For almost a whole day, the entire French position trembled under dense artillery fire, and the large-scale artillery fire preparations opened the curtain on the long-awaited battle of Verdun for the German army.

The 210 mm and 420 mm siege guns were specially prepared by Germany for this battle to destroy the French fortresses, and the 130 mm new rapid-fire guns were equipped with a large number of German troops on the front line.

The concentration of artillery made their artillery preparations for the offensive far more dense than any of their allies.

The loud sound of the cannon salvo shook the land, countless cannonballs pierced the cold and gray sky, and the terrifying howls from far and near would carry the red-hot, deadly shells, like a rainstorm that had been prepared for a long time, all poured down on the French positions.

Clouds of smoke from the explosion completely obscured the French position, and the earthy yellow smoke and dust were intertwined with the terrifying black smoke. Some yellow-green smoke, which represented poison gases, was like a thin blanket covering the French positions.

In this smoke, dazzling red light and continuous loud noises echoed and flashed with each other. The terrifying force of the explosion swept across the earth, and the dust and stones seemed to be thrown into the sky as if by an invisible and diligent giant.

In the first hour of the artillery attack, the German side fired more than 100,000 rounds per hour, which was indeed a ferocious artillery attack in the history of warfare. Even the German infantry, who had been constantly observing the French positions, were terrified by this kind of shelling.

"Look, I've always said that among the artillery of all countries, our German artillery is the best!"

Driving to a safe high ground on the front line, the eyes of the German crown prince Wilhelm looked at such a cruel "beautiful scenery", and his eyes could no longer leave the "death zone" that made people's souls tremble together.

He admired his artillery fire, the plan of artillery preparation that had been completed under the watchful eye from the beginning.

"If I could, I thought the army would melt with the ground beneath their feet, a place of weeping of death!"

The so-called "place of the dead" is to use the heaviest artillery fire to destroy everything that might hinder the advance of the infantry, so as to ensure the smooth passage of the attacking troops.

Therefore, the German artillery preparations were quite well planned.

The powerful artillery group, in accordance with the planned division of labor, carried out concentrated fire on individual and cluster targets in the first and second positions of the French army, all bunkers, trenches, and all other suspicious objects that were considered fortifications or targets.

Long-range artillery fire carried out large-scale artillery strikes on roads, villages, command posts, artillery positions, and batteries in important areas of the French defense, including the city of Verdun.

The ferocity of such artillery bombardment, whether in the First World War or in all subsequent wars, cannot be underestimated.

However, if the German crown prince could discard complacency and excessive self-confidence and penetrate time and space with the eyes of wisdom, it could be discovered. The bombardment of French positions was not as ferocious as he had imagined.

Because, they are no longer facing field fortifications based on civil fortifications. Now there, there is a "fast front" of modular reinforced concrete structures that can be mass-produced by hundreds of thousands of people in the rear, quickly combined at the front.

The French positions trembled under the ferocious German fire, but deep underground, everything was not as it seemed.

At the center of each position, the ceiling, which is three meters deep through underground passages, is made up of 0.5 meters thick cement slabs and a relatively soft layer of earth, which has completely withstood the test of German artillery fire.

In particular, the 130 rapid-fire guns were hit, and their shells could not penetrate the three-meter-thick sandbags and the reinforced concrete slabs beneath them.

The soldiers sitting inside listened to the loud noise that spread from the surface to the ground, and looked at the cement slab of the roof with some concern.

A three-meter-thick sack filled with dirt is underneath a layer of cement slabs (cement floor slabs) with driving ribs, a hexagonal "beehive" shaped cement frame filled with dirt, and a layer of weight-reducing hollow cement slabs.

For this purpose, the "central anti-artillery hole" in the also hexagonal defense hub was called a beehive by them. When the sound of German artillery began to shake the clouds, all but the soldiers in charge of observing the fortified observation points came here.

Here, after the cold wind was pressurized, it came from a distant place along the pipe, which not only brought fresh air, but also put the whole position connected by the hexagonal passage under a certain pressure, and the poison and poison that made people panic, like the marching soldiers, could not enter at all because of the auxiliary pressure in the pillbox.

At the same time, there were main passages that could be used to retreat to the next front at any time, and like the "beehives", they were buried deep under sandbags, and it was not easy to cut off the French soldiers from the rear.

These are its strengths, and they are the only disadvantages that the French soldiers have discovered so far, which have never really been tested on the battlefield.

In particular, when the German artillery fire was overwhelming and the earth began to shake, I believe that anyone in the center of the artillery fire, including the designers of these "fast fronts", will feel whether such a line of defense can really withstand such heavy pressure as calculated at the time of design!

When the roar of the huge artillery fire stopped at 9 p.m., the Germans, who had been watching through the telescope, breathed a sigh of relief at the same time as the French observers.

Urged by the sound of whistles, the German infantry, who had been prepared in the trenches, opened the straggler line and began to advance in the direction of the French army.

(The first release of this book) does not laugh at group A: 35761481; Email: [email protected].

The well-trained German soldiers were known to be flawed, they were too precise in their movements, and their junior soldiers were a little sluggish in carrying out orders.

Offensive tactics were the same as they had been practiced in school, armed with machine guns, mortars, and flamethrowers at the front of the infantry skirmishers, and they advanced in the scorching heat of the shells, mixed with shrapnel from the feet of the void.

They did not start to advance in a low posture at a distance of 400~700 meters according to the drill code, regardless of whether the assault team was still following the infantry skirmish line, it was a general idea.

Their target, the craters in the French positions, was like craters on the moon, craters of different sizes were stacked together.

"Such a surface should not appear on the terrain at all, and in the same terrain as on the moon, it can be said that no living thing can survive!"

Sure enough, as they advanced, the French positions kept approaching. For the time being, they were not disturbed by any shooting or undue interference.