Expedition to Europe

Even if the scouts stopped harassing, the German army could not speed up.

For the Germans, Ferienhausen-Tadenois was a standard "enemy war zone". When marching here, a battle could break out at any minute, and the Germans had to be careful.

In fact, there were German reconnaissance planes flying back and forth in the sky, performing reconnaissance missions.

But there were also French planes. The French's task was to drive the German planes out of their airspace and shield the battlefield as much as possible.

The battle in the sky broke out even earlier and more intensely than the battle on the ground.

Just as the Seventh Army led by Crown Prince William was advancing, the battle in the sky was going on. From time to time, there would be planes stalling and falling with long black smoke, either the German Albatross D type or the British Sopwith "Camel" fighter.

For the battle in the sky, the German infantry marching in the hills below could not help. They could only give spiritual encouragement. Whenever a "Camel" driven by a French pilot fell, it would win cheers from the ground troops. And whenever a German Albatross was shot down, the ground always fell into silence.

Below the air combat zone is French land. If the German plane is shot down, even if the pilot can barely control the plane to make an emergency landing, most of the pilots will not be able to escape.

Although the French have also joined the International Red Cross, it is impossible to guarantee how strongly the relevant provisions of the Red Cross will be implemented during the war.

Although the scouts of the First Division stopped the frontal harassment, the bombs buried on the roadside and the mines in the middle of the road have not decreased, and the marching speed of the Seventh Army has not increased much.

Now the vanguard of the Seventh Army is no longer the 10th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, but has been replaced by the 35th Bavarian Rifle Regiment. The 10th Bavarian Reserve Regiment has been replaced by other troops because of heavy casualties.

Although Hu Tingfeng only counted 320 effective results, the actual casualties caused to the 10th Bavarian Reserve Regiment were three times this number. After all, there are many casualties caused by the explosion that Hu Tingfeng cannot count, and the specific number will only be known after the war.

One thing is certain, after this battle, the scouts will receive many medals. They have annihilated at least three times as many Germans as themselves, which is great good news for the French, enough to dispel all the rumors that "the combat effectiveness of the French troops is far inferior to that of the German troops."

Although the First Division is Chinese, the Foreign Legion is also a French army, and the French can justifiably promote it.

In any case, even if the speed is relatively slow, the Seventh Army is unwaveringly approaching the direction of Fer-en-Tad-Noire. They can only go in this direction, because if they want to attack Paris, Fer-en-Tad-Noire is the only way.

At this time, the role of the staff is reflected. The staff of the First Division judged that the Seventh Army would arrive at Fer-en-Tad-Noire at around 5 pm on May 4th.

This time is very accurate. The German Seventh Army only advanced 17 kilometers on the first day and was forced to station. At this time, it was late, and marching at night was not conducive to searching and advancing. Crown Prince William did not want to take risks.

However, what Crown Prince William did not expect was that this night camping was also uneasy.

Just after nightfall, the haunted three-wheeled motorcycles began to wreak havoc again. They shuttled around the German camp, occasionally stopping to fire a burst of bullets in the direction of the German camp, and then immediately disappeared into the darkness before the MG08 could react.

After all, the Lewis machine gun was only a light machine gun, and its lethality at a long distance was not great, so the scouts did not dare to get too close. Therefore, it could only be regarded as scratching the itch, which was not a big deal.

But in the second half of the night, the self-propelled artillery that the First Division had just equipped before the war joined the harassment.

Well, this is no longer considered harassment.

The self-propelled artillery equipped by the First Division is a 194mm caliber cannon, with a projectile weight of 81 kilograms and a firing rate of two to four rounds per minute or one hundred rounds per hour. When heavy artillery of this caliber began to roar, no one could sleep soundly under the threat of shells.

It is sad that Crown Prince William has no means of counterattack.

The range of this giant cannon reaches 20 kilometers. It can be said that even if you only stay in the preset position, you can easily send shells to the German camp. Of course, in order to have a higher hit rate, the artillerymen still moved forward a little and fired at a place only 10 kilometers away from the German camp.

The shelling was not blind. There were scouts acting as "gun aiming radars". The gunners only used three shells to determine the German camp, and then 20 self-propelled artillery fired at the same time.

The 194mm caliber cannon has a killing range of about 60 to 70 meters, and the killing range of fragments can reach 350 meters. At the same time, there is also shock wave damage. Basically, one shot will damage creatures within half a football field. Even if they can't die, they will temporarily lose their combat effectiveness.

20 artillery pieces fired together, covering a division-level camp is basically no problem.

However, that is only theoretical killing, and it may not have this killing effect in actual operation.

Even if the actual casualties were not as high as the theoretical ones, the Germans could not bear it. After only one round of volleys, the German camp began to become noisy. Countless trucks and motorcycles rushed out of the camp and began to look for scouts who acted as eyes. The MG08 and mortars in the camp also began to fire at all possible hiding places of the scouts.

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The Germans did not care whether they could find the scouts. As long as they could drive the scouts away, they would achieve their goal.

Moreover, when the running group has already calibrated the shooting elements, it is the most correct response to quickly escape from the original place to avoid the subsequent firepower.

As for finding the artillery group of the first division to fight back, there is no need to think about it.

The attack range of large-caliber heavy artillery is extremely long. If there is no prior reconnaissance, it is undoubtedly a fantasy to want to counterattack. Moreover, the artillery unit cannot act alone. There must be infantry accompanying and protecting the position. If the army is sent out in the middle of the night, the possibility of being ambushed is much greater than the possibility of finding the artillery position.

Crown Prince William would definitely not make such a mistake.

But staying where he was and passively taking the beating was not a solution. Not to mention how many casualties would be in this situation, the morale of the troops would probably deteriorate, and the troops might collapse before dawn.

In desperation, Crown Prince William ordered the 17th Division, which had advanced, to temporarily retreat and move closer to the main force of the Seventh Army three kilometers behind.

This retreat was not a big deal, as the efforts of half an afternoon during the day were wasted.

Qin Zhiyuan was not surprised at all by this result. Using the tactics of the mid-20th century to fight against the army of the early 20th century was too easy.