A series of trains loaded with tanks, armored vehicles and various types of artillery drove from Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria to Germany. With the continuous mobilization of the German and Austrian army to the western front, everyone knew that the attack on France was about to begin. However, what caused a headache for the supreme commander of the British and French coalition forces was that they could not predict the breakthrough location chosen by the German army.

The main force of the British and French coalition forces entered Belgium, which was strange. They stood opposite the German-Australian alliance in both wars. Perhaps they finally came out of the Habsburg family and were afraid of being annexed by German-speaking countries again, or perhaps out of anger at the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation of the Belgian Kingdom's colonies in Africa after World War I.

In fact, Belgium was not annexed by the Second Empire after the war because of Vienna's restraint, the Habsburgs and Hohenzollans restrain each other, which enabled Belgium to maintain its current status.

According to the "Manstein Plan", the German General Staff selected the breakthrough point, and was in a weak part of the extension of the Maginot Line between Monmedi and Sedan. On the other hand, the French army was afraid that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would make a large-scale landing like during World War I, and reserved some troops in the south to prevent Austro-Hungarian raids.

In order to create the illusion that the German and Austrian coalition forces wanted to break through from the Netherlands and Belgium, most of the Austro-Hungarian Second Army were transported to Cologne by railway, Dusseldorf and Duisburg assembled, leaving only the 2nd Armored Army, who was on the assault mission, got off at Kobrentz.

The commander of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army was General Ludwig von Emanchberg, the director of the Imperial Armored Forces, and the founder of an outstanding armored force theory. In another time and space, Admiral Emanchberg was the founder of the German Army's large-scale use of tanks and armored forces for assault operations. His "Tank War" has always been regarded by the German Wehrmacht as the top secret textbook of the Armored Forces Academy. Under his inspiration, General Guderian gradually formed the "blitzkjet" theory of concentrated use of tanks for assaults.

In fact, General Emanchberg's understanding and use of tanks is much deeper and more comprehensive than Guderian.

Emanchberg was the first pioneer to propose the theory of using a large-scale "armor cluster" composed of 2-3 tank troops to break through the enemy's defense depth in the battle. At the same time, he also attached great importance to the support role of tanks on the infantry. Emanchberg believed that tanks have two uses on the battlefield: using armored groups for large-scale breakthrough attacks and supporting the offense and defense of infantry groups. In the infantry, a comparable number of tank troops should also be equipped with assault forces, and serve as assault forces during attack. During defense, it is used to focus on eliminating the enemy's assault forces, quickly reinforce and block the broken-out defense gap.

Emanchberg also believed that the composition of the armored division should be composed of two tank brigades, a mechanized infantry brigade, a self-propelled artillery regiment and some auxiliary troops. The tank brigade was under the jurisdiction of two to three tank regiments. Each tank regiment should be equipped with three types of heavy, medium and light tanks to perform different tasks. In addition, the armored division should also be equipped with an aviation regiment as air support force. However, his idea was a bit too advanced. The organization of such an armored division was not completed by wealthy Americans until 20 years later, which also proves the correctness of his theory.

Due to the limitations of financial resources and industrial technical capabilities, neither Germany nor Austro-Hungary could complete the design of Emmanchberg's armored division. However, because he had long served as the chief of armored troops of the Austro-Hungary Empire, General Emmanchberg worked hard to realize the streamlined version of the armored division he had conceived: each armored division consisted of two tank regiments and a mechanized infantry regiment. Since the production of self-propelled artillery could not meet the equipment, it could only be replaced by a mechanized artillery regiment.

The aviation force will definitely not be equipped to the division level. Each Austro-Hungarian Army Aviation Division is temporarily assigned to the first-level command of the group army. However, each branch can easily call for air support. Of course, the aviation command of the Group Army Command will send fighter jets to the battlefield where they need it most according to the commander's order.

The heavy tanks that General Emanhiborg had expected did not appear, because the reason was very simple. The emperor's only requirement for the performance of the tanks equipped by the Empire was that the speed should be at least 45 kilometers per hour. This is a hard rule. The Imperial Army Department will indicate this in the tank bidding mission book, which means that the thrust-to-weight ratio of the tank must reach at least 13. This means that when designing and manufacturing a 50-ton heavy tank, it is necessary to equip the engine with an at least 650 horsepower. However, the maximum power of the engine equipped on the Imperial tank is only 500 horsepower, which cannot meet the requirements of manufacturing new heavy tanks.

General Emanchberg also arrived in Koblenz and met with General Roundestet, the commander of the A cluster in the middle, and Lieutenant General Klester, the commander of the tank cluster in the assault mission, and began to discuss some tactical details after the battle began. General Klester had three armored troops, the 19th Panzer Army commanded by Major General Guderian, the 15th Panzer Army commanded by Major General Hort, and the 41st Panzer Army commanded by Major General Reinhart. Major General Rudolf Schaffac was in charge of the 2nd Panzer Army of Austria-Hungary under the command of General Klester. He acted with the 41st Panzer Army commanded by General Reinhart. In addition, after the battle began, the 2nd Panzer Army of Austria-Hungary will be assigned to the B cluster of the German North Line.

On May 8, the combat order to begin the "Operation Scythe" had been issued, and General Emanchberg hurried back to Cologne, where the 2nd Army Command was located.

On May 10, 1940, just dawned, groups of German Stuka bombers suddenly bombed violently at the airports, railway hubs, areas and cities of France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. At 5:30, on the 300-kilometer front between the North Sea and the Maginot Line, German ground forces launched a large-scale attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, opening the prelude to the invasion of France.

The battle was first launched on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. The German Army B, which served as the main force of the British and French troops, first launched an attack on important bridges and fortress facilities in the Netherlands and Belgium with airborne troops. This sudden attack immediately caused panic among the Dutch and Belgium troops. Immediately afterwards, the armored forces of the B Army Group took advantage of the chaos to launch a fierce attack. Since the paratroopers had occupied various important roads, the B Army Group made quite smooth progress.

The German Army B Army Group's breakthrough on the Dutch and Belgium border caused the British and French main forces gathered in northern France to immediately cross the French border and provide rapid reinforcements. When Bock's Army Group attracted the British and French main forces, Loeb's Army Group also took the initiative. Their feint performance on the Maginot Line was very successful, which made France hesitate when withdrawing troops from the south.

The real sickle began to wield.

In the early morning of May 10, the German army group, the main attack on the middle road, carried out a major assault on Luxembourg and the Ardennes in Belgium. Luxembourg, a small country with a population of only 300,000, surrendered without fighting that day. The vanguard was the tank cluster commanded by General Kleister. Guderian's 19th Armored Army easily broke through the loose resistance of the Bi army. It took only two days to cross the 110-kilometer canyon of the Ardennes and penetrated into the French territory. On the afternoon of May 12, Guderian's three armored divisions had arrived on the north bank of the Maas River and captured the famous French fortress city, Sedang.

The French army's defense line was quickly broken through. (To be continued...)

79, Yellow Plan (2:
Chapter completed!