In the summer of 1914, the fully mobilized German army was well organized and equipped, and the number of combatants in each active infantry division was basically close to or more than 20,000. Under normal circumstances, each German infantry division www.biquge.info consist of 2 brigades and several battalion-level units, each brigade contains 2 regiments, each regiment contains 4 battalions, each battalion contains 4 companies, and each company contains 2-3 platoons. A full infantry battalion usually has 700-800 men, equipped with Luger pistols, Mauser rifles, and some elite infantry battalions may also be issued with Madsen light machine guns or 1-2 machine gun crews armed with MG08 water-cooled heavy machine guns.

By the time the French forces were attacking the French forces threatening their lines of communication with their neighbors, the infantry battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ottezig had less than 600 combatants. The German 22nd Infantry Division assembled a total of 3 infantry battalions, supported by a 77-mm field artillery company and a heavy machine gun company.

If we extrapolate from the previous offensive and defensive effects of both sides, the offensive situation of the German army is also not optimistic. However, the German commanders, like their opponents, were confident and confident of victory before the dust settled on the battle, and therefore issued the order to attack without hesitation.

With the rumbling of 77-mm field guns, three battalions of more than 2,000 German infantry crossed the road and entered the field on the side of the French. Although the area was within the effective range of the French field artillery, perhaps to show the fearlessness of the soldiers, or perhaps to cheer themselves up, the German soldiers were no more sensible than the French in a compact formation with their heads held high and their chests held high, shoulder to shoulder. However, after the cannon fire from the opposite side, the German officers began to order their troops to change to a combat charge formation - in recent years, the German staff not only realized the important role of machine guns, but also saw the disadvantages of traditional infantry groups in the face of artillery fire and machine guns, so they resolutely abandoned the line array of flintlock pistols and changed to a sesame-style skirmisher formation. Although it was not possible to achieve a one-step innovation in infantry tactics, it was quite good compared to the rigidity of the French.

After spreading out the straggler formation, the German officers and men of the three battalions continued to advance steadily at the normal marching speed, and the French artillery shells could cause more than a dozen casualties for each shell that landed in the target area, and the horror of the French 75mm rapid-fire guns was that they could fire a burst rate of fire of 12-15 rounds per minute, and in terms of lethality, a French artillery battery with four Type 1897 field guns could blow a German infantry regiment exposed to an open field in just 10 minutes.

In the Mons and Sambre river areas in northeastern France, in the Ardennes Mountains and the Maas River area, the attacking German units had tasted the power of French rapid-fire artillery many times, and the collapse of entire battalions and regiments was not an isolated case, but the successive victories blinded many German commanders, who had not yet truly realized the lethality of this tactical weapon.

After advancing about five hundred meters, the three German infantry battalions had lost two or three hundred dead under enemy artillery bombardment, and the number of those who had withdrawn from the battle due to wounds was about the same, and the "sesame seeds" scattered in the fields were no longer as even as they had been at the beginning, and some units were still relatively close to each other, while others had become too loose under the deterrence of enemy artillery fire. Through the binoculars, Natsuki saw that Lieutenant Colonel Ottezig's battalion was fairly stable, and the distance between the soldiers and their companions was roughly five paces or so - the tactical arrangement of the improvised communication was carried out with such a degree of execution, and the quality of the officers and men was indeed commendable.

Looking ahead, at the junction of hills and open fields, more than a thousand French infantry were waiting for the Germans to come within range of their guns. They did not dig individual bunkers in the defense like the German infantry, not because they were completely ignorant of it, but because the French top brass placed too much emphasis on the offensive tactically, and always felt that bayonets were more useful and important than anything else, so the French soldiers usually did not carry military shovels on the march, and rifles and bayonets obviously could not be used to dig fortifications.

From a distance, the French infantry was roughly divided into two rows. The front row is prostrate on the ground, ready to shoot in a lying position; The rear row touches the ground on one knee and fires in a crouching position at any time. Ten years ago, the Russian War, two years ago, the Balkan War, all the belligerents used the same or similar mode of battle in the battle, but it was still essentially Napoleonic era. In fact, after more than 100 years of changes, the range, rate of fire, and accuracy of firearms have been greatly improved, and although platoon gun shooting can inflict intensive damage on the invading enemy, it cannot effectively protect one's own officers and men in the enemy's offensive shooting.

Looking away from the telescope for a moment, Natsuki turned his head sideways, and the only Hubert Type 13 tracked combat vehicle was parked not far away.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked in a loud voice.

The Navy First Class, who was the commander of the vehicle, stood next to the car, and he replied very dryly: "On call at any time." ”

Natsuki gave a thumbs up and said, "Let's go!" ”

The three crew members immediately got into the cabin, and the vehicle immediately resounded with a low engine roar. In the middle of summer, there was no need to heat up the car, the driver seemed to be a little excited, the chariot started a little violently, only to see it suddenly tremble forward, rumbling and rumbling, fortunately, it did not hurt the overall situation, after a little adjustment, the chariot moved forward at a steady speed, ran out of a distance before it began to accelerate. Although this junior model of the vehicle was not domineering enough, and the off-road speed was only a pitiful dozen kilometers per hour, which was not as fast as a horse, Natsuki was proud to watch its rolling tracks kick up dust and listen to the distinctive sound of metal grinding, and he knew that one day in the future, the chariot sprayed with the Iron Cross logo would turn into an unstoppable torrent of steel, running over all obstacles in front of the Empire.

As the lone tracked chariot drove towards the French position at about twice the speed of foot, three German infantry battalions had already crossed the densest concentration of French corpses, and these German soldiers wearing pointed helmets ignored the falling shells, and they always maintained a steady marching pace, even if their comrades fell, few people would look back, and this arrogance and fearlessness had continued from the flintlock era to this point, and it was nearing the end.

Natsuki's gaze returned to the telescope, and in his line of sight, the Otzig battalion on the right side of the attacking force had been divided into four obvious echelons, each echelon was an infantry company, and the infantry platoon to which each infantry company belonged was also separated from each other by a certain distance. Despite such intervals, the Otzig battalion did not look looser than the two battalions of its neighbors, and in Natsuki's eyes, such an offensive formation was obviously more orderly than "spreading sesame seeds evenly".

Passing through the center of the battlefield, the German infantry gradually approached the range of the French guns. In previous offensive operations, the French did not throw machine guns, but this does not mean that they were not armed with machine guns. At the outbreak of World War I, the French army was equipped with a large number of Hatch Chase air-cooled heavy machine guns developed and produced by the French army, and their equipment was not as good as the German MG08, but the combat performance was not inferior, but the French military top brass put this excellent combat equipment and heavy artillery side by side as a defensive weapon, rather than supporting the offensive like 75mm field rapid-fire guns.

According to the estimation of a non-expert like Natsuki, there were still about 1,200 people in the German attacking force at this time, because the German field artillery also killed and wounded some French infantry, and the attacking side still maintained a slight advantage in numbers, but with the different nature of attack and defense, such an advantage was difficult to transform into victory. If the French army in front of them had been determined to hold out to the end, the German forces might not have been able to capture the French positions, let alone drive back the French artillery.

The Western Front of World War I in history endured for four years in this kind of entangled confrontation that you can't attack and I can't fight, until the Allies collapsed because of lack of resources.

Natsuki pinned half of his hopes on the single-rider assault tracked chariot, and the other half on the Otzig Battalion, which used new tactics.

Without waiting for the German units to fully enter the firing range, the French infantry scrambled to open fire. Smokeless gunpowder was not really completely devoid of gunpowder, and the French front was suddenly dotted with smoke and patches, and unsurprisingly, the roar of machine guns rang out. Immediately afterwards, the sound of artillery behind the French position, which had been silent for a while, was heard again, and the four 75-mm field rapid-fire guns that had been hidden behind the hill appeared on the hill, and they lowered their muzzles and bombarded the German infantry with shrapnel grenades. In the era of flintlock muskets, the artillery using howitzer shells played a similar role to machine guns, sweeping away the enemy infantry within the effective range, and the progress of technology made the new artillery use the new type of howitzer several times more powerful than before, even if the German infantry dispersed the formation, a bombardment of the past inevitably had more than a dozen or twenty casualties, and the rate of loss of German combatants increased sharply.

Before entering the range of bullets, the two German infantry battalions using the old tactics had already increased the pace of the attack, with officers with pistols and soldiers with rifles in hand, running forward at a well-trained pace. At first, it was a trot, and when the heavy guns came at him, and the soldiers in the front row continued to be shot and fell, the remaining soldiers were driven by the dual desire to win and survive, and opened fire on the run—some stopped briefly to aim and shoot, but on the whole, the suppressive fire of the advance was very limited.

Untrained and hastily using new tactics, Ottzig's infantry battalion was a little chaotic at this time, and the pressure of facing death on the battlefield at any time made many soldiers forget about their pre-battle deployment and rush forward, and many officers also looked at a loss at this time, but fortunately these people were not in the majority. After entering the range of French guns, the four infantry companies began to advance alternately, and the platoons also abandoned the formation of marching in unison to cover each other, so that the overall advance of the Ottezig battalion was slower than the other two battalions, but it was able to organize more effective fire in front of the French line, and as the two MG-08s were put into battle one after another, the French firepower directly opposite was greatly suppressed. As the resistance of the Otzig battalion diminished, the infantry saw that the enemy line was in front of them, and finally let out a roar of charge, led by a sharp whistle.

(End of chapter)