Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 50: Annihilation of the Cavalry Division, Capture of Bayole

February 21th, 4:30 AM.

It is located northwest of Bayole, about 3 kilometers from the town.

Lieutenant General Edmund Allenby (pictured below), commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps of the Republic of Burma, has just arrived at the battlefield with his 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Divisions.

Originally, when something happened in Bayole, the garrison troops in Stenford, which were closer, should have been sent to reinforce them. These were the 1st and 2nd Garrison Divisions.

But Lord Cannae was slow to react, his administration was chaotic, and he had never fought a war before. In haste, Marshal French, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, had no choice but to assign this urgent task to the cavalry.

So Lieutenant General Allenby had no choice but to travel more than 30 kilometers overnight to get here, first detouring from Popperlinger to Stenford, and then coming south from Stenford to get here.

"I heard the enemy only has some small-scale infiltration and attack units? These sneaky rats are indeed suitable for our cavalry to catch."

Lieutenant General Allenby first looked through his binoculars at the site of the bombed Stenford-Bayole section of the railway, where the fire was still raging. He saw that several train carriages were still burning fiercely, and he knew that the enemy must still be nearby and could not have retreated far.

He immediately dispatched several cavalry companies to conduct a net search and reconnaissance with firepower, in an effort to find out the enemy's deployment positions as soon as possible.

The cavalry officers under his command were also very brave and resolutely carried out the order.

As if to confirm Lieutenant General Allenby's guess, not long after the cavalry company was deployed to the southwest, gunfire erupted like popping beans.

Lieutenant General Allenby frowned, raising his binoculars again to observe personally while calculating in his mind:

"It seems there aren't many enemies. With this level of firepower, there are only a few hundred people, probably no more than a thousand."

"Such a small infiltration and harassment force is enough to keep the Bayole garrison from retaliating? Has Putney lost his mind?!"

Allenby inwardly cursed his old colleague Putney, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Corps.

Little did he know that Putney did launch a counterattack that night, but the previous counterattacks were mainly aimed at the main German forces and had all been repelled.

As for the enemy force that had infiltrated to the rear, Putney's troops were all infantry. How could they dare to launch a net and pursue them in the dark? Even if they encountered them, they couldn't call for friendly forces to quickly encircle them. Wouldn't that be just throwing themselves to the enemy?
Knowing that the enemy was so elite, Putney would definitely leave the encirclement and annihilation mission to his cavalry allies.

Allenby, unaware of the gravity of the situation, immediately ordered: "Major General Gough, you immediately take the 2nd Division and outflank them. I've heard this enemy unit has some automatic firepower, but its range seems limited."

Cavalry will be at a disadvantage attacking enemy positions with concentrated firepower, so we should try to disperse our formation and encircle and attack from multiple directions! Fortunately, the enemy is not numerous, and they will inevitably be overwhelmed. If we attack together, we can definitely annihilate this elite enemy force!

Major General Schubert Goff, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division, did not dare to be overconfident, but still carried out the corps commander's order, sending one of his cavalry brigades to make a large-scale outflanking maneuver, while he himself led another brigade as a reserve force, also moving westward.

The corps commander said, "The enemy's automatic weapons seem to have a short range." This intelligence must have come from the commander-in-chief, reported by the 3rd Corps guarding Bayole. Schubert certainly couldn't believe such information that had passed through several hands; he needed to verify it himself.

In 1914, each cavalry division of the Bu army consisted of two brigades, each brigade had three regiments, and each regiment had three companies (only infantry and artillery had battalions; cavalry did not have battalions, and the regiment was directly subordinate to the company).

Each division has over 9000 personnel, including 1200 artillerymen divided into two artillery battalions, each with 24 mobile light field guns, totaling 48 guns. However, in actual combat, in long-distance mobile operations, the mobility of field artillery is definitely slower than that of cavalry, and it takes time to deploy positions after entering the battlefield. Therefore, in urgent situations, the artillery often cannot keep up with the first wave of fighting.

In addition, the division has 600 auxiliary soldiers in communications, engineering, and logistics.

The remaining 7200 men were all cavalry, so a brigade consisted of 3600 cavalry, a regiment of 1200 cavalry, and a company of 400 cavalry.

After Schubert's division commander sent out a brigade to make a probing maneuver and approach, they soon clashed with Lelouch's battalion.

After personally verifying the situation, although Bu's cavalry suffered the loss of over a hundred men, they had a general understanding of the enemy's position. More importantly, his men confirmed a crucial piece of intelligence:
"Commander, the enemy is indeed equipped with that new type of small automatic weapon that can fire pistol rounds continuously! That is, the 'submachine gun' reported by the 3rd Army! If our soldiers' probing attack fails, they will be fine as long as they retreat to a distance of 200 meters. However, we still need to be careful of the enemy's rifles."

Schubert breathed a sigh of relief: "So this kind of gun really does only have a range of less than 200 meters! Then we're fine. They're outnumbered. We'll swarm them from all sides in a bit and wipe out these so-called elite German troops!"

"You have another half hour to maneuver and get into position. It's a bit early to attack now, but don't drag it out until full daylight, as the enemy's visibility will improve then."

In complete darkness, a large-scale, concentrated charge by cavalry is prone to colliding with their own troops, leading to friendly fire and friendly fire incidents. However, complete daylight is also not advisable, so the best time is around 5 a.m. when it is just beginning to get light.

That's settled.

……

"Why aren't you letting the MG15 light machine gun team fire? Company commander, the enemy is charging in!"

Lieutenant Dieter, skilled in machine gun operation, was extremely anxious after seeing the enemy's probing attempts repelled several times. He was eager to prove himself and repeatedly asked Lelouch for help.

However, Lelouch's military discipline was very strict. He said that if the machine gun fire was to be kept silent, then it had to be kept silent and no premature exposure was allowed.

"Dieter! Stay calm! Our sustained offensive yesterday was very fast-paced, and the machine gun crews didn't really get many opportunities to shine! It was the submachine gun crews that really shone and attracted the enemy's fear."

The fact that the enemy dares to counterattack us with cavalry shows they never expected our rapid-mobility infiltration units to be equipped with machine guns in organized units! We must remain calm and lure the enemy into a full-scale attack! Unless it's an entire division or brigade charging forward, we cannot expose our machine guns!

So the German assault battalions continued to hold their ground, and the camouflaged firing positions remained remarkably calm. Company commanders like Rommel and Lister, like Lelouch, strictly disciplined their men.

The Burgh cavalry's offensive preparations became more and more thorough, and the encirclement became tighter and tighter. Gradually, a small number of Burgh cavalry's 13-pound light field guns arrived on the battlefield, completed their deployment, and began shelling the German assault battalion!
Fortunately, the firepower density of this bombardment was not high. The 13-pound cannons used by cavalry were equivalent to about 70 millimeters in caliber, and only a few could reach the battlefield in one night of rapid march.

On Lelouch's side, the position was well-constructed, and the personnel were loosely distributed, so hiding in the trenches wouldn't pose a serious threat to them from the 70mm cannons.

This cowardly attitude—being able to only retaliate with submachine guns or even grenade launchers in the face of artillery fire—further fueled the arrogance of the Bu army cavalry.

"All troops, charge! Fire signal flares!"

Finally, the Burgh cavalry, whose morale was waning from the occasional grenade launchers fired by the Germans, began to lose patience. As the first rays of dawn appeared in the east, Lieutenant General Ebiron and Major General Schubert issued the order for a general offensive.

Thousands of Burgundy cavalrymen began their charge toward the seemingly weak German assault battalion!

The Battle of Ypres, a classic scene in Earth's history that resulted in the loss of more than half of the Burgh's 2nd Cavalry Division, was even adapted into the film "War Horse."

Unexpectedly, the scene took place in a different location, in the woods and fields north of Bayole!
"Finally, they've fallen for it! All MG15 light machine gun crews, open fire! Free fire!"

Lelouch endured so much bombardment from the enemy's small number of 70mm cannons that he almost felt his internal organs were slightly injured. Fortunately, perseverance paid off, and he finally waited until the enemy fell into his trap!
He shouted the order, exhaled all the pent-up energy in his chest, and then picked up his submachine gun. Not daring to leave the trench, he simply raised the gun above his head and, in the posture of shooting with the faith of the Black Uncle of the future, sprayed 9mm pistol bullets at the enemy outside the trench.

Each company had as many as 16 MG15 light machine guns, and the entire battalion theoretically had over 60. All the surviving machine gun crews unleashed a hail of bullets at the enemy cavalry.

The light machine gun, which was originally unable to fire continuously due to the lack of a water-cooling sleeve,
Because of the cold combat environment at the end of December and the snowy weather, there is no need to worry about the sustainability of firepower!

No water cooling? We'll use snow cooling! Just shovel snow to bury the gun barrels and fire!
"Da da da! Crack crack crack!" A storm of metal, like a sudden gust of wind, swept towards the light cavalry like a raging torrent.

Countless cavalrymen didn't even have time to scream before being riddled with bloody holes and instantly falling from their horses, dying instantly.

Their warhorses were also killed in large numbers by gunfire, with casualties no lower than those of the people on horseback.

The pitiful howls and screeches echoed across the entire plain.

The camp where Lelouch was stationed originally had a slightly curved position, which was also supported by two groves of trees.

This terrain also means that when the enemy attacks, some troops will naturally crawl into the curved concave surface, as if they have crawled into a natural pocket.

Among the cavalry of the Burgh Army, the one that played the role of going through the pocket was a brigade of Major General Schubert's 2nd Cavalry Division.

As a result, this brigade was the first to be hit, and was continuously strafed by dozens of light machine guns from the left, right and front! Unfortunately, the Bu army in 1914 was not very adaptable, and the officers were generally quite stubborn and would "heroically" carry out orders.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have seen scenes like the one in the movie "War Horse" that touted chivalry but actually resulted in mindless suicide.

Lelouch will accept the enemy's rigidity without question!

A brigade of the 2nd Cavalry Division was almost completely wiped out in this area in less than ten minutes! Even though it was not fully staffed to begin with and could not muster 3600 cavalry, at least two thousand cavalrymen were killed!

According to post-war statistics, at least 2,700 to 2,800 cavalrymen who died in battle were recovered from this arc-shaped depression! An entire brigade, except for a very few deserters, was completely annihilated here!
The other brigade of the 2nd Cavalry Division, as well as the entire 3rd Cavalry Division, also suffered significant losses.

However, these troops still had time to react. If they realized something was wrong, they could quickly retreat in a panic, and if they ran fast enough, they could even escape.

Major General Schubert's other brigade managed to split into several waves and leave some reserves during the charge, so only the first six cavalry companies were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. By the time they were fleeing in defeat, more than half of their men had already been killed.

The remaining six reserve companies dared not go any further and tried to create distance between themselves.

However, the Germans deliberately feigned weakness and engaged in close combat from the beginning. The effective killing range of the MG15 light machine gun was in no way inferior to its heavy machine gun prototype, and it could still kill people at 1500 meters.

The cavalry suffered repeated defeats and were driven away by gunfire from behind. Soldiers were constantly being shot in the back and fell from their horses, howling in agony for almost half an hour before they were finally able to break free from the battle.

The 3rd Division, personally commanded by Lieutenant General Abylon, was in a slightly better situation than this side, but not by much.

……

Just half an hour later, in the city of Ypres.

The telephone on the desk of Marshal John French, Commander-in-Chief of the Burkina Faso Expeditionary Force, rang.

The old marshal, with his thick, pure white beard, picked up the microphone, but after listening to only one sentence, his hand trembled, and the microphone fell to the ground, smashing its casing with a crack.

"Marshal, what's wrong? Are you alright?" The staff officer next to him quickly helped him sit down, thinking that the old marshal's blood pressure was too high and his body was out of control.

"This...how is this possible! The enemy only had a few battalions of infiltration troops, yet they almost annihilated Major General Schubert's cavalry division! They also crippled another division of Lieutenant General Ebiron!"

"What?" The staff officers around him were also shocked.

This is absolutely the biggest loss since the battle began yesterday.

Even after fighting fiercely for so long on the Bayole front, the total number of casualties couldn't possibly exceed ten thousand! No matter how much fighting there is, the total losses are still kept to four figures.

However, in just half an hour, the cavalry lost several thousand lives, and if you include the wounded, the number would definitely exceed ten thousand!

Is this the consequence of using cavalry to simultaneously charge a dense heavy machine gun position from all directions?
But even if cavalry is no longer suitable for modern warfare, shouldn't the fighting be a drawn-out, drawn-out battle? How did they fall into such a trap?

"That's impossible! The enemy is just an infiltration force, how could they be equipped with so many heavy machine guns! Everyone knows that German heavy machine guns weigh 70 kilograms!"

You're telling me these infiltration troops can carry 70-kilogram rifles everywhere, and not just one or two, but hundreds!

No wonder the cavalry underestimated the enemy; this was something no one could have predicted.

Such a crushing defeat has thrown the Burma Army General Headquarters into considerable chaos.

……

Outside Bayole, inside the headquarters of the 12th Division of the German 6th Division of Balia.

Lelouch's superior, Major General Karl Lyudpot, was clearly feeling the exact opposite of Marshal John French at this moment.

"Almost annihilated an enemy cavalry division? Severely damaged an enemy cavalry division? Excellent! Immediately notify the army group headquarters! Also, quickly have loudspeakers set up at the front to broadcast messages to the Bayole defenders, to demoralize them!"
Also, remove the explosives from all those gas canister-throwing "smoke bombs" that we just brought up, and stuff them with leaflets! No time to print? If not, just write them by hand! The content isn't difficult; just tell them that the reinforcements sent by the General Headquarters of the Burkina Faso to aid Bayole have been surrounded and wiped out by our army!
Their railway has been blown up by us! Supply lines are down! Now that all reinforcements are dead, are they still going to hold this town?!

Major General Karl's series of basic operations were quite solid. Everything was arranged according to his instructions.

The German troops flanking the town began a new artillery barrage, bombarding the town. Soldiers on the front lines used every available loudspeaker to broadcast messages.

A few hours later, handwritten leaflets were also scattered throughout the town via gas cylinders that exploded in mid-air. Although the number was small, it was enough to shake the morale of the enemy soldiers.

"Soldiers of the Burma army on the other side! You have no hope! Your reinforcements have been wiped out! The railway has been blown up! The Imperial army has surrounded this town!"

In reality, the German army certainly failed to encircle the area, not to mention that the hillside directly north of Bayole facing the Ypres Heights could not possibly be encircled.

Even in the northwest area along the railway, at most only two regiments of German troops infiltrated there.

The problem is that the Bu army in Bayole is unaware that they are caught in a state of fear and anxiety as bad news and false information keep coming their way.

In the end, they only managed to hold on for another day.

As night fell again, Lieutenant General William Putney, commander of the 3rd Army Corps, could no longer control his extremely demoralized remnants.

Thousands of new recruits moved north along the hilly slopes, climbing Mount Kemer on the edge of the Ypres Heights, and retreated into the defense zone of the 1st Army of the Burkina Faso.

That place is called a mountain, but its highest point is only 155 meters above sea level. It wouldn't even qualify as a mountain in other places. It's only considered a mountain in low-lying countries, since there are large areas of swamps with negative elevations nearby.

On Mount Kemer, the Burmese army discovered their own deserters surging up and initially attempted to fire warning shots. Ultimately, however, they were forced to abandon the plan due to the sheer number of deserters.

Upon hearing the news, Lieutenant General Douglas Haig, commander of the 1st Corps, personally visited the main position at Kemmer Hill to inspect and enforce discipline, and ordered that deserters be imprisoned in solitary confinement camps.

With the situation deteriorating to this extent, Lieutenant General William Putney of the 3rd Army had no chance of holding the town of Bayole, and he could only lead his troops to retreat to the Ypres Heights.

However, as the commander-in-chief, in order to maintain his dignity, he acted together with the last regiment that was covering the retreat.

Just a few hours later, at dawn on the 22nd, Marshal French, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, awoke to find that the 3rd Army had abandoned its important positions and retreated up the mountain without orders. He was furious.

He ordered Lieutenant General Putney to be disarmed and, along with a group of disobedient officers who had failed to command properly, to be escorted back to London to be tried in a military court.

……

Lieutenant General Putney led his routed troops to Mount Kemer shortly afterward.

The German 6th, 12th and 6th Divisions also flooded into the town of Bayol, reaping the fruits of victory.

Leading the charge were the two assault battalions commanded by Major Bock and Major Lundstätter.

Lelouch's company was once again at the forefront of these two assault battalions.

-

P.S.: I won't be splitting the updates over the weekend. I'll be writing a long chapter about conquering the town, so as not to make everyone impatient.

而且今天要控制字数不能超20万字整，免得多提前一天下新书榜。（理论上新书榜要到8月4号，但明天肯定就超20万字了，浪费一天新书榜。今天这更更完后要卡19万9千字）

(End of this chapter)