Chapter 168: The Polish Campaign (31)

"Your Highness, General."

Rommel, who came up, saluted the two respectfully.

Yannick nodded and asked kindly. "General Rommel, I heard that you don't care much about food?"

It is said that Rommel's life is very simple, trying to show that he shares the joys and sorrows with the soldiers. His daily diet is just dry bread and a little canned food. The leftovers are often saved for the next meal. The hard and rough diet made Rommel suffer from serious stomach problems. In the later period, the combat conditions of the German army had reached the limit and it was almost impossible to eat enough.

"I have privately hired a Chinese medicine practitioner and health practitioner. From now on, he will be fully responsible for your diet. You will eat whatever he tells you to eat and eat as much as he tells you to eat. If you dare to disobey, I will transfer you back to China and arrange a leisurely job for you, and you will never have to go to the battlefield in this life." Because there was a powerful Ming Dynasty at that time, Chinese traditional medicine was not looked down upon by Western medicine like in the original time and space.

And at this time, Rommel had not yet suffered from the stomach disease that troubled him later. But Yannick was worried that this guy would abandon the troops and go back to celebrate his wife's birthday one day, so he always sent him a capable deputy, who was enough to stabilize the team when Rommel was away. It was not known whether they could win the battle, but at least they would not be defeated.

"..." Rommel was both moved and depressed. "Thank you, Your Highness." Then he reported that their previous exploratory attack was repelled by the Warsaw defenders.

At the beginning of the Soviet attack, Marshal Smygwi, who vowed to live and die with Warsaw, fled Warsaw with President Mościcki and fled to Lublin, southeast of Warsaw, with government agencies.

The embassies of various countries originally living in Warsaw also received the notice from Germany and evacuated Warsaw very cooperatively.

At this time, there were about 20,000 reserve soldiers who could be armed in Warsaw. Including the police and the real defense forces, Warsaw garrison commander Carol Rommel assembled a full 80,000 "soldiers" to defend against the German attack. The citizens who remained in Warsaw voluntarily took up arms to protect their homes. Under the leadership of the "Warsaw Defense Command", these volunteers set up many ambulances, first aid stations and fire brigades.

And the workers also spontaneously formed a workers' camp. The total number is as high as 2,000.

Under the active organization of General Carol Rommel, every building in Warsaw was surrounded by sandbags, cement and barbed wire. Spider-web-like underground passages connected and communicated various defense strongholds, and a large number of anti-tank trenches also appeared on the main streets of Warsaw. In addition, there were roadblocks made of various stones and bricks on the streets.

For a time, the eyes of both Germany and Poland and even the whole world were focused on Warsaw, a city with a history of 60 years.

When introducing the Warsaw garrison commander Carol Rommel, Rommel looked a little embarrassed.

Yannick laughed. "Another Rommel? That's interesting. I heard that you also captured a Rommel before?"

Rommel nodded. "Yes, he is the commander of the Lodz Army Group, Julius Rommel."

"You are relatives, right? The Rommel family is really full of talents." After praising, Yannick thought for a while and said. "You can talk to Julius Rommel or Carol Rommel. Uh, Carol Rommel is still unwilling to surrender? Then let him wait until he is captured. Ask them if they are willing to submit to us. Anyway, we have to find an agent to manage here. Since you are relatives, it's better to keep the benefits within the family."

Rommel was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect Yannick to have such a plan. "Thank you, Your Highness."

As for the resistance to Warsaw, Yannick said nonchalantly. "In fact, we just need to cut off all energy and food supplies in Warsaw and wait for them to surrender and come out. I want to train those street fighting troops, and practice with these soft eggs first, so that I can have a foundation when I encounter a real hard battle in the future." Street fighting is the best choice for the weak to deal with strong soldiers. It is a real "meat grinder" and a slaughterhouse; the winner and the loser will suffer staggering losses.

For this reason, Yannick specially built a force that can assist regular troops in street fighting.

This street fighting force is equipped with powerful automatic firepower, and the infantry is equipped with G43, MP44, MP40, shotguns, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, Panzerfausts, etc.

The assault gun based on the hull of the Jackal tank has a thick layer of armor all over its body. Because of the increase in weight, the speed of this street fighting tank is only about ten kilometers per hour, making it a veritable infantry tank.

The self-propelled anti-aircraft gun modified on the chassis of the Jackal tank is designed according to the famous ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in later generations. Although it does not have advanced devices such as radar and onboard computers, it has 4 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and its firepower is quite strong. Moreover, the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns are like artifacts in this kind of street fighting because of their high elevation angle and comprehensive armor protection. Because they have to deal with targets such as airplanes, this weapon can adjust the turret angle very quickly, and the reaction time is relatively shorter, so it can deal with threats from all directions more quickly.

There are also flamethrower tanks, six-barrel small rocket launchers, mortars, etc.

Among them, what he values ​​most is the snipers that he has carefully trained over the years. They are equipped with the "super-large" walkie-talkies that the US military will equip in a few years, that is, super-big mobile phones weighing nearly 5 kilograms. Made by Siemens, it has tunable high-frequency FM communication, which can be used for voice calls or Morse code, with an effective communication distance of about 16 kilometers. With this thing, the sniper team can not only snipe the enemy, but also call for artillery fire to cover the enemy's large targets very conveniently.

Arriving at the headquarters, Rommel pointed to the huge map of Warsaw on the wall and continued to report. "The Army Air Force bombers have destroyed the water plant, water supply station, and power station in Warsaw. At present, most areas in Warsaw are out of water and electricity."

"Not bad." Yannick nodded with satisfaction, and asked after listening to all the reports. "Is K5 ready? I want to see the power of those big guys." He didn't have the leisure to stay here for a long time, but before leaving, he wanted to see the power of the K5 railway gun.

The concept of railway guns originated in the 1850s, when it was proposed in the British Anderson's work "National Defense". After the 1860s, Russia also had the same concept. The first country to use railway guns was the United States. During the Civil War, the Union Army (Northern Army) used a 13-inch mortar mounted on an uncovered train for the first time to bombard Petersburg, the base of the Confederate Army (Southern Army). This was the world's first railway gun.

During World War I and World War II, Germany also began to use railway guns as weapons to bombard fortresses and trenches, pushing the use of railway guns to a new peak. During World War I, Germany used the "Paris-Geschütz" with a range of 130 kilometers to bombard Paris, France. Its total weight is 256 tons, length is 34 meters, caliber is 211 mm, effective range is 130 kilometers, and the shells fly 40 kilometers above the ground. This is also the first man-made object in human history to enter the stratosphere.

Unlike the famous "Gustav" railway gun, the 218-ton K5 railway gun does not need to be disassembled and assembled, and can be stopped and fired at any time, and can be run at any time. In the Battle of Anzio in Italy in 1944, two K5 guns hid in the railway tunnel of Anzio to avoid bombing, and ran out to attack the Allied soldiers and equipment who were landing after the bombing. Every time the K5 fired, it would cause a large number of casualties, and some landing troops would even be wiped out as a whole. This caused great panic among the Allies and severely hit the morale of the officers and soldiers involved in the war, so the K5 had another nickname, "Anzio Express".

"Please wait." Rommel picked up the phone and ordered.

A few minutes later, a sharp and extremely air-breaking sound passed over their heads, followed by a deafening explosion in the distant Warsaw, and the ground was shaking slightly.

Looking at the huge smoke billowing up in Warsaw, Yannick couldn't help but sigh. "Oh, it's really a big guy, this power is really strong!"