Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 32 Contemporary Clausewitz

Given that Lelouch's advice to General Hipper had just taken effect,

Therefore, Duke Rupprecht listened very patiently to his latest suggestion before asking a few questions:
"Do you think that radio communication equipment, artillery call-out rights, and more support firepower should be concentrated on the front-line grassroots units?"

What makes you think this reorganization will improve combat effectiveness? And where will all those radios and supporting firepower be deployed? What will the other units use?

Fortunately, Lelouch had anticipated these problems and mentioned them in the plan, but the leaders didn't have time to review the materials right now.

Lelouch quickly picked up the plan that had been tossed on the table, turned to a page, and began to explain it in detail:

“I know some of my ideas are too advanced, even abrupt. So I hope to start by analyzing the basics. As you have seen, Your Highness, since the outbreak of this war, the nature of warfare has undergone earth-shattering changes.”

In the previous war, the disadvantages of the attacking side were not so obvious. Although the defending side could also occupy some terrain advantages, the attacking side could also achieve breakthroughs by concentrating an overwhelming force on local battlefields—decades ago, Marshal Moltke defeated Napoleon III using this method.

But now, at least on the western front, both sides have dug more and more trenches and fortifications, and whoever attacks suffers losses, with the casualty exchange ratio becoming increasingly lopsided. There are numerous examples of a single regiment holding off attacks from several divisions.

The essence of all this can be summarized in one point: in the last war, the density of soldiers was directly proportional to the density of firepower, but that is no longer the case now.

In an era without automatic weapons, when artillery was all about direct fire within visual range, concentrating the firepower of a certain number of guns and cannons required physically gathering the human bodies capable of operating so many weapons together to launch an attack—to this day, Oreo and Lusa in the East are still fighting like this, completely unaware that times have changed.

With the widespread adoption of automatic weapons and indirect-aiming long-range artillery, the attacking side no longer needs to concentrate so many people at one point to project such firepower. A small number of people can effectively guide a large amount of firepower.

The fewer people concentrated during an attack, the smaller the target. This also means fewer losses when under heavy artillery and machine gun fire from the defending side.

Therefore, there is a general trend in the history of human warfare that is self-evident: the more advanced the military technology, the fewer soldiers both the attacking and defending sides need to fill the defensive line per unit length on the front line, and the more manpower is left for the rear reserves and the defensive line.

We must wait until the soldiers filling in the lines or conducting reconnaissance at the front are wounded or killed before sending in reserve troops from the rear. Otherwise, having too many men piled up at the front would just be sending them to their deaths.

After hearing these words, both Duke Rupprecht and Major General Hipper fell into deep thought.

The Duke, as a general commanding an army group, naturally shared similar basic understandings of Lelouch's points. He simply hadn't yet summarized these theories from a strategic, tactical perspective.

After all, the world war had only been going on for a little over four months, and many vague ideas had not yet been formed into a theoretical system.

Lelouch actually summarized it for him concisely; the principle was still the same, but the logic was explained much more clearly.

After pondering for a while, the Duke was overjoyed, as if he had finally broken through a window of mystery during his secluded meditation.

After figuring it out, the Duke couldn't help but mutter to himself:

"...So this is the inevitable trend of history? The more advanced the technology, the less manpower is needed to deploy firepower. In the rifle era, it would take a thousand infantrymen to assemble the firepower of a thousand rifles. In the machine gun era, twenty machine gunners can replace a thousand infantrymen."

This way, instead of having 1,000 soldiers on the offensive, only 20 can be deployed at a time, while the remaining 980 can remain in reserve for defense, making them less vulnerable to heavy casualties from machine gun fire and artillery barrage. Replacements can be made from the reserves only after the initial 20 suffer losses… Is my understanding of this ideal model correct?”

The Duke even began to humbly ask Lelouch for his insights, revealing his genuine thirst for knowledge.

Lelouch, not one to hold back, shared even more insightful and concise summary:
"Your summary is spot on, but there's one more detail I'd like to add. I think the 'remaining 980 people' you mentioned weren't entirely sitting idle in the rear as a reserve force."

They can fully cooperate with the spearhead troops that are actually carrying out offensive missions, and after the spearhead troops break through the enemy's positions and wedge into the enemy's defenses, they can immediately rush into these newly occupied areas to provide real-time reinforcements.

For example, if a spearhead assault force breaks through two deep breaches in the enemy's defense line, like an iron clamp, it has a good chance of cutting off the enemy's retreat route in a certain area of ​​defense and completely annihilating the enemy.

Driven by their survival instinct, the enemy, even if they were originally on the defensive, will have no choice but to switch to an offensive posture, crawling out of their trenches and launching a full-scale counterattack on the weak points on both flanks of the pincer movement we have just captured.

At this point, we can send our second-line reserves to fill in the gaps and hold back the positions that the elite assault teams have just breached, allowing us to wait in comfort and defend against the enemy's counterattack.

In modern warfare, a soldier's defensive capabilities are several times greater when in a defensive posture than when in an offensive posture. Therefore, the more soldiers in our army are in a defensive posture, and the more enemy soldiers are forced into an offensive posture, the greater our advantage. As previously demonstrated, at the micro-tactical level, defense has a significant advantage over offense, while the advantage of offense lies only in the macro-strategic level of troop concentration. Therefore, the more perfect future military strategies will be, the more they will need to achieve both: maximizing the offensive side's troop concentration advantage at the strategic level, and maximizing the defensive side's defensive capabilities at the tactical level.

Whether it's the Storm Assault Team tactics, the combined arms blitzkrieg, or the deep battle strategy theory, there's one thing they all have in common.

That is, given their own level of weapon technology development, they have tried every means to ensure that "although they need to play the role of the offensive side in macro strategy, at the micro tactical level, the fewer and sparser the soldiers playing the offensive role, the better."

Then, transform as many of your remaining soldiers as possible into temporary defensive roles, taking advantage of the situation.

In later armored divisions, tank units were the spearhead offensive forces that broke through defenses.

The mechanized infantry regiments attached to armored divisions are essentially in a temporary defensive role. However, these defensive roles are positioned relatively far forward, constituting "forward defense."

As technology advances, the equipment used for "sharp-edged swords" and "frontline line-filling" will be constantly upgraded, but the underlying logic remains the same.

……

"Therefore, it was based on these considerations that I came up with the overall direction for tactical improvement: our current combat forces have far too many personnel in an 'offensive state' at all times when carrying out offensive missions, which is a huge waste."

Soldiers in an offensive posture are very vulnerable and have low defense, so as few soldiers as possible should be in an offensive posture at the same time. This requires concentrating firepower on these soldiers, while other frontline troops can maintain a basic fire density.

In the future, we can explore this overall approach further, but that will require the support of more advanced weaponry. Advances in weaponry technology and tactics always go hand in hand.

Lelouch's words can be seen as drawing on ancient and modern military strategies, integrating them in a comprehensive way.

Finally, Duke Rupprecht was completely energized, just as Liu Bei had listened to the Longzhong Plan.

The Duke exclaimed sincerely, "You might become the Clausewitz of our time! Good heavens, who would have thought that such a person never went to military school? Alright, I will try my best to meet your requirements for the weapons."

But first, could you explain the approximate ratio of your idea to separate assault troops and support troops? Or, to put it simply, what size assault force should a division have?

Lelouch thought for a moment. Historically, the German army later adopted assault tactics, basically pairing one battalion with one division. As for second-line divisions, they were no longer needed.

Therefore, he was too lazy to force innovation and simply copied the existing answer on this point:
"I think that, ideally, a main force division tasked with the main attack should be equipped with a battalion of assault teams, which should then be distributed among the troops, with each regiment receiving a company. The company should be the smallest unit for the assault teams to operate in a dispersed manner."

In other words, during actual combat, a company might be able to advance in squads and platoons, but at least it must be ensured that a company is in the same combat zone, and that the company commander can command the entire company in a timely manner. As for a battalion, it can be broken down into companies and operate separately with different regiments.

However, in actual combat, it's impossible for all divisions of an army group to undertake the main offensive mission, and the attack won't be a straight, linear push. Therefore, for the filler divisions, assault battalions are unnecessary. Initially, if equipment is insufficient, second-line divisions may not need to be equipped with them.

Duke Rupprecht thought about it and felt that the proportion should be quite appropriate, and it was also close to his own guess.

He muttered to himself, calculating: "An elite main force division paired with a battalion, to serve as the spearhead of the entire army's offensive? Before the Battle of Ypres begins, we probably won't have much time to prepare. Even if I try my best to gather and concentrate equipment, I can only assemble two or three such battalions at most in a short period of time."

Furthermore, we also need to consider personnel training and adapting to new tactics. Let's select two main attack divisions from the army group and assign them to such assault battalions as a pilot program. If they perform well in this campaign, we can gradually train and expand them later.

Please make a detailed weapons list and see how many men and what equipment each battalion needs. Hmm, Karl's 12th Division is quite suitable as one of the two main attacking divisions. You're also relatively familiar with them, so you can stay in the 12th Division.

"I'll assign Karl a battalion commander position, while you, with only the rank of captain, will temporarily serve as the deputy battalion commander and company commander of one of the companies within the battalion. Your company will be reorganized from the 12th Division's reconnaissance company, and all equipment will be prioritized for your pilot unit."

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Now that the plot has reached this point, it's time to delve into some military theoretical considerations, even if it seems a bit simplistic. Fortunately, this is still a public chapter.

(End of this chapter)