Fox of France

"Colonel Edward Stamford," said General Wilson, "you have been in Ireland for several years. How many days is the longest continuous fog you have ever seen?"

"About three or four days. Specifically, I don't remember very clearly." Colonel Edward Stamford replied.

"In three or four days, we should still be able to sustain it." General Wilson said, "We should be able to sustain it for at least two weeks by using the method of not sparing ammunition consumption. In two weeks, we still have time to call for help—even if there are one in a row In the heavy fog of the week, we can also hold out until the reinforcements arrive."

Colonel Edward Stamford could understand General Wilson's thinking. For General Wilson, it would definitely not work to give up a battle plan that would have allowed him to make great contributions because of a little reason in the weather. Moreover, Colonel Edward Stamford also felt that General Wilson's idea was reasonable. The reason why he made such a proposal earlier was that he had to be more stable. In the British Army, the atmosphere is a little different from that in the Navy. On the navy side, I hope that every officer is a fanatic; but on the army side, above the head of the regiment, they need to be conservative to make people feel reliable.

But now that the general has expressed his determination, everyone naturally expressed their support. Then everyone went back to set up defenses.

After repelling the Irish attack, the British naturally had to seize the time to consolidate their defenses, such as repairing the barbed wire or even re-laying mines. But those damned honorless French gave those same honorless Irish rebels a lot of vicious things, for example, they specially produced a rifle that used smokeless powder, and equipped them with telescopic sights The mirror, and a brightly colored body, are all messy cloth strips, even beggars don't bother to wear clothes without any sense of honor.

Then these guys with this kind of gun and dressed like this hid far away, somewhere, and shot at the British soldiers who came out to repair barbed wire and plant landmines. And those Irishmen were good marksmen, almost every time they shot someone got shot.

Moreover, those Irish rebels were not only good at marksmanship, but also extremely vicious in heart. Their first shot often doesn't directly kill, but wounds the British soldier, makes him lie there bleeding, calls for help, and then shoots the soldiers who try to come to the rescue-this is really unfair up.

Of course, some people said that those Irish rebels usually spoke French, and some even said that these black gunmen were all damn Frenchmen. This kind of argument was quite popular before the resumption of the war. (In the skirmish at that time, there were already these guys in action) Because the above needs to use this method to accuse France, and by the way maintain the psychological advantage over the Irish rebels-the Irish are so stupid, it is impossible to be so powerful .

But after the war was rekindled, there was less such propaganda, because the British soon discovered that this kind of propaganda had brought an unexpected consequence-many soldiers felt that it was no problem to deal with the Irish , but if you will meet the French on the battlefield, it seems to be a little scary...

Therefore, the British army no longer advertises that those guys are French.

But whether it was announced or not, these suspected Frenchmen caused certain casualties to the British, interfered with the work of the British to repair the fortifications, and greatly affected the morale of the British. In order to drive these guys away, the British had to send cavalry, and then the cavalry was fired twice by the infantry deployed in a farther place, and received a few rounds of "wild boar drivers", and then they were driven back. .

Taking advantage of the time when the cavalry went out, the British repaired part of the barbed wire fence and rescued the injured soldiers. Although they were rescued, they were a burden without combat effectiveness, but if they were not rescued, the blow to morale would be devastating. of.

As for the fine work of filling in landmines and hanging bells on the barbed wire, considering that those black gunners are still outside, this is really not something that can be done during the day. If you want to do it, you have to wait until night.

Of course, at night, it was actually impossible to do it, because the Irish came to attack again at night. Now the minefield outside the barbed wire fence no longer exists, and the moon is only in the middle of the night, so when the sun goes down, the surrounding area is suddenly dark.

The Irish naturally would not let go of such an opportunity, because the decrease in visibility can greatly reduce the effectiveness of the enemy's fortifications and firepower. This is naturally beneficial to the Irish who are at a disadvantage in firepower. In fact, in history, those armies with high morale but inferior equipment, or even at a disadvantage, often liked to play night battles, such as the armies of some eastern countries in later generations. This trend continued until the great development of night vision technology before being reversed. In this era, launching night raids was also a common method for the Irish.

However, there is no fog at night, so the visibility is better than in the morning, and there are searchlights, so the British defense is a little more organized than during the day. But those searchlights were accidentally hit. The Irish seemed to be equipped with a rifle with a very long range, which was specially used to shoot searchlights. As a result, the searchlights were often shot out when they were critical.

The Irish easily settled the barbed wire fence with blasting barrels, and at this time, the British began to use artillery to fire cannonballs to suppress the Irish charge. But soon, the British discovered that something strange appeared on the Irish side. They seem to have dragged the cannon to the front in the dark. I saw a sudden flash of fire in the dark, then there was a booming cannon, and then...then there would be an explosion near the British gun emplacement-damn French, this is a high-explosive bomb!

In fact, the damage caused by these high-explosive bombs to the British was not particularly large, but the blow to the morale of the British was considerable. Because the appearance of this thing seems to mean that the Irish's attacking ability has exceeded their previous expectations. Originally, only one table of dishes was prepared, but two tables of guests came, what do you think is going to happen!

After a night of fighting, with the support of recoilless guns, the Irish captured several positions, and until dawn, the British were unable to drive them out from here-in just one day, Athlone's defense line A few notches were knocked out.

The next day, the British launched a counter-offensive against these positions captured by the Irish. But the counterattack was not smooth, both sides suffered heavy casualties, and the British failed to drive the Irish from their positions. Once again, the question of whether to call for help immediately became a question.