Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 193 Tanks! Attack!
In the early morning of May 1915, 11.

On the eastern front, in the northern suburbs of Dnipro, at the attack position of a unit of the 6th Army of Demania.

One elite armored training division, two main armies, two cavalry divisions, one army group-level heavy artillery brigade, and several railway artillery units, totaling approximately 10 division-level combat units and 160,000 personnel, have been assembled at the front lines of the vast defense zone around Dnipro, ready to launch an attack at any time.

Along a front approximately 150 kilometers wide, stretching eastward from Dnipro, an offensive force consisting of three corps and a small number of cavalry divisions was deployed along the railway line from Dnipro to Donbas.

Important strongholds along the railway, such as Petrolavlivka, Grishino (the “HJ village” that has become very popular online in the last two years), and Donbas, were each assigned an offensive force of one corps.

The entire main force of the 6th Army has been moved to this front. Their primary objective is to advance northward from Dnipro to Donbas, attack Kharkiv, a key town on the Ukrainian-Northern Railway, and then advance westward along the railway line from Kharkiv, encircling the rear of Kyiv.

Originally, Lelouch's offensive plan as army commander was to advance upstream along both banks of the Dnieper River from Dnieper. However, due to recent changes in the situation, he temporarily adjusted the operation plan, changing it to first heading directly north to Kharkiv.

This is because the only way to get directly from Dnipro to Kiev is by water, and the Dmanian army has no boats on the Dnieper River above Dnipro, and has not captured any boats recently. The progress of building temporary ferries in Dnipro is also not very optimistic.

There are two railways from Dnipro to Kiev, but neither of them runs close to the Dnieper River.

The railway, located on the south bank of the Dnieper River, passes through Pyatkhatki, Klinichki, Sofyivka, and other places. Some of these key cities have temporarily fallen back into the hands of the Russa Army due to their recent counter-offensive in the central sector of the war zone, towards the Krivorog iron ore mine, and are now garrisoned by a part of the Russa Army's main 7th Army.

After Lelouch consulted Marshal Rupprecht, the Marshal also felt that there was no need to confront the enemy's main force head-on. Since the enemy had been allowed into the middle, when they launched their counterattack, they should take a longer route and try to avoid the middle.

Therefore, the Duke made a last-minute decision to change the route from the Dnipro-Russian frontier northward around Kiev, from Pyatkhatki-Krinichki to Kharkiv.

Moreover, Kharkiv is one of the two major railway hubs in northern Kievan Rus'. Apart from Kyiv, Kharkiv is the only other railway hub with access to places like Mosko-Minsk in the north.

Taking Kharkiv sooner would also prevent the coal, food, and other supplies stockpiled there from being transported north back to the heart of the Lobsang region.

In short, if you take down Kharkiv while attacking Kiev, you'll definitely make more money.

The only thing to consider is: what will be the cost?

The cost is that the assault troops of the 6th Army Group have to take a slightly longer route and cover a greater distance.

Originally, advancing along the north bank of the Dnieper River, the total distance from Dnipropetrovsk to Kyiv was approximately 400 kilometers. However, with the new route, the main force will have to detour slightly from Dnipropetrovsk to Poltava, and then from Poltava to Kyiv, a total distance of 430 kilometers, adding 30 kilometers to the journey. (Dnipropetrovsk to Poltava: 120 kilometers; Poltava to Kyiv: 310 kilometers)

The vanguard assault force, on the other hand, had to take a longer route, first heading north 150 kilometers to Kharkiv, then detouring 110 kilometers southwest to Poltava, and finally the 310-kilometer stretch from Poltava to Kyiv, making the total distance as long as 560 kilometers.

In other words, the main infantry force would have to march 30 kilometers further than originally planned, while the vanguard armored assault troops and cavalry would have to march a full 160 kilometers further. (This was mainly because there was no direct railway from Dnipro to Poltava; it required a detour to Kharkiv, so the attacking forces also had to take a detour to ensure control of the railway. The specific attack route is shown in the diagram below.)

However, after assessment, Duke Rupprecht concluded that this level of difficulty was entirely achievable.

Lelouch also believed that with the enemy's low morale and the shock effect of his tank division's first battle, he could definitely achieve such a goal. He had confidence in his armored division.

Ultimately, the actual battle plan was adjusted to look like this.

The Lussa forces on the opposite side had a total of 5 army groups, while the German and Austro-Hungarian forces had 3 army groups.

The entire front stretched from Rivne and Vinnica in the far west; to Krivorog and Sofievka in the middle section of the Dnieper River bend; and finally to Dnipro and Donbas in the east.

To the west lies the Demanian 10th Army, led by Field Marshal Leopold, which is confronting the Lussa 13th Army, which was transferred from Belarus.
In the middle section was the Austrian 3rd Army, along with a portion of Romanian auxiliary forces, responsible for defending against the Lussars' strongest 4th and 7th Armies in the Southwestern Front;
Given the relatively weak fighting capabilities of the Austrian and Romanian armies, Marshals Leopold and Rupprecht tacitly agreed not to assign any deep counter-offensive missions to the Austrian army. The Austrian army's task was to hold back the enemy's central offensive forces, deplete their offensive strength, and even retreat slightly if necessary, as long as they did not break through the Dnieper River defense line and thus cut off the eastern and western fronts.

In the eastern section of the front, the German 6th Army was responsible for facing the Russian 9th Army (a newly rebuilt reserve army that had moved south from the Kursk region).

Finally, deep in the rear of the Russo-Japanese Army, the newly replenished Russo-Japanese 6th Army was deployed around Kiev. It served as the general reserve for the entire Russo-Japanese Army Group and as the force responsible for defending the rear.

So in reality, it was three German and Austrian army groups, plus two armored divisions and several cavalry divisions, against the five army groups fighting the Lussacks, plus several Cossack cavalry divisions.

德第10集团军此战参战兵力约35万人，奥第3集团军25万人、罗马尼亚人8万，德第6集团军38万人，加上两个独立的、经过加强的装甲师一共6万人、若干骑兵师5万人，战役总兵力117万人。

As mentioned earlier, the forces on the Lusa side consist of a total of 5 army groups, 26 corps, and 85 divisions, totaling 152 million men.

The total number of troops involved on both sides reached an astonishing 269 million, making it the largest battle in this world war.

……

November 12, 4:11 AM.

The German 6th Army's offensive positions along the Dnipro-Donbas line are fully prepared.

The entire army group assembled more than 1600 artillery pieces and launched a fierce artillery barrage simultaneously at four forward nodes: Dnipropetrovsk, Petrolavlivka, Grishino, and Donbas.

Dnipro was the primary target of the attack, with 700 artillery pieces assembled there, including six 280mm railway guns.

The Donbas region was the second main target of the attack, with 500 artillery pieces concentrated there, while the other two locations, Petrolavlivka and Grishino, each had only about 200 artillery pieces.

Like rain, artillery shells suddenly pierced the night sky in the darkest hour before dawn, crashing down on the French forward positions to the north with overwhelming force.

In an instant, the sky collapsed and the earth cracked. Everything was destroyed. 150 mm and 105 mm high-explosive grenades, each carrying 12 kg and 4 kg of TNT respectively, bombarded the Lusa people's defenses. When they hit the trenches, they collapsed and collapsed. When they hit the bunkers, they were instantly turned into dust.

On the front lines, thousands of Lusa soldiers were killed or wounded by artillery fire at every section. The casualties were even more severe in Dnipro and Donbas, the two key attack points along the railway.

At least 10 kilometers from the front line, the Lusha army abandoned the positions directly, knowing that the front lines were simply undefendable.

In particular, the 9th Army Group of the Russian Federation had just been reorganized from the reserves, and most of its soldiers had never actually been on the battlefield. Only about 10% to 20% of the soldiers were veterans transferred from other friendly forces to mentor the new recruits.

Such troops actually have very weak willpower when facing heavy artillery bombardment. The generals and officers are also well aware of the kind of people their soldiers are.

Fortunately, the eastern front has great depth, so abandoning a mere 10 kilometers or so is not a big deal. We can continue to organize a deeper defense and slowly wear down the Demacians' momentum.

The bombardment lasted for a full 90 minutes. After the bombardment was completed, at 5:30 a.m., the Demacian army finally launched a full-scale ground offensive.

In the direction of Dnipro, a fully-fledged tank division was advancing northward as the vanguard.

In the Donbas direction, several cavalry divisions were deployed along the railway line, ready to infiltrate and quickly advance along the railway to outflank the enemy after the infantry broke through the first line of defense.

In the middle sections of Petrolavlivka and Grishino, Marshal Rupprecht did not assign armored or cavalry forces, relying instead on infantry to advance steadily along the front line.

……

Lelouch himself sat atop a specially designed 10-ton machine gun tank, leading his tank division.
Starting from Samar, a small town a dozen kilometers north of Dnieper, we continued north along the Samarra River, a tributary on the north bank of the Dnieper River, to another small town, Gorubivka, about 10 kilometers away.

The reason why Lelouch's tank is said to be specially made is that the Demacian army now has two types of tanks: one is a 10-ton tank with a 57mm short-barreled cannon, and the other is a 7-ton machine gun tank without a cannon.

Lelouch's tank, despite weighing 10 tons, was not equipped with a cannon, retaining the firepower of a machine gun tank. The main difference lay in the fact that Lelouch's tank was equipped with a more powerful radio, which could overcome the limitation of ordinary tank radios' daytime communication range of only 10-30 kilometers, achieving a daytime wireless communication range of over 100 kilometers.

Of course, a single radio with increased transmission power wouldn't require a payload of two or three tons. However, the size of the large radio limited the mounting of the cannon, so to avoid wasting payload, the remaining one ton or so was temporarily allocated to the armor. The tank's side and frontal armor were thickened by 5-10 millimeters to further enhance its safety, and it was used as a command tank.

Before the start of the war, the Porsche-Skoda arms factory had managed to complete more than 200 tanks. Lelouch adapted to this scale of equipment by reorganizing the two armored regiments under his armored division into two tank battalions in each regiment and three tank companies in each battalion.

每个班组1辆坦克，一个连16个班组就是16辆，加上连长开始配1辆指挥坦克，每连就是17辆。每个营51辆，加上营部配3辆就是54辆。

每个坦克团乘以2就是108辆，再加上团部3辆就是111辆。师一级再乘以2就是222辆，加上师部3辆合计225辆。保时捷博士一共也只来得及给鲁路修生产这么多，他只剩下10几辆可以机动安排的备用车，其他全都编进去了。

The armored division advanced northward with unstoppable momentum, and the initial march went very smoothly. There was almost no enemy resistance along the way for 10 kilometers, and the Lusa people's forward positions were all destroyed by artillery fire.

Lelouch arrived at the town of Gorubivka without firing a shot. As the tank passed the mayor's residence, he glanced at his watch; it was only 5:40 a.m., and the entire journey took just over half an hour.

The biggest obstacle along the way was actually the shell craters created by our own artillery fire, which slowed down the tanks' marching speed.

"Keep going! We've only driven a dozen kilometers, no need to refuel yet, don't stop!"

With a wave of his hand, Lelouch ordered the armored division to continue rolling forward, advancing several kilometers north along the Samara River and the Dnipropetrov-Kharkov railway.

It wasn't until they encountered a small town at the confluence of three rivers that they finally met some decent resistance from Lusha's army.

This small town at the confluence of three rivers is called Pellesepino, and it has a population of just over 10,000.

However, the town is located at the confluence of the Samara River and its tributary, the Oreli River. The Dnipropetrov-Kharkov railway has to cross a small railway bridge over the Oreli River in the town center when it passes through the town, so although the town is small, it is a strategic location.

In addition, this place is a full 17 kilometers away from the front-line positions early in the morning, so the Demacian army's artillery preparations could not reach that far and deep.

Therefore, the garrison in Lusa Town was relatively well-preserved, with an entire infantry division ordered to defend the town to the death and prevent the enemy from crossing the railway bridge.

The division commander defending the town received a death order from the army group commander: even if the town eventually falls, the railway bridge over the Aurelius River must be destroyed before it falls, or else he will be executed.

"The Demacians are attacking! They definitely have armored vehicles! Do one last check on the trenches! Make sure to cut the railway as well, and don't leave any flat weak points on the defensive line! Otherwise, the enemy's armored vehicles will charge in along those flat areas!"

When the DPRK division commander saw the enemy's armored vehicles appear on the horizon through his binoculars, he trembled slightly and hurriedly reiterated the importance of combat tactics.

The story of Lelouch's advance of 42 kilometers in a single day using armored vehicles, breaking through the natural barriers of the Zankoy and Trojic Peninsulas, which took place 50 days ago, is now deeply ingrained in people's minds.

All the generals of the Luftwaffe learned a profound lesson from that battle, and from then on, when defending towns along the railway line, they never dared to cut off the railway for the sake of convenience or their own transportation.

They knew they couldn't leave any gaps in the trenches on the defensive line, because those armored vehicles couldn't be stopped by infantry firepower.

The only hope was that the trench was wide and deep enough to prevent the enemy from crossing. To ensure that the enemy could not cross, the trench had to be dug completely. When passing a railway, it was better to cut off the railway as well than to leave any breaks in the trench.

……

While the opposing ROKS division commander was observing Lelouch's armored division, Lelouch was also observing the enemy's movements through the artillery scope.

"The enemy has not deployed any direct-fire artillery along the river. The only artillery they have should be deployed in the rear, ready to provide indirect fire support when we cross the river."

The accuracy of this indirect fire is so low that it is difficult to hit a tank directly; it relies entirely on shrapnel to kill infantry, but shrapnel is completely ineffective against tanks.

Take advantage of this opportunity and immediately send a tank company to charge along the railway bridge, cross the trench, and establish a bridgehead position on the other side.

Once the bridgehead is established, half-tracks will immediately transport the infantry to follow. Well, the first wave will only need a mechanized infantry battalion.

After observing the situation, Lelouch immediately issued a very simple, direct, and brutal order: charge forward without any firepower.

His actions, though seemingly reckless, actually stemmed from a deep understanding of the enemy's reaction speed—only an hour had passed since their ground offensive began, and the town was located 17 kilometers behind the front lines. The defenders here had no idea that the enemy's armored forces would appear so quickly, so their defensive deployments had not yet had time to be adjusted accordingly.

At such times, it is essential to fully utilize the element of surprise in the initial tank engagement and expand the gains as quickly as possible.

Lelouch had no time to wait for the division's artillery units to catch up; he couldn't even wait for fighter jet air support.

The 17 tanks quickly formed a small formation of five triangular blocks and charged toward the trench defense line by the river.

"The Demanian armored vehicles are coming up!" Lusa's soldiers began to fire heavily with machine guns, and then called for artillery support, and shells began to fall on the position.

However, when these long-range indirect fire artillery pieces fire at moving targets, they rely on artillery observation posts to report the positions rather than the gunners aiming directly at them; it would be a miracle if they could even hit the target.

The M1910 heavy machine gun's fierce "rat-a-tat-tat" fire only sent sparks flying off the tank's armor, having no effect whatsoever.

Seeing that their defensive firepower was ineffective, large numbers of Lusa soldiers immediately began to flee in fear.

Many people were still fleeing in panic when they were mowed down and killed by machine gun fire from behind, dying in droves in the area between the two trenches.

The DPRK division and regimental commanders guarding the town also saw the miserable state of the soldiers on the front lines through their binoculars, and they all gritted their teeth, unable to speak.

They could only pray silently: "The trenches we dug earlier were thorough enough, leaving no blind spots. Although the enemy's armored vehicles can't be penetrated by bullets, at least they can't get past the obstacles..."

However, this prayer was dashed within minutes.

Because the DPRK division commander guarding the town watched helplessly as Lelouch's tanks drove up to the trenches and then easily crossed them. Within minutes, they traversed several trenches and drove straight onto the railway bridge spanning the Aurelius River.

"What? This is impossible! How could those armored vehicles drive straight across the trenches? Won't their wheels get stuck? And the rainy season isn't over yet; the land along the banks of the Aurelius River is especially muddy and soft. Even without trenches, they couldn't have driven across so easily! God! What happened?!"

The enemy's armored vehicles have the same armor and the same firepower.

However, the ability to cross obstacles and traverse terrain has undergone a dramatic change, exceeding the comprehension of the commander of Lusa.

He had no idea that the muddy riverbanks and trenches would be breached so quickly, and he hadn't even had time to arrange for the engineering corps to plant explosives on the railway bridge.

The entire railway bridge was captured by the Demacians' unknown new armored vehicles!
The MG08 heavy machine gun fired a barrage of bullets at the French positions on the north bank of the bridge.

The 57mm short-barreled cannon also turned around with the vehicle and fired directly at the machine gun bunker at the bridgehead.

The only two concrete bunkers guarding the bridgehead of the Lusa people were also blown open by the direct bombardment of 57mm shells. Some of the soldiers inside were crushed to death by the collapsed buildings, and those who were lucky enough to survive hurriedly fled the collapsed shelters, but they could not escape the pursuit and strafing of tanks and machine guns, and one by one they fell in pools of blood.

"Our troops have made unimpeded progress, breaking through the Aurelius River defense line with zero casualties, and have completely captured the Pellesepino railway bridge that spans the Aurelius River."

After capturing the bridgehead on the north bank, the tank company commander triumphantly reported the victory to the regimental and divisional commanders over the radio.

Lelouch immediately ordered the radio operator to relay the order for a mechanized infantry battalion to cross the bridge and deploy on the north bank.

At the same time, he ordered the vanguard tank battalion: "The mechanized infantry brothers will be responsible for controlling the flank positions. Your mission is to keep advancing!"

(End of this chapter)