Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1039 Big Funnel

Since the World War broke out, the armies of participating countries have been making continuous progress. Relatively speaking, the progress of the German army has been particularly great.

When the World War broke out, the German army's operations were strictly in accordance with the textbooks. The artillery units first shelled for hours or even days, and then the infantry charged, without even basic infantry coordination.

In the Michael plan, the German army implemented perfect infantry coordination. The artillery first carried out intensive shelling for several hours, and took turns using high-explosive shells, shrapnel shells, and poison gas shells to sort out the army positions over and over again. After the German infantry unit entered the starting position, the German artillery fire began to extend to the rear of the French position, forming a perfect battlefield partition. At this time, the German army mainly used gas bombs in order not to damage the road as much as possible, so as to facilitate the infantry unit’s attack .

When the Germans started shelling, the infantry had already set off. Usually, the starting position of the infantry was more than a mile away from the line of defense, so as to ensure the safety of the infantry.

In Michael’s plan, the German army gave up the traditional attack method, and the infantry unit boldly moved forward to a position less than 500 meters away from the French army’s position. At this time, the shells fired by the German artillery are likely to fall on the German infantry unit preparing to attack. on the head.

The artillery units of the German army performed very professionally and did not cause any fratricide. The infantry marched forward stepping on the landing point of the artillery shells. The first line of defense, moving forward to the second line of defense farther away.

Although Roque is unwilling to admit it, he has to say that in terms of professionalism, the German army is far superior to the French army. When the World War just started, all the armies participating in the war had accidental injuries to varying degrees. Roque He also appeared in the Battle of the Dardanelles under his command.

With the development of the war, there were fewer and fewer incidents of accidental injury. The most recent time was during the Battle of Verdun by the French army. The artillery took the attacking French army as a German army. It is very rare that the troops have not made mistakes. It is a very complicated thing to know that commanding millions of troops to fight.

The perfect performance of the German artillery is thanks to a man named Georg Bruchmüller. He is a real artillery expert. He has been serving on the Eastern Front. "Breakthrough Miller".

After the fighting on the Eastern Front, Ludendorff transferred Bruchmüller from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. His artillery theory was tested in the No. 12 Battle of the Isonzo River. In that battle, it was Because of the outstanding performance of the German artillery, the Kingdom of Italy lost so badly.

Now it was the French's turn to lose.

Ludendorff made improvements to Bruchmüller's tactics, the main changes coming from the German infantry.

In the Michael plan, the six divisions serving as the forwards of the German army were all veterans who had survived previous battles. These veterans were experienced and carried a large number of grenades and light machine guns. Flares of different colors are used to call for reinforcements or to alert artillery units to stop shelling.

These veterans were ordered to advance at the fastest speed no matter what the situation, without worrying about the flanks or whether there were enemies on the line of defense they crossed. It is up to them to decide what they should do next.

Behind the vanguard is the attacking force, carrying heavy machine guns, flamethrowers, mortars or field artillery, to destroy the surviving French troops on the French defense line.

There is a third echelon behind the attacking force. They are responsible for providing protection to the first two echelons. Once the attack is frustrated, they will ensure that the first two echelons have a solid rear.

The attacking force was finally the German reserve force, and Ludendorff had 38 divisions in his hands as a reserve force for the attack.

The force in charge of defending Reims was the French Fifth Army under the command of Louis Despere, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of the Marne, earning him the nickname "Desperately Frankie", and now it's time again When it was time to fight desperately, the troops in the hands of Louis Despere were still insufficient, and the German offensive was still fierce. Four years later, it seemed that nothing had changed.

Regarding this battle, a German soldier described it in a letter to his family: "—We used flamethrowers to attack the French trenches, and the smoke and flames forced the French to escape from the trenches in embarrassment. , we took the first prisoners - we moved on, the French broke down, we met no resistance, and when we crossed the second trench, we found the French kitchen and dining room, the stove was still burning bacon sizzling, steaks grilled on the table—our backpacks were full, and each of us took several French individual rations, which, I have to say, tasted better than Our black bread is much better - in the restaurant we found a lot of cigarettes and booze, my knapsack was full, just had a dozen packs in my pockets, everyone drank, even if we didn't take it, reserve forces And take them all—”

Commanding the German army was Otto von Bilow, who had just won a brilliant victory on the Isonzo River. On the first day of the battle, Otto von Bilow's troops advanced 15 miles, which was a jaw-dropping feat. The distance, in last year's battle, the German army did not advance so far for a whole year.

The night gave Louis Despere time to adjust the defense line, but Louis Despere did not have enough troops in his hands. Pétain sent four divisions of reinforcements to Louis Despere, but faced with the German breakthrough The huge salient formed by the defense line, the four divisions seem to be a drop in the bucket, and it is not enough to fill the gap caused by the rout of the defenders in Reims.

That night, the radio operators of the entire coalition army were extremely busy. The transmitters kept on all night, the combat headquarters was brightly lit, the guards were patrolling with dogs, and the lights of the armored vehicles were all turned on. Petain was busy mobilizing troops to support Lance. Rock also sent 12 Anzac divisions to Reims in accordance with the agreement with Petain.

The 12 divisions have surpassed Roque's commitment to Petain, but it will take them 24 hours to reach Reims. I don't know how far the German army can advance within these 24 hours.

Therefore, 12 divisions may not be enough to withstand the German attack. Rock planned ahead and ordered the Canadian Army to move to Paris. Once the French troops could not stop the German army in Reims, the Canadian Army would block the German Army from Paris.

Now Paris is almost like the end of the world. The rich people in the city are busy fleeing, and the poor want to escape, but they don’t know where to go. The troops in the rear have to go through Paris to support the front line. The wounded soldiers on the front line are full. For every truck, the roads were blocked and the railways were completely paralyzed. The rioters in Paris hidden in Germany took the opportunity to create chaos and set fire to several streets in Paris. Nearly a hundred houses were destroyed by the fire. With courage, they fight the rioters while trying to restore order in the city.

After the German army launched the Michael plan, Foch called Roque immediately, hoping that Roque would attack the frontal German positions while providing support for the French army, so as to form an effective containment of the German army.

Rock fell into deep thought after receiving Foch's call. The situation in front of him seemed to have happened before. When the German army launched the Battle of Verdun, they hoped that the British Expeditionary Force would launch an attack on the German army in order to reduce the number of French troops in Verdun. Deng's pressure, then there was the Battle of the Somme, and then there was Haig's sad resignation, and Rock made his debut.

Is Rock now going to launch the second "Battle of the Somme" against the German army like Haig?

The answer is definitely no.

If the German army does not take the initiative to launch an attack on the positions in charge of the British Expeditionary Force, then Roque will not take the initiative to launch an attack on the German positions. Support, but if Rock takes the initiative to attack, then Rock will not have enough reserves in his hands.

After all, Ludendorff still has dozens of divisions with a mobile force of nearly one million people. The German positions in front of the British Expeditionary Force are also defended by nearly one million German troops. No one knows that Ludendorff will invest these 38 divisions in the future. In which direction, if Ludendorff convulses and throws these 38 divisions to Arras, the fun will be great.

Don't talk about the possibility of possibility, even if there is only one percent possibility, Rock still considers it [-] percent.

Besides, the British Expeditionary Force is not the only way to contain the Germans. Rock believes that Foch will also call Pershing when he calls Rock. Pershing, who is eager to fight, will not refuse Fuchs Xu's request.

Sure enough, on the second day after the German offensive, the American troops in Antwerp attacked the Liege Fortress, and the second "Battle of the Somme" finally broke out.

Compared with the ground forces, Roque can provide more support to the French army in Reims. The British Expeditionary Force has the second largest air force base in France in Yaming. The largest air base is in Dunkirk, Yaming Air Force Base There are more than [-] fighters and bombers, enough to provide air support to Reims.

Roque also ordered the air force to launch an air strike against the German army in Reims the day after the German army attacked.

Like Roque's worst fears, the four divisions Pétain had given to Louis Despere were simply not enough to fill the defenses. The Anzac reinforcements were beyond their reach, and the attacking German forces advanced another 12 miles towards Paris the next day. , By the end of the second day's battle, the German forward troops were less than 80 kilometers away from Paris.

This distance is already within the firing range of the German artillery with the longest range.

(End of this chapter)