Chapter 528 No Dignity

Morning mist filled the air, and the clouds were cold as water.

The once peaceful wilderness of the Somme River had now turned into a scorched earth. The wind carried gunpowder and the stench of corpses. The sun shone through the mist, refracting into light spots that sprinkled on the corpses in the no-man's land, scaring away the moles that were feasting and biting in the pile of corpses.

The British attack and bombardment finally stopped for a few hours that night, but neither the enemy nor us completely relaxed. Everyone knew that the short rest was just for the next better attack.

"Come on." Colonel Ralph, the commander of the 21st German Infantry Regiment, shouted to his drowsy subordinates.

He complained: "Don't think that the British will let us go so easily, these bastards."

"Colonel." Someone responded: "Aren't they going to let themselves go?"

The soldiers laughed out loud at the same time. They didn't expect the British to launch such a suicidal charge.

Ralph replied expressionlessly:

"You also noticed this? So, you took it for granted that the British would be stupid enough to keep doing this?"

"This is war, gentlemen. In order to survive and win, they must make changes!"

Ralph raised his head to the opposite side:

"That's why the other side is so quiet."

"So, you should be vigilant and ready for battle."

"Instead of just sneering at the enemy like now."

"Otherwise, they will teach you a hard lesson, and there will be no chance to start over, because you are already dead!"

These guys, they don't know how to think from the enemy's perspective with empathy.

After being reminded by Colonel Ralph, the soldiers showed cautious expressions on their faces, silently checking their equipment to prepare for battle, and some people whispered:

"Guess, how will the British attack next time?"

"Who knows!"

"Maybe they will transfer Charles' troops over."

...

This instantly scared the German soldiers, and they stopped their busy actions at the same time, looking at each other in horror.

They should have called in Charles' troops long ago. Charles always had a way to win on the battlefield, and this meant the defeat and death of the German army.

Suddenly, a "rumbling" sound of engines was heard from the opposite side.

Colonel Ralph listened carefully, turned his head and ordered loudly: "It's a tank. They sent the tank up. Prepare K bullets!"

There was a nervous "click" sound, and the German soldiers hurriedly pulled the bolt to eject the bullets in the rifle, and then took out the K bullets from the ammunition bag and loaded them.

The machine gun ammunition operator also prepared the K bullet belt.

But they were still pale, everyone thought it was Charles' troops coming up, and K bullets would not work against Charles' tanks.

Before they were ready, they heard a "rumble", and tanks rushed out of the bunkers one by one, the tracks "clacked", and the bodies crushed in the no-man's land burst into dark red blood, and the stench instantly filled the entire space.

At this time, the German soldiers were relieved, and some even cheered: "That's not Charles' tank!"

...

The British "Whippet" tank came up.

The commander of this unit was Captain Bernard Law Monty, the commander of the 5th Infantry Brigade of the 4th Army.

(The above picture shows Bernard Law Monty (alias) in 1915, the son of a priest and an aristocratic officer. The British wartime promotion system was quite chaotic. Many officers had held important military positions in the battle, but their ranks had not been promoted. Monty's rank was gradually promoted after the war. I personally think that it was a serious bureaucratic style. The promotion of military ranks required a set of complicated procedures for approval, while the speed of death in the front-line battles was too fast, and the two were seriously inconsistent.)

Monty was a little flustered. He had never commanded a tank. He didn't even know that Britain had tanks until last night.

It's nothing, Monty comforted himself, not just himself, all British officers had never commanded a tank.

He wanted to learn from Charles' tactics of commanding armored forces.

However, Haig had always disdained the use of tanks, which made the relevant information almost blank.

Helplessly, Monty could only define the tank himself: it was used to cover the infantry's advance, and it was considered a success as long as the infantry could rush into the enemy's trenches!

This laid the groundwork for his failure.

The enemy had many trenches, and there were second and third trenches after breaking through one. If the tank only reached the first trench, it would stop, and the infantry could only occupy the "front trench" used by the German army for maneuvering and the French army for artillery bombardment.

Therefore, the tank must be able to cross the trench, no matter what means, even with the help of infantry, it is the correct direction of attack.

In addition, Monty should also fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of tanks, so as to play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

But Monty knew nothing, he simply used the tank as a shield and a movable machine gun bunker to cover the soldiers' advance.

...

On the battlefield, what Monty could not stand the most was not the bullets fired from the enemy's direction, but the stench in the air and the muddy meat and blood crushed by the tank tracks under his feet.

What was even more speechless was that he had to endure the corpses thrown up by the tracks while following the tank.

Monty almost vomited the bread he had eaten yesterday.

There were indeed soldiers in this state, they vomited madly without caring about anything, but it was a pity that there was no clean place where they were, even a little bit.

Some soldiers lost their minds. They rushed over the tanks like crazy, shouting and shooting with rifles, even though they didn't see the target at all.

A few bullets ended their lives.

Monty believed that they did it on purpose, and this was the result they wanted.

"Attention!" Perhaps to cover up his inner fear, Monty raised his revolver and urged the soldiers: "Follow the tanks and keep the formation!"

Under his command, the soldiers seemed to be better, but they still vomited while moving forward.

Monty could have held back.

But he noticed that there was a "crackling" sound similar to the breaking of dry wood under the tank tracks, which was crisp and pleasant, and was significantly different from the "clang clang" sound of bullets hitting the tank armor.

The next second, Monty realized that it was the sound of the tank breaking human bones.

Just then, a bloody and smelly thing was thrown on his face by the inertia of the tracks. Monty couldn't hold it back anymore, and a mouthful of vomit rushed out like a fountain.

However, he remained calm and followed the tank closely.

He had to do this, he kept telling himself in his heart.

Otherwise, he would be like the corpses on the ground, the next one to be crushed by the tank, without any dignity!