"Every hour, even every minute, monsters called war are devouring huge amounts of life. In the fortress area of ​​Lviv, the opponent's artillery consumes our manpower in pieces. And inside the fortress, the Austrians killed us little by little like a dull knife cutting meat! It was not until the end of the battle that we realized that we didn't know how to capture a modern fortress!" After the war, even the commander-in-chief of the battle, Alexeyev, admitted that the attack on the Lviv Fortress was a failed move.

At the same time, on the side of the Allies, the prince and his staff were also paying attention to the offensive and defensive battles of the Lviv Fortress, and there were also a group of tasks from the Western Front. General Farkinhan came to watch the battle as a representative of the Prussian military in order to accumulate experience in how to capture a fortress in the future. To be honest, in this plane, the German army did not have the experience of conquering a fortress established by a powerful country. Compared with a truly strong fortress, the Scarlet Fortress is just like that.

Although there is no offensive and defensive battle in this plane (when the prince launched the Western Front Battle, the German army broke through from the two wings of the Verdun Fortress. The fortress was in danger of being isolated, so the French chose to withdraw from the fortress area.) However, the French still established a solid fortress system in other areas such as Belfort. This made the German army on the Western Front a little tricky.

After all, Fakinhan is the Minister of War and the General of Infantry, and is also a veteran. So when the prince is free, he will discuss the views of the war with Fakinhan. In particular, the prince of this plane does not want to fight another battle similar to Verdun meat grinder. It consumes too much and is not worth the loss.

"If you can, I hope there will be no situation similar to the battle of the Lviv Fortress on the Western Front." The prince said to Farkinhan. "You must remember one thing, if you cannot achieve a decisive victory within a month, then stopping the battle immediately is undoubtedly the best choice."

"Your Highness, what do you mean is that it is irrational to attack the fortress on the Western Front?" Farkinhan frowned. Although he realized the difficulties of the tough battle, he still believed that the prince's view was too pessimistic.

"The battle of attack is similar to a war of attrition, but it is not a war of attrition. A simple trench attrition can achieve a very good exchange ratio through tactics and the quality of the troops. But the battle of fortresses is different! Even if you concentrate 3 times the force and 4 times the artillery, and even if you think you have blocked the other party's supply channel with artillery, you still have the possibility of failure in this battle! Especially on the Western Front, where the opponent's troops are extremely dense, the traffic conditions are very good, and can provide quick support. Believe me, Ma Jinhan, you would rather crawl in field trenches than try to capture a key fortress through a battle. This temptation is like an apple in the Garden of Eden. It looks good, but it is very fatal!" said the prince seriously.

This is definitely not an exaggeration! On the Eastern Front, in history, the Russians could have captured the Fortress Prémichil in four months, from November 9, 1914 to March 22, 1915. It took a full 133 days to capture the fortress without any support without support. The battle was almost carried out under the best offensive and defensive circumstances, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated for so long! What if it were the Western Front?

"Don't believe in the advantages of troops and equipment in your hands. The facts prove that these things are not easy to use in front of the fortress area. First of all, the reason why a place wants to build a fortress must have a great geographical advantage. It may be condescending, it may be that it has seized the fortress of several roads, or it may be that the front is very narrow. In short, building a fortress in a certain place will definitely give the defense the advantage!"

For example, the Verdun Fortress in history was next to the mountains and the front was very narrow. Before the Battle of Verdun, there were 4 positions in total, two of which were built on the northern branch of Mount Maas and the northeastern branch. It can be said that it is condescending and difficult to conquer. The first line was released and passed through the woodland. Moreover, the distance between the defense lines was very large, with sufficient depth to delay time and consume opponents.

Looking at the entire fortress terrain, all important positions and support points are in deep ditches, mountains or forests. The permanent fortifications and field fortification areas are combined, and the defense line is more than 15 kilometers deep. Not to mention equipment, just this deployment has already won half of the French!

The Germans knew this, and they also made quite sufficient preparations for this battle. Before the battle was launched, the French army had actually transferred many fortress defenders and equipment to other areas. The fortress area was unprecedentedly weak, and the Germans also concentrated several times the troops and equipment!

Before the battle, the French had only three armies in this fortress area with an outer diameter of 45 kilometers and a 120 kilometers front defense front, which was divided into the east and west banks by the Maas River. Among them, two armies were stationed on the east coast, six divisions had 338 artillery pieces (including 152 heavy artillery pieces). One army was stationed on the west coast, two divisions had 294 artillery pieces (including 94 heavy artillery pieces). In the south of the fortification area, there were also three divisions' reserves.

And what about the Germans? In order to capture this fortress, they concentrated the most elite Fifth Army, commander of the German Crown Prince. They also drew 17 divisions from the reserves of the 25 divisions on the Western Front! In terms of military strength, the German army's strength is three times that of the French army!

As for firepower, the German army concentrated more than 1,200 artillery and 202 heavy mortars! And the number of heavy artillery is much better than the opponent! For example, among the 850 artillery deployed in the assault area, the number of heavy artillery is 490! And there are 29 380MM and 420MM heavy artillery to support the operation! If we talk about the number of first-line artillery, the German army can use three times that of the French! In order to ensure the quality of the artillery, the Germans actually equipped the artillery with 168 gun-protecting aircraft and 14 observation balloons...

In terms of offensive forces, the Germans also boldly innovated. Each battalion was equipped with an engineer company, and a brigade could be divided into a flamethrower company. In the main attack direction, there were a total of 39 engineer companies and 8 flamethrower companies additional strengthening, and subsequent divisions were also equipped with sufficient blasting equipment and explosives.
Chapter completed!