Chapter 406: The Pittsburgh Meat Grinder (9)

A young staff officer wrote in the report, "When our army launched the attack, the Chinese army did not immediately counterattack, which can be explained by the deliberate weakness of the Chinese to make our attacking force completely unable to return." But with the results achieved so far by this terrible army www.biquge.info it is not logical to expose their hole cards in advance in order to kill tens of thousands more, and they are also hole cards that we can learn, so I think they will do it, there must be another reason! ”

"I suspect that the Chinese didn't want to fire in a hurry, but that they couldn't fire during that time! Because then there was no one in their forward positions at all! This conjecture of the young staff officer may sound absurd at first glance, but after careful consideration, the generals found that it was really logical......

"There is indeed this possibility, even if their artillery is of higher quality and better artillery, and they can quickly suppress our artillery after starting a counterattack, but it will always take some time to estimate the position, and the number of our artillery is there, and they are all howitzers with curved ballistics and a larger charge, even if the enemy hides in the trenches, the lethality of the artillery will not be too bad, and even if the time for the preparation of the shelling does not meet the normal requirements, it is enough to cause the enemy to suffer a lot of losses. The enemy, who had fought hard and could not be replenished, was most afraid of too many casualties, and it was indeed a very good idea to put the troops in the rear, wait until our artillery was ready, and then quickly enter the position through the communication trenches, and I would probably do the same. Major General Pershing deduced the young staff officer's train of thought in just a few words, which was enough to show his outstanding military talent.

However, the method of cracking still came from the young staff officer, "In fact, the method of cracking is not difficult, as long as the infantry charges while the artillery fire is prepared, if the enemy still does this, it is equivalent to taking the initiative to give up the position to us!" ”

The young staff officer did not know, he said that the tactic he thought of was actually the "artillery offensive tactic" invented by Stalin in the late stage of World War II, and on the basis of the overwhelming superiority in the number of artillery, this tactic had incomparable power in attacking positions, but it also had a considerable flaw, or rather a relatively high prerequisite......

"If the coordination of infantry and artillery is not tacit enough, I am afraid that the number of people who will die under our own artillery fire will be more than the enemy will kill." Because of this serious flaw, most of the generals do not approve of the adoption of this new tactic to deal with the Heavenly Punishment Column, because there is simply not enough time for the US Army to train and run-in, not to mention that in order to deal with the Heavenly Punishment Column, the US Army has lost too much artillery, and now the artillery units are all filled with a large number of recruit eggs, let them complete such a demanding new tactic, isn't it a joke with the lives of the infantry?

The only obvious expression of support was for the newly promoted Major General Pershing, not entirely because he dared to innovate, but because he had no interests of his own. With Pershing's position and qualifications, he is powerless to directly change the decisions of the army, but as Theodore Roosevelt's most important confidant in the Union Army, he can give his opinion to heaven, as long as he can get the support of Mr. President, those old guys are a fart, don't look at the United States also advocates the separation of powers, but in today's situation of all-out war, the president's power is actually very large.

In his report to Mr. President, Pershing frankly expressed his opinion, pointing out that although the artillery offensive tactics have a high rate of accidental casualties, considering the current disparity in the exchange ratio between the enemy and us, even if half of the dead were killed by US artillery, it is more cost-effective than using the old tactics, not to mention that the new tactics can also greatly save valuable time, which is more important than tens of thousands of casualties! Moreover, Pershing also suggested that the two army groups withdrawn from the west coast should be put in charge of the offensive, and their artillery losses were not as large as on this side, and there were some good gunners available, which should be better competent. Although they have only just arrived in the east and are tired from the journey, the details of the new tactics still need to be perfected, and there is enough time for them to go north and recuperate.

After reading Pershing's suggestion, Theodore Roosevelt immediately understood why all those high-ranking generals were opposed, it turned out that the excellent gunners of their own troops had been lost and it was difficult to complete the task, and if it was handed over to those two group armies with more veterans to complete, not only would they not have their share of the credit, but they would also lose face, and the fool would agree!

Knowing that those guys were only opposing for their own selfish interests and those of the small group, President Roosevelt did not hesitate to side with Pershing, issuing orders for the two armies to speed up their march north, and for them to hurry up and practice new tactics. However, Roosevelt also gave the three armies that entered the war earlier a chance, and they were the main attack within half a month, and if they could destroy the enemy in advance, the great credit would naturally be theirs.

But how easy is that? The previous defeat directly turned one army group into a half-crippled, and the morale of the other two armies was also seriously affected, and it was impossible to launch a large-scale offensive in a short time. And if you make a small fuss, after all, the enemy still has at least one division of troops, so how useful can that be?

The U.S. military first tried a night attack, but the effect was not good, but because of negligence, it was attacked by a small group of enemy troops at night and the formation was in chaos, and the dead were still second, and the key was to suffer another blow to morale. However, in the end, what made the US military give up the night attack was that the tactic of night attack naturally limited the number of troops invested, and under the condition that the enemy was not chaotic, let alone half a month, even if it was three months, it would not be possible to defeat the Heavenly Punishment Column. Although even this cannot be said to be completely useless, but thinking that those two group armies will come to take over soon, the fool is tired and tired to make wedding dresses for others!

After giving up the night attack, the U.S. military adopted the suggestion of a certain staff officer and asked for a large-caliber train gun to help in the war, and President Roosevelt also cooperated, and sent a new train gun that had just been assembled, which was no longer like the previous garbage that was temporarily cobbled together in line with the idea of waste utilization, but directly adopted the latest main gun on the South Carolina-class battleship and modified the train in a very targeted manner, not to mention the great power, the most important thing is that the firing range is very long, greatly exceeding the 210mm heavy howitzer of the Heavenly Punishment Column, Although the nearest railway was a little far away from the enemy's artillery positions, it was not difficult to reach the several outer lines of the Heavenly Punishment Column. (To be continued.) )