The breakthrough of the Ardennes was a huge blow to the French.
This not only means that the Maginot Line, which the French spent a huge amount of money to build, has not played its due role and has become a display, but also means that there is no danger to defend between the Germans and Paris.
During World War I, the French did not have the Maginot Line, and the Germans did not take the Ardennes. After breaking through Verdun, they went straight to Paris.
The French had no danger to defend and could only rely on the Marne River to fight the Germans in a bloody battle of the Marne River.
But now, the Germans chose to take the Ardennes, and after breaking through the Maginot Line, they did not advance toward Paris. Instead, they turned a corner and advanced rapidly toward the English Channel.
This was not because the Germans were crazy and gave up attacking Paris, but because they wanted to surround the main force of the British and French forces in Belgium.
The person responsible for completing the task of encircling the main force of the British and French coalition forces was the later famous Rommel. As for Guderian, he led his troops southward, preparing to cut off the French army's retreat within the Maginot Line.
This is slightly different from the original movements of the German army in history.
In the original history, after conquering the Ardennes, Guderian rushed directly towards the English Channel, and once reached a place only ten kilometers away from Dunkirk. Finally, he was stopped by the military order of the Führer, and then he turned around and moved south.
Hundreds of thousands of British and French troops fled.
In fact, the Germans themselves at that time did not expect that Guderian would break through so quickly that he even reached the English Channel. The German high command did not even think about how to deploy its troops. This is the history of human war.
The largest evacuation, the Dunkirk evacuation.
But in this timeline influenced by Chen Mo, because the French had completed the construction of the Maginot Line, the German military was worried that Guderian's troops alone would not be enough to quickly break through the French defense line.
Therefore, Rommel's troops originally used to attack Belgium were also assigned, and their two troops jointly took on the task of passing through the Ardennes and breaking through the French defense line.
This time Guderian's armored surge still caught the German high command by surprise, but it was slightly better than in the original history because there was Rommel behind Guderian.
Moreover, because the German high command had an extra year to prepare, it made more preparations for the rehearsal of the offensive plan.
They did not stop Guderian this time, but just asked him to turn around and go south to implement his work in the red plan originally launched by the German army in the second phase of the French campaign, attack in the direction of Switzerland, and completely cut off the French army on the Maginot Line of Defense.
retreat.
The attack continued northward, and the task of encircling the British and French forces in Belgium was given to Rommel.
The German stretched out his two clenched fists, trying to hit the French's two vital points at the same time.
However, the French have no hands to deal with the two fists of the Germans at this moment. One of the French hands is in Belgium and the other is in the Dunkirk defense line. At this time, neither of them can spare their hands to resist the German attack.
However, compared to the French's pull in the original history, the French in this timeline reacted a little faster.
They appointed the famous French general Wei Gang during World War I as commander-in-chief of the French army about two weeks earlier than originally planned and ordered him to organize defense.
Valley ridicule
Perhaps due to the delay of the Maginot Line, which was different from the historical one, or because Weygand had more than ten days more time than in history, the French finally built a line between the Somme and Aisne rivers. The Weygand defense line, which was much stronger than the original one historically, could barely block the German attack.
And because of the establishment of this line of defense, the retreat route of the defenders on the Maginot Line was ensured, and the French troops originally piled on the Maginot Line were able to retreat to the Weygand Line.
The elite British and French forces in northern Belgium also moved south and retreated into France through the southern section of the Maginot Line, which had not been breached by the Germans, without being dumped by the Germans.
But this was only to the extent of stuffing corpses under the tracks of Guderian's tanks. Although it slowed down the German attack speed, it did achieve the strategic purpose of holding the elite British and French coalition forces in northern France and the Maginot Line in central France. The armies are connected to form a defensive whole.
However, the French army, relying on its outdated tactical thinking, was still unable to withstand the elite German attack at this time.
The French army's combat method of assigning tanks to infantry caused their armored forces to suffer a lot in front of the German army. Moreover, the German troops who concentrated the use of tanks used the tank troops as the spearhead to continuously penetrate the French defense lines.
It has to be said that although the historical Dunkirk evacuation was a tragedy in the history of war and a shame for the French, it still preserved hundreds of thousands of elite troops from the British and French coalition forces and accumulated strength for the subsequent counterattack.
But now Weygand blocked the German attack with a line of defense, and the elite British and French forces were withdrawn to France instead of the historical Britain. Instead, they lost the possibility of survival and were quickly filled into the battlefield.
A bloody battle unprecedented in history broke out.
Although the Germans have been attacking and winning, their offensive has indeed been blocked.
The rhythm of the war finally returned to the rhythm of World War I that both sides were familiar with. Although everyone no longer fought trench warfare, but relied on aircraft that had been used on a large scale. Tanks were used in the battlefield of World War I in a more tragic way. They were fighting again.
But it is obvious that the British do not want to bleed for France, and the French themselves do not want to bleed French blood like they did during World War I, and the benefits will go to the British.
Moreover, the French army, whose tactical thinking was old and whose combat methods were still stuck in the First World War, was unable to withstand the attack of the German army, whose tactical thinking was more advanced.
Therefore, although the Weygand defense line delayed the German attack, it was still penetrated by the Germans after resisting for two weeks.
The German vanguard had already reached the walls of Paris, and the French government fled Paris before the Germans arrived.
There are indeed some Paris citizens who want to stand up and defend Paris as they did in the past, but they lack organization and weapons. Even if the Paris citizens have a spirit of resistance, they cannot resist the iron hoof of the Germans under such circumstances.
Paris has fallen.
Twenty-eight days after Germany declared war on France, the French capital fell.
Although it was different from the original history, the south of France was still fighting, and the British Expeditionary Force and the French army were still fighting in the north. The French did not declare surrender, but the German iron boots still entered the city of Paris.
At this time, Italy, which had just declared war on France and wanted to take advantage of the situation, ushered in the Egyptian landing force.
