Chapter 447 Churchill

“Boom!”

A loud noise was heard in the distance, and a heart-wrenching scream could be heard faintly. Fred, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened and muttered. “These idiots are clearing mines again.”

After numerous difficulties and obstacles, the British army finally advanced to the outskirts of Bumare and saw a long and wide anti-tank trench. There were three more trenches behind the anti-tank trench, and the German paratroopers were already waiting in the trenches.

The British army immediately launched an attack, but during the daytime attack, they were bombed by German attack planes taking off from Bumare Airport, and suffered heavy casualties. During the night attack, several tanks were blown up by buried anti-tank mines.

In this way, the British army lost more than a dozen tanks and hundreds of soldiers without even approaching the anti-tank trench.

They wanted to use bombers to bomb Bumare, but the Germans had already set up a radar on the hill next to Bumare. Although it was only a small radar with limited detection range, it was enough to launch fighter jets to intercept before the British bombers arrived.

It’s not that they didn’t try to bombard it, but German reconnaissance planes kept circling over Bumare. Let alone firing, even assembling a few cannons would be at risk of being attacked by German attack planes.

The British had no choice but to continue the ground offensive, but they had to clear the mines first.

There are many ways to clear mines. The simplest and crudest way is to bombard it. Various shells are thrown into the minefield to detonate the mines. However, this method is not comprehensive and there may be mines left. The safest way is for soldiers to take tools to clear mines, but this method is also the slowest and inefficient. On a battlefield where the war is tense, the efficiency is extremely low.

However, the British army can only send engineers to clear mines at this time.

But the German mines are not so easy to clear.

First of all, anti-tank mines. Ordinary anti-tank mines have a large volume and detonation pressure, and are relatively easy to remove manually. However, in order to prevent engineers from clearing mines, the German anti-tank mines were equipped with two fuses. One is the main fuse and the other is the auxiliary fuse. The first fuse is used to detonate the mine when the tank runs over it, blowing up the tank. The second fuse is generally a pull-type fuse for anti-infantry mine clearance, but the original one is replaced with an auxiliary detonator tube, which is used to detonate mines during manual mine clearance, killing engineers and improving the survivability of the minefield.

What's more deadly is that the German army buried more than just anti-tank mines, but a mixture of various types of mines to form a huge minefield.

The most famous of these is the S-type jumping mine. Germany produced a total of 1.93 million S-type mines during World War II. These mines caused serious casualties to the enemy and delayed or even stopped the enemy's advance. The abnormal part of the S-type jumping mine is that it can be installed with a triple-mounted fuze interface, so that a mine has three ways of detonation. It is equipped with an anti-demolition shearing fuze, which is specially used to deal with Allied engineers.

This type of mine is successfully designed and deadly. It is one of the iconic weapons in World War II and also a nightmare for Allied infantry. The Allies gave it a very cute nickname-"Betty jumping mine". "Betty" has been imitated and improved by various countries with its excellent killing effect.

After the jumping mine is triggered, it will first ignite the projectile at the bottom of the warhead through the fire transmission tube (some jumping mines will be delayed for a few seconds in order to explode in the middle of the team), and at the same time trigger the short-delay fuze in the mine body. When the mine is thrown into the air, the short-delay fuze ignites the explosives, pushes more than 300 small steel balls on the outside of the warhead, and then beats the people around into sieves. This is a very vicious weapon. Because it explodes at a height almost as high as the waist, the injured can easily lose the fun of the second half of their lives. This is simply a pain worse than death for a man.

However, this type of mine can be easily detected by the detector. Once it is discovered, it is quite easy to disarm. The bomb disposal personnel can just insert a needle into the small hole of the pressure sensor. If the jumping mine uses a trip wire or an electronic trigger, just cut them off.

For this reason, the German army also invented ceramic mines, glass mines, and even wooden mines. Because these are non-metallic, it is difficult for the metal detectors of the demining engineers to find them. This kind of strange mine made the British engineers suffer a lot.

However, the explosion sounded like an anti-tank mine. Fred turned over and continued to sleep.

He slept soundly, but Churchill, who was far away in the basement of the Prime Minister's Office in London, was insomnia again.

"Why, why haven't those damn Germans been eliminated yet?!" He gritted his teeth, his eyes were red like a beast, and the whole person looked extremely crazy. He hadn't seen the sun for a long time, and his skin was unhealthy white.

Outside the office door, listening to Churchill's hysterical yelling, several secretaries looked worried and talked in a low voice. "Should we go get Dr. Smith?"

"Didn't Dr. Smith prescribe medicine?"

"The Prime Minister probably didn't take the medicine?"

"Why don't you go in and remind him?"

"I don't dare."

In an article written during World War II, Churchill in the original time and space wrote: "When I stand on the platform, I dare not look at the passing trains. I will try to hide behind a pillar. When I am on a ship, I dare not walk to the side of the ship to look at the sea below. If I look, I am afraid everything will be over (jump down)."

Churchill was a patient with severe depression. He was troubled by sudden dangerous thoughts throughout his life. He used the code name "Black Dog" to cover up this disease. From the medical records left by his private doctor, we can see that Churchill had various strange symptoms, but the treatment plan column was blank, because there was no better way to treat this disease except sleeping pills in that era.

In 1911, a friend of Churchill's suffered from this disease and got better after treatment by a German doctor. Churchill wrote in the letter: "I think this doctor is also useful to me. My black dog has not come to see me recently. He is away from home." When I am far away, I feel that the oil paint returns to the oil painting." The letter suggests that depression caused Churchill to suffer temporary hallucinations.

"Black dog" will frequently appear in Churchill's articles. Churchill's choice of this title has a profound meaning, because dogs can be tamed after all. However, the fact was beyond his expectation. His battle with the black dog never It lasted from the age of 35 until his death at the age of 90. He never allowed the other party to obey him. From official records, it can be found that Churchill would suddenly become bedridden. The longest period of time was more than two months. No one knew what disease he had. Nothing seemed to have happened when he returned to work, but after a while he would disappear without warning for a few days. In fact, whenever the black dog came again, Churchill's body would become stiff and it would take a lot of courage to get out of bed. , my mind is full of all kinds of strange thoughts, and I even think that death is the best relief.

At the same time, the black dog also brought miracles. The most glorious years of Churchill's life were exactly the darkest moments of depression. Every time his condition was relieved, his judgment became more accurate and his willpower became more powerful. Tenacious, experts from the Society for Psychiatric Research in London gave a scientific explanation for this phenomenon: "Depression itself is painful, but fundamentally it brings a new experience to the body and allows us to face challenges. Produce a positive reaction, which can remind you that your original thoughts and practices are wrong. In order to relieve the pain of depression, people have to actively change their thinking patterns and behavioral habits. They will no longer waste time on sentimentality and become more pragmatic. , be more clear about your goals.”

After venting, the office finally became quiet. Just when the secretaries thought the Prime Minister was asleep, the office door opened and Churchill walked out. "Go get ready, I'm going to give a radio speech."