Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 975 The Darkest Day·

The three battlefields of the Eastern Front, the Western Front, and the Isonzo River are interrelated, and any change in any battlefield will trigger a chain reaction.

Specifically, the Eastern Front is divided into the Northern Front where the Russian Empire confronts Germany, and the Southern Front where the Russian Empire confronts the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Western Front is also divided into Verdun, dominated by the French army, and the Somme, dominated by the British army.

The battle on the Isonzo River will continue, and the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are unable to open up new battlefields until the winner is determined.

The calm in the Balkan Peninsula is very strange. After the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire jointly defeated the Kingdom of Serbia, they did not expand their achievements in the direction of the Balkan Peninsula.

The territory of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula was divided between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy. After the fall of the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Italy and the Russian Empire were unable to open up new battlefields, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not dare to attack the Balkan Peninsula.

If the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire drive away the troops of the Kingdom of Italy and the Russian Empire entrenched in the Balkans, they will have to face the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force occupying the Asia Minor Peninsula. Guess what will happen at that time——

Rock did not expect the deterrence of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force to be so great. It is no wonder that Haig never forgets the troops in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force who can fight well.

Also in mid-May, the British War Office secretly sent a new weapon to France for the upcoming Battle of the Somme.

This new weapon is the legendary "special mobile water tank" ready to be sent to Russia. It has many alternate names, including: land cruiser, water storage tank, and water tower.

Before the outbreak of the World War, Rock sold Winston the tanks produced by the Nyasaland Military Industry Group.

However, the price of Nyasaland tanks is too expensive. For the British Army that lacks funds, tanks are obviously not as economical as rifles. However, a series of military weapons produced in southern Africa are really easy to use, so under the leadership of the Ministry of War , Britain began a difficult study of tanks.

Compared with Nyasaland's "Ranger", the British tank is definitely a monster. It is 30 feet long, eight feet wide, and eight feet high. ) rapid-fire guns, four vehicle-mounted large-caliber heavy machine guns produced in Nyasaland, weighing an astonishing 57 tons.

Considering the level of the engine at this time, the "water tank" weighing 28 tons can only creep forward at a speed of four kilometers per hour under the most ideal conditions.

The strangeness of the British is undoubtedly revealed in the design of the tank. British tanks are actually divided into male and female. The male tank is the one just stated. The magnetic tank changes the rapid-fire gun to a heavy machine gun. This is probably from Nyasaland. Inspired by armored vehicles.

Some of Nyasaland's armored vehicles are equipped with vehicle-mounted large-caliber heavy machine guns, and some are equipped with 40mm grenade launchers to meet the needs of different situations.

Compared with the "Rangers" that have accumulated thousands of vehicles in Nyasaland, the British "water tank" has only produced 49 vehicles so far. During the process of arriving at the front line, 31 vehicles suffered from various degrees of failure. Only 18 tanks entered the battle.

Knowing this situation, Rock can only do nothing. The stubborn British are harder than the stones in the latrine. The cost of the "water tank" developed by the British is higher than that of Nyasaland's tanks. Now it is estimated that the British are also Riding a tiger is hard to get off, they always have to be beaten badly in front of reality, and then learn to change.

In any case, the wheel of history is not shifted by personal will, and the Battle of the Somme broke out as expected.

Haig ordered the artillery to bombard the German positions on the front of the Somme for five days before launching the ground troops to attack. At this time, Haig had 1500 cannons in his hands. A cannon joined the battle at 18 yards. On the second day after the shelling began, the Somme also began to rain. It rained heavily for three days.

The artillery of the expeditionary force fired 150 million shells at the German positions. It was already June 20 when the infantry units went into attack. A ton of shells fell.

Not surprisingly, there were more than one batch of shells that had problems. A considerable number of shells did not explode. Some people estimated that at least one-third of the shells were duds. Most of the shells that exploded normally were shrapnel shells, which could not penetrate the German bunkers. , the post-war investigation report stated that the Irish should be responsible for this, because the Irish in Dublin held the Easter Uprising in April, and it took the British government a week to suppress the uprising. The uprising affected the military production of the British mainland.

This conclusion was unacceptable to the Irish, but it was a relief for Roque and Winston, because of this report, Roque and Winston were not responsible.

Because of the strong opposition of the Anzac Army, the British Fourth Army, the main offensive division, was commanded by Henry Rawlinson, who had been fighting in France since the outbreak of the World War. Inspired by the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the German Army, he had his own ideas about infantry coordination. understanding.

In Henry Rawlinson's vision, infantry coordination should be carried out in a perfect way, rather than the messy offensive line of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Before the Battle of the Somme, Henry Rawlinson organized troops to practice formations. According to Henry Rawlinson's order, the attacking British troops should be lined up neatly, and the distance between soldiers should be as close as possible, because this will give the soldiers enough sense of security. The soldiers of the Fourth Army are all The recruits who have just been drafted into the army have not yet adapted to the French battlefield environment.

In addition to the soldiers being as close as possible, Henry Rawlinson asked the attacking troops to start at a constant speed at a predetermined time, and keep an equal distance between the teams. "The attack should be like waves, wave after wave, and never stop." The speed must be one hundred yards every two minutes, neither fast nor slow, following behind the barrage of shells, so as to create continuous pressure on the Germans.

Whether the Fourth Army's offensive put enough pressure on the Germans is hard to say, but it gave the German machine gunners enough opportunities.

Because too many shells did not explode, the machine guns on the German positions had almost no losses, and the barbed wire fences in front of the positions were not even completely destroyed.

Before the Fourth Army launched an attack, observers noticed this situation and issued a warning to the headquarters, but Henry Rawlinson ignored it. Haig still did some work in the past few months. He ordered the troops to dig 11 under the German positions. Authentic, trying to replicate the advantages of the British Expeditionary Force in the new autumn offensive, the British Expeditionary Force laid 700 miles of telephone lines before the war, and these telephone lines were buried underground to prevent damage from shelling. It has a certain effect, but once the line is interrupted, it will also bring great difficulties to the communication soldiers who braved the artillery fire to repair the telephone line.

In addition to telephone lines, the British Expeditionary Force also laid 120 miles of water pipes to provide sufficient water to the frontline troops. 400 aircraft were also deployed to the airport, forming 20 air wings, most of which came from the British mainland. , this is Kitchener's last trust to Haig.

In the previous agreement between Kitchener and Rock, southern African pilots were only used for home defense and did not participate in the French war. In order to support France, the War Department had to train a large number of pilots. These pilots were truck drivers. Regarding the basics of driving, it is easier to become a pilot than those who have no experience.

At 7:20 am on June 100th, Haig ordered to detonate the explosives buried under the multi-faceted fort at Hawthorn Ridge. The violent explosion made the water of the Somme river boil like a commotion, and the stones on the ground flew [-] feet high. , A mountain of smoke and dust appeared at the explosion site.

Contrary to what Haig had expected, neither the five-day shelling nor the explosives laid in advance had their due effect.

The problem with the quality of shells is on the one hand, and the solid fortifications built by the German army before the war is another reason.

When the British Expeditionary Force was preparing for the war, the German troops were not idle. The German position on the Somme River opposite the British Expeditionary Force was composed of three trenches. The width of the entire line of defense was more than five kilometers. Below the position, the German army built a deep trench. The 30-foot underground city is composed of a series of reinforced concrete reinforcement caves and corridors. The underground city has electric lights, running water, and a ventilation system. Unless it is directly hit by a large-caliber shell, it will not be damaged at all.

The positions built by the German army are very perfect. Even if a small section is occupied by the British army, the German army can seal this section of the "underground city" and use phosgene to kill the British army who entered the bunker.

Phosgene is the latest research and development achievement of the German army, replacing chlorine gas as the poisonous gas used by the German army.

After a violent explosion, the officers and soldiers of the British Fourth Army left the starting position, and according to Henry Rawlinson's request, they lined up in a neat and dense formation, and attacked the German position at a constant speed of 2 yards every [-] minutes——

This is simply not like an attack. It seems more appropriate to describe it as a parade. The attacking British troops thought that no one could survive the shelling and bombing of this intensity. They did not realize what they were about to encounter. A British The officer told his subordinates: You don’t need to carry rifles, you just need to bring walking sticks. When you board the German positions, you will not find any living creatures, not even a live mouse.

The first day of the offensive had [-] British casualties, of which [-] were wounded, making it the darkest day in British military history.

(The real chapter 818 is here, brothers, don’t dislike it——)

(End of this chapter)