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

Chapter 40 They are finished
In the early morning, the sun just rose from the mist.

Major General Gad, who had just woken up from a nap, had no time to wash up. He stared at the map in the tent with a frown and sighed from time to time.

At this moment, there was a sudden burst of fierce gunfire from the front. Major General Gard was startled and raised his head suddenly, then turned his gaze to outside the tent.

Soon a signalman rushed in and reported: "General, the reconnaissance unit was blocked by the enemy, with more than 70 casualties!"

The staff officer followed the signalman into the tent, and the expression on his face seemed to have expected this result.

"Order the troops to organize an attack!" Major General Gad ordered without any hesitation: "Kill them at all costs!"

"Yes!" The signalman responded and went to convey the order.

Major General Gard sighed helplessly. Although the 5th Army had won a victory and was pursuing the enemy, it felt like it was being led by the nose by the enemy.

Every high ground, every hill, and even every small piece of jungle they passed through could be an ambush point for the Germans.

The Germans' tactics were very flexible, and the number of troops they ambushed was sometimes small and sometimes large.

When the French sent a small force to fight, they fought hard and annihilated the small force.

When France organized a large force to surround the city, they found that the enemy had already left the city, leaving behind a note with greetings in broken French.

This limited the 5th Army's advance to only 8 kilometers a day, with hundreds of casualties per kilometer.

Major General Gad gritted his teeth in hatred:
"Tanks, we need tanks! If the tanks were in the front, this situation wouldn't be like this!"

"Aren't they up yet? What's going on Brownie?"

"General!" the staff officer replied in a low voice: "The old tanks cannot be repaired, and the new tanks have not been delivered to Major Browne, so..."

This was the first time that Major General Gad hated capitalists so much.

When Charles invented the tank, it took him only half a day to produce 12 tanks. To put it bluntly, it was just a few steel plates welded onto a tractor.

But now, the capitalists are playing the "hunger marketing" trick again. They deliberately delay time to create the illusion of "extreme shortage" of tanks in the army, making the soldiers look forward to it until they strongly demand it, resulting in the military having to increase the price to purchase them.

Major General Gad may not care about the casualties of his soldiers, but if this continues his 5th Army will be wiped out, and he, the army commander, will become a commander without troops.

More importantly, Major General Gard felt that the Germans seemed unwilling to accept defeat and they were likely to gather troops during the retreat and plan a counterattack.

Major General Gard was not sure whether he could stop the German counterattack without tanks!
Just when Major General Gard was in a dilemma, cheers came from outside the tent and the faint sound of a motor.

"What happened?" Major General Gard asked, "Have the reinforcements arrived?"

The sound of the engine was not as dull as that of a tank, so Major General Gard thought it was a car carrying reinforcements.

The staff officer was about to walk out of the tent to check the situation when a signalman ran in excitedly and reported: "General, it's Major Browne. He's here with the 3rd Infantry Battalion!"

"Major Brownie?" Major General Gad's eyes lit up. "So, their tanks have been repaired?"

"No, General!" the signalman replied, "They were riding... uh... maybe motorcycles, three-wheeled motorcycles!"

"A three-wheeled motorcycle?"

Driven by curiosity, Major General Gad and his staff bent down and crawled out of the tent. They grabbed the telescope around their necks and looked at the road half a kilometer away. Sure enough, they saw a line of motorcycles speeding along the road.

It was indeed a three-wheeled motorcycle, and each motorcycle was equipped with a Maxim machine gun.

This made Major General Gad's eyes light up. Is this a new type of tank? Was it invented by the young man Charles?
Then Major General Gard felt something was wrong. The motorcycle showed no sign of stopping.

"Where are they going?" Major General Gard exclaimed. The staff officer looked at the direction the motorcycle was heading and said, "General, their target is the mountain road!"

"No, no, make them stop!" Major General Gard was furious: "They should stay and fight with us instead of fleeing into the mountains... This is a shameful desertion!"

The staff officer immediately ordered the signalman: "Stop them!"

"Yes!" the signalman responded, skillfully pulled a warhorse over and flew up, pulling the horse's head to chase in the direction of the motorcycle.

However, when the staff saw the horses carrying the motorcycle exhaust and dust far behind, they realized that the order could not reach Major Browne.

This was intentional on the part of Major Browne; he did not want Major General Gard's signalmen to catch up and order them what to do.

This is also what Charles meant.

"A very important point is that you have to leave the command of the troops!" Charles squatted on the ground, staring at the map thoughtfully.

"Why?" The fear in Major Brownie's eyes deepened.

What can a troop of more than 200 people do if they are separated from the main force? Without support, they are not enough to fill the gaps in the enemy's teeth!

"Your commanders don't know how to use sidecars in combat!" Charles explained, "They will treat sidecars as tanks and drive them in front to block bullets. Then you will be really finished!"

Major Brownie was a little embarrassed. He had originally thought so, to drive the sidecar in front and use the Maxim rifle to fire at the enemy positions.

"So..." Major Brownie asked hesitantly, "We can't fight like this, right?"

Major Brownie didn't care about losing face. If he didn't ask clearly now, he would not only lose face but also his life on the battlefield.

Besides, Charles can't be considered ashamed, he is a genius!

"Of course not!" Charles replied, "The armor on the front of the motorcycle is only 5mm thick. The enemy's rifle can easily penetrate it from meters away. The sides and rear are completely exposed to fire without any cover!"

Then Charles added: "We can't install thicker armor, otherwise it will affect driving!"

This puzzled Major Browne: "If the sidecar can't stop bullets and can't attack the enemy, what's the use of it?"

"Speed, Major!" Charles emphasized, "Its advantage is speed!"

"Speed?" Major Browne was confused. Could speed be an advantage on the battlefield? Wouldn't it mean dying faster?
Ciel pointed at the map and analyzed:

"The Germans were able to fight and retreat at the same time because they left a troop behind to provide cover."

"Their covering forces are ready for battle. They have dug trenches or are hiding in advantageous terrains with their guns ready to wait for us to step into their crosshairs!"

"Of course we can't run into their guns!"

Major Browne objected: "But we can only catch up with them from behind..."

Charles didn't say anything, but turned his head and looked at Major Brownie coldly with a questioning look.

Major Browne suddenly realized that infantry could only chase the enemy from behind, but motorcycles had a speed advantage of several times or even dozens of times.

Major Browne hesitated and said, "You mean, we can bypass the German covering forces and attack their main force!"

"Yes!" Charles said, "Their main force is not prepared at all. They think that there are covering troops in the rear to prevent the enemy from coming. So they will march with rifles on their shoulders and cannons pulled by horses without being deployed. The whole team will march in a straight line along the road or gather in a group on the flat open ground to camp and rest. At this time, if hundreds of Maxim machine guns suddenly appear on their flanks..."

Major Browne responded excitedly: "They are finished. They may not even have a chance to fight back!"

(End of this chapter)