After the outbreak of the World War, the British government ordered about 4,000 aircraft from southern Africa.

Initially, aircraft were only used for the defense of the British mainland, but in fact, it was not until 1915, the third year of the outbreak of the World War, that Germany began to carry out air raids on the British mainland, and at this time the air force gradually appeared on the battlefield.

As the war progressed, the importance of the air force grew, and when Haig was commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, he did not pay enough attention to the role of aircraft, and there was little room for the air force to play on the Western Front.

After Roque became the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, the Air Force finally played the right role, and from the later stage of the Battle of the Somme, the role of the Air Force became more and more important, especially the bomber unit of the Expeditionary Force, which not only had to support the front-line troops, but also carried out strategic bombing of military targets in Germany, after the Expeditionary Force invaded Belgium, the General Staff estimated that without the support of the Air Force, the Expeditionary Force would have to regain a large area of lost territory in Belgium, and it was estimated that the number of casualties would increase by more than 100,000 troops.

After the formation of the encirclement of the German troops on the Marne, the air force units began to enter a combat state, carrying out wanton and indiscriminate bombing of the German troops in the encirclement; in Treloo-sur-Marne, a retreating German baggage unit was discovered by reconnaissance planes, and half an hour later, a swarm of bombers of the expeditionary force swarmed, and 50 kilograms of standard-mounted aerial bombs were dropped like raindrops, and in addition to high-explosive bombs, there were also incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs.

The Germans had no anti-aircraft machine guns, and the soldiers had to put up useless resistance with rudimentary rifles, and by an hour, the baggage force, numbering about 3,000 men, had almost lost all casualties, and only about 120 escaped hiding in a small river.

At Châtillon-sur-Marne, expeditionary bombers blew up the only bridge over a nearby 20-kilometer river, and nearly 40,000 German troops on the other side of the river did not have time to retreat across the river.

In this battle, the British Expeditionary Force captured nearly 35,000 German officers and soldiers, including six generals, including 128 officers at or above the rank of colonel.

As of April 25, the British and French forces had eliminated 175,000 German troops and captured 140,000 of them, and the remaining less than 200,000 German troops led by Otto von Billow and Huttier were surrounded by regiments in Soissons, less than 50 kilometers from Reims, at this time it had been nearly two weeks since the encirclement was formed, the German troops in the encirclement had run out of ammunition and food, many wounded died tragically because of lack of medicine, and the American flu became an accomplice, taking the lives of nearly 10,000 German soldiers in the encirclement.

This time the flu in the United States caused a total of 165,000 German troops and nearly 400,000 civilians to die.

Compared to the Entente countries, Germany and Austria-Hungary have been in lockdown since the outbreak of the world war, and during the outbreak of the American flu, Germany could not get enough medical supplies, because of the lack of nutrition, the German body was weakened, and the resistance to the virus fell to an unprecedented level.

On 26 April, Otto von Billow sent a message to the British Expeditionary Force in the hope that the British Expeditionary Force would accept the surrender of some 45,000 wounded German soldiers and provide them with medical treatment.

This "request" was rightly opposed by Petain and Foch.

"The Germans are crazy, they want to throw these wounded soldiers who have become a burden to us, and then break through lightly, we will definitely not agree to such a request!" Foch's hatred for the Germans was palpable, and his son and son-in-law were both killed in World War I.

"Unless all Germans lay down their arms and surrender, then we can provide medical care to wounded Germans." Petain hated the Germans less, but not less, and if he could force the Germans to surrender, he would also reduce the casualties of the Anglo-French army, an outcome that Petain could accept.

"Why don't we look at this from a different angle-" Roque and Winston are united in not wanting to weaken Germany too much, so Roque has nothing to do:" -We have been fighting the Germans for four and a half years, the hatred is no longer clear, and the Germans in the encirclement are not sure of our attitude, so they will not lay down their arms until they see hope. ”

One thing must be clarified, there is no "international law" in the war at this time, although all countries will talk about "giving treatment that matches their status" when they persuade them to surrender, in fact, there will definitely be deviations in the implementation, not to mention the Western Front, Germany captured nearly 600,000 Russians on the Eastern Front, and these Russians were forced to work in exchange for negligible food to survive, and after the agreement between Germany and the new Russian government reached an agreement, only less than 400,000 prisoners were released back to Russia, where did the remaining 200,000 go?

No one knows.

So the Germans were also worried about what fate awaited them if they laid down their arms.

"Hehe, if the Germans refuse to lay down their arms, then we will completely annihilate them." Foch, the general of the coalition army, is really ruthless, and now the Anglo-French coalition army can indeed destroy the German army in the encirclement at any time, but to eliminate nearly 200,000 German troops, the Anglo-French coalition army must be prepared to suffer at least 100,000 casualties.

This figure is not casually said, according to the previous battle situation, even if the coalition forces surround the German regiments, to destroy the German troops in the encirclement, they will have to pay a price of almost 1:2, sometimes even 1:1, and in some battlefields there will even be such an extreme situation as 2:1.

If the Germans in the encirclement could be forced to lay down their arms on their own initiative, then it would be the best option for the coalition forces.

"Ferdinand, what we have to think about now is how to end this war, not let the hatred perpetuate." Roque didn't want to have unnecessary casualties, and the lives of the soldiers mattered.

"Locke, you just said that our hatred can't go away." Foch still disagreed, and the dead Germans were the best Germans.

"So what are you going to do when the world war is over, kill all the Germans? Or to exile all the Germans to Africa? Be sensible Ferdinand, you don't want another world war in twenty years. Roque inadvertently leaked the secret of heaven again, the world war made Britain, France, and Germany fight together for a whole generation, even if the Germans are forced to surrender now, so when the next generation of Germany grows up, will they be disappointed in this history? Will it be like the French after the Franco-Prussian War, obsessed with the humiliation imposed on the French by the Germans after the Franco-Prussian War?

Definitely.

Foch finally stopped talking, his feelings made him want to kill all the Germans in the encirclement, and reason told him that he couldn't do that.

"Let's make a bet that if we provide medical care to these wounded, then the other Germans will voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender – and if it turns out otherwise, then the British Expeditionary Force will be responsible for destroying all Germans in the encirclement." Roque used this bet to dispel the last doubts of Foch and Petain.

"Yes!" Petain immediately agreed that it made no difference to the French troops whether the Germans in the encirclement surrendered or the British expeditionary force was responsible for destroying the Germans in the encirclement.

That's it!

As long as Roque and Petain agreed, Foch couldn't help it even if he didn't.

In fact, while Roque was discussing with Foch and Petain, the British expeditionary force in Soissons had already begun to receive the wounded German soldiers.

What is surprising is that there are very few seriously wounded among the wounded soldiers in the German army, and most of the seriously wounded are officers, which indicates that only officers can receive treatment if they are injured.

Many of the German wounded were able to walk alone to the positions of the British Expeditionary Force without the help of others.

In order to ensure safety, the expeditionary force brought in tanks and armored vehicles to maintain order, nearly 1,000 doctors and nurses were on standby, and water and food were boiling in the open space next to the armored vehicles.

"Sir, it's terrible, many of them have reused bandages, and their wounds have not been treated in time, and some of them have started to worsen their wounds, and many of them may have to be amputated, and the operation must be carried out immediately, otherwise many of them may not see the sun tomorrow." Tim Mitchelson, the attending physician of the 16th Division's field hospital, had a serious expression, and the 16th Division did not have much spare medicine.

"Then the operation will be carried out as soon as possible, and the medicine can still be saved-" The on-site commander is Zhou Bu, the commander of the 2nd Brigade, and Roque's order must be carried out, but how to implement it is Zhou Bu's final say.

Besides, Roque didn't say that he was going to give his all to these wounded soldiers.

Because there are too many wounded soldiers who need surgery, many novices who have just come to France for a short time have also been given valuable opportunities to get started, and those who have studied medicine know how valuable this opportunity is, if it were not for the world war, I am afraid that they would not be able to get the opportunity to enter the operating room until they graduated and had to intern.

At this time, the open space in the middle of the field hospital was already full of wounded soldiers, and several German soldiers carried a German officer over, put the German officer down, turned and left, and then were stopped by the soldiers of the expeditionary force.

"What are you going to do?" The soldiers of the expeditionary force armed with shotguns have serious expressions.

"Sir, we just sent Major Miller over, and now we are going back to Soissons." Several German soldiers had calm expressions, and now it was the wounded soldiers of the German army who were about to surrender, and they had not laid down their arms.

"So, you're going back to the fight?" The soldiers of the expeditionary force clenched the shotguns in their hands, and the heavy machine gun shooter on the armored vehicle next to them put his fingers on the trigger, and the atmosphere immediately became tense, not only the soldiers of the expeditionary force, but also the wounded German soldiers who had just entered the prisoner of war camp were also watching what the soldiers of the expeditionary force would do.

Is it a direct shot?

Or let them go back?

It doesn't seem to be the right thing to do.