The Rise of the Third Reich

At 5:40 pm on April 21, 1940, another round of howitzer bombardment came to an end. Rudolf Ribbentrop stretched his neck out from a foxhole dug by his own hands and looked forward. A sea breeze blowing from the English Channel passed by, blowing away the smoke that filled the battlefield. The battlefield is littered with the remains of tanks, mostly British cruise tanks and French H35 light tanks. The armor of these two tanks is very thin and cannot withstand the 42x 50mm gun of the German Panzer III tank. They suffered heavy losses in today's battle. There are also some larger French S35 heavy tanks. Although this type of tank is called heavy, its armor cannot be compared with the B1 heavy tank. The thickest armor steel on the front is only 56mm thick, which cannot withstand the armor of the No. 3 tank. 50mm guns, so some were destroyed in today's tank battle.

German tanks also suffered losses. Thirty or forty No. 3 and No. 4 tanks were destroyed or abandoned, lying in a mess on the battlefield, which seemed to tell the cruelty of today's tank encounter.

Rudolf Ribbentrop estimated that his troops must have blocked the main force of the British and French forces in Belgium in Arras!

"Tank! The enemy's tank is coming up!"

Someone suddenly shouted, and then Rudolf Ribbentrop heard the roar of the motor and the sound of the tracks crushing the ground. Compared with the previous times, the sound he heard this time was louder, and it was obvious that a "big guy" was coming.

After a few more minutes, the rattling of the motors and tracks became louder and louder, and dozens of slow-moving "big" tanks leading the infantry finally appeared in Rudolph's sight.

What kind of tank is this? Rudolf Ribbentrop suddenly saw a large tank that he had never seen before. The wide body carries a somewhat small turret, and a 37mm or 40mm gun is installed on the turret. The small barrel and the huge body shape look a bit out of proportion together. Moreover, these disproportionately large tanks drove extremely slowly, with a speed of more than ten kilometers per hour at most.

Rommel, the commander of the 7th Armored Division, put down his telescope, pointed at the tanks slowly approaching his forward position in the distance, and looked at the commander of the 7th Armored Brigade, Major General Hans Speidel. Hersmann's original adjutant) said: "Hans, here comes another thick-skinned tank."

What is approaching is actually the British "Matilda" Type 2 tank. Although Rommel did not know the technical data of this tank. But looking at its size, speed, and small cannon, you can tell that this tank is big and heavy, and all its weight is in its "skin".

"Lieutenant General, I'm afraid the No. 3 tank can't handle it." Hans Speidel also agreed with Rommel. Such a big tank drives so slowly and is equipped with a small-caliber gun. Wouldn't it be useless if it didn't have a thick skin?

"How about sending a few No. 4 F-Types up there?" Hans Speidel then suggested, "Or use 88mm guns to deal with them."

Each armored regiment of the No. 4 F type only has half a company, so it is not willing to use it at ordinary times. It is only pulled out for use when encountering thick-skinned tanks such as B1 or S35. The 88mm anti-aircraft guns are usually part of the air defense force of the Air Force and are temporarily assigned to various units during wartime. Now operating with the 7th Armored Division is an anti-aircraft artillery battalion equipped with 88mm anti-aircraft guns.

"First use the 88mm anti-aircraft guns," Rommel thought for a moment, then added, "The No. 4 F type was also dispatched. After the 88mm defeated these thick-skinned tanks, the 1st Battalion of the 25th Armored Regiment (the F type was usually assigned to each The 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the Armored Regiment) are pursuing... Let the infantry of the 'Grossdeutschland' banner team attack. If possible, get me one of those thick-skinned tanks. "

Rommel had a hunch that the thick-skinned tanks on the opposite side might become trouble for the German armored forces in the future. It would be best to capture a few of them now and study them.

"Yes, Lieutenant General." Hans Speidel replied.

…

"Fleet! Rudolf, look at the 9 o'clock direction, you see an unidentified fleet! Take someone to have a look."

At 6:20 p.m., Second Lieutenant Rudolf von Heinsberg-Hersmann, who was flying along the Belgian-Dutch coastline, suddenly heard the voice of squadron leader Second Lieutenant Nowotny through his earphones—their original voice. The squadron leader, Lieutenant Barr, had bad luck yesterday. He was shot down by a British Spitfire over Bruges. He parachuted into the Netherlands and is now being detained by the Netherlands.

Therefore, the position of squadron leader was vacant, so it was necessary to choose a replacement from the two officers in the team, Novotny and Hersman Jr. Both were second lieutenants and about the same age. Of course, Hersman Jr. won the battle, but Novotny had more kills than him. Moreover, Nowotny had already become the captain of the four-machine formation (on April 18), so Nowotny became the squadron leader. Nowotny is taking his squadron from the sky above Dunkirk (for a convoy mission) to the Wilhelmshaven base, passing right through the sea off Belgium (they want to fly from the sea off Belgium, and then all the way along the sea off the Netherlands Fly back to Wilhelmshaven).

"Hessman got it."

Rudolf von Heinsberg-Hersmann, a young man, did not turn against Nowotny because of his failure in the competition for squadron leader. The two were still good friends.

"All members of Team 2, follow me." Rudolf Hessmann gave the order to his three Fokker Zeros.

He is now qualified to command a four-machine formation. Since April 10th, he has shot down 3 coalition aircraft. Although he is still far from being an ace pilot, he can still rank third in the entire squadron (from April 10th to the present, the one who has shot down the most in the entire squadron is Nowotny, second was Lieutenant Barr, and Little Hersman was third).

Driving his Fokker Zero, Hersman Jr. led three other wingmen and quickly approached the fleet coming from a distance. This was no ordinary fleet, but a fleet consisting of two cruisers and seven or eight destroyers, heading south rapidly.

"Walter, the enemy fleet has been discovered, including 2 cruisers and 8 destroyers..." Rudolf Hessmann had just finished reporting his findings when he heard the voice of his wingman coming from the earphones.

"Enemy plane! Enemy plane found! Direction of 10 o'clock, altitude at least 2000, number of 3."

Little Hersman turned around and saw three small planes painted in ocean gray approaching him while climbing.

"It's three Spitfires, now we have work to do!" Little Hersman shouted, "Everyone, follow me and climb!"

After several months of confrontation, the British also discovered some characteristics of the Fokker Zero. This kind of aircraft has a great range, and its flexibility at mid- and low-altitudes is nothing to say. Anyone who gets entangled with them should pray to God. However, this kind of aircraft is not impossible to deal with. The way to deal with it is to seize a high-altitude position and then dive - although the Fokker Zero uses an air-cooled engine produced in Germany and the quality is much better than the Japanese product, its high-altitude performance is still unsatisfactory. (Unless turbocharged, air-cooled engines don't perform very well at high altitudes).

However, it is not easy to compete with the Fokker Zero for high-altitude positions, because the Fokker Zero has very good climbing performance. Unless an ambush is carried out at high altitude in advance, even the Spitfire cannot defeat the Zero.

Moreover, the pilots of the Fokker Zero all have experience in simulated air combat with the BF-109, and they also know the shortcomings of the aircraft they fly. Therefore, when there is no BF-109 cover at high altitude, they will usually seize the high altitude immediately after encountering enemy aircraft, and then launch a dive attack first.

Little Hersman was lucky today. All the ships in the British patrol formation he encountered did not have air search radars, so the Spitfires responsible for direct cover did not seize high-altitude positions in advance. Instead, Hessman Jr. gained the upper hand and earned his fourth victory.

…

"Found it at 6:20?"

When the news that the British patrol formation was sailing towards the Belgian coast reached Berlin, Hessmann was attending a headquarters meeting at 73 Wilhelm Street. Today's meeting of the headquarters discussed the matter of attracting Italy and Japan to join the alliance.

Not long after the meeting began, Hersman's adjutant Schnetz sent an urgent report from the Naval Aviation Command.

"What's the matter?" Adolf Hitler asked.

"Leader, the British are taking advantage of the night to withdraw their troops." Hessman said with a frown. "There are 10 cruisers and destroyers en route to ports in Belgium."

"Can we stop it?" Schleicher asked. His question was not to Hessmann, but to Admiral Redl, who was present at the meeting.

"We have submarines there," Redl said, "but it's hard to say whether we can achieve results. The other thing is to dispatch the battleships..."

Submarine attacks on cruisers and destroyers were unreliable, and the submarines Dönitz sent to the coast of Belgium did not carry many torpedoes. They were all used to lay mines and conduct reconnaissance of the enemy.

"The capital ship must not be moved," Hersman said, not wanting to take risks with the capital ship. "Planes will be arranged to bomb the Belgian ports tomorrow... and the 1st Armored Group, 6th Army and 18th Army will all step up their attacks, so there won't be many People escaped."

Hessman said this, but in his heart he knew that many British people would definitely escape this time! It is impossible to get more than 200,000, but if you discount it in half, it is not certain that you can escape 100,000, but there is nothing he can do now.

"It's not a problem to run away tens of thousands of British people," Hessman suddenly thought of the French fleet. He frowned and said, "Now I'm afraid that the British will kill the French fleet!"