The Rise of the Third Reich

"Anti-tank guns! There are French anti-tank guns!"

Gustav Schwarzenegger shouted loudly.

His voice was a little hoarse, and this Nazi superman who was as strong as an ox could hardly stand it now. He and his soldiers had not had a good night's sleep since breaking through the Maas River. After reaching the Monte-Diu Highlands, there was a continuous tug-of-war with the French. The French invaded the town of Stoney again and again, and were beaten out again and again.

But this time, even fanatical Nazis like Gustav Schwarzenegger and Rudolf Ribbentrop did not dare to guarantee that they could drive away the French. Because there are too many French people coming, and they also have many tanks.

Sixty or seventy CharB1 tanks led two to three thousand French soldiers to rush forward. Although all anti-tank guns, tanks and assault guns fired desperately, they could not stop the sturdy CharB1 tanks from slowly approaching.

This huge tank is not only strong but also powerful, equipped with a 47mm gun and a 75mm gun. After they approached the town of Stoney, they turned into steel forts, constantly bombarding the Germans in the town with artillery, and covering the infantry's charge.

Faced with an overwhelming opponent, the entrenched German army could only fight and retreat. They retreated from outside the town into the town, using the ruins of buildings as cover to resist. Gustav Schwarzenegger's 2nd Platoon of the 11th Company now has less than 20 people left. They are all following a No. 3 tank in a street battle with the French army in the town. The 50mm gun of the No. 3 tank is equipped with a tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile, which is enough to penetrate the front armor of the CharB1 tank within a distance of 300 meters. This distance is not big enough to see on the slope outside the town, but it is enough after retreating into the town. In less than an hour of fighting, three CharB1 tanks were destroyed by this No. 3 tank.

But the good luck of this No. 3 tank ended here. A French 47mm anti-tank gun was pulled up at some point and fired four armor-piercing shells at the No. 3 tank, two of which hit the target. , one of which exploded inside the tank!

Seeing that the tanks were destroyed, Gustav Schwarzenegger had to order a retreat - they now did not have any anti-tank weapons in their hands, and they could not stop the French tanks with rifles, submachine guns and MG34 machine guns.

"Second Lieutenant, what should we do?" Rudolf Ribbentrop followed Lieutenant Schwarzenegger and asked as he ran.

Lieutenant Schwarzenegger was at his wits' end, "Let's exit the town first."

"Evacuate Stoney if the tank is destroyed or the tank commander decides to retreat" was the order from Captain Kruger (commander of the 11th Company). Although Schwarzenegger didn't understand it, an order was an order, and he couldn't lead his men to defend the town.

When the remaining 20 people from the 2nd Platoon of the 11th Company withdrew from the small town of Stoney, the other two platoons and the company headquarters of the 11th Company also began to retreat - the 11th Company was the unit responsible for the rear, the "Gross Deutschland" flag force. Other companies of the 1st and 3rd Battalions have evacuated one after another, and the town of Stoney seems to have been lost.

But just as Gustav Schwarzenegger and Rudolf Ribbentrop ran out of the northern exit of the town in embarrassment, a soldier suddenly shouted: "The artillery position, the artillery position is still there! "

Didn't the artillery positions retreat? Rudolf Ribbentrop was stunned for a moment, then raised his head and looked down the hillside. In the night, he could vaguely see dozens of cannons lined up in a row, with their muzzles pointed at the small town of Stoney, as if they were waiting. The appearance of the target.

"Oh my God!" Lieutenant Schwarzenegger suddenly shouted, with a bit of surprise in his tone. "88mm anti-aircraft gun, that's an 88mm anti-aircraft gun!"

…

"What? There is a German artillery position behind the Monte-Dieu Heights? It can't be an anti-tank gun, right?"

General Charles Hunzig, commander of the French 2nd Army, soon received a report of "the discovery of a German artillery position."

"No, it's not an anti-tank gun," the staff officer replied. "The report says it's a 105mm howitzer."

"Oh, I understand." General Charles Henziger nodded. This seemed a little strange. Why did the Germans place the 105mm howitzer position so close to the front? And they didn't retreat in time.

But General Hunzig didn't think much about it. After all, in a real war, how could it be possible to calculate everything accurately? Even the Germans can't do it, something will always go wrong.

"It seems that our tanks can capture these cannons." General Henziger said to himself.

This was not an order, because according to previous orders, the French tank group would have continued to advance after occupying the town of Stoney, completely driving the German troops away from the Monte-Dieu heights, and mopping up the remaining enemy forces north of the heights.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom..."

The sound of intensive shelling and explosions suddenly came from the Monte-Dieu Highlands upwards, as if a fierce firefight was going on on the northern slope of the highlands.

"How is this going?"

Several French generals and colonels in the former enemy command post looked at each other. For a moment, no one understood what was going on. Perhaps the 75mm gun of the CharB1 tank destroyed some ammunition piled on the German artillery position?

"Commander," a staff officer ran in quickly at this time, and when he saw that General Henziger didn't even salute, he shouted loudly. "Urgent report from the 3rd Light Cavalry Division, the defense line of the 2nd Motorized Dragoon Regiment was attacked by the German armored forces. The situation is very critical. Request for support!"

"What?" General Henziger immediately became nervous. The 3rd Light Cavalry Division is responsible for covering the left wing of the army. Now they are attacked by the German armored group, which means that the Germans still have a large-scale armored group near Sedan! And this German armored group probably wants to outflank the flank of the 2nd Army!

"Tell the 3rd Light Cavalry Division to hold on at all costs." Then General Henziger immediately made adjustments to the deployment, "Gather the CharB1 tanks and let the infantry go to Stoney Town to deploy defenses." He wanted to use the powerful CharB1 tanks to deal with the German tank group.

The 2nd Motorized Dragoon Brigade, which is now under attack by the German armored forces, is actually an armored force. This regiment is called cavalry, but in fact it has no horses. Instead, it is equipped with light tanks (23 AMR series cavalry tanks) and half-track vehicles. However, the AMR series tanks have weak firepower and very thin armor, and are no match for German tanks (the No. 1 tank is similar to the AMR series, but it is only a training tank). Therefore, the CharB1 heavy tank must be sent to rescue.

However, General Henziger and everyone in this command post did not expect that more than half of those powerful CharB1 heavy tanks have become live targets of the German 88mm anti-aircraft guns at this time, and have been turned into steel torches on the northern slope of the Monte Diu Heights!

…

The two anti-aircraft battalions of the 2nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment of the German Anti-aircraft Force (which belongs to the Air Force) are using 88mm guns to attack tanks. This anti-aircraft artillery regiment had made great contributions in the air battle on the Meuse River before, shooting down 112 British and French aircraft! After the Meuse air battle, this anti-aircraft artillery regiment was not transferred and was stationed at the Meuse River pontoon bridge. After the 12th Army took over the front line, the 2nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment naturally returned to the 12th Army. The German 88mm anti-aircraft guns began to play the role of anti-tank guns as early as the Spanish War, and the first German armored commander to use 88mm to attack tanks was Lieutenant General von Thomas of the 41st Armored Corps. So after learning that the 37mm guns could not hit the French CharB1 heavy tanks, he suggested transferring 88mm anti-aircraft guns from the 2nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment to deal with the CharB1 heavy tanks. In order to allow the 41st Armored Corps to successfully complete the encirclement, General Kleist did not use the 88mm gun at the beginning (otherwise the French would be driven away by a bombardment), but placed the 88mm on an anti-tank position on the northern slope of the high ground. Unexpectedly, several French tank brigade commanders on the front line did not know the power of the 88mm gun (this kind of gun had been used in the Belgian battlefield, but the French did not know it), and they mistook the 88mm gun for a 105mm howitzer, and foolishly commanded dozens of CharB1 heavy tanks to rush up, and they were all turned into steel torches.

"We won, didn't we?" Rudolf Ribbentrop sat on the grass, looking at the bright flames in the distance, and asked in confusion.

"We won!" Captain Kruger, the commander of the 11th Company, stood aside and smoked, "The French tanks are finished... No tank can withstand the 88mm gun."

"If only we could have such a gun." Rudolf Ribbentrop said, "So there wouldn't be so many comrades sacrificed."

The National Socialist Workers' Party also called each other comrades, and the "Greater Germany" flag team was the SS, and all its members were Nazis.

"The sacrifice of our comrades must be valuable," Captain Kruger glanced at Ribbentrop, who was handsome, brave in combat, and had a very prominent family background, "You will understand it later."

"Later?"

Captain Kruger lit a cigarette, "Yes, when you graduate from the SS Officer School in Brunswick, you will understand why the superiors want our comrades to sacrifice."

"SS Officer School?" Rudolf Ribbentrop was stunned, "Captain, are you going to recommend me to the Officer School?"

"Yes, that's what you deserve," Captain Kruger took a puff of cigarette and said with a smile, "Gustav told me about your performance, you are very good. When we defeat the French, you can take the exam."