Soul to the Rhine

Chapter 50 Bombing
Ilana collapsed on the bed with a painful expression on her face. She rolled on the bed wailing for a few times, then sat up suddenly: "Sia, do you think we still want to pick it?"

Rosia stretched out her finger and poked her: "Go away, you have to go alone, this is not enough for you. It's getting late, go to bed quickly."

The living conditions in France are not as good as those in Warsaw. Rosia and Ilana share a room, but this also prevents her from feeling helpless during nightmares.

The next day, there were no more vehicles to send wounded soldiers here. Those who had been treated before were all in stable condition and lying well in the ward.This made them a little uncomfortable all of a sudden.There are still college students outside handing out leaflets, the radio is broadcasting the latest news, and there are even planes dropping newspapers.

Ilana ran out and picked up a pile on the ground, and everyone in the hospital who had nothing to do at the moment had one in hand.

The most obvious thing on flyers and newspapers is the word war. This is the most common French word Rosia has ever seen, and even Ilana knows it by heart.

"Luxembourg fell without a fight? How could Germany be so fast? How could they reach the Ardennes region of Belgium so quickly?"

"The Ardennes area? It's all high ground. How can German tanks go up there? This is impossible, how is this possible?"

"As soon as it dawned, the Germans had already bombed France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. God, did God go to the Germans? At 5:30, they were still between the North Sea and the Maginot Line. A front of more than 300 kilometers.”

The newspapers were full of news from the day before yesterday, full of content about the German occupation of the Low Countries. These French non-soldiers were dizzy and confused after reading it. The German armored forces seemed to be rampaging throughout France, leaving their traces everywhere.And those soldiers who faced the war were probably not much better.

Rosia looked at the various information on it and recalled the history of the fall of France that she had read before. She barely remembered a few bits and pieces. Then when she looked at the newspaper and the time of the attack on it, she suddenly understood.

Germany's blitzkrieg was very fast, but it was not so fast that we were in Belgium at 3 a.m. and arrived in France at 5:30. This was an armored division, not an air force.The only possibility is that the German armored troops will be divided into three routes. The middle route will break through the Ardennes area and go straight to the English Channel. The other route will attack the low countries surrounding France, attracting the main force of the British and French forces, and the remaining part will attack March. Line of defense.

Judging from the number of German troops, the troops attacking the Maginot Line were less than one-tenth of the entire German army.Rosia was already sure that this was an eastward attack and a feigned attack on Maginot, which not only confused the French army, but also prevented them from going north to support.

In fact, Germany's real main force had already passed through the Ardennes region and headed straight for the heart of France.

Before this, people all over the world believed that it was impossible for German tanks to climb through the Ardennes, but now, they did it.They gave up taking a direct approach and took a circuitous route, but achieved the best results.

Rosia has always been blind to foreign names, and she has not remembered many famous generals in World War II, but she remembers the three German marshals, Rommel, Guderian and Manstein.

This French battle was Manstein's plan, and the other two armored armies were commanded by Guderian and Rommel.The German tanks are like sharp knives, quietly piercing the land of Western Europe.

Although she was not a military fan and had no interest in war, at this moment, Rosia could not help but feel excited for their brilliant plan and perfect execution.

This has nothing to do with nationality or position, it is just admiration and tribute as a modern person.

They wrote a new history of the Blitz.

The situation is still changing, but in just two days, the morale of the French army has dropped to an incredible level.Maginot had already become useless. Wherever the German troops went, all the French cavalry divisions were beaten to pieces and collapsed quickly.There were even some armies that were defeated less than three hours after the battle began. They fled in confusion and took the initiative to make way for the Germans.

The successive defeats of the French army plunged the whole of France into an irreversible depression, which made it easier for the German army to advance straight in, and the war quickly burned into France.

One morning, many people were still working quietly in the hospital, but they heard dull explosions in the distance, one after another, continuously.Everyone raised their heads in confusion. Many people had never heard this sound and didn't understand why.But Rosia turned pale the moment she heard it.

This is the sound of a bomber!

She had never seen a German bomber yet, but she was no stranger to it. She had listened to this sound at night in Poland until dawn, and then witnessed the destruction of Poland.

Several doctors couldn't help but ran out to check. When they came in, a group of fighter jets flew over the sky. The entire hospital was shaken by the loud sound, and the nurses squatted in the corner in panic.

The doctor covered his ears tightly with his hands. They didn't put down their hands in shock until the roaring sound disappeared.

"The German air force is bombing our positions."

"Their armored division has also arrived and is now on the east coast." The doctor was still stupid: "How could it be so fast? How could they be so fast?"

Rosia is not very sensitive to geography. To be honest, she still doesn’t know the direction of the Maas River. But if the German armored division has also arrived, it means that this is the only way for the Germans to attack. No wonder the French army They will defend heavily on the West Bank.

"Bang!" A huge explosion suddenly rang in the ears, and the doors and windows of the entire hospital were shaking. Rosia and others immediately fell down with their heads in their hands. The patients on the bed had no time to cover their ears and were already shaken. His face was pale.

This was a bomb that missed the mark, but the distance between the hospital and the French military position was not particularly far. It was very likely that the bomb would hit the hospital next time or the next time.

"Move these patients inside immediately, and then we...we go down below."

There is an air-raid shelter underground in the hospital. It was a product of World War I and was used for doctors to shelter during wartime. However, these patients could not be placed below, so they were transferred to the intensive care unit, which was also strong.

After coming out of the hospital building, the sound of bombings outside was even louder, making people's ear drums hurt. The surrounding trees were like violent winds, small trees were swaying this way and that, and the sky above the entire hospital seemed to be shrouded in an invisible smoke.

The group of people walked to the backyard, and a doctor dug up the soil on the ground, revealing a rope bolt. When he pulled it hard, a dark hole appeared.

This is the entrance to the hospital air-raid shelter. It is completely different from the small tunnel behind the Warsaw Hospital. After entering, there is an iron gate above, and there is a long staircase going down. There are unlit wall lamps on both sides of the road.

This air-raid shelter was different from what Rosia had imagined, but she had never seen an air-raid shelter and couldn't tell what the difference was.After going down the stairs, there was an empty space inside. It was not very big, only the size of a bedroom. The doctor turned on the wall lamp above, and the dim light immediately illuminated the faces of these people.

No one could tell what mood he was in at the moment. The doctor looked at everyone's faces and then sat down silently leaning against the wall.

Rosia's French was broken and she couldn't comfort him.She herself felt nothing, but these people were all French, and the enemy was attacking their motherland, so it was inevitable that they would feel heavy.

Rosia thought for a while, if it was little Japan attacking China, it seemed, well, she couldn't do anything.

Doctors and nurses sat in two rows leaning against the wall. The soundproofing effect in the air-raid shelter was very good. Only small and dull explosions could be heard underground, which seemed very far away.

The bombing never stopped, and I don’t know how long it took. The people sitting on the ground were numb, and it gradually became quiet above.After a while, several doctors moved and climbed up to see the situation.

Ilana snuggled next to Rosia, her face turned pale, and she asked her in a low voice: "Sia, do you think we...the Germans will come over?"

Rosia reached out and patted her shoulder without saying anything.The Germans will definitely come, and with this bombing attitude, there is no doubt about the result.It's just that Ilana is a pure German, and she doesn't feel at all comfortable about her motherland invading other countries, and the nurses around her are still alienating her intentionally or unintentionally.

After a few long hours, the bombing seemed to have finally ended. The group of people went out holding on to the wall. As soon as they went up, they were shocked by the scene that came into their eyes.

The originally lush trees all fell to the ground, and there was no intact land on the banks of the Maas River. There were corpses, weapons, wreckage, ruins...

Just like that, it fell into the unprepared eyes. This was the first time they faced the battlefield, and everything was so close to them.The first few doctors who came up were now kneeling on the ground, covering their faces with their hands, and couldn't help crying.

There is no greater tragedy in life than the fall of the motherland and the destruction of the homeland.

The French army's positions had been completely destroyed by the indiscriminate bombing by the German army, and several French army divisions were also defeated. They had no resistance at all under the German JU-87 bombers and were completely defeated.

All that can be seen are the weapons left behind by the French army fleeing in embarrassment.The country is so hated, but the army is so unsatisfactory, no wonder those doctors cried bitterly.

The Germans are busy on the east bank of the Maas River at the moment, and they can only see outlines with binoculars, and they don't know what they want to do.

"Let's go." The doctor waved his hand: "We are protected by the Red Cross, and the Germans have also signed the agreement. They will not do anything to us."

The group nodded. Although they were scared, the Red Cross undoubtedly gave them courage.Ilana held Rosia's arm tightly. She was so frightened by this scene that her legs were shaking and she didn't know how to operate her brain.

Back at the hospital, the outside glass windows were all shattered and spread all over the floor, but everything else was fine.We carefully stepped on the broken glass and found that all the patients in the intensive care unit were fine. Except for one person whose chest wound was shattered by the shock, there were no casualties. This was a great blessing.

The day with a heavy heart just passed.

At night, Rosia was writing her notes on the table. She was writing in Chinese, and Ilana couldn't understand it. She was muttering to herself next to her: "Sia, is our country really going to invade France?" why?"

Rosia ignored her and quickly dipped in ink and wrote something.

"But France is really weak. Didn't they say that they are an alliance with Britain? Why doesn't Britain come to help France?"

Rosia paused her hand, and a drop of black ink fell on the paper, blooming into a small black dot.

Britain and France, bombing...

Frowning, she always felt like she had missed something.

Historically, the German air force seems to have been in constant conflict with the British.France is an ineffective teammate. Such a big country was completely occupied in less than three months.But the war did not end, and continued until 1944. So the protagonists of the entire Western Front battlefield were Germany and Britain.

Britain has the natural protection of the English Channel, and the German army cannot use its hands and feet, so it has always been fighting each other's bombers.The German armored divisions fought all the way to the Maas River. Could it be that this was also a very important strategic point? At least it was more important than she thought.

The French army was ineffective and lost, but as good brothers, the British would come to help them no matter how angry they were.If the Maas River is really an important battlefield, then in order to stop the German army, the British will come quickly to support them.How to support?

bomber!Air combat!

Rosia was frightened by her own speculation. She felt that she was really just looking for excitement and came to such a conclusion inexplicably.But looking at the notebook in her hand, she felt that it was not impossible.During World War II, these countries had done some ridiculous things. She still remembered that the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom had conducted a suicide attack, but she was not sure whether it was in the Maas River area.

The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Rosia patted her head and closed the notebook.Ilana was still talking to herself. She was a novice. She didn't understand anything about the military situation. In the past, she only knew how to look at beautiful men in Berlin, but now she can't even understand French newspapers.

"Elana." Rosia thought that she still needed to say something to her pig teammate.

"what?"

"Remember the underground air raid shelter in the back?"

"Remember, what happened?"

"I think you'd better not leave there tomorrow." Rosia said in confusion: "At least, you should stay closer."

Ilana didn't know why and looked at her blankly.

Rosia shook her head, looked at her with an "unteachable" look and sighed. Forget it, she was just guessing. She hoped it was just a wrong idea. At worst, she would keep an eye on Elana tomorrow and not let her run around.

The next day, the escaped French troops came back again for unknown reasons and began to obstruct the German actions on the riverside.It's just that his harassment was like tickling the lice for the Germans. The armored forces swept over with a few rounds of artillery fire, and then abandoned their armor and turned off the fire.

Hospital doctors despaired of the kind of military their country had and stopped reading the soul-crushing news in the newspapers.

(End of this chapter)