However, hearing the American Army’s boasting, the British Army observer raised his eyelids slightly and said disdainfully: “General, if the enemy could be wiped out by artillery fire alone, there would be no living people left on the Western Front.” “Over the past four years, the enemy and us have dropped over a billion shells on this land.
If spread out over every soldier, each person would get at least 100 shells, enough to blow them to pieces dozens of times over.” “Yet, as you can see, the enemy is still alive and kicking.
To wipe out the enemy, you still have to rely on infantry.
I just don’t know how your army’s infantry strength holds up!” The French Army didn’t think much of the American Army’s combat effectiveness, and neither did the British Army.
The reason was simple: the American Army was stepping into the same pitfalls the British Army had once fallen into.
When World War I first broke out, Britain had not prepared for a world war, and the size of its army was relatively small.
To cope with the intense fighting on the Western Front, the British were forced to conduct an emergency mobilization at home, conscripting a large number of troops to join the war.
For the British Army, which had only recently experienced the Boer War, there were still some veterans and seasoned commanders in their ranks.
Yet even so, the newly formed British Army’s performance on the battlefield remained appalling; they were not only seen as easy targets by the German Army but were also looked down upon by the French Army.
During the Battle of the Somme, the British Army committed a monumental blunder—with the enemy possessing Maxim heavy machine guns, they still followed the tactics of the line infantry era, ordering soldiers to form dense formations and launch an offensive against the German Army.
As a result, in a single day, the British Army suffered over 60,000 casualties!
The German Army’s gun barrels on the other side were smoking, yet they still couldn’t stop the British Army from insisting on throwing their lives away!
After experiencing the tempering of blood and fire, the British Army gradually grew, slowly replacing the French Army to become the number one threat in the eyes of the German Army.
But the Americans clearly had not yet undergone this process of transformation.
Although their scale was massive, the British did not hold high expectations for the performance of the inexperienced American Army on the battlefield.
The American Army did not take the British Army observer’s words to heart, simply dismissing them as sour grapes from someone jealous of the great victory they were about to achieve!
After the artillery fire ended, the American Army immediately launched a fierce attack on the German Army’s positions.
Under the commanders’ orders, countless American Army soldiers climbed out of the trenches, holding their rifles, and charged toward the German Army’s positions, emitting ambiguous howls that seemed intended to bolster their own courage.
Seeing that the American Army had launched their offensive, the observers from the British Army, French Army, and Italian Army who had come to watch the battle picked up their binoculars and stood at a high vantage point, looking out over the battlefield.
The smoke from the American Army’s earlier artillery barrage had not yet dissipated, and clouds of smoke drifted by from time to time, obscuring their vision and making it difficult for them to see clearly.
But within their field of view, the German Army’s positions were deathly silent.
On the battlefield, apart from the shouts of the Americans, nothing else could be heard.
“Something is wrong!” The experienced French Army observer lowered his binoculars and said with a serious expression.
“What’s wrong?” The Italian Army observer to the side bent over slightly and asked in a slightly ingratiating tone.
“It’s too quiet!” The British Army observer also lowered his binoculars, his expression as serious as the Frenchman’s.
Having fought the German Army for years, they all had a certain understanding of the German Army’s combat style.
Reasonably speaking, when the American Army’s infantry left the trenches and appeared in the open ground outside, the German Army’s artillery should have opened fire to strike them and disrupt the American Army’s offensive formation.
Once they approached to a distance of 500 meters, the opposing mortars and heavy machine guns would also open fire simultaneously, inflicting maximum casualties on the enemy at this range.
(During the late stages of World War I, the distance between the trenches of the two sides was relatively far, reaching up to 1000 meters.
In the early stages, the trenches of the two armies were very close, close enough that those with strength could throw hand grenades directly.
Later, with the introduction of tanks and the widespread presence of snipers by both sides, the trench distance was forced to increase.) On a battlefield covered with landmines, barbed wire, and other obstacles, the soldiers’ charging speed could simply not be fast.
This meant they would be exposed to enemy fire for a long time, and most of the attacking side’s casualties occurred during this phase.
The firepower density during World War I was extremely exaggerated; during major battles, over 50 artillery pieces and 100 machine guns could be deployed along a one-kilometer front.
Without the cover of tanks, infantry relying solely on their flesh and blood could simply not withstand such dense and terrifying firepower.
The vast majority of soldiers would die under the enemy’s machine gun and artillery fire before even reaching the enemy’s trenches.
Even if they approached the enemy’s positions, they would be blocked by the barbed wire outside the positions and the bunkers and fortifications spread underground, and then suffer strikes from the enemy’s rifles and machine guns within the trenches.
Even if the attacking side paid a heavy price and captured the enemy’s trenches, they would still face counterattacks from the enemy.
Often, a single trench or a single position would need to change hands multiple times, costing thousands or even tens of thousands of casualties to capture.
This is where the cruelty of World War I lay.
Lacking effective means of assault, both sides found it difficult to break through the other’s defensive lines, forced into trench warfare, and then became cannon fodder in one offensive after another planned by the general staff.
But, the German Army on the other side had broken this convention!
“Could the German Army have run away?” Someone couldn’t help but speak up.
Hearing that the Emperor of Germany had run away, the soldiers on the front line would surely have their morale shaken upon hearing this news, and abandoning their positions to run away seemed like a very normal thing.
The American Army currently attacking seemed to think the same: “The enemy feared us and ran away!
Brothers, push harder, chase them, and keep these Germans here!” The American Army officer commanding the attack roared and ordered them to speed up.
The American Army soldiers, who had heard of the cruelty of the battlefield and were full of fear for the combat, were suddenly greatly encouraged upon hearing that the enemy had fled.
They quickened their pace, held their rifles, and charged toward the German Army’s positions while howling.
500 meters!
300 meters!
200 meters!
The German Army’s positions were getting closer and closer, but the figures of the German Army never appeared on the opposing positions.
At this moment, even the observers from various countries watching from the rear thought that the German Army had truly fled.
However, the next second— Boom, boom, boom!
The massive explosions rang out on the battlefield like rolling thunder, and the shells in the sky fell as densely as raindrops, landing within the American Army’s offensive formation, blowing up one group of American Army soldiers after another.
Rat-tat-tat!
The roar of heavy machine guns followed closely behind, sweeping down the American Army soldiers approaching the positions row by row, like cutting wheat.
And the German Army soldiers hiding in the trenches and bunkers appeared almost at the same time, raising their rifles and submachine guns to unleash fierce fire on the enemy troops approaching the trenches.
For a moment, guns and artillery roared on the battlefield, as if playing an impassioned symphony.
The attacking American Army soldiers fell to the ground in droves, like a wheat field swept by a gale, never to get up again.
On the battlefield, fire flared, blood mist flew everywhere, and there were broken limbs and corpses that had just fallen and were still twitching everywhere.
The British Army observer watching from the rear felt a chill down his neck; this scene made him uncontrollably recall the tragic conditions of the Battle of the Somme.
At this moment, it was just like that moment in the past!