Chapter 19: Not a Hero
"Hello, Your Excellency General Smigvi!" Father John said to a well-groomed young general in his thirties. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
"Hello, Father John." The general stretched out his hand and shook his hand. "General Pilsudski and I are very grateful to the Polish people abroad for their support for the national independence movement, and we hope to receive more assistance from the Polish Movement Union abroad."
"We, the Polish masses abroad, are very interested in Polish independence, and we will call on everyone to help the new Polish government." "For the upcoming Polish "Blue Army", I hope the government will be able to make proper arrangements. Personally, I would like to act with your army as a priest, bringing God's blessings to the soldiers, and at the same time being able to spread what I see to the Polish people abroad. ”
"War is very dangerous, so why should the priest risk it?" General Smigvi persuaded.
"I know the situation on the battlefield, I have been a chaplain on the battlefield on the Western Front for about half a year, please don't refuse my proposal." "Today I also bring with me a young man I met on the Western Front, Victor Francis Corval, who served as a platoon commander in the Polish Legion in France, who had been tested in the war and was a very valiant officer. I met him on the ship to Poland and wanted to join the army in Poland, hoping that he would do his part for the rest of the war. ”
"Victor Francis Koval, what battles did you take part in in France?" Smigvi asked, looking at Koval behind Father John's left.
"Report to the general, I took part in the Battle of Reims in July and August 1918." Koval stepped forward, gave a military salute and replied.
"Can you tell me about the war on the Western Front?" General Smigvi asked.
"Both sides laid several layers of continuous trenches and barbed wire, relying on the geographical advantages of rivers, mountains, hills and other geographical advantages to defend, the attacking side suffered great losses, breaking through one layer of defense and the defenders immediately replenished a line of defense. However, in the Battle of Reims, the Allies used hundreds of tanks to carry out a group assault and successfully broke through the German defenses, and the trenches and barbed wire could not stop the tanks. Victor replied earnestly.
"Tanks? This is something new, I heard from General Pilsudski and I in prison that this guy defeated the Germans. But I've never seen anything like this. General Smigvi said with a proud smile.
"General, I brought pictures of a few tanks on me," Victor said, pulling out a stack of pictures of tanks from his body.
General Smigvi picked up the photos and looked at them with great interest, some of which were of tanks breaking through trenches, some of which were of dense craters on tank armor, and some of which were of tank battles.
"It's really good, but only Britain and France can produce tanks, Germany and Russia don't have any tanks, we have never encountered them on the Eastern Front, and we can't produce such tanks in Poland at the moment." General Smigvi said with some regret.
"I've seen a lot of tanks in the Polish Legion in France, and if they come over, we'll have a tank unit. Of course, we can't wait for them all the time. I think on the current Eastern Front, it would be more practical for us to get some armored cars and armored trucks than tanks. Victor took out a few more photos of the armored vehicle and handed them to General Smigvi.
"Our Polish cavalry is unparalleled in the world, we don't need these cars and trucks, they are too slow to keep up with the charge of our cavalry when they have armor, and I don't think their defense is very good." General Smigvi said, looking at the strange vehicles in the photo.
"Yes, our cavalry is very powerful, but the advantage of these armored cars and armored trucks is that they can carry machine guns and shoot while attacking." Victor looked at Smigvi's lack of interest and was very anxious: the opportunity to perform so hard couldn't be ruined like this.
However, although Victor knew that armored vehicles would be equipped with troops in the future, at that time, he actually did not know whether armored cars and armored trucks were suitable for the war situation on the Eastern Front.
"The most important thing about armored cars and armored trucks is that we can use existing cars and trucks to retrofit, which is cheap and easy to repair, and if you have a tank, these crew members can adapt to the tank faster." Koval said boastfully.
Despite some hesitation, after seeing the power of tanks and armored vehicles in the Reims War, he decided to believe his feelings: armored vehicles could play a major role on the Eastern Front.
"Hmm. It's not bad to think this way, the tank forces can't rely entirely on the French legions, we must have them ourselves. You are very thoughtful. Smigwe gave Koval a reassuring smile.
Koval looked at Smigvi in front of him with some disappointment and a little gap. originally thought that with these two tricks prepared by himself, he could gain the attention of the upper echelons of the army, and from then on he stepped on the pinnacle of his life and married Tiffany. Unexpectedly, the young Brigadier General he met, although he was kind to himself, did not recognize the role of tanks and armored vehicles, and did not come over to give him a hint of promotion and salary increase.
"Koval, you go out and wait for me first, I still have something to talk about." Father John interjected.
Koval saluted and exited the study.
Victor stood outside at the edge of the flower bed, thinking about how he had done today: it wasn't too bad, actually. In this era, everyone who can recognize the role of tanks has become a famous hero during World War II, such as Charles de Gaulle in France, Churchill in Britain, and Guderian in Germany. As for the king of the dead country in front of him, he is not a far-sighted hero. Now it is unrealistic to ask them to be able to recognize the role of tanks from a set of photographs, and to change the notion of cavalry invincibility in their minds.
Thinking that in the future, I would take such a group of pig teammates Pingduzhen Lu, or show the role of tanks and armored vehicles in future wars, and use the battlefield to change their view of the invincibility of cavalry. Otherwise, even if a bunch of tanks are built, what is the use of the troops still preferring to use cavalry?
At the beginning of World War II, Poland's self-developed and produced 7TP tank was a very advanced tank, and his 37mmwz.36L/45 Bofors anti-tank gun was able to penetrate the armor of all German tanks at that time, but because there were too many cavalry units and too few tanks in the Polish army, there was no brilliant performance.
While Koval was thinking outside about how to correct the Polish cavalry, inside the study:
"Brigadier General Smigvi, I know that the Polish army lacks officers, and I introduced him, what kind of heavy responsibilities do you think Koval can take?" Father John asked.
"I have a vacancy for a company commander right now, and he can take up his post right away." Brigadier General Smigvi said tentatively.
"Very good, but Koval gave up his post in the Polish Legion in France and returned to Poland early to fight. There are so many generals in Poland, but I support you, General Pilsudski. For the sake of our friendship, I think Koval should go through a more important test・・・・・・"
“OK! That's not a problem. But there is no vacancy for the battalion commander in the unit on my hands, and he must go and lead a new unit. General Smigvi said directly.
"Thank you very much! Long live friendship!"