Three Hundred and One Coalition Forces Divided

Anyone who knew Rommel knew that he was a born adventurer, and those so-called all-round leaders seemed worthless compared to him. This general Rommel likes to get into a tank by himself and attack with his troops; this general Rommel likes to sit in a light aircraft and lean out of the plane to take pictures of his own troops; The most dangerous experience of the general is that the bullet hit the staff officer who was less than two steps away from him.

Of course, if you are familiar with the real French war history of World War II and the history of the African Legion, you will find a tragic thing. This general named Rommel is a commander who likes to disobey orders on the battlefield. Once he sees an opportunity—whether it's real or fake, as long as he judges it to be an opportunity, he'll attack.

This earned him the reputation of the Desert Fox, and also planted the root of his subsequent defeat in the war. And now he has a more prosperous "sacred family" than in another time and space-compared to Hitler's love, this time Rommel is the general who was single-handedly promoted by Akado, and he even considers himself a pro-military in private. So in Lisley, he and Guderian made almost exactly the same decision.

He patiently arranged the headquarters in Lisley, and then left his staff and entourage, climbed into a Panther tank, and continued to move forward with his "reconnaissance force", launching a battle that shocked everyone. The "General Detective" who can't laugh or cry.

This time, the limited reconnaissance operation reached the city of Marleux, an important French town. After Rommel came to the outskirts of Marrele and learned in a unique way that the French defenders were not capable, he decided to let him There were not many troops in Li to launch an attack.

His unique detection method is to sit in a tank, pass through the city at the fastest speed, and judge the number of French defenders by listening to the gunshots on the tank. This method sounds a bit risky, but after Rommel went through the peripheral test, he found that the French had no intention of defending here, so his adventurous spirit or death spirit appeared, and he made this risk factor of 9. 9 crazy moves.

The French didn't expect that there would be such a person who was not afraid of death and dared to drive a tank across the urban area. When they recovered, the tank had already passed through the city. Of course, this also proved that the French army lacked preparation and did not have the weakness of anti-tank weapons. Soon a tank regiment and a motorized infantry regiment of the 7th Panzer Corps caught up with their commander and drove the French out of Marreux.

The victory in Marleux gave Rommel, who was full of confidence, a reason to continue "reconnaissance" to the northwest. He was determined to order his troops to continue to attack their original target. They would storm the French army and capture Le Cartel. .

The fall of Marleux also completely stunned the French army. The French commander Gan Molin, who originally judged that the German army captured Stone was preparing to go south, discovered that the real goal of the German army was to encircle his main force in Belgium. He hurriedly ordered the troops in France to organize a counterattack, but what he received was the news that De Gaulle had suffered a disastrous defeat in Stone.

Guderian's cooperation made Rommel very comfortable,

When he learned that the 1st Armored Army in Guderian's hands had passed Lisley, stormed Leon and occupied it, he used a word "understanding" to describe his flank partner. The news of capturing Leon also made him more confident and bold to move towards his goal.

His troops always carried rubber hoses to scrape discarded French army gasoline and civilian gasoline to make up for the embarrassing situation of no supplies. Guderian's 1st Armored Division was in a slightly stronger and limited situation, and it also needed to use local materials from time to time. The two generals were like two bandits who robbed houses and completed their pre-planned combat missions.

Of course, in the northern part of Rommel's army, the 5th Light Panzer Army under Rundstedt had to be reluctantly dragged forward in order to prevent Rommel's 7th Panzer Army from being too prominent, although it was not so active. , but the defense of the Anglo-French coalition forces they faced was even weaker, so they had unknowingly hit Le Catteau, the northern city of Le Carteret.

When the 5th Light Armored Army arrived at Le Cateo, the French troops here had already left. They were threatened by Rommel's offensive to the flanks. Unwilling to fight, they gave up this important city to the 5th Light Armored Army. There is a hospital full of wounded soldiers.

The advance speed of the German army obviously completely frightened the French commanders. Their defense in Belgium made their situation very embarrassing: if they retreat, the interests of the Belgian allies they have always insisted on will disappear; If they continue to hold on, they will face the risk of being surrounded in Belgium.

In the messy Brussels, Colonel Gruhl, who had been promoted to the commander of the Brussels garrison, stared blankly at Gan Molin and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Lord Gort, the Chief of Staff of the British Empire. The two of them rushed over deliberately, hoping that Colonel Gruer could understand the decision they had made.

"Colonel Gruer, we must ensure the safety of the entire coalition." Gott said with a bit of a scalp: "The German army threatened the safety of the transportation supply line in our rear, which made us lose the initiative. We need to shorten the line of defense. Deploy part of the troops to go south to fight against the Germans...please understand."

"So I was temporarily appointed as the defense commander of Brussels to help you hold off the German attack?" Greul stared at Gott and asked.

"Yes, if the Belgian troops can persist in Brussels for two to weeks, then we will counterattack. As an ally, we will fulfill our obligations." Gamelin was also very embarrassed on the side, and said to help Lord Gott.

In fact, it was Gott who came up with the idea of ​​retreating back and giving up part of the Belgian territory, and it was he who single-handedly contributed to the approval of the plan by the coalition command. Compared with the ties between France and Belgium, which are closely related, it is easier for the United Kingdom to make the decision to give up part of Belgium's interests. They must give priority to ensuring the safety of the British Expeditionary Force before considering other things.

However, even so, Britain's decision to promote the withdrawal of the main force of the British and French coalition forces was very reluctant and questioned. At least General Montgomery, commander of the 3rd Division of the 2nd Expeditionary Army, strongly disagreed with this betrayal. He suggested that a part of the elite troops should be transferred to the south to deal with the German armored forces, and most of the defenders would continue to stand in place.

It is a pity that his suggestion was not taken seriously by Gort. The British and French coalition forces finally decided to abandon part of the Belgian-controlled area to shorten the line of defense and dispatch troops to the south, so as to ensure the absolute safety of the entire coalition supply line.

But in this way, they gave up part of Belgium's interests, and they were resisted by most Belgian officers. This sentiment of anger and resistance has spread within the coalition forces, and has even affected the cooperative relationship between the two parties. For example, in many cases, the Belgian defenders refused to provide fuel to the retreating British and French forces, and also refused to deliver food supplies to these allies.

However, under the influence of mutual evasion and restraint, the slow shrinking speed of the Allied forces was still unable to get rid of the pursuit and killing of the German Army Group B. The defense line was shrinking again and again, but it was still unable to mobilize effective troops to support its fragile southern supply line.

Today, Brussels in Belgium has become a front-line city that the German army can directly threaten. The country of Belgium has also reached a life-and-death crisis. Most of the Belgian defenders decided to swear to the death and coexist with this country. But their idea is still to hope that France and Britain can stop their retreat and join hands with them to fight to the death, instead of walking lazily on the escape road with luggage and equipment every day like now.

That's why there was this embarrassing meeting between the two parties. The two parties could not understand each other's decision, so they had to discuss the next issue in such a disgruntled manner.

"Colonel Gruer, I know that you are for the motherland, and I hope to be with you...

Stick to this city together, but we can't be emotional, we must make the necessary trade-offs for victory. "Lord Gort sighed and persuaded again: "We must win in the south before we can go north and return to Brussels with peace of mind. "

"We? Relying on weak troops to defend such a vast territory, we still have to persist for 2 weeks? Do you think we can do it?" Gruul was almost annoyed by his ally's request like a fantasy: "We lack heavy weapons and equipment, unable to stop the German 6th Panzer Army in the north, and have no ability to counterattack the German 2nd Panzer Army that is advancing in our south. What do we have to hold Brussels?"

"This..." Gott blushed slightly, and he was embarrassed to speak.

The commander of the French army, Gan Molin, had no choice but to bite the bullet and come up with their plan: "Belgium concentrates its forces to hold on to Brussels. The German armored forces are not effective in fighting in big cities. It can still be done for two weeks... This is also true. The main reason we came to you."

The feasibility of this plan is higher than other combat plans, but it has a very serious side effect, that is, sticking to Brussels in this way will turn the city into a scorched earth. Regardless of the final outcome of the war, the city of Brussels will be destroyed. become synonymous with ruins.

Colonel Gruer glanced at Gan Malin and didn't speak. He just walked to the door, opened the door of the office, and then made a gesture of seeing off the two generals whose rank was much higher than his. Then he said: "No matter what you plan, the Belgians will use their own methods to defend their country."