"Where are your supporting tanks?"
Suddenly, Logan recalled this crucial question.
"One Panzer III is positioned behind the stone bridge to the north, another Panzer III is positioned at the intersection to the south, and there's a Panzer IV in the alley to our right rear!" Barkoen answered earnestly.
"There seems to be a gap on the left side of this building?" Logan strained to recall the scene from the aerial photographs. As a senior staff officer of the Wehrmacht, there was quite a lot to see and remember.
"Yes, there's a gap of less than 2 meters between this building and the one on the left!" Barkoen confirmed.
"Only 2 meters?" Logan furrowed his brow. The width of a Panzer IV was close to 3 meters; it would definitely get stuck if forced into such a narrow space.
"It shouldn't be more than two meters!" Barkoen looked expectantly at his commander.
"Well, let's have it come over!" After giving the order, Logan picked up the phone. "This is Hans Logan. Connect me to the Heavy Mortar Battery!"
The efficiency of the German battlefield communication was consistently good. After a short wait, Logan reached the unit he wanted to talk to.
"Lieutenant, this is Logan. I'm at position No. 3! I need illumination rounds, calculate the distance carefully, make sure they illuminate directly overhead, slightly eastward, not westward! It's 5:11 now, can you provide us with three minutes of continuous illumination starting from 5:20? ... Good, excellent! Let's do it this way!"
Barkoen had already sent a soldier to summon the Panzer IV, so after hanging up the phone, Logan glanced at his watch and instructed him, "At 5:20, illumination rounds will be fired from the rear. The enemy will be against the light, and we will be backlit, making it a perfect opportunity for a counterattack. I'll personally go to arrange the tank. Go tell your soldiers: when they hear the tank guns firing, count to ten, then advance towards the opposite side! Got it?"
"At 5:20, launch the illumination rounds. When you hear the tank guns, count to ten and then open fire. Understood?" Barkoen repeated the command with exceptional seriousness.
Logan patted his shoulder. "That's the plan."
Then, both of them, crouched and with heads down, slowly moved out of the west-facing room. The captain and his subordinate went from room to room, notifying the German paratroopers stationed there. Logan descended the stairs in one go, waited for half a minute, and in the rumble of engines, the yellow-green painted Panzer IV clanked over the cobblestone road. This camouflage was specifically chosen by the technicians for combat on British soil.
Looking left and right, Logan observed that the houses along the canal seemed to be two or more stories high and exceptionally sturdy in appearance. Indeed, the gap on the left was less than 2 meters wide, perhaps a natural space left between buildings or intentionally designed for ventilation by architects.
Directly blasting through the outer wall might cause the house to collapse due to the disruption of the support structure. Taking advantage of the tank slowly advancing, Logan darted back into the ground floor room. The door had already been violently smashed open by the paratroopers, and a group with an MG34 machine gun was reluctantly hiding behind the window.
After feeling out the interior structure of the house in the dark, Logan had a plan. Seeing that the Panzer IV had come to a steady stop at the door, he agilely climbed onto the turret and briefed the gunner sitting on top.
"All right, sir, we'll make those Brits regret it!" The tank commander, with an oily face and bruises on his forehead, replied knowingly.
Logan jumped lightly off the tank and had his accompanying guard inform all the paratroopers in the ground floor rooms to evacuate. After all the arrangements were made, the illumination rounds provided by the heavy mortar battery arrived!
Looking up, nervously watching the rising bright spot, Logan couldn't help but feel tense: Guys, if this illumination round goes too far, it'll end up blinding our own men and providing cover for the enemy!
Fortunately, the experienced mortar crews could handle such tasks almost silently, and the illumination rounds bloomed almost soundlessly. In an instant, the pitch-black field became extremely bright.
Amidst the roar of the engine, the Panzer IV steadily advanced towards the house. The tank commander quickly retracted into the turret, closing the hatch. With the powerful engine of the Maybach HL120TRM driving it forward, the Panzer IV, with its heavy body and hard armor, forcefully pushed through the wall facing the street of the house, letting bricks and broken glass fall onto the turret and hull. After entering the building, it didn't stop until its entire rear end was inside the room. Then, it steadied itself, slightly adjusted the gun barrel, and opened fire toward the opposite field!
The sound of the gunshots was the command to counterattack. Taking advantage of the disruption caused by the illumination rounds to the British marksmen, the German paratroopers returned to their windows, and the familiar "rip" of the MG34 machine gun returned to their ears. The paratroopers using Mauser rifles suppressed their anger and fired at the suspicious shadows exposed in the light, while MP38 submachine gunners and some "Stormtroopers" also joined the fight. The defensive line, stretching about 3 kilometers, suddenly became lively.
Standing on the deserted but bustling street, Logan took out a cigarette from his pack, hesitated for a moment, and then put the lighter back in his pocket. In the sky, illumination rounds continued to bloom, making those adept at nocturnal activities unable to hide! The Panzer IV, which had forcefully entered residential buildings and destroyed their contents, was joyfully bombarding the bushes on the opposite side with its tank cannon, while the machine gun swept back and forth over the areas where British gunmen lurked or had lurked.
Three minutes and three seconds later, the last illumination round slowly extinguished, and the land returned to the rule of darkness.
The enthusiastic German soldiers didn't stop shooting for quite a while. Everyone listened intently. Ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, two minutes passed, and finally, there were no more annoying gunshots from the opposite side.
"Sir, that was a brilliant move!" Barkoen, excited, almost tumbled down the stairs.
"Well, don't get too excited. The British may have just temporarily retreated!" Logan said coolly, holding the unlit cigarette between his lips. "Your side may already be targeted by the enemy. Be extra vigilant from now on. If the British use their previous tactics again, call for illumination rounds from the heavy mortar battery. But don't overdo it; our ammunition reserves are limited!"
Barkoen quickly nodded. "Yes, sir!"
Logan calmly returned to his staff car. "If the attacks from the north and east don't succeed, I'll send in a platoon at dawn!"
Under Barkoen's admiring gaze, Comrade Logan arrogantly left in his car. However, his last sentence hit the nail on the head. After several unsuccessful attacks and knowing that the sky would still be controlled by the German Air Force after dawn, the British indeed launched a new operation from the north.
From the west of the city to the north, it was only a fifteen-minute drive at a speed of 60 miles per hour. Seeing was believing, and the defenses in this first-class sector were significantly stronger than those in the second and third-class sectors: the German paratroopers mainly constructed trench positions along an east-west dirt road. Although the positions were not yet connected, they could support each other with machine guns and mortars. In a twenty-meter-long trench, two MG34 machine guns formed a firepower point, controlling a battlefield width of about 500 meters on both sides. Additionally, for every four such firepower points, there was a Panzer III or Panzer IV, whose cannon range could cover such an area. Furthermore, Colonel Browall concentrated the remaining tanks in three positions on the left, middle, and right, and elite assault troops rode tanks into battle to support any defensive point at any time!
When Logan arrived at the position, the German mortar teams had already fired illumination rounds. Under the dazzling light, the staggering number of British armed militants surged forward like an ant swarm in a horror movie. Through binoculars, these people hardly had decent military uniforms, and it was difficult to see any more powerful weapons than rifles in their hands. The queue was also mixed with various vehicles - cars, trucks, buses (at this time, in addition to trams, there were also public transportation vehicles similar to modern buses), and even tractors. The distance was still far, but the rumbling noise was already audible.
"Are they coming to their deaths like this?" Logan asked Browall somewhat puzzled.
"It seems that way on the surface, but their previous attack caused us quite a bit of casualties. Do you know why?" No spoilers. With the same rank, Browall occasionally liked to tease as well.
Logan looked through the binoculars for a long time but still couldn't see anything unusual.
Browall's lips curled slightly as he raised his right hand and suddenly waved it down.
Next to him, the barrel of the Number Four tank, already raised, roared instantly. After a two-second flight, the shell accurately hit a truck. The flame flickered briefly, and black smoke rose in billowing clouds.
In an instant, a scene appeared before Logan that left him astonished: the vast advancing column of the attack had "vanished."
"They..." Logan grabbed the binoculars. A single shell could have caused casualties for at most a dozen people, but thousands of armed British personnel were now lying prone on the ground, a sight he had never seen in previous engagements.
"Let's wait patiently. They'll crawl over eventually! It'll take about another fifteen minutes to get within machine gun range... Care for a cup of coffee?" Browall's words dripped with disdain for the British militia. Crawling forward indeed minimized exposure to artillery fire, but it came at the cost of incredibly slow progress!
Taking the coffee cup handed to him by Browall, Logan asked, quite annoyed, "Once they're within rifle range, are they just going to exchange fire with us while slowly advancing?"
"Yeah, otherwise how could they pose a threat to our soldiers?" Browall held the small cup, and in one gulp, downed the hot black coffee.
"Are they planning to wait until dawn?"
Logan glanced at his watch; dawn was not far off.
"Not necessarily!" Browall poured himself a second cup of coffee. "Based on past experience, once they're within rifle range, they'll split their forces. Some will provide covering fire while others will advance, partly running, partly crawling. See those bodies in front of the defensive positions? They never really made it within 100 meters of the line. Most likely, they'll still retreat under our concentrated firepower, regroup, and launch another attack. It's a cycle, relentless and tireless. We need to be patient."
"Patient?" Logan shook his head, sipping his coffee slowly. It was bitter without sugar...