After the British and French forces failed to land on the northwest coast of Bordeaux, France, they had to forcibly launch the Battle of Tours, after all, the British and French forces had been preparing for this battle for several months, even if they failed miserably in Bordeaux and lost nearly 200,000 troops, but the Battle of Tours could not be postponed any longer, and if it was postponed, the German army would be more fully prepared.

The British and French leaders thought that the Germans did not know that they were going to launch the Battle of Tours, but in fact the Germans knew about it for a long time, and they had also formulated complete defensive measures, and it was possible that the Germans would launch a counteroffensive.

On July 20, 1917, the British and French forces launched a large-scale attack on the German-occupied Tours, with the British first capturing Nottel Dodaner northeast of Tours and Metley in the north, and the French conquering Charontilly and Saint-Roque in the northwest.

Tours is a city in the central west of France, where the Loire, the largest river in France, and its second largest tributary, the Cher River, flow through the city. The city was built in the first century AD, became a military fortress in the Middle Ages, and was the capital of France in the early Renaissance. During this period, the French built a large number of castles in the Loire Valley, where Tours is located, and Tours is also known as the Garden of France.

The Loire River divides the city of Tours into north and south, and since ancient times, the original owners of the land have established their cities here. After the Anglo-French forces contributed to the outlying towns north and northwest of Tours, the city of Tours was exposed to the Anglo-French forces.

In fact, the Germans did not panic about this, they were confident, and the German troops stationed in Tours were as usual. It's just that the level of the garrison has been raised.

The Germans not only built three lines of defense outside Tours, but also deployed large numbers of troops in the urban areas south of the Loire. To the south of the Loire, the Germans also deployed large numbers of troops. Many forts were built to stop the British and French from attacking.

To the south of the Loire, there is another river, the second largest tributary of the Loire - the Cher River, which divides the southern city of Tours into two parts, and the Germans decided that if the city north of the Loire cannot be defended, they will retreat south of the Loire, and if they are attacked by the Anglo-French army again, the Germans will retreat to the south bank of the Scheer River.

The commander of the Anglo-French forces this time was General Hamilton, a British Army general with extremely rich experience in commanding operations. He participated in the Second Afghan War from 1878 to 1880, the First Anglo-Boer War in 1881, the Mahdi War from 1883 to 1898, the Third Burma War in 1885, the Battle of Tillah in 1897, and the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899. In terms of military qualifications, he is older than the current British local power Haig.

General Hamilton, 64, is still strong and energetic. Often talked about with the soldiers.

In this attack on Tours, the British and French forces mobilized 1.5 million troops to prepare to break through the Tours defense line in one fell swoop, and the military position of Tours was very important. Judging from the current situation of the territory occupied by the German army and the Anglo-French army, if the Anglo-French army broke through the Tours Line, the German army in Orleans upstream and some cities downstream of the Loire would have to retreat. Otherwise, it will be copied by the Anglo-French forces.

German spies had long been informed of the Anglo-French offensive plan, and the Germans deployed 600,000 troops in Tours and nearby cities along the Loire to defend against the Anglo-French attack. In fact, the Germans could have mobilized more troops, but the Germans could not. There are too many cities and places that the German army needs to garrison, after all, this is not Germany, but France, relative to the French, the German army is the aggressor, once there is an opportunity, the French will definitely resist, so the German army must deploy some troops in various places to deter the local French, and it is already the limit to be able to draw 600,000 troops to defend the front line of Tours.

The commander of the Allied forces, the Englishman General Hamilton, first ordered three divisions to attack Saint-Jean-U, southwest of Tours, where there was an island in the middle of the river for the British and French troops to use as a springboard to attack the Germans on the south bank of the river, but this very dangerous section of the river for the defenders, the German commanders had obviously noticed it for a long time, so the Germans deployed troops on the island to defend it, so that the British and French troops would not easily occupy the small island in the middle of the river.

It took the British army four days and lost more than 16,000 people to capture the island, and the British army was stubbornly resisted here, and suffered heavy losses, but the battle had already begun, and it was impossible to stop at this time, otherwise all the preparations made in front would be tantamount to waste, and the British and French forces had to continue to attack.

On 24 July, the remnants of the German army withdrew from the island in the middle of the river to the south bank, and the island was occupied by the Anglo-French forces, but the Anglo-French forces paid a heavy price here again because of the large amount of explosives planted on the small island in the middle of the river before the Germans withdrew. However, when a large number of British and French troops landed on this small island and prepared to attack the German defensive positions on the south bank of the river, the German officers hiding on the island detonated the explosives buried in the ground, killing and wounding more than 9,000 British and French soldiers.

When the explosives exploded, the whole island in the middle of the river shook violently, and the ground in the middle of the island kicked up smoke and dirt, and nearly 10,000 British and French soldiers hid here.

The remaining British and French soldiers were terrified and scrambled to retreat to the north shore, and the commander of the coalition forces, General Hamilton, had to order a halt to the offensive and send a mine-clearing team to clear the island of mines and bombs.

After the attack here was thwarted, General Hamilton ordered the French Fifth Army to attack in front of Tours, this time the British prepared a hundred tanks to open the way in front of the French army, hoping to use the thick skin of the tanks to defend against the ammunition fired by the Germans on the opposite side, and to break through the German perimeter defenses.

The German commander, Field Marshal Timlin, ordered the tank regiment to attack, and the Germans threw all the seventy tanks that had just been brought over into battle, and launched an attack on the attacking British tanks, and a large number of German infantry followed behind the tanks and fired at the British troops in front.

It was the largest tank battle ever fought between the Allies and the Allies, with 100 Mark 1 tanks and 70 A7V tanks each firing at each other, while soldiers hid behind the tanks and opened fire.

This tank battle was fought in an extremely chaotic manner, and the research on tank tactics on both sides was basically equal to zero, so there were no tactics at all, and there was no tactical cooperation between tanks and tanks, tanks and friendly soldiers, and they were basically fighting on their own.

When a German tank opened fire and destroyed a British tank, it was quickly destroyed by another British tank, and after the battle began, the infantry automatically retreated, and the infantry subconsciously thought that the infantry could not intervene in the battle between tanks, and it was likely to affect the pond fish, so the infantry hid far away.

But in fact, tanks also need the protection of infantry, and tanks without infantry protection can easily be destroyed by infantry once they are close to the enemy. The Germans have studied the weaknesses and advantages of tanks, but at this time the tanks did not have the concern of being close to the enemy's infantry, why? For example, the German A7V tank was equipped with six machine guns, the male tank in the British Mark I tank was equipped with two 57mm guns and four machine guns, and the female tank was also equipped with five machine guns. Later tanks improved a lot in performance, but they were greatly weakened in continuous firepower, and generally tanks were armed with only one machine gun, which gave enemy infantry a chance to get close.

The chaotic battle of tanks resulted in no winner in this battle, and both sides suffered heavy losses, compared to the German A7V tanks in performance and the Mark 1 tanks, so the losses were smaller, but the British tanks had a numerical advantage, and the numerical advantage was enough to make up for the lag in performance.

The battle lasted from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and after two hours, the Germans lost 30 tanks, while the British lost 41.

After the battle of tanks, General Hamilton, the commander of the Anglo-French forces, did not order the attack to stop, he ordered the French Fifth Army to continue the attack on the German positions, but this time there were no tanks to open the way, and the German tanks also came out to block.

The German soldiers were accustomed to the overwhelming shells falling on the German positions, and they all hid in the anti-artillery holes to chat and smoke, and many of them talked with women very energetically.

But when the Anglo-French shelling was over, the Germans quickly rushed out of the anti-gun shelter to find their firing position and shoot at the French soldiers who were rushing towards them. The German machine gunners frantically opened fire on the French soldiers on both sides of the position, and the terrifying sidefire formed by the machine gun bullets caused the French soldiers to fall in front of the position.

In terms of close-range firepower, the Germans undoubtedly had much more options than the British and French, and the Germans were the first to use grenades, mortars and other weapons against Britain and France, and in terms of mortars, the German technology was much more mature, and these mortars of the German army and the grenades equipped by the German soldiers caused considerable casualties to the attacking French army. (To be continued......)