The three battlefields of the Eastern Front, the Western Front, and the Isonzo River are interrelated, and changes in any one battlefield will trigger a chain reaction.

Specifically, the Eastern Front was divided into the northern front of the confrontation between the Russian Empire and Germany, and the southern front of the confrontation between the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary.

The Western Front was also divided into Verdun, which was dominated by the French army, and the Somme, which was dominated by the British army.

The battle on the Isonzo River would continue, and the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary could not afford to open a new battlefield until victory was decided.

The calm of the Balkans was strange, and after the joint victory of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary over the Kingdom of Serbia, the results of the war in the direction of the Balkans were not expanded.

The territory of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans was divided between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, and after the fall of the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Italy and the Russian Empire were unable to open up new battlefields, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary did not dare to attack the Balkans.

If the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary had driven out the troops of the Kingdom of Italy and the Russian Empire, which were entrenched in the Balkans, then it would have to be confronted with the Mediterranean expeditionary force occupying the peninsula of Asia Minor, and guess what would happen then—

Roque didn't expect the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force to be so deterrent, and it is no wonder that Haig is obsessed with the troops in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force who can fight well.

Also in mid-May, the British War Office secretly sent a new weapon to France in preparation for the upcoming Battle of the Somme.

This new weapon is the legendary "special mobile tank" to be sent to Russia, and it has many alternate names, including: Land Cruiser, Water Tank, Water Tower.

Before the outbreak of the World War, Roark had been selling tanks made by the Nyasaland Military-Industrial Group to Winston.

However, the price of Nyasaland tanks was too expensive, and for the British Army, which lacked funds, tanks were obviously not as economical as rifles, but a series of military weapons produced in southern Africa were really useful, so under the leadership of the War Department, Britain began difficult research on tanks.

Compared to the Ranger in Nyasaland, the British tank was an absolute behemoth, measuring 30 feet long, eight feet wide and eight feet high, with a crew of eight people, armed with two Hotchkiss Navy six-pounder (57 mm) rapid-fire guns, and four vehicle-mounted large-caliber heavy machine guns from Nyasaland, weighing a staggering 28 tons.

Taking into account the level of the engine at this time, the "tank", weighing up to 28 tons, could also squirm forward only at a speed of four kilometers per hour under the most ideal conditions.

The wonder of the British is undoubtedly revealed in the design of the tank, the British tank is actually divided into two types of male and female, the male tank is the kind just stated, and the magnetic tank changed the rapid-fire gun to a heavy machine gun, which is probably inspired by the armored vehicles in Nyasaland.

Armored vehicles in Nyasaland are partly equipped with on-board large-caliber heavy machine guns, and partly with 40-mm grenade launchers to adapt to the needs of different situations.

Compared with the "Rangers" in Nyasaland, which had accumulated thousands of units, the British "Water Tank" has so far produced only 49 units, and in the process of reaching the front, 31 units have suffered various degrees of failure, and in the end only 18 tanks have participated in the battle.

Roque can only cry out in vain after knowing this situation, the stubborn British are more stubborn than the stones in the pit, the "water tank" developed by the British, the cost is higher than the tanks in Nyasaland, and now it is estimated that the British are also difficult to ride tigers, they always have to be hit on the head in front of reality, and then learn to change.

In any case, the wheels of history did not shift by the will of individuals, and the Battle of the Somme broke out as expected.

Before committing to the ground attack, Haig ordered artillery to carry out a five-day artillery bombardment of the German positions in front of the Somme, Haig had 1,500 cannons in his hands at this time, and on the 18-mile-long British Expeditionary Force front, an average of one artillery per 17 yards participated in the battle, and the day after the shelling began, it also began to rain on the Somme, and the heavy rain was three days at a time, and no one knew how long it would last, so the shelling was forced to be suspended, and it was carried out again three days later.

The artillery of the expeditionary force fired 1,500,000 shells at the German positions, and by the time the infantry units were put into the attack, it was already the 7th of June, and the artillery bombardment reached its climax on the morning of the attack, with a total of 200,000 shells fired, and a ton of shells fell for every square meter of the German positions.

Not surprisingly, there was more than one batch of shells in question, a considerable number of shells did not explode, some estimates that at least a third of the shells were duds, and most of the shells that exploded normally were shrapnel shells, which could not penetrate German bunkers, and the post-war investigation report said that the Irish were to blame, because the Irish in Dublin held an Easter uprising in April, and it took a week for the British government to suppress the uprising.

This conclusion was unacceptable to the Irish, but it was a relief for both Roque and Winston, who were not responsible for the report.

Because of the strong opposition of the Anzac, the British Fourth Army, which served as the main force of the attack, was commanded by Henry Rawlinson, who had been fighting in France since the outbreak of the World War, and he was inspired by the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the German army, and had his own understanding of infantry and artillery coordination.

In Henry Rawlinson's vision, infantry and artillery coordination should be carried out in a perfect way, rather than the chaotic offensive line of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, before the Battle of the Somme was launched, Henry Rawlinson organized the troops to practice the formation, in Henry Rawlinson's order, the attacking British troops should be lined up in a neat formation, and the distance between the soldiers should be as close as possible, because this will give the soldiers enough security, the soldiers of the Fourth Army are all recruits who have just been drafted after the outbreak of the world war, They had not yet adapted to the battlefield environment in France.

In addition to the soldiers being as close as possible to each other, Henry Rawlinson demanded that the attacking troops set out at a uniform pace, that the ranks should be kept at an equal distance, that "the attack should be like a wave, wave after wave, and that the speed of the troops should be a hundred yards every two minutes, neither fast nor slow, following behind the barrage formed by the shells, so as to create continuous pressure on the Germans."

It is difficult to say whether the offensive of the Fourth Army brought enough pressure to the Germans, but it gave the German machine gunners enough opportunities.

Because too many shells did not explode, there were almost no losses from the machine guns on the German positions, and the barbed wire fence in front of the positions was not even completely destroyed.

Before the Fourth Army launched its attack, the observers took note of the situation and issued a warning to the command, but Henry Rawlinson ignored it, and Haig did some work in the past few months, ordering his troops to dig 11 tunnels under the German positions in an attempt to replicate the advantages of the British Expeditionary Force in the new autumn offensive, and the 700 miles of telephone lines laid by the British Expeditionary Force before the war were buried in the ground to prevent damage from the shelling, which did play a role. However, once the line is interrupted, it also brings great difficulties to the communication troops who braved the artillery fire to repair the telephone line.

In addition to telephone lines, the British Expeditionary Force laid 120 miles of water pipes to provide enough water to the front-line troops, and 400 planes were deployed to the airfield, forming 20 air wings, most of which came from the British mainland, the last trust Kitchener gave Haig.

In Kitchener's previous agreement with Roque, the southern African pilots were only used for home defense and did not participate in the French war, and the War Department had to train a lot of pilots in order to support the French, and these pilots were all truck drivers, who had some basic knowledge of driving, and were more likely to become pilots than those who were inexperienced.

At 7:20 a.m. on June 7, Haig ordered the detonation of explosives planted beneath the multifaceted fort at Hawthorn Ridge, and the violent explosion caused the water of the Somme to boil, and the stones on the ground flew 100 feet high, and a mountain of smoke appeared at the site of the explosion.

Contrary to Haig's expectations, neither the five-day shelling nor the pre-planted explosives had any effect they should have.

The quality of the shells was problematic on the one hand, and the strong fortifications built by the Germans before the war were another.

The German positions on the Somme River on the other side of the British Expeditionary Force consisted of three trenches, the width of the entire defensive line was more than five kilometers, and below the positions, the Germans built an underground city up to 30 feet deep, consisting of a series of reinforced concrete caves and corridors, with electric lights, running water, and ventilation systems, which would not be harmed at all unless they were directly hit by large-caliber shells.

The Germans were so well positioned that even if a small section was occupied by British troops, the Germans were able to seal off the "underground city" and use phosgene to kill the British who invaded the bunker.

Phosgene is the latest research and development of the German army, replacing chlorine gas as the poison gas used by the German army.

After a violent explosion, the officers and men of the British Fourth Army left their starting positions and, according to Henry Rawlinson's request, lined up in a neat and dense formation, and attacked the German positions at a uniform speed of one hundred yards every two minutes.

It was not at all like an attack, it seemed more appropriate to describe it as a parade, the attacking British troops thought that no one would survive the intensity of the shelling and bombardment, they did not realize what was about to happen, and a British officer told his men: you don't need to carry rifles, just bring walking sticks, and when you get to the German position, you will not find any living creatures, not even a live mouse.

The first day of the attack resulted in 60,000 British casualties, of which 20,000 were wounded, making it the darkest day in British history.

(The real 818 chapter is here, brothers, don't dislike it-)