"Of the total 1.6 million soldiers of the Wehrmacht committed to this war, 12,000 were killed, the wounded were about twice as many as the dead, and the losses of the Polish army were four times that of the Germans. This was a surprising result compared to pre-war expectations, which were declared by pessimists in the IDF leadership at the time that a 20 per cent reduction in total strength was a small amount. Still, the generals unanimously went against the idea that Sitara would launch an offensive on the Western Front in the fall. Because, unlike Poland, France and Great Britain have modern air forces and armoured forces. The performance of the tank was also significantly superior to that of the German Type 2 tank, which had been hastily developed from 1935 onwards, and the Chinese Hound tanks were of course capable of fighting the British and French tanks, but they were obviously not enough in number, and they were all concentrated in the 7th Panzer Army (from which the 7th Panzer Group was upgraded).

Only five of the 61 German divisions that invaded Poland were armoured, and most of the others marched on foot and transported supplies in horse-drawn wagons. The key to the final victory of the German army on the Western Front was not technical equipment, but tactical command. This will be verified in the course of subsequent wars.

After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and led to the outbreak of World War II, it was at war with the British and French forces for a long time on the European continent, known as sit-down warfare. Adolph? Sitara had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in the German conquest of Poland and an immediate truce. Because Germany's reserves of raw materials (which need to be imported from other places) are very insufficient, and at present German warplanes mainly rely on raw materials from Red Russia, and the ideological differences between the two countries make Sitara uneasy about this situation. Therefore, on 6 October, he proposed to Britain and France for peace, and without waiting for a reply from both countries, on 9 October, in response to the possibility of a veto by the Anglo-French coalition, Sitara also formulated a military operation: Special Instruction No. 6 of the Führer. The German campaign consisted of two major operations: the first part of the "Yellow Operation" (FallGelb, against the Benelux countries and northern France) and the second part of the "Red Operation" (FallRot, against the French mainland).

At the urging of Sitara, the German Army General Staff Headquarters drew up a plan for operations on the Western Front, codenamed the Yellow Plan. This plan was similar to the Schlieffen plan of the German attack on France in World War I, that is, to put the main German army on the right flank and attack France through Guò Belgium. But the commander of the 7th Panzer Army, Erich? Feng? Manstein hated the plan, believing it to be a rehash of the same old tune, and Sitara himself did not like it. Manstein put forward his strategic concept: the main spearhead of the German offensive should be placed in the center, not on the right flank. With powerful armored forces, the main assault was carried out on the Ardennes Forest area, which was a strategically decisive breakthrough. This is a shortcut to attack the unprepared and surprisingly victorious invasion of France, which can cut off the connection between the Anglo-French forces in the north and the south, divide and encircle the British-French-British-French allied forces, and quickly destroy France, but the commander-in-chief of the German army, Walter? Feng? Brauchitsch refused to forward Manstein's plan to Sitara.

On January 10, 10 January, a German Messerschmitt Bf109 aircraft was forced to land in Masmechelen, north of Maastricht, Belgium (the so-called "Mechelen Incident"). The passenger on the plane was Helmao, a key member of the Luftwaffe? Reinberger, who carries an up-to-date copy of the "Yellow Plan No. 2". Reinberger was unable to destroy the text, which soon fell into the hands of Belgian intelligence agencies. It is often argued that this incident was the reason for the German army's planned heavy modifications, but this is incorrect; In fact, on 30 January, the military operation was re-designated as "Yellow Plan No. 3", which is largely in line with the previous version. On 27 January, Manstein was relieved of his post as commander of the 7th Panzer Corps and transferred to the rank of corps commander in Prussia, where he began his command at Stettin on 9 February. This move was made by Halder in order to eliminate Manstein's influence. Manstein's angry subordinates put forward his plan to get Sitara's attention, and Sitara was able to obtain it on 2 February. Manstein was invited to explain his proposal to the Führer personally in Berlin on February 17. Sitara was impressed with the program. The next day, he ordered to follow the von ? Manstein's conception changes the plan. These ideas appealed to Sitara mainly because they raised some hopes of a truly cheap victory. Sitara's statement about Manstein was "almost elven and very quick to understand" and stated that he personally fully agreed with Manstein's opinion.

The next day, Sitara summoned the commander-in-chief of the army, Brauchitsch, and the chief of the general staff, Halder, and ordered them to draw up a new battle plan at once based on Manstein's construction. Although Brauchitsch and Halder strongly opposed Manstein's construction, believing that his so-called secret guò was a wild assumption that would expose the elite of German panzer forces to a flank attack by the French army and possibly lead to the annihilation of the entire army. But under pressure from Sitara, the two army chiefs succumbed. As a result, the Chief of the Army General Staff, Halder, was ordered to reformulate the battle plan based on Manstein's construction.

Sitara directly ordered Franz? Halder changed plans again, von? Manstein did not intervene further. Halder agreed to transfer the main forces, the so-called "tactical breakthrough forces", to the south. Feng? Manstein's plan did not have much support (from a defensive point of view), because the Ardennes region was densely forested and had only a poor road system, which were unreliable as invasion roads. But there must therefore be an element of surprise that would be crucial to the Allies' response to the plan originally envisioned, in which the main elite forces of France and Britain would advance north to defend Belgium. To help ensure that in this case, German Army Group B was to attack Belgium and Holland, giving the impression that they were the main force of the German army, in order to lure the Anglo-French forces eastward into the intended encirclement and pin them down. To do this, 3 of the existing 10 armored divisions were still assigned to Army Group B.

However, Halder had no intention of deviating from the established principle and allowing the seven Panzer Divisions of Army Group A to make an independent strategic interlude. To Guderian's chagrin, this was initially completely removed from the new plan. The "Yellow Programme No. 4" was issued on 24 February. The crossing of the Meuse at Sedan is supposed to have been captured by an infantry division on the 8th day of the invasion. It was not until after much debate that the motorized rifle regiment of the Panzer Division was given the option to establish a bridgehead here on the fourth day after the invasion. Even now, the breakthrough and advance towards the English Channel can begin only on the 9th day, and the stay in the middle 5 days is intended so that a sufficient number of infantry divisions can catch up and create a continuous front with armored forces. However, this point was changed by the joint efforts of the three heroes of the German army in actual action, and this is perhaps the only case in the German army that can go against the battle plan drawn up by the General Staff and win.

Even with adaptation to more conventional methods, the new strategy provoked protests from most German generals. They considered it irresponsible to concentrate their forces in the same position, and that it was impossible for the interspersed troops to be adequately supplied, and that these already insufficient supply routes could be easily cut off by the French. If the Anglo-French response did not meet the expectations of the Germans, the offensive could end up being catastrophic. However, their objections were ignored. Halder believed that since the strategic position of the German army seemed hopeless, in any case, even a slight chance of achieving a decisive victory was better than defeat by complete inaction. The change in adaptation also implied that it would make it easier for the Anglo-French forces to flee south. Halder noted that the German victory would have been easier if this had been the case, as it would have been a huge blow to the reputation of the abandoned Low Countries Entente (colloquially known as the Anglo-French alliance of 1940). In addition, the combat effectiveness of the German army will remain the same, and it will be possible to carry out the "red plan", after which an all-out attack on France will be carried out. However, decisions in this regard will have to be postponed until the successful completion of the "yellow programme". In fact, the detailed implementation plan of the German army included only the first 9 days of operations; There is a fixed timetable to determine the path forward. According to the traditional "mission command", this relies on the judgment and actions of the field commander. This uncertainty can have a huge impact on the actual course of events.

On 22 February, Sitara approved a new battle plan that was roughly the same as Manstein's vision, which the German General Staff replaced as Operation Scythe, and it was time for the Reaper's Scythe to come to the door again. According to Heinz Brown, then commander of the 19th Panzer Corps? William? Guderian said that almost no one except Sitara, Manstein, and himself had confidence in the plan, and he certainly did not know that a group of war experts in the far East were more resolutely in favor of it.

"It's a very realistic plan, and I think it's going to be overwhelming for the Anglo-French forces, so his success rate is already something to look forward to." Chief of the General Staff Zhang Jianyuan reported: "According to the report of the Observer Mission, their assault in the Ardennes area will cause the Anglo-French forces to be divided, and if they can get the mechanized forces and aviation forces to cooperate well and always maintain a rapid and powerful strike, then the Anglo-French forces will be at risk of being divided and encircled in the first ten days." The best result was to annihilate the main force of the Anglo-French army and more than half of the British air force, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent southward strategy and subsequent confrontation with the British. At worst, it can also divide the main forces of more than 600,000 British, French, Belgian and Dutch countries that encircle the northern cluster, and defeat 60% of the main army of the coalition army in the first month. The specific difference will depend on how much damage the Anglo-French alliance can inflict on the German army, and then it will be time to test the combat readiness and comprehensive national strength of Britain, France, and Germany. ”

"To whom was Manstein's 7th Panzer Army handed over?" Wu Chenxuan looked at the report, he took off his glasses and asked. I was not worried about the victory of the German army, after all, without the help of China, the German army could win this battle by itself, and it won quite beautifully, although it also buried a lot of hidden dangers.

"Uh, it's Lieutenant General Ewin Rommel." After all, during his time as a visiting scholar at the National Defense University of China, he had won many sand table battles with Chinese colleagues who had become accustomed to multi-arms coordinated operations in the army, which was very rare for traditional German officers to accept this brand-new combat system so quickly. As an associate professor of arms coordination at the National Defense University, Zhu Yunjie still has a good impression of this student who is a few years younger than himself.

"Well, I'm relieved." Wu Chenxuan's words made Zhu Yunjie and Zhang Jianyuan look at each other, and it seems that Wu Chenxuan's confidence in Rommel seems to be more than Manstein.

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