Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 149: Offense is the best defense
To be honest, Raine really didn't want to use such tactics against the Imperial Army, who were less than 500 meters away from him.

The reason for this is that the current empire and imperial state have already fallen into the most infamous trench warfare phase of the First World War in East Prussia.

Renn had no idea how these two groups managed to do it, nor did he know why this damn trench warfare had developed into what it was now.

But Renn knew very well that once the prototype of trench warfare emerged, it would inevitably lead to a shift in the nature of warfare towards an absolute war of attrition.

Given the current strength of the Imperial Army in Insterburg, it is impossible to resist the Imperial Army's attack through the more solid trenches built by the Empire, or to harass and force the Imperial Army into mobile warfare through highly mobile tactics.

Firstly, the disparity in troop strength between the two sides was enormous, and secondly, the Eighth Army Group had far too few mobile vehicles.

Of course, this is the same for all countries at present, except that the empire has relatively more vehicles.

Even so, there are only about sixty trucks in Insterburg at present.

Yes, even including the forty vehicles brought by Rennes, Insterburg only had a little over sixty military trucks in total.

This is already more than six times the current total number of trucks in the United Kingdom's army.

If converted to the current Falland population, it would be roughly twice their size.

Leaving aside the Empire, their army responsible for attacking the Empire is currently only equipped with three trucks and two cars.

Furthermore, the transportation conditions in East Prussia were not suitable for trucks, so the plan to use trucks to move a large number of troops was not feasible.

Therefore, Rein must devise a battle plan that will ensure the troops currently stationed in Insterburg are not wiped out by the Empire, while also successfully rendering the Empire's army incapable of fighting.

More importantly, this plan needs to be able to hold out until the main force of the Eighth Army has wiped out the Imperial Second Army and returned to complete its reorganization.

That is, you must persist for at least a week.

At this moment, inside the Insterburg front command post.

After Ryan explained the general operational strategy, the officers of the 3rd Reserve Division began to discuss it.

As people who had all participated in wars to varying degrees, these officers had no objections to Ryan's operational strategy.

The question is how to do it.

"It is not a problem to get the front-line troops to retreat."

The commander of the 6th Reserve Infantry Regiment looked at the sand table in front of him, a thoughtful expression on his face: "The problem is, the distance between the Empire's positions and ours is too small. They can see everything our troops do, and we don't have enough safe space for our troops to retreat..."

As he spoke, the regimental commander pointed to Insterburg, which was located behind the current battle line.

The current Imperial front trenches are six kilometers from the outermost perimeter of Insterburg, a rather awkward distance.

At this distance, if the Empire is not worried about losing artillery, they can simply send their field guns and a small number of large-caliber cannons to the battlefield and launch a direct bombardment of Insterburg.

Similarly, their soldiers, having occupied the high ground, could visually confirm the movements of the Imperial Army and Insterburg.

Z331 has been hovering in the sky recently, not only to drive away Imperial reconnaissance planes, but also to prevent Imperial soldiers from observing the movements of the Imperial Army from the high ground.

The commander of the 6th Reserve Infantry Regiment said, "If we are to surround the enemy forces with our current strength, the troops will have to withdraw directly from the current front line and retreat all the way to the outskirts of Insterburg."

"But such a large-scale retreat will inevitably arouse suspicion among the Imperial Army. After all, we are trying to create a pocket, so we will only move the troops located in the center, while the troops on the flanks will not move."

"Of course, as you said before, Colonel Frieze, the Empire's front line is currently contracting to the flanks and rear by having the 27th Army advance two kilometers alone. Therefore, they are naturally in an encirclement, which may make it easier for us to construct an encirclement of the 27th Army."

"However, we lack sufficient troops."

The nearly 60-year-old veteran shook his head somewhat helplessly, abandoning his idea of ​​cutting off the Imperial Army by having his troops retreat.

The other officers around him shared the same idea, so they didn't say much, but just quietly looked at the sand table in front of them and deduced the tactics they had in mind.

Ryan looked at the officers, then at their division commander, before finally fixing his gaze on the sand table in front of him.

The system's map and sandbox display overlapped, with tens of thousands of blue and red dots existing on both sides of the battle line.

The Imperial Twenty-Seventh Army remained stationed in the same position as before, closest to the Imperial front line, but there were not many red dots visible, and it was not the size that an army should have.

Since the end of the last battle, the 27th Army has been forcibly moving its troops to more rear positions, leaving only enough troops to arm the entire front line to guard against attacks from the Empire.

At the same time, they further expanded their trenches, and in just two days, they restored the damaged areas to a usable state. Under the cover of night, they also built a 50-meter-wide barbed wire defensive network in front of the battle line.

Even the soldiers under Rein's command who had received training in trench warfare greatly admired the speed at which the Imperial Army built its defensive lines.

But this is mainly because I admire their behavior of leaving no loopholes.

That's right, the Imperial 27th Army did not leave any passageways in the barbed wire-covered areas, which means they are not planning to launch an attack in the short term...

"Ok?"

Looking at the sand table in front of him, Renn immediately realized the problem: "Isn't the Empire's Twenty-Seventh Army planning to attack?"

"What do you mean, Colonel Frieze?"

The commander of the 5th Reserve Infantry Regiment looked at Rein: "Why do you say they are not prepared to continue the attack?"

Renn rummaged around on the table and casually pushed an aerial photograph of the Imperial Army's front-line positions in front of the other person.

"Barbed wire?"

The commander of the 5th Reserve Infantry Regiment immediately recognized what those things in the picture were: "The barbed wire is too dense, and there isn't enough space for the soldiers to pass through..."

Raine immediately nodded and said, "It seems that the Imperial Twenty-Seventh Army was frightened by our previous offensive, which is why they have set up such a dense barbed wire fence to hinder our advance."

"But their rear supply lines were completely destroyed by our artillery in the battle the day before yesterday..."

Several staff officers from the 3rd Reserve Division immediately stood up excitedly: "We can neither advance nor retreat."

"In other words, not only do we no longer need to deal with the 27th Army, but they have even personally divided the entire front line into northern and southern parts!?"

One of the youngest, a lieutenant colonel who was only a few years older than Ryan, excitedly took the photo from his colleague, a bright light shining in his eyes.

Raine immediately looked at the commander of the Third Reserve Division.

"We will continue with the previous battle plan and launch an attack on the Imperial Seventeenth Army." "We must mobilize all artillery and unleash all available ammunition on the Imperial Seventeenth Army's positions as quickly as possible."

"At the same time, the 5th Reserve Infantry Regiment was required to launch several feint attacks on the positions of the Imperial 17th Army under the cover of artillery fire."

"No need to directly attack their positions?" The commander of the 5th Reserve Infantry Regiment looked at Rein, his expression not good.

He was the most traditional imperial soldier, who never considered having his troops launch a feint attack against the enemy in front of him.

Rein replied, "That's right, because our main target is not the 17th Army."

"You're going to attack the Fourth Army?"

A hint of displeasure flashed across the face of the commander of the 3rd Reserve Division: "Our previous battle plan was exactly this, all roundabout and circuitous..."

But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a remark from Ryan.

"We must attack the First Army."

Rein pointed to the Imperial First Army's position at the northernmost point of the battle line: "My troops and I will attack the Imperial First Army by train, while you are attacking the Seventeenth Army."

“Wait, Colonel Frieze,” the commander of the 3rd Reserve Division immediately interrupted Rein, “your troops? Your troops only have one battalion, right? That’s the Empire’s First Army. You’re going to face two full-strength infantry divisions, a total of 50,000 men! You can’t be unaware of that, can you?”

"so what?"

Ryan looked at the commander of the 3rd Reserve Division: "My troops have already defeated the 27th Army to this extent in previous battles, so this is not a problem for our troops."

He has the confidence to say such things.

The Second Battalion and the Assault Company now have an average of one submachine gun for every three men, which adds up to a total of four hundred automatic weapons for the entire unit.

If you include the carbine-type P-08s, then every three-man squad under Rein's command can have firepower comparable to a heavy machine gun in a short period of time.

For the Imperial Army, where even machine guns could only be freely deployed at the battalion level, such firepower would be enough to easily kill their regiments or even divisions.

But war is not a game, so Rein did not really intend to send only one battalion plus one assault company to carry out the attack mission against the Imperial First Army.

Similarly, he also needed to allay the Third Reserve Division's concerns about its troops.

"Of course, my unit will not be the only one going to the battlefield."

"How so?" a staff officer asked instinctively.

According to Renn, and considering the timing of the operation plan, by the time the operation began, the First Reserve Army would have already left the front lines, and the Third Reserve Division would obviously not be assigned to Renn—they would be facing two corps-sized Imperial forces.

In response, Raine looked toward the far corner of the command post, where a cavalry major general was sitting.

"The 8th Cavalry Brigade and the mobile artillery of the 9th Army will also move with us. The entire operation will involve at least 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry."

The officer on the side hurriedly moved the cavalry brigade pieces to their designated positions, while also pushing the train model to the front line.

Raine used wooden sticks to push the pieces further forward, forming an encirclement of the First Army.

This immediately shocked most of the commanders present.

Because his tactics were too aggressive.

For commanders accustomed to leading infantry rather than mobile forces with large numbers of vehicles and horses, this was an absolute luxury.

Throughout history, no commander has ever dared to commit all of his cavalry to the same battlefield.

This would completely eliminate the cavalry's prized mobility and the element of surprise in flanking attacks, and would also remove their absolute advantage.

Tactically speaking, this was tantamount to sending the cavalry to their deaths.

After all, cavalry is not infantry.

Horses are large, conspicuous, and vulnerable targets; a few cannonballs or bullets are all it takes to completely disrupt their attack rhythm.

Groups of organized infantry could easily intercept organized cavalry units. This was true in the past, before the advent of firearms. And when they had weapons called rifles and machine guns, the task of intercepting cavalry only became easier.

"Such a large force is impossible to move around flexibly, isn't it?"

An elderly general frowned as he looked at the sand table: "Colonel Frieg, you're going to wipe out the entire army if you do this."

Renn did not deny it: "That's right, but our goal is not to break through the Empire's blockade."

He continued to adjust the chess pieces.

"While the Third Reserve Division is attacking the Empire's Seventeenth and Fourth Armies, we will completely blockade the Empire's First Army into their positions as quickly as possible."

"Given the current situation of the Imperial Army, their only unattacked 12th Army will certainly not dare to make any rash moves."

"After all, in order to restore the combat capability of the First and Fourth Armies, they chose to cut off the supplies of the other three armies and prioritize supplying the First and Fourth Armies."

"Although the supplies have now been redeployed to the 12th Army, it will only be a day or two before the supplies are distributed to the soldiers."

"At the same time, the artillery of the cavalry brigade and the mobile artillery of the Ninth Army can also use horse-drawn cannons to freely bombard the Imperial Army on the front line."

"This will inevitably put the 12th Army in a dilemma."

"On the other hand, our troops will immediately cease operations once they have completed the encirclement of the Imperial Army's positions."

"The troops will retreat slowly at the appropriate time, giving the Imperial commanders the illusion that the Imperial Army seems unable to maintain the front line and is slowly retreating."

"In order to maintain their tactical advantage, they will inevitably require their troops to continue advancing, which will obviously increase the pressure on logistics and supplies."

"At that time, we only need to send the First Cavalry Division out to attack, and we can easily cut off the logistics supply lines of the Imperial First Army and the Twelfth Army."

"As for the Third Reserve Division..."

"Your department only needs to ensure that the Imperial Army does not dare to advance."

(End of this chapter)