The artillery roared and flamed into the sky, and the surging waves of air from the explosion were like a tsunami, roaring across the German positions. Shrapnel was fired, sand was blowing, and the German surface positions were suddenly plunged into a post-apocalyptic catastrophe, with barbed wire, mines, breastprints and other ground bunkers constantly shattered and collapsed in artillery fire. In preparation for this land offensive, the British and French armies prepared a large amount of ammunition; They were determined to launch an unprecedented land offensive through Guò in order to take advantage of the eastward movement of the main German army to regain lost ground and break down the enemy's defenses on the Western Front.

In the artillery shelter at a depth of 8 meters above the surface, the German soldiers sat or lay down, feeling the constant vibrations and explosions above their heads, and there was no worry or fear on their faces. As early as more than half a month ago, the Germans had already discovered the precursors of the opponent's attack in the nearby area through guò, and carried out a large number of targeted preparations for the construction of fortifications. Unless they are directly hit by heavy train shells of more than 300 mm, these bunkers buried deep in the ground are difficult to destroy, and this is where the confidence of the German soldiers can be safe under the preparation of the opponent's artillery fire!

In the early morning, the German heavy artillery deployed in the rear also let out an unwilling roar, and the heavy shells, under the guidance of the planes in the air, crashed into the enemy's artillery positions as if they had eyes. The British artillerymen, who were in the front and lacked concealment, were dealt a fatal blow, and the flesh and limbs of the officers and men and the broken parts of the cannons were thrown into the air; The ammunition piled up nearby was also affected and exploded under the thunderous blow of the sky, and the core of the blow, which was like a rainbow a moment ago, turned into a tragic hell with a sea of fire and thick smoke after a moment. Mules and horses pulling ammunition neighed in fright. Run wild with the soldiers. The scene was chaotic on one side. The German heavy artillery did not give up. Continue to fire heavily at exposed British artillery positions until there is no one left in the target area.

"The artillery we deployed on the front line was counter-suppressed by Yan zhòng. The opponent has an absolute superiority in aerial vision, which makes it almost impossible for our artillery to be erected in the daytime; And with the means of air defense that we currently have, it will not be able to prevent the arrival of German artillery reconnaissance aircraft. We do not know where the artillery positions of the Germans were, and they were completely helpless in the face of their artillery counter-suppression, let alone the task of destroying the opposing artillery. And if these firing points cannot be cleared in the early preparation of artillery fire, they will definitely cause severe damage to the infantry who attack later. A British artillery colonel reported to his superiors with apprehension.

Under the strong countermeasures of the German heavy artillery, the artillery fire fired from the opponent was greatly sparse. At night, the astonishing sound of thunder and lightning is gone. Later, even the British soldiers lying in the trenches noticed the anomaly and asked the officers why the density of the shelling had decreased so much; Without sufficient artillery suppression, sending infantry to storm the opponent's machine-gun position is undoubtedly an act of death! In order not to affect morale, the officers could only claim that this was because their artillery had "achieved decisive results": the main fortifications of the German line had collapsed and collapsed, and now the final sweep was being carried out.

The sun sets, and the sunset is like blood. Under the watchful eyes of the British artillerymen, the German planes, which were like flies, finally reluctantly turned around and flew back to their positions, and they could finally pour fire on the opposing positions at will. However, since the British artillery had already suffered considerable losses in the daytime battle, the intensity of the attack was still significantly lower than that of the previous night. Except for a few heralds who died while running through the trenches. The main German forces were almost always in underground bunkers, sleeping or chatting to pass the long waiting time. For this turtle retreat defensive operation. The German soldiers did not resist as expected, but were full of rejoicing: instead of using flesh and blood to carry these artillery fires in an offensive battle, choosing to use dirt to consume the opponent's sharpness in defense is obviously a cost-effective thing.

The artillery preparation of the British army lasted for three whole days. Due to the fierce countermeasures of the German heavy artillery, their shelling process was quite unsatisfactory: not only was a lot of artillery knocked out, but the effect of the night shelling was also very difficult to observe, and it was difficult to effectively feedback the real situation on the battlefield. The only thing that gave them some comfort was that the German barbed wire had been blown out of a considerable number of gaps; And the opponent's defensive position looks like a mess from a distance, and it is estimated that there will be no more strong resistance.

Although the British artillery officers on the front line were not optimistic about the current situation, and it would be better to prepare for artillery fire for another two days, the current commander of the British Expeditionary Force, French, was already overwhelmed by the Russian telegrams for help that flew like snowflakes, and he could no longer care about this much.

At 4 a.m. on 18 November, the roar of British artillery fire ceased as scheduled, and some engineering contingents began to reach the front line of the battlefield to clear the broken barbed wire and other obstacles that were blocking the advance of the infantry. A large number of British soldiers in yellow khaki uniforms poured out of the trench shelters like fountains, and converged into a tidal torrent, densely lined up in the attacking trenches at the front of the position. One step further is the battlefield no man's land with a depth of more than 800 meters. In order to avoid direct encounters with the opponent's firepower, both sides of the confrontation with trenches will leave a buffer zone of about 1 km in the center of the battlefield; Due to the extreme danger of this area, no soldiers are present in this area in normal times, hence the name No Man's Land. As soon as he walked out of this offensive trench, his life was put on the lips of the god of death as a tribute: and whether he could get out of the battlefield alive or not in the end depended on the latter's mood!

In the narrow trenches, which were one man high, the British soldiers waited for the glimmer of dawn in the eastern sky: they were silent with cigarette butts, or trembling like mourners, and few of them showed a look of anticipation and innocence. Six months after the outbreak of the war, the high spirits of these British volunteers when they first joined the army have long been thrown to St. Helena; The unprecedented brutality of the all-out war that broke out in the context of the Industrial Revolution has far exceeded their previous imagination. Under the haze of continuous defeat at the front, the morale of these volunteers plummeted: if the war can only bring widespread death, ruin and suffering, without the slightest victory, cheer and benefit, then what is the point of continuing this war?

"Boys of Britain, ahead is the sworn enemy of Hans, who took the lives of 80,000 of our countrymen. Their despicable sinking of our merchant ships and the brutal murder of our comrades and soldiers have far outstripped the traitors of Judah who betrayed Jesus! Today, in God's place, we are going to adjudicate justice against these wicked people. Field Marshal Kitchener has issued a proclamation order that you will be rewarded with £20 for every German soldier killed, and that the reward will be doubled if you kill a German officer! The British officers drew their pistols from their waists and waved them in the air, and shouted to the cannon fodder in the trenches with red faces, "The Germans on the opposite side have been crushed under our shelling, and now it is time for you to harvest the golden pounds!" ”

Hearing that there were still pounds to be earned, the British soldiers' originally weak eyes finally showed a little more enthusiasm and anticipation. The British Army also made a bloody investment this time, and the reward for killing an enemy soldier was almost equal to half a year's income of an ordinary British worker. The British soldiers began to gear up and enthusiastically asked the officers for detailed information about the confirmation of the results and the rank benefits of the killing of the German officers. Seeing that the atmosphere was beginning to be mobilized, the officers were naturally happy to promise them a lot of empty checks that would only be cashed afterwards, among which the price of capturing the Kaiser and the crown prince alive was even more than 1 million pounds. In the atmosphere of lively discussion, not many people can realize that what they are about to enter next is a veritable gate to hell.

The morning light is faint, and the morning glow is shining. The crescent moon in the western sky began to fade, and the sight of things around the battlefield clearly merged into the eyes of the British soldiers. They involuntarily put an end to their fantasies about the next massacre and returned to their respective areas in the trenches. After a short time, a red flare rose from behind the position, and the horn of the attack was already sounding. Without hesitation, the British soldiers leapt out of the trenches and strode towards the Temple of Death, which no one had ever dared to set foot on before. Looking down from the air, I saw waves of earthy yellow crowds on the more than ten kilometer-long battle line, and roughly estimated, they were at least 50,000 enemies!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! The crisp sound of rifle fire rang out sporadically in the air, and some of the British soldiers in the dense queue continued to scream and fall to the ground, and the blood was full of holes, which made people shudder. In the face of the charge of the British soldiers, the German counterattack firepower appeared rather sparse, and the soldiers who were put down in the crowd were almost negligible. The British soldiers, however, did not let their guard down in the slightest, for they knew that the Germans had dug a narrow trench in front of the adjacent no-man's land, and that these resistance had come from the counterattack of the patrols in this area. After that, there will be a complex and tortuous defensive trench, and it will be the most severe test that the British soldiers will really face.

Just as the British soldiers were about to rely on the attacking trenches of the opposing Germans and wait for an opportunity to attack, a piercing shrill sound of shells suddenly came from the air. Before they could react, the thunderous cannon fire completely drowned them into a frenzy of flames! (To be continued......)

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