Chapter 965: Depressed Frederick

  Chapter 946 The Depressed Frederick

The roaring sound of artillery fire, the rotating sound of the clip engine, and from time to time the screams of the soldiers, together played a march of hell.

French command, looking at the increasing casualty reports, the knowledgeable Marshal Patrice McMahon could not help but tremble.

After organizing his thoughts, McMahon forced himself to calm down. He knew he couldn’t panic now, if he couldn’t respond calmly, France would be finished.

As one of the founders of the Second French Empire, McMahon’s feelings for this country even exceeded his own life.

“You all know what happened at the front line. The priority now is to find a way to deal with the enemy’s armored forces, only by solving them will the great France have a future.

From now on, the fate of the Empire is in our hands. Behind us is the homeland, and now we have no way back.

If we don’t want the war to reach our homeland, if we don’t want to see our wives and children uprooted, then let’s keep the enemy out of our country!

Time is running out. The international situation is getting worse and worse. There’s not much time left for France. You are all the elite of the French army, the responsibility of dealing with the enemy’s armored forces now falls to you.”

Not to obey the old can not, the cruel reality to McMahon deeply taught a lesson. In today’s rapidly changing military technology, traditional tactics and methods of warfare have been swept into the garbage, more and more unable to keep up with the times.

For example, this just came out of the Austrian armored forces, McMahon used to deal with the cavalry method of warfare, the results are naturally disastrous.

Against the cavalry, shooting people, shooting horses can be; meet the armored tanks, ordinary bullets can only give them tickle, can not talk about what threat.

Previous experience was unreliable, and McMahon had to brainstorm for countermeasures.

“Marshal, after these few days of encounters, we have found that the enemy’s armored units are not afraid of bullet fire, and that artillery must be used to destroy them.

Ordinary artillery has too low a hit rate because of the elevation angle, so it’s best to specialize in producing an artillery piece that can fire flat.

In addition to destruction by force, tunnels and mountains were able to block the advance of enemy armor. Generally speaking the worse the road, the more it can delay the enemy’s armored forces from moving.”

To be precise, this should be considered battlefield experience rather than a response. On the surface it all seemed fine, but in reality it was not feasible at all.

Soldiers were quick on the battlefield, and without waiting for the country to get the flat-fire artillery out of the way, the war would more than likely already be over.

The mountains are the work of nature, not subject to change by human will, and the French army is not likely to withdraw its main force to the mountains.

Digging tunnels and destroying roads seemed to be the most effective response, but in reality the biggest problem was that they couldn’t dig over.

The French expelled most of the population of Belgium and the Rhineland, and the rest were either Belgian or German traitors, and the Allies were completely free to do it, and the roads were destroyed, so it would be better to take the farmland through.

Not sure about other areas, anyway, the coastal Flanders Plain, armored troops can pass right through. The French couldn’t have dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches out in no time, no matter how hard they tried.

Even if they had dug them, it would have been useless. Along with the armored troops were infantry, which could be sent up to fill them in entirely.

Of course, stalling could still be done. Only it wasn’t what the French wanted, there was no way to win the war just by delaying.

Especially built on the premise that Russia, West, and Switzerland could send troops into the war at any time, the French wouldn’t dare to stall for time.

“Is there any other way? These measures alone are not enough to turn the tide for us.”

McMahon asked with a frown. Right now he only had victory in his eyes, as long as he could win this meeting, everything else was fine.

The middle-aged officer added, “The enemy’s armored units are divided into two categories, one is a slow, high defense special pimple; the other is fast, but thin-skinned, like a layer of armor on the outside of a car.

The former must use artillery with a caliber of 120mm or more to be able to destroy it; the latter only needs light artillery of 60mm to be able to destroy it.”

Tanks were slow, heavy artillery moved equally slow, and neither was much better than the other, so naturally the hit rate could not be counted on.

Armored vehicles seem easy to destroy, but their own speed of movement is fast, the difficulty of aiming is very great. Aiming is difficult, the hit rate is of course touching.

……

After a series of comments that were all pretty much the same, and not getting a satisfactory answer, the aged McMahon waved his hand and said, “Try it according to your respective methods first, and see how it works out.”

If it is not forced by political pressure, McMahon really want to take a breath to withdraw the troops to the country and fight a home defense war.

However, this could only be thought about. If he really did so, the spittle of the people of the country would be able to kill him.

The French public will not allow the government to fail, especially in this kind of big war that concerns the fate of the country.

……

The battlefield in Central Europe was still struggling to hold on, but the battlefield in Southern Europe was a total loss. Influenced by the favorable international situation, the Italian national independence movement entered a new climax.

Not only did Vittorio Emanuele III come out every day to call on the Italian people to rebel against the tyranny of France, but the royal families of several other states, too, came out every now and then to brush their presence.

The Italian aristocrats and capitalists also sent their representatives to contact the Anti-French League to discuss the future of Italy.

It can be seen that everyone’s political sensitivity is still very high, and knowing that it is time to stand in line, they decisively leaned over.

Based on the principle that more allies are better, Austria naturally will not reject the defection of these groundlings.

After a group of more bandwagon party, the French in the Italian region of the good days are gone. Not only did they have to fight the Austrian army on the front line, but they also had to deal with the endless uprisings in the rear.

If it wasn’t for the geographical constraints that limited the full power of the armored forces, perhaps the Anti-French League would already be parading in Turin.

As a matter of fact, the Austrian army was not far from the Turin parade, and it was only in the last dozen kilometers that the French army was holding out.

Outside Turin, now is already artillery fire, looking at the distant rise of the rolling smoke, Crown Prince Frederick sighed.

Austria inherited the tradition of the German region, the martial spirit is strong, every soldier has a battlefield plot. Frederick, who grew up in this environment, naturally will not be an exception.

It took a lot of effort to barely convince his father to fish for a chance to go to the front. Regrettably no commander is bold enough to put the Crown Prince on the front line of battle.

Not to mention the horse leather, even in the event of a bump or bruise on the battlefield, it would be a political disaster.

In this context, whether Frederick wanted it or not, he became an honorable logistics officer, specializing in road maintenance from Milan to the Turin area.

Regardless of the front line to kill how feverish, Frederick can only watch from afar, the battlefield within twenty miles are his forbidden land.

For this reason, Frederick has not less protested to his superiors, but there is no way, soldiers to obey orders as a vocation, even as the Crown Prince can not be an exception.

Then, Frederick became the most special existence on the battlefield of the southern front, can be called the number one seed player of the gilded world, the main work is to organize the people to repair the road, transport supplies.

“Your Highness, a new batch of supplies has arrived and needs your signature.”

After saying that, the young officer took out a document and handed it over.

Frederick, who had returned to his senses, took the document and swept it roughly before slowly saying, “Wait a moment, I’ll go and check it before signing.”

According to the regulations of the Austrian army, during the transfer of supplies, the officer in charge has to check it, and once he signs it, he has to be responsible for it.

Of course, the inspection is also carried out by specialized personnel, it is impossible to let the person in charge of all personally, so much material is simply not a can be busy over.

It is impossible to check all the materials, but it is still possible to do random checks from time to time. However, whenever there is a problem with any material, it is necessary to fully pursue responsibility.

The safety of strategic materials is crucial, directly related to the victory or defeat of the war. Frederick’s work may seem insignificant, but in fact it is typical of the inferiority of the position.

Such personnel appointments were clearly intentional on the part of the commanders. Others can be bought, as the Crown Prince Frederick can not be bought.

Not only can not buy, but also must be careful to deal with. If something goes wrong, even the most powerful relations, here are useless.

Since Frederick’s rise to power, the bulls, snakes, ghosts and gods have to retreat, not long for the grave has grown grass. Not only their own bad luck, which also includes the backstage behind them is also followed by the end.

Now is the war years, the Vienna government on the messy reach guys are zero tolerance. Those who use the second best – kill, those who bleach and foam and embezzle – kill, those who sell supplies – kill ……

There was no such thing as a minor offense; if you committed it, you lost your head. In addition to these direct charges, there is also a charge of treason. Collusion with the French or not, these behaviors were there by default anyway.

After this kind of strong crackdown, those who dare to mess around with logistics are real outlaws, and the masters of large families are definitely not willing to risk their heads.

There are fewer problems, Frederick has seldom personally check, but now is not bored, naturally want to find something to do.

The new time adjustment, 11:00 p.m. not sent, are changed to the next morning.

(End of chapter)