Six No. 3 assault guns drove slowly forward in the morning fog, followed by several Sd.Kfz.231 8-wheeled heavy armored reconnaissance vehicles and less than 200 SS infantrymen. Some of these infantrymen were disembarked from those 8-wheeled armored vehicles, and some were soldiers of the 12th motorized rifle company of the "Greater Germany" flag unit. The 12th Motorized Rifle Company, together with the 640th Assault Gun Company, which had just been transferred to the "Greater Germany" flag team before the Battle of France, is now the "Greater Germany" flag team's sharp knives.

Rudolph who went to war for the first time. Ribbentrop was both excited and nervous, and kept poking his head out to look ahead. The house in the small village ahead can already be faintly seen, it is a French village, this is already the land of the French Republic, and it looks loosely guarded!

"Rudolph, don't stick your head out!" Gustav. Schwarzenegger's loud voice suddenly rang out. "The enemy may have snipers!"

Rudolph. Hearing this, Ribbentrop quickly retracted his head and honestly followed the assault gun. It turned out that the village ahead was garrisoned by a small number of French soldiers, which was supposed to be the outpost of a large French army on the Sedan and Maas lines.

Forty-five minutes earlier, they had exchanged fire with the 17th Motorized Reconnaissance Company of the "Greater Germany" banner. The motorized reconnaissance company had only five wheeled armored vehicles, and it was difficult to attack the French troops who were holding the village, so the 640th assault gun company and the 12th motorized infantry company were responsible for "storming the fortification".

Armed with six No. 3 assault guns, the "Großdeutschland" flag team was very capable of attacking fortifications, because the No. 3 assault gun not only had a 75mm cannon with a diameter of 24 times, but also had armor steel up to 80mm thick on the front. Such firepower and armor in 1940 could be considered extremely formidable, and the infantry divisions of the French had practically no anti-tank weapons against such assault guns.

"God, this is a tank, a German tank! I'm not dreaming, am I? ”

Private François of the 12th Company of the 306th Infantry Regiment of the French Army. Bernard poked his head out from behind a low wall, glanced at the misty battlefield, and exclaimed.

"Old Bolsheviks, are you dreaming? It's a wooded area. The company commander, Lieutenant Morrow, leaned his back against the low stone wall and spoke in a mocking tone as he smoked a cigarette. The 306th Infantry Regiment of the French Army was a second-line unit that was only expanded after the start of the World War, and most of the officers of the infantry regiment were elderly reserve officers, and most of them were right-sided in their political positions.

The soldiers in the army are complex, there are basically no hot-blooded young people, and they are all elderly uncles. I have a family, a career, and all kinds of thoughts about not wanting to fight. Bernard, whom Captain Moreau called an "old Bolshevik", was a leader of the Left Y trade union before the outbreak of the war, and was an anti-war element, although not a Bolshevik. After being drafted into the army, he complained non-stop and never trained well.

Lieutenant Moreau wanted to discipline the union leader well, but there were people on the other side, and he was very familiar with the various rules and regulations of the army (he was a trade union lawyer), and he was not afraid of the training of a dirt bun lieutenant (Lieutenant Moreau planted grapes in his hometown after retiring from the army).

"Captain, you'll find out for yourself!" Private Bernard said in a trembling tone, "It's really tanks and there are a lot of them, at least 10 of them!" ”

The line of sight in the mist was not very clear, and he mistook the wheeled armored vehicles that were advancing with the tanks for tanks.

"10?" Lieutenant Moreau extinguished the cigarette butt and continued to say sarcastic words, the rumbling motor already reaching his ears. The French officer, who was in his thirties and had participated in the occupation of the Ruhr area, was suddenly unsightly. He quickly got up and turned around, half-knelt on the ground, and cautiously poked out half of his helmeted head to look around.

"Oh God! What kind of tank is this? The French lieutenant exclaimed, "It looks bigger than the Charles D1 tank!" And, and some of them look so weird...... It seems that there is no turret! ”

"No turrets?" Private Bernard asked, "So are there any cannons?" ”

"Boom ......"

The question was quickly answered, and six No. 3 assault guns opened fire! After only one round, screams rang out behind the stone wall where Lieutenant Moreau's company was stationed. It turned out that a 75mm shell pierced the stone wall, killing and wounding a large number of people.

"Damn it!" Lieutenant Moreau also screamed, "It's a 75mm cannon!" ”

These are 6 75mm cannons that can move around and are protected by steel armor! And the anti-tank weapons that Lieutenant Morrow's company had were just a couple of anti-tank guns!

"Anti-tank guns!" Although he knew that it was useless, Lieutenant Morrow shouted, "Anti-tank guns ready to shoot!" Then he shouted, "Signal soldiers! Phone! Bring the phone over ......."

A few anti-tank guns could not withstand the No. 3 assault gun, and Lieutenant Moreau's mission was not to stop the German army. His task was to detect and report the Germans when they "storan" over the Ardennes Forest. So in this village, there is a telephone line directly connected to the regimental headquarters of the coloring dang.

……

In fact, the regimental headquarters of the 306th Regiment of the French Army now knew that the situation was wrong, because the sentinel battle had already started in full swing. On the edge of the Ardennes Forest, several outposts reported being attacked by German tanks and infantry.

Moreover, dozens of German planes are now dropping bombs on the city of Sedan to create panic!

Lieutenant Colonel Andrei, the commander of the 306th Regiment, was in a hurry to direct the transfer of his regimental headquarters, and at the same time had to report all kinds of bad news to the commander of the 38th Division. But he knew it wouldn't work!

Because everyone knows that the French Army is a sluggish bureaucracy, except in places where the big men are particularly concerned, such as Belgium and the Maginot Line, news is slow to come up - it has to be reported from level to level, and there will be endless verifications and delays. If there is an emergency here in Sedang, it will be very fast if it can be reported to General Gan Malin within 24 hours.

This speed of reporting was not a problem in 1914-1918, when the war was a very slow military operation.

But now, the Germans have crushed Poland in 12 days! It took 12 hours to break through the Belgian defense! After 24 hours, the situation here may be out of control...... Now we can only ask for permission from above to blow up a few bridges over the Maas River, which is the only means that can stop the German breakthrough at the moment!

The forty-something French commander was clearly right in his predictions, and the situation was actually worse than he had imagined.

Because it doesn't take 24 hours, just a few hours, for the situation on the Sedan-Maas line to change dramatically.

"No enemy aircraft were found! No enemy aircraft were found! Complete! "Rudolph piloting the Fokker Zero. Hersmann soars through the sky, 3,000 meters below the rushing Maas River!

His squadron is now carrying out air superiority missions around Sedang -- although the Fokker Zero's air combat performance is on par with that of the BF-109, this aircraft has one advantage that most single-engine fighters of this era cannot match, that is, its large range.

The large range means that the time spent in the air is as long as 5-6 hours, and the Fokker Zero has a high efficiency in performing air superiority and escort missions. As a result, this aircraft became the favorite air superiority fighter of the German commanders on the front line, and the frequency of attendance became very high.

In the past two days, Rudolph. Hersman has been in the sky for more than 20 hours. It's a pity that not a single enemy plane was shot down! Not only did it not shoot down, but it didn't even meet a single firefight, which was really boring to the extreme.

originally thought that with the white-hot battle of Belgium, his brigade would not worry about having no chance of meritorious service. But I didn't expect that from April 12th, Rudolph. Hersman's brigade was transferred to the front line of Sedang to carry out escort and air superiority missions.

"Roger, Rudolph." Heinz. Lieutenant Barr's voice came from the headphones, "Maintain the altitude and keep observing." ”

It's still the same old thing! Rudolph. Hersman thought to himself that today might be another boring day. In Sedan, far from the battlefield, it is strange to encounter French planes.

"Discover the plane!" Suddenly, Prince Wissenfield's voice trembling with excitement came, "Unknown aircraft group found 90 degrees due east!" ”

East? That's a plane flying from Germany, right? Rudolph. Hersman also turned his head to search, and there was an immediate discovery. At an altitude of 4000-5000 meters, I don't know when a group of planes will appear that obscure the sky! That's not a few dozen planes, but hundreds, if not a thousand.

"It's Junker 52! And the H Plane......" shouted Prince Wiesenfield, "that's our plane, it's the Airborne Forces!" Thank God they're going to be parachuted in Sedang, and now we've got something to do! ”

Airborne color? The old man (referring to Field Marshal Hersman) is confused, right? Rudolph. Hersman thought to himself, what's so good about Sedan? Why use the precious Airborne Forces to seize it?

"Pull up, pull up, height 5000," Lieutenant Baltz's order came to Rudolph at this time. In Hersman's ears, "There will be a tough battle today!" Good luck! ”

Right here in Rudolph. As Hersman pulled up the plane, all the Junker 52s pulling ****** began to cut the ropes, and hundreds of ****** began to land in a circle, pounced on their intended targets...... (To be continued.) )