Chapter 382 Germany’s westward advance and France’s eastward advance

General Schlieffen was keenly aware that it was very necessary to quickly resolve the future war with France and Russia, no matter from an economic point of view, or from the perspective of people's cultural conditions and the uncontrolled consumption of funds required to maintain a large army.

Schlieffen pointed out that France must be regarded as a large fortress, especially the Verdun Fortress on the German-French border, which is almost impossible to break.

The weak link in France's defense is located on the border between northwest France and Belgium. This is the key point that stabs directly into the heart of France.

This plan to use Belgium was proposed by General Schlieffen.

According to the famous Schlieffen Plan, General Schlieffen focused Germany's war against France and Russia on the Western Front and expected to deploy 78 divisions to attack France.

On the Western Front battlefield, in accordance with the principle of being light on the left and heavy on the right, eight divisions were deployed on the left wing to launch an attack first to contain the main force of the French army.

The right wing is the focus of the attack. It needs to accumulate at least 70 divisions and penetrate directly into the heart of France through the territory of neutral countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium.

To the west of Paris and to the southwest of Paris, a large-scale encirclement movement was carried out to force the French army to the east. Then the German troops on the east and west lines encircled and annihilated the French army.

The entire war on the Western Front is expected to end within 6 to 8 weeks. As long as the war against France can be won, the remaining Russia will naturally have no resistance.

On the Eastern Front, General Schlieffen proposed deploying only nine divisions to contain the Russian army.

Because the Russian army's combat effectiveness was weak, and the German army had the cooperation of the Austro-Hungarian army, it was enough to persist until complete victory was achieved on the Western Front before turning around and advancing eastward.

Although this Schlieffen Plan correctly selected the main direction of the attack, fully utilized the strategic initiative and suddenness, and strived to take positive and decisive actions to achieve a quick victory.

However, this plan underestimated the combat effectiveness of the French army. General Schlieffen overestimated the combat effectiveness of the German army and underestimated the combat effectiveness of the French army. This plan was also extremely risky.

As the successor after Schlieffen, the current German Chief of Staff Moltke (Little Moltke) is the nephew of Marshal Moltke.

Moltke was personally selected by William II. If you have to ask why, the surname Moltke was the main reason why William II chose Moltke.

After Moltke took office as the German Chief of Staff, he inherited Schlieffen's strategic thinking and made some modifications based on specific circumstances.

But generally speaking, it is a change of the soup without changing the medicine. The Germans are very confident in their military strength, which is also caused by the nationalism of the Germanic people.

From August 7 after the war began, all railway transportation in Germany was handed over to the military.

Germany's extremely developed railway network can support the passage of 660 military trains and transport 20 divisions within 24 hours.

If the Germans were willing, it would only take about ten days to send all the troops on the Western Front to their designated positions.

Because of Germany's offensive plan, Germany declared war on France and Belgium at the same time, and its troops arrived at the borders of these two countries at the same time as the declaration of war.

In order to capture the Liege Fortress in Belgium, after several days of mobilization by the German army, four large Bertha mortars were successfully transported several kilometers away from the Liege Fortress and launched an artillery bombardment on the strong Liege Fortress.

The Big Bertha mortar was designed at the request of the German General Staff, specifically for strong fortresses like Verdun and Liège.

With a caliber of up to 420 mm and a range of more than ten kilometers, this giant cannon has become a secret weapon kept secret in Germany. It is also the key to Germany's confidence in being able to solve the Liege Fortress.

The total weight of the Big Bertha mortar is as high as 120 tons, and a total of nearly 300 people are needed to operate this cannon.

The shells of such a big guy are naturally not small. The shell of a big Bertha mortar weighs 820 kilograms, and each shot requires at least 200 kilograms of gunpowder.

This is not over yet. Every time it is launched, no one should be within 300 meters of the surrounding area, otherwise it will easily cause accidental damage.

After all, the power of a 200 kilogram gunpowder explosion is not small. The shock waves emitted by the explosion are enough to injure or even kill nearby people.

Unlike other artillery, the firing speed of almost all German artillery is calculated in minutes.

Some have dozens of rounds per minute, while others have several or even more than ten rounds per minute.

But the Big Bertha mortar is different. The firing speed of such a big thing is calculated in hours.

If all goes well during the launch process, it can fire at a rate of approximately eight rounds per hour, or one shell every 7.5 minutes on average.

As for the power of such a big thing, after William II visited its test firing, he was very satisfied and praised all the experts who developed this cannon.

However, William II also ordered the cannon to continue to be improved. Among other things, the weight of 120 tons made transporting the cannon a very difficult problem.

The assembly of the Big Bertha mortar took a certain amount of time, but when all four cannons were assembled, it was a huge torture for the Belgian army in the Liege Fortress.

The Big Bertha mortar caused great damage to the fortress. The four cannons fired continuously for more than two hours, firing a total of at least 50 shells. It not only destroyed most of the forts in the Liege Fortress, but also destroyed important parts of the Liege Fortress. material warehouse.

There is also an ammunition depot, which should contain a lot of ammunition and artillery shells.

After the explosion of the shell, there were several explosions with significantly smaller noise. It is not known whether any of the Belgians were accidentally injured.

In addition to using artillery for bombing, the Germans also carried out psychological attack tactics, which was to persuade the defenders of the Liege Fortress to surrender.

The German army claimed that the war between Germany and Belgium was unnecessary. Germany's main and only goal is France, as long as the Belgian army is willing to surrender, if it can protect Belgium from war damage.

But the commander of the Liege Fortress garrison was also a ruthless man. He rejected Germany's offer to surrender and directly replied: "I would rather live and die with the fortress."

However, even though the Belgians held on to the Liege Fortress for more than ten days, they were finally successfully breached by the German army on August 19.

There is no way, heavy weapons like the Big Bertha mortar are too buggy and can cause great damage to the extremely strong Liege Fortress.

After several days of bombardment by four cannons, even the fortress of Liege, which was as solid as steel, had to bow its head to the German cannons.

But for France, this is good news. The Belgians used their own casualties to buy France more than ten days.

The Germans originally planned to solve France in 6 to 8 weeks, but they wasted more than ten days in Belgium. A quarter of the planned time had been wasted.

It was during these ten days that the French army quickly assembled and deployed all of them to the eastern border.

Moreover, the French were not idle during these more than ten days, planning a counterattack plan against Germany.

The German army was dragged into the Liege Fortress, which gave birth to the idea within the French army of directly attacking the hinterland of Germany from the Alsace and Lorraine regions.

This has to mention the importance of Alsace and Lorraine. This area once belonged to France, but was forced to cede it during the Franco-Prussian War.

The German Empire was also established after the Franco-Prussian War, and he was crowned emperor at the Palace of Versailles, which was very important to the French, and became emperor of the German Empire.

For the French, this is a deep hatred that is impossible to forget.

Therefore, when the German army was dragged behind Belgium, the French General Staff immediately formulated plans for the rapid recovery of Alsace and Lorraine.

After many discussions and deliberations, a plan called Recovering the Lost Land was officially released.

According to the plan of the French General Staff, the French army took advantage of the German army being dragged in Belgium, mobilized a part of the army to directly attack Alsace and Lorraine, and then detoured to Cologne to directly surround the German army from the rear.

As a result, the French army and the Belgian army directly surrounded the German army.

The German army was like a turtle in a trap, waiting to be captured.

France's plan to regain lost territory was the 17th plan proposed by the French General Staff during this period, so it was also called Plan 17.

When Germany attacked the Liege Fortress, the French Chief of Staff and Commander-in-Chief of France during the war, Joffre, also initiated the implementation of Plan 17.

The main core of Plan 17 was to recover Alsace and Lorraine lost to Germany to boost the morale of the French army and increase civilian support for the war.

But in addition to this core plan, Plan 17 also has a flank attack direction, that is, the left wing. The Third Army commanded by General Ruf and the Fifth Army commanded by General Langrezac, with a total of 887,000 people, were at Verdun. Heading north to Namur, they attacked the German troops in Metz and the Ardennes.

The Fourth Army, commanded by General Cary, has a total of 190,000 people. As a reserve force for Plan 17, it can respond to various attacking forces at any time.

However, although Plan 17 mobilized as many as 1.7 million French troops, only a few hundred thousand could actually attack on the border.

A large number of troops are still located behind the border, either due to terrain reasons or due to various other reasons, destined not to all participate in this war at the same time.

Under various propaganda from the French army, French soldiers set foot on their homeland of Alsace. Patriotism arose spontaneously. They couldn't help but raise their guns in salute, and pulled out the boundary stakes drawn by the Germans and threw them aside.

Under the influence of this patriotism, the French army showed a fearless spirit and launched a fierce attack on the German army in Alsace and Lorraine.

If you are on the battlefield, you can see that under the call of the commander, French soldiers move forward bravely, even if their comrades continue to fall around them, although they cannot stop the French soldiers from advancing.

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