Chapter 421

There are many problems facing Montgomery. The first one is how to prevent German troops from crossing greater Yarmouth to capture the important port city of rostovt. Once Germany captured rostovt, it would not only obtain an important loading and unloading port, but also shorten the sea transportation route, and the British * team would be more passive.

At present, there is the 5th division of the 5th army in the rostovt area, as well as an armored force pushed by Montgomery along the coastline. The defense force can be regarded as quite strong. Norwich's frontal defense is responsible by the 4th Army and most of Montgomery's armored force, which is also relatively stable. Now only the northwest area of the whole defense line is reassuring.

If the Germans cut all the way into the north along the weak point of the British defense, wells, new henstanton, kingsling, swolfom, East Durham, even wilsbeck and donham mackett would be quickly occupied by the German army. At that time, Norwich's side would open wide, and Montgomery, the God of war, would not be able to defend Norwich.

After thinking about it, Montgomery decided to order troops to reinforce the line near wells. He is not willing to lose any more defensive fulcrum, hoping to hold the present position before the turning point comes. As long as we stick to these positions for a few days, the British defenders may not be able to turn defeat into victory and drive the Germans out of the sea. Even if handled properly, it is possible to annihilate the German group a army.

It is not entirely impossible to cut off the German supply lines at sea and let the dominant German air force lose its air supremacy, which neither the Royal Navy nor the Royal Air force can do. Montgomery hoped that the sudden change of weather conditions in the English Channel would make the German air force lose its advantage and make it difficult to replenish at sea as long as the weather became worse from the sunny days in recent days. At that time, the time for the British * team to fight back would come.

After studying the map for a long time, general lundstedt came up with his safest attack plan: the 2nd panzer division of the SS of group a army, which had just landed on British soil, gave up the plan to attack wells, formed a shock force with the 1st Infantry Division as the general reserve and the 2nd Panzer division transferred from the front, and crossed the river south to attack East Durham.

This plan is very bold. It abandons wells, who is determined to win, and crosses the river south to East Durham twice in a row, directly threatening Norwich's flank. At the cost of abandoning new henderstein, kingsling, swovum and other regions, it takes time to capture Norwich directly, Then he continued to March eastward and capture rostovt at one go - smashing Britain's step-by-step siege strategy with a right hook, and taking out all British counterattack positions before the bad weather.

The German troops began to go south that night and launched a fierce battle with the local British garrison. Germany crossed the river by force under the cover of night, while the British garrison fought back with some simple fortifications. The two sides fought near the first river for nearly half an hour. As a result, the German troops relied on the advantage of quantity and continued to cross the river south.

East Durham, the headquarters of the 4th Army. The British * team, which was attacked by the German army, was in a mess and was trying to stop the counterattack. The news they get now is not complete. The German team launched an attack at night, which was unexpected. While organizing troops to fight back on the spot, Powell grabbed the phone to ask for help.

"Hello? I'm general Powell! I'm in East Durham! Just got the news that the German team has crossed the tributary south of Cromer and is attacking me. I need reinforcements now! We need reinforcements! " Originally, as the highest commander of the region, he failed to block the German landing. He was already in a mess. If he lost the riverside Defense this time, he would have no face to live on.

So when he lost the phone, he called his own Deputy: "you! Take the reserves now! Get to the levee and fortify the whole bank! I will defend every inch of land, even if I die in battle! "

The combat effectiveness of the two sides is very different: Germany is almost a complete 2nd Armored Force; The British are a garrison of an infantry division and a regiment. So when the German tanks surged over the first riparian line on the pontoon and the stone bridge, and approached the second parallel riparian line, the British still could not get much decent resistance.

German engineers soon began to set up pontoons on the other side of the main river, pushing rubber boats and assault boats into the river under the cover of machine guns. The British firepower was not so much a counterattack as a groan. As soon as a machine gun position opened fire, it was suppressed by the firepower network composed of two German machine guns.

The remnant of the British Fourth Army, which was already at the end of the storm, failed to play the same fierce level as they had against the German Paratroopers the night before, and was defeated by a slight resistance on the line of defense along the river. German tanks successfully crossed the two rivers which were regarded as solid barriers by the British, and made rapid progress towards the long chosen target of East Durham.

When Montgomery found that the situation was not good and wanted to reinforce East Durham, the Germans were less than two kilometers away from this important town. The first infantry division began to attack East Durham at 12:30 that night. The British garrison had no choice but to fight back. The fibrette fire arrow guns, which had been prepared for landing, failed to play their due role because of the severe shaking of the sea, but left a deep impression on the British at this moment. Hundreds of rockets landed on the defense line of the British garrison at almost the same time, blowing up the whole city into ruins.

German soldiers captured East Durham at 2:56, and British garrison commander Powell led the remnant to surrender. The lost British defense in East Durham was cut into two parts: the South with Norwich as the core and the north with wells as the focus. The 2nd Panzer Army broke up a Grenadier regiment with an armored battalion to attack all night, and captured swovum, donham macket, kingsling and new Huntington west of East Durham. With a beautiful circuitous attack, it took the back of the Northern British garrison, surrounded wells, which was heavily guarded, and even threatened setford, the important supply town behind Norwich. Another unit, the SS 2nd Panzer Division, went east along the river and stopped three kilometers west of Norwich. Montgomery, who was in Norwich, even heard the SS 150 mm self-propelled artillery shelling British positions in the suburbs of Norwich. It was 4:30 a.m. that day. Norwich's British Montgomery Panzer troops began to retreat, leaving behind the remains of the 4th and 5th armies, and then retreated southward to the Frontlines of setford and berry St. Edmonds and stockett. The British Sixth Army, which had just been transferred from other places, was ordered to stick to Bangui and rostovt, while the seventh army of Cambridge stuck to Yili, an important traffic town. On the morning of February 16, the bad weather expected by the British did not come, and the third batch of German landing troops and supplies were sent to the British coast. The German troops have been strengthened to 160000. Lundstedt already has three armored forces, including the 5th light armored division, the 2nd Armored Division and the 2nd SS armored division. Most of the a group army has entered the UK. Moreover, when the German army is under the city of Norwich, it is possible to attack the important British city near the landing site at any time. At 10:50 a.m. that day, the 20000 British garrison in wells was forced to surrender after the heavy bombing by the German air force, and the fifth coastal town was controlled by the German landing forces. At 3:15 p.m. that day, the axis Navy joint fleet paid a heavy price for breaking into the wash bay. The Italian battleship Rome took the lead. As a result, it was heavily attacked by British naval guns. It was seriously injured and had to return to the Mediterranean for overhaul. It was unable to participate in the next naval operation. Immediately after that, the German Navy's aircraft carrier, the Bismarck, was struck by a mine in the active sea area. The whole warship tilted 21 degrees before it was barely damaged and successfully repaired. It almost sank off the British coast. The successive losses scared the three old battleships of the French navy to say nothing more close to the British coast, and the plan of shelling rostovt all afternoon was in vain. These French warships originally came to make up the number with the mentality of taking advantage of the fire, avenging Brest and fighting soy sauce. After all, the German government promised that the cost of French Navy's participation in the war could be deducted from the 400 million war reparations every day. Therefore, these French warships did not work hard. When they were in a good mood, they shelled some British positions to vent their hatred of being attacked by the British at Brest. When they were in a bad mood, they went slow with various excuses. The German Navy was also too lazy to manage these French "accomplices" and allowed these French warships to serve as senior escorts with high salaries. Moreover, after all, lutjans did not dare to put these two faced French navies too close to each other, for fear that they would not want to bombard Germany's fragile aircraft carrier fleet one day. Compared with the destruction of the German air force and the arduous struggle of the German landing forces, the performance of this joint fleet can only be described as moderate. After all, the Germans lack experience in commanding such a large-scale joint naval formation, and the sincerity of cooperation, including that of the Italians, can only be regarded as average. It is a great thing that they can barely maintain their operation. The Bismarck was forced to return to Wilhelm for major repairs, and the German carrier fleet was reduced to three. The British Navy began to stir. The new local fleet composed of two aircraft carriers, the Royal ark and the fury, together with the Battlecruiser counterattack and the battleship Queen Elizabeth from the South Atlantic began to come up with the idea of a joint fleet of Germany, France and Italy.