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The world war had only been a month underway, and France had already lost the trousers, and in the version of the military uniform, which had just been finalized this year, the red pants were finally canceled and changed to the same blue-gray color as the top.
At half past three, the British Expeditionary Force concentrated three divisions and launched a fierce attack on the German Sixth Division.
The British still did not learn their lesson, and the soldiers marched in a neat formation, singing military songs to the rhythm of snare drums and bugles, towards the German positions.
The 201st Division is the most elite unit of Fort Glory, and has been trained by instructors from southern Africa all year round, except that it is not equipped with artillery, and the training mode is exactly the same as that of the Northern Rhodesian Division and the 1st Cavalry Division.
Of course, the same training mode does not mean that the combat effectiveness is the same, and there is still a significant gap between the combat effectiveness of the 201st Division and the Northern Rhodesia Division and the First Cavalry Division.
Martin threw two regiments into the first wave of the offensive, and although the troops also set out in batches, the troops did not form a thin red line, but formed a skirmish line to charge the German positions.
Unlike the British troops with straight waists, the soldiers of the 201st Division are all charging with cats at the waist, and making full use of the terrain cover, bending down when they should bend over, and climbing when they should climb, although it looks a little embarrassed, but the Fifth Division has invested two regiments and has not yet attacked within 100 meters from the German position, and the skirmish line of the 201st Division has been in close contact with the German army.
Because of the rush of time, the Germans did not have time to place barbed wire and mine arrays in front of the positions, and the attacking troops of the 201st Division arrived fifty meters before the German positions and began to throw grenades en masse.
After throwing all the grenades they had with them, the soldiers of the 201st Division jumped into the German trenches with rifles and sapper shovels.
The battle was extremely tragic, the first company of the second battalion of the Mwaze infantry regiment was wiped out in hand-to-hand combat, the second and third companies combined after the battle only 12 soldiers, the whole regiment of the Kamsamba commando regiment had 1,450 soldiers, and only 280 people were not injured after the battle, 45 people from one tribe of Mwaze joined the army and all died in the battle, a sergeant major of the Kamosamba commando regiment single-handedly killed 14 German soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, and was awarded the Star Order of 1913 after the war.
Despite heavy casualties, the 201st Division broke through the defensive positions of the German 6th Division, which also suffered heavy casualties and was transferred to Luxembourg after the battle to recuperate, only to return to the battlefield a year later.
The British Expeditionary Force finally broke through the German defenses and posed a huge threat to the flank of the German First Army, and Crook had to retreat across the Marne, which was a sentence in the war reports and newspapers, but in reality it was the result of a bloody battle of nearly 600,000 Allied troops for a week and hundreds of thousands of casualties.
The Battle of the Marne broke out on September 5 and lasted until the 12th with the German army retreating on its own initiative, in just one week, the British and French forces lost a total of 260,000 people, the German army lost 220,000 people, and the French army alone lost 81,400 people, and the number of casualties has exceeded that of last month.
Specific to the three divisions in southern Africa, with a total strength of 42,000 troops, 7,500 killed and 14,000 wounded, were directly withdrawn to Deloux for rest and recuperation after the battle.
Martin disagreed, and after the troops withdrew to Delod, Martin combined the remnants of the three divisions into an integrated division and an independent brigade to continue to fight on the battlefield, and at this time, the third batch of reinforcements and five divisions finally arrived in Paris, and the Southern African Expeditionary Force finally won the respect of Xia Fei and Frenzi with their achievements.
"Marshal Martin, please accept my respects, you have the best officers and soldiers in the world, and you deserve the highest honors." Frenzi congratulated Martin, George V personally awarded the Order of Merit to the Southern African Expeditionary Force, and Martin was awarded the Order of the Star of 1913.
"Thank you, we have a duty to win." Martin wasn't much happier, at least not as happy as Frenzi and Xia Fei.
Frenzi finally repaid the trust of George V and Kitchener with the victory, and Xia Fei also safely survived the crisis of confidence with the victory at the Battle of the Marne, but the two of them seemed to be carried away by the victory at the Battle of the Marne, believing that the German army could be defeated in a short time, and at the celebration banquet held last night, Frenzi even frivolously said that the war would be over in six weeks.
I don't know where his faith comes from.
"There are now six divisions in southern Africa, and you can take on more important tasks, we are going to launch a full-scale counterattack against the Germans, and attack the German mainland through Belgium, so that the Germans can taste the bitter fruits of war." Xia Fei was in the limelight, and the battle of the Marne was the most difficult period for Xia Fei, when the French government and the opposition were discussing whether Xia Fei should be replaced.
"Our troops have passed the most difficult phase, and now we should rest properly and wait for more reinforcements, so that we can attack the Germans when we have the advantage in our forces." During the Battle of the Marne, Gallerieni organized 1,000 taxis in Paris and sent 6,000 troops to the front in 24 hours, effectively ensuring the safety of Paris.
These taxis are not horse-drawn carriages, they are cars.
At the beginning of the Battle of the Marne, the Anglo-French forces on the battlefield were weak.
However, as time went on, the Anglo-French reinforcements continued to flow, and by September 8, the Anglo-French forces had actually outnumbered the German troops, so there was a final victory.
"It's too conservative, we're in the thick of it, and we should take advantage of it." William Robertson, the acting chief of the General Staff of the British Expeditionary Force, was also a supporter of the quick victory theory, and the loss of the Battle of the Marne had a great impact on the German army, the most direct impact was the resignation of Moltke Jr., the chief of the German General Staff, and Moltke Jr.'s successor was Falkingham, who had served as the German commander-in-chief in Tanganyika.
Although Falkingham was not successful in Tanganyika, within the German army, after Moltke Jr. resigned, there was no suitable candidate to take over as chief of the General Staff within the German army, Ludendorff was still too young and not qualified enough, and Falkingham was the most suitable person.
"Marshal Martin, your opinion?" The fact that Frenzi took the initiative to ask Martin for his opinion does not prove that Frenzi valued Martin more, but that if the British Expeditionary Force was to fight back, it would have to resort to six divisions of the Southern African Expeditionary Force.
As well as the only separate brigade.
"I don't think we can win quickly, the German army did suffer heavy losses in the Battle of the Marne, but Germany's war potential is far from being fully mobilized, we had better prepare for a long war, the war will not end quickly in a year or two, the most effective way for us now is to gradually deplete the war potential of the German army, the German army has no overseas support, we can mobilize the resources of the global colonies to consume the German army, at most two years, or three years, we can consume the Germans to death, Instead of exchanging the precious lives of the soldiers for a temporary victory, as is the case now. Martin was outspoken, and so far, Martin had done a good job, and although the troops suffered heavy casualties, they managed to win the respect of Franzi and Gallieni.
Forget about Xia Fei, this guy doesn't respect anyone, he only cherishes himself.
"This is not like the words of a marshal who has just won victory on the battlefield—" Haig's words were mocking, and sure enough, when the Battle of the Marne was at its height, the unity within the expeditionary force was temporary, and now that the Germans were retreating and the Anglo-French forces had the upper hand, the contradictions within the expeditionary force had reared their heads.
Before the outbreak of the war, he tried to compete with Frenzi for the position of commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and for this reason, he took Frenzi's eye medicine at George V, but whether it was in terms of seniority, ability, or age, Haig was not as good as Frenzi, so Haig fell short.
Haig is only 44 years old now, and it is still possible to be the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force in the colony at this age, Martin is not yet forty years old, but he is too young in Britain itself, and it is irresponsible to appoint a young commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force.
"So what do you think? We immediately attacked, captured Berlin in six weeks, and then held a military parade in front of the Imperial Palace in Berlin? Martin was not welcome, even Frenzi sarcastically said that the total strength of the German army now exceeds 3 million, and even if the German army does not fight back, they will not be able to shoot them one by one for six weeks.
This is a bit heavy, Haig and Frenzi's faces are not good-looking, Gallieni shook his head and was speechless, the contradictions within the coalition army made Gallerien very disappointed.
"Even in order to contain the German offensive, we must advance the front into Belgian territory—" Xia Fei's words were problematic, and if King Albert I of Belgium heard it, Albert I would probably be depressed.
Depression is not good, this is the sorrow of the small country and the widows, Belgium has not stopped resisting now, after the loss of the fortress of Liège, Albert I concentrated all his troops to defend Antwerp, Xia Fei sternly warned Albert I, if Belgium loses all its territory, then after the war, Albert I will not be able to keep his throne, so Albert I has no choice.
It is said that in Antwerp, Albert I drew a line on the front and demanded that all the generals should not retreat, and whoever retreated would shoot whom.
That's why Belgium has been able to hold on until now.
Antwerp's defensive line was stronger than that of the Liege Fortress, surrounded by a defensive ring of 19 modern fortified fortresses with a garrison of 100,000 men.
"We count the captured materials, the German army now has a big problem with supplies, many soldiers have no food in their bags, and the bullets are about to run out, we found a lot of German corpses in a German field hospital, basically all died of excessive blood loss, but this does not mean anything, the Germans are too far away from the supply base, they are 200 kilometers away from the supply base before the Battle of the Marne, and now that the German army is retreating, it will be closer and closer to the supply base, if we attack, then we will encounter greater and greater resistance." Smith Dorin was calm, and Martin's opinion was about the same.
"It doesn't matter, in the previous stage of the offensive, the Germans had already lost all their well-trained elite units, and now the German reinforcements are all untrained recruits, and it will be easy to defeat them." Xia Fei insisted that although the German army had many new recruits, it must be an exaggeration to lose all the elite troops, and the German army had 790,000 men before the war, and now it has lost one-third.
Third!
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