< World War II - Belli dura despicio (2) >
July 7, 1940
Southern British Isles, Wiltshire – Bulford Under the command of General Bernard Law Montgory, 50,000 British troops, including the 3rd Infantry Division and hastily supplented Ho Guard, were facing Charles de Gaulle's French Army of 200,000.
The once quiet and peaceful small town in southern Wiltshire was now blanketed in gunshots, shouts, and screams.
“Kill those cursed traitor bastards!”
With eyes glinting with hatred and vengeance, the British troops fired their machine guns wildly, and the French soldiers trying to break through the trench line were turned into chunks of at and fell in rows.
The fairly sturdy trench line, established by Montgory's order as soon as the French landed, was forcing considerable losses on the French Army despite their nurical inferiority.
“Behind us is only our holand to be trampled! If we must die, let's die fighting!”
The hastily conscripted Ho Guard was abysmal in terms of training and everything else, but unlike in the original history, they were properly provided with rifles and equipnt.
Once they had proper guns in their hands, fueled by a thirst for revenge against France and the desperation to protect their holand, even these re conscripts burned with a will to fight that could not be ignored.
“Damn it, they said it would be easy once we landed!”
“Did those damn British bastards eat so spoiled fish and chips? Why are they so venomous! Did their food taste so bad it drove them mad?!”
On the other hand, despite their overwhelming numbers, the French Army’s vigor was actually being pushed back by the desperate resistance of the British.
“It hurts, it hurts so much.
Sh…it. Why am I in a place like this…”
The last words of a dying soldier, who watched what should have been inside his stomach spill out with red blood and stain the ground, represented the feelings of the French Army.
Their resolve when they first landed in Britain—to display the might of La Grande Armée (Grand Army) under a great Pri Minister who surpassed Napoleon—fizzled out in vain on the battlefield.
“T-Tanks!”
But no matter how high the British morale was, they could not stop an armored unit with just basic infantry, as their heavy equipnt was concentrated in the east to protect London.
The British troops fired their few anti-tank rifles and 2-pounder anti-tank guns diligently, but it was not enough against the Somua S-35, France's masterpiece dium tank, which had defensive power surpassing even the pre-upgrade Panzer IV.
“Get down!”
“Ugh!”
The French armored unit broke through and passed right over the soldiers hiding in the trenches, and this report soon flew to headquarters.
“General! The eastern defense line has been breached! We, with only infantry, cannot stop the enemy's tanks! We must retreat!”
A staff officer shouted urgently, but Montgory, wearing his dapper beret, looked at the officer indifferently and asked as if tossing the question aside.
“To panic first as a proud soldier of the British Army, you should be ashad.
Retreat, you say? Are you sure?”
“Sir?”
“I asked if you are 100% certain that we must retreat.”
As the staff officer fell silent, Montgory ignored him and ordered the radio operator.
“Tell them to hold their positions whether the enemy tanks break through or not. If we block the infantry and supplies following them, the tanks alone can do nothing.”
“But General, if we get encircled by their maneuver warfare-”
Thanks to the spectacular maneuver warfare the German Army had shown against Poland, the fear of being outmaneuvered by armored units was rampant in every country.
“This is the British Isles.
They don't have the forces to support an encirclent, and even if they did, reinforcents would co from London. What they want most is for us to be swayed by them and abandon our solidly prepared defense line.”
But since the staff officer did not dare to rebut the general who had spoken with such conviction, Montgory continued his orders.
“Our 3rd Infantry Division is a historic unit that even participated in the Napoleonic Wars.
I command you in the na of that honor! Whatever appears, whatever breaks through, hold your positions! Trust the units behind you to handle the enemies that pass through!”
“Yes, sir!”
After watching the staff officer imdiately relay the orders to the front, Montgory glared at the operational map that had beco a pandemonium from the intermingling of British and French forces due to the breakthrough, and muttered under his breath.
“This is our land.
The longer we hold out, the more advantageous it becos for us.”
-
July 9, 1940
Southern British Isles, Portsmouth - French Invasion Force Headquarters
“Their commander is a prudent one.”
De Gaulle said, pressing his tired eyes.
With overwhelming superiority in military force, the British were being pushed back little by little throughout the battle.
But despite continuously pushing, de Gaulle failed to achieve a decisive victory or the collapse of the enemy.
The British troops, united by anger and venom over France's betrayal and the invasion of their holand, were holding out, regardless of whether the front line collapsed or how many sacrifices were made.
No matter how high their morale, one would expect them to panic at the risk of encirclent when a front is breached by an armored unit, but the stubborn and resilient Montgory of the British Army was having none of it.
“Bernard Law Montgory.
I heard he was a general who wrote books on outdated infantry tactics, but he's no pushover. What are you going to do, Charles?”
At the words of his close friend, Alphonse Juin, de Gaulle fell into thought for a mont before finally speaking.
“First, we will withdraw de Hauteclocque's unit.”
The armored unit led by Philippe de Hauteclocque (Leclerc in the original history) had broken through Montgory's forces, which had no armored forces whatsoever, without difficulty, but since Montgory's unit remained immovable, the unit had ironically pushed too far and was experiencing supply problems.
Maneuver warfare presents the enemy with the risk of encirclent and annihilation, but conversely, it also exposes the deeply penetrating armored unit itself to the risk of being encircled.
Unfortunately, unlike the German Army, the French Army, with few other armored units and motorized infantry units to support their armored thrusts, was at an excessively high risk of falling into the latter predicant.
“Is that really what we must do.”
Juin lanted, but there was no other choice.
If only the enemy had been swayed a little, or if our allies had been a little faster, or if not that, if only we had a few more armored units. If so, de Gaulle might have been able to use his nurical superiority to encircle and annihilate Montgory's unit.
But the opponent had the resilience not to be swayed even when their defense line was breached by an armored unit, and an army with morale high enough to obey such orders.
Unlike the German Army, they hadn't installed radios in each tank, only in the command vehicles, so the armored unit that had painstakingly broken through the enemy's defense line had to waste ti by stopping repeatedly to relay operational orders and commands.
While the enemy held firm without being swayed, and with an already insufficient number of armored units, they wasted what was the most precious ti in maneuver warfare, putting the unit that had broken through at risk of being encircled by reinforcents from London.
“The fact that there are no armored units here must an the units rushing from London are armored units.
For now, we have no choice but to preserve our armored units and push forward slowly, like in the last Great War.”
Of course, that kind of approach would ultimately lead to a war of attrition, and de Gaulle had a feeling that a quick capture of London and victory would be difficult.
Moreover, the longer the war dragged on, the less he could guarantee even air superiority.
In the early stages of the war, they had started by launching a surprise attack and destroying all the air bases in southern England.
Until they engaged the RAF flying from the central region over the English Channel, the French Air Force actually had the upper hand due to it being a naval engagent and issues with flight range.
But once it beca an air battle over the British mainland, the situation was reversed.
Thanks to de Gaulle securing the southern air bases, he didn't have the sa range problems as the Luftwaffe in the original history, but the ambitious new French fighter, the D.520, was proving to be inferior to the British Supermarine Spitfire in every aspect except range, and was repeatedly suffering losses.
In terms of numbers, the French Air Force still held the advantage, but British pilots could return after being shot down, protected by the local residents, while French pilots who were shot down got to experience the horrifying local sentint firsthand.
On top of that, due to the Navy's request, unable to withstand the feats of the H Task Force, when the already insufficient number of aircraft were allocated to escort transport convoys and the navy, their nurical superiority inevitably dwindled.
As a result, the gap between the two air forces was gradually narrowing. France's expectation that Britain would crumble like a sandcastle upon a successful landing was completely wrong.
“Will it be alright, Charles? The Pri Minister must be getting antsy by now.”
De Gaulle knew well that eting the Pri Minister's demands was now a lost cause.
De Gaulle was silent for a mont, then spoke.
“Even if the Pri Minister changes, France will remain.
…Even if we beco a defeated nation, the French people must live on.”
After saying that, de Gaulle added with a face even more pained than when the front line wasn't going his way.
“But I don't know if France can ever be great again.”
-
July 11, 1940
The French capital, the 'City of Light,' Paris – Governnt Building
“Pri Minister, I regret to inform you that the operation to capture Gloucestershire has failed.
According to Major General de Gaulle's report, while we achieved a local victory, it seems we must abandon the capture of London in the short term.”
“Is that so.”
To the words of Minister of Defense Philippe Pétain, who had intentionally delivered de Gaulle's report as it was instead of sugarcoating it, La Rocque's reaction was surprisingly calm.
So calm that it puzzled Pétain, who had secretly hoped for de Gaulle's downfall.
La Rocque quickly read through the report Pétain handed him and set it down.
“It can't be helped.
Although the offensive failed, General de Gaulle has secured southern England while minimizing losses. We have no choice but to continue the war in our own way.”
Although his political impatience had gotten the better of him and made him push de Gaulle, La Rocque had also served in the army and was a man with enough tactical discernnt to have taken note of the chanization de Gaulle advocated.
“Please convey to General de Gaulle.
He doesn't need to achieve unreasonable results; just hold down the British forces for a long ti and maintain the occupation of southern England.”
“Hmm, I understand, Pri Minister.”
Pétain was not pleased with the Pri Minister's calm reaction, which was completely different from what he had expected, but he soon conceded.
Although Pétain personally disliked de Gaulle, he too was a French patriot and a seasoned general, and he considered the Pri Minister's judgnt itself to be correct.
“Still, with the navy moving in larger fleets by dividing its main force and receiving air cover, Britain's damn H Task Force, which had been running rampant, has also ceased its activities.”
Of course, the price for that was that air superiority over the British mainland had shifted from an advantage to an equilibrium, but in any case, since the opponent was the powerful RAF, even reaching equilibrium ant they were making good use of the gains from the surprise attack at the start of the war.
“Hong Kong has fallen, and our friend Japan has forced Thailand to submit and is attacking Singapore. Although Plan A failed, the British fleet has been neutralized for a ti, and they have been rendered unable to intervene anywhere for a while.”
After saying that, La Rocque looked at Foreign Minister Paul Baudouin.
“Our friend, what was his na again.
Chan…what was it?”
“Chandra Bose, Pri Minister.”
Hearing Baudouin's reply, La Rocque smiled.
“Ah, yes. Tell that friend to hurry his preparations for the uprising.”
Chandra Bose was an Indian independence activist who, unlike Mahatma Gandhi, advocated for violent struggle.
He was preparing for an ard uprising in India with support from La Rocque's governnt, and was planning to pursue an alliance with the Empire of Japan through France's arrangent.
“With the British Navy having taken a massive blow and their mainland under attack, their colonies are hesitating to enter the war. This is an opportunity to show them clearly that the British Empire has already t its demise.”
The reason La Rocque was still at ease despite de Gaulle's failure was because the Indian uprising was now just around the corner.
“Their word that they will enter the war and capture Gibraltar once we have the upper hand is certain, isn't it, Minister of Defense?”
“Ahem.
That is correct, Pri Minister. The Caudillo must also be mindful of dostic public opinion.”
Although Spain was still dawdling, La Rocque believed that with Pétain's friendship with Franco, and the fruit that is Gibraltar, they had the intention to join the war.
In the end, if he could just prove they had the upper hand, they would side with France, and the sches La Rocque himself had ticulously planned would be more than enough to show that advantage.
“Pri Minister, what will you do about Italy?”
But even La Rocque's composure crumbled at Baudouin's next words.
“Those useless bastards…”
They asked for reinforcents to attack the diterranean fleet, and then they couldn't even last a week, even if the Hawk Legion had withdrawn.
The report Italy had sent about the German offensive was so absurd that La Rocque only half-believed it.
They poured bombs and artillery fire for six straight days, 24 hours a day, with thousands of aircraft and nurous heavy guns? Even if they wanted to save face after such a pathetic defeat, the exaggeration is too much.
And when it ca to the disgraceful conduct of getting hit themselves instead of striking the diterranean fleet, even La Rocque was at a loss for words.
La Rocque finally let out a 'Tsk-' sound.
“In that case, we have no choice but to go with Plan B. It seems we'll have to declare war on Germany after all.”
If France were to do nothing and let Italy collapse, it might find itself in a situation of complete isolation in Europe.
“Inform Italy that we will send reinforcents, Foreign Minister.”
“But Pri Minister, if we send reinforcents to Italy now, by the ti we arrive, it will just be a case of defending a tattered Italy with the blood of the French Army.”
Pétain's objection was perfectly valid, and La Rocque smiled faintly.
“Of course, the reinforcents for Italy are just lip service. Just have the units prepare for deploynt to Italy.
Make it noisy, if possible. Noisy enough for the German spies to notice.”
While Pétain looked puzzled, La Rocque pointed at a map and spoke again.
“I've heard that their—the German Army's—reserves are preparing in Hamburg to help Britain.”
“They were.”
“So, let's declare war.
Declare war to make Germany help Britain, and push them from behind into believing that we will help Italy.”
Isn't that just playing into Germany's hands, Pétain wondered, but La Rocque pointed at the map and said.
“In any case, Italy's terrain is rough, so whether they hold out or not, there's a limit to the speed of the German advance. Let's make them believe we're sending reinforcents so they hold out more tenaciously.”
La Rocque pointed to the border between France and Germany—the Siegfried Line.
“500,000 German soldiers are stationed here.
They say it's heavily fortified, so it's perfect for a standoff with the Maginot Line, but-”
La Rocque's finger moved just above it, to Belgium.
“However, it's a defense line that only spans the border between our two countries.
If we break through Belgium, their core industrial region, the Ruhr, is right before our eyes. While Germany is landing in Britain to deal with General de Gaulle, and their main force pushes into Italy, we will mobilize two million troops, break through Belgium, and attack Germany.”
La Rocque smiled wryly.
“Those damn Belgians, they were quick to join us in occupying the Ruhr, but then they broke our alliance using Munich as an excuse, and in the last talks, they sided with Germany.
Let's make them pay the price for their recklessness. Germany won the civil war by capturing the Ruhr first, but they will be defeated by losing it.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)