The German advance speed broke the common sense of the British team, and the Dover War Zone Command fell into panic. According to the original plan of the British army, they also knew that relying on the periphery defense line was not enough to resist the German attack, especially the opponent also had armored troops. Even if these positions had a certain geographical advantage, the defects in equipment and troop strength were difficult to offset. However, according to the British army's experience in combat in France, these troops could delay the enemy for at least two to three days, because this area was covered with trenches and hills, which was not suitable for the German armored troops to maneuver.

The result was far beyond their expectations. The terrain outside Dover did bring some obstacles to the mobility of the German armored troops, but the German army not only had armored troops, but also had equally elite infantry. After receiving the firepower of the armored troops, the German infantry troops became the main force to break through the defense line, just as they had done in the French Battle. In the French Battle, the German armored troops were over-beautified and promoted by the German government as a threatening deterrent force. Their glory concealed the glory of the German infantry and made people ignore the fact that most of the achievements were actually established by these ordinary infantry troops.

The wishful thinking of the Dover Command was completely lost. They did not expect that the three lines of defense would be wiped out in one night. In the eyes of the command headquarters staff, the collapse of the first line of defense was inevitable. After all, these positions were built too hasty and simple, so they deliberately strengthened their troops and equipment to try to balance their combat effectiveness.

However, the rapid defeat of the two defense lines behind them was indeed somewhat beyond their expectations. They asked the officers and soldiers who were lucky enough to retreat from the front line, and wanted to learn the secret of the rapid progress of the German team. The answer they obtained made them feel cold.

The Germans used a new type of tank. The existing British tanks had no resistance in front of them. Even the most heavily armored Matilda II type was vulnerable to these German monsters. The German infantry used a new type of combustion weapon. At the same time, there was also a single cannon that could easily destroy tanks. As long as they were brought close to the position, the fortifications and fortresses built with great difficulty became like paper, especially after burning, which made people have an intuitive understanding of this sentence.

In the eyes of the officers of the Dover Command, the reports of these people were like drunken nonsense, but the soldiers who were still scared swore in their own teachings that they had told them were completely facts and there was no fabrication. In addition, there were reports of some subordinate officers, which made these noble gentlemen believe these terrible facts. So panic spread in the command like a plague. No one in the command dared to pat his chest and say that he could defend the city of Dover.

Major General Mason's heart was filled with regret at this time. Only then did he realize what a stupid decision he had made. His order pushed the remaining seven thousand British officers and soldiers from Dover to the edge of hell. However, the mistake had been made and the consequences had been caused. He could only drink the bitter wine he had brewed. Mason could only urgently call the staff officers to meet to discuss how to face the current crisis.

Then the British army began a general mobilization and mobilized all the logistics and reserve personnel in their hands, including municipal government civil servants, citizen volunteers and police forces who had not been able to evacuate. These people cooperated with the fortress engineers to build a blockade wall on the edge of the city.

This is not a street fighting position or fortress, as it literally means. It is simply a blockade of walls. On the way the German army must pass into the city, British engineers collapsed the buildings on both sides of the intersection, and then the soldiers built short barricades with rubble and abandoned vehicles to hinder the German armored forces from advancing.

The remaining troops began to dig trenches on various roads in the city, laying mines and anti-tank traps. They used blasting barrels and prefabricated explosives to destroy the ancient stone pavement, and then organized infantry and citizen volunteers to dig the trenches together.

The excavation of the ammunition depot of the Dover Fortress is still in full swing, and one of the warehouses has been dug through. The fortress garrison happily transported a batch of 25-pound cannon ammunition from it, which was the first thing that made the British happy that morning. Then when the sun rose, the whole city was bathed in the sun. Another thing that made the British happy happened.

I don't know what happened, but the German army's devastating advance suddenly stopped. The German troops stopped their activities on all fronts, and even in some areas, the German troops retreated for a distance. This made the British troops, who were panicked in the middle of the night and almost fell into despair, breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it is not clear what the Germans are doing, the British team gained a valuable respite, giving them time to continue to strengthen their positions and defense lines, digging and cleaning up more materials and ammunition.

The atmosphere in the British command suddenly became active again. Many staff officers believed that this should not be the German army playing tricks, but the three lines of defense did play the originally expected role. Although the German army broke through these lines in one night, they must have suffered great losses. They did not deliberately stop moving forward, but had no strength to continue moving forward.

Many people suddenly realized that no wonder the Germans fought so smoothly. It turned out that they were in exchange for losses of military strength and equipment. It seemed that the commander of the German team was just a reckless man who could only act recklessly, and landing in the German army was no longer afraid of landing in the German army. Some people even suggested that since the German army was at the end of their strength and the army was already showing signs of fatigue, could so many troops in the Verdant War Theater consider taking the initiative to attack? Taking advantage of the fact that the German army had not yet recovered, they might be able to defeat the enemy in front of them and regain the lost ground, and perhaps they could go a step further and drive the German army out of the sea directly. If it could be done, everyone here would become a great hero who saved the British Empire's life and death, and would be famous for being revered for generations.

Finally, the officers in the command center were not lost. It was one thing to make up for their own secrets, but it was another thing to actually go up and start working. Now that we can defend the Dover War Zone, we can go to Westminster Abbey to donate money and eat cakes, so we dare not take the initiative to tease those German barbarians.

Even if the other party is really at the end of a powerful crossbow as expected, it is still a powerful crossbow. It is not your slingshot that can be broken around at will. Those professional army, legal violent gangs that are extremely dangerous. They are beasts that can kill people at all times.

The most urgent task now is to take advantage of the German army's reversal, strengthen Dover's defense with all its might, and then ask London for help. This is already a burning fire. I wonder why London can still be so calm.

Since the German army has landed on the coast, it is completely meaningless to guard the port of Dover. If London cannot send reinforcements, at least some ships can be dispatched to withdraw the port garrison from this encirclement. Not to mention that these are the only remaining mobile forces of the British army. These soldiers who have received a full set of military training are an incalculable wealth for the current Britain.

The Dover Fortress Command sent a telegram to London again. This time they finally didn't have to forward the message from the Kent command post. The soldiers of the fortress communication company re-entered the collapsed underground command post and transported a 120-watt short-wave radio generator from it. They used a metal flagpole and abandoned wire to build a simple antenna on the wreckage of the fortress, and finally got direct contact with the General Staff of the London Army.

The result of this contact surprised everyone. London actually directly rejected the proposal of the Dover defenders, who asked the Dover garrison to defend Dover Port for two days at all costs, and to ensure that everything would be turned around in two days.

At the same time, the Navy's order to Major General Mason was similar to the Army Department, but Mason did not destroy the port unless he had no choice. It was necessary to ensure that the berths and waterways in the port were unobstructed. The Navy will prepare a mobile force and provide him with all his strength when he needed it. The hidden meaning of this telegram is that if the luck is not good, the Navy will find a way to transport Mason out.

Then Mason received a telegram issued by Churchill himself, and he talked a lot. First, Churchill said that the British Empire's wartime cabinet had a deep understanding of the dangerous environment he was in now. Mason and Dover's defenders made outstanding contributions and generous sacrifices for the British Empire, and the wartime cabinet and all the imperial citizens saw it and recorded it in their notebooks. Churchill asked Mason to dispel the idea of ​​breaking through and retreating in his personal name, and must give the German army.

Attracted for forty-eight hours on the front line of Dover, as long as he and Dover defenders were able to do this, he and Dover defenders were heroes of the entire British Empire. Finally, Churchill congratulated Mason on his wartime cabinet that the Empire's Wartime Cabinet was promoted to the rank of Major General Mason to the rank of lieutenant general for his outstanding performance in the Battle of Dover. This was not a kind of fooling people in the wartime rank, but a real regular rank. This carrot was very important, and Major General Mason fought for six years at once.

Mason conveyed London's order to all the personnel of the Fortress Command. At this time, even the dullest people felt that the taste was wrong. London must have had some new plans. Dover's garrison had become a part of a plan. There was no word of reinforcements in the telegram. It was obvious that they had become a bait to catch the German army, and the bait would be swallowed.

Just yesterday evening, they sent more than 1,600 British officers and soldiers to the outer defense line without hesitation. These people were bait and abandoned children in their eyes, but they didn't expect that retribution would come so quickly. Now they became bait and abandoned children themselves. Looking back, it was really ironic.

This is the fact. When you use some subordinates as tools, you may be a tool in the eyes of senior officials. In the eyes of the London Army General Staff and the War Cabinet, when it is confirmed that the Germans have landed from another landing point, the Dover defenders have lost their strategic value. If they still retain their combat effectiveness and mobility, then they may be of some use, but now they are surrounded by the Germans. Not to mention the heavy losses, London needs to send troops to rescue them. In the eyes of the London General Staff, these troops have become a burden and burden, and at the same time, they are labeled as a waste that is not enough to succeed or fail.

London does not believe that these troops have the ability to break out of the German siege, especially they have learned that the Germans have at least one tank division's armored forces, which is simply an insurmountable iron wall. In London's view, the ending of these troops has no one to change.

Originally, if the Royal Navy's local fleet was still there, it would be a way to withdraw these troops from the port. London also felt that these well-trained soldiers were very important for the current situation. But now the local fleet has been destroyed, and the German navy is rampant in the strait. Hunt all the British ships they encountered, and the United Kingdom is no longer able to organize a Dunkirk-style maritime rescue.

In addition to Dover Fortress, there were also Folkstone defenders. The information showed that the situation was even worse there, and contact had been cut off for twenty-four hours. The final telegram was that there was serious loss of food and bullets. There was no news for such a long time. London didn't even know whether the troops of the two divisions still existed.

So Dover's garrison was only one use, as a abandoned child and bait, exerting its final waste heat and consuming the German troops and supplies. If possible, it would be better to delay the German troops in that area and buy time for London's defensive plans.

Churchill still firmly believes that relying on the troops at hand, Britain still has a chance to turn the tables. As long as it is arranged properly, it will definitely withstand the German offensive. However, it takes time to mobilize and arrange these forces and build defense lines. Now for Britain, time is more precious than anything, and it is worth paying any price to seize time. Even the lives of tens of thousands of British officers and soldiers.

Major General Mason, ah, now he is Lieutenant General. Lieutenant General Mason did not have time to change into his new rank, and the military service department of Dover Fortress had the armband of the lieutenant general. But at this time, there was no time to find a tailor to re-stitch him. He could only continue to organize a commander meeting in his Admiral uniform.

Colonel Evans of the First Armored Division was also promoted, but what made him feel annoyed was that the commanders of the other two infantry divisions also obtained the rank of major general. As a result, the ranks of commanders of these three units were still equal, and none of them were dominant. However, at this time, Lieutenant General Mason was pressing on the top. The other two were stationed in Folkstone, so Evans no longer had this issue.

Major General Evans's first armored division was almost dead in name only. He only had a battalion of armored forces left in his hand, and most of them were Vickers ultra-light tanks, similar to what the Japanese called the Bean Warrior. When put in Asia, it might be used to scare people. In Dover, the German tanks on the opposite side could be directly crushed from the tops of these small tanks.

In Evans's opinion, the report of the tankers who escaped from the front was a bit alarmist, but they could not be regarded as lies. The entire infantry tank battalion was almost wiped out, and only three Matilda ii were able to survive the disaster night battle due to the retreat order issued by the platoon leader in time. Although these tankers survived, they were completely scared by the German tanks. One of the tank drivers refused to get into the tank again after escaping back to the city. For this reason, he shot his own leg in front of the division officers and directly stepped on the honor of the First Armored Division into the mud.

Evans is sure that the Germans already have weapons that can destroy Matilda II infantry tanks at a distance. From the information currently available, the German army has at least two types of armored vehicles that can do this. One is an improved model developed based on the No. 4 tank, and the other is said to be very low and should be a vehicle such as self-propelled anti-tank guns. Because the surviving soldiers were still in shock and could not tell what they were, he did not think about it in the direction of the assault gun.

Now the street fighting plan formulated by Lieutenant General Mason has become a piece of waste paper, and the German army is fully skilled and capable of winning in urban warfare. They have a very light flamethrower with very common equipment. Some people even think that the Germans were distributed according to the head, because the frequency of these weapons on the front line is too frequent, which makes people feel that they are almost as if they are in one.

The German army also has an anti-tank weapon that can be used by individual soldiers. Some people think it is a single-soldier artillery. I don’t know what kind of black technology the Germans have developed to allow individual soldiers to have the firepower to destroy armored targets from a distance. However, the tank wreckage and fortress ruins on the front line were placed there, and no one could deny the existence of this weapon.

Evans felt that if possible, the British army would find a way to seize a sample of this weapon at all costs. Whether it was a copy or a use to exchange technology and resources with foreign countries, this would be a very good bargaining chip and might also become the key to reversing the local war in Britain.

However, Major General Evans' plan was not achieved until the end, and the Germans did not give him any chance. Just as the officers and staff of the Dover Command were still struggling with how to complete the London order, the last straw that broke the camel's back was advancing wildly towards the city of Dover in the suburbs. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!