(The second chapter arrives!)
On March 14, 1813, Napoleon delivered a speech in the Imperial Assembly Hall, calling on the people of the whole country to take action and launch the final decisive battle with the evil anti-French alliance. After accepting the speech, Napoleon left Paris and went to the front line of the Rhine, preparing to take the lead in launching an attack before the main force of the anti-French alliance had assembled, so as to achieve a pre-emptive effect. At this time, all the legions in France had been fully mobilized. Under Napoleon's mandatory requirements, each legion maintained a full staff and all weapons were raised, but the newly formed legions lacked heavy machine guns and weapons. Heavy firepower such as cannons. At the same time, due to the lack of training, many recruits just learned how to shoot. The combat effectiveness of such a legion is indeed worthy of research.
On March 20, Napoleon arrived at the French Army's front-line headquarters in Bonn, and the French Army's corps also successively arrived at the designated positions requested by Napoleon. Among them, the 1st Army remains in the Netherlands, and they must protect the safety of the north of France against possible British threats from the sea. The 2nd Army was deployed in Cologne. They will be the main force of Napoleon's plan to attack the north. In front of them is a Prussian Legion and 20,000 people from the Kingdom of Thuringia. The 3rd Army was transferred from Calais to Siegen on the east bank of the Rhine. As a powerful army, they will also serve as Napoleon's main force. The newly formed 4th Army was sent to Calais to take over the defense of the 3rd Army. The 5th Army was also composed of recruits. They were sent to the south of the Eifel Plateau, mainly to defend Napoleon's right flank. The 6th Army, also recruits, was sent to Olber to assist the 3rd Army. The 7th Army and the 8th Army were stationed in Koblenz, and they would undertake the task of launching a feint attack in the direction of Frankfurt. Udilow's Ninth Army was stationed in the area east of Bonn, ready to further expand the victory after the successful attack of the Third Army. The 10th Army was sent to Normandy to take over from the 9th Army to defend there. The 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Army Corps were used as reserves in case of emergencies. The Guards Corps and the Imperial Guard were stationed in Bonn with Napoleon, always obeying Napoleon's orders. Eugene's Italian Front Army with a total of 50,000 people was still responsible for attacking Austria from the south to contain Austrian forces.
At this time, due to roads and other reasons, many anti-French alliance troops were still on their way to the battlefield. What Napoleon had to face now was only the 200,000 Prussian troops led by Clausewitz, The vanguard of the 100,000 Russian army led by Tuzov, an advance corps of the Austrian army, and more than 100,000 people from the Rhine Alliance and other countries, the total strength is close to 500,000. If Napoleon can defeat the enemy in front of him before the main Russian and Austrian forces arrive, then he still has a chance of winning.
Both France and the Anti-French Alliance are gearing up, and the cloud of war begins to settle over the Rhine River. This will be the largest war in European history.
Almost at the same time, another battle was brewing in southern Iberia, two thousand kilometers southwest of the Rhine. Although compared with the war between France and the Anti-French Alliance, the scale of the war, the number of participants and the area of the war are far less, but the significance it produced is also very huge.
On March 17, Dougal arrived in Algeciras secretly. As the army commander of this battle, it is necessary for him to fully understand the situation in Gibraltar, although he had already obtained a lot in the previous two months information on this. Two days later, the troops participating in the battle will arrive, consisting of an artillery regiment drawn from the 1st Division of the 88th Army, a heavy artillery battalion, a heavy artillery regiment directly under the Legion, and two infantry regiments from the 1st Division. The total number reached more than 11,000 people. In addition, the Spanish Independent 3rd Division defending southern Iberia is also on standby at any time. Once the 88th Army's attack fails, they will immediately go into battle.
Through the intelligence sent back by the spies, Dougal knew that there are now more than 10,000 British soldiers and more than 2,000 sailors stationed in Gibraltar. The land fortification is a fortress group consisting of 13 small forts, 1 large fort and 42 bunkers. Their defense line can be said to be impenetrable. In the past hundred years, Spain also tried to take back Gibraltar many times, but they all failed under the strong defense of the British team.
If you want to conquer Gibraltar, you have to use cannons or blasting by engineers to completely destroy the fortresses that the British army relied on for survival, and then you can win the final victory with relatively small casualties. But the British also erected many large-caliber fortress artillery on those fortresses. Fortunately, the Iberian artillery is several grades better than the British artillery, otherwise there is absolutely no hope of conquering here.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, all preparations for departure have been completed, Boult orders, the fleet sets sail, and the target is Gibraltar. His order was quickly transmitted to the other warships by the radio telegrams by the communications soldiers, so all the ships lifted their anchor one after another, spewed out huge black smoke, and began to sail south.
After unremitting efforts, the Iberian Academy of Sciences finally successfully developed the wireless telegraph in August 1812. Since then, the communication capabilities of the Iberian army have been greatly improved. All ships in the navy are equipped with radio stations, so that the orders of the fleet commander can be smoothly transmitted to each ship. The army also popularized radio stations in battalions, making the large-scale interspersed operations advocated by Xiao Jie possible. This has also become a military project that the Iberian Army trains the most.
On the afternoon of March 19, the soldiers of the 88th Army Corps who participated in the attack reached Algeciras. The large-scale assembly of the Iberian army attracted the attention of Admiral Blucht, the commander of the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet and the commander of the Gibraltar garrison. He immediately issued a warning order, requiring all troops to guard against the Iberian army. attack.
At the same time, the Burt fleet also arrived 30 kilometers east of the waters of Gibraltar, waiting for the order to attack.
On the morning of March 20, after full preparations, the Iberian army's offensive began. The Heavy Artillery Regiment of the 88th Army, the Artillery Regiment and the Heavy Artillery Battalion of the 1st Division began fierce shelling on the intended target. After careful research, Dugor took Forts No. 7 and No. 8 of the Gibraltar Fortress Group as the main breakthrough points. Therefore, the main targets of the 88th Army Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 1st Division Heavy Artillery Battalion were also gathered in this area. area.
Fort No. 7 and Fort No. 8 are located on both sides of a valley, guarding the best access to Gibraltar together. As long as this is conquered, the Iberian army can drive straight in and approach the main city of Gibraltar. But Yingjun obviously noticed this, so the No. 7 and No. 8 forts were also built very strong. In addition, a large number of bunkers were built on both sides of the valley and inside, and several of them were in the dead ends of the shelling. Inside.
Since the successful construction of Fort No. 7 and Fort No. 8~www.mtlnovel.com~ Gibraltar's threat to Spain has been truly lifted, because in all subsequent wars, the Spanish army failed to conquer here. But the situation encountered today is different. How can the current Iberian army be comparable to the weak Spanish army.
The shells of the Iberian artillery kept hitting Fort No. 7 and Fort 8. Perhaps the shells of the 75mm field artillery did not do much damage to them, but the shells of the 105mm howitzer were different. Among them, it was definitely a scene of sand and stones flying everywhere. As for the shells of the 122mm howitzer, it is even more terrifying. These shells weighing hundreds of kilograms can blast a large hole in the ground with a diameter of more than ten meters every time. If the fortress is hit directly, the consequences will be very serious. Although it won't be destroyed, it can also blow up a large area. If it happens several times in a row, it will probably be completely destroyed. There is also a British bunker, its location is very exposed, about 100 meters in front of the No. 8 fortress, and it was directly hit by a 122mm shell. After the explosion, only a huge pit.
After an hour of heavy shelling, both Forts 7 and 8 were devastated. At 10 o'clock in the morning, Dugor gave an order, and soldiers from an infantry battalion launched a fierce attack.
(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)