Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 198 Let's see who can't hold on any longer
"So the change that happened three days ago that you mentioned is that after so much preparation, the people of Burkina Faso finally invaded Greece and installed a traitorous prime minister as a puppet."
They intend to use this method to open a wider ground offensive front to encircle the Ottomans and capture Istanbul and the Straits as quickly as possible? And you have already sent a mountain regiment as advisors and key personnel to assist the Greek army in defense?

The scene shifts back to December 1st, at the 6th Army headquarters in Poltava. This was the latest military intelligence the Duke had told Lelouch at lunch. After patiently listening, Lelouch succinctly summarized it in his own words, finally confirming it.

Because he was busy encircling and annihilating the enemy forces in Poltava and Kharkiv, the Duke did not want him to be distracted in advance, so he did not transmit any news from the outside world to the soldiers for three whole days.

After all, the enemy's allies have launched a new coordinated offensive, which could theoretically damage one's own morale.

If ordinary Demacian soldiers knew that the Burghers might break through the straits in a short time, they would worry that their current logistical route along the Black Sea coastline might be too long and unsafe. This would affect the soldiers' focus and fighting spirit.

"Yes, that's the situation. I see you can't calm down anyway, so I'll explain it to you first." The Duke readily acknowledged Lelouch's accurate summary, then added a reminder.
"But this matter should be kept secret from ordinary soldiers for now, and the news should not be allowed to spread. At most, the generals at your division level should be aware of it, and then try to fight as quickly as possible. Don't put pressure on the middle and lower-ranking officers, so as not to cause them to make mistakes in the chaos."

My plan is to wait until the encirclement around Kyiv is complete, then send a portion of my troops south to support Greece via land from Bulgaria or the Ottoman border, and directly attack the Bulgarian army that landed in Thessaloniki.

We cannot transport a large army to Athens by taking a detour; the sea routes would be blocked by the enemy. Our only option is a pincer attack from the north and south. The Greek army will hold the line in the south, while we attack from the north.

Lelouch recalled a general map and terrain of Greece in his mind and felt that the Duke's arrangement was not problematic.

Greece itself has a standing army of three divisions, totaling just over 20,000 men. Mobilizing them now is impossible; they can only hope that these 20,000 veterans can use the complex terrain of southern Greece to buy time. Ultimately, the key to ending the battle lies in the main Demacian army marching south.

After careful consideration, Lelouch offered two suggestions: "I think that since Greece is mountainous, if King Constantine really can't hold out, we don't have to defend Athens to the death. Even if we retreat across the Isthmus of Corinth and go up the mountain to defend it, we can buy time and wait for a change in the situation."

Furthermore, you mentioned that according to the latest information, the Bretonnia have also deployed Rolls-Royce armored vehicles there, possibly several dozen? Our standard anti-tank weapons are still under development. If they cannot withstand the Bretonnia's armored vehicles, we can try the tactic of firing field artillery directly at the target.

We can also make some temporary, simple anti-tank weapons. I tried this when I was in Prague discussing future anti-tank tactics with people from DWM, Skoda, and Porsche. They should have made some prototypes as well.

DWM seems to have a sticky grenade that doesn't contain fragmentation material, but only nitroglycerin explosive. The inner wall is made of a fragile material, and the outside is covered with a layer of sticky putty. Currently, only experimental samples are available, and it's not very mature yet, but it should be enough to supply Greece temporarily.

If all else fails, we can make even simpler Molotov cocktails on the spot, using the thickened fuel we previously gave to flamethrower soldiers, but preferably mixed with more explosives than the flamethrower fuel. This way, it will have both incendiary and explosive power, which should pose a threat to lightly armored targets with 8-10 mm of armor.

Lelouch offered two ideas in one go, which invigorated Duke Rupprecht, who immediately had them written down and added them to the Greek airships when they were replenishing supplies.

In fact, the explosive power of traditional explosive weapons is certainly sufficient to deal with current armored targets.

The reason why humans were initially at a loss when they encountered tanks and armored vehicles was mainly because those explosive weapons could not be directly attached to the surface of the armor to detonate.

If the explosive cannot directly hit the armored vehicle, or if the fuse is not sensitive enough to detonate instantly after impact, but instead detonates after the blast has deflected, its destructive power against the armor will be very weak.

Only by detonating directly against the armor can the armor be shattered, or it may cause some fragments to be shattered from the inner wall of the other side of the armor by the blast shock wave, killing the crew in the confined space inside the vehicle—in short, this is the principle behind later armor-piercing projectiles.

The "sticky bombs" used by the U.S. military during World War II, also known as "socks" by gamers in "Company of Heroes/Men of War," were essentially pure explosive, fragmentation-free hand grenades that could stick to tank armor before detonating.

After sticking it on, it explodes, which is equivalent to making the armor of the enemy's armored vehicle itself play the role of "shell", completely shattering the shell or at least shaking out some fragments on the other side.

The three main categories of anti-armor technology in later generations are armor-piercing projectiles, high-explosive anti-tank projectiles, and high-explosive fragmentation projectiles.

Armor-piercing projectiles have the highest requirements for hard technology and materials science, making them difficult to achieve at low cost. They are not afraid of enemies copying their technology because if the industrial base is not good, they can't even copy the answer.

The technological sophistication of armor-piercing projectiles and high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles decreases progressively. HEAT projectiles are the least sophisticated of the three and are also the easiest to defend against. As long as multi-layered or slightly composite armor is developed in the future, and armor is not made of pure homogeneous steel, it can stop HEAT projectiles.

Therefore, Lelouch is not afraid to use anti-tank weapons based on the armor-shattering principle as a temporary measure.

Even if the enemy learns from our mistakes and we learn from them, when we build tanks in the future, whether it's applying an adhesive coating to the outer armor, adding side skirts or additional armor to the outside of the main armor, or even adding grilles, sandbags, logs, or demagnetizing...

Lelouch has a hundred ways to disable the anti-tank effect of HEAT rounds at low cost.

Since that's the case, let's use the armor-piercing rounds for now, as consumables for the next year or two. After surviving this initial wave, our own advanced anti-tank weapons will be almost ready, allowing us to catch up. It doesn't matter if the enemy learns this outdated junk.

Duke Rupprecht quickly implemented Lelouch's suggestions. The first batch of early sticky pure charge grenades produced by the DWM company's Karlsruhe arsenal, along with a technical manual on how to make Molotov cocktails, were immediately sent to Greece, along with an additional paratrooper battalion of reinforcements.

……

After dealing with the situation in Greece, Lelouch forced himself to rest and recover.

The next morning, December 2nd, he threw himself back into the battle to advance from Poltava into Kiev with renewed enthusiasm.

While having coffee before the morning's attack, he privately told Deputy Division Commander Rommel the news he had heard from the Duke the previous night. He also instructed that before joining forces with Division Commander von Bock, this news could only circulate among the division-level officers and should not be told to the lower ranks.

Rommel was only a colonel and deputy division commander, but he was still considered a division-level officer. Lelouch telling him this was, of course, a sign of trust.

After hearing this, Rommel, full of energy, promised: "Don't worry, we will encircle them north of Kiev in a week at most, or even sooner! It's only 280 kilometers away from Kiev as the crow flies, and Commander von Bock has already cut off the railway line from Kiev directly north to Orsha."

In essence, these final 280 kilometers are a head-on collision between our two sides; we don't need to advance that far alone. Even if his troops have no railway access and have to bypass Kiev, getting cut off by Kiev, we have railways. Let's just calculate a little more of the expected mileage for us. We advance 180 kilometers, and Bok, without railway supplies, forces an additional 100 kilometers. After we join forces, his division can use the supplies transported by our railways.”

Plan passes.

After discussing the expected allocation, Rommel boarded a tank and advanced westward along the Poltava-Kiev railway.

After a series of fierce battles, Lelouch's division now has fewer than 150 tanks that are still operational, a reduction of more than 90 from the beginning.

After all, the battle had been going on for half a month. The enemy's field artillery had damaged some tanks to some extent, and many more had their transmission systems damaged by grenades. The most common problem was spontaneous mechanical failure caused by continuous use.

But 150 tanks were enough. Lelouch stopped playing the trick of “two waves of tanks attacking alternately, one wave attacking continuously for 12 hours and the other wave resting for 8 hours and traveling for 4 hours”. Instead, he concentrated the 150 tanks into one wave, fighting for 16 hours a day, resting for 8 hours, and sleeping at night.

Those 16 hours weren't a continuous attack; there were two one-hour breaks in between, allowing the soldiers time to eat and rest.

Moreover, in such a long-range, sustained offensive, it would be pointless for tanks to move too fast, as infantry would not be able to keep up. There aren't that many trucks available for mechanized infantry right now.

In previous campaigns against Kharkiv and Poltava, the advance covered about 150 kilometers in one go, which is already the limit for a single attack in combined arms operations. Infantry can rely on resting and recuperating beforehand and then marching without sleep after the battle begins to hold out until the end.

Beyond 150 kilometers, infantry can no longer sustain such a march through sheer willpower. Even the most elite Demacian soldiers cannot achieve such a sustained forced march; only certain mysterious and powerful special armies on Earth can accomplish it.

Because the infantry's advance was relatively slow, under Lelouch's new tactics, tank crews could sleep at night, but the line-filling infantry could not; they had to keep moving 24 hours a day to catch up. However, this movement was not indefinite; as long as they reached the designated line-filling position in one go, they could catch up on sleep afterwards.

The next section of the defense line that needs to be filled will naturally be filled by another unit.

After advancing a considerable distance, they can use railways and trains to cover a short distance, only disembarking and walking when the infantry units are close to the battle zone.

However, this places very high demands on engineering units. In newly captured territories, railways often have various hidden dangers of damage caused by retreating enemy forces. Engineering units need to quickly repair and eliminate safety hazards so that trains can resume transportation as soon as possible.

With such meticulous planning, Rommel's initial offensive went very smoothly. In the first three days, he advanced steadily for more than 80 kilometers and reached Milgorod in the early morning of December 5.

Along the way, they also defeated two rearguard divisions of the 7th Army.

Milgorod is the most important railway city between Kyiv and Poltava, less than 200 kilometers from Kyiv.

Upon arriving in Milgorod, Lelouch also contacted his allies via radio to get information about the situation.

In the telegram, he learned that von Bock's journey had not gone smoothly for the first day or two.

Von Bock initially attempted to proceed methodically, pushing back a little along the railway line south from Chernigov, then cutting along the railway line east of Kiev before advancing eastward.

But von Bock soon discovered that the Lusa army had a large defensive force in Kiev, and the further south and closer to the city, the stronger the Lusa's defenses became.

After almost wasting a day of trial and error on December 2nd, von Bock finally understood on the afternoon of December 3rd, having learned about war through war itself.

He realized that he wouldn't be able to use the railways east of Kiev anyway. So what was the point of obsessively cutting off the enemy's railways too much? He only wanted to join forces with Lelouch, so he could turn south towards the railway when they were almost there.

Before this, I could advance along the enemy's weaker areas further north, which would just mean the encirclement wouldn't be as tight.

After changing his approach, von Bock immediately proposed advancing from Chernigov, directly north of Kiev, towards Sumy, to the east—and it's worth noting that the route von Bock chose actually coincides quite with an ongoing war in a certain Earth dimension in later times.

The name Koh Samui has been frequently heard in the media in recent years.

The Lussars' 6th Army defensive forces clearly did not expect von Bock to break through towards Sumy. In the following day and a half, he pushed them eastward along a makeshift road for a full 60 to 70 kilometers, reaching a small town called Konotto, which was about one-third of the way between Chernigov and Sumy.

Von Bock was not really going to Sumy. After getting away from the core defense zone of Kyiv, he quickly turned south again and headed towards Priluki.

When Lelouch finally exchanged information with him, he was in Priluki. Although he hadn't yet switched back to the railway line east of Kiev, things were pretty much settled, and Lelouch would come to his aid.

After sending the telegram, Lelouch returned to the map table and made marks on the map with a pencil.

"We are in Milgorod, and von Bock is in Priluki. He only needs to advance another 40 kilometers diagonally southeast along the makeshift road to reach Priti, and then he can cut off the railway line east of Kyiv. We can also reach Priti by advancing west along the railway, first to Rubney station after 40 kilometers, and then another 40 kilometers."

Let's set the meeting point in the railway town of Preyty then. That's pretty close to our initial plan. We'll drive another 80 kilometers, and von Bock will drive the final 40 kilometers, completely completing the encirclement in Preyty.

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P.S.: This chapter contains a lot of trivial details; the next chapter will officially cover the encirclement of Kyiv.

(End of this chapter)