Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 144 When Lu Sha and Chang Naichao Meet the German-Style Li Yunlong

Thanks to those few Lusa reconnaissance ships, which sacrificed themselves, they discovered a large number of Demacian warships in the Dniester River estuary.

Major General Lukin quickly realized that this was an enemy his Odessa squadron could not handle. He had to immediately join forces with Admiral Eberhardt's main Black Sea fleet to have any chance of fighting back.

The enemy ships opposite them had practically wagered all the warships the Demanians had sold to the Ottomans before the war!
With Major General Lukin's retreat, the Lusa army in the Dniester Estuary theater suffered greatly. Subsequent Demanian landing forces were arriving at a rate of several transport ships per hour.

General Evert, commander of the Romanian Front in Odessa, kept receiving urgent reports from the front that the navy had not yet arrived to provide support, and that the enemy's landing force could add a regiment every two hours.

This dire situation finally became unbearable for General Evert. He decided to launch a preemptive strike, braving the combined forces of the enemy's land and sea, and forcefully overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers, utilizing the fact that his forces far outnumbered the landing enemy.

After all, at this moment, there are at most two enemy regiments on the shore. Even if he urgently dispatches troops from the southwestern suburbs of Odessa to launch a 20-kilometer raid and launch a strong attack, it would take him a morning to travel there, and by then the landing force would only be four regiments.

As long as our side has an overwhelming numerical advantage, we still have a chance to push the enemy into the sea!

At 8 a.m. on the 31st, General Evert, who was forced to change tactics at the last minute, finally officially issued the order.

One corps of the 6th Army of the Ludwigs, stationed in the Ovidiopoli district, southwest of Odessa, was immediately ordered to march urgently to the north bank of the Dniester River estuary and push all the Demanian troops who had landed on the north bank into the sea!

Some readers may not be familiar with the deployment of the Luza army on the front line in Romania, and it may not seem intuitive.

But knowing just one point is enough to grasp the essence of the entire battle:

The newly appointed commander of the Romanian Front, General Evert, was originally the commander of the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. However, the main force of the Southwestern Front was annihilated by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces in Hungary a few months earlier, and the original front commander was also killed.

In addition, the Lusa people had to be wary of the newly emerging Russo-Roman border as a new front, so they split the Southwestern Front Army into two Front Armies.

One was still called the Southwestern Front, responsible for the defense line from Lviv to Vinnica, with its headquarters in Kiev. The other was called the Romanian Front, responsible for the border from Bessarabia to Romania, with its headquarters in Odessa.

General Evert was appointed to a critical post under these circumstances, promoted from commander of an army group in the Southwestern Front to commander of the entire Romanian Front.

Currently, Lu Sha's 13 front-line army groups nationwide are distributed among the following 6 field armies, from north to south:
1. Northern Front: Headquarters is located in the capital, St. Petersburg, and Commander-in-Chief is General Mikhail Alekseev. It is responsible for protecting the capital region and comprises the 1st and 12th Armies. The 1st Army was rebuilt after being annihilated by Hindenburg in several battles last year, including those at Tannenberg and Lake Masurian.

2. Northwestern Front: Headquartered in Riga, commanded by General Nikolai Ruzsky, responsible for the Lithuanian and Latvian defense zones. It comprised the 2nd and 5th Armies. The 2nd Army, like the aforementioned 1st Army, had been completely annihilated once before being rebuilt.

3. Western Front: Headquartered in Warsaw, commanded by Grand Duke Nikolayevich (Marshal), the Tsar's uncle, and responsible for the defense of Poland and Belarus. This was the most heavily fortified front in Russo during the second half of the year, comprising four armies (3rd, 8th, 10th, and 13th) and a large number of newly recruited Polish soldiers, totaling over two million men.

4. Southwestern Front: Headquartered in Kiev, commanded by General Pavel Prevet, responsible for the defense of the central and northern parts of the Kievan Rus' Plain. It comprised the 4th and 7th Armies.

5. Romanian Front: Headquarters in Odessa, commanded by General Alexei Evert, responsible for the original Romanian border defenses. It comprises the 6th and 9th Armies.

6. Caucasian Front: Headquarters in Batumi (in Georgia), Commander: Lieutenant General Nikolai Yudenich, responsible for the fighting against the Ottomans in the Transcaucasus region. Originally comprised three independent corps, it was recently formed into the 11th Army—because the 11th Army was completely annihilated by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces a few months earlier, leaving a vacancy which was then given to the Caucasian Front.

Therefore, at present, in the direction of Romania, the Luza Army only has one front and two armies to deal with the four corps of the German 6th Army.

Meanwhile, a small portion of the German 6th Army, about two corps, along with some Oreo Army troops, were stationed in Lviv, confronting the forces of the Southwestern Front of Russia.

德1个集团军加一些辅助部队，就要打露沙2个方面军、4个集团军，名义上是1挑4了。

只不过德第6集如今已是一个超大规模的扩编集团军，本身的6个军18个师就有33万人。加上那10万从解救的奥国战俘里转化投德的部队、组成的超大“独立军”。

Today, the German army consists of 7 corps with a total of 430,000 men. With the Austrian army assisting in the operation, the total number exceeds 500,000.

对面露沙人2个方面军的4个集团军加起来，一共120万人，但其中西南方面军的70万人被德第6集的2个军12万人加8万奥军、总计20万拖住。

剩下罗马尼亚方面军的50万人打德6集4个军21万正面部队和10万绕后登陆部队，总计31万。露沙人其实根本不占太大人数优势。

罗马尼亚方面军的这50万人里，露第6集团军的28万人部署在敖德萨周边防区。而露第9集团军的22万人部署得还要靠后一些，他们要负责第聂伯河河口地带如赫尔松、以及整个克里木半岛防区。

Now, the three armies of the sixth Ludwig corps have been threatened by being flanked, leaving three armies. Two are stationed around Odessa, and one is stationed around Nikolayev.

General Evert sent one corps of the Odessa garrison to counterattack Rommel. If they failed, the defenses of Odessa would be severely weakened, but he had no choice but to gamble.

……

A few hours later, at noon, General Evert hastily dispatched 61 corps to counterattack the landing site.

Finally, under the command of Major General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, they arrived at the northern bank of the Dniester River estuary.

The troops set off from Ovidiopoli, a suburb of Odessa, and after a four-hour forced march of 17 kilometers, hurriedly arrived at the front line.

Although this marching speed is less than half of the standard required for a 5-kilometer loaded march in modern military training (currently, some stricter countries require a 5-kilometer loaded march in the field to be completed in 26 minutes to pass).
However, for the frail Lusa infantry of the early 20th century, most were already out of breath and in poor condition. Even worse, when these troops arrived, the artillery couldn't immediately switch from marching to deployment mode.

Meanwhile, the German 6th Army's Independent Corps on the opposite side had already landed more than a full division.

The Demacians also only landed their infantry; they didn't have time to bring their cannons ashore, but that didn't matter.

Because some destroyers of the Demanian Black Sea Fleet have entered the Dniester River lagoon, they can provide direct naval gun support to their army brethren from the lagoon's surface.

German destroyers only had small 88mm guns, no 105mm guns or larger guns, but their rate of fire was much faster than that of land-based guns.

The Lusa people on the other side hadn't even deployed their 76mm cannons yet, and could basically only rely on infantry charges, so they had no advantage whatsoever.

……

"The Lusa people actually launched a counterattack at this time, and they came quite quickly. Are they trying to take advantage of our unstable footing and push us back into the sea?"

On the makeshift positions on the north bank of the Dniester River estuary, Major General Lister, the newly landed commander of the 2nd Division of the Independent Army, observed the approaching enemy through binoculars and immediately organized a defense. This Major General Lister was the same commander of the 16th Regiment whom Lelouch had encountered at the beginning of his time travel, and also the cousin of William Lister, the battalion commander under Lelouch.

Division Commander Lister ordered his troops to quickly utilize the buildings, wreckage, foxholes, and the newly deployed heavy machine gun emplacements to launch a resolute counterattack against the hastily attacking Lusa soldiers.

The Lusa infantry, charging haphazardly, had initially intended to take advantage of the smaller number of German soldiers on the north bank of the river, hoping to crush them with sheer numbers. Instead, they were swept away row by row. In less than 15 minutes, the initial probing attack was repelled, leaving behind at least four figures of corpses.

However, with the Lussa people temporarily retreating, a dilemma has been presented to the Demanian army that has already landed: should they continue to hold their ground or launch a counterattack?

Division Commander Lister's approach was rather conservative and cautious. He decided to continue holding the line because the longer the battle dragged on, the stronger his own forces would become. Every two hours, the transport fleet could bring another regiment of reinforcements from the rear. Time was on his side, so why take any more risks? He was a rigid, old-fashioned officer, so it was understandable that he thought this way.

However, Colonel Rommel, who was not subordinate to Commander Lister and was the commander of the 1st Training Airborne Regiment, immediately raised a different opinion. "Commander Lister, I think we should seize this opportunity to launch a counterattack! The enemy's first wave of attack failed and they retreated, certainly because they realized that without artillery cover, they couldn't defeat us just by overwhelming our numbers."

Therefore, this temporary retreat is only to buy time for the artillery units to deploy—we cannot give them this time; we must launch a counter-offensive immediately!
At the same time, the destroyers already in the lagoon, and even the heavy artillery warships near the shore, can unleash their firepower on the enemy's attack positions and rear positions! Then our troops can charge and completely capture their attack positions!

Division Commander Lister gasped slightly upon hearing this: "Isn't that too risky? Our mission is to ensure the beachhead is absolutely secure. Besides, even if the enemy's artillery is deployed, its range can't possibly exceed that of our naval guns."

They'll definitely deploy relatively far back, posing no threat to us. Otherwise, if they deploy too far forward, it'll be a pointless suicide mission. Our naval guns can wait until they're fully deployed, then our airships can use spotting fire to wipe them all out!

Rommel, however, insisted on his radical approach: "That's precisely why we need to launch a counter-offensive—the enemy certainly knows this, so when they deploy their artillery, they will definitely deploy some offensively and some defensively."

The offensive units will be aggressively deployed to the front lines at close range, close enough to threaten our positions. The defensive units will be deployed deep inland, out of reach of our positions and out of reach of our naval artillery, in order to prevent our subsequent counter-offensive.

Only by immediately preparing fire and then launching an assault can we strike the enemy's deep positions, wiping out their defensive artillery deployments before they can even complete them! Otherwise, if we wait until they've finished their defenses and then launch an attack, our losses will be far greater!

Lister was dumbfounded, never expecting Rommel to have such great ambitions.

Are we not satisfied with simply holding our ground and maintaining peace? Do you really expect to use a single, still-unstable division to directly overthrow an entire enemy army? Even if that army has just suffered a setback, lost thousands, and has low morale…

Just as the two were locked in a stalemate and hesitating, the radio operator of Rommel's regiment received a telegram and immediately presented it to Rommel.

"Commander! Division Commander Lelouch has sent a telegram. He's on the 'Goben' and has received the results of the airship reconnaissance. He has ordered our division to immediately prepare for a counterattack! He will have the destroyer fleet provide support firepower, and the battleships 'Witchersbach' and 'Mecklenburg' will provide cover for us!"

Don't give the enemy a chance to deploy artillery positions at the front! He also said that whether Commander Lister follows or not is their own business; Commander Lelouch only requires his division to prepare for a counterattack immediately! Of course, you will have to judge the specific situation on the front lines yourself.

Although Lelouch himself did not go ashore, he was able to share reconnaissance information and make his own decisions and judgments in real time through the airship "Goben" while on the battleship.

Moreover, Lelouch has an advantage over Rommel and Lister—he can keep track of Admiral Spee's fleet deployment in real time. In the eyes of Lister and Rommel, Admiral Spee's former dreadnoughts might have been deployed to block the Black Sea Fleet in order to gain an absolute advantage in naval battles.

Therefore, Lister and Rommel could not have imagined that two old-fashioned pre-dreadnoughts could still participate in shore bombardment at such a critical juncture.

If Lister had known the navy would allocate firepower this way, he would have dared to charge immediately.

"So the navy is so generous, they can send two former Dreadnoughts to provide us with continuous fire support? What are we waiting for? Let them bombard us, create a creeping barrage, and then we'll charge! Our Independent Army's 2nd Division won't fall behind either! Lelouch is really good at coordinating resources; even the navy gives him face."

Commander Lister immediately made a decision and followed suit.

……

While the group was exchanging telegrams and analyzing intelligence, the destroyers in the river mouth and the former dreadnoughts in the near sea had already opened fire.

Four twin-mounted 240mm 40-caliber naval guns, totaling eight barrels, launched high-explosive shells at maximum elevation angles, fiercely bombarding the Lusa Army's positions.

There were also 18 single-mounted 150mm secondary guns and 12 88mm guns, which also did their best to shell the shore.

Even though these two pre-dreadnoughts were 4 kilometers away from the coast when they fired due to draft issues, wasting 4 kilometers of effective range, it was still enough to cover a large area of ​​the Lusa's attack positions.

The 240mm guns of the pre-dreadnought warships "Wichelsbach" are of little use in modern naval battles. The reason for choosing a 240mm caliber when this warship was laid down in 1900 was a lesson learned from the First Sino-Japanese War. At that time, the mainstream view of navies around the world was that "large-caliber guns with too slow a rate of fire are not as good as high-rate-of-fire guns of a smaller caliber."

At that time, it was not possible to manufacture rapid-fire cannons with 280mm guns; 240mm was the largest caliber that could be used to manufacture "rapid-fire cannons." The Demanian Navy selected 240mm guns for this class of warships and even the earlier Frederick III-class.

(Note: This concept of "rapid fire" is relative. At the time, the 280mm gun needed 90 seconds to fire one round, while the 240mm gun could fire one round in 30 seconds, which was already considered very "rapid fire".)
But at this moment, these 240mm cannons, which can fire a salvo every 30 seconds, are extremely effective when bombarding the opposite bank.

What need is there for a 280mm gun on the shore? A 240mm gun is more than enough. The later "Stalin's Hammer" only had a 203mm gun, which was enough to flatten any fortification.

The booming sounds of heavy cannons echoed across the Lusha army's positions.

The Lusha soldiers, who had just retreated after losing several thousand men and were relaxing and waiting for their own artillery to deploy, were immediately stunned.

From army commanders and division commanders to sergeants and soldiers, everyone was completely bewildered.

"Those damned Demacians! They just repelled our attack and immediately launched a counterattack?"

"Where did such heavy artillery come from? Is that a battleship shelling us? Wasn't it supposed to be that our Black Sea Fleet had already launched an attack, and that the enemy's battleships had all gone to engage the Black Sea Fleet? How come they still have the spare capacity to stay here and shell the shore!"

"What on earth are those useless naval officers doing?"

Tens of thousands of Lusha soldiers, who had only retreated a kilometer or two after their offensive was thwarted and hadn't even found cover yet, hadn't had time to dig foxholes in the field.

Suddenly, they were hit by a barrage of enemy heavy artillery fire, and the attack was so intense and comprehensive that the casualties were extremely high.

But who can be blamed for this situation? No army in the world has experience in "anti-landing operations" yet. Their first instinct is to hold the enemy off the beach, and once they land, they immediately try to push them back into the sea.

As for how to guard against enemy naval gunfire that would cover the landing, this was a completely unexplored topic, and no one in the world had any experience with it.

Well, perhaps Lelouch, as a transmigrator, has experience, but he's the only one with that experience.

Hundreds of Lusha infantrymen were blown to bits like livestock. The barrage lasted only 15 minutes, but the area that was to be covered and leveled was completely flattened.

As soon as Rommel and others began to extend their artillery fire, he immediately ordered his troops to rush out of their bunkers and launch a counterattack.

Meanwhile, the enemy on the other side was in complete disarray, all trying to escape, with not a single one able to stand firm.

Several regiments of Demanian troops relentlessly pursued and kicked an entire army of Lusa soldiers in the rear.

The Lusa army retreated at least seven or eight kilometers in one go; those who couldn't run any further threw down their weapons and knelt down to become prisoners. The cannons, which had just been unloaded from the artillery carriages and hadn't even been deployed yet, were either destroyed or damaged, or captured directly by the Demanians.

The plight of their artillery units was even worse than when Chang Naichao encountered Li Yunlong—how could one side arrive at the battlefield breathless, before the artillery had even been deployed, and the defending side, with far fewer troops, immediately launch a counterattack? Does this conform to military strategy? Does Rommel even know how to fight?

This was the indignant feeling of Major General Peter Nikolayevich Wrangel, the commander of the Lusha Army who suffered a crushing defeat.

-

P.S.: Looking closely, today is another day of 12,000 words... I've been updating like crazy lately. This is the first time I've updated so frantically for a book that isn't even a masterpiece; it's all thanks to my faith in it.

(End of this chapter)