Although the black shadow of war was again thick in the skies of Europe, the New Year of 1940 arrived as punctually as ever.

Germany, Gronau, General Headquarters of Army Group E of the Wehrmacht.

"General Liszt, Happy New Year!" Army General Schellner, Chief of the General Staff of Army Group E, walked into the operational command room and said to Liszt, who was looking down at the map and thinking about something, "Today is New Year's Day, don't you go home to spend more time with your wife and children?" ”

"The soldiers are still at their posts, how can we, as commanders, leave them behind and leave the barracks?" Liszt raised his head and smiled at Schellner, "Besides, aren't you here too?" General Schellner. ”

"Haha, yes." Schellner laughed twice, then walked up to Liszt and asked, "What are you thinking?" ”

"I'm wondering how we're going to fight this fight." Liszt looked at the map and muttered, "Army Group A and Army Group C have completely entered the Netherlands, and the vanguard troops on the Allied side have also begun to move towards the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, and in two days at most, they will be able to collide together." ”

"Wouldn't it be better? We don't need to be afraid of any enemy when we fight in the field. Schellner said.

"That's when our armored forces have an advantage." Liszt added, "And now, the armoured units of Army Groups A and C have been temporarily transferred to the Ardennes to carry out General Manstein's 'Operation Scythe' there, so that all the armoured forces of our three Army Groups combined are only four Panzer Divisions, God, I really don't know what will become of a lion that has lost its claws." ”

"No need to worry, General Liszt." "Even if a lion loses its claws, it is still a lion, and a sheep is only a sheep if it has sharp teeth." You don't need to worry about the combat effectiveness of our soldiers. ”

"I hope so...... It was hoped that the Luxembourg side would achieve a breakthrough as Manstein had planned. Liszt said.

"You don't seem to be at ease with General Manstein's 'Operation Scythe'?" Schellner saw what Liszt was really worried about, and what he really worried about was not whether his side would win, because he was not good at attacking, he was good at defending.

His real concern was the progress on the Luxembourg side, where about 70 percent of the German armoured forces were now assembled, and if they did not make a decisive breakthrough in the Ardennes as Manstein had planned, the other two German fronts would be stalled, and the whole rhythm of the war would be brought to the tug-of-war that Germany least wanted to see.

For Germany, a tug-of-war is tantamount to chronic suicide.

"Honestly, yes, my chief of staff." Liszt did not shy away from admitting, "I am very uneasy about General Manstein's 'Operation Scythe', although I personally do not know much about tank combat, but I know that the armored commander should try to avoid bogging his troops into uneven terrain such as mountains, and General Manstein's plan is precisely against this." ”

Speaking of this, Liszt paused, then looked directly at Schellner, and said slowly: "General Schellner, can our tanks under his command of Manstein level mountains and rivers?" ”

"Obviously, no." Schellner shrugged, then turned and walked towards the door of the command room, "But the Führer can!" ”

On January 2, 1940, 150,000 soldiers of German Army Group E set off on a train and began to cross the German-Dutch border into the Netherlands, all the way to the Dutch-French border.

On 4 January 1940, three British expeditionary divisions, 17 Belgian divisions, and the entire French First Army arrived at the Belgian-Dutch border, opposite them the Northern Campaign Group, consisting of Wehrmacht Army Groups A, C, and E, as well as two German SS mechanized infantry divisions.

"General! Checkmate! De Gaulle, waving a telegram, pushed open the door of Gan Molin's office, and shouted happily, "The numbers of the German troops in Belgium have all been confirmed, they are the three army groups A, C and E of the Wehrmacht and the two elite mechanized armored divisions of the SS!" Their numbers are exactly the same as the plans we have captured! ”

"Good!" Gan Molin took the telegram, looked at it twice, and said happily, "Two of the three ace army groups came, and even the SS sent their most elite mechanized armored division to Belgium, and Belgium is indeed their main direction of attack!" Thank you, O Lady, for helping me in a time of crisis! ”

"yes." De Gaulle excitedly said, "They have gathered their most elite troops together, and I think we have every chance of annihilating them in Belgium!" ”

"Yes, we have a chance!" Gammelin nodded, then put the telegram in his hand aside, leaned down and looked at the map, and said, "But we still need to continue to strengthen our forces in central Belgium, and with the First Army, the Ninth Army, the British Expeditionary Division, and the Belgian Division, it is difficult to inflict heavy losses on the elite of the German army in such open terrain." ”

"Continue to reinforce?" De Gaulle was stunned, and his reason gradually suppressed his previous excitement, "Where did we get our troops to continue to reinforce central Belgium?" ”

"Here!" Pointing to Luxembourg, "Draw some of the troops from the southern part of Belgium (near the Ardennes) to the center." ”

"South?" De Gaulle frowned, "We don't have many troops here, and the Germans have arranged a whole army group in Luxembourg, so it's not good to draw from here......"

"What's so bad about that?" Gan Molin said with a smile, "Although the Army Group E they are stationed in is called Army Group, it is just a group of recruits who have just joined the army. They lack training, they lack equipment, the entire army group does not even have a few tanks, it is clearly a reserve army, do you think that a reserve army like this can break through the Ardennes alone? ”

De Gaulle listened to Gan Molin's words, thought about it carefully, and said: "Well, they really don't have the ability to break through, and the troops that have always been composed of pure infantry really don't need to worry too much. ”

"But then again, even if they have a lot of tanks, they won't be able to attack us across the Ardennes." "So, transfer the armored forces from the south to the center, and some anti-tank guns, after all, in the flat field, the tanks of the Germans are still quite threatening." ”