Imperial Elite

Chapter 163 Abwerwell is fully responsible!

The fierce fighting lasted all night, during which both sides worked hard to regroup their troops.

The Teutons were trying to withdraw the small groups of troops trapped on the front lines from the battlefield, while the People's Revolutionary League was trying to keep these Teutonic troops there.

Throughout the entire night, gunfire and explosions continued outside Warsaw, and the almost constant firing of mortar flares illuminated the battlefield outside the city as if it were daytime.

That night, due to the chaotic situation, although Joe did not meet with Constantine in person, their telegrams kept ringing all night.

Finally, when the sun rose again, and with the end of the telegram communication between Old Joe and Constantine, the Teutonic troops who had not yet successfully retreated met their final fate. The People's Revolutionary Union's fierce artillery bombardment and armored forces destroyed everything.

After fierce fighting, the People's Revolutionary Union's troops finally arrived at the gates of Warsaw.

Then an awkward situation arose for Old Joe and Constantine.

That is, in the fierce battle outside the city, the People's Revolutionary Alliance lost a large number of technical weapons.

Although after gaining control of the battlefield, the People's Revolutionary Alliance's engineering corps began searching the battlefield for all tanks that were still worth repairing despite air raids. It would only take a little time for them to restore the number of technical weapons.

But what they lack most right now is time.

After yesterday's battle, the entire army group only has a quarter of the tanks available for combat compared to when the attack began.

In addition to the armored forces, the artillery and air force also suffered heavy losses.

In particular, the air force units that had engaged in a large-scale air battle with the Teutonic Air Force yesterday could now be declared incapacitated.

Although the fighter squadron can still muster enough aircraft to take off and fight, the attack aircraft squadron is now powerless to launch attacks. Even if the pilots were willing to take off and fight, they do not have enough aircraft available.

While the People's Revolutionary League's forces were in an awkward position, the Teutons were not faring much better.

Although Erich gained two fully equipped new divisions last night through an emergency rail transport.

However, having lost control of the front lines, they were not only unable to recover the technical equipment destroyed on the battlefield, but also lost even more troops in the relief battle last night.

However, for morale reasons, Erich could not stop the troops' spontaneous relief and support operations last night.

Despite the strong support from the air force yesterday, today, Erich's armored forces have less than a third of the vehicles that were operational before the start of the battle, not to mention the equipment that might be recovered by the People's Revolutionary Alliance on the battlefield.

It is very likely that the Teutonic armored forces lost more tanks than the People's Revolutionary Union in this battle.

Meanwhile, after yesterday's battle, and after a hard night's work, Erich finally learned how many men the Western Front of the People's Revolutionary Union, which was facing them, actually had.

It's not 600,000, nor 700,000, but a full 750,000.

If we also consider the troops that arrived at the battlefield under Old Joe's leadership at the last moment of the battle, yesterday his troops were likely fighting against an enemy force that outnumbered him by more than twice.

After receiving the report, Erich felt that he was really brave, daring to launch an attack against an enemy that had a complete advantage.

If the Air Force hadn't gained air superiority and been bombing relentlessly all day, Erich wouldn't know how he had managed to survive.

Damn it, the intelligence Abbotwell provided was completely wrong; the report was missing a full 150,000 people!

The intelligence agencies must take full responsibility for this loss!

Although Erich immediately sent a protest telegram to the Supreme Command after receiving the Gestapo report, this could not change the fact that his troops were now suffering heavy losses.

Especially during the final stages of yesterday's battle, when Old Joe led NATO forces into the battlefield in a high-profile manner, many senior officers felt the pressure.

In fact, not to mention others, Erich himself was also startled yesterday by Old Joe's sudden announcement of his arrival over the radio.

Although the offensive launched by Old Joe after his arrival was not as bad as Erich had worsted out of the day.

Unlike in the last major war, Old Joe did not sweep the battlefield with armored forces; he merely defeated the infantry division on the southern front responsible for the flank attack.

However, the mere presence of Old Joe put immense pressure on Erich, forcing him to painfully choose to retreat.

Throughout the night after ordering the retreat, Erich organized troops to strengthen the defenses of Warsaw, even mobilizing many Polish Germans to dig trenches and build fortifications throughout the city.

As the sun rose above the horizon once more, although he wasn't fully prepared for street fighting against the People's Revolutionary Union and Old Joe in Warsaw, Erich still called the Air Force: "For the sake of the Reich! Give our brother a hand again!"

Judging from the current situation, the People's Revolutionary League and the Teutonic Knights fought to a standstill, and Old Joe, who arrived at the last moment of the battle, now seems to be able to reap the rewards.

But in Old Joe's view, the situation was not like that.

Although Warsaw is slightly smaller than Paris in terms of city size, as a large city with a population of over a million, even after a whole night, many troops and combatants who had fallen behind during yesterday's long march gradually returned to their units. However, compared to the Teutons in Warsaw...

The NATO forces under Old Joe's command were indeed at a slight disadvantage.

A direct assault on Warsaw is clearly not an option. After all, the Teutons might just be giving him a taste of how they defended Paris, showing him what urban street fighting in a big city is all about.

But as the saying goes, since we're already here...

Given the current situation, if we don't do something, what's the difference between this and just rubbing against each other without actually penetrating?

So Joe, who had been in contact with Constantine all night, was naturally prepared to do something.

Constantine's Western Front suffered such heavy losses that, although an offensive was launched after dawn to completely annihilate the Teutonic troops still lingering on the battlefield, they were ultimately defeated.

However, the Western Front is in a bad situation. A large number of troops have been disorganized, and many frontline troops are fighting spontaneously, following the nearest friendly forces.

Under these circumstances, launching a large-scale offensive is clearly unrealistic.

However, while a large-scale offensive is impossible, launching a feint attack to draw the Teutons' attention should not be a problem. Furthermore, although the artillery suffered heavy losses in yesterday's battle, providing fire support for Joe's troops today should not be a major issue.

At the same time, armored forces are like water in a sponge; you can always squeeze some out.

Therefore, Constantine will launch a large-scale but limited offensive from the east of Warsaw to draw the Teutons' attention.

After Constantine had drawn the Teutons' attention, Jo prepared to continue his advance along the Vistula River.

Like many cities, Warsaw is a city built on the banks of a river.

The Vistula River divides Warsaw into two parts: east and west.

The town on the east bank of the Vistula is slightly smaller, while the town on the west bank is slightly larger. Buildings such as palaces and train stations are mostly concentrated in the town on the west bank.

So Joe's plan was very simple: since the army was not strong enough to take over the whole of Warsaw, then they would occupy the eastern part of Warsaw.

The Vistula River, flowing directly from south to north, serves as a natural defensive line, blocking any potential Teutonic attacks from here.

The plan is set; all that's left to do is launch the attack.

The first to launch the attack were still the People's Revolutionary Alliance troops, but these People's Revolutionary Alliance troops that launched the attack were not the reorganized troops under Constantine's command.

Just like last night, when some Teutonic troops spontaneously returned to the battlefield to help their friendly forces who had not yet withdrawn, there are also troops in the People's Revolutionary Union that have gone berserk and are constantly pushing forward.

Although after the establishment of the People's Revolutionary League, the model region in the League was Upper Silesia, which was an industrial core, the living conditions there were so good that even the Teutons were ashamed of themselves.

There is indeed a slight difference in the standard of living between other regions and Upper Silesia.

But for the rest of the region, joining the People's Revolutionary League was a huge relief.

Like most countries transitioning from feudalism to capitalism, people in most parts of the former Lucia Empire generally did not fare well.

Although the living conditions of the upper-class nobles were not much different from those of the Britannian nobles, the lives of the lower-class serfs were similar to, or even worse than, those of the black men on the Dark Continent.

After all, the Dark Continent doesn't have a long, cold winter like Lucia.

After the establishment of the People's Revolutionary Alliance, although the Alliance still took a lot from the countryside in order to industrialize, and did not redistribute land like Old Joe did in order to meet the demand for food, it instead established collective farms.

However, as a left-wing government, the SUPP still made significant improvements to the lives of people in rural areas by relying on industrial products produced in the Upper Silesia industrial region.

Many people saw electric lights, tractors, and radios for the first time in their villages.

For the first time, through the public transportation system, they were able to visit the small county town once a week, a trip they might never have been able to take in their entire lives.

Regardless of their past work, they were just a group of farmers. Now, after working hard, they have the opportunity to become managers of cooperatives or even be promoted to cities and become city dwellers.

These people may not fully understand the ideology promoted by the People's Revolutionary League, but that doesn't stop them from telling their children, "The People's Revolutionary League is good! We must obey the People's Revolutionary League as we obeyed the Tsar in the past, and pledge our loyalty to the People's Revolutionary League."

When the Battle of Warsaw broke out, the fighting spirit of these people, who had grown up after the establishment of the People's Revolutionary Union, was in no way weaker than that of the Teutons who fought for the Millennium Empire.

Faced with the terrifying bombing of the Teutonic air force and the Teutonic elite armored forces, these soldiers of the Revolutionary Union were just like the infantry who had charged back at the Emperor's cuirassiers with flintlock muskets when the Emperor was on his expedition to Lucia.

We all have two shoulders and one head, so who's afraid of who! For the People's Revolutionary Alliance! Brothers! Charge!
Despite suffering heavy losses, once they discovered that the Teutonic troops had begun to retreat, and with Warsaw so close at hand, these troops now had only one thought: We came here to capture Warsaw, and now that Warsaw is right in front of us, what are we waiting for!
So these troops stormed into the city of Warsaw.

Although these troops had consumed a lot of ammunition in previous battles, and their organization may not have been fully complete.

However, urban warfare was not an unfamiliar subject for these troops.

Not to mention that the People's Revolutionary Union's troops had accumulated a lot of experience in urban warfare in St. Petersburg twenty years ago, even in the subsequent low-intensity war, there were still many abandoned settlements along that long line of contact.

Although these settlements are now uninhabited, they remain important strongholds along the line of contact. Both the People's Revolutionary Union and the Russian military government have suffered heavy losses of troops around these settlements.

So after breaking into the city, these troops quickly began to put pressure on the Teutonic infantry.

Although many Teutonic troops crossed the line with the People's Revolutionary Union in the Caucasus region, most of those troops were armored units, and only elite infantry units like mountain infantry had the opportunity to gain experience.

Thus, after entering the urban warfare, the People's Revolutionary League's infantry units began to launch surprise attacks on the Teutonic troops, who had an advantage in numbers and equipment, relying on their rich experience.

Especially those surviving marksmen, armed with 14.5mm anti-tank rifles, were even more effective in urban warfare, taking down enemies one by one without making a sound.

They can shoot at tanks above and bunkers below. Ordinary infantrymen are not qualified to fire at all; you need at least a lieutenant to do so.

These precision shooters, in particular, understand that only smoke and fools like high places.

After entering the city, he and the machine gunners rushed into the basements of the apartment buildings in Warsaw, where coal was stored for the winter.

After opening the windows designed to facilitate dumping coal in, a burst of gunfire erupted from these windows, which, from the street view, were no higher than knee-high, aimed directly at the approaching Teutons.

Machine gunners were firing at the infantry, while marksmen were shooting at the tanks and armored vehicles.

With these troops launching an offensive, and the People's Revolutionary Union's artillery beginning to show its power, the Teutonic defenders believed that the enemy's main attack direction should still be to the east.

Send reinforcements to the eastern district! Strengthen the defenses!

While the Teutons were mobilizing their troops, Joe did not order NATO forces to launch an attack directly.

This wasn't because Joe was prepared to remain unmoved in the face of trouble for his allies; rather, Joe was waiting for the 7th Truck Transport Company to complete its mission.

(End of this chapter)