By the end of June 1912, the German Army's preparations on the Western Front had come to an end, and after nearly 40 days of preparation, the German Army had concentrated most of its elite on the long front stretching from the coastline in the north to Alsace and Lorraine in the south. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After the setback of the first German attack on the Western Front, the German Legion finally had the strength to launch a large-scale offensive again, along with a large number of equipment and troops.

Millions of troops on both sides spread along the Franco-Belgian and Franco-German borders, with the Allies deploying from north to south the British Expeditionary Force, the French First Army and the Fifth Army. In addition, behind the front, there was an armored corps subordinate to the French Ministry of Defense, and during this time, the French were not idle, they were also concentrating their forces and quasi-attacking. Among them, the British Expeditionary Force and three French armies were concentrated on the Franco-Belgian border, while the remaining two armies were concentrated on the Franco-German border, that is, on the line from Verdun to Lorraine-Alsace.

On this front, the British Expeditionary Force had about 400,000 front-line troops. In addition, there are about 100,000 air force, railway artillery and chariot troops, while the average strength of the three French armies is between 300,000 and 400,000, which means that on the battlefield north of Versailles, the total strength of the Entente army is about 1.5 million, in addition to the French armored troops and long-range artillery, air force units and so on about 200,000 in the rear.

The ratio of the southern front is poorer, and the garrison of Verdun is only 700,000. The quality of equipment and personnel is also poor. The French had abandoned their plan to immediately regain Alsace-Lorraine, and they moved their elite troops north for a major offensive.

From the current point of view, the front-line strength of the Entente is more than 2.4 million. The number of tanks and other heavy vehicles owned by Britain and France is around 2400. There are more than 6,500 artillery pieces, including more than 30 long-range train guns of the naval gun class, and the number of aircraft is about 3,500.

The German regiment on the opposite side has also reached the peak of the recent past, when it comes to major events, Ruprecht is still unambiguous, in order to be able to fight this offensive well, the prince only retains a minimum of armored troops on the Eastern Front, more than eighty percent of Hu Feng and cricket chariots came to the Western Front on the special train prepared by the German railway department, plus the chariots that have just been replenished in place this month, the size of the armored corps of the Bavarian Corps on the Western Front has risen to 16 battalions, nearly 700 Hu Feng and cricket chariots, These tanks were organized into 3 armored divisions and an armored reserve.

As the main force of the Western Front, the Prussian Corps was also very powerful, and under the forced order of the Kaiser, the Prussian Corps also made up 1,400 armored vehicles of various kinds on the Eastern Front. These battlefields were programmed with 8 armored divisions. These armoured forces were deployed in such a way that there were 5 Prussian Panzer Divisions on the Northern Front, 3 Panzer Divisions and an Panzer Reserve in Bavaria in the middle, and 3 Panzer Divisions on the Southern Front, that is, on the front south of the Verdun fortress.

The air force arrived earlier, and in order to fight this battle well, Ruprecht not only transferred the air force of the Bavarian Legion, but also most of the air force units of Pommia and Moravia, and 300 fighters and 500 bombers arrived at the airfield in Belgium from the Eastern Front in two weeks.

To Ruprech's special expectation, the number of planes in the Prussian Air Force also rose sharply during this time, before Moltke Jr. also thought that 1500 planes were difficult to make, but the planes of this era were really easy to build, after a large number of carpentry factories and furniture factories in Prussia began to provide raw materials for the aircraft factory, Prussia made up 1200 fighters and 900 bombers during this time, so in the end, the German Air Force involved in the battle reached 2900 aircraft, although the number was less than that of Britain and France, But in terms of quality, whether it was a fighter or a bomber, the German Empire had the advantage.

While the armored forces and the air force have been heavily replenished, other units have also been strengthened, the number of artillery pieces has risen to 5,500 pieces, and super artillery, including the 12-inch L45 train gun, has also entered the position. In terms of automobiles and armored vehicles, at least the German Army was guaranteed to be able to follow 11 armored divisions and then 15 motorized divisions. (Of course, this division certainly can't be a standard infantry division, the latter is too large and a bit heavily equipped, so it can be regarded as a kind of lightly armed rapid division.) ）

From the perspective of the overall layout, Germany reorganized four army groups from north to south, of which the first army group was a merger of the First Army and the Second Army. The 3rd and 4th armies merged to form the 2nd Army Group. Then there was the Fifth Army, plus the troops mobilized by Bavaria from the Western Front, and some of the newly formed units to form the Third Army Group. This army group was personally commanded by Ruprecht. The Fourth Army Group, consisting of the 6th and 7th Armies, was deployed south of Verdun. The four armies lined up in a row had a total of 2 million troops.

"Our preparations are now complete, but our final campaign objective does not seem to have been determined, and today, I hope we can finalize the plan." After looking at Moltke's latest report on the rearmament of the troops, the Kaiser nodded with satisfaction.

At this time, most of the main commanders of the German Western Front came to the base camp in Brussels, and even if some did not come, they would send the chief of staff or other heavyweight representatives. Sitting on the Kaiser's left hand side was naturally Moltke Jr., the German Chief of the General Staff, the first on the right hand was Prince Ruprecht, the second on the left hand was Crown Prince Wilhelm, and the second on the right hand was the Duke of Württemberg Albrecht. In third place on the left hand was the commander of the First Army Group, Kruger, and in the third place on the right hand was the commander of the Fourth Army Group, General Heringen. The rest of the personnel sat in the back.

"The Sword of the Holy Angels is about to be launched in the coming week, our troops have reached their positions, the reserves of various supplies have met or exceeded the projected needs, we all have no disagreement on the objectives of the first phase of the attack, the 1st and 2nd Army Groups launched an offensive from Dunkirk to Mons and launched a believing assault in the direction of Amiens. The 3rd Army launched an attack in the direction of Reims. The Fourth Army Group was responsible for pinning down the French Fourth and Fifth Armies. ”

"However, our disagreement is mainly in the second stage." After Moltke finished speaking, he looked at Prince Ruprecht on the other side and asked, "Your Highness, do you still insist on your point of view?" ”

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