"Your Excellency, Bradford Ford and Manchester are separated by a mountain range, just in front of us. The British will definitely use heavy troops to defend the mountains south of Bradford Ford, and they don't know about their advance on you. Does it have any impact?" Walter Schmidt, who has been the director of the SS General Administration of Justice, still maintains the personality of the General Administration of Justice, but he never knows what waiting is, so when the armored group was dispatched, Walter Schmidt. Schmidt followed him out. Every time he occupied a city, his subordinate Gestapo first entered the city to maintain order. Walter Schmidt's move also allowed Guderian to gradually eliminate his prejudice against Walter Schmidt. Of course, It's just that the prejudice against Walter Schmidt has been eliminated.
"No problem!" Guderian turned on the kettle and took a sip of water. The long march made Guderian look a little tired, but when Walter Schmidt talked about the war, Guderian was still full of energy. Said, "The terrain of the UK itself is not very good. Although there is a mountainous terrain that is rare in the UK, according to data, the average altitude of this mountain range does not exceed 300 meters. Although it will affect our entry, But it has nothing to do with the overall situation!”
"If you can go around it, it would be the best choice!" Walter Schmidt seemed to suggest, but he was looking at the sky when he made the suggestion. His serious attitude made Guderian wonder. Could it be that the SS Chief of Justice had caught up with a promising job like counting stars during the day? In fact, Walter Schmidt just avoided suspicion due to the long-standing estrangement between the SS and the Wehrmacht. If Guderian had not responded to the suggestion of dividing the troops, according to Walter Schmidt's temperament, he would never mention it again. twice.
"I've already done this!" Guderian also said seemingly unintentionally. In fact, when Manchester was captured, Guderian had already sent the 7th Armored Division led by the devil commander Rommel to set off first. The target was Leeds, the city guarded by Bradford. According to Rommel's advance speed, it would almost be in Guderi. Ann arrived at Leeds at the same time as he attacked Bradfordford.
"Okay, let's go!" Guderian obviously didn't want to waste time in meaningless chatting. In his opinion, the successful implementation of his plan was more important than anything else. It was enough for the troops to rest for an hour to replenish fuel. The oil was also thanks to Walter Schmidt in front of him. If the Gestapo led by Walter Schmidt had not found the British secret reserve warehouse hidden in Manchester, Guderian would have waited longer.
Amidst the rumble of the engine starting, the Panzer IV tank group of the armored group began to move. The heavy tracks began their journey of conquest again on the British land. Listening to the sound of the tracks crushing the ground, the German armored soldiers felt that the world Everything was so beautiful, but the countries that had defeated their fathers for more than 20 years fell one after another. In their hearts, it was only a matter of time before the war ended.
While Guderian was advancing in triumph, Army Group B was still launching a fierce attack, aiming directly at Birmingham and Wolverhampton. If the Birmingham-Wolverhampton line failed, it would be the same as Guderian had already captured. The Stoke front looked even on the surface. The current deployment of the German army is more like a full-scale offensive from Wales to London. It was this form that made London more convinced that the German army was going to attack and occupy the entire United Kingdom this time.
Britain has reached a real life-or-death moment, and the situation on all fronts is very critical. Whether it is the Guderian Armored Group in the northwest or Army Group B commanded by General Rundstedt in the west, emergency telegrams are all Flying to London like snowflakes. The only southern front that seemed calm, the coalition forces of the French and Italian armies seemed to have no movement. However, the southern front, which was only separated by the Thames River, made London uneasy and still ordered the British troops on the southern front to pay close attention to France. Movements of the Italian Allied Forces.
In response to the German army's attack, reinforcements rushed from Oxford and Coventry to Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Although Guderian's armored cluster appears to be more dangerous in the long run, London must stabilize the western front now, because Guderian's armored cluster now seems relatively far away. However, the British apparently forgot that Guderian once ran two hundred miles a day during the Battle of France.
The British defenders in Bradford City have learned that Germany's most elite armored groups are coming towards them. Not only are they not afraid, but they are preparing in an orderly manner. The three divisions of Bradford Falls belong to the newly formed British army. The Fifth Infantry Corps, their commander was named Montgomery.
When the war broke out, Montgomery led the 3rd Division of the Expeditionary Force across the English Channel and participated in the battles in France and Belgium. During the Battle of Dunkirk, the 3rd Division was blocked from retreat, and most of the soldiers were captured by Germany. However, in The remaining troops led by Montgomery still escaped from the overwhelming German encirclement and successfully returned to Britain. Although most of the soldiers of the 3rd Division had been captured by Germany, Montgomery was still one of the few generals who was able to return to Britain during the Battle of Dunkirk. Montgomery, who successfully brought back some soldiers, was appreciated by Churchill. It's just that Alexander, who also retreated from Dunkirk, is obviously more senior, and so far, there has been no incident for Montgomery to prove his talent, so he has temporarily served as commander of the Fifth Army.
After learning that Guderian, who was now famous, had arrived, although Montgomery did not make any changes on the surface, he had already begun preparations secretly. Although Montgomery did not understand Guderian, with the success of the German military operation, Guderian The name of Derrian, the father of German armored forces, has been known to more and more countries. Of course Montgomery had also heard of Guderian. However, in Montgomery's heart, he still maintains the inherent arrogance of the British. He believes that Guderian, like Germany, was preparing secretly and caught Britain off guard. If Britain had prepared for the war early, it would never be like this. Embarrassed. If Lin Wei knew what Montgomery was thinking, he would definitely hold Montgomery's hands and shout, "General, you are right, but you don't have time to prepare for war!"
The current Montgomery is not the desert jerboa that will become world-famous in the future. It is a pity that Rommel did not act with Guderian this time, but bypassed Bradford alone and pounced on Leeds. Otherwise, the two people will face off in advance. After all, Guderian's reputation was there, so Montgomery didn't care about Guderian's actions on the surface, but he still took action cautiously.
Montgomery's advantage is that Bradford is protected by mountains around it. If that doesn't work, Montgomery can retreat to Bradford for street fighting. As for surrender? Montgomery never thought about it.
Guderian did not let Montgomery wait too long. Guderian, who fully understood the importance of speed in today's war, kept defeating his opponents in the non-stop march, and soon approached the range of Bradford. On the mountainous area south of Bradford, the armored group had its first exchange of fire with the defenders. It was said to be mountainous, but compared to the Spanish terrain, the British mountainous area could only be regarded as small hills. Although the armored groups have been fighting on the French plains for a long time, it is not too difficult to deal with such hilly terrain.
As soon as the two sides came into contact, the armored group began to try to use tanks to cover the infantry to seize control of the hilly areas, and the good side attacked Bradford City from a high position. For the German troops on the offensive side, it was somewhat uncomfortable to attack from the bottom up. Braving the fierce fire net of British soldiers, such a charge was obviously not the right choice. Therefore, the tank blocked most of the bullets from the infantry and provided some psychological comfort to the soldiers.
Boom..., with this loud noise, a big hole appeared on the ground; "Holy crap, John Bull actually planted mines on the mountain!" A soldier who saw his comrades being killed shouted with his own eyes. No wonder this soldier What a fuss, who would lay mines in the mountains under normal circumstances? The British soldiers didn't take it seriously when they heard it. The terrain around Bradford Ford was like this, and I wanted to find plains to lay mines. While thinking about it, he fired unceremoniously at the panicked German soldiers.
Mines exploded one after another, and some attacking No. 4 tanks also had their tracks broken and paralyzed on the ground. The attack had to come to a standstill, and the armored group's first attack failed.
The armored forces reorganized their attack and first called in the assistance of the air force. Hundreds of Stuka dive bombers roared over and bombarded the British defenders in a defensive position. Guderian was not idle either. Although under normal circumstances Guderian would not bring too many artillery, he still concentrated all the artillery as much as possible to bombard the defending British defenders, and ordered these tanks to join the shelling. The bombardment lasted for half an hour, and then a second attack was immediately ordered, without giving the British defenders time to react. This time Guderian invested nearly a hundred tanks and more than 5,000 soldiers to attack the mountain. It may be that the shelling just now was very violent and the consequences of the minefields were basically clear, or it may be that the British did not have such There are many landmines. Anyway, there are much fewer incidents of mines being struck during the attack this time.
Seeing that the fire net of the British soldiers could no longer stop the advance of the German armored group, the British soldiers calmly took out a weapon that the German soldiers had never seen before. It seemed to be similar to the iron fist used by the German soldiers, but it was not very similar. .
However, the doubts of the German soldiers immediately turned into panic, because a Panzer IV tank that was at least two hundred meters away from the British defensive position was suddenly hit by this weapon. The Iron Fist did not have such a long distance. In the explosion, although the No. 4 tank was not blown to pieces, it still stopped weakly. The members inside seemed to be in danger. More and more British soldiers, in the eyes of German soldiers, had taken out this weapon from nowhere. Aiming at the German tank, the German soldiers who reacted immediately shot at the soldiers holding such weapons. The British soldiers did not dodge, and they looked like they didn't care about life and death.
However, the German soldiers soon discovered that the reliability of this weapon was very low. Some British soldiers immediately exploded the weapons in their hands due to improper operation. The German soldiers shuddered and asked, "Can this weapon be used?" Are the British crazy?"
In fact, the British are also suffering. At what point do they still care about the safety of weapons? If it were peacetime, the British would of course improve the safety of such weapons, but now? It would be better to study how to increase production. When the German army was developing anti-tank weapons, although the British knew nothing about anti-tank rockets at the time, they still relied on their own technology to design a unique mortar-like projectile anti-tank weapon - infantry Anti-tank launcher.
Infantry anti-tank launchers had already been studied, but at that time the British did estimate to German soldiers that they were worried about the reliability of this weapon. So it has always been just research, without equipping troops. But after the war began, the British immediately discovered that they could not deal with German tanks at all. The infantry anti-tank weapons equipped by the British army are mainly "Powys" anti-tank guns and No. 68 anti-tank grenades. Both weapons have their own shortcomings. The "Boys" anti-tank gun has limited armor-piercing capabilities; and the throwing distance of the No. 68 anti-tank grenade is too close, which brings great danger to the user.
In order to get rid of the passive situation as soon as possible, the British Army began to send people to develop a portable super-caliber launcher. The infantry anti-tank launcher began to undergo testing by the Royal Ordnance Department. After several improvements, it was finally accepted by the military. The main body of the infantry anti-tank launcher is a 37-inch (about 1 meter) long, 32-pound (14.52-kilogram) diameter, 76mm metal launch tube. The upper part of the front end is open to accommodate super-caliber armor-piercing projectiles, and the tail end is a T-shaped shoulder stock covered with canvas. The structure is so simple that it reminds people of the crossbows of the cold weapon era. There is a huge spring inside the launch tube, one end is connected to the shoulder stock, and the other end is the firing pin. The effective range of the PIAT attack tank is 91 meters; when used as a light mortar against houses and buildings, the effective range can reach 300 meters or even further.
The shortcomings of the infantry anti-tank launcher are very obvious. On the one hand, it has insufficient armor-piercing power. On the other hand, there are serious safety issues with the fuze. Unless it is stored upright, any slight collision in other states may cause the ammunition to explode. However, even if there is such a problem, the British can only force it in an emergency. What's more, the infantry anti-tank launcher is not without its shortcomings. For example, the infantry anti-tank launcher will not produce a tail flame when launched. Shoot in tight spaces without revealing the shooter's position due to smoke.
Although they were caught off guard by the British soldiers' new weapons, the German soldiers soon began to observe the shortcomings of this weapon. Indeed, the infantry anti-tank launcher has its own uniqueness compared to the Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket, but the British soldiers seemed The advantages of this weapon have not been fully utilized. If it were used in street fighting, Guderian would probably have a headache. However, in this kind of face-to-face attack, the Panzer IV would not give its butt to practice with such a weapon that still lacks power.
The German soldiers on the offensive also discovered that the weapon was heavy, and its fatal flaw was that it was complex to operate and the reloading speed was too slow. Generally, British soldiers hid in the trenches and prepared before coming out to aim and launch. However, even so, it can be seen that some British soldiers were obviously more than capable.
The results of observations in a short period of time have allowed German soldiers to determine that the shortcomings of this weapon are as significant as its advantages. In general, this weapon is not difficult to deal with as long as a countermeasure is found. The German soldiers observed well. The spring tension of an infantry anti-tank launcher is almost 90 kilograms, and the shooter needs a lot of strength and sufficient skills. Generally, shooters pull the spring while standing, but this is not easy to do on a battlefield filled with bullets. You need at least two fingers to pull the trigger. You must hold the trigger for a few seconds before the anti-tank round can be launched. If you cannot hold the launcher, the anti-tank round will deviate from the target at the last moment. Until now, some armored soldiers in German tanks thought they were finished. Unexpectedly, the anti-tank rounds missed the target at the critical moment.
Now that the shortcomings of this weapon have been found, targeted deployments can be made. The German army's second attack failed. However, only twenty minutes later, the German army, which had taken a short rest, launched its attack again, and the minefield basically no longer posed a threat. British soldiers armed with infantry anti-tank launchers were quickly picked off by German snipers from longer range. The battle process finally moved towards the result Guderian expected. After more than two hours of fierce fighting, the tenacious British soldiers were finally defeated despite repeated reinforcements sent by Montgomery. The remaining soldiers retreated into Bradford. Guderian also finally crossed the mountainous area (hilly area) that had blocked the armored cluster for several hours and approached the city of Bradford.
After conquering the city of Bradford, there was no city in the entire England leading to Scotland that could stop the armored cluster. Those cities in the plains are no match for armored clusters. The problem facing Guderian now is how to quickly capture the city of Bradford and open the road to Scotland.
"General, General Rommel is calling!" Just as Guderian was thinking about how to capture Bradford, the staff officer next to him temporarily brought Guderian back to reality.