Chapter 133: A Breakthrough in the Pincer Offensive
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Dijon, a city in eastern France, is located about 290 kilometers from Paris.
During the first phase of the French campaign, Dijon was captured by the 5th Panzer Division of the German 15th Panzer Corps on the march.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of 4 June, Dijon had been transformed into a military city, and the figures of Waffen-SS troops in camouflage uniforms, army officers in dark green uniforms, and air force officers and men in blue uniforms shuttled through the streets and alleys of Dijon.
Tanks, armoured vehicles, trucks, and military cars of all kinds poured through the streets of Dijon, and the sound of metal grinding as the tracks of the tanks turned, and the loud honking of car horns, made the streets of the city restless for a moment.
The military train leaving Dijon had four manned carriages, which were filled with passengers who had to return to Germany to recuperate and the military doctors who cared for them.
The moment the two trains staggered across the railway, the wounded and the medic clearly saw that the military train flashing outside the window was a square tank with the barrel raised high.
"It's the fourth G, and our new tank has finally arrived." A wounded man with a bandage on his head and only one eye could not help but cry out when he saw the appearance of the tank.
He was wearing a black uniform and was clearly a tanker.
He wasn't the only one excited in the carriage. The wounded and medics, both sitting and lying down, looked out the window. I watched as the formidable steel monsters flashed past the window.
"Five, six, seven, the wounded with bandages on their heads were counted quickly.
"Eleven, twelve, thirteen" is more than one person who has the same thoughts as him. Dozens of muffled counting voices echoed in the carriage.
"You see, there is not only the Type 4G, but also the Tank Destroyer No. 4, which I have seen in the Hermangoling Regiment of the Air Force, and they can take out the B1 tanks of the French at a distance of more than a thousand meters."
"What are the latter ones? The ones with short and thick barrels? ”
"It's the number four assault gun."
"These guys look very strong and with these big guys we can definitely take Paris in three weeks."
"It's a pity that if I hadn't been injured, I would have gone to the Hermangoling Regiment to learn how to use the No. 4G tank, and I might have been able to use the No. 4G tank by now."
"We had a No. 3 tank crew in our company sent for training. They said that Mr. Lawson and Mr. Mandolfer in the training class were very good. ”
"I've heard of them, too, these new weapons designed by Mr. Lawson."
"Mr. Mandol used to be an instructor at the Armored Forces School, and he taught me in March last year, and he was indeed a good teacher, but I didn't expect to be transferred to the Air Force."
"That Mr. Rosen is also very good, and when each student graduates, he will give them a unique cigarette of the Herman Goring Regiment, which is the one I smoke now, the cosmic card."
Amid the gossip in the carriage, the military train loaded with all kinds of killing weapons on the opposite side staggered past the train they were riding. rushed headlong into the city of Dijon.
Seeing the black smoke billowing from the chimney and the steam whistle shaking the sky, the six restless pick-up teams that had been waiting on the platform for a long time saluted in unison. There was a burning glow in his eyes.
Before the 7th Armored Division received the car, Chen Dao lowered his voice and said to Rommel who was standing beside him: "The five extra tanks I gave you will be mixed in our regiment's convoy first, and I will give them to you when I return to Bona City, remember not to expose the target." ”
Rommel nodded and said, "I understand." ”
With a whirring sound, the locomotive slowly stopped in front of the square, and the five armored divisions of the Kleist Panzer Group and the pick-up personnel of the Hermann Goren's Regiment rushed up and began to collect their equipment in the order of number.
Three hours later, south of Dijon, a convoy of No. 4 G tanks, No. 4 tank destroyers and other equipment rushed out of Dijon and headed for Beaune, 30 kilometers southwest of Dijon.
Instead of riding his Bandit No. 1, Chen Dao squeezed into Rommel's car.
"Have you seen the aerial photos, the French are relying on the countryside and woods to build a ring position, these ring positions are blocking our way to advance, it is very tricky, what are you going to do?" Chen Dao asked.
"I saw the photos taken by the Air Force reconnaissance plane, and they thought that curling up like hedgehogs would block our way, which was so naïve." Rommel smiled contemptuously.
"Yes, as soon as I look at that kind of position, I know that the person who laid this kind of position is definitely a layman in tank warfare." Chen Dao also sneered.
A sly look flashed in Rommel's eyes, and he asked Chen Dao, "How are you going to deal with them?" ”
"I decided to deal with them like the lyrics of the Panzer Song." Chen Dao said.
Rommel raised his eyes to the upper left, remembered for a few seconds, and then said in a deep voice: "In the face of the enemy's so-called barrier, we give a contemptuous ridicule. ”?
"Then simply bypass." Chen Dao continued.
The two looked at each other and laughed.
After laughing, Rommel thought to himself that he really underestimated this "Your Excellency Brother-in-law", originally thought that he relied on nepotism to sit in the position of the head of the Hermann Goring Regiment, but now it seems that "Your Excellency Brother-in-law" does have his advantages, not to mention anything else, just by his ability to personally design those new weapons, as well as the thinking of mobile warfare that has just been revealed, it is enough to prove his strength.
My previous thoughts were really a little dark, and I still have to look at him with a normal heart in the future.
Rommel thought about the next battle, no matter what, he could not lose to the young man next to him in the race to Paris, this race was not only about his face. It is also about the honor of the Army. You can only win. Can't lose.
"The day after tomorrow is going to attack, what are you going to do tomorrow?" Rommel asked.
"Tomorrow I plan to let the shells fly for a day and use the positions of the French to hone in on the new equipment." Chen Dao said with a smile
At 5 a.m. on June 5, in the village of Bouylang, northwest of the city of Beaune.
Captain Vinson, the company commander of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division of the French Ninth Infantry Division, rolled out of bed amid a violent explosion.
When Captain Vincent, wearing only underwear, ran out of the room and rushed out of the courtyard barefoot, he found that the explosions in the village had disappeared without a trace.
Could it be that I'm hallucinating? Captain Vinson pricked up his ears in confusion to listen to the sounds of the village, but heard only the shouts of the soldiers.
"Captain, we were shelled by the Germans, at least 105 mm caliber shells." A sergeant rushed into the courtyard. shouted to Captain Vincent, who was standing in a daze.
It seemed that he was not hallucinating, and Captain Vincent was relieved.
"How many casualties?" Captain Vinson asked.
"It's being counted, it should be slight."
"Where did the shells land? Let's take a look. Captain Vincent said as he walked out of the courtyard.
The sergeant looked at Captain Vinson with a hesitant look in his eyes.
"Is there a problem?". Captain Vinson asked.
"Are you going to put your clothes on first?" The sergeant kindly reminded.
By the time Captain Vincennes appeared neatly dressed in front of the other soldiers, the casualty statistics had already come out.
In addition to the fact that eight soldiers were wounded and two companies of officers and men outside the village, including Captain Vincent, were frightened, the German shells did not cause further losses.
After treating the wounded and having breakfast, Captain Vincenne walked around the village of Bouillon as usual, inspecting the positions outside the village.
Look at the machine gun emplacements, pillboxes, and anti-tank gun emplacements, as well as the young faces of the soldiers in the trenches. Captain Vincenne couldn't help but feel a surge of pride in his heart.
With a fortified position, an infantry company and a machine-gun company. There are also six anti-tank guns that have been strengthened for themselves, and they must let the Germans suffer a lot here and enjoy the pain of defeat.
What if the Germans had won major victories in previous battles? That's because they used a mobile way of warfare that the French army was not good at.
However, the current mode of combat has been changed to the positional warfare that the French army is best at, and the Germans cannot give full play to their mobile advantages, even if they send their tank troops, they will definitely hit their heads in front of their powerful anti-tank guns, not to mention that France also has tanks, as long as they can hold out long enough, the powerful tank troops will immediately come to reinforcements.
Captain Vincent was just getting up when a faint roar suddenly came from the sky. Captain Vinson looked up and saw a group of planes appear in the eastern sky.
Those damned crows, can't they be quiet for a day? Captain Vinson stared at the German planes and cursed incessantly.
Since his troops were stationed here, he would see Luftwaffe planes flying overhead and bombing the heart of France every day, but he had never seen French Air Force planes bombing Germany in the east, where did the French Air Force go.
The Luftwaffe planes flew closer and closer, and Captain Vincenne stood proudly in the open space by the trench, pinching his waist with his left hand and said to the soldiers in the trench and his entourage: "Do you see, the people of the air force are unreliable, and the future of France can only be defended by our army, if we"
Before Captain Vincent finished speaking, his face suddenly changed, and he jumped into the trench with his legs raised, and then covered his ears and lowered his body.
A series of explosions rang out near the trenches, and the ground shook, and countless pieces of earth flew into the trenches and landed on Captain Vincent's body, and the pungent smell of sulfur was heard in the air.
As in the first shelling, the explosions lasted only about a minute before they stopped.
After squatting in the trench for a while, and making sure that the shelling had really stopped, Captain Vincent slapped the dirt off his body and slowly straightened up to look out of the trench.
After seeing the scene outside the trenches, Captain Vincent covered his mouth sharply.
Two meters away from him, a bloody head lay silently on the ground, a pair of eyes on the skull staring at him deadly, and Captain Vincent could clearly feel the fear in those eyes.
It's François. He was an orderly with him for two years. Captain Vincent's body trembled when he recognized the identity of the deceased.
I want revenge. I want revenge, I must take revenge! Captain Vinson roared in his heart.
Five minutes later, the characteristic sound of mortar fire was heard in the village of Buyilang
The German shelling came from the artillery battalion of the Hermann Goring regiment, sixteen guns in two groups. Hiding behind the trenches of the German infantry, they fired three rapid fires at intervals or so at the village of Bouillon and a forested circular position to the south of him.
Soon after the German infantry positions were returned fire by French mortars, the infantry guns and mortars on the positions also roared, and the sound of artillery and explosions on both positions rang out for a whole day, until nightfall they ceased fire and slept without end.
After a day of artillery battles with the Germans on the opposite side. Captain Vincent let out a vicious breath and went back to spend the night contentedly, and for the sake of safety, instead of sleeping in a comfortable house tonight, he moved to an underground bunker outside the village.
At 4:30 a.m. on June 6, Captain Vinson sat up from his bed and listened intently to the sounds outside the bunker.
"Oh no, it's not harassment this time." Captain Vincent, hearing the dense and violent explosions outside the bunker, jumped off the camp bed with his leg raised.
"Hollande, what are you waiting for. Bring me my shoes. Captain Vincent's face bruised and he shouted at the door.
A private rushed in with a piss in his ass. He carried a pair of leather shoes and threw them at Captain Vinson's feet, and then served Captain Vinson in his military uniform.
The tremors from the walls of the underground bunker intensified, and from time to time dirt fell on the roof of the bedroom onto Captain Vincent's head and shoulders.
Ignoring the dirt off his body, Captain Vinson got dressed and rushed to the hall of the bunker with his pistol and listened to the explosions outside. After about ten minutes, the explosions outside had become quieter, and he shouted to the others in the bunker: "The time has come to teach the Germans, follow me." With that, he was the first to run out of cover, and the others followed closely behind him.
Captain Vincenne ran along the trench, ran to a gun emplacement, crouched down beside the gunner, and looked east.
The tanks of the Germans, and there were a lot of them, Captain Vincenne's gaze quickly swept across the battlefield. The Germans on the opposite side had about a dozen tanks without turrets, about twenty armored vehicles, and countless infantry behind them.
With a sinister smile on his face, Captain Vinson pointed to the approaching German tank seven or eight hundred meters away and ordered the gunners around him to open fire.
Captain Vinson was confident in the power of the SA1937 47 mm anti-tank gun, which could penetrate 89 mm of steel at a distance of 500 meters and 72 mm at a distance of 1000 meters.
Although there were only two anti-tank guns in the village of Buylang, it was enough to teach the Germans a lesson, and the German tanks would certainly not be able to stop his might.
Dozens of seconds later, the sound of artillery sounded next to Captain Vincent, and a German tank broke its right track and collapsed on the spot.
Count him lucky, hit his tracks, Captain Vincent snorted coldly in his heart.
Ten seconds later, the second shell was fired at a rapid pace, but nothing happened.
Didn't hit? Captain Vincent's heart suddenly became angry.
"Aim and then shoot, don't waste shells." Captain Vinson shouted to the gunner.
The sight spotted carefully for a while, and then fired a third shot, and the shell hit the target, but was sent into the air.
No way! How could such a tank, which did not even have a turret, be so hard? Captain Vincent was dumbfounded.
At this time, the sound of guns and artillery in the village of Buyilang had already resounded, anti-tank guns and mortars opened fire one after another, and light and heavy machine guns at various firing points in and outside the village also spat out tongues of fire to suppress the German infantry.
More than a dozen No. 4 assault guns of the Germans rushing to the front line stopped one after another, using solid front armor to fire at the French troops on the opposite side.
Seeing that the French had been successfully lured out, a radio wave quickly flew out of the German SDKFZ251 armored convoy, and the German artillery, which had been silent for a short time, became active again.
Twelve wasp howitzers and four wild bee howitzers smashed countless high-explosive shells into the village of Buyilang, which was immediately plunged into a sea of flames.
Houses were reduced to rubble along with the French infantry hiding inside in the explosions, and countless craters were scattered in the streets, like the surface of the moon.
The situation was even more miserable on the French positions outside the village. Large chunks of dirt and countless grasses fell into the trenches. Raining down on the French. Blood gushed from the ears of many French soldiers, and from time to time the stumps and severed arms of French soldiers flew out of the trenches.
Four or five machine-gun bunkers were also hit, and the bunkers, which had risen one block above the ground, were instantly gone, leaving only a pit and flesh mixed in the dirt.
Finding that the French fire in the village was suppressed by artillery fire, the German troops resumed the attack.
The No. 4 assault gun, which rushed to the front and acted as a steel shield, approached a distance of two or three hundred meters from the forward position of the French army, and the 105-mm high-explosive shells mercilessly killed the stubborn French fire points one by one, and after two rounds of fire, none of the four 25-mm anti-tank guns on the French position in Bouillon Village survived. Only one of the two 47-mm anti-tank guns remained.
"You resist, I'll go find reinforcements."
Captain Vincent turned around and ran after speaking, and just ran five or six meters away when he heard a loud noise behind him, and a huge wave of air hit his back, and he couldn't control his body and stumbled to the ground.
After being dizzy for a while, Captain Vincent got up and spat out the dirt and grass from his mouth, as well as a bloody front tooth, and shouted in horror, "Retreat, retreat." ”
Captain Vinson shouted and ran towards the village first, by which time the second round of German artillery shelling had stopped. The infantry were following behind the assault gun No. 4 for a final charge.
As soon as Captain Vinson entered the village, he ran into Captain Henry, the company commander of the heavy weapons company.
"Hold on a little longer. I've called the battalion to send reinforcements, they're on their way, and we'll have to hold out until reinforcements arrive. Henry shouted.
"We can't wait for reinforcements, we have to retreat immediately, the Germans are right behind me, they are about to enter the village, they are much stronger than we thought. Otherwise, you go to fend off the Germans, and I'll go to meet the reinforcements. After Captain Vinson finished speaking, he flicked his hand and ran to the west of the village with Hollande, the orderly.
Captain Henry was stunned for a moment as he watched his partner's fleeing back, then stomped his foot and ran with Captain Vincent to the west of the village.
Captain Vincennes was sweating profusely when he was suddenly grabbed by the arm by Hollande, who was following behind.
"What are you doing?" Captain Vincennes shook off Hollande's hand and roared, "Don't you know I'm going to meet reinforcements? You"
"Look there." Hollande shouted, pointing to a courtyard.
Captain Vincent subconsciously looked at it, and was immediately overjoyed. Hollande pointed to the courtyard where he had stayed the night before, where the courtyard wall had collapsed three or four meters long, revealing the situation in the courtyard.
The house in which he had stayed the night before had been reduced to rubble, and only the stable, which was still intact, in which a black steed and a mule were neighing restlessly.
God forbid! Captain Vincent's face was beaming with joy.
Two minutes later, a knight rushed out of the courtyard and ran southwest of the village of Builang, followed by a follower on a mule.
Outside the village of Bouillang, 23 SDKFZ251 armored vehicles of the 1st battalion and 1st company of the Hermangolin Regiment did not follow the infantry directly into the village, but went around from the fields south of the village to the west of the village, preparing to cut off the retreat of the French troops in the village in one fell swoop.
The paratroopers of the first company had just bypassed the south of the village and were approaching the west of the village, when they suddenly saw two knights rushing out of the village.
"They must be officers, beating their horses." Sergeant Steiner shouted to the machine gunners beside him.
The machine gunner pressed the muzzle of the gun and pulled the trigger.
The bullet flew mercilessly, hitting the buttocks of the two knights' mounts, and the knight's horse under the crotch of the knight running in front let out a painful neigh, and the man stood up and threw his master to the ground.
Shaking his head to dispel the Venus in front of him, Captain Vincent sat up with his hands on his hands, only to see an armored car rushing to his side with a strong wind and coming to a stop, followed by several big men in green military uniforms jumping out of the car.
"I," Captain Vinson was about to speak, when he heard a low growl.
"Shut up." The butt of a rifle slammed into his left cheek, knocking him to the ground.
"My teeth," Captain Vincent's last thought flashed through his mind, and his eyes went black.
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ps: The body has gradually recovered, and Wednesday began to resume two shifts a day, the first shift is before two o'clock in the afternoon, the second one is before ten o'clock in the evening, and the third shift is on Sunday. (A good event for pie in the sky, cool mobile phones are waiting for you!) Follow from ~ Dian/Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter ddxiaoshuo), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to ddxiaoshuo WeChat public account! (To be continued......)