#German History of World War II #Attacking France, defeating France, and humiliating France were the unanimous ideas of the defeated country of Germany after the end of World War I, and Germany paid a terrible price for victory in World War I. In the post-war 1920s, Germany's domestic economy withered and political turmoil, and its strength was much less than before. All kinds of ideas for saving the country have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and various political parties are even more numerous; some people say that Emperor Wilhelm should be invited back to reorganize the program of the DPRK, some people say that collective ownership should be implemented like the Soviet Union, and some people say that the Soviet Union should still be thrown into the garbage heap! What we want is the road to democracy and freedom, in short, how to get a mess of words...
But one thing is certain, that is, a large part of the misery in Germany today is caused by France, and after Hitler came to power, he openly tore up the Treaty of Versailles, and actively expanded his armaments to prepare for France's trouble, and the whole people were frantically involved in the construction of the war machine. The final wish to avenge France was fulfilled on May 10, 1940, and these photographs were taken during the German offensive against France, and the history behind them seems to tell the pain of France and the joy of German revenge.
But no one expected that it would take only 42 days to attack France, to know that France is an authentic European army power, the smooth victory even Surprised Germany, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union is also very stunned, especially Britain, as an ally they were shocked by the spread of France's defeat at that time.
Manstein's plan
After the polish campaign, the main German forces began to move westward, ready to attack France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg at any time, and to crush the heavy groups of British, French, Belgian, and Dutch troops gathered here. Forcing France to surrender, Britain withdrew from the war or signed a treaty in favor of Germany.
In order to defeat the Allies in World War I, Germany formulated and actively prepared for it, and the person who proposed this plan was Manstein. However, when this plan was first proposed, it was unanimously rejected by senior generals, believing that the direction of attack of the plan was the Ardenne area, which would expose the elite German armored troops to the enemy's flank attack, and Manstein believed that the Ardenne area was a decisive breakthrough and would achieve unexpected results, and finally his proposal was appreciated by the Fuehrer and approved.
target
Armored units
, for strategically decisive breakthroughs---
Ardennes Forest
zone, carry out major assaults
The strength of the German army
In order to carry out operations, Germany invested 136 divisions, including 2439 tanks of various types, 3700 aircraft, 10 armored divisions, and 4 motorized divisions. The force allocation is 3 army groups, namely Army Group A with 64 divisions, Army Group B with 28 divisions, and Army Group C with 17 divisions.
Army Group A served as the main attacker, and the main goal was to break through the densely forested Ardenne area and directly attack the English Channel in northern France, the task was arduous, so it was equipped with 7 armored divisions and 3 motorized divisions.
Army Group B acted as an assist, with the goal of attacking Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, drawing the attention of the main Allied forces in the west.
Army Group C acted as a feint to contain the French forces near the Maginot Line and prevent reinforcements from advancing north.
The forces invested by the Allies
Compared with the military strength of the German army, the British and French allies are actually not bad, let's look at their strength, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies gathered a total of 135 divisions, of which France and Britain have a total of 103 divisions, with 3469 tanks, more than 2000 aircraft.
If war broke out, France could always transport more troops to the front, and more than 1,000 aircraft from the British mainland would come to support.
French tanks were better than Germany in both quantity and quality, and the British navy was still an invincible presence at this time, and the Allies with such a strong capital could have launched an earth-shaking contest with Germany.
After all, in World War I, Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands also joined hands to block the German attack, and did not they successfully defeat Germany for four years?
The Germans were ultimately victorious
However, the war gameplay of World War II was obviously not comparable to that of The First World War, and the German army used new tactics to immediately break through the ardennes region and achieve unexpected results.
However, Britain and France and other countries placed their main forces in northern France and the border area with Belgium, which they believed would be the main direction of German attack, and intended to carry out long-term attrition with the German army here. The other part of the French main force was placed on the Maginot Line in the south, and if the Germans attacked the north and south, they would be blocked by layers. In the middle of the Ardennes, however, there were only a few French troops stationed, which made it easy for the Germans to break through the Ardennes.
Due to the rapid long drive of the German armored group, the Allies had almost no ability to fight back, and only 5 days later, French Prime Minister Renault called the newly appointed British Prime Minister Churchill and said with a frustrated look: "We are afraid that we will lose this battle!" ”
Churchill was in full swing, he could not believe that the German army would rely on large tank clusters to play such an irreparable combat effect, he flew to Paris on the 16th hoping for good news, but what awaited him would be a more defeated situation. Five days later, German tanks swept through the northern French city of Amiens and entered the English Channel area near Abbeville to achieve the desired operational objectives, a good news that surprised even Germany.
The Germans in the old photographs trekked through France, which meant that France was about to collapse, and the traditional European army power finally surrendered on June 22, just 42 days after the outbreak of war. Although these photographs do not fully express the intensity of the war, they can also see the tip of the iceberg of the war, and the surrender of France also gave Germany a revenge for the defeat in the first world war, and Britain retreated back to its homeland, only to make a comeback on June 6, 1944.
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