The day was about to dawn, and in the forward trenches of the German positions, the officers and men of the German 1st Marine Brigade unsheathed their knives and loaded their guns, silently waiting for the signal to attack. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

This front belonged to the defense area of the 32nd Infantry Division of the German Army, and at first it was only a temporary position dug by the German infantry in accordance with the rules of operation, but after the turn of the Kluk Corps, it became the farthest point of the German advance westward in the first month of the war, and the infantry began to strengthen the fortifications, digging trenches up to two meters deep and reinforcing them with wood, and pulling barbed wire with barbed wire at the front of the position. In the trenches with interlaced canine teeth, a water-cooled heavy machine gun is deployed every two or three hundred meters, a machine gun or a small-caliber rapid-fire gun is laid at about 500 meters, and artillery bunkers, ammunition depots, position hospitals, and reserve troop assembly areas are set up behind the trenches.

On the second day of the Battle of the Marne, the French troops on the opposite side of the position launched a division-sized assault, but they captured only part of the outpost and retreated in disarray under German machine-gun fire and artillery heavy bombardment, killing and wounding more than 3,000 men. This was followed by a night infiltration attack by the French army, which was heightened by General Sigmund's soldiers and mined the barbed wire fence.

At 4:30 a.m., the deafening sound of artillery suddenly broke the calm of dawn. A moment later, a tsunami of explosions was heard from the opposite French position, and the ground continued to tremble clearly. Although the German naval infantry had experienced the power of artillery bombardment many times in the usual live-fire exercises, the mood and atmosphere were very different for the first time in actual combat.

The start of the bombardment meant that the horn of the attack was about to be sounded, and in the trench, the sturdy and vigorous Navy Second Class Corporal Hans Fellrich drew a polished C96 Mauser pistol from his left holster, grasped the vertical edge of the wooden ladder with his right hand, and stepped on the crossbar two blocks above the ground with his right foot, as if he was about to rush out of the trench first. The top scorer in the Navy Football League is not only good at shooting, but also very good at shooting. While serving as a Marine on the battleship "Alsace", he used a Mauser rifle, and after transferring to the Marine Corps, he became a loyal fan of the Mauser pistol, and under the command of his former teammate, Prince Joachim of the royal family, he perfected his skills in using the Mauser pistol with one hand, and became known as the "trench machine gunner".

In the trenches not far from Fairrich, Dimir Hook, an extremely burly sailor of the first class, and an excellent center forward in the Navy Football League, waited for the start of the attack with a 9 mm German Madsen machine gun. He was an old acquaintance with Ferrich, a stoker in the battleship "Alsace", with an outstanding physique and impressive strength, and the German-made Madsen weighed 10 kilograms with a 30-round magazine, but in his hand he was like an ordinary stick. While other German machine gunners usually carried only four to six magazines, with the rest of the ammunition carried by the deputy, Hook carried two magazine bags, a full dozen 30-round magazines.

In the German Marine Corps, there are not a few outstanding soldiers like Fellrich and Hooke with their own specialties, and this is certainly the result of rigorous and professional training, and it also has a great deal to do with the unique promotion system and commendation system of the Marine Corps. In this young unit, officers of aristocratic origin still enjoyed certain privileges, but capable and talented young men gained more room for advancement than in the army or navy, and there were many lieutenants under the age of thirty, and it was not difficult to enter the ranks of colonels before the age of forty.

The German offensive artillery fire went from thin to dense, from dense to sparse, and after just five minutes, the sound of artillery fell silent, and the battlefield was already filled with the dull roar of machinery and the harsh sound of metal grinding. It didn't take long for the first sharp whistle to be heard, and in the blink of an eye, the position was filled with a shrill metal whistle. Seeing that the platoon officer to which he belonged was waving his hand while blowing the whistle, Feerrich took a deep breath and quickly climbed up the wooden ladder......

Hook and Fellrich were originally in the same infantry squad, but now they belong to different infantry squads under the same platoon, and after climbing out of the trench, their eyes happened to intersect. On the football field, the two are striker partners who score goals, and in military life, they are also good friends who are honest with each other, and they are familiar with each other's personality habits. The war is merciless, the bullets have no eyes, they wish each other good luck with simple eyes, and they set out on their own journey.

The charge of the naval infantry began, and on a high ground behind the German battle line, Natsuki quietly watched the battlefield through a telescope. Trench warfare throughout history has stumped many of the Allied and Allied generals, killing millions of well-trained and well-equipped infantrymen. The French positions in front of the line of sight belonged to the outer fortifications of the Amiens Line, according to the reconnaissance of the infantry, there was barbed wire and no minefields, the depth of the trenches was only one meter four or five, the construction of firing bunkers was relatively simple, and it could not withstand the heavy bombardment of heavy artillery, the real test was on the outskirts of Amiens, where the French positions were repeatedly reinforced to become a real trench line, and were garrisoned by a unit that had fought with the Germans in the border area.

If an ordinary German army unit launched an attack, it would take the strength of one corps to break through the Amiens Line, and to coerce Paris, as Moltke Jr. said, at least three fully equipped first-line corps.

The first killer feature was the 20 train guns transferred from the Navy, some of which were dismantled from decommissioned ships, and most of them were fortress-type guns specially ordered from Krupp. These cannons are mounted on specially modified or custom-made railroad carriages, and are deployed in artillery depots, forts, and other places that are not easily destroyed, and then advance to the firing position when fighting the enemy. Before the outbreak of the war, the High Seas Fleet, short-range torpedo boats, and fortress artillery guarded the German coastline, but by September, with the German High Seas Fleet winning three major naval victories, the British naval threat to the German mainland had largely disappeared, and the naval fortified artillery in Kiel, Wilhelm, and Lübeck had been idle.

In the battle sequence of the German Navy, there were several train guns of larger calibers such as the 254, 283 and 305, except for those located on fixed gun carriages that were inconvenient to move, and were loaded in railway carriages that were borrowed by the army long before the start of the war, and later put into offensive operations against fortresses such as Liège and Namur. The 152 and 203 mm caliber train guns are naturally not comparable in power with the heavy fortress guns of the main gun level of battleships, but they are still "large-caliber guns" when placed on land, and their shooting operations are relatively simple, and the reloading time is much faster than the heavy fortress guns. In five minutes of rapid fire, the 152-mm guns of the light cruiser class could fire thirty shells, and the 203-mm guns of the armored cruiser class could also fire twenty shots.

The second killer feature is the combat tank units of the Navy. In the first attack, Natsuki did not hesitate to put in 30 Hubert-13 24 vehicles, leaving only 6 as combat reserves. Although these vehicles were newly assembled from spare parts, they did not have any quality defects of their own. After arriving at the Durang station, they disembarked from the assembly area and from the assembly area to the starting point of the attack, with only one tank breaking down due to mechanical failure along the way.

Unlike the initial model, the Hubert-13 produced in 1914 all used the more powerful Daimler gasoline engine and the Type 14 track, and the speed on the road was increased from 20 kilometers to 29 kilometers per hour, and the off-road speed increased from 10-12 kilometers per hour to about 15 kilometers per hour, which was close to the normal combat speed of the cavalry troops.

The third killer feature that Natsuki has high hopes for can be said to be the soul of the Marine Corps, and that is its infantry squad formation. Following the tradition of the Prussian army, the German Army at this time was based on companies and platoons in its establishment, and battalions were usually used as tactical units in actual operations, emphasizing the discipline, obedience, and team spirit of the troops, while the Marine Corps followed the line of elite soldiers, and the military establishment and combat drills were based on infantry squads as combat units. In an infantry squad of 11 men, non-commissioned officers and senior soldiers are issued pistols, each squad is equipped with one light machine gun or three additional Mauser pistols, and the riflemen are all issued grenades, and the melee assault and positional defense capabilities are significantly stronger than those of ordinary army units.

On the battlefield ahead, as 24 Hubert-13s crossed the forward positions, a gray wave poured out of the German trenches. Naval tanks were in a team of six, each team was separated by three or four hundred meters from each other, and the first wave of naval infantry engaged in the attack was also divided into four battle groups, with naval tanks as the vanguard to advance to the opposite French position. After the ploughing of artillery fire, the field between the defensive lines of the two armies was already a large piece of mud, and the rain had fallen the day before, and after being crushed by naval chariots and trampled by the attacking soldiers, it was even more muddy.

The field between the positions of the two armies was no more than four or five thousand meters long. The German soldiers who were engaged in the attack soon heard the whistles and shouts in the trenches opposite, and craned their necks to see the blue hats of the French soldiers moving towards the forward positions. In the midst of a real battlefield and the prospect of lethal bullets from the opposing position, Fellrich felt his heart almost jump out of his throat, and his breathing became involuntarily short. He pulled out another Mauser pistol from his right holster, grasped the handle of the gun with both hands, bowed his head slightly, bent slightly, and walked briskly under the cover of a Hubert-13, and from time to time he turned his head to look at his soldiers, who were following behind one by one, and it was evident that their emotions were also extremely nervous. At this moment, an officer in front of him stopped and turned around, shouting: "Soldiers, keep up the speed and concentrate, the French are a bunch of mischievous people who can only fiddle with their appearances, there is nothing to fear, let's step on their corpses to victory!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the gunfire suddenly erupted from the opposite position, and the French Hatch Chase machine guns clicked and laughed wildly. A bullet hit the German officer's head impartially, and his upright face suddenly became bloody and blurred, and the soldiers nearby were stunned by this scene, and several people suddenly stopped and bent over to vomit, although Fellrich was also nauseous, but he still suppressed the discomfort of his stomach rolling, turned sideways and shouted at his soldiers: "Fearless German soldiers, attack!" ”

(End of chapter)