Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 176 A mere natural barrier is meant to be breached by armored forces!
When introducing the division he commands and its specific combat missions,

Lelouch suddenly raised his voice slightly, reminding his subordinates to concentrate, and at the same time had his staff bring over a huge map to hang on the wall.

This map has been enlarged, stretching from the mouth of the Dnieper River in the west to Kerch at the eastern tip of the Crimean Peninsula in the east. In the south, it begins at the Crimean Peninsula and extends north to Zaporizhzhia and Yekaterinaslav (now Dnipropetrovsk) at the great bend of the Dnieper River.
Then, Lelouch pointed with his pointer at the area on the map from the mouth of the Dnieper River to the Perekop Isthmus at the root of the Crimean Peninsula, and drew several circles on it.

"The enemy's 6th Army's main defensive force is now basically spread out evenly along the front line of the standoff between the two sides."

They stationed a corps-sized defensive position north of the Dnieper River estuary in response to our forces' offensive in the Nikolayev direction.
Then, south of the Dnieper River estuary, up to the Perekop Isthmus, which is in response to our Kherson and Yamiansk line, approximately three corps were deployed.

Further east, between Zhankoy and Trojchik, the enemy appears to have deployed only one division, or at most a reinforced division.

One corps remained, which the enemy deployed in the rear at places like Zaporizhia, Nikopol, and Melitopol. There were also some newly recruited soldiers in independent units, temporarily conscripted, and Cossack cavalry units, as reserves.

The army group's plan for this campaign was to have our division act as the spearhead, attacking from between Zhankoy and Trojchik, a position the enemy would never have anticipated. As I just mentioned, there was only one enemy division defending Trojchik, fewer in number than us, while we had an absolute advantage in the quality of our equipment, making a breakthrough inevitable!

Once we break through here, we can follow the railway line from Zhankoy through Trojicz and advance northeast to the railway hub of Melitopol, which is 80 kilometers away.
Then, continuing 120 kilometers due north from Melitopol, one can reach the headquarters of the enemy's 6th Army, Zaporozhye, the first major town on the lower Dnieper River.

Once we reach Zaporizhzhia, if the enemy on the south bank of the Dnieper River hasn't had time to retreat, then the army in Zaporizhzhia, Nikopol, and Melitopol will surely have been annihilated by us.

As for the two and a half corps of our army at Kherson-Yamiansk, the remaining remnants will be surrounded by our forces in the area between the Dnieper River bend and the Black Sea. Perhaps some of the enemy will be able to escape by crossing the Dnieper River to the north.

However, we believe that our allied forces advancing north of the Dnieper River will also do their utmost to stop them. Ultimately, we hope to form a massive encirclement within a triangular area that is nearly 180 kilometers wide from north to south and 150 kilometers far from east to west, annihilating the main force of the enemy's 6th Army!

Ideally, we should allow at most one enemy corps to escape, because that corps' defensive zone might initially be north of the Dnieper River, or outside this triangular area. All other enemy units within this triangular area must be eliminated!
Then, our army can advance upstream along the Dnieper River and further attack Yekaterina Slav, capturing it would complete the first phase of the Kievan Rus' campaign. We hope to complete this phase within a month, or at least before the autumn mud fully arrives.

Once this phase is completed, we will then consider how to encircle and annihilate the remaining two armies of the enemy's Southwestern Front and take Kiev as the final battle objective, striving to wage an encirclement battle in Kiev.

I have already assisted Marshal Rupprecht in roughly planning this second phase of the campaign, but it cannot be refined yet. We will make further adjustments based on the degree and progress of achieving the objectives of the first phase of the campaign.

The general idea is that once the muddy season arrives, our army will use the tanks that can be deployed in actual combat to further expand our gains and create unexpected surprise for the enemy. I won't go into the specifics now.

In short, everyone should have confidence and not be intimidated by the fact that the enemy's total number of people is temporarily greater than ours. Our army is fully prepared, and our soldiers are in high spirits and well-equipped.

Thanks to our newly acquired control of the sea, our supply lines are now much smoother than before. We had already stockpiled a large amount of combat supplies on the Crimean Peninsula before the start of the war. In the future, we can also take advantage of the navigation conditions of the Dnieper River to support our logistics transportation by water and rail before capturing Zaporizhia. So we don’t have to worry about lacking supplies when we go deep into enemy territory.

Only after reaching Yekaterina Slava, in the second phase of the future campaign, will we need to worry about the unavailability of waterways for logistics. At that point, logistics might be slightly more difficult, and we'll mainly have to rely on fighting along the railway lines. But I believe it won't be a major problem, and the second phase won't last too long.

Lelouch first gave a concise summary of his division's battle plan.

(Note: The map corresponding to the plan is shown below. Readers who cannot see the illustration, please click on the chapter comments in this section.)

There are definitely many details here that you may not understand at first glance, but that's okay, Lelouch did give you time to ask questions.

Sure enough, Brigadier General Keitel, the commander of the heavy artillery brigade responsible for providing fire support to the Greater Demania Armored Division, and several regimental commanders who had just arrived in Zhankoy and were not yet familiar with the surrounding geography, soon raised questions:

"We can understand the enemy's and our own deployments in other directions. But since our division can launch an offensive from Zhankoy to Trojczyk, achieve a major breakthrough, and then threaten Melitopol and Zaporozhye, why would the enemy only deploy a mere one division to defend Trojczyk?"

Did they not know the combat capabilities of our army? Or did they underestimate the size of our forces deployed in the Zhankoyi direction? Or was their intelligence work simply so poor that they were fooled by some deception plan of our army?

This is a very natural question. If there are loopholes here, why don't the enemy plug them? It can't be because they're stupid.

Lelouch didn't mind everyone's bluntness and even nodded: "Very good question, but I believe that those who asked this question are mainly new to this place and haven't had time to familiarize themselves with the geography. You'll understand after I explain."

As mentioned earlier, the enemy deployed a total of 7 to 8 divisions between Kherson and Yamiansk, but only 1 division in Troychik, because the geographical difficulty of the two routes of attack differed greatly.

The only major passage connecting the Crimean Peninsula and the Kievan Rus' plain is the Perekop Isthmus, located in Yamiansk.

Therefore, even if our army captures important ports and railways on the Crimean Peninsula and stockpiles a large number of troops, weapons, and supplies there, and the enemy anticipates that we might launch a renewed offensive against the mainland from the peninsula, they will only assume that we are advancing northeast again from Yamiansk through the Perekop Isthmus. They will then have to commit a large number of troops to that front.

There was originally no land connection between Chankoy and Troičik—the Perekop Isthmus did not extend to Chankoy, and Chankoy and Troičik on the opposite bank were actually separated by the sea, or more precisely, by a lagoon.

In 1905, in order to strengthen railway connections with the Crimean Peninsula, the Tsar built a railway bridge spanning 400 meters of water at the narrowest point of the lagoon between Chankoy and Trojchik.

After all, the engineering difficulty of this span was not particularly high, and it was built on relatively shallow, still water. This led to the railway line that ran from Zaporizhzhia through Melitopol, then through Trojczyk, to Zhankoy, and finally to Sevastopol. However, even with this railway bridge, attacking Trojczyk from Zhankoy would normally be extremely difficult, because there was a very narrow peninsula stretching 15 kilometers south of the bridge. The slightly wider sections on both sides of the peninsula were actually filled with lagoons and marshes, leaving only a very narrow section along the railway front suitable for an attack.

Beyond the bridge, there is a narrow strip of land 20 kilometers long on the north bank. Again, the only way to move around is along the railway. If you go more than 1 kilometer to the left or right of the railway, you will find lagoons and swamps, which are unique landforms formed by the erosion of the isthmus by the sea.

Moreover, the surrounding lagoons are neither too deep nor too shallow, so even if naval warships bypass the Kerch Peninsula and enter the Sea of ​​Azov, they cannot turn around here.

However, it's impossible to cross the river by wading alone, or by relying on horse-drawn carriages or cars, without using boats. The water depth here is between 1.5 and 2.5 meters throughout. Therefore, this is an extremely challenging water depth; too shallow for vehicles to pass, and too deep for large ships.

The Lusha people believed that there was a natural barrier of 35 kilometers that they could rely on, so they thought that leaving a division here to lure us would be enough, and that our army would never be able to break through the layers of defenses here.

Moreover, even if our army breaks through the 15-kilometer-deep defense line of the South Bridge Peninsula, so what? The enemy can still blow up the 400-meter-wide bridge connecting the two peninsulas. In that case, all our efforts will be in vain, and everything will be for naught.

But precisely because the risks were so enormous, the rewards were also enormous. Eight enemy divisions were piled up between Kherson and Yamiansk. And the crossing point from Chankoy to Troychik was located a full 70 kilometers east of Yamiansk.

Therefore, once we break through this point, we can directly appear more than 70 kilometers behind the enemy's main front-line defensive forces, and take advantage of the enemy's weakness to surge northward. Taking Melitopol will be a certainty. Whether we can take Zaporozhye is another matter.

But once we break through this point, wiping out 3-4 enemy corps would be a piece of cake. That's why I suggested the commander try this route.

We can concentrate our heavy artillery, coordinate with a surprise force that secretly crosses the lagoon in small boats to seize the bridge, and combine this with armored units the enemy has never seen before to quickly and decisively break through the layers of defenses. Then they will know that their so-called 35-kilometer-deep defensive line is nothing more than that!

Without the breakthrough capability provided by the armored forces, Lelouch would not have dared to use this plan.

Lelouch wouldn't have dared to use this plan if he didn't have the confidence to use a small boat force to bypass the Isthmus of Belekop and land at another location to seize the bridge.

But he happened to meet both of these conditions—especially the subsequent plan to launch a surprise attack by crossing the swampy lagoon area east of the Perekop Isthmus via small boat. He had to thank the war that was being fought before his time travel in the future.

Those Kiev Rost special forces provided him with practical experience during the Kherson counteroffensive, specifically on how to use small boats to sneak across the isthmus and swamp to launch a surprise attack on the Khankoy region of the Crimean Peninsula.

Of course, this time Lelouch needs to take the opposite route. In the later world, the Kherson counterattack involved crossing from the north bank to the south bank in small boats for a surprise attack. This time, Lelouch is going from the south bank to the north bank.

For this special mission, Lelouch assigned Major Student, who was in charge of special deployments, and Captain Falkenhorst, who had just been transferred from Marshal Mackensen in the north—

Captain Falkenhorst had just conducted the landing operations on Shiuma and Saarema in the Gulf of Riga two weeks ago, marking the first successful amphibious landing operation by the Demacian army and the capture of two large islands.

Although those men did not belong to the 6th Army and were not part of Field Marshal Rupprecht's retinue, Lelouch had extensive connections. He had helped Field Marshal Mackensen during the Gulf of Riga campaign, so it was perfectly reasonable for Field Marshal Mackensen to reciprocate by temporarily transferring his experienced team of pilots to mentor and guide others.

Field Marshal Mackensen wouldn't be so reluctant to part with a few majors and captains who were battalion or company commanders.

At this moment, the officers under his command, having heard how well-prepared their division commander was, were greatly encouraged and no longer felt any fear of breaking through the natural barrier.

From surprise attacks involving flanking maneuvers and bridge seizures to specially prepared swarms of small boats...

Then, how the heavy artillery brigade directly under the army group helped its side breach the enemy's defensive line 15 kilometers ahead on the South Bridge Peninsula,

Then, how the armored vehicle units quickly broke through layers of broken defenses, pushing across the bridge and over the mere 400-meter-wide "sea," to gain a bridgehead on the northern peninsula...

Lelouch had meticulously planned all of this. His men only needed to strictly execute the plan and adapt to changing circumstances to suppress any sudden counterattacks from the enemy.

There is never a 100% guarantee of victory in war. As long as the potential gains are large enough and the risks are manageable, it's worth taking a gamble.

"Does anyone have any questions?" Lelouch explained his plans and considerations in detail, and finally told everyone to ask any questions they had now. If they didn't ask now, they would have to obediently carry them out and wouldn't be able to question them later.

"No problem! We will resolutely carry out the division commander's plan! We will definitely break through the enemy's coastal defenses and appear in the enemy's rear!"

-

PS: The image below is a detailed topographical map of the area between Zhankoy and Trojchik, explaining why this place is considered a natural barrier. If you can't see the illustration, please click on this section's comments; I will post the image again there.

(End of this chapter)