"Why did he have so many infantrymen? Where did they come from? Who told them to come?"

On January 15, General Patton's loud voice suddenly sounded in the British and American Allied Forces Command in a middle school outside Darlington (near Hartlepur and Middlesbrough).

Outside the headquarters, the U.S. infantrymen in the brigade were carrying rifles and carrying packages, driving from the direction of Darlington Railway Station. These infantry were annoyed General Patton who rushed back from the front line on the Tees River to attend the meeting.

"George, who has offended you this time?" The voice of Bradley, commander of the 28th Infantry Division of the United States, reached General Patton's ears.

Patton turned his head and looked over and found that Bradley, dressed in a soldier, had appeared in the headquarters in a dusty manner, with an m1 carbine on his shoulder.

"Omar, it's so sad to see you." General Patton walked over quickly and hugged his old friend. "So, are the dejected infantry outside yours?"

"Downish? I don't think they are all good guys." Bradley looked at the big mouth and frowned.

"They will soon become dejected, as if they are about to face a disaster!" Patton lowered his voice, "Because they are really going to have big trouble... Omar, you can't stay here! Your people have to go quickly, go to Edinburgh, and then board the destroyer from there to escape this desperate battlefield!"

"Oh my God! Why do you say that?" Bradley was stunned by Patton's words. He knew that Patton was a militant and brave, and would not be frightened by the cruel battlefield at all.

Patton pulled Bradrey into a stinking toilet. Seeing that there were no one inside, he sighed and said, "The situation is terrible. After the bad news in London came, the British began to slacken. They had enough of the war. He was thinking about the days after the truce.

Moreover, the Germans are very difficult to deal with. The Germans turned out to have an honest propaganda minister. Goebbels, who was often ridiculed by us, did not lie. The German soldiers were all blonde and blue-eyed superman! My tank was fragile in front of them like paper!"

Patton smiled wryly and said: "Now the Stodonk and the Tees River Bridge cannot be defeated at all! Some of the British troops along the Tees River penetrated between Hartelpur and Middlesbrough, while some surrounded Hartelpur and Middlesbrough from another direction... In fact, it formed a deadlock of intertwined teeth!"

"I know, I'm here for this," said Bradley. "Lt. General Stilwell believes that if we work harder, we can break the deadlock."

It turned out that Bradley's 28th Division was originally Stilwell who came from Eisenhower. As soon as the London storm subsided, Stilwell personally went to Eisenhower to challenge troops and promised to defeat Hartelpur and Middlesbrough.

Eisenhower was not willing to give up Britain like this, so after asking Washington for instructions, he sent the fully armed 28th Division (their weapons were not given to the Bolshevik Party) to Stilwell.

"Nonsense!" Patton stomped his feet, "No second general in the Hartlepool-Middlesburg battlefield would think so. Stilwell's optimism has reached a point of hopelessness! This is a disease!"

General Patton has been commanding on the front line these days, knowing very well about the situation of the German and British troops, and his second armored division has suffered a lot. Two-thirds of the m10 tank destroyer have been damaged, which is still the record without seeing the German Tiger tank.

What worries Patton even more is that the morale of the British army took a sharp turn for the worse after the "London storm". British gentlemen have already recognized the cruel reality that Britain has been defeated. Now the question they have to consider is how to defeat gracefully!

However, Stilwell stubbornly believed that Hartlepool Middlesbrough's front still had a chance to win, so the US military should do its best to win a battle, and then consider whether to withdraw from Europe as a winner.

Before the combat meeting began, Patton and Bradley were taken to Lieutenant General Stilwell's office by a captain.

Overly optimistic Stilwell said to the two: "The Battle of George, Omar, Hartlepool-Middlesburg is likely to be the last battle for the British, so they are ready to go all out. This is also a good opportunity for us... an opportunity to hit the German Nazis hard!"

Hearing Stilwell's optimistic reason, Patton just shook his head powerlessly. Stilwell ignored him and only spoke to himself: "The British Guard Armored Division, the 1st Armored Division, the 6th Armored Division, the 11th Armored Division (just transferred from Ireland), the 1st Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division (also just transferred from Ireland), the 15th Infantry Division, the 51st Infantry Division, the 52nd Infantry Division and the Cumbria County Division have all arrived. We have the 2nd Armored Division and the 28th Infantry Division, with a total of 12 divisions, with a total of nearly 200,000 people, and should be able to win."

"Lieutenant General, but my armored division has almost no tanks." General Patton reminded. "The British armored divisions have also lost a lot of tanks... Now the five armored divisions on the front line of Hartlepool and Stockmere have only up to 350 tanks that can be activated."

From the afternoon of the 9th to the present battle, in the words of General Patton, "This is simply an anti-tank tactical exercise that runs one after another! If it weren't for seeing it with your own eyes, no one would have thought that a big guy like m10 would be so fragile, it would be really vulnerable!"

Although the US Army has been paying attention to tank battles on the European battlefield and has also hired some Soviet instructors to teach the Expeditionary Force officers and soldiers the secrets of tank battles and anti-tank battles. However, when he was on the battlefield where he fought face to face with the Germans, Patton discovered that the Germans had a better ability to deal with tanks than he imagined and was introduced by the Russians.

The effective range of the German "Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade launcher is not 30 meters as the Russians said, but 100 meters! In the offensive and defensive battle of Stoton, the loss of the armored cluster commanded by Patton reached an astonishing level!

In addition to the "Iron Fist", the German light troops also have another anti-tank weapon, recoilless gun, 88mm and 105mm. The range of these weapons exceeds that of Iron Fist, which can reach 200-400 meters, and the armor-breaking power is not weak, and it is enough to deal with the US m10 and the British Churchill tank/tank destroyer.

As for the German anti-tank guns, General Patton's eyes widened. They not only had large calibers (almost all of them were 75mm first-class), but also all achieved motorization and light armor. They could not be dealt with by mortars, and the effect of covering the shooting with heavy cannons is not good.

Their No. 3 assault gun is well-deserved, with infantry, tanks, fortifications, and it can fight anything, and it is not small. It is also very good at ambushing. It always likes to use its low body to hide somewhere and suddenly catch you off guard.

In addition to the amazing anti-tank firepower, the German infantry also had powerful firepower that surprised General Patton. Almost everyone had a "light machine gun", and the firepower of a squad was as strong as that of a US company!

During combat, these infantrymen using "light machine guns" often detour to attack the side of the m10 tank destroyer. The m10 tank destroyer has a hand-crank turret that is inconvenient to turn, and only one anti-aircraft machine gun is installed. The captain must jump out of the turret and stand on the engine cover to operate!

Therefore, this tank destroyer must rely on infantry protection to charge on the battlefield. The infantry that can protect the m10 tank destroyer was often killed and injured by the Germans with dense "light machine gun" firepower.

After the m10 lost infantry cover, they became prey for various German anti-tank firepower.

However, Stilwell did not regard the troubles that Patton encountered as an insurmountable difficulty. He said: "George, don't worry about the problem of insufficient tanks. Your 2nd Armored Division will be supplemented. We stocked up a batch of m10 and m4 in Edinburgh, and they are now transporting to the front line. In addition, 120 tank crews will be transferred from the 8th Armored Division (also part of the US Expeditionary Force) to you. Give you 3 days to rectify the troops. On January 19, the coalition forces will launch a general attack. We will first remove the Stodonk nail, then counterattack Middlesbrough, and finally Hartlepool!"

In fact, it was not only the British and American coalition forces who were preparing to attack. Just as Stilwell assigned the offensive tasks to Patton and Bradley, at Hartelpool, Rudolph von Ribbentrop, had just received a leading mission from his superior Major Marx Winches.

His 22 Tiger G-type tanks will attack from Hartelpool in the early morning of January 16, 1943 under the cover of darkness in the early morning and snow in winter!

The attack was planned on January 10. The 506th Heavy Armored Battalion, the 516th Heavy Armored Battalion and the 3rd Tank Destroy Battalion will form a temporary tactical cluster with the infantry of the 2nd Marine Division and the 185th Italian Lightning Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Walter Wink, and launched a counterattack from Hartelpool to Stodonk 13 kilometers away.

If the counterattack goes smoothly, the assault can be completed in half a day at most. At that time, at least two British and American division-level clusters of the British and American forces, south of Hartelpool, north of the Tyz River, and east of Stodonk, will be surrounded by the Germans and then ruthlessly crushed.

Although the scale of this counterattack was not large, the order issued by General Halder clearly told all officers and soldiers participating in the counterattack, considering the current political situation in Britain, the victory of this counterattack is likely to end the British-German War that has continued since 1939!
Chapter completed!