Rise of Australia

Chapter 382 Germany's Westward Advance and French Eastward Advancement

General Schlieffen was keenly aware that, from an economic point of view, as well as from the cultural conditions of the people and the unrestrained consumption of funds required to maintain a large army, it was very necessary to quickly resolve the future war against France and Russia.

Schlieffen pointed out that France must be regarded as one big fortress, especially the fortress of Verdun on the German-French border, which was almost impenetrable.

The weak link of France's defense is located on the border between northwestern France and Belgium, which is the vital point that stabs straight into the heart of France.

This plan, borrowed from Belgium, was proposed by General Schlieffen.

According to the famous Schlieffen plan, General Schlieffen focused Germany's war against France and Russia on the western front, and it is expected to deploy 78 divisions to attack France with all its strength.

On the western front, eight divisions were deployed on the left wing in accordance with the principle of light weight on the left and weight on the right, and the first to launch an attack to contain the main force of the French army.

The right wing is the focus of the attack. It needs to hoard at least 70 divisions, and use the territory of neutral countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium to directly insert into the heart of France.

In the west of Paris, around to the southwest of Paris, a large-scale encirclement movement was carried out, forcing the French army to move eastward, and then the German troops on the east and west lines encircled and wiped out the French army.

The entire war on the Western Front is expected to end within 6 to 8 weeks. As long as the war against France can be won, the remaining Russia will naturally have no resistance.

On the Eastern Front, General Schlieffen proposed to deploy only nine divisions to contain the Russian army.

Because the combat effectiveness of the Russian army is weak, and the German army has the cooperation of the Austro-Hungarian army, it is enough to persist until complete victory on the western front before turning around and moving eastward.

Although this Schlieffen plan correctly chose the main assault direction, made full use of the strategic initiative and suddenness, and strived to take active and resolute actions to achieve a quick victory.

However, this plan underestimated the combat effectiveness of the French army. General Schlieffen overestimated the combat effectiveness of the German army and underestimated the combat effectiveness of the French army. This plan is also extremely risky.

As the successor after Schlieffen, the current German Chief of Staff Moltke (Little Moltke), is the nephew of the old Marshal Moltke.

Little Moltke was personally selected by William II. If you have to ask why, the surname Moltke is the main reason why William II chose Little Moltke.

After taking office as the German chief of staff, Moltke inherited Schlieffen's strategic thinking and made some modifications according to the specific situation.

But generally speaking, the Germans are very confident in their military strength, which is also caused by the nationalism of the Germanic nation.

From August 8 after the start of the war, all railway transportation in Germany was handed over to the army for management.

Germany's extremely developed railway network can support the passage of 24 military trains and transport 660 divisions within 20 hours.

If the Germans are willing, it only takes about ten days to send all the Western Front troops to the designated positions.

Because of the German offensive plan, Germany declared war on France and Belgium at the same time, and the troops reached the borders of these two countries at the same time as the declaration of war.

In order to capture the Liege Fortress in Belgium, after several days of mobilization by the German army, four large Bertha mortars were successfully transported several kilometers away from the Liege Fortress, and launched shelling on the fortified Liege Fortress.

The Big Bertha mortar was designed at the request of the German General Staff, specifically for strong fortresses like Verdun and Liege Fortresses.

With a caliber of up to 420 mm and a range of more than ten kilometers, this giant cannon has become a secret weapon in Germany, and it is also the key to Germany's confidence in being able to solve the Liege Fortress.

The weight of the Big Bertha mortar gun is as high as 120 tons, and a total of nearly 300 people are needed to use this cannon.

The shells of such a big guy are naturally not small. The shells of a big Bersa mortar weigh 820 kilograms, and each shot requires at least 200 kilograms of gunpowder.

This is not over yet. Every time you launch, there should be no one within 300 meters around, otherwise it is easy to cause accidental injury.

After all, the power of 200 kilograms of gunpowder explosion is not small, and the explosion pushes the shock wave emitted by the bomb, which is enough to injure or even kill nearby people.

Unlike other artillery, almost all German artillery fire rate is calculated in minutes.

There are dozens of rounds per minute, and several or even more than ten rounds per minute.

But the Big Bertha mortar is different. The firing rate of such a big guy is calculated in hours.

If all goes well with the firing process, it can fire about eight rounds per hour, an average of one round every 7.5 minutes.

As for the power of such a big guy, after William II visited its test firing, he was very satisfied and praised all the experts who developed this cannon.

However, William II also ordered to continue to improve the cannon. Among other things, the weight of 120 tons made transporting the cannon a very difficult problem.

The assembly of the Big Bertha mortar took a certain amount of time, but when all four cannons were assembled, it was a huge torture for the Belgian army in the Liege Fortress.

The Big Bertha mortars did a huge damage to the fortress. Four cannons fired continuously for more than two hours, and at least 50 shells were fired, which not only destroyed most of the forts of the Liege Fortress, but also destroyed the most important material warehouse.

There is also an ammunition depot, which should store a lot of ammunition and shells.

Immediately after the shell exploded, there were several explosions with significantly smaller sound waves. I don't know if any of the Belgians were accidentally injured.

In addition to bombing with artillery, the Germans also carried out psychological tactics, which was to persuade the defenders of the Liege Fortress to surrender.

The German army claimed that the war between Germany and Belgium was unnecessary.Germany's main and only purpose is France, provided that the Belgian army is willing to surrender, if it can protect Belgium from the harm of war at home.

However, the commander of the garrison of the Liege Fortress was also a ruthless person, and he rejected Germany's persuasion to surrender, and directly replied: "I would rather live and die with the fortress."

However, even if the Belgians held on to the Liege Fortress for more than ten days, they were finally successfully breached by the German army on August 8.

No way, heavy weapons like the Big Bertha Mortar are too buggy and can bring great damage to the extremely strong Liege Fortress.

After several days of continuous bombing by four cannons, even the fortress of Liege, which is as strong as steel, had to bow its head to the German cannons.

But for France, this is good news.The Belgians used their own casualties to buy France more than ten days.

The Germans originally planned to solve France in 6 to 8 weeks, but wasted more than ten days in Belgium, and a quarter of the planned time has been wasted.

It was also during these more than ten days that the French army quickly assembled and deployed to the eastern border.

Moreover, the French have not been idle during these ten days, planning a counterattack plan against Germany.

The German army was dragged at the fortress of Liege, and an idea was born within the French army, that is, to attack directly into the hinterland of Germany from the Alsace and Lorraine regions.

This has to mention the importance of Alsace and Lorraine.This area once belonged to France, but now it was forced to cede in the previous Franco-Prussian War.

The German Empire was also established after the Franco-Prussian War, and was crowned emperor at the Palace of Versailles, which is very important to the French, and became the emperor of the German Empire.

For the French, this is a deep hatred that cannot be forgotten.

Therefore, when the German army was dragged in Belgium, the French staff immediately formulated a plan for the rapid recovery of Alsace and Lorraine.

After many discussions and deliberations, a plan called Restoring the Lost Lands was officially released.

According to the plan of the French General Staff, the French army took advantage of the German army being dragged in Belgium, mobilized part of the army to directly attack Alsace and Lorraine, and then bypassed Cologne to directly surround the German army from the rear.

In this way, the French army and the Belgian army directly surrounded the German army.

The German army was like a turtle among men, waiting to be captured.

The French plan to recover lost territory is the 17th plan proposed by the French General Staff during this period, so it is also called Plan 17.

When Germany attacked the fortress of Liege, the French chief of staff, Joffre, the French commander-in-chief during the war, also initiated the implementation of Plan 17.

The main core of Plan 17 is to recover Alsace and Lorraine, which were taken by Germany, to boost the morale of the French army and increase the support of the people for the war.

But in addition to this core plan, Plan No. 17 also has a flank attack direction, that is, the left wing. The Third Army commanded by General Rueff and the Fifth Army commanded by General Langrezac have a total of 88.7 people. Going north to the Namur line, they attacked the German troops in Metz and Ardennes.

The Fourth Army under the command of General Cary has a total of 19 people. As a reserve force for Plan 17, it is ready to respond to various offensive forces.

However, although the number of French troops mobilized by Plan 17 is as high as 170 million, only a few hundred thousand people can actually attack at the border.

A large number of troops remained behind the frontier, either because of the terrain or for various other reasons, doomed not all to engage in the war at the same time.

Under the various propagandas of the French army, the French soldiers set foot on the homeland of Alsace, feeling patriotic, they couldn't help but raise their guns to salute, and pulled out the boundary posts marked by the Germans and threw them aside.

Under the shroud of this patriotism, the French army showed their fearless spirit and launched a fierce attack on the German army in Alsace and Lorraine.

If you are on the battlefield, you can see that under the call of the commander, the French soldiers march forward bravely, even if there are comrades in arms falling around, although they cannot stop the French soldiers from advancing.

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(End of this chapter)