Chapter 218 Commando

The staff didn't dare to wake Montgomery because of the previous lesson.

On the first day of his appointment, Montgomery went to bed early after a busy day.

The next morning, before dawn, he was politely woken up by a staff.

Montgomery immediately got angry: "Who gave you the right to disturb the army commander's rest?"

The staff was stunned.

"General!" The staff replied: "General Auchinleck ordered us to notify him at any time when there is a situation!"

"I am not Auchinleck!" Montgomery said: "Go tell all the staff to find the chief of staff, General de Guingamp, if there is anything, he will choose whether to report to me!"

The same thing, if it happens in China, will mostly be labeled as "bureaucracy".

But Montgomery's explanation is: the commander needs to get enough rest, so as to ensure a clear mind and make correct judgments.

This does not mean that Montgomery is wrong, but this idea is more suitable for a white-collar worker who clocks in on time at work, rather than a group army commander... because war and warplanes do not wait for anyone and there is no such thing as "on time".

After waiting for about half an hour, the staff finally waited for Montgomery to get up, so he hurriedly handed over the documents.

"General!" The staff reported: "The Germans have deployed snipers on the front line!"

Montgomery frowned and asked back: "Is this problem unsolvable by General Guingamp?"

Montgomery always handed over specific tactical issues to his subordinates, and he himself only implemented strategic command at the headquarters.

And the sniper issue was a tactical issue rather than a strategic issue in his view.

"No, General!" the staff officer replied, "It was General Guingamp who asked me to give you this document!"

Montgomery stood up and put on his coat, took a beret from the rack and put it on his head, and straightened it in front of the mirror... This beret is unique to Montgomery, with two cap badges of the general and the Royal Tank Regiment on it, so it is called the "double-badge beret".

Then, Montgomery took the document from the staff officer and walked towards the headquarters while flipping through it.

On the way, Montgomery frowned, and he realized that this battle was not just a matter of a few snipers as he had imagined before.

"General!" De Guingamp, who was busy and exhausted, saw Montgomery as if he saw a savior.

"How many people have we lost?" Montgomery asked.

"So far, there are about two hundred people!" De Guingamp replied: "Although the number of casualties is not large, the front-line soldiers are under great psychological pressure. They can only stay in the trenches and cannot do any work outside the trenches!"

"How many snipers did the Germans send?" Montgomery asked again.

"We have no way of knowing!" Deguingang replied: "We are helpless against them. We have tanks, cannons, airplanes... We have all these things, but we don't know where they are hiding!"

After thinking for a while, Montgomery said: "Then let the soldiers stay in the trenches!"

"What?" Deguingang was stunned.

"The Germans' goal is to consume our ammunition!" Montgomery said: "This way they can gain more preparation time!"

Deguingang nodded: "So, we should not waste ammunition on them, but should accumulate as much ammunition as possible!"

"Yes!" Montgomery said: "Don't pay attention to those Germans, just let them bask in the sun outside!"

It should be said that Montgomery's view of the problem in the general direction is still relatively accurate, so sometimes people really can't be bothered by too many small things, which will make themselves deeply trapped and unable to see the really important things.

Just like now, Montgomery's idea is actually right. No matter how the earth shakes and the mountains shake, I will remain unmoved. It also means "unchanging in the face of changes" in Chinese military tactics... As long as the British soldiers hide and hide well, what can the German snipers do to them?

Charge towards the British positions? This is obviously what the British army hopes.

As for the occasional soldiers being sniped by the Germans because of carelessness... it will not have any impact on the outcome of the battle, so it is insignificant from a strategic point of view.

But Montgomery obviously underestimated this tactic of the German army.

When it got dark, the sniper team retreated back to the troops along the original route.

A day of lurking is really not easy. Many soldiers urinated and defecated in their pants... Everyone knows that they have to empty their stomachs before setting off, but this thing cannot be emptied just because they want to.

On the other hand, the tension of the real battlefield is not comparable to exercises and training, which makes at least half of the soldiers lifted into the car after climbing out of the British observation range.

However, their hard work was worth it. After returning, they counted and found that they had killed at least 212 British soldiers at the cost of 15 people.

But this does not mean the end.

The sniping by German snipers during the day actually also played the role of opening up channels and reconnaissance... The ambush point was only more than 400 meters away from the enemy's defense line or even closer, which means that the mines had been cleared in front of the enemy's defense line.

Of course, only the Germans knew about this channel.

At the same time, the snipers would also record detailed information on the front line, such as the location of the barbed wire, the direction of the trenches, the number of troops, etc.

Then when the snipers returned, the German commandos followed the channel opened by the snipers to move up.

The map drawn by the sniper was so detailed that the commandos went deep into the minefield like old horses who knew the way and came to the enemy's defense line and prepared for battle.

At this time, the British army was exhausted by the German snipers during the day, and finally relaxed at night, so they all slept in the trenches.

At this time, the German army suddenly launched an attack.

They could have sneaked into the British trenches, but this did not seem to be a good idea in the dark, because it would cause confusion and the German army itself would not be able to identify the enemy.

And they did not need to do so. They had 50MM mortars in their hands. This thing had a range of 300 meters and a fast firing rate. A burst of mortar shells was fired into the British trenches.

Then the German soldiers who had already touched the trenches threw another round of grenades, blew up the trenches for a while, and then immediately retreated...

Their purpose was not to occupy the position, let alone break through the British defense line, so they did not launch a charge.

Of course, this was also due to the lack of German troops. As mentioned before, it was not cost-effective to exchange German soldiers for British soldiers.

But this was also a headache for the British army, which made their "box defense" basically ineffective.