Chapter 152: Great Victory In The Black Sea, Reaping The Spoils
“Our army has finally secured a foothold along the line from Mykolaiv, Kherson, Yevpatoria, and Yevpatoria. To launch a subsequent offensive, it will require about an additional month of logistics preparation time.
The damaged roads and dock facilities must be hastily repaired, and supplies must be reassembled and transported to the front lines. Our Army Group’s garrison forces along the Lviv-Vinnytsia line must also be redeployed southward.
We also need to request that Uncle second part of the 10th Army Group to the Lviv-Vinnytsia line to reinforce the defenses, so that at that time a portion of their forces can cooperate with us in combat. Attacking the heartland of the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain’s black soil region won’t be easy.”
August 25th, the 5th day after the Germania Army captured Mykolaiv.
It was also the 3rd day after capturing Kherson and the day after capturing the Crimean Isthmus. Duke Rupprecht’s 6th Army Group Headquarters had just been advanced to Mykolaiv.
That evening, he held a small-scale military conference in the headquarters.
The atmosphere and topics were relatively relaxed, mainly reviewing the gains and losses from recent military actions. At the start of the meeting, he personally set the tone by saying the above words.
Along the Black Sea Coast west of the Crimean Peninsula, the overall situation was settled. But expanding victories further west and further north was not yet feasible; more preparations were needed.
The front line would likely freeze in its current state for a month or so, with minor adjustments during that time, but no major changes expected.
Attendees at the meeting, including Lieutenant General Karl Ludendorff, Major General Lister, Lelouch, von Bock, Rommel, and others, all agreed with the Duke’s view; there was no disagreement on this point.
After the Duke finished speaking, he scanned the people in the conference room, then tossed the riding crop to Lelouch and instructed: “Next, Lelouch, you summarize the losses for both sides in this campaign up to now, as well as the estimated trend of enemy force replenishment in the next phase. Analyze the possible force ratios when our army launches another offensive in the future.”
“Yes.” Lelouch immediately agreed, stood up to take the pointer, and opened two documents in front of him.
He also served as the staff officer for the entire Army Group, though without the “chief” title, but everyone knew he was one of the Duke’s most trusted staff officers. Everyone was accustomed to him making the summary report in such settings.
Lelouch cleared his throat and spoke eloquently: “The ground offensive of this campaign began on July 29th and lasted until today, August 24th, for a total of 27 days. Our army advanced from the original Romania and Lusha border all the way to Kherson and Yevpatoria at the farthest point.
The farthest advance distance reached over 400 kilometers, averaging nearly 15 kilometers per day. In the various stages of the campaign, during operations on the Romania border, we suffered a total loss of 11,000 men; in the subsequent pursuit and continuous advance, another 3,000 losses.
During the Dniester River Estuary landing battle and counterattack battle, losses were 5,000 men. The subsequent Odessa assault battle was the largest loss in the entire campaign, reaching 17,000 men. The Mykolaiv landing battle and siege battle cumulatively lost 8,000 men. Subsequent other offensive and advance operations cumulatively lost around 9,000 men.
Therefore, in 27 days of continuous combat, our army suffered a total loss of 53,000 men. Among them, 12,000 were killed in action, 5,000 missing, 9,000 died of wounds or permanently disabled, 11,000 wounded recovered, and about 16,000 require rearward evacuation for continued treatment.
Among them, the use of sulfonamide saved at least an additional 8,000 lives out of our army’s 40,000 wounded, accounting for 21% of total wounded soldiers and 45% of infection-type wounded.”
In other words, in 27 days of fighting, there was a permanent loss of combat effectiveness of 26,000 men, while 27,000 wounded had already recovered or had a chance to recover slowly.
Everyone fell slightly silent upon hearing these numbers. War inevitably involves deaths, and everyone was accustomed to life and death. Even the smoothest victory came at the cost of thirty to forty thousand of our own lives never returning to the battlefield.
Fortunately, Lelouch quickly changed the subject: “During the border campaign, the enemy’s 3 armies deployed on the Romania border ultimately had only 40,000 break out, and we annihilated about 150,000 in total. In the Odessa assault battle, the enemy lost a full-strength army annihilated and another heavily damaged, annihilating 85,000 enemies. In Mykolaiv, Kherson, and other places, another over 40,000 enemies were annihilated.
The enemy’s 6th Army Group, totaling 6 full-strength armies plus some independent units, as well as navy-turned-army and second-line reinforcement troops, totaling over 400,000 men, had 270,000 annihilated by our army, with about 150,000 withdrawing.
The enemy’s 9th Army Group garrisoning the Crimean Peninsula, and reinforcement troops, totaling 320,000 men, had 70,000 annihilated by our army in Yevpatoria and Yevpatoria and other places, another 90,000 withdrew to the eastern region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Finally, 160,000 were cut off by our army in the southern sector of the Crimean Peninsula, mainly Sevastopol and Kerch.
So, during the 27-day campaign, our army annihilated 270,000 of the enemy’s 6th Army Group and 70,000 of the 9th, totaling 340,000. Another 160,000 enemy troops were cut off from their land retreat routes by our army; if we can successfully encircle Sevastopol and Kerch in the future, the entire campaign could annihilate 500,000 enemies in total!
Therefore, up to now, the exchange ratio is 53,000 of ours to 340,000 of theirs; if not counting surrenders and prisoners, it’s 53,000 to 190,000. In the subsequent encirclement and annihilation of the 160,000 peninsula enemy troops, our army may still suffer considerable assault losses.”
After this clear review, the enemy and our losses in these 27 days of bloody battles were finally tallied clearly.
Germania’s 6th Army Group, plus the independent army formed from rescued Austria prisoners of war, totaling 430,000 men, after losing 53,000, still had over 380,000 remaining（ lightly wounded counted as recovered and returned to ranks）, and indeed needed some rest to restore troop status.
After the tally, the Duke had each department double-check progress to confirm if full rest and logistics transport could be completed within 1 month, to avoid any breakdowns when it was time to fight.
Army redeployment involved a thousand threads; every matter needed advance planning.
It wasn’t the Duke arbitrarily deciding on a month’s rest for the troops to automatically recover combat effectiveness. It required level-by-level communication and step-by-step progress tracking. Whoever was short on what needed to report it promptly.
The corps commanders immediately, led by Lieutenant General Karl Ludendorff, sequentially reviewed and reported.
It was finally found that each army could complete preparations for the next phase of the war within 20 to 25 days, leaving a few days’ buffer for Army Group-level handling of unexpected situations.
Once the Duke had a clear picture in his mind, he finally asked Lelouch alone: “If we can launch a new general offensive on September 20th, how are the preparations for the secret new weapon going?”
Lelouch’s heart skipped a beat, but he instinctively glanced around at the others first, seeing they were all absolute insiders with no possibility of traitors or loose-lipped leakers, before answering in a low voice:
“At the end of July when the campaign just started, I had already confirmed with Dr. Porsche that wheeled armored fighting vehicles had begun small batch trial production, with dozens of small batch sample prototypes already off the line at that time. I was afraid of exposing the secret, and that small number wouldn’t change the battle situation anyway, so I didn’t let him bring them up.
Now the monthly output is around 200 vehicles; if we launch the offensive on September 20th, we can concentrate 400 armored cars, on a scale roughly comparable to the half-track vehicles our army is currently equipped with.
As for the ‘tanks,’ they have just begun trial production; by September 20th there should be 50, and thereafter can maintain a monthly output of 100. If further expansion is needed, it would require reallocating more military industrial resources, which won’t be feasible within this year; we can’t squeeze extra resources from the Empire Armament Department. We’d need to fully readjust the plan in the winter.
Moreover, if the wheeled armored fighting vehicles and tanks perform well in actual combat on the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain battlefield, only then will the Armament Department and the Emperor truly take them seriously. So I don’t recommend deploying ‘tanks’ immediately on September 20th, as the numbers are too few to have a decisive effect and would prematurely expose our strength.
And September 20th hasn’t yet entered the autumn muddy period on the black soil Great Plain; using wheeled armored cars makes little difference, as their firepower and mobility are comparable, and wheeled armored cars might even be a bit faster.
The wheeled vehicles’ biggest problems are poor cross-country performance in complex terrain and the risk of tire blowouts when tires are targeted. We can wait until the campaign reaches late October when the ground starts getting muddy to deploy ‘tanks,’ ensuring the new weapon’s suddenness is maximized.”
To solve the wheeled armored car tire blowout problem, removable armored side skirts could be added to shield the tires as much as possible. But this couldn’t be done right now due to time constraints; Porsche’s side didn’t have time for that much fine design.
They could only use what was available for now and improve gradually later. But directly welding on a fixed, non-removable armored side skirt definitely wouldn’t work, as it would make tire changes impossible after a blowout.
The other generals, upon hearing Lelouch’s report, were mostly in a state of confusion, because even peripheral figures like Major General Lister, von Bock, Rommel, etc., had never even heard of the wheeled armored fighting vehicle and ‘tank’ plans before.
The secrecy work was truly well done; Lelouch was reporting directly to the Army Group Commander.
But precisely because the secrecy was so good, these generals and officers, upon first hearing the new term ‘tank,’ felt an inexplicable surge of strong confidence. They firmly believed the new weapon would definitely have greater impact than half-track troop carriers, and when first deployed on the battlefield, it would absolutely catch the enemy off guard!
These new weapons were surely the absolute trump cards for devouring the entire Kievan Rus’ Great Plain in the future!
Especially middle-aged and young officers like von Bock and Rommel; they immediately took a keen interest in the armored cars and tanks. Thinking that the equipment scale wouldn’t be too large, they all hoped that if they could lead the first mechanized division or tank regiment themselves, it would be great.
After the meeting, they definitely needed to consult with Officer Lelouch about these weapons’ performance specs and study matching usage tactics.
……
After settling the armies’ preparation timelines and new weapon preparation progress and other issues, the military conference quickly moved to the next topic.
From now until September 20th, besides preparations, what else should the troops do.
Especially near the Dardanelles Strait on the southern front, where the Britannians’ landing battle had already begun, and it had been going on for nearly 10 days.
So the Duke asked: “Do you think we need to second some troops in relatively good condition to provide a little support to the Ottomans and General Zanders in this month? Of course, the premise is not affecting our subsequent Kievan Rus’ Great Plain campaign.”
The generals had differing views; some agreed to counter-push immediately, but Lelouch gave a completely different opinion.
“I think we should fully trust General Zanders and the Ottoman Army that he has reorganized and trained for two years. Although the Britannians have successfully landed and secured a foothold, General Zanders still has ample combat effectiveness to hold the root of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Since that’s the case, they can fight a prolonged war of attrition there for a long time.
We can continuously exploit the Britannians’ frustration of being unable to swallow or spit out, luring them and the Italians to throw in more and more landing troops, and when they finally get fed up with bleeding and develop intent to retreat, we can then find a way to deliver a thunderous blow!
If we rush to massively reinforce General Zanders now, it might instead scare off the Britannians. So I believe that for the Istanbul direction in the south, what we most need to change is our mindset: we don’t need to fear the enemy landing and securing a foothold, nor force annihilation on the beaches; we can let them come in and fight!
In comparison, from now until September 20th, we actually have something even more important we can do—for example, as we all know, the reason we were so successful in assaulting Odessa, Mykolaiv, and Yevpatoria before was largely because contradictions arose between the Lusha army and navy; their Romanian Front Army believed the Black Sea Fleet had a large number of traitors.
And ultimately, this misunderstanding arose because our navy achieved a major technological breakthrough in mine clearance. This allowed us to completely shatter the enemy fleet’s minefield blockade and launch a surprise attack from an inconceivable position behind the enemy army.
But this technical secret can’t be kept confidential for long; what we should think about now is how to quickly leverage this advantage and maximize it. For instance, as far as I know, our army has recently launched a new campaign in the Riga Bay direction as well, right? Vice Admiral Hipper’s fleet should also be able to smoothly enter Riga Bay.
But Vice Admiral Hipper may not think of the stratagem of sowing discord like I did, to make the Tsar and the Lusha Northwestern Front suspicious of the Baltic Fleet. So I think I can make a trip there to personally impart and orchestrate these schemes. I won’t stay long; I will definitely return before September 20th when we launch the general offensive here.”
Although the Duke was only the 6th Army Group Commander, he also needed to consider the big picture; Vice Admiral Hipper was also from their Baria Kingdom, counting as one of the most worthwhile assets to cultivate and develop in the navy in the future.
Lelouch himself going to help with planning and executing psychological warfare sowing discord was something the Duke didn’t oppose, as long as it didn’t delay main business.
But the Duke still felt this matter wouldn’t consume too many resources: “What you mean, plainly, is needing leave to assist Hipper? No problem, just return on time. But not September 20th; I require you back by the 10th, personally on site before combat starts here to check for gaps. I’m giving you only two weeks’ leave.
Moreover, your plan shouldn’t require too many resources, right? As long as you go yourself, and send some people to protect you, that’s enough; our main force here idling and resting until September 20th?”
Lelouch thought again and suggested: “However, I think General Zanders definitely doesn’t lack line-filling troops. The terrain of the Gallipoli Peninsula dictates that the peninsula root is very narrow, very suitable for high walls and deep trenches. As long as General Zanders doesn’t pursue counterattacks but only holds steady, his line-filling infantry is absolutely sufficient.
If you insist on reinforcing him, or just to steady Ottoman morale and prevent wavering, you can have Admiral Spee second some warships to assist the Ottomans, or transport our airships, fighter reconnaissance aircraft, and other air forces, as well as a portion of heavy artillery troops by sea to Istanbul to support frontline combat.
In a word, we can lend them sea and air forces and long-range support firepower for 20 days, including transit time, to help them hold the line. Before the general offensive on the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain side resumes, our artillery and fighters must be recalled. Airships and warships can continue to stay with them, as subsequent inland ground battles won’t need warships anyway.”
Duke Rupprecht finally nodded: “This approach is quite prudent, only giving technical equipment and few personnel, so the troops can still get full rest; artillery personnel don’t need to rest too long anyway.”
The Duke signed off on the plan with a flourish, and that same day approved two weeks’ leave for Lelouch（ not including transit time）, allowing him to go to the Baltic Sea War Zone to find Vice Admiral Hipper, impart and replicate his stratagem of sowing discord, and by the way give advice to Vice Admiral Hipper or relevant cooperating army generals to strengthen connections.
And a large number of the 6th Army Group’s heavy artillery troops were also detached by the Duke. Except for the heavy artillery necessary for advancing and compressing the Sevastopol encirclement on the Crimean Peninsula in the next three weeks, the rest of the heavy artillery was appropriately withdrawn and sea-transported to Istanbul, deployed to the Gallipoli battlefield front.
Brigadier General of Artillery William Keitel, previously seconded to the Western Front, and Colonel of Artillery William Leb, were also dispatched to the Gallipoli front line; even the railway gun group they had commanded was transported from the Western Front along the railway thousands of miles to Istanbul.
Sea and air forces could be mobilized immediately, though the Navy’s “Moltke” battlecruiser had entered the Mykolaiv shipyard for major repairs and was temporarily unable to sortie.
The “Goeben” had relatively light damage and didn’t need to enter drydock for repairs anyway, so it was already mostly repaired.
After discussing with Admiral Spee, the Duke had the “Goeben” carry a large group of ship repair workers, equipment, and spare parts, repairing en route. The hasty repair scene was comparable to the postwar Yorktown after the Coral Sea naval battle on future Earth.
The “Goeben,” carrying two pre-dreadnoughts “Wittelbach” and “Mecklenburg,” a few other destroyers and torpedo boats, set sail for Istanbul that very day.
The Germania Black Sea Fleet only left all its cruisers and a few destroyers to watch the Lusha Black Sea Fleet’s last 4 “Novik-class” destroyers that had retreated to Rostov, preventing them from emerging from the Strait of Kerch to cause trouble again.
……
PS: Today is another 12,000 words……
The following image is a topographic map of the Gallipoli Peninsula; the Britannia Army landed at the peninsula tip. It can be seen that the terrain at the peninsula root is extremely narrow, so even if the British Army lands and secures a foothold, they can’t break through the high walls and deep trenches defense line at the peninsula root. Historically, the British Army spent several months here, just filling in lives to no avail.
