Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 182 The Cossack Terminator Arrives in His Loyal Zaporige
Lelouch had no time to care about the turmoil he had stirred up and the devastating impact it had on the rear.

He is now only thinking about how to advance to Zaporozhye as soon as possible and completely cut off the retreat of Rusa's 6th Army.

The army group, which had been half-annihilated in July but had been rebuilt, was to be completely annihilated once again.

At noon on September 25, Lelouch personally led an armored regiment, a mechanized infantry regiment, and a motorized infantry regiment, totaling about 9 men, braving the still-intense autumn sun, and advanced northward along the railway line from Melitopol to Zaporozhye.

After annihilating the security forces in two more towns along the way, Lelouch reluctantly allowed the troops to stop and rest for an hour or two in the newly captured towns, avoiding the hottest part of the afternoon, and also to have lunch and cool down the armored vehicles.

Armored vehicles of this era are simply not man-made.

Historically, the first generation of tanks, whether manufactured by Britannia or Demania, completely disregarded ergonomic design, combat environment, and engine cooling. After prolonged use, the interior temperature could easily soar to over 50 degrees Celsius.

The first-generation armored vehicle built by Dr. Porsche also didn't have time to consider those issues, so the harshness of the combat environment was exactly the same. These problems couldn't be solved in less than a year or two.

It's not the dead of winter now, and with the scorching sun, the interior of a car can easily reach 60 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

Lelouch had already drunk at least 5 liters of water in one morning, but he was still sweating profusely and looked like he had just been pulled out of a swimming pool.

All the smart uniforms were no longer wearable, so he reluctantly wore a silk bulletproof vest as underwear, along with a steel helmet, and nothing else.

After managing to eat a piece of bread and drink a cup of room-temperature coffee, Lelouch gave the two pickled sausages that were originally allocated to him to the armored vehicle driver and gunner, so that his subordinates who did physical labor could have some more nourishment.

He himself, a mental worker who sits and directs, has lost his appetite even for greasy and salty food.

Setting down his coffee cup, he casually asked the divisional staff officer in the other car next to him, "How far are we from Zaporizhzhia?"

Divisional staff officer: "Reporting to the division commander, there are still 80 kilometers to go. We definitely won't be able to reach the city today unless we travel through the night. We might be able to reach it in the early hours of tomorrow morning. But with our strength, we are absolutely incapable of attacking the city. It is the headquarters of the enemy's 6th Army Group, and there are at least two main divisions defending it."

The straight-line distance between Melitopol and Zaporozhye is more than 120 kilometers. In reality, if you travel along the railway, considering that the railway occasionally turns left and right, the actual distance will be even longer, making it impossible to reach the destination in one day.

Previously, the distance from Trojicic to Melitopol was only 90 kilometers, and it was normal to finish that section in a day and a night. But now, this section is at least a third longer than yesterday's distance.

Lelouch assessed, "It's alright. I didn't expect to take on the siege by ourselves anyway. As long as we advance to the vicinity of Zaporizhzhia and completely cut off this railway, the strategic objective will be achieved. For the subsequent siege, we can rely on friendly forces to follow up and attack the city with large infantry groups."

You guys should make a plan. Try to advance to within 50-60 kilometers of Zaporizhzhia before dark tonight. At least get to Mihalifka, and if you're really aggressive, aim for Vasilifka.

Then, at 8 p.m., the handover took place. Our three regiments then went into rest, while Deputy Division Commander Rommel took over, aiming to reach the southern outskirts of Zaporizhzhia before 8 a.m. the next morning.

After the orders were deployed, the subordinates immediately began to make corresponding adjustments. The troops rested until 1:30 p.m. before leaving the town again and advancing northward.

……

After the troops advanced north again, about an hour and a half later...

At 3 p.m., when Lelouch had advanced to the southern outskirts of Vasilifka, 65 kilometers from Zaporozhye, the accident still occurred.

The forward reconnaissance company of the armored regiment transmitted an urgent radio message in plain text, which the radio operator read aloud without much translation:

"Report to the division commander! The reconnaissance company has spotted a blocking force, suspected to be an enemy Cossack cavalry division, about 5 kilometers ahead of them! There seem to be two divisions! They are about 9 kilometers away from us. The reconnaissance company has stopped advancing after encountering the enemy and is waiting for us to close in."

When Lelouch's armored forces marched, their formation was relatively spread out, with the armored reconnaissance company leading the main force of the regiment by 3 kilometers to scout ahead. The mechanized infantry regiment and motorized infantry regiment followed behind in turn, maintaining a formation 2 to 3 kilometers apart from each other.

When the vanguard encounters the enemy, they should immediately stop advancing and spread out slightly to the left and right, waiting for the main force to catch up before changing into a battle formation.

Upon learning that the vanguard had encountered enemy activity, Lelouch immediately ordered the entire army to accelerate their advance and rush to the rescue of the reconnaissance company.

After a high-speed drive, just a few minutes later, Lelouch saw a reconnaissance company ahead, a total of nine armored vehicles, about to be surrounded by Cossack cavalry from the Lusa people.

According to the organization provided by Lelouch, a fully equipped armored company has 14 armored vehicles, and an armored regiment has 6 companies and 84 vehicles.

However, after several days of fierce fighting, the troops' equipment suffered many battle damages and malfunctions, so today this reconnaissance company only has 9 vehicles left to be deployed.

Seeing that the Demanian vanguard reconnaissance force was isolated, the opposing Cossack cavalry division, taking advantage of their small numbers, planned to swarm in from all directions to overwhelm them and take advantage of their numbers.

……

These cavalrymen weren't stupid either. Although most of them were still wielding sabers instead of rifles, they all had pistols tucked into their waistbands and grenades hanging from their belts.

The cavalry officers had heard about the power of the enemy's new weapons from the rapid and disastrous defeats of their allies in the previous two days, and they were hoping that hand grenades could destroy these iron turtles in close combat.

"Don't be afraid! Spread out and charge from all sides! There are very few enemies! Their machine guns can't be turned around easily, so charging from the flanks and rear will definitely kill them!"

"As long as you can capture enemy armored vehicles and bring them back, even if they are just wreckage, ordinary soldiers can be promoted to majors immediately! Lieutenants and above will be promoted two ranks! Field officers will be promoted one rank directly!"

A Cossack division commander led his troops in a frenzied attack, and reiterated the new bounty that Army Front Commander General Pavel Pleve had just promised that morning.

The threat posed by the enemy's armored assault forces had reached the emperor's ears, prompting a personal phone call from His Majesty the Tsar inquiring about the matter. The army commander, of course, was generous with rewards and titles to entice the brave warriors to fight.

The Cossacks, who were inherently bloodthirsty and vengeful, were immediately enraged by these promises and charged towards the armored vehicle formation.

On the Demanian side, the armored reconnaissance company commander also dared not slack off. When he first noticed that the Lusa were extending to the left and right flanks and trying to surround them from all sides, he decisively ordered them to turn around and try to create distance.

However, the enemy was too numerous, and their attack direction was too cunning. Crucially, the armored vehicles of this era lacked rotating machine gun turrets; once they turned to retreat, the machine guns lost their firing range. Seeing the enemy closing in, the German armored reconnaissance company had no choice but to turn back and engage them again.

The heavy machine guns began to fire fiercely at the Lusha cavalry, sweeping down swathes of the enemy in front of them. Hundreds of men and horses lay dead on the grassland in an instant.

But the Cossacks surged in from all directions. After a large area in front was cleared, those on the flanks rushed closer and closer.

"Turn around immediately! Point the front of the vehicle in the direction the enemy is charging!"

"No, we should form a vehicle formation. We can't waste firepower fighting individually! There should be three vehicles, each with six heavy machine guns, in one direction! Otherwise, we'll be overwhelmed!"

As the fighting progressed, the German reconnaissance company commander realized something was wrong. He wished they had machine guns that could rotate 360 ​​degrees, but for now, they could only have all the tanks arranged in a circle with their front ends facing outwards to ensure that there were machine guns suppressing the enemy from every direction.

Even so, during the brief period of chaos in the formation change, quite a few Cossack cavalrymen rushed forward and threw a large number of grenades at the armored vehicle group.

Although cavalrymen were being slaughtered in droves and falling in pools of blood, at least dozens of grenades still flew into the vehicle formation.

A series of muffled thuds erupted as no grenade could penetrate the armor of the armored vehicle, not even the 10mm side armor.

However, the armored vehicle has a relatively high chassis, and its wheels are very large, especially in order to adapt to off-road terrain on grasslands and the muddy environments it may face in the future.

Even with articulated 10mm steel side skirts hanging nearby to shield against bullets, some ricocheting and rolling grenades still ended up under the vehicle and exploded.

The bottom leaf springs, drive shaft, and underbody support, which were not protected by armor, were successively damaged by grenades. Although the vehicle body remained intact and the occupants inside were not killed, the power transmission system was rendered useless.

Fortunately, the wagon formation was finally set up, and all the heavy machine guns fired in different directions to form a tight fire net, which finally wiped out the remaining Cossack cavalry and forced them to retreat completely.

Only a hundred or so cavalrymen had entered the armored vehicle formation, hiding in the blind spots of the machine gun emplacements, and continuing to throw grenades at close range to cause damage.

Some brave German soldiers accompanying the vehicle, unwilling to sit idly by and await their fate, had no choice but to lift the roof of the armored vehicle, stick out their upper bodies, and extend an MG15 light machine gun or an MP15 submachine gun to fire at the cavalrymen who were within dozens of meters. The cavalrymen also retaliated, using pistols to fight back against the accompanying infantry who dared to show their heads.

After a fierce battle, the cavalry that had successfully closed in were gradually wiped out, and Lelouch's main armored regiment arrived in the distance, beginning to use a large number of MG15 machine guns to frantically sweep the enemy cavalry surrounding their comrades, thus ending the encounter battle.

"How are the losses of the reconnaissance company?" Lelouch asked with concern as soon as he arrived at the battlefield.

"Both armored vehicles were destroyed. During the final counterattack, some soldiers opened the hatches and leaned out to fight back with light machine guns and submachine guns, but they were hit by grenades thrown by the enemy."

Five more vehicles had their transmission systems damaged by the explosion, caused by grenades rolling underneath them. It's estimated that the driveshafts and differential gears will need to be replaced. Our troops suffered 8 killed and 27 wounded. The dead were hit in the head and neck by bullets while firing at enemy cavalry, while the wounded were mostly injured inside the vehicles by the blast.

They killed or wounded at least a thousand enemy cavalrymen, equivalent to annihilating at least six cavalry companies.

The officers around him quickly tallied up the battle losses and results.

Lelouch couldn't help but sigh after hearing this: "These Cossacks are too barbaric. They are much more fearless than the Britannian cavalry. We need to strengthen the size of the reconnaissance company and shorten the marching distance between units. We can't go too far forward anymore."

The inevitable has finally arrived. Our advance was so rapid that the enemy's regular reinforcements couldn't keep up, forcing them to use Cossack cavalry to slow us down. We may encounter even more cavalry later, potentially several divisions in size.

The reconnaissance company commander, who had also sustained minor injuries, came over despite the pain to report to his superior: "Reporting, Division Commander! We didn't initially think there was anything wrong with the armored vehicle."

However, in this kind of mobile warfare, if the enemy attacks from all sides, the inability of the heavy machine gun to rotate is a huge disadvantage. The original fixed machine guns are only effective in frontal assaults. Can this be modified?

Lelouch shook his head: "It can't be changed right now. Adding a rotating machine gun turret would make the structure far too complex, and the current vehicle body wouldn't be able to handle the tonnage. At least a six- or seven-ton vehicle body would need to be upgraded to ten tons for a full upgrade."

However, what you said is indeed something we need to take seriously. We hadn't anticipated encountering this tactic of enemy cavalry charging from all sides and throwing grenades. Here's what we'll do: I'll urgently request 300 sets of bulletproof steel armor and 300 heavy, specially made steel helmets with neck protectors from the rear. These will be worn by the machine gunners who are leaning out from the roofs to operate the machine guns.”

By 1915, the Demacian army already had bulletproof armor made entirely of steel, with steel plates ranging from 4 to 8 millimeters thick. The thickest 8-millimeter plate was almost as thick as the side armor of a tank and could withstand continuous machine gun fire.

This bizarre weapon survived throughout World War I before being phased out. Its bulletproof effect was definitely not a problem, but it was too heavy, weighing several tens of kilograms. It could only be worn by heavy machine gunners at fixed firing positions, and once worn, they could hardly move.

(Note: Readers with pictures can post them in the comments. I couldn't find any pictures of this bulletproof armor.)
However, if it's combat inside a vehicle, the person is already sitting in the machine gun position with their upper body sticking out, so there's no issue with mobility.

Moreover, the version designed for vehicle-mounted machine gunners doesn't require consideration of the lower body; they can simply wear the upper chest and back armor, reducing the weight to under 20 kilograms.

Lelouch acted immediately, sending another telegram back, relaying the message through the chain of command.

Finally, the Duke received the order and granted him special permission to have the bulletproof armor made within 48 hours and delivered to the front lines by train.

This 48-hour period includes transit time, and it cannot be any faster.

Lelouch was given this special treatment because he was the Duke's most trusted lieutenant and had just performed a great service. Otherwise, no one else would have received such treatment.

After sending the telegram, Lelouch couldn't just sit idly by and continued to lead the armored forces in a sustained attack.

In the last few hours of the afternoon, the enemy resistance they encountered did indeed become increasingly fierce.

At 4 o'clock sharp, Lelouch encountered a bloody battle in which he was surrounded by three Cossack cavalry divisions.

His entire armored regiment was besieged by the enemy, who were fearless and swift as the wind.

A fierce hail of machine gun fire swept down swathes of enemy cavalry across the grasslands, their blood staining the wild grass, creating an exaggerated scene of violent aesthetics.

Towards the end, Lelouch began to worry that his armored regiment might run out of machine gun ammunition—after all, he could only deploy about 60 armored vehicles at a time, each carrying only a few thousand rounds of ammunition. What would he do when all 20-plus rounds of machine gun ammunition were used up?
Fortunately, this situation did not occur in the end. When Lelouch had only used a few hundred thousand bullets, the mechanized infantry regiment caught up and worked together to help Lelouch out of the predicament.

Looking at the thousands more corpses on the ground, Lelouch felt a deep sense of exhaustion.

Information travels so slowly these days. How come there are always so many fearless people who don't know that their allies have already suffered the same fate?

Are these Cossacks illiterate or unable to understand rumors?

Fortunately, this was also the last time the cavalry would launch such a fearless and desperate charge against the armored regiment.

After the bloody battle on the evening of the 25th, the Cossacks adjusted their tactics that night.

They began to bypass Lelouch's armored regiment, which was an absolute tough nut to crack, and then launched a sneak attack on the mechanized infantry regiment and motorized infantry regiment behind them.

Or they could simply send out cavalry companies or battalions to sabotage the railway lines behind Lelouch.

That same night, a military train carrying supplies to the front-line armored assault troops from the rear derailed due to railway damage, and several of its carriages were blown up by railway bombs planted by the Lussa people.

While machine guns were highly effective at slaughtering cavalry, they also consumed an astonishing amount of ammunition. When firing at distant enemies, it could take hundreds of rounds to kill a single one.

Anyone who doubts this number can play a game of PUBG and see for themselves. See how many bullets it takes to kill a car or motorcycle driver with a machine gun without a scope and using iron sights.

Killing several thousand Cossack cavalrymen meant consuming millions of machine gun bullets, which Lelouch simply couldn't transport with his army.

He had no choice but to slow down his advance and wait for more infantry to come up and reinforce the railway line, so that the entire railway line could be fortified and controlled.

At the same time, he had to change the original "two shifts" attack plan to one unit focusing on the attack and resting when tired.

The other half of the armored vehicles and half-track vehicles were converted into mobile defense forces, patrolling along the railway line and ready to provide assistance at any time.

If a sentry on guard duty encounters a large enemy cavalry force launching a full-scale attack, the armored units should be notified immediately to provide support.

In this way, as soon as the Cossack cavalry appeared, an armored vehicle regiment would rush to their aid within half an hour. Together with the railway embankment troops defending the railway, they would attack from both sides and wipe out the Cossack cavalry.

After suffering two more heavy losses, the Cossacks were finally forced to gradually abandon this tactic.

Ultimately, the original plan to arrive in Zaporizhzhia on the morning of the 26th was delayed until the 28th.

The Demanian railway was destroyed three times, resulting in the loss of several supply trains. The soldiers guarding the railway also suffered one or two thousand casualties.

But over the course of three days, the Cossack cavalry suffered at least 2 casualties, completely holding back Lelouch's advance by sheer human lives.

However, although the pace slowed down a bit, the Demacian army fought more solidly.

The extra two days allowed more infantry divisions to follow up smoothly, making the flank of this breakthrough even more solid and robust. The engineering corps also worked day and night to dig temporary trenches along both sides of the railway line, so that their defenses would be more effective should they encounter enemy cavalry breakouts or harassment.

"Originally, we planned to fight for 80 hours, advance a total of 260 kilometers, and reach the outskirts of Zaporozhye. In the end, it took 120 hours to advance 260 kilometers, and we even had several supply trains destroyed."

Looking at the buildings on the southern outskirts of Zaporige City, appearing in the field of vision of the artillery scope, Lelouch was quite moved.

In any case, the encirclement has been completed.

The mere two-day time difference did not give Lusha's main force, stationed at the Kherson-Yamiansk front, any opportunity to retreat and break out.

These three main forces of the 6th Army Group of Lusha are destined to be encircled and annihilated.

(End of this chapter)