Watching the eight thousand elite Stormtroopers depart, Crown Prince Wilhelm found his mood calming down, shifting away from the excitement and nervousness he had felt earlier.
He returned to his command post, took out paper and a pen, and prepared to draft a letter to his uncle—the British Empire’s King George V.
Before World War I, the relationships between the royal family members of various European nations were extremely complex.
For instance, King George V of the British Empire and Wilhelm II of Germany were cousins.
King George V’s father was Queen Victoria’s eldest son, making him the Queen’s own grandson.
Wilhelm II’s mother was Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, which made him her own grandson.
Crown Prince Wilhelm had a deep impression of this uncle of his; he was a mature, rational, and restrained monarch who placed the nation above familial bonds—a ruler so calm he bordered on cold-blooded.
It was precisely because of these character traits that Crown Prince Wilhelm intended to leverage their familial relationship to his advantage.
Before World War I broke out, the royal families of both nations frequently interacted, often hosting royal gatherings and social events, and their relationship was quite good.
Although this relationship had been somewhat damaged after the two nations declared war—King George V had even changed the surname of the British royal family to distance himself from Germany— the King surely wouldn’t go so far as to refuse to even read a personal letter from his own nephew.
As long as this letter reached King George V, Crown Prince Wilhelm’s goal would be achieved!
This war would end sooner or later.
In a situation where the German Empire was unable to solve all problems through military means, it would eventually have to return to using political methods to resolve issues.
At this moment, the situation in Europe was volatile and treacherous.
In particular, with Russia experiencing the February Revolution and the October Revolution, which overthrew the Tsarist regime and resulted in the execution of the Tsar’s family, and the German Empire facing soldier uprisings and worker movements with clear signs of a full-scale shift toward communism, every European nation—including the powerful British Empire—stood at a crossroads regarding the destiny of their own nations and peoples.
They did not have the perspective of God and did not know in what direction future events would develop, so they would inevitably hesitate and waver when making choices.
And this hesitation was the only opportunity for Crown Prince Wilhelm and the German Empire.
The window of opportunity was only during the two months of November and December; if missed, there might never be another chance!
After writing the letter, Crown Prince Wilhelm was not in a hurry to send the telegram.
Although he was the Crown Prince of the German Empire, he had little fame internationally at this time.
While King George V had met him before, he likely did not have a deep impression of him.
He needed to wait for a suitable opportunity.
This opportunity was none other than this battle against the American army.
When everyone thought that the German Army was about to surrender and the war was coming to an end, he, as a contrarian, would inevitably attract the attention of all parties.
If his defiance resulted in a crushing defeat, he would be seen as a clown trying to stop a chariot with his arms, becoming a laughingstock for all nations.
But if his resistance achieved unexpected results and inflicted sufficiently heavy casualties on the Allied Forces, then he would not be a clown, but an opponent who must be taken seriously!
Only after his name spread across the world, reached the ears of King George V, and caught the other’s attention, would sending this telegram achieve the best effect!
Before that, he could only wrong the Americans and let them become the price!
…
At 2:30 AM, the positions on both sides were silent.
The American sentries, who could still keep their spirits up in the first half of the night, were struggling to keep their eyes open and were incredibly sleepy by the second half.
There was less than half an hour until the next shift of sentries would take over.
The closer it got to this time, the more relaxed the sentries’ mental state became, and many had already started daydreaming about returning to get a wonderful sleep after the shift change.
However, they seemed not to have noticed that the wounded soldiers who had been seriously injured in the battle during the day and abandoned on the battlefield had stopped groaning at some unknown point.
If they had been sufficiently vigilant, this should have raised an alarm at this moment.
But, physically and mentally exhausted, they didn’t think about it at all, and even felt that without the wailing and howling of these guys, their ears were much more peaceful.
At a high point, the soldier operating the searchlight mechanically turned the dial in his hand, sweeping across the battlefield.
Except for the corpses of soldiers who had died during the day and had not been cleared in time, the battlefield was empty, giving the American soldiers a false sense of security.
Yet in the areas he had just swept, a group of dark shadows was crawling on the ground, carefully avoiding obstacles, approaching the American positions with extreme speed, and starting to use wire cutters to destroy the barbed wire the enemy had set up in front of their positions.
“What was that sound?” An American soldier suspected he heard some movement and couldn’t help but turn his head.
But after he turned his head, the sound disappeared again.
“It’s probably those damn rats again.
When we take the German Army’s position, I’m going to use a flamethrower to roast all the trenches here.
These damn rats almost bit my toes off a few days ago!” It was clear that this American soldier deeply detested the rats that infested the battlefield.
These creatures reproduced quickly and had strong survival capabilities; even poison gas bombs couldn’t kill them.
Moreover, because they had lived with humans for a long time, they were particularly bold.
Not only did they gnaw on the corpses of fallen soldiers, but sometimes they even ate living people.
If one wasn’t careful while sleeping, it was easy to have one’s toes gnawed off.
Even worse were those wounded soldiers who were injured and had limited mobility; if no one helped drive the rats away, they could truly be eaten alive by the rats, and they could only watch helplessly as they were gnawed away, which was no different from death by a thousand cuts.
The reason why World War I was a hell for the soldiers who participated was mainly because trench warfare was too brutal.
The casualty rate was extremely high during combat, and the suffering was intense when not fighting; it was a double-edged sword of misery.
This resulted in anyone who went to the battlefield having some degree of psychological issues.
However, for the Americans defending this position, there was one piece of good news: there was a high probability they wouldn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The bad news was that they might not survive tonight!
Two agile German Army soldiers quietly crept up behind the sentry, caught him off guard, and finished him off with a knife.
They then flipped into the trench and began to clear out the enemies who were deep in sleep inside.
“Who’s there?” An American soldier, who had woken up to relieve himself, was attracted by the commotion and called out.
The response he received was not an answer from a comrade, but the fire-spitting muzzles of the enemy.
Rat-tat-tat!
Once the gunfire rang out, the German Army held nothing back.
To increase the odds of success for this operation, Crown Prince Wilhelm had not only equipped every participating soldier with military-grade night vision goggles but also provided each one with the German Army’s most advanced submachine gun—the MP18 Bergmann submachine gun!
This weapon had an extremely high rate of fire, capable of reaching 400-600 rounds per minute.
When several submachine guns fired together, they could form an incredibly strong suppressive fire against the enemy.
Coupled with its compact size and light weight, it was perfectly suited for combat in the narrow terrain of trenches.
Because the German Army had first eliminated the perimeter sentries, the American soldiers in the trenches had received absolutely no warning before the attack and were dragged into the battle with almost no preparation.
Conversely, on the German Army side, they were not only well-prepared but also well-equipped.
With the help of the night vision goggles, the enemy’s positions and numbers were undoubtedly exposed to the German Army.
They raised their submachine guns and charged aggressively, pouring bullets wherever there were many people.
Under the fierce firepower of the German Army, the defensive breach in the first American trench grew larger and larger.
More and more German Army soldiers charged through the barbed wire from the darkness and slaughtered their way into the American positions.
The sudden attack threw the American ranks into chaos.
They did not know how many enemies had arrived; they only felt that there was gunfire everywhere and enemies everywhere.
The American soldiers across the entire battlefield fell into panic.
“Steady, don’t panic, listen to my com…” An American officer tried to organize the soldiers for orderly resistance, but as soon as he poked his head out, he was locked onto by a German Army sniper equipped with night vision goggles.
With a bang, his head was blown apart.
This scene was also playing out in other places, as the German Army snipers specifically targeted high-value enemy targets.
Enemy commanders, machine gunners, mortar crews, and American soldiers who occupied key positions attempting to block the German Army’s advance were all their primary targets.
Without night vision goggles, it was extremely difficult to find targets and snipe them in the pitch-black night.
But with the night vision goggles, a god-tier tool for night warfare, this job suddenly became simple.
Junior and middle-ranking officers were sniped one after another, and the machine gunners and mortar crews were successively taken out by the enemy.
The American soldiers in the positions completely became headless flies.
Except for a few brave soldiers who dared to resist on the spot, the rest of the American soldiers saw that the situation was bad and scrambled out of the trenches, fleeing toward the rear.
However, the German Army had no intention of letting them go at that point.
Upon discovering that the American soldiers had abandoned their positions and started to flee, the German Army side immediately made adjustments.
Leaving a portion of their forces to continue mopping up the remaining enemies in the positions, the rest followed, crossing the trenches and chasing the retreating American soldiers as they charged toward the enemy’s second line of defense.
If they didn’t expand their gains while the enemy was in chaos, it would be difficult to achieve such a surprise effect once the enemy was prepared!
Moreover, if they did not pursue but chose to stop at the first line of defense, the American soldiers who had reacted might very well unleash saturated artillery fire upon them.
But if they chose to pursue the American soldiers, with the two sides being too close, the American artillery would absolutely not fire easily to avoid friendly fire.