Chapter 868: Passing Through Belgium

It turns out that before the Germans said they wanted to borrow the road, they had already prepared to forcefully borrow the road. Although Britain and France firmly expressed their support for Belgium, Belgium also stated that it would use all means to protect the security of its territory.

But these seemed so insignificant in the face of the Germans' strategic goals and strategic interests.

What's more, Germany is currently at war with Britain and France. Since they are already enemies, why should Germany care about the diplomatic threats from Britain and France?

The German government ignored the threats from Britain and France and the actions of Belgium, and immediately declared war on Belgium just after the 24-hour deadline.

At the same time, more than 100,000 German troops marched into Belgium in a mighty manner and directly attacked the troops stationed on the Belgian border.

The German army's swift action was far beyond the expectations of Britain, France and Belgium.

Even though the Belgian government had begun an emergency general mobilization after being issued an ultimatum, it was impossible to mobilize many troops in one day.

It takes a certain amount of time to mobilize a batch of weapons and equipment from the weapons warehouse, not to mention distributing these weapons and equipment to tens of thousands of recruits and sending them to the battlefield.

The reality is that after the Belgian border was invaded, the Belgian conscription department mobilized less than 50,000 recruits.

More than half of these recruits have not yet received their weapons and equipment, and even the uniforms on their bodies are large and small and do not fit them well.

The German army will not give the Belgian army a chance. As the saying goes, take advantage of his illness to kill him. The German army launched a mighty attack, and a large number of artillery shells poured down, as if to kill the Belgian army with one blow.

At 5 o'clock in the morning on May 22, when the sky was still gray, the German army had already launched an attack.

Hundreds of bombers, under the protection of fighters that were several times their own, marched towards the Belgian military bases and airports.

Although the Belgian government had already put the army into a state of combat readiness, the front-line troops had transported a large amount of weapons and ammunition to be ready for war at any time.

But the problem is that because of the absolute neutrality declared by the Belgian government before, Belgium was not prepared for the war nationwide.

Even before the German ultimatum arrived, Belgium's attitude towards this war was to watch a good show.

But what the Belgians did not expect was that this war was like a big fire, and a neighbor like Belgium, who was relatively close, was destined to be on fire.

In addition, due to the lack of large-scale wars for a long time, Belgium's war and mobilization system was basically rotten.

Although the government had already warned the border troops that the German army was likely to launch an attack after 24 hours.

But these Belgian border troops were obviously not fully prepared. When the German army launched the attack, a considerable number of Belgian soldiers were still in a sweet dream.

They never dreamed that Germany was a meticulous nation. The Germans said they would attack, and they really would attack.

Although the Belgian army also reinforced and rebuilt the border defense positions, it was obvious that one day could not do much.

In the face of the enemy's large-scale bombardment and bomber attacks, the role of the Belgian border defense facilities seemed negligible.

The good news is that most of the German bombers were not targeting the Belgian defense line, but the Belgian airports and military camps.

The bad news is that Belgium is a country with a relatively small land area. There are not many military airports. Faced with such a large-scale attack by Germany, most of the military airports are destined to be scrapped.

This also means that after this round of air strikes, Belgium has no possibility of resistance in the sky.

But then again, even if the Germans did not attack the Belgian military airports, Belgium could not compete with the German army in the sky.

As a small country surrounded by powers on both sides and across the sea from another power, these three powers do not allow Belgium to have a strong air force.

What's more, because of the absolute neutrality declared by Belgium before, Belgium has cut its military budget on a large scale.

This has led to Belgium's investment in the air force being the lowest among small European countries, with less than 50 military aircraft.

It is worth mentioning that Belgium occupied a small part of German territory in the previous World War I.

This led to the German army's desire to fight Belgium. After all, in the eyes of the Germans, it was absolutely a shame for the Germans to let a small country invade their territory.

The Belgian army, which was not prepared at all, had no chance of winning in front of the well-prepared German army.

In less than a day, the German army fully recovered its territory and pushed the front line to Liege.

Liege is one of the more famous cities in Belgium. Here, there are a few large fortresses in Belgium, the Liege Fortress.

Obviously, the Belgian army also wanted to gather its defensive forces on its key fortresses, delay the German attack as much as possible, and seek time for support from Britain and France.

But the Belgians overlooked one point, that is, more than 20 years had passed since World War I.

In World War I, the Liege Fortress blocked the Germans for a long time. But World War II had fully used aircraft, coupled with a large number of artillery bombardments, so that the seemingly solid Liege Fortress only lasted less than three days.

The Germans paid more than 10,000 casualties, captured this strong fortress, and advanced along the river to Namur.

Four days after the outbreak of the Derby War, the French army set out from Sedan and went north along the river to try to support the Belgian army.

But at this time, the German army had arrived in Namur and launched a fierce attack on the city.

When the French arrived near Namur along the river, they received bad news that the Germans had captured Namur and had already moved north to launch a full-scale attack on Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

In less than five days, they conquered two important military towns in Belgium and were about to attack Brussels, which also proved the strength of the German army.

Although the Belgian army had less than 100,000 people, they also had a strong fortress for defense.

And because the Belgian territory was relatively small, it was easier to defend with the fortress.

But the German army was able to defeat the Belgian army in a very short time, which proved the strength of the German army.

The speed of the German army's advance exceeded the expectations of the French army. There was no way, the French general in charge of supporting Belgium could only change his order.

The French army supporting Belgium had a total of 12 divisions, with more than 150,000 troops.

Under the order of the French general, 50,000 of them went west to Charleroi, looking for an opportunity to enter Brussels from the rear and help the Belgians defend the capital.

The remaining 100,000 people were temporarily stationed on the river bank, waiting for the German army to really march to Brussels. The French army took the opportunity to capture the fortresses of Namur and Liege, and strive to cut off the logistics supply and retreat routes of the German army that invaded Belgium, and it would be best to directly surround the German army.

From the outbreak of the war to now, neither France nor Austria has won a decent victory.

This also made the French army hold its breath. They wanted to prove that the French army was not bad, at least when facing the powerful German army, they could still rely on strategies to give the German army a fatal blow.

In order to ensure that the plan was foolproof, the French general contacted the domestic government and the General Staff, asked for more aircraft resources, and asked the General Staff to send another army to protect their flanks.

The general was very excited to get the nod of the French General Staff. After all, this plan seemed foolproof to him. The narrow Belgium might become the grave of the German army, directly defeating the myth of the German army's invincibility.

On May 27, 1936, the German army arrived in Brussels and immediately launched a full-scale offensive.

It can be seen on the map that the cities of Charleroi, Namur, Leuven and Antwerp are relatively close.

In order to ensure that their offensive was foolproof, the German army left nearly 100,000 troops in Namur, and deployed a large number of aircraft for patrols along the line from Charleroi to Namur, in order to guard against the French army.

With a large number of reconnaissance aircraft, the German army quickly discovered the whereabouts of the French army. The German army was surprised to find that the French seemed to have divided their troops into two groups, with the goal of Namur and Brussels.

This was exactly what the German army thought. After confirming the French plan, the German army reduced its patrol aircraft to avoid alerting the enemy.

On May 28, after confirming that the Germans had launched a full-scale attack on Brussels, the French army also launched an attack on Namur.

What the French army did not expect was that there were a large number of German troops stationed in Namur, and they were even slightly ahead of them in terms of firepower.

The idea of ​​the French army to quickly capture Namur and Liege not only did not come true, but also trapped itself around Namur.

More than an hour after the French army attacked, a large number of German planes arrived in Namur and engaged in fierce battles with French planes.

You know, the French used a large number of planes in the war in the south and Italy, and achieved considerable results.

But the price was that France did not use too many planes in the war in the north. Even with a certain amount of British support, the total number of aircraft that France could mobilize was still only about 1,000.

But Germany was different. After making full preparations for war, Germany produced nearly 3,000 aircraft in half a year, and even captured nearly 1,000 aircraft from the Poles.

This allowed Germany's aircraft reserves to exceed 4,000. Even if they were split in half, they could still use more than 2,000 aircraft to attack Belgium and France.

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