180 Danzig Corridor

"I heard that you have to go to the Alps in person to find a white edelweiss, so you can be considered a qualified paratrooper?" Akado leaned against the wall, looked at the burning and dancing fire, and gently asked the paratroopers on the side Borol. 【First release】

Boroll smiled and pointed to the dried flowers that had already withered and yellowed into the gap of a button on the side of the collar, and smiled with a cracked mouth: "When the 1st Paratrooper Division was formed, the head of state personally set the rules. It’s just that this year it has been expanded to three divisions, so not everyone has to go to the Alps to pick the flowers themselves. Most of the time, the platoon leader will go there as a representative, and the ceremony will be completed.”

After Boroll finished speaking, he took a deep breath of the cigarette, puffed out a circle around his eyes, and then asked, "Where is your home?"

"Home?" This word is a very strange existence to Rennes: "I don't have a home. The head of state said that his hometown is my hometown, and Germany is my hometown. I want to kill people for this hometown, many people. , in exchange for happiness.”

While talking, he took out the small iron box from his jacket pocket, opened the lid and poured it twice before realizing that he had eaten the last two chocolate candies today, so he smiled helplessly, Put away the iron box again.

"I'm sorry to ask about this unpleasant matter," Bollor said.

"It's okay, I'm used to it." Ren glanced at the sleeping tank driver Bowman next to him, then turned his sights on the fire with sparks splashing and crackling slightly, and sniffed: "Killing people can make people die." I feel like I'm still alive, and I enjoy the feeling of killing the enemy in my heart... It's like smoking, it's very comfortable."

His answer made Boroll very uncomfortable, but before Boroll could speak, Ryan changed the topic to the ends of the earth again: "The song you sang when you were on the road was very nice, would you like to sing another part?"

"Of course!" Boroll chuckled, "That's the military song of our paratroopers."

"Come on, sing and listen!" Ren said with a smile.

Boroll didn't hold back, and sang softly with a few paratroopers around him: "

...the roar of the engine, accompanied by the individual's own thoughts,

Everyone's thoughts quickly skipped to loved ones at home.

In an instant, comrades, the signal for the skydive came,

We fly to the enemy, where we light the beacon fires.

Fast down, fast down!

comrades,

It was a journey of no return.

In the far east there are black clouds,

Come, don't lose your mind, come!

Our numbers are few, our blood boils,

We fear neither enemies nor death.

We know only one mission: Germany is in peril,

To fight, to win, to fight to the death.

Pick up the rifle, pick up the rifle!

Comrades, that is a journey with no return.

In the far east there are black clouds,

Come, don't get lost, come! "

"Good singing!" A general at the door took the lead in applauding. Behind him is a staff officer and a guard carrying a Mauser 98k rifle.

"Stand at attention!" the guard yelled loudly.

Everyone got up from the ground, and the sleeping armored soldiers got up in a daze. Everyone patted the straw and dust on their buttocks, stood at attention, and raised their right arms: "Long live the head of state!" !"

"Long live the empire!" Guderian responded with a standard military salute: "Everyone's performance today is very satisfactory! Please continue to win glory for the empire! Win honor for yourself."

"Yes! General!" Everyone stood at attention and answered.

"Beef for dinner? The food is good?" Guderian kicked the bones on the ground with his shiny leather boots.

Everyone present scratched their heads and smiled embarrassedly.

"I brought some canned food here! But you probably don't have much appetite! Save it for tomorrow morning when you are on your way." Guderian smiled, and then asked his staff to leave a bag of tin cans, and took them with him. walked out. Behind him, the soldiers cheered.

On the other hand, Germany's northern offensive forces have not yet gathered their attacking forces. Rommel was more adventurous in using troops than Guderian. He ignored the telegram from the Army Command ordering him to stop advancing. Attacking westward like crazy, the two division headquarters of the Polish "Pomeranian Army" were taken away in one breath before the offensive stopped.

Rommel himself drove the car to look for his frantically advancing troops, and assigned detailed combat missions one by one. He encountered the collapsing Polish army several times, and the most terrifying time was when he saw Polish soldiers crowded together He got out of the car and helped the panicked Poles direct the traffic for three minutes until his guards caught up and captured the Poles.

During the one-day attack, the German army suffered very little loss. The frontal attacking Army Group R and Army Group S killed 13 and 19 people respectively. Rommel's troops lost 1 tank, 37 soldiers, and a truck; Guderian's troops The loss was the greatest, with a total of 119 people killed, most of whom were soldiers of the SS 3rd Armored Division-lack of training and bravery became the best explanation for this loss. The total number of tanks lost by the German army across the board was two, both of which were destroyed by Polish infantry with anti-tank guns.

The loss of paratroopers cannot be counted for the time being, but the reported number is 172 missing and 12 confirmed dead. The air force had 2 bombers shot down by ground fire, one plane crashed due to mechanical failure, 4 planes were shot down by the Polish Air Force, and only 9 pilots were killed. Even counting the number of missing people, the German army did not lose more than 400 people on the first day.

In exchange for this loss, the German army captured 110,000 Polish soldiers and killed another 7,590. Three Polish division commanders, including Garrokov, became prisoners of the Germans. In addition, the German army destroyed and captured 100 Polish tanks, more than 900 cannons, more than 300 trucks, and more than 400 aircraft - almost one-third of Poland's heavy weapons holdings.

The Poles have not known what happened on their border until now. The information is huge and chaotic. How many Germans attacked the Polish defenses by what means.

One of the most bizarre reports is that a German soldier was captured 110 kilometers behind the border, but the German soldier eventually escaped because he was captured by five Polish farmers. However, there are general reports from the army that they have been attacked by the German army, and these attacks occurred about 70 kilometers away from the border.

Then the Polish commanders got another shocking news. The German tanks and armored vehicles broke into the Polish defense line in one go, and defeated the Polish army that was preparing to attack Germany. Moved forward a full 40 kilometers (average).

The first to react was the Pomeranian Army, which was about to be surrounded in the Danzig corridor. Its commander, Portnowski, clearly judged Rommel's combat intentions, so he made a very Correct but shameful decision: drop everything and run.

Cannons were discarded on the road as roadblocks, Polish cavalry on horses sprinted south over the chaotic infantry, and troops with cars were in a hurry, hoping to withdraw before Rommel cut off their rear This huge encirclement. However, they retreated in front, and the German army chasing up from the rear seemed to be like a shadow and couldn't go away.

This led to the defeat of the Polish Pomeranian Army. The three divisions left behind by Portnowski were surrounded and annihilated by the Germans without any resistance. The German army took prisoners - but their intentions succeeded in the end. The prisoners and equipment piled up on the road slowed down the German attack. It is ridiculous that these prisoners and equipment were more effective than when they resisted.

In order to escape the guilt of the defeat, Portnowski sent a telegram to Poland, claiming that he was going south to join the Poznan Army, and then went north to counterattack the German troops and retake the Danzig Corridor. This rhetoric sounds very attractive, but it is full of loopholes. As soon as the Pomeranian Army deployed in the Danzig Corridor collapsed, the Magdlin Army left in northern Poland became a lone army. This lone army is still guarding its own position. Now they must face the East alone The German P Group Army in Prussia.

However, the Poznan Army, which Portnowski kept rushing to meet with, had already been defeated by the frontal German attack. The main force of this army gave up its defense line to the south to join the Ross Army; Part of the infantry and cavalry retreated back, throwing away their armor and armor all the way to the Polish Forte.

On the other side of the front, the Rhodes Army is also retreating, but because the opposite German army is not pressing too tightly, they are the best-performing army in the entire Polish defense line, but when they heard that Krakow has already After discovering the German troops, their morale was also shaken for a while.

On this quiet night of the first war, the German Air Force still did not relax its attack on the Poles. Catherine ordered the Air Force to take off and fight to accumulate night attack experience. combat experience. More than 700 sorties of attacks made the Poles jittery and spent a sleepless night.

In any case, the blitzkrieg that the German Wehrmacht had secretly experimented with for ten years finally stepped onto the stage of history. As soon as it appeared, it sifted the newly born European power Poland into a sieve.

...