By noon, the intensity of the bombing suddenly increased, and groups of hundreds of planes continued to appear in the sky. Immediately after that, the Stuka dive bomber appeared. They usually operate in groups of 3 aircraft, each of about 40 aircraft. The 17th group was at an altitude of 5,000 feet, attacking a target in groups of 18-3 aircraft at a time. The 18th group was at an altitude of 1,718,000 feet, attacking the target missed by the 17th group. The third group moves independently, attacking independent or moving targets. The main objects of the bombardment were the artillery positions of the French army and the advancing French infantry. The French suffered serious losses in equipment and morale.

The Germans on the other side of the river observed all this with great encouragement through telescopes: 3, 6, 9, and more Stuka dive bombers appeared, and they rushed vertically towards the target, and the bombs fell one after another, and the huge smoke and dust covered the other side of the river, and the air waves even caused damage to the Germans. At this time, the enemy shelling stopped, and the Germans received an order to advance. Buoyed by air superiority, the infantry and sappers quickly advanced to the river, preparing to cross the river. Anti-aircraft gunners also quickly pushed the 180mm, 37mm anti-aircraft guns to the river. At this distance, even these guns were able to destroy the French fortifications (the protective steel plates for the fortifications were not delivered for a winter). 88mm guns were also pushed to the shore, and due to the penetrating power of their high muzzle velocity, they could destroy targets that even the heaviest guns could not destroy.

At 3 p.m., the bombing of the Stuka dive bombers extended into depth, and the most critical moment of the French campaign arrived. Although both sides made detailed plans and complicated troop movements, at this time, the fate of France, Hitler's thousand-year-old empire and even Europe was only pinned on those few forcible soldiers, and their success or failure would affect the squad, platoon, company, and regiment. And then the whole campaign.

Guderian's left-flank Panzer Division did not go well, and the 86th Infantry Regiment on the right flank of the division reached the river bank too late to take advantage of the Luftwaffe cover and was suppressed by French fire. The 69th Infantry Regiment on the left flank of the division was also almost pinned down on the bank of the river by French artillery fire and was almost immobile. (The Luftwaffe offensive, although enormous, seemed to have left many French artillery positions intact here) Only a few rubber boats reached the opposite bank, and the Germans had the impression that a small counterattack by the French could drive several groups of Germans on the opposite bank down the river. However, the French did not counterattack, on the contrary, with the cooperation of the German 88 guns, the Germans who crossed the river also captured several points of fire and held a firm foothold. However, due to the blockade by French fire, the 69th Regiment could not continue to reinforce the opposite bank. By night, the main forces of the 69th regiment remained in place.

In fact, the Germans were able to cross the river entirely on the initiative of their junior officers. The conductor on the west bank of the river was nothing more than a sergeant La Paz. He could only find two undamaged rubber boats crossing the river, each with only three people, and he managed to cram four of them, and he also carried a lot of blasting devices with hollow charges. For this purpose any excess weight was thrown away, including the sapper shovel - "there is no way to defend it, and if it is not successful, it will be a good thing." ”

No sooner had they crossed the river, La Paz's gang attacked a particularly threatening pillbox first, first using a hollow-charge blasting device to blow up the back wall of the pillbox, then throwing in several grenades, and the French in the pillbox surrendered. On the east bank of the river, there were bursts of cheers from other German troops. Buoyed by the victory, the Germans captured two more pillboxes and tore about 300 meters into the French line. At this time, the depth of French fire prevented them from moving forward, and they almost ran out of ammunition. La Paz himself returned to the river and waited for reinforcements. The new rubber boats were constantly shattered by French fire, and La Paz's company commander personally directed the launching of the new boats by the river.

Here, the French suddenly launched an attack, and at a critical moment, reinforcements from the 86th Regiment arrived and repelled the French. By the evening, six of La Paz's original 1,717 men had been killed and three wounded. Together with the later 86th Regiment, they occupied the heights near La Paz and reached their designated goal. La Paz was awarded the Cross on the same day, promoted to lieutenant.

As can be seen from the operation in La Paz, there were no covering troops between the French pillboxes at all. According to the regulations of the French army, there should be a side behind the protective bunkers between the bunkers. The French do not mention this in the records, but we can probably guess that the poor discipline and morale of the French may have played a role again, and that these covering units may have retreated without a fight under the attack of the Luftwaffe. Of course, it may also be because the German army is advancing too fast, and many French troops have not yet reached the river bank. But we will soon see what role the discipline and morale of the French army will play in the face of the attacks of the 177th and 178th Panzer Divisions.

Since the Germans concentrated most of their air and artillery forces to support the 17th Panzer Division, the division crossed the river with ease. On the left flank was the elite SS infantry regiment "Greater Germany", whose personnel were selected from the entire German Army and had been trained with Guderian's Panzer Corps since 18 August. From April, the division also conducted, inter alia, special training for forced marches, river crossings and night battles in conditions of insufficient food. At noon, the assault units of the "Greater Germany" infantry regiment began to approach the river bank, and the French, despite the fact that the "Stukka" was still bombing, immediately began to shoot at the Germans. German assault sappers braved French shells to carry the rubber boats to the riverbank, but at the last moment they were suppressed by direct fire from the opposite bank. The commander of the 7th Company, the vanguard of the river crossing, was killed on the riverbank. Once again, the 88 guns showed their might, they destroyed one fire point after another on the opposite bank. Under the cover of direct fire from anti-aircraft guns, the 7th Company was the first to successfully cross the river, and then the 6th Company followed, and everything was as accurate as the exercise.

"Stuka" also closely supported the German attack after crossing the river, and the bombs almost fell on the heads of the Germans themselves. Approaching the highway from Sedan to Dang Chali, the 6th Company captured the 17th batch of French prisoners. At the same time, the 7th Company came under heavy fire from a large pillbox with 6 perforations, and the Germans, after approaching the pillbox, used grenades to force the defenders to surrender. The 6th Company then captured another pillbox as well. Subsequently, they surprised and joined up with the right flank of the 17th Panzer Division, Balk's 17th Infantry Regiment. By 5 p.m., the 6th Company had occupied the 1847 Heights, and 70 years earlier, not far from here, **Qi commanded the Battle of Sedan.

Balk's 17th Infantry Regiment was tasked with following behind the "Greater Germany" Infantry Regiment and occupying the heights around Sedang and the road to the south. Until now, the main battles had been fought by the "Greater Germany" infantry regiments, and Balk had advanced with relative ease. Guderian, who was observing not far from the front, was satisfied with the crossing of the river: the French artillery was clearly suppressed by the "Stuka", and the fortifications along the bank were destroyed by direct fire from anti-aircraft guns, although the enemy terrain was favorable and our casualties were light. Balk had the impression that the French artillery had fled. The cessation of French artillery fire was a great encouragement to the Germans: a few minutes ago, people were hiding in the trenches, and now, no one still thinks about hiding, everyone only thinks about moving forward. By 5:30 p.m., Balk's 17th Infantry Regiment had reached the road, wedged deep into the main French line, and cleared the riverbank. By 7:30 p.m., the 17th Panzer Division had 6 battalions on the west bank and controlled a sizable landing site.

But now Guderian didn't have any anti-tank guns or tanks on the other side of the river, and he had to worry all night about whether the French would launch a fierce counterattack. Bridging was given the highest priority. At half past four o'clock in the afternoon, a special bridging company chose a suitable site to begin its work, and 70 miles away from the river were still sporadic French fire, and shells were often exploding around. In the sky, the fighters of the Luftwaffe did their best to prevent enemy aircraft from attacking. The sappers went into battle shirtless, and in a record 38 minutes they set up a light ferry, and before midnight, the 176-ton pontoon bridge was erected.

Considering that the 18th Panzer Division suffered a lot of delays on its way in, Guderian's order to the 18th Panzer Division was quite arduous. Guderian ordered the division, after the forced crossing, to take control of the heights near Dangciali, and then turn to the west to "roll up" the French lines. In fact, the task of this division was to open and cut the link between the 18th and 9th armies of France. However, Guderian also realized that the division, due to various delays, had doubts about its ability to complete its mission.

However, Guderian's SS subordinates did not disappoint him, and the direct fire from tank guns and anti-aircraft guns was once again powerful. Although it was almost impossible to observe the French concealed good firing points in the setting sun, the German battle engineers managed to force their way through under heavy artillery fire. Due to the success of the 17th Panzer Division on the left flank, the resistance of the French army weakened quickly after the German crossing. The Germans were busy all night delivering reinforcements to the West Bank. An infantry officer had the leisure to observe the French fortifications on the banks of the river, and was astonished to the fact that many of the firing points had not been completed. He sighed very much: these Frenchmen, they have 180 years, they have not even dug the foundation, and the Shenma fortifications have not been repaired for 180 years, so the purely romantic French did not want to repair it at all......

Record of the French side: The main one who withstood Guderian's onslaught was the French 55th Infantry Division, a ** reserve division. Despite the division's good terrain and strong artillery support, his extremely poorly trained reservists were no match for the German first-class fighters, especially with the support of "the whole Luftwaffe". Despite the stubborn resistance of many of the bunkers, most of the infantry cover units deployed between the bunkers fled without a fight under the Luftwaffe.

The 55th Infantry Division received reports that about 40 enemy troops south of Widley had crossed the river, were shelling, and had lost contact with the infantry regiment on our left flank (this link would never be established). Neither Hunterziger, who was present at the time, nor the commander of the French 170th Army, was worried: as long as all positions were held and an immediate counterattack was made, there would be no problem. However, in the following hour, the situation took a sharp turn. An artillery battery in Humon reported the sighting of German tanks in the vicinity, and two hours later, the commander of the 170th Army** Artillery Group in Bulson reported to the corps artillery commander Penceley that fierce fighting had broken out around his headquarters, and that if he did not retreat, he would be surrounded within 5 minutes and asked to retreat. His request was granted.

…… (To be continued.) )