Chapter 4 3. Discord trilogy

injustice punch The First World War was an unjust war of imperialism.Among them, Serbia and Belgium are the only ones that are very just. It’s not easy to be an uncle. You two nephews beat him up. 90% of Belgium’s territory was occupied by Germany, but they persisted until the end of the war. World War I was Britain and France versus Germany, Russia on the Eastern Front versus Germany and Austria-Hungary. The course of the war was divided into three stages, and 1914 was the first stage.The Germans are the nation that is best at planning in the world. They are particularly good at planning and thinking very carefully.As early as 1900, 14 years before the outbreak of the Great War, Marshal Schlieffen, the chief of staff, formulated the German combat plan, so this plan was called the Schlieffen Plan. The marshal said that it is necessary to concentrate superior forces and annihilate the enemy one by one.Then concentrate superior forces, who should be wiped out first?The Marshal believed that Russia was backward in industry and railways, and had few things except a large number of people. Therefore, it took three to six months from the declaration of war to the participation in the war.Therefore, the German army concentrated its main force on the western front, trying to eliminate France within 3 to 6 months, and then used Germany's developed railway network to transfer troops to the eastern front, defeating Russia before Russia completed its war preparations, and ended the war.His idea was to concentrate superior forces, just like Napoleon's replica of Austerlitz.The German army has a total of 81 divisions and 8 army groups. It is envisaged to deploy 1 group army on the eastern front and 9 divisions to contain Russia, and invest 72 divisions and 7 group armies on the western front to attack France.So a question arises, how to distribute the troops?If it is deployed on the French-German border, 6 French armies and 70 divisions are on this border, you have 72 and other 70, and the border fortifications are very strong, it will become a stalemate and cannot be resolved quickly.Therefore, 1 group army and 9 divisions were placed on the border to take a defensive position to contain the French army, and then 6 group armies and 63 divisions were deployed to attack the small neutral country of Belgium.There are only 4 divisions in Belgium, and the Belgian-French border is undefended. The Germans imagine that he will surrender as soon as I declare war. Once he surrenders, I can attack France along the undefended Belgian-French border. Occupy Paris, block the English Channel, the British Expeditionary Force crossed the sea for reinforcements, and occupied Paris before the French army retreated from the French-German border, thus ending the war.That is to say, if we fight on two fronts, we need to disperse our forces, and we must disperse our forces on this front. We must strengthen the right wing.The marshal retired in 1905 and died in 1913. Before his death, he repeatedly warned his successor, General Moltke, that the right wing must be strengthened. Once the war broke out, the plan could not keep up with the changes.

First of all, the Russians took the money from France. As soon as the war broke out, France urged him to send troops quickly. If you took my money, you should send troops quickly.Russia threw itself into the war without completing its preparations for the war. It was too stunned. Before the preparations for the war were completed, the army commander led the army to the front line first, and then mobilized a division, and the division was finished. It is a big taboo for military strategists to increase troops one by one. You stretch out a finger and poke it, and then you stretch out another finger and you poke it again. You can't stop me with 9 divisions, and this is East Prussia, the birthplace of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the birthplace of the ancestors. The Prussian kings of all generations were crowned in Königsberg, which is equivalent to Hohenzollern Prosperity.

The manors of the Junkers in East Prussia are all there. I lost this land. Am I worthy of my ancestors, so I put pressure on the emperor, and the emperor told General Moltke to strengthen the troops, not a lot, 16 divisions, here It became 65 divisions.The problem is that after the outbreak of the war, General Moltke discovered that the French army was madly attacking the French-German border and wanted to fight over, so Moltke saw that these 9 divisions could not stop them. In case we finally occupied Paris, they occupied After arriving in Berlin, the parties exchanged venues.There are 27 divisions here, and 38 divisions here, which is half the force designed by Marshal Schlieffen. The marshal told him to strengthen the right wing no matter what, but it was cut in half.What was even more unexpected was that Belgium, a small neutral country, resisted fiercely. As soon as the war broke out, the 12-year-old princes put on military uniforms and went to the front line to show off. At the age of 12, you are not as tall as a rifle. Why are you going to the front line?With the same hatred, the whole country mobilized urgently, and immediately changed from 4 divisions to 12 divisions. A small scorching sun fortress blocked the Germans for 18 days.The Germans thought that you would surrender as soon as I declared war, and that they could attack France on the same day. As a result, it was already the end of August when he entered France. At this time, the French army had already begun to withdraw from the French-German border, so the first battle broke out between the two sides. The big battle is the Battle of the Marne.

On the Marne River, 120 kilometers northeast of Paris, a great battle broke out here, the most spectacular scene in human history. When the French fight was at its most intense, it was urgent to transfer a division from Paris to seal the gap in the battle. If the soldiers of this division ran to the front line, half of them would die from exhaustion, 120 kilometers away, and the infantry at that time was worthy of the name Infantry, two legs, so what?The situation is urgent, the loudspeaker in Paris starts broadcasting, all the taxi drivers put down the passengers, gather at the gate of the city hall, and pull the soldiers to the front line, as soon as the Paris driver stops, get off, sir, I am going to participate in the war, Bel is proud , Sir give double fare, good luck. 2,000 taxis sent a division of soldiers to the front line, which is a miracle in the history of war.The Battle of the Meuse River lasted for 3 months, and the casualties on both sides were 1.5 million. The Napoleonic Wars did not kill so many people in more than ten years. Europeans finally learned what wars in the industrial age are like. More than 300 rounds of bullets per minute, like mowing grass, all the soldiers lay down in a while, and the way the soldiers attacked was the same as in Napoleon's time, there was no difference.With one head and two guns in both hands, you just go at it like this. Facing this kind of death trap composed of machine guns, cannons, barbed wire, and landmines, attacking is suicide, which is tantamount to suicide.

The two sides saw that it was impossible to fight like this, let's dig trenches, so the Germans dug trenches first.The Germans were smart enough to start digging trenches from the Swiss border.The French are not stupid either. I don't know what you want to do. You dig and I dig. Both sides run towards the sea, and the 700-kilometer-long trench was dug out.In this way, after the Battle of the Marne, it was transferred to trench warfare, which is positional warfare.This transfer to the battlefield is very unfavorable to Germany, because in fact the two sides are at a stalemate. The human and material resources are incomparable with the Allies. There are no overseas colonies. The man-eating aborigines don't know how to use sticks. You let him play with guns, how did you get him?So it can only kill his own people, so General Moltke told the Kaiser, Your Majesty, we lost the war, and His Majesty was angry, so he withdrew him and replaced him with General Falkenhain.

"Confidence" fight General Falkenhain was about to break the deadlock as soon as he came up. The second stage of the war was 1915-1916. There were three major battles: the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Jutland at sea.The Battle of Verdun was based on General Falkenhein’s vision: to attack the enemy must be saved, and to attack a place where the enemy will never give up to attract his main force to fight me. In this way, the positional warfare has become a mobile warfare. Annihilate the enemy in the battle, so Falkenhain named this battle "Operation Execution".The French were to be executed here, and his slogan was to bleed them dry.After fighting for half a year, the French did it, and so did the Germans, so this battle was also called the Verdun Meat Grinder.In such a small city, the casualties on both sides exceeded? 100,000 people, the entire Verdun was bombed to be no different from the moon.After that, the British launched the Battle of the Somme. Before the war, they poured 11 million shells on the German positions. The entire German positions were drenched by artillery fire, and the groundwater was blown out.As soon as the British infantry attacked, 57,000 people fell under the Maxi machine guns in one day, 22,000 were killed, and 35,000 were injured. After a few days of fighting, the British men would be gone.The British put in tanks, a big box with strange shapes, over-the-top tracks, and two big wheels at the back. Those wheels are steering wheels. If the wheels are damaged, the tanks can only drive straight and cannot turn. A total of 48 vehicles were made. Thirty of them were damaged when they were shipped to France, 12 were broken before the war started, and 6 were actually put into battle, and all of them were broken before the end of the war.It was not beaten by the Germans, it was caused by mechanical failure, but it scared the Germans enough, it was not afraid of bayonet stabs, hand grenades, machine guns, and it can breathe fire.At this time, the initiative of the war has been transferred to the Allies.

Then it was the turn of the United States and China to participate in the war. The United States really sent troops to the war, and China sent labor, because the people in the factories of the Allied countries went to the war, and the Chinese went to work in other factories to indirectly support the war.Russia withdrew from the war, and finally Germany and Austria surrendered, and the war ended with the victory of the Allies.In this way, at the end of World War I, 8 million people died, 10 million people were disabled for life, and the European elite was almost completely wiped out, because the traditional military officers at that time were nobles.The political democratization of Europe was completed after World War I.

The little girl shakes back The effects of World War I were several.First, it objectively promotes the development of science and technology, and war develops from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.The original war was only two-dimensional, on the ground and on the sea.Now on the ground, in the sky, at sea, and under the sea, when the war just broke out, the pilots of the two sides would shake their fists when they met. Wait and see, that’s all, the planes don’t have weapons.Some buddies are smart. They bring fishing nets and iron chains up to get entangled with the propeller. Then you have to throw it accurately. Sometimes when you throw it out, someone else’s propeller is put on it.Later, some people brought pistols up, and in 1915, machine guns began to be installed, and in 1918, the scene of annihilating large-scale air battles appeared.All the tactical actions of the Air Force today were basically finalized during the "World War I". The two-aircraft formation and the four-aircraft formation were all available at that time, so I vowed that the world's number one ace pilot Baron Richthofen of Germany shot down 80 enemy planes by himself.

The definition of an ace pilot is that it was settled during the First World War. If five enemy planes were shot down, they are called ace pilots, ten double aces, and Baron Richthofen 16 aces. This miracle was created by the Germans. Second, the social structure of Europe was changed, and the feminist movement emerged.It turns out that European women don’t work. They stay at home and take care of their husbands and children. Once the war broke out, the old men went to the front line and sent them back in a box after a few days. Well, 8 million people died, so there are vacant jobs Only women can do it.First teachers, doctors, then postmen, and later firefighters had to be women.A cannonball as high as a person, a woman climbed a ladder to unscrew the fuze, why were the casualties of the British army so high in the Battle of the Somme? More than 10 million rounds of bullets were fired, half of which did not explode. Women gave birth, and forgot to install the fuze. Someone sent a piece of iron over.When the war is over, you send them back to the kitchen, and they won't go there.Furthermore, 8 million people died, 10 million people were disabled for life, how many jobs have been vacated, who will work if you send her back?Therefore, women in European countries generally obtained the right to vote and stand for election after World War II, including American women. This was only obtained in the 1920s, and the feminist movement emerged.

Third, the capitalist government began to adjust government functions and implement state intervention.When we think about the state intervention policy, Roosevelt was the earliest. His ideas didn't fall from the sky, they came after the monopoly. During the "World War I", state intervention was carried out on a large scale. The arsenal was originally privately owned, but now at least there are representatives stationed in the factory area, and the state interferes with your production. Fourth, the pervasive trend of pacifism led to the emergence of the appeasement policy in the 1930s.To put it bluntly, the policy of appeasement means that big countries such as Britain and France are afraid of war, and they have lost too much, and they are terrified.Queen Victoria’s 60-year savings were all spent in 4 years, and the British stockpiled shells were only enough for the expeditionary force to fight for 10 days. The war in the industrial age was too cruel.

That’s why Europeans are afraid of war, so they won’t fight if they don’t want to fight. Let’s give in to Hitler, but in the end, if you let him not, he is not afraid of war, and he has already gone all out.