Chapter 515

It was obvious that Nivelle intended to attack.

Or rather, the British decided to attack.

Gallieni looked at Pétain, who did not react at all and sat quietly in his chair in silence. He seemed to be still hesitating.

Gallieni could only look up and say, "I don't think now is the right time to counterattack, Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief."

Nivelle turned his gaze from the map to Gallieni, smiled and nodded, pretending to understand: "Tell me what you think, Mr. Minister."

Gallieni slowly stood up, turned sideways and said to the generals around him:

"I admit that the Germans invested a lot of troops and equipment in Verdun, but I think it is an exaggeration to describe it as a desperate attempt to concentrate the last strength of the country."

"We should look at the German strength on the defensive line objectively."

"They still hold the dominant position in Russia and have opened a new line of defense in Belgium to confront our army."

"We even made several exploratory attacks in other directions, and it turned out that the German defenses were very tight, without any signs of what you call 'weakness'."

As he spoke, Gallieni turned his gaze to Lieutenant General Castelnau, commander of the Eastern Army Group, who was sitting behind him.

Lieutenant General Castelnau stood up:

"Yes, I launched several attacks on General Gallieni's orders, and the German defenses were tight."

"I also heard that they are equipped with new heavy machine guns."

"This heavy machine gun is lighter and more suitable for mobile combat..."

Before he could finish his words, Heiger interrupted him coldly in stiff French: "Think about Charles!"

"What?" Gallieni looked at Haig in confusion. He didn't understand what Charles had to do with their offensive intentions?

"I'm talking about the battle when Charles attacked Antwerp." Haig crossed his legs and stood still, his eyelids slightly raised, and his tone was lazy: "Why was Charles able to capture Antwerp in one day? Are Charles' tanks and his troops really indestructible?"

Gallieni angrily asked back: "So, what do you think it is? Is it that the enemy is too weak?"

These guys actually openly denied Charles's achievements!

"That's about right." Haig nodded expressionlessly. "To be exact, it's not that the enemy is too weak, but that the Germans only have one outer layer of defense. Once this layer is broken through, the interior is empty. Many places are even unguarded."

Haig raised his head and stared at Gallieni with a provocative look: "Am I right, Mr. Minister?"

"That's true." Gallieni emphasized, "However, only Charles' tank troops and mechanized troops can make a quick breakthrough. Only with a quick breakthrough can the situation of 'empty interior' exist."

The infantry could not advance quickly on foot, and when they broke through, enemy reinforcements would come from all directions to hold them back.

Gallieni then added: "The attack on Antwerp, when Foch's Ninth Army was blocked by the Germans at Mons, illustrates this point very well."

The generals nodded in agreement.

The Battle of Antwerp has been analyzed in detail by military experts, and it is generally agreed that the reason why Charles was able to successfully penetrate into the position within a day was because the armored and mechanized forces were fast, strong and flexible enough.

Fast, making it impossible for most enemy reinforcements to arrive in time.

The enemy was so strong that the occasional enemy could not hold them back, and they were even quickly defeated by Charles's troops in a short period of time.

Flexible. Sometimes when encountering cities and strongholds that cannot be won in a short time, Charles' troops can bypass them instead of fighting to the death.

Pure infantry obviously cannot do this.

Haig smiled gently, stood up slowly and spread his hands to everyone: "Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten one thing, the infantry also has its own fast mobile forces. All along, we have relied on them to win victory after victory on the battlefield."

Gallieni was stunned for a moment, then he understood: "You mean the cavalry?"

Heiger nodded slightly, with a scornful smile on his face:

"The tactics Ciel used weren't really that big of a deal, were they?"

"We have used it thousands of times on the battlefield."

"Open a gap in the enemy's defenses, and then use cavalry to quickly penetrate the enemy's flanks and rear through the gap. The only difference is that Charles uses tanks and cars."

The British generals seconded the motion, and some shouted:

"Tanks and cars have insurmountable flaws and are overly reliant on gasoline."

"Without gasoline, they are just a pile of scrap metal, and gasoline is very easy to be attacked. Charles's offensive almost failed because of gasoline!"

"The cavalry don't have this problem. They can also infiltrate, shoot on horseback, and don't rely on roads."

…

Haig was smug.

That's why he thought tanks and machine guns were redundant.

Why do we need tanks when we have cavalry?

Why do we need machine guns when we have rifles?

What tanks can do, cavalry can do too, and machine guns are essentially just a few more rifles!

Gallieni was speechless. He simply couldn't believe that in this day and age there were still people who were superstitious about cavalry and believed that cavalry was stronger than tanks and cars.

But Gallieni was alone and could not argue with all the British generals.

As for the French generals, they either seemed to be thinking about something or nodded repeatedly. Some of them chose to remain silent even though they disagreed with the British point of view.

Clearly, the British generals were much more united.

Then Nivelle spoke:

"Our battle plan is pretty much this, but we'll have to add artillery."

"Just as the Germans bombarded Verdun with concentrated artillery fire, we will concentrate our artillery fire on a section of the German line."

"Then use the infantry to open a breakthrough, and finally the cavalry to quickly penetrate the breakthrough."

Slightly different from the British, Nivelle believed more in "artillery". In his mind, fighting was "conquering with artillery and occupying with infantry."

He believed that it was the "artillery" that defeated the enemy, and the infantry only went forward to "occupy" the area after the enemy was defeated.

Gallieni could not help asking: "Is this the British plan or your plan, Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief?"

Nivelle's face darkened instantly: "What do you mean, Minister?"

"It's meaningless," Gallieni replied. "If you want to die with this tactic, I may not be able to stop you. But as Minister of War, I will do everything I can to prevent the French from participating..."

"No, Minister," Nivelle interrupted Gallieni. "You can't stop it."

At this time, Haig spoke, his tone full of disdain: "Our supplies are only provided to those soldiers who bravely kill the enemy on the battlefield, not to the cowards who hide in the trenches and fear death!"

Gallieni then understood that they would eventually use material resources to force Parliament to compromise.

(End of this chapter)