Chapter 547: For Peace Negotiations

The rain was getting heavier, even with a hint of red, and hitting the tank's armor made a "dong dong clang clang" sound.

In the assault trench, the 1st Special Artillery Division was ready for battle.

Christine was wearing a raincoat and sitting in the open back of an armored reconnaissance vehicle, waiting. In front and behind her were "Charger A1" tanks that had been started and were ready to attack.

The staff officer beside him stretched his neck to look outside the assault trench and saw that the German army had already engaged in a battle with the charging French infantry.

"General." The staff officer turned around and looked at Christine in confusion: "This is not our training. We should be in the front instead of staying here."

Christian sighed, he didn't know how to answer.

The cavalry should probably follow behind the infantry.

When the enemy and our infantry were fighting in a group, the cavalry suddenly rushed out from the flank and surrounded the enemy from behind, causing chaos and disarray.

However, this is a tank.

What would be the point of its armor if it were to charge behind the infantry?

Just as Christine was frowning, a sharp and piercing whistle suddenly sounded, followed by a loud order from the frontline commander: "Attack, the First Special Artillery Division! Attack!"

Christine followed up with the order: "Attack!"

The leading tank roared, stepped on full speed and rushed out of the assault trench along the slope, and the other tanks followed one after another.

An officer leaned out of the tank and shouted to encourage his men: "Show the Germans some power and kill them all!"

But Christine had no confidence at all.

It's not that he was negative, but he knew that Nivelle's battle plan would not work.

Cavalry infiltrating enemy territory might be able to survive for a few days or even longer because they could more easily obtain supplies, either by seizing them from the enemy or by temporarily requisitioning them from French civilians in enemy-held areas.

Tanks are different. What they need is gasoline, which cannot be easily captured from the enemy or requisitioned from civilians.

Without a follow-up plan, the 1st Special Artillery Division would not even be able to survive for a day after its successful penetration.

Just as I was thinking about it, the armored vehicles had already driven onto the battlefield along the slope.

Christine was stunned by what she saw.

Artillery shells continued to bombard the enemy positions, and French soldiers rushed towards the artillery fire in large numbers.

However, the German army also noticed the French style of fighting, so they set up machine guns in front of their positions and fired at the French army under fire.

The artillery fire could not pose much of a threat to the German machine guns because they were hiding in the trenches behind parapets built with sandbags. Some of the machine gun positions were bunkers built with logs, stones and earth.

It is difficult to destroy it unless it is hit directly by artillery fire.

The artillery fire actually caused great trouble to the charging French army: the smoke raised by the shells concealed the German firepower points, and the flying shrapnel and exploded rocks made it impossible for the French soldiers to get close.

As a result, groups of French soldiers fell on the road of charge, but the French soldiers still rushed forward on the corpses.

Before the rotting corpses in the no-man's land could be cleaned up, a new layer of fresh corpses was immediately laid out.

The dark red dirty blood and the bright red blood merged together and, with the help of the rain, covered the entire battlefield. At first glance, it looked like a piece of red land.

The soldiers were still charging, and they kept falling under the hail of bullets.

The corpses in various postures under their feet made their charge more difficult. Some soldiers had to use their hands and feet to "crawl" on the corpses in order to move forward.

Christine held up the telescope and looked around as quickly as possible, then said expressionlessly, "We can't fight as planned."

"But General," the staff officer said, "the plan was made by the commander-in-chief."

Another meaning of not fighting according to plan is to disobey orders.

Christine hesitated for a few seconds.

It seemed that the infantry would not be able to successfully capture the German defense line. If they carried out the infiltration as planned, it would basically be a one-way trip.

Instead, they should change the plan and coordinate with the infantry attack, then there would be a glimmer of hope.

Thinking of this, he made a prompt decision: "Pass the order down, cancel the trench crossing and fully assist the infantry attack!"

"Yes, General." The staff officer responded and immediately conveyed the order via signal flags and radio.

It turns out Christine was right.

The tanks penetrated into the battlefield from both wings, suppressed the German machine guns with machine guns and artillery at close range, and used their own armor to block bullets and shrapnel for the infantry, which enabled the infantry to successfully rush into the German trenches and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Afterwards, the French infantry and "special artillery" (armored troops) formed a kind of tacit understanding in this ordeal. They cooperated with each other and continued to advance, and before dark they successfully pushed the defense line forward one kilometer.

Nivelle was delighted when he heard the news of the victory. He immediately reported the good news to Paris: "After a hard battle, our army won a decisive victory on the Somme River. In just one day, we captured two lines of defense and advanced one kilometer!"

Then, he couldn't wait to send the news to various newspapers.

The government, members of parliament, and newspapers all remained calm. Instead of rushing to announce or report the news, they called Nivea one after another to inquire about the casualties.

Everyone understood that Nivelle's so-called victory was most likely achieved at the cost of huge casualties.

Nivelle was a little embarrassed, but he didn't dare to avoid the question this time because he had a history of concealing the truth. After hesitating for a while, he answered truthfully: "A total of more than 40,000 casualties."

Everyone was shocked:

"Over 40,000 casualties in one day? That's twice as many as the Shire's army."

"Charle only suffered a few hundred casualties when attacking Namur, but he pushed the defense line forward by 13 kilometers. Charle didn't even call it a great victory, but Nivelle called it a great victory?"

"How are we supposed to report this 'victory'? Ignore the casualties?"

…

Foch's comments were particularly poignant: "I cannot call it a 'victory'. We advanced one kilometer at the cost of more than 40,000 men. At this rate, when we advance to the German border to recapture the lost territory in France, we will have to sacrifice all our soldiers."

Pétain stood with Foch at this time: "Then the Germans can proudly point their guns at our heads. And we can only raise our hands and surrender, because there are no adults in France who can pick up rifles and fight!"

Nivelle didn't expect something like this to happen, and just as he was getting angry, something even more deadly happened.

German Emperor Wilhelm II spoke through the Berlin Daily: "There is no doubt that the Allies are on the road to failure. It is time to end this meaningless war. Germany is willing to negotiate for peace!"

The Germans thought they had the upper hand?

And express willingness to negotiate as a winner?

And this was after the victory of Shire over Namur?

It is obvious that it was the Battle of the Somme that gave the Germans such confidence and courage!

(Note: It is true that Germany proposed "for peace talks", but it was proposed in 1916. At that time, both sides were a little exhausted and Germany had the upper hand. Both sides were willing to negotiate, but it was destroyed by the American consortium.)

(End of this chapter)