Chapter 18: The God of War's Fearsome Artillery

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  John Chard completely abandoned the eastern bank of the Karington, his troops retreated to the three bridges, taking advantage of the narrow terrain of the bridge, the German attack formation was completely unable to deploy, and sniped at the German attacking troops.

  Before this, John Joe's successive urgent telegrams had shocked the generals of the Allied Command. The generals had not thought that the Germans would secretly assemble elite troops to counterattack Carentan. All the garrison orders given to Carentan, including me, were to hold out at all costs. John Joe's purpose was also clear, to hold out for four hours until the Allied Command withdrew reinforcements from the Normandy landing force to come and support. The only thing worth celebrating is that this time the Allies came to support with a full-fledged infantry division and a heavy armored tank regiment of Sherman tanks.

  For the defense of the church, I quickly arranged the deployment of machine gun firing positions, anti-tank cannon emplacements, infantry crossfire and other necessary arrangements. With the help of several platoon leaders under my command, my troops quickly took their positions. However, in just over ten minutes, the sound of gunfire and explosions from the direction of the bridgehead became incessant, and every time a violent explosion occurred, the ground beneath our feet would shake.

  "Damn, what kind of cannon is this?" I've never seen such a powerful shell since landing in Omaha Beach in Europe. The explosion felt as if it was right next to me, even though it was several miles away.

  "Look at the movement, it's got to be over 105mm! I reckon this shell is going down, and on the ground, there'll be a crater at least 4 meters deep!" Lin Berna muttered to himself.

  "Shut up!"

  I glared fiercely at Lin Bernal, my heart was worried for John Joe, not that I didn't trust John Joe and doubted his ability, but it was a genuine concern whether he could hold on to these three bridges under such cruel artillery fire. The Germans were not stupid, with such strong firepower preparation and fierce attack, it was impossible for John Joe to resist with just his flesh and blood alone.

  This is not an exaggeration. If you have never seen the simultaneous firing of artillery, then you will never be able to imagine what it's like. One round of covering fire can almost dig up a layer of soil at least two or three meters deep in the bombed area. Even mice underground would be blown out, let alone living things on the surface. To give you an idea, a single 105mm high-explosive shell has a lethal range as large as a football field, and the crater it blasts out is several meters deep. As for scenes in movies where shells explode right next to someone, and they just stand up, brush off the dirt, and are fine - that's something you'll never see on this battlefield. Forget about the shrapnel from the explosion causing severe injuries - a single piece can leave you severely disabled. The massive shockwave from the blast is enough to give you a thorough fracture, or even pierce your eardrum and make you deaf.

  So why do new recruits die the fastest in war? In fact, when facing the enemy's bullets, they still know where to hide. However, when encountering the enemy's intense artillery fire, trenches are blown up, and shelters are blasted away, they often become dizzy and disoriented, fleeing wildly, and death arrives because shells love standing people!

  "Linberna, Joensen you stay behind and continue to fortify the position, the rest of you follow me to support Major John Cho!"

  "I'm going too!" Anna said, standing up with Tompson.

  "Get out! I don't have time to bother with you!"

  "You..."

  Anna was about to retort, but beside her, Joelson quickly pulled her and shook his head slightly, whispering: "Don't dare disobey orders, the lieutenant at this time can't tolerate anyone being disobedient!"

  "You're just going to...?" Anna looked at Joason in surprise, clearly not believing that I was so decisive in D-Link, but was interrupted by Joason.

  "Miss Anna! This is war! Don't bring your democratic nonsense here, war doesn't need that!"

  I led Bruce and Jones' squad of only twenty-odd men, braving the German artillery fire to find John Cho. By now, John Cho had lost his usual elegance, his face stained with soot and blood, a thick layer of bandages wrapped around his arm.

  "Hey, Lieutenant Konti," John Joe asked loudly, "how did you get up here?"

  "If you can't hold on here, the last line of defense will definitely not be able to hold on for much longer!" I replied loudly.

  "You've arrived just in time, my C team is being overwhelmed at Beiqiao, go support them!"

  "No problem! Sir! How's it going here?"

  "The German artillery fire is too intense, look at me here, it's been blown to smithereens! The casualties are too heavy! However, we managed to destroy one of the German tanks on the bridge and damaged three others, so their tanks dare not cross the bridge anymore! Only infantry can still hold them off!"

  "Damn it! I get it! Sir! I'll go support Company C right away!"

  "Beware of German artillery! Good luck!"

  "Yes, sir! All of you from D team follow me!"

  Carrington's North Bridge

  "German stormtroopers! Fire! Fire!"

  Rat-a-tat-tat, all the firepower can be described with the word "venting", strong and dense hail of bullets, just repelled another small-scale infantry charge by the Germans! An American officer shouted loudly.

  "Shift! Shift! Entering anti-aircraft zone!"

  Time was running out, and the German shells came down like a hail of bullets, pouring down on them. Before the American officer could even duck, the powerful shockwave sent him flying into the air like a broken sack, tearing him to shreds that scattered all over the battlefield. The few remaining men on the battlefield didn't have time to worry about the officer's life or death, they quickly scrambled to the anti-artillery zone, covering their heads and ears, waiting for the arrival of death!

  The anti-cannon area is not actually a dug-out cannon-proof trench, but rather the blind spot of artillery fire behind the ruins of a concrete-reinforced building that has been blasted to smithereens. The Germans' heavy cannons cannot reach here!

  My support did not cause any excitement among the C Company troops. A junior lieutenant of C Company, seeing me come to support, stood up and asked: "Has Lieutenant Colonel John Joe ordered us to withdraw?"

  "What a pity! No! I want to see your superior!"

  "It's no use seeing him, he just died!" The lieutenant heard that I wasn't replacing them and sat down with a disappointed plop.

  "Who is your superior now!"

  The few dozen men from C Company who were still alive and could fire a gun looked around casually, muttering curses: "Damn it to hell, they're all dead! I've become the biggest one!"

  "Is this all the people you've brought?"

  "The German devils' firepower was too fierce, and we lacked anti-artillery facilities. Our men basically all died at the hands of the big guns!"

  "Alright! I've got it, Lieutenant! From now on, I'm taking command of C Company!" Faced with C Company's severe lack of battlefield commanders, I had no choice but to take over the entire command at Carlington North Bridge.

  "How much longer will the Germans' big guns keep firing? Lieutenant!"

  "I don't know! The German guy's punches are unpredictable!"

  "Ah, Lieutenant! Do you have any anti-tank weapons here?"

  "Yes! Lieutenant!"

  "What?"

  "There are only two rocket launchers!"

  "Damn it! Didn't Major assign you anti-tank guns?"

  "There was a door, but it was blown off in the first round of shelling by the German devils!"

  "How did you fight?"

  "God knows!"

  "This is just wonderful! Lieutenant! How many Germans have you annihilated?"

  "Look, over there's a whole field of corpses, I don't know the exact number, but it's probably dozens. Those are all our doing! Also, we knocked out one of the German No. 4 assault tanks and the crew abandoned ship! As for the others, we didn't have time to count them!"

  "Great, you guys did an awesome job!"

  "Thank you, sir!"

  The situation is extremely unfavorable, the German attack on the bridgehead has only tried three times and caused huge casualties to the defending troops. If there are a few more attacks, it will be difficult to hold out until the arrival of the Allied reinforcements!

  "David! Take some men and go on outpost duty! Don't let the Germans take advantage of this gap, or we're done for!"

  "Yes! Elric, come with me!"

  "Come back alive!"

  " Lieutenant! I hate you saying that!" David spat a wad of phlegm onto the ground and disappeared into the night, clutching his Springfield M1903A4 sniper rifle.

  The German artillery bombardment actually lasted only a short time, about one or two minutes. As soon as the German artillery stopped, the lieutenant shouted: "Stop, stop!"

  "Wait again!"

  "Shao Wei hastily said: 'We can't go back, the German troops have completely broken through, we can't hold them off anymore!'"

  I gritted my teeth and faced the German commander, I didn't dare to gamble with the entire Carlington bridgehead position. After all, this would allow the Germans to break through this point and establish a bridgehead defensive line, which would completely destroy the entire Carlington bridgehead defense! So sometimes it's just so strange, knowing that the Germans will play tricks, but still having to continue sending troops to their deaths.

  "My men, go first! The remaining people of Company C are reorganized into two reinforced squads, with you leading them to prepare for a surprise attack at any time!" In fact, the reorganization on the battlefield is so simple. No matter who you are, as long as you can still breathe and hold a gun, that's enough! "The men from Company D, follow me!"

  The German artillery had almost completely destroyed the defensive position at the bridgehead, with craters and rubble everywhere, and in some places the loose earth on the road surface was deep enough to bury a man's foot, while some of the craters were even deeper than a man. Bruce and Jones only discovered when they reached the position that everything that could provide cover for their bodies had disappeared, except for the occasional shell crater.

  "Oh God! How can this be defended!"

  "Cut the chatter! Take cover behind the crater!"

  The commander of the Germans is a damn fool! I just jumped into a deeper crater, and the artillery barrage started again immediately! It's clear that it's not just some crossers who use tricks, their enemies are not stupid either, they will too, and even more so. War for both sides is actually not just a competition of weapons and resources, but more of a contest of wits!

  Shells with a whistling sound fell from the sky, "Boom!" A deafening roar like the collapse of heaven and earth, the mud and gravel blown up were more than ten meters high, and the huge shockwave made my eardrums ache! I shouted loudly, but in fact, under such a devastating force, except for myself, I didn't know who else could hear my voice!

  "Artillery fire from the Germans! Take cover! Take cover!"

  "Ah——" A soldier screamed and rolled around on the ground, clutching his stomach. His belly had been torn open by shrapnel, revealing a massive gash with red and white intestines spilling out, mixed with blood. Suddenly, he struggled to get up from the ground, awkwardly stuffing his spilled intestines and liver back into his stomach, regardless of whether they were still covered in mud and gravel. Perhaps heaven was cruel and didn't want to see him blown to smithereens, but the falling shells miraculously didn't blow him to pieces. Except for being pushed by the shockwave a few times, he wasn't hurt again. He fell down several times, got up several times, but ultimately couldn't hold on and died completely.

  Yes, it was just one round of shelling, just over a dozen shells, and it took away more than a dozen lives. The rest were almost all injured, and the dead were not directly killed by the blast, but mostly cut or crushed to death by flying shrapnel and debris.