Chapter 560: The Somme
After hearing "Charles starts to counterattack", Ives smiled slightly, his eyes full of mockery: "After all, he is only 18 years old. He can't keep his composure in the face of such a big battle."
Reminded by Lieutenant General Ivis, the congressmen naturally thought of what had been said before, that Charles had no experience in commanding large troops in frontal combat.
The members of parliament nodded in agreement:
"How can we counterattack at this time? Shouldn't we organize a defense?"
"The negotiating condition of the frontline soldiers is defense, but Charles actually did the opposite. This may cause the soldiers to mutiny again."
"The Germans can kill or injure 100,000 British soldiers in one day in defense, and we can do the same. God, Charles missed a great opportunity and chose to go all out!"
…
Gallieni never believed that Charles would launch a rash counterattack at this time, let alone a desperate gamble. If so, it would be a prepared counterattack.
He stood up and shouted to the audience: "Why don't we give Charles some time? Things may not be what you think..."
But this voice was quickly drowned out by the opposition of the parliamentarians:
"We don't have time, Your Excellency. The army, which is already in chaos, might collapse completely."
"This is clearly a mistake. We should stop Ciel's actions immediately."
"Yes, we should give the command to General Haig and let him command the battle on the front line!"
Wells and Steed looked at each other in the audience and smiled.
They knew that Charles was prepared, and very well prepared, although they didn't know what Charles' specific plan was!
…
On the south bank of the Somme, Charles' counterattack was officially launched.
Charles made some preparations in the past few days. He secretly transferred a regiment of rocket artillery under Tijani to the Somme River.
There are only artillery, no rocket launchers.
Charles feared that a large-scale mobilization would make the Germans suspicious and cause them to abandon their attack on the Somme.
On the other hand, Charles transferred a batch of landing craft and amphibious landing ships from Wales.
Among them, 12 landing craft were modified, each equipped with 10 rocket launchers, and the other 12 were large landing craft, each of which could carry a "Char A1" tank.
…
At the Palais Bourbon in Paris, Lieutenant General Avis asked his assistant to project a map of the Somme River onto the screen behind the podium, and confidently held the baton and gave instructions:
"The German fortifications on the Somme were so tight that they could be described as impeccable."
"There is a reason why the British and French troops suffered so many casualties in the Somme. It was not a tactical issue, but was purely caused by the battlefield environment."
"I mean, even if Charles was organizing the counterattack on the Somme, it wouldn't change at all just because the person in charge was Charles!"
…
Headquarters of the 1st Special Artillery Division on the south bank of the Somme.
Charles pointed to the Somme River on the map and said to Christine, who was in charge of the main attack: "Everyone has overlooked one point. The Somme River runs straight into the rear of the German army from west to east!"
Christine's eyes lit up. Yes, we can use the Somme River to make an infiltration, and a quick infiltration. Why didn't I think of this?
But he frowned immediately:
"General, isn't this too dangerous?"
"The Germans have artillery on both the south and north banks. If they discover us..."
At that time, all the artillery fire would create a barrage of bullets on the Somme River in the form of crossfire, and the troops interspersed along the river would be blown into the sky in an instant.
But Charles calmly replied: "We can wait for the Germans to attack."
Christine was stunned, and then suddenly realized:
"The Germans would always prepare artillery fire before attacking, and usually before daybreak."
"The darkness and the sound of artillery will mask the sounds of the infiltrating troops."
Charles added: "It will also expose the position of their artillery!"
Christine's face lit up instantly: "That's right, General! While the enemy artillery is still firing at our defense line, they don't know that our troops have already landed beside them. We can defeat the enemy artillery in the first place!"
…
At the Palais Bourbon in Paris, Lieutenant General Avis began his performance.
He put on a look of deep sorrow and sighed at the map on the screen:
"It's not hard to imagine that this will be another massacre."
"What's worse is that it's still dark, which is very disadvantageous for the attacking side."
"The Germans only need to fire a few flares to kill a large number of our soldiers who are crossing the mud, shell holes and barbed wire!"
The members of parliament were filled with indignation and denounced Charles' irresponsible behavior:
"This is pure murder, he didn't know what he was doing."
"He will kill us. We can't let him continue to make mistakes like this."
"We should do something, otherwise it will be too late!"
…
South bank of the Somme.
When the German army launched artillery preparation at five in the morning, the French interspersed troops that had been hiding on the shore began to act at the same time.
They pushed the landing craft down the river along the prepared channel, and guided the tanks onto the boats in an orderly manner along the landing board.
The bearded man was commanding the ship's operations.
Originally, this task should have been done by Tijani, after all, he had naval knowledge and had commanded landing operations.
But Tijani needed to be in Namur, and it was too obvious that Charles had transferred him here, which clearly told the Germans that he was preparing for the Somme.
So Charles could only look for it among the troops.
I didn't expect that when I checked the information, I found that there were quite a few soldiers from the navy, and Bearded Man was one of them.
What surprised Charles even more was that the bearded man actually called himself Darlan.
Darlan?
Future Admiral of the Navy?
And he was one of the representatives of the mutiny?
(The above picture shows François Darlan, the Navy Marshal, the Commander-in-Chief of the Vichy Government's Navy, Acting Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Navy, and Minister of the Interior. He was the second-in-command of the Vichy Government, second only to Pétain. During World War I, he was a naval artillery major and was sent to Verdun to fight as an army artillery. As a naval marshal, his actual combat experience was only in land artillery battles.)
Perhaps Nivelle had transferred the troops that were supposed to be used at Verdun to the Somme, Charles thought, and that was why Darlan appeared on the Somme.
"But." Charles looked at the unkempt future "Admiral" in front of him and said, "Why would you..."
"Become a representative of mutiny?" Darlan continued Charles' words.
"Yes." Charles nodded. As he would become the "Admiral of the Navy" in the future, he should be of noble birth. It was strange for him to become the representative of mutiny.
"Because I thought I was going to die, General." Darlan answered seriously: "Like everyone else, I don't want to die in vain!"
Then he looked at Ciel with gratitude: "But fortunately, this did not happen."
Ciel nodded in understanding. "So, what if it makes sense? I mean, you might die in this battle!"
Darlan stood up and said, "I believe in you, General. Give the order! I will prove my courage with my actions!"
(End of this chapter)
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