Karno was the salient of the British Expeditionary Force on the entire front, and in the previous phase of the operation, the British Expeditionary Force paid a huge price of 170,000 casualties.

Roque chose Karno as an important breakthrough, and the attacking forces of six divisions launched attacks on German positions at three different locations, and there were three divisions in Karno.

All three divisions were from India, had never fought in previous battles, and remained miraculously intact, and after Roque's order to attack, the soldiers of these three divisions collapsed almost instantly, and they had no idea that even if they were so bad, they were not rotten enough.

To boost morale, Roque sent the three divisions enough whiskey and cigarettes mixed with some kind of stimulant to make the Indian soldiers forget their fears.

It may sound a bit immoral, but it is a common form of motivation in the military nowadays, and the reason why the officers and men of the Fourth Army were able to attack the Germans in a neat line in the face of German shelling and machine-gun fire was because of the role of whiskey and "cigarettes".

In this regard, Britain is already a habitual offender, France is also a veteran, and Germany is no less inferior, but these facts will not be recorded in any literature, and in all the literature, countries use alcohol to improve morale, but alcohol can make people face death calmly?

Alcohol can only turn people into a puddle of mud.

"Drink, drink as much as you want, drink as much as you want, and when you finish drinking, rush over and kill all those Germans, don't think about being lazy or being a deserter, anyone who dares to stop will be dealt with by military law, I will stand behind you and keep an eye on you, don't let your family be ashamed of your cowardice, soldiers should die on the battlefield, long live the king!" The officers had to boost their morale as usual before leaving, and a bearded captain was especially excited, and it is estimated that he also drank a lot.

Before the Battle of the Somme, including the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, the officers of the British Expeditionary Force were to act with the troops when they attacked.

The Germans now also have snipers, and officers armed with command knives are the key sniper targets, so the casualty rate of officers has remained high.

Now that the Expeditionary Force has learned wisely, Roque became the commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Force, and it was no longer mandatory for officers to act with the troops, and this order immediately won the support and love of all the generals and middle and junior officers.

It is much more difficult to train an officer than a soldier.

British officers were either highly qualified graduates of military academies or the children of nobles, brave and sacrificial, but they did not want to die worthless.

Just as the bearded captain was boosting his morale, several machine gunners were setting up machine gun emplacements in front of the departure position, these general-purpose machine guns were not for the Germans, but for possible deserters, and if any soldiers did escape during the attack, then the Overseers would not hesitate to shoot.

"Will you act with us, sir?" An Indian soldier dared to ask.

"Of course, I will always be with you, remember what you have learned in the past few days, make proper use of every cover, whether it is a stump or a crater, it may save your life, forget about those stupid offensive lines, and destroy the enemy is your only task, no matter what method is used." The bearded captain emphasized that Roque had sent veterans from southern Africa to teach these Indian soldiers some life-saving things before the attack, and how much they could learn depended on their personal understanding, and in any case, the performance of the troops would be better than before.

The reason why Roque needed more time was mainly to allow the officers and men to adapt to the new tactics, in the previous offensive, the Anzac used the tactics used by the Southern African Expeditionary Force in the Garibaldi Peninsula, and was ridiculed by some British generals, as a result, the casualties of the Anzac were significantly lower than those of the British Fourth Army, and the progress was significantly greater.

Karno is the ANZAC record.

"Give me another bowl!" An Indian soldier who was already drunk still had to drink, and if he had to die, then drunkenness might be a better option.

"Even if you die, you will die for me on the way to attack-" The bearded captain said sharply, it was impossible to get himself drunk to escape the attack, and it was really a decoration for the warring team, and after the order to attack was given, all the deserters who remained in the starting position were deserters.

No one on the battlefield will reason with you, even if you meet the strafing fire of heavy machine guns at the first order, you must rush when it is time to charge, otherwise how can you call it "cannon fodder".

"Give me another bowl, and I'll be able to hit Berlin in one go!" The Indian soldier was indeed drunk, and he barked at the bearded captain with his neck.

"Hahahaha-haha-that's great, you need this kind of spirit, let him drink, drink as much as he wants." The bearded captain laughed, Britain was indeed rich at this time, a bottle of whiskey that costs 15 shillings in peacetime is open to drink, and the army of 18,000 people, a bottle per person is only 13,500 pounds, which is not worth mentioning compared to Britain's annual military expenditure of 2.5 billion.

In the first year of the World War, Britain's military spending was £1.56 billion, the lowest of all the participating countries.

Even if it is the lowest, it also makes the British government feel overwhelmed, but no one expected that this is the year of the least British military spending during the world war, and since the second year, Britain's military spending has not been less than 2.5 billion pounds, think about the second Boer War only spent 220 million, so that the British government almost went bankrupt, and the consumption of the world war on the economy can be seen.

When the bearded captain was mobilized before the war, the artillery positions in the rear were shelling the Germans.

Hundreds of heavy artillery guns opened fire at the same time, and the German positions were covered in violent explosions and billowing smoke, like hell on earth.

"No one can survive this intensity of shelling—" An officer with a telescope was terrified, but fortunately this was a British attack, and if it was a British position that had been shelled, then the Indians would have collapsed by now, and even the Overseers would not be able to stop the Indian soldiers from fleeing.

"The Germans are rats hiding in holes in the ground, if only they could be wiped out so easily—" The bearded captain was in a heavy mood as several planes with British flags painted on their wings whizzed through the air towards the German positions, and the bearded captain took off his hat and waved at the planes, shouting loudly.

The plane did not react in the slightest, and flew over the German position with a roar, several German biplanes rose into the air to meet the battle, and the formation of the expeditionary force aircraft immediately dispersed, seemingly chaotic, but if you look closely, the planes are flying around the German position.

The speed of several "strong winds" was not fast, and the German biplanes immediately followed up with low-altitude dogfights, which were the main means of air combat in this period.

But the low-flying "strong winds" are all decoys, and higher in the air, two "strong winds" are looking for opportunities, and the fuselages of these two strong winds are painted with many solid or hollow red star patterns, each solid red star pattern represents the shooting down of an enemy plane, and the hollow one represents damage.

The fuselage of one of the planes was painted with a solid red star pattern.

The German biplanes, which were chasing at low altitudes, had not yet found a chance to shoot, and two "strong winds" circling at high altitudes had already begun to dive.

A short shot from the "Strong Wind" fighter with a star pattern painted on the fuselage hit one of the German biplanes, and the German pilots did not even have a chance to open the parachute, and the plane directly disintegrated.

The "strong wind", which succeeded in one blow, did not fight, and when it flew out of the combat area at low altitude, it was targeted by another German biplane.

The biplane, which was trying to avenge its comrades, also did not find a chance to shoot, and the "Strong Wind", which already had 12 solid red stars on the fuselage, also had a short burst shot, shooting down the German biplane directly.

The air battle lasted only five minutes, and all eight German biplanes were shot down, and the six "strong winds" of the expeditionary force were unscathed.

The shelling stopped abruptly at this point.

According to the general procedure, the cessation of shelling means the start of the attack by ground forces.

But the attacking troops, who were already in position at the starting point, were not given the order to attack.

"What's going on?" The bearded captain was confused.

"It can't be that the attack has been canceled—" The other officer had anticipation and regret on his face, regret because he didn't attack without merit, and expectation because he was humble or, it was better than dying in the attack.

"Don't dream, it's impossible, our commander is Lord Nyasaland, do you think he will change his decision?" The bearded captain felt that it was not that simple.

Sure enough, just after the shelling of the British Expeditionary Force stopped, the concealed German artillery positions began to shell in front of the German positions, striking at the infantry units that were normally attacking.

As soon as the Germans began shelling, a reconnaissance plane that was conducting reconnaissance at a high altitude turned around and ran away, and when it flew to the artillery position of the expeditionary force, the pilot of the reconnaissance plane threw down an orange-red iron bucket.

Three minutes later, the artillery of the British Expeditionary Force began to counter the German artillery, and after the war, the Germans had 156 heavy artillery groups in Karno, of which 87 were destroyed in this artillery battle.

How difficult it is to train an artilleryman, it is easy to understand how distressed the Germans were.

Anyway, if the Southern African Expeditionary Force loses 87 heavy artillery crews, Roque will be heartbroken.

Seeing that the German artillery bombardment was becoming more and more sparse, the British expeditionary force still did not stop the shelling, and the attacking troops in the starting position finally received a call to attack, and the bearded captain smashed the wine bottle in his hand, pulled out his pistol and shouted at the soldier who had already hung a bayonet on his rifle: "Charge me, rush over, and kill all the Germans!" ”

Rush me, this is not the same thing as "rush with me".