Under the drag of a uniform parachute, a large-scale paratrooper seemed to have a slightly faster decline than others. When he landed on the ground, his butt was firmly lying on the snow. Fortunately, the winter sun did not melt the snow on the ground quickly. The snow more than ten centimeters thick provided some buffering, so that his poor butt would not fall into several petals at once.

The big man's voice seemed to be proportional to his size. Before he could take off his umbrella bag, he shouted in that almost roaring voice:

"Everyone takes his own equipment and keeps the parachute in place! The company commanders of each company are responsible for collecting their soldiers and nearby airdrop materials, and moving to the town as soon as possible!"

"Major, are you okay?" A paratrooper who had landed on the ground had walked to the big guy and stretched out his right hand to help him up.

"fine!"

It doesn't matter if the big guy pulls it. The average paratrooper almost staggers and falls to the ground. This big guy is Major Shields of the 4th Airborne Regiment. He is 1.89 meters tall and weighs 96 kilograms. He graduated from the Berlin Army Academy and is 31 years old. He is a young officer who pays more attention to individual soldiers' ability and team cooperation.

Shields patted the snow on his body. He wore an M16 steel helmet like the soldiers and a square backpack. It was hard to see from behind that he was a major officer, which was also his more personality.

"Everyone moves faster!"

After freeing himself from the parachute, Shields shouted again. The soldiers around him were not afraid of hearing this sound, but everyone couldn't help but speed up their movements. Soon, neat paratrooper companies gathered, and the ammunition and medicine scattered everywhere quickly gathered.

"Oh, poor kid!"

Looking at the few carriages in front of him that were usually used to transport grain and the thin horses that pulled the cart, Shields began to talk to himself, and this self-talk also reached everyone nearby with his loud voice. Fortunately, most of the paratroopers were used to this unrestrained major.

"Major, I'm sorry, this is all the transportation we can find in the town!" The paratroopers sent by Garys explained a little apologetically that Fording Town is not a place where the rich live, and all the things on four wheels have to be pulled by Malay.

Shields waved his hand openly, "Sergeant, don't be nervous! I don't mean to blame you! My soldiers have been on the coast of France for dozens of hours, and now it's time to let them move!"

Looking at the Fordine River Bridge as the center, there are three railways leading to this bridge, one to Dorchester to the west, one to Southampton to the northeast, and one to Bonesmouth directly to Bonesmouth. In peacetime, Bonesmouth Beach was a good place for leisure and vacation, so the British built a single-track railway here. After Lieutenant Colonel Garris's 1st Airborne Regiment occupied this place, all the three railways near the Fordine River Bridge were destroyed. Before the rails were restored, trains from that direction could only go about 5 miles from the bridge.

At this time, the British army planned to transfer from Southampton had not yet completed all the troops transferred from the bus, so the east side of the bridge would not be attacked by the British for the time being. With the help of some soldiers of the 1st Airborne Regiment, Shields' 4th Airborne Regiment also had enough time to transport all the ammunition and drug resources here back to Fortin Town.

In the end, these ox carts were loaded with only a small part of the ammunition and a few paratroopers who were unfortunately injured in the airborne. Other ammunition and medicine were only supported by these more than 2,000 paratroopers, and Shields carried a large box of bullets alone. In the German army, it was rare to see officers who really shared the joys and sorrows with the soldiers.

After the fireworks performance of the soldiers to meet the 4th Airborne Regiment, there were only some empty signal firework shells left in the hilly area. The abandoned parachutes looked like semi-withered white flowers. When a gust of cold wind blew, several of them were blown away.

Lieutenant Colonel Garris's command is located in the railway station on the east side of the bridge. From there, the railway from Southampton splits a southward to Bonesmouth Beach. From the appearance, this station is just a very ordinary building in the great industrial era. The platform is short but clean. The waiting room is a single-story steep brick and stone house. The house is not big but there is a big bell tower on it. The mechanical clock is still operating professionally. The platform is almost empty, and winter and war are huge obstacles to people's travel. There are several posts made of sandbags next to the platform. Five and six German paratroopers are talking about something.

Looking upstream from the platform, there is a very classic castle-style villa on the hillside opposite the river. Because it is covered with white snow, it is easy to remind people of the prince's castle in a fairy tale. However, it is too far from the bridge and has little strategic significance, so Lieutenant Colonel Garris did not send soldiers to occupy it.

Standing in front of Shields, Lieutenant Colonel Garris was shorter than his head, while Karen was between two.

"Lieutenant Colonel, 2,500 soldiers of the 4th Airborne Regiment have arrived now. Four of the troops landed in the town were injured in the legs, one with an arm fracture, and only two of the troops landed outside the town were sprained, and the remaining 2,493 people can be put into battle at any time! In addition, we also brought 200,000 rifle bullets, 150,000 machine gun bullets, 8,000 grenades, and 800 mortar shells!" Xierci's voice was like thunder in the room. When fighting with the Russian army in hand-to-hand combat, this sound could even overwhelm the Russians, who were famous for their barbarity and rudeness. During this airborne, about a company of paratroopers landed in the town east of Qiao, and some people even smashed directly into residents' houses. There were also many people hanging parachutes on the roof. Now there were white parachutes floating everywhere in the town.

"You came too timely! We really want to thank some of the brothers of the Air Force. They taught us a lesson for two British divisions in the west. Now the British are still staying there honestly!" It was precisely because the air force fleet appeared at the right time that the first battle expected by Garys was greatly postponed. With the 4th Airborne Regiment and the ammunition and medicines they brought, the defense of the Fording River Bridge was greatly strengthened. Garys and his friends delayed here for one more minute, and the landing troops could transport an additional batch of supplies to the ashore. Without capturing the Fording River Bridge, the British planned front from Dorchester to Southampton would not be formed.

"Yes, I also saw it on the plane. The Air Force brothers are so good! Lieutenant Colonel, how should our airborne regiment be deployed?" After thanking the Luftwaffe, Shields brought the conversation to the point. Although the two British divisions in the west were injured, an astonishing number of British troops were coming one after another. The German airborne troops did not dare to neglect the defense of the bridge. Shields brought this time in a very large number of ammunition, but they were not really assigned to each soldier. Supply was always a major problem in airborne combat.

"Now our three battalions of the airborne regiment are deployed in Qiaoxi Town, on both sides of the bridge, and Qiaodong Town. Your regiment will temporarily send a battalion to Qiaoxi Town, and the remaining two battalions remain in Qiaodong as reserves. What do you think?" The battles that failed due to inconsistent commands are everywhere in the history of countries around the world. Therefore, before the landing operation began, Lieutenant Colonel Garris was appointed as the commander-in-chief of this operation. Out of politeness, he still assigned tasks to Shields in a consultative tone.

"Abide by the order!" Shields replied unambiguously.

At 11:20 am, the melodious sound of bagpipes came again from the west. With the telegram sent by the General Command, General Lisser had to order his British 17th Infantry Division and the Canadian Cole Infantry Division to advance to Fordine again. The telegram was stern, and the tone of taking down the bridge at all costs was filled with the lines. As for the number of German soldiers here, the General Command believed that the Bonesmouth Guard Reserve was attacked by a large number of German paratroopers, and there should not be too many paratroopers occupying the bridge.

When the remaining cannons on the British positions opened fire, the people who were most nervous were neither British officers nor German paratroopers, but innocent residents. Mrs. Brown, 63, who lives on the west side of the bridge, portrayed her experience in this way:

"I clearly remember that I did not forget to pray to God for the early end of the war and prayed to my two sons who were called to join the army to return safely! However, the peace was broken at 5 and 6 a.m., and a sound of gunfire came from the bridge. I learned from my neighbor that the Germans had occupied the bridge. I really couldn't believe it. But just as I was having breakfast, several fierce German soldiers rushed to my house and said a lot of things I couldn't understand. Their behavior was so rough that they smashed the glass on the window to pieces without my consent.

, moved my furniture privately to the window, and put a machine gun there. God! My home became their battlefield! I wanted to stop them, but they were locked into the guest room on the first floor. In the morning, I heard two intense gunfire sounds. The first was around 10 o'clock in the morning. First, there was a disgusting buzzing sound above my head, and then there was a burst of explosions and very dense gunfire sounds on the west side; the second time was an hour later, the explosion was very close to me, and it seemed to have happened in the town. I was very scared at that time, and then I got under the bed because I was afraid that my house would be blown up."

As the British army lined up in 10 horizontal lines, about 5,000 infantry advanced to Fording Town, the British army used more than 10 remaining rapid-fire cannons to launch a shelling in the town for nearly 20 minutes. About one-third of the houses in the town to the west of the bridge collapsed during the shelling, and nearly half of them suffered varying degrees of damage.

"Come on, bastards, try our best!"

On the ground floor of a British house, two German machine gunners were closely watching the shaking figures, sofas, tables and other furniture in front of them pushed to the window to resist bullets. Two boxes of machine gun bullets and several grenades were placed on the ground beside them. The fire points of other machine guns were roughly arranged in this way.

In the attic of a house, a somewhat lonely German paratrooper had a slightly closed left eye and his right eye was close to the 5x scope on his rifle. Through this simple and effective tool, he could see the expressionless faces of the British infantry trotting forward with a rifle in a diagonal position. At this time, the British formation had dispersed, but the general outlines of the 10 horizontal formations were still there. In terms of the color and style of the uniforms, there was not much difference between the Canadian and English infantry. For this professionally trained sniper, it was not important whether they were killed by Canadians or British. The officer was his first target, and then the guy holding machine guns and other powerful weapons. Only when there were no other targets would he shoot those ordinary British soldiers.

(The effective range of rifles and sniper rifles has been seen in various ways. It is said that for experienced snipers, the Mauser Kar98K sniper rifle equipped with a 4x scope can shoot 400 targets. If you choose a 6x scope, you can shoot targets 1,000 meters. The Mauser 1898 rifle, which has a longer barrel and a faster bullet velocity, should have a longer effective range, but the fact does not seem to be the case. The Mauser 1898's maximum effective range is between 600-800 meters.)

"Target distance, 1500 meters!" A soldier lying on the roof used a simple rangefinder to calculate the distance between British infantry. Behind the house, three mortars and about 10 gunners were ready.

"Set the shell landing point at 1200 meters!"

After the orders of the officers in charge of commanding these mortars were issued, the gunners fine-tuned the mortars. At this time, the British artillery fire was still firing, but before the brick-structured house in front of them was collapsed, the mortars and gunners here were still safe. In the town on the west side of the bridge, there were 7 other such mortar positions.

Of the first 10 cross-straits of the British army, about half were Canadian soldiers. These young men came here from across the ocean to participate in a war that was somewhat inexplicable to them. However, most of the Canadian soldiers, known for their dedication and tenacity, had no complaints (it is said that three of the five strongest ace snipers in history were Canadians, which was extremely unexpected!), the young faces under the brim of the hat were all coldly looking at the town ahead without any movement under the shelling, and the conspicuous steel bridge in their sight was their ultimate goal.

"Everyone keep up! It will soon be in the opponent's range!"

On the far right side of the first horizontal lineup, Canadian Lieutenant Joni loudly reminded his soldiers that running thousands of meters in winter is not a fun thing, and everyone is breathing hot. These Canadians put the rifle obliquely on their chests, and the bayonet at the front of the rifle was shaking brightly in the sun.

Suddenly, Joni found a few black things rising quietly from the town. These things were rising higher and higher, and their trajectories were very different from ordinary shells and bullets. Joni had only seen one thing with a similar trajectory, that is, the mortars commonly used by fortress artillery, but when that thing was fired, it would make a very dull sound, but there was nothing here except the sound of British artillery shooting and shell explosion.

Mortars are not considered new weapons. The world's first real mortar was invented by Russian artillery captain Gobiato Leonid Nikolaevich from September to October 1904. At that time, the Russo-Japanese War was in the Russo-Japanese War, and Tsarist Russia and Japan fought fiercely to compete for China's Lushunkou. The Russian army occupied the Lushunkou fortress, and Japan dug trenches and approached only a few dozen meters away from the Russian position. The Russian army could not kill and injure the Japanese army with ordinary artillery and machine guns. So Nikolaevich

I tried to modify an old 47mm naval mortar on a gun stand with wheels, and fired a long-tail shell at a large elevation angle to effectively kill the Japanese army in the trench and repel many attacks from the Japanese army. This kind of artillery born on the battlefield was the earliest mortar in the world. However, until the outbreak of the war in 1914, countries did not have a high understanding and attention to mortars. At present, most infantrymen in other countries have never seen mortars except Russia, Germany and France.

When those black things plunged into the crowd and exploded, Joni finally understood that this was a weapon that should not be underestimated. This bomb was not powerful, but it could make people unable to see the other party even after being bombed. The sudden blow did not cause these Canadians and British people to panic in large areas. Seeing their companions fall one by one, they couldn't help but speed up their pace of progress.

Those black things rose much faster than ordinary artillery fired. They raised snow and soil in the snow again and again, and the British infantry formations gradually appeared one by one. The British artillery was still roaring, but they could not suppress the German mortars at all.

When Joni and his soldiers stepped into the range of German machine guns and rifles, the oncoming dense bullets made everyone feel helpless. The soldiers who were shot on their chest or head showed a very typical posture due to inertia: they leaned back and fell to the ground, their hands spread out and sometimes they would throw out the weapons in their hands, and finally they fell down head-on. The posture of the person who was shot below their legs was much simpler. A standard leaping forward and then just wait for the medical soldiers to arrive.

"Keep going!" Joni had just taken the next step, but a bullet coming towards him quietly penetrated into his body. The moment he leaned back, his hat flew out, his soft blonde hair was tightly attached to his scalp due to sweat, and his eyes looked at the last glance at the blue sky in a daze. When he knelt on the snow on his knees, he felt that the ground was so soft, like a comfortable big bed, and he was about to fall asleep forever on this big bed.
Chapter completed!