At the end of March, from Flanders to Reims, from north to south, there were the First British Army led by Henry Horne, the Third British Army led by Julian Byng, and the Third British Army led by Hubert Gough.
The Fifth Army, as well as Bastian's French Fifth Army and the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan.
Haig made a mistake in judging the direction of Ludendorff's attack. Haig believed that the German army would launch an attack in Flanders, so he concentrated more troops on the Belgian coast.
The Fifth Army led by Gough became the weak point of the entire defense line. Gough did not have enough troops and had to defend an overly long front. At the same time, he did not have a solid position. By the end of March, he had only 3,500 laborers to help him.
Goff builds a defensive line.
The British treated laborers extremely harshly, and the workers were unwilling to work for the British. Even if many people signed a contract with the British, they would tear it up and run to a labor camp in France.
Relatively speaking, Qin Zhiyuan has too many favorable conditions. There are as many as 50,000 to 60,000 workers near Reims, which helps the Foreign Legion reduce the workload to the greatest extent.
At the end of March, all German troops were finally in place.
Before the attack was launched, the First Army and the Third Army were facing Otto von Bülow's 14 divisions and 2,200 artillery pieces.
Billot commanded the troops to win the Battle of Caporetto. Billot's task in this attack was to tear through the defense line of the British First Army, advance to Arras, and then turn to the right to surround the British army in Arras.
The troops north of Sri Lanka forced Haig to deploy reserve troops to weaken the British army in Flanders.
This attack plan was called: Plan San Michael.
Bülow's left wing was the Second Army of Georg von der Marwitz, who commanded last year's Cambrai counterattack. His task in this offensive was to advance with Bülow.
The left wing of the Second Army was led by Hutier with 21 divisions and 2,600 artillery pieces. Hutier's task was to prevent the French troops from supporting the British army.
The combined troops of Bilodmarwicz and Hutier numbered 1 million, which was the main force of the German army in this offensive. They were enough to defeat the poorly prepared British defense line.
In early April, the Germans' long-planned attack finally began.
At 2 a.m. on the morning of the 1st, Picardy was filled with thick fog and visibility was only a few meters. In March and April, Picardy often suffers from such weather.
At five o'clock in the morning, the fog still lingered, and the Germans were hesitant about dropping gas bombs because they could not determine the direction of the wind.
After the artillery commander Bruchmuller learned the truth, he immediately ordered the artillery to start bombarding, no matter what the wind direction was, just shoot out the artillery shells.
Immediately, an unprecedented bombardment began.
On the 40-mile-long front between Sens and Oiss, the Germans concentrated 6,473 artillery pieces, including heavy cannons, light cannons, howitzers, ladles, train guns, etc.
When more than 6,000 artillery pieces opened fire at once, the momentum was truly earth-shattering. Both the Germans who fired the guns and the British who were in hell were stunned by this unprecedented density.
Bruchmuller has a nickname, Breakthrough Miller.
This fully describes Bruchmuller's fighting style.
Under the command of Bruchmuller, all the artillery were responsible for different areas according to the length of their range. They took turns firing high-explosive grenades and poison gas bombs, taking the trouble to clear the British positions, even if they could not detect them due to thick fog.
The artillerymen were still trying their best to fire out the shells.
The bombardment continued until eight o'clock in the morning. When the bombardment came in, all the artillerymen tried their best and opened fire with all their strength at the risk of destroying the artillery. The explosions were almost continuous and did not stop at all.
This intensity of bombardment lasted for an hour, followed by five minutes of silence, and then the barrage bombardment began.
The barrage bombardment was also planned. The Germans had already set the shooting parameters, and even had detailed plans for how many rounds to fire at a certain angle.
Five minutes later, the shelling continued.
During these five minutes, German soldiers launched a ground attack.
To Ludendorff's relief, there was no one on the British position. They had already abandoned the first line of defense and retreated towards the second and third lines of defense.
During this retreat, the British army's command was in chaos.
Gough's troops were the first to be unable to hold on. He had the smallest number of troops, and because of the heavy fog, they could not see the attacking German troops clearly, so they abandoned their positions and fled backwards. However, Bing's troops persisted in fighting at Flequers, where they were last year.
The results obtained in the Battle of Cambrai, the British paid hundreds of thousands of soldiers to capture it, and Bin did not want to let all this come to nothing.
The German forward troops ignored the resistance of the Third Army. They followed the requirements of the tactical pamphlet and continued to pursue Gough's troops by bypassing Flequiers.
So far, the German army's tactical actions have strictly followed the requirements of the tactical pamphlets.
In this tactical booklet, the German army's combat mission on the first day is to destroy the British artillery positions, and the combat mission on the second day is adjusted based on the progress of the first day. When encountering resistance forces, the tactical booklet requires
German soldiers should not rigidly implement the previous battle plan, but should flexibly use correct tactics to break through the British defense.
At the same time, according to this line of thinking, reserve forces will not be invested in areas that are in a deadlock, but in areas that are progressing smoothly.
After conquering the first line of defense of the British army, the German troops participating in the attack had a rare meal.
The time to launch the attack was eight o'clock in the morning, which was exactly the time for breakfast. The British had prepared breakfast, but the Germans had already launched an attack, so the British retreated hastily, and all the breakfast they had prepared belonged to the Germans.
The morale of many German troops was greatly boosted because these German soldiers had not eaten steak for a long time, and they did not have enough wine or tobacco. So when the German soldiers crossed the British first line of defense, many German soldiers had many
He bought a backpack issued by the British army, which was filled with cans of cigarettes and various alcoholic drinks.
In the propaganda of the German General Staff, the Allies were in the same dilemma of material shortages as Germany, but now it seemed that the British had abundant supplies, which also made many German soldiers have a suspicion of the General Staff, but soon,
These suspicions were driven away by the long chase.
Gough withdrew five miles on the first day, which made Gough's battle line longer and his troops more stretched. So when night fell, Gough withdrew another ten miles, retreating to defend behind the Somme River and the Corouza Canal.
Gough's retreat caused Bing to be besieged by the Germans at Flequels. Ludendorff hoped to capture this place on the first day of the offensive, so he ordered Demarwitz to launch an attack on Flequers.
The battle was extremely fierce. Both sides were fighting for honor. The British equipped a large number of tanks, and the German tanks finally equipped their troops. The two sides fought inextricably.
Among the three German armies, Hutier's troops made the greatest progress.
Finally no longer having to face the foreign legion led by Qin Zhiyuan, Hutier fought extremely unrestrainedly. Hutier's troops almost tore apart the British defense line with overwhelming force. The speed of the troops' advance depended on how fast the German soldiers could run.
By noon, Haig was finally able to determine the direction of the German attack, but at this time Haig no longer had the reserve team in his hands, so Haig requested reinforcements from Foch in accordance with the previous agreement.
If he followed the orders of the military department, Foch should shrink his position and ensure the safety of Paris.
But Foch did not do this. He sent seven divisions to reinforce Haig, one division more than the six divisions promised.
On the first day of the attack, the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan was also attacked by the Germans, but the scale of the attack was far smaller than that near Arras.
There will be no fog in the Reims area in the morning in April. The visibility here is good, and there are complete defensive positions, as well as the support of artillery troops and tank troops. Therefore, Xu Sheng and Greif, who were attacked, boldly attacked, but only
In one morning, they used the same devastating method to defeat the two German divisions on the front, killing more than 2,000 people and capturing more than 6,000 people.
The Germans did not launch any offensive after that. It is estimated that they have fully realized that the situation that happened in Arras cannot be repeated. Even if it were to happen again, the roles of the two sides would probably be reversed.
Foch was also paying attention to Qin Zhiyuan. At noon, Foch sent a telegram to Qin Zhiyuan, asking about Qin Zhiyuan's situation here.
Qin Zhiyuan reported truthfully, but Foch did not reply.
In the evening, Foch sent another telegram to Qin Zhiyuan, asking Qin Zhiyuan to dispatch two divisions to reinforce the direction of Yamin, and also included the day's battle report.
Qin Zhiyuan was surprised to find that the victory won by Xu Sheng and Greif was actually the only victory won by the Allied Powers that day. On other battlefields, there were either stalemates or retreats, and Lance became the only bright spot.
In fact, in almost all areas where the Germans attacked, the British were retreating, except for Flequiers.
Flaquers had now become a meat grinder. In just one day, three divisions of Byng's men were crippled, with more than 20,000 casualties. At the same time, they also caused almost the same number of German losses.
Qin Zhiyuan could not refuse Foch's order, so he transferred the Liu Zizheng Division and Jin Taihe Division on the second line, as well as a regiment of the armored force, to form a temporary army and go to Yamin for reinforcements.
This army is currently the largest organization under Qin Zhiyuan, with Liu Zizheng serving as its commander.
The straight-line distance between Yamin and Reims is about 150 kilometers. The time limit given by Qin Zhiyuan to Liu Zizheng is 24 hours, which means that Liu Zizheng must move in place within one day.
Qin Zhiyuan's army is now equipped with a considerable number of trucks. It can basically be regarded as a semi-mechanized army. 150 kilometers seems far away, but it is not an impossible task. The only trouble is the tank unit. These tanks must be transported by train.
Otherwise, even Chen Kangjian cannot guarantee how many tanks will reach Yamin.
Yamin, that is, the place where Qin Zhiyuan and others fought when they first came to France as laborers. Now a year and a half later, the foreign legion finally returned to Yamin.
Compared to a group of farmers who were full of uncertainty about the future, the Foreign Legion now has clear goals. To be continued.
