Chapter 335

Compared with the highly mechanized German armored forces, more German army forces seem to be only a little better than those in the first World War. They still had to carry weapons and heavy luggage on the muddy road, still used old-fashioned bolt rifles, and even shared soap with two people.

Although the German army widely used armored vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and even war horses, it expanded the army by 1.5 million at a time, which is still a number that a military enterprise can't eat. Many weapons have to be eliminated before they are used, and many individual equipment have to use all kinds of defective products.

Cars have never been enough. At the beginning, all artillery units were required to be equipped with trucks to tow large caliber guns, but this plan obviously could not meet the needs of military expansion. Later, it became 150 mm caliber artillery towed by car, while 75 mm mountain guns were all transported by pack horse.

At the beginning of the military expansion, the Army General Command required that more than half of all troops should be equipped with automatic or semi-automatic weapons, that is to say, the proportion of mp-44 assault rifles and G43 semi-automatic rifles should be about half. But later, because of the urgent need to mobilize troops, the mp-44 shortage had to be replaced by G43. The G43 shortage had to be replaced by the mp-38 / 40 submachine gun that was eliminated in that year. In the later stage, even the MP-40 was gone, so we had to continue to use the Mauser 98K. At present, most of the light infantry and almost all the rear garrison units of group I army are using Mauser 98K rifles eliminated by other main forces.

Fortunately, German light industry has been supplemented by half of Poland and other regions, and the number of military uniforms and Tactical Vests is still enough. Although the quality of tents and some canvas products is not reliable, the quantity has met the requirements of German military expansion. Many troops are now changing camouflage clothes for use in the coming spring.

German factories work overtime day and night, and the cars they produce are not fully equipped even for the first-line group armies, let alone the second-line troops. Many second-line troops are only equipped to the battalion level, that is to say, an infantry battalion only has a few cars in the battalion.

More troops retain the ancient formation of cavalry, and these cavalry are more accurate than traditional cavalry. These soldiers use a lot of horses just to follow the armored forces as fast infantry.

Of course, as a main infantry division, the situation of the 7th infantry division in the hands of Colonel Friedrich is much better. For example, the heavy fire 150 mm caliber artillery, the matching tractor, and the mp-44 and G43 rifles in the hands of infantry are all equipped according to the earliest standards.

Moreover, as a key reserve panzergrenadier, one regiment of this infantry division is equipped with armored vehicles and assault guns, which is just like the trump of the German infantry division. With so many excellent weapons and equipment, when the 7th Division attacked the French army, the French garrison on the opposite side was very depressed.

Frederick was inspecting one of his artillery positions at the moment, where two 150 mm guns were leaning their ammunition desperately towards the British and French allied forces in the distance. Two German soldiers were controlling the angle and direction of the gun, and more soldiers were carrying shells back and forth.

Speaking of the German 150 mm caliber cannon, it is also an epoch-making product with the advantages of many experts. The barrel of this kind of cannon was actually a masterpiece designed by Soviet designers. Because of the cooperation between the two sides, akado's spies used some means to get it back to Germany. Of course, the German tried their best to reduce the weight of the cannon. They didn't even have a gun shield. They reduced the weight of the cannon to three and a half tons at one go.

However, this kind of modification was also accompanied by some unsatisfactory aspects, such as the reduction of caliber, which led to the decrease of the gun's range to only 11. Two kilometers. Although the range is slightly less, it is better to be more mobile and flexible. These new German howitzers roll forward with the troops and rarely fall behind.

With the support of Germany's huge and effective railway transportation line, the heavy weapons of the whole German army kept up with the rhythm of the offensive troops in the early stage, and did not fall behind because of their own inconvenience. Now these mobile cannons have left an indelible shadow on the hearts of the British and French allied forces.

"The news just now is that the 2nd Battalion has begun to cross this area. Four No. 3 assault guns of the independent armored battalion are covering the frontal attack of the 1st Battalion, Colonel." Pointing to a field map, the chief of staff of the Division said: "the British troops on the opposite side gave up this mountain and this area without fighting back. They also lost more than a dozen of their 25 pound guns."

"It seems that there is something wrong with their logistics supply, and the resistance is not as tenacious as in the previous few days." Frederick frowned as a 150 mm cannon fired again in the distance. He put his eyes in front of the scissor periscope and looked at the hit hill in the distance.

After about ten seconds, he probably saw the explosion there. He straightened up, looked at the map in the staff officer's hand, then pointed to it and said, "before tonight, advance to camp here. Send a telegram to the army headquarters, telling the general that according to the current situation, we need to send investigation troops immediately to confirm the movement of the British garrison at night. "

Just across from the 7th infantry division, in the division headquarters of the 1st Armored Division of the British Expeditionary Army, a group of officers were sighing at the map with sad faces. They retreated all the way from Brussels. They were chased by the German infantry and armored forces. Hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles were lost on the way. As a result, they are still unable to get rid of the German troops behind them. What frustrated them most was not the rapid pursuit of the German soldiers, but the fact that their fuel and ammunition were about to bottom out. A large number of ammunition and oil reserves in northern France have become the spoils of the German a group army, and the seemingly safe transportation route has now become an area under German control. The British forces are now more vulnerable than ever“ Teacher! Lord Goth told us to retreat urgently, but we are not infantry! As soon as they raised their legs and said they would leave, how about us? Without fuel, what do you want us to retreat with? " Complained the head of a tank regiment“ Yes! Teacher! We've lost a regiment of tanks! Now if we lose another batch of tanks, we will lose half of our equipment to the German army! " The head of the other armored regiment has now become a bare commander. All his tanks have now been thrown to the German army, leaving only a few hundred tankers as infantry to follow him“ If we knew the current situation at the beginning and left half of the tanks early, the remaining tanks could return to France! How are you now! Even if we concentrate oil now, it's only enough for more than 100 tanks to retreat to France. What do we use to fight against German tanks? " The chief of staff also scolded: "those French idiots are really German allies!" Now the German tanks are attacking southern Belgium. The 5th light armored force is sweeping southern Belgium. Rommel's armored forces are also actively cooperating with the attack to the north. Now the British and French allied forces are losing ground. They are retreating to Dunkirk, a long chosen retreat site. If you can't imagine a death road to hell, just look at the road that the British and French allied forces retreated. There are hills of goods on both sides. Because of the lack of ammunition, cannons and guns are thrown away like that. There were many allied soldiers who had to wait for the German army to come to capture them because of hunger. Sometimes, in order to save fuel and supplies, kammerlin had to order the whole regiment to surrender to the German army. At least 500 tanks were abandoned by the roadside due to lack of fuel and maintenance parts, which made the German army look very worried. If the a group army didn't move fast enough, these equipment would probably destroy the B group army completely. At first, the abandoned tanks were destroyed by grenades and explosives. Later, they were too many to be destroyed, and grenades became a resource not to be wasted. So the tanks and armored vehicles were left intact. At most, some parts were removed. In fact, the main reason is that the advance speed of German front-line forces is far faster than that expected by the British and French allied forces. German infantry use cars, mules, horses and even bicycles to advance wildly, which has been closely following the retreat pace of the British and French allied forces. Therefore, many equipment allied forces have no time to destroy, so they can only give up to the German forces. Frederick's 7th infantry division once seized 12 abandoned British tanks. These tanks were neatly parked on the roadside. Their engine compartments were opened, but the engines and other equipment were still inside. Obviously, the British engineering forces wanted to dismantle these parts as spare parts, but because of the attack of the German soldiers, they gave up the plan in a hurry. After swearing for a long time, the officers of the 1st Armored Division of the United Kingdom did not come up with a decent countermeasure, so they had to abandon another 30 tanks and continue to retreat in the direction of Dunkirk. Colonel Frederick continued to lead his 7th infantry division, followed by him. He knew that he was getting closer and closer to the English Channel. Once the British and French forces were surrounded, the German soldiers could easily annihilate those troops lacking ammunition, medicine and oil. Now the core of the strategy in front of the German generals is very simple, which is nothing more than two words - compression!