The decisive battle against the Third Reich - #932 - Chapter 929 Ambush

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

The British soldiers responded and immediately entered into the retreat process… Let the engineering troops lay mines in the rear to hinder the enemy, and at the same time arranged a small force to cover the rear.

These actions were necessary, otherwise the British 2nd Parachute Brigade would not be able to escape the pursuit of the German Mechanized Infantry Division.

From this we can also see 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 elites, their combat effectiveness cannot be fully exerted under wrong strategies and command.

Ten minutes later, the British 2nd Paratrooper Brigade, carrying a full set of equipment, ran out of breath to the village called Oster.

Colonel Selter used a telescope to observe the surrounding terrain as the troops advanced. It turned out to be a suitable place for defense… The village was built on a hill and surrounded by many trees, which was very suitable for paratroopers to fight against enemy mechanized troops.

“Well done, Lieutenant Colonel!” Colonel Selt said to his staff: “You saved us!”

“That’s what I should do, Colonel!” the staff officer replied.

This is actually common sense. If the land here is full of water, then the villages must be built on high places because their houses need foundations… The water in the location will make the foundation unstable and it will be very difficult to build houses. convenient.

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

There were several whistling sounds of artillery shells from behind, and several artillery shells exploded nearby, causing a piece of mud to fly everywhere… The German mechanized troops caught up.

Selt ducked down to dodge and ordered loudly: “Enter the village immediately to organize defense!”

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

But what they totally didn’t expect was that a village suitable for defense would also be suitable for hiding a tank.

Therefore, the real God of Death was actually in front of them, gently waving the sickle to harvest life…

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

In fact, it didn’t open, but the whole thing fell from top to bottom, and then the black muzzles of the guns were exposed in the window.

“God, this is a trap!” Selt screamed.

Before Selt could give the order to retreat, a burst of fire erupted from the muzzle, and several shells exploded among the British soldiers with a “boom”, causing the British soldiers to scream.

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

Before Colonel Selt could finish speaking, he was surprised to find that what he saw in front of him was not a small force at all, because there were already “Leopard” tanks breaking through the wall of the house one after another. The majestic tanks were approaching. At a rough count, there are at least thirty vehicles.

“Colonel, what are your orders?” A soldier asked loudly, “Do you still want to occupy this village?”

“No, retreat!” Colonel Selt 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 scattered and fled… This was not a retreat, but a rout.

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

At the same time, “Panther” tanks, under the cover of German soldiers, rushed into the British troops and killed them indiscriminately, shelling, machine-gun fire, and rolling tracks.

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

Thousands of British airborne troops fell into pools of blood under German fire. The slopes outside the village were soon filled with the blood and corpses of British soldiers.

Somewhat different from the 1st Parachute Brigade, the 2nd Parachute Brigade did not choose to surrender after being found to be at a disadvantage.

The reason may be that surrender has a condition of “no choice” or it can also be said that “continuing to fight is meaningless.”

This degree is difficult to grasp… If some commanders are timid or shrink from the battle, they can choose to surrender using the excuse “there is no point in continuing to fight.” Whether or not 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 on open terrain. In that case, it was indeed a last resort and there was no problem in surrendering.

The 2nd Paratrooper Brigade is in a mountainous area with jungle nearby. The jungle can be a place for them to hide and continue to resist.

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

Therefore, Colonel Selter did not order the soldiers to surrender, but ordered the soldiers to disperse into the jungle to fight guerrillas with the German army.

This approach is correct. The reason is that although the front armor of the “Leopard” tank is 100MM, which is about the same as that of the “Tiger”, the sides of the turret are only 45MM, and the sides of the body are even only 40MM… The “Panther” tank equipped by the British army The Zuka rocket launcher can easily penetrate it.

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

As a result, during the German attack on the British army, they were repelled twice by a group of British troops hiding on the high ground and lost three “Leopard” tanks.

It’s not that the Germans couldn’t capture this high ground, but they were unwilling to let the “Panther” tanks suffer losses, and there were still only a few skirmishers, so they were in a stalemate.

Perhaps because of admiration for the fighting spirit and fighting will of the British army, a rather intriguing thing happened during this period:

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

The British army really did this. They asked unarmed soldiers to carry more than 20 wounded people, placed the wounded in front of the German army and then returned… From the beginning to the end, the German army did not fire, and in front of the British army He treated the wounded from the front and then carried them to the rear.

After it was over, the two armies started fighting to the death again, as if the heart-warming scene just now had never happened at all.

So, sometimes war is not all cruelty and killing.

As the saying goes, “everything must be reversed when it reaches its extreme.” Soldiers who are tired of all this will occasionally show the good nature of human beings.

But it seems that nothing can be changed, because war is still war, the enemy is still the enemy, and all they can do is pick up the gun and do everything possible to kill each other.