Chapter 598 The Turning Point Is Coming

When Colonel Wink personally led the advance force to Dublin by train, Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny were also on their way to Dublin. Because they were defeated by the British... they were caught off guard by the British 29th Armored Brigade and the Cavalry Regiment (Mechanized Infantry Regiment) of the 3rd Infantry Division.

On the one hand, the British used their main force to attack and force the crossing from the front, attracting the pitifully small forces of Major Wizhi and Lieutenant Skorzeny. At the same time, they organized commandos to force the crossing from the lower reaches of the Boyne River near the seaport. The water there is relatively wide and there is no ready-made ferry terminal. It was originally not suitable for army troops to cross the river.

However, Montgomery mobilized several several hundred-ton landing ships and sailed into the river mouth. Using the landing ships as ferries, he ferried more than a dozen Crusader tanks and more than a thousand soldiers to the south bank of the Boyne River. The carefully arranged defense line of Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny was completely ineffective.

After all, the British have ruled Ireland for hundreds of years. Compared with the Germans, they are the ones who are truly familiar with every plant and plant in Ireland!

However, the Irish still sided with the German Nazis, and received help from many Irish during the retreat of Major Witzhi, Lieutenant Skorzeny and others.

Moreover, the guerrillas of the Irish Republican Army had been quickly organized - the Irish originally used guerrilla warfare to fight the British. They were vulnerable to regular warfare, but they still had the ability to fight guerrilla warfare.

During the retreat, Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny encountered at least 1,000 armed civilians. Many Irish soldiers who followed the German retreat also took off their uniforms to fight guerrillas. Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny asked their men to leave the grenades, mines and Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launchers they carried with the guerrillas.

I don’t know if it was the Irish guerrilla warfare that delayed the British army, but the retreat of Major Witzhi and Lieutenant Skorzeny went smoothly. They retreated to Dublin around 5 a.m. on May 4. On the outskirts of Dublin, they saw many men and women working hard - digging trenches and anti-tank trenches. There are also many men wearing civilian clothes carrying old rifles and setting up roadblocks on the highway.

Obviously, the Irish are determined to defend their capital, Dublin!

…

"Comrade Golikov, we have just won two very important battles, repelled the German attack on Northern Ireland, and also captured Dundalk and Drogheda in the Irish Free State. Now the first The leading troops of the 12th Army have approached Dublin, the capital of the Irish Free State."

The Red Army observation group sent by Stalin arrived in London on the morning of May 4, accompanied by the one-eyed General Wavell who had been transferred back to the mainland from India not long ago - General Wavell had spent two years studying in Russia before World War I. Russian, later an intelligence officer in the Russian Section of the British War Office, served in Russia during World War I and did not leave Russia until May 1917, after the outbreak of the revolution. Therefore, he could directly communicate in Russian with Lieutenant General Golikov, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Soviet Red Army and Director of the General Intelligence Bureau.

The British also knew the purpose of Golikov's visit and knew that he came to inspect the Irish battlefield. So as soon as Golikov arrived in London, Admiral Wavell immediately accompanied him to the Irish front.

In fact, now is indeed a good time for people to visit the Irish front line, because the British army's operations in Ireland are relatively smooth. The German army was temporarily at a disadvantage because it arrived in too few numbers and was not a heavily armed force. So the Soviets would see the defeat of the German army and the victory of the British army.

"Did they reach Dublin so soon?" Sitting on a C-47 transport plane heading to Belfast, Golikov was very surprised by the rapid progress of the British army. He asked bluntly: "Could it be that the Germans were in Ireland has very few troops?"

According to intelligence provided by the British, about 150,000 German troops have arrived in Ireland! Golikov felt that if the Germans really arrived in so many numbers, the British army would never be able to achieve the current progress.

"Of course not," General Wavell shook his head. "They airborne two divisions at once in Dublin, and at least 120,000 others have arrived at Cork Port. It is estimated that their total strength on the island of Ireland is close to 150,000 . However, their 150,000 troops have not yet been deployed. Many heavy equipment are still waiting for unloading operations at the port, and the air force has no time to deploy. Now they are engaged in island landing operations. This is not a blitzkrieg on the plains. The Germans are not good at it, so we were caught off guard..."

Admiral Wavell's expression suddenly became very solemn, "But the Germans have now established a foothold in Ireland. Even if we can capture Dublin, we will not be able to capture Cork Bay. And as long as Cork Bay is in the hands of the Germans, they can It is very difficult to continue to add troops to Ireland with the advantage of sea!"

The admiral's words were half-true and half-false, and very confusing. Although Golikov does not believe it all, he also believes that it has certain reference value.

"But we will still fight with our best strength," Wavell added, "because if we are defeated in Ireland, the entire mainland will be completely blocked. At that time, the government and the king will have to withdraw to Canada... It will be very difficult to counterattack.”

The old general looked at Golikov with his remaining right eye and said: "By then, your Soviet Union will become the only country in Europe that resists Nazi tyranny!"

The Soviet Union would become the only country in Europe that disobeyed Germany... Golikov knew that this was Stalin's worst fear. Moreover, Stalin did not believe that Germany would coexist peacefully with the Soviet Union after "pacifying Britain and the United States." In Stalin's view, after Germany conquered all of Europe except the Soviet Union, it would inevitably launch an invasion of the Soviet Union, so the Soviet Union must complete the task in Germany. Start before conquering the British mainland.

But Stalin was a more cautious leader. He wanted to go to war but was afraid of losing. Because he knew that it would be difficult for a ruler who failed in foreign wars to survive in Russia, Stalin chose to attack weak enemies in the past three years and achieved several relatively small victories. The right bank of Ukraine, Western Belarus, Karelia and Afghanistan were captured.

Of course, Afghanistan has not yet been settled, and many remaining feudal forces are still resisting with the support of imperialism. In particular, the Churchill suicide bomb vests provided by British imperialism have caused considerable losses to Red Army soldiers and Afghan progressive forces. Stalin became furious several times over this, and even made harsh words - sooner or later, Churchill would have to put on this suicide vest himself!

But harsh words are harsh words. When Fatty Qiu really couldn't stand it anymore, Stalin was reluctant to let Churchill and the British Empire perish together.

Golikov, who knew Stalin's contradictory thoughts very well, now really wanted to see a turning point in the world war in Ireland.

…

The so-called turning point may really be coming, because the invincible German Wehrmacht ground forces seem to be about to suffer their first battle-level defeat since the beginning of the world war.

When Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny arrived in Dublin with the remaining men, they knew that Dublin could not be defended.

Because Dublin's defense system, which was about to be attacked by the superior British forces, could not be considered as existing in the eyes of a military expert like him. Those temporarily dug trenches are shallow and short and cannot withstand artillery fire. The so-called anti-tank trenches cannot resist tanks at all. The so-called roadblocks set up on the highway look a bit like inspection warfare. It may be possible to catch the bad guys, but they can be used to deal with the regular army's attack. It's whimsical.

What left them speechless the most was that the preparations for street fighting in Dublin were also very inadequate. Most of the solid buildings in the city were not deployed for street fighting, the main roads were not effectively blocked, and the barricades were built to meet the requirements of street fighting in the mechanized era.

It is obvious that the Irish government fell into a certain degree of chaos immediately after declaring independence and resisting the British invasion, and they certainly did not seriously consider resisting the British invasion before the German troops arrived.

However, the resistance enthusiasm of Dublin citizens seemed to be quite high. After entering the city, Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny saw long queues in front of all recruitment points on their way to the coalition headquarters in Phoenix Park. . And on every street you can see old people, women and children building barricades out of old furniture and sandbags - this kind of barricades may have worked during the European revolutions of 1848 or the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, but it is completely useless now .

People were very friendly to the German officers riding in the Volkswagen W82 bucket truck (equivalent to a jeep). Along the way, citizens stopped and raised their hands to salute Wenck's convoy.

"If there is enough time, maybe we can recruit a few armed SS divisions in Ireland, train and equip them well, so that they will become elites." Lieutenant Skorzeny looked at those who were in high spirits, but immediately The Irish people who were going to suffer felt very sorry and helpless.

Major Witsch and Lieutenant Skorzeny met Lieutenant General Sussman who looked a little sad in an annex building of the Irish Presidential Palace. Major Witsch reported to him: "Commander, the British are coming. It was more turbulent than expected, and their combat methods and equipment had improved. Much like us, what we encountered in Dundalk and Drogheda was a mechanized force that was simply impossible to resist. "

Lieutenant General Sussman did not blame his defeated subordinates. He just smiled and said to them in a comforting tone: "I understand, it doesn't matter, our reinforcements will arrive soon. 1st Marine Division Four tank companies, one assault gun battalion and one anti-tank gun battalion were sent, so we are going to launch a counterattack, this morning."