Chapter 450: The Battle of London

Boom! A shell struck a building in the center of London. The explosion caused the already crumbling structure to finally collapse in a cloud

Boom! A shell struck a building in the center of London. The explosion caused the already crumbling structure to finally collapse in a cloud of dust. The rising dust filled the air, and the tremor could be clearly seen and felt several blocks away.

In the basement, a few wisps of dust fell from the ceiling due to the violent vibrations. Churchill leaned back in his chair, looking forlornly at the huge map of London. There, he could truly see the current situation, truly understand the predicament he was in.

When he was far from the battlefield, he had always complained about why the frontline troops were so inept, why they had been beaten back in just a few days under the German offensive. Now that he was in the midst of it himself, he finally remembered the world war he had experienced, finally remembered how agonizing and painful it was to endure even an hour under fire.

London was a very large city. The German offensive on the outskirts was still more than ten kilometers away from where Churchill was, but some long-range cannons could still reach the city blocks above his head. And those cannons, without exception, were weapons captured from the British army.

The garrison command had called an hour ago. The Germans were less than 300 meters from their position in a straight line. Some German grenadiers were using a “building demolisher” to attack the buildings near them. The earth-shaking explosions could be heard over the phone.

The imagined scene of a large-scale civilian uprising, using hand grenades to take the Germans with them, had not occurred. Instead, the sound of suicides by hand grenade could be heard from time to time in various corners of the city. The German army had already learned its lesson from the civilian grenade attacks, so they were extremely cautious in their treatment of the British citizens of London.

When civilians surrendered, they were required to raise their hands high from a distance, then undergo a body search to confirm they posed no threat before being escorted to the rear by special personnel. However, there were still various records indicating that German troops had, for the sake of convenience, arbitrarily shot and killed surrendering London civilians.

After receiving a telegram from Akado, Rundstedt began to experiment with a new attack tactic in London. This tactic involved a rapid assault into the city, followed by a withdrawal to their original defensive lines, ceding the ruined area back to the opponent.

They would then use their superiority in artillery and aircraft to repeatedly suppress this area, annihilating the British soldiers who came out to try to retake the positions in a terrain they were already familiar with. Although the speed of the attack seemed to have slowed, it was an effective way to inflict casualties on the British soldiers. By repeatedly attacking a corner of the city in this manner, they could wear down the city’s defensive forces and achieve the operational objective of attriting the enemy’s effective strength. And the area that was repeatedly given up had long since become a wasteland, no different from the open countryside, thus eliminating the so-called advantage of urban warfare and making the combat style more suitable for the German forces.

But the British were not fools. After fighting back and forth over several city blocks, they began to stop their meaningless counter-attacks and no longer attempted to retake lost ground. The two sides thus continued in this stalemate, and the fighting dragged on for a whole day.

The difference was that the casualties of the German army were decreasing, while the casualties of the British civilians were increasing. And London, the capital of Britain, one of the largest cities in Europe, had seen about one-fifth of its area turned into a barren wasteland.

It was no wonder the British civilians cursed their own government. In France, another defeated nation, Paris was still standing there, completely intact. The only thing the citizens had to endure was the harassment of German patrols. But now, London was being destroyed, and as for how much would be left in the end, only God knew.

The British were not fools, and neither were the Germans. The German infantry at the front were becoming more and more skilled and experienced with each battle. The high command’s plan to train its troops was being carried out in an orderly manner. About 20,000 veterans familiar with urban warfare had already been transported back to the homeland to serve as instructors and the core of newly formed units.

And the Germans began to use various methods to close the gap in urban warfare. They used the “building demolisher” to riddle buildings suspected of housing British troops with holes. They used the “Friedrich” rocket launchers to launch surprise salvos on certain areas. This suppressive tactic caused the British defenders considerable losses. Due to bad luck, at least three battalions of British soldiers had been caught under German rocket barrages, losing at least 700 veteran soldiers.

Originally, fighting a city battle in this manner would have put a strain on logistics. However, the Germans had captured a large number of British cannons, which at least filled the gap in their artillery firepower in Britain. And the captured fuel freed up a lot of space on the German transport ships to carry ammunition for the Friedrich rocket launchers. So the German army attacking London had sufficient ammunition.

On the contrary, it was the British supply that was becoming strained. The United States, due to the British Royal Family’s flight to Canada, had suspended a portion of its aid to Britain. This completely plunged the British forces on the mainland into an embarrassing situation of no supply. Ammunition was still manageable, as there were some reserves that could be used in an emergency, but the source of heavy weapons and equipment was completely cut off.

The supply of American M3 tanks had been completely cut off. Britain’s lack of heavy anti-tank weapons directly led to the inability to defend the perimeter of London. Army Group A’s armored units swept around the outskirts of London, easily completing the encirclement of the British capital. The River Thames was shrouded in smoke, and the British capital was in imminent danger.

Churchill was not busy escaping. He was still in his underground office beneath the London Underground. The British had about 100,000 combat-worthy troops in London, and another 100,000 hastily assembled rabble. These men were guarding Churchill’s London, guarding the last defensive line of the once-great British Empire.

What had the war brought to this city? The glass in the hospitals had been shattered by shellfire. Although it was already March and not too cold outside, the old and the wounded lying in the hospital beds could only wait helplessly for their final moment to arrive. German shells did not have eyes; more than one hospital had been hit, and more than one room crowded with civilians had shaken and collapsed.

The British soldiers were like moles, searching for food in the ruins and dust-filled buildings. They were covered in dirt, clutching their rifles, cautiously running from one side of the street to the other, then ducking into the doorways of buildings. They would step carefully, one by one, up the creaking stairs, break down locked doors with the butts of their rifles, and rummage for anything they could use.

Blankets for warmth, some spices, or money the owner hadn’t had time to take, and some much-needed ammunition—many people had left the government-issued hand grenades at home. They had no intention of taking the Germans with them. Most had chosen to flee or surrender directly. The anticipated scene of a city-wide fight to the death had not occurred. What was more common were the emaciated, struggling civilians crouching in the air-raid shelters, awaiting their final fate.

These British soldiers searching the houses were no different from thieves. They had to dodge German shells and snipers, then take what they needed and try not to get killed in the process. Sometimes, their luck was not so good. When they kicked open a door, the air would be filled with a foul stench; the body of the homeowner would have been rotting for a long time, a sight that could make one vomit for hours.

On even unluckier occasions, they would be blown to smithereens by a grenade or a landmine when they kicked open a door or pulled open a drawer. Sometimes it was a booby trap set by other British defenders; sometimes it was a trap set by German special forces days ago.

But like everyone else, they needed to live. And to live, they needed food, essential materials, and supplies. The pity was that their situation was much more tragic than the Germans’. The German army had regular supplies, and although they were often late, at least there was something. They could only rely on themselves to find what they needed.

Churchill had been staring at the map for almost three hours. The buildings that had been marked in red to indicate they had been destroyed had become so numerous that the pitiful map of London was now a sea of red. On the edge of the red, the divisional headquarters of several established British infantry divisions were distributed in several directions, but they were getting closer and closer to his location. He slowly stood up, only to find that his feet were numb. It had been many days since he had seen London’s gray sky.

“Secretary!” he called, but no one answered. He paused for a moment, then limped out of the room himself and saw a second lieutenant staring at him blankly.

“Where is Miss Jones? Didn’t she come to work today?” Churchill asked, staring at the second lieutenant, his voice slightly hoarse.

“Prime Minister… I haven’t seen her. I didn’t see her yesterday either…” the second lieutenant said nervously. “Many people are missing. Miss Bennie from the signals room was killed in the German shelling yesterday. Major Tony left this morning without saying a word.”

“And you? Why didn’t you leave?” Churchill asked. He recognized this young lieutenant from the telegraph office, responsible for sending and receiving the Prime Minister’s documents.

“Sir… I have not received orders to leave,” the second lieutenant replied in a low voice.

Churchill nodded, very satisfied with this answer. This was perhaps the most comforting thing he had heard in many days. So he smiled and patted the young man’s shoulder, took the telegram from his hand, and asked, “Where is this from?”

“Sir, it’s a telegram from the Royal Family, from Canada,” the young lieutenant’s voice was even lower, and his tone made Churchill feel a sense of foreboding.

He hastily opened the telegram and saw the contents. After reading only a few sentences, he felt the world spin. Everything went black, and he collapsed to the floor. After the young lieutenant’s anxious cries for help and shouts, the telegram slowly drifted to the ground.

The words on it were indeed heart-wrenching: During your tenure as Prime Minister of Great Britain, the British Empire has suffered unprecedented losses and disastrous defeats. Therefore, as the King of the British Empire, I hereby announce the termination of your position as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Published: 2025-08-25T04:21:10.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-13T13:48:07.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c450-battle-137276651

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com