Chapter three hundred and seventeen on the battlefield
Europe.
The Germans' third large-scale offensive begins!
The performance of the French army was really disappointing. Under the fierce German offensive, they simply retreated step by step and could not stop the German army at all.
Since the American army entered Europe, Germany has obviously understood the serious situation they are facing. If the British and French armies cannot be defeated as soon as possible, then Germany's defeat will become inevitable.
The two previous large-scale attacks have completely reflected the changes in the thinking of the German high command.
The Supreme Commander of the German Army, Erich von Ludendorff, completely gave up on the combat guiding ideology of "holding the position at all costs". He believed that violent artillery fire could wipe out all the defenders of the forward position, and the position could not be defended even if the people were wiped out. Therefore,
Troops should be withdrawn to the rear far away from the forward positions to preserve manpower to the greatest extent possible.
When the last major offensives ran aground, the German army was not far from final defeat.
Commando tactics failed to break through the Allied resistance. The Allied tanks made the German army feel heavy pressure and the soldiers were disorganized. This was a sign that the German army was about to be destroyed.
However, German [Prime Minister] Lloyd George believed that if the British army still could not win at Ypres or Cambrai with the assistance of new weapons and new tactics, how could they make a breakthrough this time?
Therefore, it is no longer necessary to continue to launch heavy-loss offensives on the Western Front, and it is best to transfer troops to other European battlefields.
The Supreme Commander of the German Army, Erich von Ludendorff, was also very confident about the situation. His troops were now very experienced in new forms of attack, and, most importantly, they still had a numerical advantage. At this time, those involved in the "revolution"
Russia has announced that it is withdrawing from the war, and soldiers from the eastern battlefield can also be transferred to the west. Ludendorff believes that this is a once-in-a-lifetime offensive opportunity. British and French troops are stationed in the old Somme battlefield in the area between Arras and Raffaele.
Ludendorff would choose this place as an attack point and decided to adopt a surprise attack. The British army accepted the task of defending the French border front.
On March 21, a five-hour bombardment kicked off the attack. Under the cover of mist, poison gas and smoke bombs, the attack was launched in full swing.
On a nearly 100-kilometer-long front line, the British Army and the German G5 divisions engaged in a life-and-death battle. The British 4th Army suffered a disastrous defeat, forming a gap on the front: the British 3rd Army, located to the north of the front, withstood the German attack.
Haig urged the French authorities to help him plug the breach.
Once the position was unsecured, Paris would be within the range of long-range artillery attacks. But Pétain had no interest in defending Paris at all.
After the German army pushed about g5 kilometers into the Allied position, it paused while waiting for supplies.
Despite its brilliant record, the first offensive still cost Ludendorff a high price, with 250,000 German casualties. But the key problem is that the Allied forces only lost some of their most elite commandos.
In April, Ludendorff began a new offensive near Ypres, aiming to seize the canal port and cut off the French army's support for the British army. The German army chose a weak point guarded by the Portuguese army on the Allied front
Breaking out of a gap. After several rounds of attacks, all the lost ground in the Third Battle of Ypres was recovered by the German army. The British army, the Belgian army and the French army fought bloody battles and managed to prevent the German army from continuing to break through this victory.
The third large-scale offensive continued subsequently.
Ludendorff launched another round of attacks on the Allies, this time choosing the French army on the Aisne River. The Allies failed under the strong attack, and the German army advanced 30 kilometers.
The German army is only 37 kilometers away from Paris!
The British and French troops alone can no longer stop the German offensive, but unfortunately, the Germans have to continue to face a new opponent: the United States!
The U.S. military has overcome the chaos when it first arrived on the European battlefield. They have accumulated a certain amount of combat experience and are more mature in strategy and tactics than before.
After achieving great success, the German army continued to launch new attacks on the Allied defense lines.
"Mirpens' Miracle" Peter and his troops once again had to be deployed on the front line.
But this time Peter and his troops were fully replenished!
The formalities for Colonel Pitt's promotion to brigade commander were being processed, and Commander-in-Chief Pershing made a very bold decision to let Pitt act as brigade commander of the Dichuan Brigade until the formalities were completed.
This is a US military unit that has just been transferred to Europe. Like the soldiers that Peter commanded before, they have great energy, are full of curiosity about the battlefield, and are completely unaware of the horror of war.
Peter was very troubled by such soldiers.
You have to tell these new recruits that the battlefield is not as romantic as they imagined, but that people will die anytime and anywhere.
You also have to tell them how to defend when the enemy attacks and how to attack when your own side launches a counterattack.
Fortunately, some of Peter's former subordinates were allowed to be brought to the Sichuan Brigade, which also made Peter's work a lot easier.
These subordinates include Heitie, Yaos... and of course Yu Yun.
When the veterans looked at the new soldiers, they always felt that there was something ridiculous. When the cannon sounded and the soldiers set foot on the battlefield for the first time, those romantic fantasies quickly disappeared without a trace, and were replaced by chaos and panic.
Huh. The veterans yelled and scolded loudly.
Many of them didn't know how to find cover and ran around in panic in the position, or stuck their buttocks out and begged God for protection loudly.
Then when the Germans attacked, the officers had to kick their asses and tell them to get back to the damn position.
Deaths occur every minute. Seeing those bloody and horrific corpses, some people cry and throw away the guns in their hands. Some people even have a mental breakdown. Some people, because they can't bear this huge mental contrast, even ignore it.
They all rushed out of the position, and as you can imagine, they were beaten like a hornet's nest by the enemy and fell in front of the position.
Those soldiers who barely managed to cheer up picked up the guns in their hands tremblingly and fired the bullets with their eyes closed. As for whether they hit the enemy or not, that was not what they had to consider.
But as long as you shoot your first bullet and kill the first enemy, this psychological fear will disappear in the shortest time, and you will soon become a cold killer.
Either kill the enemy or be killed by the enemy.
There is no other choice.
The Americans at least have one advantage. They have endless bullets and grenades, and behind them, there is artillery support that does not care about the cost.
There is a huge gap between the U.S. military's combat quality and that of the German army, but there is also an irreparable gap between the Germans' material reserves and those of the Americans.
Some positions had been captured by the Germans, but before those well-trained and fierce German soldiers had time to take a breath, overwhelming Allied artillery shells fell again.
Under the fierce attack of artillery shells, the German soldiers were unable to gain a foothold on the position they had just captured, and had to retreat again. The position they had won with so much hard work returned to the hands of the Americans.
Relying on powerful artillery support, although there were some deserters in his troops and soldiers who died inexplicably, Pitt still firmly held the position that he should defend.
So Pete got a new nickname after "The Miracle of Meepans": "Insurmountable Steel Pete"!
More and more of Yingyu's deeds appeared in newspapers. Of course, when being interviewed by reporters, Pitt also gave full play to his "specialty": relying on imagination as much as possible to describe his "bravery"
"Achievements!
This specialty was already fully utilized by him when he was in China!
Reporters particularly noticed that when Pete was being interviewed, he would always mention the name of a [Chinese] girl: Yu Yun!
Once reporters' curiosity is aroused, it is very "scary".
They tried their best to find out what kind of story this Chinese girl named Yu Yun had.
In interviews, Pitt's old subordinates also fully described this girl: she came to Europe from the distant "China", she treated every wounded person regardless of life and death under artillery fire, and several times she was almost killed
The enemy's shells hit her, but she was not afraid.
What countless soldiers most wanted to see before they died was not the priest, but the beautiful face of this [Chinese] girl.
Only with Yu Yun's soft prayers could these soldiers die peacefully.
"American Nightingale", "flower on the battlefield". Soldiers had various descriptions of this girl, but obviously the title "flower on the battlefield" has the most romantic flavor.
Under the reporters' imaginative descriptions, "The Insurmountable Pete" and "The Flower on the Battlefield" Yu Yun were completely interpreted into a battlefield romance.
The name "fresh hua on the battlefield" is also known to more and more Americans and Europeans.
The United States is a country that likes heroes, and also likes all romantic stories related to heroes. Then a photo published in the New York Times also shocked Americans: Yu Yun was holding a real flower.
, placed on the body of an American soldier who died in battle. If you look so carefully, you can even see the tears in Yu Yun's eyes.
God protects the United States, and God also protects this beautiful and kind [Chinese] girl.
I hope all romantic stories can have a romantic solution, and I hope this [Chinese] girl can survive the cruel war.
Race is a very strong issue in the United States. But at this moment, the vast majority of Americans have accepted this yellow-skinned girl, and her name has spread throughout the United States: the beauty on the battlefield, Yu Yun!!.