The morale of the 35th Infantry Battalion collapsed, the troops were completely out of control, and the soldiers threw down their weapons and jumped off the road, desperately fleeing in the opposite direction of the attackers. The few brave men tried to continue the resistance, but were immediately hit by overwhelming French fire. This was a very common sight in the eyes of those French soldiers, but it was they who retreated at that time, and they witnessed this embarrassing scene again, but the victor was replaced by themselves, which really made the French officers and soldiers present sigh for this.

“viva！” French soldiers stood beside captured baggage wagons and shouted victory, and AMC cavalry tanks roared over the road in pursuit of the fleeing Siamese infantry.

Light tank companies lined up in wedge-shaped battle formations and drove the Siamese rout to the north. By this time it was getting dark, and Lieutenant Vaeli, fearing that he would encounter the Siamese troops deployed on the flanks, ordered the battle to stop, and the remains of more than 200 Siamese soldiers lay in the wilderness behind the tank company.

The raid ended with a complete victory for the French, in which the 35th Infantry Battalion of the Siamese Army lost 327 killed and 270 captured, 70 of whom were wounded of various kinds.

Half of the officers of the battalion were killed, including the battalion commander and the battalion chief of staff, and the Citron sedan, which they were using as shelter, was hit by a 47-millimeter armor-piercing grenade, and several battalion officers who were hiding behind the car to set up tactics were torn to shreds along with the beautiful car.

The armored regiments of the Saigon Division fulfilled the mission given to them by the division commander perfectly, and they cut the offensive spearhead of the Siamese Army into two parts.

The Panzer Regiment now occupies a section of the middle of Route 5, and on their east flank is the 12th Cavalry Company of the Siamese Army, which is engaged in an exchange of fire with the defenders of Ssophon and does not seem to be aware that there is a problem in the rear.

On the west side of the Panzer Regiment was the 20th Infantry Battalion of the Siamese Army, which was advancing along the road, and when the battle was nearing the end of the battle, they also sent almost a company of reinforcements to the 35th Battalion, only to run into an H35 tank platoon that was about to detour from the east flank, and was quickly repulsed by the ferocious fire of the French tanks and accompanying infantry.

Now that the Siamese infantry battalion had ceased its march and had formed defensive formations on both sides of the road, it was evident that the commander was hesitant in his decision to fight, and he was not sure whether to attack or retreat.

The commander of the 1st Armored Regiment of the Saigon Division was Fang. Major General Thoma, a professional soldier with a rather tough style, has been serving in the cavalry unit since he was a second lieutenant, accumulating rich training and command experience, Colonel Toma was captured by the Germans in the French theater headquarters during the Weigang Line Breakthrough Campaign, when he was already the chief of staff of an armored semi-brigade.

After his release, Thoma was also promoted by the War Office, and as a reward for his brave fight for France, Marshal Petain personally met with the released generals who had been promoted to the same rank as him, and personally told him that he would be entrusted with important tasks by the state.

Petain did not lie, Major General Thomas became the commander of the 1st Tank Regiment of the Saigon Motorized Rifle Division, a formation never used by the French army.

Previously, the basic mid-level armored units of the French army were half-brigades, with two battle tank battalions in their formation. The Tank Brigades are also divided into Heavy Tanks and Light Brigades, the former is equipped with heavy tanks such as the Karl B1, and the latter is equipped with medium and light tanks such as the H39.

If fully manned, a tank and a half brigade has almost seventy tanks. A heavy semi-brigade with a lightly armed semi-brigade, plus a motorized hunter battalion, then a complete French reserve armored division.

Because of the crushing defeat of the French army in the European theater, the French army began to learn the advanced tactics of the German army, which also led to the emergence of a new formation of tank regiments.

The three-battalion unit, with a mixed mix of light and heavy tanks, is more adaptable to various battlefield environments than a single tank and a half-brigade, and the commander can flexibly mobilize the troops in his hands to carry out mobile operations.

The most basic company and platoon formation was still in accordance with the habits of the French army itself, and the entire tank regiment had 125 tanks under its command, of which 20 were used as spare vehicles for each battalion.

The whole regiment was equipped with the main tank models of the French army before the war, because the local army was preparing to replace it with new tanks, so it was particularly generous in terms of old equipment. The commanders under Thomas were all elite generals who had served in the army for many years, and many of them had shared weal and woe with the general, scooping a horse spoon in a pot and using the same paring knife.

The only regret to the Major General was that the place of service was a little remote, but Petain told him that he would only need four years of service abroad before he could be transferred back home, and when he returned, Petain promised to add a star to his shoulders. promoted to the rank of general in four years, I heard that there is still a war to fight, let alone Indochina, even if he is thrown to Antarctica, he is willing to be thrown to Antarctica.

"General Lyon's telegram." The communications staff officer delivered the telegram to the general.

Thoma's car is a modified Citroen Unico P107, which is also a half-track transporter in service with the French Army, and it has more horsepower, faster speed, and better protection than the Suomi MCG, and of course it is more expensive.

The French army was equipped with 2,000 such half-track vehicles, which were used to tow 70 to 100 mm artillery, because the mobility of such vehicles was quite good, and the road speed reached 42 kilometers per hour, which was more suitable for towing regimental artillery for mobile combat. The Germans captured quite a few of these half-tracks, as a result of which none of them were returned to the French after the war.

Thoma used the French army's own reservations, but many artillerymen at that time threw away the artillery and retreated to the rear in this kind of tractor with good off-road performance. Although the compartment at the back of this kind of car is not very large, this guy has a super load capacity, and it is very conspicuous in the retreating team, because each P107 is piled with all kinds of luggage and belongings of French officers and soldiers, and it looks like a moving hill from a distance. At the same time, this thing also consumes a lot of fuel, so the Germans picked up a lot of Citroen P107s that were abandoned because they ran out of fuel on the road to pursue the French army.

Thoma's half-track transporter is a specially modified version, with a canvas canopy instead of a metal hard top, protective steel plates on the outside of the compartment, bulletproof window glass, and armor covers that can be closed quickly. There was a folding desk in the carriage, as well as filing boxes and safes, as well as a camping bed that could be folded. This is not a command vehicle, but a mobile home for the commander.

"Inform Malmö of the 2nd Battalion and ask him to come to me at once." Thoma picked up the telegram and glanced at it, then pushed the door open and stepped out of the car.

The embers of the battlefield had not yet been extinguished, and a pungent smell of sulfur filled the air. Thoma walked past a Siamese Army truck, melted rubber tires leaving a large pool of stains on the ground, and the charred corpse of the driver curled up in the cab of the burned skeleton, loaded with sacks of rice, the surface had been carbonized, and the bottom looked like it was still smoldering, so that the car continued to evaporate with a peculiar scent of cyan smoke.

"Henry, go find two men to dispose of the body and remove this car from the road." Thoma frowned and said to the oncoming Chief of Staff.

"Okay, General." Chief of Staff Henry. Colonel Valentin was forty-five years old, a true young man, a former fan of de Gaulle, and a staunch admirer of the other side even in the prisoner of war camps.

However, when he learned that de Gaulle had fled France on the plane of the British envoy, his mind changed, and he believed that de Gaulle's defection to the British was a betrayal of the French state and nation. If De Gaulle really went to England to establish a government of resistance as in history, then maybe Valentin would have found a way to defect to the other side, but the problem is that De Gaulle disappeared on the way, and now he is dead and alive, who knows what he is going to do in England.

How could Petain give up the opportunity to fall into the ground, de Gaulle, as an active French general, suddenly jumped into a British plane and fled out of the country without applying to his superiors or obtaining government approval, but there are a bunch of eyewitnesses to testify.

"You've read the order above, how many mobile troops can be mobilized now." Thoma took the helmet from the adjutant and handed the cap to the second lieutenant.

"At the moment, up to two companies have been dispatched, and the biggest difficulty is that the supplies can't keep up." Valentin said, rubbing his little goatee on his chin.

"Have you counted the losses of the troops?" Thoma stood on the side of the road with his waist crossed, looking out at the wilderness illuminated by the headlights of the tracked carts, where the French infantrymen were clearing the battlefield, gathering the remains of Siamese warriors and lining up in the clearing, all kinds of guns, weapons and ammunition piled up.

"Twenty-seven killed, sixty-four wounded, two of them seriously, a brilliant victory." Valentin reported with a smile: "This is what France needs most right now, and there is nothing more motivating than a victory." “

"This is just the beginning, Colonel." Thoma glanced back at the excited chief of staff, then turned his gaze to the other end of the road, where the 20th Siamese Infantry Battalion was stationed, and unlike the brightly lit place, the Siamese position was now hidden in darkness.

PS: Ask for a monthly pass, the author needs monthly pass support, please give me more motivation. (To be continued.) )