The Rise of the Empire

Chapter 748: Look beyond the surface

The movement of troops takes time, but Ruprecht must go to Brussels immediately. Even in the car, he is not idle. He needs to read a lot of documents in order to have a more objective understanding of the situation on the Western Front. Among them, the prince first focused on reviewing the two battle records of Germany and France. He must have a more objective understanding of the application of French armored forces and the defense capabilities of the French army against armored assaults. Of course, he also needs to know the current Prussia What is the level of the Legion and where is it losing?

  First is the Battle of Cambrai. Although the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks have no technical advantages, relying on concentrated forces, they successfully opened the gap in the French defense line. The offensive started very smoothly. If you look at it hastily, the fundamental reason for the failure of the Battle of Cambrai is The German armored forces kicked the iron plate. Is this actually the case? There is some truth, but it is not entirely true.

  6 armored battalions killed nearly 200 flat-fire guns by the French and the British.... You can understand it as death, but you can also understand it as a last resort. The reason is simple. The Germans can only choose this road and have no chance to bypass this line of defense. On the one hand, the logistics has not kept up and the tank travel is limited. If you don’t take this line, you won’t be able to reach the second line of defense.

  On the other hand, the infantry and artillery at the rear did not keep up, and the armored soldiers were used as an infantry weapon rather than a service. The infantry that should have not kept up, and the artillery support that should have been there, and the aviation, let alone the terrible range of aircraft in this era, unless the airfield is built on the front line, the output provided by the bombers is very limited.

  In short, this attack by the German Army can be described as such. A team of police kicked the door open, and then the assaultman entered, but the cover behind did not keep up. Then the person who went first was beaten out by the bandit with AK. But the actual difficulty is really not kicking the door, what is the difficulty of kicking the door? Even if there is no tank, there is nothing wrong with breaking through the first few lines of defense. The key is that after the door is kicked open, the people behind can keep up and stand firm!

  And in order to gain a firm foothold, there are many things you need to do. First, you must have a sniper to suppress your opponent. Of course, on the battlefield are the air force and long-range artillery units to suppress the opposing artillery and reinforcements. Secondly, your follow-up troops have to keep up, which requires infantry to follow up quickly, and to achieve this goal, all kinds of trucks and semi-track vehicles are indispensable. Third, we must defend and expand the breakthrough. To deal with opponents' counterattacks and armored counter assaults, the infantry must also carry certain anti-armor weapons. Fourth, your armored forces can continue to attack, which requires both durability and attack strength.

  None of these four problems is easy to solve, and it will not work without sufficient preparation for a period of time. However, if the preparation time is long, will there be any changes in the Allied Powers? That's hard to say. After all, if we switch to fighting in the trenches, the Allies will bury thousands of landmines between the positions. The scene is so beautiful that I can't imagine it.

However, the information sent subsequently dispelled the prince’s worries, because judging from the fighting situation during this period, the French army is generally weak except for the armored forces. The most important point is that the number of artillery and machine guns is not only lacking. Increase, but decrease! This surprised all the senior German military leaders, including Xiao Maoqi.

It stands to reason that even if you work hard to expand your arms and prepare for war in peacetime, the output of equipment is absolutely lower than in wartime. Under normal circumstances, even if losses on the battlefield are large, the replenishment of equipment will be faster than the loss for a period of time after the war. Speed. Especially under the conditions of World War I, otherwise, the equipment replenishment speed is slow, then how did the participating countries expand their troops?

  Take Germany as an example. Now Germany is forming a new Tenth Army, the equipment is okay, and it’s waiting for personnel... The Austro-Hungarian Empire is now equipped with other people, with guns and artillery, but the people who use these weapons have not yet arrived. But France is different.

  Of course, it must be admitted that France has also lost a lot in a series of battles. The British came with a group army and some heavy artillery troops, and the French gathered around 1.7 million people on the northern line! After the war broke out, France's military industry will surely have some jumps. This is unquestionable. It stands to reason that the number of French artillery and other weapons should increase, but it does not seem to be the case now. The size of the force remains largely unchanged, and the rate of replenishment has not exceeded the rate of loss. However, from the current point of view, the French infantry's artillery and machine gun equipment level has not increased, but has decreased.

  The only thing that can be explained is that the loss of the French armored forces is a bit large, and the loss is so large that even with the increase in military production capacity, the French still need to reduce the production of artillery and machine guns to maintain the supplement of the armored forces. This is good news for Germany. Because the number of artillery and machine guns is not enough ~lightnovelpub.net~ it is impossible to establish a solid line of defense! Trenches and bunkers only provide static defense, while a simple building has no defense. It needs a lot of troops and weapons to enrich the line of defense. Now, the French military production capacity cannot achieve this task in a short period of time. In other words, the French can't do it if they want to switch to defense.

  Thanks to the strong industrial capabilities of the German Empire. At the beginning of the war, the German Empire could not only make up for the loss of combat equipment, but also complete its army expansion. But France is different. His industrial capacity is less than half of the German Empire. While high-tech weapons such as armored vehicles and tanks enhance the combat effectiveness of the French army, they also greatly consume French military production capacity.

  For the Allies, it is obviously safer to switch to defense this morning, but now, it is impossible for the Allies to switch to defense. What should be done when the number of technical equipment is insufficient? The French can only attack! Disrupting the opponent's deployment by offensive provides time for the transition to defense and deep-level military mobilization. In other words, the German Empire still has a chance to move forward, but it is hard to say where it can be pushed.

   "At least the performance is better than in history." Ruprecht set himself a goal. Even if Paris can't be beaten, the prince decides to spread the war to more places in France. This damage to France may not be significant for a while, but as long as it drags on for a long time, once the French population and industry cannot keep up, there will be variables.

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