Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 208 Another Victory, Heading Towards the Sea
Christmas dawn was shrouded in blood.

A convoy of cars and people stretching for more than 40 kilometers wound its way along the "Old Pontus Trail" that traverses the Strandja Mountains.

At the very front of the convoy was the "Grande Demania" armored training division, consisting of more than 220 "Panzer I" tanks and a large group of half-track vehicles.

Lelouch himself sat on one of the command tanks, leading his troops forward with great pride.

If this were an era with dedicated ground attack aircraft, large-caliber cannons, and cluster bombs for ground attack, Lelouch would never have dared to do this, even with absolute air superiority.

Lelouch would never make such a basic mistake as "the convoy being stuck in traffic for more than 60 kilometers".

Fortunately, there are no ground-attack aircraft in this era.

Although the Britannians had learned from the Demanian Air Force and had just mastered the technique of using pilots to drop small bombs weighing a few kilograms by hand, and had also learned to equip aircraft with air-cooled machine guns with firing coordinators, their firepower was not enough to pose a fatal threat to tanks.

With Lelouch's preparedness, more than 60 aircraft took off at dawn today to escort the armored division and the following convoy. More escort waves will follow to ensure air superiority, so everything became a natural and logical outcome.

Thanks to Lelouch's caution, the armored division charged downhill for over an hour and more than ten kilometers after crossing the main ridge of Strandja Mountain without encountering any accidents.

The enemy did have some ground defenses, but they posed no threat whatsoever and crumbled instantly under the charge of the tank formations.

With just over an hour's drive and another dozen kilometers to go, they would be able to leave the dense forests of the Strandja Mountains, and the atmosphere in the unit became more relaxed.

Lelouch's guard company commander, Major Crozier (who had been exceptionally promoted to major for boarding and capturing the Baltic Fleet flagship, the battleship "Sevastopol"), couldn't help but compliment him:

"Commander, you are too cautious. You insisted on waiting for the light infantry assault group to capture the mountain pass near the town of Ternovo before allowing the armored division to launch an attack."

If it were someone as incompetent and reckless as me in command, I would have sent the armored division out in the middle of the night, and maybe even arrived earlier. We could have just used tanks to storm through the passes along the way.

Lelouch, who was resting with his eyes closed inside the tank, merely snorted coldly upon hearing this: "So you can only be my guard company commander. Remember, it's better to be safe than sorry. This kind of terrain is passable, but the passable terrain is too narrow and long."

The troops were stretched out in a long, single-file line stretching for tens of kilometers. If they got stuck on the road, it would be all over. Therefore, I must clear the key points before setting out; when we move, it will be a decisive blow.”

The situation and environment at this moment are largely similar to those in the Ardennes Mountains in Earth's timeline of 1940. The mountains are not high but rugged, the forests are dense, and only narrow paths allow tanks to traverse the thickets.

The main difference is that the Ardennes Offensive in 1940 took place in May, while the current Strandja Breakthrough is seasonally closer to the Ardennes Offensive of 1944.

However, the Strandja Mountains are located at a slightly warmer, more southerly latitude, and there hasn't been any heavy snowfall that has blocked the mountains. The temperature has just dropped to a few degrees below zero, causing the mud to freeze.

All things considered, this battle combined the advantages of the Ardennes 1940 and 1944 in terms of timing and location, while avoiding their disadvantages, making it truly perfect.

Lelouch closed his eyes to rest in the car, and after another half hour, it was past 9 a.m. The warm winter sun was already high in the sky.

Finally, a hastily deployed defensive line by the Britannian army appeared ahead, which should be centered around the city of Kerkrareli.

This defensive line was designed to prevent Lelouch from breaking out of the Strandja Mountains. Enemy shells began to fall in front of Lelouch's convoy, stirring up waves of dust.

"Commander, take cover! Be careful, the tanks might get hit by artillery shells!" As his bodyguard, Klose immediately urged Lelouch to take cover in the woods.

The enemy's trenches ahead weren't many layers deep, but the soldiers stationed there were very densely packed. They had even brought in two artillery regiments, it seemed they were putting all the available defensive forces up there as a last resort.

The enemy occupied the exit from the forest to the open area, forcing Lelouch's troops into a long, narrow formation that made it difficult for them to deploy. The enemy, on the other hand, was able to deploy fully, with two artillery regiments positioned in the open rear, bombarding the "Ponto Ancient Road" with artillery fire.

Lelouch shoved the guard aside and pointed to a side path in the woods: "Drive my tank into that pile of broken trees! It's the clearing that the enemy shells just blew up! The other crews should also use the clearings created by the enemy shells to disperse as much as possible!"

The lead tank company, accelerate and charge! Charge straight through! And what are our escort fighters doing? Have them immediately carry out counter-battery suppression missions! The mechanized infantry regiment, dismount immediately, disperse into the woods, advance along the forest, and launch a foot attack from the forest while the enemy's attention is drawn to the tanks.

Lelouch issued a series of tactical orders, and the troops quickly used the treeless open spaces created by enemy artillery fire to hide tanks and vehicles.

The leading tank company, however, charged forward fearlessly.

The enemy's artillery would definitely cover the location of the "Bendu Ancient Road" indiscriminately based on the coordinates calculated in advance. Therefore, any troops stationed at the southern end of this road could be shelled, regardless of who was there.

In this situation, the troop density along the evacuation route becomes crucial, as it can significantly reduce the enemy's artillery hit rate. A task that a single tank company can accomplish, even if added to a battalion or regiment, wouldn't offer any additional assistance, because the tanks behind would be stuck and unable to advance.

With only a hundred or so infantrymen providing close cover, the company charged forward. These infantrymen lay prone outside the tanks and followed them forward. They charged until the enemy machine guns were almost able to hit the tanks, and there were less than two kilometers left before the infantrymen dismounted and continued on foot.

Many of the infantrymen had just disembarked from their half-tracks and were still advancing through the woods; their pace was certainly slower than that of their comrades who were crawling on top of tanks.

Just as these tanks were about to charge out, the seamless coordination in the sky was also amazing.

Lelouch's radio orders were finally received by the two-seat command planes (with the radio operator and radio station in the back) of the dozens of escort aircraft overhead. They then used simple wing maneuvers to direct their planes to suppress the enemy artillery positions.

More than 20 aircraft were divided into two groups and launched repeated strafing attacks on the main positions of two enemy artillery regiments. Another 20 aircraft dropped hundreds of small bombs weighing 5 kilograms each, causing thick smoke to billow on the positions and many field guns to temporarily cease fire.

Taking advantage of the lull in artillery fire, the tank company selected as the spearhead directly ran over the Britannians' trenches.

Throughout the process, a few tanks were particularly unlucky and were hit directly by enemy artillery fire that had not yet completely ceased, but most of the tanks managed to get through successfully.

The machine gunners on the roofs of each vehicle bravely leaned out and turned their machine guns 90 degrees so that they could fire horizontally to the left or right as the tanks crossed the trench.

To ensure effectiveness, these tanks charged in pairs, ensuring that the machine gun on the left swept to the left and the machine gun on the right swept to the right, covering both sides.

Although the Bretonnian infantry were aware of the tanks' existence, some of them had even seen their own tanks recently and heard that they had been deployed to Istanbul for the siege.

But when they actually saw enemy tanks rolling over the trenches, the fear in their hearts was still hard to contain.

"The Demacian tanks can just roll over the trenches!" "Our heavy machine guns are completely useless! We've been firing at one spot for over ten seconds and still can't penetrate! Don't their armor suffer from metal fatigue?"

Waves of Burma soldiers began to flee, and the MG08 machine gun on the roof of Tank No. 1 sprayed bullets, killing all the infantry who did not have time to retreat to the sides in the trench.

Some desperate Burgundy infantrymen attempted to retaliate, and seeing people leaning out of enemy vehicles, they desperately aimed and fired their Lee-Enfield rifles.

The Vickers heavy machine gun positions behind them also rained bullets down on the tank formation.

However, most rifle bullets are helpless against 6-millimeter-thick carburized steel breastplates and helmets with ricocheting arcs that are twice as thick.

Several of the bravest machine gunners on the roof were hit by more than a dozen bullets, but because none of them hit unprotected areas like the face and neck, the other bullets were blocked by the armor. They were only injured by the huge impact and vomited blood, but it was better than being killed outright.

Seeing that even the machine gunners on the vehicle roofs were struggling to keep up with this kind of fire, the morale of the Bu army infantry collapsed, and they completely abandoned their positions and fled in a frenzy.

"Don't stop! All vehicle teams split into two groups and head straight for the enemy's rear artillery positions! Our friendly forces behind will help us fill in the gaps!"

The tank company continued to advance, and Lelouch, after observing the progress at the front, decisively ordered the follow-up troops to follow. The second batch consisted of two more tank companies, about 40 tanks.

The infantry that had advanced from the woods earlier finally arrived at the battlefield, broke out of the woods, and charged toward the trenches.

The successive deployment of tanks and the close coordination between infantry and tanks completely shattered the blockade of the enemy forces, resulting in a breakthrough battle comparable to the "Crossing the Meuse" on Earth.

The troops completely broke through the enemy's defenses and stormed into the small town of Kerkrareli. After a fierce battle, they captured this key town at the mouth of the valley on the southern slope of the Strandja Mountains.

The "Great Demania" armored trainer division completely broke out of the dense forests of the Stranja Mountains, and it was only past noon on December 25th.

They set off before 5 a.m., and in seven and a half hours, the armored division, through a combination of marching and final fighting, has advanced more than 60 kilometers, traversing the entire rugged and difficult mountainous region. Beyond that lies only the plains of Tekildah.

"Keep moving! Don't stop! Our objective is to outflank the enemy forces at Tekildah, that is, all the way to the Marmara coast. Do not stop until you see the sea!"

Some of Lelouch's troops participated in last year's "Run to the Sea" operation, and their orders at the time were not to stop before seeing the North Sea.

The later Dunkirk campaign was similar; in order to cut off the Burkina Faso expeditionary force's return route, they also demanded to advance all the way to the North Sea.

Unexpectedly, the same scene played out for the third time with Lelouch. He still wouldn't stop until he saw the sea, the only difference being that the sea's name changed from the North Sea to the Sea of ​​Marmara.

The power of role models is boundless. The brigadier general standing in front of the soldiers at this moment is a legendary figure who led everyone to create two miracles and twice actually fought all the way to the sea when he said he was going to head there.

The officers and soldiers were naturally brimming with confidence and high morale, firmly believing that their division commander would be able to replicate that easy feat for the third time.

"You can't step into the same river twice, but the people of Burgundy can be cut in half and thrown into the sea by Commander Lelouch three times. They really don't learn their lesson at all."

As Colonel Rommel, as deputy division commander, led half of the tanks and half-tracks in a frantic charge, he couldn't help but think this to himself.

It's another 80 kilometers from Kerkraterelli to Tekilda, but those 80 kilometers are all along the Tekilda Plain, and the road conditions are so good that you could practically speed along it.

Before the enemy could even redeploy their troops, Rommel successfully cut them off.

By 4 p.m., Rommel had advanced more than 50 kilometers south from Kerkraterelli, breaking through the towns of Babaeschi and Hylabolu.

In Babaesky, Rommel fought another battle with the enemy. Babaesky is located along the railway line from Istanbul through Edirne to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's largest city.

When Rommel arrived, Lieutenant General Hunter Weston, commander of the enemy's 8th Corps, was urgently sending a division and a half of reinforcements by train to Babaesky because of the emergency on the eastern front. He was trying to unload the troops there and then march north on foot to Kerkraterelli to block the pass and prevent Lelouch from breaking out of the dense forest mountains.

This also shows how ill-equipped the Burgh army was to face tank assaults—Rommel had already reached the city of Babaeski, yet Hunter Weston was still unaware that Kerkraterly, 35 kilometers further north, had long since fallen.

This situation actually occurred repeatedly during the Battle of Frankish Road in 1940. Often, by the time the French General Staff had planned a new defensive line and issued the orders, the enemy was already dozens of kilometers behind them.

The Burgundians simply made a mistake that most rigid and dogmatic generals would make: a half-division commander named Kanner, while being transported by train, accidentally ran into Rommel's tank regiment.

Rommel, of course, didn't hold back and used his only 20-odd tanks, each equipped with a 57mm short-barreled gun, to approach and fire at the enemy's train convoy.

At least five or six military trains were derailed and overturned by artillery shells while traveling at high speed. The two infantry regiments they were carrying had not yet reached the battlefield when they encountered the train accident.

The following military train managed to brake suddenly before being blown apart by artillery shells, but at least the soldiers on board were able to get off and take cover.

An army division and a half was actually bombed off a train. This is an unprecedented scene, and we'll probably never see it again.

The railway line near Babaeski Station quickly became a living hell filled with cries of agony, and Lieutenant General Hunter Weston's attempt to plug the leak completely failed.

However, because of the delay in Babaeski, Rommel's offensive momentum was greatly depleted, although the results were still quite good.

Rommel, unable to reach the Marmara coast in one go, handed the baton to Commander Lelouch in the last 30 kilometers as planned.

Lelouch, leading the other half of the armored division who had been well-rested, started at 4 p.m. and continued south from the town of Hylabolu. He swept through the enemy lines and finally reached the west of Tegilda just as darkness fell, cutting to the coast of the Sea of ​​Marmara.

Another iron gate fell, and the more than 40-strong Italian-Bumiputera army that was besieging Istanbul was thus cut off in the crowded area east of Tekildah and west of Istanbul.

This was the third time in Lelouch's life that he had stormed the seashore, and the second time he had used this move to cut off the retreat of the Britannian Expeditionary Force (the first time he used this move, the army of Billy Kings was wiped out).

I believe the Britannians, who are notorious for forgetting their mistakes, will finally learn their lesson this time and will not dare to launch a landing operation recklessly again upon hearing of Lelouch's reputation.

This must have been the most perfect Christmas of Lelouch's life.

(End of this chapter)