Chapter 215 Liege

The Belgians around the Fortress of Eben Emaar really intend to reinforce/take back the fortress. After all, the fortress is a top priority and it took a lot of manpower and material resources to build. It is so hard to swallow it if it is just handed over to others. tone.

However, before the Belgian infantrymen who came for reinforcements got close to the fortress, they were blown up by German bombers in the sky.

After several waves of reinforcements were repulsed, the Belgians became cruel and decided to simply bombard the fortress. Since the fortress cannot be recaptured, then all the Germans exposed outside the fortress will be blown up to the sky.

There are several artillery positions near the fortress. Unfortunately, the shooting of these big guys was aimed at external parties. After all, who would point the muzzle at their own fortress. These cannons are quite old, left over from the last war. They have a caliber of 150 mm, which sounds quite scary, but unfortunately they are short-barreled. The whole appearance looks like a big artillery piece.

Just as these artillerymen turned their guns and aimed their muzzles at the Eben Emar Fortress, adjusting their angles to shoot at the various elements, there were bursts of heart-rending screams in the sky.

These people instinctively looked up at the sky and saw planes swooping down from the clouds.

"German bombers!!"

Before he finished speaking, the Stuka formation, which had already dived to the extreme height, dropped bombs one after another. The piled up artillery shells were detonated, and the entire artillery position was immediately engulfed in a sea of ​​fire.

The rest of the artillery positions were also hit.

In this way, from morning to noon, the Belgian army could not even get close, let alone recapture the fortress.

The main vanguard of the German Army Group B has already arrived.

The first to cross the river were the two tank divisions of General Reichenau's Sixth Army. In addition to these two tank divisions, he also had 14 infantry divisions under his command. The task he received was to break through between Maastricht and Liege. On the front, open the road to Brussels, meet the enemy troops in the area north of the Meuse and Sambre rivers as soon as possible, and blockade the north of the Liege Fortress to protect the flank security of the German westward advancing group.

Reichenau's mission was of decisive significance to the victory of the entire campaign. Whether the forces of the Belgian Army and the British and French allied armies could be resolutely restrained so that they would soon lose their freedom of movement depended on the speed of the German Sixth Army's actions.

Reichenau often personally directed the commandos to advance, taking the lead in crossing walls under a hail of bullets, which greatly boosted morale. Of course, this is also related to his love of sports in his youth, his abundant physical strength, and his love of self-expression, which prompted his heroic performance on the battlefield.

As a high-ranking military official, Reichenau also knew his side's true strategic intentions. The military activities of Army Group B could be said to be just a false move, while Army Group A's direct penetration into the Ardennes Forest was the real killer move.

However, Reichenau did not dare to neglect anything and used the most rapid offensive to attack Belgium. Only by doing this can Britain and France mistakenly judge that this is the main direction of the German army's attack, and attract more coalition forces to jump into this huge encirclement.

But now watching his tank troops rumble across the bridge on the Albert Canal and advance rapidly, Reichenau felt that even without military operations in the Ardennes, he could achieve the final victory by relying solely on frontal military operations. victory.

When passing the Eben Emar Fortress, Reichenau's command armored vehicle stopped and called for Lieutenant Weiqige, the leader of the "Granite" commando. "Young man, how did you capture this fortress in such a short period of time?"

Lieutenant Weiqige reported truthfully. "Report to the general. This fortress had been bombed once before we landed. After we landed, few soldiers in the fortress came out to resist."

"Oh?" Reichenau couldn't help but wonder. "How come I didn't know about this bombing?"

Lieutenant Weiqige explained. "General, I saw those bombers with Praetorian Guard X Troop printed on them."

Reichenau suddenly realized. "So that's it." Troop X of the Imperial Guard is directly responsible to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and sometimes even the headquarters doesn't know their battle plans. It seems that they used some secret weapon on this fortress. "Did the soldiers in the fortress surrender?"

"There is no general. We eliminated dozens of soldiers who rushed out, blew up all the entrances, exits and gun ports, and blocked the vent valves of the fortress. They were all trapped inside, and now they should... need to be rescued Rescue him?"

Reichenau shook his head. "No, let them stay. We don't have the extra energy to take care of them. Thank you for your hard work, young man." After some more encouragement, Reichenau sat back in the car and continued to follow his troops.

Until six o'clock in the evening, they did not encounter any decent resistance and advanced thirty kilometers in one breath.

Such rapid advancement is of course inseparable from the cover of the aviation force. The attack of the troops, especially the attack of the armored troops, requires absolute safety overhead; and now, in order to seize air supremacy, the German Air Force dispatched thousands of fighter jets on the long offensive line!

For the armored troops on the ground, only by ensuring absolute air superiority over their heads can they attack without fear.

Reichenau's vanguard had already reached the outskirts of Liege.

Looking at the ruins of Liege Fortress in the distance, Reichenau sighed with emotion.

In the last 10 years of the 19th century, the Belgians spent a huge amount of manpower and material resources to build the Liege Fortress. There were 12 permanent fortifications arranged in a circle around the city (clockwise: Fort Ponthi at 1 o'clock, Fort Bahon at 2 o'clock, Fort Yvegenie at 3 o'clock, Fort Fleron at 4 o'clock, Fort Chaudfontaine at 5 o'clock, Fort En at 6 o'clock, Fort Boncel at 7 o'clock, Fort Flameir at 8 o'clock, Fort Augergne at 9 o'clock, Fort Roncing at 10 o'clock, Fort Landing at 11 o'clock, Fort Leer at 12 o'clock). These forts were equipped with 252 artillery pieces of various calibers, and were densely covered with machine gun firing points and infantry firing holes.

If we look at their relative positions to the Meuse River, these forts can be divided into two parts: the six forts from 2 o'clock to 7 o'clock are located on the west bank of the Meuse River, and the six forts from 8 o'clock to 1 o'clock are located on the east bank. The fortresses were all built on small hills around the city, with the highest point at an altitude of 260 meters and the lowest at 130 meters. The firing holes and firepower point-firing ranges set on the fortresses are wide, overlooking the surrounding area at the foot of the mountain, while the fortresses themselves are relatively hidden. The firepower arrangement between the fortresses is also quite clever. When any fortress is attacked, the two nearby fortresses can provide firepower assistance.

According to the plan of the German Chief of Staff Moltke the Younger at the time, the general attack on France would adopt the strategy of "base plate + turn plate"; that is, with the Metz fortress at the junction of Germany, France and Belgium as the rotation axis, 200,000 people were deployed in the Alsace and Lorraine regions on the left wing as the "base plate" to contain the heavy French troops in front of them, and another 200,000 troops in the Metz area as the "turn plate pivot", concentrating 700,000 heavy troops on the right wing, forming a powerful and mobile "turn plate", crossing the Belgian territory along the seashore, forcing the Seine River, occupying Paris, and then detouring to the northeast, and flanking the left wing and the Metz group to annihilate the main force of the French army at the Franco-German border. The key to this strategy was whether the German right-wing group could capture the important Belgian city of Liege within a few days (7 railways and 17 roads intersect here, with a population of more than 200,000 and about 30 kilometers from the border). It only takes 3 hours to take the express train from here to Paris.

As a result, the Liege fortress became a stumbling block for the German army. The German army used various "battery rams" (large-caliber heavy artillery) and attacked continuously for 13 days, opening the way to attack France at the cost of 50,000 casualties.