Chapter 339 France Don’t Cry Twenty-Four

On April 20, 1940, France in despair saw two glimmers of hope. Pétain and Weygand, two heroes of the last world war, returned to France in distress. The former became the deputy prime minister of the French government, and the latter became the chief of staff of the Ministry of Defense, commander-in-chief of the army and commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.

"Marshal, General, just come."

On the morning of the 20th, at the Castle of Vincennes, General Gamelin, who had been dismissed from his post, looked completely dejected and brought a group of ugly-faced staff officers to greet Pétain and Weygand.

Although he dismissed Paul Reynold as commander-in-chief on the 18th, he temporarily acted as commander-in-chief of the coalition forces for a few days before Weigand arrived. On the afternoon of the 19th, because the situation on the battlefield deteriorated too quickly, he had to make two important decisions - ordering the 2nd Army surrounded on the west bank of the Meuse River to break out and ordering the British and French allied forces in Belgium to advance towards Moved within France to avoid being surrounded by German troops. However, the latter of the two orders, ordering the transfer of British and French forces in Belgium, has not yet been implemented. After all, withdrawing hundreds of thousands of troops from Belgium is a very complicated task.

"Maurice, is the situation very bad now?" General Wei Gang immediately asked about the situation on the front line.

"It's very bad, and it's unprecedented!" Gamelin sighed, shook his head and said, "General, it's not 1914 anymore. We are facing a new model of war. The huge number of infantry and artillery are almost non-existent. Armored units with high mobility and powerful combat effectiveness are the dominant force on the ground battlefield, and the role of air superiority in a battle has reached a decisive level. In these two aspects, we are completely behind... …”

Pétain and Wei Gang exchanged glances. Although they were much older, they were not old-minded and had long realized the role of mechanized troops. However, France's national policy is defense. If the "Maginot Line" is properly defended, everything will be fine. No one will spend precious military funds to study the issue of using mechanized troops to attack.

Although military theorists like de Gaulle could imagine the battle mode of a tank corps, a large number of military exercises were still indispensable to turn the imaginary theory into practical tactics.

Therefore, although France has a large number of tanks, there are also officers in the middle and senior levels of the army who value the theory of armored warfare. But in terms of the actual application of mechanized troops, the level of the French Army is not even a little bit worse than that of the German Army.

"So, do you have any suggestions for the next step of the operation?" General Wei Gang and Gan Molin asked as they walked to the war room.

"The Second Army must break through to Reims as soon as possible," Gamelin said with a frown. "The breakout started early this morning, but it did not go smoothly. The troops suffered heavy losses when they broke through, and then they were attacked by German armored forces. Chase."

In fact, the German troops surrounding the French 2nd Army were mainly infantry, with only the 11th Armored Regiment under the 6th Armored Division (the main forces of the German 5th Armored Division, 8th Armored Division and 6th Armored Division had already moved south to Verdun ), but still chased them all the way, defeated a large number of French troops who broke through, and almost caused the latter to collapse.

Gamelin thought about it and said: "Although the losses are heavy, some troops will eventually arrive in Reims. They can be used as seed troops to expand new armored troops and motorized troops.

In addition, some troops should be withdrawn from the Maginot Line as much as possible... The Germans occupied Verdun on the 19th and are now attacking Thule. If they capture Thule, no, they don't need to capture it, just destroy the railroad near Thule, our movement of troops from the Maginot Line will be slowed down by 70%. If the German army attacks near Langres, it will be difficult for us to draw troops from the Maginot Line. "

"Can't we stop them?" Wei Gang's face was extremely ugly. He knew that the main force of the French army was either in Belgium or on the Maginot Line. And most of them are still on the Maginot Line! If these two main force groups are surrounded by the Germans, wouldn't he, the commander-in-chief, be the only one?

"I'm afraid it's difficult..." Gan Molin said with a sad face, "The attack power of the German armored groups is very strong and they move quickly. Ordinary infantry can't stop them at all."

"That means the troops on the Maginot Line will probably be surrounded?" Wei Gang felt as if he had fallen into a pit of fire.

"I think so," Gamelin said. "So we must rescue the troops trapped in Belgium, so I have ordered them to break out as soon as possible. The first choice is to consider breaking out overland to Paris."

Wei Gang nodded, "They must break through successfully, they will be the main force encircling Paris!"

Historically, because troops could be mobilized from the Maginot Line, General Weygand was in no hurry to let the French army in Belgium break through, so he canceled the breakout order issued by Gamelin on the 19th.

However, General Wei Gang could not cancel Gamelin's order now, otherwise he, the commander-in-chief, would have to rely on newly built troops that lacked officers and non-commissioned officers to resist the German army's attack.

…

"Mr. Prime Minister, how is the situation?"

On the same day that Pétain and Weygand arrived in Paris, British Prime Minister Churchill also flew over from London.

"General Weygand has taken office," Paul Reno tried to act as if everything was under control, "and the 2nd Army has broken through the German encirclement and is currently advancing towards Reims. In addition, we have formed new armored divisions, light mechanized divisions and motorized infantry divisions. I believe the situation will gradually improve."

"That's great," Churchill nodded with a smile, as if he was also full of confidence in the future of France. "What about the situation in Belgium? Can our troops in Belgium break through smoothly?"

"No problem," Paul Reno said, "On the afternoon of the 19th, General Gamelin ordered a breakout."

"Oh, that's it." Churchill nodded.

He knew about this a long time ago, but he didn't have much hope that hundreds of thousands of troops could break through from the land. Because these hundreds of thousands of troops would soon be put into the pocket of the Germans, and even if they could break through, they would still be hunted down by the German armored forces.

Moreover, even if part of the main force could escape, they would flee to Paris...

Churchill paused, as if he was choosing his words, "Mr. Prime Minister, now the Allied forces have a new commander-in-chief, which is the beginning of a turning point, but the Allied forces in Belgium do not have a new commander."

Renault understood what Churchill meant, and he said: "The Allied forces did not fight well in Belgium, and there should be a new commander-in-chief. Prime Minister, do you have anyone to recommend?"

"Yes," Churchill said, "I recommend Admiral Verrick, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force! He is an outstanding soldier and will definitely lead the troops out of the predicament."

Renault thought about it and felt that it was nothing to let a British officer command part of the Allied forces, so he nodded and agreed to Churchill's suggestion.

However, at this time, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud would never have thought that Churchill had ordered the Admiralty to formulate a plan to organize the retreat of the expeditionary force on the 19th, code-named "Operation Dynamo".

...

"Where is the 1st Panzer Army?"

In the German General Staff in Zossen, Marshal Hessmann once again asked about the movements of the 1st Panzer Army. Of course, he knew about Operation Dynamo and the Dunkirk Miracle, but he didn't intend to let the British succeed!

Hitler was still basically a political leader, and he didn't care much about specific military command operations. Because the German Wehrmacht was leading a series of military operations, such as restoring the conscription system, entering the Rhineland, annexing Czechoslovakia, and invading Poland, Hitler's prestige in the army was not very high, and he himself was not very confident in the military, so it was impossible for him to interfere with the command of a bunch of marshals, generals, and admirals.

So now the decision to fight Dunkirk is in the hands of Hessmann, Hammannstein, and Rundstedt, and it has nothing to do with Hitler.

"The vanguard of the 1st Panzer Army has reached the English Channel!" Halder took the report from a staff officer, took a look and shouted excitedly, "Near Abbeville."

"Abbeville?" Hessmann thought for a while, "It's more than 100 kilometers away from Calais and Dunkirk!"

Now the British and French forces in Belgium have been cut off from the land route to Paris, but they can still retreat by sea.

"On the 24th, at the latest, we can occupy Calais and Dunkirk." Halder said, "Moreover, our naval aircraft deployed in Heinsberg County can fly to Calais and Dunkirk."

"Aircraft alone are not enough to annihilate the enemy retreating by sea," Hessmann said to himself, "It's only 75 kilometers from Dunkirk to Britain. If the British mobilize civilian ships for rescue, they can still evacuate people..."

"Start bombing the port facilities of Dunkirk and Calais!" Hessmann gave an order.

In the original plan, there was no plan to bomb the ports of Calais and Dunkirk (in fact, Hessmann had already planned it, but he didn't say it at the beginning), because these two ports could be used by the German army to land on the British mainland.

"Okay, I'll arrange it immediately." Halder had no objection. Because bombing the port does not require the use of ground support aircraft such as Ju87 and Hs-123, or even Ju88, just He-111 will be enough, and these horizontal bombers don't have many tasks now.

Hessmann nodded and ordered: "Tell Kesselring to completely destroy the port facilities of Calais and Dunkirk before the 24th! In addition, order the Naval Aviation Command to cooperate with the Air Force's actions."