The German defense line of this era was not the same as the deep defense line of three or four lines two years later, and it had not yet been perfected to that extent.

The first line of defense after the two years of the World War was a cordon composed of avant-garde troops, and the defense was relatively weak, mainly to serve as a warning, the second line was the real line of defense where the main forces were located, and then there was the third line of defense composed of reserves and the fourth line of defense composed of support troops.

In this era, except for the defense line of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the Anglo-French and German armies had only one line, because all the defenses were preparing for the offensive, so the Anglo-French forces and the German army were not used to civil engineering operations.

In the face of the attack of the 101st and 102nd Divisions, a line of defense did not work at all.

Like the Anglo-French forces and the German artillery units, the large-caliber artillery in southern Africa had a range of more than ten kilometers, so the artillery positions of the 1st Artillery Division were six kilometers away from the front line, and they had already retreated behind Ypres, so that they could effectively strike at the German positions and not have to worry about the German firepower.

The reconnaissance method is also different, and the traditional artillery needs to use balloons or airplanes to correct the impact point to ensure the attack efficiency of the artillery unit.

Both of these methods are problematic, the observation range of using balloons is relatively small, and it is easy to be attacked by enemies, which is not very effective.

However, there is a telephone on the correction balloon to contact the ground, which is more convenient and fast.

If the plane is used to correct the impact point, although it can fly at high speed and observe more clearly, there is no telephone on the plane, and the pilot can only write the information on a slip of paper and throw it in a brightly colored cylinder to get in touch with the ground troops, and the effect is actually not good.

The 1st Artillery Division did not use the traditional method of correcting the impact point, and the large-caliber artillery was used as strategic artillery to carry out long-range strikes on the German positions, and the accurate shooting was carried out by the mortars attached to the front-line troops, in order to improve combat efficiency, Frenzi sent a division to cooperate with the 101st and 102nd Divisions.

As a result, the reserves did not play a role, and even the 102nd Division did not leave the starting position, and the 101st Division gave Frenzi and Xia Fei a perfect performance of infantry and artillery coordination in the state of a skirmish.

This is too advanced, the field troops of this era, there is no such thing as infantry and artillery coordination, when the war is fought, the artillery units are far away and begin to rattle, and the infantry units are lined up in a neat formation, led by the officers dressed in fancy clothes, and launch an attack on the enemy's position as if they were attending a banquet.

To put it in a very futuristic way, the troop offensive of this era is very ceremonial.

When it came to the Southern African Expeditionary Force, all the sense of ritual was forgotten.

In order to minimize the dangerous time for the assault troops to be exposed to the enemy's dense fire, the 101st Division began tunneling the night before the offensive was launched, digging the tunnel less than 500 meters in front of the German position.

This was to prevent accidental injury to the artillery units, so the tunnel was dug 500 meters before the German position, otherwise the 101st Division would really learn from the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War and dig the tunnel directly to within 50 meters of the German position.

In fact, 500 meters is already very close.

Therefore, when the long-range artillery launched an attack on the German positions, the attacking troops sent by the 101st Division were already safely lurking in the starting positions only 500 meters away from the German positions, and various 60 and 80 mm mortars attached to the company level also began to attack the German defensive positions.

Machine gun positions were the focus of the attack.

Long-range large-caliber artillery with easy to move and fast rate of fire mortars, tirelessly combed the German positions with intensive firepower over and over again, Roque's request is to destroy all the artificial buildings within the line of sight, whether it is a residential house, or a position built by the German army, all destroyed, do not worry about the problem of shells, the Nyasaland military industrial group has set up eleven artillery factories in Walvis Bay, specializing in the production of various artillery shells for the French battlefield.

Interestingly, the workers in the shell factory were all Germans from southwest Africa, and they also knew that the shells produced in the factory were used to fight the German army, but they were helpless and could not even do sabotage.

The shells of this period are still relatively complex, such as the most commonly used howitzer shotgun on the battlefield, the structure is completely different from the high-explosive shell, the shell explodes dozens of meters above the target, relying on the steel balls in the warhead to create lethality, a shell carries thousands of steel balls, and the coverage range can reach an area within 200 meters in diameter, all the shells are without fuses when they are shipped and transported, and the fuses will not be installed until they are distributed to the front-line troops.

The management of the Nyasaland military-industrial complex was very strict, the factories where the Germans worked only produced parts and components, and the final assembly was done by the factories of the southern Africans, and the whips and sticks in the hands of the African overseers would not be polite if the workers were grinding foreign workers.

During the period of German rule in Southwest Africa, the way of ruling the Africans in the territory was very cruel, and there were all kinds of massacres at every turn, and now the Germans in Southwest Africa are very unlucky, and during the previous German rule in Southwest Africa, how miserable the Africans in Southwest Africa were, and now how miserable the Germans in Southwest Africa are.

The Germans in South Persian Chen are also miserable, and the first regiment of the guard to guard South Persian Chen is the newly formed German 92nd Division, which is a newly formed unit, most of the members are just graduated from high school, or are not yet adult students, they dream of winning honor on the battlefield, so they came to Belgium from their hometown, but they did not expect to encounter the 101st Division that was almost completely wiped out and had just been restored to Belgium.

The officers and men of the 101st Division were holding back their anger from top to bottom, and these angers were vented on the recruits of the 92nd Division.

The ferocious fire hit lasted a full half an hour before the infantry units left their starting positions and launched an attack on South Persian Chen.

The attacking troops were not neat "thin red lines", but skirmishers that looked a little chaotic, with each soldier separated by a long distance.

The soldiers did not march straight to the beat of the snare drum, but almost the whole time they were cat-waisted, using the terrain to alternately cover the advance.

At this time, there were actually no obstacles on the ground, and there were only one crater after another available for the attacking troops, but fortunately, some time ago, the battle of South Persian Chen was very fierce, and the craters were everywhere, but because Flanders was an ocean, almost all the craters had water in them.

At this time, it certainly didn't care whether there was water or mud under the crater, even if it was a dung pit, as long as it could dodge the heavy machine guns of the defending troops, they had to resolutely jump into it, and soon after leaving the starting position, the iron-gray uniforms of the officers and men of the 101st Division turned into the same color as silt, which became the protective color of the attacking troops.

In the future, the troops in southern Africa can still retain iron gray as the color of the dress of officers and soldiers, and they still have to get camouflage uniforms out when fighting, so as to provide better protection for the troops on the front line.

Xia Fei and Frenzi, who were also observing, did not notice the problem, their eyes did not even take off the eyepieces, and they did not say a word during the whole process.

Now Xia Fei and Frenzi understand why Roque has been emphasizing full preparation, what Roque said is fully prepared, and Xia Fei and Frenzi understand that full preparation is really not the same thing, if the attacking force is not the 101st Division, but replaced by the infantry division of the British and French forces, then this battle will still be reduced to a flesh mill with heavy losses on both sides of the war.

Although Xia Fei and Frenzi didn't care about the casualties of their troops, it was clear that while winning the victory, the casualties would definitely be as low as possible.

The 101st Division suffered almost no casualties.

It is true that a few soldiers were carried down shortly after the attack began, but it was obvious that they also sprained their ankles, and they didn't even need to use stretchers.

The officers and men of the 9th Division of the British Expeditionary Force were responsible for the evacuation of the wounded.

Also observing were Roque's old friend Marcos Lloyd and Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the French Ninth Army.

Marcos Lloyd didn't ask why the 101st Division didn't use the thin red line to attack stupidly, Marcos Lloyd had never thought about the "thin red line" tactics before, and it wasn't until he witnessed the 101st Division's attack that Marcos Lloyd began to think about why the commander who determined the "thin red line" tactic in the first place was so stupid.

In fact, the general who invented the thin red line tactic was not stupid, and in the era of the smoothbore gun, the thin red line tactic was the most suitable tactic for attacking troops.

In the era of breech magazine rifles, the thin red line tactic should indeed be improved.

The soldiers of the 101st Division were advancing very fast, and it was clear from the binoculars that although the soldiers of the 101st Division were attacking a little chaotically, it was clear that there were various kinds of coordination between the soldiers, and Marcos Lloyd noticed this problem and casually asked about the formation of the 101st Division.

"Different units are different, each squad of the 101st Division is 12 people, the squad leader and deputy squad leader are equipped with a sergeant or sergeant to lead the combat group, each combat group is three people, plus accurate shooters and firefighters, and the combat group is the basic unit when attacking-" Roque explained in detail, there is no need to hide this, it is not difficult for Commonwealth countries to get the "Infantry Drill Code" of the Nyasaland Army Academy, after the World War, it is estimated that many Commonwealth countries will send people to study at the Army Academy, Countries outside the Commonwealth forget it, even if they pay for it, the Nyasaland Army Academy doesn't want it.

If the Commonwealth countries want to send people to study at the Nyasaland Army Academy, they will definitely have to pay for it, and the tuition fees will be very expensive.

The tuition fee of a foreign cadet can at least support an infantry battalion.

"Bayonets, grenades, shovels, pistols, your southern African army is really rich—" Marcos Lloyd hated with envy and jealousy.

"The pistols were bought by the soldiers themselves, and they have nothing to do with me—" Roque cleared up, and neither the British and French troops were so rich.

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