Back to 1939 Sea Wolf

  The chief of staff to Zhou Tianle, who was in charge of coordinating the action in Spain, Rogel, reported to Zhou Tianle that the Spanish were shocked by the German victory in occupying France and decided to send troops to recover Gibraltar on the basis of previous periods.

  At the time, the main objective of Spanish agents was to target non-British descendants. According to later investigations by Spanish agents, these people were resentful towards the British authorities governing Gibraltar and the Spanish believed that the plans provided by Germany were not very feasible and had a low chance of success. Moreover, the Spanish thought that Britain was currently plagued by internal and external troubles and would not have much power to interfere with Spain's actions, especially with German support in the background.

  The Spanish, however, also acknowledged that in the previous period they had successfully created a great deal of discord between the inhabitants of Gibraltar and the British authorities, according to the German plan, which laid a good foundation for their next move.

  Spain began to secretly assemble troops in the Gibraltar area and on the Spanish border, preparing to send them over at a suitable moment, but they also wanted to request German assistance.

  After Zhou Tianlei received this report from Luo Ge, he hesitated for a long time. In his original plan, he had put in a lot of effort, but after careful consideration, he had to admit that he was still lacking in some aspects of history. Although he was a person from future China, due to professional reasons, it was impossible for him to grasp every detail of history clearly. And if he wanted to survive and grow stronger in this greatest catastrophe in human history, there were still many things he needed to understand.

  However, the matter at hand is how to cope with this challenge now. After thinking for a while, Zhou Tianlei decided to take a two-pronged approach. First, he requested that the Supreme Command dispatch a portion of the 11th Air Force to participate, but without letting outsiders discover that they were German troops. Therefore, they would have to undergo short-term training in Spain. The other was to mobilize his own ocean fleet, sending the already-commissioned former British aircraft carrier "Furious", now renamed "Rhein", and some other vessels to the vicinity of the Strait of Gibraltar, where they would merge with the existing German naval fleet, forming an aircraft carrier formation under the guise of organizing exercises. This was intended to flaunt German military power, not only to intimidate Gibraltar but also to prevent the British Mediterranean Fleet from intervening.

  Zhou Tianlei quickly completed the combat report and submitted it to the Navy Command, which was then forwarded to the Supreme Command. He then immediately convened a meeting with his combat staff to discuss the operational steps and details of this plan.

  After a night's journey, the German instructors who had infiltrated Ireland by submarine and the arms, ammunition and transmitter for the Irish Republican Army were driven in a small lorry to a village west of Belfast.

  After the car came to a stop, members of the Irish Republican Army and German special operations instructors jumped out together, starting to unload the weapons, ammunition and radio equipment from the vehicle and storing them in a secret underground bunker in the village.

  The German instructor in charge is a lieutenant named Diyorip of the German Marine Corps, who was promoted to lieutenant after his outstanding performance in an encounter with British special forces on the Spanish Canary Islands and the Spanish mainland. He was then sent here for a short period of 'Ireland' training and took command.

  After getting off the bus, he started circling around the village for two rounds and began to deploy troops for defense. He also started inquiring if there were suitable training grounds for the Irish Republican Army as they were about to start training on shooting, blasting, urban assault tactics, etc.

  All high-intensity training is premised on physical conditioning, the Germans began by requiring the Irish to start with small amounts of exercise and gradually transition to large-scale physical conditioning.

  Originally, tactical and explosives training only began after physical training was completed. Due to time constraints, the Germans also started interspersing this type of training into physical training sessions. Little did they know that this would suddenly arouse the Irishmen's greatest enthusiasm for training, as they knew they would soon be taking to the battlefield to exact revenge on the British.

  After a period of intense training, the Germans decided to seek out British military targets in Northern Ireland for attack after consulting with high-ranking IRA figures. This would also draw large numbers of British troops into the area, facilitating future actions.

  Based on the intelligence gathered and reconnaissance, they decided to ambush a British motor patrol unit patrolling in the suburbs of Belfast. The carefully collected intelligence indicated that the motor patrol unit was composed of a platoon-sized force. The Irish and Germans had already figured out the patrol route and time through on-site reconnaissance.

  At ten o'clock one morning, the British motor patrol was proceeding along its customary route when it came to a small hill on the road. Lieutenant Saunders, the officer in command of the patrol, sat inside the car, his eyes narrowed as he gazed out at the road ahead, his body swaying with the motion of the vehicle.

  At this time, he observed for a while and did not find any unusual situation outside. Since they arrived, the Irish Republican Army had indeed created some incidents, but under the British army's attack, they gradually subsided. Captain Sanders felt that such patrols were simply a waste of time, and continuous long-time patrols not only failed to encounter an Irish Republican Army member but also made his soldiers extremely tired. However, superiors had orders requiring them to suppress the Irish Republican Army's resistance. Moreover, although Britain had drawn large numbers of troops from Commonwealth countries to replace British veterans who did not return, those troops could now only be called armed civilians. If they were allowed to deal with the Irish Republican Army, which had been rebelling for many years, the commander who made this decision must have had too much whiskey in his brain. Therefore, they also never received orders to withdraw back to Great Britain. Moreover, during the previous period, they had used armored cars modified from Rolls-Royce car chassis, and inside that vehicle, he felt extremely safe because the Irish Republican Army's weapons could not penetrate the armor of those vehicles. As the Irish Republican Army's activities weakened, superiors believed it was unnecessary to deploy those oil-consuming vehicles again, as Britain's fuel was very scarce and had to be prioritized for the air force and navy. Therefore, when the suppression action ended, they no longer rode in armored cars but instead switched to another model of light off-road vehicle produced by Rolls-Royce at the request of the British Army for patrols.

  He simply closed his eyes. In his mind, he was recalling a woman he had met at Lily's bar the night before. The woman had taken him to her home, and under the magic of red wine, they began hugging, kissing, and eventually undressing each other, before collapsing heavily onto the bed...

  While Lieutenant was recalling the details of his romantic encounter last night and planning to go find that woman again tonight, he suddenly heard a loud thunder-like sound coming from in front of him, which shocked him out of his fantasy about the woman's body. He hurriedly opened his eyes, only to see that the lead car of his patrol team had tilted to one side, with thick smoke billowing out of the vehicle and faint flames visible.

  Captain Sanders immediately ordered the remaining three cars to stop, and the machine gunners on board trained their guns at the predetermined direction of fire in the convoy. Captain Sanders knew from his earlier observation that everyone inside the lead car was definitely done for. So after the patrol party took up defensive positions, he ordered a few soldiers to check the situation inside the lead car and investigate how they had triggered the landmine.

  On a small hill nearby, Lieutenant D'Yorville and the commander of the Irish Republicans, Fawde, crouched in a heap of grass on the side of the hill, carefully watching all this with binoculars.

  Commander Fahd of the Irish Republican Army was excited to see the British patrol being frustrated, and he wanted his men to open fire on the British. Lieutenant Diyorip said: "Don't be in a hurry, let's follow our plan. We'll wait until the British enter that long downhill road before we open fire."

  Irish commander Lawder asked: "Aren't they running very fast? How can we stop them?"

  "We have sniper rifles. You didn't pay attention to their power last time, now take a good look at it."

  It was some time before Lieutenant Sandes saw any more of the Irish Republican Army's ambush. After getting in touch with his superiors by wireless, they were told that as they had nearly completed their patrol and there had been no further attacks by the IRA, to bring back the bodies of the soldiers from the first lorry, continue the patrol and promised reinforcements would be sent out to meet them if they continued along the patrol route.

  Lieutenant Sanders, in accordance with the orders of his superiors, began directing the convoy to continue along its patrol route after it had collected the bodies and other items from the lead vehicle.

  As they came to the long downhill slope that Lieutenant Dejour had picked out, Lieutenant Dejour already had his Mauser 98k rifle trained on the lead car of the Sanders convoy.

  With a crisp report from the Mauser 98K sniper rifle, the bullet it fired penetrated the windshield of the lead car in the Sanders' motorcade, entering through the rear door, striking the driver in the right rear of his head and exiting through the left front side of his forehead, shattering the glass in the front door on the driver's side. As the bullet exited, a mixture of blood and brain tissue followed, splashing onto the windshield.

  The car in front lost control and swerved off the road, crashing into a huge boulder. The vehicle came to rest diagonally across the road, blocking the path of the two patrol cars behind it.

  British soldiers frantically emerged from the cars, ready to operate their machine guns. However, the German special warfare instructors were not willing to let them go, and their sniper rifles fired in unison. A few seconds later, several British soldiers fell at their shooting posts.

  "Get out of the car, get out of the car!" Lieutenant Sanders shouted loudly.

  British soldiers leapt from the other side of the vehicle, clutching their Lee-Enfield rifles, Sten guns and ZB26 Czech light machine guns. They quickly sought cover, aiming their muzzles in the direction the sniper's bullets had come from. The Germans' next target was the petrol tank of the British patrol car; with a few shots hitting the tank, the vehicle burst into flames. One British soldier was closer to the vehicle and as it caught fire he was splashed with petrol, instantly becoming a human torch. Flames engulfed his body as he screamed in agony, rolling into a roadside ditch. His comrades rushed over, removing grenades and ammunition from him before smothering the flames on his body with their clothing. A medic immediately came forward to administer emergency treatment.

  Lieutenant Devereux was about to order his two officers to lead a dozen Irish Republican Army soldiers around the flank of the British patrol to establish a firing position, covering the main force's advance. Meanwhile, the person in charge of monitoring the British movement sent an alert via radio, saying that the British had dispatched reinforcements, including armored cars, which were not far from here.

  Deputy Lieutenant Diyorip had to abandon the plan to let them establish a flank cover position, knowing that it was impossible to annihilate this British patrol. He then ordered the people who were preparing to set up firepower cover positions on the British side to retreat first, while his own side used firepower to shoot at the British, creating a false impression that they were about to launch an attack, making the British patrol think they were still in position.

  Several ZB26 machine guns, prepared by the Germans specifically for this action, opened fire on the British patrol's position (the German army's MG-34 machine gun was not used to prevent the British from detecting German involvement in the IRA's activities). Lieutenant Devereux and several others quickly laid mines on routes they believed the British patrols and reinforcements would take. After laying the mines, they began firing at the British positions, covering the withdrawal of the machine guns. Then they retreated. A few kilometers away, they got into cars that had come to pick them up and sped away. Of course, during their retreat, they also did not forget to erase their own traces.

  Lieutenant Saunders was getting extremely angry, if he didn't move his position, he might not lose the second car. He cursed his superior, and when the reinforcements arrived, the patrol and the reinforcements joined forces, under the cover of heavy fire, they rushed towards the high ground where the German and Irish Republican Army had just fired at them.

  After rushing to the high ground, they found that the people who attacked them had retreated. Captain Sanders squatted down and picked up several shell casings. He took a closer look and recognized that they were 7.7mm bullet casings fired from a ZB26 light machine gun. He felt very strange, as the Irish Republican Army had never performed like this before. They seemed to have acquired the qualities of excellent soldiers overnight. How could their progress be so rapid? Captain Sanders thought in puzzlement.

  He raised his head to observe the ambush site built by the Irish Republican Army, hoping to find some clues from it. He suddenly saw that the grass over there shook unnaturally. He realized that something was wrong. But a soldier unknowingly walked past in that direction.

  "Stop, there's a mine!" shouted Lieutenant Sanders. But it was too late; the British soldier had already trodden on the detonator of the German booby trap.

  As a massive explosion sounded, the hapless British soldier was lifted high into the air by the blast wave of the landmine. Several nearby British soldiers were unable to dodge and were knocked down by shrapnel from the landmine, shouting loudly on the ground.

  "Stretcher bearer, stretcher bearer!" Captain Sanders shouted. After the stretcher bearer arrived, he walked to the edge of the large crater caused by the explosion and looked out. He knew he had met a worthy opponent.