Chapter 437 Archimedes

"Solario found the enemy!"

"Canicati found the enemy tanks!"

...

The enemy information surged towards Montgomery one after another.

Montgomery called Eisenhower immediately: "Ike, the main force of the Germans is in Syracuse, and we are attacked by a large number of enemies!"

"No, Monty!" Eisenhower said: "The main force of the Germans is in Trappah, I am sure! We are fighting fiercely with them!"

Without giving Montgomery more time to explain, Eisenhower hung up the phone.

It was 4:20 in the morning.

Goering's armored division was divided into three parts and approached Syracuse from three directions along the highway... As a port city, Syracuse has very developed transportation. In addition to the three main roads, there are many branch roads, which created good conditions for the armored division to attack Syracuse. The tanks of the armored division did not need to crowd on a road to advance.

"Do you know Archimedes?" Alfredo suddenly asked.

"Of course I know!" Werner smiled and said, "Are you going to talk to us about philosophy?"

"Or science?" the baker added.

(Note: Archimedes is a scientist and philosopher)

"No!" Alfredo said, "I want to tell you about his hometown!"

"Whose hometown?"

"Archimedes's!"

"What?" Werner asked in confusion, "Why are you talking about this?"

"Because we are attacking it!" Alfredo explained.

Then the soldiers understood that Syracuse was Archimedes' hometown.

"More than two thousand years ago..." Alfredo raised his head in the direction of advance and said, "The Romans occupied this place, and then cut off Archimedes' head without hesitation. His tomb is in the northeast corner of the archaeological park. Maybe our tanks will pass by there!"

The soldiers were silent, and some of them shook their heads with sighs.

Qin Chuan knew what this meant...The German soldiers had a high level of education. For example, David was a college student, and it was said that Dominic could play the piano well, so they all had some awe of Archimedes.

Now that I know that I am attacking the city where this great scientist, mathematician, physicist, mechanician... lived before, I can't help but sigh.

"Give me a fulcrum!" David said.

"I can pry the earth!" Werner replied.

"Even for monarchs!" Alfredo said.

"There is no shortcut to studying knowledge!" The baker replied.

"Please use today's efforts..." Dominic said.

"Let there be no regrets tomorrow!" Qin Chuan replied.

After a pause, Qin Chuan continued: "We have worked hard today, but will there be no regrets tomorrow?"

The soldiers couldn't help but be silent. They all knew in their hearts that it was impossible to have no regrets. Each of them was full of dreams, had many unfinished things, and many people to meet... But this is war.

"Beep!" A sharp whistle came, and Qin Chuan knew it was time to get off the car.

This means that the troops have entered a dangerous area and may be bombarded or suddenly attacked by the enemy... At this time, it is obviously not suitable to move forward in the car as a whole car, because that will pay heavy casualties in the first time.

The soldiers jumped out of the car in a line. The tank in front had stopped, but it did not turn off the engine. It was obviously waiting for the cooperation of the infantry in the rear.

"Cheer up, guys!" Qin Chuan said, "If you don't want to leave this world with regrets!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldiers answered one after another.

Qin Chuan raised his rifle and looked forward through the scope. He could vaguely see some things like barbed wire. It seemed that the British blocked this section of the road, and the tank troops obviously planned to force their way through.

Sure enough, then he heard Bazel shouting in front: "The British set up roadblocks in front, and they may have buried mines and explosives. Our task is to cover the tanks to break through their defense line. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

Several flares hit the air, and a British defense line soon appeared under the light of the flares. Several British soldiers habitually raised their heads to look at the light in the sky... This must be a new recruit. The veterans should know that it is time to lie down and hide.

Sure enough, a row of machine gun bullets "swooshed" and knocked the recruits to the ground, and then the tank gun "boomed" and blew up the bunker built by the British army with sandbags in the middle of the road.

50MM mortars fired shells in front of the tanks in rows, in order to blow up the anti-tank mines that might be buried on the ground.

Then the tanks "rumbled" forward, covering the German troops behind them.

The British army began to fight back, and the bullets hit the tank armor like popcorn "clang clang" sounded... The British knew that their weapons were powerless against tanks, but out of fear they still pulled the trigger.

With a crisp "clang" sound, Qin Chuan realized that it was an armor-piercing shell fired by the anti-tank, but it obviously failed to penetrate the tank armor, otherwise the tank would have stopped at this time.

Qin Chuan stuck his head out from behind the tank and looked forward, then he felt relieved... The British used a 6-pound anti-tank gun, because he knew that this anti-tank gun could not penetrate the 50MM thick armor of the Type 4 tank at a distance of about 700 meters.

Obviously... this is another job for new recruits. Anti-tank guns should fire when they can penetrate the enemy's tank armor. Firing in advance will not do any good except exposing their own positions and inviting enemy attacks.

Sure enough, several mortar shells soon blew the anti-tank gun into a pile of scrap metal.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly that the British troops left in Syracuse Port were the 15th Infantry Division that had just been transferred from the British mainland.

This infantry division was formed by the British army not long ago for homeland defense... But as we all know, the British homeland defense is mainly focused on sea and air operations, and there is not much demand for sea and air operations now: Navy, Britain has blocked the German Navy in the port, and only German submarines need to be worried about. Air Force, the German Air Force has turned to the Eastern Front on a large scale.

In addition, the British mainland is in short supply, so the 15th Infantry Division has been lacking almost everything since its formation. Weapons and equipment are given priority to front-line combat troops. Sometimes they even need two people to use one rifle for training.

Montgomery had his own reasons for not taking this unit to the battlefield: he was worried that the German African Corps would launch a counterattack from the Gabès Line, so he had to leave some strong combat troops in Africa.

This also meant that part of the troops attacking Sicily must be new recruits... These new recruits were the British 15th Infantry Division.