"My dear Margaret, my dear love, I'm sorry for having replied to you so long.:.../I am writing to you in the barracks outside Dover. The situation here is a bit bad, but we still have not lost our courage. The Germans cannot defeat us. I miss you and our children very much. I really hope that this war of cursed will end as soon as possible. I don't know..." At this point, the ink of the pen seemed to dry up, and the sharp nib left a faint mark on the letter paper.

"Oh, God, don't do this anymore..." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood shook the pen hard, then stroked the official document a few times, and finally confirmed that the pen had indeed used up the last drop of ink.

"Henry, do you have ink here?" Edwood asked loudly at the adjutant who was squatting behind the Matilda II tank turret and picking things up from a pile of backpacks piled on the hood.

"No, sir, I don't have ink. I'm looking for my spare bag. I remember there's half a cigarette inside." Lieutenant Henry lowered his head and pulled open a canvas duffel bag tie-up cable, pulled open the bag and looked in, and smiled happily. "I found it, it turned out to be put in this bag."

"It's such a mess. I need a bottle of ink now, Lieutenant." Lieutenant Colonel Edwood stood up and gave orders to his adjutant.

"Sir, I'll go to Chief Handerson to ask, he might have some ink." Lieutenant Henry carried his spare bag on his body, tied the bag of his luggage bag in a random manner, and then jumped off the tank.

"If you don't have ink, you can find me a pen."

"I understand, sir." Edwood carefully folded the half-written letters and put them into the map bag around his waist with the remaining letter paper.

Edwood's situation was not as bad as he wrote in his letters, but was bad. The First Armored Division had fallen into chaos, and the reason was all because of the strict orders issued by Churchill.

In order to arrive at Dover Harbor within the time specified in London, the First Armored Division almost abandoned half of its troops. Because only vehicles with off-road capabilities could leave the road to march, the First Armored Division threw away all its heavy tank transport vehicles and the entire logistics regiment. Two mechanized infantry battalions and truck-torn anti-aircraft artillery regiments and heavy artillery regiments were carried only with tanks, tracked armored vehicles, wheeled off-road armored vehicles and some off-road trucks through the blocked area from the field and marched along country dirt roads.

Since the separation, the division headquarters has never received any news about these follow-up troops. Edwood estimated that those troops are still advancing along the road towards Dover. The problem is that the supplies of the tank division are all in those troops, and the entire division is now in a state of complete scarcity of oil, spare parts and food.

In order to march, each armored squadron also abandoned his wheeled transport vehicles and only carried some supplies and their luggage. Due to the small internal space of the British tanks, the tankers could only stack supplies on their tank vehicles as much as possible. Because they had never considered this situation, they did not even have cargo tie-up straps, and could only tie knots and fix them with backpack straps. Since they wanted to march off-road, too much supplies could not be piled up on the roof, each chariot carried two days of emergency food and personal luggage bags, left tents, ammunition, patrons, and food on the road, and marched with the baggage troops. They also abandoned their field kitchen chariots and left them with the chefs in the baggage team. Until now, the entire regiment could not even drink a sip of hot soup.

When the Germans launched artillery bombardment on Dover, the First Armored Division had just arrived at Dover for less than two hours. After a long period of high-intensity off-road marching, the soldiers and equipment were already in extreme fatigue. Many tanks' walking systems had worn out to the point where they had to be replaced immediately, and the engines of the vehicles also needed maintenance and maintenance due to large load operation. Originally, these tasks were scheduled to be completed during the day the next day, because the people in the division command were optimistic that the logistics supply troops could arrive before noon the next day. With the addition of the new forces, the maintenance and preparation work could be completed soon.

The only thing in the division was that the German army would initiate a landing before the subsequent troops arrived, but the Dover Fortress stated that the defense power of the Dover Port itself was already strong enough. With the fortress, more than a dozen defensive fortresses and shore artillery positions around it, more than one hundred cannons of various caliber cannons can at least block the German landing fleet for more than 24 hours, which is enough to allow the armored division to rest.

The mission of the First Armored Division in Port Dover was actually very simple. It was to use these tanks as mobile fortresses in street battles, and these tanks would be scattered throughout the city. It built shooting positions in the streets and alleys, and used its advantages in armor and firepower to eliminate the German landing infantry in the city.

According to the British estimates, the first batch of German troops landed must be light infantry. Before opening the landing situation and mastering a stable landing area, the German army could not transport their armored troops to the ashore. British tanks would only face German light infantry equipped with infantry weapons. They were equipped with at most small-caliber mortars and grenades. As long as the tank commander responded carefully, and with the firepower of the army infantry, the German infantry would encounter a massacre in the city of Dover.

Edwood also agreed with this view. Although his tank regiment has a variety of equipment, some of them are very suitable for activities in these narrow roads and streets, which means they are very suitable for street fighting. At first, he was worried that he would encounter German armored troops. His Seventh Queen's private cavalry team was just a number to be fooled. He did not expect to rely on these rookie tank players and a bunch of tanks flipping out of the reserve warehouse to confront elite German armored soldiers head-on.

Edwood's tank regiment was only in the German Army, but it was only in the battalion-level scale, because the British Army had only three types of division, battalion, and company. Other regiments, teams and other organizations were more just an administrative unit title, and in essence it was still a battalion-level organization.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwood's troops have a very glorious title, the Seventh Queen's Private Cavalry Team. The earliest record of this ancient unit can be traced back to the 17th century. At that time, it was a cavalry unit converted from Scottish mercenaries. Because of his loyalty to the British royal family, George I was first awarded the title of the Princess of Wales by George I. When King George II ascended the throne, because there was no princess in the royal family at that time, they were given the number of the Seventh Queen's Private Cavalry Team (because the Queen and Queen are the same noun in English, because they did not understand the background of this unit. So later some people called them the Queen's Private Cavalry Team).

This army served in India for a long time. During World War I, it was once in Baghdad and the Turks. After the war, it returned to India for another twelve years. Four years ago, the army was transferred to Egypt. It was reorganized into an armored force, all of which were replaced with Matilda II tanks. After several years of training, it can also be regarded as elite.

However, Edwood commanded only the goods with this glorious number. The original private cavalry of the Seventh Queen is still eating soil in the Egyptian desert, and Britain has no way to transport them out of the Mediterranean. The bodies of the eight battalions of elite infantry that were drawn before are still being discovered by fishermen on the French coast. At the same time, because the Italians are a little ready to move, Egypt's troops are already under the cordon. Now the main defensive force of this long line of defense is actually a group of Australian infantry, and they can't draw people out anymore.

The British Army decided to settle for the second best and continue to use this number. They believed that the Germans must know the number of this elite armored force. If it appears in the national defense war, it will cause great trouble to the other side. At least it can confuse the German army and think that there is a loophole in their maritime blockade line.

Edwood's regiment has 62 tanks, divided into three squadrons, the first squadron is the infantry tank squadron, with twelve Matilda i and five Matilda ii, the second squadron is the cruise tank squadron, with eighteen A9 cruise tanks and three latest Crusader cruise tanks, and the third squadron is the light tank squadron, equipped with all seven models of Vickers light tanks known to Edwood, from the early 6 tons to the rare MKV. It is simply the Vicks Tank Museum. These small tanks with weak armor will be vulnerable once they encounter the opponent's tank or anti-tank gun, but they slaughter light armed infantry in the narrow streets. This is exactly the strength of these little guys.

Just as the First Armored Division was ready to kill in this battle with confidence, the German large-caliber heavy artillery gave them a blow, making them wake up from their fantasy. It turned out that war could still be fought like this.

The tank squadrons scattered in the urban barracks, the open space and streets suffered heavy losses from the shelling. The tankers and the houses they lived in were torn to pieces, under large caliber shells. Even the most sturdy Matilda tanks were fragile like eggs.

Only Edwood's regiments in the division were completely withdrawn, mainly because his regiment had too many tanks. In order to wait for the useless, the entire regiment lingered in the suburbs for two hours and delayed the entry time. So when the shelling came, the Seventh Cavalry Regiment had just begun to enter the city. These guys escaped at twice the speed of entering the city, while the remaining two regiments in the division had lost at least 20% of their equipment, and the casualties of the personnel were even more incalculable. Two of the poor squadrons had disappeared in the burning streets and alleys in a system.

The more serious loss comes from the command system. A shell of more than 300 mm happened to hit the communications company station of the division headquarters parked in the central square, and captured three large off-road communication trucks and the communications company officers and soldiers who were sending reports on the vehicle. Now the entire division can only maintain contact with the outside world by relying on the experimental armored command vehicle of the First Tank Regiment. The radio station on this vehicle is not powerful enough, and the terrain around Dover Port is complicated, so it can only barely receive some signals from London. It is said that the messages sent are all like mud bulls entering the sea, and there is no response. However, in the end, they finally contacted the Kent Command Post and rescued them from the panic.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwood took out the kettle from his waist and shook it slightly, feeling that there was still liquid inside. His group was now lined up in long rows on a road outside Dover, with the front of the car facing Dover. Tanks were parked on the right side of the road, and armored vehicles were parked on the left.

The second squadron of the division's Armored Vehicle Regiment originally had twenty-four armored vehicles, half of which were Bren machine gun vehicles, eight Cardenroyd crawler transport vehicles, and the rarest were six wild dog reconnaissance vehicles. This kind of two-seater small armored vehicle had excellent performance, and Edwood admired this small wheeled vehicle very much.

The armored vehicle squadron now has only ten taels of Bren machine gun cars and two Cardenroyds left. The wild dogs all ran out intact, giving Edwood an updated understanding of the speed of this kind of car.

Because the system of this squadron is best preserved, the division assigned it to the private cavalry team of the Seventh Queen, the strongest Seventh Queen. This team will become the fist of the armored division and be devoted to the most critical battle. Therefore, after dawn, the division headquarters kept trying to enrich the strength of this team.

Now the team is parked on an asphalt road called Canyon Road, which, as the name suggests, happens to pass through the bottom of a canyon. It is a two-lane country road with gentle slopes on both sides of the road, where local farmers reclaim fields on the hillsides, planted with alfalfa and wheat.

"Sir, I found the ink you want. Lieutenant Condy brought his oil painting toolbox with a complete set of stationery." Lieutenant Henry shouted loudly beside a Cardenroyd track car in the distance, and he held a bottle of ink to signal to Edwood.

At this moment, a two-wheeled motorcycle roared from one side of the valley and rushed towards the convoy. It quickly passed by Lieutenant Henry and almost knocked off the ink bottle in his hand. The driver skillfully pulled the handlebars and stepped on the brakes of the rear wheels. The motorcycle body moved horizontally for half a meter and stopped in front of the Lieutenant Colonel.

"Lt. Col. Edwood?" the driver asked loudly.

"Yes." Lieutenant Captain stood up and walked forward.

"Urgent order from the division headquarters, sir." The messenger took out a piece of paper from the document bag on his jacket's chest and handed it to the lieutenant colonel. He saluted the lieutenant colonel and twisted the accelerator again and rushed towards the lane.

"What a rough guy." Edwood shook his head as he looked at the motorcycle that was leaving. He flattened the paper on his hand and looked carefully.

"Henry!" Lieutenant Colonel shouted loudly.

"Call all squadron commanders to gather here immediately, we are going to start a war." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!