When the Battle of the Dardanelles broke out, fighting on the Western Front broke out again.
This time it was Joffre who took the initiative to launch the attack. Don't be surprised, the French are so stubborn. Joffre used 14 divisions to attack St. Michael on a fifty-mile wide battlefield, with 360 artillery pieces as the offensive
Troops provide cover.
As the World War entered its second year, the generals of the British and French allied forces believed that the failure of the frontline troops was largely due to insufficient support provided by the artillery units. Several attacks launched by the Southern African Expeditionary Force strongly supported this conclusion.
The infantry units of the Southern African Expeditionary Force are not equipped with artillery, but the Southern African Expeditionary Force has two powerful artillery divisions with more than 200 large-caliber artillery pieces of 120 mm and 150 mm calibers. Although in "Operation Victory Horn", the artillery
The troops didn't help much, but in the eyes of Joffre and French, this was the only conclusion they could accept.
After "Operation Horn of Victory", Joffre and Ferenzi requested more artillery to participate in the offensive and a longer fire strike before the launch of the battle. When the world war just broke out, the fire strike launched in the battle lasted only half an hour. New Year's Day
The fire attack since the beginning of the battle has lasted for more than four hours, and soon extended to the current 24 hours.
If the battle is fought like this, no matter how many shells we have, it won't be enough.
However, this is obviously just the beginning. The bombardment in the future may last more than a week. The arsenal in the rear is working hard to organize production. Women are assembling artillery shells on the production line, as is the arsenal in Nyasaland.
After a 24-hour bombardment, the effect was not obvious. The Germans occupied St. Michael last fall, and then built complete fortifications in St. Michael. The barbed wire in front of the position was 50 feet wide and 50 miles long. The German army used
Strong concrete fortifications were built to protect artillery and heavy machine guns, and mines were laid under the barbed wire. The attacking French army suffered heavy casualties, with as many as 62,000 casualties within six days. The attack was stopped silently, and the attack was
Known as the "Battle of Wavre".
On the third day of the battle of Saint Michael, the German troops in Ypres also began to attack, and the Second Battle of Ypres broke out.
The battle began at six o'clock in the morning on April 7, in the area defended by the 3rd Elizabeth Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Division.
Six o'clock is usually breakfast time. Sergeant Major Heywood's breakfast consists of five cold boiled eggs, a box of canned beef, a cup of steaming milk, and a cup of vodka produced in Johannesburg.
Alcohol is the standard equipment for frontline soldiers. Soldiers need alcohol to forget their fears. French soldiers can get one liter of brandy per day. The supply of brandy is much more abundant than artillery shells. British soldiers like to drink rum the most, and soldiers in Southern Africa like wine.
Or vodka, no matter which one, it must be produced in southern Africa.
After breakfast, there was coffee from East India. The coffee was burned in large iron buckets on the fire. The soldiers took it at will and brought their own containers. Some used the white enamel jars issued by the expeditionary force, some used steel helmets, and some
People put steaming coffee in a kettle with them as a drink. There is no sugar in the coffee in the iron bucket. You can add it as sweet as you want. There is a small bag of sugar in the soldiers' supplies, although the quantity is not much, for drinking coffee.
enough.
Several soldiers next to Heywood were playing poker together. There were no complicated game rules. It was a simple comparison of sizes. The most common bet was cigarettes. There was no limit on one cigarette at a time. The bets gradually increased after "Operation Victory Horn".
, gemstone rings and gold pocket watches often appear, needless to say their origins, they are all trophies from battles with the German army.
Heywood didn't play cards. He was sitting upright with a towel wrapped around his chin. Corporal James was helping him trim his beard.
James was a barber before joining the army. Many people in the regiment asked James for help, one shilling at a time.
Unlike many people who have full beards, Heywood has relatively high requirements for image. The beard on the chin and cheeks must be trimmed cleanly, and the beard on the lips must be trimmed into a delicate shape. The ends must be slightly raised into a beautiful shape.
The curvature and sideburns should be trimmed to a sharp angle like the tip of a knife. After trimming, hair wax should be used to make the hair neatly arranged. Heywood's good friend, Sergeant Kleist, who also served in the Elizabeth 3rd Infantry Regiment
He often laughed at Heywood, saying that he was a gorgeous turkey about to be served to the dinner table.
It was the same today, when James was trimming Heywood's beard, Kleist was standing by and making sarcastic remarks.
"Hey, hey, James, your technique is wrong. Look, the beards on both sides are raised at different angles. This will affect the image of Mr. Heywood -"
"Why don't you trim his eyebrows too? I think it would be better to shave them off too -"
"Heywood, to be honest, you can change into a suit later and then go to Buckingham Palace for the banquet with the Lord. Maybe the King will marry the princess to you when he sees how handsome you are!"
"Shut up Kleist, you are as noisy as five hundred ducks -" Heywood couldn't help but fight back, this was the way of communication between them.
"Hahahaha——" Kleist was satisfied, he laughed and looked around, casually glancing in front of the position.
Then Kleist fell into a sluggish state.
"What's wrong?" Heywood felt something was wrong with Kleist. Under normal circumstances, Kleist couldn't stay quiet for a second.
"The fog is a bit strange today -" Kleist stared at the front of the position with a puzzled expression.
Haywood signaled James to stop, stood up and looked towards the front of the position.
About a hundred meters in front of the position, the invisible thick fog is spreading towards the position of Elizabeth's 3rd Infantry Regiment. It is different from the usual white thick fog. This time the fog looks white from a distance, but it floats so thin.
Only when Kleist got closer did he realize that the fog was actually yellow-green.
"What a strange color, why is it green?" There was curiosity and fear in Kleist's eyes. The thick green fog in front of him was like an unknown monster rolling in. Kleist didn't know what was in the thick fog.
, but it feels very dangerous.
A soldier's sixth sense is also very sensitive.
"Green fog—green fog—whatever it is, put on the gas mask first—" Heywood jumped up suddenly, and then remembered that Umbrella Company had conducted similar drills before.
"Damn it - gas mask! Put on the mask - put on the gas mask -" Kleist woke up as if from a dream, shouted, rolled and crawled into the tunnel to search for his backpack.
Last winter, the German Eighth Army used poison gas for the first time in its operations against the Russian Empire in East Prussia.
However, because the weather was cold at that time, the poisonous gas was pre-cooled and solidified, which did not play a very good role. The Russian Empire reported the German army's use of poison gas to the British and French forces as usual. However, because the poisonous gas did not cause heavy casualties to the Russian Empire's troops, the British and French forces
Didn't pay attention to it.
The German army was also aware of the impact of weather on poison gas, so they have tolerated it until now before using poison gas in war again.
You said it was a coincidence, Rock. When the Southern African Expeditionary Force came to Europe, everyone was equipped with gas masks. Rock's reason at that time was to deal with the smog in London, and now it finally comes in handy.
When Kleist and Haywood put on their masks, James looked horrified and confused.
"Go get your gas mask and put it on, this could be some kind of poisonous gas-" Heywood yelled at James. His voice was a little muffled through the gas mask, but he could still hear it clearly.
"I-I-my gas mask is missing-" James almost cried. The thick yellow-green fog was less than fifty meters away from the trench of Elizabeth's 3rd Infantry Regiment.
"Why?" Heywood was surprised.
"I fucking thought gas masks were useless -" James almost collapsed. The soldiers around him had already put on gas masks. They all looked like the goblins in the witch legend. Although they looked funny, they didn't have gas masks.
People are funnier.
"Damn it, you're screwed! Generals are always smarter than you and won't spend money to buy you things that you have no use for -" Kleist's tone was filled with pity, but he was also helping to think of a solution: "Who has the extra money?
gas mask?”
The surrounding soldiers were shaking their heads. They looked at James with worried eyes and gathered around James, as if this could isolate James from the poisonous gas.
"God, save me! I don't want to die -" James finally collapsed, with big tears streaming down his cheeks.
Heywood doesn't shed tears. He even shed half of his ear last winter when a stray bullet knocked it off.
When the others were at a loss what to do, Heywood noticed the towel in James' hand, then grabbed the towel and began to take off his pants.
James was simply stunned.
Heywood tries his luck -
No use, Heywood had just gone to the toilet before getting a haircut.
Fortunately, there were many soldiers around, and someone came to help immediately. A large group of people were busy taking off their pants, and the white towels suddenly became wet, dripping——
"Cover your nose and mouth—" Haywood held a corner of the still dripping towel with his fingertips and handed it to James.
James didn't even dare to reach out and take it.
"Wu-Wu-" The smell was a bit strong and the color was a bit yellow. James felt his stomach was struggling.
"Cover your nose and mouth, or you will wait for yourself to fester bit by bit-" Heywood threw the towel on James' face, pulled up his pants, picked up the rifle and entered the fighting position.
By this time, the thick green fog had floated over the trenches.
The other soldiers had also entered combat positions, and no one really laughed at how embarrassed James was.
"Fuck your grandma Jerry—" James howled and resolutely covered his nose and mouth with a towel, covering them tightly.
Heywood, who had already entered the fighting position, shook his head repeatedly. This guy is probably a little short-sighted. You should screw it up——
