After the raid began, the German offensive almost never stopped.↗, every time a position was captured, the assault troops did not stop at all. They just took a short rest, replenished ammunition and left the wounded, and immediately entered the next tough battle. The remaining finishing work was handed over to the subsequent service and reserve forces. These troops placed on the second line were not because of their poor combat effectiveness, but mainly because of their poor luck, and were left in the back line by the command.

The equipment of the service troops landing in the cluster can be considered luxurious in the German army. In order to keep up with the mechanized and armored forces, all logistics transport teams gave up mule and horse vehicles. In addition to replacing a batch of military trucks, such as Opel and Mercedes-Benz, they also equipped a large number of tracked transport vehicles. In the past, there was no such type of transport vehicles in the German army. The Germans all built large tanks with the Kung Fu, so this type of vehicle all came from seized equipment. The most common equipment was tracked transport vehicles seized from the French and British army, such as the Cadenroyd and Vicks general transport vehicles, as well as the French Lorraine and Renault crawlers. During the French Battle, the German army seized thousands of these small tracked vehicles.

According to the original history, these things were mostly assigned to various infantry divisions or artillery units and used as tractors and transport vehicles. German infantry and artillery actually like these small but comprehensive armored vehicles, but due to the difficulties in fuel replenishment and maintenance and repair problems, these British and French vehicles in the German army were gradually exhausted as the backup parts were cut off.

Now, considering the actual needs of the landing troops and corresponding to the traffic and road conditions in the UK, the Commander believes that it is very necessary to equip these crawler transport vehicles in the landing troops. Especially those British crawler transport vehicles were originally designed for mobility in the UK. Regardless of the size and weight of the vehicle body, it is completely adapted to the bridge streets and field terrain in the UK. With these vehicles, the German offensive efficiency will be doubled and the dependence on roads will be greatly reduced.

The most concerned thing in the British local defense strategy is the blockade of roads and bridges. Once the British army destroys the roads and railways, then off-road marching in the wild is an inevitable choice. The German transport trucks generally lack off-road capabilities, and the number of semi-track transport vehicles was insufficient, making it difficult to undertake heavy baggage transportation tasks. Before the corresponding new equipment was developed, these small tracked vehicles just filled the gaps in the equipment.

These logistics vehicles performed very well in the Dover peripheral battle. They not only could follow the off-road maneuver of the infantry troops, replenish the ammunition consumed by the troops at any time, but could also quickly and safely withdraw the wounded. If the armor of these vehicles was not really weak, and the investment in front-line combat was easily confused with similar equipment from the enemy, causing accidental injuries, the German army even wanted to put them into offensive operations, because this kind of small car with a total of 1000 essential oil was so easy to use and could be inserted anywhere.

The logistics troops and reserve forces took on the task of clearing the battlefield. The British did not leave much to the Germans. The German offensive was too fierce. In order to pursue the speed of the attack, most of the ammunition and materials that could have been seized were blown up by the attacking troops, leaving only wreckage and bloody corpses.

The original base of the British defensive forces was not large. They were scattered to more than a dozen defensive positions, and their number was difficult to connect the positions to the front line. Under the attack of the German army that occupied the dominant force, these positions collapsed like sand castles under the impact of sea tides. British soldiers fighting to death were everywhere inside and outside the trenches. German medical soldiers searched the piles of corpses for whether there were surviving wounded people. Anyone who had a tone, both the British and the Germans were rescued.

On the first line of defense, the British army lost more than 800 officers and soldiers, and more than 500 were captured, but the wounded only occupied a very small part of the prisoners. The German assault troops were very bad, and once they were caught, they almost left no living. The prisoners also raised their hands in time to surrender to save their lives.

Similarly, more than 200 German soldiers fell on the British positions. Most of them died from enemy machine guns and tank artillery. There were not many German soldiers who died in hand-to-hand combat, but there were many wounded people. The bayonet skills of British soldiers were rare to be proficient in military skills. In days without gun bullets, they could only train the queue and fight with wooden guns every day. The problem is that these rookies have never experienced real hand-to-hand combat. Some people even habitually avoid the vital points of the human body during assassination, so many German soldiers were hit with arms and thighs. However, as long as they did not hurt the aorta, it would be a problem of cultivation for several months.

Some British positions resisted very fiercely, and not all British soldiers were rookies. There were indeed some veterans who fought against the Norwegian and French battles. For various reasons, these elite soldiers who were lucky enough to avoid the German attacks this time. Most of them died on the spot, and a small number led the rookies to break through the front line and escape to the second line of defense.

After midnight, the first line of defense was broken through by the German army, and at the same time, the German attack on the second line of defense of the British army began to unfold. Some German assault troops were red-eyed, and they almost rushed to the British second-line position as they retreated British soldiers.

At this time, the battle had already lost its suddenness. The British army on the second line of defense had already been ready for combat, so the German offensive troops were stubbornly blocked. Because the attacking German army and the fleeing British soldiers were mixed together, the defense was somewhat afraid of throwing weapons and did not make up for the indiscriminate strike. Therefore, when the German army's offensive was setback and began to retreat, the losses of personnel were not very serious. However, this could not cover up the shame of being beaten back by the enemy. After a little rest, the German army immediately started the second round of attacks.

In fact, at this time, the number of British troops on the second-tier positions was not large, even less than 50% of the first-tier positions, but the quality was far greater than that of the first-tier British troops. Because these positions were close to Dover's urban area and were part of the urban defense circle, these positions were constructed relatively early and the materials were very practical, and there were even high-tech technologies such as steel plate prefabricated machine gun forts.

If, according to the original history, the firepower of the German infantry company could not break through this type of position, and it would be necessary to mobilize infantry artillery or anti-tank guns at the battalion or regiment level to support it. However, the current situation is different from history, the German infantry has very fierce anti-fortification weapons.

The German infantry first used machine guns and rifles to suppress the firepower of the opponent's machine guns in a long range according to their previous style of play, and at the same time began to assault from the flanks toward the enemy's positions. This assault movement that almost crossed the enemy's front seemed very dangerous, but it was a very effective way to avoid ammunition. It was difficult for infantry to aim at such targets that were constantly changing at the distance and azimuth angle. This required professional training.

Although machine guns can threaten the operations of the German assault squad, they are also suppressed and disturbed by the German firepower. The number of German machine guns is not less than that of the British on the defensive positions, and it is more maneuverable and flexible. These general machine guns with amazing fire rates only need to change the gun frame to change functions at will, and can be transferred to the shooting position at any time with light weight.

In addition, the German army also had an absolute advantage in artillery. The British army's shortcomings were fully exposed here. They lacked any heavy firepower weapon. The only artillery weapons that could be fully equipped in the army were the mortars belonging to each company. However, they lacked supporting ammunition. The German artillery and bombing destroyed most of the ammunition depots of the garrison. Now these defenders only had half the base that was originally left in the logistics ammunition reserves of each company. In the end, there were only a pitiful ten rounds assigned to each team, and half of them were useless smoke bombs.

The German army's precise small-caliber mortars also performed very well at night. Although they were not powerful, the amount of ammunition was extremely large in the short term. It was as dense as raindrops, but it was not far from the actual situation. This small warhead with a power similar to a grenade actually caused not much casualties. However, it caused great psychological pressure on the defenders. The British army could only continuously transfer the exposed machine gun positions. The British machine gun team carrying bulky water-cooled machine guns were exhausted and ran on the position.

The German assault squad often broke through the gap where the British army was temporarily suppressed to a distance of more than ten meters from the target. At this time, in addition to the opponent's bullets, they also had grenades thrown by the British army. British soldiers did not need to see the target clearly. They just had to throw the grenades out according to the officer's command. Although the throwing distance was different, it could cause a large number of dense killing barrage, which was enough to stop the footsteps of most assault infantry. Even the elite German army could only lie down and dodge in such a situation.

However, this situation cannot last long. As long as the German army has a chance to breathe, they can immediately launch a counterattack. The so-called prefabricated machine gun fortress is just a fixed target in front of the iron fist. The flares shine the entire battlefield with no obstacles in sight. Soldiers can operate such anti-armor weapons as they do during the day. However, in order to obtain a better hit rate, they often break into fifty meters, and even directly attack within ten meters. Don't underestimate the individual qualities of the German infantry. They have never done a frontal breakthrough with energy-gathering explosives in the French battle. At this distance, for the Iron Fist, it is simply an attack with a close face. The British machine gun fortress and bunkers split into pieces with loud noises. German soldiers sometimes use grenades to make up for another round of enemy positions. However, in most cases, no one would think that anyone could survive this attack.

The German army also used portable flamethrowers in large quantities. The fear brought to the enemy by this disposable flamethrower far exceeds the lethality it showed. Wherever this terrifying weapon that runs contrary to humanitarianism appears, it will become a burning hell on earth. In the past, the British army could specifically attack soldiers carrying flamethrowers to stop it, but now this portable weapon is not large in size and is very suitable for concealment and does not affect the carrier's use of the original weapons. Therefore, before the attack occurs, it is difficult to find out which German soldier is carrying this kind of killing weapon, but by the time it is discovered, everything is too late, and can only watch the burning fire dragon hit the face.

The second line of defense of the British army did not last longer than the first line of defense, and fell apart amid the flames and explosions. The German assault group advanced rapidly, and did not stop at all, and directly launched a general attack towards the third line, which was the last line of defense outside the British army.

The solidity of the third line of defense also surpassed the second line of defense, and several permanent bunkers and forts appeared, but this line of defense performed even more unbearable than the first two. The defeated British soldiers brought terrifying news, and the new German weapons made people shudder.

The troops on this line of defense were originally insufficient. Although they had heavy artillery that was envied by front-line officers and soldiers, when the battle broke out, they found that reality and imagination were completely different. The core defense point on the line of defense was an ancient fort built in the 17th century. After several generations of transformation, it stood firm in the outskirts of Dover for hundreds of years. It had more than a dozen artillery pieces of various calibers, as well as a battalion of elite infantry defending it. It survived several bombings of the German army and almost became a symbol of Dover's invincibility.

As a result, the fort was not able to hold on for even twenty minutes after being attacked by German infantry. In addition to being disturbed by German heavy infantry artillery, the iron fists and flamethrowers of the German infantry played a key role in it. When the German infantry rushed under the turret wall in the rain of bullets, the battle was actually over. The German infantry used iron fists to blow up the iron-blocked door beside the suspension bridge, and sprayed flames into the corridor on the inner wall, and saw someone waving a white flag at the top of the fort.

When the first dawn lit up from the horizon, all three defense lines on the periphery of the British army had been occupied by the German army. At this time, Dover's city was fully displayed in front of the German landing cluster. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!