Expedition to Europe

When the Germans launched the attack, Qin Zhiyuan was restless in the headquarters.

This was no longer Brimont's headquarters, but a basement in the town of Reims.

Yes, it was a town.

Reims now covers only about two or three square kilometers. It's a compliment to call it a town. Strictly speaking, it should be a village.

The reason why Qin Zhiyuan was restless was not because he didn't trust his troops or worried about the next war, but because of Misha's condition.

The Spanish flu finally spread to Reims. Misha was fine in the morning, but he started to have cold symptoms in the afternoon, and then he fell into a coma after being sent to the field hospital.

Fortunately, the doctor injected Misha with penicillin in time, otherwise, Misha should have met with an accident now.

This is not an exaggeration. Recently, there have been more than a dozen cases of similar symptoms in Reims. The process is the same every time. They are suddenly infected and die a few hours later.

Qin Zhiyuan was not surprised by this, because compared with the "Spanish flu" in history, the situation in Reims is already good, after all, there is enough penicillin here.

As for those areas without penicillin, such as the German camp, Qin Zhiyuan could imagine what a miserable situation that was.

There were indeed more than a dozen people who died in the Foreign Legion, but compared to the number of people who got sick, this ratio was very low, about one in a thousand.

If we calculate according to this probability, then there should be about 10,000 people infected in the German camp, and the death toll should be around 2,000 or 2,000.

Compared to the 500,000 German troops, this number is not much, but it is enough to cause panic in the German camp.

In fact, compared to Qin Zhiyuan's estimate, the number of German soldiers infected with influenza is much higher. The Germans are now in a state of long-term malnutrition and have extremely low resistance to viruses. At present, nearly 30,000 German soldiers in Reims have been infected with influenza, and 6,000 people have died.

Just when Qin Zhiyuan was gloating, Pierre, who was ordered to go to the field hospital, walked in with a depressed look on his face.

"How is it?" Qin Zhiyuan was concerned about the situation in the field hospital.

"Not very good. Six more people died today. In addition, we have lost 295 people because of this damn cold some time ago." Pierre shook his head and sighed, sitting on the sofa and slapping his forehead.

"You know what I'm asking." Qin Zhiyuan was dissatisfied.

Qin Zhiyuan certainly knew the total number of deaths from illness since April, but he was asking about Misha's condition.

"Misha is fine, and her vital signs are stable now." Pierre replied with his eyes rolled, and then he was very upset to see Qin Zhiyuan's relieved look: "Qin, I think your concern for Misha has exceeded the work relationship, you should reflect on yourself."

Pierre is Qin Zhiyuan's brother-in-law after all. For the sake of his sister's happiness, Pierre must remind Qin Zhiyuan all the time.

"You are the one who should reflect on yourself. You think too much." Qin Zhiyuan finally felt a little relieved.

To be honest, Qin Zhiyuan didn't like the feeling of leaving his fate to God at all, although he did pray devoutly just now.

"What should I reflect on? Did I not work hard to marry Misha home?" Pierre certainly refused to reflect, because he didn't think he was wrong at all.

"Your thoughts are so dirty. It's hard to imagine how Father Foch could have raised a son like you." Qin Zhiyuan said with disdain.

Foch was a devout Catholic. Otherwise, Foch might not agree to marry Julie to Qin Zhiyuan.

Review and guide Qin Zhiyuan's entanglement with the Knights Templar.

"Hey, hey, hey, let's talk about our own things. Don't drag the old man into this, okay?" Pierre was even more dissatisfied.

"If you have time to talk nonsense here, why not go and count the supplies in the warehouse." Qin Zhiyuan found something for Pierre to do.

"Geng's work is done very well. He doesn't need my help." Pierre didn't move.

Geng Xinmin, who is in charge of the logistics of the Foreign Legion, did a good job. He now has to ensure the daily supply of nearly 100,000 people, and maintain a delicate balance between daily consumption and inventory.

Since the siege of Reims, Paris has begun to use transport planes to airdrop supplies. Various canned foods, beverages, and even fresh fruits are in a continuous supply. Ammunition does not need to be airdropped. Before the siege, Qin Zhiyuan had stockpiled enough ammunition for two months.

"Then you make an attack plan, launch it from the eastern front, and attack in the direction of the Belle Forest." Qin Zhiyuan is only responsible for the general direction.

"Attack? God, there are 500,000 Germans around us now, let's do a good job of defense first." Pierre disagreed.

"It's not our style to defend blindly. Our creed is to attack. Only in the attack can we destroy more enemies. Go quickly." Qin Zhiyuan insisted.

"Okay, okay. We want to attack..." Pierre couldn't convince Qin Zhiyuan, and muttered to the staff to do his job well.

Qin Zhiyuan was right. It was not in line with the style of the Foreign Legion to defend blindly. Only by letting go of the attack can we show our strengths.

On the southwest defense line, the battle was very fierce.

The starting point of the German attack was about one kilometer away from the front position of the Foreign Legion. The reason why the starting position was set so far away was because of the powerful firepower of the defenders.

Even if it was one kilometer away, the Germans still had no sense of security. Whether it was the MG08 or Miss 75 of the Foreign Legion, they could easily cover the starting point of the German army.

Of course, at this distance, the accuracy of Miss 75 can be guaranteed, but the accuracy of MG08 is questionable.

So the machine gunners of the Foreign Legion did not conduct harassing shooting, which was useless.

The A7V tank is three meters high, and its huge body stands in the wilderness, like a siege vehicle built for war in the Middle Ages, which has become the most conspicuous target on the battlefield.

Almost as soon as the A7V appeared on the battlefield, it attracted the harassing shooting of Miss 75.

It was not considered harassment, because even at a distance of one kilometer, more than a dozen A7Vs were destroyed or had malfunctions and could not move forward.

At this time, the tanks were still in the early stages. Even the Germans, who were famous for their precision manufacturing, had problems with their tanks, which was not surprising.

When the attack began, the closer to the Foreign Legion's position, the more serious the loss of the tanks.

The density of artillery on the Foreign Legion's position is very high. There is a 75mm gun almost every 10 meters along the four-kilometer defense line. Together with the 75mm tank gun on the FT-17, the density of firepower is amazing.

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

The A7V is indeed huge. The 18 crew members ensure that there are enough people to operate the tank. There are enough machine guns in front, behind, left and right, and it is also equipped with a 75mm tank gun.

But with only more than a hundred tanks, the damage caused to the Foreign Legion's position is extremely limited.

The Foreign Legion often conducts exercises. Tankmen have to train fixed-point shooting, and artillerymen have to train anti-tank. They have to try their best to hit the joint of the tank.

The FT-17 tank is a welded turret. Although the front armor is thicker, if a shot hits the joint between the turret and the body, it can still hit the target.

At the same time, the most important thing is that the Foreign Legion is equipped with armor-piercing shells, which are the kind of armor-piercing shells that evolved from naval shells and are specially used for anti-armor.

Three months ago, during the St. Michael Offensive, the Germans used the A7V. After Qin Zhiyuan learned the news, he immediately asked the old Renault to produce 75mm armor-piercing shells, which could not only be used for the 75mm, but also for tank guns.

The French military production capacity is still good. In two months, the Foreign Legion has stockpiled more than 30,000 armor-piercing shells. Even if the strength of ten armor-piercing shells is used to destroy a tank, these armor-piercing shells are enough to destroy all tanks in the world.

Moreover, in actual combat, it takes at most two or three rounds to destroy a tank, and in many cases, it takes only one round to kill the soul. The huge A7V has no ability to resist.

The armor-piercing shell does not just penetrate the tank armor, but after penetrating the tank armor, the warhead directly penetrates into the body and explodes, relying on the fragments of the warhead to kill the enemy.

The A7V uses a gasoline engine, because there are a large number of machine gun positions and artillery, and more bullets and shells are stockpiled. In this way, when the warhead of the armor-piercing shell explodes inside the body of the vehicle, it often causes the gasoline and shells to explode.

So on the A7V's charge path, will there be unlucky guys who turn into a brilliant big firework?

Targeted defense results in massacre.

The Germans used the A7V in the attack, hoping to rely on the impact of the A7V to form a breakthrough. But in actual combat, the A7V played the most role in providing some cover for the infantry, and was destroyed on the way to the Foreign Legion's position.

This result was unexpected by both the attackers and the defenders.

The Germans did not expect that they would have to rely on the infantry to solve the problem in the end; the defenders were even more surprised, as they still had many means to deal with tanks that they had not used, so they lost their place.

So let's use traditional means to solve the problem.

The infantry who lost the protection of the tanks had no one to rely on, and they launched a tragic charge.

The human wave tactics were proven to be useless in the battle last year in front of the positions with many machine guns defending.

It cannot be said to be useless, at least it proved the courage of the German army and increased the military exploits of the Foreign Legion.

When the battle was over, Qin Zhiyuan and Bavarian King Ruprecht were both surprised.

The difference was that Qin Zhiyuan felt that he won too easily, while Ruprecht finally knew why Crown Prince William was annihilated.

So the seemingly grand first siege of Reims ended hastily.

Before finding an effective way to break through, Ruprecht would not launch the next attack, which would only waste the precious lives of the soldiers in vain.

Although the Foreign Legion was as solid as a mountain, it did not have much offensive ability. Once it left the well-equipped defensive position, the weapons of the Foreign Legion could not play the role of defense.

From late June, the war fell into silence, and both sides needed to take a breath, regroup their forces, and prepare for the next stage of the attack.

But the delay of time was not good for the Germans, because every day, the balance of power between the two sides would change, toward the side that was unfavorable to Germany.