It only took half an hour for all the fighting in the air at Omenancourt to stop. The famous hunting brigade was completely wiped out and no one escaped.
The Red Baron was also shot down, but was not on Bao Deshui's account, which made Bao Deshui very sorry.
The method of counting the results of the Foreign Legion is different from that of the French Army. If it is a group attack, the result will only be recorded on the head of the last fighter that launched the attack.
If the French army's statistical method is followed, the glory of shooting down the Red Baron also belongs to Bao Deshui.
Fortunately, this victory was finally recorded on the head of Bao Deshui's wingman Dou Yongyi, which made Dou Yongyi ecstatic. After this battle, Dou Yongyi will also become a double ace who shot down ten enemy planes, and the entire air combat group has increased.
Two ace pilots.
The bombardment started at three in the morning and lasted for three hours. About 4,000 artillery pieces and 4,000 mortars participated in the bombardment, setting another record in terms of scale.
When the bombardment ceased, 14 German divisions launched simultaneous attacks at Armiefontein and Chalon-Champagne.
Qin Zhiyuan's worries were confirmed, as the troops in both places failed to hold their positions.
The first to collapse was Champagne Chalon.
In fact, in Chalon-Champagne, in addition to the two Senegalese divisions, there is now also part of the Ninth Army led by General Denis Duchene.
Denis Duchene had served as Foch's staff officer before and was promoted quickly during the war. When Qin Zhiyuan expressed his concerns about Chalon de Champagne to Foch, Foch sent part of Denis Duchene's army to assist in the defense of Chalon de Champagne.
Long.
The troops sent by Denis Duchene were three British divisions. These three British divisions were now full of troops. They were supposed to stay in the rear to rest and recuperate while gradually replenishing their forces, but the fierce fighting on the front line did not give them much opportunity to rest and recuperate.
Before the Germans launched their attack, Denis Duchene had an opportunity to strengthen his defenses.
His troops captured two lost Germans, one an officer and one a private.
While escorting the prisoners, the soldier chatted with the French soldier responsible for the escort, and his words revealed the information that the Germans were about to launch an attack.
Although this was severely reprimanded and denied by the officer, it was reported immediately.
So the officers and soldiers were interrogated separately.
The soldiers gave more information, such as that they had received enough bullets and grenades, which was an important signal that the German army was about to launch an attack. However, at the same time, the soldiers did not receive field rations, so it was impossible to determine when the attack would be launched.
During the interrogation of the officers, the officers spoke eloquently and claimed that the Germans did not have any attack plan.
The British officer in charge of the interrogation did not beat around the bush and told the Germans straightforwardly: If you lie, you will be treated as a spy.
The officer was frightened and finally told more things, including that the German army would launch an attack on the morning of the 10th.
British commander Hamilton Gordon immediately reported this information to Denis Duchene.
Denis Duchene disagreed, and replied arrogantly: There was no evidence that the Germans were about to launch an attack.
After the reply, Denis Duchene left Chalon de Champagne for a tryst with his lover in Paris.
The Germans then launched an attack early the next morning.
There were also problems with the defensive positions arranged by Denis Duchene. Qin Zhiyuan originally arranged the two Senegalese divisions behind the Ypres Canal, including the artillery positions, with a depth of about five kilometers.
Relative to the strength of the troops, this lack of familiarity is normal, but after Denis Duchene arrived in Chalon, Champagne, the defensive force increased to five divisions, and the depth of the position was still five kilometers, which was inappropriate.
Therefore, the German artillery bombardment could easily cover all the frontline positions and rear artillery positions, and the Germans were not stingy with artillery shells at this time.
Under the overwhelming shelling, two Senegalese divisions that were not strictly managed collapsed first, followed by three British divisions that suffered heavy casualties. The German Seventh Army in charge of the attack easily crossed the Ypres Canal and advanced towards Chalon-Champagne.
After Qin Zhiyuan received news of the attack, he immediately dispatched the Ankang Division and an Annan Division led by Hu Yangshu to reinforce. The location of the reinforcements was not the Ypres Canal or the Bussy River, but the Marne River behind Chalon in Champagne.
Qin Zhiyuan was pessimistic about the combat effectiveness of the British and Senegalese divisions, and estimated that they would have to stand on the Marne River to withstand the German attack.
Just as Qin Zhiyuan imagined, the Germans crossed the Ypres Canal at ten in the morning, crossed the Bisi River at three in the afternoon, and arrived in Chalon, Champagne at seven in the evening.
On the first day alone, the Germans advanced 15 miles on a 20-mile-wide front. This was a brilliant victory, compared with previous results against the Foreign Legion.
The Bavarian prince was still not satisfied with the current progress. He asked the troops to continue the attack, advance, advance and advance again.
However, the Seventh Army was exhausted, and they were unable to attack the waiting Foreign Legion positions. They only launched a probing attack, and the Germans no longer attacked rashly.
When night falls, everything behind the Marne River defense line is miserable. The three British divisions now add up to less than one division, and the two Senegalese divisions have suffered heavy casualties. The little blacks were in chaos when the Germans started shelling. Many soldiers
He ran out of the shell-proof hole and tried to escape to the rear, but was either killed by a bomb or poison gas bomb.
The statistical results left Qin Zhiyuan and Denis Duchene speechless. A total of nearly 70,000 people were lost, 46,000 were lost in one day, and only more than 20,000 miserable soldiers were left to cross the Marne River.
Someone should definitely be responsible for this, but it should not be Alex Steele and Hamilton Gordon. Alex was killed in the battle and Hamilton was seriously injured and has been in a coma.
In Amifontein, the German army also made progress.
MacArthur was too radical. He placed his troops on the front line and faced the German bombardment.
The U.S. soldiers did not lack courage, but in the face of the complex symphony of shelling, the courage of the U.S. military was ineffective. During the German bombardment, about 3,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and the same number of U.S. troops were injured. The 84th Brigade was basically
Being maimed.
When the German ground troops began to attack, the American military's fighting will came into play. The soldiers held up their rifles with bayonets and fought for position with the Germans inch by inch.
Pershing made the same mistake as Foch and others at the beginning of the war. Pershing believed that the courage of soldiers should be reflected in their rifles and bayonets, and that machine guns should not be the key factor in determining the course of the war. Under the guidance of this thought
, the number of machine guns equipped in the US military is very small. The entire 84th Brigade only has six heavy machine guns. This is only the number of machine guns in half a battalion of the Chinese army.
Due to the lack of machine guns, the battle was extremely fierce and the US military suffered heavy casualties, but they refused to retreat. On many fronts, even if there were only three or five soldiers left, the soldiers would fight to the death. They relied on simple positions, or
It was the ruins of a certain house, or even a tree, struggling to deal with the attacking Germans.
The battle lasted from morning to noon. Qin Zhiyuan ordered the 84th Brigade to retreat behind Qin Haoge's defense line several times. However, the 84th Brigade was unable to withdraw from the battle because the troops of both sides were too entangled.
At noon, Qin Zhiyuan ordered the tank troops deployed in Korbeni to go to Amifontein for support. After another hard battle, the 84th Brigade finally withdrew from the battlefield, but at this time, only 2,000 of the nearly 10,000 soldiers remained.
There were many people, and there were a large number of wounded.
The Germans did not give up and annihilated the American troops. They pursued them all the way to Corbeni.
Qin Haoge has established a solid defense line in Corbeni. Relying on forests and not-too-high mountains, it has a commanding advantage and is enough to block the German attack.
In April, when the U.S. military rushed to the front line in trucks, they sang songs at the top of their lungs, told slightly obscene jokes, and talked unscrupulously about the upcoming battle, as if they were saviors who would bring down the British.
and rescued the French from the quagmire of war.
Reality dealt a heavy blow to the US military, which was unable to turn the tide. They failed in the first battle and suffered a heavy blow.
It's not meaningless. Because of the disastrous defeat of the 84th Brigade, the U.S. military finally put away its arrogance, and Pershing also became pragmatic, not pinning his hopes on rifles and the courage of soldiers, but turning his attention to tanks and machine guns.
On new weapons.
MacArthur failed in the first battle.
This was also the first battle that the US military participated in, but due to the commander's recklessness, it ended with nearly the entire army being annihilated.
Pershing learned from his painful experience and asked the troops to equip more machine guns. At the same time, he proposed to Foch that the US troops who were scattered to the battlefield in various directions to provide support should be centralized and used.
Foch partially agreed to Pershing's request and allocated more machine guns to Pershing's troops, but said that the American troops who had already entered the position could not withdraw because Foch did not have more troops to fill those holes.
If there are reinforcements, Foch will be the first to send them to Qin Zhiyuan. Although Qin Zhiyuan still has complete Chinese troops and Annan troops in his hands, after all, they are facing 50 German infantry divisions and a certain number of K7Vs.
Crown Prince William has been captured by Qin Zhiyuan, and Germany cannot withstand the blow of another prince being captured. Therefore, the proportion of tanks in the Bavarian prince's troops is much larger than that of other troops.
At midnight, Qin Zhiyuan finally received the final battle report. In this day's battle, the Foreign Legion, plus the US and British troops, lost a total of nearly 60,000 people. At the same time, they consumed at least the same number of German troops.
Champagne Chalons suffered heavy casualties and did not achieve many results.
The U.S. military fought bravely in Amifontein. They caused about twice as many German casualties as their own, but there are no exact statistics. The final data will not be available until the end of the battle.
The biggest result came from the attacking tank troops. They defeated at least two German divisions, causing nearly 10,000 German casualties and capturing 5,000 German soldiers. This was the only highlight of today's battle.
That night, Qin Zhiyuan stayed up all night, and he finally felt anxious.
Excluding the two divisions sent to Yamin and today's losses, Qin Zhiyuan still has almost complete Chinese troops and Annan troops in his hands.
At the same time, although the Bavarian prince opposite Qin Zhiyuan suffered a lot of losses, the number of troops at his disposal increased instead of decreasing.
Ludendorff replenished all nine divisions originally prepared to launch an offensive in Flanders to the Bavarian prince.
