Total Disarray
"Shoot them in the arms, they keep on coming. Shoot them in the legs, they crawl towards you. Shoot them in the head, and they finally die. But how can you do that when there are thousands behind that one and chaos surrounds you like water?" - Unknown radio message
The Infected Siege of Bourges was the first example of an intelligence shown in the Infected
After the Great Offensive, the entirety of the French and Allied divisions in France were in a state of total disarray. The French government relocated to Bordeaux in south-western France but had little control of the army outside of the new capital. It was during the two weeks that the French government had little to no control of the armed forces, that the Infection was able to spread farther through France. The first evidence of this happening was the sequential attacks onto Orleans and Auxuerre by Infecteds. These areas fell quickly to the Infected as organized defense by the Allied/French divisions were almost none during the first 4 days of the Two Weeks. By the third day of the Two Weeks, the French lost the provinces of Le Mans, Tours and Vichy to the Infected and who subsequentially lose Chateauroux just two hours after the loss of Vichy. Top Infection Period Expert, Johann Birmingham stated that:
"...After the loss of Paris and Dijon during the Great Offensive, we began to see an intelligence develop in the minds of the Infected. It is not necessarily an individual intelligence, but more on the lines of a group intellect or cohesion....Some would compare them to a group of Lemmings and that if one ran off a cliff, the rest in the general vicinity will follow. These people are...extremely wrong for the Infected do not behave or act like Lemmings. They could be more compared to the likes of a swarm of locust...simply devouring anything alive...." - Professor Johann Birmingham of the University of Glasgow.
The artillery brigade assigned to Marshal Wavell during the Infected Siege of Bourges
By the fifth day, the province of Bourges was encircled with 3 divisions of FDL's trapped, commanded by Marshal Wavell, formerly a part of the British Army. The attack onto the defenders began just three hours after midnight, when the front lines of the hastily built fortifications began requesting the Marshal for artillery support. Commanding only one brigade of light artillery, Wavell decided against spacing out his guns in order to please the increasing demands. Instead, he informed the 7th British Motorised division that only their line was to receive the artillery support, the other lines were to fall back onto the city itself and would delay the Infected long enough for the area that the 7th was defending to be cleared of Infected. In itself, Marshal Wavell's plan was the best that could have been devised during those stress filled moments.
On paper, all he had to do was delay the enemy in the north long enough so that the southern portion of the defensive line [the part defended by the 7th] to be cleared of Infected, but it was only on paper. 45 minutes into the artillery barrage, the brigade's artillery munition was nearly empty, with only 27 rounds left for the guns - the Infected were still coming from the south while soldiers on the comm.'s were requesting for immediate artillery strikes on their positions. The significance of the Infected Siege of Bourges was that Marshal Wavell ordered the 7th to hold their positions while ordering the remaining two northern divisions to slowly move south and to link up with the Marshal, then the 7th and then they would attempt a breakthrough.
This new plan was slowly working. The 7th was able to hold the Infected whilst artillery strikes were used only when the concentration of the Infected was extremely great [almost 20-1 ratio] and the two northern divisions were fighting a retreat to the south. They were making great progress and then, nothing. There are no recorded survivors of the Infected Siege of Bourges. The only reason we knew of this battle was because of a diary found in the possession of a former French soldier who died in Pac [1]. Whilst it did truly happen or not, the Infected were evolving. Their former strategy of swarming a location worked, but this new tactic of attacking the flanks of a city or fortification would give them a greater advantage at the a lower cost to them. Another example of this is during the Infected Battle of Caen.
The actions of the 16eme Division d'Infantrerie would go on to be a viscous propaganda tool for the current French government
The Infected Battle of Caen was fought by French General, Graud and six divisions against 150,000 Infected in the port city of Caen. The fighting for the city was a bloody one for Giraud - who would lose the morale of his divisions in this single battle, but also create a legend for the French to exploit after its discovery. General Giraud led the 6eme Division de Gendarmeris, the 16eme Division d'Infantrerie, the 1ere Division d'Infantreie, the 1ere Div. d'Infanterie Coloniale, the 85eme Div. d'infantrerie d'Afrique and the 83eme Div. d'Infanterie d'Afrique; of the six, the legend of the 16th would become a propaganda tool for the French.
The Infected Battle of Caen began on the 7th day of the Two Weeks, attacking them from two sides, General Giraud ordered the divisions to withdraw to Cherbourg-Octeville while not giving the divisions any plans for fighting their retreat. It was during this time that the commander of the 16eme Division d'Infantrerie, Colonel Mathias Hyacinthe ordered the 16eme to cover the retreating divisions against the Infected. Having only 6,000 soldiers and around 4 tank destroyers, the Colonel was able to delay the Infected long enough for the last remainder of the divisions to escape to the outskirts of Caen. From then on, the Colonel inform General Giraud that his division will hold the Infected at Caen for as long as possible.
"After the Colonel gave a speech to the 16eme, we were basically pumped...readying and hoping that the Infected would come sooner so that we could just repel their attack. I guess in a sense, we got our wish when night came. A swarm of Infecteds just appeared and began attacking the forward fortifications, those caught inside the buildings were killed...I could still hear their screams. [a moment of pause] After the forward defense fell, our Captain, Vincent Loui ordered my group to barricade inside a building near the outskirts of the city - the only link between Caen and Cherbourg was defended by 15 soldiers against a possible 150,000. The Captain also told us to bring our radio with us, just incase the majority of the 16eme could not make it out of the city, it would become our job to survive and link up with the General in Cherbourg.
Not long after we arrived into the building, we get a comm. on the radio from the Captain telling us that the Colonel has died and our mission was to link up with the General. There wasn't much that we could do so we went back onto the jeeps [the ones that we took from the Americans] and as were began to leave, Jacques, our rifleman began firing at the treeline and not long after, we were attacked by them...[the talking stops here]" - Corporal Jean Luc, 16eme Division d'Infantrerie
After Caen fell, General Giraud would fight his last battle against the Infected at Cherbourg - this time, the encircled divisions were unable to breakthrough or secure any transports - they simply died fighting. By the end of the Two Weeks, much of northern France was occupied by the Infected, Brittany was cut off from southern France while the French loss the provinces that bordered the Seine and were being threatened by the Infected in the French-Italian border.
An approximate map detailing the spread of the Infection near the end of January, 1947
[1] - The current French capital, the author notes that any interested parties in reading the diary should not attempt to copy the methods done by the author to gain access
-------------
This has definitely got me hooked. I can't wait for the next instalment
On a side note; I've had experience with AARs but they were nothing like the ones on this site, how do you guys do
Thank you, another new reader and commenter is always welcomed! As well, I'm not sure, maybe it'd because of the friendly atmosphere in these forums that make the process of writing an AAR all the more enjoyable. That, coupled with the fact that some of the AARer's here joined very early on.