Chapter 675: Attack on Charleroi
I have something to do today so there is only one chapter, sorry.
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After the matter in Paris was concluded, Charles flew to Namur that morning.
It must be said that the enclosed cockpit gave Charles great convenience. He took a nap during the few hours of flight, and after waking up, he had some cakes prepared by Camille as lunch.
According to Camille, there were still a lot of food sent by neighbors at home, but Charles had no intention of touching it, nor did he let Camille and Djokovic touch it. Instead, he asked Laurent to distribute all the food to the guards.
These foods are no small matter when supplies are scarce.
Although the guards had expanded to a regiment at this time and each person could only get a small amount of money each time, it was still a considerable fortune in the long run, so the guards were all grateful to Charles.
However, this was actually because Charles was worried that the spy would poison him and his family.
This is not difficult. The sources of gifts are so complicated that it is possible to send a time bomb.
In this regard, Charles thought it was a good habit to pass the gifts on to the guards. This would make the spies realize that poisoning or tampering with the gifts would not work, and would not only be useless but might expose themselves, so they would not choose to do so.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the plane landed smoothly at Namur Airport.
Charles arrived at the headquarters more than half an hour later by car.
This is one of the disadvantages of setting up the headquarters in Namur Castle. Namur Castle is located on a hill, and it is difficult to build a temporary airport for takeoff and landing.
Tijani was busy in his command room, with telegrams and documents flying everywhere and staff running back and forth, as if a battle was going on.
Charles knew why, and he had given the order to Tijani to be responsible for the preparations for the infiltration into the Ardennes Mountains.
Of course, this is a secret, known only to Charles, Gallieni and Tijani.
All the staff knew was that the next objective was Charleroi, and everything was being done to prepare for its attack.
Seeing Charles coming in, Tijani stepped forward, saluted, and led him into the conference room.
"Albert I implemented a wartime rationing system in Belgium." Tijani sat in front of Charles with a thick stack of documents and said jokingly: "He said everything should be done according to French standards, but everyone knows that the 'France' he mentioned refers to 'Charles'."
Ciel smiled.
Belgium maintains logistics trade with the Netherlands, and the port of Antwerp receives supplies from all over the world, so the people here are not yet on the verge of starving in France.
Albert I did this more because he hoped to use the wartime rationing system to suppress the restless capitalists in the country.
Of course, there was another intention: to try to improve the food of the Shire troops.
Tijani handed the documents to Charles one by one, saying casually: "This is the equipment replacement of the First Armored Army, this is the reconnaissance situation in the Ardennes Mountains, and the strength and deployment of the Charleroi Army..."
Charles opened the documents and examined them one by one.
The equipment replacement of more than 20,000 people in the First Armored Army went very smoothly. Except for the submachine gunners, the infantry was basically equipped with the German G98 and K98 rifles.
They were original rifles captured from the German army, and 400,000 of them were seized in the Hasselt invasion alone.
Albert I selected 30,000 rifles in good condition and gave them to the 1st Armored Division.
Twenty thousand of them were used for equipment and another ten thousand were used for replenishment.
(The two pictures above are G98 and K98 respectively. G98 has reliable performance and higher accuracy, but the gun body is too long and not convenient to use in trenches, so the gun body was shortened and K98 was developed in 1908)
The smooth change of equipment was also thanks to the shortcomings of the Lebel rifle. Most soldiers found it difficult to adapt to the change in its center of gravity, so they had no objection to the change to the Mauser. Instead, they were happy to accept it because of the Mauser's excellent performance.
The only ones who had objections were the more than 2,000 people in the Tijani unit who had been equipped with Garand rifles. They had adapted to semi-automatic rifles, and now going back to using bolt-action rifles was simply a nightmare.
"Many people have questions about the change," Tijani said. "They don't understand why we should switch to German rifles at this time, and we don't have unacceptable supply problems."
Tijani didn't know how to explain it; he couldn't tell the soldiers that the troops would be infiltrating through the Ardennes Mountains.
Charles gave an excuse: "We captured a large number of German rifles and ammunition but could not use them, and there was a shortage of ammunition in the country."
Tijani raised an eyebrow.
This is the only explanation, although it is still a bit far-fetched.
Charles just casually flipped through the reconnaissance of the Ardennes Mountains. It was just a matter of opening up the mountain and blasting the road.
Not long ago, Charles also asked Marc to modify and assemble an engineering vehicle: using the chassis of "Charler A1", adding a bulldozer to it becomes a bulldozer, or adding a few booms and pulleys to it becomes a crane.
With these equipments, building roads and bridges will be much faster.
"How do you plan to attack Charleroi?" Charles closed the document and looked at Tijani.
This is what Charles is most concerned about right now.
Tijani raised his chin towards the document and replied:
"The Germans in Charleroi only have two infantry regiments with more than 5,000 people. Do we need to consider how to fight them?"
"I heard that they are ready to surrender and some have even deserted."
"I believe that as long as our troops arrive there, the Germans will abandon the city and flee!"
Charleroi was an isolated city, and a considerable number of the German troops stationed there were retreating deserters with low morale.
Once Charles's First Armored Army approaches, they will most likely lose the will to resist and flee.
However, Charles asked in return: "General, where do you think they will flee to if they abandon the city?"
Tijani replied: "Of course, retreat to the mountains..."
Tijani suddenly realized his mistake. He looked at Charles blankly, and then an awkward smile appeared on his face.
Another implication of the Germans' retreat to the mountains was that many of them would hide in the Ardennes Forest.
The First Armored Army's plan was to penetrate along the Ardennes Forest.
This would make the fleeing German soldiers think that the 1st Armored Army had entered the forest to hunt them down, so they would flee all the way.
Ultimately, the First Armored Army's penetration plan would most likely be brought to the German army in advance by these defeated soldiers, causing the entire plan to fail.
Tijani stared at the map for a while and said in embarrassment: "But it seems that we can't stop the Germans from escaping into the mountains..."
"The Sixth Army, General." Charles interrupted Tijani. "The Germans in Charleroi thought we would attack with the First Panzer Army, but we surrounded them with the Sixth Army and entered the forest first to cut off their retreat."
Tijani understood immediately that it was another tactic of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west.
It also provided a perfect excuse for the troops to enter the Ardennes Mountains. At that time, the infantry of the 6th Army could enter the forest first and pave the way for the 1st Armored Army.
(End of this chapter)
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