Chapter 226: Sedan's Scheme
Meanwhile, in Berlin, the clamor of the radio reached Jörg's ears together with the hiss of boiling water.
"I, Winston Churchill, will not abandon France. I will not accept the compromise of the surrender faction. We once represented Europe. We once represented justice…"
Jörg brewed himself a cup of black tea.
In the warm fireplace, pine logs crackled softly. Christmas was less than two weeks away. In previous years, by this time, he would already have prepared for a month-long holiday.
Now, he stood behind the international chessboard, challenging the aging emperor of England.
"Mr. President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is asking whether we should change our diplomatic relations with Britain," Ethan asked quietly.
Jörg took a sip of black tea.
Chamberlain's withdrawal from the prime ministerial election due to health reasons was nothing but a foolish joke. Churchill's emergency rise to power outside the rules must have involved the Army, which meant the Internal and External Intelligence Department had truly come close to changing the future.
They had almost avoided a victory that would require countless sacrifices.
He had still underestimated Churchill's decisiveness.
Jörg put down the cup.
Perhaps because of the instincts of an ordinary person from his previous life, even after reaching this position, he still retained a trace of sympathy for ordinary people.
But he had not forgotten Hindenburg's final reminder either.
He had to be ruthless.
If mistakes could not be avoided, then they would be corrected with cannons.
"Change it," Jörg said. "State clearly that Britain declared war on us first."
Ethan nodded and withdrew.
A staff officer then approached and softly relayed the latest intelligence. Manstein's Second Panzer Division was about to reach the French border.
However, Jörg did not immediately ask about the main battlefield. Instead, he asked, "What is the situation on the Italian border?"
"Italy has made no moves. No offensive actions."
The staff officer replied respectfully, "General Staff Headquarters believes this is because Greek resistance has far exceeded Italy's expectations."
"They cannot accept having invested so much and still failing to take Greece, so they have fully committed themselves to the Balkans."
"In addition, the army group led by General Bock has advanced twenty kilometers. In the battle against the Franco-Italian combined fleet, our carrier battle group destroyed two enemy destroyers. The submarine force lost four submarines but sank one Italian battleship and one French cruiser."
"As for the French side, the Luxembourg Army has surrendered, and the government has fled to Britain."
"Italy's inaction means we do not need to take the initiative to attack them."
Jörg's voice was flat.
"Once France falls, Italy will naturally collapse."
He looked toward the map.
"Order Manstein to advance toward Sedan. Heinz Guderian is to feign attacks along the entire Maginot Line. Once Manstein breaks through Sedan, Guderian will immediately shift the main attack toward Verdun."
His eyes turned cold.
"Do not spare the bombs."
On the other side, in the early morning, inside the Ardennes Forest of France.
The roads were covered in fine snow, and a thin layer of frost was crushed beneath tank tracks.
The Third Armored Division, which had been forced to march for more than two days while resting for less than four hours, finally saw the French tricolor hanging from a farm on the edge of the forest.
Kasso Ralchi, commander of the Third Armored Division, looked at the drivers' swollen pupils and their fingers, which had turned purple from prolonged tension.
He leaned out from his tank.
Looking back at the pale, snow-covered forest, he clapped his hands and began leading the soldiers in a military song.
The orderly singing startled several ravens, which flapped northward in panic.
But before they could fly far, they were startled again by the endless stream of bombers passing overhead. They finally landed on the bare treetops near Sedan's garrison.
Because the main forces had been redeployed to support the Maginot Line, Sedan was now defended by second-line troops.
Several newly enlisted soldiers sat around a bonfire, chatting about how they had ended up in the Army.
"Honestly, I still don't know how I got here. A week ago, I made a bet with a friend. A week later, somehow, I was here."
"Me? The Army said they would reduce my sentence if I came to the battlefield."
"Lucas, what about you?"
A smaller young man holding a machine gun took off his gloves. A bitter smile appeared on his face.
Although the soldiers present were all new to the battlefield, they were already veterans in reading certain expressions.
That smile had a code name in the Army.
The smile of a man who had been incited.
Nine out of ten people who wore that smile had been sent to the border by some self-proclaimed independent fashionista in Paris carrying a bouquet of white flowers.
But this time, they were only half right.
Lucas had been sent to the battlefield by his fiancée.
Whoosh!
A sharp air raid siren plunged the originally peaceful atmosphere into a long silence.
"Assemble! Everyone assemble!"
The officer shouting orders at the center of the parade ground did not get the chance to say much more.
Whoosh!
Bang!
A bomb exploded in the middle of the parade ground.
The horrifying sight of a man being blown apart before his eyes ignited the most primitive fear inside Lucas. All the soldiers around him fell into panic.
The air raid siren and the roar of bombs awakened only one instinct in men.
Run.
The company and platoon-level officers also understood that they were merely second-line troops. They had no chance of fighting the main attack force of the German Army.
So they shouted orders at the top of their lungs.
"Retreat! Everyone retreat! Leave the city and cross to the other side of the river!"
The next moment, several Panzer IV Ausf. S tanks smashed through the walls.
Machine gun fire swept across the white snow. Each impact struck the ground like a heavy hammer, kicking up clouds of black and white dust made of soil and snowflakes.
Just as Lucas stood frozen, bang!
A shell fired from a tank gun snapped the flagpole.
The tricolor fell into the snow, stained by a dull white.
"What the hell are you staring at? Run! Ken! Ralchi, drag him along! Run!"
Two slaps from his squad leader finally pulled Lucas back from the horror of watching a human body vanish under a bomb. His body had gone limp, and he had forgotten every combat rule he had been taught.
Fortunately, he had two good comrades.
Ralchi, whose face bore a scar from the murder that had sent him to prison, grabbed Lucas's left arm and cursed while running.
"Damn you, Lucas! You're the only one in the squad who's married, and you're still acting like a child on the battlefield! Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
A rain of bullets grazed Ralchi's ankles.
Ken, meanwhile, raised his FM 24 light machine gun and fired behind them for cover while pushing Lucas forward, forcing him to run desperately.
Lucas, almost dragged by the two men, looked back.
The tanks standing in the snow continued pouring out bullets, harvesting every visible life.
"Watch the right!"
Bang!
A tank that suddenly appeared on the right blasted a huge crater into the street.
Ken, who had been half a step behind, had his leg blown off. Only charred flesh and pale bone remained of his right leg.
His light machine gun fell to the ground.
He let out a painful howl.
"Ah! Damn it! Go! Hurry the hell up and go!"
Lucas, hiding behind a wall, did not follow Ralchi's steps.
He took two deep breaths, then hoisted Ken onto his shoulder. He did not even notice when a ricocheting bullet knocked his steel helmet away.
Ralchi also came back to meet them, throwing grenades into the intersection to provide cover.
At last, they caught the final ferry across the river.
And this also meant that in less than a single morning, the Third Armored Division, which had arrived first at Sedan, had completed the capture of the city.
By noon, three of the four divisions of the Panzer Army Group personally led by Manstein had assembled inside Sedan.
The exhausted Army naturally lacked discipline. Many soldiers nearly burst into residents' rooms and collapsed into sleep the moment they entered.
Manstein's command center was also established inside a church within the city.
.....
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