"Launching a large-scale offensive on the Somme was part of the Allied Powers' planned strategic offensive plan for 1916.

In December 1915, in the French town of Chantilly, French Commander-in-Chief Joffre and British Commander Sir Haig agreed that three French armies and two British armies would carry out a large-scale strategic offensive on both sides of the Somme River.

Strive to break the deadlock on the Western Front and create conditions for the subsequent shift to mobile warfare. They also determined that the main force to implement the Battle of the Somme would be borne by the French army.

Joffre and Haig initially formulated a plan for the Battle of the Somme. Their goal was to completely break through the German defense line and win a decisive victory on the Western Front. However, they did not expect that the German army had a similar attempt and moved faster. The difference was

What's more, the German army's breakthrough point was Verdun. The sudden German attack disrupted the deployment of the British and French troops. A large number of French army reserves were used in the direction of Verdun. Heavy casualties were suffered by the German army day by day.

The attack exhausted the French army and made it impossible to prepare for the Battle of the Somme.

Under this circumstance, Joffre and Haig had to modify the original plan for the Battle of the Somme. They reduced the planned breakthrough front from 70 kilometers to 40 kilometers, and the number of participating troops in the battle was reduced from 64 divisions to 39.

, the strength of the French army was reduced by 64%, and the breakthrough area was compressed to 15 kilometers. Their final offensive lineup was: the British army was composed of the 3rd and 4th Group Armies, a total of 25 infantry divisions; the French army was composed of the 6th

The group army has a total of 14 infantry divisions. The main assault force of the battle was changed from the French army to the British 4th Group Army. The five armies under its jurisdiction were deployed in a line. The main task was to break through the German army north of the Somme River.

For the defense of the 4th and 6th Group Armies, the reserve force consists of 2 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions; the French army is divided into two echelons. Its main task is to break through south of the Somme River to the east, and then assist the British army to the north.

The 4th Army marches towards Cambrai. The general reserves for the battle are the two British armies and the French 10th Army (which has 4 armies). In this way, the protagonists in the upcoming Battle of the Somme will be

The British Expeditionary Force and its affiliated Canadian Expeditionary Force.

The reason why Joffre and Haig did not abandon the Somme Battle plan was that the Allies wanted to break the deadlock on the Western Front through this battle. More importantly, the German offensive in the direction of Verdun caused considerable damage to the French army.

France has devoted almost all of its strength here. Therefore, it must attack in other areas. Only by attacking to contain the German army can the pressure on Verdun be reduced and the crisis turned. Therefore, the original goal of the Battle of the Somme was

Before the war, they implemented a counter-offensive to partially reduce the pressure on Verdun. However, Joffre and Haig chose the Somme River as the location for their counter-attack, just like Falkenhayn in Germany. Neither of them fully anticipated the enemy.

However, due to the strength of their defenses, they all made the mistake of "beating an egg against a stone", and the Battle of the Somme became a war of attrition on an unprecedented scale that failed to achieve its intended purpose.

...If we say that in this unprecedented war of attrition, the only thing we can be thankful for is that it was precisely thanks to the full preparation of the generals of the expeditionary force that the Western powers wanted to use our Chinese expeditionary force as cannon fodder.

Once failed, history has proved how weak the so-called friendship solidified by blood is when faced with conflicts of interest. At that time, no one thought that more than 20 years later, the former allies would become enemies.

Former enemies have become allies. Perhaps this is the inevitable development of history..."

"Expedition to Europa - Father's Battlefield" - Zhang Zhongcheng

June 2-4, 1916.

"It was strangely quiet, and the hours before midnight were so still that the usual cacophony of war could not be heard. The fields were filled with the sweet and lively scent of the coming spring; the air was fresh and pleasant.

Permeated with the fragrance of the trees, the breeze blew gently through the branches that had not sprouted green yet; a little further away from the battle line, only the flashing and extinguished signal bombs above the treetops could make people eliminate the heavy night.

The illusion that peace has returned to this beautiful land..."...

As always. As a second lieutenant of the Second Army of the Royal Prussian Army, Senck von Speltian, as usual, recorded such a new day in his diary when the morning came.

At first, for some unknown reason, when he wrote "Peace has returned to this beautiful land" with a pen, he suddenly stopped writing. After thinking for a few minutes, he wrote again in his diary.

"However, overall, there are still signs of impending disaster..."

The reason why he was so sure was very simple. The entire German position was built on the hillside from low to high, giving a clear view of the movements of the British and French troops. And from a few weeks ago, almost every soldier on the German position discovered

They knew the strangeness of the British army's position, so they had already mastered the information about the British and French troops' offensive starting positions. When the French troops moved towards their forward position, the German army could see it clearly in the telescope, and they almost mastered it.

It was the day when the British and French troops began to attack, so they had already made preparations. Both sides were nervously waiting for that day to arrive.

At this moment, just when Link put down his pen and was about to close the notebook, there was a faint thunderous roar in the air. It was... Looking into the air, Second Lieutenant Senke understood what was coming.

The roar - shelling.

"All concealed, shelling!"

Before Senk could issue a warning, there was a shout from the sergeant in the trench. The Prussian soldiers who had been vigilant in the trench immediately rushed to the nearest artillery hole or bunker to wait for the bombardment to pass.

At the forefront of the Somme defense line was the 2nd Army. Since the Western Front fell into a stalemate in trench warfare, no large-scale battles had broken out in this direction, so they spent more than two years strengthening their defenses. They carefully

Choosing the terrain, they built a relatively complete defense system. In addition to traditional trenches, support points, traffic trenches and concrete shelters, they also built a 40-foot-deep underground tunnel network, with the entrances and exits of its underground fortifications hidden in the village.

and nearby woods, making it difficult to be discovered by enemies.

At this time, when they encountered artillery fire, these German soldiers immediately withdrew into the complex underground tunnels to avoid the artillery fire from the British and French allied forces. Although they retreated extremely quickly, they could not keep up with the speed of the falling shells.

As the soldiers withdrew into the anti-gun tunnel, artillery shells rained down from the air.

In an instant, the German forward position was completely shrouded in a hail of bullets. Smoke and explosions, shells and fragments flew across the vicinity of the German position. The shells that fell into the trenches set off a bloody storm, and soldiers were injured by bombs.

, the wounded were thrown into the sky. In the sky, the wounded's body was torn apart by fragments, and then torn apart again. In the black smoke, it was a bloody storm. Screams and howls exploded.

echoed in.

Shelling!

It was more violent than Senk imagined. Even for Senk, he had never experienced such intensive shelling. The shelling was like a huge wave, constantly impacting the seemingly solid trench, even if

Even though he was in a limestone tunnel 10 meters deep underground, he could still really feel the power of the explosion. The electric light on the roof of the tunnel swayed from time to time with the explosion, and fine pieces of stone continued to fall above his head. During the shock of the explosion, the electric light

It lights up and goes out, and every time it goes out, you can always hear the terrified screams of the soldiers.

"Let the French bomb! We are here. It can't hurt us at all. That is Alfred's shelling. We don't need to worry. When the French finish shooting the shells, we will leave them with a

Nightmare!”….

In the trembling earth, despite the extreme fear in his heart, Senke still loudly encouraged the soldiers so that their courage would not be defeated by this unprecedented scale of artillery attack. Will, in this stalemate, the will has

Time is more important than weapons!

"Haha, the French must not have thought that we are actually playing poker..."

Although the tunnel was shaking in the rain of bullets, the German soldiers who gradually calmed down began to joke. It seemed that for them, none of this was worth worrying about, nor was it worth thinking too much about.

Because it can't hurt them at all.

The bombardment will end soon!

Second Lieutenant Senke said to himself in his heart, how long can such a bombardment last? According to his understanding, at most one day, both the French and the British will stop the bombardment.

But what Senk didn't know was that in the past six months, the British and French generals had been preparing for this battle. Even at the most critical moment of the Battle of Verdun, they never slackened off.

, the French army has been actively making large-scale and thorough preparations. In the offensive zone, it has laid 250 kilometers of railways and 500 kilometers of narrow-gauge railways from the rear to the front, built 6 airports and 150 concrete sites, and also constructed

They dug trenches, communication trenches, fortifications, shelters to avoid artillery fire, and various warehouses. In order to obtain sufficient water sources, they also dug 2,000 small wells. In terms of material preparation, they concentrated the greatest strength since the war began.

There were approximately 8.4 million rounds of artillery shells, 3,500 artillery pieces, and more than 300 aircraft. In this way, the average strength and weapon density of the British and French troops on each kilometer of breakthrough front reached one infantry division and nearly 90 artillery pieces.

This is the first time in human history that such unprecedented material preparation has been carried out. Therefore, this time, the British and French gunners did not need to consider the issue of cannonballs at all. The only thing they needed to consider was how to shoot out the cannonballs.

Complete the bomb drop plan formulated by the headquarters in the shortest possible time.

In short, in order to ensure the success of the campaign, the British and French armies formed an absolute advantage over Germany in the breakthrough zone. Their infantry exceeded 3.6 times, artillery 1.7 times, and aviation nearly 2 times. Now, the number of artillery shells they are dropping on the battlefield is even more

It is as many as one million rounds or more.

"Erase the German positions completely from the face of the earth!"

The orders received by the artillery of the British and French armies were so simple, and they were confident that they could do it. Almost at dawn, the concealed artillery groups of the British and French armies launched the largest artillery bombardment on the German positions since the war began. From 82 mm

From mortars to 406mm train guns, the British and French forces concentrated almost all available artillery fire to achieve that goal.

The unprecedentedly violent artillery fire suddenly plunged the German positions into a sea of ​​smoke and fire. The ground shook. In the violent explosions, German bunkers and obstacles flew into the sky from time to time. Even some strong fortresses were destroyed by 12

The train was hit by artillery fire over an inch and was blown into the air.

"This is the largest bombardment ever recorded in human history!"

Perhaps, on the British attack position, the battlefield observation group headed by Cai E and others looked at the artillery fire in front of them in surprise. Only then did they truly feel the "power of industry". This kind of devastating artillery fire was completely

Relying on the power of industry, it is impossible for any backward industrial country to prepare nearly 10 million rounds of artillery shells for a single battle.

"If we were in Jiao'ao..."

Just imagining it. Han Wu felt as if some cold sweat broke out on his back. The Jiao'ao battle has always been regarded as the "pride" of the Chinese army, and it was the first true modernization that took place on the land of China.

War, but there, in the battle that lasted for several months, the Jiangsu Army only fired less than 200,000 rounds of artillery shells. But now. This battle has only started for more than an hour, and the British and French allied forces have collapsed towards the German positions.

Two hundred thousand artillery shells, and according to the plan of the British and French Allied Forces Command, during the entire fire preparation process, they will fire 1.5 million artillery shells at the German positions!….

"The results of this shelling are devastating!"

Hearing the commander's whisper, Xu Shuzheng added that he had never been to Europe, so he didn't know what modern warfare was. And after a few months in Europe, every expedition officer and soldier had a deeper understanding of modern warfare.

The war between man and steel, man and machine!

"If you could have given me such firepower back then, I could have fought from Jiao'ao all the way to Tokyo!"

Han Wu's words reached Xu Shuzheng's ears without missing a word. As the "Big Three" of the expeditionary force, although the three have temporarily put aside all conflicts and interests they represent, occasional disputes between words are still inevitable.

At this moment, almost as soon as Han Wu finished speaking, Xu Shuzheng said something slightly thorny.

"If you can swim to Japan, I guarantee you can make it all the way to Tokyo!"

"No need to swim, we have the army and navy!"

Regarding Xu Shuzheng's words, Han Wu just replied indifferently, and then the three of them looked at each other and smiled, and continued to observe the situation at the German front with telescopes. For the expeditionary force that only had to undertake auxiliary tasks, there was nothing important now.

It is worth worrying for them. After all, this battle has just begun. The only thing they need is to bring their subordinates to experience what modern warfare is. A modern army cannot be built simply by relying on weapons. True modernization

The army must be modernized in terms of thinking, not just in terms of weapons. Otherwise, it may end up like the Manchu and Qing army during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, which had only advanced equipment and ended up in a miserable battlefield.

When the unprecedented artillery bombardment was going on, over the German positions, the school fire aircraft dispatched by the British and French armies kept circling, and used signal flares, reflectors and other indication means to indicate the target to the ground artillery to correct the impact point of the artillery shells; at the same time,

Hundreds of combat reconnaissance aircraft dropped bombs on German positions from time to time, and then circled and strafed the German positions.
To be continued...