Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

The British and French forces in the original time and space did not retreat blindly. They also fought back.

In order to prevent the German advance and defend the defense line, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Viscount Gort, ordered a counterattack on the German flank near the northwest French town of Arras in an attempt to delay the German offensive to avoid the British army being surrounded.

Frankly speaking, the British did a great job in counterattacking this time, but the Germans were still unaware of what happened, and the Germans failed in the first confrontation. The reason is that the British army used the Matilda 2 tank that has been hidden. The armor of this tank, especially the front armor, is extremely thick. The armor-piercing bullets fired by the German standard 37mm anti-tank gun are like scratching an itch, which is very harmful to Matilda. The Erda tank had no effect. Some soldiers even fired at the risk of injury 5 meters away from Matilda, but they still could not penetrate Matilda's armor. At this time, the soldiers' bravery had no meaning. All they could do was watch Matilda rotate the turret, destroy the German anti-tank guns one by one, and then rush into the German positions and wreak havoc on the Germans. The Germans suffered heavy casualties. Even Rommel's adjutant, Lieutenant Most, could not escape the disaster and was shot dead by the British army only 1 meter away from Rommel.

In desperation, Rommel mobilized the division's 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 105mm field guns and put them into the defense line as anti-tank guns. At the last moment, he also set up a lot of explosives around the position to stop the Matilda tanks. . The British Expeditionary Force was forced to halt its advance after suffering losses. Rommel then launched a successful counterattack with the support of the Luftwaffe, driving the British troops back.

As the secret weapon of the British Empire, the Matilda 2 tank appeared for the first time in the Arras Counterattack.

From the 1930s to the late 1940s, the British military divided tanks into: infantry tanks and cruise tanks. Among them, the requirements for infantry tanks are: strong armor protection; the driving speed should not be very high so that the infantry charging on foot can keep up; it does not require strong attack power, and the tank's weapons only need machine guns. These requirements are indeed not high, but the cost restrictions are also very strict. The cost of the entire vehicle is only 6,000 pounds.

Soon, Britain's largest arms manufacturer, Vickers Company, designed the Matilda I tank with only one vehicle-mounted machine gun for infantry support. The Matilda II tank has many improvements in design compared to the original Type I tank. The thickest point of the armor has reached 78 mm. The original turret position was also improved from a 7mm caliber vehicle-mounted machine gun to a 2-pound (40mm) caliber high-speed tank gun.

Although this counterattack ended in the failure of the British army, the Matilda heavy tank as the "ace" can be said to be almost invincible.

Even Rommel, the "Desert Fox" who would dominate North Africa in the future, exclaimed when he saw the Matilda heavy tank in the distance: "It would be great if we could have such a tank." It can be said that in the early days of the war, except for using mine arrays to trap Matilda, sending infantry to close-in blasting, and using powerful 88mm anti-aircraft guns, the Germans had no weapons that could stop Matilda.

But this time it is very different. The German Jackal tank is equipped with a 50MM KwK 39L/60 tank gun. The vertical armor penetration at a distance of 500 meters can reach 88 mm. The infantry not only has Hunter destroyers equipped with equally powerful tank guns, but also individual rockets with an armor-piercing depth of 220mm.

Having seen the French B1 heavy tank being beaten to pieces, Viscount Gott did not dare to let his armored forces counterattack easily. After all, Prime Minister Churchill had repeatedly warned that the expeditionary force must be brought back intact.

But not fighting back doesn't mean they will be safe.

At this time, General Wells, commander of the 1st Armored Division of the British Expeditionary Force, looked at the oil statistics report he had just received and sighed deeply.

The British 1st Armored Division was an armored force established by the British after World War I. During World War I, the British first used tanks in actual combat. On the battlefield, some British commanders realized that preparing armor The importance of troops in combat. At that time, many countries were still at a relatively unfamiliar stage of understanding tanks, and Britain had already taken the lead in putting mechanized troops on the battlefield in World War I. Therefore, after the war, some commanders of the British military wanted to strike while the iron was hot to form a truly meaningful force. Armored troops on board.

The 1st Armored Division consists of 2 armored cavalry brigades composed of tanks and armored vehicles, 1 tank brigade, 2 mechanized infantry battalions, and some artillery and engineer support units.

At this time, the British 1st Armored Division had 500 tanks, most of which were composed of light tanks.

They retreated all the way from Brussels and were chased by German infantry and armored troops. They lost countless supplies on the way and left nearly 100 tanks to stop the Germans. But as a result, they are still here today. They were unable to get rid of the German troops behind them.

The most terrible thing is that there is still a lot of oil in the lost supplies, and the French transportation lines have been cut off by the Germans, and it is impossible to transport supplies to them; they are armored forces, and once the oil supply is cut off, the armored forces will be a pile of broken copper. Rotten iron.

Viscount Gott repeatedly urged them to retreat more quickly, but they were not infantry and could walk with just their feet. Is it difficult to let them carry the tank and run without fuel?

Admiral Wells made a rough calculation and found that the remaining fuel could only allow his division to go more than fifty kilometers away from Dunkirk before the entire division would have to shut down.

Now he only has two choices, either to rush forward with his head down, and it doesn't matter where he can go. When he reaches a place where he can't walk anymore, the tank soldiers get off the car and turn into infantry and continue to move forward; or he can abandon a group of tanks and armored vehicles and concentrate the fuel. up so that the remaining tanks should be able to make it to Dunkirk. But they have already lost nearly 100 tanks. If they lose another batch, it will be equivalent to losing half of the tanks of the entire armored division to the German army.

"Damn, this is so cowardly!" The rabbit bit someone in a hurry, let alone a proud soldier of the British Empire.

Cursing fiercely, Admiral Wells called the correspondent. "Send a telegram to His Excellency Viscount Gott and tell him that I will personally lead an armored brigade and an anti-tank artillery regiment to stop the German army and buy time for the large army!" Even if we can evacuate to Dunkirk if we are being chased like this, I'm afraid they didn't even have a chance to build a defensive line before they were bulldozed by the German armored forces.

When he summoned his subordinates to announce this decision, they all volunteered to ask him to stay, but they were all vetoed by Admiral Wells. "Don't talk nonsense, I have made up my mind. The Germans will catch up at any time, so hurry up and collect fuel!"