Just as Guderian was tearing through the French line from the direction of Sedan, the 7th Panzer Division, commanded by Rommel, in the area of Dinan, to the north, also successfully crossed the Maas River.

As one of the most unpopular division commanders in the German Army, Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch did not expect Rommel, a layman in armored warfare, to achieve any results. Therefore, in the "Yellow Plan", he chose the spearhead of the 7th Panzer Division's attack in the Dinan area, which had a large number of pillbox groups and artillery positions, and was called the "Maginot Petit Line" by the French. In Brauchitsch's view, as long as Rommel made a big enough move here to attract the attention of the French army, then the weak brigade under his command would be considered to have completed the task.

However, to Brauchitsch's surprise, Rommel's bravery completely exceeded his expectations. On the afternoon of May 12, the 7th Panzer Division had already rushed out of the Ardennes jungle and launched a fierce attack on the two French cavalry regiments in front of it. Taking advantage of the chaos of the French army's defeat and escape, Rommel seized the opportunity and ordered the forward troops to cross the river directly and immediately; The defenders of the West Bank, who had not yet recovered from their composure, responded only sporadically, allowing a group of German troops to successfully cross the river hundreds of meters wide and establish a bridgehead position in a rocky valley.

However, this bridgehead position could not be further expanded, and the French artillery fire that had recovered from the situation continued to pour down on both sides of the German crossing, and the side fire of the French soldiers smashed the second group of boats crossing the river. At the same time, the bridgehead on the west bank was also under heavy attack by the French, and the Germans, who had suffered heavy casualties, were gradually compressed into a narrow area less than 200 meters long, hiding behind the cracks in the rocks and unable to raise their heads, and at any time they were at risk of being driven down the river.

Historically, Rommel, who faced this dilemma, could only use tanks to make cameo appearances to suppress artillery, which was not a way to deal with it, and his success was entirely due to good luck, and in this world line, he had much more confidence. In total, he had nearly 200 aircraft to rely on for his support, no less so than the 19th Panzer Corps commanded by Guderian. Although the commander of this air force was also not favored by the army headquarters, after ten days of contact and getting along with each other before the war, Rommel was convinced that the young man, like himself, was buried in the sand. As long as you get a chance to wash the sand, you can immediately bloom with dazzling brilliance.

In the early morning of the next day, a group of elegantly built naval carrier-based planes flew over the battlefield and, under the guidance of ground signals, they immediately launched a fierce bombardment of the French positions on the west coast like thunder and lightning. Although the pilots of the HNA are not good at identifying land targets, and their control of the battlefield is far less than that of their professional army counterparts, under Fang Yan's ingenious response, their support for the battlefield has also reached a very high level.

In order to let the pilots of the HNA understand the direction of their attacks, Fang Yan converted the squadron leaders of the seven bomber squadrons into full-time communications command aircraft. These aircraft are equipped with high-power radios, which are specially designed to receive distress signals from friendly forces on land; In response to the latter's bombing request, the task was assigned to each aircraft through the team's radio, and the target location and on-site reference were informed. In this way, the accuracy of the bombing of the pilots of the HNA can be greatly guaranteed, and there will be no more situations where the aircraft will bomb the wrong target and the land soldiers will still be blocked.

Of course, there are definitely drawbacks to Fang Yan's measure. The first is that the command plane, which plays the pivotal role of the battlefield, is too fragile and has no combat effectiveness. Once attacked by enemy planes, the command plane could only flee for its life in panic, and the rest of the bombers that relied on it to assign tasks and transmit messages immediately became headless flies, completely losing the ability to influence the situation on land.

Secondly, this initiative is also very demanding on the range requirements of bombers. Since it was not clear when the Army would send a telegram for help, the bomber fleet needed to patrol around the battlefield at all times, otherwise if it was delayed for too long, the battlefield would change, and the effect of dropping bombs would be completely different.

At present, however, these shortcomings are no obstacle at all. In the middle area of the German army's main attack, the German Army Aviation had already mastered air supremacy, and together with the seven squadrons of the Hainan Airlines with a total of 112 fighters, Fang Yan was completely sure to ensure the safety of the command aircraft and the corresponding bombers. In addition, HNA's carrier-based aircraft were originally known for their excellent endurance, and they often had to travel four or five hundred kilometers long distances to engage the enemy fiercely in the vast seas. Now the front line is only more than 150 kilometers from the rear airfield, and the bombers of the HNA are completely able to deal with it with ease.

After hundreds of accurate sorties by the HNA in a row, the dense bullet rain of the French army on the west bank finally became sparse and stagnant. The German river crossing operation began again, and Rommel, who could not be idle, jumped into the first boat of the first river crossing fleet like an infantry company commander, and stood on the bow with his head upright. His courageous approach greatly inspired the soldiers to fight. When a battalion of soldiers had safely crossed the river, Rommel gave the order: attack immediately, without giving the French time to breathe. Armed with a small pistol, he rushed to the front of the line, and his motivated subordinates immediately rushed up to follow their division commander to expand the bridgehead.

Rommel, who had taken up the post of company elder again, was soon in danger. Passing through a wooded area, French reinforcements suddenly arrived, with nearly 2,000 men and a few R-35 tanks, while Rommel had only 500 men with him and no anti-tank weapons. Several officers suggested with panic on their faces that they should retreat and wait for the anti-tank guns to arrive, but Rommel said something astonishing: No, let's go on the offensive!

Although he had not been on the battlefield for more than 20 years, Rommel's bravery did not dissipate. According to the information he had, the French troops stationed here were only second-rate troops, and their lack of fighting spirit was also reflected in the previous battle to cross the river, so Rommel decided to take a gamble. He immediately ordered the soldiers to disperse first, hide in the bushes, and not be allowed to fire. When the French tanks had already driven in front of them, Rommel gave the order, and all the light firepower opened fire together, and fired at the tank that was in the lead.

Although the bullets did nothing to hit the tank, the sudden stormy fire stunned the French. They thought that the Germans had been prepared, and they were so frightened that they retreated again and again. As soon as the German soldiers, who were holding a cold sweat in their palms, breathed a sigh of relief, they were horrified to find that their division commander had been the first to jump out of cover and lead a dozen guards to continue the attack, so they hurriedly rushed forward to protect them. By this time, several tanks had already disappeared without a trace, and the rest of the French soldiers lost their courage when they saw that they had been abandoned; Under the apprehensive gaze of the German soldiers, the French soldiers, who were much outnumbered of them, kept coming out of the bushes and slowly laid down their weapons.

That night, the pontoon bridge over the Maas River was built, and the German bridgehead on the west bank was suddenly reinforced and became truly solid. Rommel, who had just experienced a battle at the front, was in high spirits, and he was planning the next offensive in order to crush the enemy in front of him and really break through the French line along the river.

"The German armoured units have crossed the Maas River at Sedan!"

On the night of 13 May, the Allied Command on the Franco-Belgian border received an urgent report from the 9th Army, and Gammelin read a dozen pages of telegrams with trembling hands, and his face turned pale.

As of this evening, the defense line of the Maas River has been broken through in three places by the Germans, and according to the confessions of several prisoners captured by the French army, the Germans who crossed the river belonged to the 2nd, 19th, and 41st Panzer Corps, which were the most famous tank corps under Hitler's command. All the phenomena point to a situation that Gammel least wants to see: the main force of the German armored forces has struck directly from the weakest center of the entire Allied front like a thunderbolt!

Although Gammelin was puzzled by how the German tank cluster had passed through the Ardennes jungle, the more urgent task now was to stop the German advance. Especially in the Sedan direction, Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps had already expanded its bridgehead position to 10 kilometers, and if the coalition forces did not take countermeasures, the total rout of the defenders along the Maas River would only be a matter of two or three days.

Gan Molin knew very well that the 9th Army, with the 2nd Line Division as the main force, would not be able to stop the elite German tank forces in the field, and once the 9th Army collapsed, it would lead to immeasurable and catastrophic consequences. At that time, the German army could outflank the Allied forces in Belgium to the north, take Paris directly to the west, and go around behind the Maginot Line to the south, and flank the German army in front of it!

"What are the closest troops to the direction of Sedang?" Gan Mo Lin suddenly spoke loudly. Several staff officers next to him immediately rushed to check and quickly gave a reply under the constant urging of Gan Molin. At this time, the French command had a total of 32 divisions in strategic reserves, but most of them were deployed on the northern flank and in the direction of the Maginot Line, and only 3 reserve divisions could be immediately put into the dangerous section of the Maas.

However, if it can be bought for 4 to 5 days, the French army can gather 10 divisions from the rear to rush to the center, plus 4~5 divisions withdrawn from the two flanks, it is enough to re-consolidate the defense in the middle of the battle line.

"This is not enough, the German forces on the west bank of the Maas River must be contained at the source." Gan Molin frowned, and his thoughts began to spin rapidly. Although the French reserve divisions were nominally divisions, most of them had a huge gap with the main forces on the front line in terms of equipment and training level, and it was obviously unreliable to expect them to be a new force to resist the German elite for several days. Ganmalin realized that the most immediate and effective countermeasure was to send planes to blow up the pontoon bridge over the Maas River. As long as the German army on the west bank did not receive sufficient reinforcements, they could only lie on their stomachs, and even face the threat of being driven down the river.

"Your Excellency, Lord Gordon, Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, has arrived, ready to discuss with you the war in the Sedan region." An adjutant ran from outside the door and reported to Ganmalin. Gammelin was pleasantly surprised when he heard this, and he was about to ask the British Air Force to blow up the pontoon bridge as well, when Gordon's arrival was in his arms.