The Eleventh Hour (All Out War Book 1) by Tavian Brack

Author:Tavian Brack [Brack, Tavian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The nights in the far north of Norway were very pleasant this time of year, General Eduard Dietl, commander of the German 3rd Mountain Division thought to himself as he stood on the side of the dark road, observing as his troops filed passed him in the early morning hours before sunset. Even at the height of summertime the climate barely rose above sixteen degrees Celsius, and the nights were cool and invigorating. Being so far north the sun set early and away from any major cities the night skies were clear and full of stars.

He rolled up his sleeve and checked the time. It was still another two hours before dawn, the column had been on the march since two o’clock this morning and had made a reasonably good pace for a light infantry division that had not been equipped with many vehicles and marched through the narrow and winding pathways that served as roads in the Norwegian wilderness. Most of his troopers still marched on foot, the vehicles were used to move supplies and equipment on the narrow roadways that ran through the thick wooded mountainous terrain.

His division was marching northward roads through the thick Norwegian forest, finally moving against the last port town in the country, Narvik. The Allies had landed an expeditionary force there nearly a month and a half ago, but they hadn’t moved an inch southwards to fight the German Army.

Now, after weeks of fighting against the disorganized remnants of the Norwegian Army and a few scattered French units in the south, the commanding general of the entire campaign, General Falkenhorst, had given orders to Dietl to take his division northwards, capture the town in the far north and drive out the Anglo-French force. In addition to his own troops, Falkenhorst had detached a light grenadier battalion and a single artillery battery to reinforce him.

Intelligence had reported that the British troops around Narvik had no armored units at all and very few field guns, if any. Dietl wasn’t so sure. He trusted Intelligence, they had done their jobs well in Poland, but he tried never to underestimate an enemy in the field. In six weeks, it was impossible to think that the Allies had not brought ashore any artillery whatsoever. No good general with weeks of preparation time would garrison such a strategically important town without field artillery to back him up.

However, word was that with the engagements along the coasts further south the attacking German units had also not encountered any enemy artillery either. So perhaps intelligence was correct after all, despite all logical military thinking to the contrary.

From behind him, General Dietl could hear his staff officers at work around the makeshift command tent propped between three thick trees. He remained silent as he watched the men of his division march by, not one of them breaking discipline whenever they noticed him standing there. Most of his men had been in the army for a while now, either volunteering or being conscripted into the service in previous years.

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