15-March-4-April-1918
''He… he… he…'' Ernst was laughing and every time he looked at me, he could not contain his laughter.
''So the reason you have to walk around with that is because you landed badly when you jumped from the car?'' Alexander asked, clenching his teeth to try not to laugh.
''I did not realize it until much later, when I began to feel the pain, and by then I had already injured my ankle, so for the moment I cannot always be at the front. I will have to stay in the rear, but it is not as if we can keep pushing'' I said, looking at my camp, which was finally in the rear after intense fighting.
''Well, it was about time something got you, because normally I think they only hit you in the helmet once'' Ernst said while still holding back his laughter, since every time he looked at my leg, he could not contain it.
''I know we were given a temporary withdrawal from the front now that the forces were already surrounding Marseille, but are we going to keep participating in more offensives?'' Alexander asked, looking around, observing some of our soldiers moving about.
''Not even if we wanted to. The last offensive we carried out cost us quite dearly: hundreds dead and wounded, several of our vehicles blown up or broken and in need of repair, and we have no spare parts, since everything is being used to make new elements. We ran out of semi-automatic rifles and almost half of our trucks have broken down from the extensive use we have given them, although those can be repaired. Our division is no longer in operational condition, at least until the next few months, while we wait for reinforcements from the Baltic and new equipment to arrive'' I said, settling into my chair.
''Well, it seems we will not participate in Marseille or in the next battles, since from what I heard, the fighting was quite bloody, especially now that the armies have broken the Entente trenches on almost every front and are in their battle for Paris'' Alexander said after thinking for a moment.
''Yes, make use of the time, since by order of the prince and because of our participation, we are out of the offensives until our division is fully effective again. So use your money wisely, because I do not want to be there giving loans so you can get out of your debts'' I said with a smile.
Finally, they left me alone while I closed my eyes beneath the faint sun of southern France at this time of year.
We had advanced in a short time at a speed almost unbelievable for what was expected, since in only 3 days and a few hours, we had gone from Dijon to Arles, taking every locality along the way and securing our advance.
The prince must have made an enormous effort to obtain more trucks and vehicles to move reinforcements so they could follow us, since no one expected our advance to be even remotely as effective as it had been.
It was expected that, at most, we would reach a couple dozen kilometers in depth, but we managed to reach the Mediterranean Sea itself.
Marseille, as expected, had received all the French armies that were trying to evacuate from the catastrophe the assault in the south was becoming.
But the Regia Marina and the Austro-Hungarian navy had acted and attacked the French and English fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.
Although both fleets had suffered heavy losses, the English had been forced to withdraw, allowing the blockade of Marseille, so the French troops were completely surrounded, in addition to some English expeditionary forces that were with them.
In the north, things were going according to what the high command of the OHL estimated, where the French and British collapse in their trenches was forcing them to retreat aggressively.
They had reached the outskirts of Paris and, from what was known, communications had been opened to try to make the city surrender without having to besiege it, but it seemed the French government wanted to fight in the city no matter what. From what was known, as soon as the bombardment began, the city had suffered enormously, especially the industrial sectors, since that struck hard against its war capacity, because Paris had many factories that were important for the war.
And slowly, Paris had begun to be surrounded, since the American troops that were supposed to arrive to support the front were only recently beginning to arrive, as the German navy was managing to harass and bother American transports because the British navy had failed to maintain the stricter blockade.
That allowed more German ships to begin causing trouble at sea. There were even rumors that several ships had been intercepted and sunk, where tens of thousands of Americans had drowned when their ships went down.
And the American forces, most of them, had been sent to reinforce the south, where we were, but for some reason the Americans were using tactics that seemed more like the Russians, because they kept trying to start a war of maneuver, trying to break the front and generate advances against lines, only to be stopped by artillery, gas and machine guns that had made France dyed in blood and harmful chemicals over the last weeks.
Since the estimates of dead from the great spring offensive were already being calculated in the millions on both sides.
Without even thinking of the French civilians who must have been enduring it, or the refugee crises that must have been caused by evacuating Paris or the other cities near the front, considering that almost a third of continental France was under German occupation and another third was under constant siege.
Even so, with all the pressure being applied with surrounded armies and extremely high casualties on both sides, the French still refused to negotiate a way out, even with Paris already being destroyed by the war, since the government was in Bordeaux and, as long as the Americans kept sending more men to die, it seemed that unless we reached that new capital, I did not think they would surrender, so it seemed this war would keep dragging on more and more.
The days continued passing like that. For the most part, I continued supporting the work against the virus, since the farther the offensive advanced, the more cases of illness appeared, especially among the Americans, whose cases quickly began increasing as more troops came into contact.
Luckily, we were prepared for the first waves of infections and had multiple field hospitals where treatment was being given, although we were having problems with one of the most severe reactions people had to this disease, which was a type of immune reaction that filled their lungs with mucus and other fluids.
We had to take serious measures to maintain oxygenation while at the same time controlling the impulsiveness of many doctors to use aspirin for everything, because these pulmonary edemas that caused death worsened with the use of aspirin.
So, using my influence, since these actions did not go unnoticed by the OHL, although it burned the pride of many that we had been so successful in our offensive and had achieved what seemed to be surrounding four armies, it brought a lot of German press who wanted to interview the First Baltic Division.
When I was surrounded by journalists taking photos of me while asking how I had been wounded and I avoided answering, I made them give my doctor more time so he could keep using those spaces to spread propaganda about the disease and continue insisting on the use of masks and the search for hospital volunteers, since if everything continued as it was, it was only a matter of time before we had hundreds of thousands of sick men.
''How is that leg, Oberst?'' said the Crown Prince, who was visiting the southern front, since supposedly the French generals had surrendered because they had run out of food and bullets after we isolated them from their supply lines.
''Better. I may be fully back in the ring next week, although getting injured this way was very stupid'' I said with a slight smile after saluting the commander-in-chief of the southern forces.
''It is good to know. Let us hope there are more opportunities to keep using your men, since they did fantastic work. You saved many lives, although I think you claimed many lives along the way, but here we are. We managed to surround and envelop the French armies of the Alps and the British long enough for them to run out of supplies. They had no longer managed to accumulate enough in the area, since most of the reserves were in Lyon and Marseille'' the prince said, looking very pleased with the results.
''Most of the supplies arrive by sea from India, which has been providing large quantities of food, since the French must be suffering greatly with so much of their farmland within artillery range and within reach of our movements. So by blocking the food from the south, we force them to use the Atlantic ports and, well, with us in the middle, there is nothing they can receive'' I said, leaning on my crutches.
''Yes. When do you think your men will be ready for another offensive like the one you carried out here, to try to break the front again and put pressure on Bordeaux?'' the prince asked with interest.
''I would say one or two more months. Too many damaged vehicles, destroyed vehicles and much of our infantry equipment is broken. In addition, we still lost 20% of our men's strength between dead and wounded, and we are waiting for reinforcements to arrive once there is equipment to arm them'' I said, lowering my head.
''Quite a long time. If necessary, we could refill the ranks with veterans and try to obtain trucks and armored vehicles from the German arsenal'' the prince said, smiling.
''It would be difficult. My cars and trucks are made with much wider wheels and rubber is hard to obtain. Now it may be more abundant because I have some of my men extracting all the rubber that can be taken from captured equipment, and the armor of our vehicles is designed at an angle, which should make it more resistant to penetration, in addition to the periscope and the gunner's area. The time German factories would take to produce our special equipment would be more or less the same'' I said, adjusting the crutches.
''It is a true shame. Another advance like that before the fronts freeze again would be ideal to try to avoid butcheries. Here, many may say otherwise, but you prevented more than half a million Frenchmen and British from losing their lives uselessly, and who knows how many more Germans would have had to die to finish them off'' the prince said, watching as a delegation of French officers approached after passing the German guards.
Several generals and officers lined up while they watched the surrender of the French, where the French generals and their officers handed over their sabers and pistols to our commander, officially surrendering and handing over their men as prisoners of war.
Thus, one by one, the French and British handed over their weapons and surrendered.
Then began the long and tedious problem of moving the surrendered men, since they also had to be counted and identified, which was a dilemma in itself, since many soldiers had to count and write down names to have all that information later, as they would probably be sent to work in the fields because of the labor shortage Germany was experiencing due to the war.
I helped as much as I could with my men, but for the most part, we acted as recyclers, since we were taking all the rubber we could in order to process it for our vehicles, as we needed new wheels and had to see what could be saved from the captured equipment, since the prince wanted our division ready for another offensive as soon as possible.
So we had the privilege of choosing all the equipment necessary to try to continue our motorization work, since I wanted, if possible, the entire division to be motorized using motorcycles, trucks, armored cars and the French panzers.
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