Chapter 421: The Second Night

Montgomery faced many difficult problems. The first was how to stop the German forces from advancing past Great Yarmouth to capture the important port city of Lowestoft. Once the Germans took Lowestoft, they would not only gain a vital port for unloading supplies but also shorten their maritime transport routes, putting the British army in an even more passive position.

Currently, the Lowestoft area was defended by the V Corps’ 5th Division, along with an armored unit that Montgomery had pushed up the coastline. The defensive strength could be considered quite formidable. The main front at Norwich was being held by parts of the IV Corps and the bulk of Montgomery’s armored corps, which was also relatively stable. The only area of the entire defensive line that was a cause for concern was the northwest.

If the Germans were to cut through the weak points in the British defenses and push into the northern region, then Wells, Hunstanton, King’s Lynn, Swaffham, East Dereham, and even Wisbech and Downham Market would be quickly captured by the Germans. At that point, Norwich’s flank would be wide open, and even if he were the god of war himself, Montgomery would not be able to hold the city.

After much thought, Montgomery decided to order his troops to reinforce the defensive line near Wells. He was unwilling to lose another defensive strongpoint and hoped to hold the current positions until a turning point arrived. If they could hold these positions for just a few days, the British defenders might be able to turn defeat into victory and drive the Germans back into the sea. If handled properly, they might even be able to annihilate the entire German Army Group A.

Cutting the German sea supply lines and depriving the superior German air force of its air supremacy—things that the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force had failed to do—were not entirely impossible. Montgomery was pinning his hopes on the fickle weather of the English Channel. If the weather, which had been clear for the past few days, were to turn nasty, the German air force would lose its advantage, and sea supply would become difficult. That would be the moment for the British army to counter-attack.

After studying the map for a long time, General von Rundstedt came up with what he believed to be the most prudent plan of attack. The 2nd SS Panzer Division of Army Group A’s 2nd Panzer Corps, which had just landed, would abandon its plan to attack Wells. It would join the 1st Infantry Division (held as the general reserve) and the 2nd Panzer Division (pulled from the main front) to form a strike force. This force would then move south, cross the river, and launch a surprise attack on East Dereham.

This plan was extremely bold. It gave up the almost-certain objective of Wells and involved two river crossings to strike south at East Dereham, directly threatening Norwich’s flank. At the cost of abandoning areas like Hunstanton, King’s Lynn, and Swaffham, they would use the element of time to seize Norwich directly, then swing east to capture Lowestoft in one fell swoop. It was a right hook designed to shatter Britain’s cautious siege strategy and destroy all of Britain’s counter-attack positions before the bad weather arrived.

That night, the German forces began their southward advance, engaging in fierce combat with the local British defenders. Under the cover of darkness, the Germans forced a river crossing, while the British defenders fought back furiously from simple defensive works. The two sides fought for nearly half an hour near the first river, with the Germans ultimately winning through numerical superiority and continuing their push south.

In East Dereham, the headquarters of the British IV Corps, the British troops under attack were in complete chaos, trying every means to halt the assault. The information they had was incomplete, and the German’s uncharacteristic decision to launch a night attack had caught everyone by surprise. While organizing his troops to counter-attack on the spot, General Powell grabbed the telephone to call for help.

“Hello? This is General Powell! I’m in East Dereham! I’ve just received news that German forces have crossed the tributary south of Cromer and are launching a fierce attack on my position! I need reinforcements! I need reinforcements!” His failure to stop the German landing as the supreme commander of the region had already been a great humiliation. If he lost the river defense line this time, he would have no face to continue living.

So, after slamming down the phone, he summoned his aide-de-camp. “You! Take the reserve unit immediately! Get to the riverbank and strengthen the entire defense! Hold every inch of ground, even if it means dying in battle!”

The difference in combat power between the two sides was enormous: the Germans had almost a complete panzer corps; the British had one infantry division plus a regiment of garrison troops. So when the German tanks, crossing on pontoon bridges and captured stone bridges, broke through the first river line and approached the second, parallel river, the British forces were still unable to mount any decent resistance.

German engineers quickly began to construct pontoon bridges on the far side of the main river, while pushing rubber boats and assault boats into the water under the cover of machine-gun fire. The British return fire was more of a moan than a counter-attack. The moment one machine-gun nest opened fire, it was suppressed by the combined fire of two German machine guns.

The remnants of the British IV Corps, already at the end of their tether, were unable to replicate the ferocity they had shown against the German paratroopers the previous night. After a brief resistance along the river, they collapsed and fled. The German tanks successfully crossed the two rivers that the British had considered to be formidable barriers and advanced rapidly towards their designated objective, East Dereham.

By the time Montgomery realized the situation was dire and tried to send reinforcements to East Dereham, the Germans were less than two kilometers from the important town. The 1st Infantry Division began its assault on East Dereham at 12:30 AM. With nowhere left to retreat, the British defenders fought to the death. The “Friedrich” rocket launchers, which had been prepared for the landing but were ineffective on the rolling seas, now left a deep impression on the British. Hundreds of rockets landed on the British defensive lines at almost the same instant, reducing the entire town to ruins.

At 2:56 AM, German soldiers captured East Dereham. The British commander, General Powell, surrendered with the remnants of his forces. With the loss of East Dereham, the British defensive line was instantly cut into two segments—the southern part centered on Norwich and the northern part centered on Wells.

The 2nd Panzer Corps detached a grenadier regiment with a panzer battalion to launch a lightning raid overnight. In one go, they captured Swaffham, Downham Market, King’s Lynn, and Hunstanton to the west of East Dereham. With a brilliantly executed flanking maneuver, they had cut off the rear of the British northern forces, surrounded the heavily defended town of Wells, and even threatened Thetford, the main supply depot behind Norwich.

Another force, the 2nd SS Panzer Division, pushed east along the river, advancing to within three kilometers of Norwich before halting. Montgomery, in Norwich, could even hear the sound of the SS division’s 150mm self-propelled guns shelling the British positions on the city’s outskirts.

At 4:30 AM that morning, Montgomery’s armored corps in Norwich began to retreat, leaving the remnants of the IV and V Corps as a rearguard. They withdrew south to a new line at Thetford, Bury St Edmunds, and Stowmarket. The British VI Corps, which had just been transferred from other areas, was ordered to defend Bungay and Lowestoft to the death, while the VII Corps in Cambridge was to hold the vital transport hub of Ely.

On the morning of February 16th, the bad weather the British had been hoping for did not arrive. The third wave of German landing troops and supplies was sent to the British coast. The German forces had been reinforced to 160,000 men. Rundstedt now had three armored units at his disposal—the 5th Light Panzer Division, the 2nd Panzer Division, and the 2nd SS Panzer Division. The bulk of Army Group A had now entered Britain. Moreover, German forces were at the gates of Norwich and could attack this important city near the landing site at any moment.

At 10:50 AM that day, the 20,000 British defenders in Wells were forced to surrender after a fierce bombing by the German air force. A fifth coastal town was now under German control. But the Germans’ joy was short-lived. At 3:15 PM that afternoon, the combined Axis naval fleet paid a heavy price for showing off in The Wash.

The Italian battleship Roma, leading the way, was hit by intense fire from British ships and was so heavily damaged that it had to return to the Mediterranean for major repairs, unable to participate in further naval operations. Following that, the German aircraft carrier Bismarck struck a mine in its operational area. The entire warship listed 21 degrees before damage control crews barely managed to save it, narrowly avoiding capsizing in the waters off Britain.

This string of losses so terrified the three old French battleships participating in the operation that they refused to go anywhere near the British coast again. The plan to shell Lowestoft that afternoon came to nothing. These French warships had joined the operation with the mindset of looting a burning house, avenging the attack on Brest, and generally just going along for the ride. After all, the German government had agreed that the costs of their participation could be deducted from the 400 million in daily war reparations.

So these French warships put in minimal effort. When they were in a good mood, they would shell some British positions to vent their anger over the British surprise attack on their naval base at Brest. When they were in a bad mood, they would use various excuses to slack off. The German Navy couldn’t be bothered to manage these French “allies,” letting them draw their high salaries and act as a high-class escort fleet. Besides, Lütjens didn’t dare to place these treacherous French warships too close, fearing that one day they might get the idea to shell the vulnerable German carrier fleet.

Compared to the devastating effectiveness of the German Air Force and the heroic struggle of the German landing forces, the performance of this combined fleet could only be described as mediocre. After all, the Germans lacked experience in commanding such a large-scale combined naval formation, and in terms of cooperation, even the Italians could only be considered average. The fact that they could maintain a functioning fleet at all was already quite an achievement.

The Bismarck was forced to return to Wilhelmshaven for major repairs, reducing the German carrier fleet to three ships. The British Royal Navy began to stir. A new Home Fleet, consisting of the carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Furious, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, which had returned from the South Atlantic, began to set its sights on the tripartite German-French-Italian combined fleet.