After Flander's armored division completely controlled the east bank, he roughly checked the river bank. * They were overjoyed to find that a section of embankment near Hawks had not been completely blown up (the French were worried that blowing it would lower the water level and facilitate the Germans to cross the river). Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, a motorcycle battalion secretly crossed the river, and there was no French defense on the other side.

In this way, the battle began for three days, and the Seventh had established a position on the west bank of the Metz River. The Seventh smuggled into Hawks. First of all, the dense forest hindered the observation of the defenders. Secondly, Hawks happened to be at the junction of the 2nd French Army and the 11th Army. The 18th Infantry Division of the 11th Army, which was in charge of Hawks. According to the plan, it should be fully arrived on the 14th.

At this time, the division had only six battalions on the west bank of the Metz River, which was very thin. In order to cope with this situation, according to the concerns of the French 11th Army General Martin for the Hawks area, a battalion was transferred from the 5th Motorized Division on the left wing of the French 9th Army to temporarily defend Hawks. The battalion was ordered on the 11th and had just arrived at the designated position at 4 pm on the 12th. Although they were strictly ordered to defend along the river bank, under the threat of machine gun fire on the other side, even after dark, they made excuses not to send troops to the river bank. This was also the result of the relaxed discipline of the French team before.

The loose organization of the French army once again brought serious consequences. Although the 5th Motorized Division commander had already known about the smuggling of the Seventh (Flander) at 1 a.m. on the 13th, the situation was not reported to General Martin, the commander of the 10th Army, and Crapp, the commander of the 9th Army, did not learn the news until very late on the 13th. By then, Li Mo's offensive in Seedon will attract most of the attention. General Martin had to coordinate the counterattack alone.

The French Supreme Command was still very satisfied with the situation today, and most of its attention was still focused on the direction of Belgium. In his own words, Ganmolin was engaged in managing organizational affairs. Specifically, there were many details, including warning Maginot's defense line how to prevent attacks similar to the Emar Fortress.

He even planned to transfer the cavalry units of the 9th Army and the 2nd Army to the north to support the 1st Army. However, at 3 pm on the 12th, General George's headquarters was alerted by the 2nd Army. In the absence of General George, General Roden, chief of staff, still decisively ordered to draw three divisions from the general reserve team to support Sedang.

These divisions include the 3rd Armored Division, the 3rd Motorcycle Division and the 14th Infantry Division, all of which are first-class divisions. They will arrive on time on the 14th, just one day later than the critical time. In addition, due to the above communications, no reinforcements were sent to the 9th Army.

In the middle of the night, the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Army of Sedang had no fantasy about what would happen the next day. The sounds of the engines of countless vehicles across the river were deafening, and the highway was full of marching queues with headlights on. By this time, the German army had abandoned all disguises.

Intelligence has identified the 5th, 6th and 7th German Armored Divisions. General Hunter Zieg, commander of the 2nd Army, issued an order to the entire army in the evening: Instant amount of land must be fought for, and the honor of commanders at all levels lies in whether they can defend the designated positions. No wavering is allowed and the defense line will be defended to the death. Although General Hunter Zieg is considered one of France's most talented commanders, this order is still imbued with the spirit of war.

Specifically, the combat readiness of the 2nd French Army was very worrying. When the 71st Division, which belonged to the 10th French Army, set off on June 10, had to travel a long distance due to training reasons. After two days of forced marching, the B-level reserve personnel of the division were very tired. By the evening of the 12th, the division command headquarters of the division had not been established, and the communication systems were all temporarily set up, and the telephone lines were exposed to the ground.

Another division of the 10th French Army, the 55th Division, was also in emergency deployment. General Grand Saad, commander of the 10th French Army, estimated that the army could only be prepared at the night of the 13th to 14th at the earliest. More importantly, the commanders at all levels of the French army, including General Hunter Zieg, were still half-believing or half-doubting whether the seventh could attack with all its might on the second day.

Judging from his own speed, the French estimated that the seventh army could only cross the river from the 18th to the 19th. In terms of artillery, Hunter Zieg allocated two artillery regiments of the 10th Army, and the 55th Division itself had two times the normal number of artillery, so on paper, the French army had 140 heavy artillery pieces on the front. However, on the evening of the 12th, part of the French artillery in front retreated without authorization, and the result was that they could not maintain the route of advance of the seventh army.

On the night of the 13th, command agencies at all levels had already received orders from Li Mo to launch an attack tomorrow. However, no one expected that Flander, who was only responsible for the flanking cover mission, would also attack his offensive no less.

At 3 a.m. on the 13th, Flander and his adjutant came to the river to observe the situation. Before he could reach the river, the French bombardment forced him to get out of the car and walk. Several tanks had been hit and parked on the roadside. When he arrived at the river, he found that his infantry regiment was preparing to cross the river on a rubber boat to support the motorcycle battalion that crossed the river last night.

The situation was not optimistic. The 6th infantry regiment was suppressed by the firepower of the other side, which was difficult to move. It was almost impossible to observe the French firepower points in the morning mist in the morning, and the rubber boats were sunk one by one. In order to provide cover, Flander ordered the lighting of several houses in the valley to provide smoke screen cover. At this time, a damaged rubber boat was down the river, and a seriously injured soldier shouted desperately, and no one could save him.

The motorcycle battalion that smuggled last night was tenaciously insisting on the West Bank, and several battalions of company-level officers had been injured or killed. Under the leadership of the battalion commander, the battalion seized a highland and a small village. At this time, all the connections between the battalion and the east bank of the river were cut off by the French firepower. There were scattered French troops behind the battalion, and the resistance on the opposite side was intensifying.

At this time, no anti-tank gun had crossed the river in the seventh. Once the French army used tanks to counterattack, the consequences would be unimaginable. Flander then took a No. 4 tank to Bismarck's 7th Armored Division. The crossing point of the 7th Armored Division was in Bouvergne, 3 kilometers south of Hawks.

When Fland arrived, one company of the 7th Armored Division had already crossed the river, but the fierce firepower of the French army prevented them from continuing to cross the river. Bisme decided to transfer the tanks and artillery to the riverside to suppress the French army. At this time, Li Mo, the commander of the Armored Army, had arrived at the riverside and observed the progress of crossing the river with interest.

Soon, some tanks No. 4 arrived on the river bank and began to shoot at French firepower points less than 100 yards away. The suppression effect was obvious. French firepower weakened, and crossing the river slowly began. Besme was everywhere. He indicated the targets to the tanks, worked with the engineers, and encouraged the morale of the infantry.

Flander then followed the first batch of rubber boats to cross the river and detoured to one of the earliest companies crossing the river. There, he found that their progress was fast. At this moment, someone reported that French tanks were found in front of him, and at this time, no anti-tank guns crossed the river. Flander immediately ordered the use of light weapons to shoot at the tanks. The deception tactics obviously worked, and the French tanks retreated.

… (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, novels are better, updated and faster!
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