Chapter 353 France Don’t Cry Thirty-Eight

On May 3, 1940, the third day that the German army on the Western Front implemented the "Red Plan", the French army faced collapse on various battlefields. The three main army groups on the French northeastern front were either annihilated or surrounded in the battles in April. As a result, the newly formed troops were extremely short of qualified officers and non-commissioned officers, and there were not many experienced veterans. Except for a very small number of troops (a few divisions under the 10th Army), most of the troops fell apart the moment they encountered the assault of the German armored divisions. Therefore, on May 3, General Weygand suggested that the government evacuate Paris and declared Paris an undefended city.

His proposal was approved by the government on May 3, and the retreat had already been planned. The new seat of the French government is Tours, 200 kilometers southwest of Paris. However, Tours is not the center of French resistance, but the capital of the capitulationists and escapees. The option now before the French government is to persist in resistance at home.

The current French top brass is divided into two factions: surrender and escape. The leader of the surrender faction is Marshal Pétain, the hero of the last world war.

He believed that the French had lost the courage to "sacrifice their country with a smile" after the last world war. Even if the government fled overseas, it would be impossible to direct the local French people to continue to resist.

After the French government flees, the Germans are likely to adopt the strategy they adopted after the Franco-Prussian War that year, allowing France to vote for a new president and parliament, which will split French politics. Moreover, the French government retreating overseas is likely to face the embarrassing situation of denying the legitimacy of democratic elections.

In addition, those who advocated surrender were not just military politicians with right-wing and French fascist backgrounds like Pétain, but also the center-left Socialist Party pacifists and the center-right Democratic Alliance "pacifists". Even the semi-banned French Bolshevik Party (they were banned after the Batumi air raid because they advocated defending the Soviet Union) became active after the defeat on the front line was determined, seeking to establish a Soviet government to make peace with Germany, and also tried their best to Undermining the country's defense. By the end of April, hundreds of Bolshevik party members had been arrested, and four of them were shot for sabotaging an aircraft factory. They became revolutionary martyrs who dedicated their lives to the cause of human liberation.

Under this circumstance, Marshal Henri Pétain believed that once the French government left, it would be immediately abandoned by the French people and become a tool for Britain to seek France's overseas empire and fleet, turning it into a French rebellion!

The leaders of the faction advocating escape were Prime Minister Paul Reno and Deputy War Minister de Gaulle. Among them, Paul Reynaud also wrote a letter asking for help to Roosevelt on May 3. The letter imitated Churchill's tone and said: "It will be in front of Paris, behind Paris...in the provinces, in North Africa, and if necessary, in Battle in the Americas.” But at the same time that the letter was sent to the United States in the form of a telegram, Reno announced that Paris was undefended.

The French Prime Minister is obviously suffering from schizophrenia. At one moment he shouted for resistance, and at the next he ordered no defenses here and no defenses there. In the end, all cities with more than 20,000 residents were left undefended. What a waste of resistance. .

While the French political and military circles were in panic, the French people also did not show enough will to resist. In addition to the refugees who always cause serious road congestion, they just don’t want the war to burn in their hometowns. After Italy declared war, residents in many places in southern France even pulled carriages and trucks to the airport to prevent the British and French troops there. Bombers took off to bomb Italy because they were afraid of Italian bomber retaliation!

On May 5, just as France was in chaos, thousands of officers and soldiers of the "Gross Deutschland" and "Adolf Hitler" banners, the vanguard of the attack on Paris, formed a majestic lineup and launched an assault. Accompanied by artillery and armored vehicles, they drove into the undefended French capital Paris.

Gustav Schwarzenegger also led his platoon in the procession entering the city. After more than twenty days of fierce fighting, only eighteen people were left in his platoon (the rest were either killed or injured). But each of them was in high spirits at the moment, and it was one of the happiest days of their lives.

"But the citizens of Paris were not happy at all, and no one welcomed us with flowers or applause. The contents in the history textbooks were all nonsense. How could they welcome us when we attacked France?" After the war, he returned to Austria and became a policeman. Director Gustav Schwarzenegger later said this to his burly son.

"Actually, we entered the city amid a lot of crying. I found that every French person on the street was crying, crying very sadly. But apart from crying, these useless French people had no other resistance. . If crying can be considered resistance, they have resisted. In fact, this is the only resistance in Paris.

For the next few days, we were stationed in Paris and had a great time. Eating delicious French food, living in a comfortable room, and many beautiful French girls...Arnold, don't tell your mother about girls, do you understand? All in all, it was a very happy time, the most comfortable we lived in the Second World War. "

…

"My dear, I admire you so much. You are greater than Count Moltke. Being able to marry you and have children for you is the greatest happiness in my life. I will definitely give you two more children..."

On May 6, 1940, while driving to Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin for a banquet, Chloe kept talking and gave Hersman kisses from time to time. Hersman is now her most admired idol, because under his leadership, the German army really entered Paris as a victor!

When the news reached Berlin, the capital of the German Empire was jubilant. The 81-year-old Emperor Wilhelm appeared in the square outside Charlottenburg Palace, wearing full military uniform and delivered a "victory speech", declaring: "A new era, Europe united around Germany, moving forward together, no longer war, poverty and unrest, is coming soon. This is the mission God has given us, the German nation, and we have finally completed it..."

When the convoy of senior officers of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht entered the city of Berlin under the escort of the cavalry of the Royal Guards Cavalry Regiment. The roads were already crowded with jubilant Berlin citizens. Adult men were wearing various military uniforms, either brown stormtrooper uniforms or field gray old uniforms. The women wore their most beautiful clothes and waved desperately at the cavalry escort. From time to time, some people saluted and shouted "Long live Germany!" "Long live the Wehrmacht!"

"Two more?" Hessmann smiled and touched his wife's belly, "This is already the sixth, and you are over 40 years old."

"I think I should give birth to eight. This is my responsibility as a German mother." Chloe replied with a smile, "As the Marquise and the wife of His Excellency the Marshal, I should set an example in this regard."

The current German government encourages childbirth. Mothers who give birth to four children will be awarded the bronze "German Mother" Cross Medal; those who give birth to six or seven children will be awarded the Sound Quality Cross Medal; those who give birth to eight or more children will be awarded the Gold Medal.

And Chloe, Marquise of Heinsberg, has always been a woman with a strong sense of mission. She believes that she is strong enough (can give birth), rich enough (can afford to support), and a respected aristocrat (should set a good example), so there is no reason to evade the responsibility of giving birth to children for Germany.

However, this is a little problem for Hessman. He is not worried about what will happen to Chloe, but the policy of treating women as childbearing machines implemented by the German government in recent years will affect Germany's war potential.

For the German Empire, which has a small population, having more children is not a bad thing, but encouraging women to give birth during wartime instead of letting them go to factories to replace men in the army will reduce Germany's armament production.

Under the unremitting propaganda of the German government, most German women now regard having children as the top priority (German men also think so), and the war situation is very good. It seems that it is unlikely to mobilize German women to go to factories under the current circumstances. And this matter is not under the jurisdiction of the General Staff...

Then digesting and integrating the production capacity of those European countries controlled by Germany has become the key to whether Germany can defeat Britain and the United States in industrial production.

Among all the European continental countries that have been or may be controlled by Germany, France is undoubtedly the most powerful in industrial production capacity. It is the fifth largest industrial country in the world after the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.

Thinking about these questions, the car that Hessmann was riding in had already driven into the magnificent Charlottenburg Palace amid the cheers of the crowd.

In the courtyard of the palace, luxury cars of various colors were parked at this time, most of which belonged to German military and political officials, all of whom were heroes in Germany's conquest of France. There were also some ambassadors from friendly countries, who came to express congratulations to the German emperor on behalf of their countries. Many cars were painted with ancient family emblems (there were also two lions and a cross on Hessmann's car).

"Double-headed eagle!" Chloe suddenly pulled Hessmann's sleeve when she got out of the car, and then pointed to the emblem on a car of unknown brand (it was Raba, Hungary).

"Is this the double-headed eagle of the Habsburg family?" Hessmann was also stunned when he saw the emblem, "Whose car is this?"

"It should be His Royal Highness Crown Prince Otto," Chloe said, "It seems that he has returned from Belgium."