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Page 278
Amid the shouts and curses, a torrential downpour of 180mm shells, fired simultaneously from the Kirov and Gorky, suddenly rained down on the side of Amatulla's flagship, forcefully pushing the slightly tilted ship back in the other direction as it turned.
"Are you alright?!" One by one, the people on the bridge fell to the ground, and Amatullah was no exception.
"Leave me alone!" The general kicked the helpful helmsman back into the air. "Speed up and get within range of the anti-submarine rockets! Drop the warheads onto their destroyer decks!"
……
"This is the Yan Ge! Our ship is under fire from enemy ships and needs to take emergency evasive action. Now, the entire destroyer squadron will follow the second destroyer in formation for the next maneuver!"
The squad leader promptly delivered the order, and the entire squad calmly continued to turn their guns to the port side to engage the pristine white missile destroyers.
However, the Strict, which had just been leading the way, did not steer to starboard to get away from the line of fire. Instead, it turned left and followed the torpedo wakes cast by the destroyers, heading straight into the Britannia formation.
They finally couldn't hold back any longer. One anti-submarine rocket after another was launched from the vertical launch systems of the missile destroyers, their tail flames shining brightly as the warhead covers were launched into the air. Then, one after another, the warheads fell from the mother ship, crashing all at once onto the Yan Ge.
"Firing at enemy missiles... Damn it, what is that?!"
The lieutenant in charge of one of the 45mm anti-aircraft guns was stunned when he saw the anti-ship missiles suddenly scatter like a shower of flowers. The anti-submarine warheads, whose detonation fuses had just been set, landed on the hull of the Strict and the surrounding sea surface, like a string of firecrackers hitting a dolphin leaping in the waves, causing some cracks in the steel skin.
Those inside the main gun turrets would likely be unharmed, but the sailors exposed to the sun on deck would certainly suffer. Worse still, a cannon shot from the bow pierced the waterline armor of the Strict, which was swaying along its straight course, its guns still calmly aiming and firing, like a wounded reindeer facing a menacing Arctic wolf with its antlers.
Amatulla angrily leaned against the porthole of her flagship, roaring incessantly at the Stern. If it weren't for the torpedoes fired by the Soviet destroyers disrupting their formation, how could this small boat have been allowed to advance at full speed to within 7 kilometers of her?
"Hey! Your Excellency!" A loud shout suddenly came from the radio of the missile destroyer at the rear of the formation, "There's a torpedo at our 4 o'clock position! No, no, no, it's too late!"
"4 o'clock?" Amatullah checked the course and electronic map, ignoring the deafening roar of the torpedo that had pierced the tail of the formation—but the direction from which the torpedo came was something no Soviet destroyer in front of him should have been in!
"Submarines! Submarines from District 45!" Suddenly, the entire fleet was startled by a few waves that leaped out from not far away. They were two K-class submarines of the Red Navy, and their bows were now facing the four destroyers. The crew members were running out of the conning tower and heading towards the 100mm deck guns in front of them!
"Stop them! Stop them!..." In a daze, the wakes of the Gorky and Kirov had already disappeared among the coastal islands. The 180mm main guns of the two cruisers fired one after another, each one more precise than the last, at the lead ship that Amatullah was on, the missile destroyer that belonged to her and bore her Arabic crescent emblem.
Finally, one shell cut diagonally through the horizontal deck from the gun mount on the foredeck and into the ammunition compartment, while another shell crashed into the superstructure from below the bridge and exploded. In a flash, as fragments flew through the portholes, Amatullah's face could no longer be seen in the porthole glass.
……
"The Holy Messenger reports! The entire ship below the waterline is flooded!"
"Knight Houdrick reporting! Our superstructure has been hit by multiple Soviet artillery fire! The fire is out of control and has spread to the bridge!"
"Graf Reeves reporting! A Soviet submarine has just hit our bridge! We... Oh God, enemy aircraft are approaching from the northeast!"
The leaderless missile destroyers began to dart about on the water, with two cruisers and six destroyers, along with two submarines, relentlessly unleashing their deck guns upon them.
Finally, the Finnish Air Force, which had just arrived from the direction of Kalmar, helped them clean up the mess. More than a dozen Ju-88 bombers were divided into several squadrons and dropped bombs on the warships, which were almost at a standstill.
"Hurrah!" The lieutenant on the Strict, who was in charge of the anti-aircraft guns, was about to cheer for the wounded on the deck when he saw a Portman with wings flying out of the exploded and sunken warship on Amatulla's flagship, rushing straight toward the destroyer beneath him.
"Damn it!" came Amatullah's voice from the Portman, "You self-proclaimed Soviet District 45 people! Don't even think about leaving here alive!"
As Amatullah's KMF rushed to the side of the bridge and was about to aim its recoilless rifle at the bridge hatch, the quick-thinking lieutenant immediately hooked a intact 76mm anti-aircraft gun shell from beside his leg, kicked it under Portman's buttocks, and at the same time pulled out his pistol, aimed at the primer of the shell, and pulled the trigger with his eyes closed.
Portman collapsed to the ground with the explosion and her severed lower limbs. Amatulla crawled out of the hatch, and the lieutenant, holding a still-warm anti-aircraft shell casing, smashed it at the general's head like a brick.
Just as he was about to finish off Amatulla with a bullet casing after smashing a bowl-sized wound into her forehead, a huge mechanical arm caught the lieutenant's arm. Somehow, another Portman suddenly emerged from below the surface of the Strict, without guns or wings. It snatched Amatulla's body from the lieutenant's hand and carried it to the hastily opened cockpit behind him. Before the DShK heavy machine gun could rip it open, it jumped back into the water and swam away.
The Strict remained standing on the water. After finishing a call with the lieutenant general on the Gorky, and with the arrival of Red Navy submarines and destroyers providing assistance from all sides, the entire crew stood on the deck, cheering as they watched the four white sturgeon, belly up, sink into the sea amidst explosions and smoke, along with the lion and serpent flag they served.
Chapter 395, Section 501: Centurions, the Commonwealth, and the Nordic Countries Gather Together
What does it feel like to lose a vice admiral in the blink of an eye?
Although the news from the front was that "General Amatulla is missing, but she certainly did not die on her warship," Trosa could no longer sit still.
"Where are the troops besieging Karlsruhe?" When the news came back from the Swedish naval port, she was furious.
No wonder the Swedish garrison at Karlsruhe was hiding so cowardly; they were just waiting for the Arkhangelsk to fire its cannons this morning so they could take advantage of the chaos and break out across the bay. Although the Swedish soldiers inevitably shed blood while struggling on their small boats, about a hundred or two managed to escape.
Before this pent-up frustration could even dissipate, more bad news arrived from the north.
But now we need to go back to Lieutenant General Trosa and start from the beginning.
Indeed, Malmö-Helsingborg-Copenhagen, the defensive golden triangle of the Øresund Strait has been breached by her and the navy. While this is certainly something to celebrate, the American carrier battle group is still north of Copenhagen, and any plan to advance off the west coast of Sweden will inevitably encounter a horde of irritating carrier-based aircraft.
Surely the Nordic forces couldn't rely on the navy and air fleet's support, which was practically a loss, for all their operations? Duke Rabinowicz had no choice but to use Plan B, which was to attack the inland areas far from the west coast, opening up an inland passage extending northward along the central axis of Sweden, thus creating a flanking attack on the west coast.
Of course, this straightforward strategy was all too easy for the British in District 45, and for the "fake Britons" who were adept at defensive calculations from their very first meeting. So, unsurprisingly, overnight, the once quiet forests and lakes of the Swedish interior were filled with those positions covered in iron hats, like bamboo shoots after a rain.
The frequent presence of transport ships in the Kattegat Strait heading towards ports occupied by the 45th District indicates that they are continuously reinforcing their troops in Northern Europe. It seems that these "imposters" have indeed taken Scandinavia, which does not belong to the so-called "Empire on which the sun never sets," as their territory and are "defending it to the death."
Ironically, it wasn't until the day before the long-dormant Red Navy appeared before her that Trossa truly learned who the "British troops" blocking the Swedish interior were, unlike the troops stationed in Malmö.
……
"This is the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment, calling the entire 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade. We have encountered a suspected Britannian 'ACE' combat formation at our positions in the Lyatop direction. Please send reinforcements!"
The Canadian 4th Infantry Brigade, belonging to the 2nd Infantry Division, was an utterly insignificant and mediocre force amidst the myriad combat units and heroic units of the World Wars.
Only more attentive historians in later generations will find this designation in a major battle that followed the Normandy landings—the Falaise Siege in mid-August 1944, in which they also choked the Germans.
Of course, like many American soldiers, they returned home after Germany surrendered, and after the Britannians arrived, they hurriedly returned to Europe. The Americans went to Germany, while the belatedly arriving Commonwealth troops followed the tradition of sticking together and went to the Nordic region.
With the experience gained from the initial attempts by the US and Britain, they were less helpless in dealing with these extraterrestrial visitors. The Canadian soldiers, who had failed to ambush the Britannians in the forest, discovered the "KMF acting strangely" described in their military training materials and immediately retreated north, returning to their rear positions belonging to the main infantry regiment.
"There, there are two brightly painted machines, I think they're called Vincent." A sergeant in the retreating column described the enemy's equipment somewhat incoherently to the position commander. "One has a twin-mounted anti-aircraft gun in its hand, the sound is a bit like a German 20mm anti-aircraft gun; the other has a green glass shield, sometimes it's small, sometimes it's huge..."
"Alright, alright, go back to the back and calm down." The person in charge of command was a major, who roughly guessed the configuration of the opposing ACE team after listening to the sergeant's description.
"Listen up, soldiers! Our comrades' ambush attempt ahead failed. Now, an enemy force of at least 25 puppets and combat vehicles, numbering in the hundreds, is attacking us. Two of them are ACEs, equipped with twin rapid-fire machine guns and high-powered energy shields. These strange and unusual things are all written in your brochures. Do you understand what to do?"
"Our firepower is not superior. Bosideng machine gun positions and 6-pounder anti-tank gun positions, listen to my command and do not fire prematurely to expose yourselves!"
The major was still instructing the heavy weapons squad on his tactical plan, while the infantrymen stood by at their respective positions. Every now and then, a few new faces would squeeze in among them—the brigade headquarters was transferring more manpower to this regiment, and these infantrymen who came to help out arrived in "tanks."
Yes, it was indeed a tank, the turretless Sherman tank, which they nicknamed the "kangaroo's thing." Several squads carrying PIAT anti-tank launchers also ran out of their vehicles and lay in ambush in the surrounding woods, carefully pressing the armor-piercing warheads into the launcher's springs.
"It's nothing serious, soldiers!" After giving the tactical instructions, the major had just received a telegram from his allies: "The British have an armored task force codenamed Duke of Wellington coming over soon. Don't think of this as more of a headache than the German monsters!"
"Armor? And a special task force?" Before the squad leader could ask for more details, several shells landed next to the Canadians as soon as he looked up.
"Get cover!" The major pushed the squad leaders to their positions, then called over the communications soldier who was with him and told him to run to the rear to meet the British convoy.
The situation was extremely urgent, so there was no question about it. The communications soldier rolled over the back between the rocks and tree trunks, and the sound of gunfire immediately erupted. The commotion that Lee-Enfield and Bren light machine guns had just started was instantly disrupted by the thunderous artillery fire from the other side of the line.
Shells even flew over the position and landed behind it. The communications soldier almost ran into his own minefield without realizing it—this was one of the reasons the major gave him the mission. If the British armored support was lost to their own people, especially a task force, the consequences would be dire.
"Hello!" Finally, on a stretch of dirt road through the woods, a Daimler armored vehicle, the lead vehicle of the task force, came into view. This was a familiar sight to the Commonwealth forces.
However, the British tank following behind, which had just climbed the hill, terrified the communications officer. He almost mistook the vehicle, which had the Duke of Wellington's coat of arms painted on its front armor, for a creation of a comet. Although it also carried a 17-pounder cannon, why was it so much larger?
As the soldier clung to the body of the Daimler armored vehicle and pointed the way ahead, he turned back to look at the six brand-new faces with disbelief. Their steel armor, which was much more robust than that of the Comet, looked no weaker than that of the Churchill tank, and yet they seemed to drive just as fast as the American M4.
Suddenly, he noticed a small booklet peeking out from the breast pocket of Daimler's uniform. The cover featured a line drawing of a tank that looked exactly like the tracked beast behind it, and the title was an unfamiliar English word: "Centurion".
……
As for the Britannians who attacked, you could tell which of the two Vincents, each with a different color, belonged to Sisian and which to Juliet.
The two of them were positioned towards the rear of the column. It seemed that the Canadian army's position could be easily handled by assault guns and KMFs leading the charge, with the infantry following behind. Their job was to help take care of the PIATs that were popping up on the flanks.
It wasn't until the Canadian army's 6-pound cannons opened fire that Juliet grabbed her high-powered energy shield and ran to the front of the marching column. Only then did the Canadian army's mortars begin to attack the infantry—not to mention that the infantry couldn't take it, these 3-inch mortars hitting the KMF's shoulders would be deadly.
At this moment, Xixian noticed a very obvious unusual movement from another direction amidst the 6-pounder cannon fire—following the movement with his eyes, he could see a patch of bushes on the Canadian flank swaying slightly, crushed by vehicles; that would be a good place to outflank the Canadian forces.
"You said you were going to retrieve Ipel's body." Any chance to reduce casualties was worth pursuing, Juliet simply gave a brief instruction without stopping the sky-blue Vincent from taking off with its twin-mounted machine gun.
The Bosideng machine guns on the Canadian positions obviously couldn't keep up with her reaction and aiming speed, and the hydroxyl explosive grenade that Xixi'an took from Juliet's plane was successfully thrown at the soldiers' heads, driving them away from the machine guns. But when she was about to grab the machine gun muzzle and officially prepare to fight among the Canadian troops, she crashed into a Daimler armored vehicle with a bang.
Xixi'an had seen this armored vehicle before when she fought against the British army, but only today did she understand its true capabilities. After the crash, she herself was unharmed, but Vincent had one leg stuck under the side of its chassis, lifting the armored vehicle, which was less than four and a half meters long and wide.
The 2-pounder cannon on the turret tried to turn and aim at the nose of her aircraft, but Vincent's arm exerted all its strength and blocked it. Seeing this, Shisian had a flash of inspiration. She grabbed Vincent's grappling hook and placed it on the ground on the other side of the vehicle. With her other mechanical leg exerting force and following the force of the winch pulling the rope, she managed to lift the armored vehicle, which was half her height, onto the ground like she was hugging a teddy bear.
Vincent was about to aim his robotic arm at the crew members who were about to climb out of the hatch when he heard the approaching tank engine. In the instant he dodged, the flames from the 17-pounder cannon pierced the wind and flew past Vincent's arm into the distant woods.
"The Canadian tank support is here." Shisian quickly crossed the line of fire and retreated behind Juliet, also alerting the entire attacking force.
"The sturdy, slow-moving tortoise is called a giant trebuchet, and the speeding, tracked monster is called a sika deer. Which one?" Xixi'an didn't say who the tank came from, but she helped remind them of Churchill and Cromwell's code names.
“A male sika deer.” Xixi’an remembered the sound of a 17-pound cannon and a square shadow, which could only be a comet.
However, when a "comet" about to emerge was exposed to everyone's guns, what happened next was beyond everyone's expectations. Despite all the bullets hitting it, whether it was rocket launchers from infantry or armor-piercing rounds from assault guns, its unyielding armor protected the gun barrels on the turrets, and it even managed to take out three assault guns in a row.
"Back off! Back off!" Julia was a little worried as a 17-pound cannon came crashing down on her—and it turned out she was right, because six of these new faces came at once, all of them pressing down on her shield.
"They're not coming!" Shisian cried out from behind her, watching the British tanks remain stationary on their positions, unlike the Soviets who pressed their advantage and charged into the face of their retreating ranks. This meant they weren't being given the chance to launch a surprise attack on their flanks.
……
The Britannians weren't backing down, and the Canadians weren't exactly enthusiastic about dragging things out either—to be more specific, who would want to let the enemy's ACE go back alive without incurring some costs?
The reply to the Canadian major on the position came from a Swede. It was Captain Goodlson and his entire crew, who had been busy in the seaplane during the Stockholm bombing. Their PBYs, along with another small squadron, were heading here with several bombs under their wings.
"The Canadians seem to be in that woods? We need to change direction to fly in and drop our bombs."
As the captain prepared to adjust the bombing course with the two PBYs, he seemed to see several Britannian armed helicopters flying low in the south—this direction was most likely heading towards the Canadian positions.
"We can't contact any friendly fighters nearby, Captain," Lieutenant Samuel said, crouching at the radio in the center of the cockpit. "What's your option?"
"Let's take down these guys with rockets first, any objections, everyone?" After the captain finished speaking, he turned to look at the silent crowd. "Well, I don't think so."
PBY, with a sudden turn of his control stick, plunged from over four thousand meters in the air and headed straight for the back of the helicopter formation. Following these wingless creations, he was repeatedly blasted off the sky by Sergeant Stewoy, who was operating the twin Madsen cannons in the nose of the helicopter.
"Scatter! Scatter!" Goodlson instructed the rear machine gunner as he and his comrades split up to the left and right, "Crossfire! Crossfire!"
Thankfully, the PBY was equipped with .50 machine guns. The two planes were like two ropes with hooks being pulled in the middle, dragging each other in the waves. Although it was far inferior to the fishing nets woven by Oerlikon Bofors on the warship, it was still enough to poke a few unlucky helicopter pilots.
"Go! Go! Let's get out of here!" The Britannian helicopters, now in a frenzy, started chasing and firing at the PBYs with their machine guns. They could only hurriedly fly their planes to the target location. Julia's light shield was still shining in the forest. They dropped bombs on their heads and then quickly left.
"Calling for Swedish pilots in the air." In the critical moment when they were being chased by helicopters, they received a call from the ground in their native language: "We are approaching the Canadian positions from the west of Liatop. Our trucks can provide you with some air defense cover. Please move towards Gothenburg, where Allied forces will help you get out of trouble."
……
PBY flew over the coast, and the last helicopter that was still chasing it was shot down by artillery fire from the sea. To be precise, it was shot down by several troop transport ships that were dropping landing craft in the near sea and flying Commonwealth flags.
Yes, still not a face born on Scandinavian soil. Colonel Moyer stood on the Gothenburg seawall, intending to have a smoke to clear his head, but he couldn't find his lighter, so his face looked even more disgusting.
Ironically, while the rest of Northern Europe was fighting off extraterrestrial visitors, the most pressing matter for a Swedish Royal Navy admiral was to get the two unfinished Tricrown-class cruisers in the Gothenburg dry dock to Oslo as soon as possible, as leaving them there would only cause trouble for his own people.
Just then, a relatively young captain came up to him from the crowd wading ashore—dressed like the other soldiers, in a British military uniform with a wide-brimmed hat, the left half of the brim curving up towards the top of the hat, and a gold badge pinned inside the brim.
"The brigade guard officer of the 17th Infantry Brigade of the Australian Army, on behalf of Brigadier General Mori Morten, greets you, sir." The captain, with a smug grin, ran over and handed the colonel a box of matches.
"Hello, stranger." Moyer seemed to understand the meaning of the English. "Is there anything I can do to help you in this country?"
“No need to be so formal, sir. Since we have come to your hometown to fight against the enemies of the Commonwealth, and you will be fighting alongside us, we certainly will not accept tips.”
"Taking tips?" Moyer was puzzled. Only then did he notice the strange necklace around the captain's neck—upon closer inspection, he realized it was made of two shark teeth and a row of human teeth strung together.
The captain understood Moye's confusion, so he put one leg on a nearby rock, put one hand on his waist and picked up the necklace with the other, and began to show it off with a cheerful smile. "Three years ago, I was on New Guinea Island. The locals there showed the way to the Japanese colonel. Unfortunately, he wasn't a rich man, so I had to make him 'personally' pay me the tip."
Chapter 396 Homeland and Foreign Lands (Part 2) (Section 502)
Submarines and aircraft, these two weapons operated by the people of District 45, are like mosquitoes in a summer night's sleep, always ready to slip through the gaps between the Britannian Navy's warships and strike the transport ships busy on the sea between Sweden and Germany.
Elizabeth certainly understood the military tactics of the District 45 people, but she really didn't expect that once this military strategy was put into use, it would cause so much trouble for the expeditionary force's offensive in Northern Europe and even Poland in a short period of time.
By the time Lieutenant General Trossa reported General Amatulla's disappearance, Duke Rabinowicz only had 10 missile destroyers left to operate along the Baltic coast.
It's not that the expeditionary force couldn't fight without the navy, but the navy's reinforcements arrived way too late. It was as if the capital's office had bought plane tickets for the ground troops and the air fleet, while giving the navy a stack of ordinary train tickets to get rid of them.
Today is August 8th. Two months have passed since the Battle of the Southern Scandinavia, which looted most of the expeditionary fleet. Elizabeth and Kelly, accompanied by Marshal Sofia, arrived over Hanne Bay in Sweden aboard a skyship.
Three Skyships were also stationed around them, and further out, Air Force MFs patrolled back and forth. The missile destroyers on the sea were arranged in an arc, facing the huge electronic device in the bay.
"Dr. Ron has finally gotten around to this sea portal that doesn't require connecting conduits, right?"
The calm sea suddenly turned into a raging storm the moment the portal was constructed by a familiar beam of light. Then, one after another, warships stepped into this world. From this day forward, the expeditionary naval fleet will become a strategic force consisting of 3 aircraft battleships, 60 missile destroyers and 4 submarines, and will completely take over the Baltic Sea from the people of District 45.
"What a pity, Suzaku has already gone back to Area 11." Thinking back to a long time ago, when the Seventh Knight of the Round Table wanted to dispatch the Area 11 fleet to intercept the Black Knights' submarine, but was caught off guard by her fake order to modify a ship, Elizabeth almost burst out laughing again.
……
However, as for why Suzaku went back so early, it wasn't because he was ashamed to face Elizabeth, nor was it because he was so frightened by the battle in District 45 that he couldn't sleep at night. According to what Cecil told Kylier behind Suzaku and Lloyd's back before he left, after he woke up on the morning of the third day after the complete annihilation of the Jade Knights, he seemed to have received a divine revelation and was eager to go back to find Nunnally.
You heard right. In just a few days in the 45th ward, he actually came up with a bill to appease the "Japanese" and German civilians in the 11th ward. What's even more outrageous is that Nanali actually accepted it.
Want to witness this law that's considered a split personality by Imperial officials, a much-needed rain in the eyes of District 45, and a betrayal of one's ancestors by the eyes of District 11? No problem, District 11's TV station has been replaying it on repeat all week.
"I am Suzaku Kururugi, the seventh Knight of the Round Table of the Britannian Empire and the aide to Governor Nunnally. Today, on behalf of Her Highness Nunnally, I hereby promulgate a new decree."
“The civilians of Ward 45 have been in our country and the world for almost a year, but it wasn’t until two months ago that we fully learned their true identities. In these months, countless bloody conflicts have occurred, ravaging the land we live on and the young Japanese special ward.”