Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 178 The Armored Division's First Battle (A long chapter of 6,000 words, totaling 12,000 words today)

The artillery preparation began at 5:10 a.m., and at 5:30 a.m., just as dawn was breaking, it began to extend into the rear, and the ground troops also began their attack.

It's only 5:50 now, 40 minutes before the artillery preparations begin and 20 minutes before the ground attack starts.

Rommel has penetrated 5 kilometers into enemy territory, breaking through one fortified trench and three simple trenches. He is now launching an attack on the enemy's second fortified trench.

No enemy heavy artillery survived here; all the 76mm field guns deployed in the deep pits connecting the trenches were destroyed by Demanian artillery fire.

Only a very few heavy machine gun positions had soldiers who survived. When they saw the enemy charging up, they picked up their machine guns and spat out fire. Some of the remaining soldiers took out Mosin-Nagant rifles and fired bullets randomly.

But soon the machine gunners and infantrymen discovered in despair that the large black shadows emerging from the dawn were actually lumps of iron.

"What the hell! What is this thing? God..."

"This is terrifying. Are they armored vehicles? They look similar to the Rolls-Royce armored command vehicle I saw when I went to the military headquarters... But how could the enemy have so many armored vehicles?"

The armored vehicle, enduring the clanging and ricocheting of bullets, drove all the way to the side of the trench, then turned around and unleashed a fierce barrage of heavy machine gun fire along the side of the trench, turning all the soldiers who stubbornly remained hidden inside into sieves.

Soon, the ends of the trenches on both sides of the railway were devoid of life.

However, trenches are often zigzag-shaped, and machine gun fire from armored vehicles can only clear the last one or two sections of the trench.

Armored vehicles with poor obstacle-crossing capabilities are helpless when faced with deeper trenches.

Fortunately, as long as the first two sections of the trench area are cleared, a foothold is created, and the machine gun positions near the trench network are suppressed, the problem can be solved.

Demacian infantry could then follow up, enter the trenches, and then use submachine guns and grenades to sweep away enemy troops along the sides of the trenches.

Everyone was hiding in the trenches, fighting along the trenches. That was ten times easier than launching an assault on the trench network from open ground. The infantrymen were already quite satisfied with achieving that.

On the Western Front today, whether Franks, Italians, or Britannians from Gallipoli, most are equipped with submachine guns. Their close-combat firepower against the Demandian army is no longer as overwhelming as it was at the start of the war.

Unfortunately, Luzan on the eastern front is an impoverished empire with a weak industrial base, and almost all maritime aid routes into Luzan have been cut off by Demacia.

The Lussa people couldn't manufacture submachine guns themselves, and their allies couldn't bring in any, so they were destined to keep using Mosin-Nagant rifles, or at most some old-fashioned shotguns, and engage in close-quarters trench warfare with the enemy's attacking forces.

The armored regiments directly commanded by Rommel did not need to perform these tasks of clearing trenches; these were left to the accompanying infantry regiments, and everything went very smoothly.

After Rommel's armored convoy helped his allies capture the outposts at the end of the trenches, they were able to continue advancing deeper into the trenches.

Soon, they would notice hundreds of Lusa soldiers fleeing along the railway line from Zankoy to Trojicz – these were the soldiers who had avoided the railway line when they discovered the Demanian artillery bombardment, and were now hoping to escape by leaving the trenches and retreating along the railway.

Unfortunately, Rommel didn't get a chance to pick up the kills, because his allies in the air intercepted his gains just before he could continue his advance.

……

In episode 6 of Lusa, Second Lieutenant Vasily Blyukher, acting battalion commander of a battalion in the 21st Division, was panting heavily as he fled north with the help of his soldiers. They had already run several kilometers.

Behind him, thousands of people fled along the railway tracks.

Many people didn't believe it at first, thinking that running along the railway with no cover was simply suicidal. But later, they discovered that Blyuchel led the way and actually remained quite safe, and more and more people realized that Demacian heavy artillery had indeed avoided the railway.

After discovering a new way out, other companies and battalions of defeated soldiers gradually followed suit, trying to escape the range of enemy heavy artillery and reorganize their defenses in the rear.

The natural barrier of the Chankoy Peninsula stretches 15 kilometers from north to south. The Lusa people dug seven reinforced trenches and four simple trenches to buy time, for a total of 11 trenches.

Even if we have to give up the outermost 5 or even 10 kilometers, as long as we can escape the range of Demacian heavy artillery, we still have a chance to hold on!

"I...I can't go on. Tell the brothers to stop too. We've already retreated to the fourth fortified trench position, which is at least 8 kilometers from the front line. That's definitely beyond the range of all the enemy's howitzers! The enemy's howitzers can't possibly reach the front line!"

"Find the commander immediately! Have the men move to defense and reinforce units that have suffered heavy losses!"

Blyucher, whose left leg already had an old injury, had run for so long that he was completely exhausted, and his leg, which was embedded with shrapnel, even started to bleed again. But his suggestion was not out of selfishness, but because he genuinely believed in his judgment.

Even if we escape here, we might still be hit by enemy artillery, but only a few cannons can reach that far. The howitzers, which make up 80% of the enemy's artillery, cannot reach that far.

If we expect to solidify our defenses by retreating completely to a position where even cannons can't hit us, we'll be abandoning too much ground, leaving too little defensive depth.

At this point, a choice must be made, and the soldiers must have the courage to hold their ground even under the threat of cannon fire.

Several soldiers around him, who were on good terms with him and trusted his judgment, pulled him along, limping into the trench, trying to find the regimental commander to report back to the unit and join the battle.

But many soldiers, accustomed to fleeing in disarray, ignored his orders and continued to run away like headless flies.

Once a group of defeated soldiers gains momentum, it's not so easy to stop them.

No matter how hard he shouted, trying to calm himself down, it was all in vain.

"You really think you're the battalion commander? We'll only recognize you as our commander if you can lead everyone back to safety! You expect everyone to die with you?"

"It's because your leg is crippled and you can't run anymore, so you want to drag everyone down with you to hold the line so you can survive! You're so heartless!"

Some sarcastic and cutting remarks came from the mouths of deserters passing by, reaching Blyucher's ears and leaving him furious but powerless.

Thousands of people saw his demonstration and imitated his running style, retreating. Now that he had retreated to the defensive line and wanted to stop and hold the line, only a few hundred people chose to stop. The rest were completely out of control.

His regimental commander quickly noticed the situation and tried to quell it. After hearing Blyucher's report, the colonel was so angry that he drew his pistol and wanted to execute a few deserters to establish his authority and stabilize the situation.

"Commander, you can't! Several thousand men have fled. Opening fire indiscriminately will incite a mutiny!" Lieutenant Blyuher was so frightened that he quickly grabbed the commander's arm and pleaded for mercy.

However, before the commander could respond, a strange noise from the southern sky soon disrupted the rhythm of the battlefield once again.

A dozen or so fighter jets from the Demania Air Force flew from south to north, precisely following the direction of the railway line.

Before anyone could react, they assumed the planes were on a routine reconnaissance mission or were there to seize air superiority and shoot down any possible Lusa reconnaissance aircraft.

But at that moment, the Demacian fighter squadron lowered its nose and began strafing down the railway tracks.

Thousands of retreating Lusa soldiers were stuck in the railway area. With such a dense volley, hundreds of soldiers were instantly swept away.

The fighter jets flew by very fast, and as they passed over the crowds, some pilots even dropped small hand-thrown bombs that had been pre-attached to hooks on either side of the cockpit.

These bombs typically weigh only 5 kilograms each, about the same size as the smallest dumbbell in a gym, so they can be operated with one hand and easily thrown by human force.

These bombs were recently commissioned by DWM Arms Factory and can be used as heavy hand grenades in land combat or dropped from the air. They are ergonomically designed, with a small explosive charge that minimizes terrain damage.

Each bomb contains only 1.5 kilograms of TNT, with the remaining 70% of its weight consisting of a grooved iron casing, steel balls, and iron slag.

The biggest advantage of making the bombs so small is that even ordinary fighter jets can carry quite a few.

By 1915, the Demania fighter engine had improved significantly compared to the previous year, and the aircraft's takeoff weight had also increased. Each fighter could have five hooks on either side of the cockpit, capable of carrying up to 10 small bombs at a time.

At this moment, these aircraft flew over the battlefield along both sides of the railway, almost every one or two seconds taking a small bomb off the hook and tossing it aside.

In less than 30 seconds, a flyby was completed, and all 10 small bombs were dropped from each aircraft. At this point, they could circle and pull up, then take out another 10 small bombs from under the cockpit and hook them onto the hooks one by one.

Then fly low in the opposite direction again, repeating all the actions, and after dropping everything, return to base.

Each aircraft can carry 20 small bombs weighing 5 kilograms each, for a total bomb load of 100 kilograms, which is about the same as the weight of a radio operator and radio.

You can hang 20 small bombs as long as you don't bring a radio.

The entire attack took only two or three minutes. When it was over, the railway was littered with corpses, with at least four figures lying there haphazardly.

Some survivors, when the planes came to carry out their strikes, chose to lie down immediately, thus avoiding direct hits from the bombing and strafing. Only after seeing the planes leave did they get up again, intending to continue their escape.

But soon, several more large creatures appeared in the sky.

Those were three airships, each with several side-firing heavy machine guns mounted under its pods. After approaching the battlefield, they began to fly slowly along the railway, hovering in the air and strafing the ground from a distance with their machine guns.

The airship's speed was only 90 kilometers per hour, far slower than the AC130 gunship, the slowest aircraft of later generations. It didn't need to use any bombs or firepower; it simply used heavy machine guns to continuously block the road. Because of its slow speed, it didn't need to circle; it just slowly maintained its position above and to the side of the target, continuously firing its firepower.

They could even occasionally unleash a barrage of side shots at the trenches, since the soldiers hiding in the trenches couldn't escape the bullets coming from above anyway.

The Lusha soldiers on the ground were utterly desperate. This was such overwhelming, three-dimensional firepower; there was simply nowhere to hide. Running along the railway meant certain death, lying in the trenches also meant certain death. More and more soldiers were completely routed, and the defensive line was utterly in chaos.

Just as the Lusa garrison was in complete disarray, and the routed soldiers at the front were unable to regain their footing and reorganize their defenses, Rommel's armored car regiment finally arrived on the battlefield, albeit belatedly.

More than 70 armored vehicles rumbled along the railway, machine guns suppressing all visible firing positions.

Even if there are sturdy bunkers made of cement, they can be destroyed by blasting them out with a 57mm short-barreled cannon after you drive within one or two kilometers.

"Run! Armored vehicles! Lots of armored vehicles!"

"It's the kind of high-end stuff that only army commanders have!"

"Our heavy machine guns can't penetrate their armor at all!"

Many Rosa soldiers were not unfamiliar with armored vehicles; a batch of Rolls-Royce armored vehicles from Britannia had been delivered to Rosa as early as 1914, at the very beginning of the war. However, the number was small, and only corps-level officers were assigned one as a command vehicle.

The soldiers knew that these vehicles could withstand bullets, so they weren't too shocked by the armored vehicles' bulletproof capabilities in today's battle. They had simply never seen such a large-scale, concentrated use of armored vehicles in combat.

As heavy machine gun emplacements and bunkers were precisely eliminated, large numbers of Lusha's routed soldiers began to flee in disarray.

The soldiers no longer cared whether there was cover on their escape route or whether they could retreat along the trenches.

They simply jumped out of the trench and took the shortest route, running straight ahead. Anyway, there were still airships strafing from above, and even if they lay in the trench, they might be killed by machine gun fire from above.

"It's 6 o'clock already. Our troops have broken through the enemy's fourth reinforced trench and penetrated 8 kilometers into the enemy's defensive line. Send a message to the division commander that our troops are still steadily advancing."

But please get the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment to catch up as soon as possible and follow the armored vehicles to break through the enemy's rear defenses! The infantry regiment's soldiers are exhausted and can't keep up! My unit will continue to advance according to plan, and I hope that in 20 minutes, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment will be able to meet up with my unit at the next trench net of the enemy.

After Rommel broke through another enemy line, he glanced at his watch and gave the following instructions to the radio operator on the armored vehicle.

Telegrams were being transmitted at top speed. Some units halted their advance and went into defensive positions to recover their strength. Others moved in and took over the next wave of attacks, the transitions seamless.

Thirty minutes later, Rommel successfully joined forces with the mechanized infantry reinforcements, broke through another defensive line, and continued his advance. He looked at the map; just three more kilometers would take him to the railway bridge connecting the cities of Zankoy and Trojciech.

Everything was going smoothly. Judging by the time, according to the division commander's plan, the two battalions led by Battalion Commander Student and Battalion Commander Falkenhorst should have already quietly crossed the lagoon in small boats and launched their landing on the north shore.

During the morning's artillery preparations, our long-range heavy artillery also made every effort to cover the north bank, and some of the enemy's coastal positions should have been completely destroyed.

To enable this long-range, "cross-sea" fire support, the army group's artillery units specifically allocated 24 K16 150mm cannons and 6 280mm railway guns. These weapons have a range sufficient to reach positions on the north bank 15-20 kilometers away.

如果从5点10分开始火力准备算起，隆美尔花了1个小时零20分，就向前推进了12公里。而如果从5点30正式地面进攻开始算，他只花了1小时整就前进了12公里。

The enemy was completely stunned. The subsequent layers of enemy positions were not even mentally prepared when they saw Demacian tanks charging up, kicking up clouds of dust.

……

Meanwhile, a few kilometers to the west of the battlefield, on the lagoon, more than a hundred small boats, propelled by the vigorous rowing of Demacian soldiers, had already quietly approached the north shore.

Each of these small boats can carry an infantry squad. A battalion consists of 4 companies and 16 platoons, totaling more than 60 squads. Two battalions can be transported in one go with just 130 small boats.

The battalion commanders of these two battalions were Major Student and Major Falkenhorst. They also started rowing before dawn, around 5 a.m., and while rowing, they could see their own heavy artillery firing at the enemy on the distant opposite bank.

The river crossing position they chose was not well-defended by the Lusa people on the opposite bank, which had been scouted by aerial reconnaissance before the battle.

Along the long lagoon shoreline, the Lusa people couldn't possibly guard every spot with strict defenses. There were always some mudflats along the shore where only shallow, simple trenches were dug.

It wasn't that the Lusa people were lazy; rather, the lagoon terrain by the sea meant that it was impossible to dig deep—any deeper and it would seep in—so they could only dig a little over a meter. Under heavy artillery fire, the defenders inside such a trench would naturally have been wiped out long ago.

With the Lussars' frontal assault so brutally inflicted by Rommel, the Lussar 21st Division headquarters, while dispatching reserves to push up the defensive line, couldn't possibly attend to these minor details of secondary directions, and the entire command system was already in complete chaos.

All of this contributed to Student and Falkenhorst's successful landing.

"All soldiers, advance on foot! Do not linger on the beach! Immediately move into enemy-occupied trenches! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

On the chaotic landing site, Major Falkenhorst was giving orders at the top of his lungs, trying to replicate the valuable experience he had gained just two weeks earlier in the landing operation on Shiuma Island in the Gulf of Riga on the Crimean battlefield.

Thousands of landing troops immediately grabbed submachine guns, light machine guns and grenade launchers and rushed forward. After occupying some positions, they quickly turned east and engaged in firefights with the Lusa people further east on the same defensive line.

The Lussa, who were fighting them, were completely unprepared for the Demacians' unnecessary infiltration and landing operation at this time.

Furthermore, lacking a radio, they were unable to immediately inform their allies of the enemy's surprise attack. Their only recourse was to hold their ground while sending messengers on horseback to the regimental headquarters for reinforcements.

"Hold on! Brothers, hold on! The enemy is definitely going to launch a surprise attack on the bridgehead on the north side of the Trojczyk Bridge! Buy time, don't let them succeed! We need to buy time for our allies on the south bank to retreat! We need to buy time for the division headquarters to send someone to blow up the bridge!"

On the shore, Battalion Commander Lu Sha, who was in charge of this section of the defense line, was quite courageous and repeatedly encouraged his soldiers to hold the line to the death.

Unfortunately, ordinary soldiers had no idea of ​​the strategic significance of holding the western side of the bridgehead and preventing the enemy from advancing towards it.

What does strategic significance have to do with ordinary soldiers? At this moment, ordinary soldiers just want to survive.

As rows of grenades were thrown into the trench, the rat-a-tat-tat of submachine guns drew ever closer, and one comrade after another fell dead beside them.

The remaining defenders were completely overwhelmed and were routed by the surprise attack forces of Student and Falkenhorst. The French battalion commander who still tried to resist was also killed in the chaos.

Student seized the opportunity and organized a commando team to rush toward the north end of the Trojczyk Bridge.

Groups of MG15 light machine guns provided suppressive fire, preventing the machine gunners at the north bank bridgehead from even daring to peek out and observe. They could only blindly fire indiscriminately, greatly reducing their firing efficiency.

One grenade after another was launched from the grenade launcher, tracing graceful high-arc curves as it landed near the bridgehead positions, eliminating M1910 heavy machine gun positions that were concealed by sandbags and cement.

The Lusa people hadn't expected the enemy to arrive so quickly. They hadn't planned to blow up the bridge, so naturally they hadn't pre-planted any explosives. Now, it was too late to hastily find explosives and destroy the bridge's key load-bearing structure.

Around 6:30, Major Student and Major Falkenhorst successfully captured the bridgehead on the north side of the bridge.

A group of MG15 light machine guns were immediately moved into the concrete ruins of the bridgehead, then turned and began firing at the Lusa people. Several other machine guns were aimed directly south, firing bullets at the backs of the Lusa people who were still holding out on the south bank.

Many Lusha soldiers were caught off guard and were shot down from behind by bullets fired from just 400 meters away across the "sea". After a brief period of panic, no Lusha soldier dared to show his face in the open, and no one dared to run across the "cross-sea bridge" to desert.

"Hold on tight, everyone! Commander Rommel will definitely advance here soon. As long as we hold out until his armored vehicle formations get onto the bridge, the rest is up to our allies!"

"Victory! Victory! The Empire will win! Commander Lelouch will win!" The morale of the assault team was high, and every soldier shouted as they fought fiercely, determined to fight to the death.

The Lusa army on the south side of the bridge, realizing that their retreat had been cut off, began to act desperately. Soon they organized a large number of suicide squads and launched an attack along the bridge to the north, attempting to recapture the bridgehead.

In this offensive, many Lushad soldiers were genuinely willing to charge to the death. Because they needed to retreat and escape, they needed to cross this bridge; it was their own way home. At this moment, personal and national interests overlapped, and they were not charging for the Tsar.

However, there was no cover on the bridge. Under the continuous cross-blocking of dozens of MG15 light machine guns, the bridge surface was quickly piled up with corpses of Lusa soldiers trying to cross, forming a barrier more than a meter high. The bridge was blocked so much that the road was cut off, and the soldiers behind no longer had the courage to climb over the pile of corpses to launch an attack.

Just over half an hour later, Rommel's armored vehicles finally came into view in Student.

One or two kilometers away from the south end of the bridge, armored vehicles rumbled toward the bridgehead, and the dense machine gun fire turned all the Lusa people who dared to stay in the unprotected area on both sides of the railway line into sieves.

Rommel was not as reckless as Guderian. Although he would ride in armored vehicles with the army, he would at least not be the first to charge into the front.

Student, on the other side of the bridge, watched for a long time until more than twenty armored vehicles drove across the bridge. Only then did he finally see one of the armored vehicles stop immediately by the roadside after crossing the bridge and open its top cover.

Rommel leaned out of the dark, unlit car, took a breath of fresh air, and glanced at his watch again in the morning sunlight.

"Not bad. In just over two hours, we broke through a 15-kilometer-deep defensive line on the Chankoy Peninsula and captured the cross-sea bridge. It was much faster than the division commander initially planned."

After crossing the bridge, we'll rest briefly and then continue the attack! Let's see if we can reach Troicchi in one go today!

Sterdant and Falkenhorst, who were standing nearby, were both surprised and impressed upon hearing this.

Commander Rommel actually hoped to reach Troicchik in a single day?! That's an advance of 35 kilometers in a single day! What does that even mean?
This is not a simple march, but a continuous attack to break through the enemy's defenses!
If we could truly advance 35 kilometers a day during a sustained offensive, it would absolutely rewrite human military history. Before the mass production of armored vehicles, this was simply unthinkable.

-

P.S.: Two long chapters of 6,000 words each today, bringing the total to 12,000.

There are many details, so I'll write a bit more.

If you think the plot is moving too slowly, feel free to leave a comment.

(End of this chapter)