The Flanders 7th Panzer Division galloped 220 miles, setting the highest speed in the history of warfare, and quickly captured the fortress of Cherbourg in a long run. During this world-shocking pursuit, Flender bypassed fortified roads and villages, often appearing in surprise behind the French army. When he thrust southward, he did not disturb the British and French garrisons, and drove in front of them with great arrogance, causing the officers and men of these rear units to watch the excitement among the residents, or to be surprised or overwhelmed.

In case of resistance, they were dispersed and no prisoners were taken. In this way, the surprise attack of the German armored forces finally collapsed the French defense line on the Somme. On the fifth day after the advance of Army Group B on the Somme, Army Group A of Lendeste also launched an offensive on the Aisne at the eastern end of the front. This is a typical right-to-left pinch attack. The German High Command moved 4 Panzer Divisions from the Somme to the Aisne in two days at lightning speed, much to the surprise of the French, accustomed to a slow pace. French Army

After two days of tenacious struggle, I finally gave up. After breaking through the Aisne, eight German panzer divisions drove straight into the heart of France, as if they were in no man's land. The newly formed 15th Panzer Corps of Limer tore through the French line near Chatau-Bols, and made a large-scale detour attack on the rear of the Maginot Line with the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, after crushing the resistance of the remnants of the French armored forces.

When the news was reported to the German High Command, Hitler called Limer to ask him if he had arrived at the city of Pantali on the Duan-Turkish border, completely closing the rear of the Maginot Line:

"There must be a mistake in your mailing address, I think you must be talking about Bothali on the Shani River."

Li Mo replied, "There is no mistake at all. I myself am now in the city of Pantali on the border with Turkey. ”

Only then did Hitler believe that the French forces on the Maginot Line were indeed surrounded. The French army was defeated, and the "Weygand Line" was shattered and drowned in the German offensive. On July 10, the French capital Paris was abandoned, and millions of refugees poured southward like a flood of bursting embankments. The Italians took advantage of the fire and plundered and declared war on France on this day, only to be annihilated by the remnants of the French army, laughing off the big teeth of the world.

As President Roosevelt of the United States described:

"On the day of July 10, 1940, the man with the dagger plunged it into the back of his neighbor."

On 14 July, the Germans marched into Paris with their toes in high spirits. Renault announced his resignation. French President Robert Lebrun authorized Marshal Petain to form a new cabinet. Petain asked Germany for a truce through Spain. This 'savior of France' during the last war became the gravedigger of France.

The German Lieb's C Army Group belonged to the 1st Army Corps commanded by Witzleben and the 7th Army Corps commanded by Dormann. Breaking through the Maginot Line from the front, Limer's 15th Panzer Army, which had already made a detour behind the line, surrounded and annihilated the French forces in the area, taking 700,000 prisoners.

The French government withdrew from Paris and moved to Tours. Same. Italy took advantage of the fire to loot. Declare war on France. 13th. Paris was declared an undefended city. On the 14th, when the French government moved to Bordeaux, the Germans occupied Paris without firing a single shot. On the very day of the German occupation of Paris. The left flank of the German Army Group A had advanced to the flank of the Maginot Line, "because of this useless line, after all, there were still hundreds of thousands of French troops who had not surrendered or been destroyed".

Hitler demanded that Rundstedt cooperate with Army Group C to completely eliminate the French forces there. According to Hitler's Operational Order No. 15, Army Group C, which had been carrying out the task of attracting the attention of the French army in front of the Maginot Line, immediately selected the weak point of the defenders of the Maginot Line, that is, the junction of the two fortified areas of Alsace and Lorraine, to launch an attack.

The A and C armies were flanked in front and rear, and the Maginot Line was quickly broken through. Army Group C advanced to the Marne-Rhine Canal, Army Group A occupied Verdun, and the French army of 500,000 was surrounded in Alsace and southern Lorraine, and all but a few fled to Switzerland and were annihilated. The French government announced the cessation of resistance.

The once-famous Maginot Line finally proved to be a useless ornament. On 22 July, representatives of Germany and France signed a truce in a train car in the Compiègne Forest, where the armistice had been signed in the last war.

……

This time, however, the winners and losers swapped places. The Battle of France ended with a German victory and a crushing defeat for France.

In the Battle of France, the analysis of the operations of the two sides can be started from two levels: the guiding ideology of war and the general strategy and tactics. From the point of view of the guiding ideology of the war, the French high command prepared a war at the level of 1918, while the Germans prepared a new type of mechanized war against the level of 1918, which was the key to the success or failure of the Battle of France.

So, in this sense, the French lost the battle before it began. In the usual strategy and tactics, the French made a series of mistakes, most of which were directly caused by the outdated guiding ideology of war, which hastened the pace of defeat.

Since the Englishman Fuller, Liddell. The main point of mechanized warfare is to 'concentrate on the use of' tanks, that is, to use tank units to organize large units, with motorized artillery, infantry, engineers, and scouts as the core, and with the coordination of the tactical air force, quickly break through one point of the opponent's defense line, break through to the far-reaching rear, and sweep the opponent's entire defense line. Conservatives in power are dismissive of this.

France's Etienne, Charles de Gaulle, and Reynaud once called for the French military authorities to establish mechanized units with armored divisions as units, but they were suppressed and attacked by Pétain, Weygand, and Ganmalin and other army elders. Hart likened himself to the war with the mind of the last great war. Out of this conservative 'mind' came a series of outdated things, such as 'scattered use of tanks' and 'building a continuous frontal line of defense', which led to a series of serious consequences.

In addition to the outdated military concepts and guiding ideology of war, the French high command also made a series of mistakes in general strategy and tactics. It is manifested in many aspects, such as the judgment of the direction of the German offensive, the neglect of the Ardennes mountain terrain, the irrationality of the command system, the ineffective communication, the obsolete concept of time, the outdated form of positional warfare, and the rigid and rigid military dogma.

……

De Gaulle still didn't catch it, Li Mo had already told his subordinates not to let de Gaulle run away, but De Gaulle ran away with Churchill who came to France a few days earlier, and De Gaulle had 100,000 French troops in his hands in history, and now De Gaulle is a bare-bones commander, but Churchill still instructed De Gaulle to form a French government-in-exile in London, England.

The French Navy also faced difficult decisions due to the crushing defeat of the army and the surrender of the government.

…… (To be continued......)

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