The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 932

c929 ambush

Colonel Selter didn’t think much and immediately ordered: “Retreat to the village!”

The British soldiers responded and immediately entered the retreat procedure…Let the engineering unit bury mines in the rear to block the enemy, and arrange a small unit to cover the rear.

These actions are necessary, otherwise the British 2nd Paratrooper Brigade will not be able to escape the pursuit of the German mechanized infantry division.

This also shows the quality of the British paratroopers…Although the British army’s performance in World War II can only be said to be average, the paratroopers are definitely elite.

However, even if they are elite, their combat effectiveness cannot be fully exerted under the wrong strategy and command.

More than ten minutes later, the British 2nd Paratrooper Brigade, carrying all their equipment, ran to this village called Oster out of breath.

Colonel Selter used a telescope to observe the surrounding terrain when the troops were advancing. It was indeed a place suitable for defense…The village was built on a hill, and there were many trees around it, which was very suitable for the paratroopers to fight against the enemy’s mechanized troops.

“Well done, Lieutenant Colonel!” Colonel Selter said to the staff officer, “You saved us!”

“This is what I should do, Colonel!” The staff officer replied.

This is actually common sense. If the land here is full of water, then the village must be built on a high ground, because their houses need foundations… The water in the ground will make the foundation unstable and it is also inconvenient to build houses.

Therefore, the village with commanding heights and various houses will definitely become an excellent defensive position for the 2nd Paratrooper Brigade.

There were several whistling sounds of artillery shells from the rear, and several shells exploded nearby, raising a piece of soil and flying everywhere… The German mechanized troops caught up.

Selter ducked and hid while shouting: “Enter the village and organize defense immediately!”

“Yes, Colonel!” The British soldiers ran towards the village with their equipment on their backs with all their strength. They knew that if they were half a step slower at this time, they might never reach the village.

But what they didn’t expect was that a village suitable for defense was also suitable for hiding tanks.

So, the real god of death was actually in front of them, gently waving his sickle to harvest life…

Just when the British soldiers were about to rush into the village, the windows suddenly opened with a “bang”.

In fact, they did not open, but fell from top to bottom, and then the black muzzles of the guns in the windows were exposed.

“God, this is a trap!” Celt screamed.

Before Celt had time to order a retreat, a burst of fire came out of the muzzle, and several shells exploded among the British soldiers with a “bang”, making the British soldiers scream.

Colonel Celt looked back, then looked ahead, gritted his teeth and ordered: “Keep going, this may be just a small German force, destroy them and occupy this village…”

Before Colonel Celt finished speaking, he was surprised to find that the troops in front of him were not small troops at all, because there were already a number of “Panther” tanks breaking through the walls of the houses. The majestic tanks were approaching them, and a rough count showed that there were at least thirty tanks.

“Colonel, what is your order?” a soldier asked loudly: “Still occupy this village?”

“No, retreat!” Colonel Selter shouted almost hysterically: “Retreat, retreat to any place where you can hide!”

In fact, this order was completely invalid, because at that moment the British soldiers had already fled in all directions… This was not a retreat, but a rout.

But even so, it was difficult for British soldiers to escape from the Germans, because the German mechanized forces had surrounded their flanks from the other side.

At the same time, the “Panther” tanks rushed into the British troops under the cover of German soldiers and killed them indiscriminately, bombarding, machine gunning, and track rolling.

Even the British armored forces could not resist the attack of this new tank second only to the “Tiger”, let alone the airborne troops equipped with only light weapons.

Groups of British airborne soldiers fell in a pool of blood under the firepower of the German army, and the slope outside the village was soon full of the blood and corpses of British soldiers.

Unlike the 1st Paratrooper Brigade, the 2nd Paratrooper Brigade did not choose to surrender after being found to be at a disadvantage.

The reason may be that there is a condition for surrender, “necessary” or “meaningless to continue fighting”.

This degree is difficult to grasp… If some commanders are timid or retreat at the last minute, they can choose to surrender with the excuse of “meaningless to continue fighting”. Whether it is “meaningless” depends largely on subjective judgment.

But the British airborne troops obviously did not use this as an excuse.

The 1st Paratrooper Brigade was surrounded by enemy armored forces in open terrain. In that case, it was indeed a last resort, and there was no problem in choosing to surrender.

The 2nd Paratrooper Brigade was in the mountains, with jungles nearby, where they could hide and continue to resist.

As for being surrounded by the enemy… it would be abnormal if the paratroopers were not surrounded by the enemy.

Therefore, Colonel Selter did not order the soldiers to surrender, but asked the soldiers to break up into small groups and disperse into the jungle to fight guerrilla warfare with the German army.

This approach is correct because although the front armor of the Panther tank is about the same thickness as the Tiger tank, reaching 100mm, the sides of the turret are only 45mm, and the sides of the hull are even only 40mm… The British army’s “Bazooka” rocket launcher can easily penetrate it.

At the same time, the jungle is very suitable for the British army to hide.

So, in the process of attacking the British army, the German army was repelled twice by a group of British soldiers hiding on the high ground and lost three “Panther” tanks.

The German army was not unable to capture the high ground, but was unwilling to let the “Panther” tanks suffer losses, especially for a few scattered soldiers, so they were deadlocked.

Perhaps because of the admiration for the British army’s fighting spirit and fighting will, a very interesting thing happened during the period:

The German army shouted to the British army, asking them to send the wounded out and surrender.

The British army really did so. They asked unarmed soldiers to carry more than 20 wounded soldiers, put the wounded in front of the German army and then return… From beginning to end, the German army did not shoot, and treated the wounded in front of the British army and then carried them to the rear.

After that, the two armies fought a life-and-death battle again, as if the heartwarming scene just now had never happened.

So, sometimes war is not entirely cruel and killing.

As the saying goes, “everything goes to extremes and then turns back”, soldiers who are tired of all this occasionally show the good nature of human beings.

But this seems to change nothing, because war is still war, the enemy is still the enemy, and all they can do is pick up guns and kill the other side as much as possible.