81_81266 "My God, I heard they will enter Paris today?" A citizen turned pale with fright, stared at the intersection and asked his companions: "I heard that these Germans are all demons." ”

"I don't know, the people in the army say they are all sick and sick people who have been hungry for ten years. His companion shrugged his shoulders and replied, "But I don't believe much in this statement, and it would be ridiculous to say that our million-strong army was killed by a bunch of sick people." ”

"I heard that they would force women, rob property, and kill all the men and throw them into the wilderness to feed their captive wolf dogs. Not far away, a nobleman asked his men, "Have you inquired clearly, are these true or false?"

On the morning of this day, in fact, German troops had already entered Paris, but these reconnaissance troops did not stay long, they drove armored vehicles around the edge of the city, looked at the closed doors of the Parisian buildings, sneered and continued to look for the French troops.

Even as the French citizens commented on the German invaders, the soldiers of the German reconnaissance unit, whose faces were covered with dust and had not bathed for a week, laughed at their opponents: "What a shame for these Frenchmen, they fled without even firing a single shot in the capital." ”

"Yes!" the commander on the armored reconnaissance vehicle nodded, and then said: "As long as they dare to fire a shot, the Führer will let the Air Force drop at least 200 bombs at them." Then you won't be able to find Paris, because it's just a ruin. If that were the case, you would miss the present even more, because you will have to clean up the ruins of Paris for at least 20 days. ”

The city hadn't been so empty for a long time, and 3 million French citizens had fled a full third of the city's citizens before the German forces could approach Paris south. Now these men are crowded on all roads, mingling with the fleeing French troops, and the traffic in the whole area is congested.

And these crowds of people crowded the roads gave the Luftwaffe the best targets. The Luftwaffe dispatched 2,000 sorties of Do-217 bombers and 5,000 sorties of Stuka in one go, inflicting tens of thousands of heavy casualties on the civilian population and the French ** team retreating south.

Then, the dull sound of the snare drums shook the whole of Paris, and the real German troops entering the city finally showed their faces. A foreign journalist stood in the street, looking in horror at the German soldiers, who had been portrayed as monsters by the previous newspapers, and a strange thought came to his mind.

The first troops to enter Paris, France, were all riding tall horses, and the sound of horses' hooves rumbling could be heard even from a mile away, and the German cavalry tried to keep their horses in line as well as they could, and rolled forward on the roads of Paris.

Resolute and deep eyes look cold under the steel helmet, and all kinds of small bits and pieces such as grenades and map bags are hung on tactical vests, and behind them, they carry guns of different lengths. These German soldiers rode through the city on their horses, but the number was somewhat staggering, and there seemed to be 10,000 men.

"When this group of cold-blooded German horsemen walked by mightily, the Parisians would not be surprised if they saw the marching procession of the men again. In fact, it was only peasant children from Bavaria and Austria who rode fat and sturdy horses several kilometers long in front and back. That's how an American journalist described what he saw.

Because of French government propaganda, some Parisians imagined the German soldiers as an invincible, cold-blooded army of rocky murderers in mechanized chariots who never spoke - they were just "things", not "humans" anyway.

Now that the Parisians had finally seen the enemy they feared, and when they were trembling and sticking their heads out of the window, or daring to go out into the streets, the cavalry on tall horses was almost finished, and the Parisians saw the German artillery units on horseback, pulling 105 mm and 75 mm field guns.

Before they could be surprised by what they saw, a horde of German trucks arrived, and behind them were all Krupp 150 mm cannons. In 1916, Krupp's artillery failed to allow Germany to attack the city of Paris, and now another weapon produced by Krupp, the "tank", has allowed the Germans to pull the Krupp cannon on the streets of Paris.

Some French people believe in the image of malnourished Germans portrayed by French propaganda that Germans are hungry because of the harsh wartime economy, that they do not have enough food, that they are hungry and thin, and that they are pitiful victims of dictator Accardo Rudolph.

But when these French saw the healthy countenance on the faces of the Germans, much of their hostility was removed. "Our newspapers say that these German soldiers haven't eaten for ten years......," a Frenchwoman stared at the German soldiers, who were enemies with a brisk and neat stride, their boots clicking on the ground. They walked past the French and looked at the French inhabitants curiously.

"Look at these handsome soldiers! they're all good boys!" exclaimed a French girl. Then the people around her reminded her in low voices, "Hey, calm down! Our dead kids, how do they look?"

Immediately followed by mechanized artillery into the city was Germany's ace of war, the formidable tank forces. The Leopard tanks were riddled with bullet marks, and the German Panzers, whose collars had been blackened, leaned against the open hatch in the turret, smiling at the beautiful sights around them.

I have to say that Paris is a great and full of artistic atmosphere, every grass and tree here seems to have the style of an artist, this refreshing atmosphere is rarely seen by the German soldiers who fought all the way, so they are like Grandma Liu into the Grand View Garden, looking around curiously.

The roar of the tank engines flanked by scouts on motorcycles and communications corps, who paused from time to time to divert the crowd and keep the approaching French citizens away from the dangerous German warplanes. Fearing some unnecessary accidents, the armored units in the rear were even notified to load the assault rifles equipped in the tanks into magazines.

Leopard tanks rumbled past the Arc de Triomphe, and the German panzers sang their battle songs, which echoed over Paris, wave after wave. A French citizen sobbed sadly as he watched the national flag near his home be quietly lowered and replaced by a white round black swastika flag on a red background.

Because most of the armored units were thrown to the front to do what they were supposed to do, there were not many German tank units passing through the city this time, and most of them were not the main force, so the Leopard tank only passed a few phalanxes, followed by the No. 3 tank from the other armored corps.

In fact, the performance of these tanks is not too backward, but because of the glory of the Leopard tank, these "test products" produced in advance in order to accumulate experience in tank production seem a bit old. However, as the main force of Germany's second-line armored forces, the No. 3 tank was still given more combat missions because of its low cost and easier production.

The troops that followed behind tank No. 3 were a bit of a surprise.

The first is the low, ugly No. 3 assault gun, which is a small turretless chariot that is an infantry support weapon that is part of the infantry self-proximity support mission or used as mechanized artillery, most of which are equipped with short-barreled 75mm guns, modified with long-barreled 75mm guns, or replaced with larger caliber 105mm short-barreled guns.

If these assault guns are still neat, the chaotic equipment that follows behind them really makes the French a little dumbfounded, a phalanx modified from the Czech 38T tank destroyer, a Phalanx modified from the No. 2 tank 40 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, followed by the No. 3 tank chassis modified 40 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, then mixed No. 2 improved 150 mm self-propelled howitzer, No. 2 tank modified 105 mm caliber howitzer, No. 2 tank modified light tank destroyer......

The German Propaganda Department, which originally wanted to hold a grand ceremony to enter the city, ignored the Führer's temperament, and also forgot the temperament of Guderian as a front-line commander, and it can be said that both teachers and friends belong to the kind of realists who do not like to pretend, they prefer to operate one thing efficiently, and as for other aspects - there is no none, and it is better to have it.

The grand entrance ceremony was not carried out, but instead some front-line combat troops entered Paris directly, and then passed through the city and continued south to attack France. Some of the troops looked fairly clean because they were cavalry units that had caught up later, while the real combat troops were all dusty and looked like a bunch of sloppy boys.

Some of the Panzergrenadiers who followed behind even had blood stains on their bodies, and many of them entered Paris with wounds, because they could not bear to give up the supreme honor of being the first to attack Paris. These men carried rifles on their backs, and some of them had gauze wrapped around their foreheads, and although they did not look vicious, they were by no means friendly.

They roared past in trucks and armored vehicles, with the joy of the capture of Paris on their faces, and drove towards their new operational objective, in their eyes, France had been defeated, without doubt.

Just as the German army was constantly passing through Paris, in the general headquarters of Army Group A, the two commanders of the armored forces who arrived by helicopter, Guderian and Rommel, who were collectively known as the Imperial Twin Forces, were promoted to Imperial Generals, and were ordered to organize the new Panzer Army L (Army Group) and G (Army Group Guderian).