In August, the most terrible month ever, the German army lost 18,000 men, compared to the Anglo-French army that consumed 35,000 tons of ammunition, of which nearly 200 million rounds of ammunition, if all were 0.303R rifle rounds weighing about 25 grams, then it would be almost 10,000 rounds to kill a German soldier.

In the previous stage of the Second Cavalry Division's operations, although the Second Cavalry Division achieved brilliant results, but the Second Cavalry Division's dependence on logistics was also very serious, behind the brilliance of the fighters was the abundant supply of ammunition, the Second Cavalry Division consumed 8,500 boxes of ammunition on the first day of the battle, in Haig's words, if the Second Cavalry Division maintained the rate of consuming bullets on the first day, then the entire British Expeditionary Force would be dragged down by the Second Cavalry Division.

As a result, when it came to the stalemate stage, the efficiency of the 2nd Cavalry Division finally showed, 21 bullets and 17 German troops, this achievement was similar to God's blessing, so that when Roque reported the results, the Expeditionary Force Command and the War Department suspected that Roque was lying about his war exploits, which was simply unreasonable.

"Isn't it weird? Ensign Steve, who sniped 125 German troops, is a representative of the accurate shooters of the 2nd Cavalry Division, but he is not the best accurate marksman of the 2nd Cavalry Division, and he is not even excellent, it is only because the Germans chose the position of Ensign Steve's unit as the main direction of attack, so Ensign Steve stands out, 21 bullets killed 17 Germans may seem mythical to you, but in the 2nd Cavalry Division, such an achievement is not uncommon. "If Roque must brag about it with others, he doesn't have to talk to Winston.

As the Minister of the Admiralty, Winston frequently traveled back and forth between London and Ypres during this time, and when the Belgian army had not yet abandoned Antwerp, Winston sent a telegram to London, hoping that London would appoint Winston as the commander of the British army in Antwerp, but Kitchener strongly opposed it.

Winston can be the Minister of the Navy, there are many stories that have to be told behind it, the commander in Antwerp is forgotten, others don't know Winston, Kitchener knows very well, when Winston was captured by the Boer coalition forces in southern Africa, Kitchener was the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force.

"The Second Cavalry Division is not the most combat-ready unit in southern Africa, if the Northern Rhodesia Division and the First Cavalry Division are transferred to France, what kind of results can be achieved?" Winston was always ambitious, and he was not satisfied with his appointment as Secretary of the Navy, but always wanted to play a bigger role.

After the outbreak of the World War, the German Navy was confined to a military port and became a fleet, and the mighty British Royal Navy had nothing to do, and Winston even sent marines to Flanders to fight in the war.

What is ironic is that the British Marines are actually stronger than the British Army, of course, the former "poor little army", and now the British Army is soaring, and the Marines are the "poor little army".

"Mad Dog has sued you, saying that you have disobeyed orders and disregarded the interests of the British Empire, and suggested that the command of the Southern African Expeditionary Force should be merged into the Second Army." Winston reports that "Mad Dog" is not talking about Frenzi, but about Haig, which is the nickname Winston gave Haig.

The nickname is a bit far-fetched, Haig's name does have the pronunciation of dog, but it has nothing to do with dogs, "Douglas" means black river, derived from a Scottish surname.

But the personality is quite similar, Haig's style of making small reports anytime and anywhere is indeed similar to a mad dog.

"Dreaming!" Roque did not comment on this kind of brain-dead behavior, Haig wanted more power and wanted to go crazy, the Second Army only had four divisions, plus eleven divisions of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, so he simply started anew.

"London also wants an offensive before winter, preferably with a victory similar to that of the Battle of the Marne." This is the purpose of Winston coming to Roque, Frenzi can't command Roque, Kitchener is inconvenient to speak, Winston is indeed the most suitable person.

"Was the Battle of the Marne a victory?" Roque is realistic.

"For the British Empire, yes!" Winston is all about the interests of the Empire.

The Battle of the Marne lost 260,000 men to the Anglo-French forces and the Germans to 220,000 men, which was indeed a victory for the Anglo-French forces in terms of strategic purposes, and the Battle of the Marne ended with the retreat of the German army, marking the failure of the Schlieffen plan.

But for Roque, such a victory is not worth celebrating, the Anglo-French army exposed a lot of problems in the Battle of the Marne, that is, the German army itself had more problems, so the Anglo-French army won the victory, if the German army could have a wise commander who knew the situation at the front, if Crook was not so stubborn to destroy the French Fifth Army but resolutely detoured to Paris, if the gap between the German First Army and the Second Army was not so big, it would be difficult for the Anglo-French army to win.

It's just a pity that there aren't so many ifs.

"We and the elite German troops were almost lost in the Battle of the Marne, and now the Germans are sending 16-year-olds to the front, unless the Allies have the same determination, otherwise we will not be able to replicate the victory at the Battle of the Marne." Roque didn't want to hear anything related to "offense", and in that respect, Roque was also stubborn.

"Canadian and Indian troops have arrived in Calais and are ready to join the fight, and you have more than 100,000 troops in Port Elizabeth, what do you want to do?" Winston finally mentions Port Elizabeth, which Roque and Paul Cocker had discussed before.

"In order to protect the oil fields of Port Elizabeth - I have received information that the Ottoman Empire could enter the world war at any time, and we better be prepared." Roque is referring to Egypt in particular, Port Elizabeth is ready for the Ottoman Empire to enter the war, but Egypt is not.

After the outbreak of the world war, the importance of oil became more and more obvious, and the oil tankers going to the British mainland were jointly escorted by the fleet of Southern Africa and the British Middle East Fleet.

"Why did you put more than 100,000 people in Port Elizabeth, and the Ottomans had to join the war even if they didn't want to." Winston was so angry that Britain was now overstretched, and all the troops in the overseas colonies were being transferred back to support France, and they were not able to take care of Egypt at all.

Just as the Ottoman Empire's troop build-up to Damascus and Basra could not hide from the British, Roque's troop build-up to Port Elizabeth could not hide from the Ottomans.

Roque did not want to hide from the Ottomans, and continued to increase troops in Port Elizabeth in order to force the Ottomans to enter the war, in the Italian-Turkish War and the two Balkan Wars, the weakness of the Ottoman Empire has been revealed, Martin has arrived in Port Elizabeth, as long as the Ottomans enter the war, the army in Port Elizabeth will attack Damascus and Basra at the same time.

Elizabeth Oil Field was too close to the Ottoman Empire, and if the Ottoman army attacked and the forces in Port Elizabeth counterattacked, then Elizabeth Oil Field could be affected.

This was unacceptable to the Anglo-French forces, which were increasingly dependent on oil.

Even when Winston came to find Roque, the battle was going on on and off.

Unlike the short-lived and intense Battle of the Marne, the Battle of Ypres was a fierce battle that lasted for nearly a month, in the fields of Flanders, the Anglo-French-Belgian forces and the Germans fought brutally, every house and every forest became the focus of contention, the positions of the two sides changed hands many times, one front after another, and the warring sides built countless forts in Flanders.

The terrain around Ypres was complicated, there were many rivers here, the cavalry was useless, the Anglo-French-Belgian army controlled the road with machine guns, forcing the Germans to attack through the forest and bushes, and the Anglo-French-Belgian army built a fortress on the edge of the forest, and the Germans who rushed out of the forest had no obstacles to use and suffered heavy losses.

Compared with the German army during the Battle of the Marne, the German army is now inexperienced and makes ridiculous mistakes, one night, a German unit paid a huge price to conquer a village defended by the British, and then the superior ordered them to withdraw from their positions to rest, as a result, this inexperienced force made a huge mistake, they withdrew their positions before reinforcements arrived, and then the British recaptured the village without much effort, and strengthened the defenses of the position, and the Germans then launched several attacks, But until the end of the Battle of Ypres, the Germans did not recapture the village.

On October 20, the Germans broke through the line of the British 7th Division, and Ypres was close at hand, at which time there was no army defense between the German advance and Ypres, and the Germans only needed one charge to capture Ypres.

A Brigadier General of the British Army organized the remnants of the 2nd Regiment of Worcester to launch a counterattack, with only 7 officers and 357 soldiers in total, and 100 soldiers were killed on the way to the charge, at which time a miracle happened, the Germans did not know that there were only so many British troops attacking, and thought that this was the vanguard of the attack of a large army, but the Germans scattered and fled, and God blessed the expeditionary force again.

Since October 15, the positions of the 2nd Cavalry Division have not been attacked in any way, and the Germans seem to have abandoned the attack on the 2nd Cavalry Division, instead trying to open a gap from the British 7th Division.

On the 21st, the British 7th Division, which suffered heavy casualties, withdrew to France to rest, the 2nd Cavalry Division and the 11th Division took over the positions of the British 7th Division, and the Germans launched the largest offensive since the outbreak of the Battle of Ypres the next day.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the German artillery began to strike at the positions of the 11th Division, the British and French forces had begun to try to concentrate on the use of artillery, the Germans were also advancing, and the positions of the 11th Division were suddenly covered by German artillery fire.