Chapter 203 Ciel A1
Gallieni put down the phone with satisfaction and looked at Charles: "They will convene the parliament soon!"
Charles looked at Gallieni with an unconvinced look on his face: "Underage? Throwing a tantrum?"
"That's a good excuse," Gallieni replied, glancing at the map. "Besides, you should be thinking about how to rescue them instead of continuing to act like a child just because I saw through you!"
Charles was speechless.
Anyway, being a minor is the original sin, so any dissatisfaction is just "childish tantrum"!
"Joffre's decision was obviously wrong!" Charles pointed at the map and analyzed, "If the Germans knew from the beginning that Joffre would penetrate, they would certainly have thought that he was planning to break through from the middle."
Gallieni said noncommittally: "But what can they do? This salient cannot deploy more troops. They only have five divisions here. We have concentrated five divisions in front of Cape Town, and the number is still increasing. If there is an army attacking it from the back, even if it is only one, we may be able to break out!"
There is no doubt about this. All the German defense lines were built towards the west. They had no defense against the east and would be easily broken through.
Charles replied slowly: "If the Germans can build a reverse defense line in the Cape Town area!"
Gallieni's face changed. "Reverse line of defense? They surrounded and protected themselves with trenches?"
"That's my guess!" Charles replied, "If it were me, I would do this. The trenches can guarantee their own safety with a small number of troops. As long as there are enough machine guns, artillery, bullets and shells, our army will not be able to break through the center, even if we are attacked from both sides!"
Gallieni stared at the map for a long time before slowly nodding:
"Before the penetration, Joffre spent five days feinting against Cape Town. He was so smart that he thought he could fool the Germans, but the Germans had already guessed his combat intentions."
"While he was feinting, the Germans were building a reverse line of defence at Cape Town."
"This line of defense is probably not far from the town of Lorca, the location of the two special artillery divisions in Joffre's plan!"
Charles agreed: "Because this way the line of defense will be as short as possible, the town of Lorca takes a straight line behind Cape Town, and the total length is only more than 20 kilometers."
"Yes!" Gallieni said worriedly, "As long as the Germans transfer one division and then two divisions back from the positive direction, they can turn it into another trap. What Joffre called a two-pronged attack was actually a moth-to-flame attack on this trap!"
Gallieni looked up at Charles and said, "So, which direction do you plan to break through?"
Before he could finish his words, the phone rang.
The call was from Wells: "General, the parliament will convene in half an hour. I think you should be there to answer questions, otherwise our agenda will most likely be rejected."
"Yes sir, I'll be there right away!"
After hanging up the phone, Gallieni said to Charles helplessly: "They think we are not preparing for war, so..."
Gallieni stood up, took his infantry coat from the wall and put it on, saying in a relaxed tone: "I leave this to you, Major! My battlefield is the House of Representatives. I find that exchanging sharp words with those old guys may be a good choice."
"But General, what should we do here?" Charles looked around.
Gallieni walked straight to the stairs and replied without looking back: "Call me if you have any problems. I believe you can handle it!"
Lieutenant Colonel Fernando and others were all stunned. Without Gallieni's headquarters, could they still command the troops to rescue the surrounded friendly forces?
But Charles hesitated only for a moment.
He took a moment to sort it out in his mind and found that it seemed to be similar because he did not need other troops to participate.
Then he called the tractor factory and found Colonel Estiny.
"Get ready for battle!" said Charles.
"What?" Colonel Estiny was stunned, then stepped forward and answered: "Yes, sir, I will return to the tank base immediately..."
"No, you will organize the transport at the tractor factory." Charles interrupted him: "I need you to bring all the tanks, including fuel, ammunition and mechanics."
Colonel Estiny suddenly became nervous: "Sir, I don't understand, I only have new tanks, and they are not ready for the battlefield..."
"Is the 37 gun loaded?" Charles interrupted Estiny.
Of the ten new tanks used for testing, four were equipped with machine guns and the other six were equipped with the newly produced 37mm guns.
"They are installed!" Colonel Estiny replied, "But they are still under testing. We want to know its armor-piercing capability..."
"Let's test it on the battlefield. That's the standard answer." Charles replied.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while before he replied, "OK, I understand!"
His tone was full of helplessness. If the test failed, it would mean that they would have to produce a new prototype and test it again.
…
The tractor factory soon became busy. Under the command of Estiny, the tanks returned to the warehouse one by one, where they were loaded into carriages and then transported away by train.
Matthew, who was also taking part in the test, limped forward and asked in confusion: "What's going on, Colonel? Where are you taking them?"
Estiny said nothing, but just shook his head slightly.
Matthew understood instantly. He looked puzzled: "But the driver just learned how to operate it!"
Estiny hummed and turned his gaze to the tanks. "We don't even have a proper name for them."
The new tank has been code-named: Type A1.
Matthew took a step forward with his cane and said thoughtfully, "I think it can be called the Charles A1 model. What do you think?"
Estiny turned his head and looked at Matthew in surprise, then nodded and replied, "You have a talent for naming, Matthew!"
…
Charles then called the tank base again: "Gather the troops, there is a combat mission!"
"Yes, sir!" Brownie seemed to have expected this. He asked, "Cape Town?"
It's not hard to guess that the only one who can solve Cape Town's dilemma is Shire.
"Yes!" Charles did not evade the question. There was no need to hide the truth from Brownie's troops. He emphasized: "Bring all the tanks and two bases of ammunition."
"So, which unit will cooperate with us?" Brownie asked casually.
The 1st Tank Brigade is a tank unit, and its infantry are all professional infantrymen who have been trained in infantry-tank coordination. They cannot be used to set up defenses along the way, so they need to be coordinated with infantry.
Unexpectedly, Charles replied: "There are no other troops, only us!"
Brownie's heart skipped a beat. Are we the only ones?
What this means is... just moving around without paying attention to what's behind you?
interesting!
(End of this chapter)
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