Chapter 155 Driven to Despair

The sentence of fire began, yet the flames of war were not extinguished.

On November 4, having completed all preparations, Ludendorff launched another offensive on the Western Front, committing two hundred and eighty divisions and a force of nearly four million men.

On the same day, the Italian army also launched an offensive on the Southern Front.

Naturally, the main focus remained on the Western Front.

During the first three days of the battle, the German army continued to concentrate its efforts on the Somme and Verdun regions, advancing toward Paris in a pincer movement.

Along both fronts, the German army deployed at least twenty-four thousand artillery pieces, including eight thousand heavy guns, averaging one hundred and eighty artillery pieces per kilometer of the front line.

However, the number of troops initially committed by the German army was not exceptionally large, consisting of only one hundred and twenty divisions.

Three days of fierce assaults shattered the morale of the French army and compelled Foch to deploy reinforcements at all costs, tying down nearly three million French troops in total.

On the Southern Front, the Italian army also pinned down hundreds of thousands of French troops.

By this point, it could be said that the French army had completely exhausted its available reserves.

On November 8, the time was finally ripe.

At two o'clock in the morning, one hundred and forty German divisions deployed in the Flanders region received the order to attack, with eighty divisions to launch their assault two hours later. The preparatory artillery bombardment lasted continuously from two until four o'clock. Nearly thirty thousand artillery pieces—including twelve thousand heavy guns—along with more than twenty thousand mortars, fired tens of thousands of shells, plowing through the positions of the British Expeditionary Force three times over. As the creeping barrage shifted toward the rear positions of the British Expeditionary Force, German infantry emerged from their frontline assembly areas and launched their assault in accordance with new stormtrooper tactics.

Only then was Ludendorff's true intention revealed.

In this battle, the primary target was not the French army, but the British Expeditionary Force, which had retreated from Belgium two months prior and was defending the northeastern region of France side by side with the French.

Strategically speaking, once the British Expeditionary Force was crushed, the French army would have no way to plug this enormous breach.

One must not forget that the German offensives launched at the Somme and Verdun had already pinned down the vast majority of French forces. Unless France mobilized women for combat, the country could simply not raise enough troops, nor would it have sufficient manpower to fill the void left by the British Expeditionary Force.

By this stage, both the British Expeditionary Force and the French army were practically at the end of their tether.

Although the total strength of the British Expeditionary Force reached an impressive two million eight hundred thousand, the Battle of the Atlantic—coupled with the loss of the Belgian coastline—made transporting troops and supplies from Britain to France extremely perilous. It must be remembered that the Imperial Navy had gained control of the minefields within the English Channel, enabling small craft stationed in Belgian ports to enter the channel at any time and intercept shipping moving between Britain and France. Furthermore, in the Mediterranean theater, the modest yet active navies of Italy and Austria-Hungary posed a severe threat to the command of the sea held by Britain and France, rendering the sea lanes to southern French ports fraught with danger and making the delivery of men and matériel to France exceedingly difficult.

At that time, the remaining supplies of the British Expeditionary Force were insufficient for even a month of consumption.

As for morale, little more needed to be said.

Following the defeat of Russia, British and French servicemen on the Western Front had entirely lost their fighting spirit. Especially after Ludendorff assumed command of the German forces on the Western Front, even Haig and Foch—the two commanders of the Anglo-French coalition forces—were plunged into deep despair. It was not merely that they feared they could not defeat Ludendorff; rather, Ludendorff brought with him millions of German soldiers fresh from a decisive strategic victory on the Eastern Front, alongside entirely new offensive tactics.

This time, the German army applied every single lesson learned and refined on the Eastern Front.

The most representative of these were the "creeping barrage" and "stormtrooper tactics."

The "creeping barrage" was invented by a German artillery general named Bruchmüller. Its core principle was that as the infantry advanced, the artillery barrage would shift progressively deeper into enemy lines, preventing enemy troops stationed in the second line of defense from reinforcing the front, and leaving the frontline enemy troops—already battered by fierce shelling—completely exposed to the infantry without any rear support. This severed the enemy's defense zones and left the enemy forces incapable of coordinating their front and rear.

"Stormtrooper tactics" were even simpler: small assault groups composed of soldiers carrying light automatic weapons would infiltrate enemy positions under the cover of the barrage, neutralizing enemy strongpoints. Instead of halting to capture these positions, they pressed onward, leaving the occupation of the conquered ground to the large main forces following closely behind. The key was speed—capturing the positions before enemy reserves could arrive, thereby denying the enemy any opportunity for a counterattack.

When combined, these two tactics became a devastating weapon of offense for the German army.

Additionally, during this battle, the German army employed a "new weapon"—the infamous tank.

Long before the outbreak of the Great War, right around the time Feng Chengqian returned to the Imperial Navy Headquarters, he had proposed the construction of tanks, though the idea failed to gain attention from others. Around that same time, Feng Chengqian received intelligence that the British Royal Navy was also secretly developing a similar weapon. Capitalizing on this, Feng Chengqian persuaded Tirpitz to secure a grant of five hundred thousand marks from naval funds, commissioning Krupp and several other arms manufacturers to develop a tank.

Because Feng Chengqian was subsequently reassigned to the High Seas Fleet, the matter slipped from his mind.

In early 1916, Britain became the first to deploy tanks into actual combat, achieving some success on the Belgian battlefield, though their performance could hardly be described as outstanding.

After capturing and examining several British tanks, imperial engineers accelerated their own development pace.

By the time Ludendorff launched his "Year-End Offensive," Krupp had manufactured fifty tanks and delivered them to the German army.

Consequently, Ludendorff deployed those fifty tanks on the Flanders battlefield.

Though the number was not large, it naturally could not exert a decisive influence.

Even so, when the British troops on the front lines discovered that the German army also possessed tanks, they were naturally filled with utter shock. The British troops were already intimately familiar with this war machine that integrated armor, firepower, and mobility into one, and they knew all too well that these armored "bulldozers" were virtually unstoppable.

With all these factors converging, the superiority and inferiority of the two sides became instantly apparent.

On November 12, the German army accomplished its most crucial offensive objective: breaking through the British defense line from the left flank, thereby severing the connection between the British and French armies.

On that very day, Ludendorff committed twenty reserve divisions to exploit and widen the breakthrough.

By November 15, the right wing of the British army had completely collapsed, leaving not only a gap over fifty kilometers wide torn open by the German forces, but also forcing a retreat of dozens of kilometers.

Having achieved the breakthrough, the German army did not advance toward Paris, even though the French capital lay a mere sixty kilometers to the south.

In accordance with Ludendorff's deployment, the German forces began to encircle the British army, pushing toward the English Channel and driving the British Expeditionary Force into a desperate plight.

On November 16, Feng Chengqian led the High Seas Fleet out of port.

This time, Feng Chengqian's mission remained focused on supporting the army's operations—specifically, sealing off the English Channel and preventing the British Expeditionary Force from evacuating back to the British mainland.

The capital ships brought out by Feng Chengqian were few in number, consisting solely of two *Bayern*-class and two *Derfflinger*-class vessels.

However, he brought a massive contingent of medium and small warships, including thirty light cruisers, forty-eight large torpedo boats (subsequently known as destroyers), and one hundred and twelve torpedo boats. The four capital ships served merely as a symbol, functioning solely to intimidate the British Royal Navy.

In actual combat operations, the task of blockading the English Channel fell to those medium and small vessels.

The trouble was that Feng Chengqian had no intention of letting the four capital ships make a wasted journey. Even when operating right at their own doorstep, those four warships consumed thousands of tons of heavy fuel oil. To sail so close to the British mainland and do nothing at all except watch the spectacle before returning to port would be far too uneventful to justify the expense.

On the frosty morning of November 17, Feng Chengqian executed a most audacious stroke.

That morning, every citizen in London was jolted awake by violent explosions.

Without the slightest warning, four capital ships, screened by eight light cruisers, forced their way up the River Thames. Anchoring less than thirty kilometers from the heart of London, they unleashed a brief yet furious fifteen-minute bombardment, allowing the British capital to taste the bitterness of war for the very first time.

The bombardment did not yield massive material destruction, principally because it was conducted too far from downtown London, causing the majority of shells to fall harmlessly in the suburbs.

Nevertheless, on a psychological level, the British people—and particularly the citizens of London—realized for the first time with chilling clarity that war was not far from their doorsteps, and that Britain was no longer safe.

Feng Chengqian did not take undue risks; immediately following the bombardment, he ordered a prompt withdrawal.

One had to bear in mind that the Grand Fleet was still intact, and the British Royal Navy retained a formidable force of medium and small vessels; capital ships could gain no advantage whatsoever lingering within the confines of the River Thames.

On that same day, a major victory was also secured on the European battlefield.

Having committed over two hundred divisions, Ludendorff finally completed the encirclement of the British Expeditionary Force, with frontline German troops capturing Cherbourg that very evening.

From that moment onward, the more than two million men of the British Expeditionary Force held no hope of breaking out.

By this juncture, divisions had also emerged within the German military leadership. While Ludendorff insisted upon his original strategy—first annihilating the British Expeditionary Force, driving the British troops off the European continent, and only then marching on Paris—certain generals argued that since the gates of Paris were wide open, the army should seize the moment to capture the French capital. The British Expeditionary Force was already surrounded with the English Channel at its back, and the Imperial Navy had already seized command of the sea; thus, there was no need to tie down excessive forces in that sector. More importantly, in the eyes of those generals, once Paris fell, the European war would effectively be over.

Clearly, those German generals were viewing the situation far too simplistically.

Would France surrender the moment Paris fell?

Such an outcome was possible, but the prospect of continued French resistance could not be ruled out. One must not forget that the United States had already entered the war and was undergoing full wartime mobilization. In a few months' time, America's colossal industrial might and demographic resources would be brought into play, serving as the ultimate hope for France to resist to the bitter end.

This reality was mirrored at the negotiating table as well.

By November 20, France stubbornly refused to make concessions in negotiations, still declining to accept several of the empire's most vital conditions: for instance, France's permanent renunciation of sovereign claims over the Alsace and Lorraine regions, the formal recognition of Luxembourg as a grand duchy protected by the empire, the return of southern territories to Italy, and the protection of Belgium by the empire. Had France truly intended to abandon its resistance, it would undoubtedly have been compelled to make concessions at the negotiating table.