General Pershing was clearly ambitious, and becoming a five-star general was only part of his pursuit.
His greatest ambition was to use the opportunity of World War I to transform the U.S.
Army into a powerful force and retain its best elements after the war, thereby making the United States of America a nation with a fine military tradition like Germany!
Under normal circumstances, countries like the United States are protected by the oceans on both sides and there are no other powerful land-based countries around them that could pose a military threat to them.
They will definitely focus their development efforts on the navy, rather than wasting them on the army, which rarely fights a year.
However, if the army is not valued, then these generals from the army faction will lose their voice and status and be suppressed by the navy, just like in the British Empire.
This is the curse of island nations; these countries are naturally suited to developing their navies, and if their armies want to grow, they must seize historical opportunities.
World War I was the opportunity for the U.S.
Army!
However, to seize this opportunity, the army must demonstrate the corresponding strength.
An army that cannot win battles has no voice!
Three days later, after all the men of the Second Army were in position, the U.S.
military finally launched another attack on the German Army.
Having learned from the failure of the previous attack, the US military’s offensive this time was highly targeted.
They concentrated a large number of troops and firepower to bombard several salients on the German Army’s positions, and then launched another attack with tanks covering the infantry.
At the same time, a large number of observation balloons were launched behind their own positions to observe the German Army’s troop movements and frontline defenses from a high vantage point.
Long-range heavy artillery was also used to bombard several of the German Army’s hidden communication trenches in order to block or even cut off the German Army’s support to the front line from the second-line positions.
Under the cover of artillery fire and tanks, the American forces, after suffering heavy casualties, finally reached the German Army’s position, and the two sides immediately engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat.
A German Army soldier thrust his Mauser rifle forward, driving the bayonet fixed to the muzzle into the chest of an American soldier trying to climb over a trench at a tricky angle.
The man screamed and instinctively grabbed the bayonet, trying to stop it from penetrating any further.
Blood gushed out like a small fountain, splattering all over the German Army soldier’s face.
The German Army soldier tried to pull out his bayonet, but the enemy gripped it tightly and he couldn’t pull it out for a moment.
Just as he was about to use his foot to brace himself against the trench and push backward, an American soldier who had rushed into the trench fired several shots at him with his pistol and took him down.
Before the American soldier who fired the shot could turn his gun to the next target, he was shot down by a German Army soldier who rushed out from around the corner of the trench with a submachine gun.
The battle was extremely fierce, with soldiers on both sides using every weapon at their disposal to engage in the most primal form of human slaughter.
Soldiers were falling on the battlefield every moment, and the bodies of the fallen soldiers on both sides almost filled the German Army’s trenches.
Unlike the previous days, the American troops, with General Pershing personally overseeing the battle, had their fighting spirit boosted several times over.
Even with heavy casualties, they fought to the death and refused to retreat.
Despite inflicting heavy casualties on the US military, they used their numerical superiority to continuously send fresh troops into the battlefield and continue fighting the German Army.
Behind the trenches, the communication trenches hastily dug by the German Army in those three days had already been razed to the ground by the heavy artillery fire of the American forces.
This meant that German Army reinforcements had to brave heavy enemy artillery fire to reach the front lines, and many battle-hardened veterans fell on their way to provide support before even seeing the enemy.
William, watching from the rear, felt a pang of heartache.
These were the elite troops of the empire, yet they had fallen so easily under the enemy’s firepower.
“Let the artillery fire!
Use the artillery to cover our retreat!” The heavy casualties forced William to change his plans.
The American positions that were captured earlier were both gains and traps for the German Army!
Unlike the German Army’s own positions, the trenches between the two armies were more than a kilometer apart, making it difficult for German Army reinforcements to arrive on the battlefield in time.
Furthermore, the enemy’s deliberate sabotage of the German Army’s communication trenches made it more difficult and dangerous for the German Army to provide support.
In contrast, the German Army’s captured positions were closer to their own, allowing the US forces to more easily and quickly deploy troops to support them.
With this shift in power, the German Army almost always faced a situation where it was outnumbered by superior enemy forces.
According to Lanchester’s square law, if the side with inferior troop strength cannot gain an advantage in firepower, it will be at a disadvantage in the exchange ratio between the two sides.
If the enemy does not rush to the German Army’s position, the German Army can still suppress the opponent with long-range firepower.
However, once the enemy reaches their own positions, the German Army loses its firepower advantage and is forced into close combat where numbers matter.
This kind of exchange is disadvantageous to the German Army; if it continues, it will lose all its capital!
After the order was given, the German Army’s artillery roared and launched a fierce bombardment on the advancing American troops.
This round of shelling was very close to the battleground, and while killing and wounding a large number of American soldiers, it also inevitably caused some friendly fire incidents against the German Army.
But at this point, there was no time to worry about those things.
If the continuous influx of reinforcements from the US military could not be cut off, the German Army on the front lines would not be able to withdraw smoothly.
Even so, by the time the entire German Army had retreated from the front lines, they had still lost nearly a third of their troops.
In just two days, the German Army lost 20,000 to 30,000 men, causing William great distress.
The Western Front meat grinder truly lives up to its reputation.
This was the weakest US Army.
If they had encountered the French Army at its peak or the British Army after 1917, the German Army’s casualties would have been even greater!
“That old fox Pershing has some skills.
His tactics aren’t sophisticated; he just relies on his own strength to injure people.
But he has deep pockets and can afford to fight!” If the German Empire were at its peak, William could have engaged in a war of attrition with it, but now that the German Empire is gone, he can no longer sustain such a war.
However, although the German Army suffered some casualties, it also inflicted heavy losses on the US military.
Looking at his system panel, where his military merit points had surged to over 80,000, William judged that they had killed at least 30,000 enemies in the past two days.
Moreover, the number of military merits continued to rise rapidly after the battle ended, indicating that there were quite a few seriously wounded enemies.
This battle may have caused the enemy a total of 60,000 to 70,000 casualties, which is about 1:2 in terms of the ratio of casualties to enemy casualties, so it is still acceptable.
Moreover, abandoning the previously captured positions may not necessarily be a bad thing for the German Army.
Compared to the defensive line they are currently defending, which they have been building up for several months, their previous positions were really not easy to defend.
If Americans become complacent because of one victory and think that the next battle will be as easy as before, they will soon pay the price for their arrogance!
But the focus of this battle was not actually on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table hundreds of kilometers away.