Chapter 929: The Beginning of a Disaster
Chapter 911 – The Beginning of the Disaster
Booming artillery fire rang out, and the French troops that had just arrived at the front line were taught a lesson by the Antifa alliance with their artillery.
A shell that fell from the sky landed less than a hundred meters from the French frontline command, and a wave of shrapnel that flew in all directions took away three officers who had come to the meeting.
Among them was Major General Anduin Urien, the commander of the French 9th Division, which was the highest ranked officer killed in the French army since the war broke out.
Receiving this terrible news, Admiral Udino, who had managed to snatch the enemy’s front commander, had a horribly gloomy face.
“Colonel Rick, send someone to reconnoiter the enemy’s artillery deployment, we must figure out the enemy’s artillery shells, why can they hit here?”
Udino is also a veteran general on the battlefield, the choice of the command headquarters is also spent, it is impossible to put the command headquarters under the enemy’s artillery to die.
Whether it was an accident, or some other reason, now they had to move again. Otherwise, during the meeting, when an enemy shell fell, the French command system would be scrapped.
Colonel Rick replied affirmatively, ”Admiral, there is no need to reconnoiter, I have personally verified the results of the previous reconnaissance, it is impossible for the enemy to make large-scale adjustments in a short period of time.
From the sound and the power of the shells, I can tell that this is not an Army field gun.
This is not far from the Rhine River, and it should be that the enemy is using the navy as a mobile battery.”
The flow of the Rhine was not small, and small warships were already navigable. And the navies of Belgium and the German Confederation happened to be pocket-sized versions.
Impotent against the French navy, they could do nothing but hide in their harbors and shiver. Now that the war required it, it was only logical to transfer some of them into the Rhine.
Even if the big warships can’t get in, they can still remove their guns and use them as fortress guns first. It was a matter of life and death, and no one cared about whether it was a waste of money or not.
The range and power of naval artillery is not comparable to that of army field guns. Airships scouting at high altitude, there is no way to distinguish so carefully, range estimation error is also very normal.
Admiral Udino cursed, ”Damn it, send power to the rear, tell them to hurry up and bring the heavy artillery over!
One by one, don’t stand around, pack up immediately and move the command one kilometer back, not three kilometers back.”
There was no way around it, the French were again breaking through too fast, the heavy artillery units couldn’t keep up and were left behind.
With only a few field guns carried by the forward troops, they were not even in the same league as the anti-French allied forces in terms of firepower.
In a panic, Admiral Udino pulled his command back three kilometers to make sure he was free from the threat of enemy artillery before continuing the unfinished military conference from earlier.
No matter what, the battle was still to be fought. Even if the enemy’s naval guns had been ignored earlier, the French were still going to attack.
Now there was a need to grab time, and according to the information coming from the spies, on average, one Austrian infantry division arrived at the front every day.
At this rate, it would not take long for the contrast in strength between the two sides to be reversed.
In the evening, the French command headquarters in the bright lights, Udineau admiral forced to hold back the grief and said: “Major General Anduin Urien died heroically, now I appoint Colonel Fuxi to take over his work, temporarily acting as the commander of the ninth division.
The afternoon military meeting will continue next. Now that the situation on the battlefield has changed, we must take into account the enemy’s superior firepower, and the original battle plan is out of date.”
Changing the battle plan?
That was a joke, no one else knew what the so-called battle plan was except for Admiral Udino himself.
In fact, Admiral Udineau himself may not even have a battle plan. The battlefield is ever-changing, and it is irresponsible to make a battle plan without knowing anything about it.
Generally speaking, everyone’s battle plans were made while fighting. Those made in advance were strategic plans, not tactical plans.
Unfortunately, the French army’s chain of command wasn’t that advanced. The so-called strategic plans were usually made by the commander’s head.
“Admiral, there’s no need to be so troublesome. The artillery doesn’t have the means to suppress the enemy’s firepower, we can still send out the airship unit.
As long as the enemy’s artillery positions are exposed, I’ll go over and bombard them and see who wears out who.”
The proposal was made by a middle-aged officer, a staunch advocate of the airship faction in the French army, a result of Franz’s butterfly effect.
Ever since the Austrian airships had galloped through the Ottoman Empire, air control had come out ahead of schedule, except that the idea was still imperfect.
Currently everyone pushed: the use of airship bombing to destroy enemy positions, fortresses, to create advantages for the ground forces to attack.
Udino nodded: “Not a bad suggestion, once the special ammunition for the airship units arrives, send them out to show the enemy some color.”
War is the biggest catalyst for the advancement of military science and technology, in the last decade or so when airships were utilized in the military, the European continent had already experienced several wars.
To this day, airship units had become an important part of the land forces of various countries. Certain countries were even prepared to divest their airship units and form a separate military branch.
Since the airship unit was so important, ammunition specialized for airship bombing use naturally came into being.
……
On November 11, 1890, at the command of Admiral Udineau, the French army launched a full-scale attack on the Antifa against the threat of artillery fire.
The charge horn sounded and the gallant French troops loaded their bayonets and charged the Allied positions in front of them.
500 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters …… Suddenly at one hundred and fifty meters, a fire snake erupted.
The intertwined machine gun fire brought heavy casualties to the French troops as soon as it appeared, and many of them fell in response without reacting.
The mechanical system of command came into play at this time. The horn of the charge continued, and the soldiers were left with no choice but to charge forward.
Machine guns are familiar to everyone, but the French were familiar with the bulky Gatling, not the lightweight and flexible Maxim.
Misperception made the French high command underestimate the killing power of the machine gun.
Seeing the words “heavy casualties”, Admiral Udino sneered: “These guys are a disgrace to France.
If possible, I don’t mind sending them all to the court martial. What’s wrong with learning from the timid Italians, do you really think I’m a fool?
Pass the word down. Give me an all-out attack at all costs. Have the inspectors go to the front line and keep an eye on them, and anyone who swindles will have no dinner tonight.”
There was no way around it; the Italians were already notorious. Along with the large number of Italians enlisted in the French army, the widely circulated manual for saving lives on the battlefield was also circulated in the French army.
Purely French troops were fine, certain troops mixed with Italians had already caught the vice of fear of death.
In the battle ahead, Admiral Udino had seen with his own eyes, a unit charging in the daytime, countless officers and soldiers fell heroically under the enemy’s guns, for which he left tears of emotion.
However, it was these gallant fellows who had swindled and resurrected when the commander ordered the troops to close up.
From then on, Admiral Udino had a new understanding of the words “heavy casualties”.
“Yes!”
The voice of the messenger rang out.
No one knew what kind of disaster would be brought to the French army on the front line accompanying this order, and at this time everyone was still thinking freely about tearing through the allied defense.
……
The army was not the only one in trouble, the French airship unit that had just appeared over the Austrian army also encountered the biggest enemy of their lives at this time.
After dropping a bomb downward on the blimp, Howardson suddenly exclaimed, “Tom, look what kind of bird is that in front of you, why does it look so weird?”
Tom, who was maneuvering the machine gun, was no better than him at this time, and looked ahead with the same dumbfounded expression.
After flying in the sky for a long time, they are also considered to have seen a lot, can’t say all, anyway, most of the birds in Europe they have seen.
The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, already able to roughly see the outline of the airplane, a young man suddenly reacted, “It seems to be the airplane that was mentioned in the newspaper.”
By this time, bullets were already whizzing in. Those who were even more hindsighted knew that this was the enemy coming.
Tom, as the machine gunner, was instantly energized. After waiting for so long, it was finally his turn to shine.
However, an embarrassing scene appeared. Compared to the airship, which was a big guy, the enemy’s airplane was just too flexible, so much so that there was no way for him to aim at it.
There was no way, the French airships were equipped with big killers like Gatling. The power was enough, the rest was tragic.
Faced with running to their head airplane, holding the machine gun Tom, completely do not know what to do.
This headache, did not make him tangled for a long time, it was accompanied by the fall of the blimp and ended.
After realizing that something was wrong, panic spread through the French airship force, but unfortunately it was too late to run at this time.
Like a meteor shower, one French airship kept falling down. The French and Austrian officers and soldiers who witnessed this scene knew that an era had come to an end.
A new king was crowned and the old king fell. The French airship troops used their lives to draw a blood-red period for the end of the airship era.
(End of chapter)