The Rise of the Third Reich

Polish Army Commander Rez Himiweg just arrived at the high command headquarters within the Polish Ministry of Defense at 10:40, six hours after the war broke out. In the previous six hours, he had had breakfast and held meetings, especially the meeting in the Belvedere Palace that lasted a long time and had to be moved due to German bombing.

There were also many issues discussed at the meeting, including not only further mobilizing troops for a decisive battle with Germany, but also discussing the possibility of wooing the Soviet Union to fight against Germany - conditions including partial cession of right-bank Ukraine and West Belarus, and consent to the Soviet Union's annexation of Germany's Poland. state. In return, the Soviet Union had to support Poland's annexation of East Prussia, Pomerania, and all of Silesia.

Germany is considering how to disintegrate Poland, and the Polish high command will of course also consider using the same means to deal with Germany. So Rez Himiweg spent more than an hour at a meeting with the participation of the British and French ambassadors to explain the various benefits of carving up and dismembering Germany - his specific vision was to give Poland to the Soviet Union, East Prussia, and Poland and all of Silesia to Poland, restored independent Austria and Czechoslovakia, Belgium and France divided the Rhine Industrial Area, and the remaining parts of Germany were completely "deindustrialized."

It was a good idea and was immediately approved by the French ambassador. Rez-Himmiweg estimated that Britain and the Soviet Union would also be interested in a few weeks. In this way, Poland can unite the entire Europe to deal with Germany, and victory is just a matter of time.

But when he returned to his headquarters with confidence, he immediately heard some very bad news.

"Your Excellency, Marshal, the Lodz Army reported that the 15th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division at the southern end of their defense line was defeated by a German tank group (16th Armored Corps). The German tanks are currently advancing towards the Warta River.

Army Group Krakow reported that the first lines of defense of their 23rd Infantry Division and 55th Reserve Infantry Division were broken through by German tank units (15th Armored and 22nd Panzer Corps), and these two divisions are currently preparing defensive lines. hold fast. Army Group Krakow hoped to receive immediate reinforcements from the Prussian Army in order to establish a new line of defense.

The Coastal Army reported that the German army had formed a breakthrough on the front line of Tuhola Forest, and the 15th Division was engaged in a bitter battle. In addition, the 9th Division on the southern flank of the Binhai Group Army was also attacked and the situation was very critical. Major General Krukovisz Przedemirski was organizing a retreat, hoping to establish a defensible line on the east bank of the Brasi River.

The Modlin Army also reported that they were encountering a fierce attack by the East Prussian Germans and that the defense line was in danger, but it had not yet been breached.

In addition, the Lithuanian Army reported that a large number of German troops had surged across the border..."

"The German offensive is quite powerful," Rez Himmiweg smiled nonchalantly, "but our people can handle it, and their breakthrough will not last long. By the way, the Air Force's loss statistics Come up?"

"It has been calculated that the Warsaw Destroyer Brigade lost 69 aircraft, 37 of which were shot down in air battles, and the rest were bombed at the airport. The aircraft that were bombed at the airport were mainly old. The 2nd Regiment in Kraków lost 20 first-line aircraft and 25 reserve aircraft. The 3rd Regiment in Poznań lost 19 first-line aircraft and 30 reserve aircraft. The 4th Regiment in Torun lost 22 first-line aircraft. and 18 backup aircraft..."

The series of loss figures made the Polish commander a little upset. Only a few hours after the war started, the Polish Air Force had lost hundreds of aircraft. Although compared to the 1,900 aircraft on the books of the Polish Air Force, the losses seem to be bearable. But the Polish army's 1,900 aircraft are just a bluff number, and most of them cannot fight at all. The available fighter jets are only a few models such as PZL.7 and PZL.11, and the total number is only about 200.

Almost all is lost now! In less than half a day, the best aircraft of the Polish Air Force were used up!

"Where's the navy?" Rez Himiweg actually didn't know what to do in his heart. A war with so many tanks used for breakthroughs and so many planes dropping bombs in the sky was completely beyond his understanding, so he could only change the topic. , "How is the Navy's 'Operation Beijing' being executed?"

"It was unsuccessful, but the fleet is still intact. The Germans were only blocking the harbor and not attacking."

"Operation Beijing" is a combat plan of the Polish Navy, not the Chinese Navy. In fact, it is to let three Polish destroyers escape to the UK.

It should have been implemented on August 30, but at that time there were large warships of the German Baltic Fleet outside Danze Bay. As soon as the Polish destroyer went out, it was blocked and followed by German cruisers. Because they were worried that the war would suddenly break out, the three Polish destroyers turned back to Danze Port.

Danze Port was not attacked by the Baltic Fleet because the defenses of Danze City are very strong - the Poles have been illegally setting up defenses in this city that does not belong to Poland for 20 years (even according to the Treaty of Versailles, Poland is only responsible for Danze The city's external relations did not have the power to turn Danze into a Polish naval fortress), part of this "free city" has actually become a Polish naval fortress.

Therefore, it was very difficult to capture it from the sea, so the task of capturing the urban area of ​​Danze (the fortress area could be solved after Poland surrendered) was handed over to the 4th Army, which attacked from the land.

And now, the 3rd Armored Division, the vanguard of this group army, is pressing past the position of the 59th Infantry Regiment of the Polish 15th Infantry Division, and is advancing toward the Brasi River to the east.

Once the division breaks through the Brasi River, the Polish Army's Coastal Army will be cut into two sections!

Guderian was sitting in his armored car, listening to the commander of the 3rd Armored Division, Major General Schwepenburg, reporting the losses of the entire division.

The losses were of course very slight, because the anti-tank firepower of the Polish army was too weak. An infantry regiment only had a few anti-tank guns, and a division only had 27 37mm guns. They were scattered across a long defense line, so they were basically useless.

As for other anti-tank weapons, the WZ35 anti-tank gun is more useful in the hands of the Polish army. However, Polish infantry are not very good at using this weapon, and it does not play any role. However, the soldiers of the 3rd Armored Division picked up a lot of them.

In addition, the 20mm machine gun model in the Polish TKS small tank can also be used for anti-tank. However, there seemed to be very few TKS tanks of this type. When Guderian passed through the Tuhola Forest, he only saw one damaged TKS with a 20mm gun on it, and the other dozen or so TKS that were pushed to the roadside only had Machine gun.

"...If we only count complete damage, we only lost 2 armored vehicles, 1 No. 2 tank, and 1 38t tank in the 5 hours since the war started, all of which were destroyed by the 37mm gun. However, tanks and armored vehicles that were unable to move due to mechanical failures But there are as many as 32.”

Major General Schwepenburg pointed to a broken down tank on the side of the road and said: "This may be related to the rush to advance. Our division's advancement speed has reached 10 kilometers per hour. In wartime, this speed was too amazing. Not only It will be a big test for the equipment, and it may cause us to be disconnected from the large forces in the rear. "

"It doesn't matter," Guderian waved his hand indifferently and said confidently, "Just continue to break through. As long as we can cross the Brasi River, the Polish Coastal Army will be finished. They are facing Pomerania The divisions deployed in Niagara will be divided, and their troops deployed facing East Prussia will be attacked from behind by us. I hope to break through the Brasi River tonight and advance to the Vistula River tomorrow! "

…

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, we don't have time to capture you!"

Gustav Schwarzenegger said something unbelievable in his blunt Polish - there is no time to hold you captive! And this "you" refers to the thousands of Polish soldiers who blocked the road.

Most of these Polish defeated troops belonged to the 59th and 62nd Regiments of the Polish Army, and some were directly under the 15th Division of the Polish Army. Their defense line was breached by German tanks between 9 o'clock and 9:30.

The breakthrough process was very simple. The Germans did not even prepare for artillery fire. They just let tanks and motorized infantry drive in with the commander of the Polish 15th Division, Major General Przyakovsky, and hundreds of defeated soldiers. Polish defense line, and then continued the pursuit non-stop.

Major General Przyakovsky, who continued to retreat, sent some rear troops in an attempt to delay the German offensive. However, the troops he was able to gather neither had decent anti-tank weapons nor the determination to resist those steel monsters, so they all collapsed at the first touch.

It didn't take long for the retreating organization to disappear because the German armored forces advanced too quickly. Every Pole now just wanted to escape, escape immediately, because they simply could not defeat the torrent of German tanks.

In the end, these broken soldiers who ran like crazy for more than ten or twenty kilometers exhausted their energy and sat on the road, desperately waiting to be captured. They actually became an obstacle blocking the advance of the German vanguard.

"Get out of the way quickly! If you don't get out of the way, I will crush you all to death!" Gustas spoke threatening language in a fierce tone. Sure enough, it had some effect. The Poles got up and rushed to the almost ripe wheat fields on both sides of the road, leaving only firearms all over the road.

"Ignore those guns, press over! Our target is the Brachi River Bridge!" Armored Meyer, who was in charge of commanding a heavy armored reconnaissance company reinforced with several Panzer IV tanks, shouted into the communicator, "Advance at full speed. , take down the Brachi River Bridge and we will win!”