Chapter 15: The Straw Man Descends from the Sky

About 20 kilometers northwest of Southampton lies Salisbury, an inland city in the south of England. It neither boasts picturesque landscapes nor the majestic spectacle of industrial chimneys that characterized the industrial era. Before the Germans launched the Battle of Britain, there was hardly a sense of impending war here.

The massive onslaught by the German Luftwaffe ignited the flames of war, and the Battle of the Isle of Wight was like throwing gasoline on a fire, tormenting the whole of Britain!

Since the reluctant retreat of the Royal Air Force, even the clumsy-looking, crow-like noisy German dive bombers could freely attack the deep zones of the British coastal defenses. After flattening airports, ports, barracks, and military industrial facilities, railways, highways, and any means of transportation on them became their new targets. In the past two weeks, several road bridges around Salisbury had not been spared. Despite the efforts of the British engineering teams, two of them were temporarily repaired. However, this morning, they finally collapsed completely under the new round of German bombings. Moreover, countless cars were destroyed on the roads near Salisbury during this period. Walking along the roads, one could soon see the wreckage of blackened cars! So much so that during the day, even ordinary horse-drawn carriages were hard to come by!

The pressure from the enemy was already distressing enough, but over the past week, the residents of Salisbury had been notified by police and soldiers going door-to-door: No one was allowed to leave the city area without authorization, let alone use any wireless communication devices. From the age of 3 to 90, everyone had to register, and food distribution was scheduled daily according to population.

Although there were various speculations and anxieties among the residents, fortunately, their doubts did not last long. Some people saw large numbers of British troops, along with their trucks and equipment, entering nearby woods. And every night, a large number of cars would come from the east and north via the highway, seemingly transporting food, ammunition, and new equipment for the thousands of troops in the woods. Some anti-aircraft gun positions could be vaguely seen at the edge of the woods. And on dark and windy nights, people could even see flickering lights in the woods—not very bright, but definitely numerous!

With a large number of troops stationed nearby, people naturally felt much more secure. But soon, questions arose: Did the presence of the military mean that this area would inevitably become a battlefield?

At 3 p.m. on September 7, 1940, the British people's fears became reality. A large group of Stukas whistled across the Channel, launching a fierce bombing raid on the defense depth zone north of Southampton. For a moment, several British towns, including Salisbury, were engulfed in flames and smoke. Rail and road junctions were once again the target of concentrated bombings, and even people riding bicycles on the roads could not escape the strafing of German warplanes.

At 3:30 p.m., a staggering number of Junkers Ju-52s flew in from French airfields. Since the Polish campaign, these slow-moving transport planes had not been used for bombing missions. They seemed to appear in the battlefield airspace for one thing only: airborne operations!

The first airborne operation by the German paratroopers occurred in the Norwegian campaign, but at that time, the scale of parachute and glider landings was only a few companies. The true effectiveness of this elite unit of the German Army was demonstrated in the Battle of the Netherlands and Belgium in the Western Campaign, where they surprised the Allied forces by seizing their strongholds, contributing significantly to the German sweep of the Low Countries!

In the Battle of the Isle of Wight, the German paratroopers demonstrated astonishing ground combat capabilities, once again becoming a decisive force in the battle!

When the residents of Trowbridge saw the dense formation of German aircraft approaching through their windows, they felt instantly despairing—just a small squadron of Stukas could destroy a large number of buildings. If all these German planes dropped bombs over their heads, would Trowbridge still exist?

Ignoring the police and military blockades, many residents tried to flee the city with their families. Panic spread rapidly, and there were even signs of turning into riots. At this critical moment, bursts of gunfire suddenly erupted from the edge of the woods, countless dark spots flew into the air, forming large clusters of black clouds under the sunlight, quickly forming an apparently impenetrable firepower network in front of the German aircraft!

As the first German plane fell with a trail of black smoke, people quieted down. Perhaps the fierce artillery fire of the military could stop the Germans from invading this transportation hub connecting five roads. But not long after, cries of astonishment arose: as a large group of Junkers Ju-52s flew over, the sky bloomed with white parachutes.

For bystanders, it was a spectacular and magnificent scene; for those involved, it meant that the enemy's airborne assault had arrived!

Having learned from the experience of the Isle of Wight, no one dared to underestimate the power of the German paratroopers!

In the woods, neatly dressed British officers urged their soldiers to assemble in formation, sharp whistles echoing in their ears, with officers shouting out the newly issued orders for combat.

"Boys, those German paratroopers only carry light weapons with them, and they cannot fire in the air! When you see parachutes falling, don't just stand there gaping, use your weapons to shoot them down like you're shooting birds! For those who land, we must attack boldly and not give them a chance to build defensive lines on the spot!"

Soon, some fully armed infantrymen boarded trucks parked in the woods, but there were far too few vehicles to carry all the soldiers here, so many platoons ran forward under the leadership of officers.

From above, the dense forest looked like a giant hornet's nest: a vast swarm of bees scattered, searching for and attacking intruders. Around the forest, flickering flames came from the previously cleverly hidden anti-aircraft artillery positions. As more and more white parachutes fell, the delayed-action shells exploded lower and lower, forming a dense and terrifying firepower network in the airspace between two hundred and six hundred meters—nail-sized fragments could pose a deadly threat to the paratroopers!

On the lush green grass, some trucks had slowed down or simply stopped, and machine guns mounted in the truck beds were firing frantically at the parachutes—or rather, at the figures under the parachutes. It was said that before and after the Battle of the Isle of Wight, two fleets coming from across the ocean brought tens of thousands of machine guns to Britain. Although the crates were labeled with dates from a war, the firearms inside were still brand new!

Machine guns and cannons were not omnipotent, but they gave the British army the courage and confidence to continue resisting.

Some trucks loaded with infantry stopped by the roadside, and young or elderly British soldiers jumped out of the trucks one after another, raising their British or American rifles excitedly and firing at the parachutes falling nearby. The sound of dense gunfire filled the air—soldiers fired with such high morale and speed that it probably harked back to the early stages of World War I or the Boer War. However, since the figures hanging from the parachutes besides swaying with the wind showed no obvious movements, British soldiers found it difficult to determine whether their bullets hit the target. They often fired continuously at the same target, unless they were lucky enough to directly hit the parachute or rope.

"Look, look, some of them fell over there! Follow me!"

A sergeant with a British-style mustache waved his Webley revolver excitedly, and the surrounding infantry responded enthusiastically, each eager to be the first. Some loaded bayonets onto their rifles while running, while others prepared to use rifle butts and fists against the German paratroopers. Among them, many had lost loved ones or friends in the Battle of the Isle of Wight, and many had seen their hometowns mercilessly bombed by the German Luftwaffe. Some had simply been immersed in fear or frustration for a long time. Now, with the opportunity to vent, how could they not be caught up in the heat of the moment?

In the large-scale drop zone, the parachutes acted as barriers like balloons, preventing German fighters and dive bombers from providing low-altitude fire support, forcing them to keep circling in the high sky. This made the British officers and soldiers even more fearless!

Several steps away, a sergeant fired three shots in a row at one of the figures under a parachute wearing German Air Force uniform. The bullets pierced "his" body accurately, but the scene of blood splattering did not appear as imagined!

A tall British infantryman rushed to the "finish line" and thrust his bayonet fiercely into the back of a "German paratrooper" lying face down.

Is he dead?

He kicked with a flying kick, but suddenly found that the face turned over was not a face at all, but straw (or more precisely, stalks of wheat—not rice)!

Using the bayonet to poke open the gray, bullet-riddled German military uniform, there was straw inside!

It seemed that, to increase weight, the cuffs and trouser legs of the uniform were stuffed with stones, readily available throughout the European continent!

The British soldiers, still panting heavily, stared dumbfoundedly at these straw men hanging under the parachutes.

Have the Germans gone mad? Did they think they could conquer Britain with straw men? Or...

The gunfire around gradually subsided, and the last batch of "German paratroopers" descending from the sky. Following closely, the Stukas that had been circling for a long time began emitting the deathly whine of their dive. Bombs plummeted straight toward the British anti-aircraft positions. Messerschmitt fighters also swooped down, their machine guns and cannons aimed at the British infantry leaving the woods!

At the coastal defense positions on Portland Head, the British soldiers, whose faces had turned pale due to prolonged tension, suddenly saw the German landing fleet on the sea turning around, and the heavy artillery shells fired from the direction of the Isle of Wight suddenly stopped roaring.

The Germans were retreating?

People were almost too happy to believe it.

Faced with the powerful attack of the Germans, these British soldiers had forgotten the difference between army and navy, forgotten the difference between homeland troops and colonial troops, and even disregarded the difference in skin color, pulling all their strength together like a rope, preparing to fight to the death with the German landing forces here.

The Germans did indeed retreat. At 4 p.m., the coastal areas of southern England could no longer see any German ships!

The news of the "fake paratroopers" and the "retreat of the landing fleet" immediately reached the main force fleet cruising at full speed toward the western entrance of the English Channel. On the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth, the previously united naval commanders suddenly argued over whether to continue forward or wait for withdrawal. But before they reached a unanimous conclusion, another piece of news shocked everyone: British submarines on reconnaissance patrol in the southern North Sea had spotted a large number of ships sailing from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, heading toward the Wash Bay!

If they crossed the English Channel, the British fleet would only need 16 hours to cut off the German fleet's retreat route, but if they detoured from the northern waters, it would take at least a day and two nights!

What's more, the Germans could muster ships from five countries—Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway—in that direction. Rough estimates suggested that the forces they could deploy in a single landing could reach 7-8 divisions, or even more!