Long before the outbreak of the South American War, many people realized that there must be a war between Chile and Argentina and other countries, because traditional powers such as Brazil and Argentina would not allow Chile to rise rapidly under any circumstances, but most people believed that it was only a regional conflict, just like the previous Paraguayan War, which was a "family matter" for South American countries.

However, to the great surprise of most people, on the first day of the war, the European hegemons Germany and the Kingdom of Britain joined Chile with lightning speed, and the mixed fleets of the two countries, which were visiting Brazil, announced their official entry into the war with artillery shelling.

The day after the outbreak of the war, the Japanese, American, and British governments-in-exile also joined the South American war, and the war between the South American powers soon turned into a contest between the two camps of the Allies and North America.

At the beginning of the war, there was no immediate large-scale military action by the armies of the warring countries, and only the Chilean and Peruvian border guards engaged in skirmishes in the border between the two countries, with few casualties on each side, and the attention of the countries was still focused on the sea.

On 6 April, the day Chile declared war on the five countries of the anti-intellectual coalition, the Chilean navy, with three battleships, three cruisers, seven destroyers and 11 gunboats, invaded Peruvian territorial waters and sank five Peruvian ships in one fell swoop in the noon naval battle. The Chilean fleet then blockaded Callao, Peru's largest port, with the battleship Caldera, the cruiser Cordillera and five gunboats, and intimidated Lima, Peru's capital, 12 kilometers east of Callao, with naval guns. After that, the Chilean fleet, with two Helgolan-class battleships as the main force, began to sweep through the ports and military installations off the coast of Peru, and the two former German battleships were renamed "Cochrane" and "Santiago" after entering the Chilean Navy, and their 24 50x diameter 305 mm naval guns were second to none in South America, not to mention repairing the coastal defense system of the Peruvians.

In just three days, the Peruvian coast was in shambles, with coastal residents at risk, shipping at a standstill, and land warfare before the start of the war. Peruvians have lost confidence and morale.

After a small test of the Peruvians, the Chilean Navy left only the old battleship "Caldera" and some light warships to continue to blockade the Peruvian coast, the main fleet turned south, and joined the mixed fleet led by German Rear Admiral von Dalwijk, after which two Japanese battleships escorted the Japanese crown prince away, Chilean, German and British ships formed a new trilateral combined fleet, with Chilean Admiral Marcos Pinto as the commander of the combined fleet, and Rear Admiral von Dalwik as deputy commander.

On April 19, the Combined Fleet crossed the Strait of Magellan into the Atlantic. At 2 p.m., it encountered the combined fleet of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in the waters east of the Falkland Islands, and a fierce naval battle of the Falkland Islands broke out!

In terms of the comparison of the strength of the two sides, the combined fleet of Chile, Germany and Britain (referred to as the Chilean Wing) has 3 battleships, 5 cruisers, and 4 destroyers, with a total tonnage of 112,000 tons, 34 305 mm guns, 4 203 mm guns, 76 150 mm guns, and a large number of small-caliber rapid-fire guns, machine guns and machine guns; On the side of the Argentine-Brazilian-Uruguayan Combined Fleet (referred to as the Argentine Wing) was 4 battleships, 8 cruisers, 10 destroyers and ugly torpedo boats, with a total tonnage of 117,000 tons, 4 305 mm guns, 12 280 mm guns, 20 203 mm guns, 64 150 mm guns, and 44 105 mm guns.

Despite the considerable numerical superiority of the Argentine Combined Fleet, the decisive factors of naval warfare - firepower, speed, training - were biased in favor of the Chilean side. The three capital ships of the Chilean Combined Fleet were German-built dreadnought battleships that had shone in a confrontation with the British Navy and were excellent in defense. The unified azimuth command system of the whole ship made the accuracy of the salvo of the main guns much higher than that of the British and American battleships in the same period. The maximum speed of all three ships is 21 knots. In the face of the old battleships of Argentina, Brazil and other countries, it seems to swim more than 30. The German officers and men aboard the King Albert served together for four years, with excellent training and cooperation, and the Cochrane and Santiago are now a mixed form of Chilean and German sailors. The captain was a Chilean general, but German officers remained the backbone of the ship.

In just a quarter of an hour from the outpost spotting the opposing side to entering the field of view of both sides, the three seaplanes carried by the German cruiser had already taken off, and the 16 warships of the Chilean Combined Fleet quickly formed a single column and sailed northeast at a speed of 16 knots; The 44 warships of the Argentine Combined Fleet had also completed their battle formation before the exchange of fire - two diagonal columns sailing southwest at a speed of 15 knots, but there was not a single seaplane in the huge Combined Fleet!

At a distance of 15,000 meters, the three battleships of the Chilean Combined Fleet took the lead in firing, and the Argentine battleships "Camarones" and "Laura", and the Brazilian battleships "Santos" and "Casador" immediately fired back. At this time, the sun is slightly west directly above the head, and it does not have much effect on the vision of both sides. Under the warm spring sun, thunder roars. I saw the fire on the sea, white smoke, cannonballs breaking through the air and making a sharp and piercing sound, huge water columns mixed with fish and shrimp mud and sand rose high, and the splashes fell like raindrops, washing the deck of passing ships for free.

Under the calibration of seaplanes, the Chilean wing, which had an advantage in the number of large-caliber artillery, soon gave the Argentine wing a taste of the artillery gap. After the first two salvos, the main guns of the three German-made battleships were aimed at the Argentine battleship "Camarones", which was at the head of the enemy queue, an armored battleship with a displacement of 16,000 tons, which was ordered from Britain in 1903. The main guns were four 305 mm naval guns, the most powerful of the Argentine Combined Fleet, but only two minutes later, it was hit by three German-made 305 mm armor-piercing shells. The successive explosions ended with a loud bang, and by the time the sea was calm again, the battleship had been reduced to a pile of debris, and none of its 782 crew members had survived.

The officers and men of the anti-intellectual coalition had not yet recovered from the shock of the destruction of the "Camarones", and the German fleet fired round after round of salvos, and the Chilean and German sailors, who were full of fighting spirit and physical strength, used their own efforts to keep the salvo rate of the capital ships above the rate of verbal fire per minute, firing 305 mm shells per minute, compared to 30 rounds per minute. The three capital ships of the opposing side fired only 12 large-caliber shells per minute, and the accuracy and power of the fire almost did not pose any threat to the three German-made battleships, and only one 280-mm armor-piercing shell hit the "King Alberchi" of the German fleet in the first five salvos, but even this shell was easily bounced off by the thick armor of the German ship and then fell into the water and exploded, and finally only caused a small skin injury to the German ship.

In the fierce firefight, the distance between the two fleets soon narrowed from 15,000 meters to 8,000 meters, and the salvo of the Chilean wing became more and more accurate, after the seaplane calibration. The 305-mm armor-piercing shells fired by them hit three battleships on the Argentine side one after another, among which the Argentine battleship "Laura" sank, the Brazilian battleship "Santos" withdrew from the battle due to injuries, and the only remaining "Casador" also fought with injuries, and the shells of the Argentine wing also deprived the Chilean flagship "Santiago" of a 150-mm secondary gun, but the situation still developed in favor of the Chilean wing.

At this moment, the Argentine commander Carlos Colone gave an order, and four destroyers under his command broke out of the queue with 22 torpedo boats and launched an attack on the Chilean Combined Fleet, and the guerrilla column composed of five fast cruisers also tried to disrupt the formation of the Chilean Combined Fleet with its high speed.

Seeing this situation, the flagship of the Chilean Combined Fleet "Santiago" gave a signal that the battlefleet and cruiser fleet accelerated to 20 knots. The destroyer fleet and the gunboat fleet turned to the right. The accuracy of the firepower of the accelerated fleet has decreased, albeit somewhat. However, the huge number of 305-mm guns and 150-mm guns still hit the Argentine cruisers "Trelliu" and "Joyc" in succession within five minutes, and sent the Brazilian cruiser "Golden January" and the Uruguayan cruiser "Dura" to the bottom of the sea, before the Chilean Combined Fleet maneuvered to evade the mine attack of the opposing torpedo boat fleet. The wounded "Joyk" ate another 305-mm shell, and the 3,800-ton hull turned into a huge fireball.

After the Chilean Wing had divided the fleet into two teams, the Argentine Wing's interspersed fast cruiser fleet did not set its sights on the Chilean destroyers and gunboats, as it would have to risk passing through the firepower of the opposing capital ships' rear fire, and would do little to change the tide of the war. The four Argentine cruisers quickly locked their fire on the Chilean cruiser "Haudunge, Monte", which was located at the rear of the queue, and the 150-mm shells, although far less powerful than the naval guns of a warship, were still surprisingly destructive to the weak armor of a light cruiser. At about 3:10 p.m., the Argentine cruiser hit the poor Chilean cruiser at a distance of more than 5,000 meters, and one of the armor-piercing shells tore through the thin armor of the control tower and swept down all the captains and officers who were directing the battle with scattered shrapnel. The "Haodong Hermont" suddenly fell into a state of no command. Over the next few minutes, five more shells fell on the unfortunate cruiser, and the bridge and deck soon burst into flames, killing nearly half of the ship's crew, but fortunately the ship's power system suffered little damage, and it was then barely out of battle under the command of the chief engineer.

At the same time, the battlefleet of the Chilean wing had to face a great threat from the enemy torpedo boat fleet, and the 150-mm secondary guns of the three battleships opened fire in unison, and finally even the 88-mm anti-aircraft guns were used. However, they could only sink 7 of the 22 Argentine torpedo boats before the opponent approached to a distance of 3,000 meters, and the remaining 15 torpedo boats released more than 40 torpedoes in a sullen manner.

Faced with a large swarm of torpedoes fired by the Argentines at a distance of less than 3,000 meters, the fleet commanded by the experienced Chilean Admiral Marcos Pinto calmly made two evasive turns in succession. Don't look at the small size of the Chilean Navy, but the degree of training is not inferior to the navies of European countries, plus their ship performance is acceptable, so in the whole process of maneuvering, only one light cruiser ate a torpedo on the other side, and this 3,300-ton cruiser also became the only large ship sunk by the Chilean wing in this naval battle.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Chilean wing to avoid torpedoes, the only remaining battleship of the Argentine wing, the Casador, withdrew to the Argentine coast with the remaining ships. After leaving a few destroyers and gunboats to clean up the battlefield, Admiral Marcos Pinto commanded the main force of the fleet to continue the pursuit of the Argentine combined fleet, and in the evening followed the enemy fleet to the port of Corpenike in the Bay of Granda.

In this battle, the Chilean Combined Fleet defeated the Argentine Combined Fleet, which was several times stronger than itself, at the cost of one cruiser, one destroyer and one gunboat, sank 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 10 destroyers and torpedo boats, damaged 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, 4 destroyers, and captured a damaged Brazilian cruiser. With the arrival of another batch of ships from Germany to Chile, the Chilean naval wing has been able to blockade the ports of Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, and from time to time to shell the ports of Brazil, the sea transportation of the anti-intellectual coalition has fallen into an embarrassment, and the import and export volume has rapidly dropped to one-third of the pre-war level. This did not change until the U.S. Navy and the British government in exile sent ships to the war.

On April 27, the first batch of 12,000 German Army soldiers arrived in Chile, although these soldiers wore domed steel helmets, gray uniforms, and standard German weapons, but they were very different from ordinary German soldiers, that is, 95 percent of them were black, these soldiers from German East Africa were currently only citizens of the German Empire Overseas Provinces and not real citizens of the German Empire, but as long as they served in the German Foreign Legion for ten years, they could obtain official German citizenship. And most of them have been serving in this regiment called "Black Lightning" for more than 3 years. The commander of this legion, Brigadier General Paul, von Letophok Bell, was still unknown at this time, but his unparalleled military talent and command talent destined him to make his name remembered by everyone sooner or later.

Berlin, Germany, May 1, 1919.

"Your Majesty, although many members of parliament have complained about our venture to intervene in the war in South America, the Imperial Congress and the Federal Assembly have successfully passed the special budget for military spending in wartime!" Prime Minister Batemann's report means that Germany has no worries about entering the war, although the supplementary budget of 90 million euromarks only accounts for 0.4% of the GDP of the Reich in the previous year, it is also a large amount, you must know that the entire 1919 German government expenditure budget is only 750 million euromarks, of which the army, navy, and air force military budgets are 160 million, 150 million and 60 million, and this additional budget is equivalent to a quarter of Germany's annual military expenditure.

Chen Tian did not seem to add extra pleasure to the passage of the supplementary budget, on the contrary, he appeared unusually calm at this time, and this calmness was the same as the state of mind when he made the decision to enter the war.

"We can't wait for everyone to understand our decision, there is no room for hesitation! Now that the budget has been approved, let's do it! ”

Batemann was also shocked when he heard of Tatsuten's decision, but after two hours of one-on-one conversation with Tatsuten, he became a loyal supporter of Germany's war policy, and other important cabinet members such as the foreign secretary and the chancellor of the exchequer had similar experiences. On the contrary, the ministers of the army and navy and the generals of the Supreme High Command were unwavering in their support of this policy of participation in the war from the very beginning, as if they had already discussed everything with His Majesty the Kaiser.

At this time, Stresemann asked to see him outside, and after getting Chentian's permission, he walked in in in a hurry.

"The U.S. government announced the dispatch of 50,000 volunteers to Argentina!"

Hearing the news, Bateman did not have a trace of panic on his face, and Chen Tian was more calm than him, in fact, this was a situation that the Supreme Command had already considered.

"That's good!" Chen Tian said unhurriedly, "Let's take a good look at the strength of the American soldiers!" ”

Stresemann took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead, "But Chile has only 150,000 troops in total, while Argentina has mobilized 180,000 troops before." Brazil mobilized 150,000, Peru mobilized 90,000, and even Bolivia and Uruguay mobilized 40,000 each, and with this American army, the anti-intellectual coalition has been able to mobilize a staggering 550,000 troops, nearly four times that of Chile! ”

Bateman was full of confidence, "Don't forget that our Black Lightning Corps has arrived in Chile, and the 1st Division of the Expeditionary Force from the mainland is also on the way. In two weeks, we will have 50,000 troops in Chile, and they will all be elite troops who can fight well! ”

"Even if it's 200,000 against 570,000, it's ......," said Shi Rezeman, who continued to sweat, although the weather in March did not reach the level of extreme heat, but it seemed that the foreign secretary was in a hurry on the way there, and lacked a substantial understanding of the current situation of the war.

"Don't worry, at least we have the initiative at sea!" Chentian, who was wearing an army summer uniform, walked up to Stresemann with a relaxed demeanor, stretched out his right hand and gently put it on his shoulder.

Stresemann nodded, like the vast majority of his countrymen. He trusted the Kaiser's judgment. There is also a belief in the capabilities of the military, and sometimes this trust does not require much of a reason.

What's more, Chile has shown the world their extraordinary strength in the past month. The navy successfully gained the initiative at sea, the army drove all the way to the Peruvian capital, and the air force performed very well.

Chentian and his command took into account the strategic position of Chile, the army's post-war rearmament has been basically completed, except for the Mauser 1898 rifle and the long-handled 10 grenade, the infantry has been upgraded with weapons, now is the best time to test them through actual combat.

In May, Europe is gradually entering summer, but the weather in South America coincides with the alternation of autumn and winter, and the temperature in Chile in western South America is only about 10 degrees. Then. Soldiers from East Africa finally understood why they were carrying heavy blankets and autumn and winter clothes. Luckily, they don't have to adapt to the harsh cold weather, because Chile, especially in the north of Chile, where they are located, rarely experiences sub-zero temperatures even in winter, and in Santiago, for example, July is the coldest month of the year, but the average temperature is around 8 degrees.

Although there was no snowy scene, Brigadier General Leto Faucebell and his soldiers could still feel a deep chill very different from that in Africa at nightfall. The official name of this "Black Lightning Corps" was the 1st Infantry Division of the German Overseas Colonial Army in East Africa, and it numbered 12,000 men including officers and civilians. It is only 3/4 of the number of ordinary German army divisions, but this does not mean that they have a serious shortage of troops, on the contrary, as a model unit of the German overseas colonial army, their full strength is 12,000 people, and if nothing else, this establishment will also become the standard establishment of the light infantry division of the German overseas colonial army.

This is not only to show the difference between the overseas colonial army and the home army, but it is also a new attempt, but it is difficult to say that the troops of Brigadier General Leto Fawkber are a batch of test subjects, you must know that most of these soldiers have been under him for more than three years, and some key black officers have even followed Leto Faulkber since his arrival in 1914, plus the standard German army equipment, this is a very strong combat unit.

After landing at the Chilean port of Antofagasta, the Black Lightning Regiment was ordered to move to Chile's northeastern border and begin building a defensive line. According to credible intelligence, the Argentines were preparing to launch a major offensive at the junction of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia in order to cut off the transport lines of the Chilean 1st Army by land, and then to cooperate with the Brazilian, Peruvian and Bolivian armies in a beautiful two-sided attack.

Speaking of Chile's 1st Army, we have to start with the South American Pacific War 39 years ago, when the Chilean army defeated the Bolivian and Peruvian armies successively, and broke the Peruvian capital Lima in one fell swoop, and then took all the saltpeter producing areas of Peru and Bolivia for itself through the Treaty of Ancon. At that time, the main force of the Chilean Army was this elite 1st Army.

By the outbreak of the South American War in April 1919, Chile's regular army numbered 170,000, of which 150,000 were army, 20,000 were navy, and more than 2,000 were air force. The Navy has two fleets, namely, the Pacific Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet, of which the Pacific Fleet, based in Valparaiso, which is more than 10 kilometers away from Santiago, is the main fleet, while the Atlantic Fleet is only a warning fleet. On the part of the Army. The 150,000 regular army was divided into 8 infantry divisions and 16 local garrison regiments, the 1st to 5th divisions were organized into the 1st Army and commanded by the veteran commander who had participated in the last South American war, General Giorge Garrido, and the 6-8 divisions were organized into the 2nd Army, which was commanded by Lieutenant General Rodrigo Soto, who had studied in Germany, and the garrison was under the direct command of the War Department. In addition, there are nearly 200,000 militia units throughout Chile, which can assist the garrison in defensive operations during wartime.

Considering that Chile is a long and narrow territory from north to south and narrow from east to west, it lacks strategic depth in the face of attacks from the east. The Chilean government's strategy was to attack in the north and defend in the south, first concentrating more than half of the country's military strength to attack Peru and Bolivia, which were militarily weak, in an effort to force these two countries out of the war in a short time, and to the south, relying on the terrain advantage of the Andes and the Patagonian mountains supplemented by a small number of troops.

From mid-April, Admiral George's Chilean 1st Army launched a campaign aimed at crushing northern Peru, and on 23 April defeated a combined Peruvian and Bolivian army near Arepaki in southern Peru, winning the first large-scale land campaign since the outbreak of the war. According to the accompanying German military observers, although the Peruvian-Bolivian coalition had a slight numerical advantage, its equipment and tactical thinking remained at the level of around 1900 and there were no aircraft. There was a lack of rapid-fire guns and heavy artillery. Not knowing how to evade the bombing and strafing of aircraft, the courage of the soldiers when attacking was admirable, but in the absence of organization and fire cover, they could only become the target of the Chilean army's artillery and machine guns. The battle lasted two days, Peru and Bolivia lost at least 30,000 troops, and the morale of the Chilean army continued to advance towards the Peruvian capital, and the victory of 1881 would be repeated!

On April 29, the third day of the arrival in Chile of Brigadier General Leto Fockbell and his Black Lightning Corps, 6,000 Chilean soldiers landed at Pisco, Peru, under the command of Major General Pablo Torres, a Chilean young general and a graduate of the 1901 class of the Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy in Berlin, Germany, thus disrupting the plans of the Peruvian and Bolivian coalition forces to build a new defensive line in south-central Peru to resist the Chilean army's advance to the capital. Under the pressure of the Chilean army from both sides and the fire of the navy and air force, the Peruvian and Bolivian coalition forces were crushed, and after more than 10,000 men, they retreated to Lima, the capital of Peru.

In such a situation. Peru and Bolivia have frequently turned to their Brazilian allies for help and asked Argentina to defuse Peru by attacking Chile proper. By the end of April, Brazil, which had mobilized 150,000 troops, did not cross the Amazon to the border between Peru and Brazil until May 4, when the Chilean 1st Army had placed the Peruvian capital Lima under its own surrounding.

The rolling Andes Mountains in western South America are a natural barrier between Chile, Peru and the countries of South America. It was already very difficult for people and horses to pass, not to mention vehicles and artillery. On 12 May, the Argentine 17th Division, which was the vanguard, finally arrived at the border area of the three countries, where Leto and Faucebel and his troops had been stationed for two weeks.

Since arriving in the area known as the Pekka Triangle, Brigadier General Leto Faucer Bell has traveled with his feet through every mountain and valley within a radius of 50 kilometres, marking mountain roads, streams and woods on his map. By the time the Argentines began to roam the line two weeks later, he had rationally deployed his forces to 29 commanding heights, seven linear defensive lines, nine artillery positions, and five reserve assembly points.

The Black Lightning Regiment is an infantry-based force, and they were sent to Chile in consideration of the fact that the terrain in Chile is not conducive to the movement of mechanized troops, and after several years of rigorous training, their combat effectiveness is not inferior to that of the German soldiers, and the "Black Storm" that successfully resisted the Japanese attack in Qingdao is a good example.

Another "advantage" of this force is that African soldiers do not need a lot of pensions after they are killed, and even if the casualties are too heavy, they will not provoke anti-war protests in Germany, so in addition to this colonial army from East Africa, Germany is also ready to use an Algerian division and a Cameroonian division.

Although smaller in numbers than the average German infantry division, the battalions, companies, platoons, and squads of Leto-Faulkbel's unit were almost identical to those of the German Native Army. The division has 4 infantry regiments, 2 artillery battalions, 2 anti-aircraft artillery companies and 1 reconnaissance cavalry company. The infantry squad is the most basic combat unit, consisting of 1 non-commissioned officer and 9 men, armed with 1 P16 submachine gun, 2 Gigi 1917 pistols, 1 Firebird 1917 machine gun, and 7 Mauser 1898 rifles. Among them, the P16 submachine gun, also known as the Charger, was produced by Gigi Arms and began to equip the German Army in 1917, firing 9mm pistol cartridges, fed by a long straight magazine located in the lower part of the gun that can accommodate 32 rounds, with a rate of fire of 300 rounds per minute; The Gigi pistol is actually an improved version of the Browning 1911 pistol, produced by John Moses, Browning's firearms company in Germany, and sold under the brand name of Gigi Arms, with a caliber of 9 mm, and the same pistol cartridge used with the Luger 08 pistol and the Charger, using a 9-round magazine for ammunition, and was installed in the German Army in 1918; The Firebird 1917 machine gun is the third generation of the Firebird series of machine guns, also known as the G17, which is designed to be used as an army-type general-purpose machine gun, and has not yet been mass-assembled in the army. As the German advance force, the 1st Colonial Division in East Africa was armed with 240 of these machine guns, while the Firebird DD and Maxim heavy machine guns were also equipped. According to the plan of the German Army, if the G17 successfully passed the combat test, then by 1925, most of the Maxim in the German army would be sold to foreign countries or entered military museums, and only a small number of fortress garrisons would continue to use this old water-cooled machine gun.

As with the German Army, an infantry platoon in the East African Colonial Army consisted of 4 infantry squads, 1 platoon and 1 mortar group, the platoon headquarters consisted of a platoon commander, 3 heralds and a medic, and the mortar group usually had 2-3 50mm mortars of the 1910 model, so the number of such an infantry platoon was usually about 50 people; The infantry company has 3 infantry platoons, 1 company headquarters, 1 sniper team and 1 quartermaster unit, the sniper team is generally composed of 3-8 well-trained snipers, and the quartermaster unit is responsible for ammunition transportation and cooking logistics, with 5-6 horse-drawn carts or 2-3 trucks; The infantry battalion has 3 infantry companies and 1 machine gun company, and the machine gun company consists of a machine gun platoon, a mortar platoon and a 77 mm infantry gun platoon, with 6 mortars and 6 infantry guns.

In addition, Leto Focquebel was supported by air from a flying squad of the Chilean Air Force, which had set up the airfield near a small village 12 kilometres from the defensive line and would cross the border to conduct reconnaissance whenever the weather permitted, an area where Argentine aircraft began to visit the area two days before the Argentine army attacked.