Chapter 295
The British army's attempt to retake the beachhead can be described as a succession of fronts. Those in the front row fell, and those in the back row continued to follow.
All British troops are attacking frantically.
Unfortunately, the powerful artillery fire of the Ming Dynasty always tore the attacking British troops into pieces.
There were broken corpses and broken equipment of the British army everywhere.
Even Douglas Haig, the British commander who had experienced many battles and was no longer sensitive to casualty figures, was frightened when he saw this scene.
The battle for the beachhead lasted for a whole day. In just one day, the British army lost 50,000 people.
When it got dark, the British attack ceased.
Because, I really can’t fight anymore.
Near the beachhead, all the troops that could be recruited were recruited. Even civilian personnel, cooking teams, and horsemen who supported the logistics were filled in.
But in the end...!
Except for the cold casualty figures and the corpses lying on the ground, the British found nothing.
The Germans were extremely happy. This was the first time they experienced the Ming Dynasty's crazy artillery support.
A single salvo from the arsenal ship can turn the front of the position into a sea of fire. Everyone believes that under this sea of fire, no living thing on the surface will survive.
The result was similar to what they had guessed. The British troops who had been so densely packed just now were now reduced to pieces of charred corpses.
I can’t imagine that just last year, Germany and Ming Dynasty were enemies. The two sides faced off in Smolensk to the death!
If the confrontation was still going on now, the people covered by artillery fire might not be the British, but the Germans.
No one wants to become like a roast chicken, even for the noble ideal of the motherland. German soldiers do have a tradition of iron and blood, but they are not stupid.
On the contrary, Germans are actually very smart. It’s just that the education they received since childhood has made them accustomed to obedience.
The Prussian education method shines brightly on them.
It was not until night that the battle line finally calmed down. Li Xiu also breathed a sigh of relief, finally landing.
In just one day, 57,000 people came to the beach.
The beachhead also extended seven kilometers forward.
Dover is not far from London. If you only calculate the straight-line distance on the map, it is only a little over one hundred kilometers.
For the Ming army, this was just a matter of a tank kicking the accelerator. But for the German army, this was a long and cruel march.
It is conceivable that with the momentum shown by the British today, they will definitely snipe the Germans on the road. The price paid for this trip to London will be unprecedented.
The German army was also prepared for this, so they did not blindly expand the beachhead. Instead, they sent troops to seize the nearby port of Dover.
epzw/html/103/103376/"Lie to Kangxi"
It is said to be a port, but it is actually a pier where fishing boats can be parked.
Parked here are either fishing boats or yachts. Ships with a tonnage of one thousand tons are huge for this place.
There is no way, there is only such a small pier.
Therefore, airships have become the main means of transportation at night.
One airship after another continuously transported the supplies needed by the German army from Calais to the beachfront to supply the soldiers on the frontline.
At midnight, the German airship was carrying a pod full of cargo and was about to land in the port of Dover.
Suddenly, a red flaming whip appeared in the sky.
The whip seemed to be caught in the giant's hand, and he was swinging the whip vigorously at this time.
A series of bullets hit the airship's airbag, and a ten-meter-long hole was torn open on one side of the airship's airbag.
Although these openings are composed of small openings.
However, the high-pressure gas in the air bag spurted out along these small openings. In an instant, the small openings swelled into large openings.
A ten-meter-long hole would consume all the high-pressure gas in an instant.
I watched as the huge airbag of the airship deflated visibly to the naked eye. Then, the pod loaded with cargo fell straight to the ground in a free fall posture.
The cargo of this pod is still ammunition.
The pod fell to the ground and immediately caused a huge explosion.
The fire of the explosion was extremely dazzling in the night sky.
The fire even illuminated several airships in the sky.
"It's a British airship, anti-aircraft gun! Anti-aircraft gun!" Those with sharp eyes saw the huge England Lion emblem on the airbag of the airship.
The German anti-aircraft artillery responded quickly, but now there were so many airships in the sky that it became difficult to determine the target.
It was dark and midwinter. God knows which airship belonged to the German army and which airship belonged to the British army.
Several illumination bombs were launched into the air, but unfortunately, the launch height of the illumination bombs was limited.
Through the light of the flares, the German soldiers discovered that there were airships high up. However, because they were too high, it was not clear which ones were the German airships and which ones were the British airships.
Thanks to the production lines exported by Ming Dynasty, airships manufactured by all European countries are almost the same.
Even the styles of the airbags are the same, and people who are not familiar with the situation would not be able to tell any clues.
Now that the shortcomings are revealed, there is no way to identify friend or foe.
The airships in the sky were also having a great time fighting. What often happened was that the gunners of the airships fired at each other.
Sometimes it was impossible to tell which airship was German and which was British. Anyway, when they saw which airship opened fire, they would shoot at the airship that opened fire.
After knocking off the opponent's airship and watching the airship plummeting with flames and thick smoke, the airship from an unknown country that had been waiting for a long time also took action.
This kind of operation is no different from queuing up to be shot.
The German anti-aircraft artillery soldiers stared blankly at the airships in the sky shooting each other, but there was nothing they could do.
Because they couldn't figure out which ones were British airships and which ones were German airships.
By this point in the battle, it was already complete chaos.
Among every airship that fell from the sky, several were filled with ammunition that was urgently needed on the front line, especially mortars.
But now it's better, the shells turned into bombs and fell from the sky.
Especially the mortar shells that flew out after the big explosion. They were just like cluster bombs!
Countless artillery shells exploded, killing and wounding many German soldiers.
Many German soldiers even disobeyed their superiors' orders for the first time and hid in the trenches pretending to be dead.
The British army actually dispatched airships to attack airships, which no one had imagined beforehand. Because everyone was in the sky, and the airships were too slow and cumbersome.
Using an airship to attack an airship can lead to a sneak attack, but as soon as it is discovered, it will be shot down immediately.
Chapter completed!