The Third Reich in Desperation

Text Chapter 379 Fragile People

On the outskirts of Dunkirk, on the first temporary line of defense just established by the British Expeditionary Force, several young British soldiers were tiptoely carrying two boxes of submunitions.

Just this morning, the German artillery had hit their temporary position.In other words, the sniper positions of the French in front have been captured seven or eight times, and the German army is about to rush to the British positions.

After moving the ammunition box into a dilapidated two-storey private house that had been requisitioned, several British soldiers saw the company commander who came out of the private house.

"Thank you." The company commander waved to these young soldiers and asked kindly, "Did any German shells fall near you on the way here?"

"That's not true. Except for the few shells in the morning, all the artillery fired by the German fell on the French army's position." As the leader of several soldiers, a slightly older British soldier stood up and replied.

"That's it..." Their company commander stroked his chin and thought for a few seconds before slowly speaking: "It is estimated that the French can't last long. The news I got is that they only The last remaining position has not been captured by the Germans. Perhaps, the Germans will rush to us soon."

"You should bring me the ammunition from the Dunkirk pier as soon as possible. The preparation time for our sniper position is running out!" said the company commander with an ugly expression.

Relying on this private house that has been evacuated, the company commander took 37 people left, which is equivalent to the remnants of a reinforced platoon, and built a simple defensive position, which became the new sniper line set up by the British Expeditionary Force. part.

By the east-facing window on the second floor, they set up a Vickers heavy machine gun as fire suppression.On the first floor, four British soldiers with rifles guarded two east-facing windows respectively.Outside the house, soldiers in twos and threes squatted in the foxholes dug temporarily as peripheral firepower.

From the looks of it, this position looks decent and seems to have some effect.But the British company commander knew very well that such a simple defensive position was nothing more than a small matter that could be solved by calling a few Stukas in front of the German army.The excellent positions that can really resist the passage of Germany have long been lost in Belgium.

In Dunkirk now, not to mention building a complete defensive position, even finding a few troops that are willing to fight sniper warfare is already a big trouble.

Everyone was eager to board the fleet returning home, and everyone wanted to leave this ghost place with all their heart. Who would want to go to war with the German army? !

"It's easy to handle the supplies," the British squad leader scratched his head, and said awkwardly: "Now the pier in Dunkirk is full of supplies discarded by the army on the beach. All kinds of heavy equipment, ammunition supplies, cannons Vehicles, everything you need. As long as there are enough people, we can transport them for you. It's just... the beach is too chaotic, and we can't organize the people at all."

The British company commander had heard of the chaos on the beach at Dunkirk.I heard that the Luftwaffe focused its attacks on large ships, sank 3 Royal Navy destroyers and 5 transport ships including 33 large ferries, and severely damaged 7 British destroyers. General Ramsay of the Royal Navy had to order the withdrawal of the remaining 8 naval warships from the transport fleet and transfer them back to the mainland to avoid the loss of these warships and affect future operations against the German invasion of the British mainland.

The "Generator Project" has only been carried out on the third day, and the withdrawn coalition forces only account for about one percent of the total coalition forces in the Dunkirk area.And now the navy has withdrawn its warships, and the transport fleet has suffered heavy losses, and the main pier of Dunkirk has long been paralyzed.

Even the little British company commander in front of him knows that there is no way out if this continues.At this speed, even if the transport fleet does not continue to lose, it will take another 300 days to withdraw all the besieged coalition forces.

300 days?The German army estimates that it will take another 3 days to reach the beachhead of Dunkirk. How can there be 300 days for a generator to be used!

"Forget it, even if you get those cannons from the beach, I won't have any manpower to use them here." The British company commander patted the squad leader on the shoulder and said heavily, "Just help me get two more boxes... ...No, a box of ammunition is coming, we won’t be able to use any more.”

"Yes!" After the squad leader paid a military salute, he led the people away without looking back.

Looking at the few logistics soldiers going away, the company commander who stayed in the position laughed at himself and said to the adjutant: "I used to hear from my father's generation that it seemed that the Germans did the same thing in the last World War. It’s not that powerful. It turns out that the German army is really not easy. At least, they are more like the world’s number one than our French ally, which is known as the world’s number one army.”

"Isn't it?" His adjutant nodded empathetically: "When I first came to France, I thought that I could win by simply fighting behind the French army. Who would have thought that this group of French They say they are invincible in the world, but they are so unreliable in war, which makes us suffer..."

While the two were talking, suddenly the sentinel on the second floor interrupted them loudly: "Company commander! The French seem to be defeated and are fleeing towards us...God! There are German troops chasing after them !"

The two officers who were chatting in the stairway immediately rushed into the master bedroom on the second floor, picked up the two rifles placed against the wall in the room, pulled the bolts to check the bullets, and then ran to the window of the master bedroom Aiming at the east, two gun muzzles protruded.

However, the French soldiers who fled in front were really in the way.They disturbed the attention of the British troops on the position, so that these British officers and soldiers did not notice that there was a church in the distance slanting to the east, and several Mauser 4x scope sniper rifles tied with the same gray camouflage cloth as the church wall were also there. The same moment points to where they are.

This is not a German precision shooter that works at medium and short distances, but a real German sniper, a battlefield death that can kill opponents and reap lives at long distances.

What's even more frightening is that there are now 4 Grim Reapers in the church diagonally opposite!

"Bang! Bang! Bang..." The gunshots from countless sniper rifles, mixed with the screams of the rout French soldiers who were deliberately driven by the German army, took advantage of the chaos and took away all the troops on the British position. Life after life.

Those British soldiers who were far away from the battlefield in the morning were shot one by one, and their heads were blown like a tomato, and their skulls were shattered.

When the French routs ran to this friendly position ecstatically, what they saw were more than 30 corpses still emitting heat.Or lean on the side of the mound of the foxhole, or hang on the window of the building...  

"Plop!" A timid French soldier saw a mess of brains and blood mixed with a pile of rubble, and his legs softened and he knelt down next to the corpse of a British soldier whose face was covered in blood.

In the end, the Frenchmen who were with him chose to raise their hands and stopped fleeing for their lives.

Perhaps surrender is more suitable for this group of vulnerable people than fleeing.

Body 3 Chapter [-] Can't Rely on the British Only

"From the very beginning, we have been deceived!" As the new commander-in-chief of the French army, Wei Gang, who had just returned from Syria, convened military officers in the capital Paris to hold a wartime meeting as usual.

Since he took office on May 5, Weygand has held countless such rear meetings.The content of the meeting was similar, and it was nothing more than discussing how to relieve the siege crisis of more than 19 coalition forces in the Dunkirk area.

This kind of after-the-fact meeting is actually not very effective. What really works is not the French, but the "Generator Plan" of the British.

Of course, the topic they discussed today is a bit different from the past, not how to cooperate with the British generator plan.

The theme of today's meeting originated from a secret revealed by the German Social Worker.

"The Siegfried line of defense was a cover from the very beginning!" Wei Gang waved a copy of the German Social Worker newspaper in his hand, and said loudly with an ugly expression: "It's ridiculous that we only found out now."

"Look at these Germans, while we're building the Maginot Line, they're building up for war. While we're perfecting the Maginot Line, they're confusing us with a fake Siegfried Line, and they're actually building up for war .From the very beginning, they were completely unprepared for a defensive battle, they were always thinking about attacking!"

In order to expand the propaganda effect, Reinhardt quickly instructed the Propaganda Department to unravel the secrets of the Siegfried line of defense when he confirmed that the frontline victory was imminent and the Siegfried line of defense no longer had the meaning of confusion, so as to create a favorable effect of public opinion.

Not only to let the German nationals know that what has been confusing the French and making the French hesitate to attack is nothing more than a lack of armor plates to defend against heavy artillery shells, and a large number of wooden structure bunkers are used indiscriminately, full of simple structures False positions of small fortifications.

It is even more necessary for the French to know how cowardly and stupid their army is, to be so frightened by a "toy-like" superficial fortification that it is difficult to move.

Let the whole world see this joke.

And when people all over the world mention this joke in their after-dinner chats, they will subtly acquiesce in the fact that France is not Germany's opponent, and the title of Europe's first army should be changed!

"Of course, there is no point in discussing what has already happened." Wei Gang changed the subject and raised his voice emphatically: "What we have to do now is to leave a way out for the future!"

After receiving Weigan's eye signal, Colonel Berente, who has been promoted to lieutenant general, stood up from his seat, walked to the large-scale map in the conference room, and pointed at the Somme and Oise rivers with his telescopic lever. And the front line of the Aisne River: "Although our main force was surrounded by the German army in the Dunkirk area because of the former commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Gan Malin. However, this is not all our forces!"

Moving the up-and-down lever on the map, Berente slowly introduced: "According to Commander Weygand's instructions, we can't pin all our hopes on the British government's generator plan. Taking a step back, even if the generator If the plan fails, we can't sit still!"

Having said this, there was a commotion in the meeting room immediately.

Those who can sit in this conference room are not ordinary low-level officers.Whether it is vision or insight, they are different from ordinary frontline officers.At this point in Berante's words, anyone with a little brain should have thought that Wey Gang, the new commander, has a big plan to announce.

Sure enough, everyone didn't have to wait too long. After seeing Admiral Wei Gang nodding at him, Berente immediately introduced Wei Gang's new plan and said: "Because our army's elite division has suffered a serious setback in Belgium, and Still besieged in the Dunkirk area, the remaining divisions are poorly equipped and without air support..."

Speaking of this, I have to mention how much the mistakes of the previous French commander-in-chief Gan Molin had affected the French army.

Convinced of the authenticity of the seized version of the "Yellow Plan", Gan Molin suppressed the essence of the French Army and all of the Air Force in northern Belgium.

As a result, the consequences now are.In the French army taken over by the new commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Wei Gang, the air force was completely lost, the army was completely weak, and the navy still had the main force, but it could not solve the urgent need.After all, warships cannot drive to land to block the Germans.

However, Wei Gang is not a mediocre general.Even, compared to Gan Molin, Wei Gang is far more suitable for the position of commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Speaking of which, Wei Gang's experience is much richer than that of Gan Molin's lucky career.

After graduating from the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1887, Wei Gang worked steadily and gradually climbed to the position of a member of the French Supreme Military Council in 30 years.

A year later, as the chief of staff of the French Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch, he learned a lot of classic tactics and tactics, and was soon promoted to general.

Of course, Weygand's most glorious period of glorious experience was actually between 1920 and 1922, which most people don't know much about.