The SS Totenkopf Division, led by Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke, took the lead and, with the cover of the air force and heavy artillery units, forcibly crossed the Reese River. The Skeleton Division, like their commander Theodore Eicke, displayed ruthless, ruthless and fanatical attacks. At this time, the SS, under the influence of the Gendarmerie Division, wore black uniforms. From a distance, it looks like a dark cloud pressing over it. All resistance that dares to organize in front of the Skeleton Division will be crushed without mercy.
With the 5th and 6th Armored Regiments as the forerunners and the 3rd Anti-Tank Battalion as the flanks, the Skeleton Division quickly completed the task of forcibly crossing the Lys River, established an area defended by the Belgian garrison, and established a landing position.
"Great!" Theodor Ekko, who was on the bank of the river, had been watching the process of his troops crossing the river. Although it was not smooth sailing, the casualties he suffered were completely acceptable in Theodore Ekko's opinion. of. Compared with the success achieved by the troops, those casualties have been filtered out by Theodor Ek.
Compared with the indomitable and fanatical spirit of the Skeleton Division, the officers and soldiers of the National Defense Force are obviously much more cautious. This is not because the soldiers of the Wehrmacht are afraid of death, but that the two armies have different views on the battle. Simply put, the Wehrmacht's view is that only by protecting yourself can you kill the enemy. The SS's view is that only if the enemy is killed first can they live. Therefore, in the eyes of the Wehrmacht, the SS were just a group of fanatical rookies, and in the eyes of the SS, the Wehrmacht were just turtles who were afraid of death.
However, although the two armies dislike each other, they still know how to cooperate sincerely when facing a powerful enemy. The soldiers of the Skeleton Division were used to carry the Belgian artillery to build a successful beachhead. The officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht, behind the 5th and 6th Armored Regiments of the Totenkopf Division, quickly established a foothold on the Lys River.
The breakthrough of the Leis River defense line made General Bock extremely happy. Until now, no one in Germany except Lin Wei had imagined that on the other side of the strait, an unprecedentedly large fleet was almost ready. It's over.
The excited General Bock immediately ordered General von Reichenau's Sixth Army to follow up immediately. After the Skeleton Division gained a foothold, the German army could counterattack and launch a massive attack on the Belgian army.
At this critical moment, the Belgian 5th Infantry Division and the 15th Infantry Division mobilized by Belgian General Galt arrived in time. Although they could not defeat the German troops that had successfully landed, they temporarily blocked the powerful German assault. Let the battle line stabilize.
On the one hand, General Bock has decided to break through here in order to encircle and annihilate the Belgian army. On the other hand, although General Galt does not yet know the specific plan of the German army, his highly nervous intuition tells him that he must do this now. As a result, the German and Belgian troops deployed the maximum number of troops they could in this small area. The Skeleton Division and the Wehrmacht Division, which had successfully crossed the river, had about two regiments of troops, facing off against the Belgian 5th Infantry Division and the 15th Infantry Division.
Originally, this small area was within the range of artillery fire from both sides, but repeated bombings by the Air Force in the early morning had completely wiped out the Belgian artillery. Naturally, the German artillery could not support its troops in such a small area, so it could only The artillery fire was extended to prevent enemy forces from other areas from reinforcing the area.
So a very strange scene appeared. While the roar and explosion of artillery in other areas were endless, the German and Belgian troops here had to rely on their own firepower to attack each other.
"Hurry up, hurry up, get rid of these obstructive Belgians!" Theodor Eyck, who had already crossed the river with his troops, shouted on the radio, "Whoever dares to block the road, use your tanks to kill them Boom to the sky!"
Amidst Lieutenant General Theodor Ek's yelling, these soldiers, who were used to their division commander's temper, broke out in a cold sweat. The division commander's yelling made the driver in the tank step on him hard. When he pressed the accelerator, the commanders in the tank were in a state of panic.
Although the reinforcements from the Belgian army had two divisions, as infantry divisions they lacked heavy weapons such as tanks and armored vehicles. However, with the support of their numerical advantage, although they did not have enough offense, they were still more than capable of defense.
Boom..., a No. 4 tank of the Skeleton Division was hit by a bullet and burst into flames. The members inside jumped out and ran to the rear before the tank exploded.
"Bastard!" Lieutenant General Theodor Ek happened to clearly see the scene of his troops' tanks catching fire, and he became furious. Said to the radioman, "Contact the Air Force, I want Stukas, I want lots and lots of Stukas! Tell them, now the damn Belgians are blocking our way, let the Air Force blow them away!"
Boom..., a shell interrupted Theodor Ek's words. Less than fifty meters away from him, a tank was hit by a bullet and burst into flames. This immediately elicited an even louder curse from Theodor Eyck.
"Your Excellency, General!" The radio operator looked at the somewhat nervous commander and stammered, "The Air Force has just received news that this batch of bombers has taken off! They will arrive at us in about five minutes!"
Huh..., Theodor Ek loosened the collar of the radio operator, said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier!", and immediately went to do his own thing.
The Belgian defenders, who were struggling to hold on, heard a familiar strange roar in the sky and understood that Germany's unique kind of damn dive bombers were coming again. The honor of the military kept these Belgians from retreating, but even so, they still couldn't stand this kind of battle where they were only bombed without fighting back. No matter what new weapon it is, it is not omnipotent. Some Belgian soldiers who lacked anti-aircraft weapons used their rifles to shoot into the sky, hoping to stop Skartu's diving speed.
In fact, these soldiers also know that to a certain extent, the biggest effect of shooting in the sky is on their own psychology. In fact, the probability of shooting down an aircraft is basically zero. Even in Lin Wei's impression, it seemed that during the entire World War II, only two unlucky planes were shot down by rifles, one of which was in China and the other in the Soviet Union. But taking into account the aircraft production of the major belligerents in World War II, the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan alone produced approximately 600,000 aircraft. So is this rifle going to fly? The matter of the machine requires great character to pave the way. It’s not much easier than winning five million in a row.
Obviously, this kind of luck did not allow the Belgians to catch up. Even when the Stuka was diving vertically toward the ground, the light weapons in the hands of the Belgians could not do anything against the Stuka's not-so-hard shell. Even this boring behavior caused the anger of many pilots. After all, pilots, as the proud sons of heaven, do not want this kind of despised behavior to happen to them. In fact, not only does this happen, it happens to every pilot.
The pilots who received special care from the Belgians did not drop their bombs and then return in a hurry as usual. The pilots, angered by the Belgians' actions, used machine guns on their planes to shoot at the Belgian troops who had nowhere to hide. The plane, which had even run out of bullets, could only keep swooping and making loud noises to scare the Belgians.
Of course, this opportunity would not be missed by Theodor Eyck. According to his orders, the tanks of the Skeleton Division launched another attack while the Belgians were tired of dealing with the harassment of the air force. Hundreds of tanks formed a powerful trapezoid and pushed forward. During the march, the 75mm tank gun continued to destroy things that caused obstacles to it.
The Belgian army also came to their senses and started to fight back, because they knew that the air force could not kill them all alone, but if the tank troops rushed up, they would definitely be dead.
The German army was attacking all sections of the Reese River, but Lin Wei was mainly concerned about the situation of the SS. On a relatively high mound nearby, Lin Wei had been watching the battle of the Skeleton Division with a telescope. .
"Leader, the resistance encountered by the Skeleton Division is very fierce!" Lin Wei's adjutant Robert C. Crawford said, "Sometimes I have to admit that these Belgians are indeed quite tenacious!"
"This can't change the overall situation!" Lin Wei said disdainfully, "Death early and late is death, but I hate this situation now. Germany's precious military power should not be wasted on insignificant opponents. Maybe the Belgians can use their own Protect the British and French allied forces with their lives, but we can't let this happen! Tell Lieutenant General Theodor Ek that when the enemy repulses his first attack, their confidence will be even higher, and they will be more confident about the next attack. The defense is more confident, so we must concentrate all our efforts to break open the Belgian defense line at once and give them a fatal blow!"
"Leader, a telegram from China!" the radioman came over quickly and said.
Lin Wei silently received the telegram, read it quickly and handed it to his adjutant. Robert C. Crawford took it over and took a look. He couldn't help but change his color and said in horror, "Leader, this is impossible!"
"There is nothing impossible about this!" Lin Wei said, "Send this news to the headquarters immediately and let the head of state make his own judgment! Give me a map of the Dunkirk area!" Lin Wei did not doubt this letter at all. The authenticity of the telegram sent from Britain was not only because Lin Wei had known Churchill's tricks for a long time, but also because of his trust in the intelligence network that Heydrich had painstakingly managed. With such a large-scale recruitment of ships, as long as a random person stood on the port , anyone who is not blind can see it. I really don’t know why Germany was kept secret.
Robert C. Crawford immediately ordered others to send a telegram while taking out some maps from his backpack. After screening, the map of the Dunkirk area that Lin Wei needed soon appeared in Lin Wei's. In front of the power. Lin Wei looked at it for a while and frowned, "Have Calais and Brunen been captured?"
"Yes, leader, Guderian's armored group captured Calais yesterday!" Robert C. Crawford replied.
"Where is our armored division?" Lin Wei asked again.
"Except for the Skeleton Division here, all armored divisions affiliated with the SS are now grouped together with Guderian's armored group!" Robert C. Crawford frowned and asked, "Leader, what do you mean? ?”
"I'm not interested!" Lin Wei waved his hand and said, "Tell Theodor Ek to step up the offensive!"
"We don't have much time!" Lin Wei thought to himself.
There are no port facilities or breakwaters on the coastline near the Dunkirk area. There is a deep-water channel parallel to the shore not far from the coast, which is connected to the Dunkirk port channel. However, this channel has fast currents and dense reefs, making navigation quite difficult. Danger. There are three routes from Dunkirk to the UK. Route Z has the shortest distance, only 40 nautical miles, but it is blocked by German artillery fire and cannot be used. Route X is slightly longer, 55 nautical miles, but the British army has deployed many routes on the route. This minefield is difficult to clear in a short period of time and cannot be used; the only one that can be used is the Y route with the longest range, which is nearly 90 nautical miles and takes almost six hours to complete. Although there is no threat of German artillery fire, the German aircraft in the air The danger of the threat has greatly increased.
"Is it still necessary to rely on the air force to solve the battle in the end?" Lin Wei tried his best to shake this question out of his mind. Historically, the air force's attack on the British and French coalition forces withdrawing from the Dunkirk area was a failure to the extreme. Lin Wei did not dare to put his treasure on Goering's air force.
The problem should still be solved by itself. Except for the Northern Mountain Division in Norway, the remaining six SS divisions are currently on the battlefield. The Skeleton Division is in the east and the remaining five divisions are in the west. It is not impossible to annihilate the British and French forces in a complete fight. The problem now is that the Belgian army must be forced to surrender as soon as possible.
Theodor Ek quickly received Lin Wei's order. Although he didn't know why his leader was so anxious to make a breakthrough here, one thing Lieutenant General Theodor Ek was clear about was that if If you don't break through here as soon as possible, you will soon be in trouble.
Lieutenant General Theodor Eyck, who had thought of this, now saw the Belgian army, but he had no intention of holding back at all. Under Lin Wei's care, each SS division had 482 Panzer IV tanks at full strength. Although Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke fought all the way from Belgium with General Bock's Army Group B, Come, but there are still nearly 300 tanks that are still operational.
When Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke showed the full combat effectiveness of the Skeleton Division and more than 300 tanks advanced with unstoppable momentum, the defending Belgian army suddenly realized that it turned out that the Skeleton Division had not just Fight with all your strength.
"Leader, I didn't expect that General Theodor Ekko didn't try his best just now!" Robert C. Crawford said with a smile.
Lin Wei looked at his watch anxiously and ordered, "In two hours, I will see the Belgian army defeated. Time waits for no one!"
"Besides!" Lin Wei turned around and said seriously, "This is not a concentration camp. Tell Theodor Eicke that I don't want to see him kill prisoners. That is not in line with the creed of the SS!"
Robert C. Crawford broke out in a cold sweat, which was not in line with the SS creed, that is, if Theodor Eicke did this, he would be purged from the SS.
Under Lin Wei's pressure, although the army blocking the Skeleton Division was twice their number, the soldiers of the Skeleton Division were still determined and refused to retreat this time. Their division commander, Lieutenant General Theodor Eike, had told them that the national leader was now watching them from behind. This is related to the status of the Skeleton Division in the SS in the future. Army Group B in which the Skeleton Division was located was originally facing the main force of the British and French coalition forces, so it did not achieve the same results as other divisions. If he can't even deal with the Belgians now, even if his leader doesn't tell him, he won't be able to hold his head high in front of other troops in the future.
With such a mentality, all the soldiers of the Skeleton Division immediately rushed forward as if they were on stimulants, regardless of whether they were in heaven or hell.
"Leader, the Belgians are defeated!" said Robert C. Crawford.
"Well!" Lin Wei ordered lightly, "Tell the guards that we are going to the Gudri armored cluster now and ask them to pay attention to their safety!"
"But leader, you have to cross the battlefield like this!" Robert C. Crawford objected, "This is really too dangerous, I object!"
"I have to go there!" Lin Wei did not explain why he wanted to do this, but Lin Wei's tone clearly told Robert C. Crawford that this was what I was going to do.
The success of the SS Skeleton Division made General Bock, commander of Army Group B, very happy and immediately ordered the Wehrmacht to shift its offensive focus here. It was also an excellent location to divide the Belgian army. As long as the plan succeeds, General Bock can realize his plan and divide the Belgian army and the British and French forces into two. As General Bock expected, the Belgian army, which was on the verge of collapse, could not stop the attack of the powerful German Wehrmacht. Even if General Galt had two more divisions in his hands, this hole could no longer be blocked.
Belgium's collapse on the Reese River perfectly responded to the avalanche effect. Just like before the avalanche, the mountain looks calm, but as long as there is a little problem, it will cause a big collapse. Now the Skeleton Division has become the origin of the avalanche effect. As a large number of troops of the National Defense Forces continue to successfully cross the river, this gap is getting wider and wider, and eventually it becomes the beginning of the collapse of the Belgian army.
The panicked retreat of the Belgian 5th Infantry Division and the 15th Infantry Division made other Belgian troops panic. Panic spread quickly like a plague, and the Belgian troops who were the first to retreat led to the collapse of friendly forces close to them without anyone stopping them. In the end, Belgium on the line of the Reese River completely collapsed.