Two Hundred and Forty-Four Preparations

"So, I've been promoted to second lieutenant now, and I'm commanding this platoon?" Borol looked at the letter of appointment and promotion documents sent by the battalion headquarters, with no joy on his face. [Starting] He has been here for a whole night, and he gathered the paratrooper platoon that should have been 38 officers and soldiers, but now there are only 21 people.

In other words, the entire paratrooper platoon was killed and missing 17 people, more than one-third. And among the remaining 21 people, there are two wounded, one is because the parachute was opened by anti-aircraft guns, and the landing speed was too fast, resulting in broken feet; Same as mummies.

Now he was appointed as the platoon leader, responsible for commanding a force of only 20 people including himself, defending a line of defense almost one kilometer wide. To be honest, he would rather give this job to others, after all, this is not a good job.

Amidst the congratulations of his subordinates, Boroll walked out of the house with a cigarette in his mouth, carrying the MP-44 assault rifle he had picked up from the corpse. The good news is that he now has a Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun in his hand, and he has also strengthened an Iron Fist anti-tank team from the battalion headquarters. Now he can actually use 22 troops, including a medical soldier .

As for why he was strengthened to give him an anti-tank team, it was very bad news: the German Air Force scouted the southwestern part of the Netherlands in the early morning and confirmed a very bad news. Opening the way, Zheng is moving towards the Valhaven area.

"The division's order is to set up a defensive position here to block the advance of the opponent's troops and hold it for at least two hours." The officer who came to deliver the order followed Boroll and walked out: "Then you can retreat to the Williams Bridge and join The paratroopers there continued to organize the defense."

"20 paratroopers? Stop a French armored division from advancing here?" Boroll glanced at the officer and smiled. "If you can help me find some support, I might try it."

"Support? We can't give you much... But you can talk about it, and I will try my best to meet your requirements." The officer was taken aback for a moment, and then hurriedly said.

"Help me find a tank, from the 3rd SS Panzer Division, No. 113." Boller took out a photo from his coat pocket. In the photo, a big boy with freckles was leaning against the No. 113 tank. Shang smiled shyly: "The driver's name is Ren."

The paratrooper officer who came to deliver the order was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed: "Okay! I'll go back and ask for you. If their tanks can fit into the plane, I will definitely let them come here to help."

"Just kidding." Boroll handed the officer a cigarette and helped to light the fire: "Fighting armored divisions is not our strong point, I need anti-tank firepower, the more the better. There is also ammunition, enough for us to Ammunition broken by machine guns."

"That should be fine.

The officer patted the white ash on Boroll's shoulder, nodded and said, "I'll ask them to send some when I go back. If there are good things, I'll try to get two of them for you." "

After finishing speaking, the officer got on a BMW motorcycle, put on the goggles and turned on the fire, and drove along the road towards Valhaven.

"Balu! Tell the second squad leader to come over and have a meeting! Assign tasks." Boroll helplessly shouted to his subordinates who were cleaning their guns in the distance: "Let your subordinates check all the weapons of the Dutch, try."

Baru was promoted to the squad leader of Squad 1, and the original deputy squad leader replaced the killed Squad Leader II and was appointed as the interim commander of Squad 2. Now it seems that the command system of Squad 1 is the best preserved, because one of the squad leaders of the other two squads was killed, and the deputy squad leader of the other squad was killed.

At noon, Boroll, who was eating hot soup and black bread, finally got his supplies. To be honest, he really didn't expect to have so many supplies and weapons for him.

An artillery squad drove two Dutch civilian cars and pulled a 75mm light anti-tank gun to the village. They brought 20 anti-tank mines, 20 infantry mines, 7,000 rounds of ammunition and two boxes of grenades. Of course, there are canned luncheon meat and hard black bread.

"Second Lieutenant Boroll?" The commander of the artillery squad is a sergeant, with a bearded face that doesn't look young: "I was ordered to support you. The mission has been changed. We have to stay here for at least 3 hours, and then to retreat."

Boroll touched his nose, and he knew it was impossible for pies to fall from the sky. The higher-ups have given him unimaginable supplies, and they will definitely give him a more difficult task.

"Did you lose in the lottery, or did you beat your boss?" Bolor took a puff of cigarette, lowered his head and blew out a smoke ring, and asked jokingly, "Sent to perform this kind of ghost mission."

He circled the light anti-tank gun half a circle, reached out and patted the barrel. In order to accompany the airborne troops to carry out combat missions behind enemy lines, this cannon has tried every means to reduce the weight - there is no artillery shield, the direction adjustment mechanism looks a bit crude, and the hollowed-out bracket must be obtained locally by digging pits or looking for stone pads. way to complete the fixation.

The design requirement of this artillery is that a dozen paratroopers can push this weapon, and while it can use anti-tank artillery shells to fight, it allows this artillery to fire grenades to support paratroopers in combat-obviously so many requirements have created A nondescript monster, this mutated 75mm caliber cannon has average armor-piercing ability, and when using grenades, the range is very limited, only a short 5 kilometers.

It is worth mentioning that the support mission of this artillery was later replaced by a 120mm caliber heavy mortar, because the latter is obviously better in terms of size and practicality. And its anti-tank mission is also shared by the lighter Iron Fist rocket launcher. This is undoubtedly ironic for a weapon. But in line with the principle of not wasting, this weapon is still used in paratroopers as a supplementary firepower.

"I slept with my boss's wife." The bearded man was obviously very humorous, and he said with a smile: "Of course, the other cannons were sent to the main defensive position in the west. I heard that they only It is the opponent's main attack area."

"You mean, do I want to celebrate?" Boroll smiled and pointed around the village: "Choose a place to set up an anti-tank artillery position, and try to hide it as much as possible. I will give you a Maxim, and the bullets are about There are 1000 rounds, you can arrange it yourself."

"It seems that you have obtained a lot of good things." The bearded man nodded: "We will hide the cars behind the straw pile over there in a while, and hope they will still be there when we need to retreat."

"Sniper team, find the best position for yourself." Boroll announced the pre-battle arrangement loudly: "Each infantryman takes a mine, and lays out minefields on the roads entering the village on both sides."

"Balu, lead people to plant anti-tank mines on the front, arrange firepower points on both sides, use Maxim on the first line of defense, and discard the bullets after firing." Boroll pointed to the houses on the two wings and said: "Take the Dutch The sandbags in the trenches were moved, and bunkers were built in the rooms. These houses are all wooden and cannot withstand bullets."

"Sir, if the opponent has tanks, the buildings may not be safe." Baru pointed to those rooms and said, "It's better to use trenches outside the village to defend..."

"Don't worry, as long as we repel an attack from the French on the periphery, the artillery fire will turn this place into ruins. At that time, we will have many places to find cover." Boroll said with a smile: "Pay attention to saving our ammunition. Medicine, start an ambush."

At this time, the bearded man ran over: "Lieutenant, we found an excellent location next to a small warehouse next to the village. There is a pile of straw there, and our anti-tank guns can be deployed there."

He pointed to the direction while talking: "There is a drainage ditch at the main entrance of the small warehouse, which can just block the two sides to make a trench. We can guard the periphery of the entire village, and the view is very good."

"Balu, you take two people to help and renovate it." Bolor nodded and said: "Second squad leader, take that Bofors door to the other side to form a cross defensive firepower. Tanks try to get close to the anti-tank guns, so you hit them in the rear with the Bofors."

"Everyone bring as much ammunition as possible! If you run out, there will be no refills! Don't move the belt! Leave it to the two G42 machine gun teams." Boroll pointed to the village behind him: "Eat what you can find. Collect all the wine, and divide the wine!"

The German paratroopers immediately started the search mission. The chairs in the residential houses were carried into the trenches, and some furniture was piled up around the house to thicken the walls as much as possible. Wine and food were stuffed into pockets for a picnic in the thick of the fighting - if there was time.

But more than ten kilometers away, on the highway, the sky is covered with dust. A French general put down his binoculars, stood on the high ground next to the road, pointed triumphantly at his troops, and boasted to the two British reporters behind him: "The Germans threw paratroopers in the Netherlands in an attempt to disrupt the deployment of our army." , but they overestimate themselves. My tank unit can sweep the Germans with only rifles and take back important areas of Holland in one go. They have already lost this battle."

"The German paratroopers have achieved excellent results in Poland. On the way I came here, I also heard that they made a lot of noise in the Netherlands. General, why are you so sure about dealing with these elusive German paratroopers?" A reporter said Recorded in the notebook, he raised his head and asked.

"I have weapons that they don't have, isn't that enough?" The French general shook his head and pointed to the tanks advancing on the road below the hillside: "I have large-caliber artillery as support, and 200 tanks—they How could you win me?"

bang. Another French reporter pressed the shutter in his hand, leaving a moment of complacency for the arrogant French general.

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