On the night before dawn, the moonlight converges and the stars disappear. Only people can be seen from a few meters apart. In the seaside town of Crickias, located in the eastern part of the Coen Peninsula, several dazzling beams of light shot towards the sky, leaving faint circular spots on the deep sky, which also provides extra light to people on the ground.

A few hours ago, the storm-like shelling ruthlessly destroyed this beautiful and quiet resort town like purgatory fire. As it was the first day of the war, many civilians had not had time to evacuate, and British troops stationed and subsequent reinforcements also suffered heavy casualties and injuries in the shelling.

Looking back at the last battle, the British mainland had never been so fierce and vicious torture.

So, the railway station that sent away hundreds of thousands of passengers every year was burned to ashes, and the railway line passing through the city was destructively hit. A heavy shell was enough to tear the rails within a range of more than ten meters and the sleepers into pieces. However, in just a few hours, the rubble and fragments that fell on the railway line were basically cleared out, several huge craters were filled, covered with new sleepers and rails, and the train cannons with ferocious appearances were scattered one by one, and huge gun barrels were raised proudly...

"Prepare for the last five minutes! Everyone speeds up! Remember the operation and pay attention to safety!"

A middle-aged officer wearing a flat-edge steel helmet and a khaki uniform was like a rooster with high fighting spirit, holding his chin, thrusting his chest, and his hands behind his back. He used a thick tone that was no less than the baritone and a sluggish London accent that left very little time for everyone.

Each train cannon is a sophisticated and complex machine that requires more than a dozen or twenty well-trained soldiers to operate smoothly. It takes a lot of time to check components, adjust the units, and load ammunition. Not to mention that the enemy's daytime bombing and nighttime shelling have left the railway system in the North Wales region on the verge of paralysis. In order to allow these train cannons to arrive at the Cohen Peninsula, the British engineering troops and the urgently dispatched railway workers were busy all night and finally completed this arduous task with great hope.

In less than half of the five minutes, a thunderous sound suddenly came from a distance. The flames of the heavy artillery fire suddenly dyed the sky red. A strong tremor was transmitted to people's feet through the ground, and the roar of the shells passing over the heads was fleeting.

Many people involuntarily stopped their work and turned around to look around.

The huge loud sound followed by a total of six times. The insiders knew that it must be the six 343mm super heavy train cannons code-named mk11. The gun bodies they used were all taken from the George V-class battleship "Ajax" sunk at the mouth of the Thames. They used ammunition produced before 1914. According to the standards at that time, the British Navy had a serious shortage of large-caliber shells, so the Navy immediately went to the military after the war started.

The factory sent an emergency order. A few months later, the shiny shells filled the naval warehouse, but the number of matching warships decreased sharply. After the war, the British team consumed inventory every year for live-fire training. However, in the past twenty years, the remaining amount was still very large, and it could basically be used normally when it was taken out. On the one hand, it shows the high quality of the British military technology and the excellent logistics and storage conditions. On the other hand, it is also a helpless witness to the sudden historical change of the British Empire from prosperity to decline.

The larger the caliber, the weaker the steering ability of the gun mount, and can even be fixed on the carriage. The adjustment of the firing boundary must be carried out by rails. The railway transfer field several kilometers away from Crickia is the only place in the surrounding area where the train can adjust its direction, so the six MK11s choose there as the shooting position. The most critical factor for the remaining train cannons to reach Crickia is the large-caliber artillery range installed by the British army. Even if it is a product of the last century, the absolute range is more than 20 to 30 kilometers. The problem is that the structure of non-standard train cannons is usually not perfect. For example, some train cannons that use the 8-inch main gun of the old cruiser, the maximum shooting elevation angle is 18 degrees and the effective range is about 22 kilometers. If you want to bombard the German troops landing in Abersohhe, they must be deployed in Crickia or closer to there.

Taking advantage of the faint light, the officer took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, then shouted: "In the last three minutes, check the fixed knob and close the bolt to ensure that everything is foolproof!"

People silently checked the control devices of each train cannon. Some of these train cannons are mass-produced standard weapons, such as the 4mm caliber mk10, 356mm caliber mk3, 305mm caliber mk9, and more of the "waste reuse" of the cannons installed on train cars is subject to the terms of the London Armistice Treaty. Many ships that have been built have to be dismantled on the spot. The British Navy has no funds and does not need to repair a considerable number of damaged ships.

Hundreds of naval artillery became redundant materials after the war. Although the Germans offered generous prices to acquire them, the senior officials in charge of the British navy insisted on sealing them up. The cheap "investment" received a generous return after ten years. As the international situation became tense again, the British quickly used these high-quality artillery to form a large train gun force, adding a strategic deterrent military force to defend the British mainland.

A moment later, another huge rumbling sound came out, but there was a clear difference between the sound of the previous six "giant"s showing their power.

After the cannon roared, sharp whistles came one after another, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense, and the soldiers on the cannon position covered their ears one after another.

The whistle stopped for a few seconds, and then rang again. The train cannons parked on the rails fired one after another, as if beasts roared in anger. The ground continued to tremble, and the flames burst out illuminated the surrounding ruins and illuminated the faces with serious expressions.

The smoke of gunpowder was filled with smoke, the dust was everywhere, the vision was blurred, and the chaos was unclear, but the thick and firm voice was still the same.

"Recharge standard ammunition! Limited to five minutes!"

Equipped with mechanical auxiliary loading equipment, the main gun of warships that can be automatically reset after loading or can be loaded at any angle usually completes ammunition reloading within one minute. The German dreadnought and super dreadnought can even reach an amazing rate of fire of two rounds per minute. Most train guns basically rely on manual operations. When loading, the gun barrel needs to be lowered to a fixed loading angle, and then lift the muzzle again when firing. With such complicated procedures, the shooting speed is naturally much slower than the naval gun. It is great that those land giants with a caliber of more than 300 mm can shoot more than five times per hour.

The pungent smoke lingered around, and the soldiers wearing flat-topped steel helmets worked together in an orderly manner. The high gun barrels slowly lowered, the heavy blast latch opened, the hot shells exited, and the warhead weighing one or two hundred kilograms and dozens of kilograms of fired medicine were sent into the loading slide rail, and then loaded with manual filling or hydraulic assistance. The gun barrel slowly raised and returned to the shooting angle.

During this process, the middle-aged officer responsible for on-site dispatch took out his pocket watches repeatedly. The rate of heavy artillery fire has a prescribed training standard, but there are often no hard indicators on the battlefield. The reason why it is so urgent is that the enemy fighter jets will follow after dawn. The overall strength of the British Air Force is already at a disadvantage. The battle the day before lost a large number of fighter jets. Then there is no confidence in protecting the ground troops. Therefore, the British offensive operation on the front line will come to an end before dawn. The train and artillery troops are also required to end the artillery attack at dawn, and use camouflage means to hide on the spot or quickly retreat to the rear to disperse and conceal.

In addition to the coalition aviation forces with superior strength, coalition warships supporting landing operations are also potential threats that must be defended. Earlier, the British Navy's lightning strike ships launched a raid on the coalition fleet that was targeted in the southeast of the Cohen Peninsula at night. The two sides launched an extremely tragic battle. The British ships gave the coalition heavy blows at the cost of almost complete annihilation. The coalition fleet was forced to retreat, and the British ground forces were able to seize the peripheral defense line of the coalition landing troops in the second round of offensive and gained the lead in subsequent combat operations.

The five-minute deadline has arrived, but the whistle of the order shooting has not sounded. The officer guarding the field phone received a new order and immediately sent a set of data to the commander responsible for on-site dispatch.

"The bounce point is nearly 1,500 meters?" The middle-aged officer touched his bare chin. On the military map, the straight-line distance between Crikius and Abersohh was 19 kilometers. The firing parameters of these train guns were set according to the 20 kilometers target. The shells should have crossed the town and landed in the coalition landing area. However, the observation result sent back from the front line was that the bounce point was close, which made him puzzled. Could it be that the light was too dark, and the forefront observation point was still three or four kilometers away from Abersohh, resulting in an incorrect observation situation?

"What should I do now?" asked his subordinates.

The middle-aged officer did not hesitate, nor did he hesitate, and he waved his hand to summon his officers: "Jim and David informed the first group to increase the shooting elevation angle by 20 points; John and Rotter informed the second group to increase by 25 points; John and Fiss informed the third group to increase by 30 points. Gentlemen, you still have one minute to go, hurry up, run!"

The lieutenants didn't care about the image of the officer at this time, and they ran out one by one.
Chapter completed!