Chapter 405: The Infantry Division That Can Defeat the Panzer Division
Wei Gang may be disappointed.
It is true that Reinhard is not God. But in this time and space, he is theoretically omniscient and omnipotent.
On the north bank of the Somme, the German attack position, there is a gradually gentle highland extending towards the Somme. On this section, there is basically no forest cover, making it difficult for the attacking German army to attack in concealment.
But it was the Somme Valley, which was only a few hundred meters away, that was covered by countless trees, blocking the sight of the French defenders.
On the south bank of the Somme, Reinhard clearly revealed to the German generals the information about Weygand's heavy deployment of troops in several small villages such as Brelly, Elie, Pilick and Dreux.
Like most villages in France, the above villages are covered with houses and peripheral walls, allowing the garrison to establish good fire support points.
Even the specific forces deployed by Weygand in this area were revealed by Reinhard one by one: two third-rate French divisions, one black colonial division and the 13th (Alsace) Infantry Division.
On the one hand, because the 38th Army commanded by Manstein had historically achieved a decisive victory here, and Reinhardt, who had carefully studied Manstein's war memoirs, naturally knew very well about this river-crossing battle.
On the other hand, as early as when Reinhard was sketching the schematic diagram of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, he discovered that he seemed to have an extremely clear impression of the memories of his previous life. Those contents that he had only briefly glanced at in his previous life were now very clearly reflected in his mind.
inside.
Perhaps, this is the sequelae of time travel.
Fortunately, this sequelae was quite useful and beneficial, allowing him to satisfy his addiction to omniscience and omnipotence.
So, at dawn on June 3, two German divisions took advantage of the last darkness before dawn, carrying rubber boats, motorboats and hiking bridges, and quietly sneaked into the small patch of jungle on the bank of the Somme River.
When the sky was just getting brighter, the two German divisions quickly deployed across the river to cross the river, and immediately seized the coastal positions from those third-rate French divisions. Immediately, the German troops immediately deployed their formations and began to advance.
Most of the French army is still stuck in the experience of positional warfare, not to mention that these French infantry divisions are still third-rate.
Their small artillery force was unable to adapt to the mobile combat mode introduced by the German army, and was unable to meet the requirements of rapidly concentrating powerful firepower like the specially trained German artillery force.
As a result, the "Weigang Defense Line", which Weigang had high hopes for and was named after him, was torn open with a huge hole on the first morning of the German army's official attack.
The next day, the pursuing German 30th Infantry Division actually caught up and surrounded a fleeing French armored force.
Because they had begun to flee early, the French armored force had been out of contact with their superiors and could not replenish fuel in time. After being chased by the German 30th Division, they simply chose to surrender, and the 30th Infantry Division had to fight again.
Merit, capturing one hundred French tanks without fighting.
"It seems that our division should be famous again," Commander Hans of the 30th Division smiled and said to the adjutant: "You said that this time our infantry division defeated an armored division, which is the same as when we fought a division against a group army in Poland.
Compared with merit, which one is more dazzling?"
100 B1 heavy tanks should not be able to defeat an infantry division no matter where they are placed.
Although the German 30th Infantry Division had added an assault gun battalion equipped with Stalkers before participating in the Norwegian campaign, the 27 Stalkers directly under the assault gun battalion of one division were not far behind in terms of combat power on paper.
Opponents of 100 French B1 heavy tanks.
Although the B1 tank can be said to be the lightest heavy tank in the world at this time, weighing only 31 tons, even the German medium tanks are heavier than it.
The B1 tank only has 350 horsepower, which makes the B1 slow to a crawl, with a top speed of only 28 kilometers.
However, this tank is designed to accompany infantry assaults, and running slowly can prevent the infantry from being left behind later.
You know, in order to achieve the goal of "multi-purpose use", the B1 tank is equipped with a turret and a 17-caliber 75mm howitzer in front of the vehicle body to assist the infantry in bombarding enemy positions.
Its single-man turret is equipped with a 45mm anti-tank gun for attacking enemy tanks.
In addition, the B1 tank uses a hydraulic steering system, which allows the artillery on its body to quickly turn in place to target the enemy, making this tank look really tall.
"The tanks captured this time seem to be almost as big as the T3 tanks we use. Even our Panther tanks are not much heavier than this type of tank. We can defeat the troops equipped with this type of tank.
It’s really not easy.” Major General Hans’ adjutant also said cheerfully.
Apart from anything else, with this achievement, the 30th Infantry Division has firmly become a legend in the German infantry world. An infantry division that can single-handedly challenge a group army, an infantry division that can defeat an armored division, how else in the world can it be?
The performance of an infantry division can reach the level of the 30th Infantry Division!
"Report the results truthfully," Major General Hans patted the adjutant on the shoulder and said with a smile: "A few days ago, the head of state replenished us with a batch of fuel and also sent a group of armored cadets from Romania. I was still surprised at the time.
Why did the head of state send me such a group of people?"
The adjutant's eyes widened and he asked in disbelief: "Master, is this what you mean?"
"Do you still remember the batch of bayonets that the Führer gave to our division before the Battle of Poland?" Hans did not explain the reason, but asked a question to his adjutant.
"Remember." The adjutant nodded and said seriously: "Soon after that, we used these bayonets in the battle with the Polish counterattack group army and fought a beautiful defensive battle."
When the adjutant said this, his face was full of pride.
In that battle, the 30th Infantry Division, with one division, blocked the crazy attack of a Polish army group, buying enough time for Manstein and Rundstedt to deploy an outer circle of encirclement, thus defeating Poland.
It was the largest and most successful encirclement and annihilation battle in the campaign.
And that was also the first battle in which the 30th Infantry Division became famous.
Then, their division moved to Norway. As the only force sent by Germany, they led the Norwegian Defense Forces to completely defeat the entire army of the British and French Expeditionary Forces. They unexpectedly fought a battle that even Reinhard only asked for defense.
Great victory outside.
Now, the 30th Division defeated the French army, which was about one short armored division, and captured one hundred French heavy tanks.
In his pride, the excited adjutant accidentally ignored one fact.
Now, being mentioned by Major General Hans, the adjutant suddenly realized that it seemed that every time his division won a glorious war, the shadow of the Führer was inevitable behind it.
"Yes, you should have guessed it." Hans withdrew his hand from the adjutant's shoulder and said calmly: "The head of state wants to let the Romanian armored troops take over the tanks we captured."
"The head of state once again predicted in advance what will happen in the future."
