Romanian Eagle

While Romania is busy with the many new births, the breath of early spring has arrived in France. Here the Germans are preparing for a battle against the French army, fighting for a blow to get France out of the war.

The German strategy in 1915 was a great success. Russia was repelled on the eastern front to Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Now Russia has no threat to the eastern German territory. Serbia, which had been resisting the Austro-Hungarian army on the southern front, was also completely occupied this year, even bringing a new member to the Allies. As for Ottoman Turkey, it also repelled the Allied attack with the help of the German advisory group. So in 1915 it was completely the Allies dominated.

The Allies, although at a disadvantage in the army to the Allies, were a different picture in terms of naval ships. Allied naval ships were suppressed in the North Sea and the Adriatic Sea by the fleets of Britain, France, Italy and other countries. Although the Allied navies relied on excellent generals to harass the Allied transport lines on the ocean, they were quickly eliminated.

Now the German army will mainly focus on France, and the biggest pusher is the chief of the general staff, Admiral Falkenham. He became the Prussian Minister of War in 1913. On September 14, 1914, the German army suffered a setback at the First Battle of the Marne, and the Schlieffen plan failed. Falkenham took over as the German chief of staff and planned the March to the Sea operation, intending to seize the northern French ports and cut off the direct connection between Britain and France, but he failed in the first Battle of Cambrai and failed to do his best.

He advocated that Germany should focus its strategy on the Western Front, which conflicted with the Eastern Front strategy of Generals Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff. However, because of his position as chief of the general staff, the Battle of Verdun was forcibly passed in 1916.

According to Admiral Faginham's plan, he chose to attract the main force of the French army in Verdun, and by annihilating the main force of the French army, the French government surrendered. To this end, he also made confusing deployments.

In early January 1916, Falkingham quietly assembled his troops to attack Verdun. At the same time, Germany blatantly increased its troops to Chambenny, making a gesture of launching an offensive at Chambenny. Xia Fei, commander-in-chief of the French army, was really fooled. Since the Germans were unable to conquer Verdun and diverted their offensive in 1914, the French considered the Verdun fortress obsolete, and Xiaffi stopped strengthening the fortress in 1915.

At this time, the movement of the German army towards Chambéni made Xiafei extremely vigilant. He believed that the German army would attack Chambény and then march into Paris from here. The Germans were continuing to gather their forces quietly in the direction of Verdun.

As the signs of the gathering gradually became apparent and exposed, the British and French forces finally figured out the true intentions of the German army.

Verdun was the northeastern gateway of Paris and the support point of the entire front of the French army. Once lost, the capital Paris will face the German attack directly. This time Xiafei panicked, and quickly ordered to send more troops to Verdun. Fortunately, due to poor weather conditions, the German offensive was delayed, providing time for France to mobilize reinforcements,

France mobilized two divisions into the area.

On this day, the Germans began to attack Verdun. The troop that received the offensive mission was the 5th Army Group under the command of the German Crown Prince Wilhelm (administered 7 armies, 18 divisions, more than 1,200 artillery pieces, about 170 aircraft, and a total of more than 210,000 people.)

Its 7th, 18th and 3rd Corps (6 and a half divisions, 879 guns, 202 mortars) carried out the main assault on the 15 km wide front from Consangva to the Orne, with the 5th Corps covering its left flank. The 15th Army carried out an auxiliary assault 6 kilometers south of the Orne, and the 6th Army carried out diversion operations on the west bank of the Meuse. In the direction of the main thrust, the German infantry was twice as much as the French infantry and 3.5 times as much artillery. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, the Germans carried out a series of feints on the Western Front in January of the same year.

In fact, as the French commander-in-chief Xiafei, he had the opportunity to respond immediately, but because of a bad habit of his own, the defenders of Verdun were even more critical. Xiafei should not be disturbed when sleeping. He believes that a commander needs to have enough sleep in order to have the energy to deal with the ever-changing battlefield situation. So when the battle broke out that night, the French commander-in-chief Xia Fei was asleep, and the messenger who sent the battle report waited dryly all night.

It was not until the next morning that Xiafei, who was yawning, knew that Verdun was in a hurry.

Such a slow response has serious consequences. In less than four days, the German army fully broke through the Verdun position, and more than 13,000 French troops became prisoners of war. On February 25, nine German soldiers easily climbed to the northern support point of Verdun, the Fortress of Verdun. The strategic location of the fortress of Verdun was about to collapse. Paris, not far away, was red-eyed, and even the French government was preparing to move again. In the description of the newspaper at the time: It is exactly the same as before the last defeat (the Franco-Prussian War).

But the real consequences are bound to be worse: if Germany takes a step forward and successfully controls the main heights of Verdun, France will either watch Verdun fall and the gates of Paris will open, or they will throw their elite troops in, like sheep. Destroyed by Germany!

At this time, Xiafei made the most correct choice. He arranged a new commander for Verdun, a major general named Petain.

Petain, a poor child from a single-parent peasant family, enlisted in the army when he was fifteen years old due to the disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and since then he has become a stubborn temper among French officers: he always talks straight, and loves to contradict his superiors. At the age of 58, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War, he finally stumbled to the colonel. Petain himself laughed at himself at the time: I can already thank God that I can still get the colonel's pension.

But when the first world war came suddenly, Petain finally showed his skills. When Verdun was in a mess, he was decisively transferred by his boss to fill the hole. After seeing the terrible battle situation on the front line of Verdun, Pétain, who suffered from acute pneumonia, immediately fell down with both eyes and black eyes. After waking up, he insisted and issued the first combat order: draw a line on the existing position. Supervising the front line, no matter the soldiers and officers of the French army, whoever retreats from this line will be shot with machine guns!

And Petain's next order shocked the officers: it was necessary to organize a repair team to quickly widen the only simple road in Verdun that was not blocked by German artillery fire in two days. From today, the road can pass a truck every fourteen seconds, supplying blood to the Verdun front!

It should be mentioned here that in the transport of personnel and materials for France, there is a fleet of transport companies from Le Havre. During the blood transfusion of Verdun, 27 of its 58 Dongfeng trucks were damaged due to various reasons. After the battle, its boss, Le Havre, was awarded the Legion of Honor (commander level) by the French government. The few civilians who received this level of medals,

After 190,000 reinforcements and 25,000 tons of supplies finally arrived at Verdun at the first time, Pétain's cross-fire tactic began to shine, and he went head-to-head with the powerful German army. By the end of April, Petain, who was invincible, hit the Universiade: a French artillery shell accidentally hit the German army's secret ammunition depot in the Spangour Forest, and 450,000 German large-caliber heavy artillery shells were dumped. In an instant, it was all fried to ashes. The forty-two caliber artillery that the Germans were best at bombed, and all their martial arts were abolished.

The Germans planned a successful bloodletting battle, which was tossed into a tragic tug-of-war by the tough Petain. Petain, who made extraordinary achievements, was promoted to the commander of the front in May, while the French and German armies of Verdun continued to increase their troops and fought to the death, and launched a brutal competition around the Verdun position. The troops organized at the division and brigade level were almost completely exhausted by a few rounds of artillery fire.

The bloody battle continued until December, when the French army finally switched from defense to offense, and hurriedly abandoned the German army at Verdun. In the end, the French army lost 650,000, but the Germans also paid 450,000 casualties. The ten most elite divisions on the Western Front lost all of their money.