In the past, the outbreak of war was often determined by the two parties first declaring war, then mobilizing and gathering troops, and then the battle of wits and courage between the commanders of the two armies, as well as the bravery of the officers and soldiers of the two armies, weapons and equipment, and the amount of supplies.
Mobilizing and assembling the army takes a long time. It is often a month after the war was declared. It is completely normal that the two sides have not yet fought.
But this time it was a little different, because from the first moment the war broke out, the two sides were at war. In the northern section of the Western Front, after Germany declared war on Belgium, it immediately sent troops to take down the Liege Fortress, which was its eyesore.
Capture this, and the road to Brussels and the French border will appear in the eyes of the Germans.
However, the Liège Fortress was not easy to fight. The leading German troops, led by General Emiha, rushed towards Liege. But they immediately encountered a problem, that is, how to cross the Meuse River, because the Belgians had already crossed the Meuse River.
The bridges and ships were taken away.
At this time, the German army could only build a boat bridge to cross the river. Unknown to them at this time, the large-caliber artillery of the Liege Fortress had already been prepared. After a burst of fierce artillery fire, the German army's efforts were all in vain.
Not only that, the vanguard troops preparing to launch the first wave of attacks suffered heavy casualties and were overwhelmed by the fortress's 210, 170, and 120 mm artillery.
Seeing that the fortress artillery was bullying his own infantry, Admiral Emich immediately ordered the various field artillery he carried to fight back. Although the artillery caliber carried by the German army was not low, ranging from 105 to 210 mm, these field artillery due to mobility considerations,
The power was not too great. Apart from adding some bullet marks to the outside of the fort, it failed to destroy the artillery inside the fort.
Not only that, the artillery of the fort also relied on its solid protection to unscrupulously counterattack the German artillery, which resulted in the loss of more than 30 German artillery pieces.
Seeing that the artillery battle was not advantageous, Admiral Aimich could only rely on infantry to attack this road. Unfortunately, the large number of machine guns around the fort prevented the attacking German soldiers from reaching the edge of the fort.
In just three days (the time stipulated in the Schlieffen Plan to capture the Liege Fortress), General Emiha tried various methods but was unable to get close to the fort. Instead, the Germans lost 31,000 people.
Faced with the fact that the leading German troops were unable to capture the Liege Fortress, General Moltke, as the commander-in-chief, immediately sent Ludendorff with troops to reinforce. When Ludendorff went to the Liege Fortress, he discovered that it was
The reason why it was difficult to conquer. Immediately at his request, several giant siege guns were urgently transferred to the front line of Liege.
The gun is a giant howitzer secretly developed by Krupp. The caliber of the gun has reached an unprecedented 420 mm (there is no larger caliber). Its shell weighs 1 ton and its maximum range is 15.5 kilometers.
Such a huge heavy artillery can only be transported by railway, and its assembly time takes 5 hours.
But the wait was worth it. On October 10, after the four large beta cannons were assembled, the Liege Fortress had already entered a countdown to destruction.
The 420mm artillery shells were not something that the forts of the Liege Fortress could withstand. Under the bombardment of each 420mm artillery shell, the forts of the Liege Fortress were wiped out one by one.
During this period, Ludendorff once sent someone to persuade General Lehmann, who commanded the garrison of Liege Fortress, to surrender, but he refused.
Finally, on October 14th, General Lehmann fulfilled his promise and lived and died with the fortress. The Liege Fortress, which had blocked the German army for 9 days, was finally conquered.
However, although the Liege Fortress was breached, it blocked the German army for 8 days. This was the time Belgium bought for France.
What is the French military doing at this time? The French Army is currently executing a combat plan called No. 17.
Since the Franco-Prussian War, France's dignity has been trampled on by Prussia. Its king was sworn in as the German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles, and France also ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. This scene was a shameful war, and all of France
They all had a sense of resentment. In order to regain face and regain the lost Alsace and Lorraine regions, the French military finally came up with the battle plan called No. 17 after revising it several times.
The French army launched an attack on Alsace and Lorraine as planned after the war began.
When the news of Germany's attack on Belgium reached Paris, the French army was immediately overjoyed. In the eyes of the French army, this was the German army giving itself a chance. It only needed to penetrate Germany's thin defense lines in Alsace and Lorraine. Then the French army would
It can penetrate directly into places such as Cologne and Bonn, cut off the retreat of the German army that invades Belgium, and then annihilate them all in Belgium.
From a planning perspective, this is indeed a good plan. But no matter how good the plan is, it requires soldiers to execute it.
The French are very confident about this. They believe that their army is no worse than the German army. Coupled with their secret weapon 75mm rapid-fire cannon, it is enough to tear apart the German defenses and avenge their previous humiliation.
So under the guidance of this idea, the French army sang the Marseillaise loudly and stormed towards the German troops in Alsace and Lorraine.
One more thing needs to be said here. At this time, the French army believed in the bayonet theory and believed that high morale was enough to allow the French soldiers to endure huge casualties and rush to the enemy's positions to fight hand-to-hand with them.
Therefore, during the attacks on Alsace and Lorraine, we can often see groups of French troops shouting and launching battalion-level or even division-level charges.
The charge of the densely packed French soldiers was very shocking, especially when they saw their comrades falling continuously, but they continued to charge fearlessly, which fully demonstrated the bravery of the French army.
But times are different. This kind of charge would have been enough for the German army during the Franco-Prussian War. But now this is an era when defense is greater than offense. Rapid-fire weapons represented by Maxim are enough to prove that flesh cannot compete with steel.
As a result, groups of charging French officers and soldiers were ruthlessly knocked down. The heavy rain of bullets from the Maxim machine guns made them look like wheat being harvested.
Every time a German position is captured, the cost is high casualties. However, for the French army's top brass, this must be tolerated. As long as the frontal defense line is penetrated, the vast interior of Germany will be free to the French army.
With this expectation, the French army attacked fiercely for a week. During this week, the French army captured Lorraine and most of Alsace at the cost of nearly 200,000 casualties, but it still failed to attack.
The purpose of penetrating the German defense line.
However, a piece of news at this time made it impossible for the French army to continue the attack. Because the fortress of Liege fell, Belgium was unsafe to defend, and the same was true for the empty northern France.
In addition, there is another piece of news that prevents the French military from continuing the attack. That is that the Italians have also taken action.
They launched a massive offensive on the French-Italian border. This north-south offensive forced the French army to stop and consider the next battle.
