Chapter 1441: All is Silence (Second update, please subscribe)
When tens of thousands of British soldiers jumped out of the trenches to attack, observation balloons in the rear of the Ming army discovered their movements.
When the British launched an artillery attack, the soldiers retreated into the anti-artillery caves again. It was not until the British and German artillery bombardment extended to the rear that they occupied the surface positions again. The soldiers who came out in full force only then moved all the heavy machine guns to the positions.
After the machine gunners entered the firing position in front of the trench, they immediately pointed the black muzzles of their guns at the open area in front of the position.
"Keep in formation!"
"Keep in formation!"
In the empty no-man's land, British officers kept shouting to maintain the formation of the infantry columns.
The British, who had experienced the test of the Boer War, did not line up in neat rows like in the Boer War, but they still adopted the large skirmish line used in the Boer War. More than 60,000 British troops launched an attack in such a swaggering manner!
In fact, the British were conceited. They believed that it would be difficult for the Ming people to survive under twelve hours of fierce artillery fire.
Moreover, they used poison gas.
Millions of artillery shells, plus a large amount of poison gas!
When the two are combined, not to mention humans, even the rats in the field will be poisoned to death. It is simply a guarantee of victory!
Naturally, there will be no worries!
The British even said that they were deployed in a skirmish line, but their formation was not much different from that during the Napoleonic Wars. 60,000 British troops marched in a formation that was neither loose nor square and launched an attack in a swaggering manner.
In fact, the British could not be said to be conceited. At least on the surface, the barbed wire on the Ming army's position was almost destroyed, and the wooden beams that constructed the barbed wire were either blown off or blown into the sky. However, the British obviously forgot one thing. Even if the wooden beams of the wire were blown off, the wire still existed and would still hinder their attack.
"Quick, quick, the English are coming up, the English are coming up..."
In the trench, Wang Youyu, waving a pistol, shouted at the soldiers, but his voice was not very loud because of the gas mask.
But at this time his shouting was not needed, only some actions were needed. Under the shouting and leadership of the officers, the soldiers quickly entered the trenches.
Although poison gas is deadly, it also provides them with cover - although there are rumbling sounds of artillery fire all around, under the cover of poison gas, it is almost like blind artillery fire and has no accuracy, and it did not cause much harm to the soldiers.
Although the soldiers were wearing gas masks, when they rushed to the trenches that had been bombed to pieces, while they were enduring the enemy's artillery fire, in the green poisonous fog, the sound of Scottish bagpipes could be heard faintly. Hearing the unusual bagpipe sounds on the battlefield, the soldiers in the trenches looked up and were stunned by the scene in front of them.
Through the already thinning poisonous fog, they could clearly see countless British soldiers walking towards them in long lines in the open area that was unobstructed and looked like the surface of the moon. Their steps were slow and seemed a little heavy.
"Keep in formation!"
Holding his rifle, Sergeant Doug kept shouting orders.
"Keep in formation!"
Following the orders of officers and sergeants, the skirmish line became more and more orderly. If it were placed in the Napoleonic era, such a skirmish line would absolutely be admirable. After all, many of these people were new recruits. The fact that they could line up in such a formation was itself unusual and of course it was also proof of their well-trainedness.
The reason for their slow pace was that they were carrying heavy baggage. In addition to 200 rounds of ammunition and two grenades, many soldiers also carried field telephones, pickaxes, shovels, wire cutters, and even boxes for carrier pigeons. Most people carried more than 30 kilograms, and some even carried more than 50 kilograms.
These British soldiers, carrying too much supplies and being driven onto the battlefield like donkeys, advanced step by step on the battlefield with heavy steps.
Driven by the dream of being a hero and the fantasy of going home for Christmas, more than 60,000 British officers and soldiers, led by their officers, marched in skirmish lines on the battlefield. The British troops, shoulder to shoulder in neat formations, slowly advanced towards the Ming army's positions.
When they jumped out of the trenches, they did not suffer any attack. It seemed that the Ming people and the French had really been wiped out. Their enemies had long been blown into the sky by fierce artillery fire. Now, their task was just to clean up the battlefield!
But they never dreamed that in the poisonous fog that had not yet dissipated, while the soldiers entered the positions, the machine gunners carried their machine guns into the firing positions behind the trenches.
"call……"
Jiro Fujita was carrying the gun stand, breathing heavily, and sweat was dripping down his brown nose from the gas mask. Although the Type 23 tripod of the 10-year machine gun weighed only 20 kilograms, it was not an easy task to carry the tripod and crouch down to enter the machine gun firing position.
It can even be said that it is a challenge to human physical fitness, but all machine gunners know that compared with the old tripod, the Type 23 tripod has extremely excellent performance. It is equipped with a spring-loaded recoil shock absorber, a special fire control device and an optical sight mount, and has some special functions, such as direct aiming and shooting through a telescopic sight, or allowing the shooter to hide under the cover for indirect aiming and shooting through a periscope-type sight. During continuous shooting, the gun mount will hardly vibrate under the action of the recoil shock absorber, and there is no recoil that will affect the shooter's observation of the target.
It is also for this reason that the high-performance Type 23 tripod quickly replaced the old gun mount.
"Hurry up! Fujita, hurry up..."
At the urging of the team leader, Fujita carried the gun rack into the firing point and quickly unfolded it. The machine gunner directly fixed the machine gun on the gun rack.
“Clatter…”
As soon as the machine gun was set up, the ammunition handler pulled out a canvas belt and quickly fastened it amid the sound of bullets hitting it.
“Kada!”
The moment the bolt is released, the bullet is loaded!
Just as the machine gunner was loading his machine gun, Fujita observed his position. Like all machine gun positions, although his position was two hundred meters away from the first-line trench, it could form a vertical fire to the front, forming a perfect cross fire with other machine gun positions.
Crossfire!
This is the most deadly firepower network! It is a tactic developed by the Imperial Army's machine gun tactics experts over a period of more than ten years and using up tens of millions of rounds of ammunition.
When the machine gunners entered the position, the artillery observers in the front observation post and the rear observation balloon had already marked the position of the British column on the map, and informed the artillery company in the rear by phone that in the past two months, in the repeated attempts to block the enemy's artillery bombardment, the Imperial artillery had already completed the test firing of the coordinates of the frontline positions. Now they only needed to follow the coordinates to deliver fierce and accurate artillery fire to the British.
The attacking British troops also wore gas masks. This was nothing new. After all, poison gas had been used on the battlefield for nearly twenty years.
Sergeant Doug, carrying a heavy backpack and walking slowly, was breathing heavily from time to time. The glass lens of the gas mask was fogged by sweat and he was breathing heavily. The sergeant saw some dead birds on the ground. The poison gas not only kills people, but also animals.
At this moment, the battlefield was extremely silent, without the chirping of birds or the gnawing of rats. The deadly poison gas killed the rats underground and the birds in the sky. Now all they could hear was the footsteps of their own people.
For some reason, the sergeant's heart suddenly surged with inexplicable emotions. He felt as if his heart was being gripped by something, and he even felt like he couldn't breathe.
I must be too nervous!
Doug comforted himself like this.
Finally, through the fading poison gas, Doug and other soldiers could clearly see the Ming army's position.
The front of the tattered position was littered with shattered barbed wire, but the messy barbed wire still blocked their progress.
At this moment, Doug saw a row of steel helmets suddenly appearing behind the trenches that were blown beyond recognition. They were Ming people!
Go ahead and kill them all!
Kill them all, take their positions, and end this damn war.
The moment this thought came into his mind, a sudden strong wind swept across the earth!
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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