Chapter 144: When Lusha Meets The German Li Yunlong
Due to those few Lusha meat-shield reconnaissance destroyers, at the cost of sending themselves to their deaths, they spotted a large number of Germania warships in the Dniester Estuary Sea Area.
Major General Lugin quickly judged that this was absolutely not an enemy his Odessa Detachment Fleet could handle; he must immediately rendezvous with Admiral Eberhardt’s Black Sea Fleet main force and combine forces to have any chance of a fight.
The enemy fleet opposite was almost the entire stock of warships the Germanians sold to the Ottomans before the war, all staked in one desperate gamble!
And with Major General Lugin’s retreat, the Lusha Army in the Dniester Estuary War Zone suffered disaster. The Germanian follow-up landing troops were continuously coming ashore at a rate of several transport ships per hour.
General Evert, commander of the Romanian Front Army in Odessa city, kept receiving urgent frontline reports saying the navy had not yet come to cooperate, and the enemy’s landing troops could gain another regiment every two hours.
This dire situation finally made General Evert unable to wait. He decided to strike first, launching an assault against the enemy’s combined sea and land forces, using his troops’ scale far exceeding the landing enemy to drown them in a human wave.
After all, at this moment, there were at most 2 regiments of enemies ashore. Even if he urgently dispatched troops from the southwest suburbs of Odessa city to rush 20 kilometers for a strong assault, figuring it would take one morning for the march, by then the landing troops ashore would be just 4 regiments.
As long as his side had absolute numerical superiority, there was still a chance to push the enemy into the sea!
At 8 a.m. on the 31st, General Evert, forced to improvise, finally formally issued this order.
One corps of the Lusha 6th Army Group stationed in the Ovidiopol area of the southwest suburbs of Odessa city was immediately ordered to emergency march to the north bank of the Dniester River Estuary and push all the Germanian troops that had landed on the north bank into the sea!
Perhaps some readers are not familiar with the Lusha Army’s deployment on the Romanian line, which doesn’t seem intuitive.
But knowing just one point would grasp the thread of the entire campaign:
This newly appointed Romanian Front Army commander, General Evert, was originally the commander of the 6th Army Group of the Southwestern Front. But the Southwestern Front main force was annihilated by the German-Austrian Allied Forces in Hungary a few months ago, and the original front commander was also killed.
Plus, the Lushans had to guard against the new front on the new Lusha-Romania border that had emerged, so they split the Southwestern Front into two fronts.
One was still called the Southwestern Front, responsible for the defense line from Lviv to Vinnytsia, with headquarters in Kyiv. The other was called the Romanian Front Army, responsible for the border from Bessarabia to Romania, with headquarters in Odessa.
And General Evert was appointed in this crisis, promoted from commander of one army group in the original Southwestern Front to commander of the entire Romanian Front Army.
Currently, Lusha’s 13 frontline army groups nationwide were allocated to the following 6 fronts, from north to south:
1. Northern Front Army: headquarters in the capital Saint Petersburg, commander General Mikhail Alekseyev. Responsible for guarding the capital area, subordinate to 1st and 12th Army Groups. The 1st Army Group was rebuilt after being completely annihilated by Hindenburg in last year’s campaigns at Tannenberg, Masurian Lakes, and others.
2. Northwestern Front: headquarters in Riga, commander General Nikolai Ruzsky, responsible for Lithuania and Latvia defense zones. Subordinate to 2nd and 5th Army Groups. The 2nd Army Group, like the aforementioned 1st, was rebuilt after being completely annihilated once.
3. Western Front Army: headquarters in Warsaw, commander Tsar’s uncle Grand Duke Nikolai Yevgenyevich（ rank Marshal）, responsible for Poland and Belarus defense zones. This was also the most heavily defended front in Lusha nationwide in the second half of this year, including 3rd/8th/10th/13th total 4 army groups, plus a large number of hastily assembled local Polish recruits, totaling over 2 million gathered.
4. Southwestern Front: headquarters in Kyiv, commander General Pavel Pleve, responsible for the central and northern defenses of the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain. Subordinate to 4th and 7th Army Groups.
5. Romanian Front Army: headquarters in Odessa, commander General Aleksei Evert, responsible for the original Romanian border defense line. Subordinate to 6th and 9th Army Groups.
6. Caucasus Front Army: headquarters in Batumi（ in Georgia）, commander Lieutenant General Nikolai Yudenich, responsible for combat with the Ottomans in Transcaucasia. Originally subordinate to 3 independent corps, now just prepared and constructed as the 11th Army Group—because the 11th Army Group was completely annihilated by the German-Austrian Allied Forces in Hungary a few months ago, freeing up the designation for the Caucasus Front Army.
So, currently on the Romanian direction, the Lusha Army had only 1 front army and 2 army groups’ worth of troops to deal with the German 6th Army Group’s 4 corps.
And a small portion of the German 6th Army Group’s troops, about 2 corps, cooperated with some Ollie Army, stationed in Lviv, confronting the Southwestern Front’s troops.
One German army group plus some auxiliary troops was to fight 2 Lusha fronts and 4 army groups, nominally 1 against 4.
But the German 6th Army Group was now a super-scale expanded army group, with its own 6 corps and 18 divisions totaling 330,000 men. Plus that 100,000 from rescued Austrian prisoners of war converted to join the Germans, forming a super-large “independent corps”.
Now the German 6th Army Group totaled 7 corps and 430,000 men, and with the cooperating Austrian Army, the total exceeded 500,000.
The opposing Lusha 2 fronts’ 4 army groups totaled 1.2 million, but among them, the Southwestern Front’s 700,000 were held back by the German 6th Army Group’s 2 corps of 120,000 plus 80,000 Austrians, totaling 200,000.
The remaining Romanian Front Army’s 500,000 faced the German 6th Army Group’s 4 corps of 210,000 frontal troops and 100,000 flanking landing troops, totaling 310,000. The Lushans actually didn’t have much numerical advantage.
Of the Romanian Front Army’s 500,000, the Lusha 6th Army Group’s 280,000 were deployed in the Odessa peripheral defense zone. The Lusha 9th Army Group’s 220,000 were deployed even further back, responsible for the Dnieper River Estuary area like Kherson, and the entire Crimean Peninsula defense zone.
Now, 3 corps of the Lusha 6th Army Group were threatened by the flanking, leaving 3 corps: 2 guarding around Odessa, 1 guarding around Mykolaiv.
General Evert sent 1 corps of Odessa garrison troops to counter-push Rommel; if it failed, Odessa’s defense strength would be severely weakened, but he had no choice but to gamble.
……
A few hours later at noon, the 1 corps of Lusha 6th Army Group that General Evert hastily sent to counterattack the landing site.
Finally arrived in the north bank area of the Dniester Estuary under the leadership of corps commander Major General Peter Nikolayevich Franger.
The troops departed from Ovidiopol in the suburbs of Odessa, after 4 hours of marching on foot, force-marched 17 kilometers, rushing hastily to the front line.
Although this marching speed was less than half of the modern army training standard of “5 km weighted march”（ some currently stricter countries require field weighted march, 5 km in 26 minutes is passing）
But for the frail early 20th-century Lusha infantry, most were gasping for breath, with greatly reduced condition. More critically, when these troops arrived, the artillery couldn’t immediately switch from marching to deployment state.
And the opposing German 6th Army Group independent corps already had over 1 full division’s troops ashore.
The Germanian side also only had infantry ashore, without managing to bring up the big cannons, but no problem.
Because some Germania Black Sea Fleet destroyers had already entered the Dniester Estuary lagoon, and could directly provide artillery fire support to the army brothers from the sea surface of the estuary lagoon with naval guns.
German destroyers only had 88 mm small barrels, no 105 guns or larger, but their rate of fire was much faster than land cannons.
And the opposing Lushans hadn’t even deployed their 76 mm guns, basically could only rely on infantry direct charges, with no advantage at all.
……
“The Lushans actually counterattacked at this time, and came pretty fast; do they want to take advantage of us not being steady yet to push us back into the sea?”
On the simple position on the north bank of the Dniester Estuary, the newly landed independent corps 2nd Division commander, Major General Lister, observed the incoming enemy situation through his telescope and immediately organized defense—this Major General Lister was the 16th Regiment commander that Lelouch met at the beginning of his transmigration, and also the cousin of that William Lister battalion commander under Lelouch later.
Division Commander Lister had the troops quickly rely on buildings, wreckage, foxholes, and the just-set-up heavy machine gun emplacements to resolutely counterattack the hastily attacking Lusha soldiers.
Waves of Lusha infantry charging chaotically originally wanted to bully the few German troops by the north bank river, relying on absolute numerical superiority to crush. But they were swept down in rows. Lasting less than 15 minutes, the initial probing offensive was repelled, leaving at least four-digit number of corpses on the ground.
However, with the Lushans temporarily retreating, a problem was placed before the already-landed Germanian army: next step, continue to hold, or counterattack?
Division Commander Lister took a relatively conservative and steady approach; he decided to continue holding, because the longer the delay, the stronger his side’s forces; every two hours, the transport fleet could bring another regiment of reinforcements from the rear—time was on his side, why take risks? He was a rigid old-school officer; thinking this way was normal.
But Colonel Rommel, not subordinate to Division Commander Lister, as commander of the 1st Regiment of the airborne division, immediately proposed a different opinion.
“Commander Lister, I believe we should seize this opportunity to counterattack immediately! The enemy’s first wave charge failed and retreated, definitely because they realized that without artillery cover, just swarming with absolute numbers won’t beat us.
So this temporary retreat is just to buy time for the artillery units to deploy—we can’t give them that time; we must immediately launch a counter-charge!
At the same time, have those few destroyers that have entered the estuary lagoon, and even the heavy battleships near the coast, fire coverage on the enemy’s offensive positions and depth positions! Then our army charges to thoroughly occupy their attack positions!”
Division Commander Lister took a slight breath of cool air upon hearing this: “That’s too risky, isn’t it? Our mission is to ensure the beachhead is absolutely secure. And even if the enemy’s artillery deploys, their range can’t be farther than our naval guns.
They will definitely deploy relatively far back, not threatening us. Otherwise, if they deploy too far forward, that’s just sending themselves to death; our naval guns can wait until they’re deployed, then have airships spot for fire to wipe them all out!”
But Rommel insisted on his aggressive tactics: “Precisely because of that, we must launch a counter-charge—the enemy definitely knows this too, so when they deploy artillery, some will be offensive deployment, some defensive.
The offensive part will aggressively deploy to the forward close range threatening our positions. The defensive part will deploy inland deep enough not to reach our positions but also out of our naval gun range, precisely to prevent our follow-up counter-charge.
We can only now immediately fire preparation, then charge, to strike the enemy’s depth positions, so their defensive deployment artillery isn’t even fully deployed before being overrun by our ground forces! Otherwise, after their defensive deployment is done, if we charge, the losses will be much greater!”
Lister was dumbfounded, completely not expecting Rommel this kid to have such big ambitions.
Not satisfied with mutual standoff and peace? Want to rely on 1 unsteady division to directly counter-push the enemy’s entire 1 corps? Even though that corps just suffered a setback, lost several thousand men, low morale…
Just as the two were at a standoff and hesitating. The radio operator of Rommel’s regiment received a telegram and immediately presented it to Rommel.
“Regiment commander! Division Commander Lelouch sent a telegram; he’s on the ‘Goeben’, got airship reconnaissance results, and ordered our division to immediately prepare for counterattack! He will have the destroyer fleet cooperate with fire preparation, and the ‘Vichersbach’ and ‘Mecklenburg’ battleships will provide cover!
Don’t give the enemy a chance to deploy frontline artillery positions! He also said, whether Division Commander Lister joins is their own business; Division Commander Lelouch only requires his own division to immediately prepare counterattack! Of course, specific frontline situation is up to your judgment.”
Lelouch himself had not landed, but on the “Goeben” battleship he could also synchronously share airship reconnaissance info via real-time, making his own decision judgments.
Moreover, compared to Rommel and Lister, Lelouch had another advantage—Lelouch could real-time grasp Admiral Spee’s fleet dispatch situation; to Lister and Rommel, Spee’s pre-dreadnoughts might all be pulled to block the Lusha Black Sea Fleet, seeking absolute numerical superiority in a fleet decisive battle on the sea surface.
So Lister and Rommel couldn’t possibly think that two old pre-dreadnoughts could still participate in shore fire support at this critical juncture.
If he had known earlier the navy allocated firepower this way, Lister would also have the guts to charge immediately.
“So the navy is that generous, assigning 2 pre-dreadnoughts to give us continuous fire support? Then what are we waiting for, have them bombard, do creeping barrage, then we charge! Our independent corps 2nd Division won’t lag behind! That Lelouch guy really can coordinate resources; even the navy gives him that much face.”
Division Commander Lister immediately made the decision; he was in on this move.
……
While they were receiving telegrams and analyzing intelligence, the destroyers in the estuary and the pre-dreadnoughts near the sea had actually already opened fire.
4 twin 240 mm 40-caliber naval guns, total 8 barrels, firing high-explosive shells at maximum elevation, launched a fierce bombardment on the Lusha Army positions.
Plus 18 single 150 mm secondary guns, 12 88 mm guns, also firing at full effort on shore bombardment.
Even though these two pre-dreadnoughts, due to draft issues, were 4 kilometers from the coast when firing, wasting 4 km of effective range, it was still enough to cover large swaths of the Lushans’ attack positions.
The Vichersbach-class pre-dreadnoughts’ 240 mm guns had little use in current naval battleship duels. When this warship class began construction in 1900, the 240 mm caliber was chosen from lessons of the Jiawu Sea Battle; at that time, navies worldwide believed “large-caliber slow-fire guns are inferior to secondary-caliber high-rate guns.”
And at the time, 280 mm guns couldn’t yet make rapid-fire guns, while 240 mm was the largest caliber that could make “rapid-fire cannons.” The Germania Navy chose 240 on this class and even earlier Friedrich der Grosse-class.
（Note: This “rapid-fire” concept is relative. At the time, 280 guns needed 90 seconds per shell, while 240 could do 30 seconds per shell, already very “rapid-fire.”）
But at this moment, these 240 guns that could fire a salvo every 30 seconds were extremely effective in shore bombardment.
For shore targets, who needs 280 big barrels? 240 was already firepower surplus. Later “Stalin’s Hammer” was only 203, already able to flatten all defensive fortifications.
“Boom boom boom” giant cannon heavy cannon fire resounded over the Lusha Army positions for a time.
The Lusha soldiers who had just lost several thousand and retreated, relaxing for rest and waiting for their own artillery to deploy, were immediately stunned.
From corps commander and division commander to NCOs and soldiers, none were not stunned.
“Damn Germanian bastards, they just repelled our attack and immediately counterattacked?”
“Where did such fierce heavy cannons come from? Is that battleships bombarding? Wasn’t it said our Black Sea Fleet has sortied, and the enemy’s battleships must all have gone to intercept the Black Sea Fleet? How do they still have spare capacity to stay here for shore bombardment!”
“What the hell are those navy wastes doing?”
Tens of thousands of Lusha soldiers, originally just after offensive setback, had slightly retreated 1-2 km to open distance, hadn’t found cover yet, and hadn’t dug foxholes in the open fields in time.
Suddenly covered by the enemy’s heavy cannons, and such fierce and comprehensive coverage, casualties were extremely heavy for a time.
But who could they blame for this? No army in the world currently had “anti-landing operation” experience. The instinctive first reaction was to stop the enemy at the beachhead; once enemies landed, immediately try to push them back to sea.
As for how to guard against the enemy warships’ covering naval gunfire for the landing, this topic was originally a blank slate; no one in the world had experience.
Well, perhaps Lelouch this transmigrator had experience, but only he alone had it.
Hundreds and thousands of Lusha infantry were directly blasted into meat paste like livestock. The fire preparation lasted only 15 minutes, and the areas to be covered and leveled were thoroughly leveled.
As soon as the artillery fire from Rommel and others extended, he immediately commanded the troops to charge out of cover and launch counterattack.
And the opposing enemies were already in total rout, all trying to flee backward, none standing steady.
Several regiments of Germanian troops chased all the way, kicking the butt of an entire Lusha corps.
The Lusha Army retreated in one breath at least 7-8 km; those who couldn’t run all dropped guns and knelt as prisoners of war. The big cannons just unloaded from artillery carriages, not yet deployed, were either destroyed or directly captured by Germanian troops.
The artillery units’ predicament was even more dire than Chang Nai-chao meeting Li Yunlong—which side just arrived gasping on the battlefield, artillery not yet deployed, and the much fewer defending side directly counterattacks? Does this conform to military strategy? Do you Rommel know how to fight?
This Lusha corps commander who was defeated like a landslide, Major General Peter Nikolayevich Franger, felt this indignant injustice inwardly.
——
PS: Looking closely, today is another 12,000-word day… Recently updating crazily. First time updating this insanely for a non-premium book; this is all fueled by faith recharge.
