When the 4th Company of the 39th Armored Regiment commanded by Lengelheimer arrived at the ferry, the battle here was already over.
Second Lieutenant Lengerheimer, who was the commander of this armored company and also the commander of the 1st Leopard Tank Company, rolled down from the tank and found a paratrooper squad leader on the shore of the ferry bridge. He inquired about the situation and said: "It seems that
The battle here has ended long ago. How was it, and what was the result?"
The paratrooper squad leader smiled: "We only used one paratrooper platoon at the beginning to eliminate a company of Belgians in the position behind the bridge. Now, our platoon leader is leading people to guard eighty-three people.
Belgian Prisoners of War.”
"You know, there are more than eighty people, which is more than our entire platoon put together. The platoon leader has been leading people to watch carefully." When the paratrooper squad leader said this, his face was filled with pride.
look.
Lengerheimer knew that this group of paratroopers airdropped all the way behind the Belgian garrison position so that the armored troops would not be delayed when crossing the bridge, and occupied the position behind the bridge to wait for the armored troops to arrive.
Without the hard work of the paratroopers, perhaps when Lengerheimer and the others were about to arrive, the Belgians would have blown up the bridge in advance and hindered the progress of the tanks. After all, the Panther tanks would not be able to cross the river, even if they could finally be re-opened by engineers.
Building a pontoon bridge will greatly delay the troops' offensive advance.
"Thanks to your paratroopers who attacked from behind the position and occupied this area." Lengerheimer took two steps forward, stretched out his right hand and said: "If we had attacked from the front, those Belgians would have probably chosen to blow up the bridge.
Stop us."
Lengerheimer did not comment on the performance of the paratroopers, who captured more than 80 Belgian troops with only about 20 people in order to defeat the enemy. Instead, he expressed emotion and gratitude to the paratroopers for protecting the integrity of the bridge.
Of course, this does not mean that Lengerheimer was jealous of the paratroopers' major achievements. He deliberately avoided mentioning them because of his psychological imbalance.
He noticed the pride in the paratrooper squad leader's expression when describing this achievement, and indeed he deliberately avoided commenting on this achievement.
However, his starting point was not jealousy. On the contrary, Lengelheimer deliberately did not say his evaluation of this job, just to prevent the paratroopers from being psychologically unbalanced.
If Lengerheimer was really asked to evaluate the performance of the paratroopers, he would only say: "The results are good and worthy of celebration. But the results of this level are far from impressive."
A place of immense reverence.”
You know, before the paratroopers converged, Lengerheimer's 4th Armored Company had followed the regiment of the 39th Armored Regiment, catching up with and defeating a French division in one fell swoop, along with thousands of defeated troops.
.
Let’s not talk about the difference in difficulty between defeating the French army and defeating the Belgian army. Let’s just say that Lengerheimer and his team destroyed more French troops along the way than the paratroopers.
Moreover, if their armored forces had not caught up with the two French divisions in front during the pursuit, when these two divisions rushed to the bridge position, even if the paratroopers occupied the position, they would not be able to block the French second division of the two divisions.
In every round of attack, the position must be lost.
As for capturing enemy troops several times as many as one's own...it is even less worth showing off to the armored forces.
Lengerheimer still remembers how incredible the instructions from their superiors were when their company first encountered more than 800 French soldiers who had lost their fighting spirit and were unable to advance smoothly because they were carrying too many prisoners.
It is said that because the same thing happened too many times, their army commander Lieutenant General Guderian once said to the defeated soldiers who were catching up with the French: "I don't have time to capture you! You put down your weapons quickly and get off the road so as not to block the way!"
"
What a domineering speech. Just by the courage shown in this sentence, Guderian is worthy of being a famous armored general of the generation.
When Guderian's handsome speech reached the lower-level troops, it was implemented in detail - the armored troops collected and took away the weapons of the overtaking French troops, leaving the unarmed French soldiers behind to catch up.
The infantrymen were captured.
After all, without weapons, these soldiers would not pose much of a threat. Besides, a group of people who can surrender even with weapons would feel more at ease if they surrender without weapons.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Lengerheimer would never have believed it ten years ago that French soldiers, known as the world's largest army, would willingly call out their weapons and let two German soldiers with MP40 submachine guns guard them.
Hundreds of people squatted on the spot, waiting to be captured by the German army.
You know, in the ten years before the war started, the French looked down upon the German army at all, and looked down upon the soldiers who had been defeated by them.
If anyone had told the French people what happened today ten years ago, everything would have been regarded as an out-of-reach joke and nonsense.
If someone had really predicted this story ten years ago, he would have been laughed at by the French. He would have been reminded "well-intentioned" by the French that the French army became the world's number one army due to the defeat of the German army.
The German army is just a stepping stone to support the strength of the French army. The stepping stone army captured the world's largest army. Isn't this a delusion?
Looking at the actual situation now, is this a turn of events? Faced with this dramatic role change, Lengerheimer suddenly felt very funny. I still remember that when he was a child, what he heard most was how terrible the French were and how terrible the Germans were.
The ** team lost so miserably. Looking at it now, everything seems to be contrary to the propaganda I heard when I was a child.
Lengerheimer still remembered that just this morning, when the Panther tanks of their 4th Armored Company, whose Iron Cross logo was covered with camouflage paint, passed through a small village, the French residents in this village actually thought they were
These soldiers who spoke foreign languages were from the British Army. Some people who boldly approached loudly asked in French which British Army they were from, where they wanted to go, and if they wanted directions?
These French people thought that the troops they saw belonged to their allies and that the German army was still far away from them.
When Lengerheimer, who had studied French, smiled and loudly said in French: "No, no, no, we are from Germany and we are on our way to Paris. Although we are not required, you are welcome to lead the way." The faces of the French villagers
Lengerheimer felt that he would never forget the dramatic expression of panic and panic. It was so funny!
And now, until the moment when the paratrooper squad leader took hold of Lengerheimer's outstretched right hand, Lengerheimer still did not show off his great achievements along the way like the paratrooper squad leader.
They are all colleagues. It seems that this paratrooper squad leader may be on the battlefield for the first time, so he will not disturb his enthusiasm. After a while, he will naturally know that the performance of the armored unit will not be worse than that of their paratrooper unit.
