The Du River is a river in eastern France. The birthplace is 937 meters above sea level, near Mut in the Jura Mountains on the territory of Du Province. The upper part of the river is a rapid, which flows out of Lake Saint-Puan and crosses Puntalier to form a waterfall.

The river Doo flows through a 32-kilometre long gorge and flows briefly into Swiss territory, turning sharply west through Saint-Hippolyte to the north to the south of Montbeliard on the Narhine-Loon Canal and then southwest through Besançon, the capital of the province of Doux. Finally, it joins the Saône downstream of Dole and is 430 kilometers long.

The entire flow of the Du River was from northeast to southwest, and the channel was 50 to 60 kilometers southeast of the Franco-Swiss border, and the commander of the French Third Army Group, General Besson, had his troops deployed along the left bank of the Du River to protect the Maginot Line defenders and the last passage of the French interior.

The French Third Army Group, which consisted of eleven infantry divisions of the Sixth and Eighth armies, was originally tasked with defending the Franco-Swiss border against the Germans from entering France via Switzerland.

The battle was unexpected, the Franco-Swiss border was unharmed, and the Maginot Line to the east was as solid as the Alps, but the Germans fought out from the junction of the Second Army Group stationed on the Maginot Line and the First Army Group fighting in Belgium, and successfully crossed the Maas River from the Sedan area.

It was not until 15 May that General Besson learned from a telegram from the High Command that Army Group A, the main force of the Germans, was advancing towards its own defense area, and that the forward forces alone had seven panzer divisions with more than a thousand tanks.

General Besson found himself well aware of the German route, but he did not know where his troops should go to build a defensive line to stop the Germans, because the Germans were advancing too fast. General Besson received information today that a German panzer division had appeared in a certain place, and the next day's intelligence would show that the panzer division had appeared at a location at least 50 kilometers away.

This question also troubled the French High Command, whose latest assignment to General Besson was to secure the Maginot Line defenders and supply lines in the interior of France.

The command is as simple as vague. There is no mention of the specific areas to be fortified and the deadline for the implementation of the mission.

General Besson's first reaction after receiving the order was that the French High Command had been frightened by the German attack and had given himself such an order full of loopholes.

General Besson had no choice. It was necessary to let the troops set up positions on the left bank of the Du River, relying on the natural dangers of the Du River, and at the same time actively contact the commander of the Second Army Group on the Maginot Line, General Prelet. He was asked to send troops to help defend the upper reaches of the Doo, and Admiral Pratt agreed to his request without hesitation.

On the afternoon of 18 May, as soon as the reconstructed defensive line of the 2nd and 3rd Groups had taken shape, General Besson received information that small German reconnaissance units had been spotted in the area of Vosur in the upper reaches of the Dow and in the area of Besançon in the middle reaches of the Doo.

General Besson immediately copied the information to the Supreme High Command and the Second Army Group Command, and then ordered his troops to speed up the construction of fortifications in preparation for the imminent large-scale German offensive.

The 19th and 20th of May were nightmarish days for General Besson.

On 19 May, the first was the report of the reconnaissance plane of the French Air Force. Large numbers of German troops were arriving at the Vossule and Besançon lines, followed by reports of skirmishes with the Germans from the departments along the River Du.

On 20 May, bad news came one after another, and the town of Vosule, an important town in the upper reaches of the Du River, was lost at about 10 a.m. At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Besançon, a city in the middle reaches of the Du River, was occupied by the Germans on the right bank of the Du River.

At 12 o'clock at noon on 21 May, an even more tragic news came when a small German force suddenly appeared in the town of Zhevri, southwest of the city of Dore, in the lower reaches of the Doo, and succeeded in seizing an unblewed bridge in the town and establishing a small bridgehead on the left bank of the Doux.

When General Besson heard the news of the German crossing of the river, his body shook and he almost fell. After the heart was finished, the Du River was broken through, and there was no more power to stop the Germans.

About an hour later. General Besson received another telegram. Seeing the news that the bridge had been destroyed and that the vanguard of the German army had been surrounded in the bridgehead as stated in the telegram, his gloomy eyes regained their brightness.

"Let General de Gaulle's troops speed up, and be sure to destroy the Germans before they get reinforcements."

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was overcast in the Dole area of the lower reaches of the Du River, and the expression on the face of Colonel Rosenberg, the commander of the 25th Panzer Regiment of the 7th Panzer Division, was as gloomy as the weather.

Ignoring the occasional influx of shells from the French from across the Dow River, Colonel Rosenberg hastened to the town of Zhevri, southwest of the city of Dole, in his No. 4 command tank, to join up with the 1st Battalion of the 25th Panzer Regiment, which was fighting there.

"How are the troops of the thirty-seventh reconnaissance battalion?" Rosenburg found the commander of the 1st battalion, Major Schulz, in the west of the town of Zhevry, who, as soon as he jumped out of the tank, impatiently asked about the situation of the 37th Reconnaissance Battalion.

"They're in a bad situation. After crossing the bridge, they encountered a French infantry regiment, reinforced by tanks, in the town of Parse, about three kilometers east of the bridge. They could not stop the counter-charge of the French. I had to fight and retreat until I reached the shore. But the bridge was again blown up by 155-mm shells from the French, and their retreat had been cut off. I can only get the tanks in the battalion to support them across the river with fire on the shore, hoping that they will hold out a little longer. They will have to hold out until at least dark, so that we can cover their retreat from the river, but their heavy equipment will certainly not be able to bring back. ”

Colonel Rosenberg looked at his watch, it was three twenty o'clock, and it was still early in the dark. He looked up at the gloomy sky outside, the air force would definitely not be able to provide support in this weather, and could only rely on the 7th Panzer Division itself.

"The men of the fifty-eighth engineer battalion will arrive later, and when they arrive, you will send someone to cover them to inspect the bridge and the riverbank, and if the bridge can be repaired, it is best to choose a suitable place to rebuild the bridge." Colonel Rosenberg said.

Major Schultz nodded and said, "I will ensure the safety of the sappers, but the men of the 37th Reconnaissance Battalion may not be able to hold out until the sappers build a bridge." ”

"I know. I will bring in the 150mm infantry guns of the 705th Heavy Infantry Artillery Company, whose fire should be able to suppress a large number of French people and relieve the pressure on the reconnaissance battalion. It is a pity that the 78th Artillery Regiment and the 296th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion are in the division commander's place, and if they were there, our pressure would have been greatly reduced. Rosenberg said regretfully.

"Where did they and the division commander go?" Schultz asked.

"They were in Langler when it got dark last night, and the straight-line distance here is about 80 kilometers, which is a bit far, but the division commander said that they will definitely be able to arrive before dark today." Rosenberg said.

"Hopefully, we're in need of heavy firepower right now." (To be continued)