Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 144 The Demise of the Twenty-Seventh Army
Won.

There's no need to check the subsequent results.

When Raine stood on the bridge of Z331 and saw through the hemispherical front porthole a grenade tear through the sea of ​​blood and land on the ground three kilometers away a few seconds later, he had already foreseen the outcome of the battle.

He didn't even need to check the twenty motorcycles that set off with the Second Battalion, even though they were the first troops to cross the front trenches and begin suppressing fire on the reserve trenches.

Because history will only record what happened on the Eastern Front today in this way—

From this day forward, the Empire will become the first nation in history to deploy self-propelled artillery and other vehicles on the front lines, possessing modern motorized and mechanized forces.

But those people of the imperial kingdom still don't understand this.

Earlier.

Rear Command of the 27th Army.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Orlov, commander of the 27th Army, was standing under a huge hydrogen balloon, looking through his binoculars at the front-line battlefield five kilometers away.

"Commander, the Empire has launched an attack."

One of his adjutants—a rare woman with the rank of major—saluted him and said, “The General Staff thinks we may have encountered the Butcher of the Empire.”

"That Frieza?"

Vladimir looked at the beams of honor communication lights that appeared on the front lines, but his face did not show any emotion.

Not far behind him, several imperial staff officers stood on a wooden platform, using binoculars to check the situation at the front. One of the staff officers was explaining the scenes he observed at the front.

"Fighting broke out at the Sixth Infantry Regiment's position. Four beams of honor have been confirmed, but the size of the Imperial Army forces could not be confirmed."

"Fighting has also broken out at the 4th Infantry Regiment's positions. An explosion has been confirmed, possibly a grenade... no? That's a machine gun?"

Another staff officer immediately looked at the location of the 4th Infantry Regiment's position, but he was puzzled: "Really? The Empire doesn't have machine guns that can move with the infantry!"

But the continuous flames that appear before your eyes do not lie.

The orange flashes from the high-speed firing of the P-08 and MP-14 were clearly imprinted in his eyes; even with the smoke obscuring his vision, he could still make out the cross and star-shaped muzzle flashes.

But what shocked them even more was yet to come.

As more staff officers stopped what they were doing and began to look at the front lines, a phone call came from the front lines to the rear.

Vladimir's adjutant immediately answered the phone and looked at Vladimir: "Military Command, yes, that's right, I know, Commander Alexander."

Before she could finish speaking, the sound of machine gun fire rang in his ears.

Immediately following was the sound of McQuay instructing his soldiers to confirm the documents in the command post.

The young adjutant incredulously turned his gaze to the location of the 1st Infantry Division's command post.

But what she saw was not the scene she had imagined, where the Imperial Army forces repelled the Imperial soldiers with fierce firepower.

All she saw was a sea of ​​blood and a red beam of light rising from the command post of the First Infantry Division.

She slowly put down the microphone, walked back to Vladimir's side, and said, "General, Commander Alexander has died in battle."

Vladimir remained silent.

He maintained his posture of looking towards the battlefield, with only his furrowed brow revealing his inner thoughts to others.

However, the staff officers beside him did not have his composure.

Several officers directly in charge of frontline command and control began to use every means to issue orders to the 27th Artillery Brigade in the rear to carry out artillery bombardment missions.

The artillery brigade did respond to their needs, but the shells they fired landed helplessly on the plain two kilometers from the front line.

It wasn't that they didn't want to attack the Imperial forces; it was just that their artillery was completely inadequate to cover such a long distance.

The 27th Artillery Brigade is an artillery unit mainly composed of small-caliber artillery. It has a total of 36 76.2mm field guns and 6 122mm howitzers available for use.

In contrast, the Empire had countless 210mm and 150mm howitzers, which could easily cover the maximum range that all the artillery in the 27th Army could attack—even exceeding that range by five kilometers.

But this is actually not a big problem.

Because at such a long distance, the actual accuracy of artillery units is not very high.

The real problem is that they don't have enough ammunition.

Just a few days earlier, in order to ensure that the two flanks could advance smoothly, the commander of the First Army, Leningkamp, ​​specifically ordered the supply troops to prioritize providing supplies to the two flanks.

The 27th Army, as the main force, has not received any supplies for three days.

On average, each artillery piece in the rear has only twenty shells.

This is after I've been saving up my doses for the past few days.

The staff officers coldly observed the distant front lines, saying nothing more. They began requesting reinforcements from the flanks, whether infantry or artillery, it didn't matter, as long as they could recapture the front-line trenches.

However, the surrounding troops responded that the terrain was too complex to provide support smoothly.

The artillery units, on the other hand, faced the same ammunition shortage problem as the 27th Artillery Brigade.

Only one 254mm heavy gun equipped by the 12th Army symbolically fired twelve armor-piercing shells toward the Empire.

That's right, it's an armor-piercing shell.

Because they had used up all their grenades several days ago, all that was left were armor-piercing rounds for attacking the fortress.

Moreover, because the 12th Army's artillery units were a full 25 kilometers from the front line, their 254mm heavy gun couldn't even deliver its shells to the Empire's positions. Instead, it landed in the support trenches, which were still dozens of meters away from the front-line trenches, causing chaos among their own troops.

Vladimir saw all of this.

But he soon lost sight of it.

Because, just three minutes after the Empire launched its attack, the Imperial artillery began bombarding the support trenches.

Two salvos of grenades, followed by more than a dozen salvos of smoke grenades, easily covered the four-to-five-kilometer-long support trench with smoke.

Not long after, a yellow, glowing signal flare shot up from the ground.

"Ok?"

Several Imperial staff officers familiar with the uses of Imperial signal flares frowned and looked up at the sky in unison.

"They didn't send out their main force just now?"

Can you confirm the total number of people?

"I'll give it a try," one of the staff officers immediately took out a pair of sunglasses that gleamed red and put them on. But after a while, he asked in confusion, "Not even a company?"

"How can it be!?"

The others didn't believe him at all.

How could a single company possibly have the courage to charge into a position defended by three infantry regiments?

What's more, there are more than twenty beams of honor shining in the sky!
That means there are at least twenty companies in combat!

"wrong!"

Suddenly, while the staff officers were still figuring out how many troops the Empire had sent to fight, a young staff officer discovered the problem.

"How did the Empire manage to deploy twenty companies into the battlefield all at once?"

Another staff officer belatedly exclaimed, "And their density is too high; this is not the fighting width that two infantry regiments should have!"

"Immediately send the Second and Fifth Infantry Regiments to reinforce the front lines. The enemy's numbers are small, and we must retake the front-line positions!"

But he was still a step too late.

Because, just as he picked up the phone to call the two regimental command posts located in the support trench, the entire support trench was completely engulfed by the billowing blood-red smoke.

"That's too late."

Vladimir, commander of the 27th Army, withdrew his attention from the front lines.

He turned to his staff officers and said, "Order all troops to retreat. Inform the 12th Army to launch a feint attack from the flank to cover our troops' retreat to the prepared trenches in the rear for reorganization."

For a moment, the entire headquarters was shrouded in a somber atmosphere.

Vladimir's adjutant walked expressionlessly to an open area, and after giving instructions to a few soldiers, several red signal flares were fired from the trench ahead, ordering the front line to retreat.

She immediately returned to headquarters, but then noticed a sound that sounded like a truck or a train passing by.

The major instinctively looked in the direction from which the sound came.

But what she saw was a bright yellow bullet that tore through the churning sea of ​​blood, slashed across the sky in a huge arc, and finally landed in a trench.

A violent explosion occurred the instant the shell hit the ground.

The walls on both sides of the trench began to collapse uncontrollably.

Some soldiers who had already rushed into the trench frantically tried to stop, but were trampled underfoot by their comrades who surged forward from behind.

Immediately afterwards, more shells tore through the sea of ​​blood and began landing in the only three communication trenches.

At the same time, some small shadows also emerged from the sea of ​​blood.

They flew over the trenches, climbed the surrounding high ground, and after landing, spat out fire serpents, symbols of death, at all the Imperial soldiers whose backs were turned to them...

(End of this chapter)