When the shelling began on June 24, no one expected that the intensive shelling lasted for a full week. During the continuous shelling, the British and French troops also fired chemical shells at the German positions from time to time. They believed that the artillery preparations that lasted for such a long time should have been significant.

It is undeniable that countless artillery shells roared on the German positions, with sand and stone flying everywhere, trees flying everywhere, and gunpowder covering the sky. In the continuous artillery attacks, 1.5 million artillery shells fell on the German positions. At the most intense, an average of 3,500 ammunitions were dropped per minute. In the view of General Heg Douglas, it was necessary to use such artillery fire to attack the German positions, thereby opening up the road for infantry offensives. Even if it was wasted, the Germans would not have a chance to survive. To be honest, it was indeed a waste. Even British soldiers on the front line believed that this was the case. This bombardment had completely wiped out all the artillery shells produced by Britain in 11 months.

On the night of June 30, the shelling reached its final stage and reached its peak. Three or four thousand shells fell on the German positions every minute.

The rumbling artillery bombardment, and the British soldiers who had been waiting in the trenches for several days stood on the escalators and looked out. At this time, they no longer needed to consider the threat of German snipers. In their opinion, even if there were still living creatures on the German positions, it was extremely amazing.

Every soldier who looked over was stunned by the scene in front of him. They were astonished by everything they saw as if they were seeing the wonders of the century, and even stood up desperately and stood to the edge of the trench. First, there were some bold ones, and finally thousands of British and French soldiers who were originally preparing to attack were climbing out of the trench. They sighed and watched the wonders in the history of war. The flashes of artillery shells exploded on the German positions were as numerous as stars, connected to the stars in the night sky.

Especially when those air-exploding shrapnel bombs exploded, they were as dazzling as fireworks during festivals. The night scene was so beautiful. Especially those British soldiers, most of them were recruits who had just been recruited and had just completed training in the UK to supplement the front line. They had no combat experience. And they were not trained enough, but these young people were naive and optimistic, believing that as long as they rushed out of the trench and attacked forward, they could hit Berlin in one breath.

"Oh my God! It's like celebrating victory for us!"

At this time, witnessing such a spectacular shelling and the dazzling fireworks that kept exploding in the air, these young people shouted excitedly. Victory, victory seemed to be within reach!

"Let these bastards get out!"

Seeing that his soldiers were all there, standing on the trench and watching the "fireworks", Lieutenant Dawson shouted at Sergeant Billy in anger.

"Yes, sir!"

Then Billy rushed out of the bunker and shouted loudly in the trench.

"Get down, all of them are gone..."

He shouted and pulled while kicking. In just a few minutes, the soldier of the Irish Volunteer Infantry Company was kicked out of the trench. During this process, Sergeant Billy also stood on the ladder and looked towards the German position. When he saw the dazzling shrapnel bombs that exploded in the air, he had no desire to appreciate them, and his brows frowned instead.

"Sir, I saw the artillery fired a lot of shrapnel!"

As a veteran, Sergeant Billy has experienced the German artillery fire many times, so he naturally has his own experience of various artillery shells. He knows that shrapnel in trench warfare is equal to zero!

"The shrapnel is also a cannonball!"

Lieutenant Dawson, who had just completed the training of an officer, ignored Billy's words. In his opinion, the shrapnel had defeated Napoleon, the Russians, and... Now, of course, it can also defeat the Germans!

"A bunch of fools!"

Although he was not an artillery officer, when Han Wu saw the fireworks produced when the shrapnel exploded in the air again, he couldn't help but curse. This time it was not because most of the artillery invested by the British were small and medium-sized rapid-fire cannons, and their power was extremely limited. But because two-thirds of the shells fired by the British were shrapnel.

Since the Battle of Waterloo, after the British team used shrapnel to smash Napoleon's position with shrapnel. Since then, the army of various countries has issued shrapnel shotguns for artillery of various calibers. Srapnel shotguns are the best choice for troops on the open ground. At least in that era when the power of the shells is insufficient, Napoleon, the Qing army in the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and shrapnel shotguns proved their value again and again.

However, during the "Jiaoao Incident", the inferior performance of shrapnel in trench warfare made him look down on him at all. It is precisely for this reason that when the ratio of shrapnel to high-explosion bombs in other countries is usually one to one, in the Jiangsu Army, the ratio of the two is 20 to 1. The Jiangsu Army uses high-explosion bombs as its main weapon. After being equipped with delayed fuses, this shell can effectively penetrate the cement top of the offensive and explode inside the fortification. Although this shell is mainly designed to destroy materials, its shock waves have a very strong killing effect on the human body within a certain distance, especially in trench warfare, its power is not comparable to those of air-explosion shrapnel bombs.

"This will be a one-sided massacre!"

Finally, Han Wu and his group, who were no longer interested in witnessing the massacre, left the British army's frontier observation post. Although the battle will only begin tomorrow, for them, although the war has not yet begun, the ending is already destined, and this will be a one-sided massacre.

However, despite this, such high-intensity artillery bombardment still knocked the German positions inside and outside, and the barbed wire was blown away. Most of the simple bunkers on the surface no longer existed. The trenches and the traffic trenches on the first position were razed to the ground, the observation and communication systems of the German 2nd Army were destroyed, and some front-mounted artillery companies lost their combat effectiveness.

"beep……"

In the early morning of July 1, the whistle echoed on the British positions. The British soldiers who had been preparing for several hours stood up in the direction of attack with the vision of ending the war. Although the faces under the steel helmets were full of longing, their fear of death could not be concealed in their actions, so that they could not even insert their own bayonets. They could only get the bayonets stuck with the help of officers and soldiers.

After checking the soldiers' preparations for the last time, Lieutenant Dawson watched the soldiers and exclaimed.

"Gentlemen, if we win this battle, then we have won the initiative on the battlefield, then we will be able to end this war soon, and at this time next year, we can spend our time in our own home..."

After some encouragement, Dawson took out his pistol.

"Billy, hold my gun! If someone retreats or does not leave the trenches, then you will be the one who executes the order!"

"Yes, sir!"

When Billy's voice fell, the shelling that lasted for seven days finally stopped, and the world instantly returned to silence. The rising sun shone on the battlefield where the smoke gradually dissipated. The German positions that had been bombarded for a week were silent like death. Everyone knows that this was the peace before the war, and a signal that the fight to the death was about to begin.

At 7:30 a.m., a harsh military whistle suddenly sounded on the British position.

“Quick, fast…”

Dawson, standing at the top of the ladder, shouting loudly, urging the soldiers to rush out of the trench along the ladder, while Billy kicked the soldiers who were too slow with a pistol, constantly pushing them out of the trench more than two meters deep.

In just a few minutes, tens of thousands of British soldiers climbed out of the trench and began to line up towards the German positions. At this moment, the British and French artillery once again began the most violent artillery fire cover before the charge. The German positions were immediately covered by bullet rains, which was the latest research result of the British. On the one hand, it combined the experience summarized by the battles in the past two years, and on the other hand, it was learned from the "Xu Jin barrage" cover adopted by the Chinese team in the Battle of Verdun.

Before the war, the British and French troops also conducted a series of special camping training on the divisions scheduled to participate in the war, simulated the German defense drills and assault methods. With the cooperation of artillery fire, the infantry carried out coordinated operations on the defensive positions and advanced forward, and also practiced coordinated operations with the aviation army. In terms of weapons and equipment, new weapons such as light machine guns, grenades and other new weapons have been equipped to regiments, brigades, and divisions. In short, in order to ensure the success of the battle, the British and French troops have tried every means. Even France has even imported as many as 6,000 two-year light machine guns and tens of thousands of two-year submachine guns from China despite the lack of non-uniform caliber of weapons and ammunition.

However, despite such preparation, the British still did not understand the number of "barrages advance at several speeds to cover our infantry advance". Although everyone was arguing about how fast the barrages should advance at, in fact, the barrages advance would never catch up with the speed of infantry chasing fighter jets. If the infantry was struck by something - barrages would break away from the infantry and advance by themselves, and the infantry would stay in the open ground like a wild duck to be slaughtered for fire; and when the infantry advances too fast, they will find that they are limited by their own artillery barrages and cannot effectively pursue the fleeing enemy.

On the other hand, many artillery companies need to concentrate firepower to form a crawling barrage. Therefore, such tactics are usually opened by infantry divisions or infantry artillery officers at the command level to command operations under very stable conditions; while infantry battalions and regiment commanders use various signal flares and rockets to indicate that the barrage is too slow or too fast.

This method seems to solve the problem, but on the battlefield, the smoke screen generated by the explosion of the shell makes the signal coordination between the artillery and the infantry less effective, and it is almost inevitable that it is too slow or too fast.

In comparison, the solution of the Expeditionary Force is very simple - 150 meters!

The Xu Jin barrage can only maintain a distance of 150 meters between the main infantry team. The Xu Jin barrage cannot be controlled by the infantry, but is controlled by the artillery observers in the rear. Although this barrage will cause accidental injuries, it can maximize the protective effect of the Xu Jin barrage. However, the British obviously have not understood this yet.

When the British and French teams attacked, the German army had already discovered their movements from the periscope. The soldiers were all squatting at the entrance of the tunnel, preparing to quickly occupy the surface position when the enemy's artillery extended backwards. Almost as soon as the British and French artillery fire extended backwards, the German army immediately emerged from the underground fortifications. They moved all the heavy machine guns to the position, quickly dug up the cover, pointed the black muzzle at the open area in front of the position, and prepared to shoot from a high place.

"Keep formation!"

"Keep formation..."

In the empty and unmanned zone, the officers shouted and roared to maintain the formation of the infantry platoon. Although the war had been going on for two years, for the British, they still did not change the tactics during the Boer War. On the other hand, both the British and the French believed that the German army had been hit by the cannons that could level the world a few days ago. They must have been completely wiped out, so their storm-formation can be described as swaggering.

The British army even lined up in an orderly attacking like when fighting Napoleon in the last century, but in fact, because the British army used too many shrapnel bullets, the damage to the fortifications was extremely limited. At the same time, because most of the Germans were hidden deep in underground tunnels, the shelling did not cause much damage to them. When the British army launched a charge, most of the barbed wire on the German positions were still intact. Although the German army was struck by dense artillery a few days ago, they were all still alive.

"Strike..."

"Quick, hurry, grab the British..."

Second Lieutenant Senge waved the p08 pistol in his hand and shouted loudly at the soldiers. Although the sound of cannons in the air was rumbling, the cannon fire did not harm them anymore. At this time, the wind even blew the music of the organ in Scotland. It was the "drum beat" of the British infantry platoon. Hearing the organ sound meant that the British army had rushed to a very close position to them.

The German soldiers rushed into the trench that was blown up. As soon as they looked, everyone was stunned by the scene in front of them - they saw that the British soldiers were getting closer and closer on the green grass. They lined up in long rows and walked towards them. Their steps seemed a little slow, even heavy, without the feeling of lightening the battle.

"Keep formation!"

Holding a rifle, Billy kept shouting.

"Keep formation..."

Amid the commands of officers and sergeants, the vertical line formation became more and more regular. If it were in the Napoleon era, Napoleon might have praised the formation of the British team. After all, most of the people here were recruits, but they had a perfect lineup.

The reason why their pace is slow is that on the one hand, although it is because of the rhythm of the "drum" and on the other hand, it is because of the heavy burden on them. Each person carries up to 220 rounds of bullets. Two grenades, many soldiers also carry field telephone equipment, pickaxes, shovels and communication pigeon boxes. The average weight of each person is 30 kilograms, and some people even carry more than 50 kilograms. The heavy burden causes them to move very slowly.

However, despite this, these British soldiers were still loyally led by the officer holding traditional whips to attack in several waves. The soldiers of each wave were almost lined up in an orderly manner, holding rifles obliquely, and slowly advancing towards the German positions.

In the first few hundred meters, they did not even suffer any attacks, as they had imagined before - the Germans had been completely wiped out, and the Germans had been blown into the sky by dense shells. At most, they just need to clean the battlefield!

But what they didn't know was that when they were advancing towards the German position, the German soldiers were entering the position with machine guns.

"call……"

Every time he was carrying a machine gun frame, Heisenberg would curse the damn mg08 machine gun frame in his heart. Carrying this 35 kilogram rack into the machine gun shooting position has always been a challenge to human physical fitness. However, he knew that once the shooting began, another situation would appear. When shooting continuously, due to this rock-solid gun frame, the gun body would hardly shake, and the soft leather bowl behind the optical telescope would not repeatedly hit the shooter's eyes and bounce open. In fact, almost no recoil would affect the shooter's observation effect of the target in the telescope.

"Hurry up! Machine gun frame!"

Under the supervision of the leader of the machine gun team, Heisenberg finally carried the machine gun frame into the shooting position. Like all machine gun shooting positions, although the shooting position where Heisenberg is located is nearly two hundred meters away from the front line trench, it also forms longitudinal firepower in front, and forms a perfect cross firepower with other machine gun castles.

"Crazy..."

Almost as soon as the machine gun was finished, the ammunition hand opened the ammunition box and pulled out a canvas ammunition belt. With the sound of the bullet hitting, Heisenberg opened the ammunition cover and stuck it in a few seconds.

"Kada..."

Panasonic machine gun toggle, bullets loaded!

Just when Heisenberg loaded his machine gun, the German artillery observers in the observation station had already begun to mark the location of the British army on the map, and at the same time informed the artillery company behind him by phone that in the past two years, the German artillery had already conducted countless test firings on them with frontier positions. They had already mastered every grass and every tree here, and they only needed to follow the coordinates to fire violently and accurately, without worrying about the artillery shooting being lost.

“Hu…hu…”

Breathing the air mixed with the strong smell of gunpowder and feeling the quieter battlefield, Dawson felt an inexplicable chill in his heart. For some reason, he suddenly realized that perhaps this silence is the peace before death...

As he and the other soldiers were able to see the destroyed or intact but very messy barbed wire fences at the front of the German positions, he saw steel helmets emerging from behind the German trenches. Below those helmets were German soldiers holding rifles.

Suddenly, a gust of wind hit...

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Chapter completed!