Chapter 486 Bombardment

The 2nd Division of the German Paratrooper Airborne Corps was launching a fierce attack on the rear of the Dover defense line.

These rear guard troops were hastily dispatched by the Dover Defense Commander upon hearing that German paratroopers had descended behind them. When these defensive positions were initially built, they were all facing the sea; no one had anticipated an attack from behind, resulting in them being easily breached by the elite German paratroopers, who forced them into a retreat.

Could they be surrounded? Just as the commander was about to ask how many paratroopers were attacking, a scream of abject terror came from the other end of the phone. "Grenade!!"

Boom!

The deafening explosion changed the commander's expression abruptly. "Hello! Hello! What's going on?? Are the Germans attacking??"

After a moment, a hoarse, unfamiliar voice came from the other end of the line. "Yes, we are attacking. Now your retreat has been cut off. I advise you to surrender immediately to avoid unnecessary casualties."

The word "surrender" seemed to touch a nerve with the Defense Commander, who screamed hysterically. "Surrender?! Impossible!! Soldiers of the British Empire will fight to the last man!! We will never surrender!!"

The German on the other end of the line sneered disdainfully. "Fight to the last man? Sure, we'd love that. Although we treat prisoners well, we don't mind killing all the enemies on the battlefield. If you're all captured, we'll have to let you go eventually; if you're all dead, there won't be any future troubles."

After hanging up, the battalion commander walked out of the enemy's command room and ordered his men. "Fortify the defenses, the British said they would fight to the last man. We absolutely cannot let a single Brit slip through here."

"Commander, the defenses are already in place, and the soldiers have moved into position."

As the Germans took over and fortified the British rear defenses, the British soldiers in the second line of defense were huddled in their trenches, shivering.

"Ugh!" With the sound of a nearby violent explosion, a rookie felt a sharp pain in his stomach, spat out, and it was all blood! He looked at the blood in disbelief; how could he be injured without being hit by shrapnel?

These rookies, many untrained, didn't know that the destructive power of large-caliber artillery wasn't just from shrapnel but also from the pervasive shockwave! The explosion of a shell creates shockwaves and significant vibrations, enough to cause internal injuries to soldiers in trenches.

A reconnaissance plane was circling above the British, watching as shell after shell fell onto their positions. However, the British, having experienced the First World War, had cleverly dug their trenches in a zigzag pattern with numerous right angles. Even if a shell occasionally landed in the trench, it didn't cause much damage.

The observer in the reconnaissance plane shook his head. "This is just wasting ammunition. Switch to special rounds! Let the British know that even if they hide like turtles, we can pry open their shells!"

The best way to deal with trenches is to use airburst shells, which can effectively target soldiers within trenches, increasing the kill rate by over ten times. That means what would take 10,000 regular shells to achieve in terms of casualties, airburst shells could do with less than 1,000.

Airburst shells are generally equipped with radio proximity fuses. In the early stages of the Pacific War, the main anti-aircraft guns on American ships used timed or contact fuses. Using timed fuses requires accurate calculation or prediction of the target's altitude and speed before setting the shell's detonation time. If the setting is off, even if the shell hits the target, it could explode too early or too late, rendering it ineffective, hence the low hit rate against fast Japanese Zero fighters, requiring thousands of shells to down one plane.

The U.S. developed the radio proximity fuse, whose core component is a miniature radio transceiver inside the fuse. When the echo signal from the target reaches a certain frequency (i.e., when closest to the target), the internal circuit automatically ignites and detonates the shell.

High-angle anti-aircraft guns on American ships firing shells with radio proximity fuses could explode about 20 meters from enemy aircraft, significantly increasing both the destructive power and efficiency. During the war's end, when the Japanese launched kamikaze attacks against American ships, the proximity fuse was crucial in repelling these desperate assaults.

The U.S. Secretary of the Navy proudly stated, "The proximity fuse helped us all the way to Japan."

Besides anti-aircraft use, proximity fuses were also employed in ground artillery, automatically exploding three to twenty meters above ground without the need for spotters, killing unprotected personnel on the ground and even those in makeshift shelters like foxholes.

Proximity fuses had a stunning effect in naval and air combat and were devastating on land. With proximity fuses, ground artillery could flexibly set airburst heights, increasing the lethality against ground forces tenfold compared to traditional fuses! However, due to its top-secret status and fearing German capture, the U.S. prohibited its use in land artillery until just before Germany's surrender in 1945. The first use in ground combat was during the Battle of the Bulge, where the Germans experienced the might of this "smart" weapon, suffering heavy casualties.

At the K5 railway gun battery near Calais, upon receiving orders, the gunners brought out special rounds. These shells, fitted with proximity fuses, contained thousands of 2.5mm steel balls in their warheads. A barrage of these shells sent countless steel balls raining down over the trenches, causing heavy casualties and cries of agony among the British soldiers.

However, airburst shells could be countered by digging additional small dugouts or "cat-ear holes" within the trenches to mitigate much of their effect.

The Germans were aware of the weaknesses of airburst shells, so after a few rounds, they switched to another special round - one containing thermobaric bombs.

Thermobaric bombs, also known as fuel-air explosives (FAE), kill primarily through a high-temperature fireball and a high-pressure shockwave, hence also called blast overpressure bombs (HAP). They are often confused with cloud explosive bombs (FAE) due to similar effects, but thermobaric bombs are essentially an advanced form of cloud explosive bombs, overcoming the latter's environmental sensitivity, complexity, and stringent detonation requirements.

The destructive power of thermobaric bombs is comparable to cloud explosive bombs but, since they are filled with solid explosives, they can be housed in stronger aluminum casings, allowing them to function as high-speed artillery shells.

The Dover defenders hadn't even seen the German shadow before suffering grievous losses.