Chapter 321 France Don’t Cry VI
"Major, the leader is right, we are all blond supermen!" Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig said to Major Koch, who was running with him, in a teasing tone while running.
"Why do you say that?" Major Koch asked.
"We braved the rain of artillery fire and fell from the sky, landing on the roof of a heavily defended fortress. We blew up dozens of targets in 60 minutes, and then we had to fight dozens of targets at a time. The fighting never ended..."
"And we haven't been killed yet!" Major Koch added.
"There are still a few killed!" When Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig was speaking, he, Major Koch and a dozen other commandos had already run to the side of a hemispherical armored turret.
This is an armored turret equipped with a 120mm large-caliber artillery. The bomb that destroyed the cannon in the morning did not blow up the turret's shell, so a commando had to climb to the top of the turret and stuff the bomb into the barrel.
During this process, several other commandos had to exchange fire with dozens of Belgian soldiers. In the end, they not only destroyed the cannon, but also killed more than a dozen Belgians, without any casualties themselves - this is simply a shocking plot that can only be seen in some later dramas. However, on April 10, it was played everywhere.
The turret of the huge cannon that had been blown up has now become a stronghold of the commandos. The iron door of the armored turret has been pried open, and the team members guarding here will go in to hide when the Belgians bombard. When the bombardment is over, these supermen will come out to continue killing.
Opposite the turret is a spiral staircase, from which the Belgian soldiers stationed in the fortress will launch a counterattack. However, every counterattack will be repelled, and the corpses will pile up more and more at the exit of the stairs, and several of them will become a small hill.
However, the Belgians were unwilling to give up. There were more than a thousand people under the roof of the fortress, and the nearby Belgian garrison sent more than a thousand people. Nearly 3,000 Belgian troops were suppressed by only 100 German supermen (nearly 101 people came down on the H-plane, 8 people parachuted down, and several were injured and killed later, and now there are still 100 people who can fight). Naturally, they were unwilling to accept this, so they launched wave after wave of counterattacks.
When Major Koch and Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig led their men to run over, a round of Belgian artillery fire (launched by mortars from the garrison near the fortress) had just ended, and Belgian shouts had already come from the bottom of the stairs.
"Just in time!" Major Koch exhaled. He and Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig led a dozen people to play the role of a fire brigade, running back and forth in several strongholds that could block the stairs, and they would go to reinforce wherever there was a shortage.
......
"Hehehe..."
The harsh and strange sound reached the ears of Panzer Meyer. He knew that it was the Ju87 Stuka dive bomber attacking the Belgian artillery position 1,000 meters away from the west bank of the Fronhofen Bridge. There were four 75mm guns deployed there, and there were also solid artillery bunkers. With the support of these four cannons, the Belgians attacked the German commandos who occupied the outposts and defensive positions on the west bank of the Fronhofen Bridge, but were repelled again and again - there were also dozens of people and several machine guns "opening", and a full brigade of Belgians had no way to deal with them!
Moreover, the German commandos also knew how to "summon", summoning a squadron of Stukas, and repeatedly bombing. When Panzer Meyer's assault gun company broke through the blockade of a Belgian infantry regiment (also opening) and rushed across the bridge to reinforce, two of the four cannons had been blown apart, but the remaining two were still firing.
A second lieutenant of the airborne troops rushed to the front of Meyer's assault gun and shouted loudly: "I am Lieutenant Gerharschacht, the commander here!"
Armored Meyer also shouted at him: "I am Captain Kurt Meyer, the commander of the 16th assault gun company of the 'Adolf Hitler' Guard Flag, and I have been ordered to come to take over the defense. Second Lieutenant, your mission is completed, now it's our turn!"
"No," Lieutenant Gerharschacht waved his hand vigorously, "We can't leave yet! Air Force reconnaissance found that a large number of Belgian troops are heading towards us, and there will be fierce fighting soon, so we must stay."
"Okay!" Armored Meyer nodded, "Second Lieutenant, how are your casualties?"
"3 killed, 18 injured, 3 of whom are seriously injured!" Lieutenant Gerharschacht replied.
96 commandos plus 22 H-plane pilots captured a bridge guarded by a Belgian infantry brigade, at the cost of only 21 casualties, of which only 6 were dead or might die soon... This is simply a golden thigh!
…
“…Facing the most brutal and barbaric invasion of German militarism, the French government will stand with the French people from beginning to end, jointly resist the invasion of the German army and defend the territory belonging to France. I firmly believe that the final victory and glory must belong to the heroic France. Long live France!”
At 9 am on April 10, Paul Reynaud, the Prime Minister of the French Republic, told all the people who supported and opposed him about the French army’s entry into Belgium on the balcony of the Matignon Palace, and then delivered a confident speech.
At this moment, Prime Minister Reynaud did not know that he was going to face a group of Germans who were much more powerful than the one more than 20 years ago. In a few days, they would beat him to tears.
"Long live France! France will win!"
The crowd in the square was inspired by Reynaud's speech and cheered. Although some of them were still singing "The Internationale" to harass Reynaud last night, everyone felt that they were patriots at this time. And they felt that their fathers could beat the Germans, and their generation would not be much worse.
Just two hours after Reynaud delivered the "Palace Matignon Speech", on the other side of the English Channel, the new helmsman of the British Empire was about to be born. He was Winston Churchill, the most aggressive and determined person in the Conservative Party who advocated fighting Germany to the death.
At this moment, he was meeting with the British King George VI, who spoke very poorly (stuttering), in the audience room of Buckingham Palace. Neville Chamberlain had just recommended him to the British King as the new British Prime Minister.
"The new... government, is it a coalition government?" The British King asked with a frown. What he is most worried about now is not the German bombs falling from the sky or the German soldiers coming from across the English Channel, but the problems in Britain. Because in his view, this world war will be a long and protracted war. Given the destructiveness of German submarines, the British people are likely to suffer severe shortages and difficulties in life, just like the Germans back then. Therefore, a government that can unite all political forces is very important.
"Yes, I will lead a coalition government," Churchill said, "which will lead the empire to defeat the brutal and barbaric enemies on the European continent."
"Is there no possibility of achieving... peace?" asked the King of England.
"It is impossible and unnecessary," Churchill said firmly. "Just this morning, the German Empire once again revealed its barbaric and aggressive nature and invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. If we cannot stop Germany's ambitions, the whole of Europe will soon be shrouded in darkness."
"So Belgium, Luxembourg and... and the Netherlands have stood with us?"
"Belgium has declared war on Germany and stood with us." Churchill said, "The attitudes of Luxembourg and the Netherlands are still unclear."
When Churchill said this, Luxembourg had surrendered to Germany. 7 German armored divisions, 3 motorized infantry divisions, the "Greater Germany" flag team and 10 infantry divisions have crossed the German-Luxembourg border, and their vanguards have passed through the Ardennes Forest area in northern Luxembourg and broke into Belgium. The remaining 44 divisions of the German Army Group A were divided into two parts. One part advanced to the south of Luxembourg to threaten the northern part of the Maginot Line; the other part waited for orders east of the Ardennes Forest. If the armored group's sneak attack failed, it would be the turn of these dozens of infantry divisions to attack. If the armored group successfully broke through, they would follow up to expand the results.
At the same time, the Netherlands announced a general mobilization, demanded that the German army withdraw from the Dutch Limburg Province within 72 hours, and protested. However, Churchill knew that the Dutch protest and withdrawal request were just a pretense to fool Britain and France.
After all, the Germans are only "borrowing" Limburg now, and have not invaded other parts of the Netherlands, and everyone knows that they have no ambitions for Limburg. The Dutch don't have to put the whole country in this matter, and they still want to continue to be neutral.
The question now is whether Britain and France can pinch their noses and admit that the Netherlands continues to be neutral?
Churchill's view is not to bother with the Netherlands for the time being.
Because the news from Belgium is very bad! The German army attacked the Eben-Emael Fortress and captured two bridges on the Albert Canal. This means that the defense of the Albert Canal-Liege line has been breached by the German army.
The number of Belgian troops deployed on the Albert Canal-Liege line is limited. It is impossible to block the surging German main force (Churchill believes that the main force of the German army is now attacking Belgium) while having the remaining strength to counterattack and retake the bridges and fortresses.
Therefore, they can only choose to step back and meet with the British and French forces coming to reinforce on the Brussels-Dyer River (Namur) line, and then seek a decisive battle!
Because the Belgian army retreated too quickly, Churchill might not be able to get some British and French forces in time, and might rush into the battle. Therefore, there is no need to trouble the Netherlands, at least before the prospects of the battle in central Belgium become clear...