Expedition to Europe

Ferranta de Nova.

Liu Zizheng's troops are building a defense line.

According to the confirmation of the Algerian Foreign Legion Command, the First Division has a total of seven regiments, including five infantry regiments, one artillery regiment and one armored regiment, and the numbers in the Foreign Legion are 6-12.

This number is limited to the battle sequence of the Foreign Legion.

Within the First Division, all troops are divided into nine regiments, numbered 1-9. Among them, Chen Kangjian's armored brigade has two regiments, the first and second respectively; Liu Zizheng and Ge Lifu's two infantry brigades have four regiments, occupying three to six; Zheng Dali's artillery brigade also has two regiments, the seventh regiment is equipped with towed artillery, and the eighth regiment is equipped with self-propelled artillery that has just been installed; the last ninth regiment belongs to Qin Zhiyuan's direct regiment composed entirely of foreigners.

Compared with the British and French divisions, the First Division is about 23,000 people, which is similar to the organization of the American division.

Liu Zizheng's troops are responsible for the first line of defense on the front.

With the Hindenburg Line as a precedent, the First Division's defense line was built just as well. If you have to find a difference, it's probably the anti-artillery holes.

The Germans had plenty of time to build the defense line. Their Hindenburg Line took half a year to build, so they could dig holes methodically, all the way to a depth of 40 to 50 meters.

The First Division didn't have much time, only one week at most, so it was naturally impossible to dig as deep as a dozen floors, so they had to take shortcuts. Fortunately, there were many smart people in the First Division. Based on the firepower characteristics of the Germans, they created anti-artillery holes on the reverse slope, which did not require deep digging and had similar defensive performance.

The so-called "anti-artillery holes on the reverse slope" were to dig anti-artillery holes in a position where the German artillery could not fire directly. Given that the position Qin Zhiyuan chose was a hilly terrain, it was not difficult to dig, and coupled with the warehouse-type steel structure produced by Renault, the defensive performance was still very good.

Long before rushing to Fer-Antoine, Qin Zhiyuan found Old Renault and asked him to produce a batch of large steel frame structures that can be assembled, which can not only be used as support in the anti-gun cave, but also can quickly build defensive bunkers.

These steel structures are similar to yurts with openings at both ends. Both exits can be opened from the inside or closed. Once the opening is closed, it cannot be opened from the outside by manpower, and can only be destroyed by explosives.

Such fortresses are generally set up as long as they are mostly formed into a group of bunkers, which can support each other. It is not easy to destroy them violently. In order to increase the defense capability, the soldiers even piled several layers of sandbags around the bunkers. Unless they are directly hit by large-caliber heavy artillery, it is difficult to destroy them.

Because of the sufficient supply of materials, the light machine guns of the First Division have been popularized to the squad level, and there are two in each squad. Each bunker is guarded by a squad, which can take into account the shooting on both sides.

Yes, it is on both sides. This is the key to forming crossfire. There are shooting holes on the bunkers, but the shooting holes are not aimed directly at the direction where the enemy is rushing, but at the side and front. This can not only prevent the enemy from directly shooting at the defenders in the bunkers, but also cooperate with other bunkers to form effective crossfire to kill the enemy.

The heavy machine guns of the First Division are assigned to the company level. Each company has a machine gun platoon equipped with four heavy machine guns and four 80mm mortars. These heavy machine guns and mortars, together with the light machine guns assigned to the squad level, constitute the basic firepower of the First Division.

Speaking of firepower density, the First Division is not inferior to the British Division because of the large proportion of heavy machine guns, and is not a little stronger than the German Division.

Although there are many machine guns, they are scattered across the entire front line, and it feels that the firepower is still insufficient.

The position Qin Zhiyuan chose was a semicircular position leaning against the mountain. The advantage of this position is that it will not be attacked from both sides, but the disadvantage is that the salient on the defense line will become the focus of the German attack. Once one point is broken, the entire front will collapse.

Fortunately, Liu Zizheng still has a trump card in his hand, which is 20 FT-17 tanks. If these 20 tanks are used for attack, they may not be able to do it, but if they are used for defense, they will be very useful. The advantages of using tanks for defense are much more than fixed bunkers, such as mobility and flexibility, which can be transferred at any time and can be flexibly deployed according to the enemy's attack direction. For example, the tank itself has a strong defensive capability, and it is difficult to be destroyed unless it is hit by a direct artillery shot. For example, the tank itself has an assault capability and can counterattack the enemy, and so on.

In short, Liu Zizheng prepared a feast for Crown Prince William on the position, waiting for Crown Prince William to come and taste it.

About 500 meters behind the first line of defense, Griff's troops were also building a line of defense. Unlike Liu Zizheng's offensive and defensive capabilities, Griffin's troops mainly built anti-artillery caves. Griffin's troops were the reserve force. Once Liu Zizheng's brigade or Bastien's 32nd Division could not hold on, Griffin's brigade would take over.

Qin Zhiyuan's headquarters was on the defense line of Griffin's brigade. The headquarters was built on the top of a small hill with slightly higher terrain. The headquarters with nearly 400 bangs used three layers of sandwich reinforcement. The bottom layer was a steel frame structure, with two layers of sandbags on top, logs on top, and sandbags on top.

Such a structure had been tested in the last exercise and could withstand the direct bombardment of 200mm caliber heavy artillery. It was estimated that the Germans could not pull a larger caliber, which would have reached the level of rail guns.

At the same time, about 5 kilometers north of the main position, Chen Kangjian's armored soldiers were doing the last maintenance on the tanks.

The armored soldiers hid in the woods, and the tanks were covered with camouflage cloth. Even if the German reconnaissance planes flew over the treetops, they might not be able to find them. The auxiliary fuel tanks on the tanks have been removed, the fuel tanks are full of oil, and the ammunition racks are filled with high-explosive bombs. The troops are ready to attack.

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Chen Kangjian's task is to make a detour. Once the main position starts, Chen Kangjian will lead the armored regiment to make a detour behind the Germans. Even if they cannot encircle and annihilate all the Germans, they must annihilate some of them.

The battle began when the Germans set out from Reims.

Hu Tingfeng and Jin Taihe led the scouts to seduce the Germans. They wanted to lead the Germans to the preset positions. In order to successfully complete the mission, Qin Zhiyuan gave all the three-wheeled vehicles to Hu Tingfeng, which was enough to provide the scouts with unparalleled mobility. Neither the German horses nor their trucks could catch up with the scouts who were like riding on a hot wheel.

On May 3, the vanguard of the German Fifth Army set out from Reims and attacked Ferentardnoy.

On the same day, the reconnaissance troops of the First Division exchanged fire with the vanguard troops of the Seventh Army.