Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 150



Only Krnovel

#150

“They say the US military has started moving.”

“is it so?”

“Yes. The movements of the American troops are very busy right after King George VI met with General MacArthur. The Free Polish Army too···.”

Queen Wilhelmina breathed a long sigh of relief at the chamberlain’s report.

“That’s fortunate.”

“But, Mother, are you really okay? What if Prime Minister Churchill finds out…?”

His daughter Juliana looked worried, saying that she would not stay still if she found out that King George VI had met with General MacArthur without consulting the Cabinet and that it was Queen Wilhelmina who had fanned the flames behind the scenes.

Juliana, who had fled to Canada in case of an emergency, returned to London after the successful Normandy landings.

“Churchill doesn’t need to worry anymore. No, even if he gets angry, he can’t stay still as the Queen of the Netherlands, no, he shouldn’t stay still.”

“yes?”

Queen Wilhelmina slowly explained to her daughter, who was still looking at her with an expression that said she was not sure.

“It’s not just the British who are fighting on that land. What do you think will happen if the British fail?”

“Well···.”

“Then who do you think these angry Germans will take their anger out on?”

“ah.”

“What would happen if we cut off food because they got angry?”

Princess Juliana trembled in fear at Queen Wilhelmina’s question.

“But still, surely···”

“Look at what they did to the Jews. How can you guarantee they won’t do the same to us? Besides, they must be in a state of chaos right now because they have so little.”

“That’s true.”

“And the appearance of this mother today is a legacy that money can never buy, given to the royal family and to you.”

An old queen who went around begging to foreign kings and foreign generals to liberate her country, putting aside her pride.

Whatever the inside story, wouldn’t it look that way on the outside?

This will be especially helpful to my young daughter, Juliana.

Queen Wilhelmina stroked Juliana’s head, remembering who had told her about him.

##

“Still, I’m really glad.”

“Yes. I was worried that George VI might not move.”

Actually, I was a little nervous too. Churchill and George VI actually had a very close relationship.

George VI also had a significant role to play in why Churchill was able to remain in this mess.

It was a question I could not guarantee whether George VI would choose me over Churchill.

The reason why the strategy of using the failure of Market Garden as a springboard to seduce Germany was put on the back burner was probably because not only I, but also the US military leaders like Bradley and McNair were too upright.

So, Britain, which had to carry out a unilateral operation due to our opposition, was preparing feverishly to make the operation successful and put our noses flat.

“The scale···.”

“It’s grown a lot more than we originally planned.”

“There are quite a few Commonwealth troops.”

As a result, voices of concern were bound to arise.

“If we continue like this, we’ll end up blowing away all the troops deployed there…”

“If we do it wrong, it could put too much of a burden on us.”

“Yes, what if the British guys collapse like this?”

So, I started to think that maybe I was just trying to catch a flea and ended up raising a three-room house full of maggots.

There remained a bigger problem.

“Will Hitler really move?”

At first I thought I could definitely lure them out, but my thoughts changed after I learned about the situation on the Eastern Front.

Having recently recaptured the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, the Soviets immediately began an operation to drive the Germans across the river and out of the western bank, Ukraine: the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive.

“Sources say that the German forces on the Eastern Front are melting away.”

“They haven’t occupied it yet, but they say they’ve entered Lebro and Vinnytsia regions···.”

Originally, Walter Model was supposed to be in charge of clearing away German forces on the Eastern Front during the final stages of the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, but he was on the Western Front in the aftermath of Normandy and the Black Orchestra’s operation to assassinate Hitler, which was earlier than the original history.

“There are many great generals besides Walter Model, but there is no way they can stop the Soviet Union’s human wave tactics.”

“Yes. If that happens, Germany will likely lose the ability to pay attention to the West even if it wants to.”

This was also a butterfly effect brought about by a time difference from the original history.

In the end, we couldn’t completely ignore the possibility that, contrary to our plan, the bait would be eaten and we wouldn’t be able to fish properly.

Given this situation, I and the other staff members, who were agonizing over whether it was right to send innocent British soldiers to their deaths just to capture one Montgomery, had no choice but to reexamine the plan from the beginning.

“I would never interfere until they asked for help.

“That’s right. My guys said they would take care of everything, so why are we getting cursed at?”

The problem is the hardliners, including Patton.

“That’s not wrong.”

Even McNair, who hates Patton, reacted like this.

Honestly, that’s how I felt too.

So, while I was thinking about it, the first thing that caught my eye was George VI.

But how can I possibly roast a king of another country? Even if Churchill has become a hot-blooded fool, he is still the prime minister.

As he pondered how to break through his defenses and approach King George VI, one person came to mind: Queen Wilhelmina.

“You want me to tell George VI? Didn’t you say that he would testify when the British blamed the Americans?”

I honestly explained the situation to Queen Wilhelmina, who asked me with a puzzled expression.

“Yes, that was the case. But things have changed quite a bit.”

The scale was larger than expected, and the situation on the Eastern Front that had just come up in the past few days.

Queen Wilhelmina frowned at my words that it would be difficult to let the operation fail like this.

“Even if the Prime Minister handles everything, how could King George VI not know?”

Churchill and George VI had lunch together every Tuesday and talked about the war.

Queen Wilhelmina predicted that George VI, unless he was a fool, would know why Churchill and Montgomery were pushing ahead with the operation with the British army alone.

“Well, what do you think will happen if the operation fails, Your Majesty?”

“Didn’t you say that you were going to use the failed operation as bait to lure the Germans? So that you could end this war as soon as possible···.”

“Yes. We just have to go to Berlin and accept Hitler’s surrender, Nazi Germany. But have you ever imagined what would happen to the Netherlands?”

Wilhelmina blinked her eyes in confusion at my question, but soon she frowned and fell into thought.

I waited for her in silence for a long time.

“Ha. Your Majesty, you are truly a scary person.”

I couldn’t say anything to Queen Wilhelmina’s harsh glaring words at me, because she was right.

In the history of the war, the real victims of Operation Market Garden were neither the British nor the Americans.

There were many dead, and the sacrifice was truly great. However, most of the soldiers who surrendered to the Germans were able to receive humane treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

However, Dutch citizens who went on strike to help the Allied forces during Operation Market Garden starved to death because Hitler was furious and cut off food supplies to the Netherlands.

Unable to bear witness to the atrocities, the Allied forces mobilized their air force to deliver food supplies to the area, under the tacit approval of the German forces stationed in the Netherlands. This was called Operation Manna.

But the Germans didn’t just cut off food supplies. The German army also burst the dykes in the Netherlands, and as a result, the land in the Netherlands that had been reclaimed over centuries became a sea of ​​water.

“The vengeance of those madmen will fall upon us, the Netherlands. Ha.”

However, it was not possible for the Queen, who had been calling for the fight against the Nazis since her exile, to immediately change her words and tell them to stay quiet and not cooperate with Britain.

“They say you can become a devil for the sake of American soldiers, and really···.”

Wilhelmina could not hide her excitement when she realized that not only the British troops but also her own people were almost sacrificed.

I opened my mouth with a blank expression as I watched the queen grumbling and unable to continue speaking.

“So, please convince King George VI. Make him come to us and ask for our help. Then our American troops can intervene in the operation.”

“If the US military intervenes, can it succeed? You said you opposed it because it was likely to fail?”

I smiled and replied to Queen Wilhelmina’s question.

“Is Arnhem the only bridge over the Rhine?”

“!”

Montgomery had his sights set on the Arnhem Bridge, but well, the Rhine is so long that there can’t be just one bridge.

And the reason Market Garden failed in the first place was because the 30th Corps in charge of the garden was slow. However, the fact is that our US military has the strongest galloping horse in the universe.

“Isn’t this a great thing for the Queen and the royal family?”

The venom slowly drained from Queen Wilhelmina’s eyes, who had been glaring at me as if to say, “What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Truly, you can’t win against your enemies.”

Queen Wilhelmina, who shook her head and turned away, certainly did her job.

And it wasn’t just the Queen who did her job.

“Okay, let’s go!!!”

The advance of Patton’s 7th Army was incomparably faster than that of the British 30th Army Corps.

Behind this was the strong support of the Army Air Corps.

Unlike the old-fashioned British army that used to fly pigeons, our armored units could communicate with the air force in real time, exchange reconnaissance results, and even receive precision bombing support.

“It’s not the Germans that are the problem, it’s this fucking mud.”

“Damn. Even during the last war, we had a hard time because of this damn mud···.”

A faint smile appeared and disappeared on Patton’s face as he recalled the day he first met General MacArthur in front of his essay on World War I.

Memories are memories, but what mattered most right now was the fact that that damn mud was holding me back.

Mud was poison to the tanks that had grown larger and heavier than before.

“Throw it away.”

“yes?”

“Just leave them behind. The ones coming behind will take care of that, so just pick up the ones that are moving and move.”

As each day passed, I began to develop my own know-how.

They laid down logs, and on top of that laid wire mesh or iron plates that were used as slit armor, and with the help of local residents, they dug a bypass…

As Patton’s charge began, the British 30th Army Corps, which had been advancing according to plan, also began to feel relieved.

Even though Walter Model is a master of defensive battles, it’s impossible for him to use the clone technique.

“The US military has started moving?”

“Yes. I think you are the main character.”

The German army was in disarray. Where on earth was the main attack? And bombs were falling ceaselessly on their confused heads.

As the American forces advanced, the Luftwaffe also did its best to counter the increasingly intense bombing.

But the Allied air forces were too strong and the Luftwaffe too poor to regain supremacy.

And at that moment a new report came in.

“They say that US airborne troops are landing.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s Lenen.”

There was also a bridge at Rhenen, west of Arnhem. Naturally, there were some defenders there.

However, British airborne troops had already landed in Arnhem and were continuing the battle.

Since the advance of the British 30th Corps from the south led to Arnhem, Rennen did not consider it very important.

Of course, compared to Arnhem, the defense was woefully weak.

“They say he already had his leg taken away.”

“shit.”

A curse came out of the model’s mouth as she looked at the map.

Neither the US 7th Army nor the British 30th Corps were yet able to reach the Rhine, but the moment either of them crossed the Rhine and began to advance, it would be the end.

There was also considerable organized resistance from the Dutch.

In order to handle the sporadic battles that took place here and there with a small number of ragtag soldiers, mobility was more important than anything else.

Because we need to put out urgent fires by deploying a limited number of elite troops at the right time and place.

however,

“The train stopped again?”

“Yes. By completely cutting off the railroad tracks···.”

The Dutch were bothering them with strikes and all sorts of sabotage.

The victory that seemed so close before the American soldiers intervened had already disappeared without a trace.

“I think I should contact Berlin.”

Silence fell on the command center as the model spoke with a sigh.

The success of Market Garden, and···.