The Rise of the Empire

The movement of troops would take time, but Ruprecht had to leave for Brussels immediately. Even in the car, he was not idle. He needed to read a large number of documents in order to have a more objective understanding of the situation on the Western Front. Among them, the prince first focused on reading the battle records of the two offensives between Germany and France. He must have a more objective understanding of the application of French armored forces and the French Army's defense capabilities against armored assaults. Of course, he must also know the current Prussian What is the level of the Legion and where did it lose?

The first is the Battle of Cambrai. Although the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks have no technical advantages, they still succeeded in opening a gap in the French defense line by concentrating their forces. The attack went very smoothly at the beginning. If you look at it hastily, the fundamental reason for the failure of the Battle of Cambrai is The German armored forces kicked off the iron plate, is this actually the case? There's some truth to that, but it's not entirely true.

6 armored battalions fought against the French and British with nearly 200 flat-firing guns... You can understand it as seeking death, but at the same time it can also be understood as doing it as a last resort. The reason is very simple. The Germans can only choose this path and have no chance to bypass this defense line. On the one hand, the logistics have not kept up and the tank range is limited. , if we don’t take this line, we can’t reach the second line of defense at all.

On the other hand, the infantry and artillery in the rear did not keep up, and the armored force was used as an infantry weapon rather than as a service branch. The infantry that should have failed to keep up, the artillery support that should have been available, let alone aviation, the range of aircraft in this era was terrible. Unless the airport was built on the front line, the output provided by the bombers was very limited.

In short, this offensive of the German Army can be described like this. A team of policemen kicked the door open, and then the attackers entered, without the cover behind them following. Then the people who entered first were beaten out by the bandits with AKs. But the actual difficulty is indeed not in kicking in the door. What’s so difficult about kicking in the door? Even if there are no tanks, there is no problem in breaking through the first few lines of defense. The key is that after the door is kicked open, the people behind can follow and stand firm!

In order to gain a foothold, you need to do many things. First, you must have snipers to suppress your opponents. Of course, on the battlefield are the air force and long-range artillery units used to suppress the opponent's artillery and reinforcements. Secondly, your follow-up troops need to keep up, which requires infantry to follow up quickly, and to achieve this goal, various trucks and half-tracks are indispensable. Third, we must hold on to and expand our breakthrough points. To deal with the opponent's counterattack and armored counterattack, the infantry also needs to carry certain anti-armor weapons. Fourth, your armored units can sustain assaults, which requires both durability and attack power.

None of these four problems is easy to solve, and it cannot be solved without a period of full preparation. However, if preparations take a long time, will there be any changes on the Allied side? That's hard to say. After all, if they were to fight in a stalemate in the trenches and the Allies planted thousands of mines between the positions, the scene would be too beautiful to imagine.

However, the intelligence sent later dispelled the prince's worries, because judging from the fighting situation during this period, the French Army, except for the armored forces, was generally in a weak state. The most important point was that the number of artillery and machine guns was not only low. Increase, but decrease! This surprised all the top German military officials, including Moltke.

It stands to reason that even if efforts are made to expand the military and prepare for war in peacetime, the output of equipment will definitely be lower than in wartime. Under normal circumstances, even if the losses on the battlefield are heavy, the equipment replenishment rate will be faster than the losses for a period of time after the war. of speed. Especially in a battle situation, otherwise, the equipment replenishment speed will be slow.

So how did the participating countries expand their armies?

Take Germany, for example. Germany is now forming a new Tenth Army. The equipment is OK, but the personnel are waiting... The Austro-Hungarian Empire now also has equipment and people, including guns and cannons, but the people to use these weapons are not yet in place. But France is different.

Of course, it must be admitted that France also suffered heavy losses in a series of battles. The British came with a group army and some heavy artillery units, and the French concentrated about 1.7 million people on the northern front! After the outbreak of the war, France's military industry will definitely see some improvement. This is beyond doubt. It stands to reason that the number of French artillery and other weapons should increase, but it seems that this is not the case now. The size of the force remains roughly unchanged, and the rate of replenishment has not exceeded the rate of loss. However, from the current perspective, the level of French infantry equipment such as artillery and machine guns has not increased but has decreased.

Then the only thing that can be explained is that the losses of the French armored forces are somewhat large. The losses are so great that even with the increase in military industrial production capacity, the French still need to reduce the production capacity of artillery and machine guns in order to maintain the replenishment of the armored forces. And this is good news for Germany. Because if there are not enough artillery and machine guns, it will be impossible to establish a solid defense line! Trenches and bunkers only provide static defense, while simple buildings have no defensive power. They require a large number of troops and weapons to enrich the defense line. Now, the French military production capacity cannot achieve this task in a short time, so why not Even if the French want to switch to defense, they can't do it.

Thanks to the strong industrial capabilities of the German Empire, at the beginning of the war, the German Empire was able to complete its military expansion while making up for the loss of combat equipment. But France is different. Its industrial capacity is less than half that of the German Empire. High-tech weapons such as armored vehicles and tanks not only improve the combat effectiveness of the French army, but also greatly consume France's military production capacity.

For the Allied Powers, it is obviously safer to switch to defense this morning, but now, it is impossible for the Allied Powers to switch to defense. What should they do when the number of technical equipment is not enough? The French can only attack! Disrupting the opponent's deployment through offense provides time for transition to defense and deep military mobilization. In other words, the German Empire still has a chance to continue to move forward, but it is difficult to say how far it can be pushed.

"At least the performance is better than in history." Ruprecht set a goal for himself. It would be fine if Paris could not be conquered, but the prince decided to spread the war to more places in France. This may not cause any harm to France for a while, but as long as it drags on for a long time, once France's population and industry cannot keep up, there will be variables.

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