Three Hundred Fifty-Seven Weaknesses

Today's Emperor of Great Britain is already old for the new year, and every year is not as good as every year. The First World War wiped out the bones and blood of this belated hero, and this time Acador went to war again, and everyone in the UK discovered a terrible fact-they didn't even have enough money to fight again.

This time the British Royal Navy pieced together almost all of its assets. It originally wanted to compete with the German Navy, but found out helplessly that it seemed that the road was one foot tall and the devil was one foot tall. The German Navy The overall strength of the British Navy has already made the British Navy jealous.

The generator project has just started for a day and two nights, and the Royal Navy has already felt powerless. Although a large number of British civilian ships participated in the rescue of British soldiers, the frightening loss report really caused the British government a headache. . Within 36 hours, Britain lost 1 cruiser, 8 destroyers and 7 large transport ships. This does not include various civilian ships that are temporarily difficult to count. It is conservatively estimated that at least 100 ships were sunk by Germany, with a tonnage ranging from 270 tons to 4000 tons. Tons vary.

Such a huge loss only allowed the UK to rush back less than 7,000 soldiers. According to preliminary estimates, if another 7,000 people were rushed back, at least 150,000 tons of ships would be lost. And the time will be extended to 4 days-this is almost the limit that the defense line around Dunkirk can last. In other words, the British generator plan this time can only rush to transport 15,000 soldiers back to the mainland at most.

As a result, during the daytime of the second day, that is, the second day after Montgomery left Dunkirk, the British took the risk of organizing a rescue fleet of 221 ships, hoping to expand the number of rescuers to more than 20,000, but this operation After the coordinated operations of the Luftwaffe and the German Navy became futile and lost 43 civilian ships and 2 destroyers, the British Navy was forced to completely suspend the stupidity of daytime operations.

Now staying in Dunkirk, there are 310,000 troops from France and more than 137,000 people from the United Kingdom. The elite infantry who have not played much against the German Army, and thousands of cannons that have just been pushed to the front by the Germans.

Because the combat time was advanced by one year, and because the German army launched the war against Britain, France, Belgium and other countries more quickly under the instruction of Akado, the number and proportion of troops in the Dunkirk encirclement have changed this time. . This time the number of British expeditionary forces is smaller, with a total strength of only a little over 170,000, including those who were subdued and killed in battle. Now it is only about 150,000, while France has much more troops than the original, with a total of about 310,000. People were surrounded - of course because of the surrender of Belgium, there were not a large number of Belgian troops in the encirclement.

What's terrible is that Akado is not as easy to fool as Hitler, and Air Force Commander Catherine did not have the unparalleled influence in front of Yuan like Goering, so this time the air battle mobilized more troops, and the ground battle also had more troops. Did not stop. Of course, the German navy is also stronger than ever, and these factors together affected the Battle of Dunkirk this time.

On this day, another disastrous fact was faced by the British and French allied forces. The two 400mm railroad guns captured by Germany in France and the other four 280mm railroad guns were transported to Dunkirk together.

These six cannons were arranged in effective shooting positions, which can cover the port area of ​​Dunkirk. The two 400mm heavy artillery fired for the first time that night, and killed several British officers and soldiers on the pier who were about to retreat. almost half.

A shell hit the concrete pier, directly blasting the pier into a crater with a diameter of 30 meters. There was a battalion of British troops waiting to retreat on it. More than 170 people including the battalion commander were killed. . Of course, the second shot was not so lucky, and only hit the nearby beach. Because the soft beach took away most of the power of the shell weighing more than one ton, it only caused dozens of casualties.

Immediately afterwards, the 280mm cannons also fired, bombarding the entire Dunkirk area, and just entering the middle of the night, German bombers also poured out. More than 300 bombers of various types overwhelmingly patronized the positions of the British and French coalition forces. More than 1,200 tons of bombs were dropped in one breath, blowing up the entire Dunkirk into a sea of ​​flames. Coupled with the frenzied attack of German submarines, the British navy and civilian ships lost 31 ships of various sizes that night before rushing to transport more than 1,900 people back.

"We can't die like this anymore! No matter how many naval and civilian ships we have, we can't afford to consume them like this!" A navy general complained loudly, patting the table.

The other general also nodded and said in agreement: "We have lost a lot of troops, which is simply adding to the Germans' record! The German bombing and shelling at night have become more and more accurate, and the losses at night have almost equaled the losses during the day. If this continues, our navy will die for the army in the English Channel!"

"Do you think our army is better off?" Montgomery sat on the side and didn't speak, but another army general slapped the table and became furious: "We have 32,000 people retreating on board, and only 9,000 people arrived in England! They sank with the ship at sea. There are more soldiers than died in battle! Is this a gathering to deliver food to the Germans?"

Prime Minister Churchill, who was sitting on the main seat, was also suffering and couldn't tell. Such a retreat was not what he wanted to see. Such a huge loss of manpower and material resources, wasting so much combat power of the navy, only rescued less than one-tenth of the troops, and the number of people who were killed while fleeing at sea was more than that lost in frontal battles. Such an action was a complete failure for him, so he immediately ordered this emergency meeting to discuss the next thing.

If the rivalry between the navy and the army seems to be a welcome thing in peacetime, at least it can guarantee an orderly competition between each other. But this kind of internal friction can no longer interfere with combat operations, so Churchill decided to stop the quarrel in the conference room.

"Okay! Everyone! Stop arguing! Now the navy has come up with two plans to deal with this crisis." Churchill coughed twice and said, "Instead of arguing here, let's see what happens next." do it."

"The navy has drawn up two sets of combat plans. The first set of combat plans is to stop the generator operation to ensure the safety of the empire's sea transportation lines." A naval general said: "This set of plans can temporarily save some naval forces. Forces, so that the fleet of naval ships with too much loss has time to rest."

"Abandon? Abandon the army's remaining hundreds of thousands of troops in Dunkirk? It's easy to say. If the German army lands, what will we use to fight back? Use scouts?" An army general snorted coldly.

"So, General Montgomery. I want to know, if our expeditionary force is wiped out in Dunkirk, is it possible for us to hold the British mainland now?" Churchill looked at Montgomery, the new commander of the 3rd Army, and asked road.

"Now we have about 80,000 soldiers who can fight. Counting the 10,000 people who have retreated, we have about 90,000 people who can go into battle immediately, but they lack heavy weapons and equipment." Montgomery said truthfully: "We are After mobilizing troops, another 100,000 troops will be trained in a month, but the combat effectiveness of these troops is hard to say."

"200,000 troops? 200,000 troops? 500,000 troops were beaten back by the Germans, what would 200,000 people do?" A general of the British Army sighed helplessly, and said, "Even if it is 300,000 people , It’s really hard to say how much it can play.”

"We estimate that Germany can raise about 100 transport ships. If Germany intends to use armored forces on the British Isles, then the first wave of landing troops will not exceed 40,000. Even so, we are actually not locally dominant. "Montgomery said: "Germany has used a large number of airborne troops in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, which has brought trouble to our defense. If we spread our forces at various points of defense, then even if we have twice the strength Absolute security in the southern region cannot be guaranteed."

He didn't finish all he said here, and continued to hit Churchill's fragile heart: "Our a13 Mark 2 tanks and Matilda 2 tanks are not as good as the German Leopard tanks, so if you want to land in Germany The armored forces of the troops must be equipped with at least 1,000 tanks if they go to sea.”

"1000?" Churchill was also taken aback by Montgomery's statement, but he knew how many catties there are in Britain now. The navy is madly waiting for the new ship to be launched, and the air force is urging the production of Hurricane fighter jets to almost bury him. Now the army is also coming to collect debts. Will this let him live?

Thinking of this, he had to look at his old subordinates in the navy, and said with difficulty: "Or, let's discuss the second plan? After all, the first plan will consume a lot of money for the army. .”

"The second plan was proposed by Colonel Cole, the captain of the Hood, and Lieutenant General Holland, the fleet commander. This plan is an action plan to dispatch the main fleet of the Royal Navy to annihilate the German High Seas Fleet in the English Channel." Said one of the admirals.

Beside him, Lieutenant General Holland got up and said: "As long as we can kill the German High Seas Fleet in one fell swoop, then the generator project can be carried out during the day, and the besieged army can be rescued!"

"Lieutenant General Holland! I hope you can understand that we have no good way to deal with the German High Seas Fleet. If we attack rashly, we will only catch the Navy's fleet." Churchill said with a frown. It's tantamount to suicide.

"I am sure to wipe out the German High Seas Fleet! Because they have one of their biggest weaknesses!" Lieutenant General Holland said with determination.

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