Expedition to Europe

While Xu Sheng and his team were arranging their defensive positions, the Germans had been waiting for the 17th Army to continue their offensive.

Soon, General Hutier discovered that the situation he least wanted to see had occurred.

The French and Chinese did not continue their offensive, but instead stopped at a sluggish pace, stagnated after a little progress, set up positions on the spot, and acted as if they were unwilling to leave.

It must be said that Qin Zhiyuan really caught the Germans' weakness.

This is the situation that "elastic defense" fears the most.

If "elastic defense" is compared to a rubber band, then the greater the pressure on the rubber band, the greater the rebound force; if the pressure is not enough, the rebound force of the rubber band will be very small, or even no rebound force at all.

The place where Xu Sheng and his team stayed was undoubtedly the most uncomfortable position for the Germans. If they attacked directly, there was still a distance; if they did not attack, the front position would be lost.

Before Hutier made a decision, Xu Sheng and Fu Lehe had completed the position arrangement, and the French 32nd Division launched an attack randomly.

Although he saw the French continue to attack, Hutier was still not happy, because Hutier found that only part of the French launched the attack, and the other part of the Chinese stayed in the position they had just set up, and honestly fought a positional war.

Hutier was deeply impressed by the Chinese unit yesterday. Although they eventually drove the Chinese unit out of the front line, the combat effectiveness of the Chinese unit was chilling. In just four hours, a reorganized division responsible for the attack was basically crippled, and 80% of the soldiers in one brigade were killed. After the war, less than 100 people could walk independently.

If the combat effectiveness of these two Chinese units is similar to that of the Chinese unit...

Hutier's heart has sunk to the bottom, because Hutier found that there were tanks on the Chinese position.

This is troublesome. If the combat effectiveness of the position without tanks to assist in defense is one, then with tanks it is definitely not as simple as one plus one equals two, but one times one!

Well, it's not one times one. Hutier is already confused and simple arithmetic will go wrong.

Although Qin Zhiyuan won a great victory in Fer-en-Tadnois, some of Crown Prince William's troops finally escaped. According to what Hutier learned, when facing a position with tanks to assist in defense, it is best not to attack head-on. Even if you have superior forces, it will definitely not play a decisive role.

Because the only one that can play a decisive role is the tank unit.

To be honest, Hutier did not take this ongoing French army unit seriously. Hutier's whole mind was on the two Chinese positions with tanks to assist in defense.

The battle process was exactly as Hutier expected.

There were almost no twists and turns. The attacking French troops were defeated, and then when the Germans chased to the two Chinese positions that were waiting in full battle, the German offensive was stopped.

"Stop" is not quite accurate, it should be defeated.

The two Chinese troops were so skilled in using crossfire that Hutier suspected that they were two German troops that had defected to the enemy. Their fighting will was very tenacious, not inferior to that of the German troops. At the same time, their fighting style was very flexible. If the German soldiers were too far away, they would use rifles to fire single shots, with a surprisingly high hit rate. If the German soldiers launched a charge, there were a large number of heavy machine guns on the position, so many that people would mistakenly think that it was two divisions, not two regiments.

When the second attack was repelled, Hutier readjusted his assessment of the density of heavy machine guns in the Chinese troops. According to the proportion of heavy machine guns equipped by the German army, this was definitely not two divisions, but four divisions or even more.

So an imminent question was placed in front of Hutier, whether to fight or not. If he fought, he might suffer greater losses. If he did not fight, the German army would be forced to retreat to the third line of defense.

The second line of defense was too close to the first line of defense, only less than two kilometers away. If the tanks on the Chinese position went down the mountain, they could capture the second line of defense with just one attack, and the losses would be even more painful.

So after weighing the pros and cons, Hutier decided to continue the attack.

The Germans' attack routine was actually the same as the French. Before the attack, there was a long period of firepower preparation, and then the infantry rushed forward.

Hutier also planned to attack in this way.

But Hutier soon regretted it.

The firepower assault lasted less than half an hour, and Hutier heard bursts of "buzzing" engine sounds from the horizon, and then the big-bellied bombers that covered the sky and the sun flew over.

Although there were only dozens of bombers, the momentum of the formation flight still shocked Hutier inexplicably.

This was almost the first time that bombers appeared on the battlefield in an organized manner.

In fact, no matter what it is, from people to locusts, as long as there are a lot of them, it will always be shocking.

The same is true for airplanes.

Qin Zhiyuan's bomber unit is very different from the bombers at this time. Although the wingspan is quite large, the metal skin on the wings of Qin Zhiyuan's bombers and the fairing on the engine are very conspicuous, not to mention the unique closed cabin and the oversized Foreign Legion logo at the bottom of the wing, which clearly show the pedigree of this team of bombers.

When he first saw the bomber formation, Hutier did not realize that it was a bomber.

When these planes flew over the German artillery position in formation and opened the belly hatch, Hutier realized that something was wrong.

Sure enough, the planes couldn't wait to drop a series of bombs, and then they shook their wings and increased their horsepower to fly away at high speed.

The German artillery position was already a sea of ​​fire.

There was no need to count casualties. The continuous explosions and the earth-shaking explosions had fully demonstrated the effect of the bombing.

Even when the last group of five or six planes flew over, they turned around and didn't find any valuable targets, so they simply threw bombs into the German camp.

Hutier didn't know whether to cry or laugh. The Germans in the camp had left the camp to attack the Chinese position. There were no people in the camp, so there were not many casualties. But the violent explosion affected the ammunition piled in the camp, causing a series of explosions, which wiped out the reserves of three divisions.

In the era of hot weapons, logistics was the key. Rifles without bullets were worse than spears. Germany had difficulty in logistics due to the shortage of materials. Now all the reserves were swept away. How could it fight?

There was no time to feel sorry for himself, because the troops attacking the Chinese positions were defeated again, and Hutier had to prepare for the next attack.

But an attack without artillery cover was equivalent to letting the German soldiers commit suicide.

This work was compiled and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

Hutier was in a dilemma.

…

At this time, Qin Zhiyuan didn't know the effect of the bombing, and he was feeling sorry for the bomber troops.

The reason why the bomber troops succeeded was because the British and French fighters just led the German fighters away, so they succeeded by surprise.

But such a big change happened in the German positions, even the ammunition stored in the camp exploded, and the German pilots in the sky naturally knew what happened, so the bombers who completed the mission were unlucky.

In fact, theoretically speaking, bombers have certain advantages over fighters.

Compared with fighters, bombers have some advantages in range, altitude, and speed, but if fighters and bombers collide head-on, then bombers have no advantages at all.

Today's fighters are all single-engine, and the power provided by a single engine is definitely not as good as the two engines of a bomber. However, bombers are not flexible enough because of their own weight, so they can only be beaten in front of bombers.

The bomber group that completed the mission and returned to the airport ran into the German fighters that came to take revenge.

In just one encounter, 15 of the 60 bombers were shot down, three of which were hit by fuel tanks, and the planes exploded in the air and disintegrated in mid-air.

It was really a heavy loss, especially when Qin Zhiyuan learned that there was a plane that disintegrated in mid-air, and all the crew members were Chinese. Even though he knew that there would be no deaths in the war, he still felt inexplicably sad and angry.

As a commander, he must abandon all personal emotions when commanding the battle. Qin Zhiyuan turned a blind eye to the numbers on the battle reports that kept coming in, and hardened his heart to arrange the rotation of troops.

It is indeed necessary to rotate. The six infantry regiments of the Chinese troops have nearly 20,000 people. Although they have a brilliant record, they actually do not have much experience in fighting the enemy. It is a rare opportunity to brush up experience, so they must all go up and practice.

In fact, the main reason is that now is not the time to attack, because the armored forces cannot be relied on for the time being, and Qin Zhiyuan does not want to pile up achievements with human lives.

The miniaturization of radios has been basically completed and is currently in the experimental stage. Qin Zhiyuan can't wait to ask all tanks to be equipped with radios, even if they are only the first generation of experimental products.

Battlefield communication is too important for armored troops, and it cannot be overemphasized. Relying only on small flags and lights to transmit messages is not only inefficient, but also easy to cause casualties among tankers. It is precisely because the communication problem has not been solved that the armored forces are now unable to exert their full combat effectiveness.

Before all tanks are equipped with radios, Qin Zhiyuan does not intend to launch an attack, so let the Germans bleed slowly.

Almost three regiments are a batch, and all infantry regiments have to take turns to fight. At least they have to defend the position for half a day and withstand two waves of German attacks before they can withdraw.

Each batch will have a Chinese regiment defending in the middle, and the left and right wings will be Annan troops or French troops. The position was like a nail, firmly nailed to the German position, continuously bleeding the German 18th Army.

The plan is perfect, but the reality is always cruel.

Hutier was not a mediocre person. After two days of continuous attack, he saw heavy casualties and little effect.

Hutier took the initiative to change tactics, and finally captured the right wing of the Chinese position, which was defended by the French 223rd Regiment, on a night in late August.