Watching the crimson sunset gradually fade into the dim horizon, Logan smoothed his wind-blown hair and bent to return to the command center of the "Wrath of the Sea God" frontline headquarters on the second floor.
"Generals, it's time to execute our 'Sea Bridge' plan!"
Although the tone of his words showed no hint of superiority, it was evident from the reactions of Richtofen and Freke that the young Imperial Air Force colonel was the one truly controlling the pace of the battlefield.
"Let's give the British a huge surprise!" Richtofen turned to his naval colleagues.
General Freke nodded, "The real battle begins now!"
"Transmit my orders..." Richtofen's voice rose a notch, revealing his ample confidence.
Unperturbed, Logan gazed at the large-scale battle map on the wall of the command center. British mainline ships were represented by adhesive ship-shaped paper cutouts, each annotated with specific models in pencil. An hour earlier, a Revenge-class ship had been heavily damaged by the German Air Force about 160 nautical miles north of Wash Bay. According to subsequent reconnaissance, it had grounded near the coast—like a stranded whale.
For now, Logan ignored this old battleship. Two Nelson-class ships had been cruising about 120 nautical miles from Wash Bay in tandem, and if they maintained their current speed, they would discover and attack the German landing fleet at Wash Bay in another five hours. With luck, they could evade attacks from German submarines and torpedo boats, and then disperse and chase down or destroy the German landing ships. But they might find it strange: these seemingly ordinary German vessels were more difficult to sink than usual, and the German soldiers on board were good swimmers—most of those who fell into the water could float.
In fact, the holds of these ships were filled with wood, and many lower compartments were welded shut, so unless they were directly blasted into pieces by large-caliber naval guns, ordinary near-misses couldn't stop them from "escaping."
Furthermore, to achieve a sophisticated camouflage effect, over 2,000 skilled carpenters and painters recruited from various parts of Germany had spent a lot of time and effort producing enough wooden tanks, wooden cannons, and over 500 farmers had worked day and night to make straw men, dressing them in handsome German uniforms.
What Logan wanted was to let this secondary British fleet chase the "dispersed" German landing fleet happily, making them feel that under the "strong deterrence," Germany's Bismarck and Gneisenau would not dare to fight. Submarines underwater might give them a headache, but after dawn, the ready-to-go German Air Force bombers would make them thoroughly headache!
On this large-scale battle map, the real British main fleet had stopped at the western entrance of the English Channel. Before nightfall, they were still hovering in the peripheral waters, but whether they would speed north to reinforce the eastern coast before nightfall depended entirely on the judgment of the British commanders—despite the efforts of the German Air Force and Navy reconnaissance, the likelihood of detecting the movements of the British fleet was slim!
Under the cover of night, the delicate situation in the English Channel changed once again.
During the day, most of the British firepower points, exposed by fake landing fleets and fake paratroopers, were exposed to the Germans, and suffered heavy losses in the subsequent fierce counterattacks by the German Air Force. It is said that only about one or two out of every ten mobile units that left their hiding places to fight against the German airborne forces suffered losses from Stuka bombings and Messerschmitt fighters. The impact of this battle on morale is even harder to measure with data. However, the British never expected that those German landing ships, which turned back to the French coast to retreat, suddenly turned back halfway and concentrated on the Isle of Wight at the fastest speed—naturally, the faster small ferries, barges, and yachts arrived first. They loaded fully armed infantry from the floating bridges in the south of the Isle of Wight, and then, under the escort of minesweepers, quickly sailed into the Solent. At the same time, the German heavy artillery deployed in the north of the Isle of Wight poured artillery fire on the opposite bank without regard to cost, as if they intended to use up all the ammunition that had been transported to the island over the past few weeks in one night...
"Sir, this is the position of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Company. We are under intense bombardment from German artillery, and now there are large numbers of German ships appearing on the sea ahead. We believe the Germans are going to launch a landing operation here... Yes, sir, they're about to land! We need a large amount of firepower support, preferably to suppress the German artillery on the opposite shore... Hello? Hello?"
In the sturdy reinforced concrete bunker, no matter how Art Cullen called out, there was no sound coming from the receiver of the field liaison phone. He hung up the phone in frustration, picked it up again, and shook the handle vigorously, but it was clear that the problem was not with this old-fashioned telephone.
"Is God going to abandon us?"
Muttering to himself, Cullen turned towards the sea. Through the gunnery firing ports, he could see the glow of flares illuminating the area, with dozens of boats advancing towards the beach in front of the barricade. In peacetime, this coastal area would attract many people seeking relief from the summer heat, but as the threat of German invasion increased day by day, such coastal terrain became the most worrying aspect for the British mainland defense. To address this concern, the Home Defense Command had issued orders early on to construct anti-landing fortifications along the southeastern and southern coasts, with Cullen's position at the barricade not being among the largest in terms of engineering volume. Looking at the thousands of steel tripods at the edge of the beach, they were there to prevent landing craft from directly reaching the shore—if these landing vessels were carrying tanks, they would also be blocked at the outer perimeter of the beach.
Behind the steel frames, beneath the seemingly flat gravel, lay a large number of landmines. Whether they were manufactured during the previous war or in peacetime, and whether they had expired or would explode when stepped on, no one could say for sure now!
Further behind the minefield was a typical World War I-style trench line. It was said that these works were constructed under the guidance of veterans who had experienced the early years of attrition on the Western Front. Without concrete or steel, only earthworks and stones were enough to withstand the onslaught of large-caliber artillery—a crucial line of defense against German landing infantry.
"Stay calm, lads, wait until they land before firing! Hopefully... this is just a diversionary attack by the Germans!" Cullen's words even sounded like self-deception to himself. Looking at the enemy's posture, was it merely a feint attack?
In this sturdy barricade, there was a 17-pounder infantry gun, and the number on the barrel showed it was manufactured in 1907, older than most of the gunners here. To determine the gun's range, Cullen had to request permission from higher-ups for a test firing, but the result was disappointing: not to mention hitting the opposite shore, it couldn't even reach the middle of the strait. The ranging result was only 4200 yards, almost back to the era of muzzle-loading guns!
There weren't many shells in the barricade. In fact, due to long-term storage, the production lines for ammunition for these old infantry guns had long been closed, and after they were put into use during the war, only existing stocks could be consumed—the officers had eloquent reasons: by the time they finished firing these shells, the German invaders should be dead too!
"The Jerry's are within range!" a young gunner shouted eagerly.
Cullen squinted and saw that the fastest German boat was less than 3500 yards from the beach. But... were those landing craft? From their appearance, they looked like barges that should be sailing on inland rivers!
On the River Thames, there were many shallow-draft barges loaded with coal, timber, or other goods going in and out every day. They were as clumsy as half-dead fish, a slight wave could wash onto their decks, and when they were loaded with goods upstream, people riding bicycles on the bank could easily overtake them!
There were certainly many ordinary barges for inland rivers in France too, but Cullen had to admire the Germans' imagination and courage to get them across the English Channel—whichever way you looked at it, they were unsuitable for sailing on the sea. To borrow a phrase from Stephen Chow: the sea is very dangerous, hurry back to your pond!
The undeniable fact was that the Germans not only got these barges across the channel in considerable numbers, but Cullen also noticed piles of canvas-covered cargo on their decks. What's underneath? Cannons? Tanks? Or Germany's secret weapons?
Boom!
In another nearby barricade, the gunners couldn't resist firing. Cullen couldn't control what others were doing. He urgently focused on the barges slowly approaching the beach, and one of the shells landed near one of them, easily causing a large wave to surge onto the deck. The hull swayed significantly from side to side, and several German soldiers with helmets lost their footing and fell directly into the sea—apparently, if more powerful shells were used, these barges might have overturned directly!
The imprecise gunfire from the friendly forces continued until the fourth shell hit one of the barges, finally causing it to stop on the surface of the sea just a stone's throw away from the outermost steel tripods.
Grounded?
With the help of a flare, Cullen saw a group of German soldiers wearing large-brimmed helmets jumping into the waist-deep water from the barge. Hundreds of meters away, the British machine guns in the trenches opened fire, trying to stop these German sappers from approaching the iron frames with dense bullets. However, at this moment, the canvas on the barge was lifted, revealing that the small boat was actually carrying two Mark IV tanks. They adjusted their cannons slightly and quickly fired shells towards the British machine gun positions!
Stunned by such tactics, Cullen was even more surprised to see another barge stop behind the first one, with only a meter separating the bows of the two boats.
Cullen suddenly realized that the cabins at the rear of these barges were particularly low, as if they had been specially modified. As long as the top plates were removed, tank vehicles could directly pass through, and these boats, one after another, were they not planning to build a floating bridge at sea?