The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 912

c909 Halk

That night, Rommel and others took a helicopter from Metz Fortress back to the French front… If they did not return at night, they would have to stay in Metz Fortress for a whole day due to the blockade of Allied fighter planes during the day.

Of course, they also stopped in Paris on the way.

As mentioned before, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front was Rundstedt, and no matter what plans or results, they needed to discuss with Rundstedt.

At this time, Rundstedt was of course in the headquarters… Although his living habit was not to “go to work” before ten o’clock in the morning, at this extraordinary moment, as a commander, he could not continue to stay in the villa and sleep anyway.

Seeing Qin Chuan and Rommel walk into the headquarters, Rundstedt couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“Everything is normal, right?” Rundstedt asked.

“Yes, everything is normal!” Rommel replied, with a hint of disdain at the corner of his mouth.

Qin Chuan knew what that meant… It was obvious that Rundstedt was unwilling to take the blame for “deceiving” the Führer, and he might even have thought of a plan to exonerate himself and put the blame on Rommel.

This was also the reason why Rundstedt was relieved when he saw Rommel.

However, Rommel had no time to argue with Rundstedt about this. He said to the map: “Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, the Führer agreed to our retreat plan, but there is a slight change in the plan…”

“Well!” Rundstedt said: “I will discuss it further with the Führer later!”

“No, Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!” Rommel said: “The Führer realized that the enemy’s spies might sneak into the Supreme Command. For the sake of confidentiality, this plan will be conveyed orally by me!”

“Okay, Marshal!” Rundstedt nodded helplessly.

The retreat plan was actually not complicated. The German troops south of Calais retreated along the diagonal line to the Maginot Line, and the German troops south of the Brittany Peninsula retreated to the central plateau in southern France.

The first key point is to preserve strength, especially the armored and mechanized forces, and retreat at night as much as possible to avoid being bombed by the Allies.

The second is to ensure that most of the supplies and machines are evacuated in time.

The third is to stop the British troops and let the American troops go first, especially the French troops led by General Giraud supported by the United States… This is what was said before, to manipulate the reputation and morale of the two French armies from the German perspective to narrow the gap between the two French armies.

At the same time, Rommel’s suggestion to use the French to “protect” important bridges was immediately passed to the security forces.

However, this was not very necessary, because when Rommel and others made changes to the battle plan, the Allies were also making adjustments.

What made Eisenhower determined to make adjustments was a piece of intelligence from Halke, the director of MI5.

At that time, Eisenhower was discussing the offensive plan for the next day with Montgomery and General Omar Nelson Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group of the United States.

In this high-level command, Montgomery was obviously the most powerful.

Needless to say, Eisenhower was a civilian with no experience in commanding operations before becoming the Allied Commander-in-Chief, and General Bradley’s experience in commanding troops only started from the Battle of Sicily in Africa.

Montgomery, on the other hand, was a famous general who had fought against the Germans for many years and defeated the “Desert Fox” Rommel in Africa.

This halo gave Montgomery the right to speak at the top level.

“I think we should continue the current offensive!” Montgomery said, “Just like what we did at Utah Beach, we should continue to bombard the enemy’s defenses with naval guns and aircraft until the enemy’s fortifications and armored forces can no longer withstand our attack!”

This idea fits Eisenhower’s style very well, because his previous work was diplomacy and interpersonal relationships, which determined that he was not good at taking risks.

The same is true for General Bradley. His character can be summed up in four words: “Stop when in doubt”, that is, he is always in doubt and vigilance, and advances step by step… Most generals of the US military have this command style, and the US military’s tactics are also the same. This leads to the fact that in the Pacific battlefield, a few Japanese snipers hiding in the forest can often block a regiment or even a division of the US military, because they suspect that there are Japanese ambushes in the forest, and they must use artillery or bombs to flatten the forest before advancing.

So, the three of them hit it off and decided to fight at the current rhythm.

Obviously, this battle plan is too conservative, and only generals like Montgomery who like tradition and rigidity in everything will formulate it…

If the battle continues like this, the main force of the German armored forces has withdrawn from the “Atlantic Wall”, and the Allies may not be able to detect it for a long time, and they are still bombing the “Atlantic Wall” indiscriminately.

At this time, Halke walked in from outside, holding a telegram in his hand and looking at Eisenhower and hesitating.

Eisenhower knew what Halke was hesitating about… “Super Secret” intelligence was not accessible to anyone.

So he asked Montgomery and General Bradley to temporarily avoid it.

In fact, Montgomery was asked to avoid it just to avoid embarrassing General Bradley. Montgomery knew about the “super secret” as early as when he was in Africa.

“This is the code we just deciphered!” Halke sighed and said, “You are right, they know our deception plan!”

Eisenhower took the telegram and looked at it, and replied, “It’s completely expected. I’m afraid that few of our airborne soldiers will survive!”

“Yes, that may be a trap set by the Germans!” Halke answered helplessly: “We believe that the Germans may have cleared out the French guerrillas first and seized the radio station and even instigated some of the guerrillas. Then…”

“Then the Germans used the guerrillas to send us false information?” Eisenhower never thought that things would be like this.

“Yes!” Halke nodded awkwardly: “So, those airdrop points are likely given to us by the Germans… They have set up an ambush there!”

Although Halke was reluctant to say this, because it was a shame for him and MI5, in order to avoid more serious consequences, he had to admit it.

Eisenhower laughed in anger: “Well done, Mr. Director… You sent several of our airborne divisions into the German trap and made the entire Allied Forces attack in the wrong direction!”

After a pause, Eisenhower continued: “Also, you were very confident that you could defeat the ‘legendary sergeant’ before, but now it seems… it doesn’t seem to be the case!”