Toomes is a Scottish recruit who just yesterday joined a new division of the National Guard in Scotland.
In the regiment he joined, the company commander was a middle-aged man. It seemed that this middle-aged man had only arrived a few days earlier than him.
On their first day in the dormitory area, Thomas and the others lived in a large, messy dormitory.
This is an extremely crowded former factory dormitory area with a total of eight bunk beds. Due to the advent of the war, various factory dormitory areas were requisitioned and became barracks for the National Guard.
For these newly recruited National Guard soldiers, Scotland organizes emergency training every day. The training will continue from 6 am to 9 pm. Even so, their training is actually not up to the level of the regular army.
"When I was recruiting, what I heard was that training ends at eight o'clock every day and ends at five o'clock. But now, we are pulled up at five o'clock every day, and the training does not end at eight o'clock." Toombs said in the new interview.
During one day's training, I started complaining.
He had just been pulled out of bed, and it was still around five o'clock in the morning. This was the third day that Toms had been pulled up for morning exercises.
"You are not the only one who didn't wake up so early. I advise you to seize the time and have a good rest in the car. You will start training later." Tums' company commander taught him a lesson.
What the company commander called resting in the car was actually just taking a nap on the violently shaking truck.
And this is already the biggest benefit of the Scottish National Guard. They can at least take a truck to the training ground every day.
All trucks in England were requisitioned to the front line. The newly recruited National Guardsmen had to walk across the training ground on their own feet.
"I don't have a big objection to getting up so early. What really makes it so difficult for me to accept is that there are only two pieces of bread for breakfast every morning. How can this little breakfast be enough for us to train all morning." Congmus continued to complain.
of.
"Nothing to complain about? This is the best. You know, in the National Guard camp in England, their breakfast is only a piece of bread. And many civilians can no longer get the food distributed by the government, not even bread.
Eat." The company commander said as if he had a very open mind.
"When we train later, please be more serious. I'll see if I can get an extra egg for you at noon." The company commander said, very considerately preparing to fight for everyone's welfare.
However, before Toombs and the others cheered with joy, the company commander continued: "Don't be too happy too early. Each unit's rations are rated. Whether you can receive more food depends on luck. If
If the kitchen prepares more, you can get more. If not, there is nothing I can do."
The company commander really didn't lie to them.
Since the German Imperial Navy defeated the British Royal Navy, Britain's sea transportation lines can no longer be guaranteed. Dönitz's wolves can freely roam the Atlantic Ocean. The British Navy's escort fleet has been shrinking most of the time.
In the harbor.
Although under Churchill's strict orders, the British escort fleet still dispatched many batches to and from the British and American routes.
However, the effect of these escort fleets was not optimistic at all. In most cases, they would be sunk to the bottom of the sea by the Germans together with the transportation supplies they protected.
Due to the large loss of British Royal Fleet warships, the number of sea areas with frequent British transportation and weak submarine defenses increased.
In addition, Dönitz's submarine bases moved to the north coast of France in large numbers, further utilizing the "wolf pack" of submarines to launch a full-scale attack on Britain.
In February alone before the German invasion, German submarines sank a total of 72 British ships, totaling 117,500 tons.
Even Churchill admitted: "In the war, what I worried most about was the threat of submarines... To me, this aspect of the battle was more worrying than the battle on the road in the British Isles."
After all, on land, Churchill could also use the National Guard and a large amount of cannon fodder to delay time. However, once the sea transportation line was broken, the British Empire, which became an isolated island, would be cut off from the sea blood transfusion line that it relied on for survival.
After all, Britain needs to import 50% of its strategic raw materials and food, and all of them rely on sea transportation!
The Atlantic shipping route is now on the verge of collapse, leaving the British who cannot be self-sufficient with supplies.
Britain not only needs to import strategic raw materials and food, but also imports a large amount of arms. When the British army retreated from Dunkirk, France, it discarded a large amount of weapons and equipment. In order to make up for this huge gap, Churchill purchased 500,000 weapons from the United States in one go.
rifles, nine hundred cannons and eighty thousand machine guns.
However, the items were purchased and the price of the transaction was paid, but now the items cannot be shipped!
Not counting guns and ammunition, of the 270 cannons shipped to the British mainland in advance, 240 were sunk to the bottom of the sea by German submarines along with the transport ships.
The most annoying thing is that the 30 American cannons that were lucky enough to arrive in the UK were shipped separately from the cannonballs. The transport ship transporting the cannonballs was not so lucky and was sunk to the bottom of the sea.
In a sense, Britain can be regarded as the father of the United States in history. This time the Americans cheated on their father, which would drive Churchill crazy.
Most of the latest ammunition reserves of the British army were built in coastal areas. As the German army marched all the way, the ammunition reserves along the coast were basically lost.
Now that the Americans are sending cannons instead of shells, it is equivalent to sending a bunch of war art to the British army to show off.
Although this is not to blame the Americans, it was the German submarine that sank the artillery transport ship. However, in terms of results, Britain actually suffered a big loss from this arms deal.
Even the arms transport ship cannot guarantee this, and the food transport ship is even less able to do so.
"I heard that tonight's cream of mushroom soup has been cancelled. Only salt water will be provided." In the truck, the well-informed company commander revealed to the recruits.
"Last night I cursed the cooks who made the soup more and more diluted, but today they even canceled the soup!" Toomes said on the verge of tears.
"Those biscuits make me want to vomit..." He whimpered, covering his face in pain.
Two pieces of palm-sized bread in the morning, and a bag of tasteless biscuits at noon and evening. Originally, the only thing I could look forward to a few nights ago was cream of mushroom soup, but it seems that because supplies are getting tighter, I have to wait for the meal first.
One meal of soup for the day was gone.
If the soldiers wanted to replenish their salt, they could only eat biscuits with salt water.
"Get off, get off, get off!" After arriving at the destination, the company commander became the serious trainer again.
Although this kind of training is of little use, the new recruits of the Scottish National Guard are still exhausted and forced to struggle every day... just like the British government that is still struggling to its death, it is just as ugly.