It is better not to move over long distances (more than 100 km), otherwise most vehicles will be unable to fight due to damage to their parts. Previous combat experience has shown that the average distance traveled by a vehicle breakdown in our army is sixty kilometers, but with good repair support, such a breakdown can usually be resolved within a few minutes to a few hours. Even then, an armored battalion with sixty-four light and heavy tanks, for sixty kilometers (a three-hour march), will have more than twenty more tanks break down. In short, in the Eastern French theater, ten to twenty percent of the tanks of the armored battalion broke down every hour they traveled......

The vehicle must not neglect daily maintenance. Based on previous experience, the maintenance time should be at least 10 man-hours per day. Tracks, handling, transmission, brakes, turrets, diesel engines, these parts require special attention. Based on previous combat experience, the loss of combat vehicles is six to seven times the loss of personnel, that is, if an armored battalion loses 10 percent of its personnel in battle, then its tank loss may be 60 or 70 percent. However, 90 to 95 percent of non-combat losses can be repaired, and a battalion can be restored to combat effectiveness within five days with existing equipment, and the number of vehicles repaired per day is 20 percent of the repairable portion......

The commander can sit in the turret of the vehicle, but then he will not be able to observe the enemy forces outside the vehicle and properly direct the battle, and it is precisely because the commander is unwilling to lean out of the vehicle that the vehicle is vulnerable to enemy fire, so the commander of the vehicle must stick his head and shoulders out of the turret at all times until he is wounded. If the commander is injured, everyone will panic until the wounded are quiet or the body is placed under the cart or thrown out of the vehicle. At this point, the artillery commander will continue to direct the battle in place of the commander......

The Jesus calendar is only May. The temperature on the Solbyan Plateau was over thirty degrees Celsius at noon, even though there were branches on the head that the soldiers had cut down at night to camouflage. And the logistics also began to supply ice cubes every day, and the battalion commander, Major Song Desheng, still felt that the heat was unbearable, so he woke up every morning to sort out the battle notes he had written before.

From the battle of Baledik last year to the present, the 2nd Panzer Battalion has experienced three battles, among which Baledik is the most tragic, after that battle, the entire 2nd Battalion has lost all its vehicles, and the crew has lost 25, although most of them have returned from injuries after the battle. However, one-fifth of the battalion's fleet was newly recruited from the country. In the face of such heavy losses, Song Desheng thought about summing up the experience of the past six months, and then informed the whole army.

"Report!" While the pen was stopped, the orderly made a report outside.

"What's the matter?" Song Desheng put down his notes, thinking that the division headquarters had given the order to attack.

"It's the motorized infantry battalion that is newly assigned to my battalion that has arrived, and the battalion commander has come to report." Soldier Road.

Based on the idea of a one-to-one organization of armor, artillery, and infantry by army commander Major General Wang Shiqian, the armored division is composed of an armored brigade, a self-propelled artillery brigade, and a motorized infantry brigade, as well as reconnaissance, boat, bridge, air defense, fuel, communications, and service battalions, and each armored division has 257 combat vehicles, 144 self-propelled artillery pieces (excluding 80 mortars of the motorized infantry brigade), 4,100 motorized infantry soldiers, and 1,350 trucks.

Because the brigade below all the way to the battalion is a two-two system. Therefore, the armored battalion, the artillery battalion, and the motorized infantry battalion can form an additional armored contract force. The armored division has a division commander, but this kind of battalion-level contract unit is not a permanent formation, so according to the usual practice, the commander of the armored battalion usually serves as the commander of the contract unit. It is based on this convention.

The participation of the Baath Army in the European war, regardless of political considerations, in the opinion of Major Song Desheng, who had experienced many battles. Militarily, they were simply here to train troops, and the General Department had no intention of completely defeating the Germans. It is for this reason. Something strange is going to happen, like right now. The motorized infantry brigade, which had gone through a major war, was supposed to continue to fight with the army after replenishing its combat strength, but it did not want the motorized infantry brigade to be directly transferred to the rear by the general department, and another newly formed motorized infantry brigade was transferred. If it was the previous motorized infantry brigade, Song Desheng felt that he didn't need to say anything to them, but now that he had changed people, he had to meet them.

The new commander of the motorized infantry battalion was a lieutenant colonel officer in his forties named Bai Lang, who was from Henan, probably because he was not good at speaking Beijing, so he simply spoke Henan. There is not much difference between Henan dialect and Northeast dialect, and Song Desheng chatted with him quite well. But just as the two were chatting freely, the orderly hurriedly handed over a telegram, saying that the division headquarters had notified the meeting.

The Germans had stolen the Armousis tactics of the Ba'ath Army and knocked the French to the ground, and in order to contain the Germans' momentum, a diversion offensive on the right flank was necessary. Since the troops were assembled, Song Desheng had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and he didn't want this day to really come.

Gifted to the motorized infantry battalion commander named Bai Lang, Song Desheng rushed to the division headquarters a few kilometers away, he was not the earliest, Wu Zhennan, the commander of the first armored battalion, was already there.

"Attack tomorrow at dawn!" After everyone arrived, the first thing the division commander Li Yinpei said was this. After that, Chief of Staff Wang Bingyan began to introduce the main points of the offensive, the situation of the German defense line, and the significance of the operation.

“…… Although the main German army was transferred to the front line of Paris, the defenses of the Lorraine area were being strengthened in various ways, especially in Metz, which was only a few dozen kilometers away from Nancy, where the defense line was followed by minefields, fortifications, and countless anti-tank artillery fortifications and anti-tank trenches. The sole purpose of our troops was to contain the German offensive on the left flank of the Allied forces, so as to save the British Expeditionary Force from fire and water.

Comrades, the French army has been basically defeated after being struck by German armor, according to accurate information, even if the French soldiers hear the sound of automobile engines, they will not distinguish between the enemy and the enemy, and retreat one after another, once the British army is also completely defeated by the armored forces gathered by the German army, then this war will be a victory for the German army, which is not at all the result we expected......"

At the end of the lengthy introduction half an hour ago, Chief of Staff Wang Bingyan began to emphasize the significance of the operation, but before he could say a few words, division commander Li Yinpei interrupted his speech.

"It's all my own people, so there's no need to talk nonsense." Li Yinpei said arrogantly, "If the Germans win, we won't have good fruit to eat." Not only will we have no good fruit to eat, but the country will also suffer heavy losses. We are not worried about the Germans hitting East Asia. But the money that has been earned for four years is about to be wasted.

Everyone was wronged before, and the sacrifice of their comrades-in-arms was heartbreaking. But why should you be wronged? Why sacrifice? I think anyone with a little bit of a brain in this room should know it. No matter how wronged we are, no matter how many people we sacrifice, we must not forget that we are a member of the Renaissance Army, and it is our duty to carry out the orders of our superiors.

Of course, the prime minister also knows what we have done for most of the past six months, but there are some things that are inconvenient to let go. In view of the outstanding performance of the armored divisions, the General Staff decided last year that the armored divisions would be expanded after Europe. What is the expansion method? Tripled, one army became three. Three divisions became nine divisions......"

Hearing the division commander say that the prime minister knew about the exploits of the armored division, the eyes of everyone present at the meeting were red. A good division and a good army have to be dismantled and restricted, and watching their comrades-in-arms sacrifice one by one, this kind of grievance feels extremely sad when I think about it, but the division commander said that the prime minister knows everything, and suddenly, everyone's grievances that are higher than the mountain and deeper than the mountain immediately disappeared; Hearing that the troops were going to be expanded after the war, the tears that I had held back before could no longer be held back in my smile, and they flowed down one after another.

"Cry what cry! It's really useless......" Li Yinpei had already cried. Now when I see my subordinates crying, I can't help but reprimand them with a straight face. "I am here to remind once again that there is military discipline in the army, and there are rules for members, from birth to death. Some things are held back, and they will be held back for the rest of their lives, and there is no need for wives and children to talk about it. Do you hear that? ”

"Yes, sir!" The officers in the conference room immediately shouted yes. The sound seemed to burst through the roof.

"Good! I won't say more. Remember, this battle will play the prestige of our 1st Division! Li Yinpei finally said. The hideous face was almost roaring.

Verdun was once a fortress, the westernmost of the four fortresses of the northeastern French defense line, Verdun, Tulle, Epinal, and Belfort. In the original history, because of the German detour from Belgium, the fortress had become worthless, but this place was the starting point of the French army to attack the Rhine from the Middle Ages, and it was of great spiritual importance in the history of France and in the minds of all French people, so that even if the Germans advanced only a few hundred meters here, it would be the headline of the whole French newspaper the next day.

The former chief of the German General Staff Falkingham saw the importance of Verdun in the hearts of the French, so he pretended to occupy it with heavy troops in order to attract the French army to come to defend, and then eliminated the heavy howitzers that the French army had an absolute advantage over them one by one. Originally, the plan was perfect, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander of the German Fifth Army, for reasons of honor and other indescribable reasons, forced the Germans to capture the fortress of Verdun despite Falkingham's obstruction, so that the blood of the French was exhausted, and the blood of the Germans was also exhausted.

It's good that this is just history, and in this different World War I, Verdun was no longer a meat grinder, Paris was. However, the losses of the German army at the meat grinder in Paris were much smaller than those of the historical Verdun, so they retained some more vitality. Because of this, Verdun did not have any fighting since the French army voluntarily retreated at the beginning of the war.

Judging from the battle plan issued by the General Directorate, the Verdun operation was extremely simple, with one main attack and one feign attack of the two armored divisions. After the capture of Saint-Mière, the 2nd Division followed the valley of the Maas River north to Verdun, the nearest road, less than forty kilometers along the road and the German-built railway; The feint 1st Division was to fight north from Baledik, which was at least 50 kilometers from Verdun, and Baledik was a place where the two sides repeatedly fought at the end of last year, not to mention that the Germans on the opposite side were heavily guarded, and even if the German defense line could be opened, the middle ground that was ravaged by artillery fire was not so easy to cross. However, in the view of division commander Li Yinpei, the main attack feint is just a kind of saying, even if it is an iron wall in front, the 1st Division will chisel through it, and it will never stop until Verdun is hit.

When Song Desheng returned to the battalion headquarters, he asked the company commanders to come to the meeting, and while he was still in the meeting, the artillery behind the trench began to shell. He looked at his watch and said: "The artillery began to fire according to the plan, and we didn't have any tricks this time, we just saw the breakthrough and rushed in one by one." There will be losses, but we will lose so much to the enemy, and all four armored battalions are here. It was four times the expected strength of the Germans, and all of them were pressed up. Even if they were prepared, they would be caught off guard. The key to victory in this battle is to rush and fight. Speed is the best defense. ”

Song Desheng shed tears when he held a meeting at the division headquarters, because he had complained about the General Department and the General Staff Department more than once in private because of his previous grievances and sacrifices, but after learning that the Germans used armored assault tactics to occupy Paris, and the division commander personally confirmed everyone's speculation, his complaint immediately turned into guilt. The Prime Minister's decision to come to Europe to fight in the war was not for the sake of reckless militarism or the shedding of blood for foreigners, but for the sake of the country and the nation.

One more year of war will make one more year of money at home. How much money does this cost?! Not counting the rest of an armored division, it costs 30 million yuan just to complete all kinds of equipment and personnel, which is almost equal to a dreadnought battleship. Nine armored divisions are nine battleships, and this does not include fuel and ammunition for annual training. The reason why six divisions can be expanded at once is not because the war can drag on for a few years if it continues like this, and the country can earn a lot of money.

It's just that no matter how long the war drags on, the Germans can't win, that's clear to everyone. Because of this, the Baath Army wanted to give the morale of the German army a slap in the face. Pull him back so that the Anglo-French forces can be reinvigorated so that the war will be stalemate again. Now the armored division is the one who hit this baton, in order to get the accuracy of this baton, and at the same time, to take the 2nd Division by surprise. The 1st Division's side is to be above board, to force the attack.

All the truths were passed through in Song Desheng's heart, but when he looked at the three company commanders who were looking at him, he kept silent and didn't say anything - since he had to defend it for the rest of his life. The wife and children can't say it, and the subordinates can't say it.

"Alright. Don't be stunned, now on the table. The attack began three and a half hours later, and the breakthrough we and the 1st Battalion had chosen to be at the previously seen Raison, where there was enough width to swing the entire panzer regiment apart. Song Desheng said, and then looked at his watch: "It's now 10:35 minutes and 35 seconds, and the attack starts on time at 2 o'clock." And remember that every car was tied to that kind of wooden frame, and the German tank trenches were widened again, so don't be overwhelmed by the time. ”

How to fight? Where to fight? It has been scouted and discussed before. Instead of aiming at the place where the enemy's defense is strongest, Rush Strike is to choose a breakthrough suitable for the deployment of the entire armored division and launch an attack by surprise. Rushing and striking is only to use absolute superiority of forces at the selected breakthrough point to quickly and firmly cut through the enemy's defense line without fear of sacrifice. Any breach will be fortified by enemy troops, so the troops must be prepared to sacrifice and determined to win.

Two hours after the artillery bombarded the German positions on the opposite side, a light rain suddenly began to fall outside. Fortunately, the rain was very light, and the air force bombers in clumsy formations in the air flew slowly under the protection of the fighters. At this time, most of the German planes had already moved west, and in the past few days, except for patrol planes, there was no trace of German planes at all.

A dull hum drifted over the assembly ground of the Panzer Division, gradually moving north. After arriving at the German lines, the neat flying formations began to split into squads, aiming at valuable targets on the ground and began to 'lay eggs'. The sound of explosions, which was more continuous than the sound of artillery, came from several kilometers away, and in the thicker smoke of gunpowder, the German defense line, which had been faintly distinguishable before, was now completely engulfed in smoke and fire, and everyone could only know from the tremor of the ground that the bombardment was not far from their side.

There were no slogans or orders, and as soon as Song Desheng's No. 092 car started its engine, the tanks of the whole battalion were also started; As soon as he drove forward, the chariots of the whole battalion also advanced according to the assault phalanx. Just like a skilled rider driving his own mount, the veterans who have experienced the battle are familiar with the way to the front line trenches, the tension and youth of last year have completely disappeared, and some of the car crews are even giggling, but the motorized infantry battalion that just came up yesterday seems to be very nervous, and the kind of wholeheartedly everything has to be on guard at a glance to know that it is a rookie who has just gotten on the chariot.

When the chariot stopped when it arrived at the front trench of his side, Major Song Desheng deliberately looked at his watch, the time was exactly right, just two o'clock on time. At this time, the artillery in the rear just stopped the shelling of the German first trench defense belt, and the delayed artillery fire formed a dense and wide barrage across the rear of the first defense belt to isolate possible reinforcements, and at the same time, some other artillery arranged in the front began to suppress the German artillery, so that it could not suppress the formation of their own armored forces.

Firmly fastening the gas mask, Song Desheng rhythmically knocked on the turret cover, and the lever of car 092 was beaten, and the click sound was not light or heavy, and the chariot was like a wild wolf out of the mountain foraging for food over the trench, walking in this incomparably muddy and filled with gunpowder smoke and poisonous gas. The increase in track shoe drag caused the diesel engine to roar and the entire body to tremble. Song Desheng, who leaned out of the turret, felt that the thick mud was thrown to the rear by the chariot tracks, and the two trenches were 'dug' out by the 092 car, and the car behind followed him closely, and the roar of countless engines merged into a boundless sea.

"Boom... Boom ......", the German artillery shells finally hit, and the fragments hit the steel chariot with all kinds of sounds, and then the Maxim machine gun bullets also hit the front armor plate, singing like a clang. Although the Germans, who had become accustomed to the armored assault of the Baath Army, did not know why the Chinese had to prepare for artillery fire this time, the fierce shelling and bombardment just now caused them heavy losses. Even so, the German machine gunners, ecstatic at the capture of Paris, struggled to fire indiscriminately in the smoke mixed with poison gas, hoping that these thin bullets would stop the enemy's advance.

'When... When ......' Song Desheng, who was wearing a poison gas mask, was also in a daze in front of him, and he didn't know where the slightest poisonous gas leaked in stimulated him to tears, fortunately the artillery did not use mustard gas, otherwise his tearful eyes at this time would be blind. Shaking his head so that the tears did not cover his eyes, Song Desheng knocked out the order to fire. Suddenly, the front row of chariots, machine guns and artillery began to roar, the fire was overflowing, shells and bullets through the dense smoke, I don't know where they went, but this is a necessary action for the assault, even if they can't hit the enemy's fire point, this kind of disruptive shooting can also bring a lot of trouble to the enemy, and even, if the opponent's fighting spirit is not strong, they are likely to abandon their positions and flee.

The disruptive shooting seemed to be really effective, and the sound of the shells and the sound of 'dong dong dang' became slightly thinner, but when the breeze blew away the layers of gunpowder smoke in the middle of the battlefield, Song Desheng suddenly found that the German position on the opposite side flashed more than a dozen fires, he didn't have time to shout, 'boom', the 061 car across a row was pierced by the shells, and the ammunition in the car was instantly detonated by the shells, and after a more violent explosion, the entire turret of the combat vehicle flew up.

...... one car was destroyed and another car was destroyed, in the round of shelling just now, from Song Desheng's angle, at least six cars were destroyed. The German 77mm anti-tank gun could fire three to five shells a minute, and in the past, it was less than a kilometer away, and a throttle tank could rush through, but now the Germans who have learned enough to dig a continuous series of anti-tank trenches in front of the trenches, and those anti-tank artillery positions are huddled in thick concrete fortifications, and even a direct hit from the rear artillery fire cannot destroy them - to destroy the enemy tanks one by one when they are stuck in the anti-tank trenches, which is the latest anti-tank tactics of the German army.

"Rush down the trench! I am Song Desheng, and I ordered the first platoon to abandon the frame and rush down the trench! I am... Ahem...... ordered the first platoon to abandon the frame and rush down the trench ... ditch, cough cough cough ......"

Ignoring the spicy poison gas, Song Desheng took off his gas mask and held his breath and shouted a command to the radio. Leaning out of the turret, he had already found that the deep and wide trench could not be crossed by the wooden frame of the chariot alone, and the best way was to fill the chariot directly into it, and as for the mines in the trench that might not have been destroyed by artillery fire and detonated, this was not the time to count sacrifices, this was the time to immediately rush through the enemy lines and destroy the anti-tank guns.

The battalion commander's order was clearly transmitted to the ears of the commander of every tank in the first row, and the wooden frame that was carried on the tank was abandoned, and after firing a few shots, one after another the tank fell into the anti-tank trench, perhaps because the artillery fire was dense enough just now, and not many tanks triggered the anti-tank mines in the trench.

The Chinese used the body of the chariot like ants to fill in the anti-chariot trenches one by one, and the German troops on the opposite side were dumbfounded; And just as they were cheering for the elimination of more than 20 enemy tanks, the breeze blew again, and the no-man's land where the smoke cleared revealed an endless steel tank, and all the Germans were shocked in their hearts, but the gunners, who had been surrounded by shells and machine guns, could not exit the fortifications and transfer, they could only fight to the death in this cement tomb! (To be continued......)