War never changes

May 7, 1901.

Following the German Second Reich Empire's occupation of French border cities, which involved bloody purges and unlimited destruction of industrial equipment, the French Republic's mobilized army finally arrived.

The European front was fully opened.

To counter Germany's steel Tank corps, the French Republic dispatched thirteen armies, totaling 370,000 soldiers, to the German-occupied areas.

A massive battle erupted between the two sides within the city!

To counter Germany's steel Tanks, and without having developed specialized anti-Tank weapons, France had no choice but to use improvised cluster bombs. Their troops attempted to destroy Tank tracks to hinder their advance, or used the now-widespread European cars, loaded with fuel and bombs, to directly confront Tanks in suicide attacks. (This wasn't modern cluster bombs, but rather like the bundles of dynamite Arthur used, tied together to increase explosive power and damage, so their lethality was still very low).

After all, time was too short. Perhaps in a few more months, specialized anti-Tank weapons could be developed, but for now, they could only resort to crude methods.

As for anti-Tank rifles, these were somewhat useful against World War I Tanks, but against medium and heavier Tanks in World War II, their thick armor rendered them ineffective.

The same applied to Molotov cocktails. Considering that several of Germany's gasoline Tanks in World War II were destroyed by Molotov cocktails, to ensure Germany could hold out longer, Dutch specifically instructed Marko to install the fuel tank inside the armor.

With Van der Linde, the Tanks sold to Germany were all medium Tanks with steel plates added to their tracks, so the idea of using firearms to break the tracks and damage the Tanks was currently quite useless.

They could only rely on the explosive force of cluster bombs to destroy Tank tracks, or to shock the soldiers inside to achieve anti-Tank objectives.

However, everyone knows how heavy cluster bombs are and what their attack range is. The casualty rate from this countermeasure was absurdly high. Therefore, the French military could only extensively requisition civilian cars to use as suicide attack vehicles.

As for trucks, there were too few trucks in that era, and they had cargo purposes. According to the industrial level of that time, the economic and developmental impact of losing a truck was higher than that of a car.

However, given France's industrial foundation, if their factories operated at full capacity, they might be able to start assembling Tanks in just a few months, as European industry was truly top-tier at that time.

But for now, if they wanted to minimize the threat of German Tanks, they could only choose the most brutal form of warfare: urban combat!

"Boom, boom, boom…" The violent artillery fire almost shattered eardrums.

The trails of artillery shells in the air were visible in the sky, and countless explosions rang out one after another.

Massive tall buildings had been blasted with deep craters by artillery fire, and the stairwells, covered in shrapnel and broken glass, were strewn with the bodies of men and women.

Since the German army entered the city, most of the people who could flee had already done so.

Those who couldn't escape were either shot or fled to non-combat zones. In the current combat zone, apart from German and French soldiers, there were basically no civilians to be seen.

However, there were many civilian bodies, indicating that many people who didn't escape were simply hiding.

Teams of French soldiers in red jackets and blue trousers engaged in fierce urban combat with German forces throughout the city. This was the only effective way for the French army to counter German Tank groups. Although urban combat is known as the most brutal form of warfare, for Tanks, which are like cavalry suited for sweeping across open plains, it was undoubtedly the best choice.

However, the German army also had some research on how to conduct urban combat.

Through combined arms tactics, with Tanks leading the way and infantry following for point assaults, they could easily sweep through entire urban areas using the Tanks' armor. This was also the most common tactic of Germany's Blitzkrieg.

Throughout the vast urban area, the sporadic sounds of gunfire and artillery bombardments constantly echoed. Small-scale battles occurred continuously, with hundreds of enemies annihilated in each skirmish, and multiple small-scale engagements forming the core of the city's conflict.

In modern films, large-scale urban warfare is often depicted as very grand for visual effect, but this is an inaccurate portrayal. Cities are simply not suitable for large-scale charges; their terrain is better suited for hiding and ambushing.

So, even though as many as 150,000 French troops and 100,000 German troops had gathered in the city at this time, the scale of the battles between them still appeared small most of the time.

This is one of the most unsettling aspects of urban warfare: spatial fragmentation, or rather, war fragmentation.

And this fragmented combat led to the terrifying casualty rates in urban warfare.

On a large-scale battlefield, no one would relentlessly target a single person. Most of the time, if one side's morale weakened, they would immediately retreat en masse like wildebeest migrating across the African savanna. Those who hid, those who played dead after being wounded to become prisoners—no one would pay much attention to you.

But urban warfare is completely different. The small numbers and the terror of being ambushed would make the victorious side cautiously deliver finishing shots and confirm the number of attackers and fatalities. Often, the end result was the complete annihilation of the attacking squad.

This also turned the entire battle into a meat grinder.

The peculiar uniforms of the French army made their ambushes in this urban combat particularly conspicuous, which caused the French army to suffer greatly.

And Germany's Tanks also found it difficult to advance in this urban combat.

In the densely built city, one never knew when a French soldier in a red jacket and blue trousers might stand up at a window and throw down a bundle of explosives. Nor did one know when or where Molotov cocktails might fly out.

Detonator wires hidden in the ruins were even harder to detect, often being activated and violently exploding when someone entered their range.

Mutilated bodies and severed limbs were scattered on the ruins of the streets, and flames accompanied by burning black smoke spread through the city. The entire city had completely fallen into the ravages of war, and with the sound of gunfire, people died every moment.

Countless young soldiers, carrying the fear of death and longing for their families, stepped onto the battlefield, only to vanish completely amidst the sound of artillery, lost in the confusion of life.

Fresh bodies had not yet cooled, but the bonds of family after family had already entered heaven.

Pity the bones by the Rhine River, still dreamt of by wives in their spring chambers!