When the Southern African Expeditionary Force was still in the British Expeditionary Force combat sequence, it was the Southern African Expeditionary Force who was unlucky at any time.

At present, most of the Southern African Expeditionary Force has been transferred to the Mediterranean, and only three artillery divisions of the Southern African Expeditionary Force remain in France, and the unfortunate ones have been replaced by the Anzac.

If you look at it this way, the Anzac is unlucky than the Southern African Expeditionary Force, at least in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, the Southern African Expeditionary Force can get enough rest, the Anzac is unlucky in the Mediterranean, and it is still a little bad in France.

In this attack organized by Haig, it was still the Anzac that acted as the forward force.

After the transfer of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the total strength of the Anzac in France reached 200,000, which was the largest servant force in the British Expeditionary Force.

Before the start of the battle, in accordance with the tradition of the British and French forces, the artillery units of the British Expeditionary Force carried out a 12-hour artillery bombardment of German positions, and three artillery divisions from southern Africa were also involved in the battle, and the British Expeditionary Force had 900 guns at this time.

Behind the artillery positions of the 21st Division, shells were piled up as high as a hill, and trucks were still sending shells up, and an Indian division was responsible for delivering shells to the positions.

This past winter, the snow in Mons was not heavy, but the snow stopped and melted, and after it froze into ice, the ground was very slippery, and the shells of the 150mm howitzer weighed 45 kilograms, and two soldiers could only send one at a time.

The boys of the artillery division were in full swing, and many of them went into battle shirtless despite the bitter winter cold, and at this time they did not care about any uniformity, as long as more shells were thrown on the German positions in the shortest possible time.

On the starting position in front of the artillery position, the third division of the Anzac Reorganization has been assembled and waiting for the attack, their division commander is called John Monash, during the Battle of the Dardanelles, John Monash also landed with the troops in the Anzac Bay, he is the only surviving brigade commander in the unit, the other brigade commanders are either killed in battle or wounded and returned to Australia to recuperate.

The Anzac Corps was not the same as the British Expeditionary Force, with a regiment of about 1,000 men, about the same size as a battalion.

The reorganized Anzac Corps, like the British Expeditionary Force, had about 18,000 men per division, and Haig invested three divisions in the first offensive, namely the new second, third, and fourth divisions, all from the Anzac.

"General Coker, if you can, I hope we can practice infantry and artillery coordination next, just as you did with Operation Victory Horn." John Monash was an excellent soldier with keen insight and decisive execution, and after Operation Victory Horn, the War Department put into words the methods adopted by the Southern African Expeditionary Force during Operation Victory Horn, and John Monash has now expressed real interest.

"Of course, we also hope to have a better cooperation with our brother troops, in Verdun, the Germans have adopted a completely new tactic, their artillery is no longer used in the previous way, and it is more closely integrated with the infantry, but unfortunately some people turn a blind eye." Paul Coker, chief of staff of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, did not hide his personal interests, the German army performed well in the Battle of Verdun, and their infantry and artillery coordination had reached a fairly high level, and the infantry found the position of the army during the attack, and could directly call the artillery for fire strikes, and the infantry and artillery coordination of the Southern African Expeditionary Force did not reach this level.

The German infantry and artillery coordination had high requirements for communication.

Roque always thought that this level of infantry and artillery coordination could not be achieved before the qualitative improvement of the level of communication, but he did not expect that the German army could do this by using only the most primitive telephone communication, which made Roque respectful.

It is no wonder that the Germans were able to stand up to the Entente on their own, and the world's first army is indeed worthy of its name.

"In the Mediterranean, I served under the Count of Nyasaland, although we Anzac suffered heavy casualties, but that was not the responsibility of the Count of Nyasaland, I really wish to go back to that time, although we were pinned down on the beachhead, but we are not worried, because we know that the final victory must be ours." John Monash didn't directly say that someone was bad, but the implication was that he was not optimistic about the Haig's attack.

Like Roque, most of the expeditionary generals were unimpressed by the Haig attack.

In the past 1914, the British Expeditionary Force suffered heavy casualties, the veterans before the outbreak of the world war have now been lost, and all the soldiers who served on the front line are new recruits who have just enlisted, and they still need time to adapt to the brutal Western Front, and it is irresponsible to rush them back to the battlefield now.

Unfortunately, the opposition of the generals was not enough to make Haig change his decision, this time back in London, Haig already clearly felt that the attitude of George V and Asquith towards Haig was obviously different from before, George V did not even see Haig, which was unthinkable before, Asquith also only gave Haig five minutes, you must know that Haig is the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, and when Roque went to see Asquith, he talked with Asquith for half an hour.

Haig didn't know what Roque and Asquith were talking about, but Haig knew he needed a record, a record, so that he could secure his position.

"A few days ago, when the Germans attacked Verdun, they carried out a phased shelling, and after the shelling stopped and the French troops entered the position, the German Verdun carried out repeated shelling, can we also try it?" John Monash is unconventional, no matter what the tactic is, as long as it is beneficial to the situation of the battle, John Monash is willing to try.

Paul Cocker did not speak, his eyes fell on the figure in the dark brown officer's uniform in the artillery position.

The officers were all from the British Expeditionary Force Command, and Haig, fearing that the Southern African Expeditionary Force artillery would not be able to contribute, sent observers to the artillery positions before the campaign began.

These observers were equivalent to overseers, they kept shuttling between the various gun emplacements, frequently urging the artillerymen who were in their hair to speed up, and an artillery officer looked at the observers jumping up and down unpleasantly, and casually complained a few words, so the two men immediately quarreled, and the artillerymen of several nearby gun positions stopped their work and glared at the angry observers.

Paul Cocker ignored these trivialities, and as soon as the twelve hours came, the artillery stopped attacking, and the ground troops began to charge at the German positions.

"Good luck John—" Paul Cocker blessed John Monash.

"Good luck too, God bless us—" John Monash took off his hat and waved, then left without looking back.

Having worked with the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the Anzac also abandoned the traditional thin red line of the British army, and the troops lined up to attack the German positions.

The 12-hour shelling played a huge role, and the barbed wire fences in front of the German positions were completely destroyed, and clumps of them were piled up in front of the German positions like chopped earthworms.

The mines planted under the barbed wire fence were also ineffective, and they were supposed to be a big kill against the infantry, who only had to follow the craters to avoid most of the traps.

A section of the German trench was completely destroyed by artillery, the machine-gun emplacements made of sandbags were completely swept away, and the black earth was turned up from the ground and covered the white snow, as ugly as the scars of the earth.

Several German soldiers hiding in the trenches staggered to their feet, destroyed by the shock wave of shells, forgetting that they were in the battlefield.

Seeing the charging Anzac soldiers, the rickety Germans woke up like a dream, but before they could raise their rifles, they were knocked to the ground by a dense rain of bullets.

After a winter, the Germans also established a strong defensive position in Mons.

After all, the trenches destroyed by the shells were very few, and most of the Germans were lucky enough to escape the shelling of the expeditionary force, and soon after the Anzac began to charge, they all entered the position.

The skirmishers faced the heavy machine guns, but in fact, they were also shot in line, which did not play a role at all.

As the German heavy machine guns began to strafe, the artillery units in the rear of the German army also began to shell the attacking troops, and the attacking troops suddenly suffered heavy losses, the soldiers fell row after row like wheat that had been cut, and the soldiers who were hit by the shells were thrown into the air like ragdolls, and then fell in pieces, like a rain of blood.

No matter how tenacious the will to fight is, it is impossible for a person to hold out for too long in an offensive with no possibility of victory, after the German army began to counterattack, the attacking Anzac retreated like a tide to the starting position, some lost their weapons in the retreat, some lost their souls, some lost their relatives or friends in the attack just now, and just returned to the starting position and cried.

In less than half an hour, the three integrated divisions lost their offensive capability.

"Continue the offensive until the German positions are captured." Haig was so strong that he didn't care about the casualties of his troops, and if he didn't win, all the sacrifices would be meaningless.

The generals in the command looked at each other, the Anzac generals gritted their teeth, they looked at Haig like enemies, when the Anzac was trapped in the Anzac cove, Roque also ordered the troops to hold on, but Roque sent the air force and navy to cooperate in the operation, giving the Anzac enough support, and in the end the Anzac did win.

Now that the Anzac was once again in trouble, Haig lacked a countermeasure and blindly ordered his troops to continue the offensive, ignoring the heavy casualties of the front-line troops.

This is really not a qualified commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force.

"General, it's getting late, even if the troops capture the German positions, they may not be able to withstand the German counterattack, so let's wait until tomorrow to continue the attack." Paul Cocker could not help but suggest that neither the Anglo-French nor the Germans were in the habit of fighting at night.

"I said, continue the offensive until the German positions are captured!" Haig had lost his mind, and the gaze he looked at Paul Cocker was literally cannibalistic.