"The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. As children, they are heirs, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him. I think the sufferings of the present time are not enough to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things of the present, nor things to come, nor things to be high, nor things to be low, nor anything else from creation, can separate us from the love of God.

This love is our Father in heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors. not to lead us into temptation; Deliver us from evil. For all the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, are yours forever. Amen. ”

Schneider gently closed the Bible in his hand, he looked up at the morning glow in the sky and took a long breath, while his subordinates stood on their tanks with their heads bowed and slowly crossed their chests.

The battle was about to begin, and these brave German soldiers had a hunch that this might be their last battle. Three hours, only three hours short of this battle may be a different ending, but it is useless to say anything now, the smoke and dust raised by the forward troops of the French ** team have already filled the horizon. Schneider and his men had no choice, they had the duties of a soldier on their shoulders, and in order to complete the task assigned to them by the command, everyone was mentally prepared to die.

Schneider's company did not have a chaplain, so he had to lead his soldiers in the final prayers before the battle, as the supreme commander of the field. Schneider slowly glanced at the familiar and young faces around him, and he wanted to engrave their faces deeply in his heart. Because Schneider knew that many of them would fall on the battlefield in the coming battle, perhaps including himself.

"The French advance has passed through the sentinel's hidden spot and is heading towards us." The electromechanical officer held the headset and reported loudly.

"Come on, I'm going to talk to him."

Schneider climbed into the hull of the tank and put on his intercom, then he turned around and shouted to his subordinates: "Prepare for battle, all personnel enter their respective combat positions according to the predetermined plan." ”

"Yes, sir." The tankers got into their tanks with a loud promise, and there was a "thud" in the woods with the clatter of closing the armored hatch.

Schneider quickly slipped into the turret and closed the hatch above his head. The loader and gunner were already in their seats, and they nodded to the commander.

"Sir, you're ready." Stoppers reported in the headset.

"Take it."

"Yes."

"I'm Lieutenant Schneider, reporting observations." Schneider said into the intercom.

"Report to the chief, I am the observation post, the vanguard of the French has just passed near me, about a battalion of infantry, three or four trucks and armored vehicles. No tanks and artillery were found, they were on a hasty march and at a high speed. The sentry replied in a deep voice.

"Continue to observe, and report back to me if you find enemy tanks. Be safe, don't let the French find you, and if you're exposed, you know what to do. ”

"Understood, sir, I'll fight to the end."

"Stupid, I mean to let you escape, you have to come back alive. The call is over. ”

Schneider pulled the map out of his folder and studied it under the small fluorescent lamp mounted on the top of the turret.

"I'm Lieutenant Schneider, all platoons pay attention. Stay hidden. The first French units were all infantry, let them go and let the troops in the positions deal with them. Our target is the tanks of the French, so I don't need to stress that again. Don't fire without my orders. Did you hear me clearly? ”

"Hear me clearly, sir."

"Understood, Lieutenant." The platoon commanders replied loudly on the radio.

"Stvance, give me the position." Schneider ordered.

"Yes, sir...... Connected, sir. The mechanics quickly adjusted the frequency of the radio.

"Lieutenant Hans? I'm Lieutenant Schneider. ”

"I'm Hans, please."

"We have spotted the vanguard of the French, and they will soon pass through our ambush area, so please be ready for battle. They had a battalion or so, no baggage, all infantry, no tanks and no heavy artillery. You can start according to our predetermined plan. Schneider loudly informed the other party of the enemy's situation.

"Understand, we are ready for battle and have been waiting for them for a long time. Rest assured, Lieutenant, we'll take care of everything. The other party's answer was firm and forceful.

"That's good, keep in touch."

"Understood."

Schneider turned off the communicator and let out a sigh.

The unit led by Lieutenant Hans was the first and so far the only support force Schneider acquired. Shortly after Schneider received the order from the military headquarters to hold on, the convoy drove into the village, and Schneider almost couldn't believe his eyes.

It was a heavily armed logistics convoy whose original mission was to establish a medium-sized integrated logistics supply depot in the village occupied by Schneider. Unexpectedly, they arrived at the village early under the strict urging of the overly efficient logistics commander, only to run into a surprise attack by the French. After learning of this news, the command of the army group was of course unwilling to give up this defensive force, which was rare at such a critical moment, so this logistics unit was not allowed to retreat, but was ordered to carry out a combat defense mission that they had never experienced before.

Although it is a logistics unit, this convoy has weapons that surprise Schneider. The infantry of the company guarding the convoy was the strength he needed most now, and although most of them were rookies who had just been transferred from the rear, and they were all hairy boys in their early twenties, but in any case, these young men were regular infantry who had received sixteen weeks of rigorous basic infantry training, and except for their lack of experience, they should not be much worse than those French soldiers when they really fought.

Schneider was even happier that the convoy was also equipped with a platoon of light tanks, a platoon of two Type II tanks and three Type 1 tanks, which did not play any role in the battle against the French armoured forces, but if they were allowed to defend themselves in infantry positions, they were equipped with 20 mm machine guns and machine guns that made them the most feared nightmare of the French infantry.

Schneider also unexpectedly obtained three 75mm infantry guns and two base shells, which were part of the convoy's transport, as well as enough machine guns and rifles to equip an ordinary infantry regiment and ammunition to sustain a regimental combat team for a day, and of course a large number of other supplies, which filled the seventy two-ton trucks.

The infantry began to struggle to build a defensive line on the outskirts of the village, and all the resources available were used, and the arms and supplies were unloaded directly onto the positions. Lieutenant Hans ordered all but ten of the trucks in the convoy to retreat to the rear immediately, leaving the unarmed vehicles to be lost in the coming battle, which was an intolerable waste for the commander of a logistics unit.

Schneider and Hans discussed and decided that in view of the current severe shortage of troops, they had to abandon the defense-in-depth system and instead build a solid arc position. They concentrated all their forces and firepower on this position, and the light tank platoon was placed in the rear of this position as a mobile support force. There was no way out, they only had one hundred and seventy-six soldiers and thirty-two junior sergeants, and they could not fully defend such a large village, let alone build a deep position.

Line defense is the most dangerous of all defenses, and if one of them is breached, the entire line of defense will collapse instantly. But this is the only way to control a wide area with a small number of forces now, and they can only make this choice.

While Schneider was concerned about the progress of the project, the military headquarters finally sent a telegram that relieved him. The telegram made it clear that the army command had not given up on them, and that it was only because the French attack was so sudden that it was unable to send troops to support them for a while, but the news of the French attack had already been brought to the attention of the High Command, which had sent a strong reinforcement and was now on its way to them. The Luftwaffe has also been dispatched to stop the advance of the French as much as possible, and to destroy their heavy equipment to relieve them of the pressure. The command demanded that they must hold out there until nine o'clock the next morning, and before that they must hold their positions, no matter how great the losses they suffered, and they must hold out at all costs until reinforcements arrive, and the last signature in the telegram was Guderian.

Schneider and his men took great comfort from this telegram, and when they learned that the command had not given up on them, and that even the High Command had been alarmed, the speed of their preparations for battle increased considerably, and everyone threw themselves into the task at hand with greater enthusiasm, and the German planes flying over their heads quickly raised their already low morale. Smiles began to appear on the soldiers' faces, and they began to regain confidence in whether they could hold on to the village.

But the officers were less optimistic than the soldiers, and Schneider and Hans, as well as their men, were well aware of the dangers they were ahead. Even if the Luftwaffe is brave and good at fighting, it is impossible to wipe out those French ** teams, and the French still have an unknown number of armored troops, unless the French are unable to bear the strength and start to retreat after suffering such a fierce air attack, otherwise as long as the French continue their attack, then their small position will face a catastrophe. But they don't show their worries in front of the soldiers, and keeping the soldiers in this way of morale is very helpful for the upcoming battle, after all, no one is stupid enough to disturb their morale.

Luftwaffe bombers flew over their heads in droves, slowly flying in the direction of the French ** team, and this scene continued until dark. The soldiers were becoming more and more optimistic about their situation, cheering and waving to the bombers, and there was talk everywhere in the positions about what the French would be bombed into.

The officers did not participate in the discussions of the soldiers, they had more important work to do. The news sent to them by the command made them worry that although the air force had caused the French ** team to suffer heavy losses, it had not been able to completely stop their advance. It seems that the French sent a stubborn commander to direct the attack, and the intelligence sent back by the reconnaissance planes showed that although the French had changed their course of advance, they were still persistently advancing slowly towards the German occupation zone, and that the vanguard of the French would arrive at their village early the next morning at the latest.

The officers hurriedly held an emergency meeting, and they began to discuss the tactics to be used in defensive battles and how to use the armored forces of Schneider's company. At first, everyone supported the use of these medium tanks as infantry support artillery according to the original plan, and nineteen 75-mm tank guns could play a critical role in the battle.

But Schneider had a different opinion, arguing that such tactics planned earlier were a temporary means in case of an emergency and not the best way to exploit the firepower of these tanks. Now that the situation had changed, and the Air Force had bought them a whole night's time, they now had every time to consider tactics for making more effective use of these armored forces.

Schneider proposed that his tank company take the initiative and set up an ambush position on the path of the French ** team. His reason is very reasonable, the tank is a mobile force, and the use of the tank as a fixed battery is the most passive way of defense, not only can not give full play to the advantages of the tank's strong power and strong armor, but also will become an ideal target for the opponent's long-range artillery. And it is not yet known whether the Air Force destroyed the artillery units of the French ** team, if not, then instead of letting these tanks be smashed one by one on the position, it is better to risk setting up an ambush and take the initiative to attack, maybe it will get unexpected results.

Schneider pointed out that his ambush target was those French tanks, and if they launched a surprise attack without defense, even if they could not completely destroy the French tank troops, they could at least delay their progress and create their chaos, so that the pressure on the infantry would be reduced a lot, and if the surprise attack was successful, the French ** The team's offensive steps will definitely be disrupted, which will allow some time to delay. If those reinforcements had arrived in time, most of the people on the ground would have survived. In order to achieve the final victory, even if his armored company is completely annihilated, it is worth such a try, it is better than being combined by the French army infantry artillery at that time.

In the end, all the officers agreed with Schneider, and although Schneider's armored company might be wiped out in this plan, it was a risk worth taking, and as long as there was a glimmer of hope, they would fight to the end.

"Sir, the French troops are coming."

Rulf's soft report came from the headphones. The third platoon was placed on the westernmost side of the ambush position, which was the direction from which the French ** team came. Schneider placed his ambush position in a wooded area two kilometers away from the village, and the only road leading to the village just turned in front of the woods, which was a must for the French ** team, as long as they still had some heavy equipment, they would definitely move along the road, and they also had a group of tanks, which was the habit of the French ** team, and it seemed that they would not change even if this war was over.

The woods on the side of the road were very dense with tall shrubs, and it was a natural tank ambush position, and the tankers could clearly see everything on the road through the gaps in the trees and leaves, while the troops marching on the road could not detect the presence of these dangerous peepers.

"Be hidden, let them go." Schneider replied softly, carefully pushing open the hatch above his head, then poking his head out and looking out onto the highway with his binoculars.

The French ** team slowly entered Schneider's line of sight from the corner of the road, and at the front was a team of sharp soldiers, they were searching around while moving quickly, and the French also sent reconnaissance troops on both sides of the road as usual, but maybe these French were taught a lesson by the Luftwaffe yesterday, and most of the attention of those soldiers was now in the air, and no one expressed interest in this woods that were only five hundred meters away from the road, which made Schneider secretly rejoice in his good luck.

Behind these reconnaissance units were brigades of infantry, marching in orderly formations, and Schneider found that there were only a few poor cars in this unit, which was really unusual for a force of this size, but Schneider could not help but smile when he remembered the swarm of bombers flying by yesterday afternoon. The force in front of them must have lost most of their heavy equipment in yesterday's air raids, and possibly even most of their baggage. Judging by the marching posture of the French infantry, their morale had already suffered a major blow, and it seemed that the French offensive had reached the end of their strength, and Schneider suddenly had confidence in holding out his position until reinforcements arrived.

There was a battalion of the French ** team in front of them, and the blue Adriatic steel helmets gathered into a long blue dragon and meandered along the road. Two French wheeled armored vehicles kept their guard on both sides of the road, and the one on the left side of the road drove slowly less than a hundred meters in front of Schneider, but the French did not even notice the tank hiding in the woods. The armored car continued to swagger forward, but it scared the armored lieutenant into a cold sweat.

It's no wonder that the dark grey livery on the German tanks was originally chosen for concealment in the bushes of Europe, a color that allowed them to hide well in the shadows of the dense bushes that are common in central Europe. It wasn't until they encountered the sparse shrubs and large tracts of yellow earth on the Soviet battlefield that this paint was eliminated like a target there, but this dark gray with a slight touch of blue became the symbol of the Reed ** team in film and television in the future, and this color was even labeled as German gray by later generations.

The French marched at a much higher speed than they usually did, and in peacetime the French ** team was marching in a way that looked a little swaggering, and the speed was the slowest of the European troops, and in the later European mixed forces, the biggest nightmare of the German infantry was to be ordered to march behind a French infantry unit, as the fastest marching army in Europe, the Germans had to be very careful not to step on the heels of the French along the way.

But now that the French troops had abandoned their usual high-spirited gait, and it seemed that the Luftwaffe had had a great influence on them, the French men seemed to be being chased by someone and marched quickly, and in a few moments the French infantry had gone out of Schneider's field of vision and disappeared on the other side of the road.

"Lieutenant, another infantry unit." Rolf's voice rang out in the headphones again.

"Let's let them go, our target is the other party's tank."

"Understood."

The troops that came this time were obviously much larger than the vanguard, and it looked like there were more than 2,000 men, but there were still only a few transports. Probably because of the safe passage of the forward troops, this force was completely unprepared, and they walked past Schneider's gun in such a way that no one realized that they were so close to death.

Schneider looked at the French ** team in front of him and swallowed his saliva, as long as his company used a 75mm high-explosive grenade to fire a salvo, he could eliminate at least a quarter of the French soldiers in front of him, their team was too dense, and he believed that a single shell could easily tear apart a platoon of infantry. But Schneider still tried his best to suppress the ** he fired, he wanted much bigger prey than these, and he didn't want to destroy the trap he had carefully prepared for the sake of these infantrymen.

Schneider noticed the 40 mm anti-tank guns and 65 mm light infantry guns towed by the French soldiers, which were completely drawn by the infantry by manpower, and did not see the ammunition trucks. It seems that the ammunition of these cannons has basically been destroyed in the bombing, and presumably the soldiers will have limited carrying.

As long as it wasn't for sustained fire, the defensive position in front of the village would have been able to hold out, Schneider cheered for the Luftwaffe in his heart, these proud vultures could indeed be proud of their technology.

At this time, there was a faint sound of fierce gunfire from the side of the village, it seemed that the French forward troops had exchanged fire with the blocking position, and the French troops in front of them began to speed up their march after a commotion, the French officers stood on the top of the truck and shouted loudly at the team, and the infantry accelerated their pace and trotted towards the direction of the village. Five minutes later, only a cloud of dust was slowly falling from the road in front of Schneider.

"Sir, the sentinel reports that the target has appeared." Stevans reported loudly.

"What? Quick, I'm going to talk to him. Schneider hurriedly got back into the turret.

"I'm Schneider, report the situation quickly."

"Sir, the French armored unit has just passed in front of me, there are fifteen H35s, and six B1s, and ten more trucks and two oil trucks, and in the ranks there is a group of cars, and I also see a French communications vehicle, two towed 37 mm anti-tank guns and a large-caliber anti-aircraft gun, probably 79 mm, which seems to be their division headquarters." There was excitement in the sentinel's answer.

"Okay, great, anything else missing? Did they have infantry units to follow? ”

Schneider couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard the news, if the sentry's report was true, then defeating the French command might completely turn the tide of the war, of course, before that he still had to clean up those tanks and artillery, Schneider didn't want his subordinates to be beaten into a fireball in order to destroy a car, and he had to protect himself before getting the results, the tankman's goal was always the target that posed the greatest threat to himself.

"There are only two trucks with some infantry on board, sir."

"Okay, you've done a good job, keep observing, and report to me immediately if there's any situation."

"Yes, sir."

After finishing the call with the sentry, Schneider turned the switch to the inter-vehicle communication frequency, and he solemnly ordered his subordinates: "All attention, our target has appeared, and it is coming to us." I want you to be able to play your best, behind us are more than 200 infantry soldiers and we have to hold the position, so we must not spare a single French tank. Got it. ”

"Understood, sir." The commanders replied firmly and neatly.

"Okay, let me stress again, our target is the tanks, and we can only attack other targets if we get rid of those tanks first. The other side also has two 37 guns and one 79 guns, and these three targets will be handed over to the third platoon, Rolf, you have to make sure to kill the French before they use these things to blow us up into the sky. ”

"Yes, sir." Rolf replied confidently.

"The other platoons pay attention to attacking each other's tanks, the other side has fifteen H35s, this kind of thing we have encountered before, I think everyone knows how to deal with it. But this time the French still have six B1s, we have never fought with this kind of tank before, we only learned a little from the information sent by the War Department, I heard that it is difficult to deal with, everyone must be careful, pay attention to the weak link of attacking it, understand? ”

"Understood, sir."

"Sir, they're coming." Rulf shouted loudly.

"Alright, guys, do as I tell you to. Everyone is ready. Let's teach the French armourers a good lesson. ”

Schneider pushed the lid open, picked up the binoculars and looked out onto the road.

The first to appear in the telescope were two French H35 medium tanks, a weapon that was a major headache for the German armorers. This medium tank with a 40 mm armor casing was only not much larger than the German Type II, which made it very small inside, and I wonder how the French managed to cram those three tankers into it.

Its top speed is only 30 km/h, which is an infantry tank that is clearly sluggish, which means that it is only suitable for supporting infantry attacks, and in the event of a field tank battle, the German Type 4 can easily circle around it.

The tank is fitted with a beautiful, streamlined turret with surprising ballistic resistance. In addition, the short-barreled 37 mm gun, which was only 21 times the diameter, was also very powerful, and although it could not pose a big threat to the German Type 3 and Type 4 tanks, it was easy to deal with those thin and pitiful Type 1 and 2.

The biggest headache for German tankers is that its heavy armor and beautiful bulletproof shape make it difficult to destroy, unless it hits the weak side, it can still spray green smoke in front of you even if it hits a dozen shells, and if you are not careful, you will be bitten by the small cannon, in the early stages of the French campaign, many German tanks were carried in the hands of this tank.

But now it can't do anything to Schneider and them, they already know its weaknesses, and they all know how to deal with it.

Schneider's tiny tank company was about to embark on a dangerous surprise attack as French tanks appeared on the road, perhaps disappearing from the German sequence after this adventure, but no one showed the slightest hesitation at the time.

The German tankers were ready to prove with their lives what a fearless heart beats under the heavy gray armor.

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