Chapter 837 Becoming Ciel's comrade
The first thing Charles decided to do in his counterattack was to regain air superiority.
He did not want his troops to be discovered by the enemy, and did not want the troops' marching direction and even marching route to be under the enemy's surveillance at all times.
They don't want their troops to be strafed or bombed by enemy planes.
On rainy days, the direct casualties caused by enemy aircraft bombing and strafing are not large. What is more important is that it will affect the speed of the troops and affect morale.
All these troubles will disappear once we regain air superiority.
They would turn into trouble for the Germans: Charles's planes would constantly harass the German 17th Army, which was coming to reinforce them, making it difficult for them to move forward on the muddy and watery roads.
Moreover, once the "Sniper" fighters appeared, the Germans could not even bomb the transportation lines in the rear. Once their bombers were discovered, they would never return.
Charles brought out the Mechanized Division and the 1st Motorized Division.
The 2nd Motorized Division continued to hold its position at Buzensi, ready to respond to any possible attack on the Meuse River defense line and serve as a reserve.
This made Pershing feel incredible.
"Your army has only 20,000 men, Lieutenant General," Pershing said, "while the German 18th Army has more than 200,000 men."
Charles was full of confidence: "I still have your army, General, 300,000 American troops. I believe they can cooperate well with our army in the battle."
Pershing stared at Charles with wide eyes, as if he couldn't believe this was true.
After a long while, he was flattered and said, "Lieutenant General, are you saying that we should fight together with you?"
"Of course." Charles asked, "Any questions?"
"No, no, of course it's no problem." Pershing quickly replied: "This, this is my honor, and the honor of our army!"
…
Southwest of Bizanzi, the Seine forms a protrusion here.
The US military chose to garrison in this location because it could form a "C"-shaped encirclement toward the enemy.
The U.S. military was prepared to blow the enemy to pieces with overwhelming artillery fire once they approached.
(The red circle in the above picture is the US military defense area.)
Because of this special terrain, the US military even controlled a stone bridge across the Meuse River.
However, this was more due to the fact that the main attack direction of the German army was Reims rather than Bizensi.
Attacking Bissin did not seem to make much sense for the German army. They would rather defend instead of attack in Reims to consume the ammunition of the French and American coalition forces.
The morale of the US military is somewhat low.
Captain Williams had a head wound and was bandaged, which made it painful for him to wear the "Adrian" helmet because its weight was always pressing on the wound.
But Captain Williams had to wear it, otherwise the rain would immediately wet the bandage.
"Are you okay, Captain?" Patton walked up to Captain Williams.
Patton had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and was appointed commander of the 1st Armored Brigade.
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel." Captain Williams stepped forward and replied, "I'm fine!"
Patton nodded and looked around: "I heard that your infantry company suffered the heaviest casualties, with half of its personnel reduced?"
Captain Williams's expression darkened. "Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. In fact, it's more than half. We have 152 casualties."
(Note: During World War I, a fully staffed infantry company of the U.S. Army had 256 soldiers, with four platoons in a company, four squads in a platoon, and 12 to 15 soldiers in each squad.)
Patton nodded with a heavy heart: "Well done, Captain, you were able to retreat in an organized manner and fight as a whole in the end. I am proud of you!"
Williams should have stood up proudly and thanked Patton for the recognition.
But he sighed and shook his head: "No, Lieutenant Colonel, I don't think so."
Patton looked at Williams in confusion. What shameful thing had this guy done or what had he violated military discipline?
Then Patton realized that he had misunderstood.
Captain Williams said bitterly:
"We've let Ciel down, haven't we, Commander?"
"If it was Charles' troops in this battle, they would definitely be able to keep the Germans out of Reims and wait for reinforcements."
"We blew the mission, and we put everyone in danger."
Patton felt his pocket and tried to light a cigarette out of habit, but he only pulled out a ball of wet tobacco.
"Have a smoke from mine, Lieutenant Colonel." Captain Williams hid under a raincoat and took out a half-pack of cigarettes wrapped in waterproof cloth from his backpack. They were good luck cards provided by the US military.
(The picture above shows one of the special cigarettes supplied to the US military during World War I, Good Luck brand, which was distributed 7 to 12 packs per person per month)
The two men huddled inside and lit each other up. Patton exhaled a long puff of smoke and said, "This is an excellent quality, Captain."
"What?" Williams didn't understand.
Patton looked at Williams:
“Everyone is looking for excuses for the defeat.”
"We're new recruits, we've only been training for a month, we have no combat experience, we've done enough, blah blah blah."
"I admit that what they said is true."
"But they don't understand one thing: there is no logic on the battlefield. It won't change just because we are new soldiers and have no combat experience."
Williams understood what Patton meant, and Williams did not make excuses for the failure.
"I'm not sure if Charles is disappointed in you." Barton's eyes were full of admiration: "But I won't."
Patton patted Williams on the shoulder and said, "Congratulations, you have been promoted to major, commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion."
With that, Patton left, leaving Williams standing there in a daze.
Is this how you get promoted?
Just because of one sentence?
What Williams didn't know was that what Patton valued was not his words or his performance on the battlefield, but his mentality.
At this moment, cheers suddenly broke out from the back.
Williams didn't know what was going on. He thought it might be supplies arriving from the rear.
But soon, the cheers grew louder and louder, along with the rumbling of tank engines.
Signalman Monty scurried out of the communication trench like a mouse, shouting as he ran: "Captain, Captain! Do you know who is coming to reinforce us?"
"Is it reinforcements?" Williams shook his head slightly and muttered to himself: "What can the reinforcements do? Will they retake Reims?"
Monty ran up to Williams, grabbed him without saying a word and ran towards the cheering direction.
Williams stumbled and cursed from behind: "Are you crazy? Where are we going?"
As he said this, he struggled to break free from Monty's "control".
Monty turned around and said in an excited voice: "It's Charles, Captain, it's Charles."
"You, what did you say?" Williams stared at Monty blankly: "What Charles?"
"Charle is coming with his troops to reinforce us." Mondy clenched his fists and cheered loudly: "He will fight with us..."
Before he could finish his words, Williams had pushed Monty aside and ran along the communication trench, looking back and asking, "Where is he? Is this true?"
Monty smiled and got up and followed: "Of course it's true, just think about it, we will become Charles's comrades and fight under his command!"
(End of this chapter)
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