Since the start of the World War, the armies of the participating countries have been making continuous progress. Relatively speaking, the progress of the German army has been particularly huge.
When the World War broke out, the German army's operations were carried out strictly according to textbooks. The artillery units first carried out shelling for several hours or even days, and then the infantry charged without even basic infantry and artillery coordination.
In the Michael plan, the German army implemented perfect infantry and artillery coordination. The artillery first carried out intensive shelling for several hours, taking turns using high-explosive shells, shrapnel shells, and poison gas bombs to comb the enemy positions over and over again.
After the German infantry troops entered the starting position, the German artillery fire began to extend to the rear of the French position, forming a perfect battlefield partition. At this time, the German army mainly used poison gas bombs in order to avoid damaging the road as much as possible and facilitate the attack of the infantry troops.
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When the Germans began their artillery bombardment, the infantry units had actually already set off. Usually, the starting position of the infantry units was more than one mile away from the defense line, so as to ensure the safety of the infantry units.
In Michael's plan, the German army gave up the traditional attack method, and the infantry troops boldly moved forward to a position less than 500 meters away from the French position. At this time, the shells fired by the German artillery were actually very likely to fall on the German infantry who were preparing to attack.
On top of the troops.
The German artillery troops performed very professionally and did not cause any fratricidal incidents. The infantry stepped on the impact point of the artillery shells and advanced. Before the French defenders on the Reims defense line entered the combat position, the German troops had already crossed the first line.
first line of defense and move forward to the second line of defense further away.
Although Roque is unwilling to admit it, he has to say that in terms of professionalism, the German army is far superior to the French army. When the World War just started, the armies of various countries participating in the war had various degrees of accidental injuries. Roque
It also appeared in the Battle of Dardanelles under his command.
As the war progresses, incidents of friendly fire become fewer and fewer. The most recent incident was during the Battle of Verdun by the French army. Artillery attacked the attacking French troops as if they were German troops. In Michael's plan, the German troops
It is very rare that the troops have not made mistakes. You must know that commanding millions of troops in combat is a very complicated matter.
The perfect performance of the German artillery was thanks to a man named Georg Bruchmuller. He was a real artillery expert who had been serving on the Eastern Front. Because of his outstanding performance, Bruchmuller received the nickname
"Breaking through Miller".
After the battle on the Eastern Front, Ludendorff transferred Bruchmuller from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. His artillery theory was verified in the 12th Battle of the Isonzo River. In that battle, it was
Because of the outstanding performance of the German artillery, the Kingdom of Italy was defeated so miserably.
Now it was the French's turn to be defeated miserably.
Ludendorff improved Bruchmuller's tactics, and the main changes came from the German infantry units.
In the Michael plan, the six divisions serving as the German forward were all veterans who had survived previous battles. These veterans were rich in experience and carried a large number of grenades and light machine guns. When encountering French resistance, the attacking German troops
Different colored flares will be used to call for support or to remind artillery units to stop shelling.
The orders given to these veterans were to move forward at the fastest speed under any circumstances, without worrying about the flanks or whether there were enemies on the line of defense they crossed. When they broke through the French defense line and were far away from the German artillery support, the officers
can decide for themselves what they should do next.
Behind the forward troops are the offensive troops, who carry heavy machine guns, flamethrowers, mortars or field artillery to eliminate the surviving French troops on the French defense line.
There is a third echelon behind the attacking force. They are responsible for providing protection to the first two echelons and ensuring that the first two echelons have a stable rear once the attack is frustrated.
The offensive force was ultimately the German reserve force. Ludendorff had 38 divisions in his hands as reserve forces for the attack.
The force responsible for the defense of Reims was the French Fifth Army commanded by Louis Desprey. In the Battle of the Marne, Louis Desprey performed so well that he earned the nickname "Frankie the Desperate", and now it's here again.
When it came to desperate measures, Louis Desprey still had insufficient troops, and the German attack was still fierce. Four years had passed, and nothing seemed to have changed.
Regarding this battle, a German soldier described this in a letter home to his family: "——We used flamethrowers to attack the French trenches. The thick smoke and flames forced the French to escape from the trenches in embarrassment.
, we captured the first batch of prisoners - we continued to move forward, the French collapsed across the board, and we did not encounter any resistance. When we crossed the second trench, we found the French kitchen and dining room, and the stove in the kitchen was still lit.
The bacon was sizzling, and there were grilled steaks on the table - our backpacks were full, and each of us took several French individual soldier rations. I have to say that the taste of these rations is better than
Our brown bread was much better - in the restaurant we found a lot of cigarettes and alcohol, my backpack was full and I had a dozen packs in my pockets, everyone drank even if we didn't take it, reserve troops
I will also take them out——"
The German army was commanded by Otto von Bülow, who had just won a brilliant victory on the Isonzo River. On the first day of the battle, Otto von Bülow's troops advanced 15 miles. This was a jaw-dropping feat.
Distance, in last year's battle, it took the German army a whole year to not advance this far.
The night gave Louis Desprey time to adjust his defense line, but Louis Desprey did not have enough troops. Pétain sent four divisions of reinforcements to Louis Desprey, but in the face of the German breakthrough
With the huge protrusion formed by the defense line, the four divisions seemed to be a drop in the bucket and were not enough to fill the gap caused by the defeat of the Reims defenders.
That night, the radio operators throughout the coalition were extremely busy. The transmitters were working all night, the combat headquarters was brightly lit, the guards were patrolling with military dogs, and the lights of the armored vehicles were all turned on. Pétain was busy mobilizing troops to support Reims.
Roque also sent 12 ANZAC divisions to advance towards Reims in accordance with the agreement with Pétain.
The 12 divisions have exceeded Roque's promise to Pétain, but it will take them 24 hours to reach Reims. It is not known how far the German army can advance within these 24 hours.
Therefore, 12 divisions may not be enough to withstand the German attack. Roque took precautions and ordered the Canadian Army to move to Paris. Once the French troops were unable to stop the German army in Reims, the Canadian Army would block the German army from Paris.
The current situation in Paris is almost like the end of the world. The rich in the city are busy fleeing. The poor want to escape, but they don’t know where to escape. The troops from the rear have to pass through Paris to support the front line. The front line is full of wounded soldiers.
Every truck, the roads were impassable, and the railways were completely paralyzed. The rioters in Paris hidden in Germany took the opportunity to cause chaos and set fires on several streets in Paris. Nearly a hundred houses were destroyed by the fire. The firefighters in Paris showed tremendous performance.
With great courage, they fought against the rioters while working hard to restore order in the city.
After the German army launched the Michael Plan, Foch immediately spoke to Roque, hoping that while providing support to the French army, Roque would launch an attack on the frontal German positions in order to effectively contain the German army.
Roque fell into deep thought after receiving Foch's call. The situation in front of him seemed to have happened before. When the German army launched the Battle of Verdun, they had hoped that the British Expeditionary Force would launch an attack on the German army to reduce the French army's presence in Verdun.
There was pressure from Den, and then there was the Battle of the Somme, and then there was Haig's sad resignation, and Rock's brilliant debut.
Will Rock now join Haig in launching a second "Battle of the Somme" against the Germans?
The answer is definitely no.
If the German army does not take the initiative to launch an attack on the positions responsible for the British Expeditionary Force, then Roark will not take the initiative to launch an attack on the German positions. This is not to sit back and watch the French army get into trouble. Roark can mobilize the ANZAC and Canadian Corps to provide the French army with
Support, but if Rock takes the initiative to attack, Rock will not have enough reserves in his hands.
After all, Ludendorff still had dozens of divisions with nearly a million mobile troops in his hands. The German positions in front of the British Expeditionary Force were also defended by nearly a million German troops. No one knew that Ludendorff would deploy these 38 divisions next.
In any direction, if Ludendorff gets mad and throws these 38 divisions towards Arras, it will be great fun.
Not to mention the question of whether the possibility is high or not, even if there is only one percent possibility, Rock must consider it as 100%.
Besides, the only way to contain the Germans is to rely on the British Expeditionary Force. Rock believed that Foch would also call Pershing when he called Rock. Pershing, who was eager to fight, would not refuse Foch.
Xu's request.
Sure enough, on the second day after the German army launched its attack, the U.S. troops in Antwerp launched an attack on the Liege Fortress, and the second "Battle of the Somme" finally broke out.
Compared with ground forces, Rocher can also provide more support to the French army in Reims. The British Expeditionary Force has the second largest air force base in France at Ame, and the largest air base is at Dunkirk and Ame Air Base.
There are more than 800 fighters and bombers, enough to provide air support to Reims.
Roque also ordered the air force to launch an air attack on the German troops in Reims the day after the German troops launched their attack.
As Roque feared most, the four divisions Pétain gave to Louis Desprey were simply not enough to fill the defense line. The ANZAC reinforcements were beyond their reach. The attacking German troops advanced another 12 miles towards Paris the next day.
, by the end of the second day's battle, the German forward troops were less than 80 kilometers away from Paris.
At this distance, the German artillery with the longest range could already launch an artillery bombardment on Paris.
