Chapter 31 Paratroopers Versus Militia

ear the sheer number of the British secondary forces. Initially, Stephenberg and his paratroopers indeed approached with extreme caution. At the first intersection, they encountered a regular British force of about a platoon size, but the enormous firepower gap between the two sides meant that the battle lasted for less than a few minutes. After occupying the intersection, German paratroopers finally encountered the British militia. These people were disheveled, in chaos, some even wearing red underwear, white vests, exposing their sexy leg hair. The weapons in their hands were astonishing: old-fashioned single-shot rifles, some Lee-Enfields of certain models, and possibly "Chicago typewriters" from the black market. Fortunately, the legendary homemade mortars did not appear on this street, otherwise the German paratroopers would have been in chaos...

Facing more than two hundred British militiamen ready for a brawl, the German airborne tanks didn't need to evade at all. The number four tank was on the left side of the intersection, and the number three tank faced the right side. With a roar of the cannon, the British screamed in pain, and those who weren't hit immediately disappeared from the street!

According to the operational plan, after occupying the airport, the port became the German paratroopers' next target. Stephenberg had no intention of getting entangled with the British militia, so he used the number four tank to clear the way. The paratroopers surrounded the armored vehicles and slowly advanced to the southeast. Whenever a Brit fired from the buildings or alleys next to the street, the tanks would unhesitatingly rotate their turrets and retaliate. If the distance was close, the "Hammer Troops" could suppress with their rocket launchers. This large group moved and fought at the same time. If one didn't know better, they'd think Cardiff had a powerful demolition team!

Ping!

Pong!

A bullet shot from the darkness hit the edge of the armored communication vehicle, only a few inches from Stephenberg's head. The handsome Imperial Air Force captain was startled, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. The barrel of the bucket truck immediately retaliated with the onboard machine gun: clusters of dark red bullets flew towards a balcony on the street, which seemed to have many flowerpots. There were crisp banging sounds, and soil and dust fell onto the street. The German paratrooper manning the machine gun seemed extremely disgusted by this shooting from the shadows, and he emptied several hundred rounds from the drum magazine in one go!

As the gunfire subsided, there were flickering light spots from another direction, accompanied by crisp gunfire. A German paratrooper walking on foot fell to the ground, and his companion immediately fired fiercely with his weapon, while someone shouted loudly, "Medic! Medic!"

For such sounds, Stephenberg was also very annoyed. He urgently hoped to get rid of the troubles of this alley battle as soon as possible, but Cardiff, as a large seaport with a pre-war population of nearly 200,000, even now probably had tens of thousands of residents. Calculating based on the ratio of adult males, gathering several thousand militiamen was an easy task.

Although the total number of the first batch of German paratroopers exceeded 400, besides occupying the airport, they also had to quickly control the main roads and bridges outside the city. Coupled with the large area of the city, they could only initially form a partial numerical and firepower advantage in key areas!

Under the relentless attacks of the British militia, the number of casualties and wounded in the German troops continued to increase. For the deceased, the soldiers had no choice but to leave them temporarily in place, but for the wounded, they had to allocate some combat personnel to help them, slowing down the entire team's marching speed. Seeing that it was already past midnight, Stephenberg finally noticed this unfavorable trend. He gritted his teeth and made the most difficult decision of his life: forming teams of ten wounded and a medic, leaving them unarmed on the street, while the rest of the personnel accelerated towards the port.

In this way, almost every two intersections, the German soldiers had to reluctantly leave behind a team of wounded. In this city shrouded in various explosions, the atmosphere suddenly became so melancholic!

Although there were still occasional cold bullets hitting members of the team from the darkness, Stephenberg and his men stubbornly continued to advance. Suddenly, as they walked, they found the vast port in front of them.

Intact docks, intact cranes, and even a large number of ships. Sleeping Cardiff looked so wonderful!

With only a remaining force of less than a battalion, listening to the sparse gunfire in the distance, Steffenberg almost burst into tears.

Joining Steffenberg's force in the harbor area were also parachute units from two other directions entering the city. Coming from the west were just over fifty men, who along the way defeated British militia and astonishingly captured more than thirty of them!

Arriving from the east were paratroopers in the size of a company. Before entering the city, they successfully dismantled a British anti-aircraft position, and subsequently destroyed all the anti-aircraft guns and ammunition there. However, during their operations in the city, they also encountered stubborn resistance from British militia, with casualties comparable to those directly under Steffenberg's command!

After discussing with the officers, Steffenberg, acting as an exemplary airborne battalion commander, temporarily took command of all German forces arriving in the harbor area. He then ordered the paratroopers to occupy every inch of it and capture as many unsuspecting ships as possible. Tanks and machine gunners set up defensive positions at every road leading out of the harbor.

The paratroopers easily occupied most of the docks. However, two British gunboats patrolling the harbor spotted the anomaly and sounded the alarm. Neither the "Iron Fist" nor the mortars had the range to engage in a direct firefight with the gunboats, so Steffenberg had to order the accompanying Panzer III tank to conceal itself alongside buildings, ready to fire a few "warning shots" when the British gunboats were least prepared.

On the northern sea,

The two British gunboats did not approach the docks easily but instead opened their searchlights from a distance. As soon as German troops were spotted on the docks, the sailors on the gunboats bombarded them with the ship's small-caliber cannons. As a result, German troops were unable to approach the two largest docks in the harbor. Seeing several cargo ships moored there beginning to flee, Steffenberg became anxious.

Fortunately, the staff of "Operation Sea God" had anticipated various situations. In the early hours of the morning, a faint buzzing sound came from the south.

As the Royal Air Force had fully retreated to the north, the sailors on the two British gunboats felt uneasy and attempted to turn off their searchlights and slip away in the dark. However, their reaction was too late: four torpedo bombers appeared low in the night sky like avenging spirits, one of them dropping a parachute flare, illuminating the harbor area brightly. The other two dropped aerial torpedoes at close range, terrifying the British sailors on board. Before the two ships could be hit, many people desperately jumped into the water. At such close range, the hit rate of aerial torpedoes was indeed higher than usual. As a result, one torpedo hit its target, and by the time the third plane came to make up for it, the two British gunboats, with a displacement of five to six hundred tons, ended their brief and "sinful" lives, sinking into the seabed with a gurgling sound!

The combat mission of the German naval aviation was not over yet. Four German torpedo bombers flew over the harbor area, warning ships attempting to leave the harbor with machine gun fire: fleeing would lead to a dead end!

The timely appearance of the naval torpedo bombers relieved the besieged paratroopers, but their role did not stop there. Two planes landed first on the water, using signal flares as guidance. Ten minutes later, single-engine, twin-engine, and even three-engine seaplanes began to land one after another, each with either a traditional boat-shaped fuselage or a float arrangement like a seaplane. The models of the German naval aviation's long-range seaplanes were almost included. Finally, a giant with six engines descended, which was the first successful prototype of a heavy seaplane, capable of carrying a large number of fully armed soldiers at once!

The naval personnel on board the seaplanes did not directly land on the docks but were brought to two small islands, Flat Holm and Steep Holm, opposite the harbor. According to early German aerial reconnaissance, only small British garrison units were stationed there. After a brief battle, the German naval combat personnel easily took control of these two small but strategically important islands!

As a large number of seaplanes carrying combat troops arrived, a group of torpedo bombers carrying torpedoes quietly landed as well, hiding in the darkness, ready to attack any British warships that rashly entered the harbor.

As the seconds ticked by, more and more German paratroopers gathered in the harbor area. When the number of troops in his hands exceeded one hundred, Steffenberg began to send out forces by combat platoons, extending control over the surrounding streets of the harbor.

Overall, the progress of the battle was unexpectedly smooth. Captain Steffenberg, who was in charge of such a large responsibility for the first time, even began to worry that the current situation would shatter like a dream at any moment. So when Colonel Bruno Brouwer, commander of the 7th Parachute Division, appeared in the harbor area riding in a Panzer IV tank, he immediately handed over command to him. The operation to control Cardiff Harbor progressed smoothly, but soon bad news came: General Püschiell, the commander of the 7th Parachute Division and the overall commander of these airborne troops, was unfortunately killed when the glider he was riding in crashed into a tree. Several officers and soldiers on board also died, and Deputy Division Commander Colonel Augustus had been missing since landing."

At this moment, perhaps no one realized what a turning point General Püschiell's death and Colonel Augustus's disappearance would bring to this airborne operation. When Colonel Brouwer, the third-in-command of the division who lacked experience in commanding large formations, assumed command, the headquarters might consider temporarily dispatching a capable officer to take over command. After all, the Battle of Cardiff was the key starting point for the entire "Operation Sea God"!