Chapter 761 Landing in England VI

Just when the British command was confused about where the Germans' airborne targets were, Captain Otto Skorzeny and his paratrooper brothers had already landed on British soil. They began to form temporary commandos and then rushed towards the targets they had planned to fight for.

Skorzeny, who was already an old paratrooper, landed on the ground very smoothly. The FG42 hanging on his body was not blown away by the wind, and the two grenades and magazines hanging on his chest were also there. The only thing that made him dissatisfied was that he didn't know where he landed? Because when he jumped down from the plane just now, the wind in the sky was really a bit strong - there was no way, the weather in January was like this!

"Damn wind, today is really not a good weather for parachuting!" Skorzeny took a compass and looked at the map he brought for a long time, and then opened the scenery comparison manual and looked around. Finally, he confirmed one thing, that is, he must be on British soil now.

There was a quick and urgent sound of gunfire not far away. It was not fired by the FG42, nor was it the harsh sound of the MG42 machine gun tearing linen. It sounded a bit like some kind of submachine gun firing, but the German paratroopers did not have such outdated things as submachine guns.

So Skorzeny was very careful. He bent over, holding the FG42, and walked from where he landed to a farmland full of weeds. Here he found a German paratrooper holding a pistol, looking at him nervously - not all paratroopers would parachute with FG42, only experienced veterans would do so, and the new recruits would put the FG42 in the weapon storage bucket and airdrop it, carrying only pistols and grenades.

"Thank God, you are a German officer, and you have an FG42. I think I'm saved." The soldier seemed to be so happy that he almost rushed over to hug Skorzeny.

"Tatatata..."

Another burst of dense gunfire rang out.

Skorzeny quickly lay down in the bushes, but the young-looking German paratrooper who only had a pistol was relatively calm.

"Sir, there are two confused British guys, I think they should be militia, approaching me with two Sten submachine guns while firing, but they are at least 500 meters away from me."

500 meters is a distance where submachine guns cannot hit the target at all. Infantrymen who have received sufficient training will not shoot randomly like this, which not only wastes bullets but also exposes the target.

"Okay, I'll kill them!" Skorzeny nodded, crawled forward in the bushes, climbed onto a ridge, and then raised his head to watch.

There was indeed a muzzle flash in the distance, about 450 meters away. He immediately raised his FG42, aimed at the place where the muzzle flash was flashing, and fired a short burst. Then he saw another burst of muzzle flash, obviously a fool was shooting randomly, and he was not polite, and immediately turned the muzzle and fired another short burst. Then there was no more gunfire, replaced by screams and English calls for help.

"Help, help, I've been shot, God, I'm dying..."

"Follow me, I'll see if I can get you a useful Sten submachine gun." Skorzeny called out, fixed the bayonet on his FG42, then jumped up and ran forward, and soon ran to the two British militiamen who were knocked to the ground.

One of the British militiamen fell to the ground and didn't move, it seemed that he was dead. Skorzeny shot him without hesitation, and then put the bayonet against the chest of another militiaman in his forties who was screaming.

At this time, the paratrooper who only had a pistol also followed up, picked up the two Sten submachine guns thrown on the ground, and searched the corpse and the screaming living person for two magazines and two hammer-like anti-tank grenades.

"Hey, British, where is this?" Skorzeny, like a ferocious monster, asked loudly in English. "Answer quickly!"

"Are you Germans? Are you Germans? Are you really Germans?" The British militiaman did not answer Skorzeny's question, but asked back.

"We are German paratroopers!" Skorzeny said, "Answer my question just now! Quick!"

The British suddenly shouted loudly: "Oh, God, how is this possible!? Aren't you almost starving to death? Aren't you about to start a revolution? Why are you still coming to Britain? Now that the Americans have come to support, how dare you come to Britain?"

Skorzeny frowned. This British soldier was very dishonest and had to be taught a lesson. He immediately gave an order to the paratrooper who picked up two submachine guns: "Soldier, beat him! Beat him hard!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the inhumane prisoner abuse incident, Skorzeny soon learned that he was in the territory of a small town called Elwick in the west of Hartlepool. It was not very far from Hartlepool, at most 5 kilometers. The planned landing beach for the Marines was 5.6 kilometers northeast of Elwick.

The wounded British militiaman belonged to an infantry company of the North Yorkshire Division. His company was stationed in Buckstown. The company's mission was to protect a coastal artillery company, which was deployed next to a woods outside Buckstown. It had a very concealed position and four 8-inch howitzers, all aimed at the beach and sea 3 kilometers away.

Tonight, the platoon that this unlucky British soldier was in was ordered to patrol between Elwick and Hartlepool. They happened to encounter an airborne landing, so they dispersed as a squad to attack the German paratroopers who had just landed. But at the beginning, they were all wooden men, so the British soldier's squad leader was careless and split his squad into two groups and asked them to check around. The result was a tragedy...

Knowing where he was, Skorzeny didn't have time to listen to the injured British soldier's nagging, and directly knocked him unconscious with the butt of his rifle (it was so cold, and this guy was shot, most likely he wouldn't survive), and then took the paratrooper to the northeast Hartlepool Beach.

Along the way, there were no more British soldiers, but there were many German paratroopers blown by the strong wind. Skorzeny gathered them together, and there were a total of 22 people including himself. Most of the paratroopers were veterans, carrying FG42 rifles with them. Several stragglers also got the British submachine guns or rifles. In addition, two paratroopers found a storage barrel containing mortars and shells.

The group moved northeast again, trying to occupy the position outside Bucks Town with four 8-inch cannons - these were four 200mm heavy artillery! If they opened fire when the Marines rushed onto the beach, the consequences would be disastrous!

…

The artillery position was not small in scale. The four cannons were placed in four field artillery bunkers connected by communication trenches. There was also a bunker for storing ammunition in the middle of the four artillery bunkers, which was also connected to the artillery bunkers by communication trenches.

In other words, once the war started, the British artillerymen operating these four cannons would not have to climb out of the trenches to bombard the beach with cannons. And because the cannons were placed in the bunkers (actually a big pit), they were difficult to destroy unless they were directly hit by German naval guns.

There is also an anti-aircraft machine gun position near each of the four cannons, with four Vickers 0.5-inch anti-aircraft machine guns, which can shoot at both aircraft and infantry.

In addition, there is a circular infantry position around each of the four artillery bunkers, with half a platoon of infantry guarding there, and the circular position is also connected to the artillery position by a communication trench.

Such an artillery position is a big trouble at a distance. If it cannot be captured in time, the number of German Marines killed by the four cannons tomorrow morning may be in the thousands.

Skorzeny approached the artillery position and observed for a while, then retreated to a small forest where more than 20 German paratroopers were hiding, and then gathered everyone.

He said: "The enemy has at least one artillery company and two infantry platoons. There are currently four artillery bunkers that can be confirmed, and four anti-aircraft machine gun bunkers."

"So the enemy has an overwhelming advantage in manpower and firepower?" A sergeant frowned and reminded, "It may be difficult to succeed in the attack."

"No matter what, we have to attack!" Skorzeny said, "We don't have a signalman among us, so there is no radio to contact others for help. We can only make some noise by exchanging fire. Even if we can't succeed, as long as we attract other German paratroopers, this artillery position can be taken down anyway."

There are at least tens of thousands of German paratroopers landing near Hartlepool. As long as more people can be attracted to reinforce, this artillery position can naturally be taken down.

"Okay, Captain, but how are we going to attack? They have a position and have set up machine guns."

"Four anti-aircraft machine guns are not a problem," Skorzeny shook his head, "The problem is the two rows of British militia covering the artillery. As long as we deal with them, we have 16 FG42s, so why worry about not being able to silence the four anti-aircraft machine guns?"

There are more than 80 people in the two rows, plus the guard row of the coastal artillery company, there are almost more than 100 infantrymen on this artillery position, and it is a bit difficult to deal with them with 22 German paratroopers.

"But how are we going to deal with those two rows?" someone asked immediately.

Skorzeny thought for a while, "Let's lure them out!"

"How to lure them out?"

Skorzeny pointed to the paratrooper carrying two Sten submachine guns and said, "Use the Sten submachine gun and the Lee Enfield rifle... We want to let the British in that artillery position hear a battle. A battle between German rifles, machine guns and British Sten submachine guns!"