The Germans did not know about De Gaulle's evacuation of his three infantry divisions from the main position on the Somme, and Lieutenant General Rommel and the commander-in-chief of the First Army, Infantry General Witzleben, both believed that their plans had been exposed, and the French would inevitably devote a large number of reserves to the flank to defend, so after the 138th Panzergrenadier Regiment arrived at its position, they both ordered a suspension of the attack to wait for the arrival of more troops in the future.

Soon, a section of the Wehrmacht's First Army and the follow-up units of the SS "Burissingen" division arrived on the battlefield one after another, and after the withdrawal of the 137th Grenadier Regiment, the German forces on the flank did not decrease but increased, and by the evening, the Germans had gathered four infantry regiments and two armored battalions on the flank, totaling more than 9,000 soldiers and more than 130 tanks.

At the same time, after the Wehrmacht 7th Panzer Division had cleared the remnants of the French near the two railway bridges on the west bank of the Somme, Rommel had a part of the Wehrmacht 3rd Panzer Division commanded by Schwebenburg also cross the Somme, and the two divisions together formed a large armored assault force on the front of the Somme.

The inky black gradually dispelled the light and occupied the sky and the earth, but the lights on the two German advancing positions were as bright as day.

After communication, both Rommel and Witzleben believed that they should seize the time to launch an offensive to prevent the French from gathering more troops and dragging the battle into a positional battle that the Germans least wanted to see, so the Germans decided to launch a night attack regardless of the rest.

The clock pointed to 0:00 in the morning, three red flares were raised at the same time in two German positions, and the heavy artillery group of the army group on the east bank of the Somme River immediately opened fire fiercely on the predetermined French main position, and countless 155mm grenades swept over the heads of the German soldiers who were ready to shoot with a scream, and then smashed into flames on the French positions not far away, and the French army's already weak fortifications quickly collapsed in the dense rain of shells. Many of the French soldiers who had no time to react were blown into scum before they could scream.

After half an hour of preparation for direct artillery fire, the German heavy artillery group began to extend its artillery fire to the rear of the French army, and the 105mm field artillery group and the 75mm infantry guns of the front line began to fire flares into the sky in turn, indicating targets for the attacking troops.

More than 100 tanks that had been ready for a long time immediately started their engines after seeing the order to attack, and rushed out of the forward positions with a roar and ran over the French positions, and hundreds of soldiers followed, hiding behind friendly tanks and launching an attack on the French positions with standard infantry and coordinated tactics.

Because it was expected that the French army would bring in a large number of reserves, the first round of the German offensive was only tentative, and the task of the attacking troops was mainly to mark the firing points of the French troops, and a Stuka dive bomber wing of the air force had already taken off from the front-line airfields, and the army aviation units directly under Army Group A were also coming, as long as the attacking troops marked the location of the French firing points, the planes in the sky would definitely be able to accurately deliver gifts weighing several hundred pounds to the door.

But what the German commander did not expect was that the tentative attacking troops did not meet the expected strong resistance, they occupied several defensive lines in a row without being counterattacked by the French regiment and above, if it were not for the fierce anti-tank fire of the French army, the German commander doubted that he was in the wrong place.

After the German tentative attacking force "tested" forward for several kilometers, Rommel and Witzleben panicked, and they began to suspect that the French had set a trap for themselves, and let go of the front position to lure their forward troops deeper, and then surrounded the encirclement and ate the forward.

Just as they hesitated to order the forward troops to suspend their offensive, a telegram from the commander of the forward forces reached them.

The message was very short, with only a few sentences: "Our unit has successfully reached the core of the French position, but has met with stubborn resistance from the enemy, and has now marked the location of the enemy's firepower. ”

Neither Rommel nor Witzleben immediately answered, but after thinking for a moment, they asked, "How many troops are there in the enemy defenses?" ”

Soon the front line replied: "The enemy has about three infantry regiments, but has a large number of anti-tank firepower. ”

The two of them looked at each other after receiving this reply, if the French army was going to set up a pocket trap, such a small number of troops would not be enough, because although the German army's current offensive force was only doing a tentative attack, but with more than 100 tanks, they still had a very big threat, and the French army would easily break through the German army by defending the core position with three infantry regiments, and even if there were more ambush troops around, they would not be able to stop the German army from destroying the defensive line.

This is like a bag with thick walls and a thin bottom, no matter how tightly the walls of the bag are clamped, as long as the bottom is broken, it still can't stop the contents of the bag from leaking out.

After communicating with each other, both Rommel and Witzleben decided that they could not miss this great opportunity because the French army had more than 100,000 troops nearby, so they immediately ordered the Germans on the front line to tear apart the French defense line at all costs.

At the same time that the order was sent to the front command, the two generals also contacted the Air Liaison Officer and informed the Air Force that the planned support plan had been cancelled and that they had withdrawn the Stuka Wing, which the two generals felt might be a greater threat to the friendly planes hovering in the sky than the French troops of the three infantry regiments.

As a result, the Stuka pilots, who had just arrived at the front line and had not had time to circle the plane twice, received the order to retreat, and many of them cursed directly after hearing this order.

I didn't let me sleep in the middle of the night, and finally chewed chocolate and flew to the battlefield, but I didn't throw a bomb and let it go, Nima is really an army master!

But this is the order of the superiors, they complain and complain, and after complaining, they still have to honestly follow the order to withdraw.

However, the dozens of helicopters of Army Group A's ground aviation units did not have to worry about injuring friendly troops, so they could continue to stay and support the ground forces in the operation.

The three French infantry regiments were so helpless in the face of the integrated air-ground operations and the coordinated advance of the infantry tanks, although they had many anti-tank guns, but these anti-tank guns were basically disposable - as soon as they fired, the helicopter group hovering in the sky would immediately pounce like vultures, and then use 7.92mm bullets and 20mm shells to ask the ass of the warriors who dared to shoot.

In this case, the French repelled only one round of German attacks, and there were not many anti-tank guns left.

Seeing that the general trend was gone, the commander of the 227th Infantry Division of the French army had no choice but to give the order to surrender. After the Germans took full control of the position, the first holes appeared in the 300-mile French Weiygand Line.

But it will never be the last.