Chapter 51: Triumph Resounds Together

The British guessed the beginning right.

The two outer defense circles built by the Germans centered on Newport Harbor and Portsmouth Harbor. Both were composed of multiple concentric trenches. Tanks and armored vehicles wanting to pass through directly had to either lay down planks on these trenches or fill them with earth, which was time-consuming, laborious, and disadvantageous for defense. Logan naturally wouldn't do such a thing—German tanks and reserve forces were indeed not idling in some corner of the island but, under the command of this young Air Force colonel, were advancing northward. The armored assault column, consisting of 11 Mark IV tanks, 14 Mark III tanks, 53 armored vehicles, and 33 trucks, was like a sharp curved knife, silently crossing the fiercely contested battlefield and suddenly bursting out of the narrow passage between the two defense circles. The blitzkrieg tactics that swept across the Allied forces on the Western Front appeared in a miniature version on the Isle of Wight!

The British couldn't guess the ending.

The German armored assault column did not accidentally find a weak point in the British forces, nor did they rush into the British infantry assembly area like wolves encountering a flock of sheep. A small number of tanks and armored vehicles stopped by the roadside to fire at the British, while more tanks and vehicles continued to speed northward along the road and fields, driven by grander ambitions—annihilation instead of mere defeat!

From the very beginning, Logan was different.

During the march, he preferred to doze off in the swaying tank cabin. After entering the combat zone, despite the constant threat of gunfire around him, he bravely crouched on the commander's seat, with most of his head outside the hatch. The unfortunate tank commander had to switch to the loader's position, peering out from the open front hatch. In front of him was the extra machine gun mounted on the turret of the Mark IV tank.

The pouring rain showed no sign of stopping, with occasional flares rising and falling, and it was unclear whether the most dazzling one came from the attacking or defending side. The fireballs from exploding shells were particularly conspicuous in the fields, reflecting some frantic figures running around, and a string of dark red bullets flew out, making those shadows stop moving quickly.

"Sir! Sir!"

While hearing voices in his earphones, Logan also felt a hand shaking his foot, realizing that the signalman was talking to him instead of the tank commander.

"What's going on?" He uncomfortably pressed the throat communicator.

The signalman below him shouted loudly, "Major Audrio requests your instructions, Colonel. Should the tank force charge directly into the Wootton Harbor area, or should they wait for the infantry on board to arrive before launching a full-scale assault?"

"He should decide for himself!" This sentence was about to be spoken by Logan, but upon second thought, he changed his mind. "Coordinate a rapid assault with tanks and armored vehicles to catch those British off guard!"

"Yes, sir!"

The signalman received the order and immediately contacted the command vehicle via the vehicle radio—while the contemporary Soviet forces were still in the phase of communication with flags and shouts, encountering such a night battle would be unimaginably inefficient!

However, sometimes rough tactics could counter more sophisticated tactics and equipment simply due to numerical superiority...

After a while, the order for the armored assault came down from Major Audrio's command vehicle: all Mark III and Mark IV tanks, along with wheeled armored vehicles, were formed into five groups. The first four groups charged directly into the Wootton Harbor area from various intersections, while the fifth group acted as a reserve on the outskirts of the harbor to support subsequent armored vehicles and trucks.

The armored transport vehicles that could keep up also joined the attack directly.

As expected, Logan's tank, numbered 019, was appointed as the command vehicle of the fifth group, so they could only watch as their comrades continued to roar towards the harbor, while they themselves had to stop by the roadside.

Due to some tanks providing cover for the follow-up vehicles along the way (there were certainly some breakdowns as well), each group had only 3-4 tanks. Logan's fifth group consisted of 2 Mark IVs and 2 Mark IIIs, which was decent enough to deal with British infantry units lacking anti-tank weapons.

Bold but not reckless, Logan knew smoking on the battlefield was dangerous, so he just held a cigarette in his mouth, occasionally glancing to the east—where the sound of artillery fire still raged on, the orange flames flickering in the pouring rain, indicating that thousands of British infantrymen had been cut off, probably in chaos by now; and sometimes looking at the half-track armored vehicles passing by one after another on the road beside him—the small ones were the sdkfz250, light and flexible, equipped with 2 crew members and capable of carrying 4 fully armed infantrymen into battle, but currently in short supply; the big ones were the sdkfz251, sturdy and durable, equipped with 3 crew members and capable of carrying 10 fully armed infantrymen into battle, with over 3000 produced since June 1939, they were an important part of the German blitzkrieg tactics!

Logan knew that the changes on the battlefield could often be discerned from the sounds. The gunfire towards Wootton Harbor was gradually intensifying, after many battles over the past two days, it was probably as much of a ruin as Cowes Harbor, clear to both defenders and attackers; the gunfire to the east was weakening, but the rifle fire was getting closer, with occasional motorcycles or cars appearing in the fields, apparently the vanguard of the British retreat.

Logan ordered the gunners to aim closer before firing, then lightly jumped down from the tank, waving to stop several armored transport vehicles that were about to head to Cowes Harbor.

"I am Colonel Hans Logan, the overall commander of Operation Citadel. I command you to establish a defense along the road immediately!"

"Hans Logan" was a name that resonated loudly in Germany, and the soldiers and officers of the SS Panzer Division all complied without hesitation. Immediately after, several trucks were also stopped by Logan, and over a hundred SS infantrymen quickly established machine gun and rifle positions using the road embankment as cover.

Further back, for every two armored vehicles or trucks that passed, Logan would order one to be diverted for on-site defense. After about ten minutes, over 300 SS soldiers had set up makeshift positions on the main road leading to Wootton Harbor.

Listening to the crisp sound of bolt action rifles, Logan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement from the bottom of his heart. Was this what it meant to be a born soldier?

A soldier's talent was not just bravery, and Logan's foresight once again proved that although he was still in the transition period from novice to expert in military knowledge, his overall view was quite good. After spending some time back on the tank, dozens of British trucks finally appeared in the eastern fields. Logan couldn't help but feel a slight sense of admiration: speed was the biggest gap between infantry and mechanized units!

With no way to retreat, the British infantry launched an attack with gritted teeth. The officers' whistles sounded like funeral dirges at this moment.

The Germans, who had the advantage, showed no mercy. The heavy 80mm mortars and MG34 machine guns on the half-track armored vehicles had already organized formidable defensive firepower, and the lone sdkfz222

 wheeled armored car used its 20mm machine gun to almost maniacally sweep the British infantry into panic. As for the four tanks, they were used throughout as fixed gun platforms!

Following Logan's deployment, the German forces on the outer perimeter of the Portsmouth defense line launched a timely counterattack with the support of their own artillery fire. Although their progress was slow, it forced the British troops, feeling the heat, to hasten their march towards death. In the pouring rain, the fields in the eastern part of the Isle of Wight ran red with blood...

After the battle was completely over, Logan ordered a small number of soldiers to clean up the battlefield. The weapons and ammunition left behind by the British infantry were all considered rubbish in his eyes, authentic rubbish. Perhaps it would be a good idea to find a group of cleaners one day and send the likes of Lee Enfield and Browning to Uncle Black, who had intentions of independence. Moreover... the Northern Irish had been resentful of British rule for a long time!

After receiving news of the disastrous annihilation of their own landing forces, the British fleet lingering in the Solent vented their fury by pouring the last batch of shells onto the German artillery positions. Perhaps considering that a large number of their own soldiers had been captured by the Germans, they didn't even shell Wootton Harbor before withdrawing to Portsmouth. Even with the support of two cruisers, this fleet's strength was enough to dominate the military presence of the Germans in the English Channel!