Five days and five nights of continuous bombardment gave the British officers and soldiers blind optimism. They walked towards the German positions as if on an outing, lining up in neat formations, beating drums and singing songs. It didn't look like a battle at all.
.
The German machine gunners were ecstatic, all they had to do was pull the trigger.
The British army indeed launched an attack like a "wave", and then became fragmented like waves hitting a cliff. A German soldier recalled after the war: We watched them advance in surprise. We had never seen this phenomenon before.
——We only need to shoot, reload, shoot again, and reload. They will fall down by the hundreds. We don’t need to aim, we just shoot at them.
The British army invested so many troops that in some areas, the troops could not deploy at all. The soldiers were crowded together and unable to advance or retreat in the gaps in the barbed wire fence in front of the German positions. Three British cavalry divisions did not have time to enter the battlefield, and the battle was over.
It ended in a hurry with a mess on the ground.
On the first day of the attack, the German shooters were unwilling to fire in the end and allowed the frustrated British soldiers to drag the howling wounded out of the battlefield. The seriously wounded were unable to evacuate and continued to shoot at the Germans.
The German troops were forced to fight back, leaving more than 20,000 corpses in the "no man's land" in the middle of the battlefield.
The attack in the Battle of the Somme was divided into three parts. The center and left wing were taken by the British troops, and the right wing was taken by the French troops led by Foch.
Neither the center nor the left wing made much progress on the first day of the attack, but the right wing made a breakthrough. Different from the dogmatism of Foch and Henry Rawlinson, the French army had absorbed enough experience in previous battles with the German army and relied on artillery.
With its destructive power, the French army broke through two lines of defense of the German army one after another, but due to insufficient troops, no strategic breakthrough was achieved.
That night, German reserves caught up to fill the gap and the front stabilized again.
On the third day of the Battle of the Somme, Roark received a telegram from Kitchener, asking Roark to return to London immediately.
Although Roark did not know Kitchener's purpose, Roark vaguely felt that Kitchener's summons must be related to the casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force on the first day.
Although Britain has the support of colonies all over the world and its war potential is far greater than that of Germany, it cannot afford to consume it at the rate it consumed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
It was already June 17th when Rock came to London. In just ten days, the war had made new progress. Not on the Western Front, Verdun and the Somme River on the Western Front were still meat grinders. Britain and France
Both the Allied forces and the German army struggled in the flesh-and-blood mill. The breakthroughs were made in the English Channel and Galicia. At the same time as the Battle of the Somme was launched, the Battle of Jutland broke out, and Russia also launched an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Galicia.
Both battlefields achieved satisfactory results.
The Battle of Jutland was the only large-scale naval battle during World War I. After the outbreak of the World War, the German High Seas Fleet hid in the military port and did not dare to go out. All Germany was very disappointed.
Under the pressure of William II, the German Navy took the initiative to leave the port to find opportunities for a decisive battle with the British Navy.
John Jellicoe, commander of the British Home Fleet, had long been looking forward to this day, but the German navy showed extraordinary combat effectiveness. The British Royal Navy lost three battlecruisers, three cruisers, and eight destroyers in the Battle of Jutland.
, the Royal Navy suffered 62,000 casualties.
In contrast, the German High Seas Fleet lost one battleship, one battlecruiser, four light cruisers, and five destroyers, with only 2,500 casualties.
Although the losses of the German Navy were relatively small, from then on, the German Navy lost the courage and confidence to fight the British Navy. From then on, no large-scale naval battle broke out until the end of the World War.
Compared with the Battle of Jutland, the Russian Empire's victory in Galicia was even more glorious.
Alexei Brusinov is indeed a talented commander. The two failures in the Battle of Lake Narach did not stop Nicholas II. Nicholas II asked Alexei Brusinov
Novus continues to attack and must achieve a victory similar to that of Constantinople.
Nicholas II seems to have forgotten that the victory in Constantinople was not won by the Russian Empire's troops. The 11th Army of the Russian Empire also suffered heavy losses in Constantinople. The reason why Constantinople was obtained was because
It was entirely because of the Russian Empire's blackmail against Britain.
Alexei Brusinov was not stupid enough to launch a third battle at Lake Narach, but instead set the breakthrough point in Galicia. The campaign he organized was not only imaginative, but also full of aggression. The Russian Empire
The troops launched an attack on a broad front. Alexey Brusinov arranged the reserve team very forward. Once the weak link of the Austro-Hungarian army was discovered, Alexey Brusinov
I will join the reserve team without hesitation.
Under the command of Alexei Brusinov, the Russian Empire, which had been retreating steadily after the outbreak of the World War, performed like a god. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's Fourth Army collapsed across the board, and more than half of the soldiers were killed. The death toll
More than 71,000 people. Three days later, Alexei Brusinov captured more than 300,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners. After another three days, the number of Austro-Hungarian casualties reached nearly half of the total strength.
Compared with the performance of the Russian Imperial forces in the Battle of Jutland, the performance of the British and French coalition forces was clumsy and stupid. Since the outbreak of the Battle of Verdun, the French army has suffered more than 300,000 casualties. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British Expeditionary Force suffered more than 300,000 casualties.
Sixty thousand, if it were Rock and Kitchener, Rock would be anxious and angry.
After arriving in London, Kitchener summoned Roark immediately and asked Roark directly about his views on the Battle of the Somme.
"Clumsy command, dogmatic attack, Britain has soldiers like lions, but it is led by a group of monkeys -" Roque was not polite. This description did not come from Roque's mouth. When a reporter from The Times asked the Prime Minister
Asquith blurted out his thoughts on the Battle of the Somme.
The heavy losses at the Battle of the Somme put Asquith under tremendous pressure.
To be fair, the performance of the British army in the Battle of the Somme was not directly related to Asquith, but Haig was the commander-in-chief appointed by Asquith, so Haig did not perform well, and Asquith wanted to defend Haig.
Responsible.
Now someone in Parliament has proposed that Asquith must be responsible for the Battle of the Somme. Britain had the opportunity to avoid all this, but because of the stubbornness of some people, the expeditionary force had to suffer heavy casualties.
The "opportunity" here refers to Rock.
"I'm not asking you to say this, I'm asking you, if you were asked to command the Battle of the Somme, what would you do?" Kitchener did not hide it at all. Rock could feel Kitchener's mood. Haig and
Henry Rawlinson failed no one person.
"I will concentrate my forces in key areas to break through the German positions. Even if I cannot break through the German positions, I will attract nearby German troops to the key attack areas, so that opportunities will appear in other areas - and I will not let the soldiers line up neatly.
The formations sang songs to death. This was a battle, not a banquet. I heard that the Ministry of War sent new weapons to the Somme, but they did not participate in the battle. Why? Because the new weapons were not subject to the commander's control.
Like? It's ridiculous!" Rock kept talking, wanting to complain about Haig, Rock could talk all day and night.
Kitchener frowned and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table. His eyes were full of worry. The war had broken his heart.
"Locke, don't leave London during this time, go back and rest first -" Kitchener didn't say much, which is understandable. After all, every decision of Kitchener is related to the fate of the British Empire.
What's more, Kitchener probably has no say now on whether to replace the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, or on the selection of a new Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
"Okay, take care--" When Rock said goodbye, he looked at Kitchener and felt a little flustered, but he didn't know why.
After leaving the War Department, Rock turned to the Munitions Department. Winston had just escaped. Winston was not responsible for the artillery problem in the Battle of the Somme. The current artillery shells were all produced during the tenure of Lloyd George.
Order.
Of course, Winston's topic cannot be separated from military supplies, especially the quality of artillery shells.
"I know, I know, when did the artillery shells produced in Nyasaland have problems? If you tell me this, it is better to go to the British arms dealers." Rock also escaped. After the outbreak of the world war, Nyasaland
The size of the Saran Arsenal has also quadrupled, and the newly recruited workers are all newcomers with no experience.
"Don't be so careless. I can suppress what happened this time, but it won't be so easy next time." Winston still did his job, otherwise he and Rock wouldn't have been able to escape easily.
"The main problem now is not the cannonballs, but how to contain some uncontrolled guys." Rock's attention was not on the cannonballs at all, Haig was the core of all conflicts.
"Haig's question will be discussed later. Do you know that someone in Congress has proposed to give orders to the Americans? That is to say, the German submarines are too arrogant, otherwise Nyasaland could get so many orders?" Winston waved dissatisfiedly.
Holding his chubby hand, Rock suddenly remembered why he was flustered when he said goodbye to Kitchener.
In another time and space, Kitchener was on a warship heading to Russia when the ship sank and Kitchener died unexpectedly.
"Does Marshal Kitchener have any plans to go to Russia recently?" Rock asked casually.
"Of course, Minister Kitchener is going to Russia to attend the Joint Ministerial Meeting next week. What does this have to do with you-" Winston didn't know what was about to happen.
Rock didn't talk nonsense, stood up, picked up his hat and left.
"Locke, I'm not done yet!" Winston shouted, jumping to his feet.
"We'll talk about it when I get back!" Roark didn't even look back. Compared with such trivial matters as the quality of cannonballs, Kitchener's life was more important.
