Chapter 522: The Second French Campaign
As soon as the Allied planes finished dropping bombs, they immediately accelerated to flee, and their fighters stayed behind to break the rear, and the German troops who came after them had a lot of advantages in the number and quality of the planes, and they also had the upper hand in the strangulation, but Cologne, which was burning below, was crying about the dereliction of duty of the German Air Defense Command.
Of the 1,850 bombers of the British army, 163 were lost, of which 16 were shot down by German anti-aircraft artillery, 124 were shot down by German night fighters, 2 collided and crashed, and 21 crashed near or over Cologne due to mechanical or other reasons, with a loss rate of 8%. Compared with the previous 20% loss rate, the loss rate was significantly reduced, which proved that Harris's large-scale and intensive bombing method was correct, and thus became the standard air attack method for British bombers thereafter.
Fortunately, in order to bomb the railway junction in Cologne, the Allies did not attack various arsenals located in the Ruhr industrial area, such as more than a dozen tank production lines of Li Mo's family, Messerschmidt's aircraft company, these are the lifeblood of Germany, as for the responsibility for this incident, of course, it is the German Territorial Defense Command, but Li Mo still deeply blames himself for this, he was originally a master of sneak attacks, but this time it was the overturned ship in the gutter.
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Just when Patton was going to go to the front line in person to fight a bloody battle, he received a telegram from the White House, which was sent by Roosevelt himself, in fact, this was an order, and Patton was appointed chief of the Operations Section of the Department of Defense and went to his post immediately.
Patton's position will be taken over by his deputy, Roosevelt certainly did not want his fierce generals to be defeated in this way, although Patton was very conflicted in his heart, but he still reluctantly said goodbye to his brother who was still fighting bloody, and left his subordinates. Step on the plane.
Because of Patton's departure, the morale of the besieged Allied forces was even lower, and more and more Allied troops surrendered. This greatly relieved Li Mo that the more than one million elite German troops who had previously surrounded Patton's corps could finally draw some troops to launch an offensive against the Allies in France.
Li Mo also wanted to attack the Allied forces in France after completely clearing out the more than 500,000 Allied troops. However, Eisenhower's continuous onslaught on the Maginot Line made the Maginot Line anxious everywhere, and if it weren't for Modell's superb defensive tactics, the Maginot Line would have been broken through at this time.
Li Mo decided not to wait, and immediately dispatched more than 500,000 to launch an offensive against the Allied forces in France, in fact, the German army was also very tired at this time, and the ammunition and fuel were also very badly consumed, if Li Mo was ready for this. Then the Allies also entered Germany proper.
The German troops began to attack from the Belgian border, and the Allies in front of them were the British Expeditionary Force, and the Germans quickly tore through the defense line of the British Expeditionary Force, and Major General Rudolph personally led the 32nd Panzer Division to charge towards Alaska, as long as Alaska was occupied, then the 300,000 Allied troops attacking the Ardennes Forest would be cut off from retreat and supply lines.
When Rudolph arrived in Alaska, the Allies did not have a garrison in Alaska at all, and Rudolph easily led the 32nd Panzer Division to occupy the area.
Now the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Rhodes? Gault couldn't sit still, Alaska was a matter of life and death for the British Expeditionary Force, how could the city of life of hundreds of thousands of British Expeditionary Forces be occupied by the Germans. That is also the door of escape, the thief war has been fought so far, and the outcome is very confused. It was difficult to determine who would kill the Allies and the Germans, and Rhodes ordered a counterattack in an attempt to delay the German offensive and avoid the British being encircled.
The commander of this counterattack was Harold? Major General Franklin; His army (the Frankish Army) consisted of two divisions, the 10th and 100th (Northumberland) divisions, plus 324 tanks from the 1st Army Tank Reinforcement Brigade and 60 tanks supported by the French army. The dire situation had spread to the south, and the German advance had tore a gap between Prolon-Cambrai and threatened Boulogne and Calais.
This would cut off the British Expeditionary Force and separate them from the main French forces. General Weygand's plan would use the Frankish offensive to close the gap. At the same time, when the two divisions attacked the town of Arras, the British 10th Infantry Division was used to maintain the front from Scarp to the east of Arras.
On the afternoon of October 21. The 100th Division and the 1st Tank Reinforced Brigade began an offensive south of Arras. It was the only large-scale offensive by the British Expeditionary Force during the campaign. The attack was supposed to consist of two infantry divisions. The 1st Tank Brigade has an M26 Pershing heavy tank that has just been developed by the United States and used on the battlefield to test its performance. The 26 heavy tank weighed 42 tons and was armed with a 90-mm gun, which was a little more powerful than the German Leopard firepower. (Appeared 2 years earlier than in history)
Two infantry divisions attacked from the left and right flanks of Alaska, with the regiment on the right flank making rapid progress at first, but they were soon confronted by German infantry and armed guards with air support and suffered heavy losses.
The left wing also achieved its initial success. The unit in charge of the defense, the Skeleton Brigade, a motorized regiment of the Armed Guards (soon expanded to become the Skeleton Corps), was defeated by the British army, which was stronger than expected.
Because Rudolph did not carry large anti-tank guns in order to hurry quickly, he supported some easy-to-carry 32 mm and 50 mm anti-tank guns, and the 32nd Panzer Division commanded by Rudolph was basically the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks under the re-equipping of other German troops, and was not at all an opponent of the American M26 tank.
In desperation, Rudolph transferred 88 mm anti-aircraft guns and 120 mm field guns from the division and put them into the defensive line to use as anti-tank guns, and at the last moment, a lot of ** were set up around the position to stop the M26 Pershing tanks.
The British Expeditionary Force was forced to halt its advance after suffering heavy losses. Later, Rudolph, supported by the Luftwaffe, launched a successful counterattack and drove the British back. The Franks had been completely repulsed by this point.
However, Mu Xiu was destroyed by the forest wind, and the allies gradually woke up from the initial chaos and began to become organized. Although the first hand has been lost, it does not mean that the Allies are lambs to the slaughter, after all, the Allies are fighting on the inside and have their own advantages, and some hidden strength has not yet been shown, and the British are brewing a counterattack.
At a time when Western European countries were generally afraid of Li Mo, it was necessary to defeat an elite German army commanded by Li Mo and stab the myth of the invincibility of the German army commanded by Li Mo, otherwise this battle could not be fought. (To be continued)
PS: Acknowledgements:
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