September 1917. It was an uneventful month, and the First World War had entered its final and final climax. In this month, the Bolsheviks in Russia were still discussing the possibility of an armed seizure of power, in this month Britain and France urged the Americans to speed up the deployment of troops, and in this month, the US Army established its first tank unit.

Speaking of this tank unit, it is necessary to mention one person - George. Smith. Barton. To be honest, this name is familiar to many people, but it is still necessary to mention it again. First of all, there is actually a suffix after this name, the Patton we know should actually be called Patton III, because his father, his grandfather also called this name, and even his son is called this name (if this family gathers together, it should be quite happy).

Straight to the point, George. Smith. The name Patton is a legend in the U.S. Army, such as the original Patton (for convenience, let's call Patton I), the elder Patton died in 1864, and comrades familiar with American history will know that this old man died in the Civil War.

A graduate of the Virginia Military Academy (Patton III also attended the academy in order to get through the back door), Patton I was a valiant cavalry colonel in the Civil War, and his saddle remained in the Patton family after his death. And this was the beginning of Patton III's relationship with cavalry and tanks.

However, when it comes to this Patton I, it has to be mentioned that the ancestor of this Patton I was also a great figure. Mercer followed Washington to fight the world. Officer to Brigadier General. But it was probably the beginning of the curse of this family. The Brigadier General also had the misfortune to spill his blood on the battlefield.

And this hapless ghost set a FLAG for the Patton family: "Fight bravely!" Advance! Advance! Don't disgrace the honor of the family! Never tarnish our ancient surname! ”

Anyway, never rest. Mercer began to associate the Patton family with the military. The Barton family in the back is all fierce, by the way, except for Barton's father. This Patton II is a standard American politician, a lawyer-turned-speaker, a law firm, a former district attorney, and the third wife of the Wilson family in California.

Of course. This Wilson family is also very good, for example, Patton III's grandfather was the first mayor of Los Angeles!

All in all, compared with other famous American generals in World War II, Patton III is an out-and-out rich second generation and official second generation, and even when he was young, Patton III was tall and mighty, very rich and handsome (but to tell the truth, some people say that Patton was handsome and chic when he was young, to speak from the heart, after looking at the photos of the old man when he was young, I really don't think how handsome and chic.) He can only be regarded as tall and mighty).

And Barton is not only fierce in his ancestors, but also fierce himself. The son is as fierce. His son, Patton IV, followed in his father's footsteps, setting a historical record for two generations of father and son serving as supreme commander of the same unit (2nd Panzer Division).

Let's put it this way, Patton's success was based on illustrious family affairs, and to put it mildly, without the help of the Patton family, Patton III would probably have been unknown (otherwise he would not have been eligible to enter West Point). Why? It is nothing more than to tell some students who like to talk about the system that there is no absolute fairness in the world here, even if it is a lighthouse country, there is a backdoor and nepotism.

Alright, back to business. This chapter is clearly about the story of Patton III. As the first tanker in the United States, he was also the commander of the first tank unit in the United States. Patton seems to have been brilliant in various encyclopedias and biographies during the First World War!

But, I would say, this Nima is! Most of them are gilded, all based on the results of Patton III in World War II, ordinary people feel that those geniuses are always different from ordinary people, Patton in World War II has brilliant results, and the natural First World War will not be bad.

The question is, is this true? Can anyone tell us what decent victories Patton III achieved in the First World War, with countless tanks, armoured vehicles or fortified bunkers destroyed like Karjus and Wechmann? Or did Patton III break through the German defenses?

Truth be told, no such record can be found. Patton III had little to offer, the only thing worth mentioning was that he established a tank school in France to train tankers, and its teaching was said to be quite rigorous.

As for what said that Patton became a first-class tank expert at that time, creatively established a new branch of troops, invented epoch-making new tactics, and created an invincible and invincible heroic army, and said that his brave spirit and military leadership were fully demonstrated on the battlefield. If you believe these nonsense, you can only say: "Young man, you have been fooled!" ”

Let's put it this way, if Patton and his troops were really invincible and invincible, there should have been a lot of brilliant results mentioned earlier, but unfortunately there were none. There is no success to testify to invincibility and invincibility. On the contrary, what we can see is that in June 1920, the Senate of the US imperialism passed the "National Defense Act", which directly abolished the existence of tank units as an independent service and directly disbanded tank units.

What, if Patton's tank troops are really invincible and invincible, will the Senate eat too much and do too much to do the things that are happy for those who are relatives and enemies?

It is clear that Patton did not have much outstanding performance in World War I, and his tank unit behaved very mediocre. How common is it? When it came to the Senate, there was no need to retain the existence of this independent army.

If Patton's tank units really performed particularly dazzling and brilliant in World War I, then it would be a real hell. Back then, the American GIs used the French FT-17, so it goes without saying what kind of performance this thing is, right? Counting on this guy to play the effect of tank armored assault in World War II is called!

At that time, even the British and French, who actually used tanks on a large scale, did not dare to say that they had mastered the use of tanks, let alone American recruits who had just come into contact with tanks?

Of course, Patton is ready to use the tanks at hand, and that's where the story begins. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Allied attack on Szczecin was frustrated. There is no way to open the situation at all. Faced with this egg-hurting situation. In order to break through the fortified positions of the Russians, Patton's tank brigade was transferred to fight in Szczecin.

"Attack! We must go on the offensive immediately, at all costs, kicking the enemy in the crotch until we kick their balls! ”

This is Patton's speech, and when the tank brigade commander arrived in Szczecin, the first thing he said was to attack, and at this time. His temporary superior, Major General Greg, commander of the 23rd Division of the British Expeditionary Force, was confused by these words.

The very British major general wrote in his diary: "Colonel Patton made a bad first impression on me, he was like a rude cowboy...... And the advice he put forward is even more stunning, attack? What to attack? When the Germans do not cooperate, we blindly plunge in, and we will only be met with a head-on attack by the Russians! ”

Ratton's other temporary superior, Colonel Clément, commander of the French Independent Brigade, had some admiration for the too young American colonel, but not because of Patton's military prowess, but because of Patton's ability to speak fluent Parisian French. And Patton was very fond of France and the French way of life, which made the Gallic rooster, which had a strong national pride, very comfortable.

After some argument or quarrel. Major General Greg was forced to agree to Patton's plea, agreeing that he would launch an armored assault the next morning. To open a breakthrough in the line of defense of the Russians for the follow-up troops.

Patton had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and he couldn't wait to make a big move, and in this attack he threw an entire tank battalion. At the same time, Li Xiaofeng was also actively preparing, he was ready to stab the Entente army, and interestingly, Triandafilov's chosen breakthrough was exactly the direction of Patton's surprise attack the next day. That is, the first collision of two geniuses in mechanized warfare is about to take place.

Unfortunately, Triandafilov didn't have tanks, not even armored cars, and the clash looked more like a clash of infantry and tanks.

Turning the day, at half past seven in the morning, when the sun had just risen and there was still a faint mist on the battlefield, Patton was the first to move. In order to achieve the effect of the surprise attack, he canceled the preparation of artillery fire and threw about 60 tanks directly.

Accompanied by a rumbling gasoline engine, the FT-17's tracks ran over patches of weeds and launched an attack on the Red Army positions two kilometers away. I have to say that the performance of the tank in this year is too improvised, and the 35-horsepower gasoline engine can only give this 6-ton iron can a maximum speed of 7.7 kilometers per hour. What's even more improvising is that the maximum range of this tin can is only a measly 35 kilometers (worse than today's electric cars). After taking away the build-and-wait before the attack and the fuel consumption of the warm-up vehicle, the FT-17 is almost a single-use weapon.

However, Patton, who personally commanded the battle, did not feel that his car was too bad, and he leaned out of the turret for most of his body, holding a large telescope to observe the Red Army's position two kilometers away, and occasionally tapping the driver's shoulder or head with his toes.

At first, Patton's offensive went smoothly, and the Polish plains were indeed suitable for the use of armored troops, and the FT-17 pressed forward without hindrance, which really felt like a mountain of people.

Major General Greg was also watching Patton's attack from behind, and after lowering the binoculars, he said to Colonel Clement beside him: "The Americans' driving skills are not bad!" ”

And for the proud Frenchman, the words of Rear Admiral Greg were automatically translated by him as: "The performance of the French tank is not bad!" ”

Yes, the FT-17 is more of a tank in the truest sense of the word than a British tank, and the creativity of the British is always as easy to stray as their dark cuisine.

Back on the battlefield, Patton's tank forces struck forward about a mile in a steady and orderly manner, during which the Russians behaved strangely calmly, firing no shots and no artillery, as if frightened by the rumbling steel monsters.

To be honest, both Major General Greg and Colonel Clément liked this scene, because it reminded them of the Germans who faced tanks for the first time, and the Germans were terrified. Even they felt that if all went well, Patton's tank forces might be able to open a breakthrough.

But they only lasted a few minutes, and when Patton's tank had gone nearly a mile further, the silence on the battlefield was broken!

The Red Banner Baltic Fleet, anchored in Lake Donbetsu, began shelling at the request of front-line observers. A round of "heavy shells" of caliber of more than 150 mm fell around Patton's tank. Each explosion can set off a "rain of mud" nearly ten meters high. Patton, who was tall and mighty, with half of his body outside the turret, was poured hard.

The raindrops of mud and sand almost buried it. If it weren't for the fact that the driver was taken aback, slammed the accelerator hard, and shook the tank with a hard blow, poor Patton would have been almost buried alive by the rain of mud.

Of course, Patton's experience was okay, but he was harassed by the mud, and the more unlucky crew met God directly in the shelling. For example, as soon as Patton shook off the mud and sand on the tank cap, he saw another tank dozens of meters away being directly hit by a large-caliber grenade.

Let's put it this way. The grenade burrowed into the hull of the car without hindrance, and then the hull and turret were blown apart, and the turret flew over Patton's head with half of the unlucky captain's body, and several pieces of the hull made Patton's car clange.

Again, this is not the worst, when the battleship's main guns also joined the shelling, the little FT-17 was really like a leaf in a raging storm. A 305-mm grenade landed a dozen meters in front of a tank, and just as the commander of the vehicle was rejoicing that he had escaped, the explosion occurred.

The earth trembled, as if an earthquake was coming. Then the shock wave and the air wave swept through like a typhoon, and the commander who was exposed to the overpressure seemed to have been struck by a fifty-pound hammer. A mouthful of blood spurted out, and his pilot was no better, under the effect of the shock wave, FT-17 was really just a tin can, and he also bled to death in seven holes in a minute.

The heavy shelling lasted ten minutes, and these ten minutes of shelling destroyed nearly a quarter of Patton's tanks. Truth be told, Barton's heart was bleeding when he saw this scene. After all, these tankers were all trained by him, and they were all his hard work, and these young men disappeared from the battlefield before they even met the enemy!

However, Barton is not a woman's kind person, on the contrary, he is very iron-blooded, hard-hearted, and does not feel too much about casualties. Soon he was freed from his sorrow, and for him he continued to move on, to keep going, and to destroy the evil Bolsheviks and pay the debt with blood!

That's what Patton thought, and that's what he did, and under his leadership, the American tankers stepped on the gas pedal and charged forward at full speed, with the intention of tearing the enemy's defenses to pieces in one fell swoop.

At this time, Major General Greg once again put down his binoculars and said to Colonel Clemment beside him: "The Americans are doing really well!" ”

This time, even the proud French did not dare to take all the credit on themselves, because the Americans really showed themselves bravely, and there is nothing to say about it. So he nodded sullenly in agreement.

Major General Greg said: "Let's see if we can make some progress today, inform the boys, get ready for battle!" ”

Yes, at first Major General Greg did not have much hope for American tanks and tankers, and it can even be said that he was not optimistic about them at all, so he was not prepared to put the infantry into the offensive at first. And now, if the Americans had maintained this courageous posture, it was quite possible that they would have made progress, and even Greg's cold heart would come alive again - throw in the infantry, occupy the positions of the Russians, and show the Germans how good the Entente really were!

Barton didn't know that the mentality of Greg and Clement behind him had changed, and he seemed to be possessed by the first generation of old Patton when he devoted himself to the battle, at this time he was like Patton I who rushed and beat in the Civil War, incarnated as the sharpest sharp blade, ready to bleed the polar bear!

It seems that there is nothing to stop the crazy Patton, and he is a little bit indomitable, not only him, but also Greg and Clément feel that the Russians are more than lucky. They decided that the Russians would not be able to stop the "furious advance" of the tanks!

Is that really the case? Anyway, after hearing that the Allies had launched a new offensive and threw in tanks, Trian Dafilov hurried to the front line to watch the battle. Speaking from the heart, this tactical genius was a little annoyed, as mentioned earlier, he was ready to make the first move, but now the whole plan has been disrupted by the enemy, which makes him a little regretful.

However, this regret of Trian Dafilov was soon dispersed by Patton's charge, who later became the founder of the theory of large-depth warfare. He began to study the future mode of warfare, especially the combat methods of mechanized warfare, very early.

It is a pity that backward Russia has restricted Triandafilov from immediately experimenting with his theories, and even if he meets Li Xiaofeng, he can only talk on paper. At this time, facing the impact of tanks or mechanized troops is undoubtedly a very valuable experience.

For Triandafilov, this valuable experience will help him refine and derive the theory of mechanized warfare that will belong to the Red Army in the future. Based on this, he inevitably began to get excited again.

Little did Patton know that on the other side of the battlefield there was already an opponent on the other side of the battlefield who was ready to use him as a guinea pig for experimental combat theory. If Barton knew that he was just a test subject in the eyes of Triandafilov, he would be so angry that he would vomit blood...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Comrade Wanted and Juventus!