Chapter 599 Bluffing
In the early morning of May 4, 1942, Lieutenant General William von Sussmann, who knew that his forces were not enough to defend Dublin, made a rather risky decision - to fight a counterattack in the north of Dublin.
From a military point of view, this adventure was not a joke, because the situation on the battlefield was not transparent. On May 4, the British army did not know that the armored forces in Lieutenant General Sussmann's hands were only 8 tank companies (4 of which belonged to the 1st Marine Division) plus 10 assault gun companies.
14 companies of tanks and assault guns are not too few. If these 14 companies belonged to the Army Armored Forces, they would not be weak. Now the 25-ton Type 4 H tank is already the standard of the Wehrmacht Army Armored Forces, with 22 tanks in each tank company. This tank has 80mm frontal armor and a 75mm anti-tank gun with a caliber of 48 times, and is also equipped with enough tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells. If there were 8 companies of Type 4 H tanks, Lieutenant General Sussmann could have defeated Montgomery's 11th Armored Division outside Dublin.
Unfortunately, Sussman's 8 tank companies only had the Type 3M amphibious tank and the Type 38tS airborne tank. And among the 10 assault gun companies in his hands, only 3 of them belonged to the 1st Marine Division and were equipped with the more sturdy Type 3 assault guns, while the other 7 companies belonged to the 7th Airborne Division and were equipped with the Marder II tank destroyer.
The Marder II was based on the chassis of the obsolete Type 2 tank and equipped with a 75mm Pak40/2L/46 gun. Its combat weight was only 10.8 tons and it could be carried by the Me323 transport aircraft, so it became an anti-tank weapon used by the airborne troops. However, although the firepower of this Marder II tank destroyer was powerful, its armor was very thin and it was open-top.
Therefore, in the Battle of Dublin, which began in the afternoon of May 4, the armored forces available to Lieutenant General Sussman were mainly 88 Type 3 amphibious tanks, 88 Type 38t tanks, 18 Type 3 assault guns and 60 Weasel II tank destroyers, a total of 254 tanks/self-propelled artillery. It was about the same number of tanks/self-propelled artillery as an armored division. In addition, the Marine Corps' 48 biplane HS-123 attack aircraft had been transferred from the amphibious landing ship to Dublin, and could provide air support together with the Fokker Zero flying from Brest. However, the British would definitely send out Mustangs and Spitfires, so they could not expect air support to play a big role - at least before a large number of combat aircraft were deployed to Ireland, Germany had no air superiority on the island of Ireland.
The armored group commanded by Colonel Walter Wink (called the Wink Group) was facing the British 11th Armored Division, commanded by Major General Michael Omer Clegg, who had fought Rommel in North Africa.
Although he was defeated by the German armored forces, he had the experience of losing. Therefore, he was not demoted after being transferred back to his homeland, but became the commander of the powerful 11th Armored Division.
The 11th Armored Division is one of the strongest master-level forces of the British Army at present. It has three brigades, including the 22nd Armored Brigade, the 29th Armored Brigade, and the 131st "Queen" Brigade, one more brigade than the standard British Army division-level forces.
Moreover, the organization of two of the armored brigades is also very sufficient. Each brigade consists of two tank regiments, one motorized infantry regiment and one artillery regiment. According to the data on the organization table, each tank regiment has three tank squadrons, each squadron has 52 tanks, 10 armored vehicles and 575 officers and soldiers. That is, each regiment has 156 tanks, and one armored brigade has 312 tanks.
The 11th Armored Division, which has the 22nd Armored Brigade and the 29th Armored Brigade, should have 624 tanks when fully staffed! Although the division's tanks were not fully staffed, there were still 466 tanks that could be moved before the battle began on the morning of May 4, including 155 Churchill II infantry tanks, 143 Crusader II cruiser tanks, and 168 American-made M3 Grant/Lee medium tanks. In addition, the 11th Armored Division also had 36 M7 "Priest" self-propelled artillery, so Major General Craig had a total of 502 tanks/self-propelled artillery before the battle began on the morning of May 4, far exceeding the opponent's 254.
In addition, the number of British infantry participating in the Battle of Dublin, which began on May 4, also far exceeded that of the opponent.
Montgomery's 12th Army alone had seven infantry divisions, including the 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Infantry Division, the 49th "West Reading" Infantry Division, the 51st Highland Division, the 52nd Lowland Division, the County Down Division and the County Armagh Division. Together with the infantry of the 11th Armored Division, the total number of British infantry deployed in the Battle of Dublin from May 4th was as high as 120,000, far exceeding the Germans' one marine division and one airborne division, which had less than 30,000 infantry.
However, Montgomery, who was cautious in using troops, did not know that he actually had an overwhelming advantage in terms of manpower. The brigade-level tactical group composed of parts of the British 11th Armored Division and the 3rd Infantry Division, which was somewhat Germanophobic, chose to retreat as a matter of course after being blocked by the German armored forces outside Dublin. They withdrew to the town of Swords, 10 kilometers north of Dublin, and prepared to be beaten.
Colonel Walter Wink, who commanded the armored group to follow the town of Swords, seized the opportunity and decided to continue the attack while the main force of the British army had not arrived. Before the attack began, Colonel Wink called the company commanders of 8 tank companies and 10 assault gun companies to his headquarters.
He told the 18 company commanders: "Now the main force of the British is moving south from Northern Ireland. They want to defeat us and recapture Dublin before our large army lands on the island of Ireland. But we don't want to hand Dublin to the British, and we don't want to be surrounded by the British in a city that is difficult to defend. So I discussed with Lieutenant General Sussman and decided to launch an attack first and hit the British vanguard hard, so that they would make a wrong judgment and think that we are stronger than them."
Dublin cannot be defended by death, because Dublin is surrounded by plains and has good transportation facilities, which is very conducive to the mechanized troops to advance in a roundabout way. If Sussman and Wink want to hold on, then their army will be surrounded and beaten by the British.
However, Sussman and Wink did not want to hand Dublin to the British. Because Ireland has now declared independence and applied to join the European Community. Irish Prime Minister Valera even went to Berlin to pay his respects and curry favor.
At this time, losing the capital of the Republic of Ireland would definitely be a big embarrassment for Germany - since the World War, there has been no precedent for the capital of a European Community country being captured by the enemy!
Therefore, Sussman and Wink thought of giving the British vanguard a hard beating, so that the opponent would overestimate their own strength and take a defensive approach.
Colonel Walter Wink then told his subordinates about his deployment: "The east of Swords is the beach and the Irish Sea, and the armored forces cannot pass through. Therefore, the direction of attack is the large potato fields west of the town, bypassing the British right wing and posing a posture of encircling Swords. In this way, the British are likely to retreat, and then we will pursue them under the cover of the Hs-123."
...
"Karl, is the oil ready?"
When Lieutenant Rudolf von Ribbentrop returned to the company, he saw his platoon leader, Lieutenant Karl Wiesel, sitting next to the tracks of a Type 3 tank to eat. They were eating marching rations - this was received from the field kitchen company before the troops set out from Ducock Bay. All of them were cooked food and did not need to be cooked.
A daily ration usually includes 700 grams of rye bread, 200 grams of cooked meat (most of the time it is various sausages), 60 grams of butter, 9 grams of coffee, 10 grams of sugar, and 6 cigarettes. Sometimes they would also give some biscuits, boxed chocolates (8 triangular dark chocolates in a flat round box) and egg buns.
Before Lieutenant Ribbentrop's company set out from Cockle Bay, each officer and soldier received a 7-day ration, which would allow them to no longer need to replenish food in the next week.
"All filled," Lieutenant Wiesel stuffed a large piece of black bread with sausage and butter into his mouth, chewed it hard for a few times, and then swallowed it with bitter coffee. "21 tanks (one tank was destroyed on the way from Dublin to Swords) are full of fuel, enough for us to drive to Belfast."
"Okay, get in the car!" Lieutenant Ribbentrop waved his hand, "Let's go! Karl, your platoon will lead the way, use combat formations to pass through the potato fields, and go around to the side of Swords."
Now there are not enough officers in the German ground forces. Usually only one platoon leader under a company is an officer, and the other two are sergeants. The platoon led by an officer (usually a platoon) must be the most powerful platoon in the company and must rush to the front in battle.
However, Lieutenant Wiesel's platoon did not rush far before it was attacked in the farmland west of the town of Swords.
Several tracer shells were fired from the direction of Swords, one of which hit the side armor of a tank in the platoon commanded by Lieutenant Wiesel, and then a 40mm shell was fired, which immediately set the unfortunate tank on fire.
"Alarm! Everyone pay attention! There are Crusader tanks!" Lieutenant Carl Wiesel was half outside the turret and saw very clearly that the 40mm shells were fired from several "haystacks", which were obviously camouflaged tanks.
"Behind the haystacks, counterattack! Kill those tanks, quickly!" Lieutenant Wiesel ordered loudly, and the five No. 3 tanks stopped moving forward and turned their turrets to aim at the haystacks. First, the coaxial machine guns fired, and then the 50mm tank guns fired...