Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 203 Model: I'm not targeting the Italians
While Lelouch was deploying an encirclement on the northern front and secretly sending troops south in batches,

On the Greek peninsula, the Greek army, with the assistance of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Model, defended step by step and held firm.

"These Greeks are alright, at least they're not thinking of surrendering immediately. But their technical and tactical skills and fighting spirit are really too poor... Sigh, they're just impossible to manage."

On December 6, at the Isthmus of Delphi, Model, who had only been in Greece for a week, had to personally lead his six battalions of hill infantry regiment in a fierce battle against the Britannian army, which had already organized an army of nearly 100,000 to attack southern Greece.

Moreover, Model's six mountain infantry battalions could not all be deployed to the front lines.

He also planned to station one battalion at each of the three strategic locations—Athens, Piraeus, and the Isthmus of Corinth in the rear—to guard against enemy raids, flanking maneuvers, or the opening of a second front.

So, on the front of the Delphi Isthmus, there were actually only three mountain battalions, plus one and a half Greek divisions.

Unfortunately, the Greek divisions were particularly small, with a full strength of only 12,000 men, organized into three regiments, each with three battalions. Even in peacetime, they were not fully staffed. In short, a division was only allocated 9,000 men before the war, and a large number of men were temporarily brought in after the war began. In addition, the previous week of fighting and retreating had resulted in some losses on the outer defense lines.

此刻希腊人留下的1个半师，总共4个步兵团加3个轻炮营、2个工兵营，总人数也就1万2千人。莫德尔派来的3个山地兵营倒是有足额3千人。

The combined German and Hitler forces numbered 15,000, but they had to defend against an enemy army of over 100,000.

Meanwhile, the Britannians on the opposite side captured Larissa on December 1st, and then took control of the central Greek basin plain in just five or six days. Subsequently, the Britannian vanguard rushed towards the Isthmus of Delphi, which leads to Athens.

Fortunately, the Bretonnia had underestimated their enemy; their 10-strong army had scattered to various directions and towns across the central Greek plain over the past few days. After clearing the central plain, they did not bother to regroup their 10 men and launch another attack.

Instead, only the advance troops of two divisions returned to the vicinity of the Delphi isthmus. Subsequently, General Edmund Allenby, who was in charge of the Greek theater, directly issued the order to attack, commanding these two divisions to capture the Delphi isthmus first.

While capturing, they waited for friendly forces to slowly transport supplies. By the time the friendly forces arrived in Delphi, the city had already been captured, and they could continue south to Athens without even getting off the train—saving a lot of time.

Strictly speaking, Admiral Edmund Allenby's plan wasn't entirely wrong.

And coincidentally, this Admiral Erenby was an old acquaintance of Lelouch's. At this time last year, during the Battle of Ypres, Erenby was only a lieutenant general, the commander of the cavalry corps of the Burgundian Expeditionary Force, known for his impulsive, aggressive, and decisive fighting style. (See his photo at the beginning of Chapter 50 for details.)
When Lelouch sent his assault battalion to cut off the railway line between Stenford and Dunkirk, it was General Allenby who led the Burgundian cavalry in a night raid to their aid. However, they were ambushed by the Demania assault group, which was equipped with hundreds of MG15 light machine guns. The Burgundian 2nd Cavalry Division under his command was almost completely wiped out, and its commander, Major General Gough, was also killed in action.

Later, Edmund Allenby was appointed commander of the 4th Army Corps. While defending Dunkirk, Rommel and Model were sent by Lelouch to airdrop the Marlolesbans and Ronan batteries respectively. Allenby hastily led the ANZAC cannon fodder in a counterattack, but Model drove them back, resulting in heavy casualties.

At the time, Model was just a captain, yet he was already making it difficult for Allenby to advance any further at the Dunkirk forts.

A year later, Model only managed to be promoted to lieutenant colonel. Meanwhile, Allenby, who hadn't accomplished much, was promoted from lieutenant general to general.

Moreover, he became the deputy commander-in-chief of the Southern European campaign and the commander-in-chief of the Greek theater. His military power was second only to General Ian Standish Hamilton, the campaign commander who was sent to Gallipoli in August. There was simply no reason to complain.

Perhaps the Britannian Army also fell into a strange cycle: "Because a large number of senior veterans were wiped out, there was a shortage of personnel, which made it easier for those who escaped back to be promoted."

Lelouch captured a large number of high-ranking officers, including Marshal John French, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force. This also created vacancies for Douglas Haig and Edmund Allenby, who had little merit but were given positions simply because their superiors had been captured.

From this perspective, the young talents in the Demacian army are quite tragic.

The reason they were promoted slowly was not because they lacked military merit or ability, but simply because the pressure of having a fixed number of positions available from above was too great.

Marshals and generals die too slowly and are almost never captured, so those below them face greater pressure to rise in rank.

……

After the vanguard of two Britannian divisions arrived at the Delphi Isthmus, General Allenby personally climbed to the main peak of the Engiona Mountains at the western entrance of the isthmus and used artillery scopes to observe the enemy situation in the southeast direction.

The Isthmus of Delphi is a narrow, northwest-southeast oriented isthmus, about 30 kilometers wide. The Bretonnian army advanced from the central Greek plains in the northwest, heading southeast towards the positions of the German-Hellenic coalition. If they could break through here, they could advance about 100 kilometers southeast to reach the city of Athens.

The isthmus has a narrow stretch of hills on its northeast side and steep mountains on its southwest side, with a valley in between. The hills and mountains are impassable for marching; one must travel through the valley. Even the railway line connecting Thessaloniki, Larissa, and Athens passes through this valley.

The artillery on the southern mountain can completely block the valley, so the key to breaking through the isthmus is to capture the high ground on the south side.

The western entrance to the southern mountain range is Mount Engiona, which had already been captured by the Burgh army. Because the Burgh army had an absolute advantage in strength, they could launch an uphill attack on Mount Engiona from three sides across the central Greek plains, and they could also deploy an overwhelming number of heavy artillery to bombard and crush it.

With fewer troops and artillery, the German-Hillbilly alliance had no chance of holding the mountain entrance, so Model decisively gave up in advance.

However, Mount Engiona is not the highest point in this entire mountain range; the highest point is Mount Parnassus at the eastern exit of the isthmus.

Mount Parnassus is still under Model's resolute defense. The German-Hillary coalition has deployed all available artillery on Mount Parnassus, a total of 24 75mm field guns, with no larger caliber heavy artillery.

Because Model and his troops were airdropped into Greece by airship, they couldn't carry artillery—airships couldn't drop that kind of thing. The only weapons that could be airdropped were light mortars and grenade launchers. All 24 of these field guns were purchased by the Greek army before the war.

"The Demanians think they can hold Mount Parnassus with the Greeks' own small cannons? That's a joke. Bring all our 18-pound field guns up the mountain and suppress the enemy's forward positions!"
"Move the 6-inch howitzers to a position 10 kilometers from the summit of Mount Parnassus and bombard them relentlessly! Even with the altitude advantage, the Greeks' 75mm cannons can't reach that far; they'll just be sitting ducks."

After surveying the terrain, General Allenby decisively issued the order, and the Britannian Army indeed sprang into action, spending half a day methodically adjusting the artillery positions.

……

Model, on the other side, was completely helpless against them. From the ruins of the Temple of Delphi atop Parnassus, he too had observed the Bretonnians' movements through his artillery scope, and could only silently allow the enemy to adjust their strategies.
He then ordered the garrison to retreat to certain reverse slopes on the southeast side of Mount Parnassus and conceal themselves, following his detailed plan, with even the coordinates not being wrong.

"Attention all units! You must proceed to the concealed positions pre-marked by our army to avoid artillery fire. Under no circumstances are you allowed to wander off on your own!"

Model fought the Italians on the Isonzo River front for more than half a year, and at least tens of thousands of Italians died at the hands of his direct troops. If the victories of the Austrian army under his command are also included, the number has long exceeded six figures.

Therefore, he and his colleague, Lieutenant Colonel Dieter, accumulated a wealth of experience in mountain defense warfare, making them arguably the most experienced in their time.

The contours of the mountain ridge, the elevation differences of the terrain, and the location of the enemy artillery positions—these factors, when observed and estimated, allow them to determine where it is absolutely safe to hide and where they are completely within the blind spots of enemy artillery fire.

The Greek army has witnessed the strength of Advisor Model in the past few days—mainly because a number of those who did not trust him were killed by artillery fire a few days ago. In particular, there was a Greek colonel regimental commander who was of higher rank than Model and refused to follow his orders because he was only a lieutenant colonel. He insisted on doing things his own way and was killed by enemy artillery fire.

Then the remaining surviving Greek officers obediently believed him.

You can teach someone your whole life and they still might not learn; but you can learn something in a single lesson.

At this moment, the Greek soldiers all took cover in an orderly manner, following Model's orders. After an hour and a half of intense heavy artillery bombardment by the Burghers, the defenders on Parnassus remained unscathed, only experiencing smoke. Burghers General Allenby, after observing for a long time, concluded that the artillery preparation was sufficient and ordered a ground attack.

He initially intended to use armored vehicles to cross the valley directly, but reconnaissance troops discovered that Demanian advisors had instructed the Greek army to dig several wide and deep trenches in the valley, which exceeded the obstacle-crossing capabilities of armored vehicles.

The Bu army had no choice but to temporarily abandon that idea and instead first capture the hilltop, then send engineers to fill in some gaps in the trenches before they could use armored vehicles.

If the troops are ordered to fill the trenches without first capturing the hilltop, it will only result in a large number of soldiers filling the trenches being bombarded and strafed by the enemy from higher ground, causing heavy casualties.

The Bu army infantry launched a massive attack across the hillside, but they were quickly met with a barrage of MG15 light machine gun fire as soon as they reached the halfway point.

The Bu army infantry were swept down in rows, and the remaining soldiers immediately scattered and lay down, seeking cover on the spot, trying to continue to advance under alternating cover.

The artillery group behind them, after observing the exposed firing points on the mountain, adjusted their gun barrels within a few minutes and freely covered the coordinates where the flames had just been sprayed from the mountainside.

In an instant, the shells blasted the mountainside, sending sand and rocks flying, snapping trees, and uprooting bare red soil. But most of the light machine gun teams had already moved away through makeshift trenches and had not remained in place.

They would change locations within three to five minutes of each firing, and the advantage of light machine guns being lighter and easier to move than heavy machine guns was brought to its fullest potential in mountain warfare.

The shortcomings of light machine guns, such as poor barrel heat dissipation and short-term firepower, are not a problem in this environment. Since they won't be firing continuously, they'll only fire for a few minutes and then retreat, using the downtime to allow the barrel to cool down.

The army suffered setbacks for several hours, their offensive faltered, their casualties heavy, and their progress minimal. Thousands of soldiers fell in vain on the northwest slope of Mount Parnassus.

General Allen was furious and finally demanded a change in tactics, suggesting the use of a creeping barrage, continuous artillery fire, and that artillery should not stop until the infantry were charging up the mountain.

Historically, the Burma Army did not fully develop the creeping barrage tactic until the Battle of the Somme. This tactic involved artillery continuing to fire during the initial charge, but extending to the rear lines of defense to prevent enemy infantry from retreating to the second or third lines of defense. During the lull in the artillery fire, the infantry would then run back to the first line of defense to reinforce it.

However, the tactical history of this plane has been completely disrupted by Lelouch's butterfly effect, with both sides learning lessons and rapidly improving through bloody battles. The Demacians had previously used the creeping barrage tactic, and the Britannians, having suffered losses from it, also learned from and adopted it.

The reason why the Burgundy suffered such heavy casualties was because Model ordered the machine gun crew to take cover on the reverse slope when the enemy opened fire, and then return to the front of the mountain to quickly deploy their firepower after the artillery ceased firing.

The reason the Burghers initially didn't anticipate this move was simply because they hadn't expected the Demanian elite troops to deploy their firepower and retreat so quickly. In the previous months, when the Burghers clashed with the Ottoman army on the Gallipoli Peninsula, even with guidance from Demanian instructors/advisors, the Ottoman army couldn't have reacted so rapidly.

The Ottomans at Gallipoli relied on tunnel warfare to quickly move between the front and back of the mountain and deploy firing positions.

However, tunneling requires a lot of time and manpower. The Demanians had only been in Greece for less than a week, so they definitely didn't have time to dig tunnels on Mount Parnassus. This is why Allenby underestimated them.

Everything was interconnected yet unexpected, and the impulsive and reckless Allenby unsurprisingly stepped into all the traps left by Model.

After adjusting their tactics, the Britannians prepared for two full hours with creeping barrage fire, fighting until it was almost dark before organizing their infantry to attack the mountain again.

As expected, the artillery group did not stop firing this time, and continued to suppress the hilltops with such fierce and insane firepower that it even blew up the ruins of the Temple of Delphi.

The oracle stone inscribed with Thales's famous quote "Know thyself," written three thousand years ago, was destroyed by the cannons of the Bu army.

That's something Kratos didn't destroy when he went to the Temple of Delphi to kill the gods in God of War.

Limited by such fierce firepower, Model was indeed unable to deploy the MG15 light machine gun group to the front of the mountain in time this time, which allowed the Burgundy infantry to rush over the mountainside in one go.

Unfortunately, the good times for the Burgh infantry only lasted a few hundred meters longer. Soon, on some very steep sections behind the reverse slope of the mountain, the Demacian 80mm mortars began to attack from above at extremely high angles.

In mountain warfare, both field artillery and howitzers have blind spots. If the trajectory is too low, the shells won't clear the mountaintop and will be blocked by the mountain's front. If the trajectory is too high, the shells will clear the mountaintop but won't reach certain steep sections on the reverse slope. This is the main reason why the PLA artillery consistently performed poorly, producing smoke but no damage.

Mortars and grenade launchers don't have this problem. They can fire at a steep 85-degree angle, and even if there is a vertical cliff between them and the enemy, the mortar shells can hit them without any blind spots.

Dozens of mortar shells, each weighing only three kilograms, landed one after another among the Bretonnia infantry, blasting the Breton troops who were attacking the mountain into chaos.

However, the firepower density of mortar shells was ultimately no match for the direct strafing and blocking of heavy machine guns, and some defiant Bu army soldiers were still charging desperately upwards despite the shelling.

But as they drew closer, ten times more grenade launchers than mortars began to unleash their full power.

At least a hundred grenade launchers began firing overhead, rapidly covering the enemy group only 200 to 500 meters away, not seeking accuracy, but only aiming to get a rough estimate as quickly as possible.

The intense firepower completely shattered the Bu army, which was only a few hundred meters away from the high ground. Unable to withstand the onslaught, they retreated like a receding tide.

“Those guys are so used to fighting the Ottomans and Greeks, do they think attacking a mountain is so easy? Let us Demanians defend the mountain, and you’ll see.”

When Model heard that the Britannians had temporarily retreated, he couldn't help but show a rare hint of smugness.

After this battle, the Britannians will surely no longer look down on the Italians.

There are reasons why the Italians failed to capture Trieste after attacking the mountains along the Isonzo River for more than half a year.

It wasn't that the Italians were incompetent, but rather that the defensive forces they faced were too strong.

For example, after we lent the Italians to the Gallipoli theater, they used Italian-made submachine guns to attack the mountains and conquered mountains that the Burkina Faso army and the ANZAC army could not.
After today's match, Italy's reputation will likely improve slightly due to Model's performance.

Model wasn't targeting the Italians; he simply said that both the Italians and the Britannians were rubbish when it came to sieging mountains.

……

General Allenby's two divisions' attempt to break through the Isthmus of Delphi failed temporarily, and they had to abandon the attempt that day.

He decided to wait until two more divisions arrived the next day before adjusting his tactics for a full-scale offensive. He planned to have his men attack the mountain while simultaneously having engineers fill in the enemy's trenches and defenses in the valley, creating a passage for armored vehicles to advance first. This would allow them to penetrate the Delphi isthmus and perhaps even force back the enemy defending the mountain through a pincer movement.

He believed that with this new tactic, the opposing defender would be unable to defend against it.

(End of this chapter)