On August 4, the Germans began their assault on the Belgian fortress of the Scorching Sun.

In 1905, the then Chief of the German General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, developed an extremely top-secret battle plan, which became known as the "Schlieffen Plan".

In Alfred von Schlieffen's vision, Germany, even if it fought alongside Austria-Hungary, would not be able to support a two-front war against France and Russia at the same time.

Considering Russia's inefficient mobilization capacity, Germany had to crush France before Russia could complete its mobilization and its troops would have offensive capabilities, and then return to the Eastern Front to deal with Russia.

France had built a large and well-equipped fortress complex on the German-French border, although it had not yet reached the point of the future "Maginot Line", but direct attacks would also pay a huge price, so Belgium became the best way for Germany to bypass the French defense.

At this time, the status of the fortress of Liège was highlighted to the point of no return, and if Germany wanted to make a detour to Belgium to attack France, it must first conquer the fortress of Liège.

General Gerard Lehmann, who was in charge of guarding the fortress of Liège, had a garrison of 8,000 troops at his disposal, as well as a mobile force of 24,000 infantry, 500 cavalry, and 72 field guns.

The fortress of Liège is located at the confluence of the Meuse and Ouert rivers, bordering the Dutch border to the north, the Ardennes Forest to the south, with the Merz River as the center, six fortresses facing Germany on the east bank, and six fortresses protecting the rear on the west bank, each fortress is six kilometers away from the scorching sun, and the interval between the fortresses is also six kilometers, which is evenly distributed in a radial pattern between the German and Belgian borders.

Before the German troops launched an attack on the fortress of Liège, Moltke Jr., the current chief of the German General Staff, revised Schlieffen's plan, and the army to pass through the fortress of the scorching sun was as many as 500,000 men, so many troops were distributed on a front with a total width of less than 12 miles, and the degree of congestion can be imagined.

In order to conquer the fortress of Liège, the Germans formed a siege force of 30,000 men, this force was well trained and equipped with large-caliber howitzers, which had been deployed to the Derby border in advance, and one of the brigades of this force was commanded by Ludendorff, who was about to shine.

Ludendorff once served as Alfred von Schlieffen's staff officer, participated in the formulation of the "Schlieffen Plan", and knew the key nodes in the "Schlieffen Plan" very well.

To attack the fortress of Liège, first cross the Maas River near the Derby border.

After Germany issued an ultimatum to Belgium, Belgium had blown up all the bridges over the Maas, so the Germans had to use boat bridges to force their way across the river.

The Maas River was already within the range of the artillery of the Liège Fortress, and the Belgian defenders had accurately measured the terrain around the Liège Fortress early, so the Belgian artillery fire was very accurate, and the German troops who crossed the river suffered heavy losses, and the commander of the Western Front, Emich, mobilized more than 200 artillery pieces to bombard the Liège Fortress, but could not break through the fortress's defenses, and the artillery units also suffered heavy losses.

Later that day, Britain formally declared war on Germany, and at eight o'clock in the evening, the Southern African Ministry of Defence received orders from the War Department to immediately launch an attack on southwest Africa.

The Ministry of Defence in Pretoria has been busy since the general mobilization for war.

It is a sprawling complex of six buildings on General Pretoria Street, with six divisions of the Ministry of Defence, two of which share a three-story office building with a defense chief, and Roque's office building is Number Six, which is located in the center of the entire Ministry of Defence.

Outwardly, the entire Ministry of Defense is a huge fortress, with hidden underground passages and material warehouses under the gardens between the office buildings, as well as one hundred and twenty rooms with different functions, and if Southern Africa is invaded by foreign enemies and Pretoria is attacked, then the Ministry of Defense is the last bastion.

According to the plan of the General Staff, Southern Africa has entered a state of combat, Roque and Derek Dodd and Martin are all going to work in the underground office, Dodd is about to go to Nyasaland, Martin is preparing to lead the army to Europe, and Roque does not want to go underground as a mouse, so Roque is still in Office Building No. 6.

"Not yet, I'm going to Congress tomorrow to explain the Department of Defense's war plan and postpone the attack on Southwest Africa." Roque is not in a hurry, although Roque has been looking forward to the attack order for a long time, but Roque has more important things to do.

There are still many hidden dangers in southern Africa, and Roque wants to release the news of the attack on southwest Africa to fish to see how many people will take the bait.

"How do you reply from London?" Derek Dodd hesitated, the army that was preparing to attack Southwest Africa was also the army that was planned to go to Europe to support, and Roque had to occupy Southwest Africa before he could take care of supporting Europe.

On the contrary, the offensive against Tanganyika will begin soon, and the reason is that Roque is ready.

"Let's just say that we need more time to prepare, it's almost winter, and our troops are short of cotton clothes and blankets." Roque can find a lot of reasons casually, in the early days of the war, the British and French forces suffered heavy casualties, and the German-Austrian forces were advancing vigorously.

"Sir, Britain still needs to order blankets from Southern Africa—" Derek Dodd was the one who asked for face, and felt that such a reason was unspeakable.

"What's the matter? The Johannesburg Textile Company is a private company, and our Ministry of Defence has no money and cannot afford it. "Free trade is a good excuse, and the federal government can't requisition supplies at will.

"Lord, Walvis Bay is being attacked by the Southwest African Army-" Patton hurriedly reported, he didn't expect the Germans to move so quickly, it was not long after the declaration of war that they could launch an attack, and it was estimated that it had been planned for a long time.

"Where did the South-West Africans get their courage—" Derek Dodd shook his head and sighed.

"Even if they don't attack Walvis Bay, we won't let them go." Roque knew that the Germans were adventurous, and he didn't know that they were so sufficient, but it also reminded Roque: "Order the troops to attack along the railway, at least to ensure the safety of the Walvis Bay Railway." ”

The attack on Walvis Bay was not severe, with about two divisions besieging Walvis Bay, the only two divisions in South-West Africa, only one of which was a genuine German army, and the other was a colonial servant army formed by the Germans.

Roque's pre-war deployment worked, and there were also two African divisions on standby at Walvis Bay, and although only the officers of the two divisions were white, their combat effectiveness was comparable to that of the two divisions in Southwest Africa.

"We have repelled two enemy attacks, killed at least 500 German soldiers, and the combat effectiveness of the German units does not look very good." The commander of the 103rd Division, Richard Brown, is less than forty years old this year, he is a little thin, and he wears a pair of glasses with a high prescription, which gives people a very urban feeling.

The African divisions that were preparing to go to Europe for reinforcements were all triple-digit starting with "1".

"Don't be careless, this is a German colonial unit, they are not well trained, and they lack artillery, so we can hold on, the real German army is not so easy to defeat." The commander of the 105th Division, Ford Lew, was not proud, he was a veteran soldier who had served in the British Army, fought in the Second Boer War, and had briefly studied at the Army Academy.

"If we can attack, I feel like we can go all the way to Windhoek." Richard Brown has a slight regret, this is all military merit, the kind that can be knighted.

"Enjoy the relaxation now, when we go to Europe, I'm afraid we won't even have time to sleep." Ford Lew is very sober, his and Richard Brown's mission has been clear, after arriving in Europe, they must go all out, it doesn't matter if the troops are gone, the Ministry of Defense will not hold them accountable, they will replenish the troops and rebuild the troops, and they will be punished if they can't fight the heroic tenacity of the southern African army.

To put it bluntly, cannon fodder is not so easy to be, and it takes not only cold-bloodedness but also discipline and courage to make soldiers line up to die.

"General, Mr. Humphrey's car has arrived." Brown's chief of staff wore a ceremonial uniform, and since the 103rd and 105th Divisions arrived at Walvis Bay, Walvis Bay has also been singing every night, and Brown's chief of staff has also been invited.

"Not today, we can't go to the banquet." Brown still has a bottom line, the battle is going on, and Howard Humphrey is really big.

On the front line, five kilometers away from the headquarters of Richard Brown and Ford Lew, fighting is underway.

These African divisions have been established for more than two years, the training of the troops is very strict, the quality of the soldiers is not bad, the trenches are dug in a very orderly manner, the foxholes, communication trenches, and machine-gun positions are all available, and barbed wire and mines are also laid in front of the positions, and the attacking German troops suffered unspeakably heavy casualties.

The troops on the defense are two regiments of the second brigade of the 103rd division, these troops will be reorganized this summer, and the establishment of the British army is different, the African division uses the standard three-three infantry division, one division three brigades, one brigade three regiments, and then the battalion company platoon, all of which are three units, the most basic squad is 12 people, the company plus about 120 non-combatants, the battalion will add a machine gun company, equipped with twelve universal machine guns equipped with tripods, and the regiment level has a company responsible for logistics and transportation, In addition to the units responsible for communications, medical care, and engineering, the standard establishment of each regiment is 1,765 people, and the standard establishment of each division is 17,206 people.

In addition to the establishment, the African Division continued to use geographical names as the names of its troops, and the two regiments of the 103rd Division, namely the Bunia Infantry Regiment and the Mancayane Infantry Regiment, were a clear indication of where the soldiers came from, and if the troops were exhausted, they would continue to replenish their forces from these two places.