In the northern battlefield, where Xia Fei was very relieved, there was also a disappointing situation, the Germans miraculously conquered several major fortresses in the Netherlands and Belgium, the German army in the Netherlands appeared on the outskirts of Rotterdam, and the rapid transportation channel from Britain to the Netherlands was in danger of being cut off. The German army in Belgium also broke through the Meuse River defense line, annihilated the Belgian defenders of the fortress of Liège, and marched towards Brussels.

The original plan to send more troops to encircle Moltke Jr. was also abruptly halted by the German breakthrough, and the main force of the coalition forces had to shrink its defenses and build fortifications in the face of the advancing German army, and the Marne River in northwestern France was about to become the main battlefield.

Multiple pieces of information were gathered into the Allied Command, and Xia Fei was surprised to see that the front-line commander used the words "German soldiers falling from the sky". What is it? Xia Fei asked around and no military staff knew about it, could it be that God sent him to help the Germans?

In the Imperial German Army, there was one branch of the army that was less valued than the armored forces, received the least resources, and not only did not have the attention of Field Marshal Schlieffen, but also did not have the support of noble generals. It was nothing more than an order of His Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II on the whim of the Emperor at the suggestion of the Chinese officers, and in addition to the interest of Wilhelm II, it was more about taking care of the face of the Chinese officers.

The German officers and soldiers in the 1st Parachute Division also did not have much confidence in this branch, so the division commander of this unit turned out to be a Chinese officer, but according to the requirements, he changed his German nationality. This unit can be said to have been established entirely by Brigadier General Lu Xue, who created the paratrooper unit, recruited officers, compiled training rules and combat codes, fought for resources, and liaised with Chinese and German military factories. From scratch, until the outbreak of the war finally completed the combat preparations of the paratrooper division and came to the staff headquarters to ask for combat missions, at this time Marshal Schlieffen and Wilhelm II remembered that there was such a unit in their own army!

"Maybe you can try it with a paratrooper division? It doesn't matter if it fails, it's always a possibility! Schlieffen thought after seeing the battle plan submitted by Lu Xue, and from the perspective of the plan, if the implementation was successful, it would solve the big trouble of the German army. The heavy artillery to the fortress was still on the way, and it would not arrive for a while, and the huge guns were first disassembled into parts and transported to the border by rail, and then transported to the front line by countless horses and trucks, and then assembled after some time.

Under the efforts of Brigadier General Lu Xue, Germany concentrated 90 transport planes and 150 ******, and these equipment could not have existed in the Luftwaffe without Lu Xue's efforts and the technical support of Huaguo. Even most of the transport planes and ****** were shipped from the port of Shanghai before the war began, and when they arrived at the port of Hamburg, they were sealed in the warehouses of the air force, and the Germans were still aggrieved at the time that the Chinese forced the sale of these toys that did not have much effect.

As a result, the 1st Parachute Division played the role of firefighters in the invasion of Belgium, acting almost simultaneously with the Dutch paratroopers, and the German paratroopers were all over Belgium, and they opened the way for the German ground forces. The 1st Cavalry Corps of the Third Army entered Belgium from due north of Liège, which ran south between Germany and Belgium and became known as the "Maastricht Appendix".

The border between the two countries is the famous Meuse, and not far away, there is the Albert Canal in Belgium, which acts as a fortress to defend Belgium's fragile border defence.

The Fort of Liège is arguably the most fortified fortress in western Europe, and it is the northern fulcrum of the various points of the line, and the southern part of the fortress leads to Brussels, which is the only way to the heart of Belgium.

To capture this important fortress, the 1st Parachute Division committed 500 well-trained paratrooper assault troops. The task of these units was to hold this line of attack for the German 1st Cavalry Corps of the Third Army.

This time the German paratroopers decided to attack in a more novel way - they landed directly in ******. They fell from the sky while they were in the Netherlands and appeared in the rear of the Dutch defenders, and at this fortress they chose ****** instead of parachutes for the airdrop. The first is that the loud noise of the engine of the Ju-12 transport aircraft will expose the operation in advance; The second is that he is afraid that the paratroopers will be scattered in the air and form an assault force, and Brigadier General Lu Xue needs these soldiers to land in a concentrated manner and attack together.

They mobilized 80 ****** 5,000 feet above Aachen to break away from the Ju-12 transport planes, each ******with 10 heavily armed paratroopers on board.

When the sky had just darkened, and the first glimmer of light was faintly revealed, these transport ****** made of tin sheets, wood, and coarse canvas, with their sleighs and landing skis, quietly landed ghostly only seven miles away from their targets. They were ready for everything, and the paratroopers had been secretly training for this operation for three months, and the training content was unusually harsh.

The paratroopers were ordered to directly capture the fortress of Liège. The fortress was garrisoned by 1,200 Belgian soldiers, but this morning there were only 750 soldiers inside the walls due to the change of guards. The remaining troops were scattered at key nodes such as batteries and bridges.

The fortress of Liège was very vulnerable to air strikes, which is why Germany chose it as a target, and the presence of a small number of anti-aircraft weapons made it easy for ****** to land. Under the futile fire of the stunned Belgian machine gunners, 15 German ****** landed safely on the large lawn at the top of the fortress, 15 on the central square inside the fortress, and the rest in the open space between the fortress and the battery. The German paratroopers heroically jumped out of the plane and rushed to their targets in the face of artillery fire.

All the German paratroopers were demolition experts, and the General Staff Headquarters could ignore them, and the German Imperial Army could ignore them, but Lu Xue was still strict with them, and the training was so strict that the soldiers resented their superiors, and they did not repent until the war broke out and joined the battlefield.

The paratroopers brought two and a half tons of explosives, a considerable part of which had a new type of device on it, which was a hemisphere shaped like a concave. This device allows the force of the explosion to be concentrated downwards, and can easily destroy heavy 'concrete' fortifications. The map of the fortress ordered by Commander Lu Xue was extremely detailed, and the paratroopers did not know that it was from the materials carried by the steel base.

Each of these explosives weighs 100 pounds and can blow up several feet of steel at once. Ever since studying aerial photographs and maps of the fort, the sappers knew everything about where they had placed their explosives. In less than 10 minutes after landing, they blew up more than half of their selected targets.

And in the process of exploding, they found that the Belgian defenders were cutting corners, and two turrets were simply ornaments, completely incapable of attacking. They opened heavy fire, and the Belgian defenders were forced to retreat into the ditch for concealment. They called in the artillery forces outside the fortress and shelled their own fortress from the outside.

Unfortunately, due to the design of the artillery outside, most of the guns were aimed at the outside, and they could not turn to the inside of the fortress at all. And there were also a significant number of paratroopers attacking from behind the batteries, diverting the attention of the artillery.

However, because the Belgian defenders were outnumbered, they resisted desperately. The Germans were unable to control the entire fortress for a while, and they had to wait for reinforcements to arrive in order to complete what seemed impossible. The paratroopers who landed inside the fortress tried to capture the headquarters of the Belgian defenders, but they met with resolute resistance, and more and more Belgian soldiers ran out of the barracks to join the battle to encircle and suppress the paratroopers, and paratroopers were killed every moment.

The most important thing was the battle for the battery, where the paratroopers suddenly appeared behind the battery, and in this direction there were no Belgian artillery, no machine-gun positions, not even trenches. The Belgian soldiers defending the inside of the fort had no choice but to leave the fortified fort and run outside to fire at the elite paratroopers. But in the face of the well-prepared paratroopers, there were heavy losses, and in half an hour three batteries fell under the control of the paratroopers.

Reinforcements came faster than the best had expected, and Emich's troops took advantage of the confusion at the fort to storm the river, capturing several vital crossing points and erecting pontoon bridges, so that the German infantry and cavalry were able to cross the Meuse as fast as they could, and an hour later the German paratroopers were waiting for their reinforcements.

The next morning, more reinforcements arrived, the German infantry surrounded the fortress of Liège, Emich's artillery team could reach close and open fire, one by one the batteries were captured by the German soldiers, more and more German soldiers with the cooperation of the paratroopers to attack the fortress, the remaining Belgian soldiers had to retreat to a few strong fortifications, waiting for the last moment to come.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the defenders' radio horns sounded, and the Belgian defenders came out of their fortifications and surrendered to the heroic German paratroopers waving white flags. In this battle, the Belgian defenders lost 1,475 killed, more than 350 others were wounded, and the remaining 7,000 or so had no choice but to surrender because they lost the angle of attack from both sides. The German paratroopers lost 105 men, and the tragic battle was mainly due to the large number of defenders, and the paratroopers also won the respect of everyone with great courage and unexpected effects.

The German Third Army had firmly controlled its advance area, creating the most favorable conditions for the unfolding of Operation Revolving Door. Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to commend the paratroopers for the paratrooper operation, Brigadier General Lu Xue awarded the medal on behalf of all the paratroopers, all the paratroopers who participated in the attack and defense of the fortress of Liège were rewarded with a promotion of the first rank, and the officers were allowed to enjoy a month-long vacation. In addition to this, the application for the expansion of the paratrooper units, the expansion of transport aircraft and the production of ****** was also adopted logically. (To be continued.) )