Chapter 314: New Weapon Report

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“Yes, that monster appeared here, west of Laon. We were preparing to attack at the time, and it just kept firing from a distance, destroying our tanks… I’ve never seen such a terrible thing. It could blow the turret off a B1 tank from 1,000 meters away with a single shot,” a French tanker stated.

“My God, we were preparing to attack in the village at the time. I was sitting behind an FT-17 tank, counting my ammunition. I don’t know what happened, but an FT-17 in the distance suddenly exploded. Then a rumbling sound came, and later I heard people shouting to retreat, so I retreated with them,” another French infantryman said, still looking flustered.

“No tanks got close to us. It was a plain. You know, after the Battle of the Pass, we haven’t chosen to attack in narrow terrain again. This time we were on a plain, so the field of view was very good. The German tanks were at least 500 meters away from us. The shells flew over and directly hit our tanks,” a third interrogated soldier said.

“I had binoculars at the time. When the German army launched its attack, I saw the tanks in the distance. There were a dozen or so tanks, and many of them were very different from the usual Panther… definitely not a Panzer III. I think it was a new type of weapon, a new weapon of great power. That thing could penetrate any model of our tanks at a distance of 800 meters,” a French officer said dejectedly.

This was a large-scale investigation, with internal personnel clarifying the reasons for the failure. Originally, they had wanted to find some tactical problems, but unexpectedly, they had received a piece of stunning news—the German army had not only changed its tactics but had also changed its weapons and equipment.

“Rustle,” an officer in charge of investigating this rout spread a thick stack of documents on General de Gaulle’s desk and then said with a sigh, “I have to admit that the German army has deployed a new type of tank in the Laon area. This tank may be equipped with a more powerful tank gun. The German army has also changed its previous tank assault tactics and has used long-range attacks to defeat our vanguard.”

“I have always believed that it is impossible for the German army to deploy any new tanks. Their Panther already has an absolute advantage over our B1. Can you imagine they have become so powerful?” De Gaulle, compared to a few days ago, had clearly aged a great deal. The sharpness and inner strength in his speech were also much diminished.

Sometimes, a person’s physical collapse is due to the destruction of their beliefs. The current de Gaulle was undoubtedly weakening so quickly because his long-held beliefs had been crushed by the performance of the German army.

The armored force theory he advocated had not brought him victory. On the contrary, it had borne fruit for his opponents. And only now did he know that the armored force construction and development that he had always insisted on was so superficial and weak. Every time he thought he had grasped the key to Germany’s strength, the German army would use a contrary example to teach him a thorough lesson.

While he was indulging in heavy tank units composed of thick armor and large-caliber artillery, the German tanks were already developing in the direction of a main battle tank with faster speed, smoother communication, better ballistic shape, and more powerful artillery.

This kind of tank was no longer a single weapon, but a platform, an offensive whole composed of dive bombers, lightweight artillery, and mechanized infantry. In front of this offensive whole, the French army’s advantage in a single superior item was completely unable to change its overall disadvantage. This was a backwardness in thinking, a despair of being completely surpassed.

The German army’s advanced fighters had defeated the French and British air forces in the sky, firmly controlling the air superiority over the entire war zone. Then the Do-217 bombers had begun to destroy airfields, threaten cities, and spread fear to every corner. Following that were the Stuka dive bombers, which had whistled down and destroyed the assembling French troops on the highways, leaving the French army, with its numerical advantage, to struggle and passively defend. Following that, the German tanks had rampaged, shattering the French fantasy of dragging the war into a protracted one, and had inserted and outflanked at a speed never before seen in human history, completely disrupting the operational deployment of the entire Allied forces. And behind the tanks, the German grenadiers had followed up quickly in their trucks and armored cars, filling the empty areas left by the tanks and covering the flanks of the armored forces.

This set of tactics, although it seemed immature, was incomparably efficient and powerful. It had given Akado the halo of a tactical master, had given the German Führer the nickname of a god of war, and had also brought the German army the honor of being invincible. Of course, it had also plunged de Gaulle into a nightmare from which he could not awaken, had put the shackles of a defeated general on General Gamelin, and had also caused tens of thousands of losses to the Anglo-French coalition forces.

“But General, it’s impossible for so many soldiers to be lying,” the officer said with some difficulty. “If it were the officers trying to shirk responsibility, that would be understandable. But for so many soldiers to also say the same thing, this matter clearly deserves our attention.”

“Look at this,” de Gaulle said, handing a piece of intelligence to the officer. He himself casually picked up a soldier’s testimony and began to read it.

The officer took the document that de Gaulle had handed him, glanced at it, and his face turned pale. Because on it was written the recent movements of the German army, and it just so happened that these movements were the ones the Anglo-French coalition least wanted to see.

In Belgium, due to Major General Grewdo’s betrayal and the defection of the Belgian army, the Anglo-French coalition forces had once again fallen into a bitter struggle, like a giant stuck in a mire, struggling from side to side but unable to escape. They had been routed all the way to the southwest but had still been unable to shake off the German army’s entanglement and encirclement.

The invisible wall that had constrained the German army’s advance had disappeared. The German armored forces, after a brief rest and reorganization, had begun an all-out offensive. De Gaulle’s French 10th Armoured Corps had been easily defeated and had retreated another 10 miles to the south. This had also caused the plan to launch a pincer attack on the German Army Group A to be thwarted once again.

In northern France, the German armored cluster, after a night’s rest, had its engines roaring once again. Guderian’s troops had fiercely attacked Ham, routing the French infantry that was blocking his path there. The failure in the area west of Laon was no longer enough to surprise de Gaulle, because his neighbor, the French 9th Army, was on the verge of losing the important town of Ham.

Of course, this was just the German army’s flank covering force. On the main offensive front was Rommel’s 7th Panzer Corps. This unit had already captured all the bridges along the way and was charging toward Albert with great momentum. If they could successfully occupy Albert, then the entire Allied transport and supply line in Belgium would be exposed to the threat of the German tanks.

Another piece of desperate news came from the direction of Stonne. There, the French army’s reconnaissance units had already discovered that German conventional infantry units had replaced the original small number of grenadiers and had strengthened the defensive line between Stonne and Laon. And German cavalry had already advanced to the vicinity of Laon. The elite mechanized grenadiers had already withdrawn their forces and had begun to attack again along with the German tanks. The situation that the French army feared most had appeared once again.

“General! What… what should we do now?” the officer asked de Gaulle in a panic after reading the intelligence analysis.

“What else can we do?” de Gaulle said with a bitter laugh and a sigh. “The German Air Force has paralyzed the main transportation lines. The troops our army has mobilized are either stuck on the road or, because of the slow mobilization, are not yet combat-effective.”

He pointed to the map and said helplessly to his subordinate, “Even if they were assembled and had a certain combat effectiveness, they would not be able to defeat the German armored forces without heavy weapons. Because even we have not been able to do that.”

“If General Gamelin could still clearly recognize the key to the problem, he would have us give up the main front and concentrate all our forces to defend Amiens to the death. That is the real key that must be held,” he said finally, tapping a point on the map.

“General! I will now take all the forces I can find and rush to Amiens,” the officer said, standing at attention. “I assure you, if I cannot hold Amiens, I will die in battle there and will not retreat a single step!”

“I don’t doubt your resolve,” de Gaulle smiled and waved his hand. “Because I am also going to Amiens. We have suffered great losses and do not have much strength to spare, so this time I have also decided to make a final gamble—30 tanks. This is all the property I can find. We’ll see if God blesses France this time…”

And at the same moment, the vanguard of the German armored forces was preparing to cross a river. They had captured the bridge over the river and had taken more than 100 prisoners that the French army had left there. These German tanks were resting by the river, a confident smile on their faces as they looked at the water. This was the upper reaches of a very famous river. Many years ago, they had fought the most tragic battle in human history here. The German army had lost more than 530,000 men here.

That’s right, this was the upper reaches of the Somme. It was only a short distance from General Guderian’s objective this time, Ham. The French army had no ability to stop the German advance. The German armored forces, having been resupplied, were heading west all the way, their speed much faster than that of the routed French army.

Many times, they had left large numbers of prisoners behind them. Some French defenders had even thought that the tanks that were driving over were their British allies. The German blitzkrieg had left Gamelin and Gort, who were struggling in Belgium, completely helpless. The German Army Groups A and B were attacking from the front and rear. It seemed that the defeat of the Anglo-French coalition was already a foregone conclusion. But the telegram sent to Gort from Britain had clearly stated that a turning point would occur in the next few days, and that if they continued to hold on, a miracle might happen.