Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 868 The Scariest August Ever

As early as August NO.19, French troops had already crossed Alsace and continued to attack Lorraine.

At this time, the Liege Fortress had fallen, and a steady stream of German troops was attacking the hinterland of France through Belgium. As many as 10 train carriages passed through the Rhine River every day, and a train passed the Cologne Railway Bridge every [-] minutes.

The French intelligence department seriously misjudged the allocation of German troops. The French commander-in-chief Joffre received information that the German army had 68 divisions. In fact, the German army had 78 infantry divisions, 10 cavalry divisions, and 16 newly formed divisions. infantry brigade.

These infantry brigades are composed of soldiers who have retired within two years. They can be sent to the battlefield without long-term training. More troops are still in training camps. Although Germany has a strong mobilization ability, many soldiers who have returned to the army also need Time to restore combat effectiveness.

On the 21st, the French army organized a new round of offensive. Joffre judged that the German army concentrated its main force on the left and right wings, and the defense force in the central Ardennes was empty, so he invested 14 divisions to attack the Ardennes.

What Xiafei never expected was that the German defenders in the Ardennes also had 14 divisions, and they were well-trained and well-equipped elite divisions.

The German army built solid fortifications on the Ardennes Highlands, equipped with a large number of artillery and heavy machine guns. The unprepared French army suffered heavy casualties. On the 22nd, it lost 2.7 people on one day. A division of colonial troops was used to attack Rossinho. In Seoul's attack, within 10 minutes, one-third of the 1.4 troops were killed.

The attack of the French army in the center affected both the attack on the right and the defense on the left.

The Fifth Army, which was originally intended to attack the right wing, was transferred to the center, but did not participate in the battle. At this time, the commander of the left wing of the German army had been replaced by Crown Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria. He was keenly aware that the French offensive was weakening. , So the German Fifth Army and Sixth Army were organized to launch a counterattack, not only driving the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but also attacking Nancy in France.

The one in charge of defending Nancy was Ferdinand Foch, the commander of the French No.20 Army.

In order to conquer Nancy, Ruprecht asked Moltke for more troops.

Little Moltke agreed to Ruprecht's request and transferred to Ruprecht some of the troops that the right wing used to detour Paris.

It is difficult to evaluate the role of Ruprecht. His counterattack did drive the French troops out of Alsace and Lorraine, but he asked for more troops, which also affected the German right wing attack. The situation on the battlefield at this time was very Subtle, the German army is progressing smoothly on the right wing, the left wing is on the defensive, the French army's right wing attack has failed, and the left wing is retreating steadily. If Moltke can resolutely implement the "Schlieffen Plan", then it is really hard to say whether Paris can hold.

After the French army retreated from Alsace and Lorraine, they returned to their strong fortresses. Ruprecht tried to emulate the tactics that captured the fortress of Liege, and transferred "Slender Emma" and "Great Berta" to the south. Tin, attack Ferdinand Foch's defenses with full force.

But Ruprecht underestimated the ability of Ferdinand Foch, Ruprecht is not Ludendorff, Foch is obviously stronger than Lehmann who guards the fortress of Liege, despite paying a huge price, Ferdinand Foch Foch still defended Nancy.

In the first month of the war, the French army lost 26 people, 7.5 were killed, and the German army only lost 1.8. Foch’s son-in-law and only son were killed in this month, and a young French captain Charles de Gaulle also died. Wounded in battle, he wrote in his diary: I knew at that moment that in this world, courage will never overcome artillery fire.

The casualties of the French troops back in the fortifications began to decrease, and Joffre was able to mobilize more troops to strengthen the defense of the left flank. As a result, the German right flank was further weakened.

After the fortress of Liege was conquered, Belgium did not surrender. Moltke mobilized two armies from the right to besiege Antwerp and one army to attack Mauperge in France. The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not use most of its troops as Schlieffen imagined. Defending Russia, but launching an attack on Serbia, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered a disastrous defeat in Serbia, so Moltke mobilized three more armies and one cavalry division to reinforce East Prussia. Reduced to twelve armies, the total force was reduced by 27.5, and compared with the right wing in Schlieffen's plan, the force was reduced by one-third.

When the German army was progressing smoothly, the hidden danger of insufficient troops was not obvious. As the war progressed, the casualties of the German army increased, and more troops were needed to garrison the siege. This problem will become more and more obvious as time goes by.

At this time, the commander of the right wing of the German army was Alexander Crook, the commander of the First Army.

August NO.13, the First Army captured the Liege Fortress.

August NO.20, Alexander Crook conquered Brussels.

On August 22, the vanguard of the First Army encountered the British Expeditionary Force at Mons.

At this time, Alexander Crook's opponent was the French Fifth Army, and the commander of the troops was Charles Langlezac. , extraordinary ability but limited by stupid superiors, Xiafei’s performance at the beginning of the World War was as tragic as that of little Maoqi, the French army miscalculated the strength of France and Germany, and Xiafei, eager to revenge, invested more troops The attack on Alsace and Lorraine resulted in a lack of troops on the left flank and an empty defense. In the face of Alexander Crook's attack, Charles Langlezac commanded the Fifth Army and fought while retreating, preserving the strength of the troops to the greatest extent.

On the night of the 21st, the British Expeditionary Force's First Corps moved into Mons to protect Charles Langrezac's flank, and on the 23rd Alexander Crook attacked Mons.

The battle was very fierce, and Lee Enfield, who fired faster, performed well in the battle. During the Second Boer War, the British army found that the Boer guerrillas had better marksmanship than themselves, so they strengthened their training in this area.

The attacking Germans suffered heavy losses, with 1600 British and 5000 Germans killed that day.

Also on this day, Japan declared war on Germany.

On the night of the 23rd, Haig, who was appointed as the commander of the Second Army, joined the First Army, and the two armies built defensive positions in Mons overnight.

At night, Haig and the commander of the [-]st Army, Smith Doring, learned that the French army had retreated and the British army withdrew from Mons overnight.

Frenzi was very angry about this, thinking that there was no need for the French army to retreat. From then on, Frenzi was full of contempt for the French generals, thinking that they were all cowards who were afraid of fighting.

Under the rapid attack of the German army, it was almost impossible to get out of the battle easily. In order to allow most of the expeditionary force to withdraw from the battle smoothly, Smith Doring organized a troop to fight fiercely with the German army in Le Cato.

As a result, in order to save this force, Smith Doring had to invest more troops, and the battle did not end until dark. In the end, the British army lost 8000 soldiers, equivalent to one-tenth of the expeditionary force.

Such huge casualties completely violated Kitchener's reminder to Frenzi before the expeditionary force set off, and Frenzi therefore disliked Smith Doring.

Smith Doring also disliked Haig, who, he thought, was slow to arrive at Mons and Le Cateau, and retreated quickly, as far as the Marne.

In short, in the first month after the outbreak of the World War, many problems were exposed by the Allied Powers and the Allied Powers. The coordination problems between the German army and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were serious, and the internal problems of the German army were equally serious. The British and French coalition forces were not much better. The expeditionary force suffered heavy losses. Although London newspapers publicized the British battles in Mons and Le Cato as great victories, this did not change the fact that the expeditionary force was retreating steadily. British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will The entire month of August was called "the scariest August ever".

From the 23rd to the 28th, London sent a telegram to Pretoria every day, urging southern Africa to send more troops to fight in France.

"Don't believe the propaganda in the newspapers. There is no so-called big victory at all. The troops suffered heavy losses on the front lines. The coalition forces lost at least 20 people this month. If we send troops to France now, they will become victims of the German offensive." Rock strongly disagreed. The war in Southwest Africa was not over yet. Before that, Rock had no extra troops to send to France.

"Locke, the Ministry of War has given you the autonomy you want. The troops sent to France in southern Africa do not need to be dispatched by the French Command, nor are they dispatched by the Expeditionary Command. They only accept the coordination of the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War does not I will treat the southern African army as consumables at will." Ade still tried his best to obtain a more favorable way for the southern African army to participate in the war.

"More troops will go to France before November." Roque carefully measured the progress in Southwest Africa and gave an approximate time point.

Unlike the British and French allied forces retreating in France, the attack on Southwest Africa from southern Africa went smoothly. The Walvis Bay Railway finally played its due role. After the war broke out, the troops assembled in Bechuanaland launched an attack along the railway. Before destroying the railway, the southern African army captured Windhoek.

So far, the southern African army has not encountered organized resistance in Southwest Africa, and the attack on Walvis Bay in Southwest Africa has also ended. There were only some sporadic battles in the process of capturing Windhoek, and the losses of the southern African army were not large. The Germans also lost less than a hundred people.

"November? No, we may not be able to keep Paris at that time." Ade was relatively pessimistic about the war situation in France, and the Allies urgently needed a huge victory to boost their morale.

(End of this chapter)