Chapter 65:
Chapter 65
The British army had already collapsed, and the war on Britain was a fight between the German army and the supply.
The German army had to cross the English Channel to receive supplies, and most of the tank repairs and maintenance had to be done locally.
The German tanks ran out of fuel, their engines broke down, and their tracks were destroyed one by one.
Nevertheless, the German advance was swift, and the British resistance was minimal.
The British army had lost most of its armored forces, and even if they had tank vehicles, there was a severe shortage of soldiers and noncommissioned officers who knew how to operate them.
Among the Home Guards who became the main force of the British army, a few who had driven tanks in the last war tried to resist again after decades of riding tanks, but their opponents were veterans among veterans.
The German army had expected difficulties in supplying the expeditionary force, so they sent only the minimum troops and selected only the most elite units to be deployed in Britain.
The gap between them and the British army, which was no different from amateurs, was enormous.
“They’re coming! Tanks! Anti-tank guns!”
“Anti-tank gun loaded! Fire!”
Bang!
The average age was 36.
Home Guard troops consisting of teenagers who had not even grown hair on their faces and 50-year-old men with big bellies dragged a 2-pound anti-tank gun and fired at the German tanks.
But it was no use. They either missed or hit the armor and bounced off with a metallic sound.
The British soldiers sighed.
The main gun of the tank pointed exactly in the direction where the anti-tank gunners were hiding, and the British soldiers were confused and panicked in front of the machine guns and high-explosive shells that poured down.
A few active-duty soldiers who operated anti-tank rifles succeeded in penetrating the armor and injuring the crew from a well-covered position, but anti-tank rifles were scarce and not very effective unless they hit the side directly.
Flesh-and-blood humans could not beat the steel beasts.
The burning patriotism to defend their homeland and the hatred for the invading Nazis only extended their miserable lives for a few seconds in front of the clash of flesh and steel.
“Long live His Majesty! Britain… Aaaah!”
“Mister!”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Some soldiers tried to stop the tanks by throwing Molotov cocktails and improvised explosives at them.
Most of them fell to the ground with bullet holes from the medium machine guns mounted on the tanks or the submachine guns held by the accompanying infantry.
The British and French high command still misjudged the nightmare of the Winter War that the Soviet Union had experienced.
Mannerheim of Finland was known as a brave leader who stood at the forefront of stopping communism before the war and a vanguard of anti-communist crusade.
In fact, their perception was not much different.
Under Mannerheim’s brave command, the Finnish army smashed the Soviet tank forces, and generals who still wanted to believe that they were great generals believed that willpower and spirit could overcome the lack of anti-tank weapons.
The infantry received Molotov cocktails and bomb bundles from their unit commanders, and those whose families had burned to death in bombings clenched their teeth and charged at tanks with revenge.
In the Winter War and Continuation War, Finland was able to stop tanks with cold winter weather, dense forests, poor Soviet commanders, and ski troops that exploited mobility.
Nevertheless, an unmechanized army could not completely defeat a mechanized army, and they surrendered after losing a quarter of their army.
And Britain was in a much worse situation than Finland during the Winter War.
The foggy and rainy weather made visibility poor, but the open plains of central England were not very good for infantry cover.
The German army was just that unit that fought fiercely against Britain’s best veterans until recently, and they showed almost pitiful combat power against these clumsy countrymen.
Unlike Finland’s 10-ton T-26 light tanks, Germany rolled out new Panther tanks that weighed nearly 50 tons, or at least twice as big and powerful as T-26s: Panzer IVs and Panzer IIIs.
“Oh… God…”
“…”
In winter rain that dripped down into muddy trenches, one British soldier wearing a trench coat that probably was popular in last war looked for God.
Most did not want to open their eyes.
It was similar whether they opened or closed their eyes: horrifying scenes repeated themselves. But they were already exhausted from running around with heavy military equipment, guns, coats for these days when it was cold and raining.
“What will happen to us?”
“I don’t know…”
The government encouraged citizens to pick up guns and resist. But it was already well known that royalty had fled to Canada.
The cabinet was still on Britain’s island but had run away far to Scotland; Englanders were all but abandoned – many people thought so.
The Germans still maintained a gentlemanly attitude.
They burned London down and roasted Churchill, but they did not massacre civilians or rape women.
Field Marshal Rommel had absolute loyalty and respect from his troops, and his order, “Do not act hostile to unarmed civilians,” was strictly followed.
They were like demons on the battlefield, and what the British soldiers saw was mostly that, but at least the civilians who depended on them for food and lodging shrugged their shoulders at the German army’s hostility.
[Surrender! All British people, drop your weapons and surrender! The German army does not want to fight with the Aryan brothers!]
“Damn it! Tell them to eat shit!”
A German plane with a speaker hanging on it flew by, broadcasting a surrender offer.
The plane was painted red all over, with black swastikas on both sides of the fuselage.
It was clearly visible even in the dark.
A soldier cursed and threw a fistful of potatoes at the plane, but the others just watched silently.
Aryan brothers? Damn it, is that why they burned London? Maybe that soldier who reacted violently lived in London or had family there.
Many citizens had evacuated from London, but many still remained.
The Germans had given them two hours to surrender, but the military ignored their words.
The British army announced that an air raid was imminent and advised those who wanted to evacuate to do so.
They raised anti-aircraft guns and air defense devices, but… they were of little use.
Buildings collapsed in flames and storms, and incendiary bombs were sprinkled on the ruins, turning them into ashes again.
The old Prime Minister Churchill died defending his residence at 10 Downing Street, and many people died with him.
Churchill kept his word.
He said he would protect Britain with his death, no matter what.
So he died, and Attlee, who was second in command in the coalition cabinet and unofficially succeeded Churchill’s position, announced Churchill’s heroic death.
Heroic?
The soldiers wondered.
If he died like that, without even being held accountable, what about us who were left behind?
“What happens if we surrender?”
“They say they’ll spare us? I heard.”
“No, how can we surrender? We have to drive them out! The Americans will arrive soon! There must be tens of thousands of troops left in the colonies…”
The soldier who threw the potatoes protested, but many seemed to think of surrendering, even if they didn’t say it out loud.
They didn’t know where their families had gone or what had happened to their homes.
Were their wives and children okay?
Did they get hurt by the Germans?
The Americans were also no good.
They tried to stay out of the war until the end, watching the British bleed from behind.
And when they thought their territory would be hit by fireballs, they finally joined the war!
They had been surviving on flour and spam sent from America, but they were not British who would bow to America for a few things.
They were people who never imagined that the British Empire could lose until a few years ago.
They felt more ashamed that the Americans would fight on British soil instead of the British.
And only two divisions!
The ‘200,000 expeditionary force’ that had set foot on Britain’s island – the Germans blabbered about the elite 200,000 army led by Field Marshal Rommel on the speakers – was barely 20,000?
“Did you say they’re coming? Are they coming or not…”
“…”
The engine sound that sounded faintly from afar began to sound closer.
The soldiers who were slumped against the wall of the trench were startled and climbed up the trench to look around with their eyes open.
And one of them who had good eyesight could see the German division flag.
“Is that… Eugen’s bastards?”
“Eugen? Well… damn…”
The British soldiers trembled.
The most vicious and crazy ones among the Germans who fought and destroyed and advanced like madmen.
And young kids who were barely older than their nephews or sons.
Of course, the problem was also that the young ones these days were big and tall, having grown up on who knows what, and trained hard to become the best fighters.
Were they like the ancient Viking warriors or the berserkers of the north?
They looked like savages with war paint on their faces, wearing Eugen’s armor and shouting “Long live the Führer!” as they charged.
It was hard to believe that they were youths from a civilized country like Germany.
“They’re coming! They’re coming! Prepare for battle!”
“Damn it…!”
During the retreat, which was nothing but a euphemism for running away, most of the anti-tank guns and artillery were abandoned.
They were already short on equipment, so they had to scrape up some old weapons from the previous war, but they were useless anyway.
The soldiers mostly just dumped the heavy weapons and ran.
The higher-ups would have been furious if they knew, but…
Who cared about that when their superiors were all dead and their country was in ruins?
The soldiers clutched their few anti-tank rifles.
Some prayed to God, while others spat out curses at no one in particular.
***
The Home Guard, with their pathetic combat power, could not stop the elite troops of the Axis.
The British resistance forces suffered a terrible collapse of their defenses and retreated to Liverpool, a major city in the middle of Britain.
The German army also quickly caught up with them and advanced.
<Defend the port! Don’t let the Nazis pass through here!>
Liverpool was once a huge port that accounted for more than 40% of the world’s trade volume.
It was also one of the industrial cities that suffered the most from Nazi bombing.
And the American aid was supposed to arrive through Liverpool.
Soon, hundreds of thousands of troops would land in Britain, and there were only a few ports that could handle the supplies to sustain them.
The Nazi Germany also knew this fact and started to gather all their available forces toward Liverpool.
The cards in Rommel’s hand, the commander of the expeditionary force, were mainly two types.
One was the armored and mechanized units from Germany and Italy, and the other was the colonial infantry units from France and Spain.
They were not as many as 200,000 as advertised, and they had to split and deploy them to maintain order in the occupied areas.
Rommel’s actual strength was barely enough to crush Liverpool head-on.
“I refuse to send pilots to their deaths! Liverpool’s air defense network is too strong!”
“I don’t want to waste the elites of Luftwaffe either.”
Rommel calmly dealt with the air force’s protest.
The German air force had overworked their pilots and planes to support the rapid advance.
It was difficult to mobilize medium bombers from France as they did when they attacked London.
Moreover, the British military leaders, who had tasted the bitter fruit of air raids once, had prepared a thorough anti-aircraft measure.
Anti-aircraft guns and machine guns were placed on every building, and even anti-aircraft fire from American warships was ready.
In addition, the numerical inferiority of the British forces was not very noticeable. Both sides did not have accurate information about each other, but the British intelligence estimated that Germany’s forces were no more than 200,000.
Liverpool was a metropolis with a population of over 800,000.
Throwing in just 200,000 troops would be like throwing salt into the sea.
They would either have to bring more troops and surround and starve them out, or break through before the American reinforcements arrived and give up Britain again.
“How are you going to solve this, General Rommel?”
“Who knows? But… maybe he has a trick up his sleeve?”
The staffs and soldiers were expecting Rommel’s response.
Time was not on Germany’s side, and they needed a solution.
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