I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 13: Attacking in Defense
Matthew was not originally supposed to go to the battlefield.

He was not in Charles' plan. Charles had already selected a dozen tractor drivers, which was not a difficult task for the tractor factory.

However, when these drivers heard that they had to drive tractors to the battlefield and walk in the front to block bullets, they turned pale with fear:

"We are just drivers, Master Charles, not soldiers!"

"We have families to feed!"

"We only earn 28 francs a month, barely enough to support our family!"

……

The implication is that there is no point risking your life for a salary of 28 francs.

Charles had the urge to give them more money, but he finally held back.

Charles understood that once the opportunity to raise the price was raised, there would be more troubles later.

French soldiers are also fighting hard on the battlefield, they also have families to support, and their salaries are even lower than those of workers. Shouldn’t they be paid more?

A fully-strength army group has about 300,000 men, and there are at least hundreds of thousands of them assembled in Darvaz. Can Charles afford it?

Therefore, the drivers must do it voluntarily and no extra money can be added!

When Charles was in trouble, Matthew stood up:

"Let me go!"

Ciel refused without a second thought:

"You are in the assembly workshop. What we need is a skilled driver! This is a battlefield, no joke!"

Ciel emphasized the second half of the sentence, especially the word "battlefield".

A trace of confusion flashed across Matthew's eyes, but he understood the next second. He stared at Charles with a half-smile and answered word by word:

“I’ve been driving tractors as toys since I was a kid, and no one in this factory is more skilled than me!”

Matthew raised his eyebrows meaningfully, as if to say, you clearly know all this.

Charles did know, he just didn't want Matthew to take the lead.

But at this point, Charles couldn't refuse, otherwise no one would be willing to take the risk.

Seeing that Charles acquiesced, Matthew turned to the others and raised his hand casually:
"Gentlemen, think about it! We have the potential to defeat the Germans, isn't this protecting our families?"

"Have you made up your mind to kneel down before the Germans and beg them not to kill your family members and not to take away your things?"

"Stand up, gentlemen, I don't want to live like this!"

Matthew's words are very convincing.

The drivers were silent for a while, then raised their hands one after another:
"Count me in!"

"I'm going to try my luck. Maybe I can come back alive and be the one who defeats the German army!"

"I'm in! I don't have any family, so it doesn't matter if I can't come back!"

……

So, these ordinary yet great people went to the battlefield.

They had not received any military training and were driving unverified and crudely made "iron cans" on the battlefield, facing Germans who were dozens of times more ferocious than them and the black muzzles of their guns.

...Perhaps because the "tank" had poor external perception ability, the two "iron cans" drove into the trenches one after another and got stuck in them, unable to move.

Joseph suddenly became nervous. Could that be the "iron can" driven by Matthew?
Charles cursed inwardly. He had already told them to pay attention to the trenches. These first-generation "tanks" had no ability to cross the trenches, and their tracks could only barely cope with the mud pits and ridges on the farm!

The German soldiers also noticed this, and they seemed to find a glimmer of hope, or a last desperate struggle, as some of them hid in the trenches and tried to reorganize their defense.

This is a reflection of the quality of the German army. Even at this time, some of them did not give up.

However, the reality was cruel, and their efforts soon came to nothing.

The "iron cans" stopped in front of the trenches one after another. They no longer moved forward, but aimed their machine guns at the German soldiers in the trenches at close range.

The French soldiers following behind also relied on the cover of the "iron cans" to sniper the German soldiers. They were divided into two teams to cooperate with each other. After one team fired a shot, they retreated and the other team immediately leaned out to shoot.

This was an asymmetrical battle. The trenches where the German troops were stationed were built by French soldiers. They faced the opposite bank and had not been completed yet. The German soldiers had to crouch down to hide in them.

However, the French soldiers had several huge shields blocking the way, and they were connected one after another, leaving only a passage of more than ten feet wide in the middle. If the German soldiers deviated slightly from this passage, their shooting angle would be blocked.

In the end, the German army could only accept this result with casualties: one soldier after another was knocked down in the trenches with regret and unwillingness, and most of those who resisted stubbornly turned into corpses.

Major Browne yelled after the "tin can":

"Hold on, hold the line! Hold the line!"

This was an incredible tactic, Major Browne thought.

Before this, the French army's tactics had always been "attack, attack, and attack again!"

It doesn’t matter whether an officer graduated from a military academy, because everyone knows how to command and how to fight... French tactics are too monotonous, and all commands can be summed up in one word: "advance"!
We advance while the enemy holds the line!
As the enemy retreats, we advance!
When the enemy attacks, we keep advancing!
……

It's the same no matter who's in command.

This caused the French army to pay a heavy price from the beginning of the war. Although Major Browne did not know the exact number of casualties, from what he saw, heard, and felt, the number was definitely not small.

（注：1914年8月、9月，法兰西死亡、失踪、被俘达每月164500人，这让法兰西迅速将征兵年龄下限降到了18岁，到1915年时，已有80%的18到46岁的男人被征召。）
But now, they seem to be on the attack but they are always on the defense.

To be precise, they were attacking while defending. They had been hiding behind the "iron can" and slowly advancing towards the enemy under its cover!
Then the enemy collapsed. An elite German force of several thousand men collapsed under the attack of more than three hundred of them!

This was unimaginable before. The French needed at least tens of thousands of people to defeat this elite German army, but they only had more than 300 people, plus a dozen tractors! Major Browne roughly estimated that only about 20 people were killed or injured.

"This is amazing!" Major Browne exclaimed as he gave orders, "Fuck it! What were we doing before? They were simply wasting the lives of the soldiers. We should fight in this way in the future!"

The soldiers were also encouraged. While shooting at the enemy, they thought: Fighting will become easier from now on, and France will undoubtedly win!
So although the troops were small in number, their morale was high and they fought more bravely.

The frightened German soldiers kept retreating towards the bridge, but the main force of the German army on the north bank of the Marne River still charged along the bridge as ordered. The two forces collided fiercely like a surging tide. In an instant, people were crowded together and unable to move. Many people were stabbed by fallen spiked helmets, and some were squeezed off the bridge and fell into the river with strange screams.

"Get them to the bridge!" Major Browne yelled. "Machine gunners, aim at the enemy on the bridge!"

The machine guns soon began to fire. They didn't even need to aim. The overwhelming bullets fired at the Marne Bridge randomly and hit it easily.

The French 8mm rifle bullet is quite powerful. If it hadn't been stuck in the bones, it could have penetrated three human bodies and killed the fourth person.

Amid the dense gunfire, a bloody storm broke out at the Marne Bridge.

The entire bridge was dyed red, with sticky blood flowing like streams along the edge and cracks of the bridge, hanging on the bridge and dripping into the Marne River, and the flowing river water was painted a shocking red.

Finally, the Germans realized that the Marne Bridge was impassable, so they turned to the Marne River under the bridge.

However, this is also not a good choice!

(End of this chapter)