Dark clouds are rolling, summer rain is falling, and on the muddy and wide field, the tanks of the two sides are engaged in fierce mutual attacks. At almost every moment, a loud cannon roar echoed in the rain, and the mud raised by the steel tracks flew into the air, wrapping the entire body in an ochre-red appearance.

Kalius commanded the tanks to rumble forward, crossing one slope after another under the alternate cover of the same platoon; Behind them, the wreckage of a dozen French tanks had already fallen. Faced with this complex situation of large-scale confrontation between the two armies, Kalius seems to have a natural battlefield instinct, always looking for the most suitable place and time to attack. And the performance of the opponent's tank is also as he judged, and the only thing that can pose a threat to the front of his own hull is the few stores in that wave; Several Type IV tanks were under fire, but they are still fighting alongside them!

After two hours of fighting, the scales of the battlefield had begun to tilt in favor of the Germans. With the power of the 105 mm L48 gun and the 60 mm inclined 80 mm armor defense, the German Tiger tank formed an absolute offensive and defensive advantage over the French BDR tank: the opponent's shells could only splash a string of sparks on the front of the Tiger hull and turret, while the small 60 mm inclination of the BDR could penetrate even the IV tank lightly. Even if some French tankers were given the opportunity to flank the attack, they were seldom able to penetrate the 75 mm 15-degree inclined armor on the side of the Tiger at a certain angle of fire: the Tiger tank's large-thickness side armor had the same protection as the front of the hull against shells fired from the side from a 30-degree area to the left and right. Over time, one after another BDR tanks were destroyed. The guns of the Tiger Tank roared. The situation on the central battlefield has been completely dominated.

And in the wings. The German medium tank groups were even more swept up; As far as the Type IV tanks could reach, none of the French tanks could stop their progress in the slightest. In this large-scale cluster battle, the balanced performance and mass production attributes of the Type IV tank were most perfectly reflected, hundreds of tanks rushed like wolves, and the array of French tanks was quickly stabbed to pieces. Despite the best efforts of the French tank crews to fight back, they soon found themselves in despair that their artillery could not deal an effective blow to the enemy!

"The Germans were excellent fast tanks, not only for their speed, but also for their firepower and armor...... Our most armed S-30 type is a joke in front of such tanks. In order for that 47mm gun to get a chance to destroy a German tank at close range. I saw with my own eyes a company of S-30s attacking the other side without hesitation; Twenty minutes later, however, they were all destroyed in the path of the charge, and none of them were able to flank them. A French scout soldier recalled with frustration and loss after the war.

At 3 p.m., an infantry division and an armored brigade of the British army were also put into battle. When the British drove their Matilda and the Crusaders to the front, they were immediately met with a head-on attack by the German tank wolves. Matilda's proud 75 mm frontal hull armor was broken by the 88 mm shells fired by the Type IV tank; Due to the lack of loft, Matilda's actual defense is several levels lower than that of the IV. The 57-mm long-barreled guns they were equipped with could only penetrate the sides of Type IV tanks at an angle of incidence of less than 45 degrees. Even more tragic, Matilda was designed to support the infantry, and was as slow as a turtle in the muddy wilderness. This left them incapable of outflanking maneuvers, and could only be broken by German tanks in a head-to-head duel that they were least good at. As for the other faster Crusader. Its overall performance is also far from that of the IV tank, and it is simply not as central as the Allied High Command expects.

As it darkened, the coalition forces, which had suffered heavy losses, finally began to slowly retreat. As far as the eye can see, the field is littered with broken and scattered steel wreckage, and charred corpses can be seen everywhere. After an afternoon of fierce fighting, the two tank divisions that the French attacked lost two-thirds of their armor: more than 300 tanks were destroyed or abandoned, and only 12 of the 73 BDR tanks were able to retreat in one piece. Although the summer rains kept the French from Luftwaffe during the battle, the deterioration of the battlefield roads made the already unsatisfactory suspension of these vehicles even more vulnerable: at least 20 BDRs were stuck in the mud due to too narrow tracks, and had to be abandoned in retreat. The British armored brigade, with 120 tanks, also lost more than half, and Matilda, built to support the infantry, proved to be simply unsuitable for anti-armor tasks.

The victory in the Panzer Battle boosted Guderian's confidence. While leaving the remains of British and French tanks to rest, his Panzer Corps lost only 56 tanks, which was undoubtedly insignificant for the entire 19th Army. More importantly, the battle fully exposed the weakness of the British and French armours in the field of anti-armor, and they no longer had to worry about the flanks being threatened by the same threat as Crook had when he was under Paris. Now all he had to do was defeat the force in front of him and rush at full speed towards the English Channel. There are now 40 divisions of allied forces in the Belgian theater of operations, all of which are well-equipped and well-trained elite troops, and if they can be surrounded and annihilated, then Germany will be able to win on land!

On May 20, the weather cleared again. The German war eagles, which had been silent for a day, were full of fighting spirit, and swept over the British and French troops like locusts passing through, and with the rapid fall of countless bombs, the temporary defensive line of this army was immediately broken down by Guderian's attack. After the previous day's fighting, the patchwork of Allied officers and men had developed a phobia of German tanks, and saw this group of steel-like beasts roaring and rushing towards them again, and after a little resistance, they immediately dispersed like birds and beasts. Faced with the captives who surrendered with their guns raised, Guderian simply asked them to throw their weapons under the tracks of their tanks and release them all; Seeing that there were a few French tanks that could still move, they were incorporated into the army to operate together. Due to the counterattack and interception of this army, he was delayed for a full day in the process of breaking through the detour, and now he did not have time to capture these soldiers, and it was undoubtedly the best choice to drive them off the road.

The tracks are rolling, and the yellow sand is rushing. The German armoured clusters rushed through the French plain like a tsunami, unstoppable; On 22 May, Guderian drove 70 kilometers and swept across Amiens, only 65 kilometers from the strait. At the same time, the German motorized units crossing the Maas River also made rapid progress along the road opened by the tanks, and exercised full control over the various key road junctions along the way. One after another, French troops launched sporadic counterattacks, all of which were repulsed by the Germans, who worked closely with the air force, artillery, and infantry. At this time, the French high command finally realized that something was wrong. The long-distance mobility capability of the fully mechanized troops has far exceeded their estimates, and they can still maintain a strong combat capability after hundreds of kilometers of long-distance travel; Although the Germans also inevitably suffered from fatigue and tank failures during the attack, it was still more than enough to deal with their own improvised counteroffensive forces!

In the headquarters of the coalition forces in Compiègne, all the generals and staff officers had a deep fear that the end was imminent. Now, the only way to prevent the main forces of the coalition forces in northern France from falling into the encirclement is only one word - withdraw, and the sooner the better. However, in a hurry, the main force of as many as 40 divisions could not achieve rapid mobility at all; Not to mention that the German frontal force in Belgium was also fierce, and once the main force of the army was suddenly withdrawn, it was very likely to cause an avalanche of rout in the onslaught of the opponent, and eventually become uncontrollable. In the last battle, the Germans walked on two legs, just like themselves, so they failed to win the pursuit battle after winning the border battle; Now, however, they have more tanks than a litter of bugs, and they have the support of the air force, and they are fully mobile with the same infantry that carries a large amount of baggage and has been ready for positional warfare from the beginning. If your own troops want to retreat like last time, it will be impossible to do it at all!

After several hours of intense discussions, the coalition command issued a new directive late on the night of the 22nd. All tank and motorized units in the Belgian theater of operations immediately retreated westward at full speed to avoid the enveloping pincers of the German south, which had sharply closed in the south; The slow-moving infantry divisions slowly retreated towards the strait, and put on tight defense of the ports of Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne, waiting for the transport ships to withdraw them from the sea. Although a large number of broken cannon fodder will inevitably be sacrificed in this process, and the losses of various heavy equipment are countless, this is already the best coping strategy that the British and French military can think of. As long as most of the main forces can be withdrawn, then there is still hope that this war will continue; As for equipment, there were already American merchant ships in the Atlantic that were loaded with arms heading for France, and they would be able to continue fighting again after the rearmament.

However, German tanks advanced faster. After two days of 120 kilometers, the 2nd Panzer Division reached Boulogne on 25 May ahead of the British and French troops, and launched a fierce attack on it. After a day of fierce fighting, the port of Boulogne was lost. At the same time, two other Panzer Divisions of Guderian began to storm Calais and Dunkirk, and the German General Staff had already made up its mind that all enemy forces in the encirclement must be left behind. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of 2204, and the reward of Golden Crab, birdcheng, and zhouyu1976~~~