The gunfire was dense and the explosions roared, and the German soldiers, under the open path of the tanks in front, advanced in overlaps, covered layer by layer, and passed through the no-man's land of the battlefield at a fairly rapid speed. As the war continued, German officers and soldiers also learned and honed their combat skills in the actual combat test of blood and fire; Today, they have completely lost the tension and chaos of the first battlefield, and have become as precise and orderly as a self-striking bell.

Whenever a dense barrage of bullets flew from the French positions, the German soldiers quickly hid behind the tanks or lay down on the spot; The tank then came to a slow halt, and the turret spun around, spewing orange flames towards the French positions with heavy fire. The machine-gun crew rushed into the appropriate battlefield bunker, skillfully erected the split Maxim, and opened heavy fire on the outcropping French troops through a sophisticated sighting scale. In the sharp sound of tearing cloth, the sand and soil were splashed, and the French officers and soldiers who shot on the outcrop were either beaten to the point of blood, or hurriedly retracted into their bunkers, dripping in cold sweat, and did not dare to fire again. Originally, they had built a breastwall with gun holes, but these fortifications had already collapsed in the previous German thunderous and lightning shelling!

As the German soldiers gradually advanced, the artillery support behind them gradually thinned, but before the French soldiers could catch their breath, a series of violent explosions resounded on the battlefield. The German mortars had advanced to less than 500 meters from the front line, and were now crawling in the hollow craters created by the previous artillery to manipulate this powerful weapon. With a thud, countless cannonballs with three wings roared in a great arc and fell rapidly, and the French position once again exploded with a wave of red orange light, and the rocks exploded. The billowing smoke and dust that rose had not yet cleared. The Germans had already rushed into the French positions!

Compared to the trench defense battle that took place under the city of Theonville. The German army, which had switched offensive and defensive roles, did not have the difficult situation that the French had before. This was preceded by a devastating shelling that lasted five hours. Almost all the fortifications on the French positions had been swept away; The surging German army rushed in like a spring flood bursting its embankment, rushing in all directions. Fighter planes roared, tank tracks thundered; The field heavy artillery also began to raise its muzzles, sending out a sonic roar to the French positions further behind. The French army, which had almost completely destroyed its fortifications and was absolutely inferior in strength and firepower, could no longer effectively resist the German attack.

By the evening of the same day, most of the French fortifications on the outskirts of Verdun had been lost; The German engineering brigade was in full swing laying railroad tracks, directing 283 mm and 420 mm siege howitzers further forward to carry out the erection. The three 35-mm heavy train guns, which had a range of up to 45 km, did not move, and they were raising their muzzles at a rate of one shot per hour. Under the collation fire of the aircraft, the French defenders stationed in the town of Verdun were systematically bombarded. Every 20 minutes, a purple-red cloud hundreds of meters high will explode in the city of Verdun, which is as shocking as a steaming cloud; Countless bricks, rubble, and steel shards were blown into the air in the surging waves of hurricanes and tsunamis. The French soldiers, who had experienced the hellish shelling of the day, were now on the verge of a nervous breakdown; Whenever there was a terrible scream in the air, they would scream hysterically and run in all directions, as if every 350mm bomb was coming at them!

Not only the low-level French soldiers, but also the commander of the French army, General Saraj, was tormented by the tsunami-like shelling of the Germans to the point of madness. Verdun fortified defenses that had been built for decades. In front of the heavy artillery of the German army, he was like a chicken, a tile, a dog; Less than half a day later, the outer line of defense had been completely lost. At this moment, he finally understood. What did his predecessor Luf do to lose battles in a row, and even lose two-thirds of his army; This is not at all due to the "cowardice of the commanders" and "the lack of will to fight in the army", as the General Command said, but simply because the German firepower is too fierce! Although the French army also has excellent performance 105 mm howitzers and 340 mm heavy train guns, which are not inferior to their German counterparts, the number of these weapons in the French army is very few due to industrial production capacity and the offensive ideology that swept the whole army before the war. Their support role in the battlefield cannot be compared with that of the German army, not to mention that the German army still has absolute air supremacy and has a huge advantage over the French army in artillery fire control!

On the night of 28 May, Saraj sent a swift telegram to Chauffy requesting the immediate dispatch of an army to reinforce Verdun, but this force was difficult to reach. At present, the German right-wing cluster is rushing on the French plain; Xia Fei was making every effort to mobilize his troops, and quickly put the forces deployed on the right flank in Alsace into the Fourth and Fifth Armies against the right flank of the German army. In order to resist the earth-shattering onslaught of these three German armies, Xia Fei was even ready to abandon Paris for space and time. Although he was the last to dismiss the idea, none of the three active legions that Gallieni had clamed out for had sent him. In this case, how could Xia Fei throw his troops into Verdun, which was a full 150 kilometers away from the main battlefield?

The morning sun rises, and the colorful glow shines. In the early morning of the next day, the German artillery burst out with a roar like the sky was shattering, and a dense and violent rain of bullets crashed on the remaining French fortifications, surging and rushing, and concrete and stone flew into the sky. Although the intensity of the German artillery bombardment was somewhat weaker than yesterday, four beige "giant sharks" that the French officers and soldiers most did not want to see appeared in the sky; These guys didn't go into battle yesterday due to a lack of ammunition, and today is the time for them to use their power to the fullest. Floating at an altitude of 1,500 meters, the behemoth rains deadly aerial bombs downward. In an instant, the French position exploded with a thunderous and earth-shattering sound, and countless boulders and gravel were blown upside down by the violent air waves; The red light spurted into the sky hundreds of meters high, and the layers tumbled, and its shock was as fierce as a volcanic eruption. The monstrous blazing light from the collision of aerial bombs and train cannons is particularly enchanting and magnificent.

On the morning of the 29th, a large number of German troops attacked the core fortified area of Verdun under the cover of artillery fire, and engaged in a full-scale fierce battle with the French troops remaining here. Although the core fortifications of the French army were more fortified than those of the perimeter, the outlying positions were far inferior in number; The German heavy artillery of the train took the planes as the eyes and ears, gradually corrected the trajectory, and finally knocked out these fortress-type large fortifications one by one in the earth-shattering explosion. As the French fortifications collapsed one after another, their resistance became weaker and weaker.

In the evening, in the glow of the setting sun, the French army, which could not resist the enemy, began to slowly retreat from the vicinity of Verdun. Although the French were still able to hold off the Germans near Verdun for a day or two, the current strength of the French army no longer allowed General Saraj to choose to do so.

In the previous battle of the Ardennes, the French Third Army had already existed in name only, and only more than 80,000 men were able to retreat; However, the German army in front of them did not suffer any major losses, and still maintained a strong lineup of more than 200,000 people in four integrated armies. In this battle, in the face of the fierce attack of the German heavy artillery, fighters, and tanks, even the French army, which adopted a defensive posture, had a higher casualty rate than the enemy (the historical Verdun is an example), which was absolutely unacceptable to Saraj! If they continue to entangle with the enemy at Verdun, the French army will inevitably run out of energy in this war of attrition, which will definitely be in favor of the enemy and not in their own favor; Compared with the gains and losses of one city and one place, the army is always the most important bargaining chip in war!

The stars twinkle and the moon rises. In the cold and vast night, the French troops stationed on the Verdun front were fully withdrawing to the west bank of the Maas. As soon as the armies had retreated unharmed to the west bank of the Maas, the French blew up several bridges over the river and began to build a new round of fortifications. Forty-three years ago, on the banks of the same rushing Maas River, a large number of French officers and soldiers dressed in blue army shirts and trousers fled in panic, only this time from Sedan, 65 kilometers downstream, to the fortress of Verdun in the south. The river whimpered, weeping and complaining, as if it were weeping and mourning for France, which had suffered many defeats in this land.

Due to the withdrawal of French troops, the Battle of Verdun lasted less than two days before it was over. The German and French armies suffered 4,000 and 5,000 casualties respectively, which was less than one percent of the historical battle known as the "meat grinder." For Saraj's retreat, Xia Fei did not have any punishment or blame at all, which is normal in the current context of all French troops retreating.

Late that night, the Germans crossed the devastated fortified positions of Verdun and entered the small city next to the Maas River. Compared with the chaos outside the town, the town of Verdun still maintained its basic appearance, except that the vast majority of the French people in the town fled west with the troops, leaving only 23 out of 10 people who did not abandon their homeland. The night wind blows the window, the firewood swayes, and the cold street is empty, and it looks quite deserted and bleak. When Qingying walked into this town, he still had a trace of unreal feeling in his heart: the city, which was famous for the battlefield where the turning point of the First World War was located, was conquered by his own heavy artillery bombardment!

In the following days, Qing Ying commanded the Fifth Army to launch a strong attack across the river north of Verdun, and successfully captured several bridgeheads on the 31st, and the French defense line once again became shaky. The German Fifth Army, which had a lackluster record in history, has now become another sharp blade of the German army on the Western Front. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of the book friend zhouyu1976 and February 30 precept book~~~ Anyway, as soon as the holiday is over, the number of subscriptions plummets instantly, and I can't bear to look at it (╯_╰) directly