Chapter 341: The Battle of London (Part 2)

"Oh my God! Why? Why did we lose two lines of defense in one day? I need a reasonable explanation." Hamuraby stared at Bill and Wellington with red eyes.

"Marson, I think this is not our fault. The French attack was too fierce, and the soldiers had tried their best." Bill said with his head down. He and Wellington were responsible for defending the defense lines west and south of London, but basically, it was not the time that the area he was responsible for was first broken by the French army, and then the area in charge of Wellington had to be defeated. Therefore, he had to excuse himself.

"Yes, Mr. Marshal, we had already suffered heavy losses during the French bombing. It is normal for the newly formed troops to be defeated soon in the face of the fierce attacks of more than 150,000 elite French troops." Wellington also explained. It is not that he wanted to ramble, but that if Bill was punished, he would definitely not have a good life.

"Don't look for objective reasons. I don't care what you do. What I want is the result. Now I will give you a dead order, that is, you must block the French attack. At least until July 15, the periphery defense line cannot be broken by the French army." Hamuraby ordered harshly.

Both Bill and Wellington looked bitter and lost two lines of defense in one day. Only God knows whether the remaining three lines of defense can stop the French army for 5 days.

"Marson, then I ask you to send us some reinforcements." Bill said. Since Hamurabi had already given the death order, he had to do his best. Strengthening the strength of the defense is undoubtedly a very effective way.

"Reinforcements? Where can I find reinforcements for you now? My current military strength gap is also very large." Hamurabi said angrily. He lost more than 100,000 people in one day, and no matter how many troops there were, they could not bear it.

"Marson, in that case, it will be difficult for us to defend the defense line within the time you stipulate." Wellington also said.

Hamurabi thought about it for a while, and then said, "Okay, I'll give you 4 more infantry divisions, and these are the last 4 divisions. Tomorrow, the 19, 10, 21, 22 infantry divisions will go to the front line to report."

Bill wanted to say something, but was grabbed by Wellington. He knew that Bill wanted to say what the use of giving them the newly formed troops? But it is better to have one than not. The two saluted Hammutabbi and left, and there was not much time left for them now.

On July 11, the French attack began again. A severely damaged marine division was replaced with an infantry division, so that the French troops involved in the attack remained at around 150,000.

That morning, the overwhelming artillery fire bombarded the British third position violently. The artillery fire stormed for a full half hour, and then began to extend to the rear of the British army, and the French infantry also began to charge.

After the French artillery fire, a large number of British troops emerged from the anti-aircraft artillery holes, walked into the position, tremblingly holding rifles, and began to block the French attack. In yesterday's battle, the British troops stationed on the third line of defense lost nearly 40,000 people. In order to ensure the strength of this line of defense, Wellington did not hesitate to put all reinforcements of the four infantry divisions into it. In addition, in order to prevent these officers and soldiers from escaping at the last minute, a law enforcement team of one regiment was specially organized. Anyone who found that they escaped at the last minute would be shot on the spot. After shooting a colonel commander, they finally stabilized temporarily.

"Hehe, why did the British resist so much more intense today than yesterday?" Marshal Dawu asked with some confusion. The battle had been going on for 3 hours, but the French army still failed to tear open the British defense line. Anyone who lost almost one regiment of troops, of course, the British army suffered far more than one regiment of casualties.

Monty was also very puzzled. From the telescope, he clearly saw that under the fierce attack of the French army, the British army suffered heavy casualties, but they still fought to the death. Some troops were even destroyed. Could it be that the elite British troops were responsible for defending this line of defense? But from their defense without any tactics, it can be seen that they were just new recruits who had just entered the barracks for a while.

"The attack stops temporarily. Each unit starts to have dinner first, and then rest for two hours." As a last resort, Dawu issued an order to temporarily retreat. After the French retreated, a terrifying cheer sounded from the British positions. They finally repelled the French attack. Even though this was only temporary, they were happy enough. Although this short victory caused them to suffer huge casualties. Although many of them were forced at the beginning, at this moment, their national self-esteem and self-confidence were greatly satisfied. Many people even found that the French army was not invincible. As long as they could work hard, they might be able to change the end of the war.

, for these reasons, the French army encountered huge resistance to the attack. The third line of defense seemed to have become an insurmountable natural barrier, blocking the French army's road to London.

The battle was on July 13, and it had been three days. In the past three days, the French army's cumulative casualties reached 20,000. Conservatively, the British army lost at least 70,000 people. However, Dawu and the others were puzzled. Why did this happen? Are the British preparing to fight them in the final decisive battle here?

In fact, the real situation is this. After Wellington discovered that the third line of defense had repeatedly repelled the French attack, he realized that if he had defended the place with all his might, he might be able to block the French attack. However, the casualties of the personnel were huge, and they had no extra reinforcements at all. So he began to draw troops from the fourth line of defense and the fifth line of defense to support the third line of defense. In 3 days, he had already drawn a total of 6 infantry divisions from the fourth line of defense and the fifth line of defense, which was almost 60% of the total strength of the two lines of defense. Of course, this disadvantage is also obvious. He defended the third line of defense with all his strength. If the third line of defense is broken, the French army will drive straight into London.

On July 14, in order to quickly break through the British army's third line of defense, recover the morale that had begun to fall again, and to cope with questions from Paris, Dawu asked the Air Force to carry out a large-scale intensive bombing operation on the British army's third line of defense. On the morning of the same day, dense airships appeared over the British army's third line of defense to carry out bombing. In order to kill and destroy the air raid shelters they built, the bombs used in this bombing were all heavy aviation bombs above 250 kilograms.

During the French bombing, the air raid shelters that were originally expected by Wellington and others were destroyed one after another, and a large number of British troops were bombed to death or buried alive. According to post-war statistics, more than 50,000 people were bombed to death or buried alive, causing the British troops to lose one third of their combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

The bombing of the airship had just passed, and the French artillery began to shell again. However, this time the target of their shelling was not the British position, and the area behind the British third line of defense blocked the British army's assistance to the third line of defense. At the same time, the infantry assault had also been launched. The troops launched a fierce attack on the British army's third line of defense. This time, the severely damaged British army was no longer able to block the French army's attack. After the defense line was broken, the confidence they had finally accumulated collapsed.

When the French air force began to bomb, seeing its powerful power, Wellington was shocked and knew that the French army had done its best this time. When the French bombing had just ended, he immediately asked the fifth line of defense and the fourth line of defense to organize all forces to support the third line of defense. However, it was too late now. All their tens of thousands of reinforcements were intercepted by the French artillery fire, and it was difficult to support the third line of defense. If they forced a breakthrough, then no one could tell how many of their tens of thousands of people could be left through the blockade.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, all the British defense line was occupied by the French army. Less than 40,000 British troops defending here fled back, and the others were either killed in battle or captured.

Afterwards, Dawu seized this opportunity and immediately launched a new offensive. However, under the fierce attack of the French army, the British army's fourth and fifth lines of defense did not even have the defensive power. At 7 pm, the French vanguard had already exchanged fire with the British troops defending the city of London.

In total, the French army broke through the five lines of defense built by the British army on the periphery of London, annihilated about 300,000 enemies and approached the city of London. The French army itself suffered nearly 300,000 losses, especially the loss of ammunition, especially the aviation bombs. The two large-scale bombings consumed all the reserved aviation bombs, and the French Air Force was unable to perform the bombing mission for a long time.

After breaking through all the British defense lines, Dawu and his team immediately sent a telegram to Paris to report on the war situation and requested assistance, especially ammunition replenishment.

"Your Majesty, Marshal Dawu and his team finally broke through the British army's five defense lines and began to attack the city of London. However, their ammunition supply was almost impossible to keep up, and the logistics department had already made a series of turns, but they could not meet their requirements." Eck said with some embarrassment.
Chapter completed!