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

Chapter 942 Incendiary Bomb

At the Freeman front, a German lieutenant, his face blackened by gunpowder smoke, sits on an ammunition box and writes in his diary.

The pen tip danced nimbly on the pristine white paper, but the lieutenant's mind was filled with the spitting fire of a machine gun.
"After months of fighting, the area has turned black, and the trees have become branchless stakes stuck in what looks like churned soil."

"The earth was bare, like it had leprosy, a vast expanse of craters of all sizes, not an inch of land was spared from being ravaged."

"My dear Leonie, the enemy is about to attack. They will be unstoppable. This may very well be my last battle..."

The soldier crouched down and offered the lieutenant a cigarette. He accidentally glanced at the lieutenant's diary and asked suspiciously, "Why don't you send it out? I mean, she's your lover, isn't she?"

“She was my wife.” The lieutenant paused writing and gently took the cigarette. “She died in childbirth last month, along with my child, because no one could get her to the hospital in time.”

The soldier paused, his eyes then filled with sorrow, and his voice grew heavy: "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I didn't know that."

"It's alright," the lieutenant said calmly. "We've seen it all before, we're used to it."

The lieutenant closed his notebook and put it, along with his pen, into his jacket pocket: "Sometimes I wonder, what is death? Are the living necessarily happy? No, unless they can see the end of the war."

The trenches were silent. The soldiers, holding their guns, sat or squatted, each lost in their own thoughts.

Yes, if one continues to live like this, death would be a relief.

Their families back home are probably in the same boat, constantly struggling on the brink of hunger and exhaustion because of this pointless war.

Suddenly a whooshing sound came from the sky, like the howling of the wind blowing through a cave.

The lieutenant shouted "Take cover!" and was the first to drop to the ground in the trench.

"Boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

……

Shells exploded in dense bursts in front of the position.

The bombing lasted for more than two hours, going back and forth, plowing the trenches and the no-man's land several times like tilling a field.

When the artillery fire stopped, the lieutenant shouted fearfully to the soldiers around him, "Get ready, the enemy is about to attack!"

"How did you know?" the soldier asked.

"Can't you see it yet?" the lieutenant shouted. "They're using artillery fire to clear mines and barbed wire, clearing the way for the tanks!"

Sure enough, when they poked their heads out, they saw tanks appearing in the still-lingering smoke and dust.

When the soldiers recognized the tank model, they couldn't help but gasp, their eyes filled with deep fear.
"'Charles B2,' Charles' First Armored Corps!"

"We're fucked!"

"Farewell to this world, gentlemen!"

……

At the Freeman Joint Command, Hague, Pershing, and Charles reunited.

The command post was expanded and divided into British, American, and French military districts, each with its own command system.

The British and American section looked very busy, with radios and telephones ringing constantly, and communications soldiers and staff running around, but in reality, they were just there for show.

The real protagonists were the French army.

The French military district was in the middle, with the largest space and the most radio stations, where Charles and Tijani were stationed.

Pershing and Haig acted as Charles's advisors, ready to command their respective troops to coordinate with the French attack.

“We’re going to put on a show in Freeman,” Charles said, looking at the map.
"The goal is to make everyone think that our attack is heading towards Saarbrücken."

"Of course, the Germans aren't so easily fooled; they can distinguish my First Panzer Corps." "Therefore, we must have the First Panzer Corps actually attack the German lines, along with the mechanized and motorized divisions."

Pershing looked puzzled: "Use the main force of the First Armored Corps to launch a feint attack?"

"Yes."

"So, to what extent should the feint attack go?" Pershing asked.

Haig sat in his chair, leisurely sipping his coffee, seemingly unwilling to participate in the two's discussion.

He only became interested when he heard Pershing's question. He raised an eyebrow at Charles and answered for him: "I think, a feint attack on the Saarbrücken line, is that right?"

“You could say that,” Charles admitted, adding a compliment to Haig: “You have a good understanding of the situation, Lieutenant General.”

Haig smiled noncommittally: "That's not hard to guess."

With Haig's prompting, Pershing also understood, and he pointed to the map to analyze:

"We can clear the mines on the Freeman front with artillery shells, and the armored units can pass through smoothly."

"The centipede passage can also be suppressed by air force and vehicle artillery, and it will not be difficult to pass through it."

"The most difficult part is the Saarbrücken line, so should we stop the feint attack there?"

(Note: The narrow road leading to Saarbrücken is known by the US military as the "Centipede Pass" because it is flanked by forest trails that resemble the legs of a centipede.)
Charles did not deny it: "If we can break through the Saarbrücken line, we won't need a feint attack."

“But,” Pershing frowned:

"Excuse my bluntness, Lieutenant General."

“‘Centipede Passage’ is a place that is easy to enter but difficult to exit.”

"The Germans would intentionally let us in, then block the passage with artillery fire, and supplies would be cut off here."

The last time the British and American forces attacked, they suffered a great loss because of this.

Haig even considered using infantry for defense, but they were still badly beaten by German artillery.

“This time, there won’t be such a situation.” Charles took a red pen and drew a circle on each side of the forest on either side of the road, then put a big X on it.

"What do you mean?" Pan Xing asked, looking completely bewildered.

Haig stared blankly, and after a moment's thought, he nodded slightly: "Incendiary bombs, you've prepared a lot of incendiary bombs?"

……

At the Freeman front, the French army, like wolves and tigers, broke through the German defenses with overwhelming force under the cover of tanks.

The German troops did not engage the French in a direct confrontation; instead, they left behind a trail of corpses and fled into the forest.

This was a pre-planned strategy. The forest was their best cover, concealing many fortifications and traps. Even Charles's troops dared not venture deep into the forest to fight the German army.

In particular, heavy tanks can be blocked by thick tree trunks and unable to move forward.

Charles's troops did not actually enter; they merely set fires on the perimeter: using flamethrowers, mortars, and 75mm cannons to fire incendiary bombs.

A huge fire instantly broke out on the outskirts of the forest, crackling and spreading deeper into the forest as the wind blew.

What made the German army even more desperate was that a group of bombers flew in from the sky, a dark mass.

They flew over the forest and randomly dropped incendiary bombs like a fairy scattering flowers, throwing them wherever there was no fire.

Before long, the vibrant spring forest vanished, replaced by flames and smoke, with occasional explosions and the shrill cries of German soldiers.

(End of this chapter)