CHAPTER 671: CHAPTER 671 ATTACKING CHARLEROI

Today there is only one Chapter, sorry.

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After the matters in Paris were settled, Shire flew to Namur that morning.

It must be said that the closed cabin brought Shire great convenience. During the few hours of flying, he took a nap and had some cakes prepared by Camille for lunch after waking up.

According to Camille, there were piles of food sent by neighbors at home, but Shire didn’t intend to touch them, nor did he let Camille and Dejoka touch them. Instead, he let Lauren distribute the food to the guards, all of it.

These foods are no small matter during times of material shortage.

Although the guards had been expanded to a regiment at this time, each time the food distributed to each person was not much, in the long term it was a considerable wealth, so the guards were all grateful to Shire.

However, Shire was actually worried that spies might poison him and his family.

This was not difficult, as the gift’s origins were too complicated, even sending a timed bomb was possible.

From this perspective, Shire deemed it a good habit to re-gift the presents to the guards. This would make spies realize that poisoning or tampering with the gifts would be ineffective, not only useless but also possibly exposing themselves, so they would not choose to do it.

At two in the afternoon, the plane successfully landed at Namur Airport.

Shire transferred to an automobile and arrived at the command post after more than half an hour.

This was one of the drawbacks of setting the command post within Namur Castle; Namur Castle was located on a hill, making it difficult to build a temporary airport for landing and takeoff.

Tijani was busy in the command post, with telegrams and documents flying everywhere and staff officers running back and forth, as if a battle was ongoing.

Shire knew the reason. He had already issued orders to Tijani, making him responsible for the preparation work for the infiltration of the Arden Mountains.

Of course, it was confidential, known only to Shire, Gallieni, and Tijani.

The staff officers only knew that the next target was Charleroi, and everything being done now was preparation for the attack.

When Shire came in, Tijani stepped forward, saluted, and led him into the meeting room.

"Albert I implemented wartime rationing in Belgium." Tijani sat in front of Shire with a thick pile of documents, speaking in a mocking tone: "He said everything would follow the standards of France, but everyone knows the ’France’ he mentioned refers to ’Shire’."

Shire smiled slightly.

Belgium maintained logistical trade with Holland, and Antwerp, the port, received supplies from around the world, so the people here hadn’t reached the point of going hungry as in France.

Albert I did this more to suppress the restless domestic capitalists through the wartime rationing system.

Of course, there was another intention: to strive to improve the rations of Shire’s troops.

Tijani casually handed over documents one by one to Shire: "This is the re-equipping situation of the First Armored Army, the reconnaissance situation in the Arden Mountains, and the German Army’s strength and deployment in Charleroi..."

Shire flipped through the files one by one.

The re-equipment of over twenty thousand soldiers of the First Armored Army was going smoothly. Most infantry, besides the submachine gunners, had switched to using two models of German rifles, G98 and K98.

They were original rifles confiscated from the German Army, and just the infiltration battle at Hasselt had seized 400,000 rifles.

Albert I selected 30,000 rifles in good condition from them for the First Armored Division.

Among them, 20,000 were used for equipping, and the other 10,000 for supplement.

(The above two pictures are G98 and K98 respectively; G98 is reliable and accurate but too long for trench use, so K98 was developed in 1908 with a shortened barrel)

The smooth re-equipment was mostly thanks to the shortcomings of the Lebel Rifle, for which soldiers had difficulty adapting to its balance change. Therefore, they had no objections to switching to Mauser rifles and even gladly accepted them due to Mauser’s excellent performance.

The only ones having objections were the over 2,000 soldiers in Tijani’s unit who were equipped with the "Garand" rifle, finding it a nightmare to switch back to bolt-action rifles after adapting to semi-automatic ones.

"Many people have questions about the re-equipment," Tijani said: "They don’t understand why we are switching to German rifles at this time, especially since we don’t face unacceptable supply issues."

Tijani didn’t know how to explain; he couldn’t tell the soldiers that the unit would infiltrate the Arden Mountains.

Shire provided a plausible reason: "We seized a large number of German rifles and ammunition but were unable to use them, while there’s a scarcity of ammunition domestically."

Tijani raised his eyebrows.

It was the only explanation, though it was still somewhat tenuous.

Shire casually flipped through the reconnaissance situation in the Arden Mountains, merely focusing on the issue of breaking through roads.

Recently, Shire even had Matthew modify engineering vehicles: using the chassis of "Shire A1," adding a bulldozer blade to turn it into a bulldozer, or adding several lifting arms and pulleys to make it a crane.

With these equipment, the speed of road construction and bridge building would be much quicker.

"How do you plan to attack Charleroi?" Shire closed the file and looked at Tijani.

This was Shire’s current primary concern.

Tijani pointed at the files with his chin and answered:

"The Germans in Charleroi only have two infantry regiments, over five thousand men. Do we need to consider how to attack?"

"I heard they’ve already prepared to surrender, and even desertions have occurred."

"I believe as soon as our troops arrive, the Germans will abandon the city and flee!"

Charleroi was an isolated city, and a significant portion of the German Army stationed there were retreating deserters with low morale.

Once Shire’s First Armored Army besieged them, they would likely lose the will to resist and scatter and run away.

However, Shire countered: "General, where do you think they’ll flee if they abandon the city?"

Tijani replied: "Of course, retreating to the mountains..."

Tijani suddenly realized his mistake and stared blankly at Shire before showing an awkward smile.

German retreating to the mountains also meant many would hide in the Arden Forest.

And the First Armored Army’s plan was to penetrate the Arden Forest.

This would make the German deserters think the First Armored Army was entering the forest to hunt them down, causing them to flee in panic.

Ultimately, the infiltration plan of the First Armored Army might be prematurely revealed to the German Army by these deserters, leading to the failure of the entire plan.

Tijani looked at the map for a while, troubled and said: "But, we seem unable to prevent the Germans from escaping into the mountains..."

"The 6th Army Group, General." Shire interrupted Tijani: "The Germans in Charleroi think we’ll use the First Armored Army to attack, but we’ll surround them with the 6th Army Group and enter the forest ahead of them to cut off their retreat."

Tijani immediately understood, another diversion tactic.

And it provided the perfect excuse for the troops to enter the Arden Mountains, where the infantry of the 6th Army Group could enter the forest to pave the way for the First Armored Army.