Feron Tadnoy.

Liu Zizheng's troops are building a defensive line.

As confirmed by the Algerian Foreign Legion Command, the 1st Division has a total of seven regiments, namely five infantry regiments, an artillery regiment and an armored regiment, and the numbers within the Foreign Legion are 6-12 regiments.

This designation is limited to the battle sequences of the Foreign Legion.

Within the 1st Division, all the units were subdivided into nine regiments, numbered 1-9. Among them, Chen Kangjian's armored brigade is subordinate to two regiments, the first and the second; Liu Zizheng and Grace two infantry brigades were subordinate to four regiments, occupying three to six; Zheng Dali's artillery brigade is also two subordinate regiments, the seventh regiment is equipped with towed artillery, and the eighth regiment is equipped with self-propelled guns that have just been installed; The last Ninth Regiment belonged to the regiment directly under Qin Zhiyuan, which was composed entirely of foreigners.

Compared with the British and French divisions, the first division was about 23,000 men, which was about the same as the establishment of the American division.

Liu Zizheng's troops were responsible for the first line of defense on the front.

With the Zhuyu of the Hindenburg defense line in front, the defense line of the first division is not bad at all, if you have to find a difference, it is probably an anti-artillery hole.

The Germans had plenty of time to build a defensive line, and their Hindenburg line had been repaired for half a year, so they could dig holes down in an orderly manner until they were forty or fifty meters deep.

The first division did not have much time, and it was only a week to be full, so it was naturally impossible to dig a dozen stories as deep, so it could only be tricky. Fortunately, there were many smart people in the 1st Division, and according to the characteristics of the Germans' firepower, they created anti-slope anti-artillery holes, which did not need to be dug deeper, and the defensive performance was not much worse.

The so-called "anti-slope anti-artillery hole" is to dig the anti-artillery hole in the position where the Germans can't shoot directly, in view of the hilly terrain chosen by Qin Zhiyuan, it is not difficult to dig it, plus the warehouse and tube steel structure produced by Renault, the defensive performance is still very good.

Long before rushing to Feron Tade Noy, Qin Zhiyuan found the old Renault and asked the old Renault to produce a batch of large steel frame structures that can be assembled, which can not only be used as support in the anti-artillery hole, but also can quickly build defensive pillboxes.

These steel structures are similar to yurts with two openings, both exits can be opened from the inside or closed, once the openings are closed, they cannot be opened by manpower from the outside, and can only be destroyed with explosives.

In order to increase the defensive ability, the soldiers even piled several layers of sandbags around the bunkers, which were difficult to destroy unless they were directly hit by large-caliber heavy artillery.

Because of the abundant supply of materials, the light machine guns of the first division have been popularized to the squad level, and there are two in each squad, and each pillbox is garrisoned by a squad, which can take into account the shooting on both sides.

Yes, that is, on both sides, this is the main point of forming crossfire, there are shooting holes on the pillbox, but the shooting holes are not directly aimed at the direction of the enemy rushing over, but at the front of the side, which can not only prevent the enemy from shooting directly at the defenders in the pillbox, but also cooperate with other pillboxes to form an effective crossfire to kill the enemy.

The 1st Division's heavy machine guns were assigned to the company level, and each company had a platoon of machine guns, armed with four heavy machine guns and four 80 mm mortars, which, together with light machine guns assigned to the squad level, formed the basic firepower of the 1st Division.

Speaking of firepower density, the first division, because of the large proportion of heavy machine guns, is not at all worse than the British division, and it is not a star and a half stronger than the German division.

Although the number of machine guns was large, they were scattered across the entire front, and it felt like there was still insufficient firepower.

The position chosen by Qin Zhiyuan is a semi-circular position on the mountain, the advantage of this position is that it will not be attacked by the enemy, and the disadvantage is that the salient on the defensive line will become the key target of the Germans, once a point is broken, the entire front will collapse.

Fortunately, Liu Zizheng still has a trump card in his hand, that is, 20 taels of FT-17 tanks. These twenty tanks may not be able to attack them, but if they join the defense, they will be of great use. There are many advantages of using tank defense over stationary pillboxes, such as being flexible, being able to transfer at any time, and being able to flexibly deploy according to the direction of the enemy's attack. For example, the tank itself has a strong defensive ability, and it is difficult to destroy unless it is shot in the face by a direct artillery. Another example is that the tank itself has the ability to assault, can actually counter-charge the enemy, and so on.

In short, Liu Zizheng prepared a big meal for Crown Prince William on the battlefield, and waited for Crown Prince William to come and taste it.

About 500 meters behind the first line of defense, Greiff's troops were also building a line. Unlike Liu Zizheng's offensive and defensive forces, Grave's troops mainly built anti-artillery holes. Greve's troops were reserves, and once the Liu Zizheng Brigade or Bastian's 32nd Division in front could not bear it, the Greif Brigade would have to go up.

Qin Zhiyuan's headquarters is on the defense line of the Greeve Brigade, the headquarters is built on the top of a slightly higher hill, and the nearly 400-foot headquarters is reinforced with three layers of sandwich, the bottom layer is a steel frame structure, and two layers of sandbags are laid on top, and then the top is logs, and the top is still sandbags.

Such a structure has been tested in the last exercise, and it can withstand the direct bombardment of 200 mm caliber heavy artillery, and no matter how large the caliber is estimated, the Germans will not be able to pull it, and it has already entered the level of railguns.

At the same time, about 5 kilometers north of the main position, Chen Kangjian's armored troops were doing the last maintenance of the tank.

The panzers hid in the woods, and the tanks were covered with camouflage cloth, so that even if the German reconnaissance planes passed through the treetops, they would not necessarily be able to detect them. The auxiliary fuel tanks on the tanks have been removed, the tanks are filled with fuel, the ammunition racks are filled with high-explosive shells, and the troops are ready for sorties.

Chen Kangjian's task is to make a detour, once the main position is opened, Chen Kangjian will lead the armored regiment to detour back behind the Germans' buttocks, even if they can't encircle and annihilate all the Germans, they will also annihilate a part of the Germans.

The battle began as soon as the Germans set out from Reims.

Hu Tingfeng and Kim Tae-ho lead the scouts to seduce the Germans, and they want to lead the Germans to the preset position. In order to be able to successfully complete the task, Qin Zhiyuan gave all the partial three wheels to Hu Tingfeng, which was enough to provide the scouts with unparalleled maneuverability, whether it was the German war horses or their trucks, they could not catch up with the scouts who were like stepping on the Hot Wheels.

On 3 May, the forward units of the German Fifth Army set out from Reims and launched an attack on Ferontadenuy.

On the same day, there was an exchange of fire between the reconnaissance units of the 1st Division and the forward units of the 7th Army.

(To be continued.) )