Until the Wehrmacht launched a counter-barrage, the Charlemagne Royal Army used all available artillery to carry out an 80-minute concentrated barrage on the trench systems outside of the Siegfried Line. Even as enemy shells whistled overhead, the gunners remained at their posts, until they were killed in action.
Their performance could not be called anything less than brave, but the results of their efforts… left one at a loss for words.
In the battle plan formulated by the Royal Army General Staff, the ground artillery forces, which were destined to be utilized just once, were tasked with destroying the enemy's forward trenches and the surrounding barbed wire areas. The artillery indeed initiated a bombardment of impressive magnitude. However, no one seemed to have considered, or if they had, they were unable to solve, the fundamental issue: whether Charlemagne's artillery equipment was suitable for the task assigned.
