"Attention! French cavalry! ”

Almost as soon as the French cavalry burst out of the woods, Dimir Hook heard a warning in a voice as high as that of a tenor. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoAt this moment, the advance combat unit of the 1st Marine Brigade had crossed the French perimeter line for four or five kilometers, and the city of Amiens was in sight. In order to prepare for a sudden artillery attack by the French army, this unit marched in battalion and company units, and more than 20 naval chariots were still on the front line, and the French cavalry obviously knew that the steel chariots of the Germans were not easy to deal with, and they deliberately avoided the front and attacked the flank of the German army without chariot cover.

"Stop moving! Unfold in place! Get ready for battle! ”

Seeing that the French cavalry was rushing from two or three thousand meters at a speed of more than 40 kilometers per hour, the officers of the German Marine Corps gave combat orders in great haste, and the marching contingent quickly stopped advancing and turned to meet the enemy. Suddenly, the heralds of the battalion headquarters rushed back and forth to convey battle orders, the company commanders ordered the platoons to form a tight formation, the platoon commanders ordered the soldiers to line up in a firing formation, and the squad commanders instructed the soldiers to prepare for shooting. In this way, just over a minute after the appearance of the French cavalry, the German marines had moved from marching to defensive, and non-rigorous training was not enough to achieve such an effect.

Hooke and his companions were assigned to a low-lying location, and at school, they had all heard stories about the French cavalry in history class, and in the era of Napoleon's sweep across Europe, the French cavalry was simply synonymous with invincibility, especially the tall and fierce French cuirassiers, which impressed all opponents on the battlefield. Although the charge of the French cavalry was effectively contained by the dense artillery formations and powerful artillery fire of the Prussian infantry in the Franco-Prussian War half a century ago, the French still regard the cavalry units as their pride, and the German soldiers cannot help but subconsciously revere them.

"Machine riflemen lie down! The ruler is set at 1000 meters, and fire at my command! ”

Hearing the platoon commander's direct battle command, Hook squatted down and then pounced in a standard training position, and took out the magazine in the magazine bag in front of him, while his ammunition soldier assisted in a one-knee position. A pair of Madsen LMG gunners were able to change magazines in less than ten seconds, compressing the downtime of fire to the shortest possible time.

In the blink of an eye, the group of French cavalry had swept in like the wind. However, they were not the famous cuirassiers. These riders were wearing brass helmets, dark blue shirts, scarlet trousers, brown riding boots, wielding cavalry swords in their hands, and carrying short cavalry rifles. In addition to carrying out tasks such as pursuit, reconnaissance, covering lines of communication, and storming enemy positions, this branch of the army is also good at dismounting and fighting, which is equivalent to motorized infantry in the age of animal power.

Hook squinted and estimated that the group of French cavalry in front of him was about three or four hundred people, that is, the size of two or three cavalry squadrons. If a small group of infantry accidentally encountered this cavalry unit, the end would probably be bloody and terrifying, but there were at least two battalions of naval infantry gathered here, and there were five or six MG-08 water-cooled heavy machine guns alone, and the number of Madsen light machine guns was even greater, and the French cavalry had lost the most important suddenness of the attack by detouring the flanks to avoid the German tanks.

Entering the effective range of the heavy machine guns, these French cavalry still had no intention of dismounting and fighting, but continued to charge straight at the head with their shining cavalry swords. A moment later, the roar of MG-08 came from a slightly higher position, and everywhere the dense bullet rain reached, there was a shocking scene of horses stumbling and people falling from their horses.

Seeing that the German unit in front of them was ready for battle, the French cavalry no longer buried their heads in the charge, they turned decisively, and in the process, several water-cooled heavy machine guns continued to attack the opponent with terrifying burst fire, although the interception efficiency of frontal strafing was obviously inferior to crossfire and longitudinal fire, dozens of French cavalry still fell off their horses in a short time.

Seeing the French cavalry turn around and retreat, some naval infantry couldn't wait to let out a sound of joy, but many officers frowned at this time, because they saw two horse-drawn small cannons at the tail of the French cavalry team, their barrels were short, the gun carriage was simple, and the gun wheel was huge, like a light and flexible cavalry gun, its structure was like a mountain gun used by mountain infantry, the firing range was shorter than that of ordinary artillery, but at least it was farther than ordinary machine guns. In this attack on Amiens, the German marines aimed to win quickly, and after breaking through the French perimeter defenses, the 1st Marine Brigade advanced in depth with infantry and fighting vehicles, and the artillery units were still far behind. The French cavalry alone was not to be feared, and the French cavalry with cavalry guns could ...... It's a tricky hassle!

Through the binoculars, seeing that the French cavalry guns parked three or four kilometers away had been deployed and put into a state of readiness, the German officers hurriedly ordered the soldiers who were squatting and shooting to lie down. Eight or nine seconds later, the shells whistled down, one hit the front of the German line, and the other passed over the heads of the infantry and fell behind. However, the weapons in the hands of the naval infantry could not threaten the two French cavalry guns, and they either advanced on their own initiative or retreated decisively, otherwise they would waste their time and forces here.

Undoubtedly, the most important feature of cavalry artillery is its strong mobility, whether the infantry is running and charging or alternately advancing, there is a possibility that the opponent will lead the nose, and the retreat will not only affect the battle plan of the rapid attack on Amiens, but will also be pursued and harassed by the enemy's cavalry artillery in the process of retreat -- the commander of this marine unit is in a dilemma. Until the two cavalry guns of the French opened fire again, he did not make up his mind, and simply let the soldiers continue to lie on the ground.

Fortunately, the various battles on the battlefield were not independent of each other, and the naval chariot units leading the front line had already noticed this French cavalry, and found that they were not annihilated in front of the dense array of infantry guns, but bullied their own infantry with cavalry artillery, and a group of Hubert-13s quickly turned around and came to reinforcements. Their 37 mm chariot guns have an effective firing range of about 3,000 meters, while the two cavalry guns used by the French cavalry have a caliber of more than 60 mm, and the maximum firing range should be more than 5,000 meters, although the range of the Hobert-13 gun is much shorter than that of the opponent, but the cavalry guns cannot fire as they go, but an additional process of retracting and unfolding, and considering the defensive nature of the chariot itself, the Hubert-13 has an overwhelming advantage over the French cavalry using cavalry guns.

These German tanks, painted with a gray metallic finish, spewed green smoke abruptly from their buttocks, and their wheel tracks spun rapidly as they raced through relatively flat fields. The French riders, who dismounted to operate the cavalry guns, quickly turned their guns and fired as fast as they could, but even if the shells fell close to the chariots, they could not stop the iron guys from moving forward. Seeing that the situation was not good, the riders hurriedly put away the gun carriages, hung up the gun carriages, and prepared to slip away, but the gunners on the German tanks would not easily let go of these dangerous targets with excellent mobility, and as soon as they approached the maximum range of the tank guns, they hurriedly opened fire. The horses of the French cavalry, though well-trained and wearing soundproof earmuffs, were startled by the explosion of shells nearby, and two of them were running out of control with light ammunition, and several others were trying to break free from the reins. The withdrawal of the French cavalry artillery was delayed only a short time, and the direct threat to them from the German tanks increased sharply. At this point, the French dragoons, who had dismounted and were ready to block the German infantry with rifles, had to re-mount their horses. Prior to this, the German naval tanks had only been seen in Verdun and on the Marne, and because of their small number in battle, they had not yet become an important force in the direction of the war, and the French officers and soldiers knew little about them. Some of the dragoons drew their swords, some carried their rifles and prepared to shoot on horseback, and they swept towards the German chariots like a wave suddenly rolling up on the calm sea.

The French cavalry swords and short lances naturally could not pose a threat to the German tanks, but the commanders of the Marine Corps could not allow the enemy in front of them to be detrimental to their precious tanks. Under the officer's order, the naval infantry who were prostrate on the spot got up one after another and took the initiative to move closer to their own tank unit, and some of the crew members of this naval tank unit were naval cadets who had finished the tank training course ahead of schedule, and some were gunners borrowed from warships, and they were not completely sure whether the Hubert-13 was in an unshakable position on the battlefield.

There were still more than 1,000 meters away from his own tank, Hook heard the officers give the order to "stop moving forward and prepare for battle on the spot", the naval infantry on the flank took the lead in firing, he threw himself down on the spot without thinking, set up the machine gun, and only waited for the officer to give the order to "machine rifle fire", he took a deep breath, opened the shooting safety in front of the left side of the trigger guard, fired a short shot in a state of rapid fire, and then moved the muzzle slightly to fire a second short shot.

On the battlefield, the French cavalry had long since abandoned the flashy dense charge formations, and were fired upon by German bullets, and their impact slowed down slightly, but did not completely stagnate. Hook soon discovered that the aim-and-shoot method that was highly recommended in the combat regulations did not work at all in such a battle, and that there were twenty or thirty light and heavy machine guns firing at the same time on the position, which was like multiple warships bombarding the target at once, and no one could distinguish the point of impact of their own guns.

Despite this struggle, Hook began to pull the trigger continuously, and after a dozen seconds, the riflemen began to concentrate their fire, and the gunfire became even more dense to the point that there were almost no gaps, and several naval tanks continued to attack the French cavalry with tank guns and machine guns.

The 30-round magazine ran out, and Hukla opened fire, but the ammunition man crouching next to him did not pull out the magazine at the first time. Hook looked sideways, and the young soldier, who had just turned 19 years old, was already stunned by the battle scene in front of him, and his eyes were looking straight ahead—the three or four hundred French cavalrymen were like a piece of meat sent into a meat grinder, which looked very weighty, and was twisted into a pile of meat puree in three or two strokes.

After all, before Hook could use the second magazine, the battle was over, and the French cavalry and their horses went from a fresh state to lying corpses in the field, and the depression was soon filled with blood. The naval infantrymen, who had behaved calmly and calmly during the battle, were stunned one by one, as if they were frightened by this bloody scene.

(End of chapter)