The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 965

c962 hope

Only one update today, sorry!

In the end, the 17th Armored Regiment still failed to organize an attack on the third line of defense on Shambier Island.

Objectively speaking, Colonel Torres’ plan was correct.

It is true that the 17th Armored Regiment was exhausted, but the garrison on Shambier Island led by Baker was not much better, especially in the daytime battle. In order to resist the impact of US tanks, the German soldiers stationed on Shambier Island paid the price of more than 800 casualties.

This number of casualties plus the casualties in the first battle, the garrison on Shambier Island has suffered more than half of the casualties and only more than 1,000 people are left… Even if a unit is a regular army, more than half of the casualties mean collapse, not to mention that the army led by Baker is a logistics unit.

Therefore, if the 17th Armored Regiment and the 15th Infantry Regiment can unite to launch a full-scale attack on the third line of defense, even at night, even if the German army has rushed to reinforce from all directions, even if the US ammunition is seriously insufficient, it is almost certain that… the German third line of defense will still collapse.

Then, the U.S. military could use the German supplies to deploy along the moat of Chambre Island, as Colonel Torres said.

This defense was almost fatal to the German army without amphibious landing ships.

Unfortunately, the American soldiers did not have the courage at all… They were used to fighting the enemy with sufficient supplies, and insufficient supplies first made them lack the confidence to compete with the enemy.

They did not know that in this battle, they only needed to follow the tanks and rush forward with bayonets to win.

In addition, they thought they were surrounded by the enemy from all sides, so they finally collapsed and fled to the rear, that is, west of the Moselle River.

“We can’t escape back!” Colonel Nathan shouted at the fleeing soldiers: “The Moselle River has been blocked by the enemy! We have no other choice…”

“No, Colonel!” Someone in the guards answered: “The German bombs only blocked the middle part!”

“What do you mean?” Colonel Nathan asked.

“As long as we go downstream or upstream!” the guard replied, “That is, avoid the middle part. Even if we touch the wood tied with bombs, they will not explode!”

“Yes, Colonel!” another guard replied, “Those bombs are equipped with delayed fuses. They will only explode in the middle of the river! And the Germans can’t see our movements in the dark…”

Then Colonel Nathan understood why the soldiers rushed to the Moselle River.

Colonel Nathan cast his eyes on Colonel Torres.

Colonel Torres looked at the defeated soldiers around him and said helplessly, “Retreat, sir! We will have no troops in a few minutes!”

“But our tanks can’t go back!” Colonel Nathan said.

As mentioned before, even if the tanks are transformed into amphibious tanks to cross the river, they must first be reconnaissance to determine the landing point, otherwise the amphibious tanks with deep draft cannot land.

In this case, it is almost impossible to take the tanks away.

“Forget them, sir!” Torres said, “We can only leave them here!”

“No!” Colonel Nathan said, “At least we should blow them up, we can’t leave them to the Germans!”

But Colonel Nathan looked around and found it difficult to find tanks in the dark night. He asked the tank crew to blow up the tanks… Many tank crews had already abandoned their vehicles and fled.

At this moment, fierce gunfire sounded in front again.

The German army found that the US army was disintegrating, and their morale was boosted. They immediately launched a counterattack, even though they had only more than a thousand people.

In the end, Colonel Nathan failed to realize his wish. He could only abandon the tanks and retreat under the cover of the guards.

Even so, the US army did not retreat smoothly, because the German army had already set up several machine guns there, and “Hitler’s chainsaw” fired bullets crazily, knocking down the fleeing US troops in batches on the river bank.

There were even many American soldiers who lost their way and lost their way… Such problems did occur when trapped in the Metz Fortress, especially in the dark, with a river on the left and a river on the right, and rivers in front and behind. Those with a poor sense of direction could not tell which was which, and found themselves trapped by the enemy’s guns after swimming hard.

“General!” The staff officer hurried into the command center and reported to Patton: “The 17th Armored Regiment and the 15th Infantry Regiment collapsed across the board!”

Patton raised his head suddenly, and after a long while he sighed deeply.

The staff officer understood what General Patton meant… This sigh meant that he was powerless.

Patton was indeed powerless. It was pitch black on the other side of the river, and even if he wanted to provide firepower reinforcements to the other side, he could not do it.

All Patton could do was wait where he was, waiting for the two regiments of American soldiers to escape back and treat the wounded among them.

In the end, the two regiments of the US Army that attacked the Metz Fortress had a total strength of more than 5,000 people. Only more than 1,200 people were able to escape, and the rest either died in the chaos or became prisoners of the German army.

But for the German army, none of this mattered… prisoners had no meaning to the German army, and to some extent, they increased the difficulty of supply.

What was important was that they captured 63 “Sherman” tanks and 30 amphibious landing ships on the battlefield.

From the current perspective, the amphibious landing ship will be more important than the “Sherman” tank. The reason is that the “Sherman” tank basically has no shells and cannot participate in the battle, and in the foreseeable future, it will be difficult to capture tank guns and shells. This batch of tanks was put into use.

But from the perspective of the cadet soldiers, this was the first time that so many tanks had been seized. Everyone was as happy as if they had found a treasure, and evacuated and hid these tanks overnight.

When Qin Chuan saw the baker, he almost didn’t recognize him… He had a head injury and was bandaged, and his right hand was still hanging around his neck.

Seeing Qin Chuan coming up, the baker stood up with a happy face and said, “Sir, I know you can rescue us! They also believe this!”

Qin Chuan nodded and said: “No, Lieutenant. It was you who saved yourself. It can even be said…you were the one who saved Metz and everyone else!”

The baker didn’t understand what Qin Chuan said.

But Qin Chuan did not exaggerate… From a tactical point of view, it was indeed Qin Chuan’s idea to save Shambil Island. But from a strategic perspective, could it be that the baker led a group of logistics personnel to withstand the US attack and saved the Metz Fortress?

Qin Chuan cast his gaze behind the baker and saw German soldiers who looked like the bakers, all wounded and bleeding.

With such soldiers, Germany has hope.