Battle of the Third Reich

At 1.20pm on May 27, 1940, the weather was fine. It is 70 kilometers west of Kortelek, the important traffic town in Belgium.

Mueller stood by his armored command vehicle and took a telescope to carefully observe the defensive position of the Belgian army in front of him.

What line of defense is this? Mueller didn't want to calculate anymore. From last night till now, his troops have continuously broken through dozens of defensive positions of the Belgians. Fortunately, this is finally the last piece.

Those Belgians are really powerful. I don’t know what they think. They even set up at least twenty lines of defense in an area as short as fifty kilometers. As a result, when I saw the air force reconnaissance photo of this line of defense, I almost thought it was a data photo of the last war. Do they think it is now 1916? Do they think that the barbed wire fences of these outdated trenches can stop today's German ** team? This fragile defense line simply cannot withstand the assault and fierce artillery bombardment of its powerful armored forces. It is basically useless except for a little delay of its own time.

What I didn’t expect was that the Belgians would not even set up an anti-tank obstacle. Those Belgians would only set obstacles at the intersection of the road. Do they think that their tank can’t move after leaving the road? They had the energy to dig tens of kilometers of infantry trenches but did not dig a slightly standard anti-tank trench. When they first saw the Belgian-style anti-tank trench, they thought it was a shallow irrigation channel that had just been dug. . If the Belgian army had repaired a dozen machine gun bunkers and installed two layers of barbed wire behind the "ditch", he could not really see what it was for.

What makes them even more puzzled is that they dug such long trenches but did not send enough troops to guard. The trenches of about 100 meters in the few lines of defense that broke through in front of us only used one row to defend. It seems that the Belgians do have the ultimate trust in their military capabilities. They must think that a Belgian soldier in a trench can easily clean up a dozen German soldiers.

However, their firepower was quite good. Those Belgian troops possessed quite a few machine guns and artillery, which caused some trouble for the infantry. But their long-lasting ability to firepower is not good. They didn't have much ammunition. As a result, their heavy firepower could only last for about ten minutes each time. When the time passed, their heavy weapons would stop firing one by one. At first, I thought that the other party was to save ammunition, but when I broke through their defense line and prepared to occupy those heavy weapon positions, I discovered that the Belgian artillery were all resisting with rifles at this time, and those artillery had already hit the shells. Finished.

Now let the seventh armored division rush to the front, and the first infantry division protects its left wing, and the right wing is the third infantry division. The entire legion is in a character formation. Interestingly, the Third Infantry Division has now become a prisoner containment team. In addition to the captured artillery and supplies, they also watched more than 3,000 surrendered Belgian soldiers.

And now it seems that the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division are still happy to do the job. They are still so happy when they report to themselves on the radio. Although sometimes they also complained that the 7th Panzer Division played too hard and did not leave them any chance to engage with the enemy, but this was limited to the reaction of the infantry regiment.

Their artillery feels very enjoyable, because they have concentrated the light and medium artillery units of the three divisions into the assault group of the seventh armored division. During these half days, the artillery shells hit more shells than they did a month ago. many.

Mueller is thankful that the Belgians have not yet found weapons capable of dealing with their No. 3 tank. Their old anti-tank guns could not penetrate the main armor of their tanks, and although their anti-tank mines were enough to blow up the tank’s tracks, they still could not penetrate the tank’s bottom plate, and the number was very small. Threat from the tank.

The Belgian infantry were fighting against their steel beasts in any crude way they wanted. This morning he even saw some Belgian soldiers finally jump out of the trenches, rushed towards his tank group with grenades and burning bottles, and then torn to pieces by tank machine guns.

Although the tactics used by the Belgians shook their heads, they were impressed by their courage to resist until the end. If they have a silver lining, they will continue to fight, and they will resist until their tanks are pressed against their infantry trenches.

"This line of defense also looks the same as the previous ones. Is it still the old way? Commander?" one of the staff asked.

"No, it's not as simple as you think, this line of defense is the last one in their area, and then there is no system of defense in the back, which means that this will be the strongest one. I always think They seem to have any hidden power. Look at the Belgian soldiers in the trenches, they are not panicked for our arrival at all."

Mueller paused, then smiled.

"I know why they are so calm. You look behind their position, on the edge of the wood."

The staff member took up the telescope.

"Nothing."

"Look carefully."

"Ah. There seems to be something. What is it? Artillery? I seem to see a barrel."

"It's a tank." Mueller said definitely.

"Belgian tank troops. It seems that the only armored division they left is that we encountered. Oh, no, judging from the number of infantry on their positions, maybe that is just an armored battalion. It seems that these Belgians put them The armored divisions were disassembled, and they evenly distributed the tanks on their long lines of defense.

No wonder the intelligence of the Sixth Army stated that the armored division suddenly disappeared. Now we have to move forward no matter what. General Reinhardt has given us little time. If we do not maintain speed to break through this line of defense, our flanks will be in danger. I think we still use the simplest method. We carried out a "Cyprus" style of assault. "

Mueller turned around and jumped into his command car, bringing up the headset and the intercom. Started the attack order into the microphone.

On the other side of the position, the commander of the Belgian defensive position, Colonel Letos Army, was looking at it with a pair of telescopes.

Letos had fought in the First World War and had played against the Germans for a long time. He was also one of the few senior officers in the Belgian Army who could accept new things. As early as World War I, Letos noticed the threat of the tank to the infantry. As a stubborn infantry officer, he began to study early how to make the infantry resist the attack of the enemy tank.

Before the war, he had noticed the powerful combat effectiveness of the German armored forces. As a result, he immediately issued a warning to the Ministry of the Army and demanded that the anti-tank equipment and facilities on the Belgian-German border defense be strengthened immediately. But by the time the Army Department agreed to his plan and began to prepare for implementation, the Germans had rushed over from the Ardennes and the border. In just an hour, the border defense line had completely lost its function.

While the Germans were advancing quickly, the Belgian troops were beaten back. Finally, with the support of the British, the front was stabilized here. Now that I think about it, I am really afraid that if the Germans put enough tanks in Belgium at that time, then even the British would not help at all.

But now it seems that the Germans may have realized their mistakes. There are more German tanks parked opposite his position today than the total number of German tanks he has seen since the war.

"It seems that if you want to passively withstand the attacks of those tanks, it is difficult for you to stop the attack first, causing damage to the other party, attacking the morale of the other party, and creating chaos for the other party. At least you can delay the time and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

I must take this line of defense by myself. If it is broken by the Germans, the entire line of defense will collapse, and now it is too late to organize the next line of defense. Unless the British can build their defenses in time, no one will be able to stop these German tanks from galloping on the last land of Belgium.

But will this own tactic be useful? It took these Germans only half a day to break through the thirty-two defensive positions in succession, showing how strong the opposing force is. How much damage can you do with this strength in your hand? "

Letos pondered over there. He complained a bit about the commanders of the dozens of lines in front of him. How could he be defeated so quickly that he had no time to prepare.

"Forget it, it doesn't matter whether it's useless. The defense alone can't withstand such a powerful force, or the unexpected surprise attack may disrupt the opponent's plan and delay their attack. The Germans never thought they would be like that. The powerful attackers should be able to bring them unexpected injuries. Well, just do it." Letos also made up his mind. He ran into his frontier command post and picked up the phone to issue the order.

"Huh... Boom."

The sudden shelling surprised Mueller, and he did not expect the Belgian to dare to shoot himself first. Due to his negligence, his armored forward has been submerged in this violent artillery fire. Mueller had drilled into the turret just after the first shell landed, and tightly covered the hatch.

"All tanks, retreat, withdraw to a safe position. Grenade, interfere with shooting." Muller shouted and issued an order.

The entire tank forward unit began to put on the reverse gear, while driving the gun indiscriminately towards the opponent's position while slowly reversing and began to retreat. In this case, although it may be faster to turn around, but no one wants to point their fragile engine to the enemy's position.

"Report the loss!" Mueller asked when the tanks retreated to their positions.

"Is anyone injured?"

He was really afraid of losing his troops because of his mistakes. How could he forget that those Belgians still have large caliber artillery? Mueller reflected deeply.

"Report the commander, except for a No. 3 tank in the second row with shrapnel pierced through the engine's water tank, the others are all small shell injuries, and we have maintained our combat effectiveness intact." A tank company commander reported.

"Attention, the enemy's tank is dispatched." A sharp-eyed tank driver shouted.

"Oh?" Mueller quickly looked from the periscope towards the enemy position.

Sure enough, with the continuous explosion of the shells, through the smoke, Mueller saw the Belgian tanks quickly rushed out of the woods, and the blue smoke of the engine rushed toward the front of his position.

"Amc35? How is this model?"

The voice of Lieutenant Colonel Halon, the head of the 25th Armored Regiment, came from the headset.

"Hallon, how are these tanks?" Mueller didn't know much about French tanks.

"It's rubbish, leave it to us." Halong replied confidently.

"Yes, anyway, we are also ready to assault, then simply rush to rush past, still the same. "Cyprus" type of assault, give them a little color." Mueller was caused by those shelling Depressed, he was determined to take revenge.

"Comply, Colonel Mueller. Just waiting for your order."

Mueller shouted into the microphone: "Okay, the whole army has heard it. The last regular defense line of those Belgians is in front of us. We once vowed to tear up any blocks for our General Reinhardt. The enemy of the road. Now we have another good opportunity to express our loyalty. Guys, let those Belgians once again taste the power of our "Cyprus" legion. The "Cyprus" legion , Start attacking!"

At the moment when Mueller's assault command was issued, all German artillery began to madly pour shells towards the Belgian position. As the shells fell like raindrops, the Belgian position fell into flames in an instant.

The French-made AMC35 tanks of the Belgian army, with their only 25 mm armor, are not opponents of the Czech 38t tank used on the German side. They have all been burned one by one before they rushed to the center of the battlefield. Torch.

Then the German striker's assault tank group suddenly split into two teams to the left and right, disregarding the Belgian's fierce interception and running, and leaned in towards the wings of the enemy position. When the Belgian artillery was attracted to the two wings by the assault tank group, the German support artillery immediately began to extend slowly towards the Belgian position. The second batch of tank groups increased their horsepower and followed the fire to the enemy position. The zhongyāng thrust hard. Following the tanks were a large number of German infantrymen, who roared and charged at the enemy positions.

If someone could look down from the air at that time, he would find that the German assault formation at that time was like a ferocious three-headed dog. It quickly tore the strong Belgian defense line and slammed into the depth of the position. go with. ;