Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 60: Taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, launch a frenzied attack (available tomorrow)
With the help of the new flamethrowers, which had been improved and thickened with fuel, the siege of Stenford, which had been a tug-of-war, finally turned into a one-sided collapse.

On the first day after the new flamethrowers were deployed, the previously tangled and stalemate-like streets were completely cleared.

The next day, the neighborhoods that were previously firmly under the control of the Bu army were also burned horribly, and hundreds of soldiers were burned to death in their hiding places without any chance to fight back.

A few realized something was wrong and abandoned their covert tactics, fleeing back in panic.

These deserters spread terrifying rumors to the troops behind the lines, causing the entire division to waver.

Everyone realized that with the enemy possessing new "close-quarters combat weapons," simply holding onto the city and engaging in street fighting was no longer a viable way to win.

At the moment when morale collapsed, the Bu army finally began to retreat.

They were pursued and shelled by the German army along the way, suffering considerable casualties, before finally retreating to Poperlinge, further east and closer to Ypres. This effectively meant abandoning their strategic objective of "directly blocking the German railway line and preventing them from using railway supplies."

The German troops were overjoyed when they discovered how effective the new flamethrower was at close-quarters combat.

Army Group Commander Duke Rupprecht made a temporary decision to expand the use of this weapon and accelerate the offensive. Before the enemy could react, they wanted to capture more enemy strongholds suitable for this type of warfare.

Because he knew very well that even with Lelouch's improvements and by adding some thickener to the fuel before battle, the range of the flamethrower could be increased from 10 meters to 40 meters with almost no modification to the flamethrower itself!
In particular, the thickener he used was not technically difficult to produce. It was simply a matter of adding some white sugar, waste rubber, or other miscellaneous additives. The formula was very flexible, as long as it could thicken the product.

The only downside to this thing is that the nozzle and nozzle will get clogged more easily after prolonged use, requiring frequent cleaning or replacement. This time, because the battle was so urgent, Lelouch only had time to modify the fuel itself, so he used it first.

After this battle is over, we'll definitely need to have DWM's engineers work on it again to develop a nozzle and spray nozzle specifically designed for thickened fuels, reducing the clogging and failure rates after continuous use.

Meanwhile, Lelouch's improvements to the flamethrower's range didn't have much impact on field and trench warfare. In those environments, whether you rushed to a position 10 meters or 40 meters away from the enemy made little difference in difficulty.

However, in urban sieges and fortress tunnel warfare, the difference between 10 meters and 40 meters is significant. Therefore, Duke Rupprecht naturally wanted to take advantage of the time difference before the enemy could react and gain as much benefit as possible.

So, almost simultaneously after capturing Stenford, the German army split its forces and launched an attack on Caselle, a small town controlled by the Bruegel army on the other side of the railway.

In the previous days of fighting, the German army had already wedged between Caselle and Stenford, cut off the Brücke army's railway, and approached the town of Caselle.

The German offensive was initially halted because the town of Cassel was not of significant strategic value at the time, the German forces were limited, and they faced logistical difficulties. Further northwest from Armandière, the Germans had no railways available, and logistics for the last few dozen kilometers were handled by mules and horses.

Duke Rupprecht was originally worried that if he played the flanking maneuver around towns a few more times, his flanking forces would go too deep into enemy territory, and logistics would become too difficult and scarce, which would backfire.

But now, with the flamethrower recently deployed in combat, along with submachine guns and shotguns, these three new weapons combined mean that, for the foreseeable future, there's no need to worry about sieges of small and medium-sized towns, nor about engaging in cutthroat combat with the enemy in urban areas.

Both the Burgh and the French armies needed at least several days to adapt to the shock of this new tactical change and to react accordingly.

Perhaps in ten days or so, both the Burgh and French soldiers will receive widespread propaganda from their high-ranking officers: "From now on, whenever you see an enemy carrying oil canisters on the battlefield, you must concentrate your fire and kill them at all costs! Do not let enemies carrying oil canisters reach you!"

Once the enemy reaches this consensus, it will be much harder to take advantage of the flamethrower's surprise attack. After all, its range is a major weakness; even with Lelouch's abilities, he could only extend it from a dozen meters to 40 meters.

Hurry and grab what you can while things are chaotic!

Duke Rupprecht temporarily allocated the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the 6th Army to launch a new offensive.

Meanwhile, as the battle continued, the Bergmann company in the rear was also continuously producing new submachine guns and light machine guns. The increased production over the past two weeks was enough to equip two more battalions.

At the same time, Bergmann also optimized the production line, officially converting many parts that originally required machining during trial production into direct stamping. This will greatly reduce subsequent production costs and increase production speed and output exponentially.

Based on feedback from the combat experience of the previous prototype, the weight of the bolt in the new batch of submachine guns has been optimized again and officially finalized. The weight of the bolt block has increased from 470 grams to more than 530 grams, ensuring that the extraction of spent cartridges can still be absolutely stable, but the recoil speed of the bolt is not too fast.

While this resulted in a slight decrease in the rate of fire, from approximately 500 rounds per minute to 450 rounds per minute, it greatly alleviated the problems of propellant gas leakage and waste during firing. The breech of the barrel no longer leaked noticeably, and the chamber pressure was slightly increased, raising the effective range from 150 meters to 200 meters, while also improving accuracy. Therefore, reducing the rate of fire by about 10% was entirely worthwhile.

With sufficient new equipment, Duke Rupprecht made an urgent decision to replenish the weapons shortages of the original 1st and 2nd Assault Battalions. For example, each assault squad was supposed to be issued 5 submachine guns, but only 3 were issued initially, and the extra 2 men had to switch to rifles.

After this equipment replenishment, we can finally ensure that each squad's assault team is issued a full set of 5 submachine guns.

After replenishing their equipment, there was still enough left to form a new assault battalion. So the Duke selected elite soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the 1st Army of Baria and formed the 3rd Assault Battalion of the 6th Army on the front lines, which was then assigned to the 2nd Division.

This 3rd Assault Battalion had just been formed and hadn't even had time for specialized training before being thrown into a new offensive. Fortunately, the soldiers were elite veterans who understood the tactics after a brief explanation, and everything else could be gradually refined in actual combat.

With the new assault battalion formed, it naturally needed a battalion commander. The others didn't understand assault tactics, and Major Bock and Major Lundstätter each had their own battalion commanders.

Thus, the final decision was made logically: although Captain Lelouch's rank was not quite high enough, he had recently distinguished himself in battle.

During the earlier assault on Bayole, his unit was instrumental in the victory. Of course, the credit was shared by Major Bock and others, and it cannot be attributed solely to him, but he was certainly the one whose contribution was most obvious.

The victory at Stenford was largely thanks to Lelouch's modified thickened fuel flamethrower. This credit truly belongs to him personally, as he even drafted the new tactical instructions himself.

Therefore, Duke Rupprecht ordered Lelouch to be temporarily transferred to the 3rd Assault Battalion as acting battalion commander and to immediately engage in battle. His position and rank would be formally adjusted after this wave of attacks ended.

Of course, in order to ensure that the 3rd Assault Battalion can immediately form combat capability, some key personnel will definitely need to be drawn from the original assault battalion to mentor the new ones.

So they took most of the men from Major Bock's battalion, the company Lelouch originally led. Only a small number remained to serve as officers in Company A of the 1st Assault Battalion.

For example, Captain Barak, who had been blocked by Lelouch, finally got promoted and transferred away, and he also became the former commander of Company A. The dozens of people who remained were also promoted one and a half ranks.

Those who followed Lelouch included Captain Rommel, who was transferred to the 3rd Assault Battalion as the training company commander, responsible for mentoring new recruits.

Lieutenant Model, who had just been stabbed and pistoled a few days ago (but was protected by his body armor) and had only recently returned to his unit after recovering from his injuries, was also exceptionally promoted to the 3rd Assault Battalion and became the acting company commander of one of its companies. Even after Model was wounded and promoted for meritorious service, he was still only a lieutenant and was not originally qualified to be a company commander, so he could only serve as the acting company commander on the front line.

Dieter is still hospitalized and cannot be transferred at the moment. Captain Lister, the former company commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, will remain in his original unit.

Even Sergeant Klose, Lelouch's staunch confidant at the beginning of his transmigration, was finally promoted to lieutenant and became the battalion guard platoon leader in his new unit, following his superior.

……

After Lelouch was given a critical mission on the front lines and hastily established the 3rd Assault Battalion, he quickly joined the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Bariah in the latest round of rapid offensive, playing the role of the spearhead.

He not only had to command the assault battalion, but also provide key tactical guidance to the flamethrower units participating in the battle, so that these special friendly forces could maximize their combat potential.

With Lelouch's help, the German army made rapid progress, and the flamethrower soldiers' power was fully unleashed.

On January 7, the German army had just captured the entire city of Kerstenford, and the next day, on the 8th, they turned around and took Casale.

In the following days, the German army continued to advance along the railway line on the western front, launching a strong offensive characterized by "street fighting and direct assaults on towns along the railway line, without resorting to flanking maneuvers."

After the fall of Caselle, the Boulogne army did not actually garrison the two more remote towns of Albec and Volmour. This was because the Boulogne army had suffered heavy losses and was short-handed due to the disastrous defeats at Stenford and Bayole, forcing them to hand over these two towns to their allies, the French. The French did send troops to relieve them, but their forces were insufficient, and they were seeing flamethrowers for the first time.

Coupled with their complete lack of adaptation to the German army's sudden change in offensive rhythm, the defensive lines in this area collapsed abruptly after a brief period of resistance. They were driven back dozens of kilometers by the German army's well-prepared attack.

On January 10, the German army captured Albek. Inside Albek, a French division had originally planned to hold out to the death, but after the Germans bombarded the city and then sent flamethrower troops into the city to set fire to the resistance strongholds, the French army quickly panicked and collapsed.

Thousands of French soldiers were burned to death or injured, and the rest were thrown into chaos. More than 4000 French troops in the city were divided and surrounded, and their morale collapsed and they surrendered.

On the 12th, the German army continued its advance and captured Vollmünchen. More than a thousand French soldiers were killed or burned, more than 2000 surrendered, and the rest of the soldiers ran away even faster than they had two days earlier.

On the 15th, the German army actually advanced to Berg, a satellite town on the southern outskirts of Dunkirk, which was only 20 kilometers away from the city of Dunkirk.

It was only after advancing to this point that the German offensive momentum completely stalled.

Because Dunkirk was heavily guarded and backed by the sea, it couldn't be taken by a single, swift attack. Flamethrowers and submachine guns were useless; the German heavy artillery couldn't keep up, and shells couldn't be delivered.

Dunkirk is the third largest seaport in Frankish history and the largest port in northern Frankish territory. It boasts numerous coastal fortifications, heavy artillery, and sturdy bunkers, a stark contrast to the smaller towns along its coast.

On the other hand, the German army's sudden advance also caused the front line to advance another 40 kilometers! Before the capture of Hill 155 on the southern edge of the Ypres Heights, the heavy artillery deployed by the Bruegel army on the hilltop could always bombard the railway, keeping it in a state of "neither we can use it nor the enemy can use it".

Therefore, the German army is still in a state where "from Armandière to the northwest, all the way to Worm, a full 80 kilometers, weapons and ammunition are transported entirely by mule carts."

Given the wartime conditions and logistical constraints at the beginning of 1915, the German army was indeed temporarily exhausted by this point, and the advance towards Dunkirk had to be temporarily halted.

Some might wonder why we can't just play wide-ranging flanking maneuvers, creating a chaotic, unpredictable trap.

However, those ideas stemmed from a lack of understanding of the logistical difficulties faced by the German army at the beginning of World War I. In fact, the German army relied heavily on railways for troop transport and supplies during World War I, even more so than the French army.

During the Battle of the Marne, the French were able to at least muster 1200 taxis to transport troops from Paris to the front lines. Later, during the Battle of Verdun, the Germans thought that heavy artillery would block the railway line to Verdun and the French forces there would collapse, but Joffre managed to gather 3700 trucks and transport 20 reinforcements up the line.

These were things the German army wouldn't even dare to dream of. Because in the early stages of World War I, the German army's motorization was practically nonexistent, and the number of trucks they possessed was extremely small. Even in 1916, the idea that "a country could muster 3700 trucks" was a huge number far exceeding the upper limit of the German General Staff's imagination.

Before the outbreak of war, the German army realized that "the Bouffalo Union has a maritime advantage and can continuously transport oil from other continents, so the enemy can motorize and equip themselves with more trucks." As for the German army itself, as soon as the war started, the Bouffalo navy would block its oil import channels, so the German army consciously avoided any combat methods that would require the use of gasoline and diesel fuel.

This is one of the reasons why Lelouch couldn't build tanks right away. He hadn't even figured out the fuel supply, and his motorized logistics were completely nonexistent. What use would a tank be? Even if he did build one, he couldn't use it on a large scale because there wasn't enough fuel.

Once the initial surprise and novelty wear off, his enemies will imitate him. And his enemies have plenty of fuel; once they learn tank technology, they can ramp up production without restraint. Wouldn't Lelouch be shooting himself in the foot then?
So it wasn't that Lelouch didn't want to develop tanks, but rather that he was well aware of the basic requirements and prerequisites for the German army to develop tanks: at least first, they needed to reach the southern section of the Eastern Front, help their ally Oreo repel the Russo people, and ideally, then push back into Romania and seize the Romanian oil fields (Romania was on the Allied side during World War I and was an enemy of the German army).

Only after securing at least one stable source of oil can Lelouch develop motorized logistics and begin mass-producing tanks. This order is crucial; otherwise, the element of surprise in using tanks will be wasted, and the tanks will be used to aid the enemy.

However, these are all rather far-fetched topics.

In any case, the current situation is that, thanks to the flamethrower as a surprise weapon, as well as the resolute offensive of the assault battalion and two main divisions, the German army has finally pushed to the doorstep of Dunkirk in the northern section of the Western Front.

On the other hand, they must first launch a strong attack to capture Mount Kemer, the high ground on the south side of the Ypres Heights, and lift the artillery blockade of the railway by the Burgundian army.

Then, the German army, whose logistics depended entirely on the railway, was able to completely break the seal, and the rolling iron torrent gave the assault troops at the front line, who had almost run out of supplies, a huge boost.

Once supplies are fully replenished, we can discuss either a full-scale assault on Dunkirk or a flanking maneuver to encircle and divide the Ypres Heights.

Before the railway blockade at Kemmer Hill was cleared, the German troops who had just captured the towns of Caselle, Albek, and Worm along the railway line had to temporarily shift to on-site defense.

With minimal resource consumption, withstand the French counterattack on the flank, inflict casualties on the French forces, and wear them down until the rear is cleared.

Fortunately, thanks to Lelouch's plan, a solution has been prepared to clear the last railway bottleneck at Kemergasse.

Before returning to the front lines on January 5, Lelouch had already learned why the allied forces' assault on Mount Kemer had failed and what the main difficulties were.

He also ordered another piece of equipment from DWM, specifically designed to counter the Bu army's mountain defense tactics. However, that item was produced more slowly, so it arrived a few days later than the new flamethrower.

In addition, the new gadgets Lelouch acquired require special weather conditions to unleash their full power. So even though the items arrived a few days ago, they couldn't be used yet because there wasn't heavy snowfall.

On January 15th, not long after the German army captured the three cities downstream of the railway, the weather, which had been clear for about ten days, finally turned into a heavy snowfall.

It's reasonable for it to snow heavily in mid-January; we can always wait for it.

With the return of heavy snow, aerial reconnaissance for both sides was rendered useless, and aircraft were unable to take off.

Meanwhile, the Bu army, which originally occupied the high ground on the mountaintop, lost its advantage in visibility due to the heavy snow blocking its view and the drastic reduction in visibility.

In the heavy snow, the armies attacking and defending the mountain can now see about the same distance.

-

PS: I wrote 8,000 words in one go today, and this second update is already 5,000 words.

Although several hundred words are dedicated to explaining the principles of strategic layout, since it hasn't been published yet and I'm not charging for it, writing more military theoretical analysis isn't considered frivolous.

In addition, it's a pity that the editor said the book's update data was about 15% below the minimum limit of Sanjiang, so there will be no more resources for it.

So, it will be available for immediate sale at noon tomorrow.

That's why I wrote another 8,000-word update today, and I also briefly mentioned some progress towards my small goals.

Because I originally planned to write the climax several days later. Now that it's being released directly without promotion, the plot hasn't reached the peak of the Ypres-Dunkirk battle yet.

So, I plan to give everyone a big free update tomorrow morning, and then release a massive update after 12 noon.

Although plans can change, I will try my best to write up to the climax of the Battle of Ypres in one go, so that everyone can enjoy reading about one major battle. I can't give an exact word count, but I will do my best.

Because I genuinely didn't have any drafts saved up, I've been writing 8,000-word articles at a time these past few days, so how could I possibly have any drafts to save up? I'm just giving them all away for free. This sudden release after losing out in a promotional competition was something I wasn't prepared for, so all I can say is that I did my best.

It's already officially released, so I'd like everyone to come and support it with a first-order after 12 PM tomorrow (or 12:30 PM to be on the safe side) and help boost the sales.

I will continue to update tomorrow, writing as much as I can. Feel free to come back and check back when you have time; there might be another update. For tomorrow's final update, if I really can't write anymore, I will clearly state at the end of the chapter, "This is the last update for today, don't wait," to avoid wasting everyone's time.

So be it.

(End of this chapter)