Using support points to defend is an important part of the new defense concept that the prince brings to the table, not caring about the gains and losses of non-focused defenses, but sticking to a few key points. Limited forces are pooled and used to neutralize the attacker's numerical superiority.

His Royal Highness the Prince, who had visited the Prussian General Staff, shared this tactic with his Prussian counterparts, and was approved by the latter, but alas, Hindenburg and others only learned a few things. The true essence is not comprehended.

Hindenburg's approach to the front of the heavily armed detachments was to rely on their firepower superiority to crush those important support points, or at least to suppress them, so as to provide an opportunity for close blasting and encirclement. After all, the core of battalion defense is machine guns and mortars, and the number of these weapons is very small, and it is not difficult to suppress these fire points when considering a certain direction of attack.

But what Hindenburg didn't expect was that the cover position, which was mainly constructed with semi-automatic rifle fire, could take on the blockade task when the main fire point was suppressed! There is a limit to the time for suppression by strong firepower, after all, there are only so many ammunition, and if you can't break through before the fight, then you can only withdraw it.

Hindenburg, who had already anticipated this situation, decisively arranged a flank detour, but due to the limited heavy weapons and mobility, the support firepower on the flanks was much weaker, but Hindenburg still believed that he could open a gap, because the opponent's troops and equipment were even more lacking!

"The composition of the enemy's frontal line of defense is centered on machine-gun and mortar fire points, interspersed with a large number of double and three-man bunkers to make up for the lack of fire points. And according to the allocation of the opponent's equipment, it is impossible for them to maintain such a configuration on the flanks, they do not have so much heavy equipment. "Before the attack, Hindenburg used to say this.

On the flanks, the prince used another defensive posture to block the opponent's attack, and the support points established in squads replaced the mode of mutual cooperation between fire points and foxholes, although there were not enough machine guns and mortars, but relying on the fire of 4 semi-automatic rifles and a grenadier canister per squad could still suppress the immobile colleagues who were also lacking in firepower in the front.

Different from the model of frontal multi-layer defense, the forces on the flanks are almost all concentrated in one line of defense, and the defense of the original three lines of defense has become two, and the strength of the troops is greatly enriched, relying on strong infantry firepower, so that the defender has better control of the battlefield.

"If it drags on any longer, there will be no results, the positions they have chosen are too good, heavy fire can only be deployed on the front, and there is not enough space on the flanks. Therefore, the other side does not need to judge the direction of our main attack at all. An officer said with some disbelief.

"Even if we attack from the flank, even if the opponent misjudges the direction of our attack, the result will not deviate too much, the flank attack is relatively long, and the opponent's concentrated defense will eventually cause some trouble for our breakthrough, and we will also be blocked by the opponent in the stage of taking away the trench. This is enough time for them to reconfigure their heavy weapons and then suppress our backup. ”

"In all fairness, the other side was also very cautious and did not set up minefields and barbed wire, which saved us a lot of trouble moving forward. That's it, no more fighting will lead to anything. "Little Moltke came out of the round. In the case of the disparity in strength, if the attacking forces cannot break through the defense line in a short time, then time will be on the side of the opponent.

If you only look at the exchange ratio of troops, your side is not too much of a loss, and the other party saves face, so there is no need for you to fight to the end. On the whole, however, the future chief of the General Staff of the German Army was aware of the transposition of offensive and defensive superiority in war. Until there are strong, high-speed breakthrough units, it will be increasingly difficult for attackers to face defenders with enough depth and plenty of artillery!

However, Hindenburg still wanted to give it a try, and the Prussian Legion also had a similar commando team composed of elite personnel, although not as integrated as the later Storm Commandos, which combined elite infantry, engineers, and artillery, and then after the artillery turned a certain position into an island, these elite infantry opened a gap.

An infantry armed with a mine-thrower called a trench mine-thrower began to sneak in from the flanks under the cover of fire. They managed to find the dead end of the opponent's firepower, passed through the blockade line in a place that was definitely not wide, and relying on the excellent quality of individual soldiers, they got close to the trenches and cleared the remnants of the trenches with the pistols they carried with them.

They even formed a breakthrough on the front, but alas, turned around and fell into the encirclement of superior opponents. After this elite force drove into the wedge, the follow-up troops did not follow. The frontal attackers were already showing signs of decline, and the defenders had more reserves to draw to the flanks, and Hindenburg's last troops were like a sharp arrow, successfully piercing the knight's outer steel armor, but at the same time the arrow was broken.

As the prince expected, the attackers failed to break through the defensive line in five hours, and could not even lay two nails in the core position, and the wedge that was easy to drive into was then removed. With the advancement of science and technology, the offensive and defensive situation on the battlefield is gradually changing. And because of the prince, the top brass of the German army also had a certain understanding of what would happen in the foreign war situation.

"I am now less and less optimistic about the situation on the Western Front, our strategy of a quick victory is not possible because of the supply problem, if I had not only one enemy, France, then we could still rely on a strong industry and a huge population base to crush the opponent, but if the other side becomes France and Russia, then we can only defeat one of them, and then make an agreement with the other side that is more favorable to Germany.

At the end of the exercise, even Moltke admitted that the future of Germany would be far more difficult than expected, the French could not defeat Germany, but it could still be delayed for a considerable time by relying on distance and defensive superiority, and the terrifying war potential of the Russians made Germany despair. At least the Prussian staff did not think of anything that could be cracked under the existing system.

"War is not an end, it is only a tool, not even the only one, and if I don't want to win, then I have no other way than blood and fire on the battlefield. By some means, the fortress was disintegrated from within. The probability of this happening in France is not high, but the Russians are different, their national problems and social contradictions are not at all Austria-Hungary, and there may be problems with the breakthrough I did not look for in the first place. ”

When Schlieffen asked the prince what he thought about the prospects of the German two-front war, the prince decisively stated his plan, and for more than ten years after the crossing, the prince had been thinking about how to fight if the first war broke out, and now he could finally inform the German military top brass of his ideas, and gradually exert his influence to finally implement it.

Thanks to the boy who loves to read historical novels, xiaotang246, bighill1982's reward~~~, and the book friend was a cat in his last life, a gray and domineering person, and the monthly ticket support of the lonely goose in the sea ~~~, and the second more ~~~! (To be continued.) )