Fox of France

The day after the Irish Independence Army announced that the armistice agreement had expired, a squadron of the British Navy appeared in an area controlled by the Irish Independence Army and named "Port Carroll".

This port was newly built after the Armistice Agreement was reached, and it is now the largest port in the Irish anti-British base. The port is named after Carroll because, after receiving the Prometheus Award, he generously donated all the prize money to the cause of Irish independence. And most of those French ships, especially those carrying various weapons and supplies, will go ashore from here. Therefore, this place became the first target of the British.

Because the Irish suspected that the Irish had laid mines near the port in advance to prevent the British fleet from bombarding the port, (who let the French also have mines?), so the British fleet did not directly approach to bombard the port. Besides, there is a fort built near the port. According to the hot air balloon reconnaissance, there are more than ten cannons on the fort.

Although the British estimated that most of those cannons were probably masterpieces of Irish carpenters, because with Ireland's financial resources, there were more than a dozen cannons on a single fort. But as long as one or two are true, a fleet without reliable high-explosive bombs will still suffer a lot when facing this kind of fort.

Therefore, the British fleet did not actually launch an attack on Port Carroll, but anchored outside the port to prevent any possible ships from entering the port.

Ireland has a long coastline, and the coastline under the control of the "rebels" is not short. It is not easy to completely cut off the connection between the French and the Irish. However, blocking their largest port can greatly reduce the amount of supplies they receive. After all, whether there are port facilities has a great impact on the transportation of materials. At least, those most dangerous cannons can't go ashore.

On the other side, the Irish Independence Army is also planning their first major operation-taking Athlone and cutting off the railway from Dublin to Galway.

"Comrades, you can see that this is what our comrades have obtained through secret channels about the deployment of the British army in the Athlone area." Commander Joyce spread out a map on the table, and asked the three people surrounded by him. The head of the regiment said, "Come and see, this time our division won the main attack task with great difficulty. We must fight this battle well. Otherwise, if something like this happens again in the future, we will feel ashamed to go with the second division." fight?"

Everyone gathered around and studied the map.

"The way the British arm their armies is very much like..." said First Regiment Chief Westwood.

"It's very similar to what Advisor Villefort told us, the French defense system in Verdun." Clark, the commander of the third regiment, also said.

"According to Advisor Villefort, the French don't have many good ways to deal with this defensive system. If they must attack hard, they can only rely on their superiority in firepower to nibble bit by bit." "But that's the French way," Westwood said. "The French have a firepower advantage, and we don't."

"The setting of these fortifications is quite reasonable. If we attack hard, the losses will be too great for us to bear." Joyce said, "However, Mr. Joseph Bonaparte once said, 'In most cases, defense is better than offense. A more powerful way of fighting, so a general who is good at attacking will definitely work hard to create a situation, so that the party that was originally on the defensive has to leave their preset defensive position and fight against the enemy on a battlefield that they did not expect. Fight by yourself.' So, let's change our thinking. Let's not rush to target Athlone first. Our goal is just to cut off and destroy the entire railway line, not necessarily to shoot Athlone."

Speaking of this, he stood up and pointed to the railway line across Ireland on the map: "Look, this is our real goal, Railway No. 1. Along the No. 1 Railway, the enemy set up There are a series of large and small strongholds. If we try to destroy the railway, we must first face the resistance of these small strongholds. These small strongholds are also relatively strong. If they cannot be taken quickly, the enemy can quickly mobilize their troops by using the railway maneuvers Come and fight us back. But if we can take such small strongholds quickly, then they will have to fight us in less than ideal conditions.

The British's estimate of our ability to attack fortifications is somewhat insufficient. After all, they don't know that we have some weapons that have never been seen on the battlefield. The speed at which we capture these small strongholds should be much faster than they expected. And their reinforcement speed, I'm afraid it won't be fast..."

"Let's pretend to besiege Athlone and cut off the railway line from here and here," said Kane, the leader of the second regiment who had been silent all this time. Dublin and Galway sent troops to relieve Athlone from east and west.

According to what we know, the British have 80,000 troops in Dublin, but excluding the basically unreliable 'black dogs', there are only 30,000, and some essential garrison troops are removed—hehe, Dublin's There are so many bottles and cans, and they can't rest assured that they don't leave more people. You know, not only do they want to guard against us, they even have to guard against those 'security forces'. Therefore, among the 80,000 troops, probably no more than 20,000 can be used on a mobile basis. However, our strength is not enough to eat 20,000 people, even if we call both the county brigade and the district squad, it is not enough.

But if we can hold them back with a smaller force, say, if the 2nd Division can hold off this attacking force, then we have a chance of concentrating our forces on another wave coming out of Galway.

There are more than 30,000 British people in Goville, because it is close to the base area, so there are not many "security forces". But 4,000 of them are navy, so the army they can use will not exceed 10,000. If we gather the main force and come to a siege to fight for aid, we may be able to eat 10,000 people. After these 10,000 people are killed by us, I estimate that the British in Dublin will retreat immediately, so that until the British send a large number of reinforcements from the mainland, whether it is Dublin, Govier, or Athlone's British army Without the ability to actively attack, at this time we can destroy this railway without interference for a period of time. Not even this one railway, but other railways as well. Without these railways, even if the British increase their troops, the threat will be much smaller. "

"Oh, not bad, Kane!" Joyce patted him on the shoulder, "Well, let's quickly get the whole plan out and show it to President Russell. Well, it is said that the Second Division also wants to To do something."