Chapter 1432: Count Schlieffen’s Failure (Third update, please subscribe)
The whistling sound of shrapnel, like the scream of death, echoed in the smoke. The entire earth was shrouded in smoke. In the suffocating smoke, desperate screams were heard everywhere.
The desperate and miserable screams will come to an abrupt end with the next round of explosions. In the end, it seems that only the continuous sound of explosions remains between heaven and earth.
Death hangs over the earth and everything between heaven and earth!
From the afternoon of May 3, the god of death shrouded the French land. The airship troops launched several silent attacks on the marching German-British coalition forces. The saturation carpet bombing was almost devastating to the army that was on the march and had no preparation.
And what did the German troops feel?
It's death!
die!
This is a death march!
Erich von Ludendorff, who rolled into the field during the bombing, saw the regiment commander twitching on the ground. The shrapnel broke his artery and blood spurted out of his throat like mist. He covered his neck with his hands. The regiment commander, whose whole body was twitching, died soon after.
This scene completely overturned Ludendorff's imagination of the war. He was appreciated by Schlieffen when he entered the General Staff and participated in the revision of the Schlieffen Plan. It was even he who proposed the operational plan to undermine the neutrality of Belgium, outflank France and defeat it in one fell swoop.
In Ludendorff's view, if you want to win the war, you have to use any means necessary.
After the outbreak of the war, he was sent down to "gild himself". In Ludendorff's view, this was a war that was destined to be won, and everyone would gain their own military merits from this war.
But what about now?
“Boom! Boom!”
The explosion broke Ludendorff's train of thought. He saw a group of running soldiers suddenly engulfed by flames and smoke, and then they disappeared just like that...
An ammunition truck parked on the road was detonated by a bomb. In the violent explosion, flames shot up into the sky. In the burning flames, there were continuous explosions like firecrackers. The ignited bullets flew in all directions...
bombing!
After the intensive bombing ended, the airships in the sky lowered their altitude once again, and then they strafed the ground less than a kilometer above the ground. The rain of bullets from the sky knocked down large numbers of German soldiers to the ground. For those who were lucky enough to survive the bombing, the large-caliber bullets could even tear those unlucky guys in half after hitting their bodies.
But in just a short while, the earth was completely transformed into a veritable slaughterhouse. Airships in the sky continuously dropped small bombs. Compared with heavy aerial bombs, these small bombs weighing only 1 to 2 kilograms not only had a large killing radius and could produce a large number of fragments, but also because of their large number, they were enough to form a covering bombing effect.
In the saturation bombing, hundreds of thousands of small bombs, like hundreds of thousands of artillery shells falling one after another, blew the German troops exposed in the wild into pieces.
One hour!
The bombing lasted for a full hour!
After the bombing, there were corpses everywhere and wounded people struggling and crying among the corpses.
Looking at this scene, Ludendorff felt a sense of despair for the first time.
…
How many people died?
How many people died in the bombing?
Ludendorff didn't know, and he didn't even care about it at all. To him, it was not important.
When there were no injured soldiers to drag the wounded out and help treat the wounded, Ludendorff had only one thought in his mind - what to do now?
Looking at the receding airship, Ludendorff kept talking to himself.
"What now, what now?"
The broken limbs and arms seen everywhere seemed to remind Ludendorff that it was impossible for them to reach the designated location as scheduled under the French bombing.
"If we don't arrive on time, then we will most likely fail..."
When this thought came to Ludendorff's mind, on a train in a forest only tens of kilometers away from the border, Count Schlieffen received a telegram from the front line and immediately screamed in surprise.
"how so?"
Then, as if he had figured it out, he talked to himself.
"Well, that should be it..."
The reason why Count Schlieffen had such a reaction was very simple. As early as during the "Battle of Brazil", the legion led by Prince Gaston of Brazil had lost more than 25% of its troops in the bombing. That mighty army was completely destroyed before it even reached the front line.
It was from that time that air defense became a must-consider issue in the army's combat plan. In the combat plan formulated by Count Schlieffen, Germany needed to deploy more than 180 combat airships for field air defense, and each German division had a balloon artillery company.
At least, according to previous exercises, with such a strong air defense force, they don't have to worry about air threats.
But now... everything has changed because of the advent of airplanes.
"Count, the airplanes, the Ming airplanes turned our airships into targets. As soon as our airships take off, they will be destroyed. Therefore, the troops have no air cover at all during the march. As for anti-aircraft guns, it is difficult for them to be deployed during the march..."
This is the technological gap!
Count Schlieffen sighed helplessly, and now he seemed to realize that his plan had failed.
How did it fail?
It was definitely not a tactical failure, even until now, Count Schlieffen believed that his plan was perfect.
What caused the operation to fail?
It's technological backwardness!
"If we had tens of thousands of trucks and airplanes, perhaps the outcome of this battle would be completely different."
Why did Count Schlieffen utter such a long sigh?
This is because Germany did not have enough trucks for the army to march quickly, and the army's speed could not meet the tactical needs, so his plan could only rely on trains and soldiers' legs, and most of the time, only on their legs.
As for airplanes...the emergence of airplanes has also changed too many things.
Although he was very upset, Count Schlieffen knew that now was not the time to regret. Since the war had already broken out, all that remained was to fight the war to the end until victory.
"The Fifth Army..."
After thinking for a while, Count Schlieffen realized that he had lost the initiative and said.
"Order the Fifth Army to retreat! Retreat to the Verdun line, where we still have a chance to regroup. The British are sending out their troops, and we still have a chance..."
While saying this, Count Schlieffen did not even notice that he was repeatedly emphasizing the British, as if he was trying to convince himself.
In fact, deep down in his heart he knew very well that once he lost the initiative in the war, many uncertainties would arise.
In war, the chance of victory may be fleeting. Once you miss it, when will the next chance come?
No one can explain the reason, but the most important thing at this time is to preserve strength and not make unnecessary sacrifices!
The old group is down, so I created a new book club group: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
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