The Rise of the Empire

At the same time that the German Army launched the Marne River Offensive, the German Army on the southern front commanded by General Herlingen also began to launch an offensive from the Alsace-Lorraine region. Although the Verdun Fortress was still impregnable, although the Belfort area was densely covered with forts and bunkers. The trenches and barbed wire fences are crisscrossed and very difficult to break through, but the area between them cannot be as strong as the two garrison areas. More importantly, the French troops on the southern front were not enough to defend this long front!

In order to break through this area, the German Army also equipped the offensive troops with large-caliber siege guns, such as the 420MM Big Bertha heavy artillery that achieved great success in the attack on the Fortress of the Burning Sun!

"God created you to destroy the most powerful enemy! I hope you will not disappoint me." It took three full days for the siege artillery regiment directly under the German base camp to deploy six 420MM heavy artillery pieces. This kind of battle has a total weight of up to The 42.6-ton artillery is the most powerful artillery available in the German arsenal at this stage! Can fire 810KG shells at a speed of 426 meters per second! Based on the experience in the Fortress of the Burning Sun in Belgium, the super-heavy reinforced concrete armor-piercing projectiles fired by this artillery can penetrate into the ground more than ten meters deep and then detonate inside the fortress!

In order to break through the lines built by the French in the border area, the German Army Headquarters mobilized a total of 18 artillery pieces of this level. The remaining 12 artillery pieces were deployed elsewhere. In order to solve the problem of the artillery's slow rate of fire, the German Army specially improved the loading process. Recommended loading systems such as cranes and pulleys are specially deployed at the rear of the gun position, which increases the rate of fire to one round every 10 to 15 minutes!

"Let's start!" As the attack order was issued, the officers and soldiers of the artillery company checked their weapons for the last time. The Big Belsha artillery is composed of five parts. After entering the firing position, two steel tires will be fixed on the ground. There is a loading platform directly behind the artillery. Before loading, the artillery will level the barrel, and then push the shells and propellant packs into the artillery through the loading platform at the back. It turns out that the process of pushing the shells into the gun bore is entirely manual. , but now, designers have changed it to mechanical assistance.

After the shells were loaded, the more than 6-meter-long cannon slowly raised again. The power of the artillery fire is so great that the personnel must be far away before firing, otherwise the violent muzzle storm can throw people into the air like toys and then fall into a pulp!

The huge gun barrel suddenly retracted, and a visible air wave quickly spurted out from the muzzle and spread outward. The huge pressure difference produced a ring-shaped impact, and a flame several meters long erupted from the gun. The sonic boom erupted from the mouth and the artillery fired caused quite a few people present to be temporarily deafened! A strong wind swept across the entire firing position, blowing dust and other debris into the air. After the launch was completed, the artillery began to slowly reset with the help of the hydraulic system.

The 810KG artillery shell roared towards the target 8 kilometers away. It took half a minute for the observation post to see the scene when the artillery shell landed! A black figure instantly penetrated into the earth, and the huge impact directly raised a gray smoke column more than ten meters high. This artillery shell penetrated a layer of soil more than 6 meters thick and then penetrated a layer of reinforced concrete of nearly 3 meters!

In the end, the shell exploded in a power supply room in a certain fortress area. The explosive weighing nearly 100 kilograms instantly tore everything in the room into pieces. Several generators and a large number of pipelines were destroyed. The violent explosion even destroyed the underground A considerable part of the support structure of the fortress, seen from the ground, the entire area suddenly sank, creating a pit several meters deep and more than 60 meters in diameter!

With the continuous firing of the Great Bel-Air artillery,

Pillars of smoke heralding destruction rose one after another throughout the breakthrough area. Heavy artillery positions, warehouses, personnel bunkers and other pre-calibrated targets were wiped out in repeated attacks. At the same time, long-range 12-inch and 350MM heavy train guns also began to attack the stations, material centers and military depots behind the fortress group. These ultra-long-range weapons attempt to isolate the breached area from the outside.

Key fortresses and bunkers are taken care of by 420MM heavy artillery and 305MM heavy artillery. For those semi-large bunkers and gun nests, the German Army has prepared 210MM heavy artillery. These artillery are concentrated near the breakthrough, with 4 artillery pieces per artillery battery. There is only 150 meters between each artillery battery! Under such a strong density of frontline energy, the bunkers that the French thought were solid were turned into piles of rubble under repeated hits from 100KG-level artillery shells.

No matter how strong the bunker is, it will only delay the time of being destroyed. If it cannot effectively suppress the opponent's artillery, the attacker's siege artillery will sooner or later be able to kill all these annoying things! Historically, the fundamental reason why the Verdun Fortress was able to hold on was that the French's heavy artillery was absolutely powerful and their troops were sufficient. Before the Battle of Verdun began, the French deployed eleven divisions and as many as 632 artillery pieces. At the same time, because it is a fortress area, the proportion of heavy artillery here is obviously high, with 244 various heavy artillery pieces! When the French army launched a counterattack in November, it used as many as 400 artillery batteries...

The current situation is that the French not only do not have enough long-range artillery to suppress their opponents, they don't even have enough manpower. They did not expect that the Germans would launch a large-scale counterattack in the middle while also launching a massive attack on the southern front. , and the firepower density of this attack far exceeded the French expectations! With a large number of troops being transferred to the center and lack of artillery, the French could no longer hold on. There were gradually holes in their line, and with the influx of a large number of German troops, the holes were getting bigger and bigger... .

"It seems that we can no longer hold the defense line." French Fifth Army Commander Langrezac said, looking at the front that was deteriorating every minute and second.

"Your Excellency Commander, we cannot give up the southern front position easily. We have a defense system here that we have built for decades, with a large number of bunkers, artillery, and supplies. If we give up here, France's weak heart will be against the Germans. Open up! We absolutely cannot afford to purchase another fortification system like this!" the officer on the side said loudly.

"But we no longer have enough mobile troops to seal the gap. The fortress's armament and garrison can only delay the opponent's attack, but cannot prevent it. And now, where can we mobilize enough troops to defend this area? ?" Langrezac sighed helplessly, and decided to report the matter to Xiafei, who would then make a decision!

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