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At 8:30 a.m. on May 8, 1940, Chen Dao led the ghost battle group into Luxembourg and began the battle journey on the Western Front.

When the Ghost Strike Group entered Luxembourg, Mandolfer led the headquarters of the Herman Goering Regiment and had just entered the town of Floin, France.

The town of Floin is located two kilometers northwest of Sedan and about 1,500 meters south of the town is the Maas River.

In a nondescript bungalow in the north of Flointown, Mandolfil set up the regimental headquarters and began to assign tasks to each department.

The reconnaissance company was also in the town of Floin, the heavy weapons battalion, the tank battalion, and the engineer battalion had already moved into the forest east of Floin, the artillery battalion was concealed in St. Mange, a kilometer north of Floin, and the air defense battalion had already passed through the forest to the north and was about to arrive at the town of St. Mange, and although the two paratrooper battalions were at the back of the regiment, judging by the itinerary, they could all arrive before the start of the battle to cross the river at 3 p.m.

Confirming that the actions of the various units were correct, Mandolfer breathed a sigh of relief and remembered the task that Guderian had assigned to him.

"Your task is to cover the forced crossing of the Maas by the infantry of the Greater German Regiment, and as soon as the pontoon bridge is erected, you lead your troops to cross the river first, then expand the landing field to the south, and repel the French counterattack."

Mandolfil looked at his watch and saw that it was already 10:40, 4 hours and 20 minutes before the action began.

For the previous three days, the Hermann Goering Regiment had been kept by Guderian as a military reserve, but it only followed the military headquarters, and the task of opening the road in front was all entrusted to the three Panzer Divisions and the Großdeutsches Motorized Rifle Regiment.

This afternoon's river crossing will see the first battle of the Hermangoling regiment, and in the next three or four days it will become the protagonist from a spectator of the war.

"Stand upright." A loud voice suddenly shouted, and Mandolfil reflexively straightened up, and then heard a rough voice say, "Take a break." ”

Hearing this, Mandolfil immediately knew that his old superior was coming. From October 1935, Mantofil began to serve as a company commander in the 2nd Motorcycle Battalion of the 2nd Panzer Division, and was later transferred by the division commander to the 2nd Panzer Division School to train cadets and alternate officers, and that division commander was the famous Guderian.

The uninvited guest who broke into the regimental headquarters of Hermangolin was none other than Guderian, the commander of the 19th Panzer Corps, who walked up to Mandolfer and asked, "There are still twenty minutes before the outpost battle starts, are you ready?" ”

"The troops participating in the river crossing operation are ready, and the follow-up troops will all arrive before three o'clock." Mandolfil said.

"I'll stay here until the river crossing is successful, and I'll see for myself the power of those new weapons." Guderian said excitedly.

Twenty minutes later, Mandolfer and Guderian saw the hands of their watches pointing to eleven o'clock at the same time.

Guderian pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while, then raised the index finger of his right hand and pointed to the roof and said, "The people of the Air Force are very punctual. ”

Mandolfil also heard the roar of the engines of airplanes outside, and he and Guderian walked to the courtyard outside the house, looked up, and saw a group of planes flying in the eastern sky.

"Forty to fifty planes, a flying group." Guderian put down the telescope in his hand and said.

Mandolfil asked suspiciously, "What is enough for such a small number of planes?" ”

"These should only be the first batch." Guderian said.

As the group got closer, Mandolfil saw the plane's distinctive seagull-shaped wings and immediately recognized it as a Stuka dive bomber.

The fire of artillery was heard on the south bank of the Maas River, and the French also spotted this murderous German group, and the anti-aircraft guns immediately fired countless shells into the air to stop the Luftwaffe bombing.

The pilots of the Stuka dive bombers, ignoring the heavy artillery fire on the ground, launched a dive towards the French positions on the south bank of the Maas River, and a terrible scream soon resounded over the French positions.

The screaming Grim Reapers' fifty-kilogram and five-hundred-kilogram bombs mercilessly smashed into the French artillery positions, which were noticeably weaker.

At the cost of the downing of two Stuka dive bombers, the Luftwaffe completed the first round of bombing, and the Stuka bomber group regrouped in the air, and then turned away in style, leaving only more than 100 craters, large and small.

Confirming that the terrible Grim Reaper was gone, the surviving French soldiers cautiously ran out of their hideouts to the craters to treat the wailing wounded.

The French soldiers had just evacuated a third of the wounded, lifting or supporting, when the roar of engines could be heard in the sky.

The frightened French soldiers looked up at the sky and were horrified to find that the sound of engines was coming from the east.

The planes of the Germans! A French soldier let out a heart-rending cry before running back to the hideout.

Panic spread like a plague among the French soldiers, quickly spreading to every soldier. There was no need for an order, and the French soldiers on the ground scattered in a hurry, and each fled for his life.

Do-17Z horizontal bombers of a group of the German 2nd Air Regiment soon flew in and threw more than forty tons of bombs in rows at the French positions on the banks of the river.

The third wave of bombers came faster, and before the Do-17Z horizontal bombers who had finished dropping their bombs left, they flashed in the sky.

Wave after wave of bombers appeared in the sky near Sedan one after another, dropping countless aerial bombs.

The bombs that fell near the artillery positions suppressed the French artillery, and the bombs that fell on the various transport hubs prevented the French from moving.

The air raids continued for two full hours and did not stop, but intensified.

On the ground, on the north bank of the Maas River, artillery of the German Army joined the shelling of the French. The three artillery regiments of the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions, as well as the artillery regiments of the 19th Panzer Corps, opened fire one after another, firing countless shells across the Maas River.

Artillery shells were not as powerful as aerial bombs, but they were more accurate, and all the pillboxes and machine-gun positions on the other side of the Maas River that were exposed to the German artillery observation posts were destroyed one by one, leaving only countless craters, gun parts and dead bodies, and some French soldiers hiding in the pillboxes were buried alive by the collapsed pillboxes.

Guderian and Mantofel could not see the fate of the French army, and by this time they had moved to Saint-Mange, farther away from the river.

Guderian stretched out his hand, tremblingly pointed to the artillery battalion of the Hermangolin regiment, which was in full swing, and said angrily to Mantufer: "How can the people of the Air Force be like this, they are really too dishonest. I have proposed that in order for tanks to receive more timely artillery support, self-propelled guns need to be developed to complement tank operations. You know Marshal Goering, no, he wasn't a marshal at that time, do you know what General Goering said? ”

Mandolfil let out a bitter wail in his heart, this was the fourth time, since seeing the twelve Wasp self-propelled howitzers and four Wild Hornet self-propelled howitzers in the artillery battalion, Guderian had an average of one attack every two days, complaining about the old grudges with Goering.

General Goering said that with the support of the Air Force's Stuka bombers, self-propelled guns were completely unnecessary, and the design was nothing more than a waste of resources. But now, you see, what are these? How can the Air Force do this, they are deceiving friendly forces. ”

Mandolfer could only remain silent, silently carrying the black pot for Goering.

Mandolfer said that there was no way to explain this, and even if he explained that these weapons were designed and developed by the regimental commander, Guderian would not believe it.

After all, this regiment was named after Goering, and to say that Goering knew nothing about the development of these weapons, only a ghost would believe it.

And even if the ghost would believe it, Guderian wouldn't believe it.

But then again, on the surface, this matter is indeed not handled by the Air Force.

Looking at the angry Guderian, Mandolfil frowned and took it to heart.

"The time for the infantry to attack is almost up, and we should go to the river to watch the infantry cross the river."

Guderian was successfully distracted, and he looked at his watch and saw that it was already half past two.

"Let's go to the river and see how those assault guns and tank destroyers perform." Guderian said as he walked to a Type 251-3 communication vehicle parked on the side.

On the way to the river, Guderian said to Mandol, who was sitting next to him: "If the Air Force has new equipment in the future, you must find a way to inform me, our friendship for so many years is not fake, you have to help me with this." ”

Seeing that his old superior played the friendship card to himself for the fourteenth time, Mandol said in embarrassment: "You know that the Air Force also has confidentiality regulations, so let's do it, I will invite you to the regiment from time to time in the future to guide, and the rest, you understand?" ”

"I understand." Guderian said with a smile.

"However, the head of the regiment has already returned from Norway, and it won't be long before you see him, you can tell him your request directly, and with what I know about him, I think he will agree." Mandolfil suggested.

"I'm definitely going to look for him." Guderian nodded.

At the risk of being bombarded by French artillery, Guderian and Mandolfer went to an artillery forward observation post, which was set up in the area of the river crossing of the Greater German Regiment.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, with a piercing whistle, groups of German soldiers, the infantry of the 2nd Battalion of the Großdeutsches regiment, rushed towards the Maas River with rubber boats and assault boats.

Behind the infantrymen there was a whimming sound of metal scraping, and 10 No. 4 assault guns and 14 No. 4 tank destroyers were revealed, providing direct-aim artillery support to the infantry of the Greater German Regiment.

With rubber boats and assault boats thrown into the Maas River, the German army's river crossing operations officially began. (My novel "Eagle of the Third Reich" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner to "add friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up! )

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