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Volume 2 Beijing Story Chapter 156 A Continuous Stream of Arms

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    Update time: 2012-08-12

    June 1917 was also a painful month for the Allied Powers. On June 17, the British launched a blasting offensive on the Messina Ridge on the Western Front. Although the Germans had taken precautions for this, they never expected the British.  He did such a great job that he actually dug 22 huge blasting tunnels at a depth of 20 meters below the German ridge defense line through day and night tunnel operations by engineers. The continuous tunnel is 5,454 meters long.

    The initiator of this battle was the British, who wanted to take advantage of the fact that the German troops on the Eastern Front had not yet completed their transfer to the west to launch a preemptive offensive. Only one of the 22 huge blast holes was destroyed by German engineers, and the remaining 21 were filled.  of potent **.

    On June 17, 1917, the attacking British Second Army consisted of 3 corps, 12 divisions, and about 216,000 people, while the defensive force belonged to the German Fourth Group of about 126,000 people.  The target of both sides was the ridge position near the town of Messina in the Ypres region of western Belgium.

    The British first bombarded the German positions frantically, and then stopped the bombardment at 2:50 in the morning. The German soldiers came out of their shelters and entered the trenches and positions, preparing to resist the ensuing British offensive. At 3:10, this was exactly what the British  As the army expected, 445 tons of high-explosive gunpowder in 21 medicine chambers was detonated. Except for two medicine chambers that misfired, 19 consecutive violent explosions knocked people off their feet in the German positions.

    One explosion killed 10,000 German soldiers, but the British did not have the last laugh. When both sides stopped fighting exhausted a week later, the ridge position was still occupied by the Germans, and the British suffered 25,000 casualties.  The German casualties plus the 10,000 people lost in the explosion were only 24,000 in total.

    As for the entire Third Battle of Ypres, the Germans suffered a total of 270,000 casualties, while the British suffered 300,000 casualties. Both warring parties were exhausted and miserable on the Western Front.

    When the gunfire in Ypres gradually subsided, on June 25, 1917, the 1st and 2nd advance detachments of the American Expeditionary Force, led by Commander Pershing, landed near the port in southern France. The U.S. military officially embarked on the journey.  The battlefield of the European War.

    On the same day, June 25, 1917, the second batch of US aid arms and a large amount of equipment once again arrived at Tianjin Port, and were then transported directly by rail to Nanyuan, the largest and most advanced military camp in China.  .

    While the world¡¯s attention is focused on the U.S. military¡¯s landing in France, it is also focused on when will the Chinese participating troops be completed and appear on the European battlefield?

    In fact, the Second Division of the participating army had been transferred back to Langfang from Nanyuan a week ago. When the 16th Mixed Brigade left Langfang in early April, not only did the camp not be handed over, but the remaining troops continued to guard the camp, and these two  In the past few months, the Engineer Corps has also been devoting manpower to expand the barracks in Langfang, making the place spacious enough to garrison two or more divisions.

    One of the beliefs Wang Geng instilled in his team is that we will never give up anything we have easily!  The Model Army does not accept failure or retreat!  The model army marches forward bravely!

    From April 18, 1917, when China officially declared war, to June 25, 1917, a total of sixty-nine days passed. The number of new recruits participating in the model army remained at about 1,000 per day. In addition, the number of recruits from the labor force before April 18  The first 18,000 people recruited through the selection process arrived on June 25, the day the American Expeditionary Force landed in France, which was also the day the second batch of U.S. aid arms arrived.

    The size and organization of China¡¯s model army participating in the war are as follows:

    The 1st Division has three mixed brigades: the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, plus the division's heavy artillery regiment and motorized reconnaissance battalion, with a total of 30,000 people stationed in Nanyuan, Beijing.

    The Second Division has three mixed brigades, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, plus a motorized reconnaissance battalion, with a total of 28,000 people stationed in Langfang, Tianjin.

    The newly established Third Division has three mixed brigades, the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth, plus a motorized reconnaissance battalion, with a total of 28,000 people stationed in Nanyuan, Beijing.

    In addition, there are 3,000 teaching regiments directly under the participating armies, 3,000 gendarmerie regiments stationed in Nanyuan and Gyeonggi, and Wang Geng¡¯s guard battalion has been expanded to a guard regiment of 3,000 troops stationed in Nanyuan.

    The total strength of the Model Army has reached three divisions and nine mixed brigades, totaling about 95,000 people. The total number of graduates of the third and fourth batches of Baoding Military Academy is just over 1,000, and more than 60% of them have been recruited into the Model Army.  teaching group.

    The second batch of US aid arms included the machine guns and a large amount of equipment that Wang Geng had been waiting for. The specific list is as follows:

    1. M1903 Springfield manual rifle: 30,000 pieces

    2. M1917bar Browning squad machine gun: 1,500 pieces

    3. M1917a1 water-cooled Browning heavy machine gun: 1,000 pieces

    4. M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle: 3,000 pieces

    5. Colt caliber automatic pistols: 30,000 (including 9 million rounds of .45 caliber pistol ammunition)

    6, 7 Rifle ammunition: 90 million rounds

    7. 72 Japanese-style 75mm41 mountain cannons (including 15,400 rounds of 75-caliber mountain cannon shells)

     8. 72 Japanese 75mm38 field guns (including 15,400 rounds of 75-caliber field gun shells)

    9. 24 Japanese 150mm howitzers (including 9,800 rounds of 150-caliber howitzers)

    10. American-made Dodge 1-ton semi-military truck (wide tires and all-steel wheels): 200 units

    11. American-made Ford TT 1-ton utility vehicle (wide tires and all-steel wheels): 300 units

    12. American-made Ford Model T (wide tires and all-steel wheels): 300 units

    Along with the second batch of arms came a complete set of equipment for a Ford/Dodge auto repair and assembly plant and a team of engineers and technicians sent by Ford. Manhattan Industrial Bank cooperated with Ford as a joint venture to build the first factory in China.  Of course, since the supporting system could not be established in the short term, Ford Dodge Nanyuan Motor Company could only assemble and repair Ford, Dodge and other cars with a complete set of imported spare parts.

    For Ford, they have no risk. There is such a purchase project for an automobile repair and assembly plant on China's US aid purchase list. Ford and Dodge can cash it in at any time and take five million US dollars back to the United States to enjoy themselves.  .  Such an exit mechanism ensures that Ford's investment will not suffer any loss. However, Ford and Dodge are also visionary owners, and China's potential and huge market is far more attractive to them than US$5 million.

    In addition to the automobile assembly plant, a refinery equipment with an annual output of 100,000 tons of gasoline and diesel also arrived at the port. It was temporarily unloaded and stored in an open-air warehouse in the Tianjin port area. The Morgan family and the Rockefeller family rarely joined forces to form a team.  The oil drilling team of nearly a hundred people followed the oil exploration and drilling equipment worth US$1 million to China like hounds that smelled the scent of prey.  Although they didn't know where Wang Geng got the confidence to purchase equipment for three refineries with an annual refining capacity of 300,000 tons.

    Obviously at that time, China was still a well-known oil-poor country, which made the Americans very curious. If it were not for insufficient transportation capacity, the Americans would have wanted to transport all the equipment of the three refineries in one go, lest the Chinese would regret it if they could not pump out oil in the future.  The purchase contracts for equipment from the latter two factories were torn up.

    In less than three months, the participating armies expanded to three divisions and nine mixed brigades, totaling nearly 100,000 troops. With the continuous arrival of U.S. reinforcements, weapons can be quickly equipped, but the improvement of combat effectiveness cannot be achieved overnight.  Everyone knows that those who carry guns are not necessarily soldiers, but soldiers must pick up guns.

    Fortunately, the foundation of the 16th Mixed Brigade, the seed of the participating army, is very good. Wang Geng¡¯s Yongding River mud dredging project and the morning and evening recruit training conducted in conjunction with the water conservancy project in the past two months also had a significant effect.  Combat effectiveness is improved every day in training with the weapons and equipment in place.
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