Flanders' Panzer Division, having taken full control of the east bank, roughly inspected the river bank. They were overjoyed to discover that a section of the levee near Hauckes had not been completely blown up (the French feared that blowing it would lower the water level and make it easier for the Germans to cross the river). Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, a motorcycle battalion secretly crossed the river, and there were no French troops on the opposite bank.

In this way, three days after the start of the campaign, the seventh had already established a position on the west bank of the Mez River. The smuggling of the seventh in Hawks was quite lucky, first of all, the dense forest hindered the observation of the defenders. Secondly, Hauckes was at the junction of the 2nd and 11th French armies, and in charge of Hauckes was the 18th Infantry Division of the 11th Army, which, according to plan, was supposed to arrive in full on the 14th.

At this time, the division had only six battalions on the west bank of the Metz River, which was very thin. In response to this situation, according to the concerns of General Martin, commander of the 11th French Army, about the Haucks area, a battalion was transferred from the 5th Motorized Division on the left flank of the French 9th Army to temporarily defend Hawks. The battalion received orders on the 11th and arrived at its designated position at 4 p.m. on the 12th. Although they were ordered to defend along the riverbank, they made excuses for not sending troops to the riverbank under the threat of machine-gun fire on the opposite bank, even after dark. This is also the result of the lax discipline of the French army seen earlier.

The loose organization of the French army had once again serious consequences, and although the commander of the 5th Motorized Division had already learned of the 7th (Flender) smuggling at 1 a.m. on the 13th, the situation was not reported to the commander of the 10th Army, General Martin, until 4 o'clock, and the commander of the 9th Army, Clapp, did not learn of this until late on the 13th. Until then. Li Mo's offensive at Sedan will attract most of the attention. General Martin had to coordinate the counteroffensive alone.

The French High Command was quite satisfied with the situation today, and most of its attention was still focused on the Belgian direction. In his own words, he spent his day managing the affairs of the organization. Specifically, there were many details, including warning the Maginot Line how to prevent an Emar-style attack.

He even planned to transfer the cavalry units of the 9th and 2nd armies to the north to support the 1st Army. However, at 3 p.m. on the 12th, General George's headquarters was alerted by the 2nd Army. In the absence of General George, the chief of staff, General Roden, still decisively ordered the transfer of three divisions from the general reserve to support the Sedang direction.

These divisions included the 3rd Panzer Division, the 3rd Motorized Division, and the 14th Infantry Division, all of which were first-class divisions. They will arrive at the front on time on the 14th. Just one day later than the critical time. Other than that. For the reasons mentioned above, no reinforcements were sent to the 9th Army.

In the middle of the night, the officers and men of the 2nd Army in the Sedang area had no illusions about what would happen the next day. The sound of the engines of countless vehicles on the other side of the river was deafening, and the highway was filled with marching columns with their headlights on. By this time. The German army has thrown away all pretenses.

Intelligence has identified the German 5th, 6th, 7th Panzer Divisions. General Hunterzig, commander of the 2nd Army, issued an order to the whole army in the evening: Every inch of land must be fought, and the honor of commanders at all levels lies in whether they can hold the designated positions. No wavering is allowed, and the line of defense is rigidly guarded. Although General Hunter Zieg was considered one of the most talented commanders in France, the order was still imbued with the spirit of the First World War.

Specifically, the combat readiness of the French 2nd Army was very worrying. The 71st Division, which was part of the French 10th Army, had to travel a long way because of training when it set out on June 10. After two days of forced marching, the division's B-class reservists were exhausted. By the evening of the 12th, the divisional headquarters of the division had not yet been set up, the communication system was all temporarily set up, and the telephone lines were exposed to the ground.

Another division of the French 10th Army, the 55th Division, is also being urgently deployed. The commander of the French 10th Army, General Grandesard, estimated that the army would be ready only by the night of the 13th-14th at the earliest. More crucially, the French commanders at all levels, including General Huntziger, were still skeptical that the 7th would be able to storm in full force on the second day.

Judging by their own speed, the French estimated that the seventh would be able to cross the river only on the 18th-19th. In terms of artillery, Hunter Zieg allocated two more artillery regiments to the 10th Army, plus the 55th Division itself had twice the normal number of artillery, so on paper, the French army in front of Sedang had 140 heavy guns. However, on the night of the 12th, part of the French artillery in front of Sedan retreated without authorization, and as a result, it was not possible to maintain the advance line of the 7th and continue firing.

On the night of the 13th, command organs at all levels had already received orders from Li Mo to launch an attack tomorrow. However, no one expected that Flender, who was only responsible for the flank cover task, would also play his offensive no less.

At 3 o'clock in the morning of the 13th, Flender and his lieutenant came to the river to observe the situation. Before he could reach the river, the French shelling forced him to get out of the car and walk. Several tanks have already been hit, parked on the side of the road. Arriving at the river, he found that his infantry regiment was preparing to cross the river in rubber boats to support the motorcycle battalion that had crossed the river last night.

The situation was not optimistic, the 6th Infantry Regiment was suppressed by well-concealed fire on the opposite bank, it was almost impossible to observe the French fire points in the morning fog, and the rubber boats were sunk one by one. To provide cover, Flender ordered several houses in the valley to be set on fire to provide smoke screen cover. At this time, a damaged rubber boat went down the river, and a seriously wounded soldier shouted desperately, and no one could save him.

The motorcycle battalion that had been smuggled last night was holding out stubbornly in the West Bank, and several battalion and company-level officers had already been wounded or killed. Under the leadership of the battalion commander, the battalion seized a high ground and a small village. At this time, all communication with the east bank of the river was cut off by French fire, and behind the battalion there were scattered French troops, while resistance on the opposite side was intensifying.

At this time, the seventh had not yet crossed the river with an anti-tank gun, and once the French army used tanks to counterattack, the consequences would be unimaginable. Flender then went to Bismarck's 4th Panzer Division on a No. 7 tank. The crossing point of the 7th Panzer Division was in Bouvigné, 3 km south of Hauckes.

By the time Flender arrived, one company of the 7th Panzer Division had already crossed the river, but heavy French fire prevented them from continuing the crossing. Bismarck decided to move tanks and artillery to the river to suppress the French. At this time, the commander of the Panzer Corps, Li Mo, had already arrived at the river, observing the progress of the river crossing with great interest.

Soon, some No. 4 tanks reached the river bank and began firing at French firing points less than 100 yards away. The effect of the suppression was obvious, the French firepower weakened, and the crossing of the river slowly began again. Bismarck was everywhere, he was at one moment pointing out targets to tanks, one moment working with sappers, and the other encouraging the morale of the infantry.

Flender then crossed the river with the first group of rubber boats, and made a detour to the first company to cross the river. There, he found that they were making rapid progress. It was at this time that it was reported that French tanks had been spotted ahead, and at this time, the seventh still did not have anti-tank guns crossing the river. Flender immediately ordered to fire at the tanks with small arms, the deception tactics clearly worked, and the French tanks retreated.

…… (To be continued......)