77

May 20, 1940

French Debuch

"Shoot!"

When a volley of artillery fire broke the quiet silence of the morning, a flock of birds startled by the gunfire all jumped out of their seats and flew up.

Not only howitzers and self-propelled guns, but also anti-tank guns and 88mm anti-aircraft guns were mobilized for bombardment.

When the Ketzhen, which was used not only for transporting infantry but also for transporting ammunition, arrived, artillerymen rushed in and diligently carried the ammunition.

While Vespe and Grille continued to fire, He 111 and Ju88 flew back and forth in the sky, dropping bombs.

The British soldiers could not raise their heads due to the non-stop rain of steel.

The soldiers had no choice but to crouch on the floor of the trench and wait for the bombardment to end.

Occasionally, if a bomb hit a trench directly, an entire platoon in the trench would disappear.

While the air force and artillery pounded the enemy lines, German infantry in rubber boats and rowboats crossed the river.

The width of the river is less than 50m, but the water is deep, so according to the plan, we had to wait for the arrival of the engineers. However, the commanders, who were in a hurry to make every minute, proceeded with the crossing in a hurry.

It took a long time for thousands of soldiers to cross the river with only 12 rubber boats.

The soldiers who crossed the river first ran toward the enemy camp instead of waiting for the later troops to arrive.

Although the troops numbered less than a dozen, they felt no fear thanks to the influence of Coca-Cola and Pervitin pills.

In fact, I was so unable to feel fear that it was almost like I was running away. This is because overly excited soldiers often ignored orders and attacked the enemy.

The counterattack at Arras failed miserably.

The British army lost 52 out of 74 tanks and over 300 infantrymen were killed.

The French army, upon hearing the news of the British army's offensive, also quickly increased its troops, but it was of little help.

When the offensive ended in failure, the British army gave up all hope and retreated toward the Atlantic.

As the British army retreated, the French and Belgian armies also began retreating one after another, and the German army closely pursued the retreating Allied forces.

At dawn on May 20, Guderian ordered the 1st Panzer Division to advance to Calais, the 2nd Panzer Division to Boulogne-sur-Mer, and the 10th Panzer Division to Dunkirk.

Hitler instructed him to advance unconditionally without worrying about the damage. must.

-I only trust the general. Throw all of your enemies into the sea without leaving a single one behind.

"Don't worry, Mr. President. "I will definitely show them what hell is like."

Hitler was satisfied with Guderian's answer and hung up the phone.

***

"The Jerrys are coming! Everyone, brace yourselves!"

Private Henry Gordon was relieved that the bombardment had finally ended, but when he heard that the Germans were coming, Private Henry Gordon felt his stomach turn.

Damn it, I came back from death, but it looks like I'm dying again.

When the bombardment that lasted for over 30 minutes ended, only about 40 members of Gordon's company survived.

All the rest were either cut into pieces or buried in the ground.

Because it was hit squarely by Ju88 bombing, Gordon's company suffered particularly greater damage than other companies.

Considering that it is generally considered annihilated when 30% of the total number of troops becomes incapable of combat, Gordon's company was not only annihilated, but almost completely destroyed.

According to the rule, it would be right to retreat to reorganize the troops, but retreating was out of the question when the enemy was right in front of us.

Gordon looked around.

The area was full of big and small pits.

When Gordon saw the corpses and flesh scattered around the pit, he couldn't hold it in any longer and vomited.

"Uweek!"

All I ate for two days was a biscuit and a cup of tea, but there was a lot to eat.

Gordon, with an empty stomach, moved to a nearby trench to avoid the stench of his own vomit.

"Hey, Gordon. "Are you still alive?"

Classmate August Aim looked at Gordon and smiled awkwardly.

"What are you like? "If anyone saw it, they would think it was buried in the ground and came back out."

Gordon said after seeing August covered in dirt.

"that's right. "I was buried alive, but I barely escaped."

It was meant as a joke, but it wasn't a joke to August.

He almost died when the trench wall collapsed and he was crushed to death, but barely escaped.

Perhaps because he came back from the dead, August's eyes could not be seen as normal.

"Do you have cigarettes? "I can't find mine because it's buried in the dirt."

"here. "Have a smoke."

Gordon handed over the mast that he had saved until the end for his motivation. August smoked a cigarette without hesitation.

Perhaps due to the effects of nicotine, the anxious movements of the eyes decreased and the tremors in the hands and feet also disappeared.

"Damn you Jerry. "What kind of trouble is this because of those guys, really?"

"The French guys are more problematic than Jerry guys. "They were pushed all the way here because they were all cowards."

"come! "Ready to fire!"

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of German soldiers.

Gordon picked up his Lee-Enfield and aimed forward.

As expected, German soldiers were running from far away. The number is about twenty people.

"Start shooting!"

When the sergeant acting as the company commander ordered fire, the company members opened fire.

The other companies refrained from firing with the intention of drawing the enemy in until they came a little closer, but when Gordon's company fired first, they continued to fire.

Gordon took aim at the German soldier who was running with a new submachine gun that he had never seen before and pulled the trigger, but the enemy did not fall and kept running.

I was so nervous that my aim was lost.

Two shots were fired in succession, but this time the bullets missed.

Lewis light machine guns opened fire against the charging German troops.

Two German soldiers fell into rags after being subjected to heavy machine gun fire.

However, the surrounding German troops continued running without any sign of lowering their posture or slowing down.

"What on earth are they? "Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Gordon felt fear beyond absurdity.

Even if a colleague running next to him fell, the German soldier ran without a moment of hesitation.

It was like looking at a machine rather than a person.

The German army, which numbered about twenty, numbered forty in the blink of an eye. There were more new soldiers joining than the soldiers who died after being shot.

In the eyes of the British soldiers, it seemed that the more they fired, the more enemies there were. Voices of agitation came out among the soldiers.

When the Germans also started shooting, the British soldiers fell.

The German army, armed with the latest firearms such as MP38 and MP40 submachine guns and StG39 assault rifles, overwhelmed the British army armed with Lee-Enfield in firepower.

Unlike bolt-action rifles, which require you to manually move the bolt to remove shells and load them, submachine guns and assault rifles automatically fire bullets by simply pulling the trigger, allowing you to spray more bullets in a short period of time.

With the addition of the MG40 machine gun, the British army was now forced to lie down to avoid the Germans' bullets.

"Jerry, you guys are all armed with submachine guns, right?"

"War sucks. "Are you going to live with this because it's so sad?"

To the eyes of the British military, who did not know the existence of assault rifles, the StG39 also appeared to be a submachine gun.

The British army also imported Thompson submachine guns from the United States, but they were not supplied in large quantities due to their high price, so there were only a few per company.

Even these were no match for the German army armed with automatic weapons, as many of them had been lost in the previous artillery bombardment.

"Those Jerrys are also carrying submachine guns. What is this about the British Empire Army?"

"Do you understand? "It's probably because of that damn money!"

August, who was responding to Gordon's complaints, put down his gun and picked up a grenade.

After pulling out the pin of the grenade, I counted three seconds out loud and threw it with all my might.

The grenade thrown by August blew away two German soldiers who were shooting MG40s in a prone position.

"Good-"

August, who was cheering when he saw that the grenade he had thrown hit the enemy, suddenly collapsed. He was hit by a German bullet.

"August!"

Gordon approached August, who was lying on the floor and writhing in surprise.

August was no longer from this world.

The blood flowing from the hole between his eyes showed that he had stopped breathing.

August died without any knowledge of what had happened to him. The smile that remained on his face made his death even more tragic.

"Holy shit..."

Gordon gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger of the rifle, holding back tears.

"Khaak!"

A German soldier who was hiding behind a tree and firing a submachine gun fell down, clutching his thigh.

Gordon pulled the trigger at the head of the fallen German soldier.

As the bullet missed the side of the helmet, the German soldier quickly lowered his head.

While Gordon was reloading, another German soldier grabbed his fallen comrade by the neck and pulled him back.

"It's a tank! "A tank has appeared!"

Dealing with infantry was difficult enough, but now tanks appeared. It was the 4th tank armed with a long-barreled 75mm main gun.

Before we knew it, the engineers arrived and built a pontoon bridge, and tanks were crossing the river. It was the worst situation for the British army, which had no tanks.

Tank 4, which was approaching with its turret equipped with an elongated main gun like an elephant's trunk, was suddenly attacked on the side and stopped.

Cloudy gray smoke billowed from the affected area.

Gordon blinked inexplicably.

The King's anti-tank rifle gunner, who was ambushed on the right, hit the side of the 4th Panzer.

The 14mm armor-piercing round that penetrated the side armor instantly killed the driver and injured the operator.

Although it was not enough to destroy the tank, it was powerful enough to penetrate the armor and kill the tank crews.

The tank crews had no idea where the bullets came from. While the enemy was struggling, the gunner fired his rifle again.

-Kang!

"Kwaaaaaa!!!"

Almost at the same time as the sharp sound of metal breaking, a miserable scream erupted. It was the scream of a tank soldier whose arm was cut off by a bullet.

The third bullet damaged the shutter, rendering the tank's main gun unusable.

A tank weighing nearly 24 tons was knocked out of combat by a 22kg anti-tank rifle.

As the tank fell silent, cheers erupted from the trenches.

However, when the second tank appeared, the cheers were cut off as if cut with a knife.

The second tank came straight towards the anti-tank rifle position. When the MG34 on the front of the hull was fired, the anti-tank rifle gunner fell low.

The driver of the No. 4 tank, which had already approached the position, turned the car body and crushed the position in an endless track.

The track that touched the ground of the camp rotated and crushed the body of the anti-tank gunner, causing finely chopped blood, flesh, and pieces of internal organs to splatter in all directions.

Gordon couldn't even move a finger as the scene was so horrific that he couldn't bear to open his eyes and see it.

Panzer 4, with pieces of flesh and intestines stuck to its entire track, turned again and approached the trench.

A few half-conscious soldiers escaped from the trenches and ran to the seemingly safe rear, but as soon as most of them came out of the trenches, they were met with concentrated fire from the Germans and turned into a beehive.

As the two MG34s mounted on Panzer 4 burst into flames, Gordon put his head down on the bottom of the trench.

Every time I heard the sound of a bullet passing through the wind, my body trembled.

When Panzer 4 opened its guns, an ear-piercing explosion filled the trench.

The soldier who was firing the Lewis light machine gun, the officer who was giving orders to the soldiers, and the sergeants who were urging the panicked soldiers were swept up into the air by the explosion.

"Aaaah!!!"

"help me!"

"God! God!"

Every time a stray bullet hit the trench, a scream of despair erupted.

Gordon was literally on the verge of going crazy. I had a strong desire to scream and run out of the trench at any moment.

With just one tank, the British defense line was almost devastated.

When there were no visible enemy forces, the tank commander ordered the driver to advance.

As the track rolled over the messed up trench, dirt poured into the trench and covered the dead soldiers with their bodies mangled.

As the tram passed, Gordon barely opened his eyes. When he raised his head, his eyes caught the sight of a black gun aimed between his eyes.

"Surrender, Tommy!"

In front of Gordon, a young-looking German soldier who appeared to be still in his teens was standing with his gun pointed at him.

The pronunciation was strange, but I could understand the meaning. Gordon obediently placed his hands above his head.

"Comrades, surrender. "I won't harm you if you put down your weapon obediently."

A German officer wearing an officer's cap instead of a Stahlhelm shouted in fluent English.

The soldiers who were only observing each other's thoughts stood up hesitantly when they heard the German officer's words.

"It's no use pretending to be dead. Surrender now instead of having to worry about getting caught later. "We will treat you as prisoners of war fairly in accordance with the Geneva Convention."

Three more people who had been lying on the floor pretending to be corpses stood up.

The German army forced the surrendered British soldiers out of the trenches. However, leave the weapons in the trench.

While the Germans lined up the prisoners and inspected their belongings, Panzer IV and Sd.Kfz 251 armored personnel carriers took turns passing through the trenches.

As he watched the enemy army marching north, Gordon felt empty in his heart.

"It's over."

***

May 21, 1940

Boulogne-sur-Mer, France

The German army that occupied Debres was supplied with fuel and ammunition and then advanced straight to Boulogne.

The Renault AMR 33 light tank, which boasts light mobility, had a hard time even against the No. 2 tank, which is rated as second-class in the German military.

The AMR 33's 7.5mm Ravel machine gun was only effective against infantry and cavalry, but was ineffective against armored tanks.

Tank No. 2, which was charging while lightly deflecting the bullets fired by the enemy tank, stopped and fired its 20mm cannon.

As the four AMR 33s formed a beehive in succession, the French army scattered to the left and right.

"Charge, forward!"

"The Fuhrer is watching us!"

"Wow!!!"

The German soldiers, whose minds were dominated by confidence in victory, loyalty to the Fuhrer, and the pleasure and excitement brought by Pervitin pills, walked without hesitation towards the battlefield where bullets rained down.

Even when they saw their comrades being shot to death next to them, the soldiers did not flinch but ran wild like mad dogs.

The French army was unable to withstand the German army charging at them, firing MP38s and StG39s wildly.

While the French soldiers fired a single bullet and reloaded one by one, the German soldiers simply pulled the trigger until the magazine was empty.

"I surrender! "Don't shoot!"

"surrender! surrender!"

The French soldiers, who had lost their will to fight, raised their hands and shouted surrender in broken German.

The captured soldiers were still lucky. The unlucky soldiers were mercilessly shot dead even though they cried out for surrender.

Some soldiers who lost their senses due to Pervitin recklessly fired guns at the surrendering enemies.

A 20mm machine gun attack was launched against the French troops who were firing Hotchkiss heavy machine guns.

The body of the soldier hit by the machine gun was shattered like glass thrown to the floor, but miraculously the machine gun was intact.

A German sergeant who had infiltrated a machine gun position stained with flesh and blood turned the muzzle of a heavy machine gun towards the French army.

As bullets flew from our machine gun position, the French army fell into confusion.

The soldiers, unaware that the heavy machine gun had been taken by the enemy, rolled around on the floor without knowing what was going on.

Once the French resistance was roughly resolved, the German army continued its advance.

The pursuit of the fleeing remnants of the French army was left to follow-up units.

The most important thing, Guderian told his officers, was not to chase down the remnants, but to occupy Boulogne as quickly as possible.

Guderian's superior, Kleist, judged that Guderian's advance was too fast and frequently ordered him to stop, but Guderian repeatedly ignored Kleist's instructions.

Kleist was furious at Guderian for blatantly ignoring his orders even though he was his subordinate, and tried to fire him, but rather than reprimanding Guderian, Hitler instead ordered Kleist not to interfere in any way with Guderian's advance.

From Kleist's point of view, his clothes were about to explode, but thanks to Hitler's protection, Guderian and his panzer divisions were able to run wild without any interference.

With the German army approaching, the Allied forces defending Boulogne were faced with a choice.

"Your Excellency, the news is that the German army has already advanced to a distance of 5 km from the division headquarters."

The division commander bowed his head at the adjutant's report.

More than 10,000 troops, including both British and French troops, remained in Boulogne.

If you want to fight, there's nothing you can't do, but the trend has long since favored the Germans.

Above all, I was skeptical that the soldiers would follow even if I gave an order to hold fire when the military's morale was at its lowest.

As the pessimistic view spread that no matter what one did, the German army could not be defeated, the number of cases of disobedience to orders, not only among soldiers but also among officers, increased explosively.

The situation of the French army was more serious than that of the British army, and there were cases of company commanders deserting their companies and fully armed units leaving their positions and running away without fighting.

"Your Excellency, please give me orders!"

"······."

Despite the urgings of his staff, the division commander remained silent.

Before I knew it, the sound of the German tank engine reached the headquarters building.

In another 30 minutes, German troops will arrive at the main gate of the headquarters.

"······If I order them to fight, will the soldiers follow?"

Breaking the long silence, the division commander spoke.

The voice that had always been majestic and solemn was gone, and now only the thin and pitiful voice of an old man remained.

"As you all know, morale is already at its worst. In this situation, if you were ordered to fight until the end, who would the soldiers' bullets be aimed at? German army? Or us?"

"······."

No one could answer the division commander's question. Suddenly, a gunshot was heard outside the window. The sound of the tank's engine became louder.

"Raise the white flag. "Incinerate all important documents before the Germans arrive."

"All right······."

***

"Mr. President!"

I was just about to start eating when Krause came running.

Recently, I've been missing the taste of my hometown, so I make sure to eat Korean food at least once every 4 or 5 days. Stir-fried pork kimchi made with kimchi from Ahn Bong-geun's tofu factory - that's the one familiar to those serving in the military - and boiled tofu were the menu of the day.

"Sorry during the meal, Mr. President. "I just received a report from General Guderian."

"It's okay. Reporting takes priority over eating. "Tell me."

"The 2nd Armored Division occupied Boulogne and accepted the surrender of the British and French forces."

"Okay, that's great. "I can sleep with my legs stretched out again today."

The next day, Guderian reported that the 1st Panzer Division had captured Calais.

Following Boulogne, Calais fell, so the only point left for the Allied forces trapped in the siege was Dunkirk.

The end of the war was approaching.