Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 45 Hell
The basic caliber of the artillery guns equipped by the Empire is no less than 150 mm, and the usable range is generally longer than that of the Farlans, about 12 kilometers. Because of its excellent long-range artillery capability, it is often used on warships.

The only drawback of the artillery is that it is heavy and difficult to deploy in a maneuverable manner. This is why Ryan proposed to set out at night.

This was to give the artillery regiments in the rear enough time to move their positions to better cover the front battlefield.

But ultimately, this is because the area of ​​Mulhouse city is too large.

If it is a smaller town, even if the artillery regiment does not move, it can still bombard its own front line.

on the other hand.

This freed up time also provided the commanders of the Seventh Army with opportunities to gain merit.

Ryan's battle plan, after all, was nothing more than driving the enemy out of the front line and restricting their range of movement.

Although this will cause the empire to lose a certain amount of front in the short term, the subsequent artillery bombardment will completely wipe out all invading enemy forces.

Because there are certain problems with the Empire's battle results calculation mechanism, this part of the results will be counted on the officers and soldiers of the Seventh Army who commanded artillery operations and position transfers.

This was Ryan's compensation for having snatched away two battalion headquarters of the Seventh Army.

At the same time, it also gave face to the people of the Seventh Army.

To put it bluntly, Ryan wanted to let the people of the Seventh Army know that he was not the kind of airborne idiot who would casually steal other people's troops and other people's merits.

Of course, these benefits given to the Seventh Army will eventually be returned to Ryan through the Empire's 10 pfennigs for each Esco explosion-proof wall. Ryan also asked at the bank that the Empire's pfennigs can be exchanged for any precious metal at will, so now all his income will be converted into gold when it comes in.

But the people of the Seventh Army will never know.

At this time, in the Imperial artillery position behind Mulhouse.

A total of twenty 150-caliber artillery pieces have completed all calculations of various parameters, and even the few of them closest to the right wing can confirm the battlefield environment with the naked eye.

Further ahead of them, more than thirty 77-caliber FK.96 field guns had been pulled by mules and horses to a position where they could also visually confirm the battlefield.

The commanders of the Seventh Army are all smart people, otherwise they would not be responsible for building the border defense line.

Therefore, when they learned from Brian that Ryan was going to use the FK.96 in a direct-fire manner to launch the attack on the battlefield, they immediately understood the horror of this type of tactic.

Artillery has an absolute range advantage and fire suppression effect over any weapon. In the middle of the night, once the flame from the artillery muzzle lights up, the impact on the enemy's morale will even exceed the effect of the artillery's actual hit.

Officers all know that the most important thing for an army on the battlefield is morale. A unit without morale is not even as good as a group of pigs.

And now is the best time to hit the morale of the Farlan army.

Outside the artillery position, Brian put the receiver back on the phone and turned to look at the commanders of the Seventh Army in front of him.

The leading colonel, a regimental commander of the 15th Army, stared at Brian and spoke after some thought.

"Did you all hear what Captain Fleagle said?"

"The enemy has entered the net, prepare to close the net." In an instant, everyone in the entire temporary headquarters began to get busy. The firing command post responsible for coordinating the firing of various artillery positions immediately connected to the contact phone lines of various artillery positions and informed all units of the long-determined firing time and artillery mode.

The messengers of each unit also immediately rushed to the front line on horseback, and immediately advanced forward after the bombardment, delivering orders to each unit to recapture the battlefield.

Then, the first cannon was fired.

A total of more than seventy artillery pieces began to operate almost immediately, and the flames produced by the firing almost illuminated half of the sky.

In the distance, on the slopes of the Vosges Mountains.

Ryan saw the artillery position opening fire almost immediately. Countless projectiles drew two completely different arcs, but fell into the trenches at almost the same time.

This round of artillery fire alone blew half of the Empire's trenches into the sky.

But the bombardment will not stop there.

Countless Farlan soldiers poured out of the trenches like crazy. From Ryan's position, it looked like a flooded ant nest, with groups of blue ants crawling out of it frantically and running towards Belfort.

"It's almost time, Captain."

Brinkman nudged Ryan lightly with his arm and put a flare gun loaded with flares into Ryan's hand.

Without any nonsense, Ryan immediately took the signal gun and after waiting for more than ten seconds, he pulled the trigger towards the sky almost when the second round of artillery fire hit the ground.

A green light enveloped the entire battlefield, completely lighting up the ground between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine River.

All the Farlan soldiers who left the trenches were almost immediately illuminated by the light. They were panicked, and some of them cursed and cursed the whole family of the idiot who launched the flare.

But the only option they had was to crawl on the ground.

Because at the moment the green light came on, the more than 40 machine gun fire points under Ryan's men immediately began to attack.

Dozens of light strips, combined with artillery fire, completely covered the entire battlefield. The machine guns distributed on the left and right sides of the trenches could even directly sweep the inside of the trenches where the Farlanes were hiding, completely pinning those Farlanes who had not yet crawled out to death in the trenches.

Those Farlanes who tried to leave the encirclement did not dare to raise their heads at all because of the glare of the green flares.

If they raised their heads slightly, they would be dazzled by the dazzling green light. Not to mention finding the location of the machine gun, it was even difficult for them to see things clearly.

It can be said that as easy as it was for them to enter the territory of the empire, it is as difficult for them to leave the territory of the empire now.

These Farlan soldiers watched helplessly as their comrades merged with the earth under the fire of artillery and machine guns.

As more and more soldiers died, the surviving soldiers in the rear wanted more and more to break out of this damn hell.

But their actions were in vain.

No one could walk normally under the bombardment of 150mm and 77mm howitzers, and the barbed wire fences pushed to both sides during the attack perfectly formed a road leading directly to hell.

(End of this chapter)