The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 594: Chapter 456: Suicide Squad

Although the Germans were clearly unable to bear the high cost of the war, the Allied General Headquarters also discovered a huge problem.

Although the 10 million-strong army on the Westline battlefield is enormous, creating a two-to-one numerical gap and advantage against the German army.

However, the consumption of these 10 million troops is a severe problem. Even with constant transports on the railways in Belgium and France, many troops still face a dilemma of material shortage.

Apart from the deficiency in transportation capacity, the logistics supply for these 10 million troops is almost entirely dependent on Britain, France, and the United States, with Italy supplying little and surplus materials from Australasia given all to Russia.

Due to the issue of distance from America, the real responsibility for supporting the logistics of the 10 million strong army fell only to Britain and France.

Although the British and French have the most colonies in the world, taking on the logistic supply for tens of millions of troops is undeniably tough for them.

Especially considering the enormous navy that the British sustain, such consumption has started to slightly overburden the British Empire.

If it weren't for the Americans joining in, taking up part of the material supply and continuously replenishing the Allies, it might be the Allies who would fail to endure on the Westline battlefield first.

Up to now, the 10 million troops organized by the Allies on the Western Front are historical, and also the largest number of soldiers in a single war in human history.

If it weren't for the gathering of the forces of the six great powers, especially the economically developed Britain, France, and America providing supplies for this army, it would be impossible to sustain such a massive army.

The war is now a test of each country's patience, to see who will be the first to fail in this war.

After the raid on the Southern Front was thwarted, the Germans didn't show any signs of discouragement. Instead, under the planning of Chief of Staff Hindenburg, they decided to launch a new offensive in September 1917.

Having just raided the Southern Front, the German General Staff expected the enemy to be prepared. And the fortress of Verdun on the Central Front is a sky-dwelling, an impossible task for the German army to conquer in a short time.

Therefore, after consideration, the German General Staff decided to place the raid in the Northern Front, which is mainly the Belgian region held by the British.

The offensive from Rodney to Fu James was named Operation Joffre, targeting the British positions between Ypres and Labasi.

Starting from September 9, 1917, the German Army launched an overwhelming assault in this area.

Millions of German troops showed a fighting spirit willing to risk death. They quickly gained an advantage, forcing the British to retreat.

Expeditionary Force Commander Hagg of Britain saw the situation and hurriedly ordered the ready-for-action British tanks and planes to counter the German's attack.

Then, the most brutal scene of the war occurred.

Because the German firearms and machine guns could not deal with these British tanks, the German army took an unexpected action.

German soldiers carrying explosives rushed out of their positions, bravely charging towards the Allied tanks.

Although many German soldiers were intercepted, a few Germans still successfully rushed towards the tanks and died together in the smoke and fire.

The crazy action of the German soldiers shocked the Allied General Headquarters, which even made the commanders of each country amazed and even forget to issue orders to the army.

They have seen armies with a strong will to fight, but such a disregard for death, even directly using life to exchange for tanks, still shocked these generals.

Thus, tens of British tanks that were deployed, with more than half of them immobilized, were destroyed by German's attack, fully losing their function on the spot.

The British dared not gamble. If the German soldiers were still using this suicidal tactic to exchange for British tanks, it would definitely be a loss for Britain.

After all, the British have prepared for a long time and only produced these few dozen tanks. Even if hundreds of German soldiers can blow up a tank successfully, it would still be a loss for the British.

After all, the number of German soldiers is several millions, but there are only a few dozen British tanks. Each one is a treasured possession of the British military.

The main reason that British tanks were so easily destroyed by the Germans is that the advancing speed of British tanks was very slow, even slower than the speed of an adult running at full speed on the battlefield.

Under these circumstances, when unprepared, the German soldiers could easily rush to the vicinity of the tanks and deliver a fatal blow to the British tanks with the explosives in their hands.

At this time, the tanks still had very thin iron skins, and the power of a packet of explosives was enough to destroy a tank, or at least to make the tank completely lose its combat power.

The Expeditionary Force Commander of Britain, Hagg's face was not good at this time. He made a decision right away, ordering the messenger to deliver a decree to all troops: all troops were ordered not to retreat a step, even if they had to fight to the last man, they must hold their frontline positions.

To prevent any accidents, Hagg immediately ordered the Supervising Team to go straight to the front line. Anyone found retreating, whether British or Indigenous Peoples, would be killed on the spot.

Meanwhile, the over 300,000 reserve forces in the rear were mobilized by Hagg, ready to support the front line at any time.

Without exaggeration, the German army is currently the most powerful military force in the world. The only force stronger than the German army would be the German army that is fearless of death.

After Hagg decided against using tanks to hold the position, the German army surged towards the British position like a tide, akin to invincible cockroaches. If one falls, more surge forward.

Even as the barrels of the British machine guns turned red-hot, they still couldn't stop the advancing Germans.

Amid such an exaggerated German offensive, the British position was quickly forced to retreat over ten kilometers. It seemed as if a sneak attack like the one on the southern front was about to be staged again.

In order to save face before the world, unlike Italy, Hagg frequently patrolled the front lines of each army group, and issued a stern warning that anyone who retreated a step would face dismissal and investigation!

In addition, Hagg mobilized all the reserve forces to directly join the front line in areas with weaker defenses.

With the aid of air forces, they managed to hold their positions with great difficulty.

By the end of September 1917, the German offensive finally ended, and the British Expeditionary Force could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the German offensive lasted only 20 days, it exerted immense pressure on the British Expeditionary Force, almost causing its entire collapse.

In these 20 days, the British Expeditionary Force suffered up to 600,000 casualties, with even the death toll surpassing 200,000.

The Germans also suffered terribly, incurring at least 400,000 casualties and 100,000 deaths.

Although the German casualties were smaller, the British held their positions and did not let the Germans achieve their purposes of the sneak attack.

After the offensive, the Germans retreated back to their own positions, as if the previous sneak attack had never happened.

However, the Allies are not easy to bully either. Such a surprise attack is not something that the Germans can start and end whenever they want.

In order to teach the Germans a lesson, after deliberations at the Allies' General Headquarters, it was decided to launch the second Marne River battle along the Marne River line. The objective was to completely drive the German army out of southern France and permanently alleviate the danger to Paris.

The participants of the second Marne River battle included the Australasia Expeditionary Force, the Italian Army, the Balkan Allied Forces, the American Expeditionary Force, and part of the French Army.

The total number of these forces amounted to 1.5 million, while the German military force was estimated at about 1 million.

To ensure numerical superiority, after the battle started, Italy had to support the frontline with 200,000 combat forces, and a French Army group was always ready for command. This meant that they had almost 500,000 reserve forces.

This attacking force could be described as luxurious, as Australasia, being the main attacker, has the command authority of the battle.

Under General Thomas's orders, the second Marne River battle employed a combination of tanks, aircraft, and infantry. The Germans thoroughly experienced the most sophisticated offensive tactics so far.

The battle deployed over 200 tanks in total, of which more than 100 belonged to Australasia, and the rest were from France and Italy.

This made people marvel at how much war had advanced technology. In fact, as early as two years ago, European countries were all researching weapons similar to tanks.

But only Britain and France truly succeeded in their research. Italy only rushed to imitate once they saw the British tanks. As a result, their tanks not only fell far behind the British ones in terms of performance and data but also had a higher failure rate.

The failure rate of British tanks was as high as 60%, but Italian tanks were even more staggering, with failure rates reaching almost 90%.

In this battle, Italy deployed eight tanks in total and seven broke down on the way. Only one successfully reached the frontline.

But not long after it entered combat, this Italian tank was faced with mechanical failure. The turret got jammed and effectively lost combat capabilities.

The high failure rate of tanks in World War I was inevitable, even Australasian tanks were no exception.

On the Allies' side, as many as 200 tanks were deployed, but less than 80 were finally put into battle, demonstrating a breakdown rate of up to 60%.

Nonetheless, tanks were still the major weapons on the battlefield. Having a certain number of tanks at one's disposal could inflict massive damage on the enemy.

Almost 80 tanks left the German army at a loss for how to react. Such mobile targets were hard for the artillery to hit, and machine guns could hardly cause any damage.

The Germans thought to use the same tactics as the death squads had done before, but the Allies were well-prepared. They set up a strong firepower net with machine guns and artillery and kept several hundred planes circling in the sky, determined to prevent any German soldiers from getting close to the tanks.

What's more, the tanks at the forefront were from Australia. The faster-moving, better-armored Australasian tanks neutralized the Germans' strategy of sacrificing one soldier for each explosive package.