Not only Guderian's 19th Armored Corps, in order to achieve the ideal suddenness and rapidity, Manstein also added the 14th Motorized Corps as the second rapid corps to the breakthrough mission into the Ardennes Forest.
In Guderian's frontline headquarters, the staff officer of the 14th Motorized Corps had already made a phone call to communicate with the 19th Armored Corps about the preparation process.
In the south, the six divisions behind Army Group C that are performing deception missions will also follow the Karlsruhe-Offenburg-Freiburg-Constance line after Army Group A achieves a breakthrough.
Transport 3 divisions north to follow up.
All preparations are in full swing. For this war, the Third Reich has mobilized all the mobile forces it can mobilize.
"General, I heard that your nephew Licht has become an iconic figure for low-level officers to tell their stories. Tell me, will this guy leak any information?" said the staff officer who has been working with Guderian for 2 years.
joked.
"Is the news leaked?" Guderian was stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly: "This kid only wants to eat and drink every time he sees me. His biggest gain from the last time we met was that he took away a
A box of compressed biscuits and two boxes of Fanta soda. As for information about combat strategies, he didn’t ask at all.”
Naturally, things that have not been asked cannot be leaked. After hearing what Guderian said, the staff in the headquarters were relieved. To be honest, they were really worried about what information Guderian's nephew would get out of him.
Come and let it out.
Pass it on to ten, and pass it on to hundreds. Once an opening is opened and the information is spread, the British and French forces may also get the information, and this well-planned surprise attack will fall short due to the leak of the secret.
"Instead of worrying about whether my nephew has leaked some information that he himself doesn't know, it would be better to perfect the final preparations as much as possible and launch the attack as soon as possible." Guderian concluded with a smile: "After the attack starts, it will be
There is no longer any worry about leaks.”
As the spearhead of Army Group A, which has been strengthened into three armored corps and seven armored divisions, Guderian's 19th Armored Corps headquarters has been increasingly stressed by increasingly heavy responsibilities.
The armored corps headed by General Rundstedt included Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps, Hermann Hoth's 15th Panzer Corps and Joerg-Hans Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Corps.
Armored Corps. Among them, Guderian's 19th Armored Corps has the strongest combat effectiveness. As the main force and vanguard force of the Armored Corps, it has three armored divisions (including one elite armored division provided by the SS). But there is no
The 15th and 41st Panzer Corps, which received armored divisions from the SS, only had two armored divisions each.
"Report!" An excited mid-level staff officer suddenly rushed into the gate of the headquarters with a telegram: "The headquarters sent the operation code name - Scythe Harvest."
Sickle Harvest! This is the name of the command for the French campaign. When the high command sends this code name, it means that the "Sickle Harvest Plan" is officially confirmed to be implemented.
"...To sum up, the operation will be carried out according to the scheduled time period D." The staff officer put away the telegram, raised his head and looked at Guderian.
The start of the operation in time period D refers to the launch of the attack in the early morning of May 10th. This time period is less than 10 days away from today.
"Distribute combat materials to the frontline troops as soon as possible. We don't have much time left." Guderian waved his hand and said: "The fake war for more than half a year will soon become real."
"Yes!" Everyone in the military headquarters immediately responded loudly.
In the six months since the British and French allied forces declared war on Germany, the two sides have always exercised restraint, intentionally or unintentionally, and there has been no real battle.
Germany exercised restraint on the Western Front because it wanted to free up its hands to finish off Poland in the east, and then secretly transferred its troops back to the Western Front, going back and forth, which required a lot of time to prepare.
The British and French forces also exercised restraint because they had to wait... to complete their strategic goal of the expedition to Norway.
But now, the British and French expeditionary forces that were finally put together have been completely wiped out in Norway and surrendered collectively. The Norwegian strategy first proposed by Churchill has now completely failed.
If the British strategy failed, it would just be the French strategy.
Contrary to Churchill's proactive approach, Gamelin's Plan D happened to be a passive counterattack plan. Therefore, he would wait no matter how long it took because he was preparing for a passive counterattack from the beginning, rather than an active attack.
After Churchill's proactive strategy failed, Gamelin's plan of passive counterattack seemed more correct.
"The French must still simply think that their waiting will be rewarded." Guderian said with a playful smile while flipping through the attack instructions in his hand.
Sit back and wait for the enemy. This has been regarded as a military maxim by the French army since the Napoleonic era. In a sense, this preemptive policy is indeed very effective.
Based on the enemy's actions, by taking one step slower to launch targeted operations, theoretically speaking, it is absolutely possible to achieve one's expected results in front of the first wave of enemy forces.
After all, all plans are made in a targeted manner. Although it is a little late, it gives you the opportunity to see what you can do.
However, at the moment when the German army is setting up a serial plan, this kind of preemptive strategy seems useless.
When the British and French allied forces were complacent about sending troops thinking that the German army had entered their pocket, little did they know that the main force of the German army they thought was just a decoy. The real killer move of the German army was yet to come.
...........
France, Paris.
"Plan D must be implemented thoroughly!" The tough Gamelin repeatedly emphasized to the coalition generals: "As soon as we discover that the German army has entered Belgium, we will invest all our mobile force and work with the Belgian army to defeat the German army."
In order to get more response to his plan, Gamelin held a combat meeting that included not only British generals, but also many Belgian generals.
Hearing that Gamelin wanted all the main forces of the coalition forces to enter his own territory to help his country resist the German army, the Belgian generals naturally responded: "The commander-in-chief is right! We are already attacking from behind. If we don't seize the opportunity to counterattack in time, then
You will lose more and more opportunities."
"Okay," Lord Gert, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, who originally wanted to dissuade Gamelin from leaving a reserve team waiting in the rear, finally compromised at the constant request of the French-Belgian generals: "Okay,
I retract my previous opinion. We will comply with General Gamelin’s request, and the entire British Expeditionary Force will enter the Belgian theater during the war.”
"The half-year wait has paid off! In this battle, we will completely defeat the Germans!" Gamelin encouraged loudly: "We have coalition forces from three countries fighting together, but the Germans can only mobilize their own troops.
In terms of military strength, the German army will never surpass us. Everyone, please take courage and go all out!"