CHAPTER 556: REVISED: CHAPTER 556 INTERWOVEN AT THE RIVER SOMME

Upon hearing "Shire has begun the counterattack," Admiral Avis smiled faintly, his eyes full of sarcasm: "After all, he’s only 18 years old, unable to maintain the necessary calm in such a grand battle."

Reminded by Admiral Avis, the parliamentarians naturally recalled the previous statement about Shire’s inexperience in commanding large troop engagements.

The parliamentarians nodded in agreement:

"How can we counterattack at this time? Shouldn’t we be organizing defenses?"

"The front-line soldiers’ negotiation terms are for defense, yet Shire is doing the opposite. This could possibly incite another mutiny among the soldiers."

"The Germans can kill or wound a hundred thousand British soldiers in defensive battles in one day, we can do the same. My God, Shire has missed a golden opportunity and chosen to gamble everything!"

...

Gallieni never believed that Shire would recklessly initiate a counterattack at this time, let alone a desperate gamble. If it were, it would be a well-prepared counterattack.

He stood up and shouted to the floor: "Why don’t we give Shire some time? Things might not be as you think..."

But this voice was quickly drowned out by the opposition of the parliamentarians:

"We don’t have time, Minister. The already chaotic army could collapse entirely because of this."

"This is clearly a mistake, we should immediately stop Shire’s actions."

"Yes, we should hand over command to General Haig and let him uniformly command the battles at the front!"

Wells and Steed exchanged glances below the stage, smiling slightly.

They knew Shire was prepared, and prepared very thoroughly, although they didn’t know exactly what Shire’s plan was!

...

South bank of the River Somme, Shire’s counterattack officially launched.

In the past few days, Shire made some preparations, secretly redeploying a regiment of rocket artillery from Tijani to the River Somme.

Only artillery, not rocket artillery.

Shire worried that large-scale movements would make the Germans suspicious and abandon their offensive on the River Somme.

On the other hand, Shire also transferred a batch of landing craft and amphibious landing ships from Wells.

Among them, 12 landing craft were modified, each equipped with 10 rocket launchers, and another 12 were large landing craft, each capable of carrying one "Shire A1" tank.

...

Palais Bourbon in Paris, Admiral Avis had his assistant project the map of the River Somme onto the screen behind the podium. Confidently, he held the pointer and commented:

"The German defenses on the River Somme are extremely tight, what you could call impeccable."

"The heavy casualties suffered by the British and French armies at the River Somme are for a reason; it’s not a matter of tactics, purely a result of the battlefield environment."

"What I mean to say is, even if Shire organizes a counterattack on the River Somme, it will be the same. It will not change just because Shire is commanding it!"

...

Headquarters of the 1st Specialized Artillery Division south of the River Somme.

Shire pointed to the River Somme on the map and said to Kristen, who was assigned the main assault task: "Everyone has overlooked one point, the River Somme cuts straight through the German rear from west to east!"

Kristen’s eyes lit up. Yes, they could use the River Somme for penetration, and quickly at that. Why hadn’t he thought of this?

But then he immediately frowned:

"General, isn’t this too dangerous?"

"The Germans have artillery positions on both the south and north banks. Once discovered..."

At that moment, all artillery would form a crossfire barrage on the River Somme, and the advancing troops along the river would be blown sky-high in an instant.

But Shire replied calmly: "We can wait for the Germans to launch their offensive."

Kristen was stunned, then suddenly understood:

"The Germans will definitely conduct artillery preparation before their attack, and it’s usually done before dawn."

"The darkness and the sound of artillery will cover the noise of our advancing troops."

Shire added: "It will also expose their artillery positions!"

Kristen instantly beamed with joy: "Exactly right, General! When the enemy artillery is still firing at our defensive lines, they won’t know our penetration troops have already landed beside them. We can take out their artillery first!"

...

Palais Bourbon in Paris, Admiral Avis began his performance.

He put on a look of deep regret, sighed heavily at the map on the screen:

"It’s not hard to imagine, this will be another massacre."

"Worse still, it’s not yet dawn, which is very unfavorable for the attacking side."

"The Germans only need to fire a few flares to shoot large numbers of our soldiers, struggling through mud, craters, and barbed wire!"

The parliamentarians were filled with righteous indignation, condemning Shire’s utterly irresponsible behavior:

"This is practically murder, he doesn’t know what he’s doing."

"He will get us all killed, we can’t let him continue this mistake."

"We must do something, or it will be too late!"

...

South bank of the River Somme.

At 5 a.m. when the Germans began their artillery preparation, the French penetration troops hidden on the shore began their operation.

They launched the landing craft one by one into the river along the prepared channels and orderly guided the tanks up the ramps onto the boats.

The one commanding the naval operation was a man with a full beard.

This was originally Tijani’s job because he had naval knowledge and had commanded landing operations.

But Tijani needed to stay in Namur, and transferring him would be too obvious, fully alerting the Germans of preparedness on the River Somme.

So Shire could only look within the troops.

Unexpectedly, checking the records found quite a few soldiers with a naval background, the bearded man was one of them.

To Shire’s surprise, this bearded man called himself Darlan.

Darlan?

The future Admiral?

And he was one of the mutiny representatives?

(The above image is François Darlan, Admiral, Naval Commander-in-Chief of the Vichy government, acting Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Minister of the Navy, and Minister of the Interior. He was the second most powerful figure in the Vichy government, second only to Petain. During WWI, specialized in naval artillery, he was assigned to Verdun as an army artillery commander. As a naval marshal, his combat experience was only in land artillery warfare.)

Perhaps it was because Nivelle redeployed the troops originally meant for Verdun to the River Somme, Shire thought, that Darlan found himself at the River Somme.

"But." Shire looked at this unkempt future "Admiral" before him: "Why are you..."

"One of the mutiny representatives?" Darlan finished Shire’s sentence.

"Yes." Shire nodded, a future "Admiral" like him should be of noble descent, becoming a mutiny representative was peculiar.

"Because I thought I was going to die, General," Darlan answered earnestly. "Like everyone else, I didn’t want to die meaninglessly!"

Then, he glanced gratefully at Shire: "But fortunately, that didn’t happen."

Shire nodded in comprehension: "Then, if it were meaningful? I mean, there is a chance you might sacrifice in this battle!"

Darlan straightened up: "I believe in you, General. Just give the order! I will prove my courage with actions!"