Chapter 101: The Battle of Belk
On the morning of the fall of Paris, the capital of France, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. European theater of operations, John ? Joseph? General Pershing still commanded the U.S. forces to fight to the death with the German Army A and B on the entire defensive line. On the defensive line that the US military considered impregnable, the German and American armies engaged in a tug-of-war many times, and the two sides had no time for casualties, fighting to the death for every inch of land. At this time, because of the damage of the radio station, General Pershing had not yet received the shocking bad news of the fall of Paris.
After the successful capture of Paris, the German A and B armies and the German 42nd Division were briefly handed over, and then the southeast flanks were divided into joint attacks to jointly implement the attack on the Johann ? Joseph? Pershing's U.S. forces carried out outflanking strikes, and the fighting was unprecedentedly fierce. The U.S. forces relied on their geographical advantage and heavy artillery fire to return fire, and the Germans failed to attack several times. In the morning, about a company of German troops finally broke through the first trench of the US southwest forward position under the cover of artillery fire, and the two sides immediately launched a close fight. The Germans, who had attacked the trenches, were forced to compress and retreat to the southern trenches while fighting. The American troops in the southern trenches were very surprised, and were about to abandon the trenches, when they suddenly saw that the Germans were only a small force, and they were being compressed, and they quickly turned back to fight. At this time, the soldiers of nearly a company of the German army had no way to retreat except to fight hard.
The U.S. military is outnumbered and relatively well armed, but both sides are stuck in narrow trenches, you have me, I have you, no matter how good the weapons are, they can't play a normal role, and the two sides are constantly assessing the risks, and for a time there was a stalemate.
The U.S. military had no experience in hand-to-hand combat with the Germans, so they did not dare to rush into the fight, but in contrast, the Germans had rich combat experience and knew that it was impossible to escape the catastrophe, so it was better to fight to the death, or they might open a bloody road. So, while they were vigilant about the movements of the American troops, they exchanged glances with their teammates and prepared the conditions for their own shooting in the slow movement. The American soldiers were like little rats stealing eggs, claws from nowhere, holding guns and desperately shouting at the Germans to deter. The Germans as a whole did not say a word, calmly judging the course of events, and neither side dared to strike first.
A German lieutenant asked the corporal next to him, "What are the Americans saying, do you understand?" ”
The corporal wiped his black face full of gunsmoke and replied, "I'm very sorry, I don't understand Your Excellency Lieutenant, when you catch him and ask him personally, you will understand everything."
The captain smiled lightly: "You are right, corporal, this person is handed over to me, you go and hint at the brothers, we will get close together, and then shoot at the same time, maybe you can make a lot of money, oh, but if you can leave alive, next time you have to learn a few words of English, such as surrendering the gun and not killing, etc., this is very important corporal." ”
The corporal turned back and beckoned his companions to dodge, and at the same time opened fire on the southeast flanks, and the American troops fell in one piece, and then the two sides suppressed each other with grenades and submachine guns in the narrow tunnel. At this time, the German follow-up units were blocked by American firepower and paid a considerable price, but they were never able to replenish them.
At this time, the U.S. troops found that there was a German movement in the southeast corner, that is, they were busy concentrating heavy firepower to cover this side, and on the position, the U.S. and German troops were subjected to heavy shelling at the same time, and both sides suffered heavy casualties, and in the tunnel, the Germans could hear the U.S. army's curse on their artillery.
Suddenly, a shell fell, the corporal fell in a pool of blood, the lieutenant was stunned by the artillery fire, and when he woke up, the corporal was already dying: "Your Excellency, Lieutenant, I'm sorry, I don't like English, it seems that you can only let other brothers learn it." With that, he closed his eyes forever.
The lieutenant was furious, picked up his submachine gun and rushed towards the American army, and the other German soldiers also understood that charging was death, and not charging was death, and it was better to fight for a bloody cost, so they jumped out of the tunnel and rushed to the American army......
The American troops were blinded by their own artillery fire, and before they understood what was going on, they drank the bullets and died, and the American troops behind realized that the situation was not right, and after a period of panic, they also began to shoot frantically with the Germans, until the last bullet was fired, and all the German troops, including the lieutenant, were killed.
The battles in several other directions were not optimistic, and the American troops on the northern defense line saw that the Germans were retreating to rest, thinking that the Germans were exhausted, and launched two counter-charges in a row, but after leaving a large number of corpses, they even threw down their own wounded and did not save them, so they no longer dared to climb out of the bunker for half a step.
The battle in the east was the most intense, and the Germans concentrated their firepower to attack strategically, intending to strategically compress the American positions and force the American troops to retreat to the western coast of France, however, the American troops knew that this was the last line of defense, and once lost, the American troops would have no danger to defend, and could only be driven into the sea by the Germans step by step, so they fought desperately and did not give an inch. In order to break the stalemate with the US army, the deputy commander-in-chief of Army Group B, Rundstedt, specially met with all the commandos in person and marched for them. At 15 p.m., the American positions were still unshaken, and the commandos were gone, and Rundstedt knew in his heart that the commandos he had sent would not return.
The heavy artillery positions of Germany and the United States were well understood, and the American artillery had an advantage in comparison. Rundstedt frowned and ordered the Germans to use the cover of the night to move the main artillery positions forward incrementally, striving to inflict heavy damage on the American artillery positions, ensuring that the forward positions could be captured, and allowing the infantry to seize the artificial bunkers.
In the evening of the same day, the Germans followed the flying pigeon transmission of the concealed personnel of the CIA in Paris, locked on the US artillery position, and after nightfall, they continuously covered the US artillery positions for half an hour. At night, the light was too dark, and the American troops did not dare to slack off, and immediately organized firepower to block the forward positions, and throughout the night, the German troops rested in batches and launched a false charge every half an hour, so that the American troops were exhausted and did not dare to stop all night. At five o'clock in the morning, the Germans made a technical halt to the attack, deliberately making the Americans feel that the Germans were also tired and resting, and at the same time relaxed their vigilance. At dawn, the American troops, who had not slept all night, really began to nap with confidence, and at this moment, the German army took the opportunity to launch a general offensive on all fronts......
The Germans first quietly ambushed and advanced, touched the front of the American trenches, and suddenly shouted and killed, when the American troops woke up from their dreams, the Germans had already appeared in front of them, most of them raised their hands to surrender, and the rest fled one after another. The German attack was very rapid, and the American artillery positions were so badly damaged by the German shelling that night that the Germans did not fire a single shell when they attacked.
At noon, the US defense line was surrounded by François, commander of Army Group A, at multiple points, resulting in poor command among US units, and some even lost contact. Some of the American troops were surrounded by the Germans in a small area, with no food and grass, and no rescuers, and they knew that there was no point in continuing to resist, so they had to surrender to the Germans one after another.
After a day and a night of continuous high-intensity operations, the United States lost a total of 900,000 troops in this battle, and only the remaining 500,000 American troops under the supervision of Pershing himself in Boulogne were still resisting the onslaught of the German army. In order to reduce unnecessary casualties and at the same time inflict hard casualties on the US troops, François, commander of the German Army Group A, ordered the abandoned artillery of the British and American armies to be pulled to the front together, and the entire US positions were violently covered with artillery fire. But John? Joseph? Pershing, who somehow gained self-confidence, resolutely resisted, and gave a stern order - those who retreated were shot on the spot.
German artillery fire rang out again, only this time the shells had removed their fuses and landed on the American positions without causing casualties, but emitting flying pieces of paper. The U.S. troops hid in the trenches and had no power to fight back, lying on their backs one by one, quietly waiting for the arrival of death, however, they only saw colorful leaflets falling from the sky.
The emotions of the soldiers exploded at once: "Why is it that Paris, the capital of France, and the president have fallen into the hands of the Germans, and we are still fighting inexplicably?" ”
"The British may have slept in the comfortable tents of the Germans for a long time, and Pershing, the old fellow, is willing to be cannon fodder, so let him hold on alone, brothers, we surrender to the Germans!" Many U.S. troops began to waver, and some even had a white flag ready for surrender.