ALTHOUGH ROMMEL AND HIS "COMMAND TIGER" WERE THE FIRST TO DRIVE OUT OF THE POSITION, THE "COMMAND TIGER" WEIGHED 60 TONS AND MADE ITS TOP SPEED ONLY 35 KM/H, SO THE NO. 3 AND NO. 4 TANK GROUPS THAT SET OFF EASILY CAUGHT UP WITH AND OVERTOOK ROMMEL'S "COMMAND TIGER".

French shells quickly hit the German marching line, and shells fired from M1897 75mm howitzers, M1927 85mm field guns, and M1929 155mm howitzers continued to explode near the ranks, but the French artillery quickly stopped shelling and retreated to safe bunkers for fear of being accurately hit by the German air force and artillery.

Because the French artillery was few and quickly withdrawn, this round of shelling did not cause great losses to the Germans, only two unlucky No. 3 tanks and four "Wolf" armored vehicles were blown away, and only three of the ten armored soldiers and dozens of infantry survived.

Not long after walking along the destroyed railway, two railway bridges appeared in front of the German armored soldiers.

Four No. 3 tanks were the first to rush onto the railway bridge, and under the cover of shelling and smoke grenades from other tanks, they charged across the railway bridge.

But the directional anti-tank mines buried by the French on the railway bridge worked, and after several explosions, three of the four No. 3 tanks were blown up.

The smoke from the explosion gradually dissipated, as the chassis was blown up and the escape hatch at the bottom of the tank was destroyed, and the surviving tankmen of the three destroyed tanks had to open the turret hatch and climb out of the tank from above.

However, how could the French troops on the other side watch the German tank crews flee? The Hatch Chase heavy machine guns deployed in their near-shore positions opened fire at this point, and the two German tank crews, who were about to be the first to roll out of the turret, were smashed into a sieve by a dense rain of bullets.

Rommel, who poked his head out of the turret with a telescope in his head, saw all this, and immediately ordered by radio: "Knock out the heavy machine-gun positions on the opposite bank for me!" The remaining tank No. 3 immediately covered the withdrawal of our tank crews! ”

After receiving Rommel's order, the German tank group immediately changed its attack target and used the Sprgr.39 tracer high-explosive to fiercely greet all the heavy machine gun positions on the opposite bank that dared to "squeak".

Under the focused care of the German tank group, the French heavy machine gun position, which was still fighting, quickly closed its mouth and did not dare to say anything more.

The commander of the only remaining No. 3 tank, seeing that the French position was silent, cautiously poked his head out of the turret and shouted to the three tanks that were destroyed not far away: "Guys! Get out of here and hide behind us! ”

The surviving tank crews dared to poke their heads out again, and when they saw that the French positions were no longer firing, they immediately helped each other out of the tanks, trotted behind the only remaining No. 3 tank with documents similar to radio station code books, and then knocked on the tail armor of the tank to signal that they were ready.

After receiving the information, the driver steered the No. 3 tank to slowly retreat, covering the tank crew behind and exiting the railway bridge all the way.

"Division commander, there are mines on the bridge, what should I do?" An officer's voice came from Rommel's headset, "Why don't you blow up the bridge with a howitzer and detonate the rest of the mines?" ”

"Bombing with a grenade?" Rommel shook his head, "No, what if the bridge collapses?" ”

"Then we ......"

"Let the sappers go up and sweep!" Rommel thought for a moment and said resolutely, "The 3rd Infantry Division has rushed so many times in front, I think the mines on this bridge should have been almost consumed, and it shouldn't take much time to send sappers to sweep it!" ”

After saying that, Rommel ordered the mechanical and electrical officer in the same car: "Give the coordinates to the artillery positions behind, and let them fire a round of smoke bombs at the opposite bank positions to cover our sappers for demining!" ”

"Yes!" The mechanical and electrical officer answered, and then used the high-power radio carried on board the "command tiger" to convey Rommel's order to the artillery positions in the rear.

A few minutes later, a sharp whistling sound was heard in the sky, and a dense barrage of shells once again hit the French positions on the opposite bank.

The sudden shells really startled the French troops, and as soon as they heard the screaming in the sky, they thought that the Germans had begun to shell the enemy regardless of the friendly forces, and immediately desperately shot into the anti-artillery hole, but soon, they realized that they were thinking too much.

The thick smoke soon covered the French positions, and the day was like night.

Seeing that their smoke grenades had taken effect, the Panzergrenadier Regiment in the rear of the tank group immediately dispatched an engineering detachment and ran lightly to the railway bridge.

Since anti-tank mines require a certain tonnage of pressure to trigger, soldiers will not trigger mines at all when they step on them, and all the German sappers almost swaggered onto the railway bridge, and when they saw anti-tank mines, they picked them up and threw them down the river, without worrying about overturning and being bombed.

The French troops on the other side quickly realized the movements of the German army, but they were shrouded in smoke and could not see the situation at all, so they could only shoot at the approximate direction of Natsuki, hoping to hit the German sappers.

But soon they stopped firing, because they didn't hear the screams of the German soldiers who had been shot, but they heard the phrase "Merde!" from the next position. (French national scolding)"

The German sappers moved quickly, and some of the remaining anti-tank mines on the railway bridge were recognized by them as falling into the river, and even the three destroyed tanks were forcibly dragged back by them with trailers.

The smoke on the opposite shore had not completely cleared at this time, and Rommel recognized the opportunity to give the order to continue the attack.

A few more tanks took the lead, and a large number of German tanks followed behind, roaring towards the opposite bank.

It was not until the Germans were about to cross the railway bridge that the French anti-tank guns hurriedly returned fire, and although they destroyed several light tanks with relatively thin armor, they were still unable to stop the German steel torrent, allowing a large number of tanks to rush across the bridge and run over the French positions.

However, Rommel did not relax his vigilance at all because the troops successfully crossed the bridge, because the wreckage of several German tanks still on the opposite bank showed him that the 3rd Panzer Division had also broken through the blockade on the bridge before, but they had not been able to take the French position, which showed that the French army did not use the railway bridge as the core of defense, and De Gaulle obviously left a killer weapon behind him and deliberately let the Germans go to the river.

Sitting in the shaky "command tiger", Rommel followed his troops across the river, frowning.

He had just received the news that the supreme commander on the other side was Charles de Gaulle, who had commanded the French Panzer Division to knock out a quarter of the tanks of the German Fifth Panzer Division some time ago, which made him both excited and worried.

"De Gaulle, what do you really want to play?" Rommel touched his chin, looked at the aerial picture of the French position on the other side of his hand in the sun, and meditated.