Before sitting for a while, General Michelle of France and Lord Gaff from England left with displeasure. He had a negative impression of being tough and ignorant of the Marshal of the Ocean Empire, and felt that he was not a good master to work with.

Watching them leave by car, Marshal Li Shuanzhu narrowed his eyes slightly and a glimmer of clear light flashed.

Although these senior generals of the British and French coalition forces were unhappy, they would still strictly implement artillery tactics and would not bring personal emotions to such a large-scale battle.

Every day of the full attack on the battlefield of hell is related to the casualties of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, and the cost is so great that no one dares to neglect them.

Why should we insist on the maximum conversion time of shelling no more than three minutes?

The several demarcated roads where the German army might reinforce, the artillery fire covers about 2.5 to 3 kilometers. The barrage bombards at night and will form an indelible death zone.

A man runs with all his strength on a flat road, and he can run less than 1 kilometer in three minutes. On the road with craters at night, he walks one step higher and one step lower, and fully armed soldiers cannot do this.

German officers and soldiers who dare to take risks will inevitably pay the price of their lives.

If the time is extended to 6 to 7 minutes or more than 10 minutes, the blocking effect of artillery fire cannot be completely guaranteed.

Then won’t the German army pass through the plain?

The Somme region was originally a village and town in northeastern France that was dominated by agriculture. Apart from the roads, there were large areas of farmland. Three consecutive years of war caused the land to be barren and the scene was full of dilapidated.

After December

The continuous rain, snow and cold weather made the original farmland even more muddy. The surface was frozen and hard at night, and the sun came out and then melted again during the day. When the military boots were stepped on, they could sink to their feet.

A few kilometers away in such muddy fields is a harsh physical test for every German soldier, not to mention that there is more than one artillery blockade area that reinforces forward.

In the wilderness 10 kilometers away from the German positions in front of the Somme, it was the area where the Ocean Empire Air Force was rampant during the day. If the established large German reinforcements cannot enter the complete anti-artillery shelter, then wait for the bombing.

It is quite difficult to cross such a long distance overnight and to orbit the artillery fire to block the area.

"Master, can they do it?" The person who asked with doubts was General Bian Chunsong, deputy commander of the 1st Group Army.

The commander of the army group is also appointed by Marshal Li Shuanzhu, and General Bian Chunsong is the second person.

The Expeditionary Force gathered more than 300,000 troops on Som and the southern battlefield, all of which were under the jurisdiction of the 1st Army, which was also the establishment of the first army in the history of the Ocean Empire.

The vanguard of the 2nd Army was still resting in Hampton, the east coast of the United States, waiting for the cruise fleets to and from the Atlantic to transport them to Europe. As for the East or the West line, that's a matter of different things.

It depends on whether the 1st Army can cooperate with the British and French coalition forces to break the deadlock on the Western Front?

As an authority in the field of tank armor in the Imperial Army, General Bian Chunsong is responsible for commanding and implementing the third phase armor group's important task of breaking through the German positions, so he is particularly concerned.

Marshal Li Shuanzhu turned to the New Year and came to see him, snorting coldly, "Hmph, don't underestimate our allies. Their fighting will and execution ability are one of the world's top armies, and they are worthy of the title of world power."

"Master, but in previous battles, the British and French coalition forces did not strictly use artillery fire to restrict the German reinforcements. The battle has become a tactic of adding more water and adding more water. This is probably one of the main factors that are currently in a stalemate."

"Soldiers are all good. These British and French senior generals have rigid tactical ideas and do not seek flexibility, which gives the Germans a great opportunity to take advantage of. But they just don't listen when they say it, and don't look back when they touch it." Marshal Li Shuanzhu shook his head with a gloomy face and sighed.

Does Lord Gaff, the commander of the 5th British Army, know the benefits of three-minute rotation intervals?

The answer is obviously no. If this artillery blockade tactic is strictly implemented, the possibility of large-scale German troops reinforcing troops will be completely eliminated, and the benefits will be obvious.

The British and French artillery units have such capabilities and have enough shells to implement the artillery blockade tactic. Since they know that it is a good tactic, why not actively cooperate?

In the final analysis

It comes from the arrogance and tactical rigidity in the bones. The British's old command method was to rush the army after the cannons were bombarded. If the army could not be captured, then bombard them with cannons. After the cannons were bombarded, the army would rush again. This was repeated.

He didn't pay any attention to cutting off the German reinforcement channels, suppressing German artillery fire, clearing extremely dangerous heavy machine gun positions, and destroying enemy ammunition and food transportation lines.

Maybe it did, but not thoroughly.

Even though the Somme battlefield evolved into hell, with millions of casualties, it did not change the stubborn thinking of these senior officers.

If he had a hammer on his hand, he really wanted to knock on the heads of these senior British and French officers to see what was in it?

Especially the senior British army generals stubbornly adhered to the tradition of intensive charges in the 19th century. Each soldier carried more than 30 kilograms and was equipped with 200 rounds of bullets, grenades and rifles. When charging, he advanced like clumsy wooden stakes.

Due to the low efficiency of British artillery bombardment, most of the German soldiers hiding in the trenches survived and used the periscope to observe the approaching British soldiers.

As the British soldiers got closer, the German army received the order to fight back. First, the German artillery could still open fire in the rear of the German army, and secondly, the German infantry waiting for orders at the entrance of the underground tunnel began to gush out, quickly occupied the trenches and began to fight back.

Manipulating heavy machine guns to shoot wildly, dense bullets harvested British lives like the sharp sickle of the god of death.

The British soldiers retreated in panic slowed down due to muddy roads, congestion and falls caused more casualties.

This one-sided massacre made the British Marshal Hegel unbelievable. In his opinion, under the fierce bombing of artillery fire for seven consecutive days, the Germans could not have such a fierce counterattack.

Therefore, he shouted, "That's absolutely impossible!" to express his shock.

Marshal Heg was so angry that he continued to order to strengthen his attack, attack, and attack again, and take the German position despite the life and death of the soldiers.

So a tragic cycle appeared, that is, British bombardment, Germans hid, British charge, Germans came out to shoot with Maxim machine guns, knocking down large areas of British soldiers like they were cutting wheat...

Then the British army continued to bombard, the German army continued to hide, and repeated...

Marshal Hegel's simple and crude command ordered the British army to suffer major casualties, and more than 60,000 casualties were killed or killed on the first day of the war, shocking the whole world.

Compare with it

The German army suffered more than 12,000 casualties on the first day, and the French 6th Army, which served as the auxiliary attack, only suffered more than 1,590 casualties.

From this point of view, it can be seen that the French army artillery has higher efficiency in suppressing the German army and has greater damage to the German army in the trenches, so the counterattacks encountered are less powerful.

Marshal Li Shuanzhu waved his hand and said, "We can't control others, we can only take our destiny into our own hands. The young men of the empire followed me to Europe. I want to bring most of them back, instead of burying them in this cold and muddy land.

I ordered the artillery calibration aircraft to strengthen observations, and I would remove all the German defense line and its 20 kilometers of artillery positions behind me.

Three days after the shelling, the artillery positions of the Allied Powers will move forward across the line and continue to bombard the towns behind the German trench positions and all possible deep targets. I will blow them all to pieces.

There is no need to save shells for the French. Our expeditionary army traded this hammer and shot out all the accumulated shells.

There is no need to be afraid of the casualties of the Army Air Force and pass on my orders;

From the fourth day of the full-line artillery bombing, we gave up the hollow bombing tactics, and all used low-altitude precision bombing tactics to carry out targeted strikes for me and threw bombs into the trenches.

Every time one extra heavy machine gun position is cleared, hundreds of young men may be saved.

The German front line, the second and third line positions on the Somme River front line, I want to turn them into a sea of ​​fire without any grass growing."

Marshal Lee Joo-zhu waved his hand down fiercely, which represented his confidence to smash everything.

He didn't believe that German soldiers could survive in this sea of ​​steel.

Don't forget

The third axe he launched was tank armored cluster assault, and infantry followed the tactics. The German defense line was bombed in the air for 17 consecutive days. After 6 days of artillery attack on the entire line, the powerful T5 Tiger tank will be the main attack, with the goal of occupying three German defense lines, a total of 23 kilometers of deep positions.

After the attack day was launched, the army artillery fire and air bombing would become more fierce and deadly. The Royal Army Air Force attacked the entire line and supported the armored forces' attack at any cost.

General Bian Chunsong raised his hand to salute with a solemn expression, and replied with a strong voice; "The 1st Army firmly implemented the command of the commander and blew the German positions into a sea of ​​fire, without any grass growing."

Under the strict order of the commander

A new round of air strangling war began again. The fighter planes whistling above the German Somme position from morning to night kept making terrifying screams, and the roar of the engine resounded over the battlefield, constantly diving and dropping bombs, strafing, and hitting all possible German targets.

This harsh air strangulation war almost suffocated the German Second Army and suffered unprecedented heavy casualties. It was forced to seek emergency assistance.

The two German military advisors who were reinforced from the German 1st Army position to the south were discovered just now while the night was dark. Then there were overwhelming aircraft bombing and strafing, and artillery fire bombardment, almost wiped out the two German advisors, with nearly 20,000 casualties.

The railway leading from behind Germany to the front line had long been blown up, and planes roared past the air from time to time, searching for traces of German reinforcements along the highway. Even a carriage on the road would not be spared. As long as you find it, you would rush down and shoot.

Many fighter jets were shot down by the German ambush machine gun positions, with a total of more than 40 aircraft in front and behind.

But such sacrifice is worth it. The ghosts cannot be seen on the hundreds of kilometers of roads. Along the way are full of bombed vehicles and dead soldiers, which basically blocks the possibility of the German army launching large-scale reinforcements to the front line.
Chapter completed!