my head

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General Reinhardt's 6th SS Panzer Army on Guderian's right wing made slow progress today.The 20th and 21st Armored Divisions pointed towards the confluence of the Meuse and Meuse rivers.Part of the reason for the slow progress was yesterday's mess with the 2nd Armored Division.Another reason is that the following infantry divisions have caught up, making the traffic even more chaotic.By noon, it was impossible to find out the positions of the units below the division even with the help of wires.Fortunately, they were spared any air attack, and no French covering troops were ahead on the east bank of the Metz.By night, the 20th Armored Division had crossed the Ardennes forest and reached the banks of the Metz (here, the Metz and the Ardennes forest are almost directly connected)

In front of General Reinhardt's Panzer Corps was the cavalry unit of the French Ninth Army that retreated hastily, which is why they reached the Metz River unopposed.General Clapp, the commander of the French Ninth Army, immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and ordered the cavalry to return to their original positions.However, the development of the situation has not allowed this.As mentioned earlier, due to their unauthorized retreat, the cavalry cover of the 9nd Army was crossed the Metz River. Now if the cavalry of the 9th Army advances, their own flanks will also lose cover.At this time, General Clapp had received intelligence that at least one German armored division was rushing towards his line of defense.Considering that most of his infantry was still on the road, advancing towards the west bank of the Metz, and had not yet taken positions, he ordered all cavalry to withdraw from the battle, disengage, and retreat to the west bank.

Up to now, the vanguard operations of the French cavalry units have all ended. The French High Command originally estimated that they could last for 5 days. On this basis, it was believed that the German army could only start crossing the river on the 9th day.As a result, the French cavalry only persisted for 2 and a half days, and the ensuing German crossing was also much earlier.This would have serious consequences for the outcome of the campaign.It was from this point that the Allied forces began to lag behind the Germans, and the gap would grow wider and wider.

General Krapp's cavalry had no problem getting rid of General Reinhardt's Panzer Corps, but they had great difficulty disengaging against Hoth's 5th SS Panzer Corps.Flender advanced all the way fast, chasing hard. "By noon, a herd of horses without saddles came running back. Many wounded cavalry followed. There was a lot of blood on the horses and people. Many horses were lame and had to be Shoot them to end their suffering..." By 2 or 3 p.m., the armored vehicles of Flender's reconnaissance battalion had reached the east bank of the Messe.French units put up a brief resistance, temporarily blocking the reconnaissance battalion.Flanders' armored division was adapted from a light division, so there was only one tank regiment.instead of the standard 2.However, at noon on the 12th, the lagging tank regiment of the 18th Armored Division was also temporarily assigned to his command.By late afternoon, Friend's tank regiment attempted to capture the bridge in pursuit, with superhuman valor on both sides.

When the German armored vehicles followed the retreating cavalry to cross the bridge, a British lieutenant pressed the detonation button, but there was no response.He immediately rushed to the bridge and manually detonated it.At this moment.The first German Panzer IV was almost on the bridge, and an anti-tank gun stopped it.A German jumped out of the car, holding iron tongs, and rushed to the fuse.He was immediately felled by the French.Immediately afterwards, the second German Panzer IV heading towards the bridge was also destroyed. Only then did the lieutenant have the opportunity to ignite the explosives, and the bridge was blown up.However, the lieutenant was immediately knocked down by the cannon.Killed almost immediately.The Shanzhai 1 did not keep up, which caused the No. 1 tank to rush to the front.

After taking full control of the east bank, Flanders' armored division made a cursory inspection of the river bank.They were overjoyed to find that a section of the embankment near Haukes had not been completely blown up (the French feared that blowing it up would lower the water level and make it easier for the Germans to cross the river).Taking advantage of the darkness, a motorcycle battalion sneaked across the river, and there was no French defense on the other side.that's all.Three days before the start of the battle, the German army had already established a position on the west bank of the Metz River.The smuggling of the German army in Hawkes was quite lucky. First of all, the dense forest hindered the observation of the defenders.Secondly.Haux happened to be the junction of the French 3nd Army and the 2th Army. The 11th Infantry Division of the 11th Army was in charge of Haux. According to the plan, it should arrive completely on the 18th.

At this time, the division had only 6 battalions on the west bank of the Metz River, which was very thin.In order to cope with this situation, according to General Martin, the commander of the French 11th Army, worried about the Haux area, a battalion was transferred from the 9th Motorized Division on the left wing of the French 5th Army to temporarily defend Haux.The battalion was ordered on the 11th and had just arrived at the designated position at 12 pm on the 4th.Although they were strictly ordered to defend along the river bank, under the threat of machine gun fire from the opposite bank, even after dark, they made excuses for not sending troops to the river bank.This is also the result of the lax discipline of the French army seen earlier.

The loose organization of the French army once again brought serious consequences. Although the commander of the 5th Motorized Division had learned about the smuggling of the German army (Flanders) at 13:1 am on the 4th, the relevant situation was not reported to the 10th Army until 9:13. General Martin, and Clapp, commander of the Ninth Army, did not learn of the news until very late on the [-]th.By then, Guderian's offensive in Sedan will attract most of the attention.General Martin had to coordinate the counterattack alone. [

The French High Command is still very satisfied with today's situation, and most of its attention is still focused on the direction of Belgium.In his own words, Gan Maling is engaged in management and organizational affairs in a day.Specifically, it was a lot of minutiae, including warnings about how the Maginot Line could prevent an attack similar to Fort Emaar.He even planned to move the cavalry units of the 9th Army and the 2nd Army to the north to support the 1st Army.However, at 12 pm on the 3th, General George's headquarters was alerted by the 2nd Army.In the absence of General George, the chief of staff, General Roden, still ordered decisively to draw 3 divisions from the general reserve to support the direction of Sedan.These divisions included the 3rd Armored Division, the 3rd Motorized Division and the 14th Infantry Division, all first-rate divisions.They will arrive at the front line on time on the 14th, just one day later than the critical time.In addition, no reinforcements were sent to the 9th Army for the communication reasons mentioned above.

In the middle of the night, the officers and soldiers of the Second Army in the Sedan area had no illusions about what would happen the next day.The sound of the engines of the vehicles counting on the other side of the river was deafening, and the road was full of marching troops with their headlights on. By this time, the German army had abandoned all camouflage.The intelligence has identified the German 2th, 17,18,19th, and 2th Armored Divisions. The commander of the [-]nd Army, General Hunter Zieger, ordered the entire army in the evening: every inch of land must be fought, and the honor of commanders at all levels lies in whether they can hold the designated positions.Do not allow any wavering, stick to the Maginot Line. . .Although General Hunt Zieger was considered one of the most talented French commanders, the order was imbued with the spirit of World War I.

Specifically, the combat readiness of the French Second Army is very worrying.When the 2st Division of the French 10th Army set off on June 71, it had to travel a long distance due to training.After two days of forced marching, the division's b-rank reservists were exhausted.By the evening of the 6th, the division headquarters of the division had not yet been set up, and all communication systems were temporarily set up, with telephone lines exposed to the ground.Another division of the French 10th Army, the 12th Division, is also in emergency deployment.General Grande Sade, the commander of the French 10th Army, estimated that the army could only be ready on the night of the 55th-10th at the earliest.More importantly, the French commanders at all levels, including General Hunter Zieger, still had doubts about whether the German army could attack with all their strength on the second day.

Judging by their own speed, the French estimated that the Germans could only cross the river on the 18th-19th.In terms of artillery, Hunter Zieg allocated two artillery regiments to the 10th Army, plus the 55th Division itself had twice the normal number of artillery, so on paper, the French army in Sedan had 2 heavy artillery pieces.However, on the evening of the 140th, some of the French artillery on the front of Sedan retreated without authorization. As a result, they could not keep firing on the German advance route.

On the night of the 13th, the command organizations at all levels of the German army have confirmed that Guderian will launch the main attack tomorrow.However, no one expected that Flender, who only served as a flank cover task, would not be inferior to his offensive.

At 13 o'clock in the morning on the 3th, Flender and his adjutant came to the river to observe the situation.Before reaching the river, French shelling forced him to get out of his car and walk.Many tanks have been hit and parked on the side of the road.Reaching the river, he found his infantry regiment preparing to cross in rubber boats to support the motorcycle battalion that had crossed the river the night before.The situation was not optimistic. The 6th Infantry Regiment was suppressed by the well-concealed firepower from the opposite bank and it was difficult to move. It was almost impossible to observe the French firepower points in the morning fog, and the rubber boats were sunk one by one.To provide cover, Friend ordered several houses in the valley to be set on fire to provide smoke screens.At this time, a damaged rubber boat went down the river, and a seriously injured soldier shouted desperately that no one could save him.

The motorcycle battalion that smuggled in last night was stubbornly holding on to the West Bank, and several battalion and company-level officers were injured or killed.Under the leadership of the battalion commander, the battalion captured a high ground and a small village.At this time, all the connections between the battalion and the east bank of the river were cut off by French firepower. There were still scattered French troops behind the battalion, and the resistance on the opposite side was strengthening.At this time, the German army did not have an anti-tank gun to cross the river. Once the French army used tanks to counterattack, the consequences would be disastrous.Friend then proceeded to Colonel Bismarck's 4th Infantry Regiment in a Panzer IV. (Colonel Bismarck later died in North Africa) The crossing point of the 7th Infantry Regiment was at Bouvergne, 7 kilometers south of Hawkes.When Flanders arrived, a company of the 3th Regiment had already crossed the river, but heavy French fire prevented them from continuing to cross the river.Flanders decided to move tanks and artillery to the river to suppress the French army.At this time, the commander of the armored army, Huot, and the commander of the group army, Kruger, were both at the division headquarters, observing the progress of crossing the river with great interest.

... (to be continued...)