Chapter 289: Operation Lightning in the Night

Ludendorff and Bob made a joint call to Crown Prince William, and he was immediately ready to deal with a massive counterattack by the squadron. Judging from the current situation, the Chinese's counterattack is likely to be at this point in Alsi on the Orb River. Although the German army on the north bank had five or six divisions, they fought for a long time and had insufficient logistical supplies, and the Chinese were best at tactics.

This building is still very subtle, after all, it is necessary to take care of the face of the crown prince. In fact, Bob said to Ludendorff: "From what I know about the Chinese, they value mobilizing opponents in sports and then eliminating opponents in sports." The Japanese suffered this loss, and the Chinese already had a mature military theory two thousand years ago, and the book is called "The Art of War." Soldiers, treacherous ways. Therefore, it can be shown but cannot be used, it is not used to show it, it is near and it is far away, and it is far away and it is shown to be near. Profit and temptation, chaos and take, real and prepared, strong and avoid, angry and scratch, humble and arrogant, easy and hard, kiss and leave, attack its unprepared, surprise. Bob skillfully recited a passage from the original text of the Art of War, which of course translated into German.

Crown Prince William, after receiving the telegram, attracted attention. But it was a little late, it was already dusk on the 25th. Let's put it this way, because of the estimation of the crown prince's face, Ludendorff and Bob did not directly say that the Germans would take the initiative to retreat. But it was precisely this that brought the required time for the counterattack of the Chinese expeditionary force.

Cai and the others, in fact, did not tell the truth to Petain, for the simple reason that they were afraid that Petain would not be able to accept launching a counterattack at night.

At dusk on the 25th, five o'clock! The setting sun is gradually swallowed up by the sky, and the last remnant of the sun struggles in the sky. On the south bank of the Ob River, a thunderous and dense artillery fire rang out. More than 700 heavy guns, including two 210 heavy artillery brigades, simultaneously poured artillery fire on the German positions on the opposite bank. This was a surprise in the true sense of the word, and the Germans could not have expected it. The Chinese Expeditionary Force began artillery preparations just before dark.

Pétain had put almost all the heavy artillery units he could mobilize under the command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and he really needed a victory to lift the morale of the army. The heavy artillery units that had been brought down from the front intact before were replenished with ammunition. The heavy artillery units of the Chinese Expeditionary Force are finally fully equipped.

The army group was directly subordinate to three brigades of heavy artillery. Equipped with 210 howitzers with two regiments and one brigade, and 155 howitzers with three regiments and two brigades. The heavy artillery brigades under each army are two regiments. Armed with 24 105 and 155 howitzers, respectively. Plus the heavy artillery battalions of each division, as well as a 210 heavy artillery brigade of the French army, 5 155 heavy artillery regiments, fired at the same time.

On the left flank of the Eastern Battlefield. The Chinese Expeditionary Force concentrated the strength of 13 divisions of 5 armies and 2 tank brigades, and after three hours of artillery preparation, took advantage of the darkness to force the crossing of the Obu River and launch a fierce counterattack.

The squadron has never fought such a defeated battle, including 75 mountain artillery, a full 200,000 shells, which were fired out in three hours. During artillery fire preparation. Fully prepared sappers quickly erected more than 30 pontoon bridges.

At eight o'clock sharp, the artillery fire began to extend, and the German army, which had been bombarded with dense artillery fire, was in disarray. There was simply no way to organize an effective counterattack at the first time, and the German artillery opened fire to intercept it, but unfortunately it stopped after less than ten minutes of fighting, and there were no shells. Special operations divisions were operating rampantly behind enemy lines, and the German army's logistical supply was quite difficult. Not to mention the Germans here, even the Germans at Champagne Beach did not have more than one base number of shells. This is the advantage of fighting on the French mainland, after the German army's logistical supply was stretched, coupled with the layers of resistance of the Chinese expeditionary force, the German army consumed huge ammunition, and was subjected to a fierce counterattack before it could be replenished.

The expeditionary force laid out three corps in one go and simultaneously launched an attack on the north bank of the Orb River. The Germans were in the dark and it was difficult to judge the direction of the main attack. In fact, there is a main direction of attack, that is, the central assault of the Third Army in coordination with the chariot troops.

The first unit to rush across the pontoon bridge in the dark was Yang Zui's regiment. The so-called good steel is used on the blade, and Yang Zui, who has repeatedly made military exploits, was named again, with the 7th Division as the vanguard of the counterattack and the Yang Zui Regiment as the vanguard of the 7th Division. There is such a tradition in the squadron, the more critical the moment, the more the unit with the strongest combat effectiveness will be the first. If it can be selected as the vanguard regiment, it means that the combat effectiveness of this unit has been recognized by the superiors.

In the dark, Yang drunk a submachine gun and four grenades on his waist, no different from ordinary commandos. In fact, the entire regiment was equipped with this equipment, and more than 5,000 submachine guns were allocated by Petain, all of which were given to the various units of these night assaults.

Tata Tower, the remaining German machine gun positions came to the sound, the commando team that was rushing forward instantly fell two fighters, the others quickly scattered on the spot to hide, the light machine gun immediately harassed with point fire, attracting the attention of the German machine gun, and then the mortar gunner quickly locked on to the target, and the two 60 mortars opened fire together. German machine-gun positions were knocked out. The Sharp Knife Company rushed forward quickly, rushing into the trench, and the point fire of the submachine guns rang out frequently, and the follow-up troops continued to rush in through the gap opened by the Sharp Knife Company, expanding the results of the battle.

Yang Zui had been paying attention to the movements of the sharp knife company, and was very satisfied with this scene, raising his hand to look at the time, in less than an hour, he had already broken through the first line of defense of the German army. "Order, don't stop, keep rushing forward, the second commando team will take the lead."

The task of the 7th Division was clear, it was to take advantage of the darkness to make a hole in the German position. Open the passage for the chariot troops to attack forward, because it is a night battle, it is very difficult for tanks to drive on the battlefield at night, and infantry is needed to guide them.

The core of this counterattack was not a full-scale attack, but a penetration of the German center with the 7th Division with tanks. Undoubtedly, this is a bold idea and a surprise move. This tactic is based on the fact that the depth of the German defense line is insufficient. This is also the reason why the top brass of the expeditionary force dares to do this. It is a very strange phenomenon that the German army has not done so well in terms of defensive depth.

The second commando took over and rushed forward, and soon ran into the second line of German defense, and the dense German fire began to exert its might, even in the dark, it managed to suppress beautifully. But the biggest headache for the Germans was the mortars of the squadron. Although the Germans also equipped a lot, they were far from being as reasonable as the squadrons. Coupled with the previous artillery preparations, it did inflict huge losses on the poorly prepared German troops.

"Rushed up, well done!" Yang Zui saw Zhang Jingyao rushing into the German trenches with the third commando team in the telescope, and his heart was secretly excited. Judging by aerial reconnaissance, the Germans had only two lines of defense.

Looking at the time, it was half past one in the morning, and the fierce battle had been going on for five and a half hours. The vanguard regiment that kept rushing forward did not care about the number of casualties, and according to Yang Zui's estimate, at least one battalion was gone. Despite the surprise, the German resistance was unexpectedly stubborn, a far cry from fighting at home.

There was no time to think about the casualties now, Yang Zui took the submachine gun and rushed up with the follow-up troops, rushing headlong into the German trenches. As soon as he jumped down, a sapper shovel ran over his head, and the Chinese and German soldiers in the trenches were already mixed together. The sound of Tatata's submachine gun fire came and went, and the screams continued to sound.

Yang Zui is a practitioner, and he reacted quickly, one shrunk his neck, and some of the sappers shoveled and slashed at the top edge of the steel helmet. The subsequent guard squad was half frightened to death, and two daggers stabbed at the same time, and the German commander did not see anything clearly, and fell to the ground.

In the night, the fierce battle continued, and Pétain's adjutants, Jean and Phil, learned that the counterattack of the squadron was at night, and it was too late to report. I had to hurriedly report it and run to the front to see the progress of the battle.

Jean and Phil just in time for the chariot brigade to cross the river, nearly a hundred tanks, cautiously moving forward on the pontoon bridge, the sappers who have been soaking in the river for five or six hours, are still reinforcing the ten pontoon bridges in the middle. Luckily, it's early summer and the Orb River isn't too wide. When the last tank crumbled across the river, Jean Phil breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking up at the night on the other side, it was half past three in the morning, and in another hour and a half, the sky would be cloudy.

Petain did not rest when he received the telegram, and during this time he slept no more than four hours a day. There are too many things, especially the counterattack of the Chinese, which he has been paying attention to. When Jean and Phil's telegram arrived, Petain's heart twitched, and at the same time a trace of anger flickered. But then a telegram from the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrived, explaining that "aerial reconnaissance showed that the Germans seemed to be showing signs of strengthening their defenses, and for the sake of the suddenness of the battle, they launched an attack in advance." ”

Actually, this explanation doesn't make sense, but it's an explanation anyway. Petain was furious, but he also admired the courage of the Chinese expeditionary force to attack at night. As time went by, the second telegram that Petain had been waiting for was delayed. It was already dawn, and this telegram had not yet arrived. Petain began to feel a little anxious.

The roar of the tank's engine rushed forward with the rolling smoke, and the two tank brigades rushed forward along the passage opened by the infantry, and Xia Xiang in the command vehicle directly exposed his head outside, watching his tank torrent go forward.

The infantry of the Third Army continued to move closer to the back of the tank, and the German army, which had been fighting fiercely all night, was now powerless to stop in the face of the suddenly killed tanks. Nearly a hundred tanks crossed the trenches and rushed behind the German lines.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Li Yifeng, commander of the Third Army, sent a telegram to the command of the expeditionary force, and the chariot troops, accompanied by the 7th Division, had broken through the defensive line of the German army in the middle and were advancing towards Somersu.

On the 26th, at ten o'clock in the morning, Petain finally waited for the second telegram from the command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, broke through the German direction, and divided and surrounded the forces of about five German divisions in the line of defense on the Obu River. It is expected that in 24 hours, Operation Dark Night Lightning will be successfully completed.

At the end of June 1917, the Chinese Expeditionary Force launched the "Dark Night Lightning Operation", which is recognized by historians as an important turning point in World War I. The ordinary people of France are more willing to accept the newspaper as "the most brilliant lightning in the long night".