Fland then returned to the east bank of the river and came again to the crossing point of the 7th Infantry Armored Division. At this time, the crossing of the river had been fully launched. Here, five anti-tank guns had already crossed the river, and engineers were setting up 8 tons of floating crossings. Bersmes ordered a 16 tons of restructuring. Of course, Flander asked Bersmes to borrow anti-tank guns.

The engineers were desperate, and the engineer battalion commander and many soldiers were killed. Flander was too optimistic at noon and continued to advance before consolidating the bridgehead. However, due to the French artillery bombardment, the first batch of tanks did not start crossing the river until the evening. At this time, it seemed that the French army was going to launch a counterattack on the bridgehead. The situation was once very dangerous. Flander came to the west bank again, learned about the situation and returned to the east bank, and ordered the tanks to continue crossing the river at night to support the west bank.

So, what did the French army opposite Flander do? Judging from Flander's record, the resistance of the infantry on the first line of the French army was tenacious. Until the evening of the 13th, there were still small French troops insisting on the West Bank (behind the Seventh Crossing Force). However, the performance of the French support troops and command system was very problematic. From now on, we will continue to see that due to the scattered discipline of the French army, the lack of enterprising spirit, the exhaustion of communication and the outdated thoughts of commanders, the French side will miss opportunities again and again until they fall into the abyss.

In fact, on the 13th, the main forces of the Luftwaffe were supporting Li Mo and there was little support for Flander. Therefore, France's failure in this area could only find the reason for itself. The first problem of the French army was that the seventh speed was too fast, and the 18th Infantry Division (66, 77 and 125th Regiments) responsible for defending the river bank were not all in place.

Flander's 66th Regiment was particularly thin. Secondly, due to the fatigued communication system, the French army's reaction was slow. At 1 a.m., the commander of the 5th French Motorcycle Division learned about the Seventh Crossing from the first battalion of the defensive Hawks. Five hours later, although his command was only 10 miles from the front line, he could not contact the battalion. In desperation, he sent a team of motorcycles and several light armored vehicles to reconnaissance the river bank.

(This may be the French army that Flanders repelled with light weapons at noon) At 10 a.m., the 5th French Motorcycle Division decided to use its 129th Regiment to cross the river to Hawkes at 1 p.m., but the regiment did not start to operate until 2 p.m. It was delayed almost immediately due to the threat of enemy planes. The counterattack mission was then taken over by an elite Motorcycle Dragoon regiment of the 2nd Infantry Army.

But the regiment reported that they could not be ready until 8 pm. So the attack was postponed until the second morning - all of which were the best efforts of the best forces of the French 9th Army.

For the 18th French Division, the connection between its three regiments was almost interrupted. General Martin, commander of the 11th French Army, had to come to the headquarters of the 18th Division in the afternoon. General Martin met the commander of the 39th Regiment here, and he actually reported to General Martin that he encountered German scouts 8 miles from the Metz River.

General Martin then ordered the 39th Regiment to fight back to the river. "Top the Germans into the river." The counterattack will be supported by tanks of a company and three artillery battalions. The attack was launched at 7:30 pm. At the same time, the 66th Regiment reported that it was exhausted and the 125th Regiment could not contact. All of this was just the result of Flander's infantry companies. They did not have any heavy weapons to support it.

By 6:30 pm, the 39th Regiment reported that the regiment could not arrive on time and the counterattack was delayed until 8 o'clock. However, by 7:45, the regiment reported that it could not advance again. So the tank company had to attack alone. The French tanks thought it was easy to sweep the Germans in front of them, but without infantry support, the tanks were destined in front of the iron fist, so the French retreated after only half of the fight.

This is all the efforts made by the French team to the Seventh Bridgehead. If Flander had not been to the front line, if the French army had a little more enterprising spirit, history might have been rewritten. At least, if the Seventh Bridgehead could be eliminated, although the Seventh would inevitably be strong again, it would undoubtedly win time for France. At this time, the Seventh Bridgehead was only a small area, without heavy weapons and anti-tank guns. A company of tanks could already sweep everything.

Throughout the night, the seventh tankers were anxiously waiting for the engineers to build a bridge. At this time, the news of the seventh intensity Metz River began to slowly reach the headquarters of Ganmolin. First, the Hawks area, followed by the counterattack of the 9th French Army, and there was no news of the counterattack of the 9th French Army. Until 4 pm, there was a snowflake-like news about Sedan (Li Mo) from the 2nd Army. The French command system obviously did not realize the seriousness of the problem. General George briefly told Ganmolin: The front line in the Sedan area was slightly under pressure!!!

At 7:15 am on the 13th, Li Mo issued the final order on crossing the river. At 3 pm, the 6th German Armored Division would cross the river between the Barr River and Bazeye on the left of Sedang. If the 5th Armored Division could arrive, it would serve as the right wing, cross the river in Dangchali; the 7th Armored Division would be in the middle, crossing the river in Tolsey, slightly north of Sedang.

The main attack is the 7th Panzer Division. After crossing the river, the division must quickly control the highway from Tolsey to Bellevue and the surrounding highlands, and uproot the French positions in the Seden area. Li Mo strengthened the 7th Panzer Division with the "Great German" infantry regiment, and at the same time, the heavy artillery battalion (150mm) of the 5th Panzer Division and the 6th Panzer Division and an assault engineer battalion. All firepower will be concentrated in a 2-mile-long breakthrough area.

The three battalions of Lieutenant Colonel Balk's 1st Infantry Regiment and four battalions of the "Great German" Infantry Regiment. In order to encourage his troops, Li Mo told the 7th Armored Division's firepower and the Luftwaffe would cover them with all their strength. Behind them, the 14th Motorized Army was ready to expand its results at any time.

In the early morning, amid the continuous rumbling sounds, teams of German soldiers rolled up their sleeves, straight and healthy, confident, approaching the river bank under the cover of morning fog. Various vehicles finally got rid of the traffic jam and parked anywhere near the river bank suitable for cover.

The buzzing sound of German aircraft came from the sky, and at this time the French army began to shell the shells. Soon the 6th Panzer Division reported that the enemy's firepower made any movement impossible. To cross the river, the air force had to destroy the enemy's artillery group. The artillery, infantry and crossing engineers of the Seventh Panzer Division took their equipment and hid as close to the river bank as possible, ready to attack. The opposite river bank was far higher than this side, and they obviously realized that if this shelling continued, the personnel and equipment would suffer serious losses.

The French army on the other side also clearly saw the Seventh Armored Division, more than 50 tanks, countless vehicles, personnel and equipment, and excellent targets. However, at this time, the French artillery received the order of the commander of the 10th Army, and the ammunition consumption of each gun was limited to 30 rounds. The main reason why the French army restricted the ammunition usage was not the lack of shells, (in a few days, a large number of shells would fall into the hands of the Seventh Armored Army).

The reason why the commander of the 10th French Army, Grandesade, restricted ammunition was that, based on the experience from 1914 to 1918, the Seventh Armored Army could not cross the river within 6 days. Therefore, before the decisive stage, he did not want to waste too many shells. Although he witnessed the assembly and preparation of the Seventh on the other side, the commander of the 55th Division, who was about to be directly attacked, also held the same view.

…(To be continued…)
Chapter completed!