When the Germans began to prepare for firepower, Roque was having breakfast, now Ypres, Roque had the highest rank, Frenzi had returned to Paris, and he, like Xia Fei, often went to the troops to make rounds, but rarely went to the front line.

Although Roque has a high rank, Roque does not have the right to command the Anglo-French forces, Smith Doring and Haig will not obey Roque's command, Foch will not follow Roque's orders, and the coalition forces are now just a noun and have not really united.

It's been almost a month, and the battle in Ypres is happening every day, and both the British and French forces and the Germans have a long period of fire preparation before launching an attack, and every morning in Ypres begins with the rumbling of artillery, and Roque is no stranger to this.

At half past eight, Roque received a telegram from Wei Zheng, commander of the 11th Division, that the Germans had dispatched at least two divisions to launch a full-line attack on the positions of the 11th Division.

The 11th Division is good at tunnel operations, the trenches are very well built, Xia Fei equipped the 11th Division with an artillery brigade to cooperate with the operation, although they are all 75mm field guns, but they are no problem for defense, so Roque is not worried about whether the 11th Division can withstand it.

Roque was more worried about the Canadian Legion and the Indian Legion, which had just been sent into battle.

The Canadian Legion is better, the commander is Roque's old friend Marcos Lloyd, Marcos Lloyd is now a general, which has climbed fast in Canada, but not as fast as Roque.

The Canadian Legion, which had just arrived in France, had only two divisions, and the Indian Legion had eight divisions, but the troops were only equipped with Lee Enfield, the proportion of automatic weapons was very small, and the artillery was not at all like the Southern African Expeditionary Force, so it was difficult to withstand the German attack.

Unlike the strict requirements of southern Africa, the Indian army is a "almost" army, and it is difficult for Roque to imagine that the eight divisions of the Indian army are not exactly the same, with the smallest number of only 12,000 and the largest number of 18,000.

Although the military establishment in southern Africa is also different, it is because the military in southern Africa comes from a complex source, some from southern Africa, some from Tanganyika, and some from the Kingdom of Mozambique, so it is understandable that the establishment is different, but the Indian army is formed by the Indian colonial government, so it is difficult to understand that the establishment is different.

In addition to the establishment, the equipment of the Indian army is also about the same, although it seems that there is a problem with the training of the soldiers, it is only almost passable, the quality of the officer corps is also problematic, and the logistics supply of the troops is also about this level, and all the "almost" are accumulated together, and the combat effectiveness of the army is very seriously problematic.

The 11th Division fought with the Indian Second Division, and if the principle of forming troops in southern Africa was followed, the higher the number, the stronger the combat effectiveness of the troops, so Wei Zheng was still looking forward to the Indian Second Division.

"I'm sorry, the 2nd Division has just arrived in Europe, and they need more time to get used to it." The commander of the 2nd Indian Division was Major General Elvis Jeffrey, who was a white British, and unlike southern Africa, where there were more and more officers of Chinese descent, the officers of the Indian army were all white British, from top to bottom.

"The 2nd Division 11 has already arrived in Calais, rested in Calais for a week, and then spent three days in Ypres, and needs more time to adapt?" Wei Zheng really couldn't accept it, it sounded like the distance from Calais to Ypres was hundreds of kilometers, so it took three days to arrive, but in fact there were only 70 kilometers between Calais and Ypres.

70 kilometers, if it is an army in southern Africa, a rapid march can be done in a day.

"Three days is already very fast, Wei, don't hope too much for the Indian army, to be honest, it's okay for them to dig trenches and move things, I don't recommend sending them to the battlefield, they can't fight the Germans at all." Elvis knew his troops well, and don't think that the armies of Southern Africa should perform well on the battlefield, all colonial servant armies should perform well, and the Indian army should be at the level of colonial servant armies.

"Then why are you transferring troops from India? They will only consume our supplies and increase our logistical pressure. Wei Zheng was shocked, the jewel in the crown is at this level-

It's indescribable!

"At least it will increase our advantage on paper." Elvis had a British humor, and eight divisions didn't matter how much of a difference, at least on paper, the number of British expeditionary forces increased by 100,000 men.

Wei Zheng really couldn't understand this kind of thinking, since the Indian army was unreliable, it still had to rely on itself.

The point is that in this way, the Indian army can also share the glory of victory after the battle, which is disgusting, and will encourage the dangerous idea of unearned gain, Wei Zheng now finally understands why Roque hates Indians, which is indeed strange.

When Wei Zheng and Elvis complained about the Indian army, Robin and Clara, who were hiding in the trenches, were also complaining about the Indian army.

The 11th Division's tunnel operation is very good, the depth of the two-meter-wide trench is also two meters, the trench is also covered with a layer of logs, and sandbags are also laid on the logs to enhance the protective effect, in the trench every two meters there is a foxhole for soldiers to fight, a machine gun position of 50 meters, a more tightly protected bunker of 100 meters, the bunker is fully equipped, there is an operating room in the clinic for simple surgery, and there are even flush toilets in the bathroom.

When the enemy strikes with fire, the whole company, except for the necessary observers, has to hide in the trenches and wait for the German troops to charge before entering the combat position.

Now the trenches were a bit cramped, and the ventilation system seemed to be out of order, and there was an indescribable smell in the air, and Robin felt like he was in a dung pit.

"What does this smell like? Is it that someone went to the toilet and didn't flush it-" Robin realized that something was wrong, and it wouldn't smell so big if he didn't flush it when he went to the toilet.

"Those Indians—" Clara gestured to Nunu, an Indian next to her, before silently pulling out her gas mask.

Now the Germans have not used poison gas on the battlefield, but the armies of Southern Africa are already equipped with gas masks, and the Anglo-French armies do not.

When Haig was purchasing in southern Africa, Roque had recommended gas masks to Haig, but Haig did not purchase them, believing that the troops did not need them at all.

It seems that by next year, the British Expeditionary Force will have to pay the price for the mistakes made by Haig.

"Damn—" Robin leaned over to the Indian soldier on the other side of the trench, and the smell was even stronger.

"Captain Blake, can you get your people out, it smells so bad—" Robin protested to Captain Blake of the 2nd Indian Division, who did not have a gas mask and covered his nose with a handkerchief.

"Where can they go?" Blake was also helpless, in this situation, driving them out of the trenches was tantamount to letting them die.

Let the Indian soldiers work, the Indian soldiers will do it although they grind foreign work, but they will finally do it, if they are allowed to die-

I'm afraid the Indian soldiers are going to rebel.

"Let them lie on their stomachs in the back of the trenches, or we won't have to wait for the Germans to attack, and we will all be smoked to death, can't you let them take a bath—" Robin couldn't bear it, the Germans hadn't used poison gas yet, and the Indians smelled like poison gas.

The smell on white people is actually very big, and the smell on Africans is even greater, which has little to do with whether they like to take a bath or not, the natural sweat gland system is more developed, if you don't pay attention to hygiene-

In the Southern African Army, both white and Chinese Africans must bathe every day, and some even wash several times a day.

This is in southern Africa, where conditions in Ypres are insufficient, and there are no conditions for daily bathing, but the good hygiene habits that have been cultivated for a long time still help, and even if they do not bathe for a day or two, the smell of white soldiers in the 11th division is acceptable.

The second division is difficult to describe, they smell as if they haven't been bathed since birth, and they have to never wipe their butts to this extent when they go to the toilet.

"Since I became the company commander of this special company, I forced them to take a bath every day, but it didn't work, you may not be able to imagine that these people used cow dung to bathe when they were in their hometown-" Blake frantically complained that in fact, not only did they bathe in cow dung, but these people also drank cow urine.

Of course, according to the standards of Indians, it is normal to bathe in cow dung and drink cow urine, which is their way of preventing and treating diseases, after all, cows are sacred cows in India, and since they are "gods", then even the excrement of gods is sacred.

"Damn, how can you stand it-" Robin simply collapsed, he would rather face a thousand German soldiers than a hundred Indians.

"I can't stand it either, but what can I do?" Blake is not stupid, but he is also helpless against the Indians.

"No, I'll see if the Germans attack—" It was useless for Clara to put on a mask, she felt that cow dung had seeped into her body along the pores, so she would rather brave German artillery fire to observe the movements of the Germans than hide in the trenches and smell -

It's so smoky!

There are already many soldiers who have risked their lives to enter the combat position, in fact, as long as they do not raise their heads in the combat position, there is not much danger, of course, this is under the premise that the Germans did not use the "Big Berta" and "Slim Emma" such large-caliber guns, if there are large-caliber artillery shells near the foxhole, then even if they lie on their stomachs, they will be shocked to death.

Up to now, the vast majority of casualties in the 2nd and 11th Cavalry Divisions were caused by German large-caliber artillery.

At the time of the Marne, the German army did not have large-caliber artillery to assist in the battle because of the difficulty in transferring large-caliber artillery, but Ypres was in Belgium, and the Germans had already entered the battle after blowing up the large-caliber artillery of the Liège fortress, and the Anglo-French army was in a difficult situation.