Chapter 869: France Panics, British and French Envoys Arrive

When facing the attack of the German Air Force, the French general immediately realized that the situation was not good.

But at this time, the arrow was on the string and had to be fired. The front-line troops had already ordered an attack. It was obviously a foolish dream to want to withdraw safely from the enemy's attack.

In the current situation, we can only abandon part of the troops rushing to the front and try to preserve the troops in the rear to avoid too many casualties.

Since the enemy has made defensive preparations for Namur in advance, it also means that the German army is clearly aware of its movements.

The French general had a headache. He didn't understand whether the troops sent to Charleroi exposed their whereabouts or whether their own large troops accidentally exposed their whereabouts before.

With the order of the French general, the army began to slowly retreat to the rear. The German planes in the sky also discovered the intention of the French army, and the German army immediately began to pursue.

Originally, the French army's purpose was to retreat to Charleroi in the west and organize a defensive formation there.

But soon, the French army discovered German planes and troops on the way to Charleroi.

This also means that Charleroi is absolutely unsafe at this time.

Before the French army could react, the French army at the front suddenly found that there were a large number of German troops in front, behind, and around them.

By the time the French army reacted and stopped advancing, it had already fallen into the encirclement of the German army.

"Damn it!" The French general who gave the order was pale, knowing that the army he led had come to an end.

After being completely surrounded by the German army, if the French army wanted to break out, they had to sacrifice most of their troops.

This also means that no matter whether he can escape back to France, most of the soldiers in the army he led will stay in the encirclement.

"Break out to the south! As long as we break through the enemy's encirclement, we will soon reach the border." The French general tried to resist and ordered the French army to break out quickly to the south.

But it was obvious that the German army was well prepared.

At the front were a large number of machine gun positions. These machine guns formed one firepower network after another, making the 500-meter range in front of the German position a restricted area for life.

In addition, there are a large number of German planes in the sky, which are used to detect the movements of French planes and cause considerable casualties to the French army.

"Damn it, these annoying planes must be shot down." The French general cursed secretly and quickly ordered the messenger beside him to contact the Air Force.

But the German army obviously would not give the French army a chance. The firepower network composed of machine guns and artillery, coupled with the support of fighters and bombers in the sky, is harvesting the lives of a large number of French soldiers every moment.

"Concentrate firepower to break through to the south!" The French general ordered: "Everyone, I have to admit that we have fallen into the encirclement of the German army. If you still want to go back alive, then please fight with me.

For France, charge!"

The words for France did attract many French soldiers to follow the general to charge forward.

But soon, the dense firepower network of the Germans defeated these French soldiers.

Germany had no good feelings towards the French who annexed their territory, robbed German factories, exploited the German people and exacerbated the German economic crisis.

Under the propaganda of the German government, the German people only hated two groups in their lives. One was the Jews who made a fortune from the national crisis and tried every means to exploit the Germans.

The other was the French in front of them. Facing these enemies, the German army showed no mercy and wanted to slaughter all of them.

At the end of May, two pieces of news from Belgium to the world shocked all countries.

The first was that Brussels, the capital of Belgium, was easily broken by the German army after facing several days of siege by the German army.

The second was that of the 150,000 troops that France supported Belgium, only less than 30,000 of them returned home safely.

The remaining troops either died in the attack on Namur or were captured by the Germans after falling into the German encirclement.

The loss of more than 120,000 troops at one time was also very heavy for the French.

What's more terrible is that in less than ten days, most of Belgium's territory and important cities fell into the hands of the Germans.

At present, the Belgian government has moved west to Kortrijk and has the idea of ​​crossing the English Channel and fleeing to London.

After losing 120,000 troops, the French government was completely panicked.

There are not many fortresses protecting the Franco-Belgian border. When the Germans completely occupy Belgium, they will definitely organize a larger army to attack France.

In this way, the Maginot Line that the French have worked hard to build seems to be a joke. The Germans don't need to pass through the Maginot Line at all to easily attack Paris, France.

In order to protect Paris, the French have also done everything they can.

With the order of the French government, the 200,000 French troops originally stationed on the Maginot Line hurried north and deployed on the line from Lille to Sedan as the first line of defense for France against Germany.

At the same time, France mobilized more than 200,000 troops mobilized in Normandy and Brittany to the line from Amiens to Reims as the second line of defense against Germany.

At the same time, France has also launched a large-scale mobilization in the central and southern parts of the country, and it is expected that at least 300,000 troops will be formed in a short period of time and transported north to the vicinity of Paris for training.

These 300,000 troops will be expanded to the Paris garrison and will also be the last line of defense for Paris.

The three lines of defense of Paris alone have more than 700,000 French troops, which also proves that France attaches great importance to the capital Paris.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Paris has been the capital of France for a long time, and its role has far exceeded other cities in France.

Once Paris falls, the blow to the morale of the French army and the people is unparalleled. It is not an exaggeration to say that France, which has lost Paris, is like a rooster that has lost its fighting spirit, just a larger piece of chicken.

The current deployment of the French army is also relatively clear. As of June, there are nearly 1.4 million troops in France, and the growth rate is still very fast.

In addition to the 700,000 deployed in the Paris defense line, the Maginot Line has nearly 300,000 French troops, the war against Italy has 300,000, and other areas are scattered with 100,000 troops.

If the colonial army is included, the number of French troops is close to 1.7 million, and it will exceed 2 million in a short time.

But the problem is that France's vast colonies require a large number of troops to garrison, which also means that the number of troops that can be mobilized in the colonies is very small.

It is better to rely on the mobilization of the French mainland army than to rely on the colonies to mobilize troops and transport them to France.

Because of the more adequate preparations for war, Germany's current number of troops has exceeded that of France, reaching about 2.2 million.

However, due to the two-front war, and the need for some troops to be stationed in Poland to quell the rebellion, the number of troops that Germany can mobilize has dropped to about one million.

However, after the annexation of Czechoslovakia, Germany's industry has ushered in a major growth, and it also has more people to mobilize the army.

Moreover, the number of German troops has not yet reached the upper limit, and Germany's combat effectiveness will be stronger and stronger for a long time in the future.

In addition to mobilizing troops to form a defense line, France has also begun to negotiate with the British government many times, asking the British government to send troops.

At this time, the British government could not sit still. Since the outbreak of the war, the Germans have only spent about two months to annex Poland and Czech Republic, and are about to annex Belgium.

France and Austria are obviously unable to resist the German attack, which is completely contrary to the British expectations.

In this situation, the British cannot sit still, nor can they watch the war between France and Germany with peace of mind.

If France is completely defeated, the next thing Britain will face is the German-Italian alliance that owns the entire Central and Western Europe.

On the one hand, Britain urgently organized 200,000 land forces and used transport fleets to transport a large number of goods to Belgium and France.

Although most of Belgium has fallen, the coastal areas are still relatively safe.

The Germans are not stupid, and it is impossible to expose their army to the range of the British Navy's artillery.

This also means that the British can rely on the Belgian coastline and rely on the advantages of the navy to fight a tug-of-war with the Germans.

The British army going to France has only one purpose, that is, to help the French defend Paris as much as possible.

France's attitude is also very clear. Britain must do its best to help France, and the French will resist Germany at all costs.

If the British continued to sit on the sidelines, the morale of the French government would be greatly weakened, and such France was obviously no match for Germany.

For a while, Britain also began to panic, frantically preparing war materials, and transporting them to the European continent in large quantities together with the army.

After Austria and France fell into a huge decline, Britain and France finally turned their eyes to the other side of the earth, the superpower that shared the same roots with Europe and ranked among the top three in the world.

On June 9, 1936, William, the British ambassador to Australasia, and Cassel, the French ambassador to Australasia, visited together and asked to see Arthur.

Arthur naturally knew the purpose of the two people's visit, and met the two diplomatic ambassadors in the reception room of the palace.

As Arthur expected, after a round of hypocritical greetings, the two finally revealed their intentions, which was to ask Australasia to abide by the Anglo-Australian alliance and join the war as an ally of Britain and France.

Arthur was also very concerned about this war. He also understood that it was impossible for Australasia to remain unaffected like in World War I, or even to start a war in the war.

Britain and France were not fools. They would not let Australasia remain unaffected and become bigger in the war.

If Australasia really did this, Arthur would have to do everything he could to defeat the colonial rule of Britain and France after the war.

Otherwise, Britain and France, which had recovered a little, were destined to point their spearheads at Australasia.

But participating in the war was participating in the war. If there were not enough benefits, Arthur would not have participated in the war so early.

After all, the earlier you participate in the war, the more responsibilities you will have to bear in the war. War means casualties, which is more expensive for Arthur, who loves the people like his own children.

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