Although he knew that reinforcements to the second-line trenches were death, Admiral Galvetz still gave the order for reinforcements, and the Somme River was a hellish battlefield, and the British could not retreat with 60,000 casualties a day, and the Germans could not retreat either.

The German 45th and 72nd divisions entered the communication trenches and quietly waited for reinforcements after the artillery bombardment.

As soon as the 40-minute shelling time arrived, the shelling stopped abruptly.

In the first time

With bombers circling in the sky, they swooped down one after another, the lowest distance from the trench was only twenty or thirty meters, and swaggered along the trench, dropping bomb after bomb into the trench accurately.

The bomber in front has just been lifted into the air, and the next one has followed, and so on.

In the German trenches ravaged by artillery fire, the vast majority of the German soldiers who did not have time to hide in the anti-artillery holes lay in a row, most of them had been buried in the heavy dust, some had already been killed, some were bleeding from their mouths and noses and were seriously injured, and some were in a slightly better condition, and their brains were also "buzzing" from the bombing, and they stood up and swayed left and right and lost their sense of direction.

This time

The bombers dropped bombs and fired wildly along the trenches, causing far more damage to the German troops than the artillery bombardment on the whole line, and every bomb dropped in the trenches and exploding would take countless stumps and broken arms into the sky.

The heavy machine guns fired wildly, and when they hit it, it was a string of flesh alleys, and the thick blood mist that came out turned this place into a hell of death, with countless casualties.

Just 10 minutes

After hundreds of warplanes had wreaked havoc, squad after squad returned, returning to the rear airfield to reload, and then continuing over the Somme to strangled any German units and artillery positions they spotted.

The faces of the German 45th and 72nd Divisions who were trying to reinforce forward were all green, and on the second-line positions in front, they only saw one enemy plane after another diving and bombing, firing wildly, and the German troops on the positions were quietly as if they were all killed, and there was no movement at all, nor did they fight in the air at all.

The tactical coordination of the Ocean Empire was too tight, and as soon as the shelling of the whole line stopped, the bombers hovering in the air swooped down one after another, and the reaction did not even reach 5 seconds.

At this time, the German soldiers in the trenches were completely stunned, unable to resist at all, and were slaughtered one-sidedly.

10 minutes later

The rumbling of artillery in the distance rang out again, and the few fighters that were still bombing and strafing along the trenches immediately scattered like frightened birds, and immediately rose into the sky at full speed.

Then I saw a dense number of shells smashing down, drowning the German positions on the second line in a cloud of explosion smoke.

This......

Pure firepower bullying, can this battle still be fought?

Almost all German commanders had a question in their minds, and then they felt a chill down their spines, as if they smelled death.

After 25 minutes of heavy shelling, the British and French artillery positions came to an abrupt halt again.

And the bombers hovering in the air, the fighters dived down again, repeating the scene half an hour earlier......

It was also ten minutes, and the armored troops of this attack had rushed to a distance of more than 30 meters from the German trenches, and a large number of soldiers poured out, throwing a round of grenades in unison, falling in the trenches and exploding a bloody mist.

Then the soldiers rushed over and jumped into the trenches like dumplings, followed by the screams of crying fathers and mothers, and the German trenches were a hellish scene, blood mixed with thick mud, and there were stumps and broken arms everywhere, and corpses were piled up.

As soon as the soldier's foot stepped in, it went directly over his foot and neck.

The strong blood in the entire trench was choking, and many soldiers fell directly without standing firmly, and came face to face with the wreckage, and the strong nausea under the great shock came to their hearts, and they vomited wildly regardless of it.

The soldiers attacking in the rear stopped their feet in time, ran to the front and suddenly turned around and vomited, saying that they would not jump down at all, but just searched for the remnants of the German army along the trench with their guns, and vomited nauseously as they walked.

No surprises

At about 3:00 p.m., the 1st Corps of the attacking Ocean Empire Expeditionary Force successfully occupied the surface position of the German army's second line of defense, killing and wounding more than 50,000 German troops and capturing more than 10,000 people.

Those clever German soldiers hid in the anti-artillery holes, and finally saved their lives, but the hellish scene in front of them made these German soldiers unable to raise the slightest sense of resistance, and basically surrendered obediently.

Tank armored units crossed the German second-line positions and advanced 3 km to establish a defensive line, but there was no continuous attack.

This was because the tragic scene on the German positions on the second line had a huge impact on the minds of the soldiers on the other side, and many soldiers showed serious symptoms of discomfort, and there were not a few who were scared to pee their pants.

In this case, there is no longer a way to go on the offensive.

After the war, this German trench was filled in with bulldozers and became known as the "Hell Trench".

The troops of the 45th and 72nd Divisions, which were reinforced by the German army, escaped by chance, and returned home in a gray way, hiding in the third-line trenches in the rear, shivering, waiting for their unknown fate.

Winter in Western Europe comes early, with the sun setting at 5:30 p.m. and a chill chilling over the Somme region, which has experienced so much death.

In one day, two German fronts were broken in succession, and when the news came, the Entente bloc was in an uproar, and it was impossible to believe that the Royal Army of the Ocean Empire could achieve such remarkable results.

This is the Germans, not the militia, who were defeated like this, and this subversive result sounds like a myth!

"This is the power of innovative tactics, the Germans can kill and wound more than 60,000 British troops in one day with heavy machine guns, the Royal Army bombarded for 16 days, shelled for 5 days and 5 nights, and then carried out tank and armor cluster assault, infantry and artillery closely coordinated, perfect air-ground integration tactics, in the case of absolute air superiority, breaking through the two strong defensive lines of the German army in one day, killing and wounding more than 100,000 people, how can it not be accepted? Is our record watered? Marshal Li Xuanzhu asked in surprise.

Admiral Bian Chunsong also smiled when he heard this, and said;

"It is not surprising that many people in this world are completely unable to accept the rise of empires, both European conservatives and Chinese scum.

The weakness and poverty of the old country and the frequent wars and wars, and the division of warlord forces, have further deepened this impression of the outside world.

Let's be honest

I also overestimated the German army, and the left hook tactic that was originally intended to break through the Karl Hills on the left flank was not played at all, and the breakthrough of the German second-line position was achieved.

Tomorrow's battle

The focus was still on cooperating with the Anglo-French forces, expanding the occupation of the German army's second-line positions, and trying to break through the last line of defense and drive the Germans out of French territory. ”

"Well, it's unimaginable that the air-ground integrated tactics have a good effect, and if we continue to arrange it tomorrow, the battle that can be solved by consuming ammunition will not need to be polite to the Germans."

"Obedience."

"By the way, have the casualties on the front line been counted?"

"Returning to the big handsome, it has been counted. In today's battle, 57 bombers and 35 fighters were lost, 37 T-5 tanks were destroyed, and a varying number of half-track armored vehicles and other equipment were lost, with a total of 11,350 casualties, of which 1,782 were killed and more than 9,560 were wounded. ”

"Oh, why is the casualty ratio so big?"

"Returning to the commander, the vast majority of the more than 9,560 wounded were officers and soldiers who jumped into the trenches for the first time, and after suffering a huge mental impact, they were in a trance, and they had a serious wartime emergency response, their bodies were weak and sweaty, their hands and feet were sore, and they had nightmares, accompanied by relatively serious adverse symptoms, so these officers and men have been urgently sent to the rear."

Such widespread wartime stress symptoms on the battlefield are rare, but not uncommon, and it is completely understandable that the British 3rd Army suffered heavy casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Think about it

The young soldiers suddenly jumped into the trenches of piles of corpses, layer upon layer of corpses that even reached their waists, and the brutal sight of stumps and broken arms everywhere was too great.

"Get some wine for the soldiers, and arrange for some girls to relax, the Germans are always a strong opponent, they will not admit defeat easily, be fully prepared." Marshal Li Xuanzhu commanded.

While the two were discussing, the staff officer of the headquarters came in to report that the Germans had launched a large-scale counteroffensive in the darkness of the night, and the two sides were engaged in a fierce battle.

So, Marshal Li Xuanzhu and General Bian Chunsong came to the hall of the staff headquarters, looked at the sand table and listened to the report of the staff officers.

For the night attack of the German army, the expeditionary force had long been prepared.

After stopping the advance at about 3:00 p.m., the expeditionary force set up a temporary defensive line behind the German second-line position, mainly with foxholes, with T-5 Tiger tanks as the firing point, and set up simple defensive facilities such as barbed wire.

Night planes could not be dispatched and were the only chance for the Germans to counterattack.

The German 2nd Army attacked with the artillery that had survived to this day, but the German artillery was quickly suppressed by the superior firepower of the Allied forces.

Under cover of night

The Germans concentrated three divisions to carry out local attacks, and the front-line battles were very fierce, and the Germans even used 37 mm and 76 mm field guns to cooperate with the German soldiers.

However, in the dark night, it was difficult for the bulky 76-mm field guns to achieve any results, but they were destroyed one by one by the direct fire of the rapidly counterattacking tank guns, and the losses were greater.

This fierce night battle lasted until dawn

The three German divisions responsible for the attack left behind more than 14,000 corpses and retreated in disarray, and the all-night attack failed to break the simple defensive line based on tank fire, but ran into a bloody head.

The biggest disadvantage is that the German 76mm field guns are flattened and cannot break through the frontal armor of the T5 Tiger tank, but the 76mm guns equipped with the Tiger tank bombard the opponent one by one, and the heavy machine gun strafing equipped with the tank is a death harvester, thank you

A Tiger tank is equipped with three heavy machine guns, a coaxial machine gun, a front-seat course machine gun, and a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun on the top of the turret, which can vent fire on the Germans without any scruples, and let them taste the power of modern heavy weapons.

The two are contrasted, and the superiority is immediate.