The Third Reich: The Return of the King

August 15, 1920, Er Industrial Zone, Bocholt.

The fierce gunfire finally stopped in the evening, and the German soldiers poked their heads out of the trenches one after another, and under the leadership of the officers, began to repair the trenches with shovels in their hands and deepen the anti-artillery holes.

Outside the German trenches, patches of French corpses were piled up on the periphery of the position, and the vast majority of the soldiers were killed by German machine gun fire, so most of them were shot in the chest, and a small number were unlucky, and they were hit by mines during the attack, their legs were blown off, and they fell to the ground and no one cared about them, and they died of excessive blood loss.

The bodies walked in an area of 10-1,500 meters in front of the German positions, and the soldiers killed by bullets were mainly concentrated in the range of 50-200 meters, and most of the French soldiers who exceeded this range were killed by shells.

The whole battlefield was like Shura hell, the blood of the French soldiers dyed the main part of the land reddish-brown, and the battlefield was filled with a pungent smell of blood, which was disgusting!

The commander of the 2nd Division, Moder, personally inspected the German positions after the French offensive stopped.

Moder's expression was very solemn, the German losses were greater than he expected, and most of the casualties came from the heavy artillery of the French army.

At the beginning of the battle, the French did not have such heavy artillery, and these heavy guns with a caliber of more than 120 mm entered the battle later.

What impressed the Germans the most was the two 00-mm fortress guns of the French army, and it is not known how the French disassembled and transported these things, but the threat of these two guns to the German positions was very huge.

The weight of a 200-meter gun reaches 220 kilograms, and the killing range of a shell can reach the size of a football field.

Moder did not expect that the French army would have such a large-caliber artillery to participate in the battle at first, so the depth of the anti-artillery hole built was not deep, and it could only withstand the bombardment of 120,150 mm heavy artillery, but at this time, the French army appeared such an oversized mass killing weapon, which made the situation of the German army even more difficult.

So, after the battle, under the orders of Moder, the Germans seized the time and began to repair their positions, by the way, to deepen the anti-artillery holes and reduce casualties under enemy artillery fire!

"General, the French army invested two regiments of troops in the battle just now, but they were all crippled by us, and their casualties exceeded at least five thousand!"

Compared with Modell's caution and worry, the soldiers at the bottom were particularly excited.

The German casualties were about 800 people, but they brought 5,000 casualties to the French army today, and the battle loss ratio between the two sides reached 6:1!

Judging by the exchange ratio, the Germans were very profitable!

Moreover, the soldiers beat the French army in the battle, which made the soldiers' previous anger be vented, everyone's morale was high at this time, not only did not appear to be afraid of the imagination of war, but also one by one the fighting spirit was high, many people even asked to take the initiative to attack while it was dark, to surprise the French army, let you see the strength of the German army!

Of course, it was impossible for Moder to agree to their request, and the reason why the Germans were able to inflict such heavy casualties on the French army in the White Fight was mainly to rely on trenches and fortifications, with German soldiers hiding in trenches, covered by trenches, with heavy machine gun fire points to suppress continuous fire, and communication trenches to facilitate them.

The French soldiers were exposed when they attacked, although they had these things, but these things would not follow them forward, so they were all behind, and the French soldiers who lacked cover were beaten and lost their armor under the German defense line, and suffered heavy casualties, which was a very common thing in itself.

Throughout World War I, this was largely the case in the front positions of the Allies and the Allies, and in the face of the enemy's tight defenses, the side that took the initiative to attack would pay a very heavy price when attacking.

And it is precisely because this price is too heavy that both sides can not bear it, and in the end, neither of them will take the initiative to attack, so they simply dig trenches for each other and hide in the trenches to confront each other.

The lessons were already deep in World War I, so Moder didn't plan to take the initiative and ask for it.

However, the threat of the two 200-mm fortress guns of the French army was too great, and if these two fortress guns could not be destroyed, the German casualties would probably continue to rise!

While Moder was struggling with how to deal with the French fortress artillery, the French side was also terrified by the heavy casualties in the daytime attack!

"The battle can't be fought like this, the morale of the front-line troops is very low, and our casualties are too heavy!"

The French army was quite resistant to this offensive order from their superiors, because they had already learned the power of trench warfare in World War I, and everyone recalled the experience of World War I, and everyone felt that the game was chilling, and no one wanted to go back to that kind of war again!

Attacking the enemy's position with a tight defensive line, it was almost the life of the soldier to go in and fill the pit, and the hole dug by the other side was very deep, they filled in 5,000 lives, and there was no hope of filling the hole at all!

It is true that the French army has more troops than the German army, but even if there are more troops, they can't bear such casualties!

After all, soldiers are people, not machines, and when they see their companions falling in front of the enemy positions one by one, they say that they will not go to the battlefield at all!

"What then? General Henry gave me a death order to take Bocholt in three days, and if I can't, will he make me feel better?"

The French commander was very angry, and he knew that he couldn't fight like this, but he really couldn't help it, if he didn't attack, would he expect the Germans to retreat and give up their positions?

Isn't that a dream?

"There is only one way to do it now, and that is to intensify the artillery bombardment, and try to plow all the enemy's positions with artillery fire before the soldiers attack, as long as we can knock out their fire points, our attack will be much easier!"

"Yes, that's a solution, but I think we should apply for tanks to fight, after all, tanks are like a moving fortress with thick skin, and with the cover of this thing, the infantry don't have to worry about being strafed by enemy machine guns!"

Since the order received was a death order, and this battle had to be fought, the French generals used their brains one after another and began to think of ways to try to use various methods to take the German position.

However, they are not the only ones who are trying to figure out a way, and Moder is also trying to figure out a way.

In the evening, Mainz, stationed in Dort, received a telegram from Modell.

In a telegram, Moder gave a report on the day's fighting, incidentally mentioning the difficulties faced by the German army.

Because of the lack of heavy artillery, their artillery firepower was much weaker than that of the French, and because the French artillery positions were behind the trenches built by the French, it was difficult for the Germans to knock out the opponent's heavy artillery, which caused great difficulties for Moder.

After receiving the war report, Mainz attached great importance to the fact that the German army lacked tanks, heavy artillery, and aircraft, and the French army had all of them, so the pressure on Moder would definitely be great.

At this time, the French army still had 200 mm heavy artillery, so the pressure on the German army would definitely be heavier!

He had to do something for Moder, otherwise, even if Moder held his position, he would probably suffer heavy casualties!

Thinking of this, Mainz turned on the system!_

Fei Lu reminds you: three things to read-