Major General Pzhyakovsky was not one of those Polish soldiers who sat on the road waiting to be captured. for he had a horse and could flee on horseback. So by the time Panmoured Meyer's convoy was heading towards the bridge over the Brachy River, he had already crossed the very strong bridge that the Germans had built before the last world war, with a handful of cavalry and officers. And on the east bank of the Great Brashi River, he met a reinforcement that he was frustrated with - a battalion of lancers!

The Germans, with an untold number of tanks, were soon to arrive, while the Poles had only old-fashioned lancers.

"General, we belong to the Littocratic Cavalry Brigade of Major General Grzymot-Skonitsky," said a cavalry major to Major General Pzhyakovsky, who looked very embarrassed.

"By order of the army group command, our Coastal Cavalry Brigade plus the 9st Infantry Battalion and the 1st Artillery Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division (9th Battalion of the 9th Artillery Regiment under the 1st Division) formed a Zhesk tactical group and were ordered to come and reinforce your 15th Infantry Division."

The Littorals Brigade is the elite unit of the Polish Army, with the 8th Cavalry Rifle Battalion, 16th Rifle Battalion, 18th Cavalry Battalion, 11th Cavalry Battalion, 91st Motorized Anti-Aircraft Artillery Company, 81st Tank Company, and 81st Bicycle Company. Therefore, it is a trump card in the hands of the Primorsky Army Command, and if it were not for the tightness of the Tuhora Forest, it would not be willing to use it.

But they were still too late, the Tuhora Forest had been breached, and the 15th Infantry Division had suffered heavy casualties, and was about to be wiped out - in fact, even if it was early, it was useless, how could a cavalry group be an opponent of a tank group?

"But I only saw the lancers, what about the others?" Major General Pzhyakovsky looked at the hundreds of cavalrymen with spears in their hands, and the phrase "ridiculous" suddenly came to his mind. Now is the era when tanks and planes dominate the battlefield, and the Polish Army still has such an outdated branch as the "Lancer". The most ridiculous thing is that the Polish Army, which regards the "Lancers" as its elite, has always felt very good about itself, thinking that it is the second army in the world - second only to France.

"General, we have been attacked by air on the road," said the commander of the cavalry battalion, "and our battalion has not been bombarded much, so we have come first, and the others are still behind, and they will arrive soon." ”

Major General Pzhyakovsky said in his heart, it turns out that the Luftwaffe is too lazy to bomb you!

"General, where are we going to start the counterattack?" The commander of the spear battalion looked at the embarrassed Major General Pzhyakovsky and asked with some uncertainty.

"Fight back?" Major General Pzhyakovsky smiled wryly and raised his hand to point to the bridge behind him, "Let's find a way to blow up the bridge first." ”

"Bomb, blow up the bridge?" The cavalry major was stunned, "But this is the Brashi River!" ”

He received an order to reinforce the 15th Infantry Division in the area of Tuhora Forest, why is it now blowing up the bridge over the Brachy River?

"I know, but the Germans ...... very quickly" Major General Pzhyakovsky suddenly heard the roar of the motor at the bottom of the "boom, boom" in his ears. He turned his head to look west, only to see yellowish soot in the air on the other side of the Brashi River, and getting closer and closer to the bridge.

"The Germans are coming! Here they are! Suddenly, someone shouted in horror, "God, we can't run away." ”

"German tanks are coming, let's run!"

The leader in shouting was a cavalryman who had fled with Major General Pzhyakovsky, very young, with a look of fear like a frightened rabbit. His shout was soon provoked by a whipping, which was given by Major General Pzhyakovsky.

He raised the horsewhip in his hand, pointed to the bridge and said to the people around him, "It seems that it is too late to blow up the bridge." But since our reinforcements are coming, then we should at least hold on to this bridge for the sake of Poland! ”

"For Poland!"

"For the Motherland!"

A group of Polish lancers, who did not yet know the power of the German tanks, raised their carbs and echoed loudly.

However, the spears in their hands were ineffective most of the time. For the most part, these lancers would also dismount and fight, and would not be foolish enough to take a spear and stab a tank - in fact, this Littooral Cavalry Brigade was also a semi-mechanized cavalry brigade with tanks and motorized units, but it was still too outdated compared to the German armored forces.

……

Once again, the wheeled armoured vehicles in which Panzer Meyer rode were running at full speed on the road - in the early days of World War II, the German tanks were not the best, but their various wheeled armoured vehicles were indeed very good, numerous, heavily armored, powerful, and fast. The six-wheeler he is now riding in can reach 65 kilometers per hour on the road, while the other eight-wheelers in his company can reach 90 kilometers per hour.

Now he threw off the tanks and half-tracks, and together with a motorized reconnaissance company, he raced on the road at a speed of nearly 50 kilometers per hour, and soon rushed to the bottom of the bridge over the Brachy River.

"Stop!" Armored Meyer is now learning to be obedient and knows not to rush to the bridge recklessly.

"All stop moving!" He yelled at the intercom, "Car No. 3 goes up to reconnoitre, be careful, and retract immediately when you find the situation." ”

"Understood!" Captain No. 3 Schwartz's voice came from the headphones.

Panzer Val pushed open the hatch above his head again, straightened up from his seat, and watched through his binoculars.

I saw the huge armored car slowly moving towards the bridge deck, there was no one on the bridge, there were no other vehicles, and there was no wheat field on the other side except for a small forest as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, three fires flashed in the woods, and car No. 3 shook as if it had been slammed by something, and then there was a loud metal crash in Meyer's headphones, and then there was a heart-rending scream, which was Schwartz's voice: "Oh God! Shot! We've been shot! It must have been a 37mm gun, ah, little Hans was killed......"

"It's 37 guns! Damn it! There is an ambush in the woods! Hurry up! All fire! Armored Meyer shouted and ordered, but before his words fell, a loud noise came from inside the headphones, and Schwartz, who had been shouting before, suddenly did not make a sound.

I'm going to lose a few more brothers!

Armored Meyer chuckled in his heart, he knew that car No. 3 was finished! After all, the wheeled armored car is not the No. 4 tank with frontal armor up to 50mm, how can it withstand the 37mm gun? But how can there be a 37mm anti-tank gun here? The Poles did not have as many 37mm guns as the Germans, and generally only regimental and battalion-level troops had them.

"Send a report to the divisional headquarters," said Panzer Meyer, "we are blocked at the bridge over the Brachy River, the bridge is intact, about a battalion of the enemy is on the other side of the river, they have several 37mm anti-tank guns......"

……

"Your Excellency," Manstein put down his phone, "the 4th Army reports that the 19th Panzer Corps has advanced to the west bank of the Brachy River, and that the bridge over the Brachy River is basically intact, and it seems that General Guderian will be able to cross the river this afternoon." ”

"Are there Poles on the other side of the river?" Hersman asked in a low voice as he propped his hands on the map table.

"There was about a brigade-sized cluster," Manstein said, "discovered by Air Force reconnaissance...... is a cavalry group, and there are some TKS tanks. ”

"Got it," Hersman nodded, a brigade-sized cavalry group couldn't stop the 19th Panzer Corps, and there were air force dive bombers and attack planes to help in the fight. "But a cavalry brigade can't change anything, and the Primorsky Army is almost finished. Their front will soon collapse. ”

His gaze swam over the map platform and soon fell on Army Group Poznan, south of Primorsky Army.

"The remnants of the Primorsky Army Group should have retreated to the southeast, while the Poznan Army Group had not been hit and was expected to retreat east in the event of a serious threat to the flanks. In this way, there is a high probability that the Coastal Army and the Potznan Army will meet on the west bank of the Vistula, and even some troops of the Lodz Army will join, thus forming a relatively large cluster. ”

After a pause, Hersman added, "It is necessary to prevent the cluster from retreating into Warsaw, which will make it difficult for us to solve the Polish problem." It is time to consider plans to annihilate it outside Warsaw. ”

Manstein looked at the map for a moment and nodded slowly, "This possibility does exist!" Since we are taking a large pincer offensive in the north and south, the forces in the center are very weak, and we are unable to annihilate the Poznan Army, and the troops used to attack the Lodz Army are also insufficient......" He thought for a while, and then said, "The main force on the southern front is the 8th Army, which is too weak, and it is very likely to become the target of the strengthened Poznan Army!" No, not very likely! It's inevitable. Because the offensive of the 19th Panzer Army on the Northern Front was extremely fast, the Poles would definitely not choose to hit it hard. And the main forces of the Southern Front, the 10th Army and the 14th Army, were too far to the south. The only chance for the Poles to win was to attack the 8th Army. ”

"Erich, do you have any plans?" Hersman asked, holding his arms.

Manstein thought for a moment and nodded: "There is...... The 10th Army could be allowed to immediately transfer a divisional armored cluster north to reinforce the 8th Army as soon as it arrived near Warsaw. At the same time, after the 19th Panzer Army completed the first phase of its mission and broke through into East Prussia, the 10th Panzer Division was transferred to form a new tactical cluster with the 23rd Division, the 218th Infantry Division, and the 207th Infantry Division in the reserve of the 4th Army, and advanced south along the Vistula River. ”

"Very well," Hersmann said, looking at Manstein, "Erich, I will appoint you as the commander of this tactical cluster." Your tenure at the Eastern Front headquarters will end on 4 September, when you will hand over to Major General Rommel. ”

"Yes!" Manstein was very excited, this was a rare opportunity for him to command a group of army groups to encircle and annihilate a large Polish army! (To be continued.) )