CHAPTER 318: AFTER MODIFICATION: CHAPTER 318 BREAKING THE BLOCKADE

Crater holes, corpses, and scorched vegetation, the trees in the no man’s land were blasted to bits, leaving only branchless trunks, seemingly narrating their suffering to the people.

Many parts of the battlefield began to resemble the desolate landscape of the moon’s surface, full of craters, with the difference being that the moon appears white, while the battlefield is an expanse of gray.

In the distance, the ground was somewhat protruded under the morning light, faintly revealing some tan or lime-colored mounds, which were the parapet walls and fortifications set up by the enemy in front of their trenches for cover.

Suddenly, a piercing whistle sounded, signaling the commencement of the breakthrough battle.

The battle began with an offensive in the middle of the frontline; the Allies’ focused attack would surely attract the Ottoman Army’s suppressive artillery fire, otherwise, the middle segment of the Ottoman frontline might be breached.

As soon as the Ottoman Army’s artillery fire started, Shire immediately ordered the main assault troops in the "Sand Pit" trenches to initiate the attack.

Amid shouts, the French and Australian Army soldiers, long prepared, jumped out of the trenches, thrusting their bayonets and rushing through the pre-cut barbed wire towards the enemy’s frontline.

No sound of artillery, the enemy’s artillery fire was temporarily drawn to the middle segment of the frontline.

Nor was there the sound of machine guns, the enemy machine gunners hurriedly got into position, completely unaware that they had long been targeted by enemy snipers, and with several gunshots, they fell into pools of blood one after another.

Reserve machine gunners continued to replenish, but soon were taken down again.

The Ottoman soldiers didn’t even realize it was the work of enemy snipers; at this time, the enemy mortars were also bombing the machine gun positions, making them think it was the fierce enemy artillery that rendered the machine guns ineffective.

Fortunately, the French and Australian Army’s momentum was hindered by the barbed wire the Ottoman Army had set up on the frontline, giving the Ottoman Army time to quickly raise their rifles and shoot at the enemy.

Amid screams, the French and Australian Army’s offensive was barely blocked.

"Ten o’clock, 400 meters!" Idris reported the coordinates.

It was a machine gunner crouching and running towards the machine gun position, Idris noticed he was carrying a Maxim’s distinctive ammunition box.

Shen Bili didn’t hesitate, raising his gun, turning an angle, and immediately finding the target.

"Bang!" A gunshot, the machine gunner clutching his chest fell to the ground.

"Three o’clock, 250 meters!" Idris reported another coordinate.

It was an officer, nervously holding a telephone as if reporting the situation to the rear.

"Bang!" A gunshot, a bullet prematurely ended the officer’s conversation.

"Two o’clock, 300 meters!" There was a machine gun spewing fire towards the French Army.

This machine gun position was cleverly set; it covered the top of the trench with logs and camouflaged with a layer of sand similar to the surroundings, making it undetectable during the terrain observation last night.

When Shen Bili found the target, he hesitated noticeably.

Idris felt a bit regretful; this machine gun was fully enclosed, like a bunker with only a firing slit, snipers could merely see the gunfire and a trace of the bullet trajectory, nothing else.

He shouldn’t have indicated this target to Shen Bili, Idris thought, this wasn’t a target snipers could handle.

But, just as Idris was about to search for the next "possible" target, there came a "bang" and the machine gun fell silent.

Idris gazed at Shen Bili in astonishment, not understanding how Shen Bili managed it.

For Shen Bili, it wasn’t difficult; he deduced the gunner’s position based on the direction of the machine gun’s fire. The previous "hesitation" wasn’t because it was hard, but because he was waiting for the machine gun to turn, at which point the gunner would enter his firing range.

While Idris was stunned, Shen Bili fired again and then withdrew his head, ordering, "Change position!"

Idris suddenly awoke, quickly stowing away his binoculars and crouching to follow behind Shen Bili.

Perhaps due to prior information, the Ottoman Army had replenished barbed wire and laid mines on the battlefield, causing great trouble for the French Army’s charge.

But the main point was not these.

The busy defending Ottoman Army didn’t notice that twenty amphibious landing boats had appeared on the other side of the sea.

They were not fast, less than 10 knots.

But the enemy and friendly frontlines were only two or three hundred meters apart, ideally reachable in a minute, actually taking three minutes because the amphibious landing boats could accelerate to the maximum speed and had already slipped into position.

Next, the Ottoman Army was horrified to discover that twenty "tanks" suddenly appeared on the flank beach, spraying machine gun fire while advancing quickly, simultaneously many French soldiers jumped off the "tanks" to throw grenades and seize the trenches.

The Ottoman 3rd Civilian Corps defending this frontline, already terrified by the French Army, suddenly attacked from the flank by the "tanks," they screamed in panic, abandoning the frontline and turning to flee.

The amphibious landing boats continued to follow up, calmly mowing down enemy lives with machine guns during their advance, scaring groups of Ottoman militia into raising their rifles and kneeling in surrender.

The main French Army pressure lightened, soon flooding into the enemy’s frontline like a tide.

Thus, the Ottoman Army’s flank frontline was successfully breached, taking less than ten minutes.

So quickly, Bahar at the helm of "A" corner didn’t notice the danger while the French Army rapidly expanded the results along the breach of the enemy’s frontline.

Bahar was commanding the troops to resist the French Army’s offensive in the middle frontline at the time.

He believed this was the French Army’s "cornered response," forcing an offensive cluster attack because there was no hope of breaking through the frontlines otherwise.

Thus, Bahar excitedly shouted to his subordinates:

"Hold on, this is the enemy’s last attempt!"

"They know the end is near, they are in their death throes."

"Victory belongs to us, long live the Ottoman Empire!"

...

However, just as the soldiers were uplifted by his words, a communication soldier hurriedly brought a telegram to Bahar, reporting in a panic, "Colonel, the General orders you to retreat immediately!"

"Retreat?" Bahar looked at the communication soldier in astonishment.

They were winning, why retreat? Besides, behind them was the sea, where could they retreat to?

"Our frontline has already collapsed." The communication soldier reported nervously, "The General orders you to retreat back to Borayel by boat immediately, or it will be too late!"

Bahar froze, then laughed, "That’s impossible!"

Saying so, he grabbed the telegram, glancing at it, changing his expression dramatically.

The reason he didn’t know the flank frontline had collapsed was that the troops trapped at "A" corner were severely lacking in supplies, with few telephones on the frontline.

Sanders on the other end could clearly see the collapse of the frontline, thus ordered him to retreat via telegraph.

Bahar glanced at the eastern flank, helplessly lamenting, "We lost to Shire twice, with the same tactics!"