In the binoculars, the French are digging trenches, most of them soldiers in military uniforms, but many of them are civilians, perhaps farmers in the vicinity, perhaps laborers recruited by the French army - this may be the original source of the rumors that French civilians were involved in the fighting. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Seeing this, Colonel Weisman of the 5th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Marine Brigade smiled contemptuously and ordered a battalion of infantry to launch a surprise attack with five Hubert-13 vehicles.

Seeing the sudden appearance of the German attacking troops without being shelled, the French trenches suddenly jumped with chickens and dogs. The officers hurriedly ordered the soldiers to take up their arms, and some of the trench diggers without uniforms fled from their positions. Knowing that machine gun and rifle fire could not stop the onslaught of German tanks, the French deployed several field guns in the trenches, leveled them and covered them with planks and mud and sand, and did not discover their presence until they opened fire.

The French 1897 type field gun belongs to the cannon, the trajectory is low and flat, suitable for direct fire, equipped with shells are usually ordinary explosive shells and grenade shotguns, although there are no armor-piercing shells, but with the power of ordinary bullets, as long as they hit the German tank, they can cause fatal damage to them, but the sights of this rapid-fire artillery are not suitable for direct fire, and the gunners are accustomed to attacking area targets and have never received special training to deal with moving individuals. These French field guns fired more than a dozen shells in a row, but none of them hit, but they brought a lot of damage to the German infantry.

In the two-kilometer-wide field, the Hubert-13, equipped with a new engine, would have taken seven or eight minutes to pass through at full speed, and they had to slow down a bit in order to cope with the naval infantry that followed.

The 37mm tank gun equipped with the Hubert-13 has a short range and low power, but it is equipped with a simple and practical direct-fire sight. Passing through the center of the battlefield, the accuracy of the artillery fire of the German tanks suddenly increased, and the tank machine guns also began to sweep the French positions, and several French field guns were silently fired one by one. During this period, a tank shell fell into the French field artillery bunker and detonated the ammunition stacked next to the gun emplacement, causing a rather loud explosion, and a large cloud of smoke and dust rose to a height of more than 100 meters, which in turn attracted two German aircraft. They swooped down, dropped bombs on French positions, and fired repeatedly with machine guns.

Sixty or seventy meters from the French position, just outside the range of grenades and grenades, the German tanks invariably stopped, waiting for their accompanying infantry to fire the heaviest guns at the French positions.

At this time, there was hardly a single emergent in the French position, and the blocking fire plummeted to zero, and the German naval infantry took advantage of the situation to follow, and when they were completely connected with the chariot troops, the infantry officers notified the chariot crews with signal flares and coordinated the final attack.

Suddenly there was a burst of rapid artillery fire from the rear of the French position, and the shells fell near the German tanks, and the German infantry who were engaged in the attack were knocked down in pieces, and the rest had to crawl to avoid the bombs, but the 5 naval tanks had already received the signal to attack, and the rigid and rigorous national character showed a fatal side effect at this moment, except for 1 naval tank that consciously slowed down, the remaining 4 Hubert-13s all rushed forward at full speed, they quickly ran over the French trenches, and then drove towards the newly discovered French artillery positions.

As soon as the four German tanks passed, the blue caps of the French soldiers emerged from the trenches again, all the artillery on the positions was destroyed, there were few machine guns left, and the rapid fire of two or three hundred rifles still formed a dense blocking fire. At this time, the German heavy machine gun battle group was still outside the effective firing range, and the infantry could only use light machine guns and rifles to contend with the French troops in the trenches.

Field artillery, deployed behind the French infantry trenches, hid behind a dense mass of tall bushes and bombarded the German units at the front of the positions with curved artillery fire. Although the dense bushes obscured the cannon flames, the smoke from the cannon fire clearly revealed their location. It was only a little more than a kilometer from the French trench to this bush, and the four German tanks advanced rapidly in this open area, and the commanders deliberately turned the turrets of the vehicles back to prevent the French soldiers from attacking from behind, but the French infantry did not leave to keep up with the four Hubert-13s, and only a few turned their guns to try to attack the rear hull of the German tank, and ordinary bullets did not pose much threat to their rear armor. In the blink of an eye, two German chariots were in front of the bushes, and it seemed that it was only a matter of minutes to level the French artillery positions, when a group of French cavalry suddenly rushed out from behind the bushes, holding the reins in one hand and the saber or lance in the other, but the bag of explosives that lit the fuse.

As soon as the French cavalry appeared, four German naval tanks began to strafe with machine guns, and a series of bullets quickly swept away more than a dozen French riders, but some cavalry cleverly circled the flanks of the German tanks, avoiding the opponent's machine gun fire and throwing explosive packs at them. The explosive packets that exploded nearby failed to overturn the German tanks of more than 10 tons, nor could they penetrate their hull armor, only the explosives packs that fell on the tanks could cause fatal damage to them, but the moving Hubert-13 was not conducive to "placing objects", as a result, only one tank was damaged by engine fire, and the other was blown up with one side of the track.

After cleaning up the French cavalry, the remaining two German chariots bypassed the bushes from one side, and their approach forced the French artillery to quickly abandon their artillery and turn around. With no infantry to follow, the German tank crew had to abandon the plan to capture the guns, and simply stopped on the periphery and opened fire on them with the tank guns, which eventually caused an ammunition explosion to destroy the French artillery position.

At this time, the German infantry, which was blocked in front of the French position, was supported by the only Hubert-13 tank, and the soldiers in the front row crawled forward, and when they were still twenty or thirty meters away from the French trench, they began to throw grenades, and then took advantage of the weakening of the French firepower to get up and rush forward.

The first group of German infantry entered the French trenches, and their menacing momentum did not intimidate the defenders of the position, and the officers rushed up with French soldiers with bayonets in one hand and sabers in the other.

Since the fortifications were interrupted before they were dug and the trenches and breastworks were less than a man high, the soldiers often left their heads and chests exposed when they stood up, and in close combat, soldiers on both sides fell victim to this "half-pulled project" - French soldiers in blue hats and blue shirts became excellent targets for the German attacking forces, many of whom were killed by bullets from the front of the position, and the German infantry who entered the trenches were attacked by the defenders' machine-gun and rifle fire.

Melee combat turned into a chaotic battle, with both sides fighting on their backs.

Relying on the melee equipment of three people with one pistol and one man with three grenades, the German Marine Infantry gradually gained the upper hand, they controlled more and more positions, the trenches were almost covered with the remains of the French dead, the remnants of the defenders were compressed to both ends of the line, and some people directly retreated from their positions to the rear.

The battle was decided, and Colonel Weisman sent his second infantry battalion. The companions had opened the way for the attack, and the battalion of more than 600 naval infantry was able to stride forward with their heads held high, and in less than a quarter of an hour they crossed the battlefield to the French line, and then crossed the French trenches, and penetrated into the French artillery positions behind the line, and then divided into two lines and made a detour to the flank of the French line. It seemed only a matter of time before the French line was completely seized and the remnants of the defenders were forced to land.

Knowing that the newly constructed defensive line of the right flank troops had been breached, Philippe Petain was surprised by the speed of the German attack, and at the same time surprised by the enemy's ability to fight continuously, because not only the battle reports of the front-line troops, but also the divisional corps sent to inspect and supervise the battle confirmed that the defenders had killed and wounded a large number of German attacking troops. Petain experienced the border battles and the engagement in the Maas River valley, and the hard-working character of the German soldiers was indeed commendable, but the successful resistance of the French rearguard troops was often able to keep the German troops in place for several hours, and the infantry regiment under his command fought a beautiful ambush with the opponent, killing and wounding hundreds of German soldiers, and leaving the infantry of the first division under the command of Kluke on the road for more than five hours, so that the French officers and soldiers involved in the ambush calmly withdrew from the battle - fighting on the French mainland, The French army appeared to be at ease, while the Germans were passive and worried.

As Petain hesitated, a staff officer suggested to him: "We have destroyed three of our five tanks, and the German units engaged in the attack have also suffered considerable damage, and perhaps we can launch a local counterattack while the enemy is still unstable." ”

Seeing that Petain was silent, the staff officer continued: "The cavalry battalion where General Clermont arrived first is ready for battle, and we can send a locomotive to the head of the locomotive, tow it six or seven wagons, and send Colonel Lorif's regiment two or three kilometers from the line of defense in twenty minutes." Two thousand infantry, three hundred cavalry, there was a great deal of certainty that the German army would be defeated. Winning a small counterattack before launching a full-scale counterattack is a good morale boost for the troops, you say? ”

This plan sounded very exciting, but Petain was clearly worried, he did not want his opponent to know that a Jedi counterattack was brewing, if the Germans were vigilant, the next few hours to stop the offensive and instead bury themselves in the construction of a defensive line, with their infantry firepower, it would definitely inflict astonishing casualties on the French infantry who were engaged in the counterattack, and even have time to calculate anti-outflanking tactics to annihilate the French 6th Infantry Division and the friendly units that came to reinforce it at Amiens.

Thinking of this, Petain stared at the battle map for a long time, the defensive position that had just been broken through by the Germans was the last line of defense on his right flank, and in a previous phone call, he had assured the commander of the army group, General Foch, that he would hold the last line of defense no matter what before the dusk counterattack, and now he could only find ways to build a new "last line of defense" on the right flank. At last his gaze rested on a dot marked "Grimatheau", in that scenic field there was a manor house that he had seen from afar when he inspected the defense area, the main body of the estate was a Renaissance building, it had three floors, it covered about a third of the acre, much smaller than the orthodox castle, it had too many windows to make it unsuitable as a military fortress, and its location was far from the line of Amiens, and very important - it belonged to a senator of great repute, This made the defenders of Amiens not have the idea of fighting this manor from the beginning.

"Inform Major Ngoy that he should rush to Grimache with his dragoons, occupy the manor, and be ready to resist the German attack, and then call Colonel Holau, and tell him to send the four 'Miss 75' to Grimathieu in the shortest possible time, whatever method he uses."

(End of chapter)