Chapter 33: Flash
The low roar of the engine came like rolling thunder to the ground. With the slowly approaching rumble, people felt the ground beneath their feet, the air around them, and even their internal organs tremble with the roar.
The armored troops are advancing, and the Germans have given this ordinary description a deeper meaning with their proud achievements, full of pride and pride. The armoured forces are advancing, which has become almost synonymous with the invincibility of the Wehrmacht, even at a terrible cost to make this legendary German army.
Now, the skirt of the goddess of victory has been lifted to the Germans, and the Wehrmacht has proved to the world that they are strong, and for them, it is time to enjoy victory.
Like the great victors in history, the German people did not think to look back and see what they had stepped on, they only knew that they had reached the place they wanted to reach, and for these warriors who survived the bloody battlefield, it was enough.
The armored forces are advancing, and in order to let the French have a deeper and more vivid understanding of this sentence, the German ** team has really invested a lot of blood. For this entry into the city, the Germans took out almost all the goods at the bottom of the box.
Surrounding Paris were four elite infantry divisions, as the name suggests, infantry divisions are pure infantry units, no matter how elite they are, they are still infantry, and they will not grow an extra horn than others. The Germans are very simple in terms of military system, unlike those Yankees in the late World War II in history, who said they were infantry, but as a result, tanks crawled all over the ground.
So the problem in front of the high command was that the four most elite German infantry divisions had a large number of anti-tank weapons, and there was not a single tank. There is only a group of wheeled armored vehicles with a slight taste of armored forces, and the factory time ranges from 1932 to 1939, a time span of up to eight years, and the varieties cover the entire post-war history of German wheeled armored vehicles.
Adhering to the spirit of treating dead horses as live horse doctors, the German logistics troops worked hard day and night to select the best products from the pile of various armored vehicles, repair and decorate them, and finally came up with 12 vehicles that could embody the coexistence of German majesty and technology.
Now, in front of the French, these wheeled combat vehicles that have been almost rebuilt by the German logistics support units.
Truth be told, the Germans really didn't know how good they were, and the armored vehicles looked as if they had just left the factory. The convoy formed two columns, two meters apart from the left and right, and five meters from the front and back, and slowly moved along the Champs-Élysées in an overwhelming manner.
At the head were two SD.KFZ.221 wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicles, which were the first real field armored vehicles in the history of the German army. None of the previous models had off-road ability, and could only be said to be cars wrapped in thick iron sheets. It was not until the appearance of armored vehicles of this model that the Germans really mastered mechanized field reconnaissance capabilities.
Now the two little steel beetles slowly moved forward in a big way under the curious and awe-inspiring eyes of the citizens of Paris, and the commanders in black armor uniforms stood triumphantly in the slightly flat machine turrets and smiled proudly at the French citizens on both sides.
The French had never seen German armoured vehicles up close, and to be honest, many of them could not tell the difference between tanks and armoured vehicles, and in their eyes these German tanks were angular and bizarre and even ugly iron guys, and from the very outside they brought a dangerous atmosphere of destructive power.
The French watched with curiosity as the German gray iron beetles slowly drove past them, whispering to each other while restraining their habit of pointing at novelties. The four Type 221s were followed by eight six-wheeled Type 231s, which were outwardly more intimidating than the Type 221.
The same angular shell, the powerful rear body, and the same commander standing proudly on the turret.
This kind of armored vehicle is generally used as a wheeled combat vehicle, which is attached to the wheeled combat vehicle platoon of the armored command company, and in the infantry unit, only the divisional headquarters will be assigned a platoon of this wheeled combat vehicle for use as the headquarters elite guard unit. However, due to the lack of armored assault forces in ordinary infantry divisions, German commanders often preferred to use these armored vehicles instead of tanks to attack the positions defended by the opposing light infantry or clear the remnants of resistance in villages and towns, which led to very heavy losses in these vehicles.
In the eyes of Parisians, these armored vehicles are not as large as they think, and can even be said to be short. Quite unlike what they got in the newspapers and book photos, the four-wheeled armored car in front was only one lap larger than a regular Citroen sedan, and the six-wheeled one in the back was the size of a two-ton truck, and it didn't look as tall as a truck.
However, this does not mean that the French will underestimate these tanks. On the contrary, the low profile, the beveled edges and corners of the armor plates painted with the grayish blued paint that reflected the cold light in the morning sun, the black machine gun barrel with metallic flashes and the holes in the heat dissipation, all this gave the French present a creepy sense of oppression, and constantly reminded them of the dark manufacturing concept behind these strange-looking vehicles, that they were elaborate killing machines.
But as the grey chariot drove along, what they saw next surprised the Parisians, who thought they had seen the world, and completely overturned the ugly and terrifying impression they had just established of the German chariot.
What is this, stunned, the Parisians almost groaned in amazement. A dazzling flash of light appeared in front of their eyes, and for a moment it seemed that the entire street was illuminated.
As the representative of the German armored forces, in fact, it is also the only armored unit in the entire Paris theater, but it is also the most capable unit in the German Army, and the German Führer Guards Tank Regiment made its debut.
Indeed, Hydra's most gorgeous dragon head appeared in front of the world for the first time in the eyes of the world in the most dazzling posture since his birth.
The silver-gray armor was now polished as smooth as a mirror, looking like it was made of sterling silver, and the slopes of the armor plates now reflected the golden sunlight shining through the shade of the trees in all directions, giving people the feeling of being in a fairy tale world.
A single shining chariot of this kind would have been able to attract the attention of all French citizens with an almost paranoid love for art, and now a whole reinforced battalion with more than eighty such tanks appeared in front of them.
The French citizens could scarcely believe that what they were seeing was real, and they stared at the dazzling flash in amazement, unable to utter a coherent sentence, only a series of meaningless sound symbols.
The Parisians have collectively crashed, and the dull, stubborn and rude Germans have combined art and weapons perfectly, and it seems that the end of the world is indeed near.
The ornate armored corps slowly ran over the smooth asphalt of the Champs-Elysées, leaving no trace, and according to the orders of Führer Reinhardt, all the tanks were fitted with rubber track blocks, which not only protected the fragile roads of Paris, but also reduced the noise made by these big guys, especially after carefully lubricating all the moving parts, and now these glittering steel behemoths drove quietly and really did not look like a tank.
The engine roared evenly and deeply, and the exhaust pipe spewed a faint green smoke, so that the rear tanks were shrouded in a faint layer of cyan smoke, which seemed to strengthen the mythological color of the scene.
With its golden ivy ornaments, its enamelled coat of arms, and its fiery red vehicle number, the Frenchman's eyes widened and almost greedily admired the sight before him, as if he wanted to imprint what he saw in front of him in his mind forever.
"This ...... Are these tanks? ...... the Virgin Mary"
"My God, the Germans are crazy. They decorate their weapons like this. ”
"I swear I never dreamed of seeing such a tank, did the Germans defeat us with this?"
The Parisians finally regained their brains thinking and the ability to speak, and they began to exclaim loudly, and the scene was noisy.
"Unbelievable, did you bring a camera? Lord, look at the lines, whether they are golden. ”
"It's so beautiful, like Louis XIV's royal convoy, it's gorgeous."
"Where is Louis XIV's royal convoy, this is simply the chariot of Apollo, you see the sun shining on those tanks, I have never seen such a glorious sight."
"It seems a little too square, and it would be more perfect if there were some curves......"
The Parisians were completely conquered by the extravagant tanks, and at that moment they seemed to have forgotten that they were participating in the invasion of the invaders.
The romantic French found themselves captivated by what they had seen this morning, enchanted by a sense of excitement and a shock to the soul that they had never seen before.
In the fall of Paris, they should have shown sorrow and humiliation, but now they showed a kind of elation and excitement like a festival.
"It's the nature of the French, Dogen, who are easily moved by some gorgeous or spectacular spectacle, even if it is their enemy. As early as the Hundred Years' War, they were like this, and even when they fled, they would admire the magnificent battle scenes behind them.
This is a nation that loves beautiful things, romantic, passionate, loves art, and is also brave, proud, and advocating honor. Of course, there is also the tendency to become a little loose and lack of knots due to the excessive pursuit of zi seduction. ”
Reinhardt looked through the car window at the excited Parisians on the side of the road, and he said quietly as he leaned on the armrest of the seat with a glass of red wine.
"I find it very apt for you to find it difficult for me to express my hatred for these greatest enemies of Germany, even though I have always hated the country that oppressed us with the Treaty of Versailles."
"Our worst enemy is not France, my dear Daugan. Our greatest enemy is across the Channel, and we now have only one goal, to defeat Britain once and for all. Then ......"
Reinhardt raised his glass, his gaze stretched out through the car window.
"And then, my Führer."
"Then, give Europe real peace."
Reinhardt smiled, and he turned his head to look at Dogan.
"Hopefully......"
"Yes, I hope your goal will be achieved soon, my Führer." Dougan replied respectfully.