Chapter 405: An Infantry Division That Can Defeat an Armored Division

Wei Gang was probably disappointed.

Indeed, Reinhardt is not God. But in this space-time, he is theoretically omniscient and omnipotent.

On the north bank of the Somme, that is, on the German sortie position, there is a gradually flattening high ground extending towards the Somme, and on this section, there is basically no woodland to shelter, making it difficult for the attacking German army to make a covert attack.

But it was precisely the valley of the Somme, only a few hundred meters, covered with numerous trees that obscured the view of the French defenders.

On the south bank of the Somme, Reinhardt clearly revealed to the German generals that Weygand had deployed heavy troops in the hamlets of Brayley, Eley, Pirik, and Dele.

Like most villages in France, the chiefs were covered with houses and perimeter walls, allowing the garrison to establish good fire support points.

And even the specific forces deployed by Wei Gang in this area were made clear by Reinhardt. 2 third-rate French divisions, 1 black colonial division and the 13th (Alsatian) Infantry Division.

On the one hand, because the 38th Army commanded by Manstein won a decisive victory here in history, Reinhardt, who has carefully studied the memoirs of the Manstein war, is naturally very clear about this battle of crossing the river.

On the other hand, Reinhardt found himself as if he had an unusually clear impression of the memories of his past life as early as when he sketched out the schematic diagram of the 88-mm anti-aircraft gun. The content of his previous life, which he had only slightly passed, is now very clearly reflected in his mind.

Perhaps, this is the sequelae of the crossing.

Fortunately, this sequelae is still useful and advantageous, allowing him to become addicted to omniscience and omnipotence.

So, at dawn on June 3. Two divisions of German troops took advantage of the last darkness before dawn to sneak into the small jungle on the banks of the Somme, armed with rubber boats, motorboats and walking bridges.

At the time when the sky was just brightening and black and white, the two German divisions quickly crossed the river on all fronts, and immediately seized the coastal positions from the hands of those third-rate French divisions, and then the Germans immediately began to advance in formation.

Most of the French troops were already stuck in the experience of positional warfare, not to mention that these French armies were still third-rate infantry divisions.

Their already small artillery force failed to adapt to the mobile combat mode brought by the German army, and they were unable to meet the requirements of rapid concentration of powerful firepower like the specially trained German artillery.

As a result, the "Weigand Line", which was given high hopes by Weigand and named after him, was torn open a huge hole on the first morning of the official German attack.

The next day, the pursuing German 30th Infantry Division actually caught up with and surrounded a French armored force that had fled.

Because the rout had already begun, this French armored unit had been out of contact with its superiors and could not replenish its fuel in time. After being caught up by the German 30th Division, they simply chose to surrender, and the 30th Infantry Division made another meritorious achievement, capturing 100 French tanks without fighting.

"It seems that our division should be famous again," Hans, the commander of the 30th Division, said to his adjutant with a smile: "You said that this time an infantry division of our division defeated an armored division, which is more dazzling than our original achievements in Poland when a division fought against an army group?" ”

100 B1 heavy tanks, where you put it, you shouldn't be able to beat even a single infantry division.

Although the German 30th Infantry Division had been replenished with an assault gun battalion equipped with Stalkers before participating in the Norwegian campaign, the 27 Stalkers of an assault gun battalion directly under one division were no short match for 100 French B1 heavy tanks on paper.

Although the B1 tank was the lightest heavy tank in the world at this time, weighing only 31 tons, the German army was heavier than even a medium tank.

The B1 tank has only 350 horsepower, which makes the B1 a turtle speed, with a top speed of only 28 kilometers.

However, this tank is designed to accompany infantry assaults, and running slowly can prevent the infantry from being left behind.

You must know that in order to achieve the goal of "multi-purpose use", the B1 tank is equipped with a turret on the basis of a turret, and is also equipped with a 17-caliber 75 mm howitzer in front of the hull to assist the infantry in bombarding enemy positions, and its single turret is equipped with a 45 mm anti-tank gun to hit enemy tanks.

This, combined with the fact that the B1 tank uses a hydraulic steering system, allows the gun on his body to quickly turn on the spot to aim at the enemy, making this tank look a bit tall.

"The tanks captured this time seem to be about to catch up with the T3 tanks we use in terms of tonnage. Even, even our Leopard tanks are not much heavier than such tanks. It is not easy to win a victory against a unit equipped with such tanks. Major General Hans's adjutant also said happily.

Not to mention anything else, coupled with this achievement, the 30th Infantry Division turned back and steadily became a legend in the German infantry world. An infantry division that can single-handedly take on a group army, an infantry division that can defeat an armored division, what infantry division in the world can reach the height of the 30th Infantry Division!

"Report the results truthfully," Major General Hans patted the adjutant on the shoulder and said with a smile: "A few days ago, the Führer gave us a batch of fuel and sent a group of armored cadets from Romania. At that time, I wondered why the Führer had stuffed me with such a group of people. ”

The adjutant's eyes widened, and he asked in disbelief, "Commander, do you mean?" ”

"Remember the batch of bayonets that the Führer presented to our division before the Polish campaign?" Hans did not prove the reason, but asked his lieutenant a rhetorical question.

"Yes." The adjutant nodded and said seriously: "Soon after that, we used these bayonets in the battle with the Polish counterattack army and fought a beautiful defensive battle. ”

When the adjutant said this, he had a proud look on his face.

In that battle, the 30th Infantry Division, with the strength of one division, forced the frenzied attack of a group army of the Polish army, and bought enough time for Manstein and Rundstead to deploy the outer encirclement, thus fighting the largest and most successful encirclement and annihilation battle in the Polish campaign.

And that was also the first battle in which the 30th Infantry Division became famous.

Then, their division moved to Norway, and as the only force sent by Germany, they led the Norwegian Wehrmacht to completely defeat the entire land force of the British and French expeditionary forces. A battle that even Reinhardt only asked for defense turned out to be an unexpected victory.

Now, the 30th Division had defeated about one of the French armoured divisions and captured a hundred French heavy tanks.

In pride, the excited adjutant inadvertently ignored the fact that one fact.

Now, when Major General Hans mentioned this, the adjutant suddenly discovered that it seemed that every time their division won a glorious war, the shadow of the Führer was indispensable behind it.

"Yes, you should have guessed it." Hans withdrew his hand from the adjutant's shoulder and said lightly: "The Führer is going to let those Romanian armored soldiers take over the tanks we have captured. ”

"The Führer, he, once again predicted in advance what would happen in the future."