afterglow

Chapter 394 Chapter [-] The decisive battle with Arras!Why did you stop? !
The SK28 cannon howitzer has a slender barrel with a diameter of 52 times, which gives it a very high muzzle velocity.

The 105mm armor-piercing high-explosive bomb flew towards the Shire B820Bis 1260m away at a speed of 1m/s, effortlessly penetrated the front armor of its car body, and detonated inside!
The B1Bis burst out with a dazzling flash, followed by a loud roar and a large cloud of smoke rising into the sky. Parts of all sizes fell around like a goddess scattering flowers.

Compared with the unprotected and tall 88mm anti-aircraft gun, the Big Max self-propelled artillery is undoubtedly more suitable for such combat.

Next, eight Big Max vehicles took turns firing at a distance of 8 meters, knocking out the enemies one by one like a roll call.

The third heavy tank that reversed in an emergency did not escape the disaster. It was hit by two shells in succession and exploded on the spot. The turret spun twice in the air and landed a few meters away. However, the tank continued to retreat due to inertia. A small distance.

"boom!"

Those anti-tank gun positions were not spared. They were quickly bombarded by high-explosive bombs. The dust drifted away, and the small 25mm anti-tank gun was turned into a pile of scrap metal.

The German tanks and infantry, which had been preparing for a long time, did not intend to give the other side a chance to breathe, and immediately left their positions.

"Wh-wh-"

A captain pulled out his flare gun and fired two red flares into the sky, and then followed with his own Ruger pistol.

The subsequent sporadic fighting was too easy, and hundreds of chaotic and panicked French troops were completely unable to resist the surging German army.

The seemingly fiercely shot for a while, "噔噔 噔" and "banging" guns spread throughout the entire field, but it didn't take long for some French soldiers to pierce the white cloth with a bayonet to wave.

An FM29 light machine gun team randomly fired two magazines in the general direction. Seeing dozens of German infantrymen still leaping forward quickly, they simply threw the gun aside, raised their hands and stood up slowly.

Half an hour later.

Hundreds of rifles and light machine guns were piled up in a haphazard manner. These weapons made of fine medium carbon steel and high-quality walnut wood were now like pyres.

About two infantry companies and an anti-tank gun company formed two columns of French troops, walking with their hands empty along the country dirt road to the southeast.

One after another, No. III C, No. IV B, and Sdkfz221 passed by and headed northwest.

"It won't be long before we can see the Eiffel Tower!"

"Maybe swim in the Seine?"

"The big capitalists in Paris don't know what they have been dreaming about these past few nights."

"Ha ha ha ha--"

The German soldiers on the tanks and armored vehicles were talking and laughing, as if they were treating this combat operation deep behind enemy lines as an outing.

The few Charles B1Bis heavy tanks that originally seemed indestructible were still burning. The rubber on the road wheels had long been burned out and the paint had been baked away. Thick smoke rising from the charred wreckage shot straight into the sky.

"It's great that you arrived in time. Only relying on the 5th Motorized Rifle Regiment does not have enough strength during a multi-front assault."

Now that the 11th Motorized Infantry Regiment has followed, the 5th Armored Division, which was worried about suffering from a lack of accompanying infantry, was relieved of a major worry.

The 39-year-old armored division establishment of the German People's Army is far from the armored division establishment of the same period in history.

The German Army now uses an armored division consisting of two armored regiments and one motorized infantry regiment, as well as one battalion each for motorized artillery, engineering, communications, and reconnaissance.

Historically, there was a two-regiment armored brigade and a two-regiment motorized infantry brigade, and the divisional artillery was also at the regimental level.It can be seen that it is a combined force of various arms with tanks as the core, including various support units, and has strong independent combat capabilities, which is not the case in other countries.

The organization currently adopted by the German Society is definitely unreasonable, because the number of infantry and artillery accompanying the tank operations is insufficient, and it is easy to be overwhelmed by the number of troops or insufficient firepower.

And because the German agency has not experienced anything similar to the Polish campaign before, the unsatisfactory organizational problems have not been exposed until now.

If Erwin Long had not caught up with the 5th Armored Division in time this time, they would have had to stop their advance.

The situation on the southern line is like this, but the situation on the northern line is even worse.

In other words, this is a bad situation that is different from the history of the original plane.

The Maginot Line in the south and the Ardennes Forest in the middle were successively broken through. The Mannheim Army Group marched toward the due west. They headed straight for Paris with the 5th Armored Division as the vanguard.

After passing through the Ardennes Forest, the Koblenz Army Group quickly penetrated northwestward as in history, trying to cut off the retreat of the British and French forces in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Faced with such a critical situation, the British and French forces were forced to retreat in large numbers.

In order to block the passage of the Coblenz cluster, the French high command almost tried their best.

The 2nd Light Cavalry Division and the 13th Motorized Infantry Division arrived first, but only delayed the Germans for 36 hours before being defeated.

The 14th Infantry Division, 42nd Infantry Division, and 35th Reserve Infantry Division also rushed to the defensive position, but they only delayed a little time.

So far, none of the French's efforts have been successful.

The vanguard of the Coblenz cluster is close to Lille and will soon pose a direct threat to the Calais area. The 40 British and French coalition forces are about to be surrounded. Does it seem like defeat is certain?

"It's not time to despair yet. We British never give up. Now, send power to Brooke and ask him to prepare a counterattack immediately."

The commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, General John Wyrick, issued the order loudly.

In a warehouse office building in Lille, where the 2nd Army headquarters was transferred just this morning, Lieutenant General Alan Brooke, who had just stepped out of the officer's limousine, received the order.

He looked solemnly, staring at the map in front of him, and then pointed to a small town marked above and asked: "It can only be here, this is our last chance."

"The Scottish Division is still on the way, and they were attacked by an air attack." A lieutenant colonel staff officer next to him stated very quickly: "The Royal 2nd Tank Regiment has been reorganized, but they hope to march at night."

"We still don't have enough tanks. Ask the French, we need their tank troops!"

"Yes! Your Excellency!"

After the French army sent out several divisions one after another using refueling tactics, the British army used the small amount of time gained to remobilize their troops.

The 1st Armored Division, the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, the 6th Infantry Division, and the 15th Scottish Infantry Division were ordered to attack the small town of Arras from two directions.

According to the concept of the counterattack plan, the leading troops of the Koblenz Army Group-the 4th Armored Division and the 21st Motorized Rifle Division will be cut off from their retreat, and at the same time, the advancement of their large forces will be delayed.

According to the orders of the expeditionary force headquarters, the counterattack forces must do their best to delay the German army's advance and buy time for friendly forces to move and deploy defenses.

In history, it was also in this small town called Arras that the British and French forces launched a desperate but ultimately failed counterattack——

They attempted to cut off the leading German forces and prevent the main force from following up.Although the British and French forces initially achieved results, they were eventually repulsed by the Germans. May 5th was a gloomy day with dark clouds and heavy rain.

中午11：57，第21摩步师的摩托化侦察营3连在阿拉斯以东7㎞的麦田中遭遇了成群结队的英军坦克。

The heavy rain blurred the sight of both sides. Although the exchange of fire was extremely fierce, it actually did not achieve much results.

Knowing that they were outmatched, the German reconnaissance team hurriedly laid some mines and then retreated quickly.

Each motorcycle made a roaring sound, and its wheels rolled up large splashes of mud.

In the area west of Arras, the French army's 42 Soma S35 cavalry tanks and 9 Charles B1Bis were also assigned to support the British army's counterattack. They attacked together with four infantry companies of the 15th Scottish Infantry Division, directly Pressure the left rear of the German vanguard.

[picture]

"Enemy tank!"

"Attention! Disperse their formation."

An anti-tank gun company and infantry battalion of the 21st Motorized Infantry Division rushed here to set up defenses. Only a few minutes after the six Pak6 anti-tank guns were put down, there was not even time to lay the telephone lines for communication between the gun positions. .

More than a dozen 80mm smoke grenades fell one after another, but the heavy downpour hindered the formation of smoke balls and did not have the ideal effect of dispersing the French tank attack formation.

"Load tracer rounds!"

The captain observed the battle in the artillery mirror, and then shouted "Feuer".

A 37mm armor-piercing tracer bullet flew towards the leading B1Bis with a conspicuous bright white trail. Several other anti-tank guns also fired, focusing on the same target.

The heavy rain made the rain shields of the artillery mirror almost useless. The shell hit the gun mantlet of the heavy tank and ricocheted. The shell drew an obtuse angled laser line!
The remaining rounds of 37mm capped armor-piercing bullets were equally ineffective, only bursting out clusters of sparks.

"Invalid! Invalid! Comrade Commander, they have stopped!" an artilleryman shouted sternly.

Those B1Bis parked neatly, and then bombarded the exposed German firepower points with 47mm guns and 75mm guns.

The German anti-tank artillerymen responded calmly and tried to shoot at the tracks of the French tanks.

In such a silent-on-silent duel, low-profile anti-tank guns actually have an advantage because it is difficult for tanks to detect and hit them.

The fierce battle lasted for almost 10 minutes. After paying the price of several tanks having their tracks broken and driving wheels destroyed, the French tanks killed half of the German anti-tank guns and then suddenly launched a second impact.

As the distance shortened, the British infantrymen, carrying Enfield rifles and Bren light machine guns, followed closely the French tanks that almost filled the battle line.

"Boom! Boom!"

The German army continued to use mortars to hinder firing, trying to disrupt the invading enemy's infantry-tank coordination, but the effect was not obvious enough.

Various firepower from machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank guns were intertwined on this battlefield with a radius of only a few kilometers, and tracer bullets were constantly shuttled through the rain.

"Listen, don't forget to launch the signal flare after completing the breakthrough."

"Company A prepares to attack."

"30 seconds!"

"Don't be afraid, kill these Germans!"

The sharp charge whistle sounded, and the vague figures under the heavy rain became clearer as the distance got closer - British soldiers wearing Tommy helmets approaching the forward position carrying Enfield rifles with bayonets!
This scene is so similar to that of 20 years ago. Unfortunately, most German soldiers can only hear about the horrors of the war at that time from their fathers.

This scene brought back memories of the anti-tank gun company captain who happened to be 40 years old. At that time, he was just an unknown heavy machine gun ammunition hand, responsible for carrying boxes of canvas ammunition belts that seemed to be endless.

"Captain." A messenger slipped down the edge of the slope next to him, and then took advantage of the situation to lie down. "Telephone order, the regiment commander asked us to hold our position. The reinforcements are only 6000 meters away from us."

"The British counterattack is useless, prepare to fire!"

"Wait until the tank gets closer!"

There was no way to expect the British infantry and French tanks to cooperate well. I saw S35 cavalry tanks and B1Bis rumbling over foxholes, ridges, and trenches one after another, and continued to move forward regardless.

The German anti-tank artillerymen and infantrymen leaned out from their hiding places, picked up submachine guns and rifles and shot at the British soldiers who were almost in the face.

"Tat-tat-tat--"

Dense bullets flew out from the muzzle of the MP38 submachine gun, and one after another British soldiers were caught off guard and fell into the muddy field.

The M24 wooden-handled grenades that had been hastily tied together with iron wires were also thrown at the French tanks one after another. The cluster grenades exploded with a deafening noise...

【Cluster grenade】

The same day, Nanjing.

The imperial meeting, which had been postponed for many days, was held today, but it ended without any results.

The magnitude and speed of changes in the European war have exceeded the imagination of the Ming Dynasty's monarchs and ministers. Different opinions are no longer simply A and B, but A, B, B, D, E, etc.

During the entire hour-long meeting, the only things that were agreed upon were two inconsequential things.

First, Singapore is located in the Strait of Malacca. Its location is important and therefore it must be under actual control. There will be no Xuanwei Department, but a dedicated government, planned to be named "Singzhou".

Second, the Ming Army must expand again and form six new infantry divisions within the next three months; and complete four new infantry divisions, four field heavy artillery brigades, and a tank brigade before the end of the year.

“The demands of the Peasants’ and Workers’ Union and the Communist Party cannot be satisfied at the moment, but this has nothing to do with the imperial court and can be left out for a while.”

"The progress of the public redemption is still good. It is much faster than originally expected. It is expected to achieve the goal two months ahead of schedule."

"As for the matter in Australia, they probably want to wait and see for a while, which is fine. The rush to send troops seems a bit unstable."

After returning to Zhaoren Hall, Zhu Lingjing said a few words to Zhou Changfeng casually, and then stopped.

The latter was following her, flipping through her notes as she walked, and replied somewhat tangledly: "But when the Americans send another division to Hawaii, it will be even harder to fight... Damn!"

No, eldest sister, why did you stop suddenly? !
[Oh, I feel so distressed... As a result, when I checked the manuscript fee today, I was stunned on the spot - perfect attendance and 20% incentive were lost.Then I remembered that I went to the emergency room a few nights ago and didn't update it, and I forgot to redeem the leave request the next day...]

(End of this chapter)