novelAbuy 51 The French went from feeling relieved to terrified as the German army invaded.
51 The French went from feeling relieved to terrified as the German army invaded.
[Gammelin: We will wait for the German attack, using fortifications and trenches to create an impenetrable depth, and give the Germans a head-on blow. This time, everything is developing as we expected.]
Sean Wayne will eventually see how foolish he was.
Looking at the comments from France, Sean didn't know whether to laugh or cry. At this hour, you guys still have the nerve to act all high and mighty?
Gamelin's World War I tactical thinking was still based on fortresses and trenches? Good heavens.
I've said it so many times, now it's all about integrated operations.
As expected? Let's see if you'll still be able to laugh tomorrow.
Don't expect me to be nice to you in the future, let alone help you in any way. You'll be lucky if I don't kick you when you're down.
Knowing the answer himself, the more he read the words of the Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-French Allied Forces, the more he wanted to laugh.
After returning from the gun shop in the afternoon, Sean and his six paratroopers decided to have a meal together, hoping to win them over with friendship and warmth.
Whenever his neighbors saw him, they would jokingly say, "Sean, the French are humiliating you again."
Good heavens, this seems to have become a topic of conversation for everyone. They always like to say to themselves, "Sean, you've been insulted again."
What's there to be happy about? Was my prediction wrong?
Two of the four countries have already been defeated.
Sean went upstairs with a dark expression to prepare dinner. "Wait, wait a few days and everything will play out exactly as I said. Let's see how smug you are then."
May 12, 1940, afternoon.
While Sean was cooking, it was already evening on the other side of the Atlantic.
The armored corps of the Rondäde Group, which has entered Belgium, is crossing the border.
Hermann's 15th Panzer Corps, Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Corps, and Guderian's most powerful 19th Panzer Corps—at this moment, Guderian had already arrived in Sedan.
Just as Sean told Hannie, Sedan's five divisions were no match for an armored corps.
They are understaffed, have poor combat capabilities, a large number of reservists, and crucially, they lack individual anti-tank weapons. How can they possibly defend themselves?
Sedan had already been occupied. Looking at the south bank of the Meuse River, Guderian knew that once they crossed it, they could advance deep into the heart of France.
"Report."
"explain."
"Our scouts discovered that the bunkers the French had built near the Meuse River were quite poorly constructed."
Ok?
Guderian turned around in surprise. "Clumsy? Didn't they claim it took them twenty years to build? That it was an impregnable defense?"
"In reality, many of them haven't been repaired."
Guderian was stunned. "Is that even possible?"
"They didn't build too little, they built too much. A lot of it wasn't even finished. Actually, building so much is meaningless. They don't have that many troops stationed here. A lot of it is empty."
As a meticulous German, this was utterly baffling—it wasn't even finished yet? "War has already broken out."
Yes, we can't wait for you to fix it.
"We will force our way across the Moz River tonight."
"yes!"
France.
The generals' faces clearly showed their dejection, and the entire conference room was silent.
Everyone was in a daze.
General Anchière, commander of the French Second Army, was known as one of the most capable generals in France. His Second Army was responsible for the defense of Sedan.
At that moment, he looked at everyone with dejection.
"I regret to inform you, gentlemen, that Sedan has fallen. The remaining forces are defending the south bank of the Metz River, but we have too few troops."
We anticipated that Germany would attack Belgium, we anticipated that they would attack the Maginot Line, we anticipated that they might attack the Ardennes, but unfortunately, the one thing we didn't anticipate was that they would come so quickly.
Paris.
Upon hearing the news that Sedan had fallen and that Germany was planning to force a crossing of the Meuse River, the entire French army was in an uproar.
"How did you slip up?"
"Don't we have a lot of bunkers?"
How did they manage to break through the Ardennes Mountains so quickly?
Everyone is asking questions, but no one is giving answers.
The French army suffered widespread devastation.
Once the other side crosses the river, the road to Paris and the English Channel will be as undefended as ever.
Everyone realized the seriousness of the situation.
"Maybe, maybe we should have listened to Sean earlier. He said the Ardennes Mountains were poorly defended and we should have laid a lot of mines there."
"We were too optimistic," a general said sadly.
"Alright, now is not the time to regret. Notify Britain that we need to send a large number of planes to stop the Germans from crossing the river."
On May 13, 1940, the largest air battle since the start of World War II broke out over the Meuse River.
Both sides deployed hundreds of aircraft of various types. Over the Meuse River, planes chased each other back and forth, soaring up and down, with bombs falling everywhere, and the ground trembled.
The battle raged from day to night, with Allied planes flying like moths to a flame, wave after wave of them crashing into the fire.
Flames shot into the sky from the ground, and planes crashed into the sky, billowing black smoke.
Faced with Germany's combined air and ground firepower, the British and French air forces suffered enormous losses.
On the morning of May 15, 1940.
French Prime Minister Reno dialed the phone with a somber tone from the new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
"We might have lost."
Churchill was stunned. "How could we lose? I don't understand."
"We misjudged the speed of the German armored forces' advance."
Churchill was shocked. "I don't understand. Can armored forces really be that powerful? Has it truly brought about a military revolution?"
"Yes, we should believe that commentator Sean Wayne. We are now in the era of integrated warfare. We were all wrong. We should not use tanks as mobile infantry guns, but should unite them to exert tremendous power, just like Germany."
"Okay, we still have a chance. Where are your strategic reserves?"
There are no reserves.
WHAT?
"Are you serious? You can't be serious, can you? You didn't prepare a reserve team? Even Germany did."
We, the British, have even sent troops. You know, given the way Britain is, when it comes to war, we always only send the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. Have you ever heard of the Royal Army? No, right?
We've been sending a lot of ground troops, being so cautious, yet you don't even have reserves? We've prepared everything.
Isn't this just sabotaging your teammates?
Churchill doesn't even know how to complain now.
Now he was more worried about another problem: the German 19th Panzer Corps was advancing unstoppably toward Dunkirk in the English Channel, where the Anglo-French forces were located.
Paris city center.
"The Germans have invaded? Wasn't that something we expected?"
"Yes, that's what the army says. Our defenses are impregnable, and we're just waiting for them to suffer heavy losses."
The French were completely dumbfounded; this wasn't what they had agreed upon.
Los Angeles.
When people went out on the street, they found a large number of newsboys waving newspapers.
"German troops broke through Sedan and entered the heart of France. The Anglo-French forces faced the danger of being surrounded, and the Maginot Line might be attacked from both sides."
"My God, what did I just hear? How could things have changed so much in just a few days?"
"Oh my god, is France going to lose too?"
"This isn't real, is it a joke?"
"God, Sean's curse, this is Sean's curse, no country can escape Sean's spell, France is going to lose too."