Chapter 110: Western Front Smoke Grenade: Seize Calais With Ease, Feign Weakness To The Enemy
Flowers bloom in two branches, each telling its own story.
At the same time as Lieutenant General Kusmanek was making final preparations for surrender, on the Western Front battlefield in late April.
The Germania 4th Army Group, commanded by the Grand Duke of Württemberg, also launched a new offensive.
The previous campaign in the Ypres-Dunkirk region had ended on February 21, so by calculation, the northernmost sector of the Western Front near the North Sea had seen eased fighting for nearly two months.
Both the Germania and French armies were licking their wounds in the rear, reorganizing troops. After the Franks lost the Dunkirk region, they were also continuously strengthening their defense line and adjusting deployments.
But the Franks’ defenses also had priorities; over the past two months, their main focus for strengthening defenses had been on the front around Lille, Armantieres, and other places, especially the Arras direction.
As for directly west of Dunkirk, the coastal area between Dunkirk and Calais, it was not a priority for the Franks’ defenses. Because that area was too close to Dover, too close to the Strait after all.
In the previous Battle of Dunkirk, although the Germanians had seized the coastal defense fortress by air drop, leading to the supporting British Navy fleet in the port suffering a catastrophic disaster, and also implicating the British Navy that came to reinforce—but the Franks had now fully learned this lesson.
Now, in Calais Port and all other coastal port cities, as long as they had coastal defense fortresses, regardless of size, they paid attention to air defense, temporarily setting up many heavy machine gun positions with high launch angles.
Moreover, the coastal defense fortresses were no longer completely enclosed, no longer only thinking about sea defense; trench networks were also dug on top of the fortresses, ensuring that even if enemy paratroopers landed and were not killed in the air, they would perish in the crossfire on the fortress’s surface ground.
Relying on airborne troops to seize coastal defense fortresses would no longer be possible on the Frankish or even Britannia battlefields! All Western Front nations had learned the lesson!
So, after plugging these loopholes, the Franks felt they could once again rely on the British Royal Navy’s absolute dominance in the Strait region.
Since there was no need to worry too much about the Calais area, the Franks naturally had to tilt their army defense resources toward other more stretched places, so coastal towns near Calais like Ambleteuse and Bancs Tan were not strengthened much.
At most, they organized the soldiers originally stationed there to dig some trenches slightly and do some earthworks, but there was no allocation of reinforced concrete and other building materials here, nor construction of new bunkers and forts.
And under these circumstances, the Germania 4th Army Group, relying on sufficient silent and strict preparations before the battle, concentrated forces and launched another round of infiltration offensive.
The 4th Army Group’s operational plan was simple: directly concentrate forces, pierce westward from the small towns of Arnèke, Stenford, and Cassel, straight into the coastal town of Le Touquet south of Calais.
Le Touquet is about 50 kilometers west of Arnèke and 30 kilometers south of Calais. Between Calais and Le Touquet, there is a coastal high ground called “Cape Opale”—and precisely because of this protruding ridge, the area near Calais becomes the narrowest point of the entire Strait of Dover, with the sea surface squeezed narrow by the mountainous areas on both shores.
Southwest of Calais and southwest of Dover Port on the opposite shore both have large areas of “White Cliffs” terrain. These White Cliffs fault zones are naturally terrain that military offensives should avoid, so the Grand Duke of Württemberg’s offensive direction also bypassed to the south side of this high ground, aiming to envelop the entire high ground area.
The Germanians’ offensive was quite sudden, and extremely all-in, concentrating pressure on one point.
The Grand Duke of Württemberg committed 3 assault battalions, forming continuous wave breakthroughs, followed by several elite main force divisions from Baden, Württemberg, and Hesse. Moreover, the initial 20 kilometers of the offensive could receive intensive fire support from a large number of their own heavy cannons.
Especially near Stenford station, which could at least be considered a railway hub, the Germanians concentrated over twenty railway guns before the offensive for fierce bombardment.
The powerful fire preparation made it impossible for the Franks to hold their feet in the initial two towns on the contact line front.
Towns like Azébruche and Deûlémont fell within days.
Among them, to achieve quick victory, the Germanians used heavy cannons of 280mm and above to directly level the main large reinforced buildings in Deûlémont town with railway guns. After the French Army suffered thousands of casualties, mentality collapsed, and the troops withdrew and contracted in large strides.
Relying on the assault battalions’ successive attacks and the main force divisions’ aggressive filling the line, the Grand Duke of Württemberg captured Fortonberg on April 25, then rapidly advanced over 10 kilometers in open terrain in one go, only encountering relatively resolute resistance again when approaching the coastline.
But even so, the Grand Duke of Württemberg could still penetrate the enemy defense line at a speed of 2-3 kilometers per day, ultimately cutting off the coastline at Le Touquet on April 30.
In theory, taking Le Touquet wasn’t much, because Le Touquet was just a small town, and there were still quite a few relatively solid coastal strongpoints from Calais to Boulogne line to continue holding.
But this time, the Frankish army seemed to have become frightened birds.
Everyone felt: third time’s the charm; the Germanians’ tactic of “rushing to the sea” to cut off the coastal enemy’s land retreat routes, then coordinating with the navy to block sea retreats, had been repeated too many times.
In early November last year, the Belgian Army was completely annihilated in the Nieuwpoort-Ostend region by this coastline-cutting tactic.
In February this year, the Britannia Expeditionary Force was completely annihilated in the Dunkirk-Ypres region by this coastline-cutting tactic.
Now the Germanians were using the same trick for the third time; how could the Franks not be afraid? So as soon as the encirclement closed, the Calais garrison commander firmly requested abandoning the port and evacuating all the encircled garrison troops by sea!
They initially hoped the British Royal Navy at Dover Port across the strait could help transport them, but the Royal Navy firmly refused this time.
British Navy Minister Walton told his French counterparts: Calais is so close to Dover; it’s absolutely impossible to let the Germania Navy pull the same trick again and intercept the garrison’s retreat at sea! As long as the Germania Navy dares to come, the Britannia Royal Navy will certainly pay back double the blood debt from the previous two times they fell for it!
But the problem was, Minister Walton’s remaining credit in the minds of his Frankish counterparts was now less than enough to scan a shared bike or a shared power bank.
The Franks treated his chest-thumping guarantees as just him farting.
“How did you guarantee to King Albert I of Belgium last year? And later how did you guarantee to your own Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief Marshal French? Were those two guarantees fulfilled? Weren’t you both painfully beaten by Vice Admiral Hipper? And now you expect us to believe you? If you won’t help transport people, our Frankish Navy will do it ourselves!”
No way, the Entente Powers had been scared by this tactic of rushing to the sea to cut off land retreat routes; after falling for it twice, the third time they had learned to run first.
Especially in the final stage of the Calais campaign, even that old guy, the Grand Duke of Württemberg, had learned a cunning trick.
He actually self-taught through various channels to spread rumors to the French Army in the encirclement:
“Heard about it? In the Germania Army, there’s a staff officer named Lelouch von Hunter who’s infallible like divinely aided; at the end of October last year, he was still just a corporal, but it was he who turned the tide at Nieuwpoort with tricks, sowing discord in the Belgian Army leading to their complete annihilation! During the campaign, he was promoted from corporal to captain!
In February this year, it was again he who used a brilliant ploy to air drop Dunkirk Fortress, turning the battle in one stroke, ultimately strangling the British Expeditionary Force! Also completely annihilated! In this campaign, he was promoted from captain to colonel!
Now, this Colonel Lelouch, following several corps of the 6th Army Group, is joining forces with our 4th Army Group to cut another slice, taking down this Calais cape area too! All the encirclement schemes this time were also his idea! He has already deployed a dragnet; as long as the Franks hope to retreat by sea at the end, he has a way to make all the Franks die in Calais with none escaping!”
The Frankish garrison became panic-stricken after hearing these rumors.
This “verifiable record” of achievements was too ferocious; King Albert and Marshal French had both been sacrificed to that kid’s merits; what was the Frankish garrison commander of Calais City? Was his life tougher than those two?
In the end, the Franks gathered a fleet of ships from Cherbourg Port and other places, plus civilian ships already in Calais Port, and organized a great evacuation like frightened birds.
The only thing they could do was not leave any ships in Calais Port again, empty all port property warehouses, transport away as much weapons and ammunition as possible. Machinery and equipment that could be dismantled and transported were, and those that couldn’t were simply destroyed or blown up, but complete destruction was impossible because there wasn’t enough time.
The Germanians’ advance was also very fast, not giving them time for thorough scorched earth.
The point the Franks valued most during withdrawal was actually concentrated on “ensuring the destruction of Calais Port’s coastal defense battery”; all large-caliber coastal defense guns that could be dismantled and transported were, and those that really couldn’t were destroyed on site.
The lesson from the previous air drop seizure of Dunkirk Port’s coastal defense fortress was too painful. Those coastal defense guns were directly turned by the airborne troops to fire on their own warships in the port.
After suffering such a colossal loss, whenever the Franks abandoned any port city, they had to transport away or destroy every coastal defense gun.
The Grand Duke of Württemberg’s 4th Army Group entered Calais Port almost bloodlessly; that day was May 6.
The rapid fall of Calais Port and the surrounding Cape Opale region also completely misled the Entente Powers.
To cover up their failure, the French Army emphasized they encountered an extremely powerful offensive. They said the enemy not only had the German 4th Army Group, but also the German 6th Army Group, and some French generals even asserted that the officer leading the enemy’s most elite assault battalion was Lelouch von Hunter himself!
All of this infiltration plan must have been personally arranged by Lelouch von Hunter! If the Calais garrison hadn’t left in time back then, they would definitely have been intercepted by some Germania fleet that appeared out of nowhere!
And in fact, this time there really was no Germania fleet daring to venture into the narrowest part of the Dover Strait. It was all the Franks scaring themselves and misleading their allies too.
After the news reached the Eastern Front, the Lusha Army also once believed that the Germania 6th Army Group main force was still on the Western Front, and only a few divisions had come to the Eastern Front as a feint, so they were so weak, only able to hold Budapest and not daring aggressive counterattack.
As such, Lieutenant General Selivanov and other Lusha troops heading south over the Carpathian Mountains acted even more decisively, with more people recklessly charging into the Hungarian heartland regardless of consequences.
Especially at the end of April, another heavy spring rain fell in the northern Carpathian region, making the roads between Przemyśl and Krakow increasingly muddy and difficult. The Lusha Army felt there was no need to leave so many troops north of the mountains to guard the flanks; guarding such a muddy quagmire, at most a few divisions or two corps would suffice, and the rest could first be thrown into the main attack direction.
（Note: In real Earth history, before Mackensen launched the Gorlice breakthrough, General Ratko Dmitriev really only left 3 divisions to defend the Gorlice rear flank. In my book’s world, I’ve given General Ratko Dmitriev extra brains, setting that he left some extra troops to defend the rear road, so don’t say anything about dumbing down anymore.
The real historical Lusha generals were mostly this stupid, and some weren’t necessarily stupid but were messed up by the Tsar’s micromanagement. In the final stage of the Carpathian campaign, the Tsar forced frontline armies to speed up the offensive and commit more troops; if they dared conservative tactics leading to failure to take Hungary, they would be court-martialed and shot for delaying the war.）
