Combination of Rundstedt and Manstein

Netherlands, Headquarters of Army Group A of the Wehrmacht.

"General! Expedited telegram from Dietrich, commander of the Panzer Division of the 'Guard Flag'!" A signal trooper hurriedly pushed open the door of the combat command room and reported that regardless of the high-level combat meeting being held.

"Soldier! Didn't you see that we were having a meeting? Get out!" Ronderstedt put down the baton that was pointing somewhere on the map, and shouted at the messenger who rushed into the war room.

"But General, General Dietrich said in the telegram that he must deliver this telegram to you as soon as possible!" The messenger said in embarrassment.

"General, General Dietrich is in such a hurry to give you this telegram. There must be something urgent." Manstein, the chief of staff of Army Group A, stood up and walked over to the signal soldier to receive it. He sent the telegram, then patted the signal soldier on the shoulder.

"Sir, I'll leave first." Seeing that the mission was completed, the signal trooper saluted everyone, exited the combat command room and closed the door again.

Manstein smiled and glanced at the telegram, and then the smile slowly froze.

Seeing this, Ronderstedt hurriedly stepped forward and said, "What happened?"

"Dietrich said that his four Tiger tanks encountered 23 French B1-bis heavy tanks when they were supporting our infantry!" Manstein said in a low voice.

"Our department encountered 23 French B1-bis heavy tanks 7 kilometers northwest of Antwerp... All four Tiger tanks destroyed the French tanks... The first encounter was an infantry company of the First Army of Army Group A, but France The army didn't dare to rush out of the bunker, just disguised as an ordinary artillery position..." Ronderstedt read the message quickly.

After a long time, he put down the telegram, lowered his head and pondered: "French heavy tanks? Why did they suddenly appear here?"

After a pause, Rundstedt began to speculate on the cause: "According to the information passed to us by the Gestapo, there are only four armored divisions equipped with B1-bis, and all of them are deployed near the Maginot line. So more This heavy tank unit was either secretly formed by France and not made public, or it was transferred from Maginot!"

"I think it's probably the second one," Manstein said with a smile. "After all, the Gestapo monitors all the arms factories in France, and they don't have the ability to produce so many heavy tanks under the eyes of the Gestapo."

"Report! Emergency call from the head of state!" The door of the combat command room was pushed open again.

"Führer urgently?!" The two who were talking immediately stood at attention, sorted out their attire, and finished the message before putting on their clothes.

"Generals of the Belgian Campaign Group:

The latest news from the Gestapo. Between January 4th and 6th, the French Maginot Line of Defense suddenly sent more than ten trains to Belgium. There is evidence that these ten trains were carrying French No. 1 and No. 2 trains. , 4 Armored Division, pay more attention to the Belgian campaign group.

PS: Please forgive this information for coming so late, because France is cracking down on spies recently, and the Gestapo sacrificed three third-level agents and one second-level agent for this information!

Leon Andres

January 7 at the German High Command in Berlin at 3:00 p.m."

"Hehe, sure enough!" Manstein said while looking at the telegram, "I didn't expect the French to be so stupid. Not only did a fake plan let out all their elite troops, but also three elite armored divisions. !"

"They're stupid, but we're having a hard time." Ronderstedt took the Führer's message from Manstein, and threw it into the brazier together with the previous one, igniting them. "Our armor A large part of the troops were transferred to the central part, and there were only four armored divisions left, most of which were No. 3 tanks, and even a few No. 4 tanks. With these troops alone, it is difficult for us to compete with France. armored forces."

"Yeah." Manstein sighed, "and in addition to these three new elite armored divisions, the French First Army and the Ninth Army were originally equipped with four armored divisions, and the British Expeditionary Force also had three 2 armored brigade, plus almost every first-line infantry division in Belgium is equipped with an armored company of 12 T-13 self-propelled anti-tank guns, our frontal enemy armor force reaches about 2500! Only in the early 1000s."

"No, there is also an armored division and two mechanized infantry divisions on the SS side, and there are about 500 vehicles in total." Ronderstedt estimated and added, "1500 vs. 2500, this battle is not good. Hit it."

"Haha, who made us the Army Group A? We are the most elite troops in the hands of the Führer!" Manstein laughed, "And these 2,500 tanks can't perform as they should in the hands of France. combat power."

Speaking of which, Manstein rummaged through a pile of his own documents and found a battle report.

"Look." Manstein handed the battle report to Rondestein, "This is the news from the 19th Infantry Regiment of the First Army, which was responsible for the westward interspersed attack. The report said that they encountered and routed a French infantry regiment that was moving fast to the southeast."

"Southeast?" Rundstedt walked to the map, looked at the battle area mentioned in the report, and then looked southeast.

Less than 6 kilometers away is where the SS tigers annihilated the French heavy tanks.

"These heavy tanks were not there to ambushed our infantry company, they were responsible for covering the infantry regiment we defeated for a partial counterattack!" Rundstedt quickly came to a conclusion.

"That's right! That's why these tanks don't show up far away in front of our infantry," Manstein said. "They lack the experience of fighting independently, because France has always seen tanks as a tool to cover infantry."

"Pedant tactics!" Ronderstedt laughed, even though he thought so before, "What a pity for those tanks, what a pity for those tank soldiers."

"Two generals." Just as the two were discussing how stupid the French high-level officials were, a weak voice came from behind them, "Can our meeting continue?"

After hearing this, the two realized that they were still in a meeting, and they quickly laughed awkwardly, turned around and went back to continue presiding over the meeting.

"Sorry, I just settled something, let's continue now." Ronderstedt picked up his baton again and pointed to the staff officer who had just reminded them of the meeting, "You, right, just you, you Let's talk about how we should deploy our troops next to enhance the linkage between us and Army Group E, and avoid coordination errors in the next pincer offensive?"

"This...this..." The staff officer was sweating profusely, and he regretted why he talked too much just now.