As a city on the Solent in the English Channel, between the estuaries of Test and Itchen, Southampton plays an important role. It is an important ocean-going trading port in the UK and a major passenger port in the UK. Southampton has direct rail and road connections to London and serves as London's outer port. There are ferries to the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight and France. It is one of the largest shipbuilding and ship repair centers in the UK and has a huge dry dock. There are oil refineries, as well as aircraft manufacturing, electrical machinery, cables, automobiles and other industries.
Southampton has almost everything that Britain has. Controlling this place is tantamount to conquering a huge treasure house. The oil needed for the armored cluster can be satisfactorily solved. More importantly, the railway here is far away from London and Places such as Coventry and Birmingham are only an hour away. If you control Southampton, you can launch attacks on these areas at any time. Even if Guderian never wanted to engage in street fighting, you can still see that Southampton's extensive transportation network has What an important value. If Germany controls this place, it will take the initiative in future battles and fight wherever it wants.
Moreover, Guderian also received notification from Navy Marshal Raeder that there are still two George V-class battleships that have not yet been completed, and Marshal Raeder has informed Guderian that the British battleships must be captured intact. The growth of the German navy's strength plays a major role. It can be said that even if Guderian is unwilling to confront the British head-on, he must fight this battle well, not to mention that Guderian has the confidence to fully defeat the British army.
On August 16, the second day after landing in England, Guderian, as the front-line commander, concentrated the forces of five armored divisions and began to attack the British defenders on the line between Grafson and Southampton. An exploratory attack, a frontal attack by three armored divisions, and an attack by two more armored divisions, Grafson and Southampton. In addition to the strength of the five armored divisions, Guderian also received the troops of nine infantry divisions assigned by General Rundstedt. These troops just landed on British soil yesterday, and now they can't wait to start fighting. .
In order to prevent the London garrison from supporting the British garrison on the line between Grafson and Southampton, Guderian ordered the remaining two divisions to conduct diversion in the direction of London to cover the remaining main force and Grafson. Battle with the British troops on the Southampton front line.
Grafson is not far from Southampton. It can be said that the 350,000 troops in the hands of Lieutenant General Alexander can at least give the British a sense of security. Guderian also understood that to break through Lieutenant General Alexander's defense line, he must start from Only by starting in the middle and cutting off the connection between Grafson and Southampton can Germany achieve the expected results. For this reason, Guderian must be prepared for a tough battle. The deployment of 350,000 British troops in a short defense line has made the defense line faced by Guderian impeccable, even if the British lack weapons , but the advantage in numbers can already offset everything.
Rommel's 7th Armored Division first made an assault in the direction of Southampton, but Rommel's soldiers immediately had to stop because the city in front of them, Portsmouth, the home port of the Royal Navy, was a There are obstacles that cannot be bypassed. If you jump over this, not only will the marching route become longer, but you will also have to worry about the safety behind you. So after a brief consideration, Rommel decided to stop his advance and attack Portsmouth, the Royal Navy's military port.
It has become a consensus among the senior commanders of the armored group not to engage in street fighting. Rommel certainly knew the horror of street fighting, but sometimes life is so helpless. Some things are obviously beyond the control of human power. If the German troops landing now With enough people, Rommel could completely skip Portsmouth and leave it to the infantry division behind him to deal with it. However, landing more than 300,000 German troops in one day is already the limit of Germany's transport capacity. Now Germany Generals have to make the most appropriate judgment based on their own strength.
Having a small territory has its advantages. Britain’s urbanization is unmatched by other countries. As long as the British are willing to make sacrifices, they can turn cities into cemeteries for German soldiers. However, conversely, if the German army controls If all rural areas are blocked and no grain of food is allowed to flow into the city, then the garrison in the British cities will inevitably starve to death.
In desperation, Rommel only learned that after meeting Guderian, he ordered the 7th Armored Division to attack Portsmouth. In order to win the war as soon as possible, Rommel ordered the 7th Armored Division to devote itself to the attack without reservation. , at 10 o'clock in the morning on August 16, the 7th Armored Division defeated the last wave of British resistance in the suburbs, and attacked the city in the east and north directions. Nearly 300 taels of German tanks had not yet arrived. The smoke that had dissipated rushed into the city of Portsmouth. Following them were nearly 10,000 German soldiers.
The armored cluster is inseparable from the cooperation of the air force. Without the help of the Luftwaffe during the war, the Blitzkrieg would never have achieved such great results. Just after the fighting in the city began, the Luftwaffe began to bomb Portsmouth. Rommel's 7th Armored Division provided support.
At the same time as the Battle of Portsmouth started, the German army launched a full-line attack on the British defense lines in Grafson and Southampton. After leaving the necessary troops to contain London, Rundstedt talked about mobilizing Two hundred thousand troops attacked the defense line, and the 3rd Armored Division attacked Grafson as the right wing. This was the second battle between the two sides after Dover. Lieutenant General Alexander retreated and joined the garrison here. The number of troops has reached 350,000. If the garrison of several cities is included, it is even close to 400,000. Now Lieutenant General Alexander is the commander of the Central and Southern British Military District and is responsible for the defense of the entire central and southern Britain. As the defender, he has twice the military strength of the attacker. This situation cannot tolerate Lieutenant General Alexander's failure again, so regardless of From which aspect. There is no reason for failure on either side.
In Portsmouth, the fierce fighting started when the German army entered the city. However, the officers and soldiers of the 7th Armored Division were already prepared for this situation. After they entered the city, they immediately The urban area was divided into several areas of similar size to carry out zoned attacks. Every five German soldiers formed a group. In addition to carrying their own weapons, they also carried engineer shovels that had been proven to be powerful weapons in street fighting. Four of the five German soldiers were responsible for the attack, and the middle one remained alert at all times, observing the surrounding movements.
British soldiers, on the other hand, are fighting on the mainland and are more familiar with the structure of the city than German soldiers. They are very familiar with where they can shoot unexpectedly and where they can take shortcuts and suddenly appear in front of German soldiers. Moreover, there are many snipers in the city. The hand lurks, and usually disappears without a trace immediately after taking a shot.
Here, the role of heavy weapons seems to have lost its effect. Sometimes a heavy artillery shell is not as effective as a bullet. The complex terrain in the city has infinitely narrowed the gap in weapons between the British army and the German army. However, The British's numerical advantage began to gradually become apparent. Many British citizens had already picked up German or British rifles and took the first step to become soldiers.
This is definitely not a good sign. After Rommel learned that the war was in an anxious state, he knew that his attempt to win a quick victory had failed. The British had already prepared for the battle. No matter how fast they advanced, they would not be able to win. It’s faster than the British’s preparation of more than a month.
"General Guderian, the Seventh Armored Division is already here in Portsmouth and is forced to stop advancing!" Rommel said helplessly on the phone to Guderian.
At this time, the all-out attack under the command of Guderian was also progressing in a bad direction. The British defenders on the Grafson and Southampton lines, under the command of Lieutenant General Alexander, dug out in one day There are countless anti-tank trenches. The entire defense line looks like a dense spider web from the sky. These anti-tank trenches twist and turn, dividing the originally flat land into countless pieces, seriously hindering Guderian's offensive. . Under the command of Guderian, although the armored group broke through more than a dozen anti-tank trenches, it had to stop.
Grafson and Lieutenant General Alexander, who personally commanded the Southampton front line, although the casualties they paid even exceeded Guderian, were very happy because he finally made the roaring German tanks stop for the first time, and stopped The German army was far less terrifying than when it went on a rampage.
At the same time, it also proved Lieutenant General Alexander's own conjecture that as long as the German armored clusters were deprived of their offensive capabilities, ordinary German infantry divisions would still be difficult to resist, but they were not invincible.
Lieutenant General Alexander used the city as a button and the transportation line as a needle to form a chain defense. It is indeed the best way for the British army to contain the German armored clusters at present. However, this method must concentrate more troops than the attacker before it can be used. If the German landing force increases after a week, I don’t know if this method will still be useful.
The battle in Portsmouth did not attract the attention of the two people when they were facing each other tit for tat, but now that the two people have understood that there is no way to think about frontal attack and defense, they suddenly feel the importance of Portsmouth. , as the German army, this is the only way to attack Southampton, and the British also deeply understand the importance of this place, so Lieutenant General Alexander and General Guderian, after learning that there was already an insurmountable battle there When they were divided, the order was issued almost simultaneously, "Reinforce Portsmouth!"