Chapter 224: The tide of battle has taken a sharp turn

The crossing of the line of fire and the road built by the French became the key to this battle. The tank group launched a surprise attack at night, and the French army was defenseless at all, and the assault group commanded by Bob easily tore through the French defense line and ran wildly along the road towards Ravouf.

The Germans uncharacteristically launched an all-out attack at night, a move that completely disrupted the French deployment. On this night, there were guns everywhere, guns everywhere. In contrast, the assault cluster commanded by Bob was relatively quiet.

"General, there's a French position on the side of the road ahead."

"Rush over, crush them, and keep rushing forward, leaving the rest to the infantry."

It was a bold attempt and an epoch-making genius idea. Bob is proud to have been able to realize this idea, but at the same time a little sentimental. Because the idea of this tactic is precisely that brother from the far east.

Bob subjectively believes that the war between China and Germany is certainly not the intention of Fang. In democracies, Congress has the final say. Although Fang holds the command of the army, judging from intelligence, it is not Fang who leads the troops to fight. As long as he didn't fight Fang Jianxiong, Bob's heart would be much more comfortable. It must have been Britain and France who bought off China's parliament, so their government sent troops.

After dark, thousands of German large-caliber guns continued to bombard the French positions fiercely. Heavy artillery fire turned the night sky red. In the darkness, the German soldiers squirmed in front of the position, and the French could only shrink into the position, shooting desperately, hoping to stop the crazy German army. It was the first time since the war that the Germans had launched such a large-scale attack at night.

The French artillery did not stop at night, but it became a kind of blind shooting. The Germans were attacking a certain position, and the artillery fire bombarded them. Anyway, it is very difficult for the Germans to suppress it with artillery fire at night, so let the Germans taste the power of artillery.

The fierce fighting eased a little before dawn. But it continues. A succession of bad news came from the front, and the brow of the commander-in-chief Pétain did not stretch all night. The German offensive was unexpectedly fierce, and there was constant news from the front that such and such a position had been broken through and that such and such a position was in crisis.

Perhaps the Germans were not good at fighting at night, and the French were even worse. On a front of tens of kilometers, the Germans were launching a massive attack everywhere overnight. In fact, then, after entering the night, the Germans adopted a kind of assault tactics of small detachments. The real offensive was not violent. The largest combat unit in a surprise attack is often just a company. And the main forces of the German army, after entering the night, recuperated and seized the time to rest. Replenish ammunition.

Fighting positional defensive warfare, the French army is still very good. But the huge casualties, as well as the loss of Verdun, were a big blow to the morale of the French army. Therefore, in the night battle, the French army did not dare to make sorties, but held their positions. So. In the night battles, it seemed that a lot of German troops were attacking, which was not the case in reality.

As the sky began to clear, German artillery fire calmed down after the second half of the night. There was another roar. Ludendorff had waited for Bob's news that his assault group, which had rushed past St. Meneourd, was lunging towards Lavove.

A strong German tank unit rushed through the lines. The news soon reached Pétain. For such a piece of news, Petain was dumbfounded. How could a tank be used like this? The French army also had tanks. But this thing has just been put into production, and there are not many of them, that is, several hundred, and all of them have fallen to the line of the Somme.

The question is, what is this German tank unit, after successively repelling the defense of three French infantry divisions, does not mean to stop, but continues to rush forward?

Just as Petain hesitated, news came from the front that the Germans had launched another fierce attack and had succeeded in opening a hole in the second line of French defense. This opening, in fact, was left by Bob's assault cluster, a French division stationed in this section, was attacked by a tank cluster last night and collapsed, but the news was not delivered in time, until dawn, the French army, which was still fighting, found that there was a five-kilometer-long gap in the defensive line. A large number of German troops are rushing in along this gap.

This gap must be plugged in time, and Pétain can only take care of this first, and urgently put the reserves in his hand into battle. Down, the army launched a counterattack and plugged the gap.

The command group composed of Cai, Zhang, and Feng urgently met to discuss how to deal with the changes in the current battle situation. At this time, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd armies of the Chinese Expeditionary Force starting from Marseille and the vanguard had just arrived in Lyon.

Even if it is loaded at the fastest speed, it will take at least two days for the remaining four military horses and equipment to be loaded.

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Don't carry out Xiafei's orders? There is nothing negotiable about this, the squadron has independent command, but in the overall situation it must obey the command of the commander-in-chief of the French army.

"The French provide the capacity there, and it seems that they can only take the approach of going on the road in batches. With the fastest speed, one division and one division will move forward, and if you can catch up, it will be counted as one. Runnong made a hard trip, caught up with the first army in front, and as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, he commanded the three armies in a unified manner. Cai Yi proposed a proposal, and the three of them had no opinion.

Feng Guozhang said worriedly: "What I'm most worried about is that the heavy artillery troops have not kept up, and the heavy artillery of the three armies has been left behind for a while to move forward, which is the most fatal." ”

Cai Yi said: "I hope the French army can solve this problem, telegraph to Feng Hua, and take a qiē means to detect the movements of the German army." ”

At the end of the meeting, Zhang Xiaohuai immediately went on the road and chased after the three armies in front. The rest of the troops could only leave first and light equipment, and heavy equipment was left behind. The first battle of the expeditionary force is likely to take place without the support of heavy artillery, this is a European war, not a small-scale war in Asia where there are not many heavy artillery. Take Verdun as an example, the German artillery with a caliber or higher is a thousand. The expeditionary force has only 12 howitzers in one division, 155 does not have one, and both heavy artillery brigades are two battalions, 24 howitzers, and two battalions of howitzers are missing. Of the seven brigades of 105 heavy guns promised by Britain and France, five more were being shipped from Britain. 155 caliber howitzers, the French themselves are not equipped much, don't count on it for a while.

Cai Yi telegraphed the current situation of the expeditionary force to the general headquarters of the French army, and soon Xia Fei's reply arrived, saying that three heavy artillery brigades would be transferred from near Paris and handed over to the command of the expeditionary force, asking the Chinese side to send a liaison officer.

March 6, 1916, was a difficult day for the military commanders of the Allied powers.

On the Verdun side, the German tank group that broke through the French defense line was actually reported below. Petain angrily scolded, but fortunately, Xia Fei soon transferred the news that the Chinese air force had discovered, and according to aerial reconnaissance, the tank unit had been moving in the direction of Reims. Petain realized that something was wrong, but he really couldn't draw a single soldier, the German offensive was too fierce, and the German army of thirty divisions was overwhelmingly rushing to the French front. The current situation is that the defensive line, which has been barely maintained all day, is in a hurry.

At 11 a.m., the German tank assault group attacked Owo, and in just an hour, a French infantry regiment stationed there surrendered. Bob ordered the troops to continue their advance without pause, and at one o'clock in the afternoon a tank brigade rushed to Tilois-Bellé, where the French had only a few local troops and police, and in less than half an hour the German tanks drove through the town. Before dark, Lepina was lost, and a telegram from the local police station reported that the Germans had captured the town and that a large number of German troops were advancing rapidly towards Ravov.

At this time, there was already a huge problem in the entire French defensive line, and once Lavov was lost, the 300,000 German troops on the Saint-Meneurde-Verdun line would be surrounded by the Germans. What's even worse is that the supply lines of the French army in this defense area have actually been cut off. And the location of Ravov is exactly the key point of north-south traffic in France. Heading north from Marseille and west from Reims is a must.

Before dark, luck seemed to befall the French again, and Xia Fei dispatched a French infantry division and transported the troops to Lavov in the cars he could find. The French have always been able to play with some passion in this kind of thing. A large number of taxis, once again staged a good show. Pétain breathed a sigh of relief, and drew three infantry divisions from the very tight force to pursue the Germans in the footsteps of the German assault group. It would be better to encircle and destroy this daring German army at Ravov.

Bob's luck wasn't too good, and he wasn't actually very lucky along the way. After the tank rushed through the Ovo, the failure rate began to increase. At 11 o'clock in the evening of the 6th, Bob personally led 300 movable tanks and rushed to Ravov. At this time, the nearest infantry division was still thirty kilometers behind. The cavalry division was even more unbearable, and the most recent one had already been thrown fifty kilometers away. That is, along this road, a large number of German troops were still behind.

"Sir, I found out, there is a French infantry division in Ravouf, which arrived in the afternoon, and came to the front to ask, what to do next?" Only three hundred tanks remained, and there was no support from infantry and cavalry. Whether to beat Ravov or not, that's the question. The adjutant hurried to ask for instructions, and the troops in front had stopped. Bob was also hesitant, without the support of infantry and cavalry, he simply attacked with tanks, and did not consider the consequences of such a situation.

"Hit!" Bob finally made up his mind, and all 300 tanks were put into operation, and the artillery preparation was saved.

The French infantry divisions were the opponents who discovered them almost at the same time, but they were relatively slow to react, and the artillery kept emphasizing that they could not hit accurately at night.