Chapter 522 Battle of the Somme

On the Somme River in November, the weather was a little cool in the morning. There was not much green left in the deciduous trees on both sides of the river, leaving only a few yellow-brown leaves hanging on the bare trunks, which made it feel desolate.

Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, was hiding in the trench, carefully holding his binoculars and looking at the German positions in the distance.

Everything was so quiet, there was no German activity, only a few birds were looking for food carefree in front of the position.

Putting away the telescope, Haig nodded to his staff with satisfaction: "The Germans did not realize that they were under artillery fire. They are going to be finished!"

…

South of the Somme, French Commander-in-Chief Nievelle was also observing the movements of the Germans. He proudly said to his subordinates: "When all the leaves on the trees fall off (in a few days), we will be able to go home victoriously." "

This was Nivele's habit. He always used unrealistic optimism to motivate his troops before the war. He believed that this could improve morale and combat effectiveness, so that he could defeat the enemy in one go.

However, Nivele never considered that once these words failed to come true, he would immediately suffer backlash, and the soldiers would even lose the most basic trust in him, the commander-in-chief who talked nonsense.

(The picture above shows the map of the Battle of the Somme. The Somme River divides the offensive position into two parts, north and south, from west to east. To the north is the British 4th Army, with a total of 23 divisions, and to the south is the French 6th Army. , only 5 divisions arrived on the scene on the first day. The shaded part is the position captured by the coalition forces after paying about 600,000 casualties).

Then, Lieutenant General Nivele took out his pocket watch and stared at the hands quietly.

Behind him, observation balloons have slowly risen into the sky. There are more than a dozen of them. They are dotted in the rear position, like colorful balls released at a festival. The only difference is that they are gray like the sky. of.

The hands gradually moved toward seven o'clock, and Nivele ordered arrogantly: "Fire and let them taste our power!"

Three red signal flares rose slowly. They climbed higher and higher in the sky, and their speed gradually slowed down.

Just as they were about to fall, the sound of cannons suddenly sounded.

The artillery fire was unprecedentedly fierce. The British and French forces assembled a total of 1,500 artillery pieces of various calibers and bombed the German positions almost continuously.

The soldiers present could only see the flight trajectory of the artillery shells in the first few minutes of the battle. Those hot artillery shells flew in the air and met the cold air, leaving clearly visible trajectories.

They pointed directly at the German positions, and then burst out with bright lights like stars at night.

Soon, even these ballistics were no longer visible. They were covered by the smoke in the sky. Coupled with the smoke and dust stirred up by the shells, the entire sky turned black, just like returning to the dark night.

The German positions were engulfed in a sea of ​​fire, the ground shook deafeningly, and German bunkers and obstacles exploded into the sky from time to time.

The German artillery fire seemed to be mute, unable to fight back, and seemed to be powerlessly and helplessly enduring all this.

Nivele's face turned red with excitement when he saw this scene. He clenched his fists and shouted: "Blow up, blow up to your heart's content! Blow everything up to the sky. Nothing can stop us from winning!"

In his opinion, anything can be destroyed with cannonballs, and if one doesn't work, then two.

…

When the British army attacked the position, Haig also breathed a sigh of relief. He believed that the fact that the German artillery fire did not return fire meant that the overall situation was settled.

Because this artillery bombardment will continue for a week, a full seven days.

There is nothing in the world that can withstand seven days of bombing. If anything, it is the land and corpses!

At that time, all the British soldiers have to do is walk towards the ruins, and they can easily trample the German troops under their feet and pick the fruits of victory.

After the bombing lasted for more than half an hour, Haig sent a telegram to Kitchener: "Everything is satisfactory. The German army is not prepared. Victory is in sight. I even think that seven days of bombing preparations are not necessary." ”

…

Kitchener, who was sitting in Dunkirk, received the telegram and nodded with satisfaction while drinking coffee.

He advanced the battle plan by more than ten days.

This is out of consideration for resolving the current political dilemma, and is also the most powerful response to "forcing the Shire to attack Namur."

This was Kitchener's way of telling everyone: Look, there was no plan to attack Namur, we were always preparing to attack the Somme. Plus, we don't need the Char to win, and it's a more glorious victory!

Still, Kitchener was a bit uneasy.

He called back and told Haig: "Once a breakthrough is opened, send the cavalry to break through immediately without any hesitation!"

If you want to have a "more brilliant victory", it is not enough to occupy a few lines of defense. You must intersperse and encircle and capture hundreds of thousands of German soldiers like the Shire.

Haig called back: "Understood, Marshal, I'm ready!"

They were indeed prepared. A total of three cavalry divisions and more than 40,000 cavalry were assembled on the front line. These cavalry would quickly break through and rush into the enemy's hinterland after the attack began.

However, neither Kitchener nor Haig nor Nivelle understood the true meaning of "interspersed siege" or the "blitzkrieg" of the Shire.

Shire's "day" started counting when the cannon sounded. The armored troops rushed to break through the enemy's position immediately, which prevented the enemy's reinforcements from arriving in time.

Kitchener and Haig, however, believed that the timing should start when the infantry launched the attack, and the seven days of artillery preparation could not be counted.

In seven days, reinforcements from Berlin, Germany, could reach the Somme River!

……

Charles, who was far away in the Antwerp headquarters, also received the information that the Battle of the Somme had begun.

Charles didn't care much about this. He knew what would happen, so he was not in a hurry at all.

Tijani spent most of his time in the telegraph room these days, hoping to get the news from the front line as soon as possible.

The hard work paid off, and he finally waited for this day.

He ran to Charles with the telegram and shouted excitedly: "The battle has begun, and the location is on the Somme. These bastards didn't let us know anything. In their eyes, we are so worthless!"

Then he saw that there was no surprise on Charles' face, and asked in confusion: "Do you know this?"

"Don't you know?" Charles asked back: "They built several roads and railways leading to the Somme."

Tijani was stunned. He didn't expect that he could judge the situation on the front line from this aspect.

But Charles also knew the result first and then looked for the process.

"Now." Charles turned his eyes to Namur on the map: "We can discuss how to attack Namur."

Tijani was petrified instantly.

So this is what Charles was waiting for.

Cunning fellow, Tijani laughed.

Kitchener originally wanted to use Charles to attack Namur to attract the Germans’ forces and attention.

Unexpectedly, Charles actually used Kitchener to attack the Somme River to attract the Germans’ forces and attention.

Can this be considered a boomerang?