Imperial Elite

Chapter 162 The Final Offensive

At seven o'clock in the evening, seemingly shocked by the fierce fighting in eastern Warsaw, the sun in the sky did not set for a long time.

Bathed in the crimson sunset, the People's Revolutionary Alliance and the Teutonic forces were now completely entangled, like two beasts in a quagmire, intertwined and indistinguishable from one another.

While tank crews can still distinguish friend from foe by the outline of their vehicles, for the infantrymen who cooperate with the tanks, the battlefield environment has long since become a state of "The enemies are everywhere!" and "Then we'll fire everywhere!"

As the command repeatedly deployed reserves, and the new forces repeatedly broke through and were broken through on the front lines, half an hour earlier, both sides' campaign command had discovered that many regimental or brigade-level units had completely lost contact with their subordinate company and battalion-level units.

Faced with this situation, all these regimental or brigade-level command posts could do was tell the campaign commander, "This offensive has failed, but we still have one more chance to prove our bravery, bring victory to our country, and let them feel the fury of our steel one last time." They would then launch a final offensive with all the forces that the regimental or brigade headquarters could muster.

At this point, both Erich and Constantine, in their respective command posts, understood that they could do nothing more than issue orders to retreat.

For Erich, the massive bombing raid carried out by the air force at 6:30 was the last support he could receive.

After that, even if the air force were willing to launch another attack, the lighting conditions would not be sufficient to meet their attack requirements, and the gap they created on the People's Revolutionary Alliance's front was merely a gap.

Even with the deployment of the last reserves, the People's Revolutionary Alliance's troops still held firm against the attacks of the subsequent armored forces. According to reports from the Air Force, the People's Revolutionary Alliance's tank crews even used ramming tactics at the breakthrough point, directly ramming their tanks to stop the armored forces from advancing.

The battle has now become a game of cowards; whoever succumbs to the pressure and orders a retreat will lose the battle.

However, judging from the current situation, Erich believes that although the troops have suffered heavy losses, he is still able to win this battle.

Meanwhile, in the south, Otto's troops had withstood Old Joe's offensive and even indicated that, given the current situation, he could hold out on the southern front for several more days.

Meanwhile, troops were still arriving in Warsaw by rail. Once tonight was over, he would have at least two more elite divisions at his disposal.

Looking at the map before him, Erich wondered what his opponent, Constantine, was thinking.

Throughout the day's battle, his opponent had seen through almost all of his plans. He had anticipated every breakthrough and maneuver he made on the front lines, and every attack he launched was also within his expectations.

Therefore, he should now understand that, given the current situation, the only way to determine the outcome of this battle is to see who sheds their last drop of blood first, and he is waiting for reinforcements. What is he waiting for?

While Erich was wondering, in Constantine's command post, the staff officers of the People's Revolutionary Union were also silently watching the map in front of them.

With the last reserves deployed a few hours earlier to plug the gap in the front line, the atmosphere in the command post was now almost completely frozen.

Looking at the map before them, even the youngest staff officer could see that the battle had deteriorated into a mess. The outcome no longer depended on how Constantine commanded, but rather on how long the soldiers on the front lines could hold out, or how long the enemy could hold out.

This created an atmosphere in the command post so oppressive that it made people want to commit suicide. Finally, after a few more minutes, a staff officer whispered to Constantine, "It's getting dark now. Perhaps we should start the troops retreating. If we wait until dark to retreat, more troops will be unable to leave the battlefield."

Constantine looked up at the staff officer expressionlessly, then shook his head.

"There's still time, let's wait a little longer."

Let's wait a little longer. Wait for what?

The staff officers watched as Constantine remained silent, then turned their gaze to the army's political commissar standing to the side, hoping he would step forward and say a few words.

Given the current state of the battle, even if the Teutons chose to retreat, they probably wouldn't have the strength to continue their attack on Warsaw.

Sensing the gazes of the staff officers, the political commissar, who had been silent all along, also came over.

"Constantine..."

Meanwhile, in the southern part of the battlefield, near the Vistula River.

Through his binoculars, Joe, peeking out of the turret, could already see the plumes of smoke rising from the battlefield in the distance, and could even hear the rumbling of explosions.

Finally, they made it. Putting down his binoculars, Joe pressed the throat communicator and turned to wave to the troops behind him.

"Communications officer, take over all communications."

"I've been connected to the officer."

Smelling the familiar air, a mixture of gunpowder, flames, metal, and earth, Joe spoke to the troops who had been traveling with him all day.

"Alright, kids, I know you've been driving all day, or sitting in the car all day, and you feel like your bones have been shaken apart and your brains have been churned up. The only thing you want to do now is to stop this damn thing, get out of this damn car, stretch your legs, get some rest, and if you can even take a nap, that would be even better."

“But I’m telling you, I won’t give you this chance to rest. Not only will I not give you this chance, but I will also order you to come with me to the battlefield right now.”

"Right ahead of us, those Teutons have been fighting the good lads of the People's Revolutionary League all day. The smell you smell now is blood, courage, and burning steel. We cannot stand here as spectators after a long day of work."

"It's like this: you've spent the whole day shopping with a girl, and then she invites you upstairs for a drink, and you say you're tired and want to go home to rest. That's definitely not appropriate, right?"

After a burst of laughter erupted from the marching column, Old Joe pressed the communicator again, switched to the vehicle channel, and instructed the communications officer to tune the radio to an unencrypted public channel before speaking loudly.

"Now, let's give those Teutons a surprise! Full army, deploy into battle formation, armored, advance!"

With a command from Joe, the troops transformed from marching ranks into combat formations and, after a brief march, plunged into the battlefield.

Strictly speaking, the emergency tank, which was only finalized before the Sudetenland crisis, was not a very good tank.

This medium tank was not as dominant on the battlefield as the Teutonic Panzer V or the heavy tanks of the People's Revolutionary Union.

Even in order to speed up the march, the number of emergency tanks that finally arrived at the battlefield was not large. Most of the armored units that Joe arrived at the battlefield were armored vehicles consisting of six or eight wheels.

But at this time and place, it was no longer important what troops Old Joe brought to the battlefield. What mattered was that in the last hour before sunset, Old Joe, with his troops, arrived at the battlefield, just as the Teutons, arriving at the last minute at Waterloo, had completely extinguished the Great's hopes of victory.

When Old Joe announced his arrival on the radio and then led his troops to crash into the Teutonic flank.

Not only were the Teutonic flank forces, which had been attacked, thrown into chaos, but even Erich's command post was thrown into disarray.

No one, including Erich, could understand how Old Joe had appeared in the most bizarre place at the most bizarre time.

Didn't Otto say they had already held off Old Joe's troops?

As it was getting late, the Air Force could no longer conduct aerial reconnaissance. Moreover, even if they could, the Air Force might not be able to figure out how many people Old Joe had brought with him, given his sudden appearance here.

So Erich, who had already committed his last reserve team, could only look at the map in front of him and painfully make a decision.

"We have lost this battle. Let's find a way to withdraw the troops."

Just as Erich was painfully making this decision, Constantine's command center was filled with jubilation.

Just minutes before, they were hoping Constantine would make the decision to retreat, in order to preserve some of the troops whose organization had not yet been disrupted.

But now they are cheering and praising Constantine's iron will for bringing them victory.

Amid the cheers, Constantine merely breathed a sigh of relief, unlike his staff who wore smiles.

Constantine knew that their goal in launching this campaign was to capture Warsaw, and after today's brutal fighting, it was a question whether their remaining troops would be able to continue their advance towards Warsaw.

With Erich's painful order to retreat, the Teutonic troops began to withdraw from the battlefield.

Just as Erich and Constantine had anticipated a few hours earlier, with the large number of troops moving forward mixed together, many units, even those ordered to retreat, were unable to do so due to the current battlefield conditions.

Some units didn't even receive orders to retreat, like the makeshift combat group formed by Michel's crew stationed on that nameless hilltop and the troops they gathered along the way.

These troops, whose formations were disrupted during the offensive and counterattacks by the People's Revolutionary Alliance forces, instinctively moved towards the nearest friendly forces after losing contact with their units.

Michel and his men, who occupied the small hill, became the first choice for the nearby troops.

After noticing that the hill had been occupied by the Teutons, the People's Revolutionary League forces launched several attacks in an attempt to capture it.

However, just like ground troops that are scattered, it is easy to find this hill.

This hill was also very conspicuous in the eyes of the air force. Both the Teutonic Air Force, which was called to the battlefield, and the attack aircraft of the People's Revolutionary Union that came to support it, repeatedly launched offensives around this hill.

Eventually, the area around this nameless hill was littered with burning tank wreckage and broken infantry bunkers.

During the repeated air raids, apart from the Panzer V tank commanded by Michel, only one Panzer IV tank survived.

The remaining crews who retreated here have now picked up rifles or submachine guns and are fighting like infantrymen around the damaged fortifications and burning tanks.

Having lost contact with the company headquarters, Michel was unaware that command had already ordered the troops to begin their retreat.

There are many small units like Michel's that were broken up and reorganized, or that lost contact with their superiors for various reasons, on the front lines.

As the main Teutonic force began to retreat, the troops still fighting on the front lines were soon discovered to be surrounded by the People's Revolutionary Army, which had begun to actively pursue the retreating Teutonic forces.

At this moment, it seemed that the sun had finally seen enough of what was happening on Earth and slowly sank below the horizon.

A deep darkness gradually enveloped the earth.

Generally speaking, any large-scale military operations will cease after nightfall.

After all, fighting in such dim light conditions could cause troops to get lost or be attacked by friendly fire. Therefore, even in battles with stable front lines like the last war, night fighting was not an option in most cases.

Although there are occasional night raids, the largest of them will not exceed a battalion.

After all, the larger the scale of a night battle, the greater the probability of problems arising.

In the military field, this is basically common sense.

However, this common sense clearly did not hold true in this battle.

Since many small Teutonic units had not received orders to retreat, the People's Revolutionary Union forces had to continue fighting at night in an attempt to encircle and annihilate these small groups.

The Teutons discovered that many troops had not received orders to retreat and were even trapped behind the front lines.

Although some Teutonic troops had also fought on the front lines all day and were exhausted, many of them, after resupplying their ammunition, turned back to that hellish place covered by darkness, a place of blood and fire.

The brutal fighting lasted all night. Faced with the Teutonics' actions, all Old Joe could do was rally his troops and maintain their line of control.

There was no way around it. Although NATO forces were better equipped for such small-scale nighttime conflicts and had infantry units with overwhelming firepower, they were able to easily suppress the Teutonic infantry in close to medium-range combat.

However, due to language barriers, and the fact that the People's Revolutionary Alliance troops had been fighting all day, they were likely to overreact.

Therefore, to prevent friendly fire, Joe's troops simply chose to hold their positions on this chaotic night.

(End of this chapter)