Chapter 253: The End of France (23)

Prime Minister Renault called the British Prime Minister's Office again. "Mr. Prime Minister..." As soon as he opened his mouth, a feeling of sadness surged in his heart, and he almost cried out loud.

Who would have thought that France, the first land power in Europe, would fall into defeat in just a few days?

In fact, various data show that France's reputation as "the first land power in Europe" is not a false name.

In terms of the number of troops, the size of France's conventional troops has been maintained at around 3 million, surpassing Britain, Germany, the United States, and the United States, ranking first in the world. After the war broke out, France urgently summoned citizens to join the army and quickly expanded the total number of troops to 6.99 million in a very short time. This is an astonishing number. After all, the total population of France is only 41 million. This means that almost one in six French people enlisted in the army.

In terms of weapons and equipment, France is no less than any world military power. Take the army as an example. The French army is well-equipped, has a high level of mechanization, strong mobility, and has a large number of motorized units. On the eve of World War II, the French army had about 5,800 tanks, 14,000 artillery pieces, and 1,562 aircraft on the front line.

Taking the navy as an example, the French Navy was one of the most modern navies in the world at that time, second only to Britain in Europe and stronger than Germany, and ranked fourth in the world in comprehensive strength. The French Navy has 1 aircraft carrier, 3 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers, more than 50 destroyers of various types, and 101 submarines.

Not only that, France also spent 11 years to build an impregnable Maginot Line. This line of defense is located in the northeastern border area of ​​France. It is built of reinforced concrete and has various cannons, trenches, fortresses, kitchens, power stations, hospitals, factories, etc. If the German army chooses to use this to break through head-on, it will pay a terrible price.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Reynaud still couldn't believe that they were about to face the reality of defeat.

This sounds too absurd!

"What happened, Prime Minister?" Churchill asked, seeming to notice something strange about Prime Minister Reno.

"Mr. Prime Minister." Reno took a deep breath and didn't intend to hide it. He said with a broken jar. "I'm afraid we will lose this battle!"

"What?!" Churchill was shocked and asked subconsciously. "Are you drunk?" It's only been a few days since the war started. What do you mean by losing?

"..." Reno sighed deeply. He wanted to drink to relieve his sorrow, but he was worried that the first news after waking up from drunkenness would be that France was completely defeated. He was horrified to think about it. How could he dare to get drunk? "Mr. Prime Minister, I am very sober now, and I am not talking nonsense."

Very sober? Churchill had an ominous premonition in his heart. "Has the counterattack in the Meuse River area already?..."

"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister. It failed. The counterattack failed. The German armored forces are crossing the river continuously."

"Oh my God!" Churchill couldn't sit still anymore. "I'll go now! Mr. Prime Minister, let's talk in detail when we meet." After hanging up the phone, Churchill couldn't wait to order his men to prepare the plane and immediately set off for the airport.

Just as Churchill's special plane took off, in the town of Montcornet, France, the pioneers of the great blitzkrieg theory in modern history; the vanguard troops of France's Charles de Gaulle and Germany's Guderian collided with each other.

The German side was a tank reinforcement company, 25 all-Jackal tanks (in addition to the accompanying armored grenadiers and several cheetah anti-aircraft vehicles); the French army was a battalion of armored forces, more than 100 tanks, all kinds of models are available.

This encounter could have been avoided, but the radio of the German reconnaissance vehicle that discovered the French armored forces had a malfunction. When they hurried back to report, the French armored forces were not far away from them.

The morale of the German tank soldiers was high, of course, they would not retreat, and they went forward without hesitation.

Judging from the number of tanks on both sides, the German side is definitely at a disadvantage, but in terms of tank performance and personnel combat quality, the German side is much better. This is also the reason why the German tank soldiers dared to fight.

Seeing the French tank troops coming from a distance, the company commander Hans retreated into the car and shouted orders to the radio. "Prepare for battle! The leader is the B1 heavy tank, which is 30m long and 48m wide. Fire at 500 meters!"

Anyone who has played some tank games knows that in the game, as long as you aim the crosshairs at the enemy tank, the system will automatically calculate the distance and adjust the elevation angle of the gun barrel, whether it is a modern tank or an old tank; this simplified design is equivalent to all tanks equipped with laser rangefinders and ballistic computers, and they are modern tanks in their bones!

Of course, there are also some more hardcore games, where players need to do everything by themselves, such as measuring distance, adjusting elevation angles, and adjusting various parameters, and the threshold for getting started is very high.

People who have played such hardcore games should have some experience of the difficulty of operating tanks without modern technology, especially aiming and judging distance.

Tank sights during World War II were divided into non-linked and linked types. The former was relatively outdated, with an extra step in the aiming process and taking longer to fire. This type of sight was used by the early Soviet army; the German army began using the more advanced linked sights as early as No. 3 and No. 4, while the Soviet army only began using them later.

This optical sight gives German tank gunners a biggest advantage: they can calculate the target distance without firing range-finding shells in advance. The only homework German gunners need to do in advance is to remember the length and width of the enemy tank, so that they can calculate the distance of the target according to the magnification, the length and width of the target in wartime; the first shot can reliably hit the target.

Although it is a head-on battle now, there is no need to know the side width of the enemy tank, but Hans still habitually reported it. In fact, even if he doesn't say it, other tankers have already known it by heart; this is also his habit, as if he has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Boom! Boom!" Not sure if it was due to nervousness or fear, the French tanks more than a thousand meters away began to pause and shoot.

"These idiots." Seeing this, Hans curled his lips in disdain. According to his understanding, let alone the Soma 35 medium tank and the Renault 35 light tank; even the B1 heavy tank has to get close to about 400 meters to have a chance to penetrate its frontal armor. Now firing from such a distance, is it showing off how many shells you have?

As expected, the enemy fired two rounds but failed to hit them. The most exaggerated shell landed hundreds of meters away from them! ?

The French seemed to realize that their actions were useless; they moved forward for several hundred meters and stopped to fire another round of shells.

"These people who don't remember..." Before he finished speaking, Hans, who was sticking to the periscope to observe the enemy, suddenly felt like he was hit by a speeding train. He crashed into the steel wall of the tank in the huge shock.

He shook his head, which was a little dazed, and felt a little sober. ?A stream of heat slowly flowed down his cheeks, and a familiar salty feeling appeared at the corners of his mouth. When he touched his hand, his palm was full of blood.

"Damn it!" Hans cursed fiercely and called other crew members. "Is everyone okay?!"

"Ouch, it's okay."

"Hiss, it hurts!"

"It's okay!"

"Damn it!"

Hearing the responses from the others, Hans breathed a sigh of relief. Although everyone was in a mess, it was not a big deal. He estimated that the last hit was from the 75mm howitzer of the B1 heavy tank on the opposite side.

At this time, the sound of artillery fire rang out one after another around him. Hans hurriedly leaned close to the periscope and looked at the opposite side. He saw that more than a dozen tanks in the tank group on the opposite side caught fire and exploded! And they were all B1 heavy tanks that posed the greatest threat to them!

"Beautiful!" Hans cheered and ordered. "Everyone reverse!"

Following his order, the entire tank company began to shift into reverse gear and slowly backed up, pulling away from the French army.