Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 48 Master math, physics, and chemistry, and you'll be fearless in the world.

As darkness fell, Lelouch was able to clearly see the rows of farmhouses in the town of Bayole through his binoculars.

An hour earlier, after taking over the mission from Rommel and Lister's company, Lelouch led his A Company in a valiant assault, advancing nearly a kilometer further.

If he had chosen to launch a direct assault on the town, he would have already reached the edge of the town by now.

However, he chose to bypass the town, avoiding the most heavily defended areas, and instead make a deeper infiltration.

So far, he has maintained a certain distance from the town, and the enemies and fortifications in front of him have finally become sparse.

In the early stages of World War I, even when the Burgh and French armies used flexible defenses, their positions were generally only 3 to 5 kilometers deep, with some particularly important locations reaching a depth of 7 to 8 kilometers.

The German army, on the other hand, did the best in this regard, often setting up flexible defensive positions with a depth of 10 kilometers.

Today, on the Ypres front, between Armandière and Bayol, the troops have fortified their positions to an unprecedented depth of 10 kilometers, as well as the Germans, considering that the rear of this railway is vital to the Ypres heights.

But to everyone's surprise, the German stormtroopers broke through such a deep fortified area in just one day!
Lelouch and his companions' "speed race results" today have surpassed the second-place result since the start of this world war by at least three times!
……

After catching his breath and observing the enemy situation for a while, Lelouch put down his binoculars and pulled his head back into the trench.

"Company commander, have some cold coffee." His guard sergeant, Klose, handed him a lunchbox of coffee that was almost frozen, along with a piece of black bread.

Three platoon leaders, Model, Dieter, and Schweinsteiger, were also gathered around, eating black bread as well.

They finished the sausages they brought at noon, and could only eat bread for dinner.

Because pure pork products taste really bad when they're cold, everyone is used to eating them as soon as they get them.

Black bread, on the other hand, doesn't care whether it's cold or not; even if it's snowing, it's still edible.

Lelouch took a sip of coffee to moisten his throat and then began to encourage his brothers: "Everyone, give it your all! Don't be fooled by the fact that it's four kilometers around the town; we'll definitely get around it tonight!"

"Because we have broken through the heavily fortified area, further ahead, both the density of the enemy's distribution and the density of their defensive fortifications will decrease significantly!"

As soon as Lelouch finished speaking, the clueless Schweinsteiger immediately believed him, and Klose, who had unconditionally and fanatically trusted him, didn't question him either.

Only Lieutenant Model, who possessed the most solid tactical knowledge, couldn't help but offer a reminder:
"Sir, but we've completely moved out of Major Keitel's artillery battalion's range. We've advanced almost ten kilometers! The radio is useless now."

Lelouch patted him on the shoulder: "Company Commander Rommel reminded me of this problem when he handed me over earlier, and I already have a solution."

As Lelouch spoke, he finished the remaining cold coffee in his lunchbox in one gulp and scooped a box of snow water into it.

Then, while pulling out a very basic elevation device from his pocket, he pointed to a rammed earth machine gun bunker about 300 meters to the northwest and instructed several grenade throwers nearby:

"See that rammed earth machine gun bunker in the distance? Move the grenade launcher onto the lunchbox, then use this simple elevation meter to measure the elevation angle, estimate the range, and fire a calibration shot!"

The soldiers were poorly educated and lacked geometric imagination and physical thinking, but at least they knew how to follow orders, so they did so meticulously.

In order to measure the elevation angle of the gun barrel, standard artillery was equipped with a "gun quadrant." This is the protractor-like device that is often seen in black and white videos of World War II, placed on the gun barrel.

That thing has a built-in level, which can easily measure the angle between the gun barrel and the horizontal plane.

However, quadrants are relatively expensive, delicate, and easily damaged, so mortar crews don't carry them, let alone grenade launchers. They can only use a simplified version of an elevation meter instead, at the cost of omitting the function of "finding the horizontal plane".

To compensate for this, mortar crews must level the base plate of the mortar before firing. However, grenade launchers do not have a base, so they can never eliminate this error on their own, which is why they are difficult to use.

In the afternoon, Rommel's grenade launcher team repeatedly misjudged the range when taking out firing positions, wasting a lot of ammunition, mainly for this reason.

Lieutenant Model and Lieutenant Dieter, along with other talented junior officers, had initially thought the problem was unsolvable, but their eyes lit up immediately after hearing Commander Lelouch's casual remark.

Exactly! If the grenade launcher can't find a perfectly level ground as a reference for its elevation angle, then why not just fill a lunchbox with water and use the water surface as a reference?
Still water in nature is always perfectly level.

Just as they were pondering the reasoning behind it, several grenade launchers had already completed their aiming according to Lelouch's instructions. The three grenade launchers fired one grenade at the same time, and the grenade flew hundreds of yards away. One of them actually hit the rammed earth bunker squarely!

"Seize the position quickly! Light machine guns suppress the enemy!" "The company commander's guidance is truly miraculous!"

The commander's "perfect strategy" has always been the most inspiring to morale. The soldiers, who were originally quite tired, forgot their fatigue the moment they saw the gunner take down the bunker with the first shot, and all of them charged forward bravely.

The troops continued their advance with unstoppable momentum, and the soldiers had even greater confidence and expectation in the effectiveness of the grenade launchers.

When Lelouch encountered bunkers or machine gun emplacements blocking his path during his advance, he adapted to the situation and continued to use his previous tactical instructions in even more creative ways.

"If you find the dim lighting and poor visibility, or the small size of the mess box makes it difficult to measure, you can make full use of natural water surfaces—we're currently fighting in the Ypres region! The Biligin people's breached dikes and released water have left behind floodwaters everywhere!"
You must learn to observe the environment! Utilize the relatively calm water in the trench, and before firing the grenade launcher, hold it loosely over the water puddle to measure the elevation angle!

If the water won't calm down, try to find a spot with floating ice! It's winter, after all! These kinds of tricks aren't in the operational manuals, and the staff couldn't have anticipated this unusual environment! But those who are good at math and physics, and have sharp minds, need to learn to adapt to changing circumstances!

If Rommel's conducting style was fiery and swift, Model's was calm and serene.
Lelouch's command style is that of a scholar-general; he wants to quantify everything that can be calculated precisely.

This confident and composed demeanor is not only effective, but it also gives soldiers a great sense of security, making them feel that everything is under control and that there is nothing to fear, no matter how dangerous the environment.

A glimpse of the leopard reveals the whole leopard; with such calm and almost infuriating command, the nerves of the entire company soldiers were as firm as steel, carrying out the company commander's orders without a doubt and continuing to penetrate deeper into the enemy's territory without hesitation.

By the time darkness fell completely, Lelouch had breached the enemy's defensive line in the southwestern suburbs of Bayole and infiltrated to the flank and rear of the line.

Major Bock then led his entire battalion infiltrating, further widening the gap in the defensive line. Then, Major Rundstedt's 2nd Assault Battalion, which had been conducting a feint attack on the north side of the railway during the day, also took advantage of the darkness to sneak to the south side of the railway and outflank the front line.

In the latter half of the night, even Colonel Lister's entire 16th Regiment of the 12th Division squeezed through the gap, effectively forming a semi-encirclement of the town of Bayole on its southwestern flank.

If the 3rd Army of the Bu Army, located in the town's defense zone, does not leave now, its railway retreat will definitely be cut off tomorrow.

Even if they are not surrounded and annihilated, they will lose the main road to retreat. If they ultimately fail to hold the town, they will have no choice but to retreat northeast to the Ypres Heights.

However, if the 3rd Army of Burkina Faso were to retreat under those circumstances, at most only personnel could be evacuated; much of the supplies would be impossible to move in time—heavy supplies and equipment could only be transferred by rail. And climbing the hills and slopes of the Ypres Heights, which had no proper roads, the soldiers could not carry much weight with them.

……

In the town of Bayole, Lieutenant General Putney, commander of the 3rd Army of the Burundian Army, did not truly realize until midnight how powerful the enemy had become and whether he would be in danger of annihilation if he did not do something.

"The enemy has actually broken through more than ten kilometers in just one day! They have completely breached our fortified zone and entered our rear, where the defenses are relatively loose and there are no trenches!"

"You bunch of useless idiots! You don't even know how far the enemy circled back after breaking through the lines! I need to know the extent of the enemy's infiltration threat, whether it will affect our army's rear, and whether it will affect the railway connecting Stenford to Bayole!"

Because the battle situation reported by the various units below at night was very unclear, Lieutenant General Putney couldn't help but fly into a rage and severely reprimanded them.

But his subordinates also felt wronged and tried their best to explain: "Commander, this is not our fault. It was too dark, and the enemy was still appearing and disappearing like ghosts. We don't know how they managed to attack in the dark. Moreover, these enemies are too terrifying. They seem to never get tired. They have been attacking all day!"

These military officers had no idea that, in order to ensure the continuity of the attack, Lelouch on the other side had the assault battalion companies take turns resting and performing tasks.

Although each company might only have two hours of rest per shift before rotating again, it was enough for the exhausted soldiers. Lelouch didn't let them sleep any longer because he was afraid they would freeze to death—this was the North Sea coast in December, and it was snowing lightly.

In contrast, the soldiers of the Bu army had a more uniform sleep schedule. Everyone was exhausted after a whole day and was on the verge of collapse when faced with night battles.

After learning the true extent of the deterioration of the situation on the front lines, Lieutenant General Putney was also secretly terrified.

He knew that if he continued to play defensively, the probability of his retreat being cut off would increase. After struggling with his thoughts, he finally made a decision:

"Tomorrow morning, no, let's do it at 4:30 in the morning. We'll have the 3rd Division switch from defense to offense and launch a flanking counterattack against the enemy force that has infiltrated the southwest of the town! We must cut them off, or our retreat will be over! We'll also have the 7th Division on the north side of the railway retreat and send out two regiments to assist the 3rd Division in its defense."

Putney's staff immediately made a phone call to inform the commander of the 3rd Division, Rawlinson.

Upon receiving the call, Major General Rawlinson immediately lamented, "Commander, as you know, before the battle, our division only had a third of its veterans left. The four newly recruited battalions have barely even touched a gun. Sending them to fill in the gaps is fine, but a counterattack would be suicide..."

But Putney wouldn't negotiate with him, forcing him to launch a counterattack and cut off the enemy's pincers! Otherwise, he could expect a court-martial when he got back!
Rawlinson argued repeatedly and persuasively, but ultimately could not avoid the task, only receiving a consolation prize-like promise from the corps commander:
"This mission must be carried out! But I know it's tough for you, and I won't let you fight alone. I've already requested reinforcements from the rear, and the Commander-in-Chief has promised to send the main force of the cavalry stationed in Poppelinge to reinforce us! Then you can launch a counterattack at the same time, catching the enemy off guard! The Cavalry Brotherhood will help you draw enemy fire."

Rawlinson was somewhat relieved to hear that cavalry reinforcements had arrived, and said he would launch a counterattack before dawn to cut off the enemy's infiltration.

(End of this chapter)