The sun never sets

The German army's advance was much faster than any previous one. Most of the time, the French army surrendered without much resistance. Only fierce fighting broke out near Arras and Lens.

The French army hurriedly returned and recaptured Lens after a fierce battle, but was defeated by the German follow-up troops in Arras.

The German General Staff deployed all its reserves in this battle, and all the troops that could be sent to the front were sent to the battlefield. The German army that had retreated to the Belgian-German border also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, not seeking to break through the defense line of the British and French coalition forces, but just to delay the enemy and prevent them from returning for reinforcements.

It took a total of ten days from breaking through the US defense line to the time when German tanks arrived near the port of Calais. During this process, the German army did not have a smooth journey, and the US army and the British and French forces did not sit idly by. The Allies launched a frenzied counterattack, trying to cut off the German army's retreat or open up the supply line to Belgium.

However, the German army invested a large number of fresh troops and firmly held the front line, preventing the dumpling skin from being pierced. When the German tanks arrived at the port of Calais, they encountered the hastily assembled reinforcements of the British army.

After the great changes on the Western Front, Britain urgently mobilized two divisions of reinforcements, which were assembled in Dover and transported to Calais by ship. However, due to the haste, the British reinforcements were in great disarray, and many soldiers were unable to get weapons and could only fight the Germans with rifles.

Fortunately, the German army was in chaos and lacked fuel because of its rapid advance, which gave the British army a chance to catch their breath. The British armored regiment sent a reconnaissance unit to search eastward, hoping to contact the British army in Dunkirk.

The German army had already won 95% of the battle. As long as they could capture the port of Calais, they would be able to make a big dumpling out of the British and French forces of more than 130 divisions. Because the Allies controlled the ports in Belgium, the German army could not annihilate all the enemies. Some of them would inevitably escape, but they could annihilate most of them and seize the artillery, tanks and machine guns.

The ports in Belgium are unable to sustain the supply of more than one million people. Although the troops can be withdrawn, the weapons and equipment will have to be thrown away.

Thousands of cannons could not be produced in a short time, and the shells, food, bedding and other supplies piled up on the front line could not be produced in a short time. As long as the port of Calais was occupied, the German army would have the possibility of completing a decisive victory and achieving a Jedi comeback.

On the contrary, as long as the port of Calais was still in the hands of the British army, the British and French forces in Belgium could withdraw to France and continue to fight the German army. The fate of the Allies and the Central Powers was determined by the ownership of a place like the port of Calais, which was only a few miles in radius.

While the German army and the British and French coalition forces were busy deploying troops, fierce fighting broke out between the air forces of the two camps. In order to fight for air supremacy, the air forces of the Allied Powers and the Central Powers fought fiercely in the air.

During the time when the German army rushed towards Calais, several major air battles broke out every day. The former favorites of heaven became consumables on the battlefield, and biplanes and monoplanes were shot down by the dozens.

At the height of the battle, more than a hundred fighters and bombers were destroyed in an hour. The famous "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, who took stimulants, flew continuously and shot down seven fighters and three bombers in two days, but he himself was shot down by an enemy plane and died on the spot. His body fell to the ground in France along with the plane.

Chapter 672: Attack

To the west of the port of Calais, the British reconnaissance team sent to the southeast returned to Coquelles. Except for a reconnaissance vehicle that fell behind and encountered a small group of German troops belonging to the 1st Armored Division, these British scouts did not observe any signs of large-scale German mobilization.

At this time, Germany's elite armored groups had actually begun to maneuver towards their respective target areas. Yin Jun's scouts merely passed by the German armored forces that were near the reconnaissance route at the time. After observing the empty towns that were ignited by the fighting, these scouts subjectively believed that the fighting on the nearby roads had ended.

The reconnaissance vehicle that fell behind and encountered a small group of German troops was lucky enough to repel the pursuing small group of German troops with the help of its own logistics and transport troops, and provided the commander of the British Armored Regiment with false information that there were no main German forces nearby.

The British commander then ordered the armored regiment to go to Dunkirk, but the Germans deployed a rearguard with tanks and anti-tank guns on the road to Saint-Ome.

The British armored force ran into the anti-tank gun. After a battle, the British broke through the German blockade, but lost 12 tanks. The armored force almost lost its combat effectiveness.

Small-scale battles like this occurred many times near Calais. Although the battles were small in scale, the fighting was extremely fierce. Both the British and German armies suffered heavy casualties, and it was not uncommon for the casualties of the combatants to exceed 50%.

The German commander didn't take these things to heart at all. The world war had entered its fifth year, and the casualties on the battlefield were calculated in the millions. The deaths and injuries of only a few hundred or a thousand people could not even arouse any emotional response in Germany and Europe.

As long as there are constant reinforcements, the army can keep fighting.

After discovering that there were tens of thousands of defenders at Calais, the German tank troops did not launch a strong attack. The speed of tank production in Germany was very slow, and it would take a month or two to buy tanks from the People's Revolutionary League. The precious armored forces should not be consumed in the attack on the port city. In the previous battle, the German tanks had been lost by nearly half. If the losses continued, the German tank groups would all become infantry.

December

On the 7th, the Germans besieging Calais used an armored regiment and an infantry regiment to occupy the Coquelles Heights overlooking Calais in the western suburbs of Calais under the cover of artillery fire. Another German infantry regiment also arrived in the southern part of Calais.

When the highest British military commander defending Calais arrived at Calais with a regiment of troops, the Germans had already completed the siege of the port city. The British sent an infantry battalion to defend the eastern part of Calais, an infantry battalion to the west of Calais, and the remaining infantry battalion and anti-tank guns were deployed on the outer positions of the port.

Almost at the same time when the main force of the German tank group occupied the Coquelles Heights, the British commander received a top-priority order from the British Imperial War Office, requiring the troops in Calais Port to quickly deliver 3.5 supplies to Dunkirk.

With their supply lines cut off, the British and French forces in Belgium soon fell into hunger and lacked artillery shells and machine gun bullets.

Whether it is the British-French coalition forces or a branch army, strong combat effectiveness requires logistical support. The stronger the combat effectiveness, the higher the demand for supplies.

The British troops defending the port of Calais had to draw manpower from their already stretched defense line to complete the order, but before the convoy carrying supplies had finished assembling, it was heavily bombarded by the German army on the Coquelles Heights. At 8 a.m. on the 4th, the transport convoy, which had assembled under the cover of night, set off, but they soon discovered that the German armored forces had captured Gravelines, cutting off the connection between Calais and Dunkirk.

The convoy encountered the first obstacle set up by the Germans 8 kilometers east of Calais. By the time the convoy carefully bypassed these obstacles, it was already dawn. In order to avoid being surrounded, the transport convoy had no choice but to return to Calais. The tragic siege of Calais officially began on November 1915, 11.

At dawn on November 11, the Germans used fierce artillery fire to tear through the morning mist of Calais Port. The raging fire and hideous smoke instantly enveloped the crumbling isolated city. This round of fierce artillery bombardment destroyed a large number of buildings and facilities in the city.

The anti-tank guns deployed outside the city did not play much of a role. After paying more than 105 casualties, the German infantry drove the British back into the city. The German 150mm light howitzers and mm heavy howitzers played an important role in the battle, but the British did not have many artillery to use, and the few tanks they had were all lost in the battle.

In addition to the loss of heavy weapons and the extreme shortage of ammunition, another huge problem faced by the defenders in the city was the supply of drinking water. When the pipelines that transported drinking water were blown up, the struggling British troops could only draw drinking water from abandoned wells.

Fortunately, although the weather was cold and snow had begun to fall, the well water had not frozen. Some British soldiers had to grab ice and snow to quench their thirst, but this was not a good idea, as it would not only cause damage to the soldiers, but also cause physical burden.

Snowflakes are a condensed state of liquid water, which contains a lot of cold air and impurities. A large mass of snow melts into only a little snow water, and the snow contains only 10% water, and the other 90% is cold air and impurities. In other words, you have to eat 1 liter of snow without stopping to get 100 grams of water. And the snow itself is very cold, so eating it will cause the body to lose precious calories.

But when the critical moment comes, there is no time to quench thirst with poison.

The German attack never stopped. While using heavy artillery fire to intensively bombard the city of Calais, the German commander besieging Calais also sent envoys to the city several times to persuade it to surrender, but the reply he got was "No, the duty of the British Empire Army is to fight as well as the German Army."

The heroism of the British commander greatly boosted the morale of the British troops defending Calais. By noon on the 8th, the British soldiers had repelled several rounds of German attacks. However, their will was ultimately unable to resist the surging iron and blood tide. With the support of artillery, the German infantry continued to erode the outer buildings of the Calais port.

The British army had lost all its tanks and lacked heavy artillery, so they had no way to fight the German artillery. After suppressing the heavy firepower in the city, the German infantry attacked fiercely. The combat engineer brigade was equipped with a large number of Type 14 light machine guns and submachine guns, as well as flamethrowers and large-mouth mortars, which gave it a great advantage in urban street fighting.

If they encountered a strong stronghold that was impossible to take down, the German army would call for heavy artillery support and blow the building and the defenders inside into pieces.

Chapter 673 Dust

"........The fate of the world was decided at Calais, where fearless British soldiers dealt a heavy blow to the German invaders......." - The Times

"........Our army is unstoppable and is about to achieve a decisive victory. At this critical juncture, the whole country... ——"Berlin Daily"

After arriving at the office in the morning, Lin Yongchang read the newspaper as usual. The newspaper on the Allied side said how many enemies the British, French and American coalition forces had destroyed, but as soon as he looked at the map, he found something wrong. How come the German army had reached Calais when they were winning?

German newspapers were not much better. They were full of stories about the invincibility of the German Army. They made little mention of the tragic battles of Arras and Calais. Even when they mentioned casualties, they focused on describing the

It only writes about the Allied Powers, but only briefly mentions the Central Powers.

Telling lies with open eyes, calling a horse a zebra, calling black white and white black, these are the basic operations of the media, so there is no need to be too surprised. There are journalists with conscience, but being the mouthpiece of certain forces is the job of the media.

However, even if it is a lie, you can get useful information from newspapers. For example, the war in Western Europe right now may not be credible, but as long as you look at the location of the battle, you can get a lot of useful information. However, this information may not be accurate, and it may be deliberately released by others.

The German right wing had been retreating from northeastern France to Belgium, and then from Belgium to the border near Germany. Everyone could see that the Allies had the upper hand.

Who could have imagined that the situation would suddenly turn around?

Lin Yongchang had thought of this. He had discussed it with Ludendorff and knew that the German army was using the tactic of "retreat and decisive battle". By continuously retreating, they would consume the enemy's offensive potential, wait until the enemy's divisions and soldiers were tired, and then launch a counterattack.

Judging from the current situation, the German counterattack has achieved very good results. Looking at the German offensive route, Lin Yongchang even had the illusion that the second German had become the third German.

The Germans' new tactics had a very good effect, but it was unclear whether they could complete the encirclement. The Germans split the British, French and American forces into two halves: the British and French forces, which had strong combat effectiveness, were in Belgium and lacked supplies; the American forces, which had a large amount of supplies but average combat effectiveness and lacked combat experience, had a large number of supplies but average combat effectiveness and lacked combat experience.

For the German army, they had the best situation since the outbreak of the war, but this advantage was time-limited. Once the Allied forces recovered from the chaos, the German army would face the danger of being attacked from both sides.

In fact, the German army had already been attacked from both sides, but the German army had invested too many troops and technical equipment, which in turn suppressed the British, French and American forces.

After analyzing the map for more than ten minutes, Lin Yongchang came to the conclusion that the German army had a great advantage, but there was also a danger that the situation would be reversed again. The victory or failure would be decided within a few days. Within two or three days, everything would be settled.

If the Germans failed to capture Calais, the Alliance would have to prepare for the Allies' pursuit and interception. Mexico, Australia, Poland and Southeast Asia could all become battlefields.

On the other hand, if the German army captured Calais within two or three days and forced France to withdraw from the war, it would only be a relief, and the Allies would still be at a disadvantage.

The United States invested too much money in this battle. The loan to the Allies alone exceeded 120 billion US dollars. In those days, an ounce of gold was only 27 US dollars, and 120 billion US dollars could be exchanged for tens of thousands of tons of gold. With such a large sum of money, even if France surrendered, the Americans would grit their teeth and continue to fight.

Therefore, in order to make the German army fight more smoothly, the Alliance sold all the newly produced new equipment to the German government, including 200 tanks and 1000 fighter jets. In addition, a large amount of gasoline, diesel and high-grade aviation fuel were shipped to Germany.

Because Germany could no longer pay its bills with gold and silver, the League offered Germany a loan of 10 billion RMB. This loan was issued to the German government only after the German army broke through the US defenses and then defeated the counterattacks of the US and British and French forces.

The German army will only get the loan if it wins the war. If it doesn't win, the alliance will just stand by and watch.

The air battles in Belgium and northern France were too fierce. While the German Air Force shot down a large number of Allied aircraft, it also suffered heavy losses. Not only did a large number of pilots die, but also many new fighter planes were lost.

The Allies had too many planes. Britain, the United States and France had more than 12000 planes in total, more than twice as many as Germany. This was because Germany imported a large number of planes from the Allies. If the Allies had not sold planes to Germany, the skies over Europe would have been filled with Allied planes.

At noon on November 11, the German army once again launched a siege on Calais from three directions. With the support of tanks, the infantry quickly captured several artillery positions and positions garrisoned by the French army around Calais. In the southern part of Calais, thanks to the cooperation of spies, the German army successfully occupied some buildings that could be used for concealment and engaged in fierce shooting with the British soldiers on the city walls.

The tanks accompanying the infantry attack were heavy tanks made by the Germans, weighing more than 50 tons. They had very strong firepower and defense, but their mobility and reliability were very problematic. They could not be incorporated into the tank division and could only be assigned to the infantry.

The fierce battle lasted until 10 a.m. on the 4th. The British defenders, short of ammunition, withstood the fierce German offensive and prevented their powerful opponents from entering Calais. At 10 a.m. on the 7th, the report submitted by the German frontline commander to his superiors showed that the unit had suffered at least one-third of casualties and half of its tanks.

While the British Empire's army was fighting fiercely with the German army in Calais, the British navy, which they were proud of, also joined the battle in time. The six destroyers near Calais Port were transporting supplies to Calais Port and evacuating the wounded, while also using their powerful naval guns to shoot at targets on the shore.

The power of the naval guns was far greater than that of the German tanks, causing heavy casualties to the attacking German troops.

Count Pize ordered all the main battleships of the High Seas Fleet to leave the port, preparing for a decisive battle with the British Royal Navy.

However, something unexpected happened. The sailors refused to go to war. After the officers suppressed them, they took to the streets of Kiel to protest against the naval authorities and demand the release of those arrested. The demonstration then developed into an armed uprising. The sailors disarmed the officers, quickly occupied strategic locations, and controlled the entire city. The workers also held an armed uprising in response and established the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies. By the evening of the next day, Kiel and the surrounding suburbs were occupied by the insurgents.

Chapter 674: Decisive Victory

The uprising of sailors in Kiel Port was beyond the expectations of the German General Staff, but if you think about it carefully, it shouldn't be surprising. Germany has been starving for a long time. Many people died of starvation and freezing last winter. Except for the submarine force, the surface fleet of the navy has been blocked in the port and dare not go out to fight the Royal Navy. If they don't go out to fight, then the supplies will naturally be less.

Most of the 80,000 sailors were young men who were hungry every day and were as hungry as wolves. No one could bear this. And it had not been just one or two days, but two years. The sailors had accumulated a lot of anger.

It would be fine if everyone had to eat coarse food, but the officers who came from the Junker family could eat sausages and canned food and drink red wine, while the sailors only had a few slices of bread a day, and often could not even see a single leaf of vegetable. This was really unbearable.

The Bolsheviks who fled back to Germany from Russia had been secretly instigating an uprising. The Admiralty also asked them to go to the English Channel to fight the British fleet without fear of sacrifice. All these circumstances intertwined and the Kiel Harbor sailors' mutiny broke out.

The endless world war had drained Europe of its energy, and French soldiers had mutinied long before. Germany had held out longer than France, but it had finally arrived. There was nothing strange about this.

After the Kiel Harbor sailors revolted, Ludendorff and the army leaders were extremely angry. "The army has lost more than two million men and injured many times that many, and is still fighting for the fate of the empire. The High Seas Fleet has been sitting in the port doing nothing for the past two years, and yet they launched a mutiny!"

Count Tirpitz was very embarrassed by this incident. Faced with the tragic casualties of the army, he was unable to make a distinction. He just hoped that the Supreme Command could deal with the Soviet government in Kiel as soon as possible and prevent the revolutionary trend from spreading to other places.

When the German government sent Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and others back to Russia, did it ever think that the revolution would flow back from Russia to Germany? I'm afraid few people could have thought of it.

According to Marx's theory, the proletarian revolution should take place in countries with highly developed capitalism. According to this view, the hope for the success of the revolution lies in Germany, not in poor and backward Russia.

While the German authorities were mobilizing troops to suppress the rebellion, they were also imposing a news censorship. Now was the critical moment for the attack on Calais Port, and no discordant news could be leaked to avoid shaking the morale of the army.

At the same time, the German Foreign Minister urgently met with the Allied ambassador and accused him of deliberately inciting a mutiny. The ambassador to Germany was very surprised because there was no such thing. The strategy of the Alliance was to let the Allies hold on for a few more days. If France could be forced to withdraw from the war and the world war could continue to drag on, it would be even better.

However, the ambassador to Germany quickly understood the other party's intention.

“The Alliance has not done anything to harm the friendship between our two countries, please rest assured, Mr. Minister, but the Alliance is now unable to provide assistance to Germany.

Because of the war, Russia's industry and agriculture have suffered great damage, and the Union must devote more energy and resources to restoring production."

Isn’t it just a matter of whether there are dates or not, so just cast three casts first?

The ambassador has seen many such tricks. There is a saying that Germans are rigorous by nature, but they are not born that way. Germans are also human beings, and there are also cunning people. Rigorousness is the result of Germans bragging about themselves over the past few decades.

Because Germany had no colonies, it could only work hard in other areas. Germany's heavy industry was better developed than Britain's, which required the entire society to be as punctual as a precise clock. Rigorousness is the requirement and result of industrialized society. How could the German barbarians be so rigorous? Their tradition was not rigorous.

Seeing that the Union ambassador was not fooled, the German Foreign Minister had to change his statement, "Germany needs more loans."

"This matter is not decided by me, but by Moscow and Chang'an. I can only pass on Germany's request, but I cannot guarantee the result."

"Can't Mr. Ambassador exert his influence? If we can get a new loan, we will make a statement like we did last time."

"What do you mean?" The ambassador turned pale. "I don't know what you are talking about."

The Foreign Minister smiled and said, "Qin, I don't mean to threaten you, but Germany and the Allies need more loans to win this damn war. I beg you to explain to Chairman Lin what the loan means to Germany."

At the time of the Kiel Harbor sailor uprising, the German Army was fighting a bloody battle with the Allied forces. At 12 a.m. on the 5th, the rumbling of artillery once again tore apart the brief peace of Calais. In order to quickly capture this isolated city that had been defending for several days, the German Army not only used artillery units to fiercely bombard Calais, but also dispatched the newly completed attack

The friendly artillery units occupying Boulogne provided assistance. Amid the roar of artillery, the German infantry once again, under the cover of tanks, launched a fierce attack on the last position held by the defenders of Calais.

The British troops guarding the port held out for several days, but lost their last tank and were short of drinking water and ammunition. All the soldiers were exhausted and could no longer hold on.

The British destroyers in the harbor provided fierce artillery support to the defenders, but the Germans dragged in heavy howitzers, and the shells fell into the harbor, causing heavy casualties. The British destroyers could only quickly pull up the wounded and retreat, and there was no time to unload the precious weapons and ammunition on the ship to the shore.

After the British Royal Navy left the port of Calais, the Germans had no more concerns and increased their offensive efforts, gradually breaking through the last line of defense of the Calais defenders and breaking up the defenders' organized resistance.

By 4 p.m., some British soldiers had received orders to "choose their own fate." At 1915:11 p.m. on November 13, 4, Calais fell completely. In this battle, the German army captured a total of about 45 Allied soldiers, of which about 2 to 3000 were British, and the rest were mostly "French soldiers who had lost their fighting spirit."

According to the data released by the British side, only 30 British soldiers who participated in the defense of Calais finally returned to the British mainland intact. The British defenders in Calais highly praised the feat of holding off the Germans for four full days, claiming that the British army's persistence in Calais and Boulogne was admirable and made an outstanding contribution to the final victory of the Allies.

It is a tradition in Britain and even in the entire Western world to celebrate funerals. If you only read British newspapers, you would think that the British army won a decisive victory in Calais.

There was a decisive victory, but it was a German victory.

Chapter 675: Mill

The German army finally captured the port of Calais, and this news made the German high-ranking officers feel relieved. At the General Staff, while others were cheering, Ludendorff breathed a sigh of relief, as the war in Europe was finally coming to an end.

Britain was isolated overseas, and the United States and Germany were separated by the entire Atlantic Ocean. The German Navy was already no match for the British Royal Navy, and now there was a sailor rebellion. It was impossible for them to defeat the United Kingdom and the United States. But France couldn't continue to fight, right?

The British army could retreat to England by ship, but could the French follow? Perhaps, but certainly not many.

On the Western Front, the French army contributed the most. In more than four years of war, about 131 million French soldiers were killed and more than 280 million were disabled. The war caused the loss of about 136 million working population due to wartime production and services. The total number of casualties in France exceeded 500 million, while the population of France was only million. France lost an entire generation (young and middle-aged people).

Now there were 90 French divisions surrounded in Belgium. If these 90 divisions were destroyed, France would have no choice but to surrender. Even if Joffre, Foch, Pétain and others wanted to continue fighting, they could not form many new troops.

Germany had already run out of manpower, and so had France. Among the countries on the Allied side, only the Americans, who joined the war last, still had enough manpower. The British Empire could no longer recruit qualified soldiers on its home soil, otherwise Churchill would not have said the famous saying, "The British Empire will never surrender until the last Indian is dead!"

The Germans won in Calais, so the Allies suffered a shameful defeat in Calais. The U.S. military threatened to wipe Calais off the face of the earth with naval guns, but the Germans didn't care. They didn't want the port, but to prevent the Allies from using it.

Although Calais was occupied, the German army suffered heavy losses. All the 50-ton heavy tanks used to break through the trenches were lost, leaving only the Type and Type tanks, as well as their improved models, which could still be used.

The number of German tanks has dropped to less than 300, but this is enough. After capturing the port of Calais, the German army has plugged the last gap. There are more than one million British and French troops in the encirclement, and now they are all in a situation of lack of ammunition supplies and food.