The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 483: Chapter 382: The Battle of Muroz Offense and Defense_2

It's worth mentioning that it is unclear which side used the weapons, but the battlefield was littered with bayonets, gunstocks, sabers, wooden sticks, and other handheld weapons that soldiers could pick up. These weapons could inadvertently cause significant casualties.

This battle lasted a full six hours. In the end, the German Army, after suffering numerous casualties, abandoned the city and fled eastward.

Before dawn, General Bono led the troops to Muroz, attempting to capture it while the German garrison was still unprepared.

Just like the previous attack on Artaxi, the occupation of Muroz did not take much time.

The French Army not only had advanced preparations but also outnumbered the German garrison multiple times.

The Seventh Army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties but successfully captured Muroz and held a military parade in the city that lasted two hours.

As the French soldiers dressed in blue jackets and red trousers marched through the city, accompanied by artillery units adorned with tricolor flags and flowers, the band played the "Marseillaise" and "March of the Sambre and Mars Rivers." French citizens and soldiers inside Muroz cheered and shed emotional tears.

Finally, after decades, they set foot on French soil again. Although it was only a single city, this victory greatly strengthened the determination of the French people to reclaim their homeland and the French soldiers to win the war.

On the second day after the French Army captured Muroz, the commendation from French Army Commander-in-Chief Chafee successfully arrived at the front.

Chafee affectionately referred to General Bono and the Alsatian Detachment as the pioneers of revenge and the heroes of the entire France.

When news of the French victory in Muroz reached France, the entire country was swept by cheers and excitement.

However, the excited French deliberately overlooked that the French Army had already paid more than 10,000 casualties for this small town.

In the war, the casualty ratio between the French and German armies reached 2:1, representing about 5,000 casualties for the Germans.

The cheers of the French did not last long before the German reinforcements arrived.

Within Germany, the Germans had not expected this attack but reacted quickly.

The day after French Army Commander-in-Chief Chafee had just ordered the First and Second Army Groups to concentrate their forces and fully attack Germany, the German reinforcements arrived at the German-French border. After a day of fierce battle, they recaptured Muroz.

This small town, for which the French Army had suffered more than 10,000 casualties, eventually returned to German rule.

After this battle, the French casualties in Muroz alone reached nearly 30,000.

Although the German casualties were also over 10,000, such a casualty ratio and the results achieved were clearly unacceptable to France.

At French Army Headquarters, Chafee, who had just commended the pioneering troops, felt as if he had been slapped in the face. The previous victories had already been reported back to France. If word got out that Muroz had returned to German hands, the angry French might directly question the French Army.

To avoid this situation, Chafee quickly issued an order for the First and Second Army Groups to continue attacking with full force, with the determination to recover Alsace and Lorraine unchanged.

To counter the German reinforcements, Chafee mobilized four more divisions and reformed the Alsatian Detachment to replace the Seventh Army, which had sustained heavy casualties, for the siege mission in the Alsace Area.

The new Alsatian Troops were led by the retired One-Armed General Bo.

Although new intelligence confirmed that the deployment of the German Army was not as Chafee had expected, Chafee still did not believe that the main German attack direction was from Belgium to Paris.

Cynthia still insisted on attacking the German army from the direction of Alsace, which would not only help reclaim Alsace and Lorraine and boost morale but also attract more German troops to this area, preventing the German army from transferring these forces to strengthen its right wing, which is the Belgian region.

Starting from the early morning of August 15, nearly 600,000 troops from the first and second army groups launched a general offensive against the German army in the Alsace region.

The German General Staff had long anticipated France's direction and route of attack, and had set up iron wire mesh, trenches, fortresses, and other defensive works on the route ahead of time.

When the French Army saw the well-deployed German defensive positions, they were devastated.

But with no other choice, they had to complete the combat mission assigned to them by their superiors.

It wasn't until the French forces, under their commander's order, charged en masse towards the opposing German forces, that these French soldiers, previously influenced by patriotic fervor, finally understood the cruelty of war and the suffering experienced by their comrades-in-arms.

The German army facing them now was different, because after the previous sneak attack, the Germans were more prepared this time, with heavy machine guns, firearms, and various weapons emerging continuously.

Although the first and second army groups of France had assembled nearly 600,000 troops, they were facing the German Sixth Army Group commanded by Prince Rupert of Bavaria and the German Seventh Army Group commanded by Herington.

The German Sixth Army Group included five armies and three cavalry divisions, while the Seventh Army Group commanded by Herington had three armies and one division.

Together, these two army groups had a total of 350,000 troops and 1,200 artillery pieces and were commanded by Prince Rupert of the Sixth Army Group.

With unified management, the German army displayed extremely strong fighting capacity, and the French army recognized the true meaning of the world's first army.

On the first day of the battle between the two armies, the French army's casualties reached more than 20,000, forcing the first army group's commander Dibai to order a temporary halt to the offensive.

There was no other way, as at the current rate of consumption, his first army group would probably be wiped out in half a month.

As for the German army, the task of Prince Rupert was to attract more French forces here, allowing the German main force to proceed smoothly in the right-wing area, which is the Belgian region.

Seeing that the French army chose to extend the battle lines and engage in small-scale combat, Prince Rupert was even more eager.

After ensuring that the French army would not withdraw, Prince Rupert chose to gradually retreat, luring the enemy to advance deeper and completely attract the main force of the French army to this area.

It was precisely because the German army gradually retreated that on August 18, the partially recovered first and second army groups occupied Salzburg and Château-Salins, and then recaptured Muroz.

Now, the lofty claim Cynthia had made to the French people had finally been realized, and the French offensive became more and more successful.

In very high spirits, Cynthia praised the contributions of the Alsatian troops and the first and second army groups and allowed all wounded soldiers to return to the domestic area for treatment and replaced them with new forces.

But at the same time, Cynthia also realized her previous strategic mistake. Looking at the current progress of the war, the Germans indeed intended to attack France from the Belgian region.

This is because the forces faced in the very important Alsace and Lorraine regions were not the main force of the German army.

The fact that the German army was steadily losing showed that their numbers were not large, which completely contradicted the reality that the total number of German troops exceeded that of the French army.

However, even though she realized her mistake in strategic planning, Cynthia firmly believed that as long as the French army could successfully break through the German army's center from Alsace and Lorraine and reach the core of Germany.

Even if the German army successfully entered the northern French border from Belgium, the French forces could still encircle and annihilate the real main force of the German army.