On 12 May, the first fighting broke out in Belgian territory between the advance teams of the German and French armies. After the slightest touch, the main French army slowed down its advance and began to build a large number of fortifications on the land under their control. For the French officers and soldiers, this is undoubtedly a standard situation that has been etched in their minds for a long time and should be implemented. Now that the German advance party has appeared, its large main army must be not far behind it, and the best strategy to deal with these berserk beasts is to exhaust their strength with a strong defense!

At the beginning of the war, the French had introduced a theory of "desperate attack" that was more metaphysical than military, in order to make up for the innate gap between them and Germany in terms of manpower. However, in the face of the defensive positions constructed by the German machine-gun barbed wire, the French soldiers with only one blood suffered unprecedented heavy losses: tens of thousands of fresh lives withered and died meaninglessly, and the French were like giants drained of blood, and they could not even parry in the face of German onslaught. By the end of the war, more than half a million families in France had lost their young men, and more than half of them were soldiers who had fallen on the offensive!

Faced with this painful lesson, France's military philosophy after the war quickly moved from one extreme to the other. Defense was enshrined as the core bible of the Great Corps of Warfare, and the "desperate attack" that once fascinated all the French soldiers and civilians was completely thrown into the garbage heap. Whether it was a convoy or a cook, a communications company or a sanitary battalion, every French soldier had a small sapper shovel in his hand so that he could quickly dig out a trench in the face of battle. The popularity of this equipment even surpasses that of rifles. It became the most common "weapon" in the French army. From 1916 onwards. French military academies also introduced compulsory courses on how to use the terrain to build trench defenses. Proficiency has become the core test point for officers to graduate; And ordinary soldiers also use digging earth and rocks as a necessary skill, tied with shooting for the first place.

Although de Gaulle, who had been in the military since the early 20s, also put forward the idea of establishing a highly professional mechanized force to defend the country, this trend of thought did not become the mainstream of the French army because the experience of the war was already deeply ingrained in the hearts of French generals. The military, led by Xia Fei and Foch, believed that due to the huge gap in national strength between France and Germany, it would be difficult for France in the next war to have the strength to attack the other side head-on; Rather than laboriously building such an offensive mechanized spear, it would be advantageous to build a strong and solid defensive barrier. This idea was also inherited by later Petain. The same situation suffered by the heavy artillery units on the eve of the last battle. The French military did not value the role of armoured units, believing that their mobility was useless in trench warfare, and that they could only eliminate the rat-like German commandos who might infiltrate their own lines. After de Gaulle came to power, he fought for funds to form four armored divisions, but this did not change the core concept of the French military to focus on defense.

With the commander's order to stop advancing, the French officers and soldiers at the grassroots level finally had the opportunity to put into practice what they had learned in their daily training. The officers soon relied on the mountains and trees and the water to base the city, and planned a whole and legal trench defense line; The French soldiers marched into battle with sappers and shovels in hand, and carried out the earthwork at an exhilarating speed. In just over a day's work, a defensive line built on the topography began to take shape; Perhaps knowing that this improvised defensive line would be difficult to hold back the German attack, the French army began to build the second and third lines of fortifications in depth. In order to create new obstacles in the path of the enemy's offensive.

Since the Germans controlled the skies of the battlefield, it was obvious that the French army's all-out trenching and stubborn defense did not hide from the ears and eyes of the German reconnaissance planes. When Brauchitsch, who commanded the right-wing cluster, learned of this. In his heart, he was not surprised: the task given to him by the General Staff was to attract more French troops in the Belgian theater of operations, and then bite it. And at this time, the decisive breakthrough was completed in the middle of France!

On 14 May, the Germans on the right flank, under Brauchitsch's command, launched a fierce attack aimed at oppression on the French positions in front of them. In the sky, the aircraft sprayed with the Iron Cross logo flew vertically and horizontally, whistling wantonly; The gray tide of tens of thousands of soldiers swept forward like a spring river bursting its banks, along with dozens of tanks. With the advance of the infantry, countless red and brilliant fire shells leaped from the positions in the rear of the German army, forming the most effective double-layer barrage of infantry support: in the last battle, the German infiltration commando team formed a key breakthrough in the French defense line under the cover of this firepower known as the "artillery waltz", and today, whether it is suppressing firepower or the assault force itself, today's German army has made great strides compared with the past!

Artillery fire roared, bullets flew everywhere, and the battle between the German and French armies continued from early morning until nightfall. With the superiority of fighters, tanks, and heavy artillery, the Germans quickly tore apart the forward defense line constructed by the French and smashed a large hole in the position behind them. The commander of the French 3rd Army, Alabraham, visited the front line, and encountered an endless stream of vehicles transporting wounded soldiers along the way; The wounded soldiers were pale and bloody, and some of their limbs were mutilated by the explosion. He also saw the battlefield during the day, and the corpses were still strewn all over the field before they could be buried. However, to Arabraham's rejoice, his own troops also reported the results of killing and wounding nearly 1,000 enemy soldiers and destroying 4 tanks. The momentum of the German offensive in the last two hours was significantly lower than at the beginning of the battle, and no major offensive was launched; The morale of the French officers and men, who had feared the prospect of war, was boosted, and it seemed that trench defense had proven its viability. Although the loss of their own family is greater than that of the other party, this is an achievement in the temporary construction of fortifications, and it is not absolutely representative in itself; If you change the fortified area, it will not be an illusion to resist the impact of the opponent!

"We need more troops to fend off the German offensive and at the same time turn southwestern Belgium into a strong, large fortress." Immediately after the inspection of the front, Alabham sent a telegram to the army group headquarters requesting reinforcements. The German offensive was obviously not going to end there, and the forces that were gathered next would surely become stronger and stronger as the curtain of battle opened; However, the power in one's own hands is limited, and it is absolutely necessary to take precautions. The telegram was sent to the Guò Army Group as a front-line report to the commander-in-chief in the rear, Gammerin, who commanded the main forces of the coalition forces, including the six newly landed British divisions, to move north to Belgium to meet the enemy. At this time, with the exception of a few panzer divisions, which played a small role in the defensive battle, the entire interior of France was hollowed out, and there was no longer a single mobile reserve to speak of.

While the German right flank launched an offensive, the armored cluster deployed in the center finally completed the early mobilization and assembly. As the trains rushed into the front-line stations, the massive vehicles carried on them were also unloaded. If a French plane were to break through the double interception of German radar stations and fighter jets and fly to this area only 30 kilometers from the border, it would have been completely stunned by what was happening below: thousands of tanks lined up on the wide plains, with no end in sight, and tens of thousands of heavy motorized trucks blended together, forming a jaw-dropping torrent of steel. Countless gray-green marching tents dotted the area, and German soldiers in the shape of worker ants were maintaining and refueling their vehicles; Once this army is mobilized, it will definitely have the terrifying power of overwhelming mountains and seas!

"General, the order from the General Staff has arrived, let's act." In a country house not far from the assembly site, an adjutant handed over the telegram that still had the fragrance of ink to the cluster commander Rundstedt, and said with excitement in his words. At present, most of the forces of the 11 armored divisions and 20 motorized divisions of the German army have been assembled, and the total number of tanks and self-propelled guns exceeds 5,500; Such a huge armored cluster cannot be matched even by gathering the forces of the whole of Europe except Germany!

Rundstedt nodded slightly, and gave the order in a calm tone as much as possible, but the fists that had been quietly clenched revealed the true heart he had. Being able to command such a god-like force to sweep the land, as a soldier, he has no regrets in his life.

Ten minutes later, the 19th Panzer Corps, commanded by Guderian, took the lead in the hustle and bustle. The noise of the engines resounded in the sky, and the dust kicked up by various vehicles was like fog. Viewed from above, it resembles a steel dragon winding its way and gradually sinking into the densely forested Ardennes Mountains. The sappers in charge of opening the road were at the forefront in barrel trucks, repairing some rough sections of the road with explosives, steel beams and other equipment, while a large number of tanks followed, relying on heavy bodies and thick tracks to make a road for trucks and motorized troops to run through Guò. In order to prevent the arrival of French aircraft, the Luftwaffe also created a huge air umbrella for this surprise army to ensure that the operation could have a surprise effect. (To be continued......)