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 invasion of France.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels, when German bombers roared overhead and bombs exploded at the nearby airport, rattling the windows, German Ambassador Bellau-Schwant stepped into the office of the Foreign Minister and was leaving his room. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket. Paul-Henri Spark stopped him.
"Please forgive me, Mr. Ambassador, let me speak first," Spark said angrily, "The German army has just attacked our country. Germany has carried out criminal aggression against Belgium, which abides by its neutrality. This has been the worst in 25 years. For the second time. What is happening now is perhaps even more abominable than the invasion of 1914. Neither an ultimatum nor a note nor any protest was presented to the Belgian government. It was only through the attack itself that Belgium learned that Germany had violated it It has its own obligations...History will hold Germany accountable. Belgium is determined to defend itself."
The beleaguered Belau-Schwant diplomat then began to read out Germany's official ultimatum, but Spak interrupted him. "Give me the papers," said Sparks, "and I'll spare you this painful task."
On May 10th, it was just dawn, Hit? Accompanied by Keitel, Jodl, and other members of the High Command, Lehr arrived at his base camp near Muenstreifel, which he called the "Eagle's Nest." The German troops were crossing the Belgian border 25 miles to the west**.
Britain and France also deployed three army groups: the First Army Group, together with the British Expeditionary Force, was stationed along the French-Belgian border to the Channel Coast; the second and third Army Group were behind the Maginot Line, from Strasbourg to the Swiss border. In November 1939, the Supreme Military Council of the Allies approved Plan D formulated by Allied Commander-in-Chief Gamelin. The plan stipulated that in the event of the German invasion of Belgium, the French First Army Group, together with the British Expeditionary Force, would immediately rush into Belgium to defend the territory. enemy.
Therefore, when the German offensive began on May 10, 1940, Allied Commander-in-Chief Gamelin immediately put Plan D into practice. The French army deployed its three elite mechanized divisions, four of the five cavalry divisions, and three armored divisions. One of them was all placed under the command of the First Army Group, and it entered Belgium as soon as possible and requested to push as far east as possible. Together with the British army, it was necessary to create a numerical advantage over the German army.
Judging from the combat plans and troop deployments of both sides, it can be seen that the British and French Allied Forces Headquarters misjudged the intentions and main attack direction of the German army. The layout was wrong at the beginning. The more troops used in Belgium and the further they advanced, the more they fell into the trap of the German army. , On the one hand, the troops on the front line of defense in the main direction of attack were weakened; on the other hand, the main force was trapped in the trap of the German army. Without a fight, the defeat was determined.
The German Army Group B, which served as an assist and attracted the main force of the British and French troops, first used airborne troops to attack important bridges and fortress facilities in the Netherlands and Belgium. This sudden blow immediately caused panic in the Dutch and Belgian troops. Immediately afterwards, the armored troops of Army Group B took advantage of the chaos and launched a fierce attack. Since the paratroopers had already occupied all the main roads, Army Group B was progressing quite smoothly.
The breakthrough of the German Army Group B on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium caused the main British and French forces gathered in northern France to immediately cross the French-Belgian border for rapid reinforcements. At this moment, Hit? Le was restlessly waiting for news from the front line in the underground command post. When he heard that the main British and French forces had been dispatched, he was "so happy that he almost cried." He excitedly said to the people around him: "They just fell into our trap! I just want them to believe that we are still implementing the original 'yellow plan' and still respect Schlieffen's ideas. They were fooled and are waiting. Look, the fun is yet to come."
When Bock's Army Group B attracted the main force of Britain and France, Loeb's Army Group C also took up its stance. The feint they were conducting against the Maginot Line was so successful that the French hesitated to withdraw their troops from the south. Among them, the assembled Gustav train gun was publicly unveiled in front of the French Second and Third Armies, and fired six giant shells. Its huge body played a huge role in the French troops hiding in the Maginot Line. Psychological shock effect. When the artillery shells hit the mountains of the Maginot Line, the French troops hiding in the Maginot Line seemed to see the end of the world. Therefore, it was firmly believed that half of the German Wehrmacht was attacking the Maginot Line frontally, and therefore opposed the continued deployment of troops to support Belgium.
Just as Lin Wei imagined, the power of the Gustav train gun does not depend on when it attacks, but when it lies there quietly, making you sleepless and eating all the time. The French Air Force's The reconnaissance plane has discovered that the German Wehrmacht has such a monster siege giant on the front of the Maginot Line? Artillery, this situation also put General Gamlin, the commander-in-chief of the British and French coalition forces, into distress.
The main force of the British and French allied forces moved north to Belgium, and the commander of Army Group A, Rundstedt, was immediately informed. In the early morning of May 10, the German Army Group A of Rundstedt, which served as the main attack in the center, launched a major assault on Luxembourg and the Ardennes region of Belgium. Luxembourg, a small country with a population of only 300,000, surrendered that day without a fight. Leading the charge for General Rundstedt was the Armored Corps commanded by General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, which included Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps, Hermann's ·Hoth's 15th Panzer Corps, Joerg-Hans Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Corps and Paul Howser's 1st SS Panzer Corps. Among them, Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps and the 1st SS Panzer Corps have the strongest combat effectiveness. The main force and vanguard force of the Kleist Armored Corps of the 19th Panzer Corps has three armored divisions. The 15th and 41st Armored Corps each have only 2 armored divisions. Although the First SS Armored Corps only has the Gendarmerie Division and the Reich Division, its large establishment and priority distribution of weapons and equipment make it no less inferior to the Wehrmacht troops.
After World War I, Western European countries built strong fortification lines on their borders with Germany. In the Netherlands it was the Goreby-Peel Line, in Belgium it was the Albert Canal Line, and in France it was the Maginot Line. These three lines of defense connect with each other from north to south and stretch for hundreds of kilometers.
On May 10, Belgium's 22 divisions totaled 650,000 people, including 18 infantry divisions (only 6 of which were regular divisions), two motorized divisions, 1 cavalry division, and 1 heavy artillery division. The Belgian army had no tanks, almost zero air defense equipment, and only one fighter regiment. Its pre-war deployment was as follows: 4 divisions were deployed along the Dutch-Belgian border, 6 divisions were used to defend the "KW Line" from Antwerp to Namur, and 12 divisions guarded the Albert Canal. Before the outbreak of the war, Belgium had not yet finalized how it would fight the war, and it had not yet made a decision on which position to hold. It had to make adjustments based on the strength of the German army during the attack, because the Albert Canal defense line covered the entire Belgian territory, so The military is mainly deployed on this front line.
When the huge assault force of 44 divisions of the German "A" Army Group stopped on the German border opposite the Ardennes region and prepared to attack, General Bock of the "B" Army Group ordered the 3rd Division commanded by General Reichenau. The 6th Army tried to get into an attack position as close to the Albert Canal as possible. Because although Bock knew that his task was to assist, he still hoped to advance westward at a surprising speed to convince the Allies that the main German offensive force was to advance from Belgium. The biggest obstacle for the German army to attack Belgium was the Albert Canal.
Since the Albert Canal is a fortified canal specially built to prevent Germany from invading Belgium, it has steep banks and is covered with fortifications. In particular, the Eben Emaal Fortress guarding the canal forms a canal that is considered dangerous. The most reliable anti-tank defense line comparable to the Maginot Line. If the German army wanted to attack the Aachen-Maastricht-Brussels line, it had to cross this canal. If the German 6th Army is blocked in the Albert Canal, the German offensive will stall before it can exert its vigor.
To this end, the German army decided to launch an airborne assault on the Eben Emal Fortress on May 10, 1940, and seize the three bridges on the Albert Canal northwest of the Eben Emal Fortress - the Canni Bridge and the Eben Emal Fortress. If not all of the Froenhafen Bridge and the Feldweseldt Bridge can be captured, at least one must be secured.
The Eben Emaar Fortress is located on the Belgian side of the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, between Maastricht and Vis. The fortress is an important component of the Albert Canal defense line. It is a powerful fortification and important support point in the northern extension of the Maginot Line. It is the core of Belgium's eastern defense system. Its artillery firepower can control the Albert Canal and all ferries within 16 kilometers of the Maas River. The fortress is built on a small granite plateau, which is 900 meters long from north to south and 700 meters wide from east to west. To the northeast and northwest are almost vertical cliffs, about 40 meters high, with the surging Albert Canal flowing under the cliffs; to the south are a wide anti-tank ditch and a 7-meter-high protective wall. All sides of the fortress are surrounded by the so-called "canal belt" and "trench belt", and are equipped with reinforced concrete bunkers equipped with searchlights, 60mm anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns. The Maas River to the east of the fortress runs parallel to the Albert Canal, forming a peripheral barrier.
The Eben Emal Fortress is actually a carefully designed and constructed fortress complex modeled on the intricate fortifications of the Maginot Line. At first glance, each fort seems scattered in a pentagonal area, but in fact, it is a clever combination of forts, rotating armored turrets, anti-aircraft gun positions, anti-tank gun positions, heavy machine gun positions, etc. defense system. Each part is connected by 4.5 kilometers of underground reinforced tunnels and traffic trenches.