My Italy - Chapter 661 The Feast of Machine Guns

Italy’s diversionary attack still requires a week of preparation, but the officers and soldiers of the two camps in the Paris area will not wait. They are still engaged in fierce fighting around the city of Paris.

As the attackers, Britain and France assembled heavy troops and launched a desperate attack, which of course put the German army under pressure and achieved some results.

For example, the British army conquered the Guyville Defense Line composed of the German 7th Army and the 11th Army at the cost of 79,000 casualties. After repelling the enemy, they are now moving towards their next target, Bonteru.

There are currently 13 divisions of British attack groups composed of 270,000 people, rushing towards Bontailu in a mighty manner. The German army in Bonterlu only had the defeated 7th Army and 11th Army, the 57th and 35th Divisions sent by General Kluck, and the 76th and 82nd Divisions with domestic reinforcements.

In terms of numbers, the German army has at least ten divisions in Bonteru, and they are on the defensive side. It should be very easy to hold, but this is an ideal situation.

The real situation is that the 7th and 11th armies suffered a lot of losses on the previous line of Guyville. And in order to successfully evacuate Guyville, they also used the tail-cutting tactic. This resulted in the two armies being able to only be used as one. In addition, the two domestic reinforcement divisions can be seen from their numbers. These two divisions were formed after the outbreak of the war, and there must be some gaps in combat effectiveness.

Therefore, in terms of actual combat effectiveness, the offensive side is twice as strong as the defensive side, so the pressure on the German army in Bonteru will be very high.

Of course, the German army is not without some advantages, that is, Bonteru’s position is well built.

Before the battle broke out, Bonteru, as the key point of Paris’s left wing, had already built many fortifications. After the battle broke out, Bonteru, which was also the key point on the west wing after Guyville, went into great lengths to build fortifications. Today, Bonteru is densely covered with trenches, barbed wire, and bunkers.

In addition to the fortifications, there were also a large number of weapons and ammunition brought by the two German reinforcement divisions, the most important of which were more than 600 light and heavy machine guns. This was sent to me by Little Maoqi after he raided the ordnance warehouse. For this reason, several newly mobilized divisions had no machine guns available.

Needless to say, the role of machine guns is very useful in the attack. In the defensive battle at Guyville, the continuous firepower of the heavy machine guns caused a large number of casualties to the attacking British troops.

However, because the machine gun configuration on the Guyville front line was only a conventional configuration, and the British artillery was exceptionally fierce, the British army still captured the Guyville front line position despite huge casualties.

As for the Bontailu front line, the German army deployed thousands of light and heavy machine guns on the 30-kilometer defense line, with a firepower density of up to 4 guns per 100 meters.

However, the British army who was preparing to attack did not know about this. At this time, under the leadership of the British commander Haig, they were preparing to attack Bonteru in high spirits.

At this time, the roaring sound of artillery subsided. The Bonteru line, which had just been bombarded by British artillery for three days, was full of craters blown by artillery shells, which looked similar to the surface of the moon. The German army’s trenches, barbed wire fences, bunkers and other defenses had been bombed to a large extent, and now it was time to launch an attack.

Although it had rained heavily before and was still raining lightly, the muddy ground would be detrimental to the offense, but it could also affect the shooting accuracy of the defending enemy, so it did not have much impact on the offense.

Of course, more importantly, they need to continuously defeat the German positions along the line and cannot give Germany time to dispatch troops for reinforcements. Therefore, the British army that launched the attack cannot stop and can only continue to attack, striving to reach Tilai, the most important node of the battle, as soon as possible.

At this time, the British officers and soldiers waiting in the trenches were really waiting for the order to charge. The voices of officers kept coming, and they kept calming the nervous soldiers. Of course, just comforting them is not enough. At the same time, they must also be told that the military police are behind them. If they dare to run back privately, in addition to death, there will be dishonorable deserters waiting for them, and their lifelong reputation will be at stake. Dongliu, their parents, wives, children, younger brothers and sisters in their hometown will all be looked down upon for this.

It was obvious that this combination of kindness and power made the British soldiers who were preparing to attack know that they could only charge and not retreat privately.

At this time, a sharp whistle sounded, and at the same time, the melodious sound of Scottish bagpipes came. The soldiers rushed out of the trenches as the officers shouted for attack. At this time, figures jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the German positions in dense numbers.

Its densely packed number numbered tens of thousands, and the leaders were aristocratic officers in the British army. These British nobles were indeed brave. They were dressed in gorgeous military uniforms and took the lead in charging towards the German positions with sabers in hand. At this moment, the pride of the nobles also inspired the soldiers they led to rush towards the German position along with the officers.

On the defensive side, watching the dense sea of ​​British troops charging, the German officers and soldiers in the defensive position were stunned.

Although the British offensive formation looks very oppressive, does it look down on their firepower?

At this time, on the German position, densely packed machine gun positions were ready, just waiting for the British officers and soldiers to enter the shooting range.

“Fire!”

Following the officer’s command, the machine guns on the position opened fire. Maxim and Revery, who were constantly spraying tongues of flame, formed a fire network of light and heavy machine guns on the battlefield, and they continued to harvest the lives of British officers and soldiers.

And these attacking British troops were constantly knocked down like wheat.

“attack!”

At this time, a British officer held his saber high and encouraged the soldiers to attack. But then he shook a few times and a few streams of blood came out of his body, and then he fell into the mire. When his consciousness dissipated, his eyes looked at the pocket watch lying aside, which contained photos of his wife and daughter. At the last moment of his life, he thought of his wife and daughter.

The tragedy of killing did not stop because of his death. Officers and soldiers continued to be knocked down by machine guns. The bodies lying on the ground and the screams of injured soldiers turned this place into a miserable scene of hell.

The British officers and soldiers kept jumping out of the trenches and rushing towards the German positions, as if they were going to overwhelm the German positions with a sea of ​​people.

Yes, this is indeed the idea of ​​​​the British commander General Rawlinson. At this moment, he is like a gambler, trying to use a sea of ​​​​people to break through the German positions on the Bonteru line.

And this is also a reflection of the fact that after the defensive capabilities have been greatly enhanced, the offensive tactics have not yet been transformed. To be more precise, in the face of the enemy’s modern defense system of trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, artillery, etc., they did not know how to attack.

And this kind of mindless mass offensive lasted from the morning until after the sun went down.

After the battle was over, a spectacular and cruel scene appeared. Between the two positions, the corpses on the ground were lined up from the British side to the German position. In the afternoon, there were so many corpses in some areas that it was impossible to attack.

When General Rawlinson, who was in charge of the offensive command, received the casualty report at night, his whole hand was shaking.

He made history with more than 80,000 casualties. Even after the officer in charge of statistics repeatedly contacted the front line, he even thought that the other party was making false reports.

“Send it to General Haig.”

It was too late to say anything at this moment. General Rawlinson knew that he could not hide it, so he could only hand in the report because the other party was still waiting for his telegram.

Soon the news was transmitted to the commander of the expeditionary force, Admiral Haig, on the radio wave. When he saw the number of casualties on the radio wave, Haig’s eyes went dark. Such huge casualties made him almost breathless.

“Send it to London.”

As for London, after receiving the telegram from the expeditionary force headquarters, they repeatedly asked whether there was an extra zero written in the casualty number. When it was confirmed that it was not the case, I was equally shocked.

It was not just the British who were shocked, the whole world was shocked. A staff officer who was dissatisfied with General Rawlinson revealed the news.

As a result, the next day, major newspapers reported the news. This news made the British people angry. They angrily questioned the government, this is not a war, this is murder.

Therefore, General Rawlinson, who was directly responsible, was fired directly the next day, ordered to retire immediately, and asked to be questioned by Parliament.

What awaits him will be the dark moments of his life.