450 Battle of London

"Boom!" A shell hit a building in central London. The explosion finally caused the already crumbling building to collapse in the dust, and the dust that was raised filled the air. You can clearly see the shaking of the earth here.

In the basement, a few wisps of dust fell due to the violent vibration. Churchill leaned back on the chair and looked at the huge map of London city, where he could really see the current situation and know his current situation.

When he was away from the battlefield, he always complained about why the troops on the front line were so unbearable, and they were defeated in a few days under the German offensive. Now that he was personally on the scene, he remembered the world war he had experienced, and then remembered how tormented and painful it was to spend an hour in the flames of war.

London is a very huge city. The German attack on the outskirts of the city is actually more than ten kilometers away from where Churchill is located. However, some long-range cannons can still patronize the block above his head, and those cannons are without exception. Weapons captured from the British Army.

The garrison command called an hour ago. The Germans were less than a meter away from there. Some German grenadiers were using "building demolition devices" to attack the buildings near them. The earthquake could be heard on the phone The sound of explosions.

The imaginary scene of large-scale citizens using hand grenades to die with the German army did not happen, but the sound of suicide explosions with hand grenades was heard from every corner of the city from time to time. The German army has long experienced the attacks of citizens with grenades, so they are also extra cautious when dealing with British citizens in London.

For all citizens who surrendered, they asked to raise their hands from a long distance, and then they were escorted to the rear after undergoing a physical examination to confirm that there was no problem. However, there are still various records showing that the German army shot and surrendered for convenience. London commoner's surname.

After receiving a telegram from Acador, Rundstedt experimented with a new attack tactic in London. This tactic is to rush into the city quickly, and then retreat back to the original line of defense after the attack, leaving the ruins Areas relinquished to the opponent.

Then, using the advantages of artillery and aircraft to repeatedly suppress this area, the British soldiers who rushed out and wanted to regain their positions were annihilated in the terrain area they had long been familiar with. It seems that the attack is slowed down, but it can effectively kill British soldiers. Attacking a corner of the city repeatedly in this way consumes the defensive forces of the entire city and achieves the combat purpose of consuming the opponent's vital strength. And the area that was repeatedly let out has long been in ruins, no different from the wild, and there is no so-called advantage in street fighting, and the fighting method is more suitable for the German army.

But the British are not stupid. After repeatedly competing for several blocks, they began to stop meaningless counterattacks, and they did not try to regain the lost positions. The two sides just kept going back and forth. .

The difference is that the German army suffered fewer and fewer casualties,

British civilian casualties were mounting. And London, the capital city of the United Kingdom and one of the largest cities in Europe, has about one-fifth of it reduced to bare ruins.

It is no wonder that the British civilians cursed their own government. France, which was also a defeated country, Paris is still there without any damage. What the citizens have to endure is nothing more than the nuisance of German patrols. How much to be considered the end, only God knows.

The British are not stupid, and neither are the Germans, apparently. The German infantry on the front lines became more and more skilled in fighting. The Supreme Command's troop training plan was implemented in an orderly manner. About 10,000 veterans who were familiar with urban combat had already been transported back to their home countries to serve as instructors and backbones of the newly formed troops.

Moreover, the Germans began to use various methods to narrow the gap in street fighting. They used "building demolition devices" to tear up buildings suspected of containing British troops, and used Friedrich rocket launchers to launch a volley of cold arrows in a certain area. This suppression method made the British defenders suffer a lot. Unfortunately, because of luck, at least one battalion of British soldiers was covered by German rockets, and at least one veteran was lost.

Originally fighting in cities like this was putting pressure on logistics, but Germany seized a lot of British cannons, at least making up for the shortcomings of artillery firepower in the UK, and the fuel obtained saved a lot of space for German transport ships to transport Philips. The shells of the Terre rocket launcher, so the German ammunition to attack London is still sufficient.

On the contrary, the British supplies began to be stretched. The United States suspended part of its aid to the United Kingdom because the British royal family fled to Canada. This put the British defenders in an embarrassing situation without supplies. The source of equipment is completely gone.

The M3 tanks in the United States were completely out of stock, and the lack of heavy anti-tank weapons in the United Kingdom directly led to the undefended surroundings of London. The armored troops of Group A swept along the border of the suburbs of London, and easily completed the encirclement of the British capital. . Smoke billowed on the Thames, and Britain was at stake.

Churchill was not in a hurry to escape, he was still in his underground office under the subway in central London. The British had about ten thousand defenders in London worthy of World War I, and about ten thousand improvised mobs. These men guarded Churchill's London, guarding what was once the last line of defense of the British Empire.

What did the war bring to the city? The glass in the hospital was shattered and cracked by the gunfire. Although it was already March, it was not too cold outside, but the old people and the injured lying on the hospital beds could only helplessly wait for their last moment to come. German shells have no eyes. More than one hospital has been hit by shells, and more than one room full of civilians has shaken and collapsed.

British soldiers are like moles, looking for something to eat in the ruins and dusty buildings. They are covered in dust, carrying rifles and running carefully from one side of the street to the other, and then get into the gate of the building. , Step by step, up the creaking stairs, smash open the locked door with the butt of the gun, and rummage for things you can use.

Blankets to keep out the cold, some seasoning or money that the owner didn’t have time to take away, and some urgently needed ammunition—many people left the hand grenades distributed by the government at home. They didn’t intend to die with the Germans, and more people chose to leave Flee or simply surrender. The expected scene of death across the city did not appear, and more of the sallow, skinny and dying civilians squatted in the air-raid shelter waiting for their final fate.

The British defenders of these houses are no different from thieves. They have to avoid German shells and snipers, then take what they need and try not to take their lives. Sometimes luck is not so good, when they kick open the door, the air is filled with stench, and the body of the owner of the house has been decomposed for a long time, so it can make people vomit for hours.

Even worse, when they kick open the door or open the drawer, they will be blown up by grenades or landmines, sometimes booby-traps laid by other British defenders, and sometimes German special forces set up traps a few days ago .

But like everyone else, they also need to live, and to live, they need food, necessary materials and supplies. The pity is that they are much more miserable than the Germans. The German army has timely supplies. Although they are often late, there will always be some, and they can only find them by themselves.

Churchill had been staring at the map for almost an hour. The buildings that had been destroyed into ruins were originally marked with a red pen, but because there were more and more red marks, the poor map of London was now bright red. On the edge of the bright red, the divisions of several organized British infantry divisions were scattered in several directions, but they were getting closer to where he was. He got up slowly, only to find that his feet were a little numb, and he hadn't been able to see the gray sky in London for several days...

.

"Secretary!" He called out, but no one answered. He froze for a moment, then limped out of the room by himself, and saw a second lieutenant officer staring at him in confusion.

"Where is Miss Jones? Didn't she come to work today?" Churchill stared at the second lieutenant officer and asked in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Phase... I didn't see her, and I didn't see her yesterday..." The second lieutenant said nervously: "Many people can't be found. Miss Benny in the maintenance room was killed by the German bombardment yesterday. Major Tony didn't see her this morning." Say what you want and leave."

"What about you? Why don't you go?" Churchill knew that the young second lieutenant was in the telegraph office and was responsible for receiving telegrams from the photo office.

"Sir... I didn't receive the order to leave." The second lieutenant replied in a low voice.

Churchill nodded, very satisfied with the answer. This may be the most comforting words he has heard in so many days, so he patted the young man's shoulder with a smile, took the telegram from the young second lieutenant, and asked, "Where did the telegram come from?" ?”

"Sir, it's a telegram from the royal family from Canada." The young second lieutenant lowered his voice, which made Churchill feel a little bad.

He hastily opened the telegram, saw the content on it, and after reading a few words, he felt the world spinning, and fell to the ground as soon as his eyes went dark. After the young second lieutenant's anxious cry for help, the telegram landed slowly.

The above content is indeed heart-wrenching: during your tenure as British Prime Minister, the British Empire suffered unprecedented losses and defeats, so as the king of the British Empire, I announce that you will be relieved of your position as British Prime Minister.