Chapter 340: The Strength of the Shire Forces
The next morning, nothing came back to life.
The long Ypres front was extremely terrifying. There were almost no living creatures here, including birds, insects, ants, and even rats and cockroaches with extremely tenacious vitality.
There were corpses everywhere, human, animal, and plant. There was a strange smell in the air, and I didn't know whether it came from the residual poison gas or the decaying corpses. It seemed like the end of the world had come.
The headquarters of the 79th Infantry Division of the German 26th Army, this is a semi-enclosed bunker fortification.
The division commander, Major General Jonas, sat on an artillery shell box, drinking coffee and reading a French newspaper brought by the signalman.
In fact, you can guess without even looking at him that the world has reported extensively on the gas warfare launched by Germany, and without exception, all of them have condemned it:
"Gas warfare is inhumane and we should ban its use!"
"This is a human tragedy. It brings out the dark side of humanity to the extreme!"
"Poison gas warfare will destroy humanity. No one can control this demon, and the Germans are no exception. They will surely suffer backlash!"
…
Major General Jonas smiled lightly, put down the newspaper, stood up slowly, walked a few steps leisurely with the coffee cup in his hand, and looked over the firing hole to the French defense line one kilometer away.
These fools, Jonas thought, your army is losing, of course you would describe poison gas as evil.
What is the difference between it and machine guns and cannons?
Aren’t they all fatal?
Do they think that a bullet that explodes a person's brain, or a shell that throws a person into the air and instantly breaks him into pieces, or shrapnel that rips open his stomach and lets him die slowly in agony, are more humane than poison gas?
At this time, Major Ralph returned with his troops, which were the reconnaissance party sent out by Jonas.
Ralph entered the bunker and stood before Jonas, reporting:
"General, there is no residual poison gas ahead."
"The French 43rd Division is in front of our army. They have no intention of fighting and are ready to retreat at any time."
"but……"
Jonas kept his eyes on the French defense line and asked coldly, "But what?"
"The 105th, General," Major Ralph replied. "They say the 105th has reinforced the 43rd Division, but they're not sure where it is."
"105th Infantry Regiment?" Jonas was stunned. The number sounded familiar.
Then he turned his head sharply to look at Ralph. "Charles' troops? You mean Charles is in front of us?"
"No, General," Ralph answered. "They are Charles's troops, but they say Charles is not here. He is probably commanding in Paris."
Jonas hummed and nodded slightly.
This makes sense, otherwise, as long as he ordered the release of poison gas, Charles would become a corpse or be injured and captured.
After thinking for a while, Major General Jonas turned to his staff and said, "Send a telegram to General Stephen and request an attack on the enemy's defense line."
"Yes, General." The staff officer responded and immediately gave orders to the signalman.
Major General Jonas has been requesting an attack since yesterday, and this is the fifth time.
Jonas thought this was an opportunity. The enemy had been demoralized by the sudden poison gas, and this was the best time to attack, even if it meant risking being affected by the remaining poison gas.
War is bound to involve danger and casualties. At other times, achieving such a victory may require paying dozens or even hundreds of times the price.
However, General Stephen always responded:
"Relax, Jonas, we don't need to rush."
"If we can win the first battle, we can win the rest."
"We should gain experience from this, so that we can better defeat the enemy and achieve complete victory!"
…
These words sound true. As long as the enemy doesn't find a way to deal with poison gas, the German army will always win.
However, Jonas was still worried about missing the opportunity.
Now, the enemy has sent Charles' troops up. Could it be that Charles has found a way to deal with the poison gas?
No, Jonas quickly dismissed that idea.
If Charles had found a way, he should not have hidden in Paris but with the troops.
Soon, the staff officer responded with a telegram: "General, General Stephen agreed to our request, but he thinks we should start with a conventional attack."
Jonas hummed in understanding.
Because the German army launched the attack in a hurry, the poison gas reserves were not sufficient, and they needed to use the best steel on the blade.
Jonas raised the telescope and observed for a while. He found that the enemy on the opposite side seemed to be building fortifications, and some dust was faintly rising above the trenches.
Jonas took out his pocket watch and looked at it, then ordered, "Everyone get ready, attack in ten minutes!"
"Yes, General!" the staff officer responded and quickly ran to the trench to give orders.
As the orders were passed down, the German soldiers immediately stood up and packed their luggage. Some of them loaded bullets into their rifles, some emptied half of their overfull water bottles to reduce the weight, and some stuffed a few more grenades into their backpacks.
Then, they stood in front of the trenches, holding guns and waiting quietly.
His breathing became heavier and his bayonet gleamed in the sun.
The officer walked and comforted the soldiers loudly: "Relax, boys! They have been frightened by the poison gas. This time is the same as before. We just need to rush up and occupy their defense line, that's it!"
"Hold on!"
"Hold on!"
…
"Now!"
A sharp whistle sounded instantly, and at the same time, a shell whistled over their heads and slammed heavily into the enemy position.
The German soldiers shouted loudly as they climbed up the ladders and stumbled through the muddy fields of Ypres towards the enemy trenches.
They hoped that what their superiors said was right, and that this battle would be as easy as the previous ones, and they hoped that it would be like this in the future.
But this was not the case, the enemy's counterattack fire was very fierce.
To be precise, it was not fierceness but precision. Their bullets seemed to have eyes and kept killing important units such as officers, machine gunners, and medics.
This made the German army more and more disheartened as they advanced:
Without officers, we lose command and even more so, we lose our leaders.
No machine gunner means no covering fire.
Without medical personnel, all they could think about was lying alone in a crater after being injured, waiting for death to come until the very end.
For the soldiers, it was almost like rushing to the enemy's line to die, and die miserably!
…
Major General Jonas, who was watching the battle, also felt it.
The enemy did not have more machine guns and no dense artillery shells, but strangely, it seemed that they were pressing down on the German army, giving everyone, including Major General Jonas, an invisible pressure.
Is this the strength of the Charles army?
Major General Jonas was puzzled. What exactly was Charles going to do?
Why would he send such an elite force to the front lines to face the poison gas?
(End of this chapter)
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