Chapter 156: Chapter 234 The French Doomsday (4)
On the morning of July 6th, as the sky began to brighten over the Fort de la Coulotte, the Stuka aircrafts above started a new round of dive-bombing.
At this moment, something very peculiar happened.
Some of the bombs dropped by the Stukas did not hit their intended targets. Instead, they accidentally landed near a concealed artillery position. Brigadier General Lafontaine, who received the report, was astonished. Assuming that the Germans had spotted all the artillery positions of the fortress, he immediately ordered all artillery units to change their positions for safety.
However, the "uncles" of the French Army's 55th Division (as mentioned earlier, most of the soldiers in the division were reservists recalled after the outbreak of war, and the majority were over 30 years old) had already been terrified by the terrifying whistling sounds of the Stukas the day before. They interpreted the relocation order as "The Germans have crossed the Meuse River, and if the artillery doesn't move, they'll be surrounded." Consequently, without proper authorization, two divisional artillery regiments decided to retreat to the south.
Seeing the artillery regiments retreating, the infantry divisions, who had suffered from the terrifying sounds of the Stukas the day before, thought that the German tanks had already "crushed" the artillery. Terrified, they also decided to retreat. Thus, the entire division, with its six infantry battalions and five artillery battalions, collectively fell into chaos and retreated to the south. Some units completely dispersed, and many new recruits were so frightened that they threw their weapons on the roadside. At this point, they hadn't even seen half a German.
At 7 a.m., Brigadier General Lafontaine found that he had lost contact with the infantry under his command, believing that his troops had already engaged in a melee with the Germans. As the commanding officer, he felt the need to preserve his forces and "break through". Therefore, he ordered the divisional headquarters to maintain communication silence and retreat to the south.
At 8 a.m., Guderian ordered the river crossing.
Nearly two hundred artillery pieces, already prepared and waiting, simultaneously roared to life, and countless shells pounded the fortress's firepower points on the opposite bank.
Soldiers carried assault boats and rubber dinghies, rushing down to the river, ignoring the icy water soaking them, pushing the boats forward while jumping onto them. When the last soldier jumped onto the boat, the motor of the assault boat started.
Soon, numerous ripples appeared on the river surface as assault boats and rubber dinghies shot like bullets towards the opposite bank.
"Rat-a-tat!" The French firepower points on the opposite bank opened fire, with various light and heavy weapons pouring bullets frantically. Occasionally, mortar shells hit the water surface, creating splashes that sprayed onto the German soldiers on the assault boats.
Soldiers could only press tightly against the rubber dinghies, listening to the bullets from the opposite bank whizzing past their heads. A mortar shell happened to hit one of the ferry boats, and the fragments of human bodies and rubber boats mixed together, exploding into the sky.
Watching the battle from the riverbank, Guderian furrowed his brow. "What's going on? This doesn't seem like the firepower a division should have." The enemy's firepower was indeed fierce, and he felt that the opponent seemed eager to stop the German advance, but for some reason, this was significantly less firepower density than a division should have. "Seems like the firepower of at most two battalions."
"It's a bit strange. Could it be a trap?" The adjutant standing beside him wondered. He couldn't believe that bombers could reduce a division's strength to just two battalions. But at this critical moment, the French had no reason to conceal their strength, right? It's really puzzling.
"A trap?" After pondering for a moment, Guderian shook his head. "It could also be an opportunity. Order the entire line to cross the river!"
General Guderian's guess was correct; on the southern bank, only two fortress infantry battalions from the 55th Division remained. After fighting for half a day, they suddenly noticed the lack of activity from their neighboring comrades. Confused, they called the division headquarters to inquire why there was no counterattack and no artillery support, but the call went unanswered. The battalion commander concluded that the division headquarters had been annihilated by the Germans, and the main force of the division had been completely wiped out. He then informed his subordinates that Brigadier General Lafontaine had already sacrificed himself for the Republic, and now they needed to uphold the spirit of Verdun and defend the position for an extended period.
In a bewildered state, Brigadier General Lafontaine, who had been cursed by this battalion commander, realized his mistake after advancing nearly 20 kilometers. The main force of the division was surprisingly faster than the division headquarters! Waking up to reality, he ordered the division military police to block the road and prevent the infantry from returning to their positions. However, the military police's warning shots were ineffective and were instead scattered by a large number of retreating soldiers. The battalion commander and a staff officer from the division headquarters were carried away, retreating 12 kilometers, narrowly avoiding being mistaken for deserters and shot by the 10th Army headquarters.
At this moment, the enraged 10th Army headquarters, after intercepting a large number of retreating soldiers, was questioning why the 55th Division had withdrawn without authorization. Brigadier General Lafontaine claimed that his infantry had been frightened by German tanks, and German paratroopers were wreaking havoc in the rear, posing as friendly messengers and spreading false information. He felt surrounded and had to make a timely retreat.
The army headquarters argued that the German tanks were still on the north side of the Meuse River, and German paratroopers were still in Belgium. Excluding the possibility of Germans teleporting, was the 55th Division hallucinating in broad daylight?
Brigadier General Lafontaine again stated that he knew nothing and was forced to retreat. His subordinates reported that they did see tanks... The army headquarters emphasized that apart from the 110th heavy artillery regiment in the rear, which had a few tracked tractors, there were no tanks in their division. What was this division commander doing? Brigadier General Lafontaine continued to claim that German infiltrators were in the rear, and spies had infiltrated the army, spreading false information.
While they were arguing, the German river crossing force suffered over a hundred casualties but successfully reached the southern bank of the Meuse River. They established a vulnerable semicircular beachhead with a radius of less than five hundred meters.
If the main French forces were still present, with a single wave of artillery cover or a counterattack, they could easily drive these Germans back into the river.
Unfortunately, at this point, the remaining French soldiers had already suffered heavy losses from Stuka bombings and ground artillery. When German soldiers approached the French defensive line and blew up two strongpoints with Panzerfaust rocket launchers, the remaining French forces finally collapsed, raising the white flag.
"Surrendered just like that?" Amazed, Guderian wouldn't miss such a good opportunity. He ordered the infantry to cross the river using assault boats and rubber dinghies. Engineers erected heavy and light pontoon bridges. The heavy bridge was used for tanks and self-propelled artillery, while the light bridge was for infantry and trucks.
Then he sent a telegram to the high command, requesting air support.
After all, the French were not fools; they would certainly know the consequences of their main forces successfully crossing the river and would go to great lengths to prevent it.
After arranging everything, he boarded an assault boat and reached the opposite bank, interrogating the surrendered French soldiers. To his surprise, he found that the highest-ranking among them was just a battalion commander. After questioning them, he discovered that they didn't even know how they had lost contact with their higher-ups and believed that the division headquarters had already been annihilated.
Listening to all this, Guderian was also a bit bewildered, unable to understand what had happened.
However, he didn't dwell on this matter for long and instead went to inspect nearby defensive positions. Every hundred meters or so, there was a bunker, but some were still under construction and unfinished, with scaffolding still in place.
"These French people." It took them 20 years to build fortifications, and they hadn't even completed the defenses along the Meuse River. Looking at the sprayed slogan "on ne passe pas" (they shall not pass) on a bunker wall, Guderian shook his head in speechless disbelief.
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