The Rise of the Third Reich

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, it's good that you are here."

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 completely 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 problem 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 battle?" 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 deeply 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 look like he was still in control of everything, "and the 2nd Army has also highlighted the German encirclement and is currently advancing towards Reims. In addition, we have also formed a new The armored division, the light mechanized division and the motorized infantry division believe that the situation will gradually improve.”

"That's great," Churchill smiled and nodded, as if he was also confident in France's future. "What about the situation in Belgium? Can our troops in Belgium successfully stand out?"

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

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

He had known about this for a long time, but he didn't have much hope that hundreds of thousands of troops could break out from the land. Because these hundreds of thousands of troops will soon be pocketed by the Germans. Even if they can break through, they will still have to be hunted down by the German armored forces.

Moreover, even if some of the main force can escape, they will escape to Paris...

Churchill paused, as if considering his words, "Mr. Prime Minister, now the coalition forces have a new commander-in-chief. This is the beginning of a turning point, but the Belgian coalition forces do not have a new commander."

Reno understood what Churchill meant. He said: "The coalition forces did not fight well in Belgium, so it is time for a new commander-in-chief. Prime Minister, do you have anyone you can recommend?"

"Yes," Churchill said, "I recommend General Verrick, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force! He is an amazing soldier and will definitely lead the troops out of this difficult situation."

Reno thought for a while and felt that it would be okay to let a British officer command part of the coalition forces, so he nodded and agreed to Churchill's suggestion.

However, Prime Minister Paul Reynold at this time would never have imagined that Churchill had ordered the Admiralty to formulate a plan to organize the expeditionary force to retreat on the 19th, codenamed "Operation Dynamo".

…

"Where is the 1st Armored Army?"

In the German General Staff in Zossen, Marshal Hersmann once again asked about the movements of the 1st Armored Group. Of course he knows about "Operation Dynamo" and the "Miracle of Dunkirk", but he has no intention of letting the British succeed!

Today Hitler is basically still a political leader and does not care much about specific military command operations - because a series of military operations such as the restoration of the compulsory military service system, the entry into the Rhineland, the annexation of the Czech Republic, and the invasion of Poland are all led by the German Wehrmacht, so Hitler's prestige in the army was not very high, and he himself was not very confident in the military. It was impossible for him to interfere with the command of a bunch of marshals, generals, and generals.

So now the decision of whether to fight Dunkirk lies in the hands of Hessmann, Harmanstein and Rundsted, and has nothing to do with Hitler.

"The leading troops of the 1st Armored Group have arrived in the English Channel!" Halder took the report from a staff officer, glanced at it and shouted excitedly, "Near Abbeville."

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

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

"Calais and Dunkirk can be captured on the 24th, or at the latest on the 24th." Halder said, "Moreover, our naval aircraft deployed in Heinsberg County can fly to Calais and Dunkirk. gram."

"Airplanes alone are not enough to annihilate the enemy retreating by sea," Hersman said to himself. "The retreat from Dunkirk is only 75 kilometers away from the United Kingdom. If the British mobilize civilian ships to carry out transportation, they can still To evacuate people..."

"Start bombing the port facilities at Dunkirk and Calais!" Hersman gave the order.

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

"Okay, I'll make arrangements immediately." Halder had no objection. Because bombing ports does not require the use of ground support aircraft such as Ju87s and Hs-123s, or even Ju88s, just shoot He-111s. These level bombers do not have many missions now.

Hersman nodded and ordered: "Tell Kesselring that the port facilities in Calais and Dunkirk must be completely destroyed before the 24th! In addition, order the Naval Aviation Command to cooperate with the Air Force's actions."