Chapter 595: The Fall of France 2

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Britain and France carried out a large-scale counteroffensive against Germany on all fronts, and achieved a phased victory, the German army retreated on all fronts, and the media around the world almost shouted in unison "Germany is finished", which made Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, feel worried. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info╔╗

It was not Wang Chenhao who knew about Hitler's conspiracy, on the contrary, Wang Chenhao was worried that if Germany was defeated in this way, it would not be a good thing for the Chinese Empire.

The Chinese Empire remained deeply ambivalent. On the one hand, the Chinese Empire feared that Germany and the Allies were too powerful in the world and would threaten the world hegemony and national interests of the Chinese Empire in the future. On the other hand, if Germany were defeated by the Entente in this way, the Chinese Empire, which did not participate in the war, would not be able to receive the benefits that the victorious powers deserved, and if the Soviet Union became the victorious power, it would become the most threatening neighbor of the Chinese Empire.

As a neighbor of the Chinese Empire, Wang Chenhao did not want the Soviet Union to be defeated by Germany, but he did not want the Soviet Union to defeat Germany and become a victorious country, because the latter was more threatening.

For the Chinese emperor, Zhang Zizhong and others had always been optimistic about Germany before, and felt that the strength of the Allies was strong and they would definitely be able to achieve the final victory, so they had been lobbying Wang Chenhao and the Congress to join the Allies in the war, in order to obtain profits from the Allies.

However, when the German army was defeated by the small Armenian army in the Transcaucasus, and the Soviet Union won the defense of Moscow and launched a major counteroffensive, the attitude of Zhang Zizhong and other imperial ** sides gradually changed. And with the Anglo-French Entente launching a major counteroffensive. When the German army was forced to retreat under unprecedented military pressure on both the Western Front and the Eastern Front, a considerable number of officials from all walks of life who had previously supported the Allies suddenly changed their tunes, and even directly echoed the international media and shouted that the Allies were coming to an end and that the Chinese Empire should join the Entente to participate in the war. If you enter the war late, you will not get the fruits of victory for the victorious country.

Regardless of whether the Second World War was won by the Allies or the Entente, the fundamental strategy of the Chinese Empire remained the same. That is to join the winning side at the last minute and then share the fruits of the victory. Such. From the reselling of arms during the war to the sharing of the fruits of victory after the war, the Chinese Empire will make a lot of money and is the biggest winner.

What is certain is that the Chinese Empire will eventually enter the war. ╔╗But in the end, which camp to join, the imperial officials are benevolent and wise, and there are all kinds of rhetoric.

"Let's wait and see, Germany won't be defeated so easily."

In the face of the disputes between the civil and military officials. Wang Chenhao made a statement, asking the emperor and the government to wait and see the changes for the time being.

Wang Chenhao's decision is also well-founded, because in history, Germany fought to the end, and did not surrender until the American and Soviet troops invaded Berlin. Today's Germany is far more powerful than in history, and the United States has chosen to join the Allies, and the strength of the two sides is almost twice that of Britain, France and the Soviet Union, so Wang Chenhao judged that Germany would not be easily defeated. At least not for a short time.

Of course, Wang Chenhao's thoughts are not known to the civil and military officials, and they can only make judgments based on the situation in front of them. However, since Wang Chenhao asked them to wait for a while, even if they disagreed, they would not oppose it head-on. But. In private, they were busy with their own work.

On the part of the Imperial Government, Prime Minister Soong Jiao-jen actively met with the representatives of Britain, France and the Soviet Union in China, and on the one hand, he increased the amount and speed of supply of materials to the Entente countries, and no longer demanded sky-high prices, but lowered them to a reasonable level during the war, so as to express that the support of the Chinese Empire for the Entente countries was increasing. On the other hand, all along, the representatives of the Entente have been constantly lobbying the Chinese Empire to join the Entente to participate in the war, at first Song Jiaoren and other imperial government officials were not optimistic about the victory of the Entente at all, but now the Entente seems to have passed the most dangerous period, and the beginning of the great counteroffensive made Song Jiaoren change his attitude.

Although Song Jiaoren can still be sure which side the Chinese Empire will eventually stand on, it is clear that the Chinese Empire will stand on the side with the greater chance of winning, at this time the Allied offensive was frustrated, the Entente launched a counterattack, and there was a decisive posture, which made Song Jiaoren begin to lean towards the Entente. Of course, until the moment when the situation becomes clear, Song Jiaoren will not finally express his position. However, as far as the current situation is concerned, Song Jiaoren chose to relax his tone for the time being and appropriately express his intentions to Britain, France, the Soviet Union and other Allied countries that could be considered.

It can be considered that this is already his biggest concession for Song Jiaoren at present. The representatives of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union were very excited about this specious answer, because before that, the Chinese Empire had refused to reveal any views and attitudes to the choice of the world war camp.

Representatives of the Entente countries of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union quickly formed a joint delegation, hoping to conduct in-depth negotiations on the entry of the Chinese Empire into the Entente's war against the Central Powers. ╔╗Unexpectedly, the Chinese Empire agreed, but it was not made public, but in the form of a closed-door secret meeting.

At the closed-door meeting, the representatives of the Chinese Empire put forward various political, economic, military and other demands. Politically, for example, the Chinese Empire demanded that the Netherlands give up the Dutch East Indies and recognize the merger of Singapore and the Dutch East Indies into a single state, Singapore. The Chinese Empire would not join the Entente, but allowed Entente member states to join the Greater China Co-Prosperity Sphere in their individual capacities. Economically, the Chinese Empire demanded that the Entente countries transfer their annual treasury gold and silver reserves to the Chinese Empire and hand them over to the Central Bank of the Chinese Empire for safekeeping in exchange for the Chinese Empire's loans and aid to the country. The Chinese Empire provided advanced weaponry and military assistance to the Allied member states, or directly participated in the war, but in exchange, the Entente member states prohibited the development of nuclear weapons, and the use of nuclear energy would be carried out under the supervision of the Chinese Empire.

The conditions put forward by the Chinese Empire were very harsh, and the Entente countries could not accept them for a while, but they knew very well that there were many conditions that could continue to be made and negotiated, so they all said that they would consider them and did not close the door to the alliance.

Either way, the Chinese Empire was willing to relent. For the Entente, it was another matter whether or not to agree to the conditions, and the Chinese Empire had already expressed its intention to support the Entente militarily, which in itself was a great victory for the Entente.

However. What the Entente did not know was that under the same conditions, the Imperial Government of China was also open to the Allies.

The bet of the Chinese Empire was pressed on both sides. Conditions were also made for the Allies.

Although Germany and the United States, the two major Allied members, were strongly hostile to the Chinese Empire, the greatest enemy facing the Allies was the Entente for the time being. Before defeating the Entente, neither the United States nor Germany wanted to offend the Chinese Empire. They did not want to form an alliance with the Chinese Empire, but they also did not want the Chinese Empire to form an alliance with the Entente.

Therefore, since the outbreak of World War II, the United States and Germany and other allied countries have tried not to touch the core interests of the Chinese Empire, although Germany launched unlimited submarine warfare, but it did not include attacks on the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire. For this, German submarines before conducting attack operations. ╔╗ will send a specific radio frequency signal to determine the identity of the other party, and this signal is precisely to the Chinese Imperial side, to prevent German submarines from accidentally damaging the ships of the Chinese Empire.

For the United States, it has also endured for a long time. The Fourth Mexican-American War was still in a stalemate, not because the United States was incapable of defeating the Mexican army, but because the United States feared that a security treaty between the Chinese Empire and Mexico would suddenly come into force. In order to avoid an excuse for the Chinese Empire to enter the war, the US military was forced to place the battlefield on American soil, enduring huge economic losses and war damage. Of course. There is another secret to the forbearance of the US military, that is, Roosevelt took the opportunity to vigorously develop naval forces and rebuild the powerful US navy in the past.

The United States and Germany's forbearance of the Chinese Empire was actually reaching its limit, and Germany was not completely defeated because of the uncertain situation of the war in Europe. Therefore, they did not dare to go to war with the Chinese Empire. However, because the United States lacks naval strength, without naval strength it is simply unable to shake the Chinese Empire in the slightest, and if it wants to compete with the Chinese Empire, the United States has to endure and look forward to the recovery of naval strength.

The virtues have their own difficulties, but they all know one thing, and that is that the Chinese Empire cannot be allowed to agree with the Entente Powers, at least until the Allies have the ability to confront the Chinese Empire. Therefore, the starting point of the United States was different from that of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, which genuinely wanted to pull the Chinese Empire down and declare war on the Central Powers as soon as possible. The former, on the other hand, had no intention of forming an alliance with the Chinese Empire, but only wanted to temporarily stabilize the Chinese Empire and make it as neutral as possible.

The political and military differences between the secret negotiations between the Chinese Empire and the United States and Germany were very great. The United States could not negotiate with the Chinese Empire because of the Mexican issue, and Germany was equally at odds with the Chinese Empire because of the entry of Armenia into the Transcaucasia, but neither side wanted to be at a stalemate, so both sides made concessions on the economic issue.

In order to make Germany hold out for a while longer, the Chinese Empire had better survive this great British, French, and Soviet counteroffensive operations, so that the two sides would fall into a long tug-of-war, which was the result that the Chinese Empire was most looking forward to. The Chinese Empire did not want the Entente to win, nor did it want the Allies to lose, so whenever one side was stronger than the other, the Chinese Empire would activate economic and military levers to adjust the scales so that the forces of both sides would be "balanced." As a result, the Chinese Empire relaxed its oil exports to Germany and lowered the price of oil exports, which were no longer sky-high, but were exported at normal wartime prices. At the same time, the Chinese Empire promised not to allow Armenia to attack the Germans on its own initiative. The German representative also said that Germany would give priority to imports from the Chinese Empire for oil at the same price. At the same time, Germany also said that it would not take the initiative to march in the direction of Transcaucasia. ╔╗

Germany wanted to obtain advanced weapons and equipment technology from the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Empire agreed, but in practice it shirked it on various grounds. It was not until the European theater of war was reversed again, when Germany smashed the plans of the British, French and Soviet military counteroffensive and occupied France in one fell swoop, that the Chinese Empire immediately terminated the cooperation project with Germany.

On February 11, 1942, the Anglo-French forces implemented the code name Nemesis against the German forces from three directions, and the first phase of the plan was completed. The Entente fully recovered the French territory occupied by the Germans, and Army Group North, under the command of British Army General Sir Charles Ball, invaded Belgium with 750,000 troops and surrounded 200,000 German troops in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

Pétain commanded Army Group Center's 2.2 million troops to launch a fierce offensive against Metz, pouring more than 1.2 million tons of artillery shells and aerial bombs on the 420,000 German positions on the Metz line in seven days. As a result, the German positions were scorched with scorched earth, and the small river that existed one second disappeared without a trace in the next second, and the air was filled with a strong smell of fishy smell and gunsmoke. The Germans suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

On February 12, the 7th Panzer Army of Army Group Center of the Allied Powers took the lead with M28A3 Leopard tanks with all Chinese armaments. Quickly broke through the western position of the Metz Line, which was heavily defended by the Germans, and the Metz Line was torn open a gap. The Entente forces then swarmed in, and the Germans were forced to retreat.

On 15 February, the Entente captured Metz and forced the Germans back into German territory.

In the other direction, in the direction of the Maginot Line on the southern road, the Entente**, under the leadership of Admiral Scott, advanced at an even more pronounced pace, breaking through 300 kilometers into German territory in just one week. Occupied most of the Alsace region. This was mainly due to the fact that the Maginot Line, which the French had built at great expense, played a role, and the Entente** relied on the powerful Maginot fortifications to resist the German invasion, forcing the German army to take the Maginot Line without any means, and soon abandoned the idea of breaking through from the Maginot Line, and most of the troops were withdrawn.

The German troops on the opposite side of the Maginot Line were less than 20,000 troops, and when General Scott led 450,000 Anglo-French troops to rush out of the Maginot Line, the Germans fled without a fight, and all kinds of equipment were lost all over the mountains. Admiral Scott was immediately confident and marched forward at full speed.

Just when the Entente was in full swing, Hitler ordered the transfer of the reserve troops of Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other federal states in the heart of Germany to the Western Front. ╔╗

For this reason, Hitler also played a bitter game with some officials. For example, Rudolf, the deputy leader of Germany, made a proposal to Hitler, asking for the speedy transfer of elite troops from the Soviet battlefield back. In order to deal with the great counteroffensive operations of the Entente**, Rudolph declared that the reserve forces alone could not defeat the Entente** with a large number of advanced weapons.

Hitler didn't care, and accused Rudolf of shaking the morale of the army, and removed Rudolf from his post, and at the same time Hitler held a mobilization meeting in Berlin, at the conference, Hitler encouraged the German reserve officers and soldiers not to worry, saying that the Entente ** was all defeated by the remnants of the army, and there was no need for German elite troops, and the reserve forces alone were enough to defeat the enemy.

Hitler then reviewed the army and then ordered the Germans to march on the Western Front.

The double play between Hitler and Rudolph was actually played for the spies planted by the Entente in Germany, and through them, they passed on the information of how Hitler was arrogant and conceited, and transmitted the information of the German reserve recruits sent to the Western Front to the British and French high commands, and continued to paralyze the enemy.

Sure enough, the British and French high commands were relieved when they received the information sent back by the spies. Although some Allied generals were suspicious and asked to slow down the attack, most of the Allied generals were dismissive, especially the commanders at the front, and when they learned that the Germans were coming to reinforcements were reserve recruits, they did not take the Germans seriously.

In their opinion, the German army on the Western Front was already in a state of collapse, with a large number of tanks, planes and artillery destroyed, and a lack of heavy weapons to counterattack in a short period of time. At the same time, the Germans did not withdraw the elite of the Soviet battlefield, but sent domestic reserve recruits, and it was taboo for soldiers to work far away, they only needed to make a slight deployment to defeat the German reinforcements, and take Berlin directly in one go.

It can be said that if their inferences were true, it was absolutely possible to hit Berlin in one go. However, from the very beginning, the Entente side was played by Hitler, and I didn't know that this was a big deception.

Hitler had been plagued by the fact that the Allies were cowering in strong fortifications, which led to the stalemate of the First World War on the Western Front. For Hitler, Germany lacked the necessary supplies and oil for the war, so Hitler could not afford it. Therefore, Hitler decided to play a risky trick, took the initiative to show weakness to the enemy, lured the Entente ** team out of the turtle shell, and then annihilated it completely.

It can be said that by this time, Hitler's plan was undoubtedly successful.

On 15 February, 25 elite panzer divisions and 42 infantry divisions of the German army arrived in the Trier area of the Western Front. At this time, the German army had already equipped a large number of No. 5 with German armored forces, and the No. 5 tank had surpassed the M28A3 main battle tank exported to the Entente countries by the Chinese Empire in terms of firepower and armor performance. But the Entente** did not know about it, thinking that the German tanks were the same as they were during the Transcaucasian campaign. Even the Armenian army was able to defeat the armored forces of the German army, not to mention the powerful Entente**.

What's more, the main armored forces of the Entente** are equipped with M28A3 main battle tanks made in the Chinese Empire, so the Entente** from the commander to the ordinary soldiers, does not take the German army seriously. Fantasizing about crushing the Germans with a single face.

At noon on the 16th, the German 9th Panzer Division and the 11th Panzer Division met the elite 2nd Panzer Division and the 5th Panzer Division of the Allied Army Group Center in the open area southwest of Trier, and a fierce battle broke out immediately.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting. The two elite Panzer Divisions of the Entente lost more than 80 M28A3 main battle tanks, while the Germans lost less than 20 No. 5 tanks.

The ratio of tank losses on both sides was as high as 1:4. It was the first time that the situation was reversed, and the Chinese Imperial Leopard tank was defeated by the German No. 5 tank, which was actually an unprecedented event.

Of course, if we talk about tank strength, the M28A3 tank of the Chinese Empire is not much worse than the German tank No. 5. Despite the heavy firepower and thick armor of the No. 5 tank, the M28A3 tank was fast and had a high rate of fire. High accuracy is actually a mutual advantage. The real reason is that the Entente underestimated the enemy, thinking that the opposite side was a vulnerable German recruit, but unexpectedly, the German army on the opposite side was the real well-trained elite, which caused such a large battle loss ratio.

Petain seemed to realize that something was wrong, but he was not sure, and his subordinates thought it was a coincidence, so they did not change the order to attack. It was still an all-front attack, and it was planned to crush the Germans in one fell swoop.

Three hours later, the increasing battle loss ratio made Petain panic, and he realized the seriousness of the problem and immediately ordered the whole army to stop the attack. Shrink your forces.

Unfortunately, however, the German 12th Panzer Army quickly routed the 19th Panzer Division and the 33rd Infantry Division of the Entente near the Luxembourg border, tearing apart the front of Army Group Center from the front.

Subsequently, the German 12th Panzer Corps concentrated its fire and launched a fierce attack on the rear flank of the Entente**, and captured it at 9 o'clock that night. As a result, the flank and rear flank gates of the entire Central Army Group of the Entente ** were wide open.

Petain was taken aback when he heard this, and hurriedly ordered the 42nd Army to retake its position before dawn. But soon the 42nd Army lost most of its losses, and not only did it not recapture its position, but was successfully counterattacked by the Germans.

Petain already knew in his heart that this was a ploy of the Germans, and they had fallen for it. So Petain desperately let the 42nd Army hold its position, telling him that reinforcements would soon be available. The 42nd Army believed it and held its ground, but could not wait for the left and the right to wait, and it was not until dawn the next day that Petain had fled with his army. Subsequently, the remnants of the 42nd Army surrendered to the Germans, but the Germans did not want to take prisoners, and the Germans were eager to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Entente, and all the prisoners were shot.

At this time, the Entente soldiers praised the M28A3 tank again, because it was faster than the German No. 5 tank, and the 9 Panzer Corps and 4 Mechanized Infantry Divisions of the Entente using M28 tanks all jumped out of the German encirclement before dawn, but the other 8 Panzer Corps and 42 ordinary infantry divisions were all surrounded by the Germans in Ayangge, Trier and other areas.

Petain could have returned to the division to rescue, but the Germans still had four Panzer Divisions chasing after them, and the morale of the Entente had run away. Petain organized two ambushes, but both were easily defused by the Germans, resulting in the loss of one Panzer Division.

On the morning of the 19th, the 760,000 Entente ** of Army Group Center, which was surrounded in the Ayangri area, was forced to surrender to the Germans due to the cut off of supplies. A day later, the 280,000 Entente** troops besieged in the Trier region suffered more than 110,000 dead and wounded after fierce fighting, and the remaining army had to surrender because of the lack of food.

On the 21st, Petain was driven back to Metz by the Germans like ducks. Because the British and French high commands did not understand the situation on the battlefield, they ordered Petain not to retreat, and soon the Germans chased after him and surrounded Petain and the 230,000 troops he had worked so hard to bring out in Metz.

From the afternoon of the 21st to the morning of the 25th, the Germans launched a fierce offensive. The German Air Force, which had been considered destroyed by the Allies, appeared with a total of 3,000 aircraft, and the scattered German forces quickly returned to the cage, and more than 340,000 artillery pieces were redeployed to the periphery of Metz.

This time it was the Germans' turn to retaliate, and the heavy shells rained down, once again scorching Metz. Pétain mistakenly left the armored forces in the city, causing the armored forces to lose their ability to fight in the field, so that when the German armored forces were encircled, Petain had no strategy to deal with it. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point () to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. )