Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 5: Let him go wild for an hour before closing the net.

"Miss 75 is still the best! If those guys in the artillery regiment were a little more efficient, we wouldn't have had to sacrifice so many soldiers!"

Major General De Gizell, commander of the Belgian 4th Division, breathed a sigh of relief after seeing through high-powered binoculars that two heavy machine gun positions on the outermost German defensive line in the distance had been eliminated by his own rapid-fire artillery.

The booming sound of artillery fire gave him an extra sense of security.

At the same time, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the previous performance of his two incompetent regimental commanders.

The third regiment arrived early this morning, and the fourth regiment arrived at noon.

Even though the two regiments lacked heavy firepower at the time, they still had a combined strength of nearly five thousand men.

They were attacking a small, ruined town defended by a reinforced company, at most three or four hundred men. They'd been attacking for a whole day without breaking through, and with the sun about to set, it was truly a disgrace!

In the end, I had to personally swallow my pride and borrow a few trucks originally used to transport the royal family's valuables from His Majesty, and bring the remaining artillery regiments of my division to the front line, which finally opened up the situation.

There was no other way. The remnants of the Belgian army, which had been in a continuous retreat for more than ten days, had almost lost all their trucks. The artillery carriages and draft horses were also lost, making it extremely difficult to move the remaining artillery. They even had to be towed by a large number of soldiers, or temporarily requisitioned dairy cows.

The entire Belgian 4th Division had only these four guns left. The neighboring 6th Division, because its defense zone was closer and its retreat distance was shorter, had more guns left. The 1st Division, which was covering the rear, was in the worst situation, having lost all of its guns.

With the outermost street on the east side of Neopod Town cleared out, Major General Dejzel immediately ordered two battalions of the 3rd Regiment to advance and slowly infiltrate the town.

The two battalion commanders, one a major and the other a major, carefully advanced along the south and north sides of the coastal highway, respectively.

As they passed the ruins of houses, the soldiers carefully glanced at the doors and windows, but nothing unexpected happened, and gradually the soldiers became less vigilant.

At the start of World War I, both sides had no experience in urban warfare. There had never been a scenario of urban warfare using firearms before in human history.

The Belgian army successfully passed the first line of defense and advanced to the second. The enemy's resistance firepower was still so fragmented, and as it was already evening and the sky was gradually darkening, the soldiers finally became bolder.

However, just as the Belgian army continued to penetrate deeper into the town,
"Da da da--"

Suddenly, machine gun fire erupted from both corners of the side street, catching them completely off guard.

"Ugh—" A scream of pain and cursing instantly echoed through the street. Several piles of rubble at the street corner, which had been simply disguised, spewed out dense tongues of fire.

From some west-facing windows and collapsed wall holes on the street that the Belgian vanguard had just safely passed, some cunning flames suddenly emerged, continuously licking at lives. The crossfire swept away most of the infantry who had gone too far, and the rest could only flee in panic.

……

"Well, although it goes against the sense of honor of soldiers, the camouflage techniques you mentioned are actually quite useful."

How did you come up with the idea of ​​using the ruins of a building to construct such a realistic concealed firing position?

Colonel Lister lowered his binoculars and watched as the concealed heavy machine gun positions slaughtered large numbers of enemies who had slipped into the trap. He was very satisfied with the result.

The selection of the crossfire points was chosen by the battalion commander and personally reviewed by the colonel. As it turned out, the selection was excellent, with no blind spots in the firepower.

However, the camouflage measures for these firing positions came from Lelouch's on-the-spot guidance earlier.

He had only recently transmigrated and his basic military skills for this era were not yet solid, so he was unable to command independently.

But he had plenty of theoretical knowledge and lessons learned from modern street fighting, and he could easily pick out one or two of them to help the colonel fill in any gaps in his understanding.

Of course, when faced with the colonel's persistent questioning, he still had to find another excuse for the source of his knowledge:

"Colonel, have you forgotten? I graduated from the Architecture Department of the Oreo Royal College of Art. Civil engineering is my specialty. I am best at designing load-bearing structures. Even if a firing point is built from ruins, it will never collapse. I can do simple mental calculations of stress."

"Very good, you've definitely made the most of your architecture studies." The colonel put down his binoculars and patted him on the shoulder with a smug look.

This scene also made Lieutenant Barak, who was in charge of coordination and command, quite envious.

Barak was the deputy commander of the reconnaissance cavalry company. After Captain Andri was wounded, he stayed by the colonel's side to coordinate the work so that the cavalry company's soldiers could cooperate with the friendly forces of the 16th Regiment.

Barak hadn't known much about Lelouch's exploits before, and it was hard to understand why a mere sergeant major like him was given such important responsibilities. Now, after seeing Lelouch's performance, he was somewhat more convinced.

Before he could think further, the colonel spoke again: "Very good, let the soldiers continue to maintain this flexible defense, retreat when the enemy advances, abandon the outer positions, and not expose themselves to the direct fire range of the enemy's rapid-fire artillery. Let the enemy in to fight!"

The German army was very good at flexible defense; these were basic skills.

More than two months ago, at the very beginning of the war, they used flexible defensive tactics in the Alsace-Lorraine area to inflict heavy casualties on the French army, killing 20 French soldiers.

Colonel Lister was naturally extremely skilled at this tactic.

Lelouch followed beside him, taking the opportunity to observe and learn for a while, and found it very beneficial.

He was like a sponge that kept absorbing water, greedily learning from real combat command experience, laying a solid foundation, and gaining more resources to save his life.

The bloody battle, a back-and-forth struggle, lasted for a full hour. The Belgian army was repelled twice, and at least several hundred more corpses were left in front of the position.

As the fighting continued, darkness fell completely, and the Bi army's momentum gradually slowed down.

Meanwhile, on the west side of the town, the French army's offensive momentum was also repelled by the colonel using almost identical defensive techniques.

……

"The enemy has used flexible defense again! I didn't expect that a mere company commander could use such defensive tactics in urban warfare."

Major General Dejzel watched as his troops were repelled once again. His initial elation had completely vanished, replaced by a furious rage, like a defeated rooster, his whip lashing uncontrollably at the hitching post. "General! The enemy must have received reinforcements! In that back-and-forth struggle, we killed at least a hundred men. If it were only a single company, we would have wiped them all out!"

To lessen his guilt, Colonel Deyoka, the commander of the 3rd Regiment who was defeated, exaggerated his battle results when faced with the division commander's curses, emphasizing that the enemy's strength was not weak.

However, Dejzel knew his men too well. He instinctively multiplied the reported results by several times and commented with a stern face:
"Don't overemphasize the difficulties! Even if a small number of enemy reinforcements arrive, they're nothing more than scattered soldiers driven away by the flood! Now that we have cannons, how can we not take down a town like this!"

Djokovic: "But our direct fire is blocked by the ruins of the outer city blocks, making it impossible to attack the firing positions in all directions within the city. It's getting dark, and artillery observation is becoming increasingly difficult. Should we wait until dawn to launch the attack?"

Major General Dejzel almost lashed out with his whip upon hearing this.

Wait all night? What a bunch of incompetent fools! His Majesty the King is waiting to clear the road and break through the encirclement with the entire army. Wait all night during this life-or-death race?

Major General De Gizel paced back and forth anxiously, his gaze sweeping across the entire battlefield. After a moment's thought, he finally made a decision: "Bring all the 75mm guns into the city and fire them at close range, directly targeting and eliminating the enemy's strongpoints in the back blocks!"

Colonel Dejoka exclaimed in alarm: "General, this is impossible! Once we enter the town, the distance between each block is only a few hundred meters, which is too close! The enemy's mortars and heavy machine guns can easily counter our artillery positions, and we will no longer have a range advantage!"

De Gizel knew his subordinates were telling the truth. Field artillery was most effective when it was positioned outside the range of heavy machine guns and mortars, ideally at least two kilometers away, to carry out a one-sided massacre.

If we rashly enter into range where we are firing at each other, wouldn't that be giving the enemy an opportunity?

If it were open field battles, that would be one thing, but the key issue is that this is urban warfare, and the terrain is too complex.

Degizel hesitated for a long time, repeatedly observing the battlefield terrain with his binoculars and studying the map, and finally came up with a solution.

"Got it! Don't enter the town directly from the front! Have your men charge again! Once inside, take over the northernmost buildings on the outermost two or three blocks!"
The town is bordered by the sea to the north, and before each attack, we could contact the Bretonnian Navy's light cruiser HMS Daring to provide several rounds of cover fire. Unfortunately, it was a cruiser focused on anti-torpedo operations, and its guns had a very low firing arc, making it unable to bombard the town's interior. However, with it there, the enemy at least dared not show their face on the northernmost side of the town.

So if you attack from the northeast corner, you'll definitely be able to gain a foothold. Then, move these rapid-fire artillery positions to the northernmost ends of those north-south streets, or even onto the beach, and deploy them for precise direct-fire attacks along the southern streets. Once you see an enemy firing position peek out, just take it out!

This way, the naval guns can provide cover for the direct-fire artillery, which in turn can engage targets deep within the town along the streets. By coordinating these attacks, we can definitely break through the enemy lines! The length of these streets from south to north is also sufficient to exceed the range of heavy machine guns and light mortars. At that point, we will still be the only ones bombarding the enemy, and the enemy will be unable to retaliate.

This order finally caught the attention of several colonels and lieutenant colonels under his command. They also genuinely admitted that their division commander's tactical vision was indeed superior to their own, as he had even come up with such a change of tactics.

If the cannons are simply deployed to the north entrance of the few north-south streets in the town, without penetrating deeper into the town, there's no need to worry about enemy ambushes in the complex terrain. The bulletproof shields of the 75mm rapid-fire cannons are sufficient to withstand close-range fire from small arms, posing little threat.

The Belgian army acted swiftly, disregarding the darkness, and quickly organized another attack.

The initial "flexible defense" phase unfolded as before. After offering minimal resistance, the German forces retreated and then used their concealed firing positions to whittle down the Belgian troops.

Moreover, the German ambushes were located in different places each time. The firing positions used to repel the enemy in the previous wave were no longer there in the next attack; they had been moved. The Belgian army had to risk lives to locate them again.

This time, however, Bi Jun gritted his teeth and held on for even longer than before.

They were told that once they gained a foothold, heavy firepower would be moved forward and directly destroyed the enemy's heavy machine gun positions hidden in the ruins.

Major General De Gizal's plan was quickly and effectively implemented.

As usual, the cruiser "Bold" cleared out a no-man's-land in the northeast corner of the town, which was then occupied by the British infantry.

Then they moved the 75mm gun to the beach at the northern intersection, turned it south, and prepared to sweep it away street by street from north to south.

……

"The Billy Kings have finally taken the bait. They thought we didn't have heavy firepower. It was definitely worth saving our field artillery for this moment."

After seeing the Belgian army's movements in the distance through his binoculars, Colonel Lister finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

To be frank, at the very beginning of the war, the German army was inferior to the French army in terms of the performance of 3-inch artillery.

The M96 77mm field gun was significantly outmatched by the Schneider 75mm gun in terms of rate of fire, and had no advantage in any other aspects.

The only clear advantage of the German 77mm gun was that its muzzle velocity was much higher than that of the Schneider 75mm gun, which should have given it a significant advantage in range.

However, in pursuit of a lower profile, the German artillery carriage design limited the maximum elevation angle, wasting the high muzzle velocity, and ultimately the actual range of the two was only about the same.

All of this needs to be compensated for through tactics and training. Fortunately, at this moment, Lister's tactic of luring the enemy was very successful.

The Belgian army, having been provoked by the mobile firing positions within the town, had completely lost patience and finally couldn't resist deploying rapid-fire artillery forward.

"Attention all 77mm field guns! Adjust your firing data within two minutes and fire six rounds rapidly according to the following coordinates!"

"Field artillery company received, execute immediately!" The regimental field artillery company immediately responded to the colonel's order and got to work quickly and methodically.

A few minutes later, a sudden loud "boom boom boom" sounded from the edge of the beach on the north side of the town.

The Belgian artillery positions, which had just been dragged forward for deployment, had barely moved their guns there and had not yet fully completed their deployment when German 77mm shells landed in the middle of the positions.

"What? That's impossible! How could the Germans have field guns? We bombarded them for an hour or two and they didn't retaliate! Where did they get field guns from? How could they possibly drag such heavy things across the flooded area!"

Major General Dejzel, observing the battle from outside the town, felt a rush of blood to his head and nearly faint when he saw enemy shells landing on his own rapid-fire artillery positions and exploding in brilliant flashes.

In that instant, he knew his plan was doomed.

The Germans were incredibly patient! They had artillery but didn't use it? They just relied on heavy machine guns and elastic armor to hold out for an hour or two, managing to fool themselves into lowering their guard!

(End of this chapter)