The Rise of the Third Reich

"12 o'clock, 1,000 meters! Are the Poles coming up?"

The hoarse roar of No. 3 Commander Schwartz came from Meier's headphones. It was obvious that this farmer from the Black Forest was very scared.

"Attention, all units, do not fire. Stay calm and move the Poles closer to fight. Follow my orders!" Armored Meyer ordered loudly.

With a few booms, several mortar shells landed in the open space in front of the village. They did not explode, but released a cloud of red smoke.

"Damn it! The Poles are releasing smoke!" Schwartz complained loudly in his headphones, "I can't find the target!"

"Mortar fire! Mortar fire!" As soon as Meier ordered, more mortar shells fell from the sky. It was not the German mortars, but the Polish heavy mortars that were firing. But this time it was not smoke bombs that fell, but high-explosive bombs. The entire village was immediately submerged in the rising smoke and fireballs.

"General, there is smoke ahead, nothing can be seen." The chief of staff of the Polish 15th Division, a lieutenant colonel in his thirties, put down his telescope and said to Major General Przyakovsky.

"I know without looking that the children played very well, just as well as during training." Major General Przyakovsky's face was a little gloomy when he spoke, "But the place where the game started was not good, and the time was not good. wrong!"

"General, do you also think that the troops should be withdrawn across the Vistula River?" the lieutenant colonel asked.

"Withdraw across the Vistula River?" Major General Przyakovsky snorted coldly, "That's what a coward did!" He was silent for a moment, "If you ask me, the battlefield should be in Germany, in Oder. River, in the Elbe, not in Poland. We have been preparing for a long time, the army has been preparing after the Soviet-Polish War. We have so many cavalry and tanks, and a strong air force... to restore armaments in Germany. We could have easily captured Berlin and East Prussia."

"It's not too late this time, right?" The Chief of Staff of the 15th Division had never participated in the First World War, and he did not know what Poland was like before the First World War. Like most of the young men of the Polish army, he was in the Soviet-Polish War. Those who grew up later only knew the "flat, independent, and dew" Greater Poland. Poland has never been regarded as a country far weaker than Germany and the Soviet Union.

Major General Przyakovsky did not answer because he did not know whether the current Polish army could defeat Germany.

…

"Pengpengpeng..."

Several rounds of 20mm machine gun shells hit the fence a little to the right of the six-wheeled heavy armored vehicle that Meier was riding on, shattering the wooden fence into pieces and flying everywhere. Some flying pieces of wood even hit the armored vehicle. There was a clanging sound as if being shot by a machine gun.

"Damn! It's a 20mm gun!" Meyer's forehead was covered in cold sweat. The machine gun could not penetrate the steel plate of the Sd.Kfz.231 6-wheeled heavy armored reconnaissance vehicle. But the 20mm machine gun can easily penetrate it!

In the intelligence obtained before the war, the Polish army's TKS small tanks only had machine guns. Unexpectedly, they now have 20mm guns - in fact, only a very small number of them have 20mm guns.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" When he thought of the enemy's 20mm cannon, Panzer Meier himself couldn't hold back. Although he had received the most rigorous training and was a fanatic of the National Socialist Workers' Party, after all, he was First time on the battlefield.

"Yes!" Gustav Schwarzenegger, the gunner sitting in front of Val, had already pointed his gun at a TKS tank that had just burst out of the smoke. He first pulled the trigger of the coaxial machine gun juxtaposed with the 20mm gun (used to help the 20mm gun aim, and can also be used to shoot infantry). A string of tracer bullets hit the target, splashing on the steel plate of the TKS. Mars. Gustav immediately quickly grasped the firing device of the 20mm cannon and pressed it lightly with his fingers several times. The entire armored vehicle trembled a few times, and several 20mm armor-piercing bullets hit the TKS tank.

The poor little tank looked like it was made of paper and mud. With just two "pengpeng" sounds, the thin frontal armor was easily penetrated. However, the tank did not stop moving forward immediately, but suddenly turned a corner. Wai Wainai fell into the ditch beside the road.

"I killed it? I killed it, right?" Gunner Gustav Schwarzenegger shouted excitedly, "The 20mm shell must have got in and killed the crew members!"

As Gustav Schwarzenegger opened fire, the artillery and machine guns of all the German wheeled armored vehicles on the battlefield roared. The charging Polish TKS tanks and soldiers seemed to be hit by a hail of bullets. Immediately there were heavy casualties!

"Damn it! The firepower of these German tanks is too strong." Seeing his soldiers retreating, Major General Przyakovsky cursed. Just as he was about to order the mortar group to open fire to cover the infantry retreat, he saw a The fast horse flew in front of him.

On the horse was a blue-faced Polish second lieutenant, a platoon leader of the 15th Division's Scout Cavalry Company. His platoon was sent to the west of the village (bypassing through the woods) to guard the road.

"Division, Commander, they are coming!" the second lieutenant screamed loudly without even stopping his horse.

"Who's coming?"

"Tanks! German tanks! They are big, and there are many of them, one after another, countless, and these tanks also have 75mm guns!"

The main force of the 3rd Armored Division is here! Driving at the front were 36 Panzer IV tanks with a dead weight of 23.5 tons and a 75mm cannon with a caliber of 43 times!

…

They are coming!

The German steel monsters are coming, wearing solid steel armor and equipped with sharp artillery. In this time and space, Hessmann asked to install a large-caliber 75mm anti-tank gun on the No. 4 tank from the beginning. However, this large-caliber and enlarged-caliber tank gun (tank guns have high requirements for weight and volume) is not easy to produce. It was not until 1939 that Krupp Company barely produced dozens of guns, all of which were installed on the No. 4. However, the quality is not reliable, so only some No. 4s have long-barreled 75 guns, called No. 4 F, and some are equipped with 24-caliber 75 guns, called No. 4 E. However, the No. 4s assigned to the 3rd Armored Division are all F.

At about 10 o'clock on September 1, 1939. Not only did the Coastal Army Group on the northern front (located between Pomerania and East Prussia in Germany) report that a large number of German tanks were tearing through their defenses, but the Lodz Army Group and the Krakow Army Group on the southern front also sent the same report to the Polish General Headquarters in Warsaw - the southern edge of the Lodz Army Group's defense zone and the junction of the Krakow Army Group were broken by the German 16th Armored Corps, while the Krakow Army Group's defense line was broken by the German 15th Armored Corps and 22nd Armored Corps.

While the ground defense line was broken by the German army, more than 1,800 German aircraft completed the second wave of large-scale air strikes!

However, unlike the pre-war propaganda, the German Air Force did not formulate a plan to bomb large cities in Poland - in Hessman's view, this was not only a waste of bombs, but also a self-inflicted trouble! Bombing Polish cities would cost money to repair them in the future.

Therefore, among the He111 bombers that flew over Warsaw for the second time at 9:45, some of them carried "paper bombs" (most of the planes still carried bombs to bomb arsenals, airports, barracks and transportation hubs). The "paper bombs" clearly stated Germany's demands:

1. Abolish the "Versailles Treaty" and the "Saint-Germain Treaty", because these two treaties were unequal treaties signed by Germany under the coercion of force;

2. Poland recognizes the "Polish-German Border Treaty of 1918", because this treaty is the foundation of the establishment of the Polish Federation, it is Germany's help to Poland, and it is an equal treaty;

3. The Polish Federation should agree to the realization of national self-determination by Lithuanians and Ukrainians in accordance with the constitution;

4. Poland should compensate for the persecution suffered by German expatriates;

5. Poland should stop persecuting Jews in the country, and Germany promised to continue to support Zionism;

6. Germany recognizes Poland's independence and freedom, and is willing to protect Poland.

Moreover, the same "paper bomb bombing" occurred not only in Warsaw, but also in Krakow, Lublin and Lviv, the capital of the Free State of Ukraine.

...

Almost at the same time as the second wave of air raids launched by the German army, Adolf Hitler announced in the German Third Reich Congress that the war had broken out!

After a phone call with General Hessmann, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, confirming that the war was going smoothly. The German leader and chancellor of the empire walked onto the podium of the Congress in military uniform and announced excitedly:

"The Imperial Army has invaded Poland, and Germany has entered a state of war! From now on, I am just a soldier of the German Empire, and I put on this most sacred and precious military uniform to me. Before the final victory, I will never take off this military uniform, or I will die for my country..."

Hitler's speech aroused waves of enthusiastic cheers from the parliamentarians. Then the Congress unanimously passed a resolution to declare war on Poland!

After the Congress passed the resolution, Hitler immediately went to the Royal City Residence (just next to the Congress) and submitted a "request" to declare war on Poland to the elderly and worried Emperor Wilhelm - the war had already broken out, and now it was just a formality.

"So are the six peace proposals true? We really don't intend to destroy Poland?" Emperor Wilhelm asked on the throne. Having experienced a defeat and the loss of the throne, he is now very afraid of being defeated again.

"Your Majesty," Hitler said, "the six peace proposals are true and will be implemented no matter what. First, we will take back the lost land, which refers to all the lands that the German Empire ceded to Poland after November 1918! Secondly, we will hold a referendum in Lithuania and Eastern Galicia (Austrian Ukraine, Western Ukraine), where they can choose to join Germany, join the Soviet Union or remain independent. If they choose independence, the German Empire's army will leave immediately and will not provide any protection for Lithuania and Eastern Galicia. Even if the Soviet Red Army invades! In fact, such a referendum only allows Lithuanians and Ukrainians to choose between becoming Germans or Soviets. And all Lithuanians and Ukrainians who voted in favor of joining the Soviet Union will be sent to the Soviet Union after Lithuania and Eastern Galicia join Germany."