Imperial Elite

Chapter 142 A good pilot always has one more bullet than others.

When the Teutonic Army Group A burst out of the forest, not only the Gauls, but even the Bunitas felt their blood run cold.

Although Cecil, as the commander-in-chief of the Bunitania expeditionary force, guessed that the Teutons might risk taking the forest route to launch a surprise attack.

But Cecil never expected that the Guards Armored Training Regiment, which used to be able to chase the Teutons, would be wiped out in one battle, with most of the personnel remaining outside the forest except for a few.

Although Army Group A had already begun its rapid advance, both the Expeditionary Force Command and London wanted to find out what had caused this most formidable armored force in Bonitania to be defeated by the Teutons in armored warfare.

Even though the war was urgent, London still sent an investigation team.

The investigation team quickly figured out what had happened; in fact, it wasn't difficult to find out.

Although Cecil was not as skilled as Joe, he still had a clear understanding of the battlefield.

That is, if the Teutonic Army Group A were to emerge from the forest at this moment, they would undoubtedly launch a frantic assault on the sea, trapping the Gallic mobile forces and the newly arrived Buntanian expeditionary force at the border between the Low Countries and Gaul, forming a massive encirclement.

At that time, the terrifying bombing by the Teutonic Air Force alone will be enough to give them a hard time.

However, there is still a chance to improve things. After all, the forest is not a convenient environment for logistics transportation. Back then, Joe had to take away most of the expeditionary force's trucks to barely supply the assault troops' needs.

So now, although the Teutons have crossed the forest, their supplies must have been almost exhausted.

Now is the perfect time to launch an armored assault.

Launch a pincer attack from both flanks of Army Group A. If the expeditionary force can break through the flanks of Army Group A's salient, it will be able to encircle Army Group A's armored forces before Army Group A can encircle them.

Cecil quickly mobilized almost all of the armored units in the expeditionary force, and, as in the past, reinforced the Imperial Guard for this spearhead.

Meanwhile, the Bunitania air force supporting Gaul also risked being bombed by the Teutonic air force and concentrated at a nearby airfield.

Originally, Cecil wanted to reinforce the Gauls' armored forces in this crucial battle as well.

The Gauls did want to come and help, but their armored forces, composed entirely of heavy tanks, simply lacked the strategic mobility required.

By the time they arrived, the bread was cold.

Therefore, this desperate counterattack depends entirely on the performance of the Bunitania team.

Before launching this counterattack, Cecil had high hopes for it.

After all, the army underwent a major downsizing after the last war.

However, most of the armored units that made outstanding contributions on the battlefield have been preserved.

Look at these units; which one didn't fight a bloody battle on the Somme, and which one didn't follow Old Joe to bring the war to the Teutonic Kingdom?

Although there are some issues with the equipment, the Royal Fist wasn't a great car in the past either, but it still won back then, so it certainly won't have any problems now.

We were able to defeat the Teutons through rigorous training and extensive experience.

Cecil's large-scale troop movement could not be kept secret from the Teutons.

In response to Cecil's actions, Erich quickly made a decision: the vanguard that had already broken through the defenses should ignore what happened behind them and continue marching toward the sea. Do not stop your engines until you see the sea.

As for the troops that wanted to launch a pincer attack, Erich assigned the campaign mission to the four armored divisions of the Armed Guard, which were lagging behind due to their large number of heavy tanks, as well as the mechanized infantry divisions and the Gallic Air Force, which was already engaged in fierce fighting with the Bunitania Air Force.

Compared to the Gauls' monsters that often start at 70 tons and can easily exceed 100 tons when fully loaded, with main guns that are either 152mm or 138mm in caliber.

The Teutonic medium and heavy tanks, equipped with medium and high-caliber 75mm guns, were not up to par.

After all, the Teutons, who wanted to launch a blitzkrieg and charge forward, even had heavy tanks weighing less than 50 tons, capable of reaching speeds of 55 kilometers per hour on roads and 48 kilometers per hour off-road.

At the same time, due to the sloped armor design of the vehicle body, these heavy tanks appear very tall, reaching a height of three meters.

Back in the Sudetenland, after inspecting these Teutonic heavy tanks, Joe remarked that if the Teutons hadn't been so foolish as to equip them with high-caliber 75mm guns, these tanks could have been even more threatening.

Aside from being too tall and imposing, it's a pretty good car.

Holtz, leading these tanks which Old Joe had described as being quite good except for their somewhat inept artillery, launched an attack on the armored formations of Britannia.

Not long ago, they were relentlessly attacked by infantrymen armed with rocket launchers in the mountains of the Sudetenland.

Therefore, on the battlefield, these Teutonic vehicles, whether they were heavy tanks using long tubes or medium tanks using ordinary tubes, had armored skirts welded onto their turrets and hulls.

In contrast, the tanks equipped by the armored forces of Bunitania appear much cleaner.

Although the Bunitania armored forces did not have the fancy armored skirts of the Teutonic tanks, they did have a vast array of different tank models.

In order to break free from the influence of Joe Harrison in armor design, Bunitania strived to differentiate itself from Joe's previous designs, especially after proposing the concepts of cruiser tanks and infantry tanks and creating the Invincible-class tank.

Brittany's armor designs have been running wild down the path of self-destruction.

They churned out batch after batch of these things. The armored forces thought they were good when they saw the design specifications, but after getting their hands on them, they wondered what kind of thing they were.

This has led many military units, even to this day, to prefer using the outdated Hound tanks that have been discontinued, rather than accepting the newer tanks.

The disastrous consequences of this "de-Joe-ification" were revealed at this moment.

As the armored forces of Bunitania received orders to attack, the Bunitania air force, along with the Gallic pilots who were still able to take off, set up an anti-aircraft umbrella for the ground troops near the forest.

Faced with the ferocious onslaught of the Teutonic air force, they did their best to prevent a single bomb from falling on the ground troops who were launching the attack.

The aerial battle quickly escalated into a fierce contest, although the Teutonic fighters and escorts were often more eager to achieve air victories than to cover their original mission of protecting the bomber force.

However, their technical and tactical skills and sheer numbers effectively compensated for this.

The Bunitania Air Force, on the other hand, relied on better discipline and coordination between its lead and wingmen to fight against the Teutons.

As for the Gauls...

According to the Buntanians who witnessed the Gallic pilots' tactics, these Gauls weren't there to fight; they were there to fight to the death.

In the fleeting moments of intersecting formations, amidst the head-on firing at each other, these Gauls were always the last to turn their planes around.

In aerial combat, these Gauls would ferociously attack any target in their path, especially the Teutonic bombers, which were often left unprotected and were their primary targets.

There's even a saying among these Gauls: "A good pilot always has one more bullet than others."

As expensive fireworks exploded in the air, countless debris fell from the sky like meteors, trailing tongues of fire.

Ground troops also began exchanging fire, but the situation was different from the stalemate in the air.

As the ground forces of both sides began to exchange fire, the battlefield situation quickly became one-sided.

Besides the poor quality of the Bunitania armored forces, the Bunitania infantry was also in poor condition at this time.

Having been badly beaten by Joe in the past, the Teutons, who also had experience on the Eastern Front, still adopted the strategy of using machine guns as the core of infantry squad combat.

A squad has two general-purpose machine guns, the squad leader and deputy squad leader carry submachine guns, and the remaining infantry are equipped with semi-automatic rifles.

This firepower is somewhat insufficient when facing NATO's combination of squad automatic weapons, assault rifles, and rocket launchers.

However, this firepower was a luxury when facing a Bunitarian infantry squad.

What was the configuration of a Buntanian infantry squad at this time? Apart from the light machine gunner, who carried a light machine gun, the other eight infantrymen, including the assistant gunner, the ammunition handler, and the squad leader, were all equipped with bolt-action rifles.

Once the two sides closed in, the Teutonic overwhelming firepower was enough to keep the Bunitarians from even raising their heads.

Before the two sides could get close, the Bunitania tank force was massacred by Teutonic tanks.

Even those brave Buntanian crews, upon discovering that they could not destroy the Teutonic tanks at long range, immediately chose to follow regulations and floor the accelerator, preparing to close enough distance before firing.

However, these brave crews either fell on the way to the charge or, after getting close enough, were attacked by the Teutonic infantry responsible for covering the tanks. Only a small number of crews achieved any results.

The brutal battle lasted all day, and by sunset, only a portion of the infantry and artillery had managed to evacuate the battlefield.

Cecil's hastily assembled expeditionary force was almost entirely wiped out in that single day.

This allowed the London investigation team to easily conclude that the failure of armored warfare was not the fault of the troops, but rather their lack of suitable equipment, which led to a near massacre on the battlefield.

However, by this point, it is no longer of any use.

With this counterattack failing, Army Group A's advance toward the sea became almost unstoppable.

Just then, an unexpected force appeared on the path of Army Group A's advance.

The 7th Panzer Division, commanded by Jean-Pierre, stood alone, blocking the advance of Army Group A.

As a hero of the last war, just like Joe, Jean-Pierre didn't make headlines during the interwar period as much as Joe did.

He simply worked tirelessly, shuttling between the various colonies of Gaul.

Therefore, Paris doesn't fear Jean-Pierre as much as London fears Joe.

After the Teutonic declaration of war, Jean-Pierre, who had been watching the crocodiles baring their teeth in the colony, immediately rushed towards Gaul like other combat-capable colonial troops, as if he had gone mad.

As a rapid reaction force, Jean-Pierre quickly arrived in Calais.

Jean-Pierre originally intended to participate in Cecil's counterattack.

However, the Bunitania lost too quickly, leaving Jean-Pierre no time to react, and their counterattack ended just like that.

As the only force blocking Army Group A's advance, Jean-Pierre immediately rallied all available troops around him, regardless of whether they were retreating Bunitania or other units that appeared nearby for any other reason.

They were all recruited into Jean-Pierre's team.

Upon discovering that there was still a unit here, Paris immediately gave Jean-Pierre's troops the designation of the 7th Special Armored Division and ordered them to hold the position and not let any Teutons pass through. Then, preparations began to be made to move troops deep in the north south to fill the gaps in the front line.

No one noticed that in the 7th Task Force Armored Division's order of battle, there was a Britannian corporal named Leon Johnsen.

At this time, the world's attention was focused on Jean-Pierre's 7th Panzer Division, wondering whether they could hold off Teutonic Army Group A.

The focus was also on Joe, who was leading his troops into Germania within the Teutonic territory.

The image of Joe charging into Germania at the end of the last war is still fresh in our minds. This time, Joe should be able to do it again... right?

In reality, Joe's current situation is quite bad, even though he managed to take Dresden by surprise attack.

However, the lack of strike force meant that Joe's advance was not as smooth as it had been in the past.

At the same time, the Teutonic resistance was much more resolute than it had been in the past.

In addition to the seemingly endless swarms of garrison troops that kept appearing along Joe's path, like mushrooms after a rain.

Joe's supply lines were also constantly being attacked by Teutonic guerrillas.

In direct combat, the youth group members who dared to crawl under tanks with bombs not only greatly shocked Joe, but also continuously reduced the armored forces under Joe's command.

To make matters worse, as Joe's forces advanced northward, they gradually broke free of the Bohemian Air Force's air defenses.

The terrifying bombing by the Teutonic Air Force also greatly slowed down Joe's advance, reducing his pace considerably.

Faced with this situation, Joe began to think that if he used the conventional approach, it would definitely not work, so should he take a slight risk?

Send paratroopers to carry out a decapitation strike, to ambush the Führer?
While George was pondering whether he should do this, the Gallic General Headquarters was also considering the same issue.

In the past, after Joe's successful raid, the Gauls began to form a special force. From the very beginning, this force had only one goal: to deal with any unfavorable situation on the front lines should another war break out.

Then deploy this force behind the front lines to destroy the Teutonic command center. Then, when the Teutons are thrown into chaos due to the loss of command, launch a counterattack on the front lines and completely defeat the Teutons.

Now is clearly the time to deploy this force.

The fate of the entire war now rests on Jean-Pierre's 7th Task Force Armored Division, if he can hold out.

The Gallic forces would then have a chance to regroup and turn the war back into the slow and bloody trench warfare of the last major war.

If he can't hold on, then everything will be over.

So now is the time to deploy this force.

Although they wanted to include this unit, the Paris side discovered a small problem.

That is, although they now have troops and transport planes, they do not know where the Teutonic general headquarters is.

Based on the experience of the last war, the Teutonic General Headquarters should be in Germania.

However, after the start of the war, the Teutonic command structure moved to the Führer's special train, the "America".

This special train ran erratically along the railway line every day as the Teutonic troops advanced, with the Führer and the Supreme Command constantly directing operations from the front lines.

The Gaulish intelligence agencies never knew the exact location of the Teutonic High Command.

Therefore, although the troops were ready, they were unable to deploy for a long time.

Just as Gaul's intelligence was putting in all its effort to locate the Teutonic High Command, the vanguard of Army Group A crashed into the defenses of the 7th Panzer Division.

Although this hastily assembled armored division only had one battalion of overweight tanks.

However, with air support, the 7th Armored Division managed to stabilize their lines.

This gave Paris a slight sigh of relief, as they now have the opportunity to rebuild their defenses.

Before Paris could even exhale, the follow-up forces of Army Group A bypassed the 7th Armored Task Force's defenses, smashed through the defenses of a nearby infantry division that had rushed to the scene, and continued their advance towards the sea.

At this very moment, King Cambrai, who had discovered that neither the Gauls nor the Bunitanes could stop the Teutons, made a decision.

Since we can't beat them, we might as well surrender.

With King Cambrai's decision to surrender, a huge gap suddenly appeared on the already precarious northern front. Army Group C used the gap created by the surrender of the Cambrai army to establish communication with Army Group A.

The troops that were originally preparing to move south to reorganize the defense line must now remain in the north to reorganize the defense line.

Otherwise, even without Army Group A cutting off their retreat in the south, the huge gap in their defenses would allow Army Group C to tear them to pieces and devour them.

This dire situation forced Winston, who had become Prime Minister, to travel to Paris to inquire whether there was any way to change the situation.

(End of this chapter)