The world's classic blitzkrieg - the Battle of France, the Battle of France

< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Battle of France</h1>

A brief description of the campaign

The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was a campaign by Nazi Germany that began attacking France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940 during World War II. The campaign consisted of two major operations: the "Yellow War" in the first part (The FallGelb, which attacked the Three Kingdoms of Benelux and northern France) and the "Red War" in the second part (FallRot, attacking the French mainland). The Germans captured France in less than three months, forcing the British to retreat home in a hurry, and are considered the most successful examples of blitzkrieg warfare and an important place in the history of World War II.

Pre-war situation

Since the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia in September 1939, thus opening the prelude to The Second World War, Germany and the Allies have been in a state of unmarried war on the European continent for a considerable period of time, a state known as "fake war". Hitler had hoped for a rapid conquest of Poland and an immediate armistice with the acquiescence of France and Britain, when Germany's reserves of munitions were insufficient (which needed to be imported from abroad) and Germany's weapons were mainly made from the Soviet Union, and Hitler was disturbed by the fact that the two countries were qualitatively different. Thus, on 6 October 1939, he proposed a peace agreement to Britain and France and gave them time to reflect in order to respond; on 9 October, taking into account that the Allies might not adopt his proposal, Hitler drew up a corresponding military plan of action, Special Instruction No. 6 of the Führer.

Hitler had always hoped to rely on military strength to defeat other Western countries, so as to avoid the situation of two-front warfare in the future and be able to concentrate on the Eastern Front. However, this intention is not embodied in the Fuehrer's Special Directive No. 6. For the plan was based on the very realistic assumption that It would take a long time for Germany to have a strong military presence, and only hoped to achieve goals that were not difficult to achieve, aimed at improving Germany's situation in a protracted war with the West.

The main thrust of Special Directive No. 6 of the Fuehrer was to conquer the Low Countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as quickly as possible, thus preventing France from occupying them first and thus threatening the Ruhr, Germany's important industrial heart. On the other hand, it was necessary to control as many airfields as possible in order to carry out a long-term air and sea attack on Britain. However, the Fuehrer's directive did not mention the plan to occupy all of France, but only aimed at occupying the border areas in northern France.

After drawing up written instructions, Hitler thought it would take at most a few weeks to carry out his plan, but on the day of the order, his illusions were shattered. Hitler's judgment of the true strength of the German army was biased. The Germans needed to repair a large number of vehicles damaged in the Polish campaign, and the ammunition in the arsenal had been exhausted, and it would take at least three months to regain combat effectiveness.

On October 10, 1939, Britain rejected Hitler's peace proposal, and on October 12, France sided with Britain. On 19 October, Franz Hader, chief of staff of the Wehrmacht Army General Command, the German Army's High Command, proposed the first plan for "Yellow Action", "Yellow Action No. 1", which is the code name for the invasion of the Low Countries. Halder's plan is often compared to the Schlieffen Plan, which was actually a plan that Germany had implemented in World War I in 1914. The two plans were similar in that they needed to pass through central Belgium at the time of the offensive, but the intention of the Schlieffen plan was to achieve a decisive victory by carrying out a massive siege of the French, while the main tactic of the "Yellow Operation" was an unimaginative frontal attack, with the goal of driving the Allies back to the other side of the Somme, which was expected to come at the expense of 500,000 German soldiers. Doing so would directly deplete the German reserves of 1940, and it is estimated that it will not be until 1942 that an offensive against France will be considered.

Faced with Halder's plan, Hitler reacted coldly. He had thought that he could conquer the Low Countries in a short period of time at a small cost, but Halder's plan was long and difficult. Some even thought that this plan was a conspiracy, and Halder opposed Hitler, so he proposed the most pessimistic plan to prevent Hitler from launching an all-out offensive. Hitler was largely opposed to this plan. He believed that the army, whether prepared or not, must attack as early as possible, hoping that the Allies' hasty response to the battle in the absence of preparation might lead to an easy victory, and the date of the attack was set for November 12, 1939. In response, the commanders repeatedly tried to persuade Hitler that the attack should be delayed by at least a few more days or weeks to correct some deficiencies in the preparations or to wait for more favorable weather. On the other hand, since no one disagreed with the plan, Hitler tried to make some improvements to the plan. This was mainly to disperse forces, since in addition to the central axis in central Belgium, a second offensive would be launched in the southern region. On 29 October, Halder proposed a second plan of action, "Yellow Action Plan 2", in which the addition of a second offensive on the Liege-Namur axis reflected a change in plans.

In fact, Hitler was not the only one who did not like Halder's plan. The commander of the German Army Group A, General Gerd von Lundstedt, also disagreed with the plan. But unlike Hitler, Lundstedt, a professional soldier, had a clear mind and knew how to revise the plan. He argued that the basic flaw in the plan was that it was inconsistent with the principles of military mobility that Germany had maintained since the 19th century. The Germans had to complete a breakthrough first, which would eliminate the main Allied forces. The area suitable for completing this battle plan was the Sedan axis, which was located on the axis of Army Group A led by von Lundelstedt. On 21 October, von Lundstedt summoned his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Erich von Manstein, and ordered him to arrange other battle plans to reflect this basic idea, giving his Army Group A more advantage at the expense of Army B to the north.

When Manstein made new plans at Koblenz, heinz Guderian, the elite of the German panzer group, commander of the 19th Army, happened to be nearby hotels. Von Manstein believed that his tanks might have played a greater role in the battle if he had included Guderian in his plans, which could have been a decisive factor for the later transfer of the 19th Army from Army B to Army Group A. This suggestion pleased von Lundstedt. Manstein's plan at this time included considering moving north from Sedan and directly into the right rear of the main Allied forces, which were entering the theater of operations directly from the south. When Guderian was invited to participate in informal discussions of the plan, he made a radical new point: It was not just his troops that concentrated on Sedan, but the entire panzer group. These concentrated armored units should not be transferred to the northern region, but inserted directly and rapidly to the west, without having to wait for the main infantry division. This can lead to a strategic collapse of the enemy, thus avoiding the relatively high number of casualties caused by battles in the traditional sense. Strategically, such high-risk independent use of armored units had been widely discussed before the war, but it was not widely accepted, because the vast majority of commanders served in infantry units, which invisibly prevented this strategic idea from being widely accepted. But in this particular case, even Manstein had to admit that it might be exactly what they needed. His main concern was that the tactic would require the creation of a flank of more than 300 km, which could easily create an opportunity for the French to counterattack. But Guderian believed that this could be overcome by using small armored units to carry out successive destructive attacks to the south. However, this would deviate from the basic idea of The Fuehrer's Directive No. 6.

On 31 October, Manstein outlined an alternative to Hitler in his first battle plan. He muted guderian's name in the plan and tried to downplay the strategic part of the armored forces as much as possible to avoid unnecessary resistance. Six subsequent operational plans were drawn up between November 6, 1939 and January 12, 1940, slowly proposing increasingly radical outlines of the plan. These proposals were rejected by the Army General Command, the contents of which were not presented to Hitler.

In the winter of 1939-1940, the Belgian consul general in Cologne had anticipated that Manstein was planning an offensive. From intelligence reports, they deduced that the German forces at this time were mainly concentrated on the border between Belgium and Luxembourg. The Belgians were convinced that the Germans would point directly into the English Channel through the Ardennes with the aim of cutting off the Allied legions in Belgium and northeastern France. This warning did not attract the attention of France.

On 10 January 1940, a German Messerschmitt Bf108 aircraft landed in Maasmechelen, north of Maastricht, Belgium. Among the passengers was Helmeu Reinberger, an important member of the Luftwaffe, who carried the latest version of "Operation Yellow Plan 2". The circumstances prevented Reinberger from destroying the document in time, which soon fell into the hands of Belgian intelligence agencies. This incident was later thought to be the main reason for the major changes made by the Germans to the plan, but this was not the case; in fact, the military operation was revised on January 30 as "Yellow Operation No. 3", which was basically the same as in the previous version.

On 27 January, Manstein was relieved of his post as Chief of staff of Army Group A and transferred to the rank of Commander of the Army in Szczecin, Prussia, where he began his command on 9 February. The move was Guhard's decision to eliminate Manstein's influence. On 2 February, Manstein protested to Hitler and informed Hitler of his battle plan. Hitler ordered Manstein to travel to Berlin on 17 February to explain his battle plan to him alone. Hitler was deeply impressed by the plan. The next day, he ordered a change in plans that Manstein envisioned.

Hitler ordered Guhard to revise the battle plan again – Manstein did not intervene further. However, Guhard had no intention of deviating from established principles in order to allow the 7 panzer divisions of Army A to carry out an independent strategic penetration. This made Guderian extremely angry, because the principle was completely out of touch with the new plan. Operation Yellow No. 4 was issued on 24 February, and according to the plan, the infantry division was supposed to capture the crossing point of the Meuse River in Sedan on the eighth day. After much heated debate, it was changed to let the Motorized Infantry Regiment of the Panzer Division build a bridgehead here on the fourth day. But even then, the attack on the English Channel could only begin on the ninth day, since a five-day stay would allow a sufficient number of infantry divisions to catch up with the armored forces and establish a coherent front with them.

Even after many conventional methods were eventually adopted, the new strategy still attracted opposition from most German generals. They believed that an irresponsible concentration of forces in the same position would make it impossible for them to obtain adequate supplies, and that the already scarce supply routes could easily be cut off by the French. And if the Allies did not react as the Germans expected, the plan could end up with a disastrous outcome. However, their objections were dismissed altogether.

Guhrhard believed that since the German army was in a relatively disadvantaged strategic position, even if the chances of victory were slim in any case, it was much better than losing the battle without acting at all. Changes to the battle plan also suggest that the Allies were likely to flee to the south as a result. Guhard believed that if so, the Germans would pay less for victory, and it would be a huge blow to the reputation of the Allies that had abandoned the Low Countries (commonly known as the Anglo-French Union in 1940). In addition, the combat effectiveness of the German army will remain almost unchanged, which will facilitate the implementation of "Red Operation" and then attack France with all its strength. However, this decision had to be postponed until the successful completion of Operation Yellow. In fact, the German army's detailed implementation plan included only the first nine days of action; there was a fixed timetable and a defined path forward. According to the traditional way of command, this requires the judgment and action of field commanders. Unpredictable uncertainties will have a huge impact on the course of events in actual combat.

In April 1940, for strategic reasons, the Germans carried out Operation Weserburg, attacking the neutral countries of Denmark and Norway. The British, French and Free Polish army operated in response to support the Norwegians.

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Operation Weatherburg

Since the spring of 1939, the British naval headquarters has regarded Scandinavia as a potential war zone for future wars with Germany, and the British government is reluctant to go to war on the mainland again, believing that it will repeat the repetition of the First World War, so it began to consider the use of blockade tactics to indirectly weaken Germany, and German industry is very dependent on iron ore from Sweden, which is mainly transported through the Norwegian port of Narvik and the Swedish Luleå, of which the port of Narvik does not freeze in winter, so it can supply iron ore all year round.

In October 1939, The Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Admiral Erich Raeder, discussed with Hitler the danger of British bases in Norway and the possibility of seizing these bases before Britain, and the Navy believed that taking Norway could not only control its nearby waters, but also serve as a base for future operations against Britain, but because the Army and Air Force were not interested in this at the time, Hitler only said that the focus of operations would be on the Low Countries.

At the end of November, Winston Churchill, a new member of the British War Cabinet, proposed to lay mines in Norwegian waters, which would force the ship to go deeper into the North Sea, where the Royal Navy could intercept it, but the proposal was rejected by dovish Chamberlain and Halifax for fear of a negative reaction from neutral countries such as the United States. In November 1939, the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland broke out, and due to changes in the diplomatic environment, Churchill again proposed his plan to lay mines, but was again rejected.

In December, Britain and France began planning to assist Finland, they planned to land troops in Narvik, Norway, and then cross Sweden into Finland, which would also allow the Allies to occupy the iron ore areas of Sweden, a plan supported by Chamberlain and Halifax, who hoped to get Norwegian cooperation so that some legal problems could be resolved, but the harsh notices issued to the two countries had to respond negatively, and the expedition program continued, but the reasons disappeared due to Finland's peace in March.

On December 14, 1939, after believing that the Allies might threaten the source of iron ore, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht High Command to draw up a plan to invade Norway, which was expected to involve only one division.

On 14–19 January 1940, the German Navy developed an enhanced version of the draft plan, and they decided that there were two key elements, the first being a sneak attack to reduce Norwegian resistance and British intervention, and the second being to transport troops on warships, rather than slower merchant ships, which made it possible to capture all targets at the same time, as transport ships were limited in range. The new plan will put in the strength of an army, including a mountain division, an airborne division, a motorized infantry brigade, and two infantry divisions, whose mission objectives are:

1. Oslo, the capital of Norway, and surrounding cities

2. Bergen

3. Narvik

4. Tromsø

5. Trondheim

6. Stavanger

The plan also called for a quick capture of the kings of Denmark and Norway, hoping to force the other to surrender.

On 21 February 1940, operational command was given to General Nikolausvon Falkenhorst, who fought in Finland during World War I and was therefore familiar with polar operations, but he had only command of ground forces, although Hitler wanted unified command.

On 27 January 1940, the final plan was named Weserübung, led by the German 21st Army, which included the German Third Mountain Division and five other infantry divisions, all of which had never been on the battlefield, and the first echelon of the plan consisted of three divisions, the rest left for the second wave, with three paratrooper companies for the capture of the airfield, and the German Second Mountain Division was later added to the battle.

The original plan was to invade Norway and obtain Danish airfields diplomatically, but Hitler instructed both on 1 March, because the Luftwaffe insisted on occupying fighter bases on the grounds of air defense early warning, and the 16th Army, organized for the invasion of Denmark, consisted of 2 infantry divisions and the 11th Motorized Infantry Brigade, and the entire operation would be supported by the 10th Army of the Air Force, consisting of about 1,000 aircraft of various types.

In February, the British destroyer HMS Cossack violated Norwegian neutrality, boarded the German transport ship Altmark, which also violated Norwegian neutrality, and released some 300 British war flops, which Hitler saw as a clear signal of Britain's intention to violate Norwegian neutrality, thus strengthening his determination to invade.

On 12 March, as the Winter War was drawing to a close, the British finally decided to send an expeditionary force to Norway, which began to board ships on 13 March, but was called back and the operation was canceled due to the end of the Winter War.

The first German invasion ships set out on 3 April, a British destroyer began laying the first mines in Norwegian waters on 8 April, and the German invasion began on 9 April.

Strategically, Denmark is less important, and in addition to being a staging area for war against Norway, of course, as a country bordering Germany, it must be subject to some control. The country was small and relatively flat, an ideal location for the German Army to fight, and the weak Danish army did not have much chance of successful resistance, and some Danish troops engaged the Germans in the early morning, losing some.

After 1,000 German troops landed in the port of Copenhagen, a Detachment of the Royal Guard engaged them, and without firing a few bullets, several detachments of He111 and Do17 bombers roared across the sky, and in the face of the Luftwaffe's apparent intention to intimidate and bomb the civilians in Copenhagen, the elderly King surrendered almost immediately in exchange for autonomy in domestic affairs, with the result that the unique and moderate Denmark was occupied, especially before the summer of 1943. Arrests and deportations of Danish Jews were postponed until almost all of them were evacuated to Sweden, and it was estimated that fewer than 500 of the pre-war 8,000 Danish Jews had been deported and fewer than 50 had lost their lives.

Although Denmark and the rest of the Scandinavian countries have little military might, they have strategic, economic and ideological importance, as the second German plenipotentiary ambassador, Dr. Werner Best, put it: "Danish agriculture provides considerable economic assistance and is an important interface with Sweden." ”

On the evening of 8 April 1940, the Norwegian patrol boat Pol III spotted the German Fifth Battle Group, which was heading north, and was captured after a brief engagement with the Germans, whose captain was Norway's first victim in the war.

With the exception of Oslo and Kristiansand, all german ships landed at the scheduled time, and at Kristiansand they managed to break through the coastal defenses at 10 a.m., 6 hours slower than scheduled.

On 9 April, the German Fifth Battle Group, led by the reconnaissance Blücher, headed north along the Oslo Fjord, was approaching the Oskarberg Fortress, located at the narrowest point of the fjord, when the Blücher was hit by a 48-year-old German cannon on the island, and then the engine room was hit by two 40-year-old torpedoes, lost control, and the Blücher overturned and sank, killing 830 of the 2202 crew and combatants on it. The rest of the regiment's ships, mistakenly believing that the Blücher had hit a mine, brought the troops ashore early, ensuring that Oslo would not be attacked in the early morning.

This delay gave the Norwegian royal family and Parliament plenty of time to move in with national treasures and gold. Norway never surrendered to Germany, and the Gislin government was not granted legal status. Norway was therefore not a conquered country and was able to fight as an Allied army.

An important part of Operation Wasserburg was the use of paratroopers to attack the airfields near Oslo and Stavanger, the first airborne operation in history, in which the plan to attack Oslo Fornibu Airport almost turned into a German disaster, the first 29 Ju-52s carrying 340 paratroopers were withdrawn due to bad weather, and the subsequent fleet was also ordered to withdraw, but due to poor communication, it continued to advance, but because Fornebo Airfield had little defense, it still landed and occupied successfully, as the Germans continued to arrive from the airfield, Oslo fell at noon.

King Haakon and the Reichstag moved north ahead of the Germans, and Gieslin became the first person in history to announce a coup d'état by radio.

Allied reinforcements began arriving throughout Norway on 14 April, but as the main port was in German control, heavy weapons and logistical transport were difficult, but the Allies were able to retake the main target, Narvik, and completely destroy the port.

On 7 June, King Haakon and Parliament moved into Britain to form a government-in-exile, and on 9 June the Allied forces at Narvik were finally withdrawn, and the following day Norway fell. The operation took Germany two months and was the second longest supported country among the countries invaded by Germany in World War II, the first being the Soviet Union.

Analysis of the strength of both sides

Germans

The German high command was carefully deployed. The total strength of the western front was 136 divisions (including 10 armored divisions and 4 motorized divisions), 2439 tanks, 3700 aircraft and 600 transport aircraft. In terms of troop allocation, it was divided into three army groups A, B and C: 64 divisions of Army Group A (including 7 panzer divisions and 3 motorized divisions) on the middle road, commanded by General Rensde, who served as the task of breaking through the Ardenne area in the middle and directly crossing the English Channel; 28 divisions of Army Group B on the right wing (including 3 armored divisions and 1 motorized division), commanded by General Bauker, served as an auxiliary task, with the purpose of attacking the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to attract the main force of the Anglo-French army; and 17 divisions of Army Group C on the left wing. Commanded by Admiral Loeb, his task was to feign the Maginot Line to contain the French reinforcements from the north; with 27 additional divisions as a strategic reserve.

Coalition

The Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourg, French and British Expeditionary Forces had 135 divisions (of which the French and British had 103 divisions, organized into 3 army groups), 3,469 tanks, 2,000 aircraft, and more than 1,000 aircraft from the British Isles to support the battle, comparable to the Germans in terms of strength. However, Britain and France pursued a policy of appeasement for a long time and were poorly prepared for war. The allied high command's conservative miscalculation of the battle plan, code-named "D", focused on defending against the Germans' main assault on Belgium, using Belgium as the main battlefield for the two sides. According to "Plan D", the Coalition deployed the main force at the northern end of the Franco-Belgian border and the northern french provinces, and if the German army carried out a major assault on Belgium, the five-power coalition army coordinated to block the German attack; most of the other troops were deployed on the Maginot Line in the south, such as the German army's frontal attack on the Maginot Line, relying on strong fortifications to resist; and in the middle section, it held the Aden area and the Maas River, leaving only weaker troops to garrison.

Campaign progression

On 10 May 1940, just after dawn, swarms of German Stuka bombers suddenly launched a heavy bombardment of airfields, railway hubs, areas and cities in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. At 5:30 a.m., on a front of more than 300 kilometers between the North Sea and the Maginot Line, German ground forces launched a massive offensive against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, kicking off the invasion of France.

The German Army Group B, which assisted and attracted the main force of the British and French forces, first attacked important bridges and fortress facilities in the Netherlands and Belgium with airborne troops. This sudden blow immediately caused panic among the Dutch and Belgian armies, and then the armored forces of Army Group B took advantage of the chaos and launched an onslaught. As the paratroopers had occupied the main routes, Army Group B was progressing quite well.

The breakthrough of the German Army Group B on the Dutch-Belgian border led to the immediate reinforcement of the Main Anglo-French forces assembled in northern France across the Franco-Belgian border. At this moment, Hitler was restlessly waiting for news from the front in the underground command post, and when he heard that the main Anglo-French forces had been dispatched, he was "so happy that he cried." Excitedly, he said to the people around him, "They just fell into our trap!" I want them to believe that we are still carrying out the original 'yellow plan' and still respect Schlieffen's claims. They're fooled, wait and see, the drama is still to come. ”

When Bauker's Army Group B attracted the main British and French forces, Loeb's Army Group C also took up a posture. Their ongoing feint on the Maginot Line was so successful that it made the French hesitate to withdraw their forces from the south.

In the early hours of 10 May, The Rendsed A Army Group, which was the main german attack in the middle, carried out a major assault on the Ardennes region of Luxembourg and Belgium. Luxembourg, a small country of just 300,000 people, fell without a fight that day. General Rendsard was spearheaded by General Kleist's Panzer Corps, which consisted of Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps, Hoth's 15th Panzer Corps, and Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Corps. Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps was the most effective, with 3 panzer divisions as the main and vanguard of the Kleist Panzer Corps. The 15th and 41st Panzer Corps, on the other hand, had only 2 armored divisions each.

Guderian's 19th Panzer Army easily broke through the loose resistance of the Belgian army and crossed the 110-kilometer-long gorge of the Ardennes into France in just two days. By the afternoon of 12 May, Guderian's three panzer divisions had reached the north bank of the Maas River and captured the famous French fortress city of Sedan. That night they began their intense preparations for the river crossing. "The Germans' forced crossing of the Maas River was the key to the Battle of France. There were other equally bold actions in the next 5 weeks, but none of them had such an astonishing impact on developments. To this end, Guderian threw all three of his armored divisions into it.

At 11:00 a.m. on May 13, the Germans dispatched nearly 400 bombers to bombard the French positions and artillery groups on the south bank of the Maas River in batches for five hours, paralyzing the spirit of the French army. At 4 p.m., the Germans, in hundreds of rubber boats, began to force their way across the Maas River. At 5:30 p.m., the Germans finally gained a foothold on the south bank of the Maas River, and the German sappers immediately began to erect the pontoon bridge. By 8 p.m., Guderian's 1st Panzer Division had penetrated the French positions and penetrated considerably deeper. The 2nd And 10th Panzer Division also crossed the Maas River at midnight. On the same day, Hort's 7th Panzer Division of the 15th Panzer Corps also crossed the Maas River near Nantes, 40 miles to the west.

The Maas River line was lost, the road to Paris and the English Channel was opened, the British and French troops fighting in Belgium were in danger of being encircled, and the French army on the Chen Machinot Line would also be attacked on their stomachs, and Britain and France felt that the situation was serious. Britain quickly sent 10 additional fighter squadrons to fight back with the British Air Force in France and the French Air Force. On the afternoon of the 14th, the most fierce air battle broke out over the Maas River since the beginning of the war, the British "Breeham" bomber and the French army's latest "Breguet" bomber under the cover of fighters, straight into the Maas River, the German fighters about 5 wings took off to intercept, more than 500 aircraft each put in. From noon to dark, the gunfire on the landing field was incessant, the fighter planes of the two sides flew up and down, chasing each other, and from time to time, the planes caught fire, dragged black smoke down, and the bombs dropped by the British and French planes indiscriminately exploded on the river surface and exploded one column after another. Not to be outdone, the German anti-aircraft guns continued to shoot at the British and French aircraft that were sneaking in at low altitudes with heavy fire. The dense surface-to-air fire network turned the British and French aircraft into fire-fighting moths, coming in batches and being swallowed up in batches. The great scuffle continued until nightfall, the British and French aircraft with heavy losses were defeated, and the German pontoon bridges were mostly intact. In this battle, the Germans shot down hundreds of British and French aircraft, of which the German Second Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment alone had 112. British aircraft lost 60 percent. The History of the Royal Air Force put it: "There is nothing more painful than the losses caused by this suicidal battle." This day is called "Fighter Day" by the Germans. After this, the British and French air forces only dared to take off at night, and the air supremacy in the theater was firmly controlled by the Germans.

The German armored group drove straight in, and its power and speed were unheard of in the history of war. France was in a panic. In the early morning of May 15, French Prime Minister Renault called Churchill, who had only succeeded Chamberlain as British prime minister five days earlier, and said: "I am afraid that we will lose this battle." Churchill was stunned: "I simply do not understand that the use of a large number of rapid armored forces to attack can cause such a drastic change." To further explore the truth of the war and to cheer up the French leadership, who was already desperate, Churchill flew from London to Paris on May 16. According to Churchill, "Almost as soon as he saw Prime Minister Renault and Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-French Army, Camerin, he immediately realized that the situation was much worse than he had thought—each of them had a gray face." Churchill asked Camerin where was the strategic reserve? Ganmarin shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "There is no strategic reserve." Churchill listened, "simply dumbfounded."

The speed of Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps caught the Allied forces by surprise, but also disturbed the German high command, and Kleist twice ordered Guderian to pause his advance, but he did not hesitate to resign in protest. After the ban was lifted, he was so fast that when he encountered a wave of scattered French soldiers on the road, he did not want to delay getting out of the car to take prisoners, and only shouted with a megaphone: "We have no time to capture you, you must lay down your weapons and leave the road, so as not to block the way." On 16 May, Guderian urged his three panzer divisions to move westward, with the goal of reaching the Dunkirk area on the east bank of the English Channel. On 20 May, Guderian swept through Amiens and arrived at the English Channel near Abbeville. At this time, the German high command did not expect that the battle in France would go so smoothly, so it was not easy to deploy troops for a while. Only the next day did they give the order to the tank troops to advance north from Abbeville with the goal of occupying the ports of the Strait.

As soon as Guderian received the order, he decided: the 10th Tank Division was advancing towards Dunkirk; the 1st Tank Division was advancing towards Calais; and the 2nd Tank Division was advancing towards Boulogne. Guderian was well aware that his Army Group A had cut off the French retreat from the north to the west coast of France, formed by his Army Group A. Army B of North Breadker had captured the Netherlands and eastern Belgium, and the left flank of more than 700,000 Anglo-French forces was effectively under the deep encirclement of the Germans. The only hope for escape now is in several seaports in northern France, including Dunkirk. Therefore, he must quickly occupy these seaports in order to completely cut off the other side's sea retreat.

From the morning of 23 may to 24, Guderian's armored forces occupied Boulogne and Calais. On the afternoon of the 24th, Guderian's 19th Panzer Army had reached Graflin, 10 miles from Dunkirk, and reinhardt's 41st Panzer Army on its right flank had also reached the line of the Al-Saint-Omer-Grafflin Canal. The two armored brigades only needed to exert any more effort to take Dunkirk, and dozens of subsequent infantry divisions were constantly following. Guderian and others were full of ambition, determined to lead their armored forces to fight another encirclement and annihilation battle, and completely wiped out hundreds of thousands of British and French troops in the coastal area.

However, at the same time, the 19th Panzer Army and the 41st Panzer Army received orders from the commander of the Panzer Corps, Kleist, to stop advancing, saying that "the enemy of Dunkirk will be left to Marshal Goering's air force to solve." Guderian immediately questioned and protested to Kleist when he received the order, but the final reply was: "This is an order issued by the Führer himself and must be carried out." Guderian and Reinhardt were ordered to stop on the canal and watch as the Anglo-French-Belgian forces escaped from Dunkirk. Taking advantage of this fleeting respite, the Allies were able to implement the "dynamo plan" of withdrawal from the sea, withdrawing 324,000 people from Dunkirk from May 26 to June 4, of which 85,000 were French, becoming the main force in the future counterattack on the European continent. There are still many opinions about Hitler's puzzling order, which has become a difficult mystery. One theory is that Hitler deliberately let the British go, because Hitler had a special penchant for The British, and he once said: "Those of them are a valuable race, the people I want to make peace with." "He let the British go this time because he wanted to give the British a face and leave a way out for future peace talks." Another theory is that Hitler was uneasy about the unusually rapid advance of his armored forces, fearing that his beloved armored forces would fall into the enemy's north-south encirclement. In any case, Hitler made a fatal mistake here, which affected future invasions of Britain and enabled the British to continue fighting in Africa and Italy.

The devastating german assaults in Belgium and northern France wiped out the entire Belgian army, and the 30 French divisions and 9 British divisions ceased to exist. The new Commander of the French Army, Wei Gang, cobbled together 49 divisions plus 2 British divisions to form 3 armies (6th, 7th, and 10th Armies) to form a "Wei Gang Line" of about 300 miles from east to west along the Somme and The Enne Rivers, and 17 divisions to defend the Maginot Line. The two lines of defense were joined together in an attempt to prevent the Germans from moving south.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France, the German high command drew up a plan for the second phase of the Battle of France, code-named "Red Plan". This plan required the Germans to march south and defeat France once and for all. At present, the German army has 137 divisions, and its two army groups A and B have been rapidly reorganized. Bocque's Army Group B (with 6 panzer divisions) was on the right flank and made a breakthrough on the front of the Somme, while Army Group A of Rendezvous (with 4 panzer divisions) was on the left flank and made a frontal assault on the Heine.

On 3 June, the Luftwaffe launched a heavy bombardment of The French airfield and rear. At dawn on 5 June, Bauker's Army Group B took the lead in launching a full-scale attack on the right flank, and on the same day, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division preemptively crossed the Somme. On 7 June, Rommel's division cut off the French 10th Army defending abbeville-Amiens, allowing other German divisions to advance through the gap. On 8 June, Rommel's division reached the banks of the Seine. On June 10, Rommel turned north again and rushed 50 miles in one fell swoop, targeting the coastline. Arriving at their destination that night, they cut off the retreat of the French 9th Army and the British 51st Division, which were retreating towards the coast. These forces were forced to surrender to Rommel on 12 June.

After the attack of Army Group B, the left wing of Rendsed A Army Group also launched a river crossing offensive on the Anne River on June 9, that night, the 1st Panzer Division of Gudrian's Armored Corps forcibly crossed the Heine River, and on June 10, guderian Corps defeated the French armored forces and broke through the right flank of the French 6th Army, after which Guderian swung his army south and went all the way into the no-man's land. In desperation, the French captives threw their guns at the Germans and crushed them under tanks. Wei Gang later wrote with a heavy heart that he "was most shocked by the German tanks and aircraft, which had caused the French soldiers to have a psychological phenomenon of fear." This was one of the greatest successes of the German army." On 17 June, Gudri's armored corps reached the Swiss border town of Pantarir, cutting off the French retreat from the Maginot Line to Switzerland. Since the forced crossing of the Heine, Gudri's armored corps has driven more than 400 kilometers in 10 days and captured more than 250,000 French troops, creating a spectacle in the history of war.

On 10 June, the French government withdrew from Paris and moved to Tours. On the same day, Italy took advantage of the looting and declared war on France. On the 13th, Paris was declared an undefended city. On the 14th, when the French government moved to Bordeaux, the German army occupied Paris without firing a single shot. On the day of the German occupation of Paris, the left flank of the German Army Group A had reached the flank of the Maginot Line, "because of this useless line, after all, there were hundreds of thousands of French troops who had not surrendered or been destroyed." Hitler demanded that Lønsted cooperate with Army Group C to wipe out the French forces there. In accordance with Hitler's Operational Directive No. 15, Army Group C, which had been carrying out the task of attracting the attention of the French army in front of the Maginot Line, immediately chose the weak point of the defenders of the Maginot Line, that is, the junction of the two fortifications of Alsace and Grimm, to attack. The A and C armies attacked back and forth, and the Maginot line was quickly breached. On 17 June, Army Group C advanced to the Marne-Rhine Canal, Army Group A occupied Verdun, and the French army of 500,000 was surrounded in Alsace and south of Green, with all but a few fleeing to Switzerland. On the 18th, the French government announced that it would stop resisting.

At this point, Hitler's "scythe-waving operation" to destroy France was victoriously over. From May 10 to June 17, France, known as a military power in Europe, was defeated in five weeks. Manstein's vision, after the actions of Guderian and Rommel, eventually became a masterpiece in world military history. On 22 June, in order to humiliate France and avenge Germany's defeat in World War I, Hitler accepted France's surrender in the train car of the Compiègne Forest, in the chair where marshal Foch, the French representative, had sat when France and Germany signed the armistice in 1918. On 1 July, the Pétain government moved from Bordeaux to Vichy. Pétain, an old hero of the First World War, has since acted as a puppet of Germany. France was virtually extinct.

Campaign impact

After the German army entered Paris on 14 June, the French government collapsed and split, mainly remaining in mainland France, composed of Marshal Philippe Pétain, and the government-in-exile established by Charles de Gaulle in England, when there was little support for de Gaulle in the world except Britain.

On 21 June, the Vichy French government of Pétain proposed a truce to Germany and announced its surrender. The Allies suffered 350,000 casualties and 1,900,000 were captured. The German-Italian coalition suffered a total of 155,000 casualties, of which 45,000 were killed and 110,000 were wounded.

The main generals of both sides

Guderian

Guderian (1888-1954), Manstein, Rommel and Guderian, were later known as the three famous generals of Nazi Germany during World War II, and the famous founder of the army tactic "Blitzkrieg". Of course, from a political point of view, they were definitely fascist accomplices who aided and abetted abuse, committed unforgivable war crimes against other countries, and were hitler's killers who plagued the world.

From a military point of view, their outstanding military quality and excellent military command art have had a major impact on the world's military history, and it is indeed worthy of study by future generations. Compared with the Nazi German politicians and SS leaders who committed the massacres, they were innocent as the good generals of the regular Wehrmacht, and although they planned and commanded Hitler's war, they opposed the Nazi policy of massacre and extermination, let alone participated in the massacre atrocities. Perhaps it is precisely because of this, coupled with their astonishing military attainments, that they have won the respect of the enemy country and the objective evaluation of historians and military scientists.

Guderian's Blitzkrieg, the armored swarm, wiped out Poland in less than a month. France was destroyed in more than a month, and if Hitler had not been surprised by the speed of the Blitzkrieg, thinking that he was deceitful and would not let the attack, the 330,000 Anglo-French coalition forces would have let him be destroyed long ago. Attacking the Soviet Union, taking 2 million prisoners in 6 days, he finally didn't bother to capture them, saying, "I don't have time to capture you." Lay down your weapons and roll away from the road so as not to get in the way." He is the father of Blitzkrieg.

Camerin

Maurice Gustav Gammerin (1872-1958), Commander-in-Chief of France in 1940. He graduated from the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr in 1893 and the General Staff College in 1899. He participated in the First World War and served as the chief of operations, brigade and division of the French base camp. From 1925 to 1928, he was commander and deputy high commissioner of the French army in Syria, where he directed the suppression of the national liberation uprising of the Syrian people against the French colonialists. In 1931, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Army. In 1935, he was also appointed Vice-Chairman of the Army's High Military Council. In 1938, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defence. At the beginning of the Second World War, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army on 3 September 1939 and commander of the British Expeditionary Force. He was one of the proponents of the policy of capitulation of the French ruling clique and was therefore responsible for the defeat of France in 1940.

He was removed from his post and arrested in May 1940. In 1942, it was brought to trial by a court organized by the Pétain government, which was established to acquit its surrender to fascist Germany. In 1943 he was transported to Germany and held in fascist concentration camps until the end of the war. After the war, there was no more political positive action. Memoirs were published between 1946 and 1947. He died in 1958.

The story of the war

Dunkirk evacuation

Under the heavy attack of German artillery fire, thousands of ships of various colors advanced in the direction of Dunkirk.

It was a quirky "Armada": there were brightly colored French fishing boats, tourist boats carrying passengers, maintenance boats, small escort boats, minesweepers, trawlers, destroyers, British air rescue ships, radar sentry boats...

This extremely bizarre and indescribable fleet was piloted by a variety of British and Frenchmen. Among them are bankers, dentists, taxi drivers, speedboat drivers, dockers, teenagers, engineers, fishermen and civilian officials... Among them were a delicate-skinned boy and an old man with pale hair with bronzed skin. Many of them are distinctly poor, they have no coats, they wear worn-out sweaters and thimsicals, they wear cracked rubber shoes, they are drenched in the sea and the rain, they are hungry in the bone-chilling wind...

This strange fleet of ships, under the bombardment of artillery fire, was unarmed and unintended, but the brave people were facing the rain of bullets and smoke and fire, and they were moving forward flexibly on the surface of the wreck, knowing that there was hell ahead, and they were not afraid. For what purpose is this forward fleet?

Nazi Germany began its attack on Western Europe on May 10, 1940. At that time, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg had 147 divisions and more than 3 million troops, which were comparable to the strength of Germany. But France was strategically rigid and conservative, pinning its hopes only on what they considered the impregnable Maginot Line, declaring no war on Germany. On the German-French border, there were only small-scale mutual fires, no major battles, and the famous "strange wars" in history.

However, the Germans did not attack the Maginot Line, they first attacked Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and bypassed the Maginot Line and crossed the river from the Sedan area into France. The iron heel of German fascism soon entered the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

On 21 May, the Germans marched straight into the English Channel, forcing nearly 400,000 Anglo-French troops into the Northern French Panhandle, leaving only Dunkirk, a small port with only 10,000 inhabitants, as a sea retreat.

The situation was critical, and the port of Dunkirk was a highly vulnerable target to constant bombardment by bombers and artillery. If 400,000 people were to retreat from this port, the consequences would be unimaginable under the strong attack of German artillery fire.

The British government and navy mobilized a large number of crews and mobilized the people to rescue the army. Their plan is to try to evacuate 30,000 people.

There was a lot of complaining and quarreling about the impending tragedy. They lashed out at the incompetence and corruption at the top, but still threw themselves into the danger of withdrawing their troops. Thus came the strange "Armada" that sailed to Dunkirk.

The fleet included government-requisitioned vessels, but more often people who spontaneously went to pick up the troops. They were not registered, nor were they ordered, but they had something more powerful than organization, and that was the spirit of the British nation to conquer the seas. A Briton who personally threw himself into the transport force recalled afterwards:

"Driving in the dark is dangerous. The clouds were low, the moon was dark, we had no lights, no signs, no way to distinguish between friends and enemies. Less than halfway through the sea crossing, we began to meet the first returning convoy. As we dodged the white, mushy front waves of the fleet passing by the bow, we fell into the shadows of the half-dim boats ahead. Shouting is often heard in the darkness, but it is only the occasional trumpet. We sail 'by guessing and relying on God'. ”

The soldiers waiting to board the ship were disciplined, they had been fighting for three weeks for the evacuation, they had been retreating, they were often out of command, they were isolated, they lacked sleep, they were hungry and thirsty, but they remained in formation until they reached the beach, still obeying the command. The weary soldiers staggered across the beach toward the boat; a large number of men and horses braved bombing and strafing into the water, the men in front of them as deep as the shoulders, their heads just above the waves that pounced on the shore, until they reached the boat at the depth of the water. The small boat that ferries from the shore to the big boats are tilting crookedly because they are carrying too many people...

Some of the big ships almost rushed to shore despite the danger of falling tide...

On the beach there are destroyer wreckages hit by bombs, abandoned ambulances ...

It's all reflected in a red background, which is Dunkirk burning. There is no water to put out the fire, and no one has time to put out the fire...

Everywhere was a terrible and horrible field of hell, the artillery kept firing, the cannon roared, the fire flashed, the sky was full of noise, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns... It was impossible for people to speak normally, and the people who had fought in Dunkirk had an extremely hoarse voice—a mark of honor , "Dunkirk Voice".

In such a dangerous situation, the miscellaneous fleet rescued 335,000 people in a week or so.

This was the miracle that shocked the world – the Dunkirk evacuation.

Celebrity controversy

The American writer Drew Middleton, in his book "The Way of Using Soldiers", has this description of the performance of the French army at the beginning of the French campaign: "The Germans had greater motivation and courage than the French in the French battles at the beginning of World War II. Although the French fought to defend their homeland, they often gave the impression that they only wanted to get out of the war and go home to reunite. In a winter of idleness, the strong anti-communist, pro-fascist sentiments of many in the officer corps played a role in the collapse of France. It was also this winter that I first heard the words: 'I'd rather have Hitler than Brumme (note: the presidential candidate for the left-wing political forces in France at the time)'. ”

Remnants of war

Monument to the Great Evacuation of Dunkirk

Dunkirk is a port city in northeastern France near the Belgian border with a population of 7,1000 (1990). Dunkirk is the third largest port in France after Le Havre and Marseille. It is also an industrial city, with major industries including steel, food processing, oil refining, shipbuilding and chemicals.

Dunkirk is famous for the Battle of Dunkirk, which took place here in 1940 during World War II, and for the Evacuation of British and French troops at Dunkirk.

In 1662, King Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France for 400,000 pounds.

The Dunkirk evacuation took place in May 1940, at the beginning of World War II, after the Collapse of the Anglo-French Line under the rapid offensive of German mechanized forces, the Largest military evacuation in Dunkirk, a port city in northeastern France near the Belgian border, was the largest in history. The operation, code-named "Project Generator", allowed the British to eventually withdraw large numbers of troops using various ships. Although this massive retreat succeeded in saving a large number of manpower, all the heavy equipment of the British Expeditionary Force in France was discarded on the European continent, causing serious problems in the ground defense of the British mainland.

The famous British military historian Henry More pointed out that the recovery of Europe and the defeat of Germany began at Dunkirk! This is by no means a disgraceful defeat. American military historians have listed the Dunkirk evacuation as the most famous battle of World War II. In his post-war History of the Second World War, Nazi German Army General Tippersky wrote: "The British have every reason to be proud of what they have accomplished!" ”

After world war II, a monument was erected on the beaches of Dunkirk to commemorate the british and French fallen soldiers who died heroically in this epic evacuation. This is the respect of future generations for those soldiers who gave their precious lives.