Fordtunate Son

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Military Pron - Bunker Busters (3dof4) - The Lil' Uns

Feb 8, 2022, 2:10 PM

Military Pron

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In the most recent poasts we covered the old WW1 German Schlieffen/Moltke Plans, and their evil twin the WW2 Manstein Plan.

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Schlieffen

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Manstein

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The allies had basically the same plan in both wars – rush into Belgium to stop the German advance. 2 works great to counter 1. Not so great to counter 3.

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The Dyle Plan

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But for the sucker punch of the century, the Manstein Plan, to work, a sense of urgency had to be created. The Germans needed to have as many British and French pile into the trap as possible, before they slammed the gate shut on everyone.

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A soon as fighting began, virtually the entirety of Luxembourg and southern Belgium and were converted into a giant German parking lot full of idling tanks, just waiting to break out and spring the trap. Think of the start of a NASCAR race or the Indy 500, except all the cars have guns on them.

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The “impassible” Ardennes Forest looked like an I-85 or I-95 traffic jam on steroids. Remember what all the military planners except Guderian and Manstein missed -you don’t have to fight IN the forest, you just have to sneak through and fight on the other side. Or, you could go under the forest.

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It was the same Ardennes Forest the Germans snuck though AGAIN, 4 years later in 1944, to surprise us in the Battle of the Bulge. Sneaky bosch bast***ds.

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Some Bulge

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Americans push back the bulge in 1944. Note Dinant and Sedan on the far west side. They were German targets in 1940, and in 1944.

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That 50 mile strip of the Meuse River in France...from Dinant in the north to Sedan in the south, was the breakout gateway. Once they bridged the river along this gap, the Germans were off to the races across France.

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Note Sedan, the break though point for the long red arrow all the way across France

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In fact, just 5 days after crossing the Meuse, the Germans were standing on the French coast near Dunkerque, looking over at England, with almost the entire Allied army in the bag. That’s wicked fast.

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And that’s one of the secrets of the blitzkrieg...less fighting, and more driving, uncontested, through the enemy’s rear.

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Lots of open space in Russia to just drive through, with no one even around to shoot at you.

That’s a hidden secret about the invasion of Russia. A lot of it was just country drivin’, with nobody around for miles and miles.

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Back in France, when the Germans first crossed the Meuse on May 12, the French PM called Churchill and said “It’s over.” Although the battles still had to be fought, the French knew they had just been played and their entire defensive plan was completely unhinged by speed and surprise.

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Despite the French pessimism of the moment, they didn’t fully know how tenuous the German position was. The French realized that THEY were about to get their armies cut off and destroyed, but what they couldn’t see at the time was how easily the Germans could have been cut off and destroyed. It’s an eye-popping reality.

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It was about like a shootout. Once the bullets start flying anyone could get hit, but the Germans were acting, and the French were simply reacting. They were very evenly matched, but the German edge was initiative.

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If you remember this video from before, the all the power of the blitzkrieg was at the tip of the spear. In fact, there was really only one time in the whole war the blitzkrieg was stopped at the point of impact. And that was whether the Germans were doing it to us, or whether we and the Russians were doing to them.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE_jX9E40M0
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That was at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, where the Russians had 6 lines of defensive fortifications about 100 miles deep to stop the German attack. It worked, but unless you had about 3 million men to dig trenches and set up anti-tank obstacles and gun positions for 6 months in advance, you were pretty much out of luck when the blitzkrieg hit you.

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Russia, 1943. The Germans try to pinch the Russian nipple off, and the Blitzkrieg is finally thwarted. For once.

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The only way we thwarted it at the Battle of the Bulge was because the Germans just ran out of gas. Literally. Armor with empty tanks just sitting by the side of the road.

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Perfectly fine tank. No gas. Actually, the Tiger II was a TERRIBLE blitzkrieg tank. No speed whatsoever. But as a slightly mobile bunker it was top notch.

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But despite its awesome punching power, the weakness of the blitzkrieg was, and is, its tail.

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And the mechanics haven’t changed that much over time. During the Iraq War, when Tommy Franks was sending the First Marine and 3rd Armored divisions though Iraq, they were pretty much on the same time table and logistical leash that the Germans were on in France and Russia. And that we were on when we advanced across France.

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You can only go about 200 miles before shid just breaks down or needs to be replaced. Tracks, engines, filters, all the usual stuff. Even if you aren’t fighting. And even if you are in an M-1 Abrams or a Mark II or a Sherman or a T-34.

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And sometimes your tank just needs a bath

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At the time the media went ape-shid because we took a break, about 200 miles in, to refit. They were screaming about the the Iraqi army has stopped us and we couldn’t break through..blah, blah, blah. The Iraqi army couldn’t stop shid. We stopped ourselves to refill the fuel tanks. Just like every other blitzkrieg in history. But, you have to make sure that fuel, that umbilical cord, is there when you need it to supply the fuel.

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If that umbilical cord gets cut, the armored fist is left high and dry. And that’s what almost happened in France, twice. It’s what the Iraqis tried to do to us. And that’s is the untold story the Germans don’t want you to know. The part of the myth of the Battle of France that is often left out. Like I said. It was damm close.

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The allies had two chances to cut that cord. And if either the French counterattack or the British counterattack had suceeded, Germany would have been out on a limb with no gas, no ammo, and nowhere to go.

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The French went first. By May 13, just 3 days after the start of war in the West, the Germans were already across the Meuse river and racing though France at breakneck speed. Hitler called Guderian personally to tell him to SLOW THE FUKK DOWN. Hitler knew Guderian was racing out on a limb. Guderian didn’t take the call. He just kept driving.

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Fast Heinz, giving orders from in the saddle

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The French actually had better tanks one-on-one than the Germans; bigger guns, better armor, but with no radios.

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The very, very nice French Souma S-35 tank. Far superior to its German contemporaries. A perfect balance of speed, armor, and firepower. But no radio.

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At the tiny village of Stonne, just outside of Sedan in the south, the first fight to save France went down on May 15. All day long, in 16 separate attacks, the French tried to cut the tenuous German supply line supporting the panzers who were already miles down the road racing to the channel.

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Village and Battle of Stonne

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Germans inspect a disabled French Hotchkiss H35 tank

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But the attacks were piecemeal, and each one, in turn, failed. If the French had concentrated their assaults into 1 or 2 big attacks who knows what might have happened. Had they won, the bulk of the German mechanized force would have been cut off in enemy territory with no supplies, and eliminated, just as Hitler feared. But Guderian was feeling lucky. Win, and all is forgotten, lose by disobeying a direct order from Hitler...well, you can imagine.
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Next, deeper in France at a town called Arras on May 21, the British got their shot. And again, they came within a hairs breath of blunting the Germans and cutting them out of supply.

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Battle of Arras, near the German 4th Army marker box

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Germans at Arras. Note the big anti-aircraft gun to on the right. Kinda important.

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British Matilda 2 at Arras

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But again, fate intervened on the German’s behalf. Just like at Stonne, the British tanks were better armored and better gunned than the Germans, and they even had radios. No German armor could stop the British Matilda breakthough tanks. They were like solid blocks of iron.

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But in a moment of complete desperation, as the British were closing in to cut his supply line, the local German general used the only thing he had available to fight off the British counterattack. He had a battery of anti-aircraft guns. And he ordered them to shoot at the Matildas on the ground instead of the allied planes overhead.

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The dreaded 88

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It had never been thought of or done before. And miraculously, it worked. By using a weapon not even designed to attack tanks, he thwarted the British, and doomed France, all in the same battle. The guns were called 88’s, (from their 88mm shell) and the creative and fast thinking general was a guy named Erwin Rommel.

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88 in action at Arras

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Burning Matildas

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Rommel was so impressive in France in 1940 that he got his own command the next year, 1941, in the desert

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It only took a few more days for the Germans to close the vice and seal off their giant haul of British and French troops. Most of the men escaped in the miracle at Dunkirk, but all their equipment was left behind.

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Dunkirk 1940

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Although there was another month of hard fighting left to go in the south, and, the whole ugly collaboration thing with Vichy France had to play out, the Battle of France was effectively over in less than 2 weeks. And the realization that they were fighting for their lives took only 2 days, when the Germans crossed the Meuse.

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German Pioneer assault troops in their rubber rafts cross the Meuse River, and built bridges

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So although the myth is that the French just folded and surrendered, the reality is that they just got punked. No one would say our athletes weren’t just as good, just as determined, and played just as hard as the opposition when we got punked once.

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Some wounds never heal

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And given the boldness of his play calling, it’s really no surprise that one of Bobby Bowden’s favorite authors and generals was Erwin Rommel himself.

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Why is Hitler posing with these very few men? And why are they all dressed so funny? And what does this have to do with bunker-busting? All will be revealed next time…