On September 12, 1914, the belated Battle of the Marne finally began. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThis large-scale battle is made up of countless ferocious, short, and chaotic conflicts and battles. On a front of more than 200 kilometers along the Marne, 14 armies of the Entente and the Central Powers, more than 100 infantry divisions, and a large number of artillery and cavalry units waged fierce, bloody and brutal battles......

From Brussels to the Marne, von Kluk's German 1st Army Corps marched continuously, and the soldiers' energy and physical strength had been reduced to the limit, and the excessively long supply lines not only affected the efficiency of replenishment of supplies, but also increased the risk of attacks on logistics vehicles. On the south bank of the Marne, Cluk's two corps, which had crossed the river in advance, encountered strong resistance from the forces of the French 5th and 9th armies, and the attack was thwarted, and they had to wait for friendly reinforcements in place. On the morning of 12 September, Kluke ordered his two artillery divisions to cross the Marne to support the attack, and no sooner had the telegram been sent than the corps headquarters received an order from the German General Staff. Due to several days of rainy weather, the aerial reconnaissance effect of German aircraft airships was greatly reduced, but there were all signs that the French army was about to launch a large-scale counterattack. Considering that the French army suffered consecutive defeats in the first month of the war, the combat effectiveness and morale of the front-line troops were greatly damaged, and this would be a Jedi counterattack that could only be won and not defeated. Moltke Jr. feared that Clouk's flank would be broken by the French, so he ordered him to turn his head to deal with the threat from the flank.

Despite his reluctance, Kluk complied with the General Staff's orders to fight, and he quickly cancelled the redeployment orders given to the artillery units and asked them to redeploy in favor of the flank corps for defense. As a result, as soon as these German artillery divisions entered new positions, the French sounded the horn of a counterattack in the area of the lower Marne, near Paris. The French 6th Army, which had been chased by Kluke and Bilow in the previous phase, was the first to attack, reinforced by artillery, reserves, and the British Expeditionary Force, but the offensive was dominated by French divisions that had gradually retreated from the border front. On 12 September alone, the British and French launched three attacks on the positions of the Kluk Corps on the north bank of the Marne, seizing part of the German forward positions. In the evening, Cluke commanded his troops to carry out a counterattack, recapturing several positions from the French 6th Army and barely holding the flank line, but his infantry divisions were greatly reduced in the battle.

In the afternoon, the French army on the south bank of the Marne also launched a counterattack against Cluk's river-crossing force. As the pace of the Bülow regiment was a little slower to cross the river, and there were only two corps on the south bank of the Marne, they were held back by the French troops in front of them, and it was difficult for them to help Cluke's troops. Later that day, Moltke sent an urgent telegram to the corps of Bülo, Hausen, Albrecht, William, and Rupprecht, forcing them to move downstream along the Marne in order to support and relieve the pressure on Kluke.

After a short night of respite, the Kluk Legion ushered in the fiercest counterattack of the Allied army, and in addition to the French soldiers in blue shirts and red pants, British soldiers in khaki uniforms appeared on the battlefield. From dawn to noon, the British and French troops attacked in turn under the cover of blazing artillery fire, and those French divisions that had fought with the Germans many times for more than a month resolutely abandoned their dull and useless intensive offensive tactics, and they sought and adopted more flexible and effective means, giving more play to the role of rifles and machine guns, and the British Expeditionary Force units, which were first to attack with divisional units in this war, also showed amazing combat effectiveness, and the officers and men were obviously full of strength to avenge their naval colleagues, and spared no effort in the attack. Some of the battalions suffered more casualties than the French troops, and when the German troops launched a tactical counterattack, the British soldiers taught the undefeated German GIs a good lesson with the rapid platoon fire of Enfield rifles. By the afternoon of September 13, the right flank of the Crucker Corps was crumbling and could be crushed by the British and French forces at any time......

News of the predicament of the Kluk Corps soon reached Germany, and in the last two days, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, von Bohr, had summoned the admirals to Kiel to discuss the next phase of the operation. In addition to the operational strategy of the High Seas Fleet, the actions of the overseas fleet, the deployment of the blockade against Russia, and the follow-up construction of the Navy are also within the scope of discussion. Knowing that the Battle of the Marne had begun, Natsuki, who knew the inside story, took the opportunity to propose the idea of sending Marines to the war.

After wartime mobilization, the three standing marine brigades of the German Navy were fully equipped and correspondingly equipped with three regiments of reserves. In addition, the German Navy had 6 fortress garrison regiments and 42 coastal garrison battalions, and the total strength of the land was more than one standing regiment of the army.

As always, whenever Natsuki has a proposal, he must have done his homework in advance. In concise and clear language, he briefed the admirals on the readiness of the three Marine Brigades, each with two Marine Infantry Regiment and one Heavy Marine Regiment, which were 20 percent larger than the Army's infantry brigades, and were equipped with light and heavy machine guns and pistols in the same proportion as the Kaiser's Guards.

Since the formation and manning of the three Marine brigades have been classified as a secret by the Navy's top brass, except for the main admirals and the command staff of the Marine Brigades, the others are completely in the dark. Listening to Natsuki's explanation, many generals were surprised, just on paper, these Marine brigades have first-class combat power, under the conditions of the high seas fleet defeating the British Navy and grasping the strategic initiative, they should prove their strength and value on the battlefield.

Before the meeting, Natsuki had already communicated with Admiral Hugo von Pohl, who was in charge of naval operations, the idea of sending a Marine Brigade to the war, at that time the British and French troops had not launched a counterattack on the Marne, and the progress of the German army on the Western Front was relatively smooth, as long as there were no major twists and turns, it should only be a matter of time before the defeat of the French, and Bohr did not want to arouse the disgust of the army generals, believing that the Marine Corps could only participate in the war on the premise that the army took the initiative to ask for it. If the war on the Western Front did not get a chance, then when the Germans attacked Russia in the east, the Marines could cooperate with the army to occupy the Baltic coast and even carry out a separate landing operation in Finland.

In the conference room, in front of many admirals, Admiral von Pohl recounted: "Our Marine Corps has not been formed for a long time, and all the officers and soldiers have no experience in participating in wars. In order to form these three Marine Brigades, we have invested funds and manpower that can be used to build a dreadnought. They were expensive, but also potentially valuable, and they were more competent than army units in future combat operations to seize the British and French colonies. ”

Expressing his unmistakable opposition in a mild tone, Pol took care of Prince Joachim's face and protected his authority. In such a situation, the generals who wanted to express their opinions chose to remain silent and wait to see how the "Hohenzollern genius" in his position would refute it.

Natsuki said calmly but vigorously: "In the future, if you want to seize the British and French colonies, you will inevitably engage in war with the British and French armies. It will not be easy to remedy the defeat of our Marines at a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers from the German mainland, once they are defeated by their inexperience. From this perspective alone, we should let the officers and men of the Marine Corps undergo the tempering of the flames of war in advance. ”

Pol listened and thought, and after Natsuki finished speaking, he quickly responded, "I completely agree with that. It is only at this time that our Marine units rush to the front line, and neither our commanders nor the army commanders are familiar with each other's tactical thinking and combat methods, so it will be difficult to bring into play the combat effectiveness that these troops should have, and they may even suffer unnecessary losses. What does Your Highness think? ”

Tens of thousands of officers and men are killed every day on the Western Front, where millions of troops are invested on each side of the war, and if three Marine brigades lacking tank units are thrown into the most critical front, they may be exhausted in more than a dozen hours. Of course, Natsuki was well aware of this, and he favored the Inchon landing-style attack behind enemy lines, but the current battlefield situation could not find a suitable landing opportunity -- the coastlines of France and Belgium were still under the direct control of the Allied forces, and if the German marines landed on the beach in northern Belgium, although they could catch the enemy by surprise and shake the resistance of the Entente at the strategic and psychological level, it would be difficult to have a direct impact on the Marne front in a short period of time, and if they could successfully land in northern France, it would play an immediate role. But the crux of the matter was that the German Navy's landing fleet had to pass through the narrow Strait of Dover, while the British and French navies still had enough strength to intercept the German landing ships.

"That's really the most critical issue." Natsuki replied, his gaze swept over everyone, and then he said unhurriedly: "I happen to have a top-secret piece of information in my hand, which is about the fortifications of the city of Paris. ”

All eyes, including Pol, focused on Natsuki with great curiosity.

"By order of the French high command, the fortifications of Paris had to be completed by the end of August, and when they found that our right-wing troops had not taken Paris directly, but had swept towards the Marne, the pace of construction of the fortifications slowed down. According to the information provided by our spies, the French army was still slowly clearing trees and houses that might hinder artillery fire and affect the digging of the trenches, and the construction of artillery bunkers and infantry posts, the placement of barbed wire, and the preparation for the construction of timber and munitions storage shelters for the construction of the paramiso were not even half completed. As for the supply of essential commodities such as food in the cities, almost no work has been carried out. In a nutshell...... The fortified city of Paris is still largely on paper. ”

If you are an army general, you will immediately understand Natsuki's intention in revealing this information, and the admirals are laymen in land warfare, and they struggle to figure out the meaning of Prince Joachim's words.

"During our lunch break, the fleet commander and I came up with a brilliant strategy." Natsuki glanced at Scheer, the two were undoubtedly good partners, and they were loyal believers in the theory of naval attack, and there was no reason not to work together to deal with a representative of the naval existence doctrine like Pol.

"Let the British think that we are going to land in England and take London directly. Let the French think that we are going to land in Le Havre and threaten Paris. In fact, we started from Amiens and drove a hundred kilometers at maximum speed to reach Paris! ”

As soon as Natsuki's words fell, the admirals went to find the map.

(End of chapter)