The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 671

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In the city of Nanamp, when the King of the Sun and the cabinet members were discussing how to defend the city, Guderian had already rushed to the outskirts of Nanamp with the First Army, preparing to launch a fierce attack here.

Guderian’s First Army had a total of 380,000 people, one more division than other armies.

The extra division was Paulus’s 17th Division, but this division suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Sedan. It has just completed its reorganization and is still waiting for ships in the Normandy region.

Guderian only had a vanguard of 100,000 people at this time. Counting Steiner’s 100,000 marines, he only had a total of 200,000 troops.

Around him, the British army was heavily armed, and at least 200,000 troops were approaching them in the east, west and north directions. In addition, there were many British garrisons in Nanamp. It was initially estimated that at least 150,000 people were stationed in and outside the city.

With the current strength of the German army, it is extremely difficult to take this place. This battle may turn into a war of attrition!

The British may be happy with a war of attrition, but Guderian is definitely not interested!

After all, he has fewer people and it is more difficult to supply. The transportation of troops in the future depends on fragile sea routes. Once there is a slight problem with sea transportation, his 200,000 people will be finished!

Therefore, fighting a war of attrition is waiting to die. Not only can they not fight a war of attrition, but they must also break through the enemy’s encirclement as soon as possible and turn the tide of the war as soon as possible!

The place where the situation breaks out is in Southampton, but this place has become a hedgehog at this time. It is not easy to take it down!

How to fight this battle has become a test for Guderian!

“General, if we want to attack Southampton, we must move faster. Our intelligence shows that the main force of the British army is still moving towards Southampton. If we continue to delay, it may be very disadvantageous to us!”

Guderian’s arrival made Steiner feel a little relieved. Guderian’s rank was higher than his, his position was higher than his, and his experience in fighting was richer than his. So after Guderian came, the command of the German army was naturally handed over to Guderian.

And Steiner also returned to his old job and became a general who charged into battle again!

“Well, you are right!”

Guderian nodded. The British army realized the intention of the German army, so they continued to strengthen the defense of Southampton, which caused the number of troops here to increase rapidly and gradually became a hard nut to crack!

“But it’s not entirely right!”

Guderian seemed to be confident. He pointed to the map and said,”The British Empire is an island country. Their maritime trade is huge, and the large amount of shipping trade has led to the fact that the number of ports in the country is not only large, but also scattered.

From the west to the south, there are ten ports on the British Empire, Liverpool, Eindhoven, London, Southampton, Portsmouth, etc. These are all very famous port cities. Bournemouth, where I am, is itself a port city, but the ports here are not as many as those in Southampton, and not as big as those in Southampton!”

Steiner blinked. He was puzzled by what Guderian said.

“General, what do you mean?”

“What is the purpose of our attack on Southampton?”

Steiner answered without thinking:”Of course it is to open up the sea route to facilitate our transport ships to deliver supplies and subsequent reinforcements ashore more quickly!”

Guderian nodded:”Yes, this is our purpose!”

“However, to achieve this goal, it is not necessary to go against Southampton!”

Guderian likes to fight blitzkrieg, likes to use the speed of armored forces to tear the enemy’s defenses, and then artificially create an encirclement to annihilate the enemy!

He doesn’t like to attack a strong city with heavy defenses, which is equivalent to letting him give up his own advantages and attack the enemy’s strengths with his own weaknesses.

Guderian certainly won’t make such a stupid mistake.

So as soon as he got ashore and saw the situation in Southampton, he immediately lost interest in this place!

And their main combat goal is to be able to seize better ports, so that the German transport ships can find ports to dock and transport troops up.

Since this is the main combat goal, then there is no need for them to fight the British army to the death in Southampton!

“General, you mean……”

Steiner’s eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something.

Guderian’s hand was already pointing on the map:”In addition to Southampton, there are dozens of large and small port cities to the west of Southampton, such as Bournemouth, Poole, Kivurich, Waumau, Portland, Exmouth, etc.

These port cities are not large in scale, and each city has a population of only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, but without exception, they all have their own ports. If their ports are added together, the throughput and carrying capacity are bound to be much larger than Southampton. Moreover, I heard that there are a large number of various ships in these port cities, including ocean-going fishing vessels, yachts, merchant ships, barges and other types of ships!

Although the tonnage of these ships is not large, the transportation capacity is”It’s limited, but a mosquito is still meat no matter how small it is. Even if it’s a fishing boat of more than 100 tons, it can at least transport a squad or even a platoon of troops in one trip, right?

The British Strait is not very wide. Even if it is transported by fishing boats, it only takes seven or eight hours to go back and forth. Moreover, fishing boats have smaller tonnage and less loading capacity, so they are more flexible. With these ships, plus the ships we have collected before, even if we fail to capture Southampton, the docks of these dozens of port cities are enough to meet the docking needs of our troops!”

Guderian looked confident. Obviously, his idea was not something he came up with on a whim, but a way to break the deadlock after careful consideration. The

German army was at a disadvantage in terms of manpower, but they had a large number of tanks, which made their advantage obvious, that is, they had the ability to launch a blitzkrieg!

Since the British army thought that the German army was going to attack Southampton, they might as well cooperate with them to put on a show!

Guderian decided to send a detachment disguised as the main force to attack Southampton from the east to attract the attention of the British army, so that they could continue to draw troops from other places to defend Southampton!