Chapter 960: Forcibly crossing the Maas River

Hitler adopted Manstein's plan and changed the order of operations on the Western Front.

Manstein received the credit he deserved, but the traditional generals, indignant at putting a plan from a junior officer above them, arranged only von Stein. Manstein commanded the infantry corps in the rear. Hitler could change the battle plan, but there was one thing that Hitler could not change, and that was the difference in strength between the two sides. Despite the fact that the Germans had air superiority over the 3,000 Allied aircraft with 4,000 aircraft, the Allies had about 3,383 tanks, while the Germans had only 2,335 in total, many of which were light tanks with limited combat performance.

On May 10, 1940, just after 2:30 a.m., 64 German paratroopers, the vanguard of the German invasion of the Netherlands, crossed the Dutch border. These paratroopers landed on the main bridges near Rotterdam, The Hague, Dordrecht and Muldijk to prevent the Dutch from blowing up these bridges and blocking the main German offensive across the border. Large numbers of German troops entered the Flanders region through the Albert Canal. These units could have been held back by the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emar, but at 5:30 a.m., German glider units managed to land on the Belgian border, taking control of and destroying this fortified point of fire.

Five minutes later, 30 divisions of German Army Group B, led by General Bock, crossed the border like a tidal wave from Maastricht to the line along the mouth of the Ems River. Meanwhile, in the south, led by von. The 44 divisions of Army Group A under General Rundstedt, including the main assault force of seven armored divisions under the command of General Kleist, advanced into the Belgian Ardennes region, which the French commanders had described since 1919 as a forest area that tanks could not pass.

The Allied forces in the north, including five divisions of the British Expeditionary Force, eight divisions of the French 1st Army deployed on the British right flank, and seven divisions of the French 7th Army deployed along the coast of Dunkirk, left their defensive positions that they had struggled to manage for the winter and advanced to join up with the Belgian army in the hope of establishing a defensive line along the Dire and Maas rivers, according to Plan "D". This near-suicidal move by the Allies thrilled Hitler.

It was clear that the Allies had many difficulties on their way forward. The Luftwaffe planes were constantly circling overhead, bombing and putting the Allied forces to the test, and it took them a long time to get used to the nerve-wracking roar of the planes that often accompanied their ears. In addition, the rapid and fierce German offensive frightened the civilian population, and wherever the Bock army went, the population fled, and the Allied advance was soon blocked by refugees.

Nevertheless, by the evening of 14 May, the Allied defensive line had been constructed.

From the mouth of the Scheldt to the north of Antwerp, it was guarded by 3 divisions of the French 7th Army, from which it extended 80 kilometers southeast to Leuven, guarded by 13 divisions of the Belgian Army, the line from Leuven to Wavre was guarded by the British Expeditionary Force, and from Wavre to Namur, guarded by 6 divisions of the French 1st Army. Many battalion and brigade commanders were frustrated by the disillusionment of the Allied hastily constructed defensive line, and the soldiers were equally unconfident. They had spent the winter building vast field fortifications along the French border, and now they were counting on them to stop the German offensive with such a defensive line, which was at best primitive defensive positions, and in some places there were no fortifications at all. At the same time, commanders at and above the division level are also worried about the situation in the south. However, at this point, they did not realize that the slowly advancing Bork Army Group was in fact nothing more than a "matador's cloak", designed to lure the main Allied forces into a trap and thus create the conditions for Kleist's armored group to deliver a fatal blow. …,

After drawing the Allied mobile forces to the north, the Bock forces were tasked with holding the Netherlands like an iron plate before moving south into Belgium and France, forming a hammer anvil with the armored forces advancing from the French coast. The first task of the Germans was to seize the key bastions on the Dutch and Belgian lines, which were the basis of the defense of both countries. The majestic and magnificent reinforced concrete fortress of Ebenemar has been captured by the Germans by gliding assaults. Other German paratroopers also had to secure the bridges so that German troops could advance through the extensive terrain of the Dutch canals towards the major cities of the Netherlands close to the coastline.

By 13 May, the German 18th Army, led by General Quchler, had crossed the bridge previously occupied by the paratroopers and began to advance towards the "Dutch Fortress". In the vicinity of Breda, the Germans were met by Henry. Blockade by the French 7th Army, which maneuvered along the coastline under General Giraud and entered the Netherlands through Belgium.

As a result, the French army was repulsed and fled to Antwerp!

The bombing of the main bridge over the Æssel River by the Dutch and the flood of fleeing villagers slowed down the German advance towards Amsterdam led by the SS Flag Guards. Hitler did not want his "image troops" to get bogged down in a difficult march on foot, and on 13 May the Guards began maneuvering south to join up with the SS Special Mobile Regiment and the 9th Panzer Division and advance towards Rotterdam. German paratroopers had captured the main bridges in Murdijk, and the road to Rotterdam had been opened. By the morning of the 14th, the Germans had captured more than 4,000 prisoners of war in the advance, and the SS soldiers who fought with the Panzer Division began to take over the task of guarding the Murdike Bridge in place of the well-equipped paratroopers.

The Dutch resistance, though disorganized, still delayed the timetable for the German offensive.

The German High Command issued an ultimatum, threatening to destroy Rotterdam with artillery and aerial bombardment if the Dutch continued to resist.

Having lost contact with the Anglo-French allies, the Dutch had no choice but to accept the conditions of the German army.

However, despite the cancellation of the shelling of Rotterdam, the order was not communicated to the Air Force, and Rotterdam was still bombed into ruins by the Luftwaffe. Immediately after the bombing, the SS Guard Flag Corps entered Rotterdam. In the city, the Flag Guard found a group of armed Dutch soldiers and immediately opened fire. Unfortunately, this group of Dutch soldiers was part of the surrendered local armed forces and was receiving Air Force General Kut. The incorporation of Student and the fire attack of the Flag Guard Corps seriously wounded Student, the founder of the German paratrooper unit. After recovery, Stordent directed the invasion of Crete a year later.

On May 13, the Queen of the Netherlands and some Dutch government officials boarded a ship in The Hague and fled to the United Kingdom.

Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch Army, Henry. General Winckelmann then announced his surrender. In the south, the 6th Army, led by Reichenau, crossed the Albert Canal into Belgium. The Belgian Army retreated to the line of the River Dire and joined forces with the British Expeditionary Force and Georges. The units of the French 1st Army led by General Blanchard converged. By 15 May, the Allies had amassed some 35 divisions on the Namur and Antwerp fronts. While the German 6th Army feinted against the Allied defenses that had been hastily established, the 8th Army advanced south from the Netherlands, threatening the flanks of the British, French, and Belgian forces.

However, just as the Allies were preparing to compete with Bock's army, they were crushed by shocking news from the southeast. Central France had been broken by new German forces, and all Allied forces in Belgium were in danger of being cut off. The campaign in the Low Countries was coming to an end, and the German plan, with the exception of a few minor errors, went according to plan. Bock's advance towards Belgium led the Allies to the north. Rundstedt's armored units successfully passed through the Ardennes, and German armored vehicles went on a rampage through the northern regions of France. …,

One of the main goals of Hitler's military policy was to destroy France, the enemy that had humiliated Germany after the First World War. The invasion of the Low Countries was nothing more than a trap to draw the Allies out of position, a preparation for the Germans to strike a fatal blow and launch an armored charge from the Ardennes.

After the war began on the Western Front, German units quickly passed through the Dutch-Belgian border. As the Allies expected, the majestic and sturdy reinforced concrete fortress of Eben-Emar fell into the hands of an elite German paratrooper unit, which landed on the roof of the fort by glider. However, von. The 30 divisions of Army Group B, led by General Bock, were in fact merely feints, the purpose of which was to convince the Allies that Germany was moving according to the same plans that had been used and failed in previous wars.

The real blockbuster attack was launched from the Ardennes Mountains. Here, the Germans assembled von . The 444 divisions of Army Group A under General Rundstedt, including von Anderstedt. Kleist's 7 Panzer Divisions, from which the Germans planned to launch a surprise attack on the Allies. Large numbers of French troops were stationed within the vast Maginot Line to stop attacks from the German-French border. However, the Maginot Line did not cover the Belgian border, since French decision-makers considered it impossible to launch a large-scale attack on France from the Ardennes.

Germany's plans soon became a reality.

The German panzer divisions marched along the mountain path in a dense column formation with trepidation, meeting little resistance from the Belgian troops in the Ardennes.

They entered the unruly forests and mountains, and everything seemed like a peacetime exercise, easily sweeping away the light cavalry units sent by the French to "stop" them.

By the afternoon of May 12, the three divisions of Gudri had crossed the French border and reached the banks of the Maas River in the Sedan area!

The military traffic police played a decisive role in the campaign: thousands of vehicles were in good order and strictly following the plan.

By the evening of 12 May, German panzers had taken control of a vast front on the right bank of the Maas River, from Sedan to Dinan. In 1870, when the Paris Revolution broke out, it was the place where the French Emperor Napoleon III was defeated and captured by the Prussian army. Seventy years later, the commander-in-chief of the French army, General Gammerin in 68, expected that the German army would appear in the Ardennes at some point in the campaign. However, he expected that the Germans would be at best light tentative forces, and that the 9th Army, which had been ordered to protect the area, was far weaker in deployment than in other areas.

The French High Command estimated that once the French army withstood the attack of the German army when it first arrived at the Maas, it would take at least four days for the Germans to organize and plan for the crossing of the Maas, and another two days to carry it out.

In reality, however, it took only 24 hours for the Germans to force their way across the Maas.

On 13 May, Guderian's infantry crossed the Maas River in rubber boats. At the same time, 300 twin-engine bombers and 200 "Stuka" dive bombers of the Air Force razed the defensive positions of the French army to the ground!