At the division headquarters of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, Ferick was listening to the commander of the 1st Panzer Regiment under him give a briefing on the fighting near Laon. Because of Guderian's rapid advance, Laon had fallen to the 3rd SS Panzer Division just a few hours earlier, and they were continuing their attack south on the basis of the city.

To everyone's surprise, the German army's "limited reconnaissance" operation did not stop after 90 kilometers of reconnaissance in one go. Guderian's reconnaissance forces had inadvertently captured Laon, while Rommel's vanguard had inadvertently detected the city of Cambrai.

To be honest, staring at the operational map brought by the 1st Panzer Regiment, Ferrick didn't even know what to do now. The order to stop the advance had been given a day earlier, and he thought he could stop and rest, but who knew that his division had been dragged forward by several reconnaissance troops, and it had not stopped the offensive until Laon.

As he watched his entire SS 3rd Panzer Division run out of fuel, he had the heart to arrest the attacking regimental commanders and battalion commanders, and then put a gun to their heads and ask, "What do you want to do?"

Fuel is about to bottom out, and ammunition is in short supply. His armored forces were spread on a defensive line that stretched for more than ten kilometers, and the remaining offensive force could only be battalions or companies. If it weren't for the fact that his superior, General Guderian, secretly instructed him to indulge in such an offensive, he would have wanted to report the misdeeds at the front to the Army General Command.

"The French are here, they're fighting back here, we're running out of fuel, so we have to save a little money. The regimental commander pointed to the map and introduced to Ferick: "General, the platoon of the 1st Battalion Rennes is now the only reserve in our hands, can we let them go up to strengthen the defensive line?"

You have stretched the line long enough, driven the whole army far enough, and are about to run out of fuel and ammunition, until this situation you remember that you have another division commander coming? Ferick had an urge to give the commander of the 1st Regiment a slap in the face, he looked at the map, and then said helplessly: "Now General Guderian wants to reinforce us, and we must hold out for a few hours." ”

"General, the French army has been disorganized, and they can't organize an effective counterattack now, so our flanks should be safe. The regimental commander pointed to a small river on the map and said to Feric: "Our mechanized infantry have organized a defensive line along here, but they found that there are tanks of the French army on the opposite side, so instead of waiting for them to attack, we should organize an attack first." ”

"Order the 2nd Panzer Regiment to stop moving westward, we must take a break. Ferick frowned and said, "The division headquarters does not have enough fuel, and if we don't want the tank to become scrap metal, we need to wait for the fuel to arrive here." I must be responsible for the entire SS 3rd Panzer Division! ”

"Yes, General!" Obviously, the commander of the 1st Regiment did not want to anger his immediate superior, so he replied immediately, then pointed to the map and continued to ask, "So, General." Will our counterattack continue here?"

"Up to 10 kilometers! This is the maximum attack distance I give you!" said Ferick, pointing to the road on the map, "If you cross this road, you will have to solve the problem of lack of fuel." Understood?"

"Got it! 1 The regiment commander stood up again: "Then I will go back to the regiment headquarters and organize a counterattack." ”

Soon the plan for a counterattack was sent to Wren's unit, who was to command his platoon of tanks, the only four tanks, to pass through a village to attack the assembled French armored forces across a small ditch.

Although they did not have many tanks, everyone was full of confidence, because they had not been able to stop them along the way, whether it was the French defense or counterattack. This self-confidence comes from a strong heart, but also from those glorious moments in the past.

They destroyed Poland in a few weeks, occupied the Netherlands in a matter of days, destroyed dozens of French tanks, and then drove the world's most advanced warplanes past the wreckage of the French B1 tanks at speeds of 35 miles per hour, towards the almost undefended French cities.

"The motorcycle team of the reconnaissance company found out here, they saw about 7 French tanks, and some infantry was massing, maybe there were more French tanks if you count the shelter of the buildings. The battalion commander pointed to the villages on the map and said: "After identification, at least one B1 tank and three more are S35 tanks." What remains is the FT-17 Renault, which poses little of a threat. ”

"Are there any anti-tank guns?" Wren had been attending the battalion's tactical arrangement meetings recently, and this time, as the commander of the operation, he could not be absent. He pointed to the hillside near the village and asked, "If a defensive position is set up here, our attack will risk exposing its flanks, and although the threat is not great from a distance, I think it is better not to risk it." ”

"One of our armored reconnaissance vehicles was on that hillside all the time, where there were no French soldiers. The French were clearly preparing for an attack and had no intention of luring us into an ambush. The battalion commander said with a smile.

The combat quality of the French army became lower and lower as the battle progressed. Most of these French units that stood in front of the Germans were newly mobilized reserve divisions, which lacked combat experience and did not have a good command system, and they were often ready to collapse in front of the German army.

For example, this time, the French army finally retreated all the way here, and reluctantly gathered some forces to prepare for a counterattack, but although they learned to concentrate their forces and knew the important role of tanks as weapons in a decisive battle, they did not deploy reconnaissance forces and defensive forces on some important heights.

After so long in the war, the French army still relied on two methods to stop the German army, the first way was to rely on absolute numerical superiority to push the German army back - this method had a very low success rate, only a few times in Belgium, and the second method was to rely on a strong defensive line to wait for reinforcements, and unfortunately the French army collapsed all the way to the present time to find that there was no decent defense line behind them for them to use as turtles.

In fact, the current situation of the French army has long been analyzed, and Guderian described the German-French battle in his diary: "When my tanks crossed the Meuse and occupied Sedan, I knew very well that the French had lost this war. Now the question is, how much can we make those stupid French lose in this war......"

Wren came out of the battalion in a good mood, because he hadn't enjoyed the excitement of fighting for a long, long time. During this time, he was thinking about how to kill the enemy and avenge his former mechanical engineer Clark.

"Tank No. 114 is here behind the hall, and if needed, we must have a perimeter support. Soon he summoned the commanders of the four tanks under his command and began to assign his tasks, glanced at Marcus, he pointed to the map and ordered the crew: "Marcus, you are responsible for covering my flanks and destroying the infantry as much as possible, and those FT-17 tanks will also be handed over to you." ”

After saying that, he stuffed the map back into his bag: "Car 115 follows Marcus and covers our back. Let's go!"

Everyone returned to their tanks, except for the radio of Marcus's tank because Alice was too old to do anything, after this girl's adjustment, now the tank communicator of Wren and their car crew is very clear, which makes a group of veteran ruffians look at this girl with admiration.

Wren brought the throat intercom and coughed twice before asking, "This is the platoon commander's No. 113 tank, please answer when you hear it." ”

"Marcus, Tank 112 ready!" Marcus's voice came over the headset.

"Tank No. 114 is ready. "Tank 115 heard, very clearly!" replied the other two tanks.

"Check the internal communications of the vehicle!" Wren ordered: "Bowman, drive the head forward, pay attention to the changes in the road surface, Alice, reload the heading machine gun and be ready to fire at any time, and Bruce, reload the armor-piercing bullets...... Andrey, give priority to solving French tanks. ”

"Understood!" everyone replied in their headphones.

Amid the rumbling roar of the engines, the tank began to move slowly, Wren exposed his upper body outside the tank, picked up his binoculars and looked into the distance, and then put a very strange smile on his face - on the opposite side of the ravine, that is, in the area controlled by the French, behind a few rows of small trees, until the village where the French army had gathered, was a small and spacious plain surrounded by hills.

The Tiger took the lead, rushed through the narrow ditch, relied on strong power to go up the opposite slope, the dirt rolled up by the tracks was thrown to both sides, and the load wheels bounced up and down with the undulating ground, proving that the 38-ton Tiger tank was still very maneuverable.

"Parking in the bushes under two rows of small trees. Wren pressed the throat intercom and ordered, "I want to make sure our scouts are still on the other side of the hill." All personnel are not allowed to leave the car and wait for my news. ”

Then he switched the frequency: "Alice, adjust to the frequency of the reconnaissance company, I'm looking for them." ”

"Adjusted. It was usable, captain. It only took a few seconds for Alice to finish her work, and it seemed like she was much more professional than Clark for this one.

"Are you still on the hillside?" Wren asked.

"Yes, as soon as you cross the river, we saw that your new tank looks good, come back and give me an autograph. The scouting force over there replied with a funny answer.

"I'll give you a French pistol. Wren turned off the intercom and switched to the channel in the platoon: "All of them are here......!