Chapter 515

It was clear that Nivelle intended to attack.

Or rather the British decided to attack.

Gallieni looked at Pétain, who didn't respond at all. He sat quietly in his chair and remained silent. He seemed to be still hesitating.

Gallieni could only raise his head and say: "I don't think now is the right time to counterattack, Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief."

Nivelle turned his gaze from the map to Gallieni, nodded with a smile, and put on a sensible look: "Tell me your opinion, Your Excellency Minister."

Gallieni stood up slowly, turned sideways and said to the generals around him:

"I admit that the Germans invested a lot of troops and equipment in Verdun, but I think it is an exaggeration to say that it was a desperate effort to concentrate the last strength of the country."

"We should look objectively at the strength of the German defense."

"They still have a dominant position in Russia and have opened a new line of defense in Belgium to confront our army."

"We even had a few tentative attacks in other directions, and it turned out that the German defenses were very tight, with no sign of what you would call 'weak'."

As he spoke, Gallieni turned his attention to Lieutenant General Castelno, commander of Army Group Eastern, who was sitting behind him.

Lieutenant General Castelno stood up:

"Yes, I launched several attacks on General Galieni's orders. The German defenses were very tight."

"I also heard that they are equipped with new heavy machine guns."

"This kind of heavy machine gun is lighter and more suitable for mobile combat..."

Before he finished speaking, Haig interrupted him coldly in blunt French: "Think of Charles!"

"What?" Gallieni looked at Haig in confusion. He didn't understand what the relationship between Charles and their offensive intentions was.

"I'm talking about the battle when the Charles attacked Antwerp." Haig crossed his legs and remained motionless, raised his eyelids slightly, and said in a lazy tone: "Why was the Charles able to attack Antwerp in one day? Could it really be a Charles tank? And his troops are indestructible?"

Gallieni asked angrily: "So, what do you think that is? Is the enemy too weak?"

These guys actually openly deny Ciel's record!

"That's almost it." Haig nodded expressionlessly: "To be precise, it's not that the enemy is too weak, but that the Germans only have one outer layer of defense. As long as this layer is broken through, the interior will be empty. Many places are even empty. People defend."

Haig raised his head and stared at Gallieni with provocative eyes: "Am I right, Mr. Minister?"

"This is indeed a fact." Gallieni emphasized his tone: "However, only Charles's tank troops and mechanized troops can break through quickly. Only with a fast breakthrough can there be a situation of 'empty inside'."

Infantry cannot advance very fast on their own feet. When they break through, enemy reinforcements will block them from all directions and hold them back.

Then Gallieni added: "The attack on Antwerp, when Foch's Ninth Army was blocked by the Germans in Mons, illustrates this point well."

The generals nodded in agreement.

The Battle of Antwerp has been analyzed in detail by military experts. It is unanimously believed that the reason why Shire was able to successfully penetrate into place within one day was because the armored forces and mechanized forces were fast, strong enough, and flexible enough.

So fast that most enemy reinforcements cannot arrive in time.

They were so strong that the enemies that occasionally arrived could not hold them back, and were even quickly defeated by Charles' troops in a short period of time.

Being flexible, sometimes when encountering cities and strongholds that cannot be won in a short period of time, the Charr troops can bypass them instead of fighting to the death.

Pure infantry obviously cannot do this.

Haig smiled softly, and Shi Shiran stood up and spread his hands to everyone: "Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that the infantry also has its own fast mobile troops. We have always relied on them to achieve victory again and again on the battlefield. victory."

Gallieni was stunned for a moment, and then he understood: "You mean the cavalry?"

Haig nodded slightly, with a contemptuous smile on his face:

"The tactics Ciel used weren't really that big of a deal, were they?"

"We've used it thousands of times on the battlefield."

"Open a breakthrough in the enemy's defense line, and then use the cavalry to quickly penetrate through the breakthrough to its side and rear. The only difference is that Charles uses tanks and cars."

The British generals agreed one after another, and some shouted:

“Tanks and cars have irresolvable flaws and they rely too much on gasoline.”

"Without gasoline, they are just a pile of scrap metal, and gasoline is easy to attack. Charles's offensive almost failed because of gasoline!"

"The cavalry doesn't have this problem. They can also penetrate and shoot on horseback, and they don't rely on roads."

…

Haig is proud of himself.

This is why he considered tanks and machine guns redundant.

Why do you need tanks when you have cavalry?

Why do you need a machine gun when you have a rifle?

Cavalry can do what tanks can do, and machine guns are actually just a few more rifles!

Gallieni was speechless. He simply couldn't believe that in this era there were still people who believed in cavalry and believed that cavalry was stronger than tanks and cars.

But Gallieni was alone and unable to argue with all the British generals.

As for the French generals, they were either thoughtful or nodding. Some chose to remain silent even though they did not agree with the British point of view.

Apparently the British generals were much more united.

At this time Niweiler spoke:

"Our battle plan is almost like this, but with the addition of artillery."

"Just as the Germans bombarded Verdun with intense artillery fire, we will bombard a section of the German line with concentrated artillery fire."

"Then use infantry to open the breakthrough, and finally the cavalry quickly penetrates through the breakthrough."

Slightly different from the British, Nivelle believed more in "artillery". In his mind, fighting a war meant "conquering with artillery and occupying with infantry."

He believed that it was "artillery" that defeated the enemy, and the infantry only went out to "occupy" the enemy after it was defeated.

Gallieni couldn't help but ask: "Is this the British plan or your plan, Commander-in-Chief?"

Nivele's face instantly darkened: "What do you mean, Mr. Minister?"

"It's not interesting." Gallieni replied: "If you want to use this tactic to die, I may not be able to stop it. But as Minister of War, I will do everything I can to prevent the French army from participating..."

"No, Your Excellency Minister." Nivele interrupted Gallieni: "You can't stop it."

At this time, Haig spoke, with full disdain in his tone: "Our supplies are only provided to those soldiers who bravely kill the enemy on the battlefield, not to cowards hiding in the trenches who are afraid of death!"

Gallieni then understood that they would eventually use supplies to coerce Parliament into making compromises.