In mid-July, the fighting became more intense, with the French and American allied forces attacking the German troops in the encirclement with the highest intensity.
At Louatre, about 13 kilometers away from Soissons, the 1st U.S. Division finally reached the defense line of the 1st German Marine Division, and the two ace units belonging to the U.S. Army and the German Army began to collide head-on.
Starting at 9:30 in the morning, the U.S. military continuously broke through three German defense lines.
Although the German 1st Marine Division was retreating steadily, the US 1st Division suffered heavy casualties. By noon, the 1st Division had to retire and the US 2nd Division continued to take the lead.
The battle was extremely fierce. One soldier wrote: Machine guns roared everywhere, rifle bullets flew everywhere, grenades exploded in a line, everyone lost control, and the basic organization of the army no longer existed. As long as you meet your companions, just keep up.
Just attack forward, regardless of whether it is Company A or Company B. The soldiers cannot maintain their formation. The battle line is irregular, intermittent, and chaotically tangled. There are Maxim heavy machine guns everywhere. They can only crawl from the flanks and shoot them out.
He always has brave soldiers in tawny uniforms rushing up, rushing into the machine gun stronghold with rifles with bayonets, and then the stronghold erupts with shooting sounds, screams, and wails. No matter what, it always falls silent in the end.
.
Just as the 1st German Marine Division was resisting the frenzied attacks of the 1st and 2nd Division of the US Army, a large number of German troops were retreating. They were heading from Soissons, Chacris, Lave, and from all directions to Ami
Fontaine, surrender to the Foreign Legion.
There were so many prisoners that the temporary camp could not accommodate them, and the Foreign Legion had to build temporary fences.
During the process of building the fence, German soldiers actually came to help.
More German soldiers stayed in the fence in an orderly manner, applauding and cheering for every German soldier who lowered his arms.
The weapons laid down by the German army were piled up like a mountain. The machine gun magazines were still hanging on them, and the bolts of the rifles were not removed. The place where the guns were stacked was less than a hundred meters away from the fence where the prisoners were held. The foreign legionnaires responsible for guarding the prisoners carried the guns on their backs.
On the night, they were even chatting with French-speaking prisoners across the fence with smiles and sharing cigarettes in their hands without any precautions.
But no prisoners snatched the guns. The prisoners of war were not even willing to look at the guns they had been with day and night for the past four years. They hated the war from the bottom of their hearts and did not want to go back to those inhuman days. They did not even want to think about it.
In just three days, the Foreign Legion took in nearly 100,000 German prisoners of war, which made Patton and Manking, who were leading their men in a bloody battle, jealous and jealous.
Manjing and Qin Zhiyuan had old grudges, and now they inevitably said strange things. It was even rumored that Manjing had told his staff that Qin Zhiyuan had a secret agreement with the German army.
Although this is true, Mangin also received reprimands from Paris, not only from the War Ministry, but also from the Prime Minister's Office and the Presidential Office.
Fortunately, everyone knows that Manjing is a big mouth, and he has done many unreliable things, so no one adds fuel to the fire.
However, everyone can see that the German army has a completely different attitude when facing the Foreign Legion and when facing the French and American Allied Forces, which makes people inevitably wonder.
On the 20th, Bastian led a division of the Fifth Army to arrive in Amifontein, and at the same time began to accept prisoners of war, and the storm gradually subsided.
But as of the 20th, the Foreign Legion had accepted the surrender of more than 150,000 German troops. In this battle to encircle and annihilate the German army, the Foreign Legion suffered almost no casualties and successfully grabbed the biggest share of the credit.
Well, compared to the casualties of the Foreign Legion on the launch day of the campaign, this credit is speechless.
Qin Zhiyuan openly said that if any of your troops can fight from 16,000 to only 370 and still continue to fight, the Foreign Legion will give up all the military exploits gained in this battle.
Naturally, credit cannot be transferred, so no one challenged that record. You must know that among the figures reported after the defense of Champagne-Challons, the 11th Division of the Foreign Legion had a total of 45 combat companies, and 15 companies were all destroyed.
Twenty-seven companies have less than ten soldiers and officers left, and six companies have only wounded soldiers lying in the hospital.
Incredibly, as the war progressed, the German army also announced the results of the defensive battle of Chalons in Champagne. During the entire battle, the German army paid the price of nearly 100,000 casualties, including 27,000 killed in battle, and 27,000 seriously wounded.
14,000 people had their limbs amputated. When the German army cleaned up the battlefield after the war, they discovered that the 11th Division of the Foreign Legion had left about 7,000 corpses on the south bank of the Marne River. Among these corpses, not even a single living person was found.
In other words, no one from the 11th Division of the Foreign Legion was captured during the defense of Chalons-Champagne.
This is simply a miracle.
Counting all the wars after the outbreak of the World War, there are many cases where entire armies were wiped out. Whether it was the German army, the French army or the British army, there were precedents. However, most of them were not that the entire army fought to the end, but that they surrendered voluntarily because the situation was unfavorable. Although
In the battle report, the entire army was wiped out, but in fact there were still people alive in the prisoner of war camp.
But the 11th Division of the Foreign Legion was different. They really fought to the end, so much so that the southern troops of the German pincer offensive were severely beaten and have not recovered yet.
As a result, many German soldiers in Amifontein heard that they were facing a foreign legion, and their troops were immediately disheartened and defeated. There were even entire companies and entire battalions of German soldiers who became deserters overnight.
The prestige is really achieved through fighting.
Pershing had been sending people to squat at the Renault factory. Every time a tank was produced, the Americans took away one. But when the quartermaster of the 11th Division of the Foreign Legion rushed to the Renault factory and announced that the 11th Division had been transformed into a mechanized force.
When asking to receive tanks, the always arrogant Americans didn't talk nonsense. The representative stationed at the Renault factory returned directly to Orleans and has never been to the Renault factory again.
When the number of German prisoners of war in the Foreign Legion prison camp at Amifontein increased to 20, MacTavish was still lurking.
On the first day, McTavish did not pull the trigger, but just simulated the sniping process with his mouth.
There was only one chance, and the rifle in his hand was not calibrated. MacTavish didn't want to waste the opportunity.
Soon, McTavish found an opportunity to practice shooting.
Like Paris, Avena is now also a large military camp, and it is a large military camp where soldiers of all nationalities are mixed together.
Although Germany is now a unified empire, there are actually quite a few principalities in the country, and these soldiers from each principality together form the German army.
There will still be friction between brothers from the same family, not to mention the German soldiers who have gradually fallen into anxiety and despair. So the next morning, chaotic gunfire suddenly rang out in the city of Avina, although it only lasted for two or three minutes.
But it was enough for McTavish to complete the calibration.
In fact, McTavish only used three shots to complete the calibration and hit a chicken six hundred meters away.
Of course, someone had placed the chicken in advance at a very standard distance. Although it was in a different direction, it was as far away from McTavish's lurking position as Ludendorff often walked.
This increased McTavish's confidence. If Ludendorff appeared again now, McTavish would be confident enough to hit the target with one shot.
However, this opportunity was not easy to find, because on that day, McTavish discovered a convoy driving out of the headquarters and heading towards Avina. Ludendorff's special car was in the convoy.
As the actual leader of the German army, Ludendorff also had many affairs and could not stay in the headquarters all the time. There were many tasks that required Ludendorff's personal coordination.
MacTavish was not in a hurry. Although Ludendorff was not at the headquarters, he would always come back. MacTavish continued to lurk.
This lurking lasted for four days. On the evening of the fourth day, McTavish went down to the rock, put down his daily garbage of the past few days, and then picked up a backpack that had been prepared long ago.
What follows continues to be a long wait.
In fact, it is very difficult to spend time alone, especially when there is no one to communicate with. Time seems to be stagnant, and the second hand does not move for half a day.
In order not to let himself get too lonely, MacTavish talked to himself and told himself stories, from One Thousand and One Nights to all kinds of dirty jokes. He told whatever came to mind. When he was happy, MacTavish
He can laugh out loud on his own, and when he talks about sadness, McTavish will also cry in sadness.
This is a really emotional person.
During these four days, MacTavish did not do anything serious. He had been observing the German patrol routes and designing the best escape route.
MacTavish doesn't want to hand himself over here, there is still a bright future waiting for MacTavish to create.
McTavish noticed that every day at noon, just before Ludendorff often went out for a walk, about a company of troops would search near his lurking position. This search was routine and lasted up to half an hour.
These Germans were carrying military dogs, the kind of German black-backed dogs, so McTavish did not dare to throw away household garbage casually, for fear of being caught by those keen noses.
The past few days of lurking made MacTavish fall in love with this energetic and powerful-looking military dog. MacTavish decided to get one when he returned home.
But that will have to wait until MacTavish escapes.
On the fifth day, the opportunity finally came again and Ludendorff came back.
Ludendorff appeared again with an even more haggard expression. MacTavish even noticed that Ludendorff was already a little hunched over. This was not a good sign. Perhaps even if MacTavish did not take action, Ludendorff would not survive long.
The pressure is really too much.
However, it was MacTavish's task to kill Ludendorff, so MacTavish did not hesitate. He calmly placed Ludendorff's head in the center of the cross again.
In order to pursue a fatal blow, McTavish specifically aimed at Ludendorff's nose, which is the legendary facial triangle, an absolutely fatal location, and even a single blow can kill a person.
Just when McTavish was taking aim, 20 meters below McTavish, three soldiers from the German patrol were still smoking and chatting. Today, for some reason, the other German soldiers left, but these three remained.
Come down.
But it doesn't matter, MacTavish only has Ludendorff in his eyes now, and MacTavish can't see, hear, or feel anything else.
