Moments before the German attack, Ludendorff's youngest son, Erich, shot himself in an unknown woods in Fort Thierry.

Ludendorff doesn't know the news yet, and he may still be waiting for his son's triumphant return, but he will never be able to wait for the news.

After the gunshots rang out, the gendarmes poured into the hollow of the tree where Erich was hiding, and then Erich's body was carried out and placed in a clearing between the trees, where the military doctor conducted a brief examination of Erich and declared Erich dead ten seconds later.

Although this was not the best outcome, the Australian GIs present paid their due respect to Erich's body.

In any case, Erich did not disgrace his family for his actions.

The Australian GIs buried Erich's body in a hastily found coffin in the woods, and the tombstone was scrawled with the words: "Here is buried a German pilot Erich, a brave man who fought to the last moment." ”

At nine o'clock in the morning, the Germans officially launched an offensive.

In this offensive, the Germans used A7V tanks, which had just entered service.

The A7V was the first tank equipped by the German army, which was a standard jumbo compared to the "light cavalry" equipped by the Allies, it was 8 meters long, 3 meters wide, 3.5 meters high, and weighed 30 tons, and was armed with a Belgian Maxim 57 mm Nordenfeld gun, or a Russian 57 mm Sokol gun, plus six Maxim 7.92 mm Type 08 or 15 machine guns.

The A7V tank has the largest crew in the world, with a standard crew of 18 people, in addition to the commander, driver, gunner, loader, machine gunner and a full 12 machine gunners, plus 2 mechanics.

When the A7V tank appeared on the battlefield, the defense line that the 1st Division had worked hard to build all night collapsed in an instant.

Because of the haste of departure, the reorganized 1st Division did not carry heavy weapons and did not have tanks to cooperate with the operation, so it was simply unable to cope with the frontal impact of the A7V tanks.

The Germans were not stupid, they had already appreciated the power of the Allied tank forces, especially from the British Expeditionary Force's use of tanks, and the Germans showed amazing adaptability, and their infantry tank did better than the French.

There were about 20 A7V tanks participating in the battle, and when the German tanks were discovered, the British Expeditionary Force's ground support aircraft launched a series of attacks on the German tanks, destroying 12 of the 20 tanks, but there were still 8 German A7V tanks roaring and rushing to the position of the first division, and the German tank engines also showed excellent reliability, and none of the tanks lay down in the charge, which the "light cavalry" tanks did not do.

In the early hours of the morning, the defeated French army was ridiculed by the Anzacs.

Now, no one was in the mood to laugh at the defeated Anzac, and the French troops were too busy to take care of themselves, and the 2nd and 4th Divisions, which had arrived in a hurry, were building new positions in the rear of the reorganized 1st Division.

Fortunately, the German A7V tanks did not have the ability to fight for a long time, and after breaking through the defense line of the reorganized 1st Division, the German tanks were forced to withdraw from the battle.

Germany's war potential was indeed about to run out, and even with all its might, Germany produced only 22 A7V tanks, which was the first and last A7V tank to appear on the battlefield.

After breaking through the lines of the reorganized 1st Division, the Germans advanced another 5 miles before being stopped by the Anzac lines.

On the afternoon of the 21st, the Canadian Corps finally arrived and successfully rendezvous with the Anzac Corps.

Petain sent reinforcements in time, and the number of Allied troops in front of the German advance increased to 250,000, and the encirclement of the huge salient of Reims was 600,000, and the line was finally stabilized.

Foch came to Roque's headquarters on the morning of the 21st, since the German army began to implement the Michael plan, Foch has not slept any time, his eyes are red, his eyes are bloodshot, there are obvious folds in his military uniform, he has not changed for several days, and his boots are stained with mud, which fully proves how busy Foch has been these days.

"Locke, don't hesitate any longer, order your troops to attack the Germans at once, and once Paris is lost, you know what that means." Foch had a stern voice, and his speech was accompanied by fierce gestures, something that rarely happened to such a suave man.

"Ferdinand, I have done what I can, more than I promised you, I cannot give up my current position for the sake of Paris, opposite me, there are also a million German troops waiting for them, once the expeditionary force position is empty, the German army will not hesitate to attack." Roque decisively refused, and before Roque promised Petain ten divisions, Roque had now sent 26 divisions to the French line, far exceeding the promise given to Petain.

To put it mildly, if Ludendorff had chosen the position of the British Expeditionary Force as a breakthrough, then Petain would not have been able to provide such a level of support.

In any case, Roque would not have breached the British Expeditionary Force's defenses by supporting the French.

It must be emphasized that Roque still retains the orders given to Roque by Winston and Kitchener, and should the war on the Western Front deteriorate, then Roque should bring the British Expeditionary Force back to the mainland as much as possible.

In the port of Flanders, there is a fleet on standby at all times, the French know about it, and the Americans know about it.

On the 21st, the American army led by Pershing launched an attack on the fortress of Liège, and there were many famous big names in the American army at this time, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, and George Patton Jr., who are still not famous, and the future is their stage.

Pershing, who has a million soldiers, really shows the strength of "General Iron Hammer", the US troops concentrated all the heavy artillery to suppress the artillery in the fortress of Liège, but the effect of the shelling is not good, the German artillery is set up in strong pillboxes, protected by reinforced concrete up to one meter thick, in order to clean up the firing boundary, the Germans burned all the trees in front of the fortress, and blew up all the obstacles that can be used, the American army attacked under the cover of tanks, and the Germans now have not only direct guns, And there are anti-tank rifles with a caliber of 13 mm, the US tank units suffered heavy casualties, and nearly 130 of the 250 tanks that participated in the attack on the first day were destroyed by the Germans.

"Locke, the American troops have begun to attack the fortress of Liège, the German army in Reims is about to arrive in Paris, you must do something, millions of troops are on your orders to stand still, if the worst happens, we will all be responsible." Foch was anxious, and Roque could understand Foch's feelings, but he could not attack the German positions as Foch suggested.

"Ferdinand, I understand, but calm down, it's not the worst yet." Roque is not in a hurry, the more times like this, the more calm he must be, Roque can now understand why Xia Fei has the nickname "Slow General", sometimes he is really in a hurry.

In the evening, the Anzac finally received a telegram back, and after a bloody battle between the Anzac and the Canadian Corps, the Germans stopped less than fifty kilometers from Paris.

Roque received a telegram over dinner with Foch, and Foch was relieved to know that Paris was in danger.

"Thank you Locke, if it weren't for the Anzac and the Canadian Legion—" Foch's face was written all over the aftermath of the catastrophe, in case Paris was lost—

Don't dare to think, don't dare to think!

"You're welcome, that's what we should do." Roque was not much proud either, as Foch said, if Paris fell, then Roque and Foch, Petain, and Pershing would all be to blame.

"The Germans are attacking with extraordinary intensity, and we have to be careful that Ludendorff may make other moves." Foch did not dare to be careless, Ludendorff still had hundreds of thousands of reserves in his hands, and the current defense line was not stable, and Roque and Petain were needed to continue to increase their troops.

"I will send air forces to attack the German transport lines-" Roque did his best, but the current German army is very clever and has learned to use the night and camouflage to mobilize troops to transport supplies, while the air force reconnaissance planes of the expeditionary force are limited to technical conditions and cannot be dispatched at night, which brings great difficulties to the air force's reconnaissance.

However, no matter how the Germans camouflaged, there were some nodes that could not be bypassed, such as the railroad in the German lines.

Whether it is to mobilize troops or transport supplies, the railway is the fastest means of transportation, before the air force of the expeditionary force carried out repeated attacks on the railways in Germany, the transportation of the German army was greatly disrupted, usually the bombers of the expeditionary force destroyed the German railway line during the day, and the German sappers used the night to repair urgently, but the air force units can not be dispatched every day, if the weather conditions are bad, then the plane can only be parked in the hangar, and there is often dense fog in northern France in winter, These fogs also pose a great danger to the air force units.

"If you can, why don't you transfer the 1st Panzer Division to Reims?" Foch actively proposed that the 1st Panzer Division was the biggest trump card in Roque's hands, and if Roque put the 1st Panzer Division into battle, then the Germans would definitely be able to drive the Germans back to the starting position before the campaign began.

"Armored forces have to wait until the right time to invest in the most critical places." Roque was waiting for the most favorable moment.

Now Reims is like a huge funnel.

After the Germans broke through the Reims Line, at least two army groups had poured into this funnel.

As time went on, more and more German troops would pour into the gap, and the farther the Germans advanced, the greater the logistical pressure, and eventually the Germans would become weaker and weaker.

At that time, it was Roque who would throw in the armored forces, regardless of the Germans in the funnel, but directly attack Reims.

If the Panzers captured Reims, then the Germans in the funnel would become a turtle in an urn.

(End of chapter)