Chapter 203: Model: I’m Not Targeting Italians
While Lelouch was deploying an encirclement on the Northern Front and quietly transporting troops southward in batches.
On the Greek Peninsula, the Greek Army was still conducting successive defenses with the assistance of advisor Lieutenant Colonel Walter Model, firmly holding their ground.
“These Greeks have a decent attitude, at least they’re not thinking of surrendering immediately. But their tactical and technical level and will to fight are really too poor… Sigh, impossible to lead.”
On December 6, at the Delphi Isthmus, Model, who had only been in Greece for a week, had no choice but to personally take the field, leading his 1.5 mountain infantry regiments, totaling 6 battalions, in a fierce battle against the Britannian Army, which had already assembled nearly 100,000 troops to attack southern Greece.
Moreover, Model’s 6 mountain infantry battalions couldn’t all be pulled to the front line.
He still needed to station 1 battalion each at three strategic key points: Athens, Piraeus Port, and the rear Isthmus of Corinth, to guard against being raided from behind or landing again to open a second battlefield.
So on the front of the Delphi Isthmus, there were actually only 3 mountain battalions, plus 1.5 divisions from the Greeks.
The Greek divisions were particularly small in establishment; fully manned they were only 12,000 men, still on a 3-regiment basis, each regiment with 3 battalions, and in peacetime they weren’t even fully staffed. In short, a division was equipped with only 9,000 men pre-war, and after the war started, they temporarily pulled in a bunch of people to fill it up, plus in the previous week of fighting and retreating, some personnel were lost on the outer defense lines.
At this moment, the 1.5 divisions left by the Greeks totaled 4 infantry regiments, 3 light artillery battalions, and 2 engineer battalions, with a total of just 12,000 men. The 3 mountain infantry battalions sent by Model were fully manned at 3,000 men.
The Greco-German Allied Forces added up to 15,000 men, tasked with holding against over 100,000 enemy troops opposite them.
The Britannians opposite had captured Larissa on December 1, then spent another five or six days controlling the Central Greek Plain, after which the Britannian vanguard lunged toward the Delphi Isthmus leading to Athens.
Fortunately, the Britannians were somewhat contemptuous of the enemy; their 100,000 troops had spread out over the past few days across various directions and towns in the Central Greek Plain. After purging the Central Greek Plain, they couldn’t be bothered to reassemble the 100,000 men before launching an offensive.
Instead, only the vanguard of 2 divisions returned near the Delphi Isthmus, after which General Edmund Allenby, responsible for the Greek Theater of War, directly issued the attack order, telling these 2 divisions to seize the Delphi Isthmus first.
Seizing it while waiting for friendly forces to slowly transport over, so that by the time friendly forces arrived at Delphi, it would already be taken, and they could head straight south to Athens without even getting off the train—this would save so much time.
Strictly speaking, General Edmund Allenby’s plan wasn’t wrong.
And coincidentally, this General Allenby was an old acquaintance of Lelouch’s; last year at this time, during the Battle of Ypres, Allenby was still just a lieutenant general, serving as commander of the Belgian Expeditionary Force’s Cavalry Corps, renowned for his impulsive, aggressive, and bold combat style. （ See the beginning of Chapter 50 for his photograph）
When Lelouch sent an assault battalion to cut the railway line between Stenford and Dunkirk, it was this General Allenby who led the Belgian Cavalry Corps in a night raid to provide reinforcements, only to be ambushed by a Germanian assault group equipped with over a hundred MG15 light machine guns, resulting in his Belgian 2nd Cavalry Division being nearly annihilated, and Division Commander Major General Gough being killed.
Later, Edmund Allenby was appointed commander of the Belgian 4th Army, and while defending Dunkirk, he was hit by Lelouch air-dropping Rommel and Model onto Fort Malraux and Fort Rohan respectively; Allenby frantically commanded the ANZAC Corps’ cannon fodder to counterattack, only to be driven back by Model, suffering heavy casualties.
At that time, Model was still just a captain company commander, making it difficult for Allenby to advance even a step at the Dunkirk forts.
Unexpectedly, a year later, Model had only been promoted to lieutenant colonel. Meanwhile, the Allenby with no merits opposite had risen from lieutenant general to general.
Moreover, he had become the deputy overall commander of this South European Campaign and commander of the Greek Theater of War. His military authority was second only to General Ian Standish Hamilton, who had been sent to Gallipoli in August as the campaign commander—utterly unreasonable.
Perhaps the Britannian Army had fallen into the vicious cycle of “veteran generals and soldiers being massively annihilated, talent shortage, so those who luckily escaped can rise more easily.”
Lelouch had initially captured a bunch of high-ranking generals including Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief Marshal John French. This created vacancies for those like Douglas Hegge and Edmund Allenby, who had no merits but got lucky because their superiors were all captured.
From this perspective, the young talents in the Germania Army were quite unfortunate.
The reason they were promoted slowly wasn’t because their military merit and ability were insufficient, but because the pressure from the “one radish one pit” above was greater.
Marshals and generals died too slowly and were almost never captured, making it harder for those below to rise and take the pressure.
……
After the Britannian Army’s 2-division vanguard arrived at the Delphi Isthmus, General Allenby personally climbed the main peak of the Engiona Mountains at the southwest entrance of the isthmus, observing the enemy situation to the southeast with field glasses.
The terrain of the Delphi Isthmus is a northwest-southeast trending isthmus over 30 kilometers wide. The Britannian Army came from the Central Greek Plain to the northwest, attacking the Greco-German Allied Forces’ positions to the southeast. If they could break through here, another 100 kilometers southeast would reach Athens.
The northeast side of the isthmus has a stretch of narrow hills, while the southwest side features steep high mountains, with a valley in between. The hills and mountains are impassable; one must go through the central valley, and even the Thessaloniki-Larissa-Athens railway runs through this valley.
The artillery on the southern mountains can completely blockade the valley, so the key to breaking through the isthmus is seizing the commanding heights on the south side.
The western entrance of the southern mountains is Mount Engiona, which the British Army had already seized in advance, because with their absolute numerical superiority, they could surround Mount Engiona on three sides from the Central Greek Plain for uphill assaults and deploy an absolute quantity advantage in heavy cannons for relentless bombardment and suppression.
The Greco-German Allied Forces were short on men and artillery, absolutely unable to hold the entrance mountain, so Model decisively abandoned it early.
But Mount Engiona is not the commanding height of this entire mountain range; the commanding height is Mount Parnassus at the eastern exit of the isthmus.
Mount Parnassus is still under Model’s resolute defense; the Greco-German Allied Forces have pulled all available artillery onto Mount Parnassus for deployment, totaling 24 75mm field guns, with no larger caliber heavy cannons.
Because Model and others were air-dropped into Greece by airship, they couldn’t carry big guns—airships can’t drop those; only light mortars and grenade launchers could be air-dropped with the troops. All 24 of these field guns were bought by the Greek Army themselves pre-war.
“The Germanians are counting on the Greek Army’s own little guns to hold Mount Parnassus? What a joke. Haul our 18-pounder field guns up the mountain to suppress the enemy frontline positions!
Deploy the 6-inch howitzers 10 kilometers from the main peak of Mount Parnassus, and bombard them ruthlessly! The Greeks’ 75mm little guns, even with height advantage, can’t reach that far and can only take a beating in vain.”
After observing the terrain, General Allenby decisively issued orders, and the Britannian Army indeed sprang into action, methodically adjusting artillery positions over half a day.
……
Model opposite had no counter; from the Delphi oracle temple ruins on the peak of Mount Parnassus, he clearly saw the Britannians’ movements through field glasses and could only quietly let the enemy adjust.
He then required all defenders to follow his detailed deployments exactly, retreating to specific sections of the reverse slope on the southeast side of Mount Parnassus to hide, not even a coordinate off.
“All units attention: proceed to the pre-designated hiding positions to avoid bombardment. Absolutely no acting on your own and running around!”
Model had fought the Italians on the Isonzo River front for over half a year; at least several tens of thousands of Italians had died at the hands of his direct troops, and if including the Austrian Army’s results under his guidance, it had long surpassed six figures.
Thus, he and fellow Lieutenant Colonel Dieter had accumulated extremely rich experience in mountain defensive battles, arguably the most experienced in the world.
The ridge lines, terrain elevation differences, enemy artillery positions’ azimuth, elevation, left-right—these factors, with simple visual estimation and calculation in their eyes, allowed them to determine absolutely safe hiding spots, dead angles outside enemy artillery fire coverage.
The Greek Army had also witnessed Advisor Model’s capabilities these past few days—mainly because those who didn’t believe him got shelled and killed in the first few days, especially one Greek colonel regimental commander whose rank was higher than Model’s; seeing him as merely a lieutenant colonel, he refused to follow orders and insisted on his own way, only to be blown up by enemy cannons.
Then the surviving Greek officers all obediently believed him.
People may never learn from being taught, but events teach in one go.
At this moment, the Greek officers and soldiers all orderly hid according to Model’s orders. After the British Army’s heavy cannons bombarded fiercely for a full hour and a half, the defenders on Mount Parnassus still had only smoke but no injuries.
After observing for a long time, General Allenby of the British Army felt the fire preparation was sufficient and ordered the ground assault.
He initially wanted to use armored cars to directly traverse the valley, but reconnaissance troops found that the Germania advisor had guided the Greek Army to dig several wide and deep trenches in the valley, beyond the armored cars’ obstacle-crossing capability.
The British Army had to temporarily abandon that idea, changing to first seize the hilltops, then send engineers to fill gaps in the trenches before using armored cars.
Filling trenches without seizing the hilltops would only lead to heavy casualties among the trench-filling soldiers from enemy bombardment and sweeping fire from above.
British Army infantry began a widespread uphill assault, but just as they reached halfway up the mountain, they quickly encountered dense crossfire from MG15 light machine gun groups.
British infantry were mowed down in rows; the survivors immediately dispersed, lay prone, sought cover on the spot, trying to advance with alternating cover.
The British artillery group to the rear, spotting exposed fire points on the mountain, adjusted muzzles within minutes, freely firing on the coordinates where flames had erupted from the hillside earlier.
For a moment, shells exploded sending rocks flying, trees snapping, exposing bare red soil. But most light machine gun teams had already shifted via hastily dug simple communication trenches and weren’t staying put.
They would relocate every three to five minutes after firing; the light machine gun’s lighter weight and easier mobility compared to heavy machine guns was maximized in mountain warfare.
The light machine gun’s poor barrel cooling and sustained fire shortcomings were irrelevant in this environment. They wouldn’t fire continuously anyway—just a few minutes then move, using the transfer interval to cool the barrel.
The British Army was completely frustrated for hours, their offensive disjointed, heavy casualties, minimal progress. Thousands of soldiers lay fallen in vain on the northwest slopes of Mount Parnassus.
Enraged, General Allenby finally demanded a tactical change, thinking of using creeping barrage, continuous bombardment until infantry reached the mountain, cannons not to stop.
Historically, the British Army only invented full creeping barrage tactics at the Somme, where artillery keeps firing during the charge, just extending to the rear defense line to prevent enemy infantry from retreating to second or third lines and remanning the first during the ceasefire gap.
But in this timeline, tactical history had been scrambled by Lelouch’s butterfly effect; both sides rapidly progressed by learning from bloody battles. The Germanians had already used creeping barrage tactics before; the Britannians opposite, having suffered, also learned and adopted it.
The reason the British Army had heavy casualties earlier was because Model had machine gun teams hide on the reverse slope during enemy shelling, then return to front-facing positions after ceasefire for rapid fire deployment.
The British hadn’t anticipated this initially because they didn’t expect Germanians’ elite fire deployment and withdrawal speed to be so fast. In the past few months at Gallipoli Peninsula against the Ottoman Army, even with Germania instructors/advisors’ guidance, the Ottomans couldn’t react that quickly.
Gallipoli’s Ottomans relied on tunnel work to quickly shuttle between front and reverse sides of mountains for mobile fire point deployment.
But tunnel work requires massive time and labor; the Germanians had been in Greece less than a week, absolutely no time to dig tunnels on Mount Parnassus—this led to Allenby’s underestimation.
Everything linked together yet caught the enemy off guard; impulsive and reckless Allenby unsurprisingly stepped into every pit Model left.
After adjusting tactics, the Britannians refired a creeping barrage for a full two hours until nearly dark, then organized infantry to assault the mountain again.
This time the British artillery group indeed didn’t cease fire, continuously suppressing the hilltop with fierce, mad artillery fire, even blasting the Delphi oracle temple ruins.
The oracle stele from three thousand years ago inscribed with ancient Greek proto-philosopher Thales’ “Know thyself” was snapped by British Army cannons.
That was something even Brother Kui in 《War God》 didn’t destroy when slaughtering gods at the Delphi oracle temple.
Restricted by such ferocious fire, Model indeed couldn’t timely redeploy MG15 light machine gun teams to the mountain front this time, allowing British infantry to rush past halfway up in one go.
Unfortunately, the British infantry’s good fortune lasted only a few hundred more meters. Soon, from very steep positions behind the mountain reverse slope, Germanians’ 80mm mortars began over-the-top attacks at ultra-high angles.
In mountain warfare, field guns and howitzers have firing dead angles: trajectories too low can’t clear the crest, blocked by the front face; too high clear the crest but can’t hit steep reverse slope spots. This was the main reason British artillery always produced smoke but no damage.
Mortars and grenade launchers had no such issues; they could fire at 85-degree high angles, and even with a sheer cliff between them and the enemy, mortar shells could hit without dead angles.
Dozens of mere 3-kg mortar shells successively landed amid Britannian infantry clusters, flipping the uphill-assaulting British troops head over heels.
However, mortar shells’ fire density ultimately couldn’t match heavy machine guns’ direct sweeping blockade; some defiant British soldiers still charged uphill under the bombardment.
But as they closed in, ten times more numerous grenade launchers than mortars began dominating.
At least over a hundred grenade launchers started over-the-top lobbing, rapid-fire covering enemy clusters just 200~500 meters away, not seeking accuracy, just fastest approximate hits.
The dense fire completely collapsed the British just hundreds of meters from the heights; unable to endure, they retreated like the tide.
“Those guys are used to fighting Ottomans and Greeks, still thinking hill assaults are that easy? Swap us Germanians to defend, try it then.”
Hearing the Britannians temporarily retreat, Model rarely showed a smug smile.
After this battle, the Britannians probably wouldn’t look down on Italians anymore.
The Italians attacking hills for over half a year on the Isonzo River defense line without taking Trieste had reasons.
It wasn’t that Italians were incompetent, but the defending enemy was too strong.
Hadn’t the Italians, borrowed to the Gallipoli theater earlier, used Italian submachine guns to take hills that British Army and ANZAC Corps couldn’t?
And after today’s battle, the Italians’ reputation would likely rise a bit again due to Model’s performance—
Model wasn’t targeting Italians; he just said Italians and Britannians were both garbage at hill assaults.
……
General Allenby’s two divisions failed to breakthrough the Delphi Isthmus temporarily and had to abandon it for the day.
He decided to wait for another 2 divisions tomorrow, then adjust tactics for full-scale attack. Meanwhile send men to assault hills while engineers fill enemy trench lines in the valley, opening a path to try rushing armored cars through first. Then infiltrate the Delphi Isthmus, perhaps threatening pincer attack to force hill defenders to retreat.
He believed this new tactic the defenders opposite couldn’t hold against.
