The decisive battle against the Third Reich

That night, Rommel and others took a helicopter from the Metz fortification to return to the French front line... If they had not returned at night, they would have had to stay at the Metz fortification all day due to the blockade of Allied fighter planes during the day. .

Of course, they also stopped in Paris on the way.

As mentioned before, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front is Rundstedt. No matter what plans or results there are, they need to be discussed with Rundstedt.

Of course Rundstedt was at the headquarters at this time... Although his habit was not to "go to work" before ten o'clock in the morning, at this extraordinary moment, as a commander, he could not continue to stay anyway. I fell asleep in the villa.

Seeing Qin Chuan and Rommel walking into the headquarters, Rundstedt couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.

"Everything is fine, right?" Rundstedt asked.

"Yes, everything is normal!" Rommel replied, with a trace of disdain on his lips.

Qin Chuan knew what that meant... It was obvious that Rundstedt was unwilling to bear the responsibility of "deceiving" the head of state. He might even have thought of a plan to excuse himself and shift the responsibility to Rommel.

This is why Rundstedt breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Rommel.

However, Rommel had no time to argue with Rundstedt. He looked at the map and said: "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, the Head of State has agreed to our retreat plan, but there is a slight change in the plan..."

"Well!" Rundstedt said, "I will discuss it further with the Führer later!"

"No, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief!" Rommel said: "The head of state is aware that enemy spies may sneak into the Supreme Command. For the sake of confidentiality, this plan will be conveyed verbally to me!"

"Okay, Marshal!" Rundstedt nodded helplessly.

The retreat plan was actually not complicated. The German troops south of Calais retreated along a diagonal line toward the Maginot Line and contracted, while the German troops south of the Brittany Peninsula contracted toward the Central Plateau in southern France.

The first point is to preserve strength, especially armored and mechanized troops, and retreat at night as much as possible to avoid being bombed by the Allies.

The second is to ensure that most materials and machines are removed in time.

The third is to block the British troops and let the American troops go first, especially the French troops led by General Giraud supported by the United States... This is what was said before, controlling the reputation and morale of the two French armies from the German perspective. , to narrow the gap between the two French armies.

At the same time, Rommel's proposal to use French people to "protect" important bridges was immediately issued to the security forces.

However, this was not very necessary, because just when Rommel and others were making changes to the combat plan, the Allies were also making adjustments.

What made Eisenhower determined to make adjustments was an intelligence report from MI5 Director Halker.

At that time, Eisenhower was discussing the next day's offensive plan with Montgomery and General Omar Nelson Bradley, commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group.

In this high-level command, the most powerful one is obviously Montgomery.

Needless to say, the reason is that before Eisenhower became the Allied Commander-in-Chief, he was a civilian and had no experience in commanding operations. General Bradley's commanding experience only started in the African invasion of Sicily.

Montgomery, on the other hand, was a famous general who had fought against the Germans for many years and defeated the "Desert Fox" Rommel in Africa.

This halo allowed Montgomery to have a say in high-level command.

"I think we should continue the current offensive!" Montgomery said: "Just like what we did at Utah Beach, use naval guns and aircraft to continuously bomb the enemy's defense lines until the enemy's fortifications and armored forces cannot Resist our attack!"

This idea was very much in line with Eisenhower's style, because his previous job was in diplomacy and interpersonal relationships, which determined that he was not good at taking risks.

The same is true for General Bradley. His character can be summed up in four words: "stop when in doubt." That is, he is always suspicious and vigilant, and advances step by step... Most generals in the US military have such a command style. , the same is true for the tactics of the US military. This resulted in the US military's Pacific battlefield. A few Japanese snipers hiding in the forest could often block a US military regiment or even a division, because they suspected that there was a Japanese ambush in the forest, and they had to use artillery fire or Bombs flattened the forest before advancing.

As a result, the three of them hit it off immediately and decided to play at the rhythm in front of them.

Obviously, this battle plan is too conservative, and only a general like Montgomery, who likes tradition and strictness in everything, would formulate it...

If the fight continues like this, the Allied forces may not be able to notice that the main force of the German armored forces has withdrawn from the "Atlantic Barrier" for a long time, and they will still be bombarding the "Atlantic Barrier" indiscriminately.

At this time, Halke came in from outside, holding a telegram in his hand and looking at Eisenhower for a moment.

Eisenhower knew what Halker was hesitating about... "Super-secret" information was not accessible to anyone.

So he asked Generals Montgomery and Bradley to temporarily recuse themselves.

In fact, Montgomery was asked to avoid it just to avoid embarrassing General Bradley. Montgomery already knew the "super secret" when he was in Africa.

"This is the code we just decoded!" Halke sighed and said, "You are right, they know our deception plan!"

Eisenhower took the telegram, read it, and replied: "It's completely expected. I'm afraid not many of our airborne troops will survive!"

"Yes, that may be a trap set by the Germans!" Halke replied helplessly: "We believe that the Germans may have wiped out the French guerrillas first, seized the radio station, and even instigated part of the guerrillas. People. Then..."

"Then the Germans used the guerrillas to send us false information?" Eisenhower never expected that this would be the case.

"Yes!" Halke nodded awkwardly: "So, those airdrop points were probably given to us by the Germans... They have already set up an ambush there!"

Although Halke was reluctant to say this because it would be a shame to him and MI5, he still had to admit it in order to avoid more serious consequences.

Eisenhower laughed angrily: "Well done, Mr. Director... You sent several of our airborne divisions into the German trap and made the entire Allied forces attack in the wrong direction!"

After a pause, Eisenhower continued: "Also, you were very confident that you could defeat the 'Legendary Sergeant' before, but now it seems... that doesn't seem to be the case!"