The decisive battle against the Third Reich - #936 - Chapter 933 Retreat

After Montgomery received a positive answer from Eisenhower, Montgomery sighed… Only then did he realize how ridiculous he was. The Germans were fully capable of blocking the Allied attack, but he thought that Germany was about to collapse. He couldn’t wait to launch a risky plan that was not fully prepared and even went against his own command style to gain credit.

“Your Excellency, Marshal!” Seeing that Montgomery remained silent, the staff officer asked, “What should we do now? The situation in the Netherlands is still deteriorating!”

“Retreat!” said Montgomery. “Do whatever you can to get them out!”

“But…how to retreat?” the staff officer said.

It is impossible to retreat from the sea. The coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium are all covered by the “Atlantic Barrier”. Although it is still in an unfinished state, it cannot be broken through at will, unless there is another “Normandy” landing… But that is also It was only successful after a lot of preparation.

To the east is Germany. Unless it is to surrender, it is impossible to retreat in this direction.

So there is only Belgium in the south.

“Ardennes area!” Montgomery weakly pointed to Belgium and said: “There is only this road. The forest can be their cover to avoid the German pursuit. Our 2nd Army will continue to attack the German army and hold them back. At the same time, I will Send the air force to pick them up!”

The staff officer wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He said “Yes, sir” and left the headquarters.

Montgomery knew why the staff behaved this way.

Because this is not a good way to retreat. On the one hand, the British and American airborne troops are not familiar with the Ardennes area, except for the 17th Airborne Division, which was originally used to flank the Ardennes area.

Other units, such as the British 1st Airborne Division and the US 11th Airborne Division, were tasked with fighting in the Netherlands. They did not have a map of the Ardennes area at all, so they were asked to withdraw into the Ardennes area to deal with the German troops who were familiar with the terrain. In all likelihood, there won’t be any good results.

However, this seems to be the only way and the only way, so the staff officer cannot refute it.

The battle situation after that was indeed the same. The defeated remnants of the British and American airborne divisions were ordered to withdraw to the Ardennes area. However, there were German ambush troops everywhere along the way, and any one of these ambush troops could not be dealt with by the British and American troops… The Germans had tanks in their hands, either “Tiger” or “Panther”. The paratroopers who had only light weapons and even insufficient ammunition had nothing to do if they stopped forward casually.

The British and American airborne divisions fought and walked all the way, which was a bit like plucking the hair of a wild goose… Every time they passed an ambush point, a few hairs were plucked, and then a few more, and a few more, until they finally arrived in the Ardennes area. They were almost all plucked out.

The airborne troops with a total strength of 34,600 were able to rush to the Ardennes area, but only more than 5,000 people.

Then these more than 5,000 people discovered that… the Germans had already built a more terrifying defense line in the jungle of the Ardennes area and were waiting for them.

The “more terrifying” line of defense mentioned here refers to an invisible line of defense.

The 719th Infantry Division and the 84th Infantry Division, which have been stationed in the Ardennes area for a long time, are actually equivalent to mountain divisions… Strictly speaking, they cannot be regarded as mountain divisions, because the altitude of the mountains here is not high, with an average height of more than 400 meters. Especially in the mountainous areas of Belgium, with an altitude of about 200 meters, it is already the highest area in Belgium.

But more than half of this area is covered by forests. It can almost be said that there is nothing but forests.

This is easily reminiscent of jungle warfare in Vietnam.

The German 719th Infantry Division and the 84th Infantry Division have been stationed here since the German army broke through the Ardennes area and captured the Maginot Line. They are familiar with everything here, know how to hide themselves in the jungle to track the enemy, and know how to use existing resources in the jungle. Something quick to make that’s easy with practical traps…

Therefore, the remnants of the British and American paratrooper divisions who walked into the Ardennes were like walking into a maze, into the mouth of a man-eating beast, into the palm of a giant… Here, they were no longer plucked by geese. Instead, they were skewered on tree branches and roasted over a fire by the Germans.

In the end, only more than 200 British and American paratrooper divisions were able to walk out of the forest and join the British 2nd Army.

In fact, these were not the only ones who survived, there were hundreds more who failed to retreat to the Ardennes area as ordered, including Colonel Selter, the commander of the 2nd Parachute Brigade.

Because Colonel Selter believed that this was simply asking for death.

“We can’t reach the Ardennes!” Colonel Selter said to the surviving subordinates: “The Germans will hunt us all the way, and then only one percent of us will survive! Only one out of a hundred will survive. , that’s no different from the annihilation of the entire army!”

Colonel Selter’s estimate was wrong. More than 10,000 remnant soldiers fled and in the end there were more than 200 people left, which was not as bad as 1%.

“But what else can we do?” the staff officer asked, “We have no other choice!”

“They said there will be air power to cover us!” said a lieutenant colonel: “They will also airdrop supplies for us on the way. I think we should do what the order says!”

“That’s the Ardennes area!” Selt objected: “Look at this place where we are hiding, look at this place…”

Celt raised his head and said, “This is just a small jungle. Our planes can’t find us even if they fly over our heads. They don’t know where we are, and we don’t dare to shout at them or send flares… In such a place, air power is useless! We can only rely on ourselves!” Celt’s words left his men speechless. After a moment of silence, the staff officer asked, “So, Colonel, what should we do?” “Yes, Colonel!” The soldiers also asked, “Where can we evacuate from this damn place?” “We won’t evacuate!” Celt replied. “Not retreating?”

“Yes!” Celt nodded: “We stay here!”

“But… this is a dead end!” The staff officer objected: “There are Germans everywhere!”

“And we can’t get supplies, we don’t even have enough food!”

…

“Gentlemen!” Celt interrupted his subordinates’ argument and said: “When I say stay here, I don’t mean stay in this jungle. You know, this is the Netherlands, there are many Dutch resistance organizations, that is, guerrillas, they can survive here, why can’t we?”

Looking at his subordinates who nodded silently, Celt continued: “We can continue to play a role here, such as training the Dutch guerrillas, commanding them to fight, collecting intelligence, etc…. But the most important thing is to find the Dutch guerrillas in time now!”