Chapter 11: You’re Not Fighting Alone!
Two flowers bloom, each on its own branch.
The Belgians sought foreign aid from the Britannians, spending nearly an entire day on back-and-forth negotiations and planning.
On the main battlefield, King Albert of the Belgians, not yet completely despairing, certainly would not allow the troops to slack off and stop the offensive.
Diplomatic appeals for aid and self-reliant breakout—neither hand could be relaxed; both had to be gritted through to the end.
Due to Lelouch and Colonel Lister’s psychological warfare, Belgian morale was scattered, and hearts were unsettled; the entire morning’s offensive time on the 26th was almost entirely wasted in vain.
The remnants of Belgian 4th Division were transferred back to Ostend for relief and rearguard, while Belgian 6th Division went through the motions without effort; every charge was easily repelled by the German Army.
Pressure on Colonel Lister’s eastern flank greatly eased; he could even spare more manpower to hold off the French Army’s relief offensive on the west.
As a result, in a chain reaction, the French offensive also appeared relatively feeble and was repeatedly repelled by the German Army.
The Franks’ 75mm cannons were increasing, but they still could not create a qualitative change in the urban battle situation.
In the urban area already universally bombed into ruins, 75mm shells randomly blasting the ruins could not cause much damage. Defenders hiding on the reverse slope of the ruin piles could easily rely on the increasingly solid collapsed ruins to absorb the shells’ impact and shrapnel.
Unless the 75mm cannons were brought close for direct fire to pick off firepower points one by one, or much larger caliber heavy cannons were used for indiscriminate coverage. But the Franks moved slowly and simply could not bring super-heavy cannon units to the front line within one or two days, leaving them helpless.
On the eastern front line of Nieuwpoort town, it dragged on until about one or two in the afternoon when Belgian 1st Division—morale at its peak and entirely composed of loyal royalist direct lineage—arrived at the front line, and the situation finally improved somewhat.
Belgian 1st Division Commander Lieutenant General Albert Berghgham was absolutely loyal to His Majesty the King; before coming, His Majesty had personally gripped his hand, shaking it vigorously and repeatedly encouraging him.
“The kingdom’s survival hangs on this battle. If even you, General, cannot breakout, Belgium ends here.”
His Majesty’s words struck Lieutenant General Berghgham’s heart like a heavy hammer, compelling him to vow to serve to the death and save the homeland.
After Belgian 1st Division arrived at the front line, the troops rested for just over half an hour, ate lunch, and slightly recovered from the fatigue of the forced march; Lieutenant General Berghgham then ordered the entire army to attack fiercely at all costs!
To boost morale, Belgian 1st Division officers and soldiers had a very lavish lunch today; everyone got canned meat.
His Majesty the King also donated all the royal family’s treasured wines, ham, and other precious ingredients for rewarding Belgian 1st Division.
The King also advanced half a year’s pay to all division officers and soldiers ahead of time. All the royal family’s pounds in foreign exchange were taken out and distributed to the soldiers—shiny gold and silver coins.
After completing all preparations, Lieutenant General Berghgham first requested fire support from friendly forces, hoping that the Britannian light cruiser that had been patrolling nearby on the sea surface yesterday would first plow the ground hard again with its 150mm guns.
Then the Belgians themselves would concentrate all their several 75mm guns for covering fire. He even notified the Franks to the west across the town, hoping the French Army could push their 75mm guns forward a few kilometers, lobbing fire over the entire town at maximum elevation to bombard the German Army defense line on the east side of the town, providing fire support for the Belgian Army.
Unfortunately, Lieutenant General Berghgham thought it through well, but when it came to implementation, he soon discovered his plan was missing a piece in the east and a link in the west.
“General, the Franks say they are willing to push their 75mm guns to about 3 kilometers from the western front line to fire over the town to the east.
But the Britannians cannot cooperate with us—they replied by secret telegram that the cruiser Bold has been suddenly reassigned temporarily to prepare for a more important mission.”
“Motherfucking Britannian bastards! Dropping the ball at the critical moment! How many times have they sold out their allies in history! What mission is more important than assisting my breakout?” Lieutenant General Berghgham fumed, grinding his teeth in hatred.
But with the arrow already on the string, he had no choice but to fire; he could not wait for the Royal Navy’s cooperation and immediately ordered half an hour of fire preparation, then full charge!
……
Inside Nieuwpoort town, the Franco-Belgian allied artillery fire had never been this fierce.
A group of officers and Lelouch were huddled in the cellar of Colonel Lister’s regimental headquarters, each with grave expressions, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
“The Belgians must have gone mad! We’ve shaken their morale so badly—how do they suddenly have spirit again!” A staff officer clutched his head, irritably cursing the enemy, utterly baffled by the situation.
“Calm down! This is the enemy’s last frenzy!” The colonel said, his face ashen, his expression grave yet resolute.
“The colonel is right; the enemy must have been hit where it hurts most, so they’re jumping the wall in desperation. If we hold through this wave, the enemy will surely collapse!” Seeing the colonel speak first, Lelouch was not stingy with agreement.
Lelouch did not want to flatter the colonel or avoid offending anyone; he simply wanted to sincerely help steady hearts.
The colonel gave him a brief approving glance, then calmly deployed: “1st Battalion commander, take our 77mm guns to the western defense line. Seize the chance to spot the French artillery positions and counter-battery if possible.
The enemy’s shells are already flying over our heads, meaning the French Army has pushed their artillery to the limit forward; otherwise, the range wouldn’t suffice. We can take the opportunity to execute a counter-battery mission.”
The major in charge of 1st Battalion hesitated, but finally decided to remind him before executing:
“But if we move all the cannons to the western defense line for counter-battery, when the Belgians charge up from the east later, we won’t have enough long-range fire against their infantry.
Are we doing elastic defense again, letting the enemy infantry into the town for close combat? Our casualties can’t take much more.”
At these words, many other officers nodded darkly, looking worried.
This problem was not to be taken lightly.
Fortunately, just as everyone exchanged uneasy glances, Colonel Lister gave them a reassuring pill: “I dare make this decision because I have confidence—our army has a backup plan. Lelouch, read aloud that division headquarters reply we just received this afternoon!”
“Yes!” Lelouch stood immediately and pulled out a telegram to read,
“Division headquarters reply: Our division’s artillery regiment, upon receiving the flood warning yesterday, immediately turned back; it has now transferred to the hills north of Diksmuide, redeployed, and rebuilt positions.
Additionally, our division requested last night from Army Group Headquarters urgent dispatch of long-range heavy cannons with over 15km range to the same area; headquarters urgently dispatched them last night, transported by train overnight to Tielt, and urgently towed by truck this morning to Diksmuide.”
This telegram had just been received after lunch, so most other officers did not yet know. With the great battle imminent, the colonel specially announced it to mobilize and boost morale in advance.
Some officers did not react at first upon hearing the news. But a few with good geography sense immediately caught on.
For example, the 1st Battalion major just assigned the task pondered for a few seconds, then gestured over the military map on the table:
“The small hilly area north of Diksmuide town? Division headquarters was cut off by the flood south of the Yser River in Diksmuide town! Looking at the map, Diksmuide town center is 18km from us, that hilly area is 16km, but if you draw a perpendicular to the coastline at 90°, the closest point of that hilly area to the Coastal Highway is only 14km!
So division headquarters means their main infantry force cannot come, but through one night and one morning of movement and redeployment, at least their artillery regiment can join the battle and support us!”
After the 1st Battalion commander explained this analysis, even the slowest and least professional officers in the room understood.
Right! Although yesterday’s great flood isolated 12th Division’s main force, the Yser River flooded area’s widest point was only about 10km on each bank along the river, totaling 20km.
But not everywhere was that wide; in some higher terrain places, the flooded area narrowed to about 15km.
At this distance, infantry could not cross to support, but some artillery could bombard the Coastal Highway across the flooded area!
Division headquarters spent so much time maneuvering and repositioning, finally finding attackable positions.
More crucially, 16th Regiment’s officers and soldiers felt it: the division commander had not abandoned them, the Army Group commander had not abandoned them; division and army were joining the battle with all the ways they could think of, giving their utmost!
It looked like only 16th Regiment’s infantry was filling the line on the main battlefield, but in reality, they were not fighting alone!
“With the division artillery regiment assisting, we’re solid now!” Several officers immediately relaxed, instantly turning from “despair faction” to “quick victory faction.”
Seeing this, the colonel frowned slightly and gave Lelouch another look; Lelouch quickly pointed to the telegram to remind everyone:
“Everyone, don’t get overconfident because of this. Things aren’t as difficult as we thought before, but not as easy as you think now; nearly 15km is not short, and the division artillery regiment’s howitzers cannot reach the Coastal Highway across the flooded area—the range is far too short.
Only each division’s 4 long-barreled 105mm cannons for counter-battery can. Fortunately, division headquarters wasn’t idle last night and borrowed 8 more from neighboring units, concentrating 3 divisions’ cannons for deployment. Additionally, Army Group borrowed 4 prototype 150mm long-barreled cannons in development from Krupp’s Aachen test site, transported overnight by train.
So we have 12 105mm long-barreled cannons and 4 150mm unknown-model long-barreled cannons—the best part is, no Belgian or Frankish 150mm or smaller cannons can match this range. So soon our artillery can unilaterally bombard the Belgians without cost! And the Belgians cannot fire back at our artillery positions!
The Empire invested so much in long-range counter-battery cannons, yet past campaigns had few chances to shine. Now the Belgians flooded to isolate north and south, handing us this opportunity to test the tactics!”
Everyone perked up at these words.
Since ancient times, “I can hit you unilaterally, but you can’t reach me and can only take it helplessly” has been an extreme morale killer for the enemy.
No matter how much actual damage such attacks cause, once it happens, the beaten side’s total collapse and despair is not far off.
