On April 20, 1940, a desperate France saw two glimmers of light, and the two heroes of the last world war, Petain and Weygand, returned to France in crisis.
The former became Deputy Prime Minister of the French government, while the latter became Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces.
"Marshal, admiral, it's good that you're here."
On the morning of the 20th, at the Château de Vincennes, Admiral Gammelin, who had been dismissed, greeted Petain and Weygand with a group of staff officers with ugly faces.
Although he dismissed Paul Reynaud from his post of commander-in-chief on the 18th, he temporarily served as commander-in-chief of the coalition forces for a few days before Wei Gang arrived.
On the afternoon of the 19th, as the situation on the battlefield deteriorated so quickly, he had to make two important decisions: to order the 2nd Army, which was encircled on the west bank of the Maas, to break through and to order the Anglo-French forces in Belgium to move to French territory so as not to be surrounded by German troops.
However, the latter of these two orders, the order to transfer the Anglo-French troops in Belgium, has not yet been carried out, after all, the withdrawal of hundreds of thousands of troops from Belgium is a very complicated task.
"Morris, is the situation bad now" Admiral Weygand immediately asked about the situation at the front.
"Very bad, and unprecedented," said Gan Molin, who sighed and shook his head, "Admiral, it's not 1914 anymore, we are facing a war of a whole new model.
The large numbers of infantry and artillery are almost useless, and the highly mobile and combat-ready armored units dominate the ground battlefield.
And the role of air superiority in a campaign has reached a decisive level.
On both fronts, we are completely behind" Pétain and Weygand exchanged glances with each other, although they were older, they were not old brains, and they had long been aware of the role of mechanized troops.
However, France's national policy is defense, and everything will be fine if the "Maginot line" is properly defended, and no one will spend precious military funds to study the problem of attacking with mechanized troops.
Although a military theorist like Charles de Gaulle could imagine a mode of tank corps operations, a large number of military exercises were indispensable in turning the imagined theories into tactics that could be applied in practice.
Therefore, although the number of tanks in France is quite large, there are many officers in the middle and upper ranks of the army who attach importance to the theory of armored warfare.
However, in terms of the practical application of mechanized troops, the level of the French Army is not a little worse than that of the German Army.
"So, do you have any suggestions for the next step of the operation?"
General Wei Gang and Gan Molin asked as they walked towards the war room.
"The 2nd Army must break through to Reims as soon as possible," said Ganmalin, frowning, "and the breakout began in the early hours of this morning, but it did not go well, and the troops suffered heavy losses when they broke through, and then they were pursued by the German armored forces. ” In fact, the German troops encircling the French 2nd Army were mainly infantry, and only the main forces of the German 5th Panzer Division, the 8th Panzer Division and the 6th Panzer Division of the 11th Panzer Regiment under the jurisdiction of the 6th Panzer Division had already moved south to Verdun, but they still pursued all the way and routed a large number of French troops who broke through, almost causing the latter to collapse.
"Although the losses are heavy, some troops will eventually arrive in Reims.
They can be used as seed units to expand new armored and motorized units.
In addition, some troops should be withdrawn from the Maginot Line as much as possible, and the Germans, having occupied Verdun on the 19th, are now attacking Tulle.
If they take Tulle, no, there is no need to occupy, only the destruction of the railway near Tulle, and the pace of our pumping of troops from the Maginot Line will be slowed down by 70.
If the Germans had made a surprise attack near Langler, it would have been difficult for us to draw troops from the Maginot Line. ” "Can't you stop them" Weygand's face was extremely ugly, he knew that the main force of the French army was now either in Belgium or on the Maginot Line.
Moreover, most of them were still on the Maginot Line, and if these two main groups were surrounded by the Germans, then he, the commander-in-chief, would not be bare "I'm afraid it's difficult," said Ganmarin, with a sad face, "the German armored clusters are so powerful and fast that ordinary infantry can't stop them." ” "In other words, most of the troops on the Maginot Line are about to be surrounded," Wei Gang felt like he had fallen into a fire pit.
"I think so," said Gammelin, "therefore we must save the troops trapped in Belgium, so I have ordered them to break out as soon as possible, and the first choice is to consider breaking out by land to Paris." ” Wei Gang nodded, "They must break through successfully, they will be the main force to surround Paris" Historically, because troops could be drawn from the Maginot Line, Admiral Weygand was not in a hurry to let the French army break through in Belgium, so he canceled the breakout order issued by Gammelin on the 19th.
However, now Admiral Wei Gang could not cancel this order from Gan Molin, otherwise he, the commander-in-chief, would have to rely on the newly created units, which lacked officers and non-commissioned officers, to resist the German attack.
"Mr.
Prime Minister, how's the situation going?"
On the same day that Petain and Weygand arrived in Paris, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also flew in from London.
"Admiral Weygand has taken office," Paul Renault tried to make it look like everything was still under control, "and the 2nd Army also highlighted the German encirclement and was now advancing towards Reims.
In addition, we have formed new armoured, light mechanized and motorized infantry divisions.
I believe that the situation will gradually improve. ” "That's great," Churchill smiled and nodded, as if he was confident about France's future.
"What about the situation in Belgium, can our troops in Belgium stand out smoothly?"
"There is no problem," said Paul Reynaud, "and on the afternoon of the 19th, Admiral Gambler gave the order to break out. ” "Oh, that's right."
Churchill nodded.
He had known about this for a long time, but he didn't have much hope that the hundreds of thousands of troops would be able to break through from land.
Because these hundreds of thousands of troops will soon be pocketed by the Germans, and even if they can break through, they will have to be pursued by the German armored forces.
Moreover, even if some of the main forces could escape, they would flee to Paris Churchill paused, as if to weigh his words, "Mr.
Prime Minister, now that the coalition forces have a new commander-in-chief, this is the beginning of a turning point, but the Belgian coalition forces do not have a new commander. ” Renault understood what Churchill meant, and he said: "The coalition is not fighting well in Belgium, and there should be a new commander-in-chief."
Prime Minister, do you have any candidates that you can recommend?"
"Yes," said Churchill, "I recommend Admiral Verrick, commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, who is a great soldier who will surely lead the troops out of their troubles." ” Renault thought for a moment and decided that it would be nothing to have a British officer in command of part of the coalition army, so he nodded and agreed to Churchill's suggestion.
However, at this time, Prime Minister Paul Renault would never have imagined that Churchill had already ordered the Admiralty on the 19th to formulate a plan to organize the retreat of the expeditionary force, codenamed "Operation Dynamo".
"Where is the 1st Panzer Army?"
In Tsosen's German General Staff, Field Marshal Hersmann once again asked about the movements of the 1st Panzer Army.
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Of course, he knew about Operation Dynamo and the "Dunkirk Miracle", but he did not intend to let the British succeed Now Hitler is basically still a political leader, and he doesn't care much about specific military command actions, because a series of military actions such as the restoration of compulsory military service, stationing in the Rhine zone, annexing the Czech Republic, and invading Poland are all led by the German Wehrmacht, so Hitler's prestige in the army is not too high, and he himself is not very confident in the military, and it is impossible to interfere with the command of a bunch of marshals, generals, and generals.
So now the decision to fight Dunkirk is in the hands of Hersmann, Harman Stein and Rundstead, and it has nothing to do with Hitler.
"The vanguard of the 1st Panzer Army has reached the English Channel," Halder shouted excitedly, taking the report from one of the staff officers, and after looking at it, "in the vicinity of Abwey." ” "Abwehr" Hersman thought for a moment, "It's more than 100 kilometers from Calais and Dunkirk."
Now the Anglo-French forces in Belgium were cut off from Paris by land, but they were able to retreat by sea.
"On the 24th, Calais and Dunkirk can be occupied by the 24th at the latest."
"Moreover, our naval planes in Heinsberg can fly to Calais and Dunkirk." ” "Airplanes alone are not enough to annihilate the enemy retreating by sea," Hersman said to himself, "and the retreat from Dunkirk is only 75 kilometers to the British, and if the British mobilize civilian ships to rush them, they can still evacuate them."
"Start bombing port facilities in Dunkirk and Calais," Hersman ordered.
In the original plan, there was no intention to bomb the ports of Calais and Dunkirk, but Hersmann had already planned to do so, but he did not say it at first, because these two ports could be used by the Germans to land on the British mainland.
"Okay, I'll arrange it right away."
Halder had no objections.
Because there is no need to use ground support aircraft such as JU87 and HS123 to bomb ports, or even JU88 is not needed, just shoot HE111 to go, and these horizontal bombers do not have many tasks now.
Hersmann nodded, and then ordered: "Tell Kesselring that the port facilities in Calais and Dunkirk must be completely destroyed by the 24th, and in addition, order the Naval Aviation Command to cooperate with the actions of the Air Force." ” t1706231537: