Chapter 235: Three Major Events (1)

"The results are fleeting! For the most taboo hesitation! This sentence was written on the booklet that Fang Jianxiong gave to Bob. From last night to now, thirty hours have passed, and the soldiers of the entire assault cluster have not even drunk a sip of hot soup.

But Bob was well aware that the battle would make or break at stake.

"Pass my order, the troops take a short rest, and attack at two o'clock in the morning." Bob breathed a sigh of relief when he gave the order. From his close-fitting pocket, he took out a small notebook with worn edges and corners, which was all written by Fang Jianxiong himself.

"No matter what, we're all brothers." After silently reading a sentence in his heart, Bob carefully put the booklet away.

The French misjudged what the Germans meant, believing that in the darkness the Germans would not attack. Because in the dark, it was not clear how many German troops there were, and the French did not dare to take the initiative to attack, after all, there was only one division of troops, according to intelligence, this German assault group, at least 300 tanks, three cavalry divisions. In fact, at this time, on this road, it was the German army that was on the road intermittently. The tank cluster advanced too fast for the rest of the forces to keep up.

Bob was lucky, and during the break, fifty more tanks arrived, and a regiment of cavalry and a regiment of infantry caught up. The commanders of the cavalry and infantry divisions, who were originally lagging behind, decided to form a small detachment, bring fuel and shortages, and chase the tank clusters in front.

This decision helped Bob a lot, his tank troops. Most of them ran out of fuel, and at most they could hold on to half an hour of fighting. The squad arrived, and Bob decided to postpone the attack by an hour so that the tanks could be refueled. The squad didn't bring much fuel, and it could only sustain each tank for an hour. But this was enough, Bob did not have time. Just received a call from Ludendorff that at least three French infantry divisions were rushing from Reims to Lavov. At this time, Bob had only three hundred and fifty tanks, a cavalry regiment and an infantry regiment. And the tank ammunition is strictly insufficient. The squad brought only fuel, and a small amount of ammunition.

The train stopped, accustomed to the sound of clanging, and suddenly it was gone. Cold rain woke up. According to the tradition of the Wehrmacht, the officers and men were unanimous, and Leng Yu chose to sit in a stuffy tanker, and gave up the coach car to the medical personnel and the medicines and equipment they carried.

As the elite of the elite of the Wehrmacht, Leng Yu's special operations division undoubtedly acted as the vanguard, and the Fifth Army also became a vanguard general. "it! As soon as the car door opened, the cold wind swished in. Zhang Zuolin's voice broke the silence in the carriage, France in early spring, the cold was thick in the early morning.

Three division commanders of the former Wehrmacht. composed of the command of the Fifth Army. Three people take turns on the night shift. Leng Yu got up from the marching bed and glanced at the bed next door, where Chief of Staff Xu Chongzhi was no longer on the bed.

"Brother Yuting, what about the Chief of Staff? Where is this? Leng Yu habitually asked, to say that he would lead the troops to fight. The cold rain is not bad at all. But when it comes to overall planning, Xu Chongzhi is much stronger than Leng Yu. After all, he graduated from a regular army non-commissioned officer school, and learning in Japan is not just about fighting a war.

"When we got to Orleans, the trains stopped for almost an hour and a half. The train station was in a mess, and the person in charge could not be found at all. Xu Chongzhi's voice came from outside the car door, and Zhang Zuolin hurriedly reached out and dragged Xu Chongzhi up.

"You've worked hard for your brother." Leng Yu hurriedly spoke, he was sleeping, Xu Chongzhi was not idle.

"It's nothing hard at all, the military situation is like fire, the French don't know how to do it, and the dispatcher at the station has repeatedly emphasized that we still have to wait. I don't say the specific reason, and I guess he doesn't know. I looked for the stationmaster, but I couldn't find it at all, saying that I was called by the military and didn't know what was going on. ”

As he spoke, a southbound train whizzed by. Seeing this, Zhang Zuolin scolded: Malabar, how many trips have you made? It's all trains going south, and all the trains going north are stuck here. “

Xu Chongzhi said solemnly: "I paid attention, it's not just us who are blocked here. ”

Zhang Zuolin said again: "The vanguard group called, and they were blocked at a small station in front. ”

Leng Yu didn't speak, staring at the dark night outside, and there were people waiting everywhere on the platform.

"The train going north gave way to the train going south, and I felt that something was wrong and I couldn't wait any longer. Give the order, let the troops get out of the car and rush to Paris on foot. Leng Yu, who had not spoken all this time, suddenly came to say this. Xu Chongzhi and Zhang Zuolin were a little puzzled, Zhang Zuolin said directly: "We came to France to help, the French are not in a hurry, what are we anxious about?" From here to Paris, more than a hundred kilometers, at least two days on foot. And so much equipment, what to do? ”

Xu Chongzhi hesitated, looked at Leng Yu with an anxious face, and said, "Xiaohua."

Why don't I go for another trip and see if the French can provide some cars. ”

Leng Yu shook his head and said, "Don't count on it, I promise not." It doesn't matter if the French defeat the battle, the plan to support the commander cannot be dragged down. In this way, the special operations division was heavily equipped and had little equipment, so I personally led the special operations division to Paris to catch up, and the artillery regiment stayed. ”

The remaining two looked at each other, Zhang Zuolin wanted to speak and stopped, Xu Chongzhi directly denied: "No, you are the supreme commander of the Fifth Army, so it is not your turn to take the special operations division to go first." I'll go for it. ”

As soon as Zhang Zuolin heard this, he immediately said: "Don't fight, I am the deputy commander, according to the rules, I should go." ”

Leng Yu was about to speak, Xu Chongzhi had already preemptively said: "That's it, Xiaohua stayed in the military headquarters, I went to negotiate with the French, and Yuting led the special operations division to go first." ”

Leng Yu could only nod and said, "Then so be it." Made, before I came, I heard from Fu Shuai that the French people's organizational skills are very bad, and there are often some inexplicable things happening, but I didn't expect it to be like this. ”

The three commanders of the Fifth Army did not know that at this moment they were giving way to the southbound train because the French were rushing to transport antiquities from Paris. The reason is simple: on March 6, after a full day of fierce fighting, the Germans attacked overnight, and by 12 o'clock in the evening, the French army in Saint-Meneourd was divided and surrounded into two large parts, and the army group commanded by Petain was in danger. Xia Fei is drawing reinforcements from the French army on the Shambani Line, the situation of the battle is changing too quickly, and it is difficult to save the tide of the war in parallel with the French savior Lieutenant General Bei in parallel history, his Second Army and some reinforcements. Although it was still in the process of persevering, it was already difficult for Petain to turn the situation around. In this situation, the French government has accelerated the pace of the transfer of Parisian antiquities.

This is a phenomenon that is difficult for Orientals to understand, the war situation is in crisis, and the cultural relics are actually transported first. The troops going north still had to make way for cultural relics, and after the war, the three of them learned that a senior official of the French government believed that even if the squadron could go to the battlefield, it might not be able to play much of a role, and they might be inferior to the French militia.

When the Fifth Army made a marching adjustment, Petain also made a decision that was later hailed as saving the French army. Bey ordered the troops to split into two parts, leaving one corps to remain in Saint-Meneurde and the other to retreat south to Saint-Dizier. Undoubtedly, this decision saved the Second Army, and the main forces of the French Second Army after retreating, as well as other forces, could threaten the German flank in future battles. stabilized the situation of the French army on the Western Front, and even if Paris fell, the French army could still hold on.

This direction of Petain's retreat was beyond the expectations of the German army, and Ludendorff's prediction was that Petain would retreat in the direction of Paris. But Petain did not decide to do so, and retreated southward, in a direction where the road was relatively difficult.

Although Petain was able to take him by surprise, the war was not won by retreat.

In the early hours of March 7, three major events took place on the entire front, the first of which was that the tank assault group commanded by Bob launched an attack on Ravov, without any artillery preparation, and the tank charge began.

The second thing was that the Special Operations Division of the Fifth Army of the First Group Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, under the leadership of Deputy Army Commander Zhang Zuolin, rushed to Paris on foot.

The third thing was that Beyde ordered the abandonment of Saint-Meneurde and a retreat to the south.

These three major events are known as the three most important major events on the Western Front in 1916. Of course, this is the German statement. According to the order of the French, Petain's decision should come first. According to the Chinese, the special operations division's march on foot came first.

At half past four in the morning, Bob gave the order to attack. Three hundred and fifty tanks lined up in a conical formation and rushed towards Ravov. The French were not prepared for a night battle, and it was impossible to figure out how many German troops were coming in the dark. The German tanks easily ran over the French defensive line without much fierce fighting. A reporter accompanying the French army said: "Everywhere there were German tanks chasing the French infantry like rabbits, and in front of the tanks, the panicked infantry dropped their weapons and fled. At 5:30, a German assault group of thirty tanks stormed the headquarters of the 51st Infantry Division of the French army. The division commander, Major General Vik, judged that the troops were already surrounded and that there was no point in continuing the battle, and ordered the troops to surrender. ”

The entire battle lasted less than three hours, and Ravov was captured by the Germans. There was a whole French infantry division, and many companies did not fire a single shot. The French suffered fewer than 300 casualties, but as many as 10,000 prisoners.

This battle has been repeatedly cited by later military historians as a classic textbook for armored cluster assault tactics. And the name Bob has been mentioned repeatedly, and the Germans hailed him as the originator of the "Blitzkrieg". Although Bob himself has repeatedly emphasized that the core idea of this tactic originated from the greatest military strategist of our time, Mr. Fang Jianxiong, this sentence is automatically ignored in the military textbooks of Western countries. The Chinese, on the contrary, keep taking Bob's words to prove Fang Dashuai's wisdom.