In the summer of 1918, the German army carried out a large-scale assault on the Amiens-Reims line, the Marne River area, and the Aisne River area, and in the battle, the German army used large-scale army group infiltration and assault tactics against the Entente for the first time.

The Germans broke through the gap and advanced 64 kilometers in eight days, and they were only 60 kilometers from Paris! It was a record, with 170,000 British casualties, 80,000 French casualties, and 70,000 captured, shocking the British.

However, the offensive energy of the German army was almost exhausted.

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In the Belleo Forest Theater in France, in the early morning mist, more than 20,000 people of the Fourth Marine Brigade of the Second Division of the United States marched into the forest, and they happened to meet the French troops who were retreating from the battlefield, a French major kindly told the commander of the advance unit of the Marine Brigade, Captain Williams, the situation of the rout ahead, and advised him to retreat quickly, Captain Williams heard the French's suggestion to him to retreat, and blurted out: "Retreat? it! We just got here! ”

The phrase soon spread throughout Europe by the American Expeditionary Force.

The American cowboy Marine commander cursed as he led his brethren toward the German-occupied Beleo Forest. The wooded Bereo Forest, covered with rocks and gravel, is enclosed with triple trenches, full of machine-gun bunkers and rows of barbed wire.

The first battle of the American Expeditionary Force was fought under such circumstances.

A French erroneous piece of information caused the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps to mistakenly believe that there were no German troops in the forest except for the northeast corner, so he neglected to search this area, and they were fiercely attacked by German machine guns and snipers, and fell in pieces, and then the Americans were not afraid of death, and after more than 20 days of hard fighting, the Marines finally captured the forest at a heavy cost of nearly 10,000 casualties.

Demon Dog!

In this battle, the US military made a name for itself, and even the German soldiers who fought with them had to feel admiration and called the US army a magic dog.

Due to the addition of American troops and the exhaustion of the offensive energy of the German army itself, the offensive was contained, and the battle situation was about to stalemate. At this time, the Berlin regiment, which was sitting on a cold bench in the northern French city of Ilson, finally ushered in Hindenburg, the chief of the general staff of the high command.

Since the Berlin regiment came to the French front, it was arranged by the General Staff to be stationed in Ilson, more than 50 kilometers away from the front line, and stayed for nearly a month, but still could not go to the front line, so Hitler had to continue training troops in Ilson and wait for the opportunity.

In fact, in the upper echelons of the army, Hitler heard a lot of rumors, many of whom said that the Berlin Regiment was a toy in the hands of the crown prince, and it was useless.

Hitler was also a human being, so he was naturally angry about such words, and it was useless to teach a few low-mouthed people a lesson, after all, this idea was not the idea of one or two people, but the idea of most people in the upper echelons of the army.

Even the Chief of the General Staff Hindenburg had such thoughts, and when the momentum of the German offensive at the front was about to be contained, Field Marshal Hindenburg suddenly descended on the Berlin regiment station.

"I think your Berlin regiment is at least in terms of training, it can be said that it is desperate, and it deserves to be commended."

Hindenburg sat down in Hitler's command room, and before coming to meet Hitler today, he first inspected the Berlin regiment and found that the Berlin regiment was at least more demoralized than almost all the troops on the Western Front.

Of course, the rumors from outside inevitably reached the ears of the soldiers of the Berlin Regiment, and the soldiers were unwilling, so they had to vent their anger on training. The current Berlin regiment is being trained all day long, the deputy regiment commanders Kleist and Weiklich and the following battalion commanders and company commanders are almost all from top military academies, and they have combat experience, so it is natural to train soldiers, plus Hitler selflessly taught many of his tactical ideas to everyone, so the current Berlin regiment sharpens its knives and waits to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy.

"Our Berlin regiment is not a toy, it is a weapon to kill! The sharpest sword in the hands of the Empire! ”

Hitler was very clear in every word, and he could bear it no matter how insulted he was by others, but if he insulted the army under his command, he felt gloomy and angry.

Hindenburg smiled faintly: "Seriously, it is not as reliable as forming three infantry divisions." ”

"Our Berlin regiment can be compared to five infantry divisions, and I will let you see how powerful the Berlin regiment is." Hitler gritted his teeth.

"Okay, then let me see how powerful the Berlin Regiment is." Hindenburg stood up: "Soon there will be an order." ”

Hindenburg's words indicated that soon they would go to the front, and their hearts inevitably became excited, and the day after sending Hindenburg away, an order came from above:

Belonging to the Sixth Army, it participated in the Battle of Reims, attacked (broke through) the Reims Line, the gateway to Paris, and threatened the last line of defense in Paris, Fort Thieri.

Hitler and Bock spoke on the phone and learned about the exact layout of the battle.

Since the massive assault, the Germans had advanced to a distance of five kilometers from Reims, and the Entente and Central forces were facing each other along the Marne.

The confrontation did not last long, and after the German army rested for more than ten days, the German army set its sights on the next strategic goal -- the capture of Reims.

Reims is a city 60 kilometers east of Paris, geographically speaking, attacking Paris from Reims is a straight line, the fastest route, if you go to Paris from Eastern Europe, you also need to pass through Reims. Moreover, to the south of Reims is the Marne River, as long as Reims is conquered, a small force can be deployed along the Marne, and a large army can capture the last fortress of Paris, Fort Thierry, and a small force of soldiers can be sent to attack Paris at will.

As long as Reims is captured, Paris, the capital of France, will not be at peace!

Several German armies on the entire Western Front launched simultaneous attacks, real or false, in order to contain the enemy. The 5th and 7th armies along the Marne River south of Reims carried out a feint, and the 1st and 2nd armies in the north attacked Amiens, an important town in northern France, which was also a feint, and the main force of the real attack was the 3rd Army in the center, in front of Reims, the Crown Prince's Army Group (Guards Army, 6th Army, etc.), and the 8th Army transferred from the Eastern Front, with a total of more than 30 divisions to attack the defense line of Reims City.

More than 100 planes, more than 2,000 artillery pieces, and the movement of more than 1 million troops in several group armies on the entire Western Front made the offensive a huge scale and a decisive battle.

"It's not a good fight." After Hitler finished this information, the chief of staff of the A7V tank, which served as the command vehicle, said Weiklisch.

Kleist looked at the map, "I think so too. ”

"Oh? Tell me what you think. "Hitler wanted to know what they thought.

Weikrich pondered for a moment and then pointed to the map and said: "You see, the attack on the Marne area south of Reims is the Eighth Army, and the Eighth Army is the starting force of Field Marshal Hindenburg, Field Marshal Hindenburg thinks that the Eighth Army has strong combat effectiveness and can break through the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop like fighting the Russians, but in fact, although the Eighth Army has been resting, after all, it has been fighting with the Russians, and is not familiar with the battlefield on the Western Front, even if it has strong combat effectiveness, But I think that the combat effectiveness of fighting on an unfamiliar battlefield will be greatly reduced. ”

"The performance of the Eighth Army is difficult to assess, but I think it will at least be able to maintain the offensive and complete the task of pinning down the enemy forces." Hitler also analyzed.

"Yes." Wei Krich paused: "It is the Crown Prince Army Group that has been put into the battlefield to the north of Reims, although the Crown Prince Army Group is the Crown Prince's descendant troops, and its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated, but I heard that many troops of the Crown Prince Army Group have been scattered throughout the country, and their combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced, and they don't know how much offensive power they can exert themselves, so the attack on the north of Reims City is not easy to predict." ”

Hitler nodded, many of the units in the Crown Army Group had indeed been dispersed by Victor to several major cities across the country to prevent insurrections, for example, the most elite 1st Division of the Crown Army Group was still stationed in Potsdam.

Wei Krich continued: "Although the Third Army, which was the main attack on Reims, was also very strong, since February of this year, the Third Army has been fighting continuously, with very little leave, and I think the soldiers of the Third Army must be exhausted. ”

Hitler said: "If there are so many disadvantages, why did the High Command conduct this campaign? ”

Kleist pondered, "I think it's because of the addition of American troops, so the high command wants to destroy France before more American troops land." And it is not to say that there are many disadvantages, our army's advanced tactics and invincible air force have provided our army with a guarantee of victory, and it is said that the army launched a feint attack in many places to contain the enemy, and the Reims defense line has only eight Entente divisions, and we have twenty or thirty, and a sudden attack may be able to capture Reims City. ”

Hitler knew that it was actually because the military intelligence sent information to the high command that the second group of American expeditionary forces had been trained in the United States and could board ships at any time, and the high command could not wait to destroy France before the second group of American expeditionary forces landed. But Hitler did not tell them about it, so as not to affect their morale.

After the U.S. military entered the war, his navy also joined the anti-submarine escort team, and the U.S. navy formed a formation of merchant ships and used warships to carry out armed escorts. In addition, Britain and the United States used advanced mines, and arranged a huge minefield in the entire English Channel and the North Sea, making it more difficult for German submarines to enter the Atlantic, and the British and American navies basically removed the threat of German submarines, and the United States became an unimpeded passage from Britain and France.

As a result, the United States continued to send supplies and troops to France, and Germany had already failed strategically.

By the beginning of 1918, the United States had sent a total of four divisions to the European theater, namely the 1st Division, the 2nd Division, the 26th Division, and the 42nd Neon Division, with a total of more than 100,000 people.

These 100,000 people, from the beginning of the battle for the Belleo Forest, caused a lot of trouble to the successive German Army, disrupted the deployment of the high command, and made it deeply fearful, according to intelligence, the second batch of American expeditionary force has more than one million men, will continue to sail to Europe.

Such an intelligence command naturally panicked.

At least to capture Paris before the second American expeditionary force came ashore.

This battle is only allowed to be won, not defeated!

The Berlin regiment was a tank regiment, mechanized, which soon rushed from the city of Ilsund to the Reims front.

The Berlin regiment was first stationed in a forest behind the line of fire by a staff officer of the Sixth Army, and was ordered to be on call at any time, and Hitler was pleased with this arrangement, and the present Berlin regiment was not familiar with the situation, and it was not suitable to be directly engaged in battle since it had come from afar, and it was supposed to rest for a day or two. Moreover, the Berlin regiment is an elite regiment, and good steel is used on the blade, which should be used flexibly as a reserve.

The Berlin regiment was stationed in a safe place, and then Hitler and his officers went to the Reims front to investigate the fighting at the front.