Both Richthofen and Count Spee believed that the landing in southern France would go well. Both in preparation and in material terms, the Germans and the French were not the same. Had it not been for the insistence of the Americans in the months leading up to the war that France should have increased its defenses in the south, I am afraid that France would not have prepared for a German landing in the south of France at all, because the mindset told the French that Germany would attack from northeastern France as it had done during the Franco-Prussian War and World War I. Moreover, the southern part of France is a plateau, far from the political and economic center, and the Germans do not seem to need to go far and near. And the fighting environment in southern France is also too bad, the French Navy has withdrawn from the Mediterranean, and there are not even a few submarines and small warships, in this pond in the western Mediterranean, in the face of the main force of the high seas fleet, the survivability of submarines can only be described as a tragedy!

Landing battles are generally difficult, and even in the Normandy campaign of World War II, the overwhelming Allied forces prepared for about a year before launching the landing operation. And what about this time? The German army, navy, and air force as the attacking side had an overwhelming advantage, and they had already begun preparations for the landing in southern France after the end of the Italian Civil War, but what about the French as the defenders? They did not spend years building an obstacle and minefield along the entire coastline like the Germans before the Normandy landings did, and they were even far inferior to their historical German counterparts. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to say what kind of situation this anti-landing operation can be.

In fact, the German ** team did go relatively smoothly in the subsequent landing operation. The German Navy, which did not pose a threat at all, even drove the battleship to a distance of several kilometers, firing directly at the French pillboxes and obstacles with large-caliber naval guns. Before the German Army landed, German planes had completely cleared the French Air Force from the battlefield, and not only that, but a large group of JU88 and DO217 bombers had bombed all the airfields and communication lines near the two landing sites, and according to their words, the Allies did not have a single intact aircraft within a radius of 100 kilometers. But even in this situation, the Allies still had some outstanding units, and a separate tank destroyer battalion under Charles de Gaulle gave the first German landing force a hard time. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dayan. The 5th Cuirassier Battalion, equipped with the Huaxia Type 29 tank destroyer, began its journey in World War 2 outside the port of Sète!

"Lieutenant Colonel, it seems that the Germans' plane has left here, shall we continue on our way?" A captain walked over and asked. They were now about 10 hours later than expected, and the Germans had landed in the port of Sète. As an important anti-armor force, Dayan and his men were still in a woods at this time, and even if they were to rush in the direction of Port Sète now, it would take them four hours.

"Come to night, we can't fight and can't move during the day. It's better to recharge your batteries and act at night. "Dayan had fought in the Italian Civil War, and he was very familiar with the tactics of the Luftwaffe, and it was not necessarily safe when there were no German planes in the air, because there might be somewhere, several German reconnaissance planes were circling and waiting for their whereabouts to be revealed. There was no place to hide a large number of chariots on either side of the remaining route, and a few hours was enough time for the other side to reduce their troops to a pile of scrap metal.

Dayan's troops had no easy way to get to the south of France, and they had bought train tickets, but halfway through the road they were told that the railway line was paralyzed and they had to abandon it. Soon they were told that they could arrange for tank carriers to transport some of the heavy units, but after waiting for hours. He was told that the place where the tank trailer was parked had been attacked by an air raid, and in desperation, Dayang could only use his own precious motorized trip to rely on his iron feet to go south. The attacks and damaged roads along the way also gave Dayan and his men a headache, and according to him, if it had been farther away, he might have asked his superiors to assign them a special engineering unit to solve the problem of poor roads!

"It is impossible for us to drive the other side into the sea, as long as we dare to expose it, the other side's naval guns and bombers can wipe us out in minutes, we can't do this kind of stupid thing, we can only lead the other side out of the range of naval guns. I decided to delay the enemy's attack on the periphery of Port Sète. Buy time for the troops to move south. Dayan said that judging from the current situation, Dayan's choice is correct, and the French army in the south is empty. The Germans concentrated their efforts to open a breakthrough, and it was obviously irrational to use tanks and land artillery and the opponent's naval guns plus bomber steel front, and the caliber of mobile long-range artillery could not exceed 8 inches. Ten dead and dead in the confrontation with naval guns. What's more, the Germans had already suppressed the Allied air force throughout southern France, and since this was the case, Dayan thought it would be better to take a step back and use the terrain to stop the Germans. As for whether the Germans could be driven into the sea. Then it can only depend on whether the follow-up forces of the Entente countries are effective.

Although Dayan's command was nominally an armored battalion, it was in fact overstaffed, with up to 45 Type 29 tank destroyers, 60 Type 29 tanks, and some self-propelled howitzers and other supporting firepower. IN ADDITION, THERE IS A MOBILE ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY EQUIPPED WITH A 40MM BOFORS ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN. These are the few units with a relatively high degree of synthesis in the median of the French troops. The only drawback is the lack of sufficient infantry, Lieutenant Colonel Dayan is very confident in his troops, although some of these tanks were moved from the Huaxia warehouse, but they are very well maintained and not used for a long time, these tanks were originally prepared for the Iranian war, but some of the tanks were not used in the end, and according to the agreement between Huaxia and the Entente, these tanks were transported from China to France as military aid.

For these weapons from China within the Entente countries still attach great importance to it, after all, these equipment has played a huge role in the two wars of Italy and Iran, although there are rumors that Huaxia is ready to eliminate these equipment, but the Entente army technicians have to admit after testing that the current 29 series of vehicles in all the Entente ground combat vehicles is the best performance, and the modification potential is also very good, although the Entente countries also have their own heavy tank research and development plans, but unfortunately they are far from quenching their thirst, Those tanks that are at the test site and even on the drawings are clearly not as real as these tanks parked in the troop warehouses and ready to be driven. The Entente made a relatively thorough modification of these foreign products, first with a new power system, and secondly with additional armor on the sides and top. NEW ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS WERE ALSO DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE 75MM AND 90MM GUNS, AND AFTER SOME IMPROVEMENTS, THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE VEHICLES HAS BEEN GREATLY IMPROVED COMPARED TO THE ORIGINAL.

When night fell, Dayan received an order from above, which was given by General de Gaulle himself. Dayan and his troops will no longer go to Montpellier. Instead, he went to the front line of Bézier and Bedarrio. It was used to block the German attack to the west, because not far to the west, there was Toulouse, one of the most important aircraft manufacturing bases in southern France. The Luftwaffe had been trying to destroy it, but they had succeeded for the time being. The production capacity there played an important role in maintaining the situation on the southern front. As for Pillier? The deployment of troops here is simply tantamount to sending troops to the iron pincers of the Germans! The Germans had already landed in the port of Toulon. The two German armies echoed each other. The French were not so worried about the German attack to the north, because they had to pass through the Central Plateau, the terrain limited the deployment of troops, and the distance also gave the Allies the opportunity to concentrate their forces, and the French were really worried about the German attack to the west. Cooperate with the Confederate ** team deployed on the Franco-Spanish border to encircle and annihilate the Allied forces in southwestern France, so as to sweep north along the coastline!

And in fact, this time the Entente really guessed correctly, Germany was not in a hurry to advance north after landing in southern France, but to attack western France, and Toulouse was their first target! Soon after establishing the beachhead, the Germans prepared to attack Toulouse with the few troops they had at hand, and to the surprise of the Germans, they hit the iron plate with such a blow!

"The French are not as good as their predecessors in the first war, and the success of this landing is really beyond our expectations, and if we continue at this rate, we will be able to take Paris in only two months." Colonel Max looked at the ruined Port of Sette and said with high spirits. The French beachhead was quickly shattered by the Luftwaffe and Air Force. The city of Port Set was not very large in the first place, and it didn't take much time to capture it after receiving a lot of artillery fire and air support, so that Colonel Max, who was ready to gnaw hard bones, was a little dissatisfied. He was keen to prove his strength in the war. But in the end, a separate tank brigade under his command did not encounter any hard stubble except for the remnants of the enemy, except for the S35 and B1 tanks of the French, he did not encounter a decent opponent.

Just when he lamented his bad luck, a telegram from Guderian gave him an opportunity, in which Guderian asked him to prepare immediately and the troops that arrived later to prepare for a change of defense, and then move westward. And after receiving this order, Max was overjoyed. But it ignores the latter part of the story. In the second half of the telegram, Guderian told Max that the French had moved an armored unit south before landing. There may be some heavy combat vehicles among them. Although Dayan managed to keep most of his equipment under the wing of the Luftwaffe, their whereabouts were detected by the Germans.

Just as Max maneuvered westward towards the newly arrived Dayan armored battalion, Guderian finally set foot on French soil. After two major wars, Guderian had a certain reverence for any enemy, and in terms of quality, although the major powers could be divided into high and low, the German and Chinese armies had the highest combat effectiveness, followed by the British. The Americans and Austria-Hungary were the worst. But even then, when properly equipped and in a better position on the battlefield, the Americans and Austrians were no less combative. What he is most worried about now is the arms trade between Huaxia and the Entente countries, and the German top brass knows that Huaxia has sold some of the Type 29 car families to the Allied countries, and even some of them are licensed for production. Although the intelligence services will not analyze the number of these combat vehicles very much, no one can come up with an accurate number of exactly how many. After being beaten N times by Huaxia's armor superiority, no matter how stubborn a person is, he will change his sex. So even if he was a little reluctant in his heart, from a rational point of view, Guderian still planned to wait for the Tiger tanks to be in place before launching a large-scale attack, and the attack of the Max Brigade was just a tentative attack.

Taking advantage of the night, Dayan's troops finally succeeded in reaching the designated position, which was a relatively flat open field, with a road and farmland in front and a small forest to the west, and Dayan deployed the main force of the first line in the woods, and in the west of the woods was a small town close to the hills, and Dayan deployed the rest of his troops between the hills and the town. It wasn't just Dayan's French army here, and the two infantry regiments that soon arrived from around made up for Dayan's shortcomings, but to his disappointment, these infantry had relatively few heavy weapons. On the way, quite a few were blown up by the Luftwaffe.

Just after Dayan had completed the deployment of his position, he had not had time to drink a cup of coffee, and the Imperial Gray livery of the German armored forces appeared in the telescope. Max is definitely not a mediocre hand to sit in this position today. When he saw the woods on both sides of the road, he realized that this was a great blocking position. Max's separate armored brigade began to be deployed one by one, with attached 150mm howitzers deployed in the rear, and the armored unit was divided into two. One entered the battlefield from the front, while the other flanked and prepared to outflank the right. After arrangement, an armored company of tank No. 4 mixed with destroyers and mechanized infantry of the same company was thrown into battle. The rest of the German army was deployed in echelons behind. Max also specially communicated with the liaison officer of the Air Force, ready to call for air support at any time, the current Luftwaffe aircraft are enough, no need to use it in vain!

The Germans walked very carefully, they spread out their attack formations, alternately covering their advance under the cover of smoke shells and artillery fire, and the howitzer grenades exploded at the ambush point from time to time, and shrapnel hit the steel plates with a piercing grinding sound. Some of the vehicle's external parts were knocked out, and a corner of the camouflage net was removed. But even so, the French withstood the pressure, they did not fire in advance, until the target was within the effective range of 700 meters! "Hit tanks first, destroyers, then tanks. Let's go! Dayan's order quickly reached the various combat units. WITH THE ROAR OF THE 90MM GUN AND THE SOUND OF THE CANNON BEING DISCHARGED, THE BATTLE BEGAN!

Thanks to the book friend zhouoyu1976 for the reward~~~, as well as the book friend lazy George, the constellation soaring in the universe, the invincible eternal, Xiaobai who doesn't want to die, and the monthly ticket support of the Constellation-class Pisces battleship ~~~. (To be continued.) )