Chapter 388 The bloody battle on the Marne River

When the French Sixth Army couldn't resist and asked the French General Headquarters for help, a serious problem arose in France's logistics.

The Ourc River position was very important, and the French General Headquarters also urgently mobilized a division of elite troops and took a train to Paris to prepare to support the Sixth Army.

But the problem is that the distance from Paris to the front line is still more than 60 kilometers. If you rely on walking, it will take at least two days to reach the front line.

But war waits for no one. If the Sixth Army really had to wait two days before seeing reinforcements, I'm afraid the war would have already failed.

In order to urgently transport this division to the front, the French General Staff came up with a creative proposal, which was to requisition all taxis in Paris and use these taxis to transport troops.

In fact, the French army also has military trucks, but most of these trucks are responsible for logistics transportation, that is, the transportation of weapons, equipment and resources.

If these trucks are called urgently, it will take a certain amount of time to recruit a large number of trucks, and their arrival will affect the material supply and logistical supplies of all frontline troops.

Recruiting Paris taxis is obviously a better option. They are all cars anyway, so there is no problem in transporting troops.

What's more, the requisitioning of Paris taxis will affect the traffic in Paris at most. For the victory of the French War, it is natural for the citizens of Paris to make some contributions.

Thanks to the development of French industry and economy, Paris, the capital of France, has thousands of taxis.

After the French General Headquarters issued an order to requisition all taxis, in just half an hour, more than 600 taxis of various types went to the designated location. General Gallieni couldn't help but burst into tears when he saw this feat. He shouted excitedly: "Look, what an extraordinary thing this is!"

The taxi drivers in Paris were very excited to be able to contribute to the defense of their country in this way. They chose to put down all the passengers immediately and proudly explained: "I'm sorry, sir, I'm going to fight."

And most of the passengers would say understandingly: "It doesn't matter, it's for France."

In just one night, thousands of taxis made two round trips, transporting nearly 6,000 soldiers from an infantry division to the front line 60 kilometers away.

This also allowed the Sixth Army led by Maunouri to receive reinforcements and temporarily stabilize its position when it was about to collapse.

Compared with Xiafei's excessive attention to the battlefield, the attitude of German Chief of Staff Moltke was completely opposite.

After assigning tasks to each group army, Xiao Maoqi did not interfere, but sat firmly at the staff headquarters.

What's even more terrible is the situation on the front line, especially the progress of the First Army? Did you execute the order smoothly? Little Maoqi had no idea.

Although Moltke sent Lieutenant Colonel Hans, the director of his intelligence department, as a plenipotentiary representative to each army group to understand the implementation of the order.

But the problem is, how can a small lieutenant colonel order the high-ranking commander-in-chief of the group army without Xiao Maoqi?

Lieutenant Colonel Hans' ability is indeed not low. He not only saw the problems currently exposed by the First Army, but also urged the commander of the First Army Crook to implement Moltke's order and detour back to the north bank of the Marne River to join the Second Army. Cooperate with the action.

However, Crook did not realize the seriousness of the matter and believed that the possible French attack was only an auxiliary operation, the purpose was only to cover the retreat of the troops and cross the Seine River.

By the time the First Army found Joffre's order from a prisoner of war, the Battle of the Marne had already begun, and it was too late for Crook to regret it.

It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the war, the First Army was under the control of Pilov.

But since the war entered a fierce state, Pilov no longer controlled the First Army, but allowed the First Army to act on its own.

However, because of Xiao Maoqi's inaction attitude, the First Army, which was supposed to return to the management of the German High Command, became a truly autonomous action. This led to Crook's blind arrogance and the First Army's situation. Danger.

In order to deal with the danger he faced, Crook ordered the Third Army and the Ninth Army in the southern section to rush to the Walker River to participate in the battle with a forced march. Only two cavalry divisions were left in the southern section to resist the British army.

Crook's blind decision directly put the right wing of the Second Army behind the First Army in greater danger.

Originally, these two armies were responsible for covering the right wing of the Second Army. After they withdrew, the right wing of the Army was directly exposed, and they also completely opened the distance between the First Army and the Second Army.

Faced with such a stupid operation by the Germans, the morale of the French army increased greatly, and the charge became more brave.

The Battle of Ourcq, a tributary of the Marne.

"For France, attack!"

A French officer carrying a command knife drew his saber, pointed it in the direction of the enemy, and shouted loudly for the soldiers to attack.

A minute ago, French artillery had just carried out a heavy bombing of the enemy's position. As soon as the sound of the artillery died down, the army commander couldn't wait to launch the offensive.

Unlike those officers who were afraid of death, after shouting the charge, the French officers took the lead and rushed forward, followed by groups of French soldiers.

Obviously, the officer's heroic actions also affected all his men. This scene was staged everywhere in the French Sixth Army, and it also made the French army's charge extremely fierce.

Unfortunately, the airships in this area have long been shot down, and the planes have left the battlefield because they ran out of fuel.

Otherwise, you can see from God's perspective that densely packed French soldiers are rushing towards the German position like a tide.

Although many black spots stayed during the charge, more black spots rushed forward.

On the other side of the French army was the German First Army, which was fully prepared.

The good news is that most of the German First Army are elite soldiers, and their combat effectiveness far exceeds that of the French army opposite.

But the bad news is that after a long march, the soldiers of the First Army were already exhausted.

Coupled with the increasing distance between the First Army and the Second Army and the German General Headquarters, some of the First Army's logistics supplies were already insufficient.

Fatigue, lack of logistics, and double de buff make even a strong army like the German army exhausted, and their combat effectiveness is greatly reduced.

Da da da! Bang bang bang!

The two sides seemed to be firing in an orderly manner, but in fact they were just a large number of overlapping gunshots.

Some French soldiers ended their short careers as soldiers before they even had time to fire a shot.

Yes, France's casualties have already reached six figures since the war began.

Coupled with the implementation of domestic mobilization orders, this also resulted in a large number of conscripts on the French front, that is, newly trained recruits.

But there is no way, including countries like Germany, cannot ensure that all of their millions of troops are elite veterans.

In order to prevent the army from reducing its combat effectiveness due to too many recruits, it is necessary to either provide more rigorous training to the recruits or to retain as many elite troops as possible.

Of course, there is a faster and very cruel method, which is to let these new recruits practice on the battlefield. After experiencing life and death several times, they will smoothly become veterans who have experienced hundreds of battles.

This is basically the case in Germany and France right now. After a few weeks of training, conscripts can step onto the battlefield with their own weapons and equipment and enjoy their short but long career as soldiers.

The French army's charges were repelled wave after wave, but this still could not stop the French army from taking a step.

In just over an hour, the Sixth Army had moved forward to a distance of nearly 200 meters, and the German position on the opposite side was already visible to the naked eye.

Of course, in order to achieve such results, the Sixth Army has so far suffered casualties from an entire division, and the number of casualties is still increasing.

Although the German army is visibly tired, the Maxim heavy machine gun, a powerful weapon, plays an irreplaceable role in offensive and defensive warfare.

Most of the French army's casualties were caused by Maxim machine guns, and only a small number came from enemy artillery bombardment and rifles.

As for the German army, the French weapon that can cause the greatest casualties to the German army is artillery. This is not only because German soldiers are located within the built positions and are safer in offensive and defensive battles.

It was also because many French soldiers were killed before they could fire the first shot, and the new recruits were forced off the battlefield as soon as they entered the battlefield.

The suppressive firepower of the Maxim heavy machine gun quickly repelled the French soldiers who were approaching the German position.

No matter how brave the French soldiers are, they can only serve food in front of such powerful weapons.

General Galilei was furious as he watched his men fall one after another under the enemy's machine guns. He quickly ordered the messenger next to him: "Have all the artillerymen fire at the enemy's machine gun positions immediately. Don't worry about the artillery. First, Let’s take out the enemy’s machine gun position first.”

At the beginning of the war, the main target of French artillery was German artillery. However, judging from the current situation, the damage caused by German artillery is less than one-third of the German machine gun positions. It can be imagined which position should be destroyed first.

Under the suppression of artillery, the German machine guns did not dare to show their heads easily. After all, France is equipped with a large number of Miss France, which is famous for its speed of fire. As soon as the German machine gun position shows up, it will face the bombardment of at least a dozen artillery pieces.

Even if the accuracy of these artillery shells is not very good, when there are more of them, there will still be relatively lucky positions that are baptized by artillery fire.

After the German machine guns shrank, the pressure on the French army's front was reduced a lot.

Seeing the reduction in German firepower, the French commanders' eyes lit up and they issued the order at the top of their lungs: "Charge!"

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