8 against 4, the opponents were most likely technical officers with little combat capability. Logan initially thought the battle would be very easy. However, after entering the castle, he realized he had overlooked something: the castle had at least twenty or thirty rooms, three floors above ground, and possibly even a basement. Should he and the seven German paratroopers split up to search or stay together?
Time did not allow him to ponder further. He instructed Sergeant Fathi Aldag with three paratroopers to charge straight up the stairs, while he took the remaining three to search the ground floor.
If this were a simple game of hide and seek, Logan might have wasted a lot of time in this vast castle. Fortunately, he stumbled upon a diesel generator behind the kitchen and traced the thick cables to the basement. Just as he descended the steps, flashes of gunfire erupted in the darkness, and a bullet whizzed past the stone wall next to Logan, sending shivers down his spine.
Damn it! When I rise through the ranks, I won't be doing these frontline bullet-catching missions!
Logan thought to himself. Big Skaube was worldly-wise, and there was some truth to what his brother had said. Leading a surprise assault behind enemy lines like today might be heroic and thrilling, but if something went wrong, his promising life could come to an abrupt end!
However, now wasn't the time for contemplating life. Logan tried shouting in English, "Hey, don't shoot! We're from the 33rd Provost Corps!"
All the British soldiers outside were taken out, so these few inside should've been easy pickings. A weak voice replied menacingly, "Go to hell!"
Soft tactics weren't working, so it was time for a tougher approach. But the narrow passage favored the defenders. If they could use grenades, it would be better, but Logan needed to capture the important equipment intact. He worried that if they took too long, the British soldiers inside might destroy the equipment themselves. With resolve, he barked:
"Switch to pistols, get ready to follow me!"
Rifles were ineffective in the narrow space, especially since the fighting distance wouldn't exceed twenty meters. The three riflemen behind Logan quickly dropped their rifles and retrieved their revolvers from their packs. Gathering fifty paratroopers with rifles and pistols abandoned by the British in France was a trivial matter! However, the Webley revolvers issued to ordinary soldiers shone too brightly, so they kept them in their packs as reserves.
Once his men were ready, Logan held his pistol in his right hand and a flashlight in his left. Suddenly, he crouched and rounded the corner, simultaneously switching on the flashlight and firing repeatedly at the opposite side!
The flashes of gunfire illuminated the limited space. Red-hot bullets flew, disappearing into the darkness or sparking off hard surfaces. As Logan's eyes adjusted to the flashlight, he realized the British soldiers weren't standing idly; all his bullets missed!
With Logan providing cover, three German paratroopers quickly dashed out and charged forward along the narrow passage!
Bang! Bang!
Flames danced in the dark corner as shots rang out. The sound of gunfire was chaotic in the narrow space. Two shots hit the wall, and one struck the leading paratrooper!
Damn it!
Logan quickly raised his gun and ran forward. He thought to himself, I must take down the enemy decisively, no letting this critical game go into overtime! Fortunately, after their comrade fell, the remaining two paratroopers sped up. They finally charged through the narrow passage, about two meters wide and four to five meters long, and began firing into the room.
As Logan rushed forward and illuminated the dark room with his flashlight, he saw a British soldier trembling with his hands raised. His nerves couldn't stop his finger from pulling the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed in his ears, and the scene before him was unbearable to witness.
Using the flashlight to scan the room filled with various equipment, Logan noticed two bodies lying on the ground, one of them with a Webley revolver nearby. Upon closer inspection, he found another body behind the table—the four people the Major mentioned were all accounted for.
Moments later, footsteps approached from behind. Fatih, with his paratroopers, arrived quickly to provide support. Fortunately, these four British soldiers only had one gun, or else they would've been thrown into this brutal fight too!
"Tolga, how are you holding up? Hang in there! I'll bandage you up!"
Concerned voices in German rang in Logan's ears. He quickly turned around to see one of the paratroopers clutching his chest, clearly injured. Another paratrooper knelt beside him, pulling out a first aid kit to stop the bleeding.
In war, there would always be casualties. Although Logan had only been in this era for a short time, he already deeply understood this. What was even more brutal was that kindness on the battlefield didn't always bring good fortune. Living comrades couldn't be abandoned—this was a principle. But there was no need to mourn for the fallen comrades too much—this was rationality.
"Find the switch!"
Logan continued to give orders while using the flashlight to survey the equipment. The basement wasn't large, probably just over thirty square meters, with machines of various sizes placed on wooden tables arranged in two rows. The floor was covered with a spiderweb-like network of wires. From a modern perspective, this was definitely an unsafe place, but in wartime, the basement's bomb-resistant capability was obviously better.
The paratroopers quickly found the light switch, fortunately, the British soldiers before had only turned off the circuit breaker instead of completely destroying it. When the lights came back on, the true appearance of the basement was revealed before them.
With so much equipment, large and small, it was overwhelming, and Logan or the average German paratrooper would definitely not be able to identify it. That's why they brought along two technical officers familiar with radar equipment this time. One of them had ridden the same glider as Lieutenant Stefenberg and unfortunately was injured during the landing process, and was now recuperating in Sandon. The other one was guarded by Logan from beginning to end like a treasure—radar was still a highly confidential equipment in Germany at the moment, and the personnel involved were isolated from the outside world for a long time. If it weren't for the intervention of the Fuhrer himself, Logan wouldn't have been able to borrow these two people. However, it was precisely because of the overly cautious handling of personnel and equipment that Germany's radar technology remained stagnant, and in recent years, it had fallen behind its British counterparts by a large margin!
After waiting for a few minutes, the young technical officer named Patrick Aiber finally ran over. He quickly inspected the equipment in the basement and tried to start a few of them. Suddenly, Logan noticed that one of the machines had a slightly larger black-and-white screen than the palm of his hand, and the ripples inside were somewhat similar to certain scenes in movies.
"Captain, these should be the radar equipment of the British army!" Aiber's judgment confirmed Logan's speculation.
Upon hearing this, Logan was almost moved to tears: he had gone through so much trouble to come here, wasn't it for these ugly-looking devices? The pigs in the German intelligence department were probably born to eat shit. If their intelligence were a bit more accurate, he wouldn't have to be so nervous!
Looking at the mess on the ground and the injured comrades, Logan suppressed the joy in his heart. At this moment, he felt as if he were on a magnificent soccer field, leading his team as the captain in this extremely important match. Although he had taken the lead for the team with a cold shot, he kept reminding himself: stay calm, stay calm, the game is far from over, maintaining the lead until the final whistle is the real victory!