On the east bank of the Somme, the advance positions of the German 7th Panzer Division.

Rommel sat on the front armor of a tank, holding a telescope and looking at the British positions on the opposite side, while the soldiers passing by Rommel couldn't help but stop and look.

But it was not the lieutenant general's presence at the front line that attracted their attention - after all, Rommel's "good name" for commanding on the front line had spread to the Allies - it was the strangely shaped tank under Rommel that attracted their attention.

The tank's low profile bears a striking resemblance to that of the Panzer VI-E Heavy Tiger, the strongest tank in service in Germany, but a closer look reveals that the suspension is somewhat different from the Tiger.

If the chassis of this tank is relatively normal, and the armored troops can at most say "Oh, the armament department has done a new trick", then the turret on the chassis and the tank gun in the center of the turret can really make the armored soldiers spew out the overnight meal.

Because this turret is very large, it is larger than the turret of the Tiger tank, and it stands to reason that a guy who is larger than the turret of the Tiger must have a tank gun with a caliber larger than the Tiger 88mm to match it, right? But Rommel's tank did the opposite, with only a small thin and short water pipe sticking out of the center of the huge turret, and even the antenna mounted behind the turret was thicker and longer.

A discerning person can tell at a glance whether it is a 20mm machine gun or a short-barreled one......

It's as comical as a swordsman with a long, thick scabbard, but only pulls out a pencil sharpener from it in battle.

But it was such a funny-looking tank, but it was treated as a treasure by Rommel, because it was a birthday gift from the Führer himself!

That's right, this tank came from Lyon, which he specially asked the Henschel company to design and build, and he personally named the No. 6 D1 "Command Tiger" tank.

And the reason why Lyon sent this tank to Rommel was really helpless.

Because Rommel's command style was to like to charge in front of the front line with tanks and armored troops, and the German Army's original No. 3 command tank could not withstand the attack of Allied anti-tank guns at full distance, so Lyon specially asked Henschel to develop a new command tank based on the Tiger tank for Rommel's safety.

After several months of R&D and production by Henschel, this "Command Tiger" was finally produced, and after internal tests by the German military, the gap main armor with a thickness of 150mm and an inclination of 30 degrees allowed the "Command Tiger" to resist the attack of the Tiger tank using the PzGr.39 cap-piercing shell at 0 meters! And the Tiger using the PzGr.40 tungsten core armor-piercing projectile also had to reach a distance of 500m to penetrate the main armor of the "Command Tiger".

On the other hand, on the Allied side, no type of anti-tank gun or tank of any type can penetrate the main armor of the "Command Tiger" at 0 meters!

This excellent performance even attracted the attention of the Ministry of Armament, and before the "Command Tiger" was sent to Rommel by Lyon, the tank experts of the Ministry of Armament borrowed the tank and studied it for a long time, and finally drew up a plan for the development of a heavy tank destroyer, which is said to have been submitted to the director of the German Army Armored Corps.

"Hey, what model of tank did you say division commander?" A soldier secretly glanced at the "Command Tiger", and then asked loudly to his comrade-in-arms next to him.

"I don't know, the new model of the Tiger tank?" The soldier who was asked shook his head, and then replied equally loudly, "It's weird and ugly anyway!" ”

Rommel and the officers: "......"

"Ahem, division commander, some soldiers may have been damaged by the shells...... "One officer wiped the sweat from his forehead and said embarrassedly.

"I understand, I ......understand everything," Rommel nodded with a wry smile, "This tank is indeed ugly, but after all, it is a piece of hard work on the part of the Führer......"

After Rommel finished speaking, the scene was silent again.

"Uh, what's going on with the division's engineer battalion?" In the end, it was Rommel who took the lead in opening the conversation and asked the chief of staff of the division, "Has the pontoon bridge been erected?" ”

"The pontoon bridge is almost erected, and the 712th Armored Battalion has begun to cross the river." The chief of staff nodded, "The special company of the division headquarters has also successfully approached the flank of the French position on the opposite side an hour ago, figured out the deployment of the French anti-tank guns, and mapped out the march route suitable for tank advancement in that forest, I think they should have returned to the 712th armored battalion by now." ”

"What about the brother units of the SS?" Has the Burissingen' grenadier division arrived? Rommel asked again.

"It's partial." The chief of staff of the division replied, "The 137th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment has joined up with the 712th Panzer Battalion. ”

"The 137th Panzergrenadier Regiment?" Rommel pondered for a while and said, "Is the 'Berg' company that once fought with the French in Berg to the point of nearing total annihilation?" ”

"Yes!"

"That's good." Rommel smiled, "The troops launched an offensive according to the original plan, attracting the attention of the French army on the opposite side, covering the 712th Panzer Battalion and the SS to touch the flank of the French army on the opposite side!" ”

After saying that, Rommel got into the "command tiger".

Three green flares rose into the sky not long after Rommel gave the order, signaling the beginning of the next offensive to both sides.

After the German artillery position saw three green flares, the front-line artillery cluster composed of all the artillery regiments of the division and the support artillery of the second armored group immediately fired 10,000 cannons, and tens of thousands of 155mm shells rained down on the French positions, mercilessly destroying all the fortifications they hit, and as for the French soldiers hiding in the anti-artillery holes, if the 155mm shells directly hit the bunkers, they would either be killed or wounded.

After the shelling, Rommel's "Command Tiger" let out a roar, and thick black smoke poured out of the smoke vent, and then it carried the division commander out of the forward position and towards two railway bridges a few kilometers away.

Seeing the commander's conspicuous tank taking the lead, how could the 7th Panzer Division, known as the "Devil's Division" on the Polish battlefield, be left behind? More than 100 tanks of an armored regiment and two motorized battalions and an armored infantry battalion of the division's Panzergrenadier Regiment immediately followed, roaring towards the two railway bridges.

After the German bombardment, the French side was not to be outdone to launch a counterattack, two artillery effect airships quickly rose from the French position into the sky, and the observers easily spotted the moving German troops on the airships in the air and guided their own artillery.

Subsequently, the only few dozen howitzers of the French army were pushed out of the fortifications and began shelling German units.