Passing through a small residential area, a straight double-track railway line appeared in front of Hans-Ferrich. From the French map, this railway line extends to the Fabie border and leads to the French capital Paris. It is an important railway trunk line in northeastern France.

This place is already in the city of Amiens, with ambush positions everywhere. Ferrich and his companions took care of every step. At this time, the soldiers of the neighboring troops had already stepped out of the woods first. They were heading towards Paris in a scattered formation, but before rushing to Paris with their heads raised, they needed to conquer Amiens first. Looking south from here, you can clearly see the iconic building of Amiens, the off-white Cathedral of Amiens. It is located on the other side of the Somme River, less than one kilometer from the Verne Bridge. When the German army touched the cathedral, the task of capturing Amiens was completed by more than half.

Looking at the quaint and holy religious building from afar, Ferrich drew a cross on his forehead and chest and prayed silently in his heart. Since the first battle in the early morning, his infantry squad has reduced a total of four people, one of the dead and three of the injured. The reduction rate has exceeded one third. Although the soldiers' mental state has not been affected too much by this, the confidence to win is still very firm, but the battle is far from over, and no one can guarantee that they can enjoy the glory of victory alive.

Amid the rumbling sound, four Hubert-13s advanced along the railway line in front, and more than 300 infantry from the 1st German Marine Brigade followed closely behind. The combat mission of their assault troops along the way was to capture the Verne Bridge across the Somme. Until now, the German Marines are still following the initial combat plan, as if the planners of the attack had already planned everything, which made Ferrich feel very incredible. Therefore, he admired the royal genius who had served on the same ship and was even more impressed.

During the battle marching, houses and shrubs on the roadside might hide crises everywhere. Apart from a moment of prayer, Ferrich kept holding two Mauser pistols tightly in his hands, but the French officers and soldiers who retreated from the front seemed to run to the other side of the river. After walking along the railway line for half an hour, Ferrich neither saw the French fortifications nor glimpsed the French officers and soldiers. The river surface with sparkling light in the sun was getting closer and closer, and the majestic railway bridge finally appeared in front of him.

Ferrich saw several officers walking to the house next to the road, climbing to the roof and using a telescope to check the enemy situation. At this moment, a cold gun suddenly shot from a distance, and a tall soldier walking in front fell down. Realizing that this was an enemy's attack, the German officers and soldiers did not immediately lay down to hide, but subconsciously searched for the location of the enemy's gunman.

In this war, which is considered a catastrophe of humanity, the army's battlefield death rate was astonishingly high. This was certainly the consequence of the development of cannon and machine gun technology, but it was also closely related to the fearless spirit displayed by the soldiers when facing the threat of death. In the following century, no war could be compared with it.

A few seconds later, the second bullet came, and another German naval infantry was shot and fell down. The man was not killed on the spot. His companion next to him urgently called the military doctor and took out a hemostatic cotton to help him press the wound.

At this time, except for two groups of light machine gunners crawling down to prepare for shooting, some riflesmen were on guard against guns while kneeling on one knee, including officers, the attacked German assault troops still maintained a fighting marching posture.

With the use of smokeless gunpowder, the smoke generated by single rifle shooting becomes very slight and is difficult to observe at a distance. Snipers benefit from this, and the sniper records will also be refreshed to amazing numbers in this war.

With the third gunshot, a German soldier finally found the gunman's location. He pointed to the southeast and reminded his companions: "It's there! The brown house, the window on the second floor!"

Following his guidance, two groups of light machine gunners and several riflemen opened fire. In a blink of an eye, the window glass of the brown house was all broken.

The sudden gunfire immediately attracted the attention of the chariot crew. They wanted to know what was going on here with concern. They could not see the enemy through the narrow observation hole. Without radio communication equipment, they had to open the turret hatch, poke their heads out from it and ask loudly.

"Keep moving forward!" An infantry officer responded to the chariot crew at the top of his voice, "It's just a single French rifleman, we'll solve the problem! Keep moving forward!"

The four Hubert-13s continued to move forward slowly at a speed of about 5 kilometers per hour, which gave the naval infantry enough time to deal with enemy gunmen. After one shot, the cold gun did not appear again, but no one could be sure whether the French soldier with superb shooting skills was killed or left the battle on his own.

As the bridge head was getting closer, the German assault force still did not take the initiative to slow down the advancement, but the strange silence in front of him was puzzled: the sound of artillery in the city was rumbling, and the downstream direction was filled with gunfire and explosions of the two armies fighting. This place seemed like a forgotten corner. Did the French not deploy defenders here at all, and even the guy who had fired cold guns before was a restless civilian?

The imagination in Felrich's head was soon blown to pieces by the whistling shells.

After all, the cannons are the king of the battlefield that has been rampant for hundreds of years. The German naval infantry, who are not afraid of cold guns, also lie down on the ground. The four chariots in front of them all slow down. Although they are not afraid of shrapnel attacks, fighting alone without the cover of infantry is easy to be attacked by enemy soldiers.

Waiting for the opponent to fire a few more guns, the German officers and soldiers also estimated the enemy's strength. Judging from the situation of gunfire and gunfire frequency, the enemy should have only two or three guns, but they were deployed far from the opposite river bank. With the range of Hubert-13's guns, the range of gunfire cannot be suppressed at this position.

"Advance! Take advantage of the gap between the enemy loading shells... advance!"

Under the clear order of the officers, the naval infantry quickly entered a special game, which tested their hearing and reaction. Whenever the roar of the shells burst into the air sounded, they had to fall to the ground at the fastest speed. After the shells exploded, they stood up and moved forward at the fastest speed. This jumping method was not the idea of ​​an officer having a sudden inspiration, but the routine training subject of the Marine Force. Because when soldiers landed on the enemy's beach, they were likely to be suppressed by the opponent's fire. In addition to relying on the artillery fire of their ships, they also had to flexibly use various breakthrough tactics to seize the enemy's positions.

The shooting intervals of French cannons were very short, so the German naval infantry had no choice but to run forward with fun, and caught up with their own tank in just a few seconds. An infantry officer took out a signal gun, lowered the muzzle and fired a green signal flare forward. Seeing this signal, the chariot driver immediately set up gear to accelerate. The German naval infantry heard how inspiring the loud engine roar was!

When the German attacking troops were four or five hundred meters away from the bridge, many dark blue French caps suddenly appeared behind the river bank. The French soldiers lying here immediately allowed their opponents to see the power of the volleyball formation. They killed forty or fifty German infantry in the first two rounds of volleyball, and immediately killed the fierce German assault troops. If there weren't four naval chariots leading the formation, the German marine forces might have been blocked by the French.

The officers and soldiers who were first incorporated into the Navy Tank Test Brigade have received more than two years of training, and their experience and skills are excellent in all aspects. They proved their abilities with outstanding performance on the Western Front battlefield. However, none of the four Hubert-13s are fully qualified for the chariot crew. The gunners serving on surface ships have never seen any appearance of the crawler chariots before. Only the students drawn from the Tank School are considered semi-professionals. But at any time, they are

On the battlefield of death, the instinct of survival drove people to learn from the little experience. Seeing a large group of French riflesmen appearing on the river bank, the chariot crew knew that their infantry must be suppressed. Without the support of infantry, the chariots would be threatened by various enemy explosives. So the four Hubert-13s stopped quickly, and the chariot crew mercilessly bombarded the French infantry with the chariot guns and fired continuously with light mg08 machine guns.

The French infantrymen who used the river bank as a cover were immediately suppressed by the fierce guns and cannons.

The French infantry on the river bank had a slightly weak firepower. The German naval infantry in the forefront had decisively started to rise. They quickly passed through the gaps where the corpses were lying down. Some crawled down beside the chariots, and some squatted or stood with the chariots. Their shooting greatly strengthened the suppression firepower of the German offensive troops. The naval infantry behind were able to advance alternately, and the heavy machine gunners were also looking for shooting positions higher than the flat ground nearby.

As the suppression firepower continued to gain the upper hand, the German naval infantry sent a signal to their chariots. Ten minutes later, they approached the river bank, and the German soldiers began to attack the French soldiers behind the river bank with grenades. The hopeless French officers and soldiers had to retreat. The Somme River behind them was about fifty or sixty meters wide and only twenty or thirty meters narrow, but they could not cross the river on foot and needed to swim. French soldiers who could not swim had to cross the river through the maintenance passage below the bridge deck. Most of these people became living targets for German gunmen, and few could return to the other side of the river alive.

After clearing the bridgehead to block the enemy, two Hubert-13s took the lead on the bridge deck, and the other two remained at the bridgehead to respond. Although the naval infantry accompanied the troops of the 2nd Marine Brigade had already followed, and the combat troops of the assault troops along the way increased to more than 600, equivalent to three complete infantry companies. The only drawback was that they could not get direct support from field artillery, so that they were still under the threat of French artillery on the other side.
Chapter completed!