Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Early morning on July 4th.

Admiral Reichenau had just gotten up when his adjutant hurried over. "General, all the soldiers in Liège have fled!"

"What?!" Admiral Reichenau did not react for a moment. They slept one night on the outskirts of Liege, and the competition in the city ran away? So if we sleep a few more nights, will the whole of Belgium have to surrender? "Have you confirmed it?"

The adjutant said with certainty. "The reconnaissance battalion has searched the entire city of Liege. All the Belgian troops have indeed withdrawn to the other side of the Maas River. Those bridges have been bombed."

"The bridge was blown up?" Reichenau nodded thoughtfully. Since even the bridge was blown up, there is no doubt that he ran away.

There are three bridges from Liège to the other side. The high command had previously discussed whether paratroopers could be sent to occupy these bridges. However, there are a large number of paratroopers stationed on both sides of these bridges. After deduction, it was found that the success rate of paratroopers able to occupy these bridges intact is less than 40%; even if they can hold on until subsequent reinforcements arrive, the success rate is only 12%. He gave up the plan to send paratroopers.

Now that these bridges have been blown up by the Belgians themselves, it seems that they can only strengthen the Maas River. "Send the order and the whole army will march into the city after breakfast. Send a telegram to the headquarters that we have occupied the city of Liège and will start forcibly crossing the Maas River in a few hours."

"What on earth do these Belgians want to do?!" At the same time, Gamelin's roar rang out in the British and French coalition headquarters. "Their ancestors resisted the German army here for 13 days last time. They are not afraid of embarrassing their ancestors!!" The Eben Emaar Fortress, which is said to be impregnable and indestructible, was captured in less than two hours after the war started yesterday. "How good is it today? The enemy just came to the city and they fled in panic?" Are these cowards planning to flee all the way to France to seek asylum? !

How come they have such pig teammates? !

Viscount Gott smiled bitterly. "Didn't they say that the city of Liège is undefeable? They have established defenses on the other side of the Meuse River and will resolutely prevent the Germans from crossing the river." The reason they could withstand so long in the last war was because Liège was there at that time. The fortress; unfortunately, the fortress was eventually destroyed by German artillery, and the Belgian army did not repair the fortress after that.

"Humph, these cowards!" Gan Molin cursed several times in frustration. "Your Excellency, how long do you think they can hold on?"

Viscount Gott thought for a moment. "Two or three days should be fine."

"Once the German army successfully crosses the river, it will be less than 100 kilometers away from the capital Brussels. The plain of less than 100 kilometers can delay the German army for two or three days at most. In other words, the German army will be able to attack the city of Brussels as soon as July 8 ." He originally expected that the Germans would be blocked on the Liege-Mause River-Albert Canal line for 10-15 days, but he did not expect that he really overestimated the Belgian army's fighting will.

Viscount Gott nodded. "That's pretty much it."

Gan Molin stared at the battle map on the wall and pondered it for a long time before speaking. "Although the strength we have assembled in Brussels far exceeds that of the German army, I am still not reassured. I am ready to mobilize the Seventh Army there too!"

"Seventh Army?" Viscount Gott couldn't help but be stunned. "That's our reserve team. Your Excellency, Commander, are you going to send the reserve team over now?"

War involves deployment, that is, deploying one's own forces in advance based on the enemy's situation. However, the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the enemy is likely to appear in places that were not initially expected, or in other unexpected situations. At this time, there should be an undeployed, reserved mobile force to deal with such situations. This is the reason why the reserve force was created.

At critical moments, investing in a reserve team can play a decisive role.

King Alexander of Macedonia in Europe proposed the idea of ​​using medium-equipped infantry as a reserve force. He established and timely deployed the reserve force in the Battle of Gaugamela, defeating the Persian army. Napoleon's failure that year was also because there was no reserve in the end.

But now Gamelin has sent all the reserve teams there, which makes Viscount Gott a little uneasy. What if something goes wrong in the war, or the Germans have unused back-up tactics?

"Be at ease, Your Majesty the Viscount." Gan Molin said confidently. "We are now completely sure that the German attack will be carried out according to the Schlieffen Plan. This is the main direction of the German attack! Now is the best time to invest in the reserve team, because we want to use the most powerful offensive to defeat the Germans in one go! "

"..." It sounds reasonable. After all, the German army's combat effectiveness is indeed strong, and it is indeed necessary to gather superior forces to defeat them; but the lack of a reserve force has always made Viscount Gott deeply uneasy.

Seeing this, Gan Molin comforted him. "Now I have put the reserve force up, but the country is undergoing national defense mobilization, and follow-up units will be formed continuously. In a week at most, we will have ten more reserve units of integrated divisions."

Viscount Gott was slightly relieved to hear that. "Then shall we support the defenders of the Maas River? The Belgian fighter jets are no match for the Germans. Without air support, it will be difficult for them to defend."

When he mentioned this matter, Gan Molin's face looked a little ugly. Not to mention the fighter jets of the Belgian military, even France's own fighter jets are no match for the Germans. More than 200 of them were shot down yesterday alone (including British Hurricane fighter jets).

"When will your army's Spitfire fighter jets arrive?" He knew that the British had a fighter jet called the "Spitfire" in service, which far exceeded the performance of the Hurricane and their 406.

"It will arrive in the next few days. But..." At this point, Viscount Gott stopped talking.

Gan Molin said curiously. "But what?"

Viscount Gott hesitated for a moment before continuing. . "We found out that the Germans have also put a new type of fighter into service. Although we don't know the specific performance yet, it should not be inferior to their BF109."

The corners of Gan Molin's mouth twitched slightly. This news was really bad for morale. The German BF109 is already powerful enough, but there is an even more powerful fighter?

However, he still encouraged himself and Viscount Gott. "There is no need to worry too much, Your Excellency Viscount. The victory or defeat of the war still depends on the army. God prefers the army!"

At this time, Viscount Gott's sixth sense was vaguely worried about the Germans' rear attack, and they were slowly moving forward in the Ardennes forest. Because the road is too long and narrow, the entire team forms a long snake formation. If the team wants to refuel, they must stop at the same time; otherwise, it is likely to cause congestion.

"Stop and refuel!"

The long line slowly stopped, and the tank crews took the oil drums from the tank racks and started to refuel the tanks.

Speaking of this kind of military gasoline barrel, it was another great invention of the German army in World War II. When the German high command formulated the blitzkrieg strategy, it also faced a problem. Because the attack speed of each attacking force was too fast, the logistics supplies could not keep up. During the battle, Thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, trucks, etc. require large amounts of gasoline.

Later, the German army developed a new type of 20-liter oil drum, whose standard name was standard container. This type of container is made of thin iron sheets punched into two parts, the left and right parts, and then welded together. Not only is the cost very low, but the production time is very short, and it can meet large-scale needs during war times. This is still secondary, the key is that it is really convenient to use, normal people can move it easily, it will not leak, and it can be hung on the tank very conveniently.

The German high command regarded these oil barrels as strategic secret weapons, and even ordered that when the German troops were forced to surrender or captured, their oil barrels should be destroyed first to avoid falling into the hands of the Allies. Because the structure of this thing is so simple, as long as the Allies obtain this kind of oil barrel, they can produce it on a large scale.

As a result, the secret could not be kept. The Allies seized the German oil barrels, quickly copied them and applied them on the battlefield. This kind of oil barrel was used on a large scale in both civilian and military fields in later generations.