Chapter 605: Forcibly crossing the Oise River
Hurry, hurry! For the German panzers, speed is their greatest magic weapon!
After the task of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Anglo-French army in the north, almost all the German troops in the north began to move south rapidly, and their goal was Paris!
For any country to occupy their capital, it would mean the conquest of them, and from this point of view, France was dangerous.
Because Paris is just north of France!
It can be said that if the main force of the German army was not to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Anglo-French army, but to advance into Paris, then Paris would have been beaten down a long time ago!
Now that the threat from the north no longer exists, the next task for the German army, of course, is to break through the so-called Weygand line and take Paris!
The French army barely cobbled together dozens of divisions and organized them into three armies: the 6th, 7th, and 10th armies formed the "Weygand Line" about 300 miles east and west along the Somme and Aisne rivers, and held the Maginot Line with 17 divisions. The two lines of defense joined together in an attempt to prevent the Germans from moving south.
And now, the German army has as many as 137 divisions!
To this end, the base camp issued a combat mission, and Army Group B was the right flank to carry out a breakthrough to the front of the Somme; Army Group A was on the left flank and made a frontal assault on the Aisne.
The day after the order was given, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division crossed the Somme first. The French 10th Army, which was defending the Abbeville-Amiens line, was cut off, and the rest of the German divisions were able to advance through the gap.
Two days later, Rommel's division reached the banks of the Seine, but here he stopped the attack, turned north, and rushed hundreds of kilometers in one go, aiming at the coastline.
As a result, they arrived at their destination that night, cut off the retreat of the French 9th Army, which was retreating towards the coast, and completely captured this army.
At the same time, Rommel's action caused his army to fall behind and lose the opportunity to preemptively enter Paris.
The army group on the left flank, since launching the offensive of crossing the Aisne River, has been growing and has become seemingly uninhabited.
Along the way, they constantly captured hordes of French troops, these French troops did not have any will to fight at all, and when they saw the German tanks coming up, they did not resist and surrendered directly!
Five days later, Guderian's army advanced more than 400 kilometers, captured 250,000 French troops, and successfully reached the Swiss border town of Pantaril, cutting off the retreat of the French troops within the Maginot Line to Switzerland.
However, not all armies are interested in capturing the enemy, and the commanders of some armored divisions have their eyes on one thing, that is, to storm Paris!
At the forefront was the 3rd Waffen-SS Panzer Division, which also had a name, the Skeleton Division!
Their epaulettes are a small skeleton, although they were established later, but, in several battles, their division, and truly realized their ideals, turning the enemy into skeletons!
It's a pity that in this campaign against France, the Skeleton Division did not make a resounding name, and it was even inferior to the 7th Panzer Division in the Wehrmacht, which was the first to rush to Dunkirk.
In the French campaign, there must be a resounding name of the Skeleton Division, and now, the first unit to enter Paris must be the Skeleton Division!
"We don't have time to capture you, please assemble in the back by yourself!" Along the way, sitting in his own tank, Panmoured Meyer held a large horn and shouted to the French soldiers who were preparing to surrender to him.
At this time, Meyer didn't have time to accept the prisoners of the French soldiers, leaving it to the army behind! You have to eat meat together, and you can't put all the meat in your mouth.
Oh, that German general is so cool!
We failed, no shame, the Germans are too capable of fighting.
So, along the way, the French soldiers were extremely in awe of this German general who shouted with a loudspeaker, and they didn't even have time to capture their own side!
Meier didn't know that he was pretending to be a real press, he just wanted to speed up.
After a quick trek, they first came to the Oise River, and on the other side of the river was the defense line that Wei Gang hastily organized, wanting to protect half of France by virtue of natural hazards.
But the youngest division commander in Germany, the general known as Panzer Meyer, would never give the French a chance!
Almost as soon as he reached the Oise River, Meyer did not take a breath and immediately ordered his subordinates to cross the river!
Forced crossing of the Oise River!
As long as you cross the Oise River, a few dozen kilometers opposite, you will be in Paris! This is already the last trench of the French.
At this time, on the other side of the river, the French army watched in horror as the German army moved over, and unlike the others, at least they knew that Paris was behind them!
"Buzz." Overhead, the kind of plane that is now known to the French army flew in. When it swooped, the howl was terrible.
Stuka bomber!
"Boom!" When Stuka pulled up from the dive, there was a huge explosion on the ground, and in the explosion, the fortifications of a field gun were destroyed.
The rapid advance of the German army was inseparable from the seizure of air supremacy. They don't have to worry about the threat overhead, it's the French on the other side who should worry!
"Quick, quick!" Kurt shouted to his subordinates, tank troops, how to cross the river? On their own wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, of course!
After finding a suitable shore, the wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, with the engine in the tail with a roar, slowly drove into the water, and when the tires began to idle, the driver hung up the water gear, and the two propellers in the tail began to rotate, pushing the infantry fighting vehicle and swimming forward.
Many French soldiers, seeing this situation for the first time, were stunned in an instant.
The equipment of the Germans is simply against the sky, their armored vehicles are actually able to sail on the water!
"Quick, fire, stop them coming!" At this time, the lower-level commanders were already in a hurry, and they had to prevent the German troops from crossing the river, otherwise, they would come, how could they resist?
"Da-da-da-da." A stiff machine gun began to fire at the German armored car on the river, and the bullets hit the armor of the armored car with a thud.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The explosions rang out one after another, and the French soldiers were horrified to find that their machine gun positions were being eliminated one by one!
How to cross the river was already a common problem in the German armored forces, and that was, of course, with wheeled infantry fighting vehicles! And at the same time as the wheeled infantry fighting vehicles cross the river, their tanks, which can also act as a point of fire on the bank, clear the threat from the opposite side!