Chapter 508: Dunkirk
Just as the Chinese Wehrmacht was busy talking about attacking Korea, in April 1940, Germany launched a "lightning" offensive. Denmark and Norway were captured on 9 April 1940, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg on 10 May, and then France. )
After the German attack on France, the British, who had only watched the excitement, finally entered the war, and on 13 May, the Germans dispatched nearly 400 bombers to bomb the south bank of the Maas River in batches.
As soon as the Maas River defense line was lost, the road to Paris and the English Channel was opened, and the British and French troops fighting in Belgium were in danger of being outflanked, and the French army on the Maginot Line would also be exposed to the enemy, and the British and French felt that the situation was serious. Britain quickly deployed ten additional squadrons of fighters to carry out a counterattack with the British Air Force in France and the French Air Force. On the afternoon of 14 July, the fiercest air battle since the beginning of the war broke out over the Maas River, and the British Brenchen bombers and the French army's latest Breguet bombers, under the cover of fighter planes, came straight to the Maas River, and the fighters of about five German wings took to the air to intercept them, and each side put in more than 500 planes. From noon to dark, the guns and artillery on the landing ground were incessant, and the fighters of both sides flew up and down, chasing each other; from time to time, planes were hit by bullets and caught fire, dragging black smoke down, and bombs dropped by British and French planes indiscriminately exploded one column of water after another on the river surface.
In this battle, the Germans shot down hundreds of British and French planes, and the planes sent by the British lost 60 percent. Called by the British: "There is nothing more painful than the loss caused by this suicidal battle." After that, the British and French air forces only dared to take to the air at night, and the air supremacy in the theater was firmly controlled by the Germans.
Equipped with the Chinese "Northwest Tigers", the German armored cluster of tanks drove straight into the Maginot Line, and its power and speed were unheard of in the history of warfare. France was in a panic. In the early morning of 15 May, French President Paul Renault called Winston Churchill, who had succeeded Neville only five days earlier and Chamberlain as British Prime Minister, and said: "I am afraid we will lose this battle." Churchill was stunned: "I simply don't understand how an attack with a large number of rapid armoured units can cause such a drastic descent." At this point, "the Anglo-French forces were defeated on the battlefield, and by mid-May, most of the Anglo-French forces had been driven to the coastal area, and they were surrounded on three sides" and they were about to be annihilated.
On 26 May, the Governor's Office in Berlin, Germany, "Mr. Ambassador, I beg you to wait, Your Excellency the Führer is on official business, and he will receive you as soon as he is free." A young and handsome German captain said politely to Wang Tingen.
"Okay, I would like to inform your head of state: "I have been ordered by the President of our country to have a very important matter to meet with him. ”
"Of course, I will report to the Führer immediately." , Knowing that this ambassador from Huaxia was a person that Yao Shou valued very much, the captain asked Wang Tingen to sit down and immediately went in to report to Yuan He.
Wang Tingen, who had become Huaxia's ambassador to Germany, took off his top hat and put it on a shelf beside him, sat down and waited for about ten minutes before Hitler appeared at the door.
"Hello, Mr. Ambassador, have you heard that you have something to see me on the orders of the President of your country?" The smooth outcome of the war made Hitler full of spring breeze at this time.
"Yes, Your Excellency, I have this time I have been ordered by our President to submit to you a letter concerning some of His Excellency's observations and suggestions on the present situation in France." Wang Tingen took out a letter from his bosom that he had translated and handed it to Hitler.
Hitler took the letter, and instead of reading it, he asked with interest: "Is the president of your country also concerned about the situation in Europe?" "Of course, our President is very concerned about the war in Europe, and he is very puzzled by your country's way of letting powerful armoured clusters linger outside the canal area after defeating the Anglo-French forces. There is an old saying in our country that "if you let the tiger return to the mountain, there will be endless trouble", which means that if you are soft and release the vicious tiger back into the forest, it is a very stupid thing, and he does not want you to regret it in the future. ”
When Hitler heard this, his expression became serious: "Is this what the president of your country said?" "Yes, these are the exact words of our President, who has repeatedly told me to make clear to you what is very important here, and he asked me to tell you that no country can win a battle with its air force alone." ”
At the regular military meeting of the High Command held a few days ago, the commander of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Goering, swore that his air force alone could wipe out the British and French forces on land.
This made Hitler, who was worried that his beloved armored forces would be too depleted and would affect the battle plan later, and he was determined to stop Guderian's advance. But now, listening to the words of the Chinese ambassador to Germany, they are very unoptimistic about the Luftwaffe.
As if to see Hitler's hesitation, Wang Tingen continued: "The terrain in the Canal Zone is complex, and the enemy has a large number of troops, not only has a large number of anti-aircraft guns, but also has built a lot of camouflage positions. Aerial reconnaissance in your country has always had difficulty identifying their camouflage. Without the cooperation and guidance of the Army, there was no way to find the disguised enemy camp. Moreover, the enemy will also receive support and cover from their air forces, if they are attacked by enemy air forces. How can your bomber destroy the enemy in such a large area in three days? ”
Speaking of this, Wang Tingen added another sharp point to Hitler, "Besides, don't think that you can be foolproof if you have surrounded them on three sides, although the enemy has been surrounded by you now, but the British and French forces are not without a way to retreat, they can still escape." ”
"Run! How is this possible? Hitler was somewhat unconvinced.
"How is it impossible, they can escape from here." Wang Tingen took out a map from his arms and put it on the coffee table next to him, pointing to a place with his finger.
"Dunkirk?" "Yes, it's Dunkirk, and if I were Churchill, I wouldn't have said anything that would have cost the British expeditionary force here." Now there was an entire British expeditionary force in the encirclement, all of which had been formed with the most elite British troops. The British will not allow all his elite to be lost here, for if this army is destroyed, there will be no army in the British mainland capable of holding back the powerful land of your country. The British government would lose the capital to continue fighting. So their government will absolutely stop at nothing to rescue their elite.
And there are only two paths in front of them. One would have to break through to the south of France and join up with the main forces of France in the south, and they would have to tear through the lines of defense built by your armor clusters, which is completely impossible to do with their current strength, and the British are naturally well aware of this. Then they were left with only one way, to withdraw their troops to the British by sea. ”
Listening to Wang Tingen, Hitler's heart was as frightened as if he had turned over the river and the sea, the Chinese president who was thousands of miles away not only had such a clear understanding of the French battlefield, but also estimated the thoughts of the German high command and his own hesitation so accurately, is there really an unpredictable prophet in this world?
"Mr. Ambassador, I am afraid that your country has its own purpose in sending you to inform me of this matter so solemnly, right?" Hitler never believed that there was love for no reason in this world, and since the Chinese government even sent ambassadors, they must have sought some benefits from it.
"Of course, Your Excellency the Führer, we naturally have our purpose." Wang Tingen's expression became serious, "We hope that after your country occupies Paris, you can return to us the cultural relics and antiques in the Louvre and the museum in Paris, after all, those things were forcibly snatched from our country by the French when our country was weak, and now it is time to return them to their original owners." After listening to Wang Tingen's words, Hitler did not speak, "Mr. Ambassador, you go back first, I will carefully consider your words." After a while, Hitler, who had regained his usual appearance, sent Wang Tingen out of the door and walked towards his office, where he had to digest the information he had just received......
The next day, at the continuing meeting of the High Command, Hitler showed the Chinese president to his generals, and the German generals were divided into two factions. The army led by General Schneider believed that the Huaxia president had superhuman strategic vision and courage, and he was right, while the air force faction led by Goering thought that it was just a trick of the Huaxia president's grandstanding, and that the Luftwaffe had firmly occupied the French sky, and it was impossible for the British to escape from under their noses. The two sides quarreled, and in the end Hitler decided to send a reconnaissance plane to Dunkirk to see if the British would actually escape from the sea.
In the afternoon, the news came from the reconnaissance plane: "God, I can't believe it, the British are crazy, they have sent all the ships to Dunkirk, and now the sea outside Dunkirk is full of British ships, and they are too many to count, and now they are desperately trying to withdraw their troops to the British." ”
On the afternoon of 29 May, Guderian and his 19th Panzer Corps, who had been waiting impatiently, were ordered by the high command to sit on the front line of the canal, and finally waited for Hitler's order to "continue the offensive on the Primorsky!" ”