Will Frenzi give Martin enough artillery support?

No, the British Expeditionary Force also did not have enough artillery, infantry could be trained by assault, artillery could not, and the scientific arms needed to accumulate for a long time to form combat effectiveness.

So will Martin attack the German First Army until he has enough artillery support?

Neither will it be, Martin has only three divisions under his command, and the 105th division is not yet fully staffed, so it must be used sparingly, although southern Africa has to brush up its achievements, but it is not possible to let the soldiers die in vain.

In the end, Martin was supported by an artillery brigade, but it was not given by Frenzi, but by Xia Fei, and the war was far from the British mainland, so the British could wait, the French could not afford to wait, and it would be over after waiting for Paris.

The commander of the artillery brigade was none other than Robert Niveller, who had shone in previous battles and had just been promoted to major general.

"Marshal, Brigadier General of the 43 Artillery Brigade Robert Niveller reports to you—" Robert Niveller looked at the marshal's badge on Martin's neckline, his eyes full of envy.

A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier, and a general who does not want to be a marshal is not a good general.

In fact, they are all about the same, and the brigadier general's collar badge is also made of gold, and the gold content is the same, so the number is overwhelming.

"General Niveller, just call me Martin-" Martin was a little surprised, Robert Nivelle and Petain are both 57 years old this year, neither of them were generals before the outbreak of the world war, thanks to the blessing of the world war, Nivelle and Pétain both performed well, so they were promoted to brigadier general, to say that the French military system is also rigid enough, in southern Africa at the age of 57 can retire.

A brigadier general is not strictly a general, but is probably equivalent to a colonel.

Although Martin's attitude towards Niveler is not bad, if Roque is there, he may be more respectful of Niveler.

Now Nivelle probably couldn't have imagined that two years later he would replace Xia Fei as the commander-in-chief of the French army.

To Martin's surprise, Niveller's artillery brigade was armed with only 36 75-mm infantry guns, a huge gap from that of Britain and Germany, which were usually armed with 54 eighteen-pounder (83.8 mm) guns, plus 18 4.5-inch (114.3 mm) guns.

The German artillery brigade was about the same as the British, with 54 77-mm field guns, plus 18 105-mm howitzers.

"The German artillery is slow to fire, and the efficiency is huge compared to the 75 mm infantry guns we are equipped with, and one of our artillery brigades can easily suppress a German artillery brigade, and we have repelled the attack of the First Army with 75 mm infantry guns before." Nivelle was deeply poisoned and, like most French generals, did not believe that there was a problem with the French artillery mentality.

Miss Seventy-Five does have a huge advantage over similar field guns in Britain and Germany, the rate of fire of the eighteen-pounder field gun equipped by Britain is ten rounds per minute, which is fast enough, and the rate of fire of Miss Seventy-Five is 15 rounds per minute, and the limit state can reach 30 rounds per minute.

The biggest problem of the French artillery brigade is the lack of large-caliber artillery, although the performance of Miss 75 is good, the range and power are limited after all, and it cannot suppress the 105mm howitzers of the German troops, and the 105mm howitzers can easily strike at the artillery units of the French troops outside the range of Miss 75 by virtue of their longer range, so in the previous battle, Nivelle had to deploy Miss 75 in the front-line position, so as to threaten the 105mm howitzers of the German First Army.

"Get ready today, we'll attack tomorrow morning." Martin has no intention of arguing about this issue, the African divisions in southern Africa do not have professional artillery brigades, the troops are only equipped with a small number of mortars, the northern Rhodesia division and the 1st cavalry division each have an artillery brigade, equipped with 54 75mm field guns and 18 125mm howitzers, the firepower output is more powerful than the main British and German forces, and the Nyasaland military-industrial group is still working on 125mm self-propelled howitzers, which can be put into service before the end of the year.

The howitzer has the performance of both a cannon and a howitzer, and when used to shoot with a large charge and a small angle of fire, the performance of the howitzer is similar to that of the cannon, and the effect of the cannon can be played; When firing with a small charge and a large angle of fire, the howitzer is similar to a howitzer and can be used as a howitzer.

The howitzer is not an original invention in southern Africa, Germany is also conducting similar research, another time and space, Germany successfully developed the world's first howitzer in the second year of the outbreak of the world war, and the artillery studied by various countries is a howitzer, but it is named after the howitzer.

Self-propelled artillery is not original to southern Africa, Russia and France are conducting similar research, but their progress is far from that of southern Africa, Russia is loading 76 mm guns on truck chassis and developed the world's first self-propelled artillery, France has just begun research in this area, and the Nyasaland military industrial complex hopes to install its own 125 howitzers on the chassis of tanks, which is the real self-propelled artillery.

Although Martin wanted to give the troops more time to rest, the Germans clearly did not think so, and on the evening of the 8th, Grom's troops launched an attack on the 201st Division, and the battle was fierce, and Grom threw two regiments to attack a regiment of the 201st Division under the cover of artillery, and the 201st Division was outnumbered and withdrew from its position less than an hour after the battle began.

"I can't even hold it up for an hour, why?" Enraged, Martin confronted the commander of the 201st Division, Brian Mullen.

"The enemy was too numerous, and with the help of artillery, there were less than 300 troops left when the troops were withdrawn, and we had problems with the deployment of troops." Brian Mullen is also very helpless, the German infantry division is two brigades and four regiments, each regiment is close to 3,300 people, the 201st division is a temporary formation of troops, using three brigades and nine regiments, a regiment is a little more than a thousand, it is indeed impossible to fight, can hold out until the battle is lost seventy percent before retreating, the 201st division's will to fight is already very tenacious.

"Don't give me a reason, I don't care what you do, before sunrise tomorrow, you must take the position back!" Martin didn't listen to Brian Mullen's explanation, everyone has difficulties, everyone is holding on, it's up to who can hold on.

"I need artillery support." Brian Mullen is not afraid of war either, he is also a Southern African, and he will not care about the casualties of the Fort Glory troops.

Martin also knew that it would be difficult to retake positions without artillery support, so Niveler's artillery had to cooperate with the 201st Division to fight overnight.

At this time, the strength of the French army as an army power could be seen, and after Martin gave the battle order, Niveler's troops completed their operational preparations within two hours, and then began to fire on the German army.

In Martin's concept, fire preparation is usually half an hour, covering the infantry unit to reach the starting position, and then the artillery extends the fire to form a battlefield partition, and the infantry begins to charge, which is the infantry and artillery coordination.

The guiding ideology of the French artillery was obviously not like this, and the artillery of Nivelle had been bombarding for an hour, and there was no intention of stopping, and Martin had to take the initiative to stop.

In an hour, 36 75-mm infantry guns fired more than 20,000 shells, and modern warfare, the average country really can't afford to play.

In order to regain his position, Brian Mullen dispatched a brigade and two regiments, which was originally the reserve of the 201st Division, but was sent to the battlefield on the first day of the battle, and the cruelty of the war can be seen.

The Germans did not expect that the 201st Division would attack overnight, the army of this era rarely fought at night under normal circumstances, the 201st Division recaptured the position, but nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers were killed and wounded, and in one night, the 201st Division was also more than half disabled.

Martin's hands trembled when he saw the battle report, the cruelty of the world war was far beyond Martin's imagination, Southern Africa invaded Southwest Africa, and both sides only suffered a few hundred casualties, Martin had been prepared for heavy casualties as much as possible before coming to France, but the extent of the tragedy was still beyond Martin's expectations, let alone launching an attack on the flank of the First Army, I am afraid that the three divisions in Southern Africa would not be able to hold out for even three days in the face of the First Army.

Three days is considered an overestimate.

On September 8, it was not only the 201st Division that was fighting, but also the British Expeditionary Force and the German Army, which were in the gap between the German First Army and the Second Army, engaged eight divisions, all of which were the main British army, and on the first day of the battle, the British Expeditionary Force suffered 17,000 casualties.

What Martin didn't expect was that when the 201st Division sent the wounded soldiers to the field hospital set up in southern Africa, it learned that the field hospital no longer accepted ordinary soldiers, and only officers were eligible to be sent to the field hospital for treatment.

It is understandable to think about it, after all, the field hospital is better equipped, the medicine is more sufficient, and the doctors are more experienced in dealing with the wounded, and on the entire front, the Anglo-French army suffered more than 30,000 casualties every day, even if only one-tenth of the wounded were officers, it was more than 3,000, and the doctors in the field hospital could not keep busy even if they had three heads and six arms.

Although he knew that the situation was serious, Martin still could not accept that the field hospital was a field hospital prepared by the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa for the Southern African Expeditionary Force, and it began to treat the wounded of the British and French forces out of humanitarianism, but now the wounded in southern Africa could not be treated, which made all the officers and soldiers in southern Africa indignant.

"Why doesn't a country as powerful as France even have a field hospital?" Martin really couldn't figure it out, is it difficult to add a medical school to so many universities in France?

"Our medical system is not meant for everyone, people with rich and status can only be well cared for when they are sick, and the poor can only wait at home to die when they are sick." Nivelle is not welcome, not only France, but also Britain, Germany, and Russia, the entire state system is for the powerful, and ordinary people are just tools.

Listening to Niveler's words, Martin and Brian Mullen looked at each other, the state system in southern Africa is strictly speaking for the powerful, but it does not ignore the interests of ordinary people, Pretoria and Johannesburg have high-end clinics run by private doctors, but there are also general hospitals for the common people.

It's really a comparison that hurts.