.

The Arctic Ocean route was forced to take off the Arctic Ocean route, because the Russians were destined to face the attacks from Germany and France alone, especially when they were attacked by the German army, and they were forced to mobilize the whole nation. The Americans estimated that if this state lasted for another year, the French would have the last drop of blood. As an alliance, the United States naturally did not want to see such a situation.

After the revolving door battle with mixed reputations, Schliffen realized the cruelty and long-term nature of the war. Although Germany won the battle, the French did not collapse. On the contrary, their combat effectiveness was still improving. Such victory could not be called victory. The Germans wanted to defeat France in the simplest way.

To make France's blood flow, this is Schlieffen's purpose. So which place to choose to carry out this powerful blow? Schlieffen believes that this place should be a special area in the eyes of the French, which will make France have to invest all its strength in order to defend this area. In this way, France can force every drop of blood to flow away. So, after repeated discussions, the German army decided to choose Verdun, a small town on the northern border of France, as the target of the offensive.

So, just as the French leader was still discussing when he launched a powerful attack, the French town of Verdun sounded rumbling guns, and the German army launched an attack on France first. France rushed to fight and launched an unprecedented battle with the German army at the city of Verdun. This was the largest, longest-lasting and decisive Battle of Verdun in World War I.

In order to attack Verdun, the German army drew the best equipment on the Western Front battlefield, with 6 armies and 10 divisions in the battlefield for a long time. Schliffen was also preparing to adopt a new tactic, that is, to destroy the enemy's positions and soldiers' equipment with powerful artillery fire, and then consolidate and occupy them with infantry. This tactic of "artillery destroying and infantry occupation" was later adopted repeatedly, but when the trench defense system became more developed, this tactic became "artillery may not be able to be destroyed, and infantry is more difficult to occupy."

In order to achieve the purpose of artillery destruction, the German army assembled a large number of artillery. Schliffen ordered the Russian, Balkan fronts and arsenals to concentrate all artillery on the offensive site, and 1,000 cannons arranged on the 12-kilometer-long front line. The ambitious German army was going to carry out unprecedented artillery bombardment in war and completely destroy France's defense.

Let’s take a look at Verdun. As one of the most important fortress positions in France, it is a maze of steel and concrete fortresses equipped with heavy artillery and machine guns. The launching points can support each other, forming a circular defense system with ancient towns as the core.

But what is very interesting is that the French commander-in-chief Xia Fei believed that from 1900 to the ground battle, some large Russian fortresses in France and Russia fell rapidly under the bombardment of heavy artillery by the German army. Therefore, the fortresses were outdated and the defense should be replaced by deep field fortifications. Therefore, in accordance with the instructions of the Xia Enclave, most of the fortresses of Verdun were removed and abandoned in August 1901. The artillery had been dismantled to less than 300 left, and the troops stationed at Verdun had only 4th Divisions, a total of 100,000 people. Compared with the German army, the troops were too dispersed.

After careful preparation, the German offensive began. The artillery group shot shells into the fort at a speed of 100,000 rounds per hour (per second), and fell 200 rounds of artillery shells in a triangle of about 30 square kilometers.

After 12 hours of fierce bombardment, the trenches near Verdun Fortress were completely ~: French defense lines were shrouded in thick smoke and fire. Three days later, the French Command decided that Verdun should not be thrown to the Germans. Otherwise, it would affect the entire battle situation.

Three days later, the commander-in-chief of the French Army, Xia Fei, ordered General Betton, the commander of the Second Army, to go to Verdun to command the battle, and urgently mobilized the reserve team to the front line. The 60-year-old Betton had not commanded too many battles before, but had commanded several battles after the start of World War I. He was appreciated by Xia Enclave, so his official career was successful. Within 18 months, he was quickly promoted from brigade commander to |:|Ling.

On the 25th, after receiving Xia Fei's order, Betton arrived at Verdun that night and made Betton win a huge reputation.

In this way, the morale of the French army was rekindled by Betton, and the most important question left was how to ensure the rapid arrival of reinforcements and arms in the rear, otherwise it would be impossible to defend Verdun.

At that time, the railway and main highway leading to Verdun had been cut off by German artillery fire. Only a second-level road leading to the southwest could barely pass. The road was only six meters wide and the road conditions were not very good. And Beden had to mobilize 200,000 troops within a week to be comparable to the Germans' forces. In addition, more than 20,000 tons of arms were required. This is a terrible number, which means that 6,000 cars would arrive here every day and night within a week.

This highway was later called the "Holy Road" by the French. Dozens of troops and 170,000 mules and horses carrying supplies were transported to the front line along this highway. The Battle of Verdun became the only large-scale battle in the history of war that relied entirely on automobile supplies.

The rapid strengthening of power was unexpected by the German army. Although the German army attacked again and again to capture Fan, the progress was getting slower and slower. All the French soldiers defended their positions and did not retreat in an inch. Just like the German army's performance in the suburbs of Paris, the French army also showed perseverance in Verdun.

The war dragged on month after month, and neither side saw the hope of ending. No one knew that World War I would become such a battle, no longer a high compensation, nor a short-term battle that quickly did not hurt the foundation of the country. The soldiers went to the front line one by one, and only a small part could survive, and most of them were injured and disabled.

Just as Germany and the French army fought bloody battles under the city of Verdun and entered a white-hot heat, war ignited on both sides of the Somme River northwest of Paris, and the French army launched a large-scale attack on the German army. This was the Battle of the Somme River, which lasted for four months and was even more tragic than that of the Battle of Verdun.

The battle on the Somme was mainly powered by the French army. As early as after the Battle of Revolving Door, the French army began to deploy troops, and a large amount of ammunition supply was transported over. People generally felt that the German army was about to collapse and the French army would achieve a decisive victory.

The French army began thunderous artillery fire on the German army. During the 6 days, the German positions suffered a total of 150 shells, which was more than the entire French shells made in the first 11 months of the war. That night, the shelling reached its final climax, and the young French soldiers were waiting anxiously, thinking of showing their skills on the battlefield.

In the early morning of the 71st, French officers blew the whistle of the attack, and teams of young trenches rushed bravely towards the unmanned land. For many of them, it was a miserable road of no return.

These soldiers believed that their 7 consecutive days of bombing against the German army must have cleared all obstacles. But unexpectedly, the German army's fortifications on the Somme River were still impregnable.

All these preparations of the German army have made the defense line in the Somme one of the most solid and complete fortifications in the world. As the French front commander Heg said at the time, the Germans "worked hard to turn these fortifications into indestructible fortresses."

In this way, the Germans hiding behind the fortifications set up Maxim machine guns and launched a massacre.

The French army was severely injured under the strafing of machine guns. The French army paid the price of more than 60,000 casualties on the first day, and the French army was full of casualties. This day was the bloodiest day on the Western Front battlefield and the most unlucky day in the history of the French army. This amazing degree of loss was not available in any battle in the past.

These came to Zhao Gang's ears. Zhao Gang was happy and began to worry about the war. Recently, there was information that terrible aura, phosimia, mustard gas, and these extremely lethal weapons have been created, and the war will become more and more cruel.

However, China has not encountered too powerful enemies yet. The Russians' combat effectiveness is controlled by their own weapons and cannot exert much. Their 250,000 troops in the northwest can resist the enemy's 700,000 troops. (If you look at the guns you own, it is basically the same. Three Russians are one gun, and one Chinese are one gun.)

Therefore, Zhao Gang was about to hand over the matter to the cabinet and take his wife to Jiangnan by himself. Perhaps it would become a good story like that Qianlong.

The door was opened, and an orderly soldier ran in panting.

"Report, emergency military information has occurred in the northwest. The Russian army has broken through our northwest defense line. 200,000 people below General Liang Xinghua's level were divided and surrounded!"

"What, how could the Russians have such combat power?"

When Zhao Gang heard this bad news, he was shocked and angry, and the thought of hunting for beauty immediately flew to Java.

"Assemble the army immediately, I will go and meet the Russians in person!"

After investigation, it was found that the Russians' equipment began to become more luxurious, almost everyone was armed with an American rifle. It seemed that they had received assistance from the Americans, but no one knew how the Russians received assistance from the Americans.

The United States promised to provide combat supplies and raw materials to Russia with its escort fleet in the Arctic Ocean. The terminal of the transportation line is located in northern Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. In order to reach these two places, the escort fleet had to venture through the Norwegian coastline occupied by the German army.

The escort fleet heading to Russia is usually called the MR fleet, and the return flight is called the RM fleet. The escort fleet left the United States in October 1900. By the spring of 1901, only one of the ships that set sail was lost, and a total of 12 escort fleets passed through this water smoothly. But things could not continue quietly forever.
Chapter completed!