Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 110 Smoke Screen on the Western Front: A Lightning-Fast Take of Calais, Feigning Distraction

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

At the same time that Lieutenant General Kusmanek was making his final preparations for surrender, on the Western Front in late April.

The Archduke of Württemberg's Demanian 4th Army also launched a new offensive.

The last battle in the Ypres-Dunkirk region ended on February 21, so the fighting in the northernmost part of the western front, near the North Sea, has been relatively calm for almost two months.

Both the German and French armies were licking their wounds and resting their troops in the rear. The Franks, after the fall of Dunkirk, were also continuously strengthening their defenses and adjusting their deployments.

However, the Franks' defenses also had priorities. Over the past two months, their main defensive reinforcements have focused on the front lines in Lille, Armandière, and especially the Arras direction.

As for the coastal area directly west of Dunkirk, between Dunkirk and Calais, it was not a key area of ​​Frankish defense. This was because that area was too close to Dover and too close to the strait.

Although the Franks had learned a valuable lesson from the Dunkirk siege, in which the Demanians airdropped and captured the coastal fortress, resulting in the destruction of the Burkina Faso fleet that was assisting in the battle and also affecting the Burkina Faso navy that came to reinforce them, the Franks had now fully learned from this experience.

Nowadays, in Calais and all other coastal port cities, regardless of size, they take precautions against air defense and have temporarily deployed many heavy machine gun positions with high firing angles.

Moreover, the coastal fortresses are no longer completely enclosed and no longer only designed for sea defense. The top of the fortresses is also covered with trenches to ensure that even if enemy paratroopers land and are not killed in the air, they will be annihilated by crossfire on the ground surface of the fortress.

The idea of ​​relying on paratroopers to capture coastal fortifications is no longer viable on the Frankish or even Britannian front! The countries on the Western Front have already learned their lesson!

Therefore, after these loopholes were plugged, the Franks felt that they could once again rely on the absolute dominance of the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso in the Straits region.

Since there was not much to worry about near Calais, the Franks naturally shifted their army's defense resources to other, more strained areas. As a result, Calais and its nearby coastal towns, such as Ambrosque and Banktan, were not reinforced much.

At most, they only organized the soldiers originally stationed here to dig some trenches and do some earthwork, but they did not allocate any building materials such as reinforced concrete, nor did they build any new bunkers or gun emplacements.

Under these circumstances, the Demanian 4th Army, relying on thorough pre-battle silence and meticulous preparation, concentrated its forces and launched another infiltration offensive.

The 4th Army's operational plan was simple: concentrate its forces and penetrate westward from the small towns of Arneque, Stenford, and Caselle, heading straight for Letouquet, a coastal town south of Calais.

Letouquet is about 50 kilometers west of Arneque and 30 kilometers south of Calais. Between Calais and Letouquet lies a coastal highland called Cape Opal – and it is because of this protruding mountain that the area near Calais is the narrowest point of the entire Boulevard Strait, with the sea narrowed by the mountains on both sides.

To the southwest of Calais and to the southwest of Dover on the opposite shore, there are large areas of "white cliffs". These white cliff fault zones are naturally areas that should be avoided in military offensives. Therefore, the Archduke of Württemberg's offensive direction was to detour around the southern side of this highland, aiming to encircle the entire highland area.

The Demacians' attack was somewhat sudden, and it was a desperate gamble, concentrating their pressure on one point.

The Archduke of Württemberg deployed three assault battalions, creating a continuous, wave-like breakthrough, followed by several elite main force divisions from Baden, Württemberg, and Hesse. Moreover, the initial 20-kilometer advance was supported by concentrated heavy artillery fire from his own forces.

Especially near Stenford Station, which was at least a railway hub, the Demagnesians concentrated more than twenty train guns and bombarded it fiercely before the attack.

The overwhelming firepower made it impossible for the Franks to gain a foothold in the first two towns on the front of the contact line.

Towns such as Azbruck and Delight fell within days.

In their quest for a swift victory, the Demagnesians used heavy artillery of 280mm and above to bombard the main, large, and fortified buildings in the town of D'Areth with railway guns. After suffering thousands of casualties, the French army experienced a morale collapse and began a major retreat.

With the successive attacks of his assault battalions and the aggressive line-filling by his main divisions, the Archduke of Württemberg captured Fauconberg on April 25. He then advanced rapidly for more than 10 kilometers in the open field until he encountered relatively strong resistance again when he was close to the coastline.

Even so, the Archduke of Württemberg was still able to penetrate the enemy's lines at a rate of 2 to 3 kilometers per day, and finally cut off the coastline at Letukai on April 30.

In theory, taking Letoucae wouldn't be a big deal, since Letoucae is just a small town, and there are still many relatively strong coastal strongholds along the line from Calais to Boulogne that can be defended.

But this time, the Frankish army seemed to have become a frightened bird.

Everyone felt that things shouldn't happen more than three times. The Demacians had already repeated this tactic of "heading to the sea" to cut off the coastal enemy's land retreat and then coordinating with the navy to block their sea retreat far too many times.

In early November last year, the Billy King Army was completely annihilated by this coastal-cutting tactic in the Neoport-Ostend region. In February of this year, the Britannian Expeditionary Force was also completely annihilated by the same coastal-cutting tactic in the Dunkirk-Yipour region.

Now that the Demagnesians have used the same trick for the third time, how could the Franks not be afraid? So as soon as the encirclement was completed, the commander of Calais insisted on abandoning the port and withdrawing all the garrison troops from the encirclement by sea!

They initially hoped that the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso in Dover could help them transport people, but the Royal Navy firmly refused this time.

Breton's Navy Minister, Walton, told his French counterparts: "Calais is so close to Dover, there is absolutely no way we will allow the Demanian Navy to repeat its old trick of cutting off the defenders' retreat at sea! If the Demanian Navy dares to come, the Royal Navy of Bretonnia will definitely repay the blood debt from the previous two times it was caught off guard!"
The problem is that Minister Wharton's remaining credit rating among his Frankish counterparts is so low that he can't even scan a shared bicycle or a shared power bank.

The Franks listened to his chest-thumping assurances as if he were talking nonsense.

"What did you promise King Albert I of Billy Kings last year? And what did you promise your own expeditionary force commander-in-chief, Marshal French, later? Did you keep your promises the first two times? Did you still get a good beating from Lieutenant General Hipper? You expect us to believe you this time? If you don't help transport people, the Frankish Navy will do it themselves!"

There was no other way; the Allied powers had been terrified of this tactic of rushing to the sea and cutting off their land retreat. After being hit twice, they learned to preemptively strike the third time.

Especially in the final stages of the Battle of Calais, even the old man, the Archduke of Württemberg, learned a cunning trick.

He somehow managed to spread messages to the French troops within the encirclement through various channels, all without any formal instruction:
"Have you heard? In the Demanian army, there is a staff officer who is so shrewd and resourceful that he seems to have divine assistance, named Lelouch von Hunt. At the end of October last year, he was just a corporal. It was he who turned the tide in Neoport, using trickery to block the Billy King's army, causing internal strife and ultimately leading to the annihilation of the entire Billy King's army! During the battle, he was promoted from corporal to captain!"

In February of this year, he again used a brilliant plan to parachute into Dunkirk, turning the tide of the battle and ultimately annihilating the Burkina Faso expeditionary force! The entire army was wiped out! In this battle, he was promoted from captain to colonel!
Now, Colonel Lelouch, along with several corps of the 6th Army, is joining forces with my 4th Army to cut another slice and seize the Calais cape! This entire encirclement strategy was his idea! He has already laid a trap; if the Franks hope to retreat by sea, he has a way to ensure they all perish in Calais, not a single one escapes!

The Frankish garrison became panicked after hearing these rumors.

This "verifiable" historical record is too fierce. King Albert and Marshal French were both sacrificed by that kid for merit. What is the Frankish garrison commander of Calais? Is his life tougher than those two?

Ultimately, the Franks mobilized a fleet and ships from Cherbourg and other locations, along with the civilian ships already present in Calais, and organized a massive evacuation, much like frightened birds.

All they could do was leave no ships in Calais, empty the port's warehouses, and remove as many weapons and ammunition as possible. Machinery and equipment were dismantled and transported wherever possible; anything that couldn't be destroyed in time was simply demolished or blown up. A complete demolition was impossible due to time constraints.

The Demacians advanced quickly, not giving them time to fully scorch the earth.

One of the Franks' top priorities during their retreat was to "ensure the destruction of the coastal defenses of Calais." All large-caliber coastal guns were dismantled and transported if possible, and those that could not be dismantled and transported were simply destroyed on the spot.

The lesson learned from the airborne capture of the Dunkirk port fortresses was far too painful. The airborne troops directly turned those coastal artillery pieces against their own warships in the port.

After suffering such a tremendous loss, the Franks had to remove or destroy every single coastal defense cannon whenever they abandoned any port city.

The Archduke of Württemberg's 4th Army entered Calais almost without firing a shot on May 6.

The rapid fall of Calais and the surrounding Cape Opal region also thoroughly misled the Allied side.

To cover up their defeat, the Frankish army emphasized that they had encountered an extremely powerful offensive. Some claimed that the enemy included not only the German 4th Army but also the German 6th Army, and some French generals even asserted that the officer leading the enemy's most elite assault battalion was none other than Lelouch von Hunt himself!

This entire infiltration plan must have been personally arranged by Lelouch von Hunt! If the garrison in Calais hadn't left in time, they would have been intercepted and killed by the Demacian fleet that appeared out of nowhere!

In reality, no Demacian fleet dared to risk venturing to the narrowest point of the Dover Strait. The Franks had simply scared themselves and misled their allies.

When the news reached the Eastern Front, the Lusa Army also believed that the main force of the Demania 6th Army was still on the Western Front, and that only a few divisions had come to the Eastern Front as a feint, which was why it was so weak and could only hold out in Budapest, not daring to launch a radical counterattack.

As a result, Lieutenant General Serivanov and the Lussa Army, which marched south and crossed the Carpathian Mountains, became even more determined in their actions, and more men recklessly charged into the heart of Hungary.

Especially at the end of April, a heavy spring rain fell in the northern Carpathian Mountains, making the roads between Przemyshir and Krakow even more muddy and difficult to traverse. The Lusha Army felt it was unnecessary to leave so many troops north of the mountains to guard the flanks; defending this muddy terrain would only require a few divisions to two corps at most, and the rest could be deployed to the main attack.

(Note: In Earth's history, before Mackensen launched the Gorlice breakthrough, General Ratko Dmitriev really only left 3 divisions to defend the rear flank of Gorlice. In the world of my book, I've given General Ratko Dmitriev extra brains, setting him up to leave more troops to defend the rear, so please stop saying he's stupid.)

In real history, most of the generals and commanders of the Lusso region were indeed this incompetent. Some, while not necessarily incompetent, were simply mismanaged and poorly guided by the Tsar. In the final stages of the Carpathian Campaign, the Tsar pressured the frontline troops to accelerate their advance and commit more troops. He threatened that if they continued their conservative tactics and failed to conquer Hungary, they would be court-martialed and executed for delaying the war.
(End of this chapter)