Chapter 243 The Longest Day 11

September 1, 1939, 2:15 pm.

Nine and a half hours after the start of the Second World War, the car of General Gudri, commander of the German 19th Armored Corps, drove across the Brasi River Bridge, which had been completely controlled by the Germans half an hour earlier.

This was the second major breakthrough achieved by the 19th Armored Corps in eight and a half hours - first the Tuhola Forest, and now the Brahi River!

Such a breakthrough was unimaginable in the last world war! Guderian looked around excitedly. Tanks, self-propelled artillery and armored vehicles lined up in long lines, heading east in a mighty manner. The speed of the convoy is not very fast. It stops and goes. On average, it is five to six kilometers per hour. However, it is still very impressive to be able to walk at this speed for more than ten hours a day. From a military perspective, it is a veritable "blitzkrieg".

There were many Polish prisoners walking westward. They all looked shocked. Some of them looked at the German tanks and armored vehicles with complicated eyes.

In the wheat fields on both sides of the road, Guderian also saw many horses. Some were lying on the ground, crushing a large field of wheat, and looked as if they were injured. Some were led towards the road by German soldiers - they now belong to the Wehrmacht! Although Guderian's armored forces did not need horses, the infantry divisions behind still needed horses.

"Long live Germany! Long live the Emperor!"

There were also people cheering on the roadside. They were ordinary people, mostly women and children. They should be Germans from this area. This was originally the land of the Second German Empire. Although many people left after 1918, some people still stayed. They suffered a lot during this period, were expelled, massacred, and women were raped. **, now we are looking forward to the "People's Liberation Army".

"Admiral, I just received a report that some German villages in this area were bloodbathed by Polish troops, and all adult men were killed..."

Guderian's adjutant held a stack of reports in his hand and frowned as he spoke. The Poles are not a waste of money. Since 1919, they have used all kinds of "elimination" methods, except for concentration camps and gas chambers.

After the tension between Poland and Germany, the "anti-German" activities became even more aggressive.

"Send these reports to the security police and they will deal with them." Guderian ordered. His troops are not responsible for controlling the occupied areas. There are specialized departments in this regard-the security police forces affiliated with the Central Security Bureau and part of the armed SS do this.

Behind the 19th Armored Corps, there were the security police division and the cavalry brigade of the Waffen SS following!

At this time, a motorcycle drove up in the direction of the convoy. The rider was a soldier from the Motorized Communications Platoon of the 3rd Armored Division. He saw the two general stars on the armored car Guderian was riding. General (two stars), he knew it was Guderian, so he parked his motorcycle next to Guderian's military car.

"Your Excellency, General Major-General Schweppenberg's briefing."

Guderian took a document bag, opened it and took out the draft of the briefing, read it and laughed.

"Admiral, why are you laughing?" asked the adjutant on the side.

"A Polish artillery regiment was captured. They ran into the armored training camp on their way from the north to the south," Guderian laughed. "They are the artillery regiment of the Polish 27th Infantry Division and are preparing to move to the southern front. Look. The Coastal Army of the incoming Polish army must prepare to break out and move south! "

At this point, Guderian smiled even more proudly. Breakout and escape? How could you run away? Except for the southernmost division (the 9th Division), which may be able to escape partially, the remaining two Polish divisions and about two Polish divisions on the eastern front (facing East Prussia) are waiting to be encircled and annihilated. !

"They can't escape!" the adjutant said, complimenting Guderian. "Your Excellency, the General, will definitely eliminate them all. This battle to encircle and annihilate the Polish Coastal Army is almost comparable to the Battle of Tannenberg."

"In the Battle of Tannenberg, we suffered 15,000 casualties, captured 90,000 prisoners, and killed 60,000 to 70,000 Russians." Guderian said with a smile, "And this time, how much loss did we pay?"

The adjutant pulled out a stack of documents and looked at them, then said in a surprised tone: "So far, the statistics are 42 killed, 223 wounded, and 17 missing... This is so surprising!"

Guderian laughed, "I think the losses of the 15th Armored Army, 16th Armored Army and 22nd Armored Army on the southern front must be similar to ours. This is the power of mechanized warfare! Traditional armies are simply unbearable in front of us. one strike!"

…

At the same moment, Captain Adolf Galland, the captain of the Fourth Group of the 1st Naval Combat Aviation Regiment where Hersmann's eldest son Rudolf belonged, was flying a Zero aircraft and three other Zeros to form a four-finger aircraft. The formation was wandering in the air east of the Warta River southwest of Lodz, looking for Polish aircraft that dared to take off.

This is his third mission today. In the first two missions, he achieved a result and shot down a OnePlus PZL.11 fighter jet - in his opinion, that was too easy. The PZL.11 is an aircraft that relies on its flexibility at medium and low altitudes to dominate the world. If it encounters the BF-109, it may be able to deal with it. But when encountering the Fokker Zero, which is more flexible and faster than it, it really can't run or dodge, and can only wait for death.

So he hoped to encounter another PZL.11 or some other type of Polish aircraft in this sortie.

"Captain, look down!"

The voice of wingman Cole came from the headset.

Down?

Galand immediately narrowed his eyes and looked under the wing, but did not find any enemy aircraft.

"Where is it? Where is the enemy aircraft?"

"No, not an enemy aircraft," Cole said excitedly, "On the ground! Look at the ground... It's our tanks! Lots, lots!"

"What? All our tanks are here? This is behind the enemy's front! This is the east bank of the Warta River..." Adolf Galand was also surprised, and hurriedly searched carefully. Sure enough, he saw a huge convoy of tanks that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Many of the tanks and vehicles had eye-catching swastika flags on their tops, which were obviously to prevent accidental bombing by the air force.

"Oh my God, they broke through on the first day!" Galand was not a rookie who had never fought in a war. He had participated in the Spanish War and knew how to break through the enemy's defense line. "This place is thirty or forty kilometers away from the border, and our tanks have actually rushed here... This is a great victory! The Poles didn't even have time to retreat, and the Polish army near Krakow will be wiped out!"

"Really? Today is the first day!"

Galland laughed: "It seems that this war will not last too long. Brothers, let's search in the east again to see if we can get any merit."

Adolf Galland and his men saw the 16th Panzer Corps commanded by General Erich Hoepner. The army is one of the three armored corps under the Southern Army Group and is affiliated with the 10th Army. Like Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps, the 16th Panzer Corps was also the first German main force to suddenly enter Poland.

The 16th Panzer Corps is composed of the powerful 1st Panzer Division and the 4th Panzer Division, as well as the 14th and 31st Infantry Divisions. The army's attack route is the junction of the southern wing of the Polish Lodz Army and the Krakow Army.

After breaking through the Polish defense, Erich Hoepner, the commander of the 16th Armored Corps, immediately decided to leave an infantry division to consolidate the position and wait for the follow-up 14th Motorized Corps to follow up, and he personally led two armored divisions to the northeast. According to the plan, the main force of the 16th Armored Corps will be divided into two at the Pilica River (a tributary of the Vistula River) later.

One part will cross the river to the west to attack the Prussian Army Group in Radom, and cooperate with the 15th Armored Corps, which is also affiliated with the 10th Army Group, to encircle and annihilate the army group.

The other part will be led by Hoep himself to attack the Polish capital Warsaw! If everything goes well, then the 16th Armored Corps will be the first of all German troops to advance to the city of Warsaw. Although it is impossible to capture Warsaw, the assault on the suburbs of Warsaw is enough to make the entire Polish army in chaos.

If everything goes well, the 16th Armored Corps will assault near Warsaw around September 8, which is the 8th day after the war!

Maybe the panicked Poles would declare Warsaw an "undefended city", so that the 16th Panzer Army could capture Warsaw on September 9 or September 10! Sitting in a Volkswagen military car, Erich Hoepner, like Guderian, could not hide his excitement.

"Admiral," Hoepner's adjutant was opening a telegram he had just received, "It's an order from the Army Group Headquarters."

"Army Group Headquarters?" Admiral Hoepner asked, "What's the content?"

"The Army Group Headquarters ordered us to make a turn southwest of Warsaw and attack northward to the east or south bank of the Bzura River to wait for the arrival of the vanguard of the 8th Army."

"Why?"

"Admiral, the telegram said that it was to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Poznan Army Group of the Polish Army and the remnants of the Primorsky Army Group and the Lodz Army Group... The Eastern Front General Command estimated that the main force of the Polish Army will make a last-ditch effort to rescue Warsaw."

"Oh," Admiral Hoepner took out his reading glasses and put them on, "Let me see the telegram."

The content of the telegram was similar to what the adjutant said, both of which were to abandon Warsaw and not "fight" (actually a bluff), concentrate troops on the Bzura River (a tributary of the Vistula River) west of Warsaw, and cooperate with the 8th Army and a tactical cluster drawn from the Northern Army Group to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Polish Army. It seems that the Eastern Front General Command has prioritized annihilating the Polish Army's manpower before occupying Warsaw!