Chapter 15 Line of Defense

Qin Chuan and his men cleared the enemy street by street and room by room in Agdabia.

The intensity of the battle was not great, but it was very dangerous, because you never knew where a rifle would suddenly appear and shoot a bullet to take your life, or which building would be set with a trap.

Qin Chuan and his comrades saw a terrible scene: German soldiers from another squad searched a civilian house according to standard procedures. Like other troops, they threw a grenade through the window and then swarmed in to fight the enemy... But not long after they rushed in, they heard a "boom" and the whole civilian house collapsed in an explosion, and all the German soldiers were buried inside.

Seeing this, the baker was stunned at first, and then he breathed a sigh of relief with a thankful expression.

Everyone knew what the baker meant... The civilian house was supposed to be cleaned by them, but the baker decided to take a break and let everyone adjust the ammunition.

The so-called adjustment of ammunition means that some people have run out of ammunition in the previous battle, while some still have some. In order for everyone to play a role in the next battle without affecting the overall combat effectiveness, the ammunition needs to be counted and redistributed.

Qin Chuan counted and found that he still had 25 bullets left... This was a bit worrying, because this amount of ammunition was not even enough to deal with an emergency.

But Qin Chuan soon discovered that the other riflemen had even less ammunition than him, and they had less than 20 rounds.

What surprised Qin Chuan was that the baker not only did not take the bullets from Qin Chuan, but gave him seven more.

Looking at the puzzled expression on Qin Chuan's face, the baker explained: "At any time, we don't want you to be without bullets, and I don't think other people will have any objections to this!"

The baker guessed correctly, and no one protested, not even Paul.

Because everyone knew that the more bullets Qin Chuan had, the safer everyone would be, otherwise... the next one to die would be himself.

After preparing for battle again, everyone was thinking about a question: Where did the main force of the British army go? And the British tanks that have thick armor but slow speed? !

Although there have been several battles before, they were all small-scale battles, and there were only a few or a dozen British soldiers in the captured buildings... To be precise, they were Australian troops.

Qin Chuan did not realize this at first, because Australians look the same as British, and their uniforms look the same, but the baker recognized them as Australian troops.

"Look at this!" The baker took a button from a corpse and threw it to Qin Chuan.

Qin Chuan took it and looked at it, and soon understood... There was a map of Australia on the button.

"In addition!" The baker said: "They also wear the "sunrise" badge on the collar of their shirts and the lower left part of the brim of their hats... More importantly, the British army generally does not carry out such dangerous missions!"

"They are second-class citizens in the British army!" Werner laughed: "And the British are superior people!"

Qin Chuan also thought it made sense.

Qin Chuan felt strange before, why would the British fight such a bloody battle with the German army in the building? Although the intensity of this kind of battle is not great, it requires a tenacious fighting will!

At that time, Britain was known as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets" with colonies all over the world, which also meant that they had a high position in the world... A troop that was used to enjoying and had a "noble" status rarely fought the enemy face to face and persisted until the last moment.

However, if they were Australian troops, all this could be explained.

The baker guessed correctly that they did encounter Australian troops, whose number was the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 6th Australian Division. The mission of the 2nd Infantry Regiment was to disperse and deploy in the buildings of Agdabiya as much as possible to cause trouble to the enemy and consume the enemy's manpower.

The idea of ​​Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the British Army in the Middle East (Note: the British Eighth Army had not yet been formed at this time) was that doing so could not only block the pace of the German offensive, but also make the German army a tired army, and when they hit the core, that is, the British defense line, they would be unable to attack.

Wavell's actions were obviously selfish, because he let the Australian army fight a battle that was almost a life-for-life battle with the enemy, while the British army was waiting for the arrival of the Germans on the defense line and was ready to reap the fruits of victory.

But what can we do even if this is the case?

This era is an era where fists and strength represent everything. As a British colony, it is natural for Australia to be sacrificed by Britain.

Soon, Qin Chuan and others soon found out where the British were.

As the baker led the troops to advance step by step, the sound of artillery and gunfire in front suddenly became intense.

Then a signalman shouted at them: "Hurry up, we have encountered the main force of the enemy in front!"

The soldiers grabbed their weapons and equipment and moved forward along the path indicated by the signalman.

Turning left and right on the cleared streets, the sound of gunfire became louder and louder, and soon they came to the forefront of the battlefield.

The German tanks were attacking the enemy's defense line, but unfortunately they obviously could not break through the enemy's defense line, because the wreckage of five tanks and hundreds of German bodies were piled up in front of the ruins of the building, and they were all facing forward with their weapons in their hands without exception.

Qin Chuan raised his sniper rifle and looked across, and he saw a "Matilda" in the scope.

It is obvious that the British are using tanks to build a line of defense. They hide the tanks in the buildings, only exposing the gun barrels or a small part of the turret and the front armor for easy shooting. Behind the tanks are infantry with various weapons, and behind them are artillery.

"Why don't they use 88 anti-aircraft guns?" The baker asked with some doubts.

After Qin Chuan commanded the 88 anti-aircraft guns to repel the British tanks, this thing has become a magic weapon against British tanks.

Qin Chuan looked at the opposite side and the surrounding environment, and replied: "88 anti-aircraft guns may not work!"

"Yes!" Werner said: "There are buildings everywhere here, and the 88 anti-aircraft gun must be fired close, which will make it a target for the enemy!"

This is very obvious. The reason why the 88 anti-aircraft gun can become a magic weapon against tanks is that it can easily penetrate the front armor of "Matilda" from one kilometer away, but if it is blocked by buildings and must be pulled in front of the enemy tanks... then it is just a matter of a few shells for the enemy tanks.

"More importantly, that..." Qin Chuan raised his head towards a tall building on the British defense line. "That building may be the tallest building in this area. We can clearly see our army's movements from there. The 88 anti-aircraft gun is a big one. Once it comes in, it will be discovered by the enemy and intercepted by enemy fire!"