People are indeed different from each other, just like the British Expeditionary Force and the French troops on the Western Front.

While Roque was attacking Belgium, Foch's French forces were also attacking the Germans as part of the Battle of the Somme.

Compared with the British Expeditionary Force, the French troops attacked more rigidly, the command system was more rigid, and the performance of the front-line troops was not good enough, Foch's troops relied on relatively strong artillery and large forces to maintain their superiority in the face of the German army.

At the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, the left flank and the center of the British Expeditionary Force were defeated, and the right flank led by Foch broke through, which greatly increased Foch's prestige.

However, with the rise of the fame of Nivelle and Mantin, the results of the French army led by Foch were dwarfed, and after Haig returned home, the British expeditionary force hinted that the offensive was stopped, and Foch lost the cooperation of the British troops, so during this time, although the skirmishes between the French army led by Foch and the German troops did not stop, the French troops made no progress, and there was no chance to break through the German positions.

This attack organized by Roque is mainly in Belgium, and the Somme region, where fierce fighting broke out before, fell silent, Foch is very smart, without the containment of the British Expeditionary Force, Foch's troops will not take the initiative to attack, but Foch is not willing to be lonely, when the British Expeditionary Force is attacking the city in Belgium, Foch comes to Roque's headquarters in Aram, hoping that Roque can launch a new attack in the Somme region.

"I'm sorry Ferdinand, but our main attack is Belgium, and it is clearly not in our overall interest to attack at the Somme, and we are going to defeat the Germans, not die with them." Roque did not agree to launch a new offensive in the Somme area, and Haig and Chauffeur decided to launch the Battle of the Somme in order to relieve pressure in the direction of Verdun, and there was no real clear goal beyond that, which seemed to Roque to be a fool's errand.

It's inconceivable to say, Haig and Xia Fei don't have the ability to see the overall situation at all, and the many attacks planned by Xia Fei have no clear campaign goals at all, mainly to consume Germany's strength, hoping to gradually consume Germany's war potential in this way and force Germany to withdraw from the war.

Compared with Xia Fei Haig, Roque's purpose is very clear: while eliminating the German living forces, it is necessary to gradually compress the living space of the German army and gradually reduce the material supply obtained by the German army from the occupied area.

It's already September, and Romania is still holding on, but it's a complete defeat.

At the end of August, Falkingham and Mackensen finally met in Bucharest, the capital of the Kingdom of Romania, and the German army held a grand victory parade in Bucharest, and the impact of Romania's defeat was not the attrition of the German army, nor the role of political propaganda, but the real harvest of the German army, and in the next year and a half, the German army transported 2 million tons of grain, 1 million tons of oil, 200,000 tons of timber, and 100,000 head of livestock from Romania.

The supplies that the Germans had brought from the Kingdom of Romania gave strong support to the German army.

It is the same in Belgium, after the German army occupied Belgium, how much material Belgium lost is still impossible to count, it is certain that the profits obtained by Leopold II from colonizing the Congo Free State over the years have now become the trophies of the German army, and people are fattening pigs and then killing them.

"If we can't consistently deplete the living forces of the German army, then we can't win this war." Foch partially agreed with Roque, but was more influenced by Xia Fei.

"So what do you want to do, break through the German defenses in the Somme area, create a huge salient in the Somme area, so that if we can't defeat the Germans in a short time, the Somme will become a mill of flesh and blood for us and the Germans, and it is gratifying to deplete the German army, but what about our losses? Can France afford to lose? "Although Roque will be ruthless when he should be, he really doesn't want to be a butcher.

"As long as the Germans can bear it, we can bear it, we must bear it!" Foch was strong and decisive, but in fact bitter at heart.

Ostensibly, the Chinese army mobilized more troops than the British, and the Western Front was dominated by French troops.

In fact, France's war potential was far inferior to that of Britain, which had colonies all over the world, and more than half of the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France were colonial servants.

After the fall of the First Empire, France lost almost all its overseas colonies, and now the only overseas colonies left are the French East Indies in East Asia and the sparsely populated French North Africa.

Sadly, France also put up commanders in the style of "butchers" such as Xia Fei, Nivelle and Mantin, and when Roque read the war report, sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if Xia Fei and Nivelle and Mangin were spies for Germany to invade France, and their style of commanding battles on the battlefield was like having a grudge against the French people, and they wanted the French to die.

"Well, if you insist, I'll send troops to cooperate with you." Roque made appropriate concessions, after all, he was the future commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, and he still had to give face to be given.

"Send armored units to cooperate?" Foch's eyes lit up suddenly, and during this time, the armored forces were in the limelight, almost all newspapers and magazines were talking about the outstanding armored forces, and France had begun to start research on tanks.

Roque really wanted to sell the tanks to the French, but the French were unwilling to buy them, or the French could not afford them, so the French contacted the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group, hoping to obtain the corresponding technology and production license from the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group to produce tanks in France for use in the war against the German army.

Roque, of course, has nothing to offer, the price of buying technology and production licenses is not cheap, the French don't think that southern Africa will be free, everyone is a brother, an ally is an ally, and business is business.

"Impossible, the armored forces are progressing well, but the losses are also huge, I will send the Fifth Army to fight with you." Roque will definitely not send tanks to help the French fight, the Fifth Army is mainly composed of Indian troops, and Roque is not distressed when sent to the battlefield.

"Okay-" Foch didn't feel anything wrong, although Roque didn't like the Indian troops, but Foch was not qualified to dislike it, at this stage, any combat effectiveness was very valuable for France, although the combat effectiveness of the Indian troops was weak, and the French colonial servant army was not much stronger.

While Foch was planning a new offensive, the British Expeditionary Force's offensive in Belgium was still ongoing.

On September 5, a huge fleet of hundreds of ships appeared off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

At five o'clock in the morning, the fleet carried out an artillery shelling of the port of Zeebrugge, and half an hour later, the soldiers of the expeditionary force on the transport ship landed in Zeebrugge using landing craft.

"Grab your weapons, leave the beach as fast as possible, remember where we are assembled, and if we can't reach it successfully, look for troops nearby to cooperate with the attack, our target is the artillery in the battery-" On the landing craft on which Huang Hai was riding, the captain and company commander were making a final admonition.

When the fleet shelled the port of Zeebrugge, the battery next to the port also began to return fire, the shells roared over the landing craft with a sharp scream, and from time to time there were columns of water on the sea next to the landing craft that exploded, and a landing craft was directly hit by the shells, and was instantly engulfed by fireballs, and the soldiers on the landing craft jumped into the sea with a roaring fire, compared with these unlucky guys, those soldiers who died instantly were more "lucky".

Bouncing –

A string of bullets hit the steel hull of the landing craft, and Ding Lingdang made a chaotic sound, but did not penetrate the steel hull.

Horace, who was a rookie some time ago, is now a veteran, and according to the requirements of the company commander, he lowered his head and held the steel helmet as low as possible to keep his body down, and his mouth was full of words.

"Merciful God forgive me—"

The beard on Huang Hai's face is already very large-scale, his nose and mouth can't be seen clearly, and he has to pick up his beard when eating, and now Huang Hai's face is also ugly, his clothes are already soaked, and the muzzle of the light machine gun is wrapped very carefully with oilcloth, which is to prevent sand from pouring into the muzzle when he jumps ship later.

"Ready, ready to land—" The captain ordered, and the landing craft lowered its front baffle.

Whoosh –

A volley of machine-gun bullets immediately swept over, and a group of soldiers next to Huang Hai and Horace suffered heavy casualties in an instant.

God forbid, if that string of bullets just now had been a little crooked—

"Jump, jump—" the company commander roared and jumped out of the landing craft first, the farther away from the landing craft, the better the chances of survival.

The Yellow Sea is not nonsense, and now Horace no longer needs the Yellow Sea to remind him, and at the same time that the Yellow Sea jumped out of the landing craft, Horace also jumped out of the landing craft with a bulging special backpack on his back, and he also carried a spare barrel on his back.

Horace is Huang Hai's assistant, and usually not only helps Huang Hai to be spared by the barrel, but also helps Huang Hai carry bullets.

While carrying a light machine gun, Huang Hai had four magazines with a capacity of 75 rounds in addition to a spare barrel.

Horace was even more ruthless, carrying eight of the 75-round box, in addition to rifles and grenades, and a living two-person ammunition depot.

Fortunately, the water next to the landing craft was not deep, just to the Yellow Sea and Horace's chest.

When the Yellow Sea jumped, he stood firmly, and Horace staggered and fell into the water.

Huang Hai dragged Horace up, and the two of them rolled and washed up onto the beach.

The beach is even more dangerous, there are not even obstacles to take advantage of.

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