Chapter 580: Heavy Attack
Towards noon, the German heavy assault units were also thrown into battle. Since their main task was to divide and sweep the French defenders entrenched in the trenches, this force was not dispersed like the previous lightly armed commandos, but was integrated into groups like ordinary troops, numbering at least a hundred in a combat unit. At the same time, there was a roar in the sky, and hundreds of warplanes sprayed with the Iron Cross logo flew from the eastern sky; Compared to the slow, huge airships, these little ones with wooden skins are obviously more suitable for precise battlefield support.
The artillery roared, the smoke covered the air, and countless clusters of red and brilliant flames violently exploded on the battlefield, setting off bursts of bloody rain of death. Among them were the French artillery fire that exploded in the midst of the German attacking troops, but more often than not, the German barrage bombardment. With the dispatch of the heavy assault team, the German artillery that had been deployed to the front of the position overnight to hide was now sticking out of their hideous muzzles from their respective covering grass; During the thunderous earthquake, the cannonballs with devastating power are projected into the target area. In an instant, the barrage of artillery fire on the French positions changed from one to two rows; One of the platoons continued to ravage the exposed ground fortifications of the French trenches, while the other wall of explosive fire continued steadily in depth and blocked all the rescue forces that were pouring in from the rear of the French army!
In order to ensure that the offensive would achieve the desired breakthrough, the German General Staff raised a large number of artillery shells from various units; Although the shelling did not last long, the density of its fire was staggering. At present, after the support of the double barrage, the ammunition consumption of the German artillery reached a terrifying 30,000 rounds per hour. On average, 500 shells fell on the heads of the opposing side every minute. And the heavy commandos with this strong support did not fail to live up to the strong support of artillery. They quickly advanced behind their barrage. And cut through the weak lot that was opened earlier. Although they were not as agile as the lightly armed troops in the maneuver breakthrough with a lot of heavy weapons, causing the team members to pay a certain amount of damage in the process, the equipment quickly showed their usefulness.
"Boom!" A deafening explosion resounded through the sky. The neon-like waves of red light suddenly rushed more than ten meters away, sand and gravel burst out, the earthen wall collapsed, and there was no sound in an instant on the trench defense line that had been gunfire just now. A German eight-man squad had set up their 120mm heavy mortars and announced their strong entry into the battle with a preemptive attack. Compared to the 60mm mortar of the light commando, the weapon with a caliber of twice the caliber is not at all an order of magnitude as the former: it can fire a grenade weighing up to 14 kg to a distance of 3,800 meters. It already has the ability to control the enemy from a long range similar to that of regular light artillery, and its single-shot power is much better than that of a 150mm heavy howitzer! Under the roar of its high-throwing shells, the French fortifications that had previously made the lightly armed commandos helpless all exploded and collapsed; Colorful shrapnel and dripping flesh and blood flew into the sky in a raging wave of air, and the situation was as tragic as hell.
The German commandos were in high spirits and continued to rush forward after breaking through the trenches. Fighters roared and cruised all the way, bombers found the right time to drop aerial bombs ten times more powerful than artillery, and fighters circled and dived at low altitudes close to the ground, using the heavy machine gun in the nose to give direct suppression and cover. Commandos, armed with submachine guns and grenades, roared through the trenches like a raging tide, taking advantage of the advantages and advantages of the narrow battles. Light and heavy machine guns converge into a dense intertwined stream of rapid-fire fire. The French soldiers who were shooting at them were so crushed that they couldn't lift their heads at all. After several counter-assaults, the French officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties in front of this group of elites in a hundred battles whose firepower was not proportional to their numbers; Although the other side also suffered considerable losses in successive battles. But its sharp knife is still unstoppable!
In the assault team, there was also a soldier who kept an earthy yellow telephone line along the way; He only pinned a pistol for self-defense to his waist, but the package on his back contained dozens of kilograms of wires. When encountering a large number of enemy forces or fortified forts that even 120-mm mortars could not handle, the commander of this heavy assault unit would contact the artillery in the rear by telephone, inform them of the enemy's coordinates and call for support. Before the offensive was launched, the German staff had already equipped each heavy assault unit with a corresponding artillery support unit, and when requested from the front, the corresponding artillery battalion company would adjust its guns and pour artillery fire on the new target. Although this would have broken the original barrage timetable, it was clearly a more suppressive blow than a covering shelling that was unaware of the front line.
With a roar and flames, the German and French armies began to engage in a fierce battle to the death in the trench positions. The Germans took advantage of the artillery fire of the barrage and advanced with a staggering storm firepower; The French army also recovered from the initial shock and began to rely on the strength of the fortifications to carry out stubborn defensive counterattacks. In this phase of the battle, the German artillery deployed at the front of the position played a crucial role; They raised their muzzles under the cover of vegetation and let out a resounding roar in the surging blast glare. As far as the barrage could see, almost all the personnel and personnel of the French army were wiped out in the violent explosions, and the German commandos were able to reap the victory in many battles and advance at a considerable pace.
To the despair of the French officers and soldiers, even the concrete pillboxes, which had been regarded as the mainstay, could not stop the advance of these enemy troops. The German commandos also included flamethrower-carrying soldiers who were used to deal with these recalcitrant enemies who were huddled in fortified bunkers. With the opening of the valve, the thickened gasoline stored in the oil tank shoots out along the nozzle under the strong pressure of the compressed air; The electric spark lighter on the nozzle was activated, and the high-speed gasoline jet was ignited. From a distance, it seems that a bright golden fire dragon more than 20 meters long is galloping in the field, roaring wildly, and swooping down on the fortified bunker of the French army in the blazing heat of thousands of degrees. The flames swirled in fury, flooding the bunker's observation holes and shooting holes like a tide of rage. Tens of seconds later, the oxygen in the bunker was depleted in the violent combustion of gasoline, and all the French officers and soldiers who were entrenched in it suffocated to death; Some of the bunkers were rapidly heated up by the intense burning from the outside, which detonated the ammunition stored in them, and the bunkers were abolished.
"Quickly on, quickly on...... Baby, please...... Hell yes! ”
In a field command post deep in the trenches, Adolf was furious? Messimi slammed the phone in his hand to the ground, and with a loud bang, the firing pins, springs and other things inside the phone suddenly spilled to the ground. In his rage, he trampled on it with his military boots, destroying the scattered parts into shapelessness. Several adjutants next to him saw that the regiment commander was furious, and they stayed in place one by one and did not dare to squeak; After a short while, a tall young man suddenly jumped down from the upper trench and said loudly: "Your Excellency Messimi, I have just taken someone to investigate, and the telephone lines to the battalions at the front and the rear headquarters have been cut off by the German troops; Now that they're deeply embedded in Sectors 1463 and 1667, we're afraid we can't fix them now! ”
"Damn, I knew it was going to be like this!" Messimi roared and slammed his fist into the soft dirt wall next to him, his eyes already showing anxiety and panic that could not be concealed. As a scapegoat who was demoted to the front line after the defeat in the border battle, former Army Minister Messimi completed the promotion from major to lieutenant colonel in half a year with a certain command quality, and led a regiment of officers and soldiers to be responsible for defending trench positions. This time, however, the German offensive was far beyond his imagination, as he had been when he was Minister of War. The artillery battery that was deployed in the rear was attacked, and 3 out of 6 cannons were scrapped; And now, the telephone lines to the battalions on the front line have been inexplicably cut off, and I have no idea where they are! No matter what the circumstances, it is an absolute taboo in the army to not know the soldiers, but now there is no way to deal with it!
"What about our reinforcements, why didn't that Philip guy send reinforcements to support the front line? When the fighting dies down, I will tell President Poincaré a serious complaint against him! After a moment's pause, Messimi yelled. Although he did not know the situation on the front line, the sound of the current meteor-like artillery explosions alone was enough to show that the Germans' unusually fierce artillery bombardment could not have been full of artillery and fire, and it was certain that they would launch a fierce attack while carrying out such intensive artillery support!
"Your Excellency Messimi, the barrage of German artillery fire has extended behind us, and it is very likely that General Petain's reinforcements are blocked by these firepower and cannot rush to the front line to reinforce in the first place." Amid the thunderous roar of artillery, the young officer replied in a coherent manner. Messimi stared at the young lieutenant in front of him, who was more than 1.9 meters tall, but found that the other party's face was full of calmness and frankness. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said loudly: "Charles, you rush back to the rear at once, and tell Sù Pétain of the situation here; All the rest of the personnel immediately went to the front with me, and even death would not allow the Germans to break through our lines! (To be continued......)
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