Chapter 146: The Polish Campaign (9)

The fierce bombardment by the German army lasted for more than an hour.

This level of bombardment would be nothing but a tickle in World War I. During World War I, both sides of the war would often use artillery to bombard enemy positions weeks before the infantry launched an attack to "ease" the enemy's defense line. For example, in 1916, in the famous Battle of Verdun, the German army fired a full 1 million shells in one day, and during the entire battle, the armies of both sides fired about 40 million shells at each other.

This time, the German army had conducted careful reconnaissance in advance and had already known the key points of the Polish defense line. In addition, the Polish defense line was very weak because it was too long. As a result, the German artillery fire was bombarded and destroyed in an instant. Looking around, there were ruins and scorched earth everywhere.

When the bombardment ended, the German army of 800,000 troops in the north, south and southwest, which had been ready for action, also rushed across the border. More than 5,000 tanks and armored vehicles of various types rushed into Poland at lightning speed.

The mission of a soldier is to defend his country. Of course, Polish soldiers will not give up their land. There are brave Polish soldiers in many places who are resisting stubbornly. Unfortunately, the Polish command in a state of chaos failed to organize an effective resistance. Many soldiers fought on their own, which seemed so futile in the face of the German steel torrent.

Although they tried their best to defend their homeland, the situation of this war was very pessimistic, and the victory or defeat was doomed from the beginning!

Compared with the Polish command, which did nothing, the staff of the German command went back and forth in an orderly manner to organize the intelligence received and then show the progress of the army on a huge map.

"What a fast progress!" Rundstedt couldn't help but sighed as he looked at the arrows moving on the map. At this moment, several armored armies (the 19th Army, the 22nd Army, the 15th Army, the 16th Army, the 8th Army, etc.) that served as the spearhead had completely broken through the Polish army's first-line defense positions and advanced dozens of kilometers.

Kesselring on the side said. "There are no more planes over Poland. We have completely mastered air superiority."

Wolfram von Richthofen, head of the Army Aviation Corps, was also very happy. "The Army Aviation bombers have cleared 75% of the designated targets."

The two most critical elements of blitzkrieg are tank clusters and air superiority. Both are indispensable (unless both sides have no air force). It would be very dangerous for tank clusters to rush out without air superiority. And it is far from enough to seize air superiority. The air force can only affect the enemy's command, transportation, production and some psychological deterrence in the early stage. At this time, the ground tank cluster is the main force of the attack. The tank cluster tears open the enemy's defense line, and then strikes and surrounds the enemy who was affected by various aspects, especially the air force, in the early stage of the war through large-scale interspersed movements.

The German army had firmly controlled the air supremacy on the battlefield. Under the strong deterrence of the Army Air Force bombers, the Polish army had difficulty moving during the day and could only watch the German ground armored mechanized forces quickly break through the defense line. The German troops following closely followed the command of the headquarters and penetrated into the depth of the Polish army, dividing and encircling the Polish army. The defense zones of the seven Polish armies were isolated and fragmented.

Under the leadership of Guderian, the blitzkrieg freak and blitzkrieg hero who would sweep across Europe, the 19th Armored Army cut into the Polish corridor with a stab and headed east.

Following closely behind was the entire Fourth Army, and the First Infantry Division, one of the Fourth Army's reserves, was subsequently thrown into the battle to recapture the city of Danzig.

At this time, the port of the Free City of Danzig was already filled with the sound of artillery.

Yannick originally intended to send the new Scharnhorst, but was worried that the Poles would become suspicious, so he sent an old battleship, the Schleswig-Holstein, according to the original history, to make a "friendly visit" to the Free City of Danzig in the name of "commemorating the fallen soldiers of World War I".

It was nominally a "friendly visit", but the captain, Colonel Krekamp, ​​had already received a secret order from the headquarters, which was also the real purpose of this trip. "Destroy the Polish Navy after the start of the 'White Plan'; blockade the Polish coast, block its ports, and destroy Poland's maritime shipping; ensure Germany's maritime security."

Admiral Albrecht, commander of the Eastern Theater of the German Navy and chief of naval operations, instructed Krekamp to anchor his warship in a favorable position near the Westerplatte Fortress in the northern suburbs of Danzig, waiting for Y time, the time to start the war.

In the anxious wait, at five o'clock this morning, Yannick's order of "declare war!" was finally heard on the radio.

A harsh battle alarm sounded on the battleship.

The sailors, who were already filled with indignation over the "Oles Village Massacre", rushed to their posts at the fastest speed. If the captain hadn't stopped them, they would have blown all these bastards up yesterday.

Ten minutes later, the four main guns on the battleship roared and poured shells into the Westerplatte Fortress, firing. The Polish barracks and positions 600 meters away were also bombarded by the secondary guns.

The Polish 209th Infantry Regiment stationed in the Westerplatte Fortress had 182 soldiers, including 1 75mm gun, 2 37mm guns, 4 81mm mortars and 22 heavy machine guns. The German side had 4 280mm guns, 10 150mm guns and 4 88mm guns.

At this time, 18 German bombers flew over and attacked the Polish naval and air force base Puk, destroying the facilities and all seaplanes in the base. All ships in the Gdynia Naval Base and the Hel Base were evacuated to the sea, and only the old gunboats Mazur and Nurek remained in Gdynia, using their five 75mm guns to support the Polish garrison in the Danzig area.

However, they did not last long, and their doom came when the Stuka dived down with a sharp whistle.

At this time, Danzig was a free city under the jurisdiction of the League of Nations, and the number of garrisons in the city was pitiful. In order to capture the fortress, the Germans, in addition to the 280mm and 150mm guns on the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, also brought in 210mm howitzers, 105mm cannons and air support.

Yannick certainly knew that the German army in the original time and space had suffered a big setback in this Westerplatte Fortress, and did not intend to waste precious troops in these places. For the one-sided battle of the Polish Campaign, he wanted to turn this battle into a huge weapons testing ground, and this famous fortress tragically became a testing ground for German offensive weapons.

There will be another chapter later, I wish you all a happy new year!