1890 King of Southeast Asia

On January 27, the German offensive that lasted for more than a month finally stopped. This was not only due to the order of Moltke the Younger, but more importantly, the German army was exhausted in the offensive.

Since December 26 last year, the German army has been advancing in great strides. Except for being blocked by the Liege Fortress, it can be said that it is basically unimpeded.

This is a good thing, but also a bad thing. The reason behind the German army's rapid advancement is that the soldiers did not get enough rest, the combat troops were out of touch with the logistics troops, and the heavy artillery troops were also far behind the infantry.

When the German army arrived in the suburbs of Paris, the only thing supporting the German army was the belief in victory, and then they ran into the French fortifications.

The French fortifications were built very hastily, with insufficient manpower and loopholes everywhere on the defense line. The entire French and British high-level believed that France would lose Paris and were mentally prepared for this.

For example, the British army actually landed on the shore early, but had been watching. The British commander refused to join the battle because the French army was beaten to pieces and the British did not want to go up to take the blame.

However, the German army only touched this weak line of defense lightly. After discovering that the French army was prepared, they did not make too many attempts and directly turned around.

Then, the faith that supported the German soldiers at the bottom collapsed. They were exhausted, exhausted, and even marched on an empty stomach.

It must be said that this was a major strategic mistake.

If the German army stopped to rest for a day after reaching the outskirts of Paris, Paris would fall into chaos, and Joffre would have to divide part of the few troops in his hands to maintain order.

Moreover, the French army's defense was only in the northeast and southeast of the suburbs of Paris. If the Germans waited for two days for the reinforcements to arrive, they would not be unable to break through with their superior strength.

Unfortunately, the German army chose the seemingly correct choice - attracting the main force of the French army to attack the German army in order to eliminate the French army's living force in the field.

The German army misjudged its own state. More than one million exhausted divisions could not complete their strategic plan.

On January 29, the German army attacked the town of Leyte to no avail, but left thousands of casualties. Now the First Army did not even have enough medicine.

Luke's telegram to Moltke the Younger stated: "Because there is no anesthetic, the wounded have to watch their legs being sawed off awake, fainted from the severe pain, and then woke up again, tortured repeatedly..."

"The French poisoned the nearby water source, and the soldiers lacked food and clean water, and even had no dry clothes, and their morale was low."

"We tried to launch an attack to change the situation, but because of the lack of artillery shells, we could not destroy the French machine guns..."

"In short, Mr. Chief of the General Staff, I ask you to allow the First Army to withdraw to the east for rest..."

Moltke the Younger's plan was to let the First Army withdraw to the northeast, join other troops on the right wing, and launch a large-scale attack after a short rest.

Moltke the Younger knew that it was a critical moment. Once the German army failed to capture Paris, the French would regain their fighting spirit and Germany would fall into a war of attrition.

Not long ago, a telegram from the Eastern Front was sent to Moltke the Younger. The Tsar's army had already invaded Germany, and the German defenders on the Eastern Front were retreating.

The Tsar sent two armies of about 300,000 people to attack East Prussia from the east and south. The 70,000 German troops on defense had to shrink their defense lines because of their scarce strength.

William II was furious and demanded that the safety of the East Prussia region must be guaranteed. Moltke the Younger transferred two armies from the reserve to the Eastern Front to replenish the Eastern Front to 150,000 troops.

These troops were enough to defend against the Tsar's attack this time, but to completely solve the Tsarist Russia, the French on the Western Front must be solved first.

Therefore, Moltke the Younger was brewing a large-scale attack-in the headquarters in Belgium.

Yes, even though the early stage was so smooth, Moltke the Younger, as the Chief of the General Staff and the Commander-in-Chief of the Front, did not set foot in France, and of course he was not very clear about the actual situation on the front line.

In this situation, a telegram from Luke was placed on his desk. After reading the telegram, Moltke the Younger immediately sent a telegram to the Second Army to inquire about its status.

"...The remaining ammunition is enough to launch an attack. Although the soldiers are a little tired, they have recovered a lot after a day's rest. The soldiers all hope to gain the honor of conquering Paris..."

The commander of the German Second Army was more optimistic, but his words still let Moltke know what the front-line soldiers were like.

The fatigue of the soldiers cannot be eliminated in one day.

"Send a telegram to Luke, allowing him to retreat to the east and join His Highness Precht's Sixth Army. The Sixth Army will be responsible for their supplies."

"Order the Fourth Army to stop advancing, and the Second and Third Armies to retreat to the Fourth Army position for repairs."

After saying this, Moltke felt much more tired and his hands clenched unconsciously.

...

On January 30, the French army discovered the retreating German army. At this time, the French First Army had withdrawn, and Joffre had more troops at his disposal.

So, Joffre ordered the French Ninth Army and the First Army to launch an attack from the southeast and south of the German First Army, and the Second Army and the Third Army to launch a diversionary attack on the German army in the north.

About 200,000 British troops also participated in this battle, about half of whom were responsible for the defense line vacated by the French, and about 50,000 were on the front line of the town of Leyte.

From January 30 to 31, the German First Army was chased and attacked by the two main French armies, and had to frequently throw out the rear troops.

On February 1, the German army retreated to Reims and joined the Bavarian Crown Prince Precht. Precht directly commanded the German Sixth and Seventh Armies with a total of more than 300,000 people and more than 1,200 artillery pieces.

Because the French ran too fast, he couldn't catch up at all, so he only marched at a normal pace, with sufficient supplies and high morale.

In order to cover the German First Army, Precht ordered the Sixth Army to go forward to cover, and the French First Army, which was chasing, and the German Sixth Army, which was covering, fought again.

It has to be admitted that in Europe alone, Germany had a dominant position in the army at this time, and no other army could fight and win against the German Army, including the French Army.

Without considering other factors, only the combat effectiveness of the army, under the same number, only the mechanized and motorized troops built by Nanhua under the influence of Liu Yiming could defeat the German Army.

The French First Army lost 30,000 men in half a day, and only caused over 10,000 casualties to the German army. Fortunately, the French Ninth Army arrived in time and pinned down the German army from the side, giving the French First Army a chance to withdraw from the battle.

On February 1, the French army stopped the offensive, and they advanced more than 50 kilometers to the east.

On the same day, the German army also completely withdrew from the front line.

Joffre called the battle that began with the French army's withdrawal from Alsace and Lorraine the Battle of Paris, which lasted for a total of two weeks.

In these two weeks, Britain, France and Germany organized a total of more than 2.8 million people to compete in northeastern France and the border areas.

Among them, the British and French coalition forces invested a total of more than 1.3 million people, and Germany invested 1.48 million people.

In two weeks, Germany suffered 170,000 casualties, and the British and French coalition forces suffered 350,000 casualties. In addition, the German army occupied about one-fifth of the French territory, gaining an advantage.

On the surface, the war situation was still favorable to Germany. The farthest German army of one million was no more than 200 kilometers away from Paris, and the closest was within 100 kilometers.

Moreover, before the Battle of Paris, that is, before Germany broke through Belgium and started the mad rush, France lost nearly 100,000 people in Alsace-Lorraine.

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When no one on the Allied side dared to assert the outcome of the war, Moltke the Younger sent a telegram to William II.

The content of the telegram was very simple, with only one line of words:

"Your Majesty, we lost the war."

When Moltke the Younger sent the telegram, he was already in the handover of the staff. He knew that William II would not believe him, and Germany would not admit defeat, after all, the battlefield advantage was on the German side.

Sure enough, on the evening of February 1, William II sent him a telegram, all denouncing his incompetence.

On February 2, Moltke the Younger was dismissed, and Lieutenant General Falkenhayn took over as Chief of the General Staff to command the war.

In fact, in this war, Moltke the Younger did not make many mistakes, because all these tactics were compromised.

The Schlieffen Plan was certainly good when it was just formed, but when the war started, the world was no longer what it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But from Kaiser Wilhelm II to a group of army generals, no one understood this, especially the Prussian officer corps, which held a lot of power.

And Moltke the Younger's modification of the plan did not get the emperor's support. Wilhelm II often did not give face to Moltke the Younger, the highest commander of the army.

Once, Wilhelm II proposed to send the army to the East, but Moltke the Younger anxiously refused because Tsarist Russia built a large number of fortresses in Poland, which Germany could not quickly conquer.

Wilhelm II shouted at Moltke the Younger in public: "If your uncle (Marshal Moltke) stood here, he would give me a different answer!"

This greatly damaged Moltke the Younger's authority and his heart - he was a somewhat indecisive person.

Because of this, the Bavarian Crown Prince dared to put pressure on the commander-in-chief, Moltke the Younger, through Bavaria and William II during the war, forcing Moltke the Younger to hand over the control of the Sixth and Seventh Army Groups to him.

Then, Precht chose not to implement the strategy of luring the enemy deep into the country as stipulated in the Schlieffen Plan or the Schlieffen-Moltke Plan, and chose to counterattack.

When the French army retreated, Precht could not implement the original plan to contain the main force of the French army, resulting in the withdrawal of the main force of the French army.

You must know that at the beginning of the war, 80% of the French army was marching towards Alsace and Lorraine. If Precht continued to retreat, he would even give up Lorraine to contain the French army.

At this time, even if Paris could not be captured, the German army could achieve a decisive victory-encircling the main force of the French army.

Unfortunately, everything was too late. The war entered a positional war and would soon evolve into a trench war. The blood of Britain, France, Germany and others would gradually be exhausted in the trench war, and the old world would collapse and turn into nutrients for the new world...