Netherlands, General Headquarters of Army Group A of the Wehrmacht.

'General!' Urgent telegram from Dietrich, commander of the Guards Flag Corps' Panzer Division! A signal soldier hurriedly pushed open the door of the operations command room, ignoring the high-level combat meeting that was being held, and reported.

"Soldiers! Don't you see we're in a meeting? Get out! Rundstedt put down his baton and was pointing somewhere on the map, and shouted at the heralds who had stormed into the war room.

"But General, General Dietrich said in the telegram that this telegram must be handed over to you at the first time!" The herald said in embarrassment.

"General, General Dietrich must have been in such a hurry to send you this telegram for something." The Chief of the General Staff of Army Group A, Manstein, stood up, walked over to the communications corps, took the telegram, and patted the communications corpsmen on the shoulder.

"Sir, I'll leave first." Seeing that the task had been completed, the signal soldier saluted everyone, exited the combat command room, and closed the door again.

Manstein glanced at the telegram with a smile, and then the smile slowly froze.

Seeing this, Rundstedt hurriedly stepped forward and said, "What's wrong?" ”

"Dietrich says that his four Tiger tanks were supporting our infantry when they encountered 23 French B1-bis heavy tanks!" Manstein said in a deep voice.

"We encountered 23 French B1-bis heavy tanks 7 kilometers northwest of Antwerp...... All four Tiger tanks destroyed the French tanks...... The first to encounter was an infantry company of the First Army of Army Group A, but the French did not dare to break out of the bunker, but only disguised themselves as ordinary artillery positions......" Rundstedt quickly read the message.

After a long time, he put down the telegram, bowed his head and pondered: "French heavy tanks? Why are they suddenly here? ”

After a pause, Rundstedt began to speculate about the reason: "According to the information sent to us by the Gestapo, they have only four armored divisions equipped with B1-bis, and all of them are deployed near the Maginot Line. So this extra heavy tank unit was either secretly formed by France and not made public, or it was transferred from Maginot! ”

"I think it's probably the second." "After all, the Gestapo monitors all the military factories in France, and they don't have the ability to produce so many heavy tanks under the nose of the Gestapo." ”

"Report! Führer emergency electricity! The door to the operations command room was pushed open again.

"Führer's emergency call?!" The two people who were talking immediately stood upright, sorted out their clothes, and stepped forward to take the telegram.

"Generals of the Belgian Campaign Cluster:

The latest news from the Gestapo is that between January 4 and 6, the French Maginot Line suddenly sent more than a dozen trains to Belgium, and there is evidence that these dozens of trains are carrying the French 1st, 2nd, and 4th Panzer Divisions.

PS: Please forgive this information for coming so late, because France has recently been cracking down on spies, and the Gestapo sacrificed three third-level agents and one second-class agent for this information!

León Andrés

January 7 at three p.m. at the German High Command in Berlin"

"Hehe, sure enough!" Manstein looked at the telegram and said, "I didn't expect the French to be so stupid, a fake plan not only made their elite troops exhausted, but also hooked up three elite armored divisions!" ”

"They're stupid, but we're going to have a hard time." Rundstedt took the Führer's telegram from Manstein's hand, and threw it into the brazier with the previous one, and lit them, "A large part of our armored forces have been taken to the center, and there are only four armored divisions left in our hands, most of which are tank No. 3, and even tank No. 4 is very few, and it is difficult for us to compete with the French armored forces with these forces alone." ”

"yes." Manstein sighed, "And in addition to these three new elite armored divisions, the French First Army and the Ninth Army were originally equipped with four armored divisions, and the British Expeditionary Force also had three armored brigades on its side, plus almost every front-line infantry division in Belgium was equipped with an armored company containing 12 T-13 self-propelled anti-tank guns, and the enemy armored force in front of us reached about 2,500 vehicles!" And we're only in the early 1,000s. ”

"No, there is also an armored division and two mechanized infantry divisions on the SS side, which add up to about 500 vehicles." Rundstedt estimated and added, "1500 vs. 2500, this battle is not easy to fight." ”

"Haha, who made us Army Group A? We are the Führer's most elite troops! Manstein laughed, "And these 2,500 tanks can't play their due combat effectiveness in the hands of France." ”

As he spoke, Manstein rummaged through his pile of papers, and then found a battle report.

"Look." Manstein handed the battle report to Rundstein, "This is the news from the 19th Infantry Regiment of the First Army, which was responsible for interspersing the attack to the west, that they had encountered and routed a French infantry regiment that was rapidly advancing to the southeast as they interspersed westward. ”

"Southeast?" Rundstedt walked over to the map, looked at the area of engagement mentioned in the report, and then looked to the southeast.

Less than 6 kilometers from there, it was the place where the SS tigers annihilated the French heavy tank units.

"These heavy tanks are not where to ambush our infantry company, they are responsible for covering the infantry regiment that we have defeated for a local counterattack!" Rundstedt was quick to draw conclusions.

"That's right! That's why these tanks don't come far in front of our infantry. "They lacked the experience to fight independently, because the French had always seen tanks as a tool to cover their infantry." ”

"Pedantic tactics!" Rundstedt laughed, although he had thought so before, "It's a pity for those tanks, it's a pity for those tankmen." ”

"Two generals." Just when the two were discussing how stupid the French top brass was, a weak voice came from behind them, "Our meeting, will it continue?" ”

Hearing this, the two realized that they were still in a meeting, and quickly laughed awkwardly, turned around and went back to continue presiding over the meeting.

"I'm sorry, I just fixed something, now let's move on." Rundstedt picked up his baton again and pointed at the staff officer who had just reminded them of the meeting, "You, yes, yes, as far as you, how can you tell us how to deploy our troops next to enhance our linkage with Army Group E and avoid a mismatch in the next pincer offensive?" ”

"This ...... This ......" staff officer was sweating profusely, and he somewhat regretted why he had to talk too much just now.