By the night of May 14, the black soldiers of the 9th Army had run out, while the French soldiers had been fighting the German armored forces for three days, and had been repeatedly hit by inferior equipment and training. In particular, the troops defending Sedan had long since completely lost their will to fight under the intensive bombardment of thousands of German planes on 13 May. Therefore, when Clapp's order to retreat was issued, a large number of French soldiers whose confidence was shaken and tired and difficult instantly lost the spirit of fighting again, for them, it was enough to remember the word "retreat", and as for where they should withdraw and stop the order to rebuild their defenses, they were all thrown out of the clouds.

Of course, the entire French 9th Army was not all weak-willed. About half of the remnants of the army followed Clapp's instructions and withdrew towards the predetermined defensive line, but one of them had just arrived in the village of Philip Weil and before they could enter the position, the tanks of the German 7th Panzer Division appeared in front of them like divine soldiers.

As the saying goes, people are unlucky, and drinking cold water stuffs their teeth. The fortunes of the French in 1940 were indeed at their peak. After hundreds of planes bombed the pontoon bridge, covering countless targets but only hitting one shot, the French army once again fell into blood mold. In fact, Rommel did not anticipate in advance that the French would use this place as the central part of the subsequent defensive line. The reason why his tank drove to the village of Philip Weil was entirely due to the weak protection of the Type 38T tank, which had to avoid the anti-tank gun positions on the front line, and only to accidentally crash into the core of the new French defensive line.

In the face of a large number of infantry in front of them, the German tanks opened fire unceremoniously and frantically. When the French soldiers saw the German tanks reappear in front of them like ghosts, what little fighting spirit they had left completely collapsed - light and heavy weapons were thrown everywhere, and everyone was desperate to flee for their lives. Even the bravest soldiers were swept up and overwhelmed by the fleeing crowd. The French 9th Army, with its 9 divisions, ceased to exist that morning, and the units were completely scattered, and the regimental commander or even the battalion commander could not find their own men.

For France, the most serious thing was not the collapse of the 9th Army, but the resulting butterfly effect.

In the morning of the same day, the French 1st Panzer Division and the 3rd Colonial Division, which had been withdrawn from the 2nd Army in the North by order of Gan Molin, had just arrived on the Central Front. The commander of the French 1st Panzer Division received the battle situation information from Clapp, and confidently prepared to march 20 kilometers and deliver a fierce hook to Rommel's right flank. However, just as he was about to refuel for this attack, he found that his fuel supply convoy was all blocked on the road by the rout of the 9th Army, and it was difficult to move an inch.

In this way, the officers and men of the 1st French Panzer Division could only watch Rommel's troops advance in a roundabout way, and in turn copied their right flank. Most of the French tanks were starved of fuel and reduced to immobile targets, largely destroyed or captured by the Germans without much fighting.

The reaction of the 3rd Colonial Division was even more unbearable. These black soldiers recruited from North Africa did not regard France as their homeland in the first place, and the main reason for them to join the army was that they could not stay in their homeland and came out to eat. When they encountered a large number of routs of the 9th Army, they fled to the rear without thinking about it - even the national soldiers who defended their homes and the country ran away, and they were still stunned for what kind of strength? So, they mixed in with the rout of the 9th Army and came on a thousand-mile race from the Ardennes to Paris.

If only the French army had fled on the road, the situation would not have become irreparable. Because the French army itself did not deploy too many men and horses in the middle of the battle line, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers were diluted by the various roads, and the density of people in the rear was lightened, and the reserves that came later could easily gather the defeated troops and re-establish their positions. However, at this time, millions of ordinary French civilians still lived on this land.

As early as 1939, after France declared war on Germany, in order to prevent innocent people from being poisoned by the war, the French government had a large-scale internal migration of civilians near the northeastern border. The rear of the Maginot Line soon became inaccessible, and historic Strasbourg even became an empty city. But for the French, this approach will undoubtedly hurt themselves as well. Not to mention, the wealth that was forced to be given up during the migration alone is a frightening figure, and the proper resettlement of the subsequent refugees is enough to make the strapped French government struggling.

Therefore, the French government will not remove people except in the kind of front-line areas that are really very dangerous. The Ardennes region in the middle of the front was not a concern of the French military, and the large area behind it was a fertile growing area, so the order of life here was almost unchanged from before the war.

When the French people saw their army defeated from the front, they were terrified. According to French government propaganda, the brutal German army would kill all the French people they encountered along the way; And even if a minority of the population did not believe this, no one wanted to be a slave under German rule. As a result, countless French civilians dragged their families and drove their livestock, pushing large bags and all kinds of luggage vehicles and began to flee southward, and these millions of people acted like an avalanche to block all the roads that could be passed.

Due to the violent outbreak of the refugee influx, all the French reserves rushing to support in the direction of the Maas River were blocked on the road. The officers were furious with their eyebrows, but they could not get the refugees out of the way. After all, these tired and weak women and children who fled miserably with a little pity are their compatriots, and it is obvious that strong means will not work, and shouting loudly will not have any effect at all.

Just when these reinforcements were at a loss, the front line rout arrived. They described with horror how the Germans were so strong that they were invincible, and claimed that thousands of German tanks had broken through the lines, and that it was important to turn around and flee with them now. The reinforcements were already unable to advance, and after being described by the front-line friendly forces in a panic, the fighting spirit in their hearts suddenly dissipated, and they also joined the retreat.

If you compare the situation on the eve of the Battle of the Marne in 1914, the contrast is so strong! Although the French army 26 years ago was defeated and lost in the early battle, and kept retreating, the will to fight did not fade in the slightest, and when the commander-in-chief of Xia Fei raised his arms and shouted, he could immediately turn around and counterattack, driving the German army back hundreds of kilometers in one go. Today, after being broken through the defensive line, the French army was crushed like mud and sand, let alone launching a counterattack, and did not even have the courage to stop fleeing.

The reason for this is that the tragic losses in the world war, the defensive strategy of passive retreat of the military leadership, and the surging and continuous strikes and protests during the interwar have fundamentally and completely emptied the arrogant spirit of this army with an incomparably glorious history, making it a walking corpse with no appearance. When their defensive operations were shattered, they no longer had any fighting faith, and could only be regarded as a group of militants!

In the lounge on the side of his office, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is sleeping in a small bed in the lounge at 10 Downing Street in London. The bed was scattered, and most of it had been kicked to the ground unconsciously, and at the same time, his brows furrowed, as if he was still struggling with some thorny headache in his dream,

"Jingle bell!" The rapid ringing of the telephone was suddenly loud and harsh in the quiet room, and Churchill on the bed suddenly became agitated, turned over and sat up, and opened his bloodshot eyes. Churchill walked barefoot out of the room briskly and found the voice coming from the red phone on his desk. An ominous premonition suddenly swelled up in his heart, and after a moment of hesitation, he finally brought the earpiece to his ear with some trembling.

There was silence on the other end of the line, as if someone had done a prank, but Churchill's heart was pounding, as if he were about to meet a storm. It took more than ten seconds for French Prime Minister Renaud's familiar voice to come through, and the tone was a calm that he tried to hide under the pain: "We have been defeated." ”

In an instant, Churchill stood as if he had been struck by lightning, holding the earpiece in a daze, as if frozen. Renault on the other end of the phone did not respond for a long time, thinking that Churchill had just not heard clearly, and repeated in a low voice in English: "We have been defeated." The front line was broken through, their large numbers of tanks and armored vehicles poured in, and we had nothing to do. Sir, we have lost this war. ”

Hearing Reynolds' desperate voice, Churchill instantly woke up from his stupor. Out of the instinct of a politician and leader, he immediately made an impassioned tirade on the phone, trying to re-energize the French prime minister opposite, but Reynaud muttered as if he had lost his mind, repeatedly muttering to himself on the phone, "We have been defeated". Churchill's mind thundered, could the great French army be defeated in less than 1 week? If Hitler and Stalin came out and fell in love, Churchill believed the latter news more!

Didn't you say that everything was under control? Moreover, just three days ago, on the night of May 12, Renault also said that there was nothing that did not go well on the land battlefield! Churchill put down the earpiece slowly, his heart filled with shock, confusion, doubt, and a lingering fear.

For some time, Churchill had been preoccupied with the vital maritime situation, doing his best to keep cargo flowing, and had not paid much attention to the land battlefield where Britain was playing the role of soy sauce. Not to mention that the French were so confident before the war, and Churchill had every reason to trust the capabilities of the French Army. But who would have thought that today Renault would suddenly make such a phone call, directly saying that France, which had been undefeated for 4 years in the last war, was now going to kneel after only 6 days?

"No, I have to go to Paris immediately!" Churchill, who was restless, gritted his teeth and made up his mind. You must figure out what kind of irreparable situation the land battlefield has become?