In the battles and artillery battles, the offensive power of the French was gradually depleted, although the defending German army also paid a heavy price, but it was still superior in the exchange ratio, after all, the sacrifice now bought a lot of time for the upcoming offensive. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"We have reorganized the long-range heavy artillery with a range of more than 12 kilometers belonging to each corps into several long-range artillery brigades. The number of heavy guns in each brigade ranged from 36 to 48. We now have 10 such brigades, which can completely suppress the depth of the French army. Two days later, Hindenburg reported to His Royal Highness the Prince on the state of preparations.

"As for the armored forces, we don't have much left on the Northern Front, except for the armored units that dealt with the French. Although it is sufficient, I am afraid that it is not enough to guide the attack alone. To compensate for this, we equipped the troops below with a large number of truck guns and towed artillery. ”

"We have prepared a semi-combat ammunition for all our troops, and in order to ensure that the infantry units have sufficient firepower and continuity, we have re-optimized the transport system. At the same time, a large number of machine guns were prepared for the assault troops, which basically guaranteed that all storm commandos had one machine gun for each combat squad. Schmidt reported to Prince Ruprecht on the final preparations for the campaign.

"What about the Air Force?" The prince asked.

"The Air Force can only guarantee support in shallow positions and air supremacy over our army, and it may be difficult to bomb in depth." Schmidt replied.

"Alright, let's get started, we can't afford to wait." The prince thought for a moment and said.

"Actually, Moltke Jr.'s opinion from the Chief of General Staff is that we can wait a little longer." Calyput on the side said.

"I'm not talking about the Western Front, I'm talking about the Eastern Front!" The prince pinched the telegram he had just received and said.

"Let's get started!" With the order to attack the general, up to 1,300 howitzers and long-range guns of various calibers deployed along the Marne launched a three-hour bombardment of the French positions on the other side of the river! THE ATTACK BEGAN AT DAWN, AND THE 105MM AND 150MM HOWITZERS, WHICH WERE IN HIGHER POSITIONS, FIRST BOMBARDED THE DETECTED STARTING POSITIONS OF THE FRENCH ATTACK.

According to the information gathered, during the previous engagement, the French had built a number of special assembly positions where troops would concentrate before attacking, and these positions could also be used as support points when the Germans counterattacked.

While the French were accustomed to the superiority of their own firepower, to having a good meal in the assembly area before the attack, and then smoking a few cigarettes to relieve the pressure, the sudden and heavy shelling made it difficult for a considerable part of the people to ...... each other with the bread in their hands before they could react. The heavy shelling turned many of the infantry and their weapons, breakfast, and other things into a charred black land.

The shelling was so intense that the French received information at the same time from a front, which was tens of kilometers long, that they were being attacked by enemy fire. The smoke and fire from the rising sun even obscured the rising sun! The entire shallow position was covered with artillery fire, and in the course of up to 3 hours, the entire German artillery group fired nearly 100,000 shells of various calibers!

It was not only the shallow positions that were attacked, but also the heavy artillery companies, military stations, and supply depots deployed by the French in the rear were also attacked by K09 cannons with a range of up to 22 kilometers. The fierce and long shelling caused the French to lose a large number of men, vehicles and horses, and at the same time caused some confusion in the command system, although at first the French artillery group tried to counterattack, but soon, with the help of aviation corrections, the numerically superior German long-range counter-battery company easily suppressed the opponent, and even wiped the entire position from the ground!

"Attack!" After the artillery cover, the first to attack was the Storm Commando, and each division would set up a breakthrough battalion of elite infantry, equipped with the best equipment, supported by independent engineers, and even divided into Hu Feng assault guns and half-track carriers. They will be the spearhead of the offensive of the entire division.

In terms of the overall situation, the prince used the leapfrog tactic this time, relatively speaking, this front is still a little narrow compared to the size of the more than 30 divisions, or the troops cannot be fully deployed at all, and the expanded troops want to gather together and continue to advance, it will waste a lot of time, and the scattered troops are a problem in terms of supply and marching speed.

So this time all the divisions were divided into three parts, the first echelon of 8 divisions was responsible for clearing the French on both fronts with the defending forces, and then the second echelon of 10 divisions would cross the passage opened by the first echelon and advance to the depth of the opponent, while the remaining divisions were responsible for supporting and plugging leaks.

When the French army that was preparing to attack was stunned by the sudden firepower, the German elite commandos who rushed up almost at the time of the last shell collided with the French.

Search, discover, and destroy form the eternal chain of war. The elite Storm Commandos have moved away from fighting by numbers, with 20 general-purpose machine guns deployed in front of a battalion tearing apart all enemies that stand in their way like the claws of a giant beast. The sappers and spearmen in the front row continue to advance under the cover of fire, and use flares and tracer rounds to mark the position of the opponent, and then the accompanying machine gun and mortar crews will destroy the target as quickly as possible. And a large number of infantry advanced alternately under the cover of heavy weapons.

Three MG08 machine guns and two mortars pinned a company of French troops in a trench. Since there is not enough firepower to completely destroy the entire trench, it is necessary to use tactics and equipment at hand to take out the opponent as if it were a surgical operation.

Machine gun cover and then a large number of infantry swarmed up is obviously not the right approach, this kind of fight is too rough, the efficiency is too low, the casualties are too large, although the storm commando can not be compared with the special forces of later generations, but these young men are the most elite in the German army, but also the most dedicated people, in history, the Germans in 1918 can still advance 60 kilometers on a 70-kilometer front in a campaign, it is by the quality and spirit of these officers and soldiers, of course, With these most elite units suffering heavy losses, the Germans could no longer launch a threatening offensive.

Therefore, the prince is still very cautious about the use of these elite troops. "The officers and men of the commandos were the most elite and loyal soldiers of the German Empire, and each of them was extremely precious, more precious than any tank, plane, or artillery. So it's important that we use it deeply. ”

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