The 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 11th Brigade of the 2nd Brigade in Los Angeles was also in the sequence of attacking troops, and half an hour after the battle order was issued, Sergeant Ruiz and Corporal Wilson were ready for battle.

"Don't bring a backpack, it will affect your movements, throw away all the extra things, bring your pistol and sapper shovel, when you are in hand-to-hand combat, pistols and sapper shovels are better than bayonets, have a few more magazines, if you don't have enough, go to the quartermaster, close the insurance, if the operation fails because of a misfire, you will kill yourself directly, hang the grenade on your chest, remember that you throw it again when I tell you to throw it, follow me and Corporal Wilson when you charge, remember what the instructor taught you on the training ground, save your life, You'll be a veteran when the battle is over—" Ruiz carefully instructed Private Tommy before leaving, and Tommy was visibly nervous, carrying a rifle with a bayonet in one hand and a sapper shovel in the other, with the pistol in the holster on his chest.

Like the others, Tommy was draped in a white sheet, which made it harder to spot in the fog, and the 11th Division was to set off at half past five in the morning, arrive at its combat position by six o'clock, and attack promptly at six o'clock.

"Drink this, you were from Southern Africa before you drank it, and after you drink it, Southern Africa will be yours—" Corporal Wilson handed Tommy the vodka in his hand, and Tommy drank it all without saying a word.

Unlike Ruiz and Tommy's Lee Enfield, Wilson is equipped with a BAR designed by the Nyasaland military-industrial complex and Browning.

The full name of BAR is "Browning Automatic Rifle", which is the first individual automatic weapon determined by the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa, compared with the general-purpose machine gun, BAR uses a 30-round magazine Although the firepower is insufficient, the weight is only 6.5 kg, although it is much heavier than Lee Enfield, which weighs less than 4 kg, but it has more fierce firepower, and the reliability is also quite good, no matter what the weather rarely breaks down, so the Southern African Army is equipped with a large number of BAR, In extreme cases, it can be used as a shift firepower.

At half past five, with no sentry posts and no snare drums, the officers and men left the battlefield and advanced towards the German positions opposite.

Tommy's combat group was the vanguard of the 2nd Infantry Regiment in Los Angeles, and Wilson slowly moved forward to the front of the group in small steps, Ruiz and Tommy followed Wilson to form protection, and although the rifle safety was not opened, the bayonets were already loaded.

The fog became thicker and thicker, and the line of sight was only two or three meters at most, and nothing could be seen clearly from two or three meters away, and Welson had just left the position when he suddenly heard movement in the dense fog on the opposite side, probably someone stepped on a dead branch on the ground, making a sound of the dead branch breaking.

Then Welson heard a deliberately suppressed scolding.

German!

When he heard this sentence in German, Wilson instantly felt his hair stand on end, and a sensation of electricity almost running from his spine to the back of his head.

After all, he was a veteran, Wilson didn't speak, leaned his back against Ruiz, and then half-knelt down to level the automatic rifle in his hand, and put his fingers on the safety pin, which could be opened with a single flick.

Ruiz directly put down the rifle in his hand, pulled out his pistol and pulled out the sapper shovel with his backhand.

Tommy silently pulled out a grenade.

Almost suddenly, a German soldier wearing a pointed helmet and frost on his eyebrows and beard appeared in front of Welson.

The distance was only two or three meters, and the German soldiers probably didn't expect to bump into Welson, and in an instant, their pupils dilated instantly, and they didn't have time to howl when they grew up, so they straightened their bayonets and stabbed forward.

Bang!

Ruiz shot first, and Wilson opened the safety and shouted "enemy attack" before pulling the trigger.

At the same time as Wilson fired, Ruiz also fired one after another, not at the soldier opposite Wilson, but at a dense fog of nothingness in front of him.

The grenade in Tommy's hand was finally thrown, and he didn't care if he could blow people up, just throw it at the opposite side.

Almost instantly, the otherwise silent winter night suddenly erupted in gunfire, explosions, screams, and howls.

Wilson emptied the magazine of the automatic rifle and pulled out his gas mask and put it on.

Although smokeless gunpowder is nominally smokeless, in fact there will still be gunpowder smoke when it is launched, and in the foggy environment, the gunpowder smoke cannot be dispersed in time, and the smell can choke people, and Wilson clearly heard someone coughing violently in the dense fog in front of him.

"Charge, charge, charge with all your might—" The officers made a quick decision, unlike the African Division, which had few officers involved during the attack, the 11th Division was composed entirely of subordinate soldiers, and the officers had to follow the troops during the battle.

Welson didn't speak, he didn't rush to charge after replacing the new magazine, and emptied three magazines in a row in front of him before he walked forward with small steps, as long as he saw the corpses of German soldiers along the way, he didn't forget to replenish his guns regardless of whether he was dead or not.

This work was soon taken over by Tommy and Ruiz, who were more convenient to use bayonets and keep bullets for the living Germans.

The position between the two armies is actually only two or three hundred meters away, and if you sprint with all your strength, you can rush through it in a minute.

The battlefield will certainly not sprint with all its might, the ground of the advance is covered with the corpses of German soldiers, many German soldiers are not dead, they are moaning in pain, and the stubborn German soldiers will pull grenades on their bodies when someone passes by, explosions are heard one after another, and the attacking troops are also suffering heavy casualties.

Fifty meters from the German position, you can already faintly see the bonfire burning in front of the German position.

At this time, there was no need for the officer to remind him, all the soldiers took out their grenades, shouted one, two, three, and moved forward at the same time, and only after two rounds did they really sprint.

The German army, which also wanted to sneak attack the position of the expeditionary force, was also ready to defend, and the Maxim heavy machine gun was still very powerful in frontal defense, and the first batch of expeditionary soldiers who broke out of the dense fog were knocked down one after another, but the follow-up expeditionary soldiers were desperate, and the heavy machine guns were immediately bombarded intensively by grenades, and countless soldiers carrying sapper shovels and pistols jumped into the German trenches, and the battle fell into brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Wilson's automatic rifle also lost its effect at this time, and after emptying the last magazine, Wilson smashed the automatic rifle in his hand at a bearded German soldier -

The bearded German soldier did not avoid it, and while letting the automatic rifle smash on his body, he straightened his Mauser rifle and stabbed at Vielsen, who was drawing his pistol-

Bang!

Ruiz knocked the bearded soldier down with a single shot, and Tommy howled and stabbed the bayonet into the bearded soldier's chest.

That's when Tommy understood why the instructor used the sound "ho" when describing a bayonet stabbing into his body.

The human body, especially the vital chest, is peripherystically protected by the sternum.

When the bayonet stabs into the human body, the blade will scrape over the sternum, and at this time, it will make a sound like "poof, poof", instead of chopping pork, which is "poof, poof, poof".

The bearded soldier is tenacious and clutches Tommy's rifle as he dies.

Tommy tugged at it, but couldn't move at all.

"Throw away your rifle, pull out your pistol and sapper shovel—" Ruiz kicked the bearded German soldier's corpse to the ground without forgetting to warn Tommy.

Tommy only then noticed that the bearded soldier had an edelweiss on his neckline.

At this time, the edelweiss was not yet a symbol of the mountain infantry, but it was already a symbol of bravery, and only the bravest warriors were entitled to wear an edelweiss on their collar after crossing the Albis.

Normally, the battle loss ratio in hand-to-hand combat is basically about 1:1, and the Southern African Expeditionary Force has a big advantage in equipment, so the battle loss ratio with the German army is about 1:3.

But even so, the casualties of the 2nd and 11th Cavalry Divisions were unacceptable to Roque.

"The encounter was too sudden, I didn't expect the Germans to take advantage of the fog to raid, the attacking German army included the most elite Prussian 1st Guards Regiment, the commander should be the Prussian Prince Ettel Friedrich, who performed well in the Battle of the Marne, from now on there is no longer the name of the 1st Prussian Guards Regiment-" Paul Cocker's expression was ugly, but his voice was still firm.

Although the heavy losses of the troops were unexpected, if it were not for Roque's order to attack, the troops defending the position would have been attacked by the most elite German troops unsuspectingly, and the casualties would have been even heavier, and perhaps the entire front would have collapsed.

The Germans committed two corps in this offensive, and with the exception of the most elite Prussian 1st Guards Regiment, the rest of the troops were units that had just been trained in Germany and were only reinforced on the Western Front after the New Year.

"How many casualties do we have?" Roque did not care about the 1st Prussian Guards Regiment, only about the casualties of the troops.

"We dispatched a total of six divisions with 28,000 casualties, including 2,080 casualties and 1,900 casualties in the 2nd Cavalry Division, 3,660 casualties and 2,700 casualties in the 11th Division—" Paul Cocker knew what Roark was concerned about, it was acceptable for the troops to have casualties, and both Paul Cocker and Roark were mentally prepared, but the casualty ratio was so large, Paul Cocker truly realized the cruelty of a world war.

"How's the troop going?" Only then did Roque understand the feeling of Xia Fei and Frenzi reading the battle report, when he first arrived in France, Roque would also be heartbroken when he read the war report, but now it is much better, maybe for the generals, the casualties of the troops are just cold numbers on the battle report.

It's like the weather outside.

"We have completely routed the enemy, at least three German divisions, including the most elite Prussian 1st Guard Regiment of the German army, the German casualties are more than 70,000, we have also captured nearly 20,000 prisoners, the specific data is still being counted, the 2nd Cavalry Division and the 11th Division are still attacking, the 11th Division has already captured Ghent, the German army north of Ypres is retreating, the Belgian army and Marshal Frenzi's troops are also attacking-" Paul Cocker finally had a smile on his face, although the troops suffered heavy casualties, But the results were just as brilliant.

Ghent is located almost 60 km from Ypres.

In the New Year's offensive organized by Xia Fei and Frenzi, the British and French forces suffered 170,000 casualties before they advanced the front 500 yards.