Re: Blood and Iron

The Great War had taken its toll in ways that were virtually inconceivable when compared with prior military conflicts. Millions of dead soldiers were a rarity in warfare, with only a few conflicts prior to the Great War having such a staggering cost of human life.

Humanity was a two-sided coin of a creature. On the one hand, human beings had the ability to create some of the most beautiful and inspiring feats imaginable. While on the other hand, they were capable of evil so grand that even the Devil would think twice before stepping foot into the mortal domain.

And the conditions of the Great War, whether in this life, or Bruno’s past life were what he would consider to be the closest thing to hell mankind has ever made here on Earth. Though the Germans suffered less, as a result of them not actively pushing back against Allied hostility on the western front.

The reality was that the trenches were an apocalyptic scene, especially no-man’s-land. The amount of mines that had been buried before the war had mostly been detonated by allied forces. And those that remained within no-man’s-land could be triggered at any moment.

Because of this, Germany had begun to prepare for its advance into France by spending the time clearing these mines, whether anti-personnel or anti-tank that still lie waiting for an unfortunate soul to trigger them.

These mines were cleared by E-10 tanks that were modified with a mine flail. Considering these vehicles were virtually impervious to anything the allies could shoot at them, they could operate with alternating shifts day and night clearing mines while the German Army prepared for its major offensive without fear of reprisal from the enemy watching them from the other side of no-man’s-land.

Did this give away the fact that Germany planning for a major offensive? Oh most certainly! Was France already aware of this fac? Absolutely! It would be foolish not to expect the Germans to be marching over the wire in the coming months as they had more or less cleared out every other enemy on the global stage they could currently fight.

Charles de Gaulle was a rather exceptional figure from Bruno’s past life. Or at least as exceptional as a Frenchman in the 20th century could have been. Nevertheless, he was one of the few men who actually had the wherewithal to observe the German advances, and innovations, that had led to their total victory over the course of the last two years.

Both on the tactical and strategic level, the Germans really remained undefeated except perhaps with Hindenburg’s folly, which had thoroughly disgraced the man in the eyes of the public, and the German Military.

And if the past was anything to go by, he knew exactly who Hindenburg’s replacement would be. As a result, he stood in the trenches with a grim expression on his face. In his hand was a half-consumed cigarette and in his ashtray was at least a whole container worth of such devices, which had already been used up.

A French officer was quick to approach the man and hand him an intelligence report. The look on his face was bitter, while he expressed a somber sentiment with an equally fitting tone.

"Well, it looks like you were right after all. Our intelligence, or what little we have, suggests the 8th Army is making its way to the front. They appear to be making Luxembourg their first target. They will come over the wire like an army of devils, and will have us all thoroughly slaughtered within an hour, maybe two?"

Charles de Gaulle remained utterly silent as he kept his cigarette held firmly in his mouth with the pressure of his lips while flicking through the dossier with his gloves hands. Gloves whose filth mired the very documents he was reading as he examined the information contained within.

"He is a military mastermind of the highest caliber… He has flawlessly envisioned the future of warfare for the age of industry and has perfected it down to a precise science. What we’re looking at here, although I doubt the information is complete, is a thorough understanding of warfare in ways we cannot possibly imagine…."

French intelligence had been failing since the war began, largely because of the combined arms doctrine of the German Armed forces which integrated aerial and land-based reconnaissance units to coordinate precision strikes on high-value targets, including, of course enemy recon. Stay updated through

That, and Germany’s efforts to reform the Kaiser’s secret police, and by extension internal security efforts had made it very difficult to actually pry into the Reich’s secrets. Because of this, all the French could confirm was the combat portion of the German Battalion Tactical Group structure. Which would be overhauled completely for the upcoming era after this war was over.

Because of this, what the French had available to them was an understanding off mechanized warfare, but not proper combined arms doctrine. Deploying mechanized and motorized infantry with armor was a concept the Allies had not thought of, and had led to their defeat time and time again.

And now that this information could be confirmed, Charles de Gaulle could only shake his head and sigh as he expressed his lament openly to the junior officer beneath his command.

"It is a pity it took us two years to discover this… Perhaps had we known from the start we would have been able to make adequate counters to this style of warfare for this major offensive. But I fear what few weapons we do have, have been poorly designed for the threat they were meant to face…"

The Junior officer remained silent. The only sound escaping his mouth was the air releasing from his lungs as he expressed his agreement with the General’s assessment without saying a single thing. France was doomed to lose this war.

Unfortunately, their superiors in Paris did not agree, and as a result were coming up with all kinds of madness to try to defeat the Germans in the coming months when they finally began their Autumn Offensive.

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