Chapter Forty-Six: A Tactical Waltz
Outside Hedu Town, on a high ground behind the French army, Foch, who was now the commander-in-chief of the Allied Allied Forces, looked coldly at the fortified position built by the Germans in the distance, although his face was expressionless, his heart was full of thoughts, and the skin on his whole body was trembling slightly.
"The last madness? Although you are geniuses and have terrible strategic vision, you can actually think of the back way to attack Reims City, but you will eventually lose this war! ”
The sky was high and the clouds were clear, the Marne River was rushing at the foot of the mountain, and not far away was the army of bears that could not be seen at a glance, and in Foch's view, the town of Hedu was nothing more than a projectile land, but a blocking position built by Hindenburg or Ludendorff to buy them time to capture Fort Thierry.
But what's the use?
The corners of Fuxi's mouth went up and he laughed.
Millions of American soldiers are ready to board the ship and set off, British industry has been restored, and we, the French, will not surrender, Paris is captured, we can go to Bordeaux, Bordeaux is captured, we can also go to Marseille in the south, even if the entire European continent is captured, we still have vast colonies around the world, we can continue to resist!
The French, who will raise their proud heads, will never surrender!
He still remembers that forty-eight years ago, at the age of eighteen and full of vigor, he was admitted to the school in the Matz region of Alsace, where he witnessed the siege and surrender of the last main field army of the Second French Empire, 170,000 men, and finally the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, when Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to become German cities. He still can't forget the day when the French teacher came to teach them and wrote the words "Viva de France" on the blackboard, and the French gentleman said to them: "My children, this is the last time I will teach you." Berlin has already ordered that only German should be taught in schools in Alsace and Lorraine. The new teacher will be here tomorrow, today is your last French class, and I hope you will study hard. ”
Sitting in the classroom, Foch had tears of humiliation in his eyes.
The grief and humiliation of the defeat made him vow: to enlist in the army and recover Alsace and Lorraine!
Now, he is in his sixties and has become a veteran, fortunately he did not die of old age, otherwise, if he can't take revenge, he will go to the grave with regrets.
He could not forget the stern French teacher, the tearful eyes of his youth, and the German flag that still flies over Alsace and the cities of Lorraine.
End the war as soon as possible, I've been waiting for more than forty years, long enough!
"Commander-in-Chief, the German resistance is very stubborn, but the road next to the forest to the north has been opened by us, and the enemy has been routed." The battle in front of Hedu Town continued until his lieutenant reported to him, interrupting Fuxi's memories.
"Well, order the front-line cavalry and tanks to continue the pursuit, since a road has been opened, then we will take this road, as for the town in front, let the 102nd Infantry Regiment continue to attack, and the rest of the soldiers continue to march." Although Fu Xi has the chance to win and thinks that the Entente has won, but in any case, the enemy has not surrendered, and the enemy has not surrendered, as the marshal of France, he still needs to cheer up and continue to command the battle, otherwise it will not be good if his reputation is ruined, and a few more victories can not only accelerate the surrender time of Germany, but also increase the bargaining chips for peace talks in the future, which is advantageous anyway.
………………
"Regiment commander, the defense line of our army's northern forest has begun to crumble. The enemy sent about three battalions of cavalry and hundreds of tanks in pursuit. ”
At this time, Hitler was in the Berlin regiment in ambush in the northern forest, directing the ambush.
"Hundreds of tanks ......" Hitler read, fortunately it was not their German H-type tank, nor the British tank, but the French Renault FT17 light tank, only seven tons, 10 kilometers per hour, equipped with an eight-millimeter machine gun, armor ten millimeters thick, the above data and German tanks and British tanks are much inferior, but the advantage of the Renault tank is that there are only two people, one is a tank driver, one is a machine gunner, and it is the world's first rotatable turret tank, Wide field of view.
The Renault tank is actually more suitable as a weapon to support infantry in battle, and it is extremely good to support infantry.
"The artillery balloon spotter of the 1st battalion has sent back any news, go to the 1st battalion and ask what the rest of the French army is doing, whether they are attacking the routs together, or standing still, or marching on the road. By the way, tell the chief of staff at the regimental headquarters, Wei Krich, and ask him to contact the Air Force and try to let the Air Force send planes to support our army. Hitler instructed the heralds at the regimental headquarters.
There were more than 8,000 enemies in the northern forests, including more than 1,000 people from two battalions of the vanguard regiment, more than 2,000 people attacking our positions, plus cavalry tanks sent later, there were probably more than 2,000 people.
Our army broke and fled in this fertile field, and the enemy continued to pursue, even though our soldiers already knew that it was a fake rout, but under the rapid pursuit of the enemy's cavalry, they were still six gods and no masters, and they were harvested by the enemy, and they died innocently.
One and a half kilometers, how long can the cavalry run? If it was a direct race, it would not have taken a few minutes, but the German soldiers who had fled in all directions, and some even found hidden places to resist on the spot, caused problems for the French and took a lot of time.
The troops are all ready!
The French cavalry and tanks all went into ambush range.
"To fight or not?" Affected by the tense atmosphere of the battlefield, Kleist's voice was much quieter.
"Wait." Hitler said lightly in the forest, and through the gap in the woods, he could see several French people pursuing and shooting.
French soldiers with rifles on their backs walked along the road in a neat row, followed by cars that kept passing towards Fort Thierry. These people, who numbered about three thousand people, were in reserve for the enemy's northern forest roads.
Kleist gritted his teeth and said: "The enemy's pursuing cavalry is about to arrive at the place where our army is preparing to counterattack, and according to our predetermined plan, the cavalry regiment should counterattack at this time." ”
Hitler still shook his head: "Wait. ”
Kleist's eyes widened and he looked at Hitler in disbelief, if he didn't fight at this time, and if he didn't have time to contact and inform, let the cavalry regiment counterattack alone, and he would be fiercely attacked by all the enemy's troops.
There are only more than 2,000 cavalry regiments, and there are 3,000 or 5,000 enemies who come into contact with them, and the cavalry regiment thinks that it is going to counterattack, so it will naturally charge and counterattack on its horses, but without the sudden attack of the Berlin regiment, what is the difference between counterattacking and dying in front of a powerful enemy?
Hitler's actions were all about selling out his teammates.
"You're going to go to jail, it's time for the whole army to strike." In fact, the two have not been working together for long, and Kleist still cannot be said to fully trust Hitler.
"Wait, trust me." Hitler pursed his chapped lips and looked at Kleist with a plea in his eyes.
In fact, Hitler also regretted and was annoyed, he should have agreed with the cavalry regiment before, he should first hold on and play signal flares before the cavalry regiment can counterattack. But in fact, he gave the order that the cavalry regiment would counterattack as soon as the enemy reached the rear of the position after gathering the rout, and he also thought that while the cavalry regiment counterattacked, the Berlin regiment also launched an attack from the flank. In this way, the cavalry regiment and the Berlin regiment formed a right angle, which greatly exerted the advantage of firepower.
The plan was good, but it suddenly occurred to Hitler to think about it from another perspective, what if he was the commander of the enemy army, when the front line was in danger and needed urgent support, two roads were blocked by the enemy, one road had resistance, and the other resistance had been eliminated?
Of course, letting more troops go has opened the way, and the front line is reinforced.
Yes, there will be more than eight thousand people on this road in the northern forest, and it is possible that the French troops in the town of Hedu will also take a detour this way.
Thinking of this, Hitler naturally did not dare to attack, so he had to sell his teammates.
Moreover, he did not dare to let the herald inform the cavalry regiment now, the cavalry regiment might have started fighting now, and told the cavalry regiment that the Berlin regiment could not attack for the time being, let them fight first, and the cavalry regiment might be in a state of confusion and collapse immediately.
Still inexperienced, Hitler had commanded only one company of more than 100 men before the creation of the Berlin regiment, and now he was suddenly put in command of three regiments of five or six thousand men, and he would inevitably make mistakes.
After the enemy's original 8,000 French people in the northern forest walked over, ten minutes later, it was the mighty French army that walked in neat steps, and these people were the enemy in the direction of Hedu Town!
Sure enough, they were going to go this way.
More and more people passed through, Hitler's heart beat faster and faster, and the order to strike was bitten in his mouth, ready to be shouted at any moment. The soldiers around him also looked at Hitler, waiting for his order to open fire at any moment.
"There are ten people in a row, and there are two in a phalanx...... Four...... Six...... Eight...... Ten rows, sixteen platoons, at least two thousand people have already passed, the regiment commander is almost there, and we can't eat any more. ”
Kleist is not uncompelled when he says this, he is from a noble family, has excellent cultivation, and is a top master in warfare, in fact, what he said is true, there are almost more than 10,000 enemies in the ambush circle, and they can't eat too much, but they may be sailed.
Hitler was so nervous that he held his breath and felt numb, but he could not make up his mind when he gave the order to attack.
The soldiers were still very hot and sweaty under the scorching sun, even though they were covered by the woods, and everyone clenched their weapons and waited for Hitler's orders, and some of them were so nervous that they almost pulled the trigger and hallucinated.
Suddenly, Hitler was shocked, and through the binoculars, he actually saw several artillery pieces pulled by the enemy trucks, which showed that the enemy's artillery regiment was not in combat condition!
Opportunity!
"Hit!"
The word was softly spat out in Hitler's mouth, and all of a sudden, a battalion of shells poured down the road, grenades that had been prepared were thrown out, machine guns spit out rows of bullets, the H-tanks removed the branches covering their bodies and were no longer camouflaged, one gun and several machine guns on each tank fired at the road not far away, and the tank engines did not last long before they jumped directly down the hillside in the forest and drove quickly towards the panicked enemy.
The first battalion of the Berlin regiment was an artillery battalion, and the artillerymen were the best artillerymen drawn from the entire empire except the Western Front, and they were measured very accurately in advance, and the error of the shells was within two meters, so that the shells of the Berlin regiment were in the middle of the dense enemy walking on the road, and the enemy immediately suffered heavy casualties, and the rest of the soldiers lay on the side of the road, or hid behind cars, and returned fire on the spot, but most of the soldiers did not know which direction the Germans were.
However, even if the French soldiers hid well, it would not help, the soldiers of the Berlin regiment were all elite, there were many sharpshooters, and after the first round of artillery strikes of our army, one enemy after another who wanted to return fire was eliminated by sharpshooters, which was terrifying.
A dozen tanks were also like a broadsword, cutting the enemy at the waist on the road at the forefront of the forest, and the enemy scurried around like ants attacked by a flood.
There were also more than a dozen tanks rushing into the crowd of enemies on the road, and the invulnerable tanks composed of four Makqin heavy machine guns and artillery were like a fortress of death, constantly harvesting the enemy's lives.
Nearly 10,000 enemies, but they were suppressed by more than 1,000 people of the Berlin regiment!
In fact, this is not surprising, in addition to the defensive positions in which the French army did not have an advantage, the extremely strong firepower of the Berlin regiment was also an important reason, not only with sufficient ammunition and grenades, but also with a large number of MP18 submachine guns, each infantry squad can choose freely, those who are sharpshooters can choose to have Mauser rifles, and non-sharpshooters can also choose MP18 submachine guns.
MP18 submachine gun is the world's first submachine gun in the true sense, also known as the "bullet ejector", although the range is short, the accuracy is not high, but it is suitable for individual use, with fierce firepower, the theoretical rate of fire per minute is 400 rounds, close to the rate of fire of the machine gun, and not as difficult to carry as the machine gun, is an extremely advanced and reliable weapon at that time.
The production of such weapons was very rare, and the empire was only equipped with squad leaders and deputy squad leaders of certain elite units, as well as squads that were mainly equipped to break through enemy trenches and carry out infiltration assaults.
And the Berlin regiment, you can choose the equipment at will.
Under the Berlin regiment's Maxim heavy machine guns, Mauser snipers, MP18 submachine guns, and accurate artillery shells, the French army was crushed, and some French soldiers were suppressed to the point that they could not move, while most of the French soldiers wanted to flee the battlefield and fled in the direction of Hedu Town.
The battle was an ambush, not an encirclement, and the whole battlefield was like a rectangle, with one line of cavalry regiments counterattacking, another line of Berlin regiments ambushed in the forest, and one line of Berlin regiment tanks blocking the French marching troops behind.
The last line was on the opposite side of the forest, which was not ambushed by our soldiers, and Hitler did not want to defend at all, he had too few troops at his disposal to build an encirclement at all.
The large number of French soldiers under the pressure of black pressure ran in the direction of the absence of our ambush, but the speed of their escape was very slow, because in this direction there were barren hills, and the slopes were full of gravel and grass, and it was very difficult to walk.
Most of the French soldiers who fought back on the spot have been killed mercilessly, many soldiers have raised their hands and surrendered, this is not to blame them, the French low-level soldiers do not know how many troops the enemy has, their own troops have been scattered, the enemy looks very strong, resistance seems meaningless, what to do if you don't surrender, so, there are many people who fled for a while, there are many soldiers who lie down on the hot ground to fight back, and there are also many soldiers who surrender and pretend to be dead on the ground.
"The whole army is attacking, catch the Gallic chicken for me!" Hitler raised his pistol and led the Berlin Regiment infantry out of the forest.
This battle, when an enemy artillery regiment enters the ambush circle, is destined to win!