205 Preliminary Program

A huge artillery piece was slowly erected from the tracks along which many French soldiers were reinforcing the surrounding railway. (Starting) A judge looked at all this from a high place, and his eyes were full of pride.

"General de Gaulle." He pointed to his cannon and showed off to his colleagues: "There is no such huge artillery in the whole of Germany. Here, we deployed five such cannons in one go."

De Gaulle also had a very happy expression on his face: "I hope your artillery can bring victory to this attack."

France has declared war on Germany for 16 days, but France still has not launched any substantive "substantial" attack on Germany. Everyone is waiting for the result of Germany's war against Poland. Once Germany is in a stalemate on the battlefield, then there will be The country began to really attack Germany's western frontier.

But this time all the countries have miscalculated, completely miscalculated - the imaginary stalemate did not appear, the war became a one-sided military exercise, the German troops advanced more than 40 kilometers on the first day of the war, and after the war This staggering forward speed was maintained most of the time.

The British were forced to send 10,000 people to Belgium to strengthen the border defense, because the Belgian royal family was worried about the terrible fighting power of the German team. Once such an attack speed appeared in Belgium, the country with a small territory might be destroyed within a few days. . Likewise, Luxembourg also received a division of French troops.

And French high-level officials began to notice a small battle in the northern border area of ​​Poland. This battle was inconspicuous in the turbulent eastern battle, but still made all French generals restless: a reinforced concrete building. The fortifications were completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe.

The combination of giant bombs and napalm made it possible for the German army to quickly break through the Maginot Line, and the strong Maginot Line became as fragile as white paper. The farmer's wooden fence, so anxiously began to strengthen this border defense line.

They believed that the Maginot Line could withstand any onslaught from the ground, and the only thing to worry about was the threat from the sky. So the French side finally chose a two-pronged plan, one plan is to start to strengthen the "performance" of the fighter; the other plan is to supplement the ground air defense firepower.

However, September 1937 was a bad time for the French aviation industry. Some mature aircraft models appeared outdated in the face of advanced German fighters, while some experimental models were immature and needed to continue to be tested. Seeing that a large number of German fighters were killing old-fashioned aircraft over Poland, the French Air Force had no choice but to produce ms with decent "sex". Type 406 fighters to relieve the pressure caused by the Luftwaffe.

On the ground, France began to deploy anti-aircraft guns on the main sections of the Maginot Line. There is also an interesting little "interlude": the French also took a fancy to the Swedes' Bofors 40mm high caliber. "shoot" cannon,

It's a pity that Germany had already booked the order three years later, so in desperation, the French could only use their own high-performance anti-aircraft guns.

At the same time, the French began to plan an attack to force Germany to abandon the offensive plan to destroy Poland, but at this time they found that they did not have a complete operational plan for attacking Germany.

However, the appearance of one person gave the French "government" hope. This person was Major General Charles de Gaulle, an army general who had always advocated the use of force against Germany. He proposed a complete operational plan, including the use of giant artillery on the border to destroy the German Siegfried Line, and then concentrated on the use of tanks to attack western Germany as Germany attacked Poland.

Now Poland has only one breath left, and if it doesn't make a move, it will be too late. As a major country on the European continent, France also has its own considerations. Britain can sit back and watch Germany be strong to check and balance France, but France cannot tolerate such an outcome. So this time the French finally decided to leave the British allies behind and try to fight Germany for themselves.

At least this time, de Gaulle felt that the time was very ripe: Germany concentrated more than 80% of its main force to surprise Poland, and made a record in Poland that shocked the whole world. Then Germany must not have enough troops on the Western Front. At this time, France can gain an advantage over the German team on the western front, so that Germany needs to be forced to withdraw from Poland, and once again falls into the embarrassing situation of two-front operations.

"Our army has no research on Germany's new incendiary secret weapons, so there is no good way to take the Siegfried line of defense." De Gaulle pointed to the French train guns in front of him and said: "This kind of weapon is our way of dealing with the German Siegfried. The only means of defense, I hope to achieve the desired effect."

"A few days ago, we tested the ability of this 500mm caliber artillery to destroy reinforced concrete fortifications, and the effect was very good. At least the Germans didn't lie to us this time. These artillery pieces are indeed line killers." The artillery officer looked De Gaulle, who was beside him, smiled and said, "We will not be fooled in this regard, because our weapons experts also have to experiment, and they will only be put into large-scale production if they prove useful."

"Tomorrow dawn, we will let the Germans see and see. Today's French team is not a group of idiots in Poland!" De Gaulle waved to his adjutant, and the adjutant nodded and ran down the hillside.

On the other side of the hillside, dozens of French heavy tanks led hundreds of light tanks to slowly move forward on the road. With these tanks were thousands of French infantry, with a pack-horse-drawn cannon at intervals, and the line stretched to the end of the mountain road, submerged in a gray dust.

...

"Long live the Führer! General Gascoll, the urgent information just sent from France." An officer walked into the office of the Intelligence Bureau of the German Wehrmacht General Command with a document with the word "top secret" written on it, and said straightly. .

Gascoll's face changed immediately when he opened the document: "How could such important information be sent here?"

"The French blocked the border of Luxembourg, and our intelligence officers found the opportunity to send this information this evening." The officer bowed his head and said, "After suffering a few secret losses, the French intelligence services also began to target our intelligence. The deployment carried out a purge plan, and the operation to disrupt the French MS. 406 fighter production line the other day failed because of this."

"Call the Führer's office immediately! Say I want to meet the Führer." Gascoll looked at his pocket watch, knowing that Arcardo had flown back to Berlin this afternoon, and immediately got up and said, "Send a message to the French intelligence branch. , tell them to collect as much as possible the details of the French army's action this time, including all the information on the strength of the French army, the direction of the attack, etc... If there is any news, come to me directly, without passing anyone! Do you understand?"

"Yes! General!" The officer once again stood at attention and saluted.

"I'm sorry to bother you at such a late hour, my head of state." Gascoll looked at the tired Arkado nervously, lowered his head and said, "But this news is very important, I can only inform you as soon as possible, I hope you You can prepare early."

"About France?" Accardo knew that his capable subordinate would not bother him for no reason. There must be something very difficult to do - when it comes to the big thing, it is nothing more than the problem of the Western Front. So he swept away his exhaustion and asked with narrowed eyes.

Gascol stepped forward and handed the intelligence document to Arcado: "The French are preparing to attack, don't know when and where to attack, but this attack will break out in the near future - they have blocked the border areas of Luxembourg. ."

Akado nodded, he walked to the desk and grabbed the phone: "Give me a call to the Propaganda Department... Fanny, it's me, Akado... Arrange a speech, it will be done tomorrow morning, The core is to condemn France to start a war against Germany in spite of German resistance* westward advance... Yes! Make arrangements as soon as possible and wait for me to arrange."

Put down the phone, and immediately grabbed it. Arkado continued to issue his own orders: "Get me the headquarters of the Wehrmacht... I'm Arkado, please answer the phone by General Brauchitch... You already know the information? Yes, the accuracy should be unnecessary. If there is any doubt, immediately put the troops on the western front into a state of full combat readiness, all officers will cancel their vacations, and the troops will enter their respective defensive areas."

"My head of state, do I need to activate the "preparatory plan"?" Brauchitch's voice came out over the phone: "If the French army attacks in an all-round way, the troops on the western front will suffer losses, and we must do so as soon as possible. It takes a counterattack to stop the French attack. Because the Siegfried line is after all…”

"Tomorrow morning the 'government' will declare a state of emergency, and the Wehrmacht will expand another 20 divisions to the western front." Arkado said confidently: "I approve you to use the "preparatory plan" for western defense... But everything has to wait until the French fire first, understand?"

"Yes! My Führer!" Brauchitch replied: "I will do my best to keep France in the intended area."

Hanging up the phone, Accardo called Schacht again: "Send a message to all the businessmen who have contact with us, sell the French bonds and assets in your hand, the "preparatory plan" has just been approved for implementation , the real war begins."

In the headquarters of the Wehrmacht, Brauchitch dialed the phone to the front command: "General Lundstedt. I am Brauchitch, and I announce to you on behalf of the Führer: You have been appointed commander-in-chief of the Western Front. Commander, responsible for the implementation of the "preparatory plan"."

In the middle of the night on September 29, the troops on the western front of the German Wehrmacht began to leave their barracks. The canvas covered by the plane was torn off by the ground crew. The "preparatory plan" was fully implemented, and the western front of Germany entered a state of first-level combat readiness.

...