Chapter 365 Boomerang
General Winter hurriedly said goodbye to Charles and went to visit Joffre.
Everything seemed reasonable. Britain needed the French army to win a "remarkable" victory on the Western Front, so of course it had to go to the French Commander-in-Chief Joffre.
The facts were just as Charles expected. When General Winter met with Joffre and explained his purpose, Joffre suddenly felt that fate was favoring him.
While Charles was leading his troops to fight on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Joffre had equipped his 1st Special Artillery Division with "Saint-Chamond M21" tanks and began training.
(The picture above is the "Saint-Samon M21", which is Schneider's attempt at a light tank. It has two modes of mobility, and the wheels can be retracted and tracked. I have posted it before, but I am posting it again because it has been too long)
This is a mixed unit of improved "Saint-Chamond" and "Saint-Chamond M21", with Major General Christian as the division commander.
The key point is that the division used Charles' tactics, and the "Saint-Chamond M21" even had a modified version equipped with 37MM artillery.
Major General Christian once reminded Joffre cryptically: "General, if we use Charles' tactics and the tank guns he invented, even if we win on the battlefield in the future, it does not mean that we have defeated Charles."
But Joffre replied: "The key is the tank, Christian! It is a completely different tank from the 'Charter A1'. It is much faster than the Charles tank. It may be the future of tanks!"
The "fast" that Joffre mentioned refers to the road maneuvering speed of the "Saint-Chamond M21" when using tires, which reaches 28 kilometers per hour, much faster than the maximum speed of 15 kilometers per hour of the "Charles A1".
However, its maneuvering speed on tracks is only 6 km/h.
Joffre was completely blind to this shortcoming, and he explained it this way:
"We don't need a very fast speed during combat. 6 kilometers per hour is enough. If it's faster, the infantry won't be able to keep up."
"When it needs to maneuver, it can go onto the road and travel at a speed of 28 kilometers per hour."
"More importantly, we have a combination of heavy tanks and light tanks. It's perfect!"
Major General Christian felt something was wrong. He had studied the battle in which the "Charger A1" defeated the German "A7V" tank, and he believed that tanks also needed to be mobile in combat.
As for the combination of light and heavy tanks, it would only count if the heavy "Saint-Chamon" could reach the enemy.
However, Major General Christian said nothing. He knew it was useless to say anything. The tanks had already been equipped to the troops, and he could only do his best to lead them to win victory.
What the confident Joffre did not expect was that the German tanks were no longer the A7V he had imagined, and the "First Special Artillery Division" he trained was nothing more than cannon fodder for Charles to test the German army's new equipment.
…
As for Charles, he could actually roughly guess what the Germans’ new aircraft were.
At this time, the German "Fokker E" series fighter should have been released. In history, its birth caused a "Fokker disaster", and the Allied Powers had almost no fighter jets that could match it.
(The picture above shows the German Fokker E series monoplane, which was successfully tested in 1914. It is a sports stunt aircraft, model M5K. Afterwards, the German army urgently converted it into a military fighter and installed machine guns on the battlefield. The Fokker triplane familiar to the world is the DR series, which was equipped by the German army around 1917)
However, what Charles knew was far from enough. He could not remember the data of the Fokker E series, such as the maximum speed, the number of machine guns, and the maneuverability.
As for what Germany's new tank would be, Charles had no idea, because Germany had no other tanks put into actual combat after the A7V tank.
Therefore, Charles needed to use some tricks to let Joffre and Schneider explore the way ahead, so that the real trump card in Charles' hand could be used effectively.
But what Charles had not expected was that Joffre would try to get the battle plan from Charles in a roundabout way.
That day, Charles was sorting out intelligence at the headquarters as usual when the phone on the desk rang.
Charles felt a little strange. The phone hadn't rung for a long time. Most of the calls were made to the telecommunications room first and then transferred to the headquarters by the staff, rather than directly contacting Charles himself.
Foch's voice came from the other end of the line: "Are you busy, Brigadier General?"
"No, not in a hurry, General," Charles replied, wondering if Foch still wanted to discuss the "theory of the offensive"?
Foch hummed and said:
"I've been thinking about your tactical theories recently, and I suddenly became interested in your tanks."
"I'm curious, if you were in charge of a battle, I mean a breakthrough in the enemy's defenses, what would you do?"
Foch spoke very cryptically, and he had indeed discussed tactical theory with Charles before, so it sounded like there was no problem.
However, Charles immediately thought of what General Winter had said about the "need for a spectacular victory on the Western Front."
General Winter then went to see Joffre.
Now Foch is here to test the battle plan. Is it such a coincidence?
More likely, the person who really wanted to ask this question was Joffre.
Charles felt that it was pretty close.
Joffre and Foch did not know that General Winter had already met with Charles before them and that Charles knew everything.
This was somewhat ironic, as a boomerang hit Charles again.
Charles pretended to be ignorant and thought about it for a while, then decided to come up with a practical plan. After all, he had to lure out the "secret weapon" of the Germans. If Joffre was too weak, the other side would not bother to deal with it.
"I think we should first find a flat, open, hard surface," said Charles.
"Hard ground?" Foch asked in doubt. He had no idea what it was at that moment.
"Yes." Charles explained, "For example, the mud in Ypres is obviously not suitable for tanks to maneuver. Without the support of the environment, even the most advanced tactics and equipment will not work. It must at least be suitable for tanks to maneuver."
"That makes sense," Foch agreed.
"Secondly," Charles continued, "the tanks should focus on breaking through and penetrating the enemy's defenses, so that they can break through quickly."
Foch nodded in understanding. If the troops were to disperse and push forward in a flat manner, the combat effectiveness per unit area would be evenly distributed, and it might turn into a protracted war in the face of the enemy's defense.
"Finally," Charles added, "before the battle, you must not conduct overly intensive or prolonged artillery preparations."
Foch on the other end of the phone remained silent because they were just about to do that.
After a long while, Foch asked: "Why? Why not?"
"Because this tells the enemy that our tanks will break through here, General." Charles replied: "The enemy will mobilize a large number of artillery to prepare for defense, and once the enemy does that, no tank will be able to break through."
Foch suddenly realized that if the enemy's artillery was numerous enough to cover the no-man's land in front of the trenches, even if the tanks had mobility, they would fall apart under their dense artillery shells.
(End of this chapter)
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