Iron Cross Fire

Back on the battlefield, although some minor incidents occurred in Germany, the severity of the incidents affected the army, causing the operations in many areas to be paralyzed. Hindenburg and his entourage must readjust the army's structure within a few days, otherwise they will not be able to fight the next battle.

Kuster only sent a congratulatory telegram and began to control the operation to rescue Le Mans.

A few days ago, he instigated dissension among German officers, which inevitably caused some dissatisfaction in the army. Now that Falkenhayn has fallen, Hindenburg and his entourage have a relatively good relationship with him, so he doesn't need to worry about anything, just let Nelson get angry.

Kuster mobilized three reserve divisions and put them on the front line near the Loire River.

Their role was to interfere with the French army's conjecture, making them think that the Germans were going to make a comeback and break through the Loire River.

In fact, their goal was 108,000 miles away from the Loire River. What they longed for was not the plains, but Paris.

Before, Kuster wanted to twist their will and make them abandon Paris and attack the Loire River instead.

Now that the coup has taken place, there is no great benefit in advancing to the Loire River. For now, we should focus on attacking Paris to boost morale and take over France in one go.

However, this is only a superficial reason, and the deeper meaning remains to be studied.

In short, the German army under Custer's direct command turned its guns around and placed its main force 20 kilometers outside Le Mans.

If you look at the map carefully, you will find that Le Mans has a tendency to be surrounded in the strategic map.

The German armies on both sides are in a pincer attack from the north and south, and penetrate into the rear of Le Mans, squeezing it out of the map.

If Custer does not want to attack Le Mans, he can also attack the area behind Le Mans. Instead of attacking from the front, directly counter-encircling is the best way to get out of the siege.

But they know this, and the French cannot be unaware of this. Moreover, there are countless defeatist and negative officers in the French army. The natural caution of these negative officers is enough to make the defense line have no loopholes.

It was difficult for Germany to implement a pincer attack from the north and south, because the commanders of the two armies were not the same person at all, and there was no unified mobilization. Unless these two people were good partners like Xinglu, it was almost impossible to cooperate, and they would fight each other.

Kuster thought he did not have that kind of interpersonal relationship, so he planned to borrow the hands of others to let the army in the north support his attack.

It happened that Hindenburg's coup, Kuster had given advice to the German emperor before, which was also a help to him. Now it should not be a big deal to exchange a favor.

This was indeed the case. Hindenburg agreed to his request and asked the army group in the north to attack Le Mans.

It is worth mentioning that Hindenburg only told the commander to attack southward, but did not tell him why he should do so, and did not tell him that Kuster was further south.

The Second Army began to attack Le Mans without knowing it, and their commander obviously noticed the possibility of outflanking Le Mans and reported it to Hindenburg.

This happened to be Kuster's trick. Hindenburg handed him the letter intact, which was actually telling him: I have done it for you, you can do whatever you want.

Kuster gathered heavy troops at the salient point and placed a small force on the front to delay the French army on the front. Both sides were ready to attack.

The attack began with another letter from Hindenburg, which told him that the Second Army in the north had begun to break through and made considerable progress.

So Kuster increased the intensity of artillery and carried out a ten-minute artillery wash, and then let a small group of infantry form a commando to occupy the ruins.

Then the troops were divided into several groups and marched towards the railways and rural areas around Le Mans to occupy important local strongholds.

The message came again, four hours later, and the French army was confused by the sudden attack and had not yet reacted.

But his enemies would not give them time. Most of the strongholds had been occupied, so Kuster ordered them to start connecting, constantly marching in the direction of friendly forces, and encircling the French troops they met along the way.

Everything went smoothly. The French army was divided and eroded bit by bit. The scale of each loss was not large, and the largest was no more than a battalion; but what was really terrifying was that the number of losses was extremely large. Almost every five minutes, dozens of French troops of different sizes were surrounded and annihilated.

It was also because of Kuster's nibbling tactics that the German army was always able to annihilate one enemy after another in a short distance with the least casualties.

However, after nearly ten hours of fighting, the progress was far less than that of the Second Army in the north. They had advanced five kilometers and could encircle Le Mans in another twelve kilometers; but Kuster only fought three kilometers, obviously not seriously.

The four German divisions trapped in the Le Mans Plain were a little unconvinced at first when they learned from the telegram that friendly forces were coming to rescue them, but when they heard the continuous gunfire coming from a few kilometers away, the sound of fighting getting closer and closer, and saw the clearly visible flares in the sky, they believed it.

Twelve hours later, they received a notice from their superior, Kuster, asking them to attack southward and cooperate with friendly forces to make a larger detour.

"Note that this is an attack, not a breakout!" Kuster emphasized many times in the telegram, which means that they cannot just pick one point to attack, but must attack from all aspects at the same time.

Sixteen hours after the first shot was fired, the four divisions finally returned to the organization after nearly a month of siege. Everyone in the army was overjoyed, but now there was something more important. They had to participate in the battle again after being exhausted.

Fortunately, it was not all bad, because the French army in Le Mans was only 900 meters away from being surrounded, which was not even one kilometer. As long as they took another step back, there would be no victory.

But the French were simply unable to resist. The attack launched by the German army was not only huge and manpower-intensive, but also had a very wide front. Germany invested two full armies, and the French army was one half of an army split into two halves.

They were doomed to fail from the beginning. Their only role was to delay time and use death and corpses to make the motherland lose more gloriously.

Although the French army hurriedly sent troops to the north and south, intending to hold their positions and make a last-ditch effort.

However, the German attack direction was only slightly to the right, and the French army was once again in danger.

A considerable part of the French army was stuck in the west and could not move, resulting in a pitiful number of troops in the east. The reserve troops had already been put into battle, and they had no support at all, unless the people in the west were willing to run back in the rain of shells.

At this point, the French finally realized that they could not hold on at all, and tried their best to pull the army back.

But the German army in the north and south scattered missiles all over the road they had to pass, and they could not get through at all.

In the seventeenth hour, with the complete retreat of the French army in the east, the last way for the defenders of Le Mans to retreat to the country was completely blocked.

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