Verdun Meat Grinder (3)
Shortly after the first salvo, the ten cannons fired a second salvo. This salvo caused dozens more casualties and threw the Prussian troops into chaos. Everyone knew they couldn't stay there and take the hits, but no one knew what to do. Some brave men, seeing the cannons weren't too far away, tried to rush over, only to step on landmines; others, more timid, ran and hid behind, only to also trigger landmines.
In the chaos, an attack was clearly impossible, and even an orderly retreat was difficult. The only way to save as many lives as possible was to rush back in a disorderly manner. Of course, in the retreat, they couldn't care less about retreating through the few narrow areas that the Britain had spent so much time marking out. As a result, they naturally carried out a mine-clearing operation by hand, which was much more efficient than the Britain operation.
"General, the enemy has been driven back! We only fired a few shots and they were driven back, while we suffered almost no losses. This is truly..." an officer from the Army of the North said excitedly to Joseph, who was standing to the side watching the battle through binoculars.
In fact, many officers in the Army of the North knew Joseph. After all, the Bonaparte brothers had both served in the Army of the North and had even saved many officers. Although the Bonaparte Family and the Italian Legion later showed signs of rivalry with the Army of the North, the Bonaparte brothers actually had a pretty good reputation within the Army of the North.
"Who says we suffered no losses? We just lost several soldiers," Joseph immediately corrected. Then he raised his binoculars, looked in that direction, sighed, and shook his head. "Also, one of our breastworks is destroyed, and another minefield is basically ruined... especially some of the landmines, which they dug up—how can you say we suffered no losses?"
"General, among those landmines, is there any technique that you can learn just by looking at them?" the officer asked.
"Of course there are, such as reducing the amount of explosives, reducing the volume, and lowering the cost..." Joseph said with great distress.
After spending half a day destroying a poorly constructed breastwork and efficiently clearing a French Army minefield, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces returned to their starting positions.
This was undoubtedly a major setback, but compared to the other two pieces of bad news they received that evening, it was nothing.
The first piece of bad news was that the Russia Tsar and the France had made peace. After a period of stalemate in Italy, the specially authorized Russia consul in the Republic of Venice and the similarly specially authorized France consul reached a peace agreement. According to this agreement, Russia and France achieved peace. In this agreement, France assured Russia that it would strictly control arms exports; while Russia agreed to purchase a batch of weapons from France. At the same time, the two countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation in academia, culture, and many other fields.
"Damn Russia! I knew they couldn't be trusted. If they hadn't tricked us last time, we would have... This time they've tricked us again!" The Duke of Brunswick was sweating with rage.
"Those Russia! They just swindled money from us two weeks ago!" Major George Cavendish exclaimed angrily. "I've never seen such shameless people!"
"At this crucial moment, when we were about to capture Paris, the Tsar betrayed us. I truly don't understand what's wrong with his brain. Doesn't he know we're about to win?" said the Duke of Brunswick. "Some say he's not Peter III's biological son. But judging from his actions, I'm afraid no one will believe that nonsense anymore!"
General Blücher nodded and said, "Yes, he is that man's son, without a doubt!"
At the most critical moment of the Seven Years' War, when Prussia was on its last legs and Frederick the Great was on the verge of death, Peter III suddenly switched sides, leading to the defeat of the France and saving Prussia. However, this act, which completely betrayed Russia interests, resulted in his overthrow in a coup by his own wife Catherine. Even the Prussia benefited from this betrayal admitted that Peter III's defection was completely unreasonable and utterly insane.
"But in any case, the destabilizing factor is now on the France side." Major Cavendish seemed quite philosophical about it.
Although his military rank was not high, his social status was not low (he had a duke uncle), so everyone treated him very politely.
This news meant that the south of France no longer posed a significant threat, so they had to speed up the capture of Verdun and take Paris before Napoleon arrived. Otherwise, the outcome of the war would be truly dire.
The second piece of bad news was that the prolonged rainy weather in southern France had ended, and two days of clear skies had followed. If this trend continued, road conditions from the south to the north would improve rapidly, meaning France 'Napoleon march would be faster. If Britain and Prussia couldn't capture Verdun before Napoleon's arrival, it would be even less likely they would be able to take the fortress once Napoleon arrived with Prussia Italian Legion.
If the fortress cannot be captured, the war will continue even in the most ideal scenario. And considering the fighting capacity of the France army, this most ideal scenario is probably just that – an "ideal scenario."
Because of this urgency, after consulting with the Prussian army, the British Army decided to launch a strong offensive as soon as possible, sparing no expense, to capture Verdun and occupy Paris.
So early the next morning, not only the Prussia, but even the Britain sent a large number of troops from multiple directions to the starting positions, making it seem as if they were about to launch a full-scale general offensive.
Joseph was naturally startled by the scene and rushed to the command post to coordinate the defense of the entire fortress. Soon, the observation posts in all directions gathered their findings and sent them to Joseph.
"Damn it, what are these guys trying to do? Shouldn't warfare involve first launching probing attacks in various locations to get a feel for the defensive forces' configuration before launching targeted and focused attacks? What are they doing? Don't they understand tactics?!" Upon hearing these reports, Murat immediately exclaimed.
If Napoleon were here, he would surely burst into laughter and say, "Joachim, you're actually talking about tactics now?"
However, Napoleon wasn't there, and Joseph, on the surface, wasn't a sarcastic or mean person. Besides, he didn't know Murat very well, so he began to analyze the situation quite seriously:
"I think the enemy probably already knows about Russia's withdrawal from the war and that the weather in the south is starting to improve. They're worried about Napoleon's... well, they're worried that the Italian Legion will appear here soon, which is why they're rushing to attack. As for the probing attack, I estimate that what they're doing today is still a probing attack, but simultaneously launching probing attacks from multiple locations—they have to use this method to save time. Well, according to our previous calculations, they simply don't have the troops needed to launch a full-scale attack from so many directions. This can only be a comprehensive probing."
After explaining, Joseph lowered his head to study the map for a moment, then looked up and issued the following order, "Hmm, we must prepare a backup plan for the defenses behind us. Note that today, artillery is not allowed to use cannons larger than 12 pounds. Other artillery is only permitted to be deployed in odd numbers. 'Shotgun shells' are not allowed. When using 'Claymore' mines, no more than three can be detonated simultaneously. Flamethrowers are not allowed, and 'Little Melon Launcher' are not allowed. Hold the line in other directions. Area 1, Area 7, Area 12... You can retreat slightly, but not beyond the second trench..."
Soon, British Army and Prussian troops launched attacks from multiple directions. As Joseph had predicted, the attacks from so many directions were mostly more bark than bite, putting relatively limited pressure on the defenders. However, because of Joseph's "forbidden" orders, the fighting seemed to be quite intense.
After a day of fighting, the Britain and Prussia reviewed the results of their attack and found that, overall, the offensive had been quite inefficient. However, the enemy had also revealed several weaknesses:
First, the French Army clearly received more support from new weapons, but because they had lost too many heavy weapons, especially artillery, on the northern front, their artillery numbers were clearly insufficient. In addition, their landmine supply did not seem particularly abundant, with some areas having significantly less mines than others. Furthermore, mine clearance results showed that the types of mines in these areas were more complex, including not only new small-charge mines but also many older types—a clear indication of insufficient mine supply in the eyes of the Britain and Prussia.
Of course, these problems are likely to improve over time, as there are many military industrial enterprises near Paris with considerable production capacity at this time. Therefore, the attack must be launched sooner rather than later, otherwise the fortress will become stronger day by day.
The Duke of Brunswick, General Blücher, and other British Army commanders carefully examined the areas where the defenses appeared relatively weak. Two places that should have been the most crucial were surprisingly poorly defended, even appearing weaker than some less important areas—clearly traps that must not be fallen into! The remaining areas were mostly easier to defend, so it was quite possible that their defenses were indeed relatively weak.
Finally, they selected two of these potentially real locations as the primary targets for the British Army and Prussian forces to attack the following day.