In the end, Shi Ruiwen's plan went bankrupt.
The Yugoslav capital fortress bears the brunt.
On August 3, 2004, Germany declared war on France. The next morning, according to the "Schrieffen Plan" made before the war, the German forwards 1 Army and 1 Army on the western front, carrying 200 field guns, rushed into Belgium and quickly rushed to the Meuse River, the natural barrier of Belgium's rivers, and went straight to the most important Liege fortress in Belgium.
Due to the limitation of terrain and other factors, the German army that launched the initial attack was a force of about 30,000 people, consisting of six brigades of the Second Bilo Army and two cavalry divisions of the German General Staff. It was about to attack Liege from the northeast, south and north.
Liege fortress is a defense system with Liege as the core. Located at the intersection of Belgium, the Meuse River and the Ult River in the western coastal countries of the European continent, the construction around Liege took 25 years. Bordering the Dutch border in the north and Ardennes forest in the south, it is the throat for Germany to attack France through Belgium. Several bridges in Liege Fortress are the intersections of only a few roads on the Meuse River.
There are 12 fortresses around the fortress, which are radial and guard the city of Liege in a circular way, forming an annular barrage across the Meuse River. The circumference of the annular battery pack is more than 50 kilometers, and the battery interval is 3 to 6 kilometers. There are 400 guns of various types and a large number of light and heavy machine guns. The defense of each battery company is generally held by two battery companies and 1 infantry company, with a total strength of 400 people. Together with the mobile defensive infantry company in the wilderness between batteries, the total strength is 25,000.
The fortress of Fort Liege is made of reinforced concrete with a thickness of 3 meters, which is extremely strong. Ordinary field artillery shells hit it, just cutting off some concrete chips or smashing a small crater, which can't destroy the whole structure of the fortress at all. Most forts are built underground, and only the top of the target is exposed outside. All weapons and personnel are hidden in the underground part of the battery.
And a complex passage extending in all directions was built under the battery, connecting basements with different functions, storing a large number of grain, drinking water, ammunition, medical supplies, ventilation and power supply facilities.
Each turret has an average of 8 fortress guns120mm and 8 howitzers/2 10/0mm. The turret is protected by steel armor and can rotate 360 degrees without any restrictions. The turret is also equipped with searchlights to indicate shooting at night, and it can automatically rise and fall like a turret. A deep trench was dug around the battery, and a large number of barbed wire and obstacles were arranged outside the trench. In addition, it is equipped with rapid-fire guns and machine guns to block the wilderness around the fortress and the nearby dead ends. Liege fortress, such a luxurious top-level configuration, is perfect in both structural rigidity and firepower intensity. It is one of the highest-level representative works of the European fortress before World War I, and it is also the only barrier to stop the German invasion in the eyes of the Belgians.
"Big Bertas" cannon
The reason why the Germans chose Fort Liege as the breakthrough point of World War I was because it was too important for Germany. Liege, guarded by the fortress day and night, is Germany's gateway to Belgium. Four railway lines connecting Germany, Belgium and northern France converge in this strategic city and then fan out to the Belgian plain. The logistics supply of the main German troops who raided France from the right mainly depended on the transportation of these railway lines.
Therefore, taking Liege fortress and controlling these railway trunk lines has become a prerequisite for the implementation of the "Schrieffen Plan", which requires the German commander General Emil to quickly and cleanly capture Liege fortress, open the way for the subsequent German right-wing circuitous troops, and ensure the smooth implementation of the "Schrieffen Plan" as scheduled.
However, the Germans' strategic judgment is too optimistic, and they think contemptuously that relying on their own powerful military strength will definitely scare the Belgians. It is expected that after no or slight symbolic resistance, they will cross Belgium non-stop and rush to France. Therefore, when the Germans who arrived at the Meuse River found that all the bridges on the river had been demolished, they sent people to investigate the enemy without vigilance. Instead, they hastily built a boat bridge to cross the river. The soldiers stationed in the fortress attacked head-on, and the German soldiers who were caught off guard suddenly suffered a lot of casualties and fell into the water.
Seeing this, Amish ordered that 200 cannons he had brought be aimed at Fort Liege, in an attempt to suppress the other side's firepower and cover the German army's continued attack.
Ordinary German field guns can deal with infantry and ordinary buildings because of their small caliber and small amount of ammunition. However, for the sturdy fortress Liechburg, it is just like scratching boots, without damaging its bones and muscles at all. On the contrary, because the battery defenders had marked and measured the terrain around Liege fortress before the war, the Belgian defenders' shelling of the fortress was cruel and accurate, which caused great casualties to the siege Germans.
The frustrated German commander Amish had to send more troops desperately and continue to attack the city day and night. In this way, the armies of both sides in Derby fought fierce artillery battles and urban offensive and defensive battles for three days and nights. The Germans suffered heavy casualties, but the siege still made no progress.
After failing to surrender to General Le Mans, the supreme commander of Liege Fortress, the Germans sent led zeppelin to fly over Liege. Facing the curious and frightened residents, they dropped more than a dozen bombs under warning. This is the first time that human planes have participated in the war since records began. But this kind of intimidation is futile. General Le Mans will always remember the request made by Belgian King Abel in his personal letter to him, "Hold the position entrusted to him and fight to the death", and will not surrender to the German troops besieging the fortress.
Faced with the stagnation of the German army, Xiao Mochi, the executor of the "Schrieffen Plan" and the German Chief of Staff, was very worried that if the stalemate with the Belgian army continued like this, it would inevitably delay the right-wing German army's continued implementation of the "Schrieffen Plan" and thus affect the German offensive plan of the entire western front.
So he sent his confidant, Colonel ludendorff, deputy chief of staff of the Second German Army, to lead the army to reinforce. In order to solve the problem of insufficient damage effect in the early stage of the German attack on Liege fortress, he dispatched five giant siege weapons from the chiefs to Liege. The gun is a 500 mm caliber siege howitzer, which can shoot shells within 1 ton to 15 km away. There is a timing fuse on the right side of each armor-piercing projectile, and it can only explode regularly after penetrating the target. It is a secret weapon specially designed and manufactured to deal with such a strong fortress and city as Fort Liege. And there are always nine giant guns with such great power and terror in the German General Staff.
After many days of waiting, the front-line Germans finally ushered in the long-awaited siege weapon. The shelling began. A huge shell weighing 1 ton fell from the sky, and a battery went dumb in an instant. By August, 16 and 12 batteries had given up their resistance after several days of heavy bombardment. The Long Sen battery where Le Mans headquarters is located was destroyed by a direct hit, and he himself was captured after being blown unconscious. At this point, the battle of Liechburg ended in German victory.
The passage for the German right-wing troops to raid France was opened.
The Positive Significance of the Battle of Liechburg
First of all, air military forces participated in the attack for the first time in this war. Although the killing effect was limited (only a few civilians were killed and some buildings were blown up), it was the beginning of human invention of aircraft to participate in the war, which triggered widespread concern of European military powers about the application of various flight equipment in the war and indirectly stimulated the development of aviation industry.
Secondly, although the Belgian army was defeated and lost its fortress, the Belgian government also left Brussels and went into exile in France. However, Belgium has made great contributions to the Allies, because the battle of Liechburg, which took more than ten days, successfully prevented the Germans from reaching the French battlefield easily and quickly through Belgium, which seriously delayed the marching speed of the German right-wing forces aiming at Paris, laying the groundwork for the failure of the German Battle of the Marne River and the bankruptcy of the "Schrieffen Plan" in the future.