Chapter 206: Been Played

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“Shell loaded! Firing parameters confirmed! Ready to fire at any time!” a French artillery officer reported loudly to his superior. “Two guns are aimed at the large bunker on the main peak of the German position opposite. The other three have each selected their own targets.”

“How are the field artillery groups preparing?” the commander of the French railway gun unit asked, looking into the distance.

The officer immediately handed him a document. “A few minutes ago, they had already reached their designated positions. Sixty cannons will open fire along with our big guns. They can definitely destroy the Germans’ bullshit Siegfried Line.”

Nodding, the railway gun commander ordered, “Start the countdown. According to the mission instructions, the action time is in seven minutes. Fire on time to coordinate with our army’s breakthrough of the Siegfried Line.”

“Yes, sir!” the junior officer said, standing at attention.

And at this very moment, on a hilltop closest to the German border, in a hastily dug field command post, de Gaulle was looking at the Siegfried Line in German territory through a pair of binoculars.

Faintly, in the bushes, the concrete walls of the German bunkers could be seen. In some key positions, there were machine gun ports everywhere. Although these firing slits were overgrown with weeds, the dark barrels of the machine guns could still be seen inside.

However, for some reason, he always had a bad feeling in his heart. This premonition of being deceived was like a shadow that he could not shake off, lingering in his mind. He lowered his binoculars and looked at his adjutant and staff officer. “Although the Germans’ defensive line is cleverly constructed, it has many flaws.”

He pointed to the hill opposite. “They are more willing to deploy machine gun bunkers and artillery casemates but are unwilling to lay anti-tank obstacles or barbed wire in front. This in itself is a very strange thing.”

“General de Gaulle, the Germans have always been short of resources like steel, so they are unwilling to waste precious steel on building barbed wire and tank obstacles. This is the analysis from the intelligence department, and it is very convincing,” the staff officer replied with a smile.

“We also lack steel,” de Gaulle said, glancing at his staff officer, clearly disdainful of this explanation. “In the non-critical sectors of the Maginot Line, the anti-tank obstacles were made of wood and were also very effective. Why haven’t the Germans laid simple anti-tank obstacles in an area so suitable for a tank attack?”

“General! It’s possible they are leaving attack positions for their own tanks,” de Gaulle’s adjutant said after a moment’s thought. “There is intelligence that the German army has laid a large number of landmines in other sectors. Perhaps the Germans prefer to use landmines to defend against tanks?”

“Has anyone seen the German army laying a large number of landmines?” de Gaulle asked, raising an eyebrow. He seemed to have guessed something, but after careful thought, he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“No… but the scouts have seen many minefield warning signs,” the adjutant replied with a frown. “Perhaps the German army laid them at night…”

“It’s too late to say anything now. We can only change the operational plan as we go after the battle starts,” de Gaulle said with a sigh. “Victory has made us forget the scars of war. The Germans opposite us have been preparing for war, while our officers are thinking about their vacations. I’ve been forming armored units on the second line for half a year without coming to the front, and you all haven’t even properly reconnoitered the enemy’s defensive line.”

On the German positions opposite, two fat wild rats were mating under a German cannon. A few telephone poles, painted black, were buried in the ground, their round tops serving as a gun emplacement on an important German defensive line.

Not far away, the exposed reinforced concrete fortification was in fact just a small lump of cement on the surface. The machine gun ports were just simple holes dug out—most of which were inhabited by rats.

And the so-called gun barrels were actually broken mop handles, the frames of scrapped bicycles, or just a broken flute. The so-called minefields were also just signs stuck in the ground—with only a few landmines buried inside.

The entire Siegfried Line was a heaven-shattering hoax. After this hoax was meticulously set up, all the voices that had questioned this deception lost their effectiveness. If the power of a nation is mobilized to carry out a hoax, then no matter how false it is, it will have a certain real effect.

The French had once received a warning from the Comintern, which stated that the Siegfried Line had not employed a large number of civilians in its construction. This huge loophole was actually explained away by the French themselves. They believed that the Germans had secretly conscripted prisoners from concentration camps and had persecuted political opponents to participate in the labor.

A French merchant had once seen the Germans setting up the fake positions and had reported everything he saw to his home country, but he was arrested by the French as a spy, on the grounds that he was trying to help the Germans spread false information.

Even the Führer’s own adjective “vulnerable,” used when discussing the Siegfried Line in public, was taken as a genuine expression of modesty. The French government, after evaluating its own Maginot Line, interpreted the Führer’s description of the Siegfried Line as “vulnerable” to mean: “able to stop a French attack for at least half a year.”

However, if anyone thought the German army was unprepared for war on the Western Front, they would be greatly mistaken. After the end of the Polish campaign, about half of the Eastern Front’s air force units had already been transferred to western airfields. Therefore, the German Air Force had an absolute advantage in both quantity and quality.

At dawn on September 30, the German Air Force’s western frontline airfields had a total of 1,970 fighter planes, more than three times the total number of fighters deployed by France for this operation. And ninety percent of these fighters were the advanced Fw-190D model, which were far more advanced than any of the fighters the French could put in the air.

Similarly, the German Air Force had also prepared a large number of bomber units. They played an important role in the top-secret western defense plan, “Contingency Plan.” These bombers were to paralyze the French ground forces, attack their supply lines and assembly areas, and buy time for the ground forces’ counter-attack.

And at the same time, the German army’s ground forces on the Western Front could also be described as having a formidable lineup. Under General von Rundstedt’s command were a total of 800,000 troops, with the 5th and 6th Panzer Corps, which were non-elite units. These units were equipped with weapons that were old but not obsolete, such as the StuG III and the Panzer II, and they had a large number of anti-tank guns and Panzerfausts. It could be said that they were fully prepared to face a French attack on their own, not to mention that a few hundred kilometers behind them, several now world-famous tank units were on their way by train as reserves.

These few units were now famous. They included Rommel’s 7th Panzer Corps and General Bauknecht’s 2nd Panzer Corps. Guderian’s 1st Panzer Corps was currently refitting in Poland and would also be assembling in the west in half a month. These units were now synonymous with victory. They had secured victory in Poland in just sixteen days.

Moreover, Germany was now mobilizing its reservists. The Führer had already ordered the civil administration and the military to complete the expansion of the army to 3 million men in 1938, and to expand the total number of troops to 4.5 million by 1939.

“Fire!” On the morning of September 30, with a single command, the French big guns let out a deafening roar. The shells flew toward their pre-selected targets, riddling the so-called defensive lines on the German border.

The heavy railway guns fired their deadly shells and then began the long process of cleaning their barrels. But the various calibers of field guns could roar without rest. Shells, as if they were free, exploded on the German Siegfried Line, throwing up dirt and sending debris flying. The very earth trembled.

“This is Observation Post Two! The Krauts are not returning fire!” a French artillery observer reported loudly into his walkie-talkie.

At the other end, a soldier in another observation post was saying the same thing. “Report. The Germans are not returning fire.”

A hundred or so French fighter planes appeared below the clouds. They were there to control the airspace over the battlefield. And below them were dozens of French bombers with bombs. They were to drop these bombs on the German positions to help the French artillery completely destroy the Siegfried Line.

The artillery fire had not yet ended when the French infantry began their charge with their rifles. They cautiously felt their way forward in the areas with minefield warning signs. From time to time, someone was killed by a landmine, but most of the soldiers reached the front of the German positions unscathed. They shouted their slogans and waited for the German troops to fire at them, only to find that the entire position, apart from the constantly exploding shells of their own side, had no German return fire at all.

“Cease fire! Our soldiers are on the attack! Cease fire!” an officer in an observation post shouted into his walkie-talkie. A dozen or so minutes later, the French artillery finally fell silent. The entire German Siegfried Line returned to its pre-battle tranquility. Apart from the smoking craters, there was almost no change here.

“This… this isn’t… an exercise, is it?” a French battalion commander asked, adjusting the steel helmet on his head and studying the enemy machine gun ports not far away. He pointed to the bunkers that should have been spitting fire and reaping their lives. “Go up and see! Were the Germans all scared to death?”

The German army, of course, would not be scared to death in their positions. A group of infantry climbed behind the bunkers only to discover that these bunkers and gun emplacements had not been designed with a most important feature: a door. When these soldiers brought back a few mop handles and rusty iron pipes, the attacking French infantry finally knew that they had been fooled.

“Get the tanks up here immediately! We’ve been played by those damned Germans!” de Gaulle roared into the phone, gritting his teeth. “Cross the German border and conduct a reconnaissance in force for ten kilometers!”