Chapter 561 We won!
Lieutenant General Ives pointed his baton at the rear of the German defense line on the map and said in a brisk tone:
"The focus is on the German artillery!"
"We all know that the Germans have an artillery advantage, and the French army only has 75MM infantry guns. Their range is far from enough to compete with the Germans."
In the Somme region, the Allied artillery was able to gain the upper hand because the British concentrated thousands of artillery pieces of various calibers.
The parliamentarians nodded one after another, as if they saw the tragic scene of French soldiers being blown into the sky by the German 105MM artillery.
…
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh”
“Swoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
Amidst the whistling sounds, the rockets left behind bright lines and headed straight for the German 105MM artillery positions.
Those were landing craft equipped with rocket launchers. They moved down the Somme River, at the end of the team, but because their range was only 8 kilometers, they were the first to attack the enemy.
The 12 modified landing craft were equipped with a total of 120 rocket launchers, and within a few minutes they fired all of the 1,440 rockets they carried.
Rows of rockets, carrying the breath of death, whizzed through the sky with the roar of engines, leaving long trails in the air.
The explosion was deafening, and flames and thick smoke instantly engulfed the entire sky. German artillery and corpses that were blown into the sky were moving around in the light and smoke.
Occasionally, there would be artillery shells exploding, creating mushroom-like clouds, with flames jumping like living things, licking all the flammable objects around.
On the north bank of the Somme, Haig, who was watching the show with a gloating attitude, was frightened by this scene.
"What is that?" Haig exclaimed: "The French blew up the German ammunition depot? But they don't have artillery with such a long range!"
The staff officer saw it clearly and reported: "General, it was a rocket."
"Rockets?" Haig's expression suddenly changed. He put away his telescope and turned his head to look at the staff officer: "Are you talking about the rockets used by Charles in Namur? It actually has a longer range than the German 105MM artillery!"
"General." The staff officer pointed to the rocket launch site, where there was still a large cloud of smoke. "That should be the Somme River."
"The Somme?" Haig looked shocked. Rockets could actually be launched in a river?
Then he realized it was a ship. The bastard Charles loaded rockets on the ship and fired at the enemy!
…
In the Paris Chamber of Deputies, Lieutenant General Avis's baton was calmly moving at the front line of the German defense line.
"The Germans would have built anti-tank trenches here that were wide and deep enough to block any tank that tried to get through."
"Char used a bridge-laying vehicle to quickly cross the trench in Namur, but that won't work here."
"The Germans have aimed a large number of artillery at the tank trenches. They will destroy any vehicles approaching the anti-tank trenches, including bridge-laying vehicles!"
The councillors' faces turned pale. Charles must not have known this, which was why he launched a counterattack so rashly.
…
The "Char A1" tank drove ashore from the landing craft with a "clatter".
The Germans didn't notice anything at all. The coming and going artillery fire and dense rockets covered up all the sounds.
Due to heavy rains for several days, the river water swelled rapidly, and the landing craft had to drive all the way to hard ground before lowering the landing board. Twelve tanks drove off the craft one after another.
Around them were teams of French soldiers on amphibious landing craft. As soon as they reached the shore, they jumped off the boats and stood in front and behind the tanks with rifles in hand.
Major General Christian led the team personally. After getting off the boat, he looked ahead vigilantly, glanced around, took out the revolver at his waist and ordered: "Forward!"
The tanks made a rumbling sound and carried the soldiers forward in an orderly manner, with the speed getting faster and faster, and soon they rushed into the enemy's artillery position.
The German artillery, which had just been "attacked" by rockets, had not yet recovered.
Some of them were running back and forth to rescue the wounded, some were contacting observers by phone, and more were busy adjusting the muzzles of their guns under the command of officers in an attempt to launch a counterattack against the rocket launcher site.
Suddenly, a group of enemies equipped with tanks emerged from the dim sky. They broke into the artillery position like a tiger into a flock of sheep and killed people indiscriminately.
Grenades exploded and flying bullets knocked the artillerymen, who had no time to pick up their rifles, into a pool of blood.
The tank slammed into a cannon, and its tracks ruthlessly rolled over the gun body that fell to the ground, making a series of wailing sounds of steel breaking.
Flames spurted out of the tank's muzzle, turning an ammunition truck in front into a fireball. The nearby German soldiers were thrown into the air in the bright flames.
…
Chamber of Deputies of Paris.
Lieutenant General Ives shook his head. His face was serious but a smile hung on the corner of his mouth:
"Gentlemen, it is too late."
"No one could have expected that Charles would choose to attack at this time."
"Now, only the British army can save France. Only if they cross the Somme River in time to reinforce the south bank and fill the gap, the Germans will not overwhelm our defense line like a flood."
There was a panic in the meeting room, and the congressmen were whispering to each other.
Then someone stood up and called out: "What are we waiting for? Make a decision, we should unify the command!"
Another meaning of "unified command" is to hand over the command to Haig.
The members of parliament nodded one after another. In their opinion, this was the best option.
Gallieni turned pale. He knew that the parliamentarians would pass the resolution and it would be useless no matter how much he opposed it.
Because most people have believed what Lieutenant General Elvis said.
The staff distributed ballots to the congressmen, collected them one by one after they were filled out, and finally counted the votes while reading out the numbers on the podium.
The situation turned out just as Gallieni had expected. Most of the parliamentarians chose "unified command", and the majority was overwhelming.
However, just as the vote count was drawing to a close, Lieutenant Colonel Fernan suddenly pushed open the door of the parliament and shouted to Gallieni in an excited tone: "General, we won!"
The congressmen all turned their eyes to Colonel Fernando in unison, and even the staff who were counting the votes stopped what they were doing.
"What victory?" someone asked.
Lieutenant General Ives was stunned for a moment, then said confidently: "It must be the British reinforcements, they beat back the Germans!"
Gallieni stood up involuntarily and looked at Lieutenant Colonel Fernando. He also wanted to know the answer.
Lieutenant Colonel Fernan clenched his fist and waved it in front of his chest: "It was Charles, General. Charles' counterattack defeated the Germans! The Germans collapsed on all fronts, and our army advanced 5 kilometers in one breath, 5 kilometers!"
There was an uproar in the meeting hall. Is this possible?
Under this circumstance, the counterattack was actually won and the advance was 5 kilometers?
Lieutenant General Elvis' smile froze on his face. No, this was not true. It didn't make sense for the result to be like this!
Gallieni laughed out loud: "I knew this little guy wouldn't let me down!"
He walked a few steps and stood at the edge of the gallery, proudly puffed out his chest and looked down at the congressmen below. His voice was clear, powerful, but full of sarcasm: "Gentlemen, you can continue to vote and hand over the command to the British!"
(End of this chapter)
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