to them.
Sure enough, two paratroopers’ battalions stationed in Qiaodong Town had not been evacuated before the fierce British artillery fire came over. In the breathless explosion, houses built in the last century became ruins. As the British artillery bombardment continued, even the stones and bricks in the ruins were gradually crushed into powder. The German paratroopers stood guard around the bridge, watching this scene coldly and watching hundreds of lives disappear in the flames.
After 45 minutes, the British artillery fire stopped, and there was no complete house in sight in that town. All the broken walls were just one person. The high explosion and high temperature steamed people’s blood and scorched people’s bodies, leaving Reagan with no trace of death.
Garis was glad when he withdrew his troops, but he knew that the next battle would be more cruel.
At 2: 35 p.m. on 27th, the first batch of British infantry from Southampton marched to attack Fuding River Bridge. After 20 minutes of fierce fighting, 35oo British infantry were killed or injured more than half and were repelled by the Germans. In the west of this period, the British-Canadian Coalition forces moved their last attack. After losing nearly 1,000 people, they came from Downton. The two divisions have already charged again. Before the subsequent troops arrived, the British attack on this side was temporarily suspended.
At 3: 25 p.m., the British army on the east side of the bridge launched a second wave of attack. This time, as many as 67oo troops were involved, including 12oo cavalry. The British army once pushed to a place less than 20 meters away from the bridge. Finally, German soldiers repelled their opponents through fierce hand-to-hand combat. After the second world war, only 2ooo soldiers were left, and the overall loss reached 6O%. German commander Lieutenant Colonel garis was ready to blow up the bridge again.