13. Egyptian War Chronicles (4)
The Palestine Port is now in chaos, with waves of Austro-Hungarian landing craft rushing to the shore. Hundreds of Marine soldiers jumped off the landing craft, wading waist-deep sea water, holding their weapons, and launching attacks on the beach.≤Iron shells constantly explode on the beach, either lifting up water columns soaring into the sky, or raising white sand in the sky. From time to time, some people fell down in explosions. British machine guns in the coastal fortifications spit out flames, bullets swept across the water surface, and stirring up a series of water splashes. On the blue sea, strands of blood flowed on the sea surface near the beach.
In the northwest waters of the port, dozens of warships lined up in a single column, using the guns on the side to suppress the British firepower. Huge balls of fire, soil, wood chips, rock fragments and broken animals emerged between the low highlands and mountains on the shore, and broken weapons were flying in the air in the smoke of gunpowder.
The white beach was full of soldiers and destroyed vehicles. Some of them got up and rushed forward during the brief interval between machine guns and artillery fire, and then lay down again. Some people had never gotten up since they lay down. A light Marine tank that rushed to the beach was spitting out flames while trying to rush to the sand dike in front. However, the sand dike was too steep, and the tank rushed forward with all its strength. Several shells flying from somewhere exploded around the tank. As the smoke dissipated, the tank had already collapsed and could not move.
The unique roar of large-caliber artillery shells came from the air, and the sound was very loud. These artillery shells crossed the sky and hit the British positions. The earth was trembling, and amid a series of earth-shaking explosions, the British coastal positions were shrouded in smoke. The enemy's artillery fire near the coast gradually became sparse, and under the suppression of the devastating artillery bombardment of the fleet, the British counterattack firepower quickly weakened.
"Run!"
With the support of warship artillery fire, the Marine Corps officers and soldiers began to charge forward, and more and more tanks and armored vehicles were coming ashore, and they began to break into the trenches at the front of the enemy. The gap was opened and it was expanding.
The British Lancashire Division, composed mainly of Irish people, is much more tenacious than the 11th Division, composed of the English. The 39th Division of the Army, which attacked the British 11th Division, had already broken through the British defense line, but the 12th Division of the Marine Corps, which has always regarded itself as an elite, has just gained a foothold on the beach.
The situation in the beachhead position has improved greatly now and is no longer as nervous as before.
Major General Platisic, who had been paying attention to the situation on the warship, finally became a little relaxed.
The smoke of gunfire became a little light, and the dim sunlight revealed a dim light from the rolling smoke. The sound of gunfire was still ringing, but it had begun to stay away from the beach where it landed. The armored troops of the Marine Warrior Division had already rushed across the British positions on the front line and began to advance in depth.
On an abandoned British artillery position, one cannon that was originally majestic was thrown away and staggered. The artillery soldiers had already followed the retreating troops and began to flee towards Mesopotamia, and many heavy equipment and supplies were discarded.
In just one day, the British army lost the port of Imbros. Now Austria-Hungarian and German follow-up troops are continuously moving ashore from the port and advancing towards Tel Aviv and Beirut.
The loss of Port Isbrom caused great shock to London.
It is obvious that when the German and Austrian coalition entered the Near East, its ultimate goal was naturally the Suez Canal area. Although the Levant region has little strategic value in war, it gave Britain a bad premonition. If the Suez Canal was controlled by the Allies, I don’t know what force could prevent the Austro-Hungarian Navy from entering the Indian Ocean. In this area, the British’s defense was very weak, while the Americans basically had nothing to do.
Now the Austrians show their power in the Mediterranean, but the British local fleet is restrained by the Germans and cannot draw any strength to deal with Austria. If the British Empire wants to restore their advantages in the Mediterranean, they will have to draw at least 70% of the local fleet's strength, which is impossible under the current circumstances.
The German and Austrian coalition forces that obtained the Mediterranean sea control were completely possible to land from any point on land to attack the weakest parts of the British army, while the British army stationed in Egypt and the Middle East were completely passive.
After meeting the Austro-Hungarian Emperor at the Hofburg Palace, Jiang Zuobin finally agreed to bring the Chinese Workers' Army to the front line and receive practical training. The Chinese Workers' Army was pushed to the battlefield for the first time.
Chinese workers stranded in Europe have long been organized. In the past two years, the Beiyang side sent about 300 officers to Austria. Nearly 600,000 Chinese workers were forced to wear Austro-Hungarian gray uniforms and receive military training in the so-called labor camps. However, these trained Chinese ** regiments generally engage in logistics labor on the battlefield and have never been sent to the front line to fight wars.
Now, seeing that the former German and Austrians were about to win, the Beiyang government, in order to finally train and control the team, ignored the warnings and protests of the British, Americans and Japanese, and acquiesced to the Austrians to use Chinese workers to fight. Anyway, the sky is high and the earth is far away, and we cannot do anything to the Austrians. Moreover, most of these Chinese workers are workers recruited by Britain, France and Russia. If you don’t protect them, why do you blame us now?
The situation was exactly the opposite of Ye Qi's imagination of the heavily guarded port, the German and Austrian coalition forces were quite relaxed in defense of the port of Tel Aviv, and the dock was in chaos, with military supplies piled up everywhere like hills. The soldiers started to land on the transport ship and rushed to the dock. The entire dock was crowded with people and seemed very noisy.
Of course, the size of Tel Aviv Port cannot be compared with that of large ports in Europe. Although it is a relatively large port in the Middle East, its actual transportation capacity is limited. It took four days for the 1st Division of the Chinese Workers' Army to get all ashore, but most of the transport ships carrying equipment are still swaying on the sea, waiting to free up the dock before unloading the goods.
As the head of the military advisory regiment of the Austro-Hungarian military for the Chinese Workers' Army, Brigadier General Carol accompanied Wu Guangxin, commander-in-chief of the Chinese Workers' Army, standing on the bridge of the armored cruiser "Franz Grand Duke", watching the Chinese Workers' Army landing on the dock. He was a little confused about why the deputy chief of staff of the Chinese Army who had been frequently visiting the training camp of the Chinese Workers' Army in the previous stage did not appear. This was definitely a major military operation of the Chinese Workers' Army. However, he heard that Commander Wu and the deputy chief of staff of Jiang were of different factions and did not have a very harmonious relationship.
"General Carol, do you think our troops can really fight the British?" Wu Guangxin said. To be honest, he always felt a little nervous and still had a fear of foreigners.
"No problem, general, Chinese soldiers are very good soldiers. They obey orders and are hard-working and never complain to their superiors. Since the beginning of the war, I have trained many reserve troops. At least your soldiers perform better than the Czechs, Poles and Romanians." Carol said, "It is a bit regrettable that their cultural level is too low to carry forward the spirit of proactive attack in battle, and the superiors need to constantly give orders to them."
"We really want to fight the British?"
Chapter completed!