In the middle of the night of October 3, 1914, in the eastern waters of the English Channel, the German Navy submarine numbered U-35 quietly sailed to the North Sea with 30 crew members on board. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Commanded by the young Captain Karl Buschermann, the combat submarine had been at sea for more than two weeks, sinking one Allied warship, two cargo ships, and one barge, and was on its way back because of the exhaustion of torpedoes and provisions. About 40 nautical miles from the mouth of the Strait of Dover, the watchmen on board suddenly spotted a fleet sailing from England to France, and Captain Buschermann immediately ordered a report to be sent to the submarine command. In order to ensure the delivery of the information, the ship's operators continued to send telegrams before receiving feedback signals from the headquarters, but only a few minutes later, a British warship suddenly attacked at high speed and attacked the U-35 with heavy artillery fire. Captain Buschermann decisively ordered the submarine to dive, but unfortunately the submarine was soon hit by a shell fired by the British ship, the double hull was blown through, and four crew members were killed on the spot. In this case, not only could the submarine not be able to dive, but even the most basic balance could not be guaranteed, and Captain Buschermann had to give the order to abandon the ship.

Seeing that the German submarine capsized, the British battleship attacking it hurriedly approached and tried to capture the German submarine, but before evacuating the submarine, Captain Buschermann had already asked the crew to destroy the code book on the boat and open the sea valve at the bottom of the boat, and the British could only watch the fierce submarine hunter completely disappear into the depths of the sea.

With apprehension, Captain Buschermann and the surviving German crew floated on the sea for more than half an hour, and waited for the British battleship to circle around twice and basically confirmed that there were no other German submarines nearby, and then began to contain the German officers and soldiers who had fallen overboard.

After boarding the ship as a prisoner, Captain Buschermann quietly observed the situation on the ship, this is a thousand-ton destroyer, judging from the lines and armament of the ship, it should be a new ship that has recently been commissioned, and the officers and men on board are both young men and mature and steady faces. Almost all of them had a strange seriousness on their faces, and the atmosphere was very heavy, and in the non-combat position, Buscherman saw several British Army personnel wearing flat-brimmed hats and khaki uniforms.

After Captain Buschermann identified himself, the British separated him from his crew and took him to the bridge. There, the captain of the British destroyer spoke with him briefly in the posture of a victor. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Captain Buschermann glanced at the surrounding sea, which consisted of at least ten ships, several of which, judging by the size and size of the ships and the number of chimneys, were short-haul fast ferries, which were usually faster than ordinary freighters and barges, and could carry hundreds of passengers. By this time, it was long past the bedtime point, and the figures of the people could still be seen on the decks of those ferries. Although it was not clear what they were wearing, it was not difficult for Captain Buscherman to guess that the fleet was sending a group of British Army combatants to France.

Speaking fairly fluent English, Captain Buschermann inquired to the captain of the British destroyer: "Transporting troops so close to the Strait of Dover is not afraid of being attacked by our cruisers?" ”

The bearded British officer tensed his face and looked at Buschermann with unkind eyes.

From the other man's expression, Buschermann read something interesting, but unfortunately he could not transmit his inferences to the naval command, and could only hope that his friendly ships or colleagues in the naval aviation unit would detect the enemy situation in time.

After a moment of silence, the British captain said coldly: "Your Blucher and Gloudenz were able to pass through the English Channel by extreme luck, and once again, even if it is the flagship of your battle cruiser, we can send it to the bottom of the sea." ”

"Oh?" Captain Buschermann blinked, "Are you sure it's the Blucher and the Glaudenz that are crossing the strait?" ”

The British captain snorted coldly: "Could it be that it is the invincible warships that you boast of in the Atlantic, such as De Fllinger, Moltke or Seydlitz, who are chased by our warships in the Atlantic?" ”

Captain Buschermann pretended to be mysterious, and said, "When the war is over, you will know the answer." ”

"Don't rejoice too soon, it's impossible to say who will win or lose this war, but one thing is for sure, you and your soldiers will have to survive in British prisoner of war camps until the war is over."

With that, the British captain waved his hand and ordered the sailors to escort him to the lower cabin.

Different from the cabins of large warships, early destroyers (including large torpedo boats) did not open portholes in order to improve their anti-sinking performance, and only officers' cabins, which were close to the bow and raised above the waterline, could enjoy a living environment with natural light. Escorted into the dark ground floor of the ship, Captain Buschermann could only tell from the roar of the engines and the jolting of the hull that the destroyer was sailing at a high speed. During the previous search, the British sailors did not take his watch, which at least gave him an accurate sense of time. As it was almost dawn, the destroyer's speed slowed down markedly, and it seemed that it was approaching the French coast. Although it is impossible to deduce its exact location, it certainly did not run out of the Strait of Dover, nor was it as far from the harbor as Le Havre.

At this moment, there was a voice in the passage of the ship's cabin, and Captain Buschermann heard an officer urging the soldiers to check their bags so as not to pull down their belongings, and the conversation did not reveal where they had landed, but only the name "Amiens".

Having slowed down, the destroyer did not come to a complete stop. The soldiers on board the ship were likely to be transferred ashore by small boats, and given that the German Army had not yet occupied the northern coast of France, the British were clearly on guard against threats from the sea.

Four hours later, at about nine o'clock in the morning, the destroyer's engines resumed their powerful roar. Normally, it takes at least two or three hours for a ferry to sail into the harbor channel, dock, and unload passengers to the shore, which means that these ferries unload the troops they carry with the greatest efficiency, which should take much longer if they are carrying a large amount of equipment and supplies.

The answer that Captain Buscherman had painstakingly searched for was soon revealed by the British. Later that day, the German 32nd Infantry Division under the command of General Sigmund was suddenly bombarded by enemy heavy artillery when it was ordered to attack Abwey, and the offensive that had been going well suddenly collapsed, and before that, German aerial reconnaissance and ground infiltration did not detect the deployment of heavy artillery by the Allied forces near Abwey, and the report of the 32nd Infantry Division immediately attracted the attention of General Cluck, and the brave and resourceful general sent aviation units to reconnoitre. German planes soon spotted a number of gunboats in the channel northwest of Abwey, ranging from a few dozen tons to two or three hundred tons, carrying ships ranging from one or two to five or six guns. The pilots were unable to determine the calibre of the guns used by the gunboats, and since there was no sign of other artillery units in the vicinity, the 32nd Infantry Division was inferred to be bombarded by the gunboats.

In the course of aerial reconnaissance, the German pilots unexpectedly discovered that a large number of troops were gathering near Abbeville, and the soldiers were wearing tawny uniforms, which were significantly different from the blue shirts and red trousers of the French mainland army. Although the French Colonization Corps of Africa was also issued khaki uniforms, Crook determined that the newly arrived Allied army was a British expeditionary force

After the Battle of the Marne, the German General Staff decided to storm Paris with the relatively complete 4th, 5th, and 6th Army Corps, the 1st and 2nd Army Corps to rest and replenish in Belgium and northern France, and then occupy the northern coast of France to threaten Paris from the right flank, while the 3rd and 7th Army Corps advanced to southeastern France.

Like the 2nd Army Corps commanded by Billo, Kluk's troops suffered heavy losses in the Marne battlefield, more than half of the infantry divisions were beaten to the point of ineffectiveness, and it would take at least seven or eight weeks to recover to the original level, but in order to support the offensive operations of the marines, Cluk cobbled together two infantry divisions and a cavalry division to rush to the front line of the Oise River, and the 32nd Infantry Division, which had been stationed in northern France since the end of the border battle, became the only combat unit that Cluke could handle at this time.

After the Battle of Paris, in order to defend the capital, the French army drew reinforcements from various defense areas at any cost, and the defense of northern France was greatly weakened. Seeing this, Kluke ordered General Sigmund to lead the main force of the 32nd Infantry Division to attack the lower Somme, and the situation was just as he expected - the 32nd Infantry Division had broken through the French lines at Bernevill west of Durand, and advanced to the mouth of the Somme, Abbeville, in only two days. The town was more than 40 kilometers from Amiens, and once the Germans occupied it, the Allied forces in the northernmost province of Calais and northwestern Belgium would lose land contact with the French hinterland, and the transportation of men and supplies would have to rely on the fragile cross-channel shipping route.

Had it not been for the heavy bombardment of enemy gunboats, and for the timely arrival of British troops at Abwey, the German 32nd Infantry Division might have celebrated its great victory in the city. After the emergence of a new enemy, Sigmund stabilized his position and launched a tentative attack with a small force, which was like a stick poked into an iron shield, and the attack quickly collapsed. According to the report of the front-line officers, the enemy can not only get accurate support from heavy artillery fire, but also have dense and terrifying rifle fire, the conventional offensive means of the German infantry are ineffective, what is even more worrying is that the enemy's strength is larger than expected, and when they find out the details of the 32nd Infantry Division, I am afraid that they will soon counterattack into an attack, if the 32nd Infantry Division is defeated by this tough opponent, not only will the area just occupied fall back into the hands of the enemy, Durang and even Arras may be lost, Once the road to Amiens was cut off, the German army and navy forces assembled at the Oise River would also fall under the French counter-encirclement.

(End of chapter)