Chapter 670 - The battlefield is a place where humanity cannot be seen
"You mean, launch a counterattack in the Somme?" Farkinhan asked. "Have you ever considered that the advantage of defense will be much greater than the advantage of attack?"
Farkinhan didn't know the principle of "attack is greater than defense". He was more inclined to see what he saw before him. One team after another launched a charge, and another team fell under the German machine guns.
He was worried that if the Germans launched a counterattack, this would happen to the Germans.
Colonel Erwin seemed to see through Farkingham's thoughts, and he analyzed:
"General, when interspersing Antwerp's battle with the British, I found that the British had little ability and tactics to block tanks."
"I mean, although they have tanks, they only consider offense but not defense."
“I believe they have the same problem in the direction of the Somme.”
Erwin was not very sure about this. During this period, he was stationed in the Liege Fortress and had no conditions to understand the situation on the Somme battlefield.
Fajinhan asked back: "What are you referring to?"
Erwin replied: "Anti-tank rifles, anti-tank trenches, anti-tank mines, and elastic defense tactics."
As he said that, Erwin handed the sorted documents to Farkinham from his briefcase.
When Fa Jinhan opened it, each item was accompanied by a simple picture, which was easy to understand at a glance.
Colonel Erwin analyzed:
"I think this is caused by the different combat intensity of the British and French armies."
"Since the war started, the main force in confronting our army has been the French army. They grew rapidly under the leadership of Charles, a military genius, and their equipment and combat theories are relatively mature and systematic."
“然而，英国远征军却一直在积蓄力量，他们打过的唯一一场大规模战役就是索姆河战役。”
“再加上英国人的固执和高傲，使他们的装备和战术理论都处在相对落后的状态。”
法金汉一边翻着文件一边点头。
Colonel Erwin listed these methods of defensive against tanks, which the British did not, including the Somme defense line.
Especially the elastic defense tactics, Charles used it in the 6th Army to shock the German generals and officials.
Everyone, including Fajinghan, was exclaiming:
"So armored troops can still be used like this!"
"Germany also needs to learn this tactic so that it can defend longer lines with fewer troops."
"We need more tanks, maybe only this tactic can stop Shire's interlude!"
...
Therefore, the French and German troops were all in the offensive and defensive tactics. Only the British troops still had a lofty attitude, thinking that they were the world's largest country and did not need to learn from others, and they used the same old tactics.
But Farkinhan was still cautious, and he said expressionlessly: "The British also have tanks, colonel."
Colonel Erwin is very confident about this:
“英国人的坦克不堪一击，将军。”
"We know how to deal with tanks without spinning turrets."
"In addition, we upgraded the tanks, and the British 'Whitebits' were just a pile of scrap iron in front of our new tank."
Colonel Erwin was talking about the German LK2 tank.
(The above two pictures show the two tanks LK1 and LK2. The biggest improvement is that the shape of the front armor changes to make its defense stronger. Secondly, the rear of the body has changed from square to prismatic tangent angle to reduce the area of the side. The entire evolution process is only It took more than two months.)
Fakingham said: "They had more troops, the colonel, and the UK had assembled at least 15 divisions there. And we had only eight divisions on the north bank of the Somme."
The troops were almost half as powerful as those of the British.
"I know, general," Colonel Erwin replied, "But we have tanks. In front of the tank, another meaning of large troops is death and injury. I admit that this may cause us a lot of trouble when cleaning up the bodies!"
Farkinhan was silent for a while: "But they still have artillery. The British have equipped the new 152MM caliber artillery. They have also accumulated a large number of shells, enough to blow all your tanks into the sky."
Colonel Erwin replied calmly: "Then we will wait until they launch an attack before counterattacking."
Fa Jinhan knew it instantly.
The British were very dull in tactics. They always poured a large number of shells into the German defense line before the attack, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days.
After this long period of artillery fire preparation, their shells were few left, and the soldiers would also surge up like a tide.
If a counterattack is launched at this time, the German steel defense line built by tanks will collide with the flesh and blood of British soldiers.
Farkinhan seemed to have seen the tragic scene of corpses everywhere on the battlefield.
...
The sound of cannons on the north bank of the Somme River was shocking.
In the semi-buried front command of the British Expeditionary Force, the broken soil on his head "washed" down the gap between the logs under the vibration of the artillery.
Hege looked at the calendar on the table anxiously, and it was turning to February 23.
No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!
The artillery fire has been bombarded for three days and three nights in a row, and today it is the day of the planned attack.
Hege was no longer interested in observing the German positions after the artillery bombing, because he knew it would not work.
Every time, the German positions seemed to be bombed into ruins and no one could survive, but as long as the British soldiers stood on the positions, a person's head and a person would immediately appear in the barren land. The black muzzle.
Sometimes, Heg didn't know how to fight this battle.
Interspers like Charles?
No, there is clearly no interspersed area in the Somme defense line.
Even Charles is helpless when he comes to such a battlefield, Hege thought.
"General." At this time, the staff report: "The South African Legion had deserters, with more than 300 people."
If there were only a few deserters, the staff officer would not report it at all, which would be too common.
Heg gritted his teeth. These bastards chose to escape at the last moment of the attack. Don’t they know that this would cause a devastating blow to the morale of the troops?
Hege did not hesitate and ordered coldly: "Boll them onto the battlefield!"
"Yes!" The staff officer turned around and ordered.
Soon, a team of more than 300 people was driven into the no-man's land between the enemy and us in groups under the guns of their comrades. They didn't even have guns in their hands.
Behind them, British officers waved their pistols and shouted to their subordinates:
"That's the price of being a deserter, remember this."
"They will also die on the battlefield, but they are deserters."
“There is no honor or dignity, no pension, and everyone knows they are cowards!”
...
The gunshots began, and German soldiers defeated the deserters one by one with a target mentality.
Some panicked deserters wanted to return to the trenches, but were knocked down one by one by one by the prepared British soldiers.
The British army needed these deserters to rush forward and they needed to fall under the guns of the German army so that they could find the German firepower point!
The battlefield is a place where human nature cannot be seen.
