Fuxi planned well, but until the French army mobilized enough troops to surround the German army, the pressure was on Qin Zhiyuan's shoulders.
It is true that Soissons and Chalon de Champagne are huge salients for the French; but Reims, which Qin Zhiyuan defends, is also a huge salient for the Germans.
With the foreign legion led by Qin Zhiyuan firmly anchored in Reims, the Bavarian prince would not dare to drive in unscrupulously, because Reims would threaten the German army's retreat at any time. If the German army pushed forward regardless of the situation, they would have grabbed enough.
It cannot be shipped back to Germany.
That's right, the German troops entering Soissons had become a group of robbers.
Just on the morning of the 16th, a German army failed to advance as planned when it marched into Soissons. It was a full four hours slower than the original plan. The reason was that the army grabbed too many things and was seriously hampered.
the propulsion speed.
A German captain recorded everything he saw: As we approached a town, we discovered something strange. Some strangers, who did not look like soldiers, were running back. They were driving groups of cattle.
There were chickens under their arms, some people were carrying letters snatched from the stationery store, and wine in their hands. Others were walking and drinking into the town. Alcohol was flowing on the streets. No one knew what happened. The first
The lieutenant of the 2nd Marine Division came out of a wine cellar. I asked him what happened. Why did you stop advancing? The lieutenant looked desperate and sad. I couldn't get the soldiers out of the wine cellar without using bloodshed.
In terms of material shortages, Germany has reached the end of its rope, so the Germans must seize the last opportunity to give it a try.
This is the situation where a trapped beast still fights.
In late June, the German army finally transported their A7V from Etregeville through the Ypres Canal. Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered Gu Lifu and Xu Sheng to shrink the defense line from the Ypres Canal to Bethney to Champfleury.
As a result, the area that the Foreign Legion needs to defend is greatly reduced, leaving only about 50 square kilometers.
In this narrow area, 100,000 foreign legionnaires and 400,000 German soldiers have gathered, and they are about to start a life-and-death fight.
One advantageous factor is that even in such a narrow area, there are still two rivers to use. The defense lines that the Foreign Legion needs to defend are two straight lines about four kilometers wide, and the remaining area is covered by rivers. The German army
It's not that easy to take advantage of.
These two lines of defense have been deployed for three months. The construction work began after Qin Zhiyuan entered the Reims area. Although it is not indestructible now, at least if the German army does not bring siege artillery, it will probably take a long time to capture it.
A lot of effort.
While the German army was besieging Reims, Qin Zhiyuan ordered Liu Zizheng to take a detour in the direction of Laon, ready to harass the German logistics at any time to reduce the pressure in the direction of Reims.
While the German army was besieging Reims, the German army did not stop its efforts to attack Paris. The German troops of 11 divisions attacked Pershing's two reorganized divisions day and night. George Patton was the commander of these two divisions.
He did not fight head-on with the Germans, but instead fought and retreated, gradually consuming the Germans' strength.
Patton's plan was successful. He retreated from Pierrefonds to Crepi-en-Valois, which was only fifty kilometers away from Paris. Patton finally withstood the Germans.
In fact, when the German army occupied Soissons, the German army already had the ability to threaten Paris.
The Germans shipped a super train gun with a firing range of more than 70 kilometers, which can carry out direct strikes on Paris from Soissons.
Of course, at this distance, this kind of artillery has no accuracy at all, and it can only guarantee that the cannonball will reach the range of Paris. As for whether it can hit anything, it all depends on luck.
Since mid-June, the shelling has not stopped, maintaining an intensity of about forty or fifty rounds every day.
This caused a certain degree of panic in Paris, and many Parisians fled. The French government had already gone to Bordeaux three years ago, and they gave up on Paris earlier than the people.
In late June, the German army completed preparations for the attack and launched the first siege of Reims.
There was no probing, no strategy, no making noises in the east or west. The Bavarian prince came up and attacked with real swords and guns, and he did it cleanly and neatly.
The Germans were very particular about strategy. They only attacked the southwest line of defense and abandoned the east line of defense, leaving a retreat path for the Foreign Legion.
This is a trap. If the Foreign Legion abandons its strong position and evacuates from the east, then the Bavarian prince can mobilize troops to surround and annihilate the Foreign Legion in the wilderness.
Of course Qin Zhiyuan would not be fooled. From the moment the German army surrounded Reims, Qin Zhiyuan was ready to have a real fight with the Bavarian prince in Reims to see how much combat effectiveness the German elite troops had.
The German attack started with the tank troops as the forerunner. From this aspect, the Germans are indeed very good at learning. They have learned a lot of experience from Qin Zhiyuan through the limited number of battles with Qin Zhiyuan, at least for now.
The synergy between infantry and tanks is quite skillful, and combined with the original synergy between infantry and artillery, the power is simply doubled.
The body of the A7V is too huge. When an A7V charges forward, it can hide almost a company of German troops behind it, which causes trouble for the defenders.
The foreign legion's defense line is a three-dimensional defense line based on the hillside. The first line is at the foot of the mountain. There are all solid bunkers with reinforced concrete structures. Each one is not high above the ground, and the shooting holes are not directly facing it.
The direction from which the enemy comes, but through various dislocations, creates crossfire.
Behind the bunker group is a platform with a ramp, where tanks are parked. The tanks can directly provide fire support to the bunker group, or they can quickly attack to repel the German troops approaching the bunker group.
Next is the artillery position. The artillery in this position are all Miss 75 assigned to the battalion level. These artillery have been modified to a certain extent and can shoot at a nearly direct angle.
This is an anti-tank position arranged by Qin Zhiyuan. When there is no fighting, these artillery and tanks are hidden in the tunnels. Only when the German army starts to attack, the tanks and artillery will be quickly deployed.
The Germans were mentally prepared for the defensive strength of the Foreign Legion, but they did not expect that the Foreign Legion was armed to the teeth.
So the attacking Germans were in trouble.
In the first attack, the Germans dispatched about one division and nearly a hundred A7Vs. They advanced towards the Foreign Legion position in an almost flat-pushing manner.
In order to take care of the speed of the infantry, the tanks did not advance very fast.
This gave the artillerymen of the Foreign Legion time to take aim calmly.
The person responsible for commanding these artillery units was Cheng Feiming. His artillery division suffered heavy losses in the artillery battle with the Germans. Now all the fixed artillery of the Foreign Legion is under the command of Feiming, and the self-propelled artillery units are still under the command of Zheng Dali. Then
It is the only mobile force now.
Cheng Feiming is the chief officer of the artillery, and half of his staff officers are French. Now the staff officers are waiting for Cheng Feiming's order to prepare for the first shot of the ground battle.
The order was that once the German tanks came into range, there would be no need to coordinate and the artillery fire would begin immediately, in order to destroy them as much as possible on the way to the charge. Cheng Feiming's order was unexpected.
Should we put some in, that way the results would be greater? Chief of Staff Glinton Augustine had different opinions.
From a probability point of view, the closer you are to the enemy, the more confident you are. Glinton wants to pursue the maximum lethality effect. Besides, the Foreign Legion has no combat experience with the A7V, and it is not clear that the 75mm caliber at the maximum distance
Can the artillery penetrate the front armor of the A7V?
The German A7V has just been put into service, and all the data is still a mystery to the Allies. Glinton and the others don't even know the thickness of the A7V's front armor.
No, we can't let them get too close to our position, otherwise even if we destroy them, they will provide cover for the following German troops, which will become an obstacle in the bunker group's firing range. Cheng Feiming has a clear understanding.
Okay, as you wish. Glinton agrees with Cheng Feiming.
It was once one of Qin Zhiyuan's goals to make the Europeans unwilling and helpless to say what you want.
Now this sentence does not only belong to Qin Zhiyuan, more and more Chinese officers have achieved convincing results, and they have successfully won the respect of French officers.
Cheng Feiming's orders were immediately sent to different artillery positions through electrified lines. Almost instantly, the sound of artillery began to roar one after another.
The Ninth Division led by Xu Sheng was responsible for defending the southwest defense line. Some of the soldiers in this division belonged to the original Second Division, and its combat effectiveness belonged to the first group among the foreign legions.
Xu Sheng's chief of staff is named Gary Ulysses. He is an officer with relatively old-school behavior, but he is not resistant to new tactics and weapons.
Gary used to be a member of Foch's staff. When Qin Zhiyuan asked Foch to transfer some officers to join the Foreign Legion, Gary came to the Ninth Division.
The cooperation between Gary and Xu Sheng is very good. Xu Sheng's character is a bit feminine and is not very talkative due to the influence of Greif, while Gary is a chatty person. You will not feel lonely when he is around.
Xu, how sure are you? Gary was uneasy.
Why do you ask this? We only need to defend for one day, can't we defend for even one day? Xu Sheng was drinking coffee without sugar. He liked the slightly burnt taste.
Qin Zhiyuan's troops are now divided into three parts, with Ge Lifu, Xu Sheng and Wang Dingshan each leading one part. Among them, Ge Lifu has two divisions. Since no Germans were found on the eastern defense line and the fighting was concentrated in the southwest, Qin Zhiyuan ordered the troops to
Rotation can maintain a certain state without using an army to death.
According to the plan, if there is no fighting in the east, Xu Sheng will be on the first day, Wang Dingshan will be on the second day, Ge Lifu will be on the third and fourth days, and so on.
This depends on how determined the Germans are. If the Bavarian prince really wants to avenge the Red Baron, then we will be in big trouble. Gary instantly tilted the building.
After the Red Baron died in the battle, his car fell into pieces on the ground. Many Allied pilots took part of it as a souvenir.
Pierre suggested that the Red Baron should be buried with dignity. Qin Zhiyuan agreed to this request and gave the Red Baron treatment that matched his status. In order to match the Red Baron's military rank, six Allied captains carried the Red Baron's coffin and buried him in Reims.
Some soldiers fired salutes.
The Germans were obviously dissatisfied that the Red Baron's body was buried in Reims. In Germany, some people proposed to use 20 divisions and 5,000 cannons to retrieve his body.
This is obviously unrealistic. Although there are more than 20 German divisions besieging Reims, they are not here for the Red Baron.
Gary also knew that the Germans were not here for the Red Baron. He was just telling a joke to lighten the atmosphere.
Gary successfully earned Xu Sheng's eyes, and Xu Sheng found this not funny at all.
