Chapter 560: The Somme River

After hearing "Charles starts counterattack", Ives smiled slightly, his eyes full of sarcasm: "After all, he is only 18 years old, and he can't keep calm in the face of a big battle."

Reminded by Lieutenant General Ives, the parliamentarians naturally thought of what they said before, that Charles had no experience in commanding large troops in frontal combat.

The parliamentarians nodded in agreement:

"How can we counterattack at this time? Shouldn't we organize defense?"

"The condition for the negotiation of the frontline soldiers is defense, and Charles actually did the opposite. This may cause soldiers to mutiny again."

"The Germans can kill and injure 100,000 British troops in one day in defense, and we can do the same. God, Charles missed a great opportunity and chose to go all out!"

...

Galieni never believed that Charles would recklessly launch a counterattack at this time, let alone a gamble. If so, it would be a prepared counterattack.

He stood up and shouted to the audience: "Why don't we give Charles some time? Things may not be what you think..."

But this voice was soon drowned out by the opposition of the parliamentarians:

"We don't have time, Mr. Minister. The army, which is already in chaos, may collapse across the board."

"This is obviously a mistake. We should stop Charles' actions immediately."

"Yes, the command should be handed over to General Haig, so that he can unify the command of the battle on the front line!"

Wells and Steed looked at each other in the audience and smiled slightly.

They knew that Charles was prepared and very well prepared, although they didn't know what Charles' specific plan was!

...

On the south bank of the Somme, Charles' counterattack was officially launched.

In the past few days, Charles made some preparations. He secretly transferred a regiment of rocket artillery in Tijani's hands to the Somme.

There were only artillery, no rocket artillery.

Charles was worried that large-scale mobilization would make the Germans suspicious and give up the attack on the Somme.

On the other hand, Charles transferred a batch of landing craft and amphibious landing ships from Wells.

Among them, 12 landing craft were modified, each with 10 rocket launchers, and the other 12 were large landing craft, each of which could carry a "Charles A1" tank.

…

At the Palais Bourbon in Paris, Lieutenant General Avis asked his assistant to project the map of the Somme River onto the screen behind the podium, confidently holding the baton and pointing out the situation:

“The German fortifications on the Somme River are very tight, and can be described as impeccable.”

“There is a reason why the British and French troops suffered so many casualties on the Somme River. It is not a tactical issue, but purely caused by the battlefield environment.”

“What I mean is that even if Charles organizes a counterattack on the Somme River, it will not change because the person in charge is Charles!”

…

The headquarters of the 1st Special Artillery Division on the south bank of the Somme River.

Charles pointed to the Somme River on the map and said to Christine, who was in charge of the main attack: "Everyone has overlooked one point. The Somme River runs from west to east directly into the rear of the German army!"

Christian's eyes lit up. Yes, the Somme River can be used to penetrate, and it can be penetrated quickly. Why didn't I think of this?

But he frowned immediately:

"General, isn't it too dangerous to do this?"

"The Germans have artillery deployed on the south and north banks. Once they are discovered..."

At that time, all the artillery fire will blast a barrage on the Somme River in the form of crossfire, and the troops interspersed along the river will be blown up in an instant.

But Charles replied calmly: "We can wait for the Germans to attack."

Christine was stunned, and then suddenly realized:

"The Germans must have artillery preparations before attacking, and usually they will be prepared before dawn."

"The darkness and the sound of artillery will cover up the sound of the interspersed troops."

Charles added: "It will also expose the position of their artillery!"

Christine was instantly delighted: "That's right, General! When the enemy artillery is still firing at our defense line, they don't know that our interspersed troops have landed beside them. We can defeat the enemy artillery in the first place!"

...

At the Bourbon Palace in Paris, Lieutenant General Avis began his performance.

He put on a look of grief and sighed at the map on the screen:

"It's not hard to imagine that this will be another massacre."

"What's worse is that it's still dark, which is very unfavorable for the attacking party."

"The Germans only need to fire a few flares to kill a large number of our soldiers who are crossing the mud, craters and barbed wire!"

The parliamentarians were all indignant and denounced Charles's extremely irresponsible behavior:

"This is simply murder. He doesn't know what he is doing."

"He will kill us. We can't let him continue to make mistakes like this."

"We should do something, otherwise it will be too late!"

...

The south bank of the Somme.

When the German army launched artillery preparations at five in the morning, the French interspersed troops that had been hiding on the shore began to move at the same time.

They pushed landing craft down the river along the prepared channels, and guided the tanks onto the ships along the landing boards in an orderly manner.

The bearded man was in charge of the ship's actions.

Originally, this job should have been done by Tijani, after all, he had naval knowledge and had commanded landing operations.

But Tijani needed to be in Namur, and it would be too obvious for Charles to transfer him here, which would clearly tell the Germans that he was preparing for the Somme.

So Charles could only look for him among the troops.

I didn’t expect that there were many soldiers from the navy when I checked the information, and the bearded man was one of them.

What surprised Charles even more was that the bearded man actually called himself Darlan.

Darlan?

The future admiral of the navy?

And he was one of the representatives of the mutiny?

(The above picture shows François Darlan, Admiral of the Navy, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Acting Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Navy, and Minister of the Interior of the Vichy government. He was the second-in-command of the Vichy government, second only to Pétain. During World War I, he was a naval artillery major and was sent to Verdun to fight as an army artillery. As a naval marshal, his actual combat experience was only land artillery.)

Perhaps Nivelle transferred the troops that were supposed to be used in Verdun to the Somme River, Charles thought, so Darlan appeared in the Somme River.

“But.” Charles looked at the unkempt future “admiral of the navy” in front of him: “Why did you…”

“Become a representative of the mutiny?” Darlan continued Charles’ words.

"Yes." Charles nodded. He should be a nobleman to become a "Marshal" in the future. It was strange for him to be a representative of mutiny.

"Because I thought I was going to die, General." Darlan answered seriously: "Like everyone else, I don't want to die meaninglessly!"

Then he looked at Charles gratefully: "But fortunately, this didn't happen."

Charles nodded to show his understanding: "Then, what if it was meaningful? I mean, you might die in this battle!"

Darlan stood up: "I believe you, General, give the order! I will prove my courage with action!"