Qin Chuan followed Rommel on the front line for three days.

But I didn't have a chance to see Annette again...... The reason is as I said before, Rommel is a workaholic, only 24 hours a day, when he is tired, he lies in bed and sleeps for a few hours, and then he gets up to investigate, discuss, and deduce.

In fact, what is more important is that the route of Rommel's inspection followed the front line once, passed through each point, and then went around from another road and then returned, so there was no turning back during the whole process, and of course there was no chance to return to the defense area of the French regiment.

However, Rommel seemed to have seen through Qin Chuan's thoughts, and he comforted Qin Chuan: Lieutenant Colonel, there will be a chance. But first we have to make sure that these lines can hold off the enemy! ”

"Yes, Your Excellency!" Qin Chuan replied: "I know what to do!" ”

"It's really lucky to have someone to care about!" Rommel simply put down the papers in his hand and stretched his sore waist against the seat of the car, saying, "Because only then will you know what you are protecting, right?" I'm luckier than you, they're in Berlin and not on the battlefield! ”

Qin Chuan knew that Rommel was talking about his wife.

Everyone knew Rommel's secrets, and no matter how busy he was, Rommel would write a letter to his wife, Lucy, even if it was only a few words, and then ask the soldiers who were going home every once in a while to bring the letter back.

Thinking of this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but sigh.

Because he knew that Rommel would eventually be implicated in the assassination of Hitler, and the time would be next year.

Hitler's instructions were: "If you commit suicide, you will keep the treason a secret and not let the Germans know about it." In your honor, a monument will be erected and a state funeral will be held. And there are no extraordinary measures against family members. In addition, Lucy will receive the full pension of the Field Marshal. ”

As a result, a generation of famous generals fell quietly like a meteor.

But after thinking about it, Qin Chuan felt that this should not happen, because the rebel group had changed its idea of assassinating Hitler because of its own strategy, so Rommel would not be implicated.

In a daze, Qin Chuan fell asleep on the rickety car.

When I woke up, it was already nine o'clock the next morning, and several people followed Rommel to have a simple breakfast, rested a little, and entered his working hours with Rommel's rhythm.

"As you can see, 8 coastal defense divisions!" Rommel pointed to the map and said: "I have distributed them all to the forefront, along the coastline, and it may be fine for them to do the work of drudgers or sappers, but if I hope that they can hold anything, it will be disappointed." The 5 infantry divisions of the second line are the elite, and then they will launch a counteroffensive against the enemy's landing force under the cover of the 21st Panzer Division! ”

There should be no problem with this deployment, because the front-line troops are more likely to be bombarded by enemy artillery, and at the same time, if the units with poor combat effectiveness are placed in the second line, the counteroffensive will not be of much use.

Here's the problem......

"If the front-line troops are too vulnerable!" Colonel Slane said: "That is, if we are crushed in one blow, then we are actually in a position to give up the beachhead to the enemy without any buffer!" ”

Rommel nodded in agreement: "This is also what I am worried about, when the 8 coastal defense divisions collapse, the 5 infantry divisions will be on top, and if the 5 infantry divisions are exhausted...... We can only watch the Allied landing. What's more, our rear is not safe, the Allies will obviously parachute in the rear with airborne troops, and then their airborne troops will launch raids on various targets with the cooperation of partisans. Roads, bridges, railways, warehouses, transfer stations, etc., in the rear, will be attacked, which will make us anxious! ”

Rommel was right, these are the two conundrum of the forward line of defense:

First, there is a serious shortage of troops, and the quality is uneven.

The second is that there is nothing to be done about the parachute landing of the Allied forces in the rear, even if Rommel has laid out patches of anti-airborne facilities, such as sharpened wooden stakes, barbed wire, and swampy areas, but it is impossible to take care of every place, and the Allied forces will always find a suitable airborne field, and then put the airborne troops into cooperation with the guerrillas to carry out rear special operations...... That's the biggest headache, and it's hard to prevent.

"Let's solve the first problem first!" Rommel said: "If the Allies attack from Brittany, I estimate that at least two or three armored divisions plus two infantry divisions will be needed to stop the Allied attack!" ”

After a pause, Rommel continued: "It's a pity that all of them believe that the Allies are attacking Calais and not Brittany, so the almost same long defensive line has 14 better coastal defense divisions in the Calais direction, only 8 divisions in the west, 5 armored divisions in the Calais direction, and only 1 in the west, and this is still on the way!" At the same time, the fortifications in the Calais direction are almost complete, there are even a lot of shore defense guns there that can threaten warships, and we ......"

"Your Excellency, Marshal!" Colonel Slane said: "I also seem to have seen a dozen large-caliber shore defense guns during my inspection, and I remember it was around the beach of 'Omaha'! ”

"Oh yes!" Rommel nodded: "We do, but it's ......"

Rommel lowered his voice and said, "If you look at it up close, you'll see that it's nothing more than a telephone pole!" ”

So Qin Chuan and Colonel Slain understood that it was something that Rommel had made up in order to deceive the Allies.

While this may not be of much use, as the Allies would have committed more forces or bombarded if they had known this and decided to land in the area, it would have only frightened the enemy in this way.

However, inspired by this, Qin Chuan recalled that the Allies also carried out strategic deception against the German army when they carried out the Normandy landing, and this strategic deception was very successful, so that in the end, when the Allies had landed in Normandy in large numbers, Hitler thought that the Allied forces in Normandy were only feints, so he strictly ordered the troops in Calais not to reinforce Normandy, and even the troops that had already walked on the road to reinforcements returned to Calais.

Such a strategic scam is not once or twice, for example, a similar incident happened in Sicily, and Hitler, who professed to be a military genius, always jumped down and fell for it again and again, so there is the current situation.

Thinking about it, Qin Chuan said to Rommel: "Your Excellency Marshal, I don't know if you remember the situation when the Allies attacked Sicily before?" ”

"Of course I do!" Rommel replied: "It was the Führer I went with you to see at that time, and you saw through their deceptive plan......"

Speaking of this, Rommel suddenly raised his head and looked at Qin Chuan.