Chapter 400137Chapter NaN

September 24, 1940

Paris, the capital of France

The operation began on the 17th, but the French Army only finished deploying along the border area as planned on the 21st, and only then began their advance. Still, as an Army of 2 million, they began to push back Belgium in one fell swoop.

But from the start, the French Army's operation was not to get into a brawl with Belgium, but to quickly break through Belgium and strike Germany's defenseless underbelly.

With that plan completely derailed, the mood in the French high command was naturally in chaos.

-Prime Minister, I'll say it again. Even if you are the Prime Minister, I cannot accept the act of calling in the middle of an operation and interfering with command.

-

At Maxime Weygand's words from over the phone, La Rocque wanted to grab the back of his neck.

La Rocque was dumbfounded by Weygand's reaction.

Should he be grateful that, unlike Gamelin who wouldn't even have a telephone in his command room, this man at least answered the phone?

-We have not conducted such a large-scale offensive recently, and any operation, once executed, is bound to deviate from the initial plan. Please trust our generals and wait.

-

"So I trusted and waited, and now at a moment when we should be attacking Brussels according to the plan, we are just now engaged in combat at the border area!"

The French high command had blundered by creating a plan that moved a force of 2 million in an overly elaborate and choreographed set of movement paths, but not everyone had agreed to this operation, which would unravel if even the slightest thing went wrong.

De Gaulle had proposed forming a separate armored unit to bypass Belgium, have it break through quickly as a vanguard, and have the infantry divisions depart sequentially to advance individually on each front.

But for the conservative French generals, the idea of taking their precious 'infantry support weapons'—the tanks—and giving all the credit to one man was difficult to accept.

This was even more so if it was a proposal from a maverick who had gained fame in Britain with the Prime Minister's full sponsorship while the generals back home sat on their hands.

Things might have been different if they had properly learned the lessons from the German Army's maneuver warfare, but the victory de Gaulle had won against the German armored units in Italy had instead only hardened the French Army's rigid mindset.

Germany's main force was in Italy, and even Rommel's unit had been pulled out to Britain.

In the French Army's thinking, invading a Germany defended by at most 500,000 men with an army of 2 million by bypassing Belgium was a battle they couldn't possibly lose.

All the French Army generals were eager to achieve glory, and they were more focused on distributing the opportunities for glory fairly than on the plan's feasibility.

La Rocque, who had some military insight, thought Charles de Gaulle's opinion made more sense no matter how he looked at it, and he kept demanding that de Gaulle's opinions be heavily referenced in the operational planning, but the military, their pride wounded, told the Prime Minister not to meddle.

Although frustrated, La Rocque, trying not to provoke the military any further in an increasingly unstable political situation, tried trusting them and leaving it to them.

The result was the delay of that grand march.

"General de Gaulle and I have been pointing out from the beginning that there are problems with the plan! Now that it's obvious the plan has failed, you're telling me not to interfere!"

In the end, La Rocque and de Gaulle's judgment was correct.

But the French high command's animosity toward de Gaulle, who had continuously ignored the headquarters' demands to launch an offensive on London, was not insignificant.

In the conservative French Army, de Gaulle had always been treated as a maverick, and Maxime Weygand, who valued chain of command and procedure, utterly loathed him.

-Are you still defending that incompetent man who lost 90,000 precious troops to the German Army without even putting up a proper fight?-

"General de Gaulle's achievements so far cannot be ignored! Besides, if he had launched an offensive on London as headquarters ordered, he might have suffered not 90,000 but even greater casualties!"

It was ironic for de Gaulle, who thought the La Rocque government's days were numbered, but it was La Rocque who had protected de Gaulle from Weygand, who had wanted to dismiss him after his defeat to Rommel.

La Rocque disliked de Gaulle's dogmatic behavior as well, but in the eyes of La Rocque, who had more military prowess than the French high command, there was no one else who could maintain the British Front besides de Gaulle.

-If the Prime Minister who protects that greenhorn de Gaulle and lets him run wild does not respect our headquarters, then it will be difficult for us to respect the Prime Minister any longer.-

But the French high command, especially Maxime Weygand, did not take it gracefully.

Weygand was very displeased that the Prime Minister was backing de Gaulle, whom he loathed, and his pre-existing dissatisfaction with the republic combined to make him unwilling to listen even to sound advice.

-The operation has just begun, and it is not the stage to discuss success or failure.

From now on, I expect you to contact us via messenger, observing the proper courtesy and procedure for frontline commanders.-

With those last words, the call was cut.

La Rocque, his face contorted, held the phone for a moment before putting it down.

Minister of Defense Pétain, who should have been mediating between the military and the government, was openly on the military's side, so La Rocque had no one to turn to.

After a long silence, La Rocque muttered despondently.

"To think I started a war trusting men like these."

It was La Rocque who started the war, but as the military began to run wild, the war was already out of his hands.

-

September 28, 1940

Near Brussels, Belgium, Waterloo

On the 12th day after the war began, Belgium had held on with considerable grit despite its inferior forces and equipment.

But unlike the German border, which had rough terrain and fortified bases like Eben-Emael at key points, there was a limit to how long they could withstand an attack on the western front, which was mostly wide-open plains.

The Belgian Army was continuously pushed back, losing territory, and finally, the front line was pushed back to the vicinity of the capital, Brussels.

Waterloo, the battlefield that sealed Napoleon's downfall, had also become part of the front line, where fierce engagement was taking place.

"Charge!"

"Vive la France!"

The French soldiers, who charged forward with what courage they had, were met with a merciless hail of machine-gun fire and collapsed, riddled with holes like a hornet's nest.

"It hurts, it hurts so much, Mama…"

There was no greatness or glory in the soldier crying while clutching the bright red masses spilling from his stomach, nor in the corpses that lay scattered on the ground, growing cold.

And it was the same for Belgium, which had rejected the hands of both France and Germany, trusting only in its status as a neutral country.

"Fire, fire! Stop the damn frogs!"

The Belgian soldier frantically firing a machine gun from a trench and the assistant gunner helping him had to scream in terror as a stick-shaped object landed next to them.

"G-Grenade!"

"Gasp-!"

They tried to hastily abandon the machine gun and flee, but the grenade was faster, exploding and engulfing them in flames and shrapnel.

"Charge!"

"Waaaah!"

The French Army's offensive was neither sharp nor sophisticated, not even by a long shot.

But the overwhelming number of the Army of 2 million was violence in itself, and the vast plains of Belgium provided a battlefield wide enough for them to charge.

"Aaargh!"

"S-Surrender! We surrender!"

The French Army had botched its overly rushed initial plan and was taking considerable sacrifices, but the hastily constructed defense line of the Belgian Army, numbering only about 400,000, could not hold out for long.

One by one, the Belgian trenches were being overrun by the boots of the Grand Army, which seemed to keep coming no matter how many were shot down.

"The anti-tank rifle isn't working!"

The Belgian Army fought hard, but they were helpless against the Somua tanks that broke through the trench line, unscathed despite the hail of fire.

Their outdated anti-tank equipment was barely a match even for the French Army's light tanks, and against the Somua or Char B1 tanks, they had no way to respond other than to get close and use grenades or explosive charges.

"Ugh, get down!"

The Belgian soldiers, who had been diligently firing their rifles from the trench, had to quickly hide inside it to avoid a charging Somua tank.

The French generals who had at least studied maneuver warfare were all in Britain, but even a tank used only for infantry support was threatening enough for the Belgian Army.

The war situation changed at that moment.

From the western sky, Luftwaffe fighters and Close Air Support (CAS) aircraft flew in and began to mercilessly attack the French forces on the open plain, who had no cover.

"Uwaaaargh!"

"What the!"

Both the attacking French and defending Belgians, without distinction, covered their ears and hit the dirt at the metallic roar of the Stukas as they dive-bombed.

To a modern person, it's just a common symbolic sound effect for an air force bombing in a movie, but to those hearing it for the first time in their lives, it was a terrifying sound that tore at the ears and grated on the nerves.

The French tanks breaking through the Belgian's helpless defense line had their vulnerable tops riddled by machine guns or were blown up on the spot by a direct hit from a dive bomber piloted by a skillful pilot.

In the wake of the Stukas, the slower Hs 123s flew blatantly at low altitude, firing their machine guns, which was fatal to the infantry who were in chaos from the Stuka's roar.

"Aargh, save me!"

"Run!"

The French Army, panicking from the sudden large-scale air raid, ran about in all directions, but luckily for those who had already occupied and hidden in the trenches dug by the Belgians, there was nowhere to hide on the vast plains.

The French Army, which had been doing reasonably well against the weak Belgian Army, was caught defenseless in the air raid without any air support of their own and was panic-stricken.

Thankfully, the German aircraft that had flown in from the west, from the British mainland, did not stay long due to range issues and flew off to the east.

"Hey, snap out of it! The enemy defense line is on the verge of falling anyway! Where has the spirit of the Grand Army gone!"

After the air raid passed, officers and NCOs frantically shouted at the French soldiers, who had yet to recover from the shock and fear, ordering them to attack the near-death Belgian defense line.

But unfortunately for them, the French Army's disaster did not end with the air raid.

"Uh, uh oh! Enemy tanks!"

"Huk…!"

An armored unit, led by Panzer IVs, appeared and began to violate the flank of the French forces that had pushed the Belgian defense line to the brink of collapse.

The French tankers had been in high spirits, breaking through a defense line that was almost defenseless against tanks, but after being scattered chaotically while breaking through the line without even radios, and then getting hit by an air raid, there was no hope.

The precious tanks that might have shown their true worth if they were in Britain began to be picked off one by one by the cohesively moving and coordinated German armored unit, in the hands of French generals operating under an outdated doctrine.

The French Army was collapsing just before victory, just like in that battle that had taken place on this very spot 125 years ago.

"Oh my god…"

Belgian General Victor van Strydonck was muttering with a despondent face, watching the French Army that had been pushing them so hard get hit on the flank by the German armored unit and pushed back in an instant.

Just then, a German command vehicle pulled up right in front of him, and a German general wearing a monocle gave a nod and began to speak.

"General of Armored Troops Walther Model of the German National Defense Forces. I'm the firefighter."

Hearing the words translated by the German military interpreter, General Strydonck was wondering what this was all about when Model asked again.

"Could you please tell me which is the most urgent defense line at the Belgian Army headquarters?"

After saying that, Walther Model took out a Schoka-Kola chocolate and crunched on it.

The French Army, which had wasted time with a huge blunder in its march, was still the Grand Army, and once they entered an all-out battle on the plains with the Belgian Army, they pushed them back without difficulty.

However, once the Luftwaffe, which had half-destroyed the French Air Force on the British mainland, handed the rear to the RAF and flew to the German mainland to cover the Belgian sky, France, whose air power had already been ground down in Britain, could not resist.

Furthermore, as Walther Model, with an Armored Fire Brigade that in the original history would not have appeared until the mid-WWII, began to travel to each of Belgium's critical defense lines and crush the offensive, the French Army's casualties began to snowball.

-

September 30, 1940

Berlin, Northern Germany

At Belgium's request for salvation, having unexpectedly survived thanks to the French Army's grand marching blunder, the reaction within Germany was divided.

There were not a few who looked unfavorably upon Belgium, which had stubbornly criticized the violation of the last war despite our various carrots, and yet, as the self-proclaimed center of Europe against fascists and communists, it was difficult for us to just abandon them.

Besides, if we let Belgium simply collapse, justification aside, the battlefield would become the German mainland, and then no matter how well we defended, casualties would be inevitable.

So the conclusion we reached was close to a compromise.

We turned the Luftwaffe, which had been over in Britain, back to the home country to bomb the French forces attacking Belgium, and we took 100,000 men from Army Group C's 500,000, forming an armored unit to be committed as a fire brigade under General Model's command.

The remaining 400,000, under General Witzleben's command, were to maintain the defense line in preparation for a possible Siegfried Line offensive or a Ruhr bypass through the Ardennes.

If we get the German mainland invaded while trying to help Belgium, it's a reversal of roles, and this much is showing enough sincerity compared to the original history's France, which fought a phoney war while Poland fell and got nothing but criticism.

Anyway, as long as the French Army is attacking the entire Belgian territory, an Ardennes offensive like the original history's Scythe Cut is difficult.

Unlike Hitler, who mobilized a staggering 3 million for the Scythe Cut, all we have in our hands is the 500,000 on the Siegfried Line.

The rest are still tied down on the Italian front, and although the Army is having General von Rundstedt's army group return to the home country, even then, we cannot leave the Eastern Front empty now that Poland's capabilities are at their limit.

Therefore, whether we are to decisively save Poland or settle things with France, it is essential to first end the war with Italy.

"For the leader of a nation to personally visit Berlin for a secret meeting, Germany's prestige has certainly changed."

"Haha, that's right."

It seems like just yesterday that I had to personally visit Budapest to avoid a war with the small country of Hungary because my own house was on fire.

Foreign Minister Weizsäcker and I entered the hotel where we had arranged to meet.

"Welcome. I am Paul, regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and subject of His Majesty King Peter II."

"It is an honor to meet you, His Excellency the Regent.

I am Dietrich Schacht, German Vice-Chancellor."

"Ernst von Weizsäcker, Foreign Minister."

The regent, Prince Paul, smiled elegantly and offered us a seat.

People this aristocratic-looking at a glance are rare in this era. He had a different feel from Hungary's regent, Horthy.

If Horthy exuded a seasoned and profound charisma, this person had a softer charisma.

Well, unlike the regent of a kingless country who prevented the previous king's return, this person became regent unwillingly after the previous king was assassinated…

"I am the one who is pleased to meet the most famous Vice-Chancellor in Europe."

Prince Paul made a shocking statement with a smiling face, flustering me.

Vice-Chancellor. Right, it's not often that someone holding the position of Vice-Chancellor becomes famous in other countries…

"Your Excellency the Regent's nobility is also famous in Germany."

Fortunately, Minister Weizsäcker, like a veteran diplomat, responded appropriately.

"This is quite embarrassing. In that case…"

Prince Paul chuckled lowly and got to the main subject.

"Shall we discuss Italy's occupied territories in the Balkan Peninsula."

It is time to discuss the fate of Italy.