Chapter 174: Greater Germania Armored Training Division
The next day, Zhankoy City at the northeasternmost tip of the Crimean Peninsula.
Last night, Lelouch at the Army Group Headquarters in Odessa had a final review of the subsequent campaign plan with Duke Rupprecht, and after attending the welcome banquet and receiving everyone’s congratulations on his promotion to Brigadier General Chief of Staff.
He didn’t even have time to stay overnight in Odessa, so he boarded the train again, jolted through the whole night, and arrived at the frontline Zhankoy City this morning.
The combat troops under his command had already been deployed here in advance and had undergone a period of adaptation training.
Several days later, if the Kievan Rus’ Campaign launches comprehensively as scheduled, they will advance north from here, traversing a narrow and treacherous passage connecting the Crimean Peninsula and the Kievan Rus’ mainland, thrusting straight into the rear of the enemy army’s southern wing defense line.
But for now, he still needed to first familiarize himself with his own troops and understand the latest organizational and equipment changes. After all, the rear arsenals were producing new half-track vehicles, trucks, and armored cars every day.
Every day the campaign was delayed, his troops might receive several new armored cars, and this number was constantly changing dynamically, even after the campaign began, the figure wouldn’t freeze.
“Sir, welcome back to the unit. The Great Germania Armored Training Division has assembled, fully equipped and manned, ready for your inspection at any time.”
At nine o’clock in the morning, when Lelouch arrived at the Division Headquarters in the center of Zhankoy City, his Deputy Division Commander Erwin Rommel Colonel had already prepared the full division’s organizational list for Lelouch to review.
If Lelouch needed, he could also go to the camp at any time to inspect all the equipment on site and see the soldiers’ morale.
Lelouch picked up the list report handed over by Rommel and skimmed through it roughly first.
The “Great Germania Division” was already a reinforced division, with a full 40,000 men, of which about 7,000 were Baria Faction veterans, and 33,000 were surrendering soldiers from the Przemysl Fortress rescued during the Lviv Campaign.
Previously, under Lelouch himself, there were at least over 7,000 Baria veterans and 42,000 rescued surrendering prisoners of war.
But after the Lviv Campaign, Dniester Estuary Campaign, Battle of Odessa, Mykolaiv Campaign… a series of campaign battles.
Half a year of continuous bloody battles had caused this unit to suffer nearly 10,000 casualties in total.
Over 1,500 Baria veterans were lost, of which more than 400 were killed in action, and over 1,100 were severely wounded and unrecovered or retired disabled.
Additionally, 8,000 rescued prisoners from the Przemysl Fortress suffered casualties, with the Lviv Campaign alone causing casualties equivalent to one-third of the total cumulative losses. To date, 2,900 were killed in action and 5,200 wounded.
Adding up both parts, in half a year, the entire division had cumulatively lost 3,500 men in battle. But those who survived were all elites tempered by blood and fire.
And the name “Great Germania Division” was also named based on the personnel composition characteristics of this unit.
Because this division symbolizes the unifying strength of the entire Germania nation, regardless of borders. It symbolizes the unity and mutual aid between Germania and Austria.
This division had very ample combat personnel, but the allocation of new weapons completely couldn’t keep up.
To date, Skoda and Porsche Company had only produced fewer than 400 armored fighting vehicles.
Duke Rupprecht originally thought Lelouch was the one who understood armored tactics the most, and wanted to allocate most of the vehicles to him, also to win him over.
But Lelouch was not a selfish person who grabbed power, he considered the effectiveness of armored forces and ultimately politely declined this arrangement—
If what he had today was the “Mark I” tank that Britannia people were developing, which could charge head-on through trench warfare fortified zones, then it might be suitable for leading the charge in the front line to absorb damage.
But what Lelouch built was high-mobility light-armored fighting vehicles, to exert the advantage of mobile warfare, at least two “iron pincers” needed for the “pincer breakthrough” had to be assembled.
Therefore, ultimately Lelouch suggested to the Duke to divide the existing armored forces into two parts, with Lelouch’s “Great Germania” Armored Training Division taking only half of the total armored forces.
From the remaining half, take out forty percent to form another armored division, and the last ten percent as reserve, or as armored cars attached to the command system.
……
“The Great Germania Division has been allocated a total of 180 Panzer I in the entire division, distributed to two armored regiments, each armored regiment equipped with 80 armored cars.
The remaining 20 armored cars are allocated to the regimental headquarters of the division’s 7 regiments, 2 per regiment, and the Division Headquarters keeps 6. These armored cars are all specially made command-type armored cars, which carry 1 fewer combat personnel compared to ordinary armored cars, but are equipped with vehicle-mounted radio stations.
The entire division also has 400 half-track transport/tractor vehicles, 800 trucks, 4,200 draft horses and 300 heavy-duty horse carts（6-horse traction）, 1,200 ordinary horse carts（2-horse traction）.”
“The entire division is organized into 2 armored regiments, 2 mechanized infantry regiments, 2 motorized infantry regiments, 1 motorized artillery regiment, and 2 reserve reinforced infantry regiments.
Each armored regiment has 3,000 men, each mechanized infantry regiment and motorized infantry regiment has 4,000 men, each ordinary infantry reinforced regiment has 8,000 men, artillery regiment 2,600 men, totaling 40,600 men.
Each armored regiment is equipped with 80 armored cars, 80 half-track vehicles, 80 trucks, ensuring sufficient transport for the entire regiment’s personnel, weapons, and necessary accompanying supplies, advancing at over 25 km/h on roads or over 12 km/h off-road.
Each mechanized infantry regiment is equipped with 80 half-track vehicles, 160 trucks, similarly ensuring transport capacity for the entire regiment’s rapid mobility, but without armored assault capability.
Each motorized infantry regiment is equipped with 160 trucks, 30 heavy-duty horse carts, 200 ordinary horse carts. And 1 regimental 105mm artillery company with 4 guns, 2 77mm artillery companies with 18 guns.
Each ordinary infantry regiment is equipped with 30 heavy-duty horse carts, 400 ordinary horse carts. Regimental artillery consists of 4 105mm cannons and 24 80mm mortars.
The artillery regiment is attached with 80 half-track vehicles, 180 heavy-duty horse carts. It has 12 150mm cannons, 12 150mm howitzers. 48 105mm howitzers.”
Lelouch roughly sorted through the direct forces under his command and clarified the scale of combat tasks he could undertake subsequently.
His division had too many personnel, so it actually had 2 overstrength reinforced infantry regiments that couldn’t keep up with the rapid advance of the mobile forces, and could only follow behind to fill the line and strengthen the flanks of new defense lines created after the vanguard’s breakthrough.
The actual forces that could be committed to mobile warfare were about 24,000 men.
And the entire 6th Army Group also concentrated the remaining batch of other armored vehicles and half-track vehicles to prepare and construct another armored division, temporarily named “2nd Armored Division – Empire Division”, with Division Commander also served by Fedor von Bock who had just been promoted to Brigadier General.
This division was fully manned at 21,000 men, slightly smaller in scale than Lelouch’s division. The allocation of armored cars and half-track vehicles was only seventy to eighty percent of Lelouch’s side. Trucks, horse carts, and artillery could be treated equally.
Ultimately, this “Empire Division” actually had 2 armored regiments totaling 130 armored cars, 1 mechanized infantry regiment, 2 motorized infantry regiments, 1 motorized artillery regiment, total 6 regiments combined into 1 division.
Bock, after previous promotion to Colonel, had also made multiple merits, including the decisive breakthrough at Gorlice and envelopment at Tarnuv during the Hungarian Campaign. And later pursuit battles in the Romania border campaign.
Von Bock was originally only half a step away from further promotion to Brigadier General. During the over half a month when Lelouch was transferred to the Northern Front, von Bock’s troops conducted some siege and capture operations on the Crimean Peninsula, squeezing the Lusha Army on the peninsula into the last two cities, namely Sevastopol and Kerch.
In other words, as the wheels of history turned into late September, the Lusha Army on the Crimean Peninsula only had two isolated cities left, with 2 corps and 1 corps respectively besieged in the cities. But because the area was originally an important military base with ample supply reserves, the besieged troops had no shortage of weapons, ammunition, and military rations, so they hadn’t surrendered.
Originally, von Bock’s uncle, Chief of Staff Falkenhayn, planned to nominate him for promotion to Brigadier General after his nephew captured Sevastopol.
But because Lelouch was specially permitted by the Emperor to be promoted to Brigadier General, setting a precedent, the pressure on Falkenhayn’s side to operate was much reduced, and ultimately he privately gave the green light, turning a blind eye and finally got his nephew promoted.
So up to before this campaign began, the current personnel appointment situation of the direct lineage officer corps that Lelouch had poached and reasonably transferred was as follows:
Lelouch von Ritter Hunt, Army Brigadier General, serving as 6th Army Group Chief of Staff, Division Commander of the “Great Germania” Armored Training Division under Baria 7th Corps.（The 7th Corps was reorganized from the original “Independent Corps”, mainly composed of 90,000 surrendering Austrian Army from the Przemysl Fortress rescued in the Lviv Campaign, and later joined by 20,000 Hungarian prisoners of war rescued successively）
Fedor von Bock, Army Brigadier General, serving as 6th Army Group Staff Officer, Division Commander of the “Empire” Armored Division under Baria 2nd Corps.
Wilhelm Keitel, Brigadier General of Artillery, serving as 6th Army Group Artillery Deputy Director, and Heavy Artillery Brigade Commander of the Army Group direct affiliation.
Wilhelm Leb, Colonel of Artillery, serving as Motorized Artillery Regiment Regimental Commander of the “Great Germania” Armored Division.
Albert Kesselring, Air Force Colonel, serving as Deputy Squadron Leader of the 6th Army Group attached aviation squadron, airship detachment leader.
Erwin Rommel, Army Colonel, serving as Deputy Division Commander of the “Great Germania” Armored Division, Regimental Commander of the Division’s 1st Armored Regiment.
Gerd von Rundstedt, Army Colonel, serving as Deputy Division Commander of the “Empire” Armored Division, Regimental Commander of the Division’s 1st Armored Regiment.
William Lister, Army Lieutenant Colonel, serving as Motorized Infantry Regiment Regimental Commander of the “Great Germania” Armored Division.
Walter Model, Army Lieutenant Colonel, currently still on the Italian-Austrian battlefield, Isonzo River front line, serving as Regimental Commander of Germania’s aid to Austria 1st Mountain Infantry Regiment, and actually concurrently commanding Austrian 18th Alps Mountain Infantry Division.
He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel by crazily farming Italian kills, and faintly showed a trend of further advancement. After Lelouch learned about his recent situation, he assessed that even without any new decisive major merits subsequently, just relying on such attritional warfare to consume and kill enemies, Model should be able to normally farm his way to Colonel by the end of this year.
Additionally, there was also Edward Dieter Lieutenant Colonel, who similarly had master-level talent in mountain warfare, now also serving as regimental commander on the Italian-Austrian battlefield and concurrently managing an Austrian mountain division.
But Lieutenant Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels also have differences in “realm”, Dieter had just been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel not long ago, and probably wouldn’t advance further within half a year, could only wait slowly for opportunities to earn major merits.
Besides these direct subordinates around Lelouch, some of his superiors and colleagues had also undergone quite a few personnel changes recently.
Lelouch’s immediate superior, the 7th Corps Corps Commander was changed to Major General Lister, who was the old regimental commander when Lelouch had just transmigrated. Serving as Corps Commander at Major General rank was obviously overstrength, but he clearly also benefited from long-term service as Lelouch’s superior, incidentally gaining merits. If there was another major victory this time, he should be able to impact Lieutenant General.
And Karl Ludport Lieutenant General, who had served as “Independent Corps” Corps Commander during the previous Battle of Odessa, was also Duke Rupprecht’s second brother, and had just been transferred away to serve in other positions domestically.
Karl Lieutenant General was transferred to the National Railway Company, serving as deputy in the top leadership of the National Railway, and became the person in charge of new railway planning and construction at the National Railway Company, also responsible for wartime simplified locomotive and car tendering and production procurement.
Fritz Tot Major, who had previously been valued by Lelouch and belonged to the Army Group direct Engineer Corps, also received Lelouch’s recommendation, was taken away by Karl Lieutenant General, to exert his expertise in railway planning and wartime train production departments.
In Germania, the National Railway Company was a colossal entity, responsible for the national railway network construction and operation management, and in wartime even more bore the heavy responsibility of large-scale military logistics transport. So its top leader was at least equivalent to a minister of a national ministry, and for someone from the army to be transferred flat to serve as top leader, at least General level, and a senior General.
Even the deputy position at the National Railway was equivalent to vice minister, and for a Lieutenant General to be transferred flat to serve was absolutely not a loss.
Finally, with Lelouch and von Bock et al. promoted to Brigadier General and serving as Division Commanders of ace units, they also gained more say in personnel dispatch. They could pull in some talents that were handy or even connections to serve as mid-level officers in their own troops.
Lelouch had taken a liking to ace pilot Major Kurt Student of the aviation troops during the Lviv Campaign and Romania Campaign—
When Lelouch first met Student during the Lviv Campaign, he was still just a Lieutenant. Completely relying on continuously piloting fighter jets to shoot down enemy aircraft, and later leading a flight squadron to repeatedly earn merits, promoted to Major by hard strength.
This time, Lelouch took advantage of forming new troops, asked the Duke for instructions, and borrowed from Oswald Boelcke Colonel, the commander of the aviation team attached to the 6th Army Group, to get Student over, to serve as Battalion Commander of a direct battalion in his division.
This special battalion was responsible for various pontoon bridge or airdrop and other special deployment tasks, with a rather miscellaneous scope of operations, but Lelouch believed this was the position where Student could best exert his strengths. This future paratrooper big shot would surely find a work style more suited to himself in the new position.
And von Bock’s “Empire Division” side also, like Lelouch, poached a bunch of connections.
Among them, mainly two people, one named Paul Hausser, the other Günther von Kluge. And the main reason von Bock transferred them was that they were all similar in age and had been classmates at the Potsdam Military Academy.
Paul Hausser and Günther Kluge were not Barians, but traditional Prussia officers, Kluge even born in Poznan region belonging to Poland in later generations. But Paul Hausser had previously served in the 6th Army Group, while Kluge served in Saxony 21st Corps.
Von Bock didn’t spend much effort transferring Paul Hausser, all within the 6th Army Group, just apply to Marshal Rupprecht.
Günther Kluge was a bit more troublesome, poached from the central route army, that is, under Marshal Hindenburg of the Polish Theater, for which von Bock even asked his Chief of Staff uncle for help. Finally, Chief of Staff Falkenhayn made a call, and Kluge was transferred over.
When World War just started, the starting gap between these three classmates wasn’t big. Bock and Hausser were both Majors at the time, Kluge was a bit behind, but also a Captain.
But after 15 months of war, Bock this Major had risen to Brigadier General, Hausser had just been promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel. Kluge was even just Major.
No wonder it’s said that following the right boss is important, being placed in key positions to earn key merits, promotion speed rockets upward. Not following the right boss means treading water in place.
When the three old classmates met again, von Bock was already Division Commander of an elite division, Hausser could only barely serve as Deputy Regimental Commander of some regiment under him, and Battalion Commander of a main force battalion. And Kluge could only be an ordinary Battalion Commander.
……
Lelouch spent a full day sorting through the troops’ latest organizational situation, personnel situation, equipment situation, training and break-in situation.
During this time, he didn’t just rely on reading reports, but also had deep talks with Rommel for a long time, clarifying various details.
After doing all this, it was almost dark, but Lelouch didn’t want to waste time, so he had Rommel take him to the training ground near the garrison to actually watch the soldiers’ operation of the new equipment armored cars.
Rommel made an internal call for slight preparation, then the Division Headquarters driver drove the Division Commander to observe.
Soon arriving at the place, Lelouch saw rows of brand-new painted armored cars parked on the training ground, very neatly, still grouped in rows of 14 vehicles each.
While leading the Division Commander to observe, Rommel casually introduced: “Currently, each armored regiment’s 80 armored cars, plus 4 command vehicles, total 84 vehicles, divided into two battalions, each battalion equipped with 42 armored cars. Each battalion further divided into 3 armored car companies, each company 14 vehicles.
Each vehicle has 3 crew members, including driver, vehicle commander, and firepower operator. The vehicle commander also operates one machine gun, the firepower operator also operates one machine gun, and is responsible for transporting and connecting ammunition belts.
Additionally, the rear half of the vehicle body can carry 6 infantry, this carrying capacity is much weaker than half-track vehicles.
Half-track vehicles can carry an entire original assault battalion infantry squad, including 8-man assault group and 6-man firepower support group. Armored cars can’t carry the firepower support group, each squad only 9 men, squad leader and vehicle commander, machine gunner also stays on the vehicle, only 6 assault group members can dismount to fight.
But the advantages of armored cars are also obvious, the vehicle body is set with frontal 20mm, sides and rear all 10mm steel plate armor, compared to half-track vehicles, although carrying 6 fewer people, but protection is greatly enhanced.”
The current half-track vehicles are all non-bulletproof, all power used on load capacity and terrain traversability. This is also era limitation, could only achieve this. In a few more years, with better power-to-weight ratio engines, can build new half-track vehicles that balance protection and carrying capacity.
While Rommel was introducing, the armored battalion soldiers also demonstrated by driving a few laps.
Lelouch simply assessed that these soldiers’ driving skills were acceptable, probably converted from traditional truck drivers. Wheeled armored cars can steer with front wheels, operation similar to trucks, easy to master.
If it were future tank driving, tank tracks can’t partially steer, then like driving an excavator, using joysticks to make left and right tracks differential speed or even reverse to turn, requiring extra training and break-in, can’t rush it.
Regarding weapons, although this batch of armored cars are all called “Type I Armored Cars”, there are actually subtle distinctions. Each company’s 14 vehicles have 2 equipped with a 57mm 16-caliber short barrel gun same as “Panzer II”, also the type just researched by Krupp.
The remaining 12 are standard with 2 heavy machine guns per vehicle.
Armored cars with guns have 1 heavy machine gun reduced compared to machine gun cars, and the firepower operator converted to gunner, additionally need 1 loader.
Finally, because the gun-equipped cars have more complex structure, easier to malfunction, need to specially assign one versatile mechanic soldier, both responsible for normally operating the vehicle-mounted radio station, and learning to repair the vehicle when necessary. Thus the whole vehicle can carry 5 crew members total, no longer carrying infantry.
At the cost of reducing 4 personnel, to exchange for the gun’s weight and operating space of that 57mm cannon. And that gun isn’t mounted in the front of the vehicle body, but on the roof, extending the barrel obliquely forward upward, similar to later generation open-top self-propelled guns.
Those who can’t imagine its appearance can roughly think of the later “Hummel” self-propelled gun modified from Panzer II chassis, just without turret, but an open-top indirect fire cannon on the vehicle body.
——
PS: This morning on the train, just got back to Hangzhou, Hangzhou East Station too crowded, back to two updates tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning’s first update enters normal war plot.
Pre-war inventory items are quite a lot, so today’s 6,000 words a bit like running account, sorry, please forgive, thank everyone for patience.
