361 The Birth of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces
The war continued on the third day.
The British army's front line continued to deteriorate. Not only was Gough's front line untenable, but after Byng gave up on Flequers, Byng's troops also began to flee.
The Third Army held out for two days at Flaquels, but finally could no longer hold on.
The Third Army inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, and they also suffered heavy casualties. When both the left and right flanks of Flayquiers began to retreat, Flayquiers had actually become a huge salient.
Although seemingly indestructible, the British actually used trains to transport wounded and dead bodies to the rear every day.
For the Germans, the biggest progress came from Hutil.
In these two days of fighting, Hutier's troops advanced 15 miles. If it were not for the German soldiers trying to plunder supplies, Hutier's troops would have made greater progress.
Compared with the well-supplied British, the Germans are really a bit shabby.
The German soldiers were looting almost everything they could see, including cows, chickens, candlesticks, curtains, etc. As long as they were useful, the German soldiers would take away everything. If French residents hadn't seen it with their own eyes, it would be unimaginable.
Germans who are usually polite would behave like this.
The impact of war on human nature is so great that the German soldiers will destroy some things that cannot be taken away, such as endless bottles of wine. They will smash all the bottles, or simply burn them all with a fire.
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This kind of unscrupulous days did not last long. After crossing the Somme, Hutier's troops entered the site of the Battle of the Somme the year before last. Everything here had been completely destroyed the year before last, and the entire area of hundreds of square kilometers was smashed into one piece.
ruins.
Perhaps because the war has not ended yet, the French have not spared their efforts to restore the previous prosperity here. This objectively has an effect similar to a scorched earth policy.
Hutier faced a big choice: whether to move on or turn in another direction.
Before the attack began, both Bülow and Demowitz had clear combat goals, but Hutier did not.
Ludendorff's order to Hutier was to advance, but the specific position to which he advanced was not clearly marked.
In yesterday's battle, because Hutier's troops were progressing smoothly, Ludendorff sent six additional divisions of reinforcements to Hutier's troops. This did not mean that Hutier was in trouble, but because Hutier
Progressing well.
In Ludendorff's plan, the principle of reinforcement is to facilitate the attack. Only troops that are making good progress will receive support. Troops that encounter obstacles can only rely on their own efforts to overcome them.
When the attack began on the third day, Ludendorff gave Hutier the order to continue the attack, but still did not give a specific tactical goal.
Perhaps in Ludendorff's consciousness, as long as he attacks, there will be unexpected benefits waiting for him, so all the troops have to do is move forward.
If Ludendorff looks at the map at this time, he will find that Ame is not far in front of the German army. If the German army exerts its force, it will arrive there within two days. Ame is the transportation center of northwest France, and all railways and
Wherever the highway passes, if Yamin is occupied, the German army will take the initiative, and it will be convenient and quick to attack in any direction around it.
Unfortunately, Ludendorff was not in the mood to read maps, and his energy was also involved in the complicated domestic political situation. Although he was in France, Ludendorff was always paying attention to the domestic political situation in Germany.
So Hutier ordered the troops to continue the attack, and the German soldiers happily emptied all their backpacks, preparing to continue their adventure.
In order to grab as much as possible, the German soldiers did not even bring food or water.
The experience of the previous two days told the German soldiers that there would be delicious veal steak and champagne waiting for them in front.
No one imagined what kind of difficulties the Germans would face when they entered the old Somme war zone.
Like Hu Tier, Qin Zhiyuan also faces difficult choices.
On the next night, Petain called Qin Zhiyuan and asked Qin Zhiyuan to mobilize troops to the Laon area to fill the vacancy caused by the deployment of the Fifth Army.
When Qin Zhiyuan sent troops to reinforce Yamin, Bastian's troops were also transferred part of them to the Arras area to reinforce the retreating British.
Bastian and Qin Zhiyuan won the Battle of Ferenta de Noir and the Battle of Reims together, and now had rich combat experience. Therefore, Bastian did not go directly to Arras;
A defensive line was built about ten miles behind Sri Lanka in preparation for the German attack.
Just like dominoes, if a certain card falls, it will definitely trigger a chain reaction.
Because the British front collapsed, Bastian had to fill the hole.
After Bastian went to fill the hole, there was a gap in his defense line, and Qin Zhiyuan's troops were needed to fill the hole.
Qin Zhiyuan wanted to ignore Petain's order, but he could not allow gaps in Bastian's defense line to appear, so he could only send out troops again.
So two Annan infantry divisions led by Nguyen Jun Cai and Pham Van Hung were dispatched.
The reason why the Annan troops were dispatched is because Qin Zhiyuan has already sensed the crisis. In the defense line that Qin Zhiyuan is now responsible for, the first-line positions seem to have no problems, but the level of the reserve team has reached a dangerous value. If the Germans launch an attack now, then
Qin Zhiyuan's position will be extremely risky.
Fortunately, the current focus of the German attack is still on the northern front, and Ludendorff has not yet turned his attention to Qin Zhiyuan.
But Qin Zhiyuan did not dare to be careless. On the one hand, he ordered the Corsican reserve troops to speed up, and on the other hand, he also stated the current status of his troops to Pétain.
By the next day, the French had provided 20 divisions of support troops to the British, which was far more than Foch had promised, and the British should be grateful for this.
In fact, the British did not, and Haig even believed that Foch had the ability to provide more support but did not take action, and felt resentful because of this.
Fortunately, Wilson, the new royal chief of staff, said a lot of good things to Foch.
Wilson spoke French and was an admirer of France. Before the World War, Wilson went to France to carry out pre-war coordination work, and had intersects with Foch in the work, so he developed an admiration for Foch, and was known as Foch's
Pet dog.
On April 2, Foch Pétain and Clemenceau held a meeting in Foch's special train in the Compiègne Forest to discuss how to better coordinate operations with the British. On that day, Haig and his men
The generals also held a meeting in Durang, not far from Compiègne, to discuss how to respond to the German attack.
For some reason, Gough did not attend this meeting. This may be a signal, because the British army was completely defeated and someone must be responsible for it.
When Clemenceau learned that the British were also attending the meeting, Clemenceau expressed his desire to participate. Haig readily agreed, so even Raymond Pou Ngarai went, French President, French Prime Minister, Commander-in-Chief of the French Army
The French Chiefs of General Staff gathered at the British Army Headquarters to participate in the first practical joint meeting.
The British did not expect that French leaders would come together so quickly, and Lloyd George would not have time to attend the meeting. In addition to Haig, the top British officials attending the meeting also had War Secretary Milner and Wilson.
Because of the difference in status, this meeting seemed a bit unequal. When the French spoke, the British always seemed a little unsure.
At the meeting, Haig expressed his willingness to cooperate for the first time. When answering Clemenceau's question, Haig vowed to defend Yamin and never take a step back.
Milner made a new suggestion, suggesting that Foch serve as military coordinator for the Arpels region.
Wilson had a different opinion. He believed that Foch should be given a higher position, such as commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces.
All the French responded enthusiastically to Wilson's proposal, leaving Haig looking disappointed.
Haig understands the benefits of setting up a commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. This will make logistics more unified and orderly, and the deployment of troops will also be more reasonable. Especially under the current predicament of the British army, Haig needs more reinforcements, but if it is allowed
Haig serves as the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. French generals may not necessarily obey Haig's orders, especially some domineering generals who have won consecutive battles. In terms of performance alone, Haig has no advantage.
After all, soldiers still have to rely on their performance to speak for themselves.
Foch became the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, and Pétain naturally became the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. However, what was unexpected was that the first meeting between Pétain and Haig was very unpleasant.
Haig finally learned about the order given by the cabinet to the French Army. If the German army continued to attack, the French army would retreat towards Paris and try to save Paris.
This order had actually been given to Foch a long time ago, but Foch worked hard to maintain contact between the British and French armies, gave Haig enough help, and did not actually implement the cabinet order.
Pétain detonated this powder keg as soon as he took office.
Haig expressed indignation at the orders of the French cabinet and then ordered Gough's troops to move north.
This led to serious consequences. When the fourth day began, a gap of 30 kilometers wide appeared between the British and French armies. If the Germans could seize this opportunity, they could successfully cut the British and French armies and defeat them one by one.
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There is no doubt that if the Germans faced either Britain or France alone, the Germans would have the ability to defeat them.
The World War has been going on for four years. Even the French, who claim to have the best army in the world, have to admit the combat effectiveness of the German army. From the perspective of the army, Germany is indeed a world power.
The withdrawal of British troops to the north gave Foch a blow to the head when he just took office. How to fill the gap has become the focus of Foch's current work, and it is an urgent need to solve.
The current French army has more than 100 divisions in France, and there are also many troops stationed abroad. There are French troops in North Africa, Italy and even Egypt.
Almost all the troops are exhausted. Some of them have just changed defenses and have not yet recovered enough combat effectiveness. Some of them have just received a large number of new recruits, and these troops are in even worse condition.
Foch doesn't have enough power in his hands now.
But it's not impossible.
Behind Paris, in Orleans, there is another army with strong strength. No matter in terms of numbers, equipment level, training level or fighting will, they are not bad at all.
On the night of April 4th, Foch called Pershing and asked the U.S. military to join the war.
