My Italy

In the past, the outbreak of war was often determined by the two parties first declaring war, then mobilizing and gathering troops, and then the battle of wits and courage between the commanders of the two armies, as well as the bravery, weapons, equipment, and supplies of the officers and soldiers of the two armies.

Mobilizing and assembling the army takes a long time. It is often a month after the war was declared. It is completely normal that the two sides have not yet fought.

But this time there is something different, because from the first moment the war broke out, the two sides were at war. In the northern section of the Western Front, after Germany declared war on Belgium, it immediately sent troops to capture the Fortress of Liege, which was in its eyes. As long as it was captured, the road to Brussels and the French border would appear in the eyes of the Germans.

However, the Liege Fortress was not easy to fight. The leading German troops, led by General Emih, rushed towards Liege. But they immediately encountered a problem, that is, how to cross the Meuse River, because the Belgians had taken away all the bridges and boats on the river.

At this time, the German army could only build a boat bridge to cross the river, but they did not know that the large-caliber artillery of the Liege Fortress was already ready. After a burst of fierce artillery fire, the German army's efforts were all in vain.

Not only that, the vanguard troops preparing to launch the first wave of attacks suffered heavy casualties and were crushed by the fortress's 210, 170, and 120 mm artillery.

Seeing that the fortress artillery was bullying his own infantry, Admiral Emih immediately ordered the various field artillery he carried to fight back. Although the caliber of artillery carried by the German army is not low, ranging from 105 to 210 mm, these field guns are not too powerful due to mobility issues. In addition to adding some bullet marks to the outside of the fort, it failed to destroy the dry artillery inside the fort.

Not only that, the fort's artillery also relied on its solid protection to unscrupulously counterattack the German artillery, which resulted in the loss of more than 30 German artillery pieces.

Seeing that the artillery battle was not advantageous, Admiral Emih could only rely on infantry to storm this road. Unfortunately, the large number of machine guns around the fort prevented the attacking German soldiers from reaching the edge of the fort.

In just three days (the time stipulated in the Schlieffen Plan to capture the Liege Fortress), Admiral Emiha tried various methods but was unable to get close to the fort. Instead, the German army lost 31,000 men.

Faced with the delay in the German vanguard troops conquering the Liege Fortress, General Moltke, as the commander-in-chief, immediately sent Ludendorff with troops to reinforce. When Ludendorff went to the Liege Fortress, he discovered that it was Reasons that are difficult to overcome. Immediately at his request, several giant siege guns were urgently transferred to the front line of Liege.

The gun is a giant howitzer secretly developed by Krupp. The caliber of the gun has reached an unprecedented 420 mm (there is no larger caliber). Its shell weighs 1 ton and its maximum range is 15.5 kilometers.

Such a huge heavy artillery can only be transported by rail, and its assembly time takes 5 hours.

But the wait was worth it. On October 10, after the four large beta cannons were assembled, the Liege Fortress had already entered a countdown to destruction.

The 420mm artillery shells were not something that the forts of Liege Fortress could withstand. In the bombardment of 420mm artillery shells, the forts of Liege Fortress were annihilated one by one.

During this period, Ludendorff once sent someone to persuade General Lehmann, who commanded the garrison of Liege Fortress, to surrender, but he refused.

Finally, on October 14th, General Lehmann fulfilled his promise and lived and died with the fortress. The Liege Fortress, which had blocked the German army for nine days, was finally captured.

However, although the Liege Fortress was breached, it blocked the German army for 8 days. This was the time Belgium bought for France.

What is the French military doing at this time? The French Army is currently executing a combat plan called No. 17.

Since the Franco-Prussian War, France's dignity had been trampled on by Prussia. Its king was sworn in as German Emperor at Versailles, and France also ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. The whole situation was ruined by the war, and there was a sense of resentment throughout France. In order to regain face, and also to regain the lost Alsace and Lorraine regions. After several revisions, the French military finally came up with combat plan called No. 17.

The French army launched an attack on Alsace and Lorraine as planned after the war began.

When the news of Germany's attack on Belgium reached Paris, the French army was immediately overjoyed. Because in the eyes of the French army, this is the German army giving itself a chance. It only needs to penetrate the thin German defense lines in Alsace and Lorraine. Then the French army can penetrate directly into Cologne, Bonn and other places to cut off the German army's retreat into Belgium. , and then annihilated them all within Belgium.

From a planning perspective, this is indeed a good plan. But no matter how good the plan is, it requires soldiers to execute it.

The French are very confident about this. They believe that their army is no worse than the German army. Coupled with their secret weapon 75mm rapid-fire cannon, it is enough to tear apart the German defenses and avenge their shame.

So under the guidance of this kind of thinking, the French army sang the Marseillaise loudly and attacked the German troops in Alsace and Lorraine.

One more thing needs to be said here. At this time, the French army believed in the bayonet theory and believed that high morale was enough for the French soldiers to endure huge casualties and rush to the enemy's positions to fight hand-to-hand.

Therefore, in the attacks on Alsace and Lorraine, we can often see groups of French troops shouting and launching battalion-level or even division-level charges.

The charge of the densely packed French soldiers was very shocking, especially when they saw their comrades falling continuously, and they continued to charge fearlessly, which fully demonstrated the bravery of the French army.

But times are different. This kind of charge would have been enough for the German army during the Franco-Prussian War. But now this is an era where defense is greater than offense. The rapid-fire weapons represented by Maxim are enough to prove that body cannot compete with steel.

As a result, groups of charging French officers and soldiers were ruthlessly knocked down. The heavy rain of bullets from the Maxim machine guns made them look like wheat being harvested.

Every time a German position was captured, the cost was high casualties. However, for the top brass of the French army, this must be endured. As long as its frontal defense line is penetrated, the vast interior of Germany will be allowed to roam freely.

With this expectation in mind, the French attacked fiercely for a week. In this week, the French army captured Lorraine and most of Alsace at the cost of nearly 200,000 casualties, but it still failed to penetrate the German defense lines.

However, a piece of news at this time made it impossible for the French army to continue the attack. Because the fortress of Liege fell, Belgium was undefeated, and the same was true for the empty northern France.

In addition, there is another piece of news that prevents the French military from attacking anymore. That is, the Italians also took action.

They launched a massive offensive on the French-Italian border. This north-south offensive forced the French army to stop and consider the next battle.