"Why does he have so many infantry? Where did they come from? Who let them come? ”

On 15 January, General Patton's voice suddenly rang out in the headquarters of the Anglo-American forces in a secondary school outside Darlington (near Hartlepool and Middlesbrough). Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Outside the headquarters, the U.S. infantrymen of the brigade, carrying rifles and packages on their backs, drove from the direction of the Darlington train station. And these infantry were the reason for annoying General Patton, who had rushed back from the front line on the banks of the Tiz to prepare for the meeting.

"George, who provoked you this time?" The voice of Bradley, commander of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division, reached the ears of General Patton.

Patton turned his head to look over and saw Bradley, dressed as a soldier, already in the command, with an M1 carbine on his shoulder.

"Omar, it's sad to see you." General Patton walked over briskly and hugged his old friend, "So, all those dejected infantry outside are your men?" ”

"Frustrated? I don't think they're all good guys. Bradley looked at the big mouth and frowned.

"They will soon become depressed, as if a catastrophe is imminent!" Barton lowered his voice in a rare way, "Because they're really going to be in big trouble...... Omar, you can't stay here! Your men must hurry to Edinburgh, and from there board a destroyer to escape from this desperate battlefield! ”

"Oh my God! How do you say that? Bradley was stunned by Patton's words, he knew that Patton was a warmonger, and he was too bold to be frightened by the brutality of the battlefield.

Barton pulled Bradley into a foul toilet, and when he saw that there was no one inside, he sighed and said, "It's terrible, after the bad news came from London, the British began to be passive and slack, they were fed up with the war, and they were all thinking about the days after the armistice."

And the Germans are very difficult to deal with, the Germans turned out to have an honest propaganda minister. Goebbels, who we often mocked, did not lie, the German soldiers were all blonde and blue-eyed Supermen! My tank is fragile in front of them like papier-mâché! ”

Patton smiled bitterly and said, "Now the Stodonk and Tiz River bridges can't be built at all!" A part of the British army thrust along the River Ties into the middle of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, and part of it surrounded Hartlepool and Middlesbrough from the other direction...... In fact, a stalemate of canine teeth has been formed! ”

"I know, that's what I'm here for." Bradley said, "Lieutenant General Stilwell thinks we can break the deadlock with a little more effort." ”

It turned out that Bradley's 28th Division was originally from Stilwell from Eisenhower. As soon as the turmoil in London subsided, Stilwell personally went to Eisenhower to ask for troops, and promised to take Hartlepool and Middlesbrough down.

Eisenhower was not willing to abandon Britain in this way, so after consulting Washington, he sent the heavily armed 28th Division (their weapons were not given to the Bolsheviks) to Stilwell.

"!" Barton stamped his foot, "No second general on the battlefield of Hartlepool-Middlesbrough would think so, Stilwell's optimism has reached the point of incorrigibility!" It's a disease! ”

General Patton, who had been at the forefront these days, was well aware of the situation in both the German and British armies, and his 2nd Panzer Division had suffered as well. Two-thirds of the M10 tank destroyers had already been damaged, which was still a record without the German Tiger tanks.

What worries Patton even more is that the morale of the British army has taken a sharp turn for the worse after the "London Turmoil", and the British gentlemen have recognized the cruel reality - the British have been defeated, and now they have to think about how to defeat gracefully!

However, Stilwell stubbornly believed that there was still a chance to win on the Hartlepool-Middlesbrough front, so the US military should go all out to win the battle and then consider whether to withdraw from Europe as a winner.

Before the operational meeting began, Patton and Bradley were taken to Lieutenant General Stilwell's office by a captain.

An overly optimistic Stilwell said to the two: "George, Omar, the battle of Hartlepool-Middlesbrough is likely to be the last battle for the British, so they are ready to go all out." It's also a great opportunity for us...... An opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the German Nazis! ”

Hearing Stilwell's optimistic reasoning, Barton just shook his head weakly. Stilwell ignored him, and only cared about his own words: "The British Praetorian Guard, 1st Armored Division, 6th Armored Division, 11th Armored Division (just transferred from Ireland), 1st Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Division (also newly transferred from Ireland), 15th Infantry Division, 51st Infantry Division, 52nd Infantry Division, and Cumbria County Division have all arrived, and we have the 2nd Armored Division and the 28th Infantry Division, a total of 12 divisions, with nearly 200,000 troops, should be able to win." ”

"Lieutenant General, but my armored division is running out of tanks." General Patton reminded. "Several armored divisions of the British also lost quite a few tanks...... At present, the five armored divisions on the Hartlepool-Fort Sdmir front have a maximum of 350 capable tanks. ”

From the afternoon of the 9th to the present engagement, in the words of General Patton: "This is simply an anti-tank tactical exercise one after another!" If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, no one would have thought that a big guy like M10 would be so fragile, it's really vulnerable! ”

Although the U.S. Army had been keeping an eye on tank warfare in Europe, it had hired some Soviet instructors to teach expeditionary officers and men the know-how of tank warfare and anti-tank warfare. But when it came to the battlefield to face the Germans, Patton found that the Germans were better at dealing with tanks than he imagined, and even better than the Russians had introduced.

The effective range of the German "Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade launcher is not 30 meters, as the Russians say, but a full 100 meters! During the Stodonk offensive and defensive battles, the losses of the armored cluster commanded by Patton reached an astonishing level!

In addition to the "Iron Fist", the German light troops also have another kind of anti-tank weapon - recoilless guns, some 88mm, some 105mm, these weapons have a range of more than the Iron Fist, can reach 200-400 meters, and the armor-piercing power is not weak, enough to deal with the American M10 and the British Churchill tank/tank destroyer.

As for the German anti-tank guns, General Patton was even more eye-opening, not only because they were large in caliber (almost all of them were 75mm level), but also that they were all motorized and lightly armoured. It is simply impossible to deal with mortars, and it is not good to cover the shooting with heavy artillery.

And their No. 3 assault gun is even more worthy of its name, infantry, tanks, fortifications, can hit anything, the power is not small, and they are particularly good at ambushes, always like to use the low body to hide somewhere, and suddenly catch you off guard.

In addition to the impressive anti-tank firepower, the German infantry also possessed a firepower that surprised General Patton. Almost every man has a "light machine gun", and the firepower of a squad is as good as that of a company of the US army!

In engagements, these "light machine guns" often attacked the side of the M10 tank destroyer - the M10 tank destroyer had an inconvenient hand-cranked turret and only an anti-aircraft machine gun installed, and the commander had to jump out of the turret and stand on the bonnet!

So this tank destroyer must rely on infantry protection to charge on the battlefield. The infantry, which could protect the M10 tank destroyers, was often killed and wounded by the Germans with dense "light machine gun" fire.

And after the M10 lost infantry cover, they fell prey to all sorts of German anti-tank fire.

However, Stilwell did not see Patton's troubles as an insurmountable difficulty, saying, "George, don't worry about the lack of tanks, your 2nd Panzer Division will be replenished." We stockpiled a batch of M10 and M4 in Edinburgh, and now they are on their way to the front. In addition, 120 tank crews will be transferred from the 8th Panzer Division (which is also part of the U.S. Expeditionary Force). Give you 3 days to reorganize your troops, and on January 19 the coalition will launch a general offensive. Let's pull out the nail of Stodonk first, then we will attack Middlesbrough and finally Hartlepool! ”

In fact, it was not only the Anglo-American forces that were preparing to attack. At the same time that Stilwell explained the offensive mission to the two American division commanders, Patton and Bradley. In Hartlepool, Rudolph. Feng. Ribbentrop had just taken a break from his boss Marx. Major Winsher received a leading assignment there.

His 22 Tiger G tanks would take out from Hartlepool 10 hours later, in the early hours of January 16, 1943, in the early hours of darkness and winter snow!

The offensive was planned on January 10, with the 506th, 516th, and 3rd Tank Destroyers to form a temporary tactical cluster with the infantry of the 2nd Marine Division and the 185th Italian Lightning Division. Lieutenant General Wink commanded a counterattack from Hartlepool towards Stodonk, 13 kilometres away.

At a distance of only 13 kilometers, if the counterattack goes well, the assault can be completed in half a day at most, when at least two divisional clusters of the British and American forces south of Hartlepool, north of the Tiz River, and east of Stodonk will be surrounded by the Germans and then ruthlessly crushed.

Although the scale of this counterattack was not large, the instruction issued by General Halder clearly told all the officers and soldiers participating in the counterattack that considering the current political situation in Britain, the victory of this counterattack is likely to end the Anglo-German war that has lasted since 1939!

So it's going to be a battle that will go down in history! (To be continued.) )