Chapter 32: The Eve of the Attack (Two in One)
Lu Mingfei and his companions were sitting on a truck and wobbling forward. Next to them was a railway, and a steam train loaded with cargo was speeding along the tracks.
In preparation for this battle, Prussia built ten new railways and more than twenty stations along this front line, transporting supplies to the front line without stopping.
光是给一个军的布置前线的物资就有6000具铁丝网切割器、17000把铁锹、125000枚手榴弹、100万个沙袋、265000公里的带刺铁丝网，其他东西更是不计其数。
Along the way, Lu Mingfei and his companions saw countless artillery pieces being pulled off the train and hidden in the woods nearby. There were so many artillery pieces in the woods that there was no place to step, and the busy figures of the artillerymen shuttled among them like ants.
One of the cannons was the most eye-catching, with nearly two hundred soldiers gathered together to install the terrifying giant cannon.
This giant cannon is the famous Big Bertha, with a caliber of an astonishing 420 mm. The barrel is shaped like a huge beer bottle. The shells it fires weigh one ton and are as tall as a person when erected. It is the largest caliber cannon used in the entire First World War.
This gun became famous in one battle because it tore the Belgian fortress of Liege, which was known to be indestructible, into pieces. The huge noise produced by the firing of the shells cast a huge psychological shadow on the enemy. Only the shrieking sound of the Stuka decades later could be compared with this sound. It is said that the shells could even shatter glass two kilometers away when fired.
"Look, Corporal, they painted it really well!" Xier pointed excitedly in a direction, where several painters were painting camouflage nets and covering canvases for the huge cannons.
"Wait, that seems to be Franz Marc! He is one of the greatest painters in Prussia! Corporal, can you stop the truck for a moment? I want to get an autograph!" Hill pointed at one of the painters and was so excited that he could hardly speak clearly.
"Behave yourself." Lu Mingfei slapped Xier on the head, telling him to sit still and not think about unrealistic things.
After being slapped, Xier leaned against the car fender pitifully, staring at the painters who were painting until they completely disappeared from his sight.
But Lu Mingfei's attention was attracted by something else. A huge Zeppelin airship was flying low over their heads. It was like a whale soaring in the sky. How shocking.
For this attack, Prussia also gathered most of their aircraft in this area to provide reconnaissance and cover for the ground forces. A total of 168 aircraft, 14 tethered balloons and 4 Zeppelins were dispatched.
It was unprecedented for such a large-scale air force to be deployed together in World War I. Their previous attack method was still a one-on-one aerial duel between a single young pilot flying a beautiful and primitive plane. This battle would change the mode of air combat.
As the truck wobbled along, Lu Mingfei and his team finally arrived behind the front line. The civilians who originally lived here had been evacuated to other places to make room for the 140,000 people who would be stationed here.
The first thing Lu Mingfei and his team did when they arrived here was to dig a tunnel. Prussia kept this offensive operation strictly confidential, and even their ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was kept in the dark.
They even told the nurses who were transferred to the massive new field hospitals behind the Verdun front that they were there only to treat medical ailments.
The reason why Lu Mingfei and his men dug tunnels instead of trenches was that Prussia had learned the lesson that several offensives launched in 1915 had yielded no results and even cost a huge price.
Before launching an attack, they would cram a large number of soldiers into the front tunnel, which made them very easy to be discovered by the enemy. Not only did this make the attack less sudden, but they were also easily attacked by enemy artillery fire, causing heavy casualties.
This time, they will dig tunnels not only to avoid French detection, but also to defend against artillery attacks. These tunnels will be dug very long to accommodate a large number of troops.
Of course, their actions were not without disadvantages. The area they had to cross when launching the attack would be greatly extended, and in these no-man's lands they would have to face the relentless artillery fire of the French.
If they wanted to cross such a long area, they could only hope that the artillery fire from the rear could paralyze the French artillery in the first place.
The Prussian side was well prepared, but the situation was quite different in Verdun not far away.
Verdun, a city full of glorious history, was a military fortress as early as the Roman Empire. The Treaty of Verdun signed here in 843 gave this place a different meaning.
The Treaty of Verdun divided the Frankish Kingdom, which unified Western Europe at the time, into three countries: the West Frankish Kingdom, the Middle Frankish Kingdom, and the East Frankish Kingdom. These three countries formed the present-day Prussia, Italy, and France.
This place is besieged almost once every hundred years, so in order to defend against attacks from other countries, the French built it into an impregnable fortress, which is even known as the strongest fortress on earth.
Verdun did not let this title down. In 1914, the Crown Prince of Prussia led his men to encircle this historic city. The French commander at the time, Joffre, had even ordered the city to be abandoned.
But the commander of the French 3rd Army at the time, General Saray, an old stubborn man who still had a beard from the American Civil War, disobeyed orders.
In the end, Verdun accomplished its mission well, withstanding the repeated attacks launched by the Prussian Crown Prince, and remained as solid as a rock, providing a stable support point for the entire left wing of the French army that was retreating towards Paris at the time.
If the French army had really given up Verdun, the entire French front line under Joffre’s command would have been split in two, the miracle of the Marne would not have happened, Paris would have fallen, and France might have been defeated. Verdun in 1914 was so important.
Verdun's defenses seemed impregnable. It was surrounded on all sides by steep mountains in the Meuse Valley, which were arranged in an unusual circular pattern around Verdun, forming a huge natural fortress with a radius of about 5 to 10 miles, and the central castle of the entire natural fortress was the city of Verdun itself.
In the most critical northeastern area on the right bank of the Meuse River, four natural defense lines were formed along the ridges. The shape and direction of these ridges are like the ramps outside the castle. The terrain rises slowly from the attacking side to the defending side, while the reverse slope on the defending side is quite steep, so the defenders can hide in these protected reverse slope valleys to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, then jump out of the reverse slope fortifications to hold the hilltop position, and use fierce firepower to sweep the enemy troops climbing up the long slope from a high position.
If the enemy tried to advance along the winding Meuse Valley, they would be subjected to crossfire from the French, whose positions were deployed on the ridges that protruded and interlaced on both sides of the river. The terrain here was completely different from the open land of Flanders and Champagne.
In addition to this naturally formed strong position, the French army also built powerful fortresses on all important hills or ridges. This is an important feature of the Verdun defense system and a product of the fortress system presided over by General de Rivière after the Franco-Prussian War.
On the Prussian combat map of 1914 alone, no fewer than 20 large fortifications and 40 medium fortifications were marked.
The fortifications on the right bank of the Meuse River roughly formed three circular lines of defense: one outer line and two inner lines. The first outer line of defense included Fort Moulinville, Fort Vau and Fort Douaumont.
The second line of defense included Fort Tavaney and Fort Souville, and the innermost ring of defenses, located on high ground overlooking Verdun, included Fort Berlu, Fort Saint-Michel, and Fort Belleville. There were two similar lines of forts on the left bank of the Meuse, but the most important were the five outer forts arranged along the ridge of the Bois de Bru, because they echoed the two lines of defense of Fort Douaumont and Fort Souville on the opposite bank of the river.
There are other forts south of Verdun, but they are not important for the Battle of Verdun. The most powerful of all these forts is Fort Douaumont. It is the cornerstone of the entire defense system, sitting on top of a 1200-foot high ground, controlling the entire area in all directions.
Since the time of Vauban, the French engineers had been the best in the world in fortification technology, and the Verdun fortress was no exception. Each fortress here could use its own artillery fire to strike at the enemy troops who were attacking the neighboring fortress along the slope.
Each fortress was equipped with either a 155mm heavy gun or two short-barreled 75mm guns. These guns were mounted in retractable turrets and covered with heavy steel armor, which could only be destroyed by a direct hit from the enemy's heaviest artillery.
In addition, each fortress is equipped with an equally indestructible machine gun tower, as well as carefully located small bunkers that form side firepower and can repel frontal attacks launched by the enemy from any direction. The largest fortress is guarded underground by more than a company of infantry, and the more modern ones are covered with 1 feet of reinforced concrete on top, which is then covered with soil.
These fortresses are like immobile but indestructible tanks, or like a team of unsinkable ironclad ships. Moreover, after the war gradually subsided in 1914, the French built a 2 to 3 mile deep trench protection belt in front of each fortress on the outer defense line between the foot of the mountain and the German position. The French army had 15 months of relative calm and strengthened this trench defense line to the extent possible.
Verdun in 1916 was theoretically the strongest section of the entire Allied defense line.
But in fact, this has become the weakest link.
"General, two of our artillery companies have been transferred away, and we are almost left with nothing!" An elderly officer walked into the office of General El, the commander of Verdun. He was the staff officer here, De Leon.
"I understand." General El put down the phone in his hand tremblingly and tried to keep calm.
He had just called the headquarters to ask for reinforcements, but they completely ignored his request. Instead, they said that it was impossible for him to be attacked by Prussia. Not only did they not send reinforcements, they also transferred two of the few artillery companies here.
"Derion, you know, I'm shaking with fear every day, afraid that those Germans might attack me at any time." General El's hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
"All of our intelligence personnel disappeared some time ago. There is no news about more than 60 people. I don't believe that those Germans didn't take any action." General El's voice was trembling.
"But the people at headquarters wouldn't listen, saying we were cowards staying in these concrete tortoise shells and that real French people should fight on the battlefield."
"Those bastards have failed in their attacks time and time again, and they keep taking artillery ammunition from us... Delon, I really don't know what to do." General El looked at his staff officer in despair.
In preparation for the upcoming offensive in the Champagne region, the headquarters dismantled all the movable cannons in the Verdun fortresses, especially the cannons equipped in the small bunkers on the flanks. According to the plan, all cannons except those permanently installed in rotating turrets would be moved away.
Already 43 heavy artillery batteries and 11 field artillery batteries were without their guns, and they also took away 128000 artillery shells. France's most powerful fortress system was completely changed overnight.
De Leon said nothing, knowing full well how much pressure the Verdun commander was under.
General El took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He was the commander here and he could not expose his vulnerability and powerlessness in front of his subordinates.
"How is the communication trench I asked them to dig some time ago?" asked General El.
De Leon still said nothing, and General El suddenly felt something was not right.
"Go out and take a look." General El picked up his coat beside him and walked towards the front line, and De Leon followed him out.
"Nothing... nothing..." General El looked at the places where he had previously instructed them to dig defensive facilities, but they were still empty.
There were no communication trenches, no telephone lines, and not even barbed wire in front of the trenches. General El pulled a soldier next to him and asked angrily.
"Where is the communication trench I asked you to dig?"
"It doesn't matter if there are trenches or not. We can easily walk across the open area and the Germans won't shoot at us," the soldier said nonchalantly.
General El weakly let go of the soldier's collar. He was already in complete despair. At this moment, a hand patted his shoulder. It was De Leon.
"Don't worry, as long as I'm alive, those Germans will never be able to break through Verdun." His eyes were so firm.
After sending General El back, who was in deep self-doubt, De Leon returned to his room.
"De Leon, what's the matter with contacting me suddenly?"
As soon as he pushed the door open and walked in, a voice came from behind him, and a black figure slowly emerged from behind him. The man was covered in black all over, but his light golden pupils were very impressive.
"I didn't expect you to join the army. If those people in the Elder Council knew that you violated the Abraham Covenant, you would end up in a miserable state." The shadow's pale golden pupils looked up and down at De Leon, and said in a surprised tone.
De Leon turned around and looked at the shadow calmly, as if he had already anticipated his arrival.
I have to look up a lot of information recently, so I will write slowly.
Thanks to John Doe for the 100 points
Thanks to Yijunduwang for the monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)
