Chapter 208: Victory Once More, Charging Toward The Sea
Dawn on Christmas was covered by a sheet of blood-red.
A convoy and stream of people stretching over 40 kilometers snaked forward endlessly on the Bontu Ancient Road crossing the Strandzha Mountains.
At the forefront of the convoy was the Greater Germania Armored Training Division, composed of over 220 Type 1 Tanks and a large group of half-track vehicles.
Lelouch himself sat in one of the command tanks, full of vigor as he led the troops rolling forward.
If this were an era with professional ground attack aircraft, large-caliber autocannons, and cluster aerial bombs for ground attacks, Lelouch absolutely would not dare to do this, even with absolute air superiority.
That kind of low-level mistake of “the convoy blocking over 60 kilometers on the road” was something Lelouch would absolutely not commit.
But the good thing is that this era still does not have ground attack aircraft.
Although the Britannians also imitated the Germania Air Force, learning step by step to conduct air raids by having pilots hand-throw several kilograms of small bombs, and even equipping airplanes with air-cooled machine guns with shooting coordinators, that bit of firepower was not enough to pose a fatal threat to tanks.
Plus, Lelouch came prepared, taking off over 60 aircraft at dawn to escort the armored division and the subsequent convoy, with even more escort waves to follow, ensuring air superiority, making everything fall into place naturally.
Because of Lelouch’s caution, after the armored division crossed the main ridge of the Strandzha Mountains, it charged downhill for over an hour, advancing more than ten kilometers without encountering any accidents.
There were enemy ground defenses, but they were no threat at all, disintegrating instantly under the tank cluster’s charge.
Seeing that another hour of charging and another ten kilometers forward would take them out of the Strandzha Mountains’ dense forest area, the troops’ atmosphere also relaxed.
Lelouch’s company commander of guards, Klose major（having exceptionally been promoted to major for boarding and capturing the Baltic Fleet flagship Sevastopol battleship）could not help but flatter:
“Division Commander, you are truly too cautious, insisting on waiting for the light infantry assault group to seize the mountain ridge pass near Ternovo town before allowing the armored division to strike.
If it were a reckless amateur like me in command, I would definitely have sent the armored division out in the second half of the night, maybe arriving earlier, and just charging through the passes on the road with tanks.”
Lelouch was resting with eyes closed in the tank, and upon hearing this, he just snorted coldly: “That’s why you can only be my company commander of guards. Remember, caution prevents great mistakes. This terrain can be passed, but the passable terrain is too narrow and long.
The troops stretched into a dozens-of-kilometers long serpent formation; if blocked on the road, it would be all over. So I must ensure key nodes are cleared before setting out—not moving unless decisive, and shocking when moving.”
The current situation and environment were mostly similar to the Ardennes Region on the Earth plane in 1940. Same not-high but rugged mountains, dense forests, with only small roads to cross the dense forests with tanks.
The main difference was that the Ardennes on Earth in 1940 happened in May, while this Strandzha Mountains breakthrough battle was, seasonally speaking, closer to the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
However, the Strandzha Mountain Area was after all at a slightly southern latitude and warmer, without heavy snow sealing the mountains, just dropping to a few degrees below zero, freezing the muddy ground.
All in all, this battle combined the favorable weather and terrain advantages of Ardennes 1940 and Ardennes 1944, while avoiding their disadvantages—truly perfect.
Lelouch continued resting with eyes closed in the vehicle, driving another half hour, time already past 9 a.m., the winter sun risen quite high.
Finally, ahead appeared a Britannia Army hastily deployed defense line, probably centered on Kirklareli city.
This defense line was to stop Lelouch from charging out of the Strandzha Mountain Area. Enemy artillery shells also began falling in front of Lelouch’s convoy, kicking up waves of earth.
“Division Commander, take cover quickly! Careful of the tank being directly hit by artillery shells!” As his guard officer, Klose immediately wanted Lelouch to enter the woods to avoid.
The enemy trenches ahead were not numerous in layers, but densely manned with soldiers, and they even brought two artillery regiments, seemingly staking all nearby defensive forces in a desperate gamble.
The enemy occupied the exit from the forest area to the open area, Lelouch’s troops in a narrow column hard to deploy. But the enemy could fully deploy, with two artillery regiments positioned in the rear open area, covering bombardment on this side’s Bontu Ancient Road.
Lelouch shoved away the guard, pointing with his hand at a side forest path nearby: “Drive my tank into that pile of broken trees! Right into that open space where enemy shells just blasted a few trees! Other crews use nearby open spaces blasted by enemy shells to disperse as much as possible!
The lead tank company accelerate charge! Force through! Also, what are our escort fighters doing? Have them immediately execute anti-artillery suppression! Mechanized Infantry Regiment dismount and spread out into the woods, advance along the woods, and while enemy attention is drawn to the tanks, launch infantry assaults from the forest.”
Lelouch issued a series of tactical orders, and the troops quickly used the treeless open spaces blasted by enemy shells to hide tanks and vehicles within.
The lead tank company, however, charged fearlessly straight ahead.
The enemy artillery group was definitely firing indiscriminate coverage on the Bontu Ancient Road position based on pre-calculated coordinates, so any troops stopping at the south end road junction could be shelled, regardless of who was there.
In this situation, dispersing the force density on the road becomes crucial, greatly reducing the enemy’s artillery fire accuracy. What one tank company could accomplish, adding a battalion or regiment wouldn’t help extra, as the rear tanks were blocked and couldn’t advance.
That one company, with only over a hundred infantry providing close escort, charged forward; those over a hundred infantry lay directly on the outside of the tanks, advancing with them, until enemy machine guns could almost sweep the tanks, with less than two thousand meters left, then the infantry dismounted to advance on foot.
More infantry had just dismounted from half-track vehicles, still advancing through the woods, their speed definitely slower than comrades riding on tanks.
And just as these tanks were about to break out, the perfectly coordinated air support from the sky was astounding.
Lelouch’s radio orders were finally received by the two-seater command aircraft（rear seat radio operator and radio） in the overhead escort group, which then used simple wing movements to direct subordinate aircraft to suppress the enemy artillery positions.
Over 20 aircraft in two waves strafed the main positions of the enemy’s two artillery regiments repeatedly, while another over 20 dropped over a hundred 5-kg small bombs, filling the positions with thick smoke, many field guns temporarily silenced.
Taking advantage of the weakened artillery fire, the spearhead tank company directly rolled over the Britannians’ trenches.
Throughout the process, three to five particularly unlucky tanks were directly hit by the enemy artillery group that hadn’t fully stopped firing, but more tanks smoothly broke through.
The machine gunners on each tank roof fearlessly exposed their upper bodies, turning the machine guns 90 degrees to enable parallel firing to the left or right as the tanks crossed the trenches.
To ensure effect, these tanks charged in pairs side by side, with the left tank’s roof machine gun sweeping left and the right one’s sweeping right, covering both sides.
Although the Britannia Army infantry already knew of tanks’ existence, some having recently seen their own tanks, which were said to have all been sent to siege Istanbul.
But when they really saw enemy tanks rolling over the trenches, the fear in their hearts was still uncontrollable.
“Germanian tanks can roll right over the trenches!”
“Our heavy machine guns are completely useless! Sweeping one spot for over ten seconds can’t penetrate! Doesn’t their armor suffer metal fatigue?”
Batches of British Army soldiers began fleeing, the Type 1 Tank’s MG08 roof machine gun “da-da-da” pouring bullet rain, mowing down infantry who couldn’t retreat to the sides in time, all dead in the trenches.
Some frantic and desperate British Army infantry tried counterattacking, and seeing figures exposing from enemy vehicles, they desperately aimed and fired their Lee Enfields.
Rear Vickers heavy machine gun positions also poured bullet rain at the tank group.
But most rifle bullets were helpless against the 6-mm thick carburized steel plate body armor and double-thickness deflecting steel helmets.
A few of the foremost bravest roof machine gunners were even hit by over a dozen cumulative bullets, but since none hit unprotected faces or necks, the other bullets were blocked by armor, merely shaken by the huge impact kinetic energy to vomit blood internally, but better than instant death.
Seeing such shooting couldn’t even deal with roof machine gunners, British Army infantry morale collapsed further, completely abandoning positions in mad flight.
“Don’t stop! All crews split into two teams, straight to the enemy’s rear artillery positions! Rear friendly forces will fill the line for us!”
That tank company continued forward, while rear Lelouch, observing the frontline progress, had long decisively sent follow-up troops, second wave two more tank companies about 40 tanks.
The infantry previously advancing from the woods also finally reached the battlefield, charging out of the woods toward the trench network.
Successive tank commitments, close tank-infantry coordination, completely shattered the blocking British Army, achieving a breakthrough battle no less than the “crossing the Meuse River” on Earth.
Troops thoroughly smashed the enemy defense line, killing into Kirklareli town, and after fierce fighting, seized this key town at the southern foot valley mouth of the Strandzha Mountains.
The Greater Germania Armored Training Division thoroughly broke out of the Strandzha Mountain Area’s dense forests, and time was just past noon on December 25.
From departure before 5 a.m. to now seven and a half hours, the armored division with marching and final combat advanced over 60 kilometers, crossing the entire rugged mountain forest area. Ahead was just the Tekirdag plain area.
“Continue advancing! Don’t stop! Our goal is to outflank behind the enemy in Tekirdag city, that is, straight to the Sea of Marmara coast. No stopping before seeing the sea!”
Among Lelouch’s troops, some had participated in last year’s “Race to the Sea” operation, where the order was no stopping before seeing the North Sea.
The later Battle of Dunkirk was similar, to cut off the Belgian Expeditionary Force’s retreat, also requiring a dash straight to the North Sea coast.
Unexpectedly, the same scenario played out on Lelouch for the third time, still no stopping before seeing the sea, the only difference being the sea name changed from North Sea to Sea of Marmara.
The power of example is infinite; the brigadier general division commander standing before the soldiers was a divine figure who led everyone to create two miracles, twice dashing straight to the sea as ordered.
Officers and soldiers were of course bursting with confidence, morale high as a rainbow, firmly believing the division commander could replicate that familiar merit for the third time.
“One cannot step into the same river twice, but Britannians can be cut off to the sea by Officer Lelouch three times, truly not learning their lesson at all.”
When Colonel Rommel, as deputy division commander, led half the tanks and half-track vehicles charging forward, he couldn’t help thinking this inwardly.
From Kirklareli to Tekirdag there were still 80 kilometers, but these 80 were traversing the Tekirdag plain, with excellent road conditions, practically drivable at high speed.
Enemy troops hadn’t had time to dispatch back to defend, naturally smoothly infiltrated and cut by Rommel.
By 4 p.m., Rommel had advanced over 50 kilometers south from Kirklareli, successively breaking through Babeski city and Hayrabolu town.
In Babeski city, Rommel did engage the enemy again. Because Babeski lay along the railway from Istanbul via Edirne to Bulgaria’s largest city Plovdiv.
When Rommel arrived, enemy 8th Army corps commander Hunter-Weston lieutenant general was, due to the Eastern Front crisis, hurriedly transporting one and a half divisions of reinforcements by train to Babeski, attempting to disembark troops here and march north on foot to Kirklareli to block and stop Lelouch from breaking out of the dense forest mountains.
This also showed how unadapted the British Army was to tank assaults—Rommel had reached Babeski city, yet Hunter-Weston still didn’t know Kirklareli 35 kilometers north had long fallen.
Such situations actually occurred repeatedly during the Earth 1940 Frankish campaign. Often, while French Army staff department planned a new defense line and issued orders, the enemy was already dozens of kilometers behind them.
The Britannians merely committed the error most rigid doctrinaire generals would make, resulting in one and a half divisions of Lord Canna troops colliding with Rommel’s tank regiment while in train transport.
Rommel of course didn’t hold back, directly using the only over 20 tanks equipped with 57 mm short-barrel guns to close in and fire on the enemy train column.
At least five or six military trains were derailed and overturned by shells while speeding, the two infantry regiments aboard not yet reaching the battlefield but suffering a train accident.
Subsequent military trains braked emergently to stop, then were shelled to break the rails, but at least the soldiers aboard could dismount to evade.
One and a half army divisions actually bombed off trains, such a scene is unprecedented, probably never to be seen again.
The railway along Babeski train station soon became a hell of wailing, Hunter-Weston lieutenant general’s plugging attempt thoroughly failed.
However, also because of delaying a moment in Babeski city, Rommel’s assault momentum suffered heavy loss, though the battle results were plentiful.
Rommel unable to dash straight to the Sea of Marmara coast in one go, handed off the baton to Officer Lelouch at the last 30 kilometers as planned.
Lelouch brought the other half of the armored division, well-rested and ready, starting from 4 p.m. from Hayrabolu town southward, crushing all in the way, finally at dusk’s full darkness reaching West City of Tekirdag, cutting to the Sea of Marmara coast.
Another iron gate fell, trapping over 400,000 British-Italian allied forces attacking Istanbul in the crowded area east of Tekirdag and west of Istanbul.
This was already the third time in Lelouch’s life reaching the sea coast, and second time using this move to cut off Britannia Expeditionary Force’s retreat（the first time it wiped out the Belgian Army）.
Believe the Britannians who remember beatings but not lessons will this time thoroughly learn, and dare not recklessly launch landing battles upon hearing Lelouch’s name again.
This should also be the most perfect Christmas in Lelouch’s life.
