1:15 p.m., May 31, 1940. German positions on the east side of Dunkelke. Command of the corps "Cyprus".

Müller and his staff were sitting at the map desk, sipping mulled wine and smoking the finest cigars from Berlin, chatting freely.

For these combat officers, the current days are really boring, and they can only kill time in this way now. The soldiers, too, were looking forward to the final battle that the commander-in-chief, General Reinhardt, had anticipated.

In fact, the entire corps was not idle for the past two days, and they re-strengthened their positions and facilities in accordance with the orders of the General Command. The arrival of a large number of heavy weapons greatly increased the workload of the sappers. Even Müller was taken aback when the last batch of heavy weapons arrived at the position, and when he read the letter from Reinhardt brought to him by the commander of the escort unit, he understood the intention of the commander-in-chief, and as a result, in order to conceal the placement of these weapons and the construction of their firing positions, half of the infantry of the regiment became sappers, and finally concealed the big guys in the time set by the general. Then they just sat there boredly waiting for the final battle to come.

Ten full hours had passed, and there was still no movement from the British. Yesterday the British braved bad weather to fly two reconnaissance planes, which made the antiaircraft artillery of their two regiments excited for a long time, and now the wreckage of those two planes is still piled up on the beach. Before that, the anti-aircraft artillery unit had not been opened, and the anti-aircraft artillery had been depressed to the point that even those who saw seagulls wanted to open fire.

As the British expeditionary force was busy speeding up their bomb clearance, Gort finally figured out a way to deal with that bomb by adding an improvised bulldozer blade in front of all his remaining Matilda tanks to clear the harbor and beaches of bombs. At first, Muller's artillerymen intervened fiercely with heavy artillery in their bomb disposal operations, and after knocking out a dozen British tanks, the British did not dare to come out during the day, and they began to use night ammunition to discharge. Then Muller received an order from the General Command to keep the British busy, leave their ammunition alone, and go all out to build fortifications.

Now that the sporadic explosions coming from the British had faded away, it seemed that they had almost cleared the bombs. The reconnaissance planes received information that their troops were slowly beginning to assemble towards the harbor and the beach, and that they had done a good job of concealment, at least they had covered the beach and the open space near the harbor with camouflage nets, and it seemed that within a few hours the final retreat of the British troops, as General Reinhardt had predicted, would begin. The pre-war wait was so hard that Müller took another sip of sweet wine.

All the commanders under his command are suffering the same in their respective positions, Muller thought that the officers who were surging in blood were now bored in the trenches and showed a knowing smile, why not like this, it is definitely not easy to let a strong army wait there quietly, Muller is eager to wait for the arrival of the British in the final struggle, at least at that time his soldiers do not have to be bored to play with machine guns to play rabbits.

"Colonel. Radar station telephone. ”]

The communications non-commissioned officer from the outhouse ran into the command room and reported.

"Oh? Haha, hopefully they did find something this time. Müller jumped up from his seat and ran into the outhouse.

The radar arrived two days ago, and I heard that General Reinhardt specially sent people to tow these four prototypes of the Würzburg A-type radar directly from the production plant, which are very good radars, and it would have taken four or five months to equip the troops. He is now one of the first two units in the German ** team to be equipped with this new type of radar, and he has been assigned two units, and the 19th Panzer Army has been assigned two units.

"Hey, I'm Mueller, what did you find?" Mueller picked up the phone and asked.

"What? Are you sure? …… How many? …… Now where they are...... Understood, you have to keep a close watch. Report to me as soon as there is a situation...... Okay, you guys did a good job, wait for the medal, lieutenant...... That's it. ”

Mueller put down the phone, and then said to his staff officers with an excited look: "Here it begins, the final decisive moment has come, and the British are using Plan D." Gentlemen. Let's start following the general's plan. ”

"Yes! Captain! ”

The staff officers pounced on the pile of telephones on the table, and then orders began to be issued in an orderly manner to various German units and positions. In an instant, the entire legion position began to sweep away its previous decadent appearance, and began to move quickly and precisely, countless soldiers entered their respective combat positions, and officers began to issue one preparation order after another, which had been prepared countless times.

Now the terrible "Cyphorus" has been awakened from its sleep, baring its terrifying fangs and waiting for the coming enemy.

"Understood, got it, okay, yes, we immediately acted according to the plan."

Wolf put down the phone, looked at the Air Force Wing Commanders who were looking at him with expectant eyes, and said solemnly: "Gentlemen, the operation begins. Let's go out immediately according to the original plan. Officer on duty, pull an urgent report! Gentlemen, everything for Germany! Then he gave a solemn salute to the Air Force officers. The commanders of those air wing wings immediately returned the salute with a serious face, turned around and rushed out of the airport command room quickly.

At 1:45 p.m. on May 31, 1940, the coastal observation post of the "Cyprus" Regiment first spotted the British Royal Navy fleet coming from the northeast.

Five minutes later, the observation post of the Panzer 19th Corps spotted another British fleet coming from the southwest, but that fleet was not followed by small boats, and was full of large warships.

Müller stood in front of the observation window of the solid concrete fortifications, holding a telescope, and sneered as the huge steel beasts slowly drove in the direction of his position.

"Attention, no fire is allowed without my orders, all personnel enter positions and are ready to receive the first round of enemy shelling. Are Navy observers ready? ”

"Ready, they're measuring the position and speed of those ships."

"Let them pay attention to picking the most valuable targets, we can't waste firepower."

"Yes, Colonel!"

Satisfied with his thorough preparations, Müller picked up his binoculars and admired the majestic appearance of the sea lords.

"It's amazing, the British shipbuilders are really amazing, look at the warships. If only we had those ships in Germany. Muller sighed.

"Colonel, anyway, they will be beaten to scrap metal soon, no matter how powerful they are, it is useless."

A staff officer said with a smile on the side: "I didn't expect that General Reinhardt really guessed it, they really sent warships, and I didn't expect that the British would send such a huge fleet, it seems that it is all their belongings, if we hadn't been prepared to deal with them, maybe we would really suffer a big loss." ”

"Of course, I now admire the general's strategic vision and tactics. He was simply God's god of war for Germany. Another staff officer said adoringly.

"Don't talk about those, how many do you recognize now?" Mueller interrupted the staff officers' conversation.

"We recognized six battleships, three battlecruisers, twenty destroyers, and no cruisers."

"Me too, it seems that they pulled out the main forces of the British home fleet. What about the Nineteenth Panzer Army? ”

Mueller turned to the communications staff and asked.

"They also had at least four battleships there, and judging by the models, the British pulled out the main force of their Mediterranean fleet."

"The elite of the British Navy is concentrated here, and it seems that we can have a good time this time. Did the radar detect the British Air Force? Mueller asked.

"Wait a minute, I'll ask right away." The staff officer immediately picked up the phone and asked.

"Colonel, the enemy has stopped the ship!" An observer shouted.

"What?"

Mueller hurriedly picked up his binoculars and looked at the British fleet in the distance. The huge fleet came to a halt 20 kilometers from the coastline in front of the German position. The giant ships were lined up with their sides facing the shore. The destroyers began to circle around the battleships.

"It seems that they are about to start shelling, and they order their troops to prepare for shelling, hoping that our fortifications will be able to withstand the bombardment of the main ship's guns. Order the naval observers to immediately determine their bearings, distances, and get the big guys loaded and ready for the first shelling. And those 210-mm heavy howitzers should be ready to shoot as soon as they enter a new position. ”

"Yes, Colonel."

"Report to Colonel, we have identified those ships as battleships USS Rodney, USS Nelson, USS Rammer, USS Sovereign, USS War-Weary, USS Revenge, USS Resolve. The battle cruisers were HMS Hood, HMS Prestige, HMS Counterattack. The destroyers were the eleventh, twelfth, fifteenth, sixteenth destroyer detachments of the British. A naval observer excitedly ran into the command post and reported: "Those warships are the elite of the entire British Navy's home fleet." ”

"Really? You have to choose the most valuable target to attack, I am not very familiar with naval ships, you decide the target to attack. ”

"Yes, Colonel." The naval officer ran out as fast as he could.

"Colonel, the radar station reports that the British plane has entered their detection range and will be here in fifteen minutes."

"What about our planes?"

"They've arrived, and now they're seizing the heights and preparing to give those British planes a head-on blow."

"Very good......

"Boom...... Rumble...... Boom ......"

Müller's words were interrupted by a loud thunderous sound from the sea, and then a dull whistling of shells sounded over the German positions. The British Navy gave the first fiery greeting to the German positions with their giant guns.

Eighteen 406-millimeter and 52 381-millimeter cannons fired a salvo of more than 20 tons of lethal ammunition at the German positions.

In an instant, the entire German forward position trembled with a roar. The blast wave of the explosion of the huge naval artillery shells swept wildly through the thick armored shells of the concrete shelters, and the shells of the earth, sand and stones brought up by them sounded loudly.

"It looks amazing, I really didn't expect it." Müller was stunned by the power of the naval guns, and he had never seen a cannon bombardment of more than 200 millimeters.

"Have the soldiers in the forward positions been withdrawn?"

"It's been taken down a long time ago. Captain. Are we going to fight back? ”

"Wait! The enemy hadn't yet begun to send out the boats, and the first counterattack had to hit the target accurately. ”

"Yes, Colonel."

Ten minutes later, the British carried out a second shelling, this time extending their fire by about fifty meters and smashing seventy huge craters in the German positions. Now the entire forward position has been turned into a huge ruin, and the remains of destroyed fortifications and various architectural fragments can be seen everywhere.

But because of Müller's preparations, the soldiers in the forward positions had long since withdrawn, and as a result, the result of the two salvos of the British was nothing but to plow the land on the French coast again, and the German casualties were still zero.

In his armoured command post, Müller was so impressed by the destructive power of those two volleys that he thought his fortifications were as fragile as glass in the face of that terrifying power.

He felt that it was time to start a counterattack, and if the British were allowed to fight like that inch by inch, his positions and legions would sooner or later be wiped off the ground by those terrible artillery. Still, he endured. He had to be patient, and he must not fight back easily until he had no choice but to wait until the enemy had really entered the general's trap.

Mueller gritted his teeth and ordered: "All the soldiers on the second line of defense should withdraw from their positions and retreat to the third line of defense." ”

"Yes, Colonel."

"Colonel! The navies have already calculated the azimuth, distance, and various parameters of the enemy's battleship, which have been reported to the artillery units. A staff officer said on the phone.

"Good, let the big guys be on standby."

"Understood, Colonel."

"Colonel, the small ships are starting to sort, they are heading in the direction of Dunkerke. Their air force has also arrived! It is also flying in the direction of the port. God, they have hundreds! A staff officer shouted with a telescope.

"I'll see." Müller jerked to the observation port and picked up the binoculars to look at them.

I saw that the dense group of small ships began to line up in a neat formation and slowly drove in the direction of Dunkerke. And above them, a large group of British fighters was circling to escort them.

"Great!"

Mueller shouted, "Order the big guys to prepare, and start firing back in five minutes." Now it's also the turn of those ships to taste our heavy shells. Hell, they fired again. ”

In the distance, a huge fire flashed from the gun's muzzle, and Muller hurriedly left the observation port, covering his ears with his hands.

A few seconds later, the observation command post shook strongly again with a violent explosion.

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