Of the three Allied forces that launched a counterattack on the Marne, the French Sixth Army, which attacked Crook's right flank, was undoubtedly the weakest brigade.

Although they have been recuperating in Paris for a week and their morale is at peak quality, it is clear that their innate disadvantage in training quality cannot be compensated for by this factor alone. Two-thirds of the French army was made up of reserve troops, and before the war, because of the widespread contempt of the regular army and the people, it did not receive enough funds for arming and training. After a day of fighting, this unit was clearly different from the weak combat strength of other regular French troops, and was immediately felt by the German troops facing it.

After receiving this battle report from the front, Crook's heart was relieved. At present, Bilow's Second Army was also counterattacked by the French army in front of him, and the battle was fierce, and it was difficult to draw troops to reinforce his troops for a while; And the weak combat effectiveness of this French army undoubtedly alleviated the pressure on him who was currently isolated and helpless to a considerable extent. After some consideration, Crook decided to eliminate the threat of the French army from the direction of Paris. In addition to the relatively weak combat effectiveness of this French army, there are deeper reasons.

Since Gallerini became commander of the Paris garrison on 23 May, the French have built a sizable defensive complex within 20 kilometers of the center of Paris, thanks to his remarkable manoeuvre. If the garrison of Paris had stayed behind these solid fortifications and allowed the Germans to attack, even if the Germans had gathered a large number of heavy artillery, they would have paid a huge price in front of these trench lines. As a matter of fact. This is exactly what Qingying is knowing the history. What still makes Crook turn in front of Paris. If Crook had planned according to the original plan. Launching a storming of Paris on 30 May would have left all the heavy artillery far behind the First Army, which would not have had any chance of capturing Paris!

At present, the French Sixth Army had come out of their strong fortifications and took the initiative to attack the Germans; This was a wise move to strike at the enemy's flank, but it undoubtedly gave the Germans a great opportunity to annihilate them in the field. The core element of warfare is still man, and even a strong trench requires a sufficient number of troops to garrison it. If the Germans were able to cripple the defending army in Paris at the Battle of the Marne, leaving it overstretched in defense, then the Germans would attack Paris again in the future. It will undoubtedly be much easier than it is now!

In addition, the German move to eliminate the hidden danger of the right flank first would lead to another relatively sensible inevitability: due to the limited strength of the German army, the attack on the right flank would inevitably mean that they would be on the defensive in the face of the counteroffensive of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army. Avoiding a hard-nosed field confrontation with the well-qualified British Expeditionary Force was also the best choice for the German First Army at the moment.

At present, the heavy artillery units of the German army are still struggling to trek in the rear 100 kilometers away from the battlefield, but the heavy artillery of the British Expeditionary Force has already made the German army appreciate their roar and majesty in the battle of the day. In this case, the Germans then chose to attack head-on. It is undoubtedly an unwise move to attack the strengths of others with one's own shortcomings. And if you choose to carry out defensive warfare with trenches, machine guns, and barbed wire as the core, it is the best choice for the German army at the moment: the British army is lined up in dense queues when attacking. As a result, a large number of officers and soldiers died senselessly in front of the German machine guns. Instead of a fierce head-on duel with the British and French armies, it is better to use defense to drain their combat power!

The stars are dotted and the moon rises tomorrow. Under Crook's central command, the First Army, which had just experienced a day of fierce fighting, began to quickly change its dispatch: the corps opposing the British Expeditionary Force abandoned its current position and withdrew directly to the north of the Little Moran River, so as to shorten the length of the defensive line and allow the German machine guns to be better used. The corps that confronted the French Fifth Army was to build fortifications overnight, hold the current front, and strictly prevent the French army from breaking through at the junction between the German First and Second Armies, and shaking the German army's current united, but not very stable, front. The two corps that served as reserve forces, except for one division, which was still in the center, threw all the remaining troops into the battle on the right flank to deal with the French Sixth Army from the direction of Paris. In this way, the German army gathered a powerful cluster of nearly four armies in front of Paris, and its military strength undoubtedly far exceeded the strength of the French forces in this direction.

In the early morning of 5 June, just as the French Sixth Army was preparing to storm the German Fourth Reserve on the banks of the Marne, as it had done yesterday, a dense burst of thunder and artillery fire suddenly exploded on their positions. Several beige giant airships were fiercely blood-red and open, and under the glow of the rising sun in the east, the surrounding bodies were shining brightly. Like a fairy king, he flew to the area where the French position was located. Between the opening and closing of the hatch, the earth-shattering explosion resounded throughout the sky. With the roar of the Gotha bombers, countless German soldiers armed with 98K rifles rushed out from behind the defensive positions and launched a thunderous counterattack against the French army in front of them.

The gunfire was dense and the artillery fire was like a rainbow. Although there was no heavy artillery support in this offensive battle, the German Army, which was the world's No. 1 in the world, still relied on their absolute superiority in strength, quality, and combat experience to educate this French rookie, which was mainly reservists. In the short run, the French were defeated by the German torrent of aviation, artillery, and infantry in their attacking positions, which had little to offer: not only did they lose all the land they had seized the day before, but even part of their starting positions were taken by the Germans. The battlefield was a mess, full of abandoned debris and raging fires, and the corpses of French officers and soldiers in blue shirts and red trousers could be seen everywhere, bleeding and drifting, and the corpses were lying on their pillows.

However, to the surprise of the Germans, not a single French unit retreated in the face of their attack. "If the troops feel that they cannot advance, they must hold their positions at all costs and prefer to die rather than retreat." This military order issued by Xia Fei before launching a counteroffensive has been deeply rooted in the hearts of every French officer and soldier who has been influenced and infected for decades by "having ideals in mind and holding a sharp sword in hand"; As Xia Fei said, there is no room for them to take a step back!

The flames were blazing, the smoke was billowing out, and there were loud explosions like thunder everywhere, and the sound of all kinds of firearms either intermittently crisp or continuously hoarse. Bullets whizzed through the air, and almost every moment someone was stabbed into the body by these tiny but deadly enough creatures, the wounds instantly burned and eroded, blood shot out, and they fell to the ground screaming. Officers and soldiers on both sides were shouting loudly, either calling for friendly cooperation, or asking for support, or simply trying to dispel the fear of death that lurked in their hearts. A soldier was hit by a cannonball, his flesh exploded, and his stomach was covered with blood; The comrades next to him didn't have time to feel sad for him, but could only concentrate on his own battle overture that danced with death.

By the afternoon, the German counteroffensive on the right flank had begun to bear fruit: the French 61st Reserve Division, which bore the brunt of the attack, had been killed and wounded, and the division commander and a brigade commander had been killed. A company fought the Germans in a village for a whole morning, and when they were ordered to retreat, only four lightly wounded men were left on their backs and two seriously wounded. The Germans, who had won the battle, also suffered heavy losses, as evidenced by the fact that they killed more than 4,000 French officers and men in more than eight hours of fighting, but captured less than 50 prisoners. Although the tenacity and perseverance of the French reserve forces shook the attacking German army and produced sincere respect, the main German forces of nearly four armies still roared and swept towards the French positions like a torrent.

Monulli, who had been hit hard by the Germans, hurriedly sent a telegram to the General Headquarters and friendly troops, asking the other two armies to launch a frontal attack on Crook Group as soon as possible to relieve them of the tremendous pressure on their flanks. Despere and French, after receiving a telegram from their allies for help, also struggled to drive their respective troops forward: they had 75 mm cannons that were powerful in the field, and the other had accurate shooting capabilities, and they also had a great advantage over the Germans on the front line. However, since Crook had prepared for today's battle last night, the advance momentum of the two armies in the offensive was still very unsatisfactory; In particular, the British troops, who were still advancing in dense formations, were still unable to suppress the deadly machine-gun fire from the German positions with their repeated heavy artillery bombardment and accurate rifle fire!

On 6 June, the fighting that broke out on the Marne entered its third day. On the right flank, adjacent to Paris, both sides threw almost all their reserves into battle, and the heavy artillery fire continued from the rising sun until nightfall. The Anglo-French forces to the south suffered heavy casualties in front of the machine-gun fire nets of the German defenders; And the main attacking force of the German army, in front of the French Sixth Army, which had been transferred to the defensive, also did not have the momentum of yesterday. With Crook's on-the-spot change, the battlefield situation of the two sides has changed again: while the German army has to resist the counterattack of the British and French forces in the south, it will first take the weakest French Sixth Army; The French army, on the other hand, had to hold out on the outskirts of Paris, waiting for friendly forces to break through from the south and then encircle the Germans. (To be continued......)

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