Nivele finally left the French command in a disgraceful way, ending his military career. Pétain became the new commander-in-chief of the French army. It seemed that the French army was back on the right track, but now Pétain
When the difficulties faced were much higher than those during the Battle of Verdun, Pétain needed more time to restore the organization of the French troops.
For others, facing the current French army may be helpless, but for Pétain, temporarily taking over a mess is already familiar, and he is very good at this kind of work.
Pétain, who had just come to power, immediately took effective measures, just as he had done during the Battle of Verdun. On the one hand, Pétain would not overly stimulate the emotions of the French troops and avoid larger-scale riots, and on the other hand, he would rectify military discipline.
, arresting the soldiers who shot and killed officers some time ago, forcing those troops who rebelled collectively to lay down their weapons, and urgently dealt with a group of rebels who had committed unpardonable crimes.
About 5,000 people were executed, some were imprisoned, and some were exiled to the colonies.
While suppressing the rebels with an iron fist, Pétain appeased the soldiers who were tired of the war, gave them better treatment, more holidays, and vacated hotels in Paris to accommodate those officers and soldiers who were reunited with their relatives. These methods all worked.
Achieved very good results.
As the commander-in-chief of the French army, Pétain was completely different from his two superior predecessors, Joffre-Nivelle. Pétain did not like to live in luxurious castles and preferred to be with frontline soldiers. The French army fell into chaos.
For a period of time, Pétain visited 90 divisions of the French army, had heart-to-heart talks with soldier representatives, gave speeches to French soldiers while standing in a car, and had meals with ordinary French soldiers.
Thanks to Pétain's efforts, the French army gradually returned to normal, which gained Pétain a huge reputation. Of course, it also brought Pétain a huge scandal that could not be eliminated in the future.
During this period of time when Pétain was trying to regroup his troops, in order to divert the attention of the German army, the British Expeditionary Force kept attacking, attacking, and attacking again.
The loss of Vimy Ridge was a huge blow to Ludendorff. Ludendorff learned the news that the German army had lost Vimy Ridge on April 9. This day was originally Ludendorff's 52nd birthday. The German General Staff specially paid tribute to Ludendorff.
A banquet was held to celebrate. Ludendorff hid in the corner of the banquet with the battle report and telegram and reflected. He later recalled: I used to be confident to meet the enemy's attack, but now I feel frustrated. Is this what we have achieved through our efforts and hard work in the past six months?
The result?
After studying the battle report at Arras, Ludendorff finally discovered the problem. Ludwig von Falkenhausen, the commander of the Sixth Army at Arras, should be responsible for the German defeat. Falkenhausen was not
In accordance with Ludendorff's order, when the British Expeditionary Force attacked, facing the Canadian Expeditionary Force with an absolute advantage in strength, Falkenhausen did not promptly order the troops to abandon the first line of defense, but ordered the troops to stay on the position and interact with the Canadian troops.
Hard fight.
As a result, the German army suffered heavy losses under the joint attack of the British Expeditionary Force artillery and air forces.
At this time, Falkenhausen's second mistake was also exposed. The Sixth Army's three lines of defense were too close. After the first line of defense fell, Falkenhausen had no time to organize a defense. The Canadian Expeditionary Force was behind the tank unit.
With the cooperation of the enemy, they successively broke through the second and third lines of defense of the German army.
Falkenhausen continued to make mistakes. He placed the reserve troops 15 miles away from the front line. As a result, when the battle broke out, the reserve troops could not arrive at the front line in time to provide sufficient support to the front line troops. These mistakes together led to the German
Total collapse.
After determining the real cause of the German defeat, Falkenhausen was dismissed, and Ludendorff had to once again transfer troops from Sherman-Dedham to strengthen the defense at Arras, and the danger faced by Paris was further reduced.
The geographical location of Vimy Ridge is very important. Controlling Vimy Ridge can control the vast plains east of Arras. Therefore, in last year's autumn offensive and this year's spring offensive, Vimy Ridge became the focus of competition between the Germans and the British Expeditionary Force.
.
On April 12, the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which captured Vimy Ridge, received Rock's attack order and continued to advance.
But the road ahead was not smooth. The German army blew up all the roads and bridges when they retreated. When the spring offensive was launched, a blizzard hit Vimy Ridge. Now, although the blizzard has ended, there is mud everywhere on the ground.
The tanks got stuck in the mud as soon as they started, and there was also a problem with the supplies of the Canadian troops. In order to appease the French troops, Kitchener sent part of the supplies of the Canadian Corps to Paris. Today, nearly 1 million French troops are stationed around Paris.
The forward force of the Canadian Legion is the reorganized 2nd Division. This force is also a meritorious force. It was this force that was the first to charge Vimy Ridge.
Unlike the US military, which pays attention to appearance, after many days of continuous fighting, the reorganized Second Division did not have time to tidy up its military appearance. The officers and soldiers rolled in the mud pits all day long, and they were all as dirty as mud monkeys. Many of them had eaten
After all the food they carried with them, the soldiers shared the remaining food with each other. Some officers and soldiers could only get two biscuits a day.
"I really don't know what our officers are thinking. We only have two pitiful biscuits every day, so they let us attack the German army hungry. Aren't our officers afraid that we will also learn from the French?" A corporal asked.
He was complaining about the two cookies in his hand, less than two to be exact, one of them was missing a corner.
"Shhh - shut your mouth, do you want to kill us?" a sergeant nearby reminded that the expeditionary force headquarters had issued a silence order and no one was allowed to discuss what happened in Sherman Dedham.
"I'm not wrong. Give the supplies that originally belong to us to those French people who don't have enough to eat and can't do anything well. They will die if they lick the dog." The corporal breathed out the fragrance, "They don't have enough to eat.
"You can't do anything" is a slang term that came from the Southern African Expeditionary Force. It was originally used to complain about the Indian Army, but now it is also very suitable to use it to complain about the French Army.
As for licking dogs——
This verb also came from the Southern African Expeditionary Force and was originally used to complain about the British government.
After the great changes in the Russian Empire, the British government did not stop aid to the Russian Empire. It still gave the Russian Empire 20 million pounds every month, hoping that the Russian Empire could persist.
However, more and more people are not optimistic about the prospects of the Russian Empire. After the provisional government was established, Kerensky became the leader of the provisional government. He did not have enough experience in governing and was simply unable to carry out reforms to the Russian Empire that was already on the verge of collapse.
Effective management, no matter what orders Kerensky gives, things will develop for the worst, and Murphy's law is fully proved here.
Kerensky first tried to solve the problem of the army. He issued an order to cancel the military service of men over 43 years old. As a result, millions of veterans immediately chose to retire, and the already overcrowded railways immediately fell into a state of collapse.
Then Kerensky abolished the death penalty for deserters. His original intention was probably to boost morale. As a result, millions more soldiers immediately threw away their rifles and became deserters.
In this case, Ludendorff personally ordered someone to be put on a train bound for St. Petersburg.
"You can't say that. If the French troops hadn't withstood most of the German troops' attacks, we wouldn't have been able to get here." A sergeant major finally told the truth. Although the French troops did not perform well, they
Indispensable.
Just like the Indian Army, although the Indian Army's performance is worse, without the Indian Army to replenish its strength, the British Expeditionary Force would not have the right to speak now.
The right to speak and the total number of troops during this period were still very important factors.
"What do you think our commander-in-chief will have for dinner?" The corporal took a bite of the biscuit and carefully picked up the fallen crumbs. This bit of crumbs cannot be wasted.
“There must be chicken legs!”
"A foot-long lobster!"
"Lobster is nothing. You must have foie gras and caviar to be worthy of the commander-in-chief's status——"
Gossip topics are indeed very popular, and there is always a market for questions like whether the emperor's pole is made of gold.
"Fuck, can we talk about something else? Listening to what you are talking about, how the hell can I continue to eat-" The sergeant major's expression was broken, and he looked at the biscuits in his hand-
Eat, eat, it's good to have some.
“You can’t talk about it even if you can’t eat it——” The corporal finished a piece of biscuit in five times. Maybe it would make him feel better psychologically.
At this time, a truck came squeaking in the distance, with a large red cross logo on the truck's body conspicuously.
During the war, this kind of red cross symbol is actually of little use. Officers and soldiers who are red-eyed about killing will not care about international conventions. A dead enemy is the best enemy.
The sergeant major and the corporal didn't know what was being pulled on the truck. When the truck stopped, faint cheers could be heard.
The sergeant major and corporal stretched their necks and looked. Several soldiers carrying rifles jumped out of the carriage, and then familiar cardboard boxes were carried down.
Only those who have experienced hunger know what it feels like to see the logo of a South African company when you are hungry.
Cheers came and went, and the entire position was boiling. The truck delivered luncheon meat and coffee. Although the quantity was not large, it was enough for the officers and soldiers of the reorganized Second Division to have a full meal.
When receiving two boxes of lunch meat and two bags of instant coffee, the sergeant major had never felt that lunch meat was so cute.
"Gentlemen, this is specially sent to you by the Commander-in-Chief. It also includes the Commander-in-Chief's dinner. The Commander-in-Chief has sent you his own dinner. He would rather go hungry than let the officers and soldiers on the front line go hungry.
Belly——" The head chef who was handing out the luncheon meat muttered, and he had to repeat this sentence before handing out a box of luncheon meat.
The light lunch meat in my hand suddenly became heavy.
(Originally I planned to post it at midnight, but after thinking about it, I’d better let the brothers get down to business earlier and say four updates, four updates——)
