The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 660

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: 0.051s Scan: 0.023sAlthough the British army had a chance to catch their breath overnight, it also gave the German army a chance to adjust and re-plan their attack.

After Steiner landed, he formulated a tactic based on the intelligence obtained by the German army during the night attack, which was to attack to the right, focus on breaking through the British defense line on the right wing near Southampton, and then control Southampton!

Southampton is one of the main cities in the south of the sun never sets.

If the port here can be taken down, so that the German transport ships and merchant ships that cannot land on the beach can only dock, then the German army can more easily unload the troops and corresponding combat supplies transported on it!

Although the scale of the German landing fleet is not small, it can transport 100,000 people at a time, but the sea area where they choose to land is relatively wide.

The transport ship needs to sail more than 200 kilometers to travel back and forth.

In addition to the time it takes for the troops on the ship to land and the time it takes for the troops and merchant ships at the port, the landing fleet needs about���Twenty hours, the fastest delivery can only be made once a day.

The speed of once a day is too slow, especially when the British army is sending reinforcements to the south on a large scale. Although the air force can help them intercept, the British army can march at night and use the cover of darkness to avoid the bombing and harassment of the German army.

The area of the British mainland is not large. The southern region is the area where the British army focuses on defense. The army here is very dense. It is very simple to transfer troops from neighboring places, and the reinforcements will arrive very quickly.

After the experience of being attacked and harassed by the German Air Force during the day today, the British army that will arrive in the future will definitely attach great importance to air defense and concealment, and will not easily give the German army an opportunity to attack them!

Once these troops arrive on the battlefield, the British army can completely form a larger defense line on the periphery of the German-occupied area, so that the German army is still surrounded by the British army.

It is very difficult for them to break through the enemy’s obstruction!

Therefore, the most important thing at the moment is to break through the British line of defense, while the British reinforcements have not yet arrived on the battlefield on a large scale, quickly expand the occupied area, and provide more space for subsequent troops!

Therefore, Steiner personally led the team to the front-line battlefield to command the battle and launched a fierce attack on the Linwood area north of Bournemouth.

This is the hub area of the British Army’s third line of defense. It has two major transportation routes, highway and railway. Controlling this area is for the German army to attack and defend, and their passive situation will be greatly improved.

For the British army, the transportation conditions here are extremely superior. If they lose this place, their reinforcements will not be able to assemble directly here. They may need to get off the car farther away and then walk to the battlefield.

The British army has seen the harassment ability of the German Air Force. In the absence of any protection when marching on foot in the wild, their casualties will be very high, and it is very likely that they will be broken up before they reach the place and become a group of defeated soldiers!

Therefore, the defenders in the Bournemouth area have shrunk their strength here, relying on the third line of defense to give the German army a fierce blow, hoping to repel the German army like yesterday and hold on to the reinforcements!

However, this time, they were not lucky!

The southern part of the town of Linwood is a seaside impact plain with very flat terrain.

A not very wide Avon River runs through it.

There are unnamed highlands on both sides of the river valley.

The highland on the left is numbered as 213 Highland by the German army.

As the name suggests, the peak here is 213 meters above sea level.

The main peak is in the southeast of the town of Horn, only 500 meters away from Highway 38 and only 2,100 meters away from the German landing site in Bournemouth.

If a machine gun is set up here, they can easily threaten the army marching on the road. The British army also deployed a company of artillery units on 213 Highland. They have 476.2 mm field guns, which can block Highway 38 from a high position and can also continuously suppress the beach where the Germans landed.

Since the Germans landed last night, several field guns here have been firing continuously, causing considerable losses to the troops on the German beachhead, so in Steiner’s plan, this is a nail that must be pulled out.

To the east of the Avon Valley is the town of Burleigh. This town, located in the mountains and forests, has a small population, but its strategic location is very important. There is also a highland near the Avon Valley to the south of the town. The altitude of this highland is 337 meters, and it was named 337 Highland by the Germans. The area of 337 Highland is much larger than that of 213 Highland, and the altitude is also one hundred meters higher.

The second line of defense of the British army is based on these two highlands. Their core area is located in the town of Linwood in the rear. If the German army wants to control the railway and the road, it must occupy Linwood.

However, the town of Linwood is located deep in the Avon Valley. If the German army enters the valley and attacks directly here, it will inevitably be hit hard by the British army on the highlands on both sides.

Last night, the German army’s two attacks were repelled because of the fierce harassment of the British army on the highlands on both wings, which tore the German formation and caused the German attack array to be disconnected, causing the German attack to fail in the end!

After learning from yesterday’s experience and lessons, Steiner immediately focused the daytime attack on these two highlands.

According to the location of these two heights, Hill 213 is closer to the German landing site. It is like a nail embedded in the German position, compressing the German activity area, so any general would probably remove it first.

The British army thought so too. At dawn, Linwood’s British army sent an additional battalion of troops to Hill 213, increasing the number of defenders on the mountain to more than 2,000 and the number of artillery to 8.

This place suddenly became a greater threat to the German army!

Steiner did not attack here immediately. After observing the terrain, he actually gave up Hill 213 and went to attack Hill 337!

“If we attack Hill 213, Hill 337 will also assist us. They are located a little further back and at a higher altitude. The artillery on the mountain can hit our troops in the south. Therefore, attacking Hill 213 is actually facing the firepower of the British army on both Hill 213 and Hill 33 at the same time. Our casualties will definitely be heavy!”

Although the German army did not fight Shangganling, it attached great importance to this in the army tutorial personally formulated by Mainz.

The Army’s General Staff also compiled a large number of combat strategies for attacking the enemy’s key defense heights. The first point is to avoid the enemy’s firepower and launch an attack from the enemy’s weak points!

In Steiner’s view, the enemy’s greatest weakness is behind Hill 337, the forest area in the Burleigh area!