On September 24, 1914, near Meaux, less than 50 kilometers from Paris, a large gray wave moved slowly from west to east, which seemed to be an endless procession, in which infantry, cavalry, chariots, artillery, and baggage were sandwiched, and the sound of footsteps, horses' hooves, and wheels converged to sound as if it were the next downpour. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just two days earlier, the Battle of the Marne, which had ended with the voluntary retreat of the British and French troops, had ended with the retreat of the British and French forces as German marines approached Paris from the direction of Amiens and the British Expeditionary Force had withdrawn three infantry divisions to Britain. On a front more than 200 kilometers wide, the total number of troops invested by both warring sides exceeded 2 million, making it the largest battle in human history. From September 12 to 21, the German army and the British and French forces fought hundreds of battles on the banks of the Marne. During the most intense days of the battle, thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded every hour, and during the entire battle, more than 500,000 soldiers on both sides were killed, wounded or captured, and the once inconspicuous Marne River became synonymous with purgatory on earth.

In order to win this difficult victory, the German elite did their best, with the prestigious iron will gnawed a number of tough battles, but Kluke's 1st Army, Bülow's 2nd Army, and Hausen's 3rd Army also paid a very heavy price for this, and the main forces with the best training level and had overcome all the obstacles since the start of the war were greatly damaged and had to retreat to the rear to replenish and recuperate. The situation of the remaining four participating legions was slightly better, and through the rotation of troops, Albrecht's 4th Corps, Crown Prince Wilhelm's 5th Corps, and Ruprecht's 6th Corps gradually rose to the forefront of the line of fire. Upon discovering the retreat of the Anglo-French forces on all fronts, the three corps took advantage of the situation and routed the French rearguard at Fort Thierry, where the Crouc Corps had suffered its initial setback, and achieved a great victory that frightened the French army and civilians and was lauded in Germany.

Despite the loss of three French infantry divisions at Fort Thierry, the Allied forces did not collapse on all fronts, and the exhausted British and French troops withdrew from the Marne front to the outskirts of Paris relatively smoothly, preparing to continue the fight against the Germans on the Paris Line.

Back in mid-to-late August, with the defeat in the Battle of the Border, the French military and political top brass decided to put hard armor on Paris. Under the command of the famous general Gallieni, the French army formed a complete circular line of defense within a radius of about twenty miles around Paris, from Melun in the south, to Damartin and Pontoise in the north, and to Les Cieland and Grand Noissy in the east. Based on the experience of the Balkan Wars and the Russo-Japanese War, Galileen demanded that his troops dig deep and narrow trenches, covered with earth logs, flanked with barbed wire, and with wide openings and pointed piles at the bottom of the caves, and carried out the task of building fortifications without mercy - he never wasted time or mercy on those who disagreed or wavered, on those who were weak or incompetent, but purged them of all incompetent people, and all the inhabitants of the suburbs of Paris, like Chauffeur." Even the most senile and incompetent are forced to take up picks and shovels and go to work. Although the construction of the defensive line had been behind schedule, especially after the Battle of the Marne, when the French army in Paris had been weakened to a minimum and all the engineering troops had been redeployed, Gallieni still managed to build fortifications, and it was thanks to his efforts that most of the troops were able to rest and regroup in the fortified areas when hundreds of thousands of British and French troops were withdrawn from the front line like the ebbing tide of the sea.

"The line of Paris is not impregnable, but without the cost of three or four hundred thousand men, the Germans will not want to take it." At the Supreme Military Council of France, Gallieni reported to the grim-faced generals the results of his work day and night.

Although many feared that the heavy artillery of the Germans would turn the sacred capital of France into a pile of rubble, and the lessons of the Franco-Prussian War showed that without the presence of strong reinforcements, the isolated city could not escape the doom of defeat, after some heated debate, the Supreme Military Council decided to hold on to Paris, after all, in the eyes of most people, after the battle of the Marne, the German army was defeated, and its main force needed at least half a month's rest before it could be engaged in a large-scale offensive. This meant that the French army still had time to consolidate and strengthen the Paris defense line and defend the capital to the death until the huge Russian army defeated Austria-Hungary and threatened the German hinterland from the eastern front, thus turning the tide of the war once and for all.

Those who felt that the Germans were unable to storm Paris quickly probably underestimated the endurance of the German soldiers and the ambition of the German upper echelons, and at the unanimous request of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince, Moltke Jr., the Chief of the General Staff, decided to immediately attack Paris with the 4th, 5th, and 6th Army Corps. In addition to more than 500,000 physically tired but high-spirited soldiers, the German army also had a very favorable condition for attacking Paris, that is, technical weapons represented by chariots and artillery.

Nearly half of the naval tank units assigned to the German Army were assigned to the 5th Army Corps, which were organized into four tank companies, including 22 Hubert-14 "heavy tanks" with 45 mm frontal armor. Although they move slowly, they can withstand frontal fire from machine guns and even small-caliber rapid-fire guns without additional cloaking, ignoring all kinds of shrapnel killing, and are equipped with a 37mm rapid-fire gun and two MG08 water-cooled heavy machine guns, and carry three times as many ammunition as the Hubert-13, which is as useful on the battlefield as a small movable fortress. During the Battle of the Marne, Crown Prince Wilhelm earned this unit the honorary title of "1st Royal German Iron Cavalry Battalion", which was already regarded as the core weapon of the city.

The Hubert chariot was the secret weapon of the German army's new entry into the war, and the Krupp cannon was the military symbol of Prussia-Germany. As the Battle of the Marne progressed, in order to deal a heavy blow to the Anglo-French front, the Germans gathered a large number of artillery on the Marne front, and those heavy artillery that played a key role in the capture of the fortresses of Liège and Namur were also transferred.

The city of Meaux, defended by the French rearguard, soon became a litmus test for the Germans to inspire their opponents and intimidate them. On the offensive front, less than 10 kilometers wide, the Germans amassed nearly 2,000 artillery pieces, of which more than 600 were heavy or super-heavy guns with a caliber of more than 150 mm.

In the early morning of September 25, a massive German artillery bombardment began. The loud explosions were incessant, impenetrable, and took aback to the French officers and men who were in the trenches or in the city, who had never experienced German shelling before. The terrible explosions were unimaginably loud, people could not hear each other's voices when they shouted loudly face to face, the terrible artillery fire reflected the whitening sky into the color of dusk, the earth trembled and shook all the time, the choking smell of high explosives came to the nostrils, and people were like being stuffed in a boundless and invisible jar, dizzy, chest tightness and shortness of breath, feeling that they could suffocate at any time......

After a rapid German artillery bombardment of the French forward positions lasted forty minutes, the artillery fire began to extend into the city, while four divisions of German infantry, supported by tank units, launched an attack on the French defenders, who had only two divisions numbered - in fact, only 11,000 men. Stimulated by the hormones of competitive and bloodthirsty war, the German soldiers in gray uniforms rushed forward like a tide, and even the officers who were usually calm and high-minded were part of this group of fanatics. They crossed the almost unrecognizable front first, chanting the slogan "Long live" and rushed into the French positions with a devastating spirit.

Although the German artillery fire had destroyed almost everything on the surface, some French soldiers survived like rats, but a considerable number of them had been blown away by the terrible shelling - and many were hors de combat from their wounds. In fact, the German soldiers were no better at bayonet warfare than their French counterparts, but when they jumped into the trenches with their bright bayonets and gnashing their teeth, the French infantry either retreated in panic or voluntarily dropped their weapons.

By noon, the whole of Meaux had fallen to the trophies of the German 5th Army.

In the afternoon, Crown Prince Wilhelm visited the city with great interest, which not so long ago was a thriving town that had been reduced to a lifeless pile of rubble due to heavy German artillery bombardment. The infantry of the 5th Regiment passed by one after another, eager to rush to the front to join the battle.

"I was surrounded by smiling faces cheering and shouting at my car, making it difficult for it to move forward. It was an irresistible march, a beating pulse of a victorious team. In addition to 'Forward, Chase the Enemy!' This army does not know any other laws. In a letter to his brother, the prince of the German Empire wrote, "I saw a group of officers working vigorously, desperately remembering something, listening to the telephone, and with a hint of weariness in the usual solemn and responsible expressions on their faces, but also a sense of composure and contentment." The bright sun shone on me, swept away the doubts that had been in place for many days, refilled me with confidence, and gave me the strongest desire for the future. ”

The news of the capture of Meaux by the 5th Army soon reached Berlin, and people could not help but rejoice when they learned that the main German forces were only about forty kilometers from Paris.

"It seems that we will be able to end this war before the leaves fall." In a café on Unter den Linden, an old officer with a gray beard and an old Prussian uniform said to those around him, "The shorter the war, the better." ”

(End of chapter)