339 There is indeed a problem with the tunnel warfare script in Europe
The entire European battlefield passed the junction of 1908 and 1909 in silence.
In order to release as many troops as possible to participate in the next year's offensive, trenches were being dug frantically on both sides of the front - both the German army and the Allies had the same idea. Excellent fortifications could use fewer troops to defend a wider front.
As for the Entente, the main trench was set up about one kilometer away from the battlefield dividing line between the two sides. There were multiple shallow trenches between the main trench and the battlefield dividing line. The main defense forces of the Entente were deployed in this main trench.
According to the Allied Command's idea, they would avoid the German artillery fire preparations in the main trench, and then quickly enter the defensive position in front of the main trench for defense.
Lin Youde's bullet defense principle was basically abandoned, because the agreement believed that Xu Jin barrage attacks are now used. In missile defense, the defensive troops will be blocked behind the barrage and unable to enter the position in time.
Lin Youde had no objection to this. Anyway, his entire set of tactical theories was not aimed at the bizarre tactical form of trench warfare. The Chinese Federation Marine Corps was accustomed to mobile combat and active defense, rather than digging holes and acting like cavemen.
Behind the main trench is a second trench used to support the troops in the main trench. Medical stations, food distribution stations and reserve troops are deployed here. Further back, outside the expected range of the German artillery, Allied troops are deployed
Artillery, this artillery can't hit the depths of the German positions at all. Its main purpose is to intercept fire when the Germans attack the main trench.
The Entente was very confident in this defense system. Both the British and French generals firmly believed that the main reason for the French defense disadvantage in the Battle of the Marne was that the trenches were not strong enough, so they invested more than 4,000 troops per kilometer of front.
Laborers building trenches.
The new trenches would perfectly withstand German attacks and ensure the Entente's invincibility in the 1909 War.
Contrary to the Entente, the German army discovered the benefits of missile defense in battle, so the German trenches were completely different from those of the Entente.
The closest thing to the battlefield dividing line is a "sentry line". This sentry line is a series of tunnels perpendicular to the battlefield dividing line. The end of the tunnels away from the main German trenches is the machine gun fortress. This tunnel is dug very deep, and on both sides
The walls were vertical and filled with concrete. If any Entente jumped into the tunnel during the attack, they would find themselves trapped in this narrow tunnel. Waiting for them at both ends of the tunnel was German machine gun fire.
Far behind the sentry line is the German main trench. This main trench is also dug very deep, with roofs covering the main areas. The Germans have realized that rifle fire is of little significance in defensive warfare.
The main combat effectiveness of the trenches are various machine gun positions and light artillery positions that protrude from the ground. The task of the German infantry who do not use machine guns is to deal with the entente who has embroidered the fire net and entered the trenches. As for lying on the edge of the trench and snapping outwards
The action of firing a gun has disappeared forever from the German tactical codex.
However, precisely because the trenches were dug deeper than those of the Allies, the German army had to invest more labor in the project.
Throughout the end of 1908 and the beginning of 1909, the front line was immersed in this rhythm of digging. There were workers and concrete and cement tanks everywhere, and the excavated soil was piled up into hills behind the main trench. The artillery observation post was set up.
On these man-made hills.
During this period, the casualties on both sides mainly resulted from two tactical actions: the first was the sentry operation at night. The squadron's night fighting capabilities left a very deep impression on the German army, so the German army began to organize elite night attack troops.
Small groups of troops equipped with submachine guns penetrated through the no-man's land in the middle of the battlefield at night and attacked the Allied sentries, and soon the Allied forces decided to retaliate in the same way.
Another major casualty point is going to the toilet. Due to the rush for construction, neither side planned to build real toilets for the troops. They just dug a deep pit at the end of each trench. These simple toilets were not sanitary at all.
What's worse is that because there are often only two pits in a whole section of trenches, the pits are often overcrowded. Soon, these toilets became targets of the opponent's front-mounted light artillery, and there were many people on both sides.
He was killed while going to the toilet.
More and more people were unwilling to go to the toilet at both ends of the trenches, so at first they used various cans instead. After using them, they threw things out of the trenches, but soon the cans on the battlefield were used up - the output of cans in the rear was about the same as
Not good, both sides are.
So the soldiers who didn't want to go to the toilet had to climb out of the trench and use the bomb crater for convenience. As a result, they became victims of unscheduled bombing.
In addition to toileting, various other problems soon arose in the trenches.
For example, the bread that the soldiers in the trenches ate was produced a week ago. Although it was freezing cold so that the bread would not spoil, it was too hard to eat. Especially the French army, which is famous for its French bread.
It is long and hard. After a week of transportation, it can be used as a shovel to dig trenches.
For this reason, the soldiers of the Allied Powers were quite dissatisfied, and this dissatisfaction erupted when the supply of cans from the rear gradually fell into shortage.
Another problem is the "trench foot". Both the Allies and the Germans paid insufficient attention to drainage in their trenches. The German trenches were better off with covers, at least snow could not get in. Because of the snow in the Allied trenches, the entire bottom of the trenches
They were all in a semi-muddy state, and many soldiers' feet became infected with fungi and eventually developed gangrene. Throughout the winter, more than 10,000 British soldiers were sent to the hospital for this reason, and the number of the French army was
More exaggerated.
However, Allied soldiers soon discovered that rubbing fish oil on their feet could effectively deal with this problem, so a very strange scene happened on the battlefield: every day, many soldiers climbed from the main trench to the second trench to wipe their feet...
In addition to trench foot, the British army also suffered from the strange symptom of "trench mouth": military doctors found that more and more soldiers were coming to the doctor because of a large number of teeth lost. Later investigations found that this was because the soldiers chewed too much gum.
…
Originally, British soldiers liked to play bridge to cope with the boring trench life, but this behavior was stopped by the officers with a very strict attitude.
So they can only chew gum to relieve their boredom.
During this period of relative calm, the most terrifying creatures for soldiers in the trenches were not enemy soldiers, but rats.
Rats have multiplied by the tens of thousands, and many of them are larger than cats. They shuttle around the battlefield in groups, eating the corpses that are too late to be cleaned up, and therefore have no fear of the living humans - who would
What about food fears?
Countless soldiers saw themselves being eaten by rats in their nightmares, and then woke up crying.
Under such circumstances, many people's spirits began to collapse and they became neurotic. Many people suffered from the so-called "shell shock", but the officers regarded this mental illness as a deliberate act of desertion by the soldiers.
action.
The harsh environment of the trenches made the grassroots troops begin to sympathize with the enemies on the other side of the dividing line. The Allied soldiers' names for the Germans also changed during this not-too-long winter: they began to affectionately call the Germans "
"Jerry", if the newly recruited recruits dare to call the Germans Hans or Freeze in the trenches, they will be severely punished by the veterans.
In many areas, the two sides formed a tacit understanding. The front-mounted light artillery fired artillery shells in no-man's land, or fired a warning shot before the bombardment, and then opened fire after the enemy was well hidden.
In some areas that are less concerned by the generals, the two sides will even temporarily cease fire in the morning and go to the no-man's land to collect the bodies of the sentries and night attack troops who died last night, and exchange some needed small items. The lighter in the hand of the Germans
and cigarettes were widely welcomed by Allied soldiers, while the Germans preferred Allied rum and red wine—the German army generally only issued brandy.
In such a situation, what the soldiers want most is to receive an injury that does not damage their muscles and bones, but is enough to make them lose their combat effectiveness. The British army calls such an injury "the Queen's gift", and the French army calls it "the neighbor".
"Kiss from the girl at home", the Germans are more serious and boring, and call it "the gunshot wound coming home".
Under such circumstances, the emergence of war-weariness is almost inevitable. Although the patriotic pride has not yet faded and the desire for victory still maintains the morale of both sides, some of the most sensitive officers have already noticed the hidden war-weariness among the soldiers.
However, the soldiers on both sides were almost all hard-working industrial workers and poor farmers, and this kind of life had not yet exceeded their endurance limit.
In addition, the junior officers of the Allied Powers had to face another problem.
In addition to the British and French armies, the Allied Powers also had two divisions of Chinese Federation troops. These troops never squatted in trenches and had good morale and sufficient supplies. Officers of any Allied troops that had contact with Chinese troops had to face questions from soldiers:
Why can't we enjoy the benefits of those troops?
Why can they eat delicious hot food anytime and anywhere with the same military rations, but we can only eat bread as hard as wood?
Why do they travel by car, but we have to walk?
Why do they only carry weapons and dry food when they march and fight, but we need to carry a lot of messy stuff?
Why do they have loudspeakers that can be used to listen to music in every class but we don’t?
Most importantly, why can they move around the battlefield at will, attack the Germans everywhere, and then return to Paris to rest after the battle, but we have to squat in the trenches?
The protests flew towards Lin Youde like snowflakes, and finally Lin Youde had to stop Chen Haihui's "troop warm-up operation" and stop all kinds of harassment of the German lines.
"The Xiafei family has a quite large manor in Burgundy," Lin Youde told Chen Haihui. "Take our two divisions with us. If we are too busy, let the soldiers go to the fields to help the peasants and farmers."