Leaning against the cab window of the Opel Truck, Sergeant Hanson Aubrey was excited to hold his Kodak camera and take pictures of the small city monument in the city center square.

"That is the iris symbol of the French royal family. The city has almost no change since its establishment during the period of Louis XIV." Private Kruger, sitting in the driver's seat, leaned his head and looked at the monument from the front window of the cab. The yellow-brown granite monument was equipped with a bronze iris pattern on the top. The monument was made of five or six signs of various materials were nailed with bronze screws. The above were records of major events or famous figures in the small city over the years, telling the history and glory of the city.

"Gravoliner is a very famous city." Seeing the sergeant retracting his arm, Kruger stepped on the clutch and hung it in the gear. The Opel truck slowly circled the small city square and then turned into the street leading to the dock area.

"Is it very famous? I have never heard of this city?" Sergeant Aubrey carefully closed the camera flap and fastened the leather buckle.

"Private Kruger, you seem to be very knowledgeable about history."

"Before joining the army, I studied European history in the History Department of Cologne University." Kruger put his hand on the steering wheel and skillfully drove the two-ton transport vehicle on the narrow ancient city street.

"Oh, I only went to middle school and originally wanted to go to college, but my family didn't have the spare money to pay for me. In the end, I had to go to a machining factory in my hometown. Don't look at me like this now, I was a skilled mechanic at that time." Sergeant Aubrey put the camera into the debris bag on the seat and then took out two apples from it.

"Kruger, how could you think of being a soldier? It's rare for college students among soldiers. You can go to military academy and become an officer after graduation."

"I couldn't find a job. History is so unpopular. The professor originally planned to keep me in the school. But the position was finally overwhelmed by someone else. Then I had a fight with my family and ran into the army recruitment office in anger. Anyway, a lot of things happened in the middle, and now I'm here." Kruger didn't think too much about talking about himself. He took the apple handed over by the sergeant, wiped it on the sleeve of the uniform, and then started gnawing.

"Oh, it's hard for everyone these days. You said earlier that this city is very famous. Is there any story?" Aubrey finished gnawing the little apple in two or three, raised his hand and threw the fruit core out the window.

"Gravoline. There was a famous naval battle named after this city not far from the strait." Kruger chewed the apple and bulged his cheeks and replied.

"The Battle of Gravolinne?" Aubrey tilted his head and said that he had never heard of it.

"Yes, the Spanish Invincible Armada fights the British Navy here, and it will be the end of this naval battle that the entire army will be destroyed."

"Oh, I understand. I have heard people tell this story, but I didn't expect it to be here. I want to take more photos, which is very memorable. No wonder this small town built such a solid wall. It should have been a military fortress." Aubrey found that he was not ignorant. He was very happy.

The truck had left the city, passed through a solid stone arch, opened onto a cement road bridge, and turned to look. On both sides were a six-meter-high brick wall and a wide moat.

"This is all built in the 17th century. If you look down at the city from the sky, you will find that this small city is actually a huge double-layered bastion." Kruger threw the core out of the window and then hung the gear.

The truck began to accelerate. From this location, you can see the canal dock of the inner port. The Opel truck turned right at the T-junction, drove straight forward for about a kilometer, turned two turns. Then it passed two guard posts and then drove onto the road in the dock area.

The dock area in front of us has completely turned into a messy barracks. There are German soldiers wearing army and naval uniforms everywhere, mostly logistics auxiliary personnel, and some are guard and anti-aircraft artillery units. Everyone is busy, with people flowing through the road between the dock and various cargo warehouses.

Kruger honked the horn hard and found that the other party was unmoved. The graduate of the history department of Cologne reached out from the window, leaned out with his left hand and slapped the truck's door, shouting at the guy blocking the road.

"You guys quickly remove this pile of garbage. My car can contain important supplies and will be loaded on the ship soon."

"It's useless to honk the horn! These boxes are full of fireworks. What do you want me to do? Kick them with your feet?" The corporal who led the team yelled at Kruger with his waist in his waist. The trailer with the axle falling was tilted in the middle of the road, and several soldiers following the car were carefully moving the wooden boxes on the car to the side of the road.

"I'm really a ghost, it's a mess here." Kruger retracted his head helplessly. On the left is a slowly moving convoy in the lane facing the driveway, and on the right is an anti-aircraft machine gun position surrounded by a pile of crates. The truck has no way to go. Seeing several military policemen running here in the distance, Kruger took off his military cap and scratched his head, then put the truck in a neutral gear.

"It's already very good. Last week, I went to Le Havre on a business trip, and the situation there was a mess. French dock workers and German construction engineers filled the port area, plus a bunch of naval gunboats and warships, as well as the Marines, all of them were in a mess. I didn't do anything for the whole day, just to find people." Aubrey took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Then he glanced at the fire-ban sign on the wooden box carried by the group of soldiers. After hesitating for a moment, he stuffed the cigarette back into his uniform pocket.

"Oh, I thought our place was bad enough. Look at Sergeant, it was the Green Hill. It seemed that it was loaded." Kruger shouted at the Inner Harbor Canal. In his sight, a medium-sized transport ship painted in dark gray was slowly moving towards the outer port along the straight canal. The hull was pressed deeply, and the red water line could no longer be seen. Now the exposed surface of the water is the black ribbon on the water line.

"This is going to the outer port berth. This boat does not need to be loaded with personnel. Look at the pile of anti-aircraft guns on the deck. It should be from the third echelon or maybe the reserve." While speaking, with the help of passing soldiers around, the road was finally cleared. Dozens of infantry and military police pushed the damaged trailer directly into the open space and overturned to the side, waiting for the engineers to drag it away with heavy trailers. Kruger patted the horn, waved to the soldiers on the roadside, then hung up the gear, and headed towards his company boarding point.

"Did you notice the group of soldiers who were pushing the cart? They are all new faces and the uniforms are different in color. Have you seen the armbands on their arms? They should be all mountain infantry." Aubrey took out the cigarette again, and then pressed the electronic cigarette lighter beside the dashboard of the Opel truck.

"The mountain infantry are all elite troops. I hope they can give the British a heavy punch." Kruger looked into the reflector and did not find the group of infantry. He took out a small cigar from his pocket, then took the cigarette lighter handed over by Aubrey and lit it.

"Where did you get a good thing? I only got one when I participated in the building of the outer walls of Paris." Aubrey said with a cigarette in his mouth and pointed at Kruger's cigar.

"I have sent it from home, Sergeant, I have half a box left. If you want it, I can give you two."

"I've agreed that I'll go find you after dinner." Aubrey smiled and patted Kruger on the shoulder.

At this time, the truck slowly drove into a dock berth, with huge numbers on the ground, and various types of engineering vehicles were parked around. Opel truck stopped beside a gray medium-sized cargo ship parked at the berth.

"Everyone comes to help unload the goods. This is a type of cargo. Push the crane over, and you guys come to help carry the boxes." Aubrey jumped out of the truck. While greeting the soldiers surrounding him, he walked around the back of the truck.

The sergeant climbed into the carriage and lifted the canvas curtain at the tail of the carriage. Two soldiers opened the latch of the tail plate of the carriage, one left and one right, and put down the enclosure.

"Take these boxes of engine spare parts first, be careful, the weight is very heavy." The sergeant stood in the carriage and directed. The two soldiers climbed into the carriage and lifted the box with difficulty. The soldiers surrounding the carriage rushed forward and took it over.

"This is the last roll of emergency road on the cargo slip. Tow the crane over. You two hang the hooks, be careful." Four soldiers climbed onto the truck, unloaded the tarp bracket in the rear car, folded the bracket and the tarp to the front, and then dragged the crane's traction rope and hung it on the hanging strap of the cargo. With the twelve horsepower small gasoline engine roaring, several soldiers pulled the traction rope and carefully turned the cargo out of the cargo to the trailer on the side.

"This is the last roll. Just load it on the No. 6 road paving car. Pay attention to the direction indicated on the label. Check all locks on one side and move quickly." The sergeant stood in the carriage and shouted loudly.

"I know, head."

"Don't worry, we've done it many times." The soldiers agreed and then pushed the cart toward the parking lot of the construction vehicle.

"Now there are more and more new equipment, and our lives are becoming more and more complicated. I hope that if we really go to the battlefield, these guys will not perform too badly." Aubrey jumped out of the car and said with a smile at Kruger standing next to him.

"Our engineer company has a heavy task. I heard from the company commander that this time may be more dangerous than that in France. We may have to participate directly in the battle." Kruger watched the soldiers in the distance control the crane and lifted the layered pieces of things like a piece of mezzanine cake onto a strange Mercedes-Benz four-ton and a half-ton truck. The soldiers uncovered the mouth of the thousand-layer cake one by one, and then hanged it around the top of a semicircular sled on a bracket at the rear of the truck, looking like a door curtain with strange patterns.

"Just like this thing, it is called military quick road surface, does it look like a chain mail? These hexagonal aluminum alloy plates are connected in series with steel rings. It is said that they can withstand a weight of 40 tons, and a car can lay eighty meters of road surface. I have seen the data of our landing area. The widest beach is only seventy meters deep, and this distance should be enough." Aubrey threw away the cigarette butt in his hand.

"I was responsible for the transfer of materials when I logged in, and this kind of road surface is very useful." Kruger turned his head and said to Aubrey.

"In addition to this kind of paving road, we also have bulldozers, motor cranes, tractors, and trench trucks. We are also responsible for setting up temporary oil depots and refueling points. The forty-eight rubber oil capsules are allowed to be filled before landing, so we can only canned them on the ship when we land. The two armored engineer companies also carry minesweepers and heavy semi-track tractors, armored refueling vehicles and motorized steel bridges, assault boats, and mechanized pontoon bridges. The two construction engineer companies have a bunch of forklifts, road rollers and bulldozers, compressors, air picks, air hammers, concrete mixers, dozens of vehicles of tools and various explosives. Look at this list, we will load all the engineering equipment and tools on the ship before midnight tonight.

The goods must also be arranged in the order of the list and cannot be disrupted. There are only four cranes on this boat. We need to install a few temporary booms. The unloading order after arriving at the destination must be strictly followed by the plan. If there is any mistake, the entire process will be messed up. At that time, there will be bullets. This time, the work will be really not easy to do." Aubrey took out a stack of paper from his pocket and frowned and looked around.

"Don't worry, Sergeant, after all, it's been a month since we've been preparing for it. We've done everything we can. Before that, I think we'd better consider how to get to the beach safely." Kruger comforted with a cigar in his mouth.

"No matter how much I think about this question, it's useless. I'm just a platoon. When it comes to how to safely reach the beach, I think you can see the answer now." Aubrey stared at Kruger's back.

Kruger quickly turned around and was immediately stunned by the scene in front of him. On the sea in the distance, several huge warships were lined up in a column, slowly heading towards the breakwater of the outer port with an indescribable majesty. Kruger quickly took out his private telescope from the debris bag at his waist.

Then he clearly saw in the camera that a huge red-bottomed iron cross naval flag was hung on the top of the tall mast of the first battleship.

"It's the main fleet of the Navy! Sergeant, it's the big fleet!" Kruger shouted excitedly.

"It's a battleship, I've only seen photos in magazines before."

The huge sword-mounted bow of the leading warship easily plowed the sea surface, and huge surges scattered on the gray hard hull. Snowflake-like droplets shone dazzlingly like diamonds in the sun.

"What is that?"
Chapter completed!