Expedition to Europe

The Michael Campaign actually lasted for 16 days, and by mid-April, the positional warfare in the Amin area had resumed.

Ludendorff had tried to make a breakthrough, but there was no progress, and only a part of the casualties was increased in vain.

By mid-April, the German army occupied 1,200 square miles of land, captured 90,000 prisoners, seized 1,000 artillery pieces, and a large amount of military supplies.

The Allies suffered heavy losses again, with 160,000 British casualties and 60,000 French casualties.

At the same time, the German army also suffered 160,000 casualties and about 70,000 prisoners.

Unlike the British and French armies, the German army lost elite troops, and these people could not be replenished.

Hubert Gough was sent back to Britain as a scapegoat. No one mentioned his warning before the war, and the British government never commented on it.

Haig should actually be dismissed, but Lloyd George had no better candidate, so Haig was able to continue to serve as the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force.

Although the British were defeated, Haig's efforts objectively made Ludendorff's idea of ​​ending the war this year completely bankrupt.

The Germans now seem to have an advantage, but they are not strong enough to launch a large-scale offensive.

Ludendorff did not admit that his plan had actually failed. Although the Michael Campaign had actually deviated from the original plan from the moment he ordered Hutier to attack Yamin, Ludendorff still wanted to continue his efforts. Perhaps in Ludendorff's subconscious, the Allies were already at the end of their strength. As long as the Germans continued to invest in troops, the Allies' positions would collapse.

Ludendorff's consciousness was not clear enough now. Whether Ludendorff admitted it or not, the Germans were now at the end of their strength, and the Allies' advantage was expanding every day because of the continuous increase in the US military.

Starting from mid-April, the US military's increase in troops accelerated further. In the ten days at the end of April, 10,000 people landed in France every day. These troops would be reorganized in Paris first and then deployed in batches.

Just before the Battle of Michael ended, Ludendorff began to prepare for an offensive in Flanders.

Because the troops originally prepared for the attack on Flanders were used in Yamen, Ludendorff reduced the scale of the attack, and the preparations for the attack were carried out hastily, without enough artillery or A7V.

The A7V is a large tank recently developed by Germany. The crew of this tank has 18 people. You can imagine how huge it is. It is simply a mobile steel fortress.

Fortunately, due to the shortage of German resources, the Germans were unable to equip enough tanks. Only a part of the troops were allocated a small number of tanks, and they could not carry out a large-scale assault. Otherwise, the Germans should have occupied Paris by now.

The plan to attack Flanders formulated by Ludendorff was called the "Georgette" offensive by Ludendorff's staff. This is an ironic name that satirizes Ludendorff's impracticality.

The Georgette Offensive began in late April, with nine German divisions attacking on an 11-mile-long position. As with the Battle of Michael, there was heavy fog on the morning of the bombardment. Bruchmuller personally commanded the artillery unit to conduct a five-hour bombardment, focusing on the positions defended by two Portuguese divisions.

These two Portuguese divisions were deployed by the Portuguese government to show friendship with Britain, and the morale of these soldiers was a problem. First of all, the soldiers did not understand why they had to participate in the war. Secondly, on the second day of the German attack, the two divisions were supposed to withdraw to the rear for rotation. At this critical moment, they were attacked, and the frustration of the Portuguese can be imagined.

So in the devastating artillery attack of the Germans, the positions of the two Portuguese divisions collapsed quickly, and the soldiers fled in all directions with their already packed luggage, leaving the positions unguarded.

The German attack was very smooth, and they advanced 3.5 miles until the afternoon when they encountered the hastily organized resistance of the British First Army.

The tactical purpose of the Georgette Offensive was to capture Hazebrouck, which was also a railway transit station and had a very important geographical location.

General Horn led the First Army to defend Hazebrouck for two days. On the second night, the Germans used A7V tanks in the attack.

The appearance of tanks accelerated the collapse of the British army. That night, the Germans dug a 30-mile-wide gap in the First Army's defense line, and the First Army's defense line collapsed immediately.

Haig realized the danger from the first day of the campaign.

On the one hand, Haig asked the French for help, and on the other hand, he ordered Plummer's troops to directly support the First Army.

At this time, Foch's troops were gradually increasing, so Foch sent 4 divisions to Hazebrouck, including two US divisions.

Knowing that reinforcements were about to arrive, Haig was very calm and issued an order: Every post must be held to the last person and no retreat is allowed. We are already in a desperate situation, but as long as we still believe in justice, everyone should hold on to the end.

Haig's words did sound very encouraging, but in fact, after saying this, Haig found Wilson to discuss how to use the ports in the English Channel to help their troops evacuate France.

This period was also the most dangerous period for the Allies. The French cabinet ordered that once the war became tense, the French troops should give up supporting the British army and ensure the safety of Paris.

Although the British army shouted to "fight to the end", they were actually planning to retreat at any time.

In the British army, not everyone obeyed Haig's orders. For example, Plummer did not follow Haig's order to "stick to the end". Even when the Germans attacked the position that Haig had won last year at the cost of 250,000 casualties, Plummer retreated without hesitation.

Plummer's decisiveness saved the British from greater casualties. In the next two weeks, Plummer kept retreating.

Plummer did not run all the way. Whenever he retreated to a certain extent, Plummer would order his troops to stop and establish a position that would be difficult to capture without artillery.

The Germans had to stop frequently and wait for the slow-moving artillery units to catch up for support.

When the German artillery caught up, Plummer had already abandoned his position and continued to retreat to the rear.

This flexible and mobile tactic made the German offensive intermittent. Every effort of the Germans was like a punch with all their strength, but it hit the soft cotton. Even if they won, they did not feel any sense of satisfaction.

Until the beginning of May, Plumer was still using this tactic. It was not until the French reinforcements arrived that Plumer chose to hold on. In these two weeks, Plumer caused nearly 100,000 casualties to the Germans, and only 40,000 losses himself. For the British, this was already an incredible victory.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

By the beginning of May, the Germans seemed to have achieved a lot of results, but they did not control the fulcrum of strategic value. By the beginning of May, the Germans were not far from Yamen, not far from Hazebruck, not far from Kemmer Mountain and Deket Mountain. As long as they captured any place, the German army could control Ypres and the surrounding areas.

Ludendorff had a big appetite. He did not attack one point or two points, but all areas of strategic value.

This seriously dispersed the German army's gradually limited forces. The attacks on Yamen and Hazebruck failed, and only the attack on Mount Kemmer was successful.

But after capturing Mount Kemmer, Ludendorff no longer had enough troops to continue attacking Mount Dekter.

At this time, Ludendorff made another big mistake. If Ludendorff ordered his troops to continue the attack, then Mount Dekter would definitely not be able to stop the German attack. Even if Ludendorff was bolder and only sent one division, Mount Dekter would become Ludendorff's possession.

But Ludendorff was extremely cautious at this time. He ordered the German army to stop the attack and wait on the spot, so the opportunity was fleeting.

When the German army had reinforcements to launch an attack the next day, Foch had mobilized enough troops to defend Mount Dekter.

Ludendorff made the same mistake as in the Yamen area.

When the northern region was completely deadlocked, Ludendorff had to turn his attention to Qin Zhiyuan in the south.

Opposite Qin Zhiyuan at this time were nearly 30 divisions led by the Bavarian prince, with a total force still more than twice that of Qin Zhiyuan.

Throughout May, the German army suffered greater losses than in April. So far, the German casualties have reached 350,000, and almost one in ten German soldiers has been killed or injured.

In contrast, the strength of the Allies is constantly increasing. Throughout May, 250,000 American soldiers arrived in France. Among the middle-level officers under Pershing, there are some people who will shine in the future, such as Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, and George Patton.

Qin Zhiyuan's strength is also constantly increasing. In May, two more Chinese infantry divisions and one Annan infantry division joined the active service. These soldiers only had some training subjects left to complete, but in the nearly two months in Reims, all these lessons were made up, which was equivalent to accepting all the training content.

At the end of May, Qin Zhiyuan's troops were about the same size as before the war, with eight Chinese infantry divisions, one armored division, one air force division, three Annan divisions, two Senegalese divisions, and one US brigade.

The Bavarian prince, who was across the river from Qin Zhiyuan, had 30 divisions, but these troops were not fully equipped and fully staffed. Some of the divisions had less than 10,000 troops. For this reason, Ludendorff disbanded 100 battalions in early June and added these troops to other troops to maintain sufficient combat effectiveness.

Ludendorff was getting more and more ridiculous. He always made mistakes that shouldn't have happened.

In fact, the biggest impact on the morale of the German army now is not the lack of troops, but the lack of hope. This is the biggest problem.