"It is now 9:50 pm on May 9th!" Lieutenant Colonel Karl List looked at his watch and analyzed, "After the empire launches the war, it is expected that there will be brief chaos in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, Felix Sergeant!"
"Lieutenant Colonel, please give me orders!" Sergeant Felix stood up and said.
"You take a few team members who understand Dutch, and when the empire launches a war and Amsterdam falls into chaos, you build momentum in front of the Royal Palace. Queen Wilhelmina will definitely appear by then! As long as Queen Wilhelmina appears, I will lead you We will conduct a raid with the commando team and capture the Dutch royal family!" Lieutenant Colonel Karl List continued, "Our safety depends to a large extent on the success of the operation. As long as Queen Wilhelmina is captured, the Dutch will not dare to do anything to us. Like this! If we fail, we will immediately be wiped out by the Dutch troops pouring in from all directions, do you understand?"
"We understand, Lieutenant Colonel!" the team members assured.
"Okay, soldiers! Let's wait for the dawn together!" Lieutenant Colonel Carl List said solemnly.
While Germany, Britain and France deployed millions of troops on the border, the Soviet Union and Italy were also paying close attention to the movements of both sides at this time. Different from the tense attitudes of Italy and the Soviet Union, the Western Front at this time seemed to be before the storm. of tranquility. The German army firmly believed that it would win the final victory. The British and French allied forces were no less confident and ambitious than the German army. In their view, whether it was the number of troops or the powerful and solid Maginot Line, they had reason to believe that they could defeat it. The rampant German army.
The Ardennes area covers more than 10,000 square kilometers of forest plateau in northwestern Europe, including parts of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as the Meuse Valley in France. It runs northeast-southwest with an average height of about 488 meters. More than 1/2 of the ground is covered by forests, and the land is barren, with only heather plants growing. Located in the middle of the densely populated Paris-Brussels-Cologne triangle.
The headquarters of Army Group A set up here is having a heated discussion on how to quickly cross the Ardennes Mountain Area. This is because Army Group A has taken a great risk by choosing the Ardennes Mountain Area as its main attack direction this time. Something went wrong here and the success of Operation Sickle was likely to be in vain.
Lin Wei, who had just arrived here, was honored to attend this meeting. Army Group Commander: General Gerd von Rundstedt, Commander of the 4th Army Group: Günter von Kluge Army General. The 12th Army, Commander: Army General Sigmund List, the 16th Army, Commander: Army Infantry General Ernst Busch. Armored Group Kleist, commander: Army General Ewald von Kleist.
"General Ewald von Kleist! You move the Kleist Armored Group over the Ardennes! I wonder if there will be any difficulties!" Army Group Commander Gerd von Rundsch Tate said.
Ewald von Kleist frowned and said, "There is more than a hundred kilometers of forest in the Ardennes area, and it is rugged and difficult to navigate. However, if the engineers open the road, they can definitely climb it successfully in three days. It is still that In a word, what our situation is like here depends entirely on whether Army Group B of General Bock can successfully attract the main force of the British and French coalition forces! As long as the British and French coalition forces move north to support Belgium, the French army in front of us will not be our opponent at all! "
"Not bad, not bad!" Lin Wei secretly praised in his heart. The German army at this time had a strong lineup, which was even more luxurious than the later Soviet-German war. The analysis of Army General Ewald von Kleist is indeed in line with reality. Although the road there is rugged, it is completely surmountable with the excellent military quality and high mobility of the German army. However, the British and French forces will not pay attention to the Ardennes region. Here, the German army can achieve a central breakthrough, and then move straight to the northwest with powerful armored forces? Insert the northern coastline of France, outflank the British and French heavy military groups in Belgium, cut off its connection with the French mainland, and then attack from the north and the south, and you can pacify Western Europe in one battle.
Army General Rundstedt nodded secretly. Suddenly he saw Lin Wei who had been silent and asked, "Lampard, you have always had ideas. If you have any opinions, you can say them directly!"
Opinion? I have no opinion! Lin Wei knows very well what kind of material he is, and he is a typical example of holding back and holding back. If it hadn't been for the devastating blow to the power of the Juncker landlords after Germany's defeat, Lin Wei's enthusiasm for participating in the war might have been halved immediately.
But according to Lin Wei's current status, if Germany is defeated, he will definitely have a place at the International Court of Justice in Nuremberg. Therefore, Lin Wei has to continue to invest in this battle with 120,000 enthusiasm. Will it be possible? Win the battle. Enthusiasm is enthusiasm. Lin Wei still knows very well what kind of material he is. Therefore, under normal circumstances, in addition to encouraging the fighting enthusiasm of the SS, Lin Wei also ensures that Germany avoids committing such huge mistakes in history. Finally, it is to let the Krupp military-industrial complex operate at full capacity to support Germany's war. The machine runs at high speed.
So when Rundstedt asked the first-level army general, Lin Wei didn't know how to answer. The people sitting here were all elites selected from the 100,000-strong army. Lin Wei's level was not enough to fool him. Okay, Lin Wei still doesn't have the guts to blow in front of them. So Lin Wei said humbly, "Your Excellency, Commander, Army General Ewald von Kleist just made it very clear. I think what he said is very good! I have no idea about this." , just listen to you! This time the SS mainly cooperates with the Wehrmacht in fighting!"
"Oh!" General Rundstedt asked symbolically out of politeness. Lin Wei did not answer, so Rundstedt did not dwell on this issue.
After the meeting, Lin Wei immediately went to the station of the First SS Armored Corps, which was composed of the Gendarmerie Division and the Imperial Division, and met General Paul Hausser. General Paul Hausser was very happy to see Lin Wei and said, "Lampard, why are you here!"
"General Paul Hausser! The war on the Western Front is about to begin. As the national leader of the SS, of course I have to come and take a look!" At this point, Lin Wei glanced at the soldiers who were still doing maintenance on the tank. , said, "Old general, whether the SS can make the Wehrmacht look at it differently depends on your command this time!" Lin Wei said flatteringly.
"Lampard, the soldiers of the SS are all good soldiers. I also believe that sooner or later the Wehrmacht will look at it differently! By the way, will you stay here to fight with us this time?" Paul Hauser asked, patting Lin Wei on the shoulder.
"No, General! It's enough to have you here!" Lin Wei said, "After the war starts, I will go to Belgium and the Netherlands, mainly because the Skeleton Division is there, and I am afraid that they will be weak, so Go and have a look! I'm not needed here! The war has finally begun!" Lin Wei finally said with emotion.
Paul & Howser looked at Lin Wei with emotion on his face and said nothing.
On May 10, 1940, at dawn, a group of Stuka dive bombers took off from the German border with the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Suddenly and violently bombed airports, railway hubs, heavily trooped areas and cities in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. At the same time, each army group began to advance towards the predetermined location. Lin Wei looked at these energetic soldiers at the assembly point of the First SS Armored Corps and said, "You will never die, and you are Germany when you live! Germany's Elites, the time has come to prove the value of your existence. Vent your anger against those who have exploited Germany for more than 20 years! The Führer once said that our struggle can only have two results: Either the enemy steps on us Either we will pass over the enemy’s corpses, or we will pass over the enemy’s corpses! Germany’s tomorrow depends on you, German youth!”
"Hi! Hit? Le!" Lin Wei was responded to by a coral tsunami of applause. At the same time, Lin Wei's speech was transmitted via radio to the Skeleton Division in Army Group B and the SS Eugen in Army Group C. Three divisions: Prince, Police, and Viking!
"Go, let those who have always looked down on us, those arrogant French guys, and hypocritical British guys, see the power of Germany!" Lin Wei yelled.
At 5:30, on a front of more than 300 kilometers from the North Sea to the Maginot Line, the German ground forces launched a large-scale attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, kicking off the attack on France.
On May 10, 1940, the sun was shining brightly and shortly after dawn, the Belgian ambassador and the Dutch minister in Berlin were summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were informed by Ribbentrop that German troops were about to enter their country to "defend" their neutrality against the imminent "offensive" of Britain and France. This is the same excuse given to Denmark and Norway a month ago. A formal ultimatum from Germany demanding that both governments refrain from any resistance. Any resistance will be crushed, and the responsibility for the bloodshed "rests entirely with the governments of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands."
In Brussels and The Hague, the German envoys sent telegrams with the same content to the foreign ministries of each host country. Ironically, the person who delivered the ultimatum in The Hague was the German minister Julius von Ziich-Brücksroda, the same man who in 1914 had publicly destroyed the Hohenzollern Empire. The son-in-law of Kaiser Chancellor Bertmann Hollweg, who called Germany's guarantee of neutrality to Belgium "a piece of waste paper".