Chapter 699 Recovering the Bridge

No one knew who started it, but the German artillery suddenly became chaotic, trying to make a final, dying struggle.

But it makes no sense.

The French army pulled the trigger without hesitation, gunshots rang out, and German soldiers fell in a pool of blood one by one.

The fierce gunfire continued for a few minutes and then gradually stopped. All that could be heard was the French soldiers shouting in stiff German:

"Put your hands up!"

"If you want to save your life, throw away the gun."

"We won't hurt you. Surrender is the wise choice!"

…

The German army found that they were unable to fight against the French army in front of them. Their artillery had no combat experience and their equipment was poor, while the French army had tanks.

The machine guns and 37MM caliber artillery on the tank turret exerted unspeakable pressure and deterrence on the German artillery, which had never engaged in close combat with the enemy.

So before the battle even became intense, the German artillery troops surrendered one after another.

This was the second large-scale seizure by the French army.

The first time was in the city of Mézières, where countless ammunition and supplies were seized, too many to be counted.

What is known is that the seven warehouses located in the forests of the Ardennes Mountains and the 13 warehouses near the train stations are almost full.

With these supplies, there is basically no need to worry about food, ammunition and fuel. Even if the city is completely blockaded by the German army, it can last for several months.

The second time was the raid on the German artillery positions on the west bank of the Meuse River. In this battle, 63 German 105MM caliber howitzers and a large number of artillery shells were captured.

This artillery piece is absolutely a treasure for the French army, which is in dire need of large-caliber howitzers.

At this time, Schneider was already fully producing and importing from Italy, but only 103 units had been accumulated so far.

There are only 103 of them in the whole country, and no one dared to put them into the battlefield because they were worried that they would soon be consumed by the German army if they were not mass-produced.

However, Charles captured 63 guns in one go on the battlefield.

…

The French army did not stop after their victory, but marched non-stop southward along the Meuse River.

Since the German defense line was deployed along the river, and the 1st Armored Division was inserted about 1 km behind it, all they encountered along the way were artillery, headquarters, logistics troops, warehouses...

All the troops were vulnerable, and even if they managed to organize a few resistances in a hurry, they were easily defeated after a few gunshots.

Ultimately, the French destroyed 10 regimental headquarters, 6 brigade headquarters, 4 divisional headquarters and 2 corps headquarters.

As many as 33 major generals were killed, wounded or captured, and countless colonels were also killed.

Even Lieutenant General Nicolas, commander of the 21st Army, fled in a hurry. He had no time to take away or destroy the confidential documents in the headquarters, so the French army immediately obtained intelligence on all the nearby German troops.

There is accurate information such as location, troop strength and number.

Most importantly, more than half an hour later, the 1st Armored Division successfully captured the bridge 7 kilometers upstream.

The bridge had been rigged with explosives by the Germans and an infantry battalion was deployed here to protect the safety of the bridge.

The order they received was: if they could not defend it, they should blow up the bridge to ensure that the French army could not pass through.

However……

All higher-level command posts were flattened by the 1st Armored Division like a bulldozer, so that this unit lost command, lost contact, and even did not know what was happening in the main force direction.

They did not dare to act rashly without the order to blow up the bridge. After all, the main force to reinforce Sedan also relied on this bridge.

More importantly, their orders were to "ensure that the French could not pass the bridge."

Now, didn’t the French army come from the other side of the bridge and suddenly appear on the flank and rear? Didn’t that meet the conditions for blowing up the bridge?

Pretty sure it doesn’t!

Should I bomb or not?

If it was blown up, what would happen if the Germans needed this bridge to counterattack or besiege Mézières?

They only had a dozen minutes to think about it, and then they saw French tanks rumbling towards them.

Machine gun and artillery fire rained down on them, and fighter planes swooped down on them with a whistling sound.

In the end, Captain Noah, who was guarding the bridge, chose to do nothing and escape with his men.

After successfully taking the bridge, the rest became much easier.

The First Armored Army had a total of more than 300 tanks, but only 100 of them were urgently converted into "amphibious tanks" to cross the river, and 27 were lost in the battle.

Most of them got stuck in the mud while crossing the river or were soaked by river water, causing the engines to be flooded and unable to be repaired.

If the bridge was not captured, the 200 tanks at Mézières would have difficulty crossing the river, unless a pontoon bridge was built or they were all converted into "amphibious tanks."

Even so, there will still be problems with supply and reinforcement in future penetrations, and even the west and east banks of the Meuse River can easily be separated by the German army into two unconnected parts.

Now that the bridge was under French control, all problems were solved.

Charles immediately sent out a mechanized regiment to guard the bridge, and then supplemented it with two newly captured artillery regiments, one on the west bank and one on the east bank.

…

In Paris, France, after dawn, people had not yet received news of victory at the front.

After a night of settling down, the citizens of Paris gradually recovered from the ecstasy of retaking Mezières.

They noticed that Charles's troops failed to expand their victory and instead showed signs of being surrounded and killed by the Germans in Mézières.

In the morning people bought newspapers and read many negative comments about Charles:

"This is not good news. Although Charles has recaptured Mezières, if he cannot escape the encirclement, it will only be the recapture of Mezières."

"Yes, and Mezières will be a ruin. We will gain nothing because the Germans will bomb it flat."

"This will probably be the most unsuccessful penetration of Charles. Although he successfully crossed the Ardennes Mountains, which was surprising, the results were not as great as expected."

"We even have to think about the problem of relocating the civilians of Mezières. What are they going to do? Escape through the Ardennes to Belgium?"

…

Capitalists and parliamentarians secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Charles' defeat is their victory, otherwise Charles might become an existence that they cannot defend through this battle.

However, just as they mustered up their courage to bribe their mouthpieces and try to spread negative opinions about Charles, news of victory came from the front again:

"Char beats the Germans, again!"

"Early this morning, Charles' troops broke through the German encirclement and the German army was defeated!"

"The German army's defense line on the west bank of the Meuse River no longer exists. There are three infantry divisions and one artillery division, with a total strength of more than 70,000 people!"

"The Germans had the natural barrier of the Meuse River and an absolute advantage in military strength, but they were still ruthlessly defeated by Charles!"

…

Once again, the French people cheered loudly for Charles' victory.

(End of this chapter)