Chapter 433 A strange combination of circumstances

Before the Battle of Verdun, the Germans were confident that their troops and artillery were invincible. But until the Battle of Verdun has progressed, the Germans have discovered that artillery is not completely invincible in the war.

During this period of more than half a month, the Germans first tried to launch a fierce attack on the central position of the French army's defense line. After the attack failed, they turned to attack the left and right wings.

But apart from paying a lot of casualties, the Germans did not have too obvious results.

Especially after Pétain adjusted his strategy, the Germans felt unprecedented pressure in the Verdun area. Their plan to win by storm through artillery superiority and manpower superiority had completely failed.

The main reason why this tactic was successful on the Eastern Front was actually because the Russian army's equipment was too poor and its logistics was too backward.

But the French's logistics are not weaker than those of Germany. With fortresses and new equipment, the French army is not inferior to the Germans in terms of equipment.

After the French army stabilized the defense line, the rear staff added a large amount of troops, ammunition, weapons and equipment to the front line.

This also gave the French army sufficient strength to launch a counterattack and regain some of the positions and fortresses lost in the early stages of the campaign.

With the victory of recent small-scale battles, the morale of the French army has gradually increased, and most of the troops on the front line have restored sufficient combat effectiveness.

As the two sides faced off offensively and defensively, time quietly came to 1916.

On January 3, 1916, French Commander-in-Chief Joffre issued the latest instructions to all defensive troops in the Verdun area, which also included Joffre's encouragement to all soldiers.

Joffre said that for more than a month, the German army had launched a fierce attack on the Verdun Fortress in an attempt to advance straight into it.

With their elite troops and extremely fierce artillery fire, they achieved considerable results on the Eastern Front.

The French army in the Verdun area could make the Germans make no progress and even frustrate the German army's vigor, which is enough to show the strength of the French army.

Xiafei proudly stated that he would ensure the arrival of all military supplies and reserves in the rear as soon as possible and make all logistical preparations for the soldiers on the front line.

If the enemy still wants to attack, the French army will use their unyielding courage and sincerity to support the lifeline of the nation. Under the attention of the whole country, they will be praised by all French people. They are a solid sky drop that prevents the German army from entering Verdun.

Starting on January 3, 1916, the Battle of Verdun officially entered its second stage.

The German command decided to mobilize troops and shift the focus of the attack from the east bank to the west bank of the Meuse River, seizing the important defensive positions of the French army on the west bank in one fell swoop and preventing the French army from using the terrain to provide artillery support to the east bank.

For the new campaign, the German General Staff transferred a small number of elite troops from other places and supplemented the troops that participated in the first phase of the previous offensive.

In fact, the real purpose of the German attack on Verdun was not to capture this strong fortress.

The real purpose of the top German military leaders headed by Falkenhayn was to drain the blood of the French and exhaust their vitality in the Verdun area.

But the problem is that this plan is currently impossible to realize. Maybe the French will bleed out one day, but the Germans will definitely bleed to death.

Although he knew that the Battle of Verdun had reached a stalemate, Falkenhayn decided to let the German troops in the Verdun area continue the offensive, and the name was just for Germany's prestige.

It was from this moment that the Battle of Verdun turned from a plan into a meaningless war of attrition.

France and Germany continued to invest troops in this area, and the two sides launched tug-of-war after round, but it was only a consumption of manpower, equipment and materials, and the actual front movement was not large.

Beginning on January 10, many German soldiers became dissatisfied with this worthless sacrifice.

Although everyone is willing to sacrifice their lives for patriotism, it would be unnecessary if it is wasted on a war that is not necessary at all.

French and German aircraft hovered over the battlefield of Verdun, and a large number of corpses could be seen anytime and anywhere.

These piles of corpses are French, German, and colonial natives.

Some positions had been torn to pieces by artillery, but the French stood firm. On such positions, they sang war songs of blood and fire.

Such soul-stirring scenes can be seen almost everywhere on the battlefield. Soldiers from both France and Germany suffered a large number of casualties. Their feelings of generously dying for their country are worthy of recognition.

The dense artillery exploded in the chaotic patches of dead wood, leaving large and small craters.

Some blind and seriously injured soldiers groped their way to caves or bunkers to survive. They originally thought that such bunkers would bring them a sense of security, but the snow melted by the heat wave of artillery explosions became a death threat.

The blood flowed into huge craters and caves, drowning the wounded soldiers lying on the ground unable to struggle.

Such a scene cannot be said to be cruel, but in the historically famous Battle of Verdun, this was a bloody reality.

Wherever the shells passed, human bodies and horse corpses were everywhere. Fortunately, it was January and the Verdun area was still relatively cold, so these corpses did not yet emit a foul smell.

If it were summer, the smell of rotting corpses alone would be enough to cause some soldiers to have a psychological breakdown.

What's even more exaggerated is that some German soldiers were not only covered in mud and had sunken eye sockets because they had lived in such a bad environment for a long time, but they also looked extremely old, weak, and beyond recognition.

However, the top German military leaders still had wishful thinking and dreamed of consuming the effective strength of the French army through the Battle of Verdun to prevent the upcoming large-scale attack by the British and French coalition forces.

Instead of waiting for the British and French forces to launch an offensive in unknown areas, it is better to take the initiative and lead the British and French forces to the Verdun area. A decisive battle will take place in the Verdun area in an attempt to eliminate the main force of the British and French forces. This is the plan of the top German officials.

In fact, the massive German offensive in the Verdun area did remind the British Empire.

The British government was keenly aware that it must invest more power in the European continent as soon as possible, and at the same time do everything it could to support the French army to prevent France from experiencing a Russian-style defeat.

Russia has great strategic depth, and a few defeats are nothing to Russia, which has a vast territory and a large population.

But for France, if the Battle of Verdun fails, not only will Paris be at risk of falling, but it will even affect the combat capabilities of the French army in the entire French region.

It is no exaggeration to say that after the fall of Verdun, Paris was not saved. If Paris is not protected, France will not be protected either.

With Britain's strong support for France, the French army launched a fierce battle with the German army in the Verdun area. Neither side could take the initiative, and the Battle of Verdun ended in a stalemate.

In February 1916, more than two months had passed since the Battle of Verdun began.

The German and French armies also faced off against each other in this area for nearly 70 days. During this period, they conducted a large number of battles and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

In the hilly forest area of ​​less than 20 square kilometers on the east and west sides of the Maas River, the offensive and defensive sides have repeatedly fought fierce battles.

The German troops, who lacked necessary rest, were exhausted by this time. The French army took advantage of the fatigue and slackness of the German army and launched local counterattacks from time to time, which overwhelmed the German officers and soldiers.

Due to heavy casualties and ineffective food and ammunition supplies, the German soldiers, who had always strictly observed discipline and charged bravely, had gradually lost confidence in the headquarters.

Since the beginning of the Battle of Verdun, the German high command has never worried about the heavy casualties. In their eagerness to win, commanders never took the number of casualties seriously. This actually ran counter to the German army's original campaign intention, which was to "let the French bleed out".

Because in terms of human resources, the Allied Powers Group really could not compete with the Entente Powers Group.

As a result, the Battle of Verdun not only failed to achieve its intention of letting the French blood flow, but instead seemed to have the intention of draining Germany's own blood.

Faced with extremely heavy casualties, Falkenhayn, under the pressure of William II, had to modify the original battle plan to avoid causing more casualties.

The combat method of heavy group and intensive assault commonly used by the German army has finally been modified. The French General Staff requires officers at all levels to pay attention to command with a scientific attitude during the war, and requires all armies to implement timely and effective artillery support during the offensive.

In order to prevent the French machine guns and artillery in the fortress from causing huge casualties to the attacking German army, the German army also made modifications to the tactical movements of the infantry.

The German General Staff required the German troops responsible for the offensive to adopt more dispersed spacing and continuous progressive assaults instead of the previous cluster charge.

Learning from past lessons, the German high command no longer one-sidedly emphasized the power of artillery attacks, but began to emphasize that machine guns were an effective weapon when approaching the enemy, and their role was irreplaceable by artillery. In subsequent battles, the German army paid more attention to the strafing capabilities of machine guns, especially the fire suppression effect when approaching the enemy.

In terms of the use of troops, the German army also changed the past tradition of elite troops acting as vanguard, instead using weaker troops to launch the attack first, and then using elite troops to expand the results.

In order to change the serious defeat on the battlefield and reverse the passive situation, the German army has indeed made a lot of efforts in terms of war materials and technology.

In order to destroy the French defense line, German engineers even dug holes under the French position, and then buried a large amount of explosives inside, blasting a large hole as deep as 10 stories in the French position.

However, the subsequent battles once again proved that due to the lack of necessary protection for the attacking troops at that time, these so-called new tactics could not produce much effect in the face of a solid position defense system with strong fire support and a certain depth.

Will the German army stop attacking because of too many losses? This is an issue of greatest concern to the Allied Powers, especially the French people.

The protracted and tragic conditions of the Verdun War have become a heavy psychological burden on the French people.

The whole country was proud of the French army's ability to tenaciously hold on to its position and crush the German army's crazy attack, but it was also disturbed by the excessive number of casualties.

Facts have proved that the Germans still did not give up attacking the Verdun Fortress.

However, Germany originally thought that the Battle of Verdun would achieve its goal quickly, so it only invested six main offensive troops.

But as the battle developed, Germany had to send more reinforcements to join the Battle of Verdun.

This kind of behavior is the most taboo in war. The method of gradually increasing troops is far inferior to investing more troops at once. This is like a gourd baby saving grandpa. An army that supports a small number of times is extremely easy to be targeted by the enemy. Because of this It is never possible to maintain the superiority in force over the enemy.

To borrow the original words of the Paris Journal in late February when evaluating the situation of the Verdun war: "No matter what the reasons are, it can be proved that the German army has reached a period of defensiveness. From then on, the German army has been unable to stop the development of the Allies."

Of course, there are elements of exaggeration in this, but the current situation of the German army in Verdun is indeed not good, and the Germans can no longer maintain their advantage over Verdun.

On March 1, General Robert George Nivelle succeeded General Pétain as Commander-in-Chief of the Verdun Theater, while General Pétain was transferred to the Western Front as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center.

The reason why the commander-in-chief of the Verdun theater was changed at such an important moment was because Joffre was quite dissatisfied with General Pétain's strategy in Verdun.

In fact, the new commander-in-chief of the Verdun Theater, General Nivel, also has a good reputation.

General Nivelle was a knowledgeable and eloquent artillery expert. He served as the artillery commander of the Verdun theater before becoming commander-in-chief of the theater.

He was born into a military family and is currently studying at the Saumur Cavalry School, studying cavalry command, and later changed to artillery, with excellent results.

General Nivelle's promotion journey was also very exaggerated. At the beginning of the war, Nivelle was just an ordinary lieutenant colonel.

But then he was quickly promoted to commander of the Fifth Brigade, and then was appointed commander of the Sixth Division.

His outstanding talents in artillery found a use during the Battle of the Marne, for which he was promoted to general and served as commander-in-chief of the Third Army.

It is worth mentioning that General Nivelle also invented a high-altitude explosive bomb during this war that could destroy airborne balloons, even airships and aircraft.

After the invention of this artillery shell, it caused a fatal blow to the German aerial reconnaissance forces and greatly weakened the German air force. General Nivel's talent in artillery is evident.

At this time, the preparations for the attack by the British and French coalition forces on the Somme River in northwest France were coming to an end.

The original purpose of launching this battle was to deal a heavy blow to the German army and even invade Germany, but at this time the main purpose was just to reduce the pressure in the direction of Verdun and force the German army to withdraw troops from the Russian front.

In order to weaken the scale of the battle launched by the British and French forces in the Somme area, the Germans launched a more violent attack on the Verdun area.

Because of the fierce German attack on the Verdun area, the British and French coalition decided to strengthen their offensive in the Somme area to distract the Germans' attention, force the Germans to divide their forces, and even withdraw from Russia.

Both sides have implemented combat plans for their own strategic goals, but judging from the development of the current situation, it is obviously more unfavorable to the German side.

Under the orders of the German command and the British and French allied forces, the German army decided to restart a large-scale offensive in the Verdun area. The British and French allied forces decided to speed up preparations for the battle in the Somme area and use a battle that could shock the Germans. offensive, forcing the Germans to withdraw from Verdun and Russia.

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