Chapter 484: Minor Setbacks
There was a lot to be said about the inability of people to properly innovate. For whatever reasons, humans tended to cling to what had proven to work, even if it was no longer as functional as it had once been.
This was a phenomenon witnessed across all levels of human society, even among those at the top. And those were perhaps the worst offenders, as often times their refusal to embrace new ideas that were forward thinking rather than trapped in the past could be paid for with the lives of those beneath their authority.
And that was exactly what happened when despite being given a glimpse of the future of warfare, Pétain chose to order his men into positions just as they had done in the battle prior where their ranks were shattered quickly under the exceptional mobility of the enemy.
The Gallian Militia, once more made use of the same tactics, preceding their assault with a barrage of artillery on the enemy positions, before using small, lightweight, elite units to breach through the less fortified regions of Pétain’s lines, and in doing so create an opening for the whole force to move through.
Jack Brown was an American veteran of the Great War, having joined up with the French Foreign Legion in 1914 after seeing his home country betray the world by staying in isolation, despite what he perceived to be a growing threat of imperialist governments.
He had survived the worst of the war, and was at Ypres where over a million French men died trying their best to pierce the stalwart defenses the Germans had erected in preparation for the conflict.
Yet when the war ended and he escaped with his life, he did not flee back to his homeland, no; he stayed in France, and was quick to join the Gallian Militia in its objective or restoring order to the country.
He had sworn to serve for Five years in the legion, and just because France collapsed within two did not mean, to him at least, that his oath was over. Because of this he found a home within the Gallian Militia, and had been seen as a big brother, or even an uncle of sorts to the younger men who had signed up to wave the banners of De Gaulle having been too young to fight in the Great War just before.
Now? He was leading men through the trenches in Pétain’s territory, hoping Pétain’s fall would convince the other so-called warlords to lay down their arms and enter a proper diplomatic convention.
Too much had been spilled in the lawlessness that followed the war, and he had personally killed too many men to remember. In his hands was an MP-34 submachine gun, a weapon he had scavenged from a German NCO after killing him during the Great War.
It was a weapon that had served as a secondary weapon until very recently, as storming trenches became more and more common. The man raised the muzzle of his weapon as he swept his sights past the trench opening, clearly hearing the loud chug of a .50 firing at his own men who were still trying to come over the wall.