Chapter 176: A Mere Natural Stronghold Is Meant To Be Breached By Armored Troops!
When introducing his division and the specific operational tasks it was responsible for,
Lelouch suddenly raised his voice slightly, urging his subordinates to concentrate and asking a staff officer to hang a large map on the wall.
This map was specially enlarged, extending from the Dnieper River Estuary in the west to Kerch at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula. To the south, it began at the Crimean Peninsula, and to the north, it reached as far as Zaporizhzhia and Yekaterinoslav (present-day Dnepropetrovsk) at the great bend of the Dnieper River.
Then, Lelouch first pointed to the area on the map from the Dnieper River Estuary to the Perekop Isthmus at the root of the Crimean Peninsula with his pointer, drawing several circles repeatedly.
“The main defensive forces of the enemy’s 6th Army Group are currently spread evenly along the front line of confrontation.
They have stationed one army for targeted defense north of the Dnieper River Estuary, in response to our offensive troops in the Mykolaiv direction;
Then, south of the Dnieper River Estuary down to the Perekop Isthmus, which is in response to our Kherson and Yevpatoria lines, they have deployed approximately three armies.
Further east, between Dzhankoy and Troitske, the enemy appears to have deployed only one division’s worth of forces, at most a reinforced division;
The remaining army is deployed by the enemy in the rear in areas such as Zaporizhzhia, Nikopol, and Melitopol. Additionally, there are some newly conscripted independent units and Cossack Cavalry Units as reserves.”
“The plan formulated by the Army Group for this campaign is for our division to act as the spearhead and surprise force, attacking from between Dzhankoy and Troitske, where the enemy would never expect it—as I said earlier, there is only one enemy division defending Troitske, with fewer personnel than us, and we have an absolute advantage in equipment quality, so a breakthrough is inevitable!
Once we break through here, we can follow the railway line from Dzhankoy through Troitske and advance 80 kilometers northeast to the railway hub of Melitopol,
Then, from Melitopol, we will advance another 120 kilometers directly north to reach the headquarters of the enemy’s 6th Army Group, Zaporizhzhia, the primary city on the River Downstream.
Once we reach Zaporizhzhia, if the enemy on the South Bank of the Dnieper River has not had time to retreat, then the army in areas like Zaporizhzhia, Nikopol, and Melitopol will surely have been annihilated by us.
As for the two and a half armies facing our Kherson-Yevpatoria line, their remaining remnants will also be encircled by our forces in the region between the great bend of the Dnieper River and the Black Sea. Perhaps some of the enemy can choose to escape by crossing the Dnieper River to the north.
But I believe our friendly forces advancing north of the Dnieper River will also do their best to intercept them. Ultimately, we hope to form a massive encirclement in a triangular area, approximately 180 kilometers wide from north to south and 150 kilometers at its furthest east-west extent, to annihilate the main force of the enemy’s 6th Army Group within it!
Ideally, we will only allow at most one army of the enemy to escape, as their defensive zone might have initially been north of the Dnieper River or outside this triangular area. All other enemies within this triangular area will be eliminated!
Then, our army can advance upstream along the Dnieper River and further attack Yekaterinoslav. Once that is taken, the first phase of the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain campaign will be considered complete. We hope to complete this phase within a month, or at least before the muddy season arrives in autumn.
Once this phase is completed, we will then consider how to annihilate the remaining two army groups of the enemy Southwestern Front and aim for Kyiv as the final objective of the campaign, striving for an encirclement battle in Kyiv.
I have already assisted Marshal Rupprecht in roughly formulating the plan for this Second Phase campaign, but it cannot be detailed yet. We will need to make specific adjustments based on the extent and realization of the first phase campaign objectives.
However, the general idea is that once the muddy season arrives, our army will utilize ‘tanks’, which will be operational by then, to further expand our gains and create unexpected suddenness for the enemy. I will not elaborate on the specifics for now.
In short, everyone must have confidence and not be intimidated by the enemy’s temporary numerical superiority. Our army’s preparations are very thorough, our soldiers are high-spirited, and our equipment is excellent.
With the newly captured sea control, our supplies are smoother than ever. We have already stockpiled a large amount of operational supplies on the Crimean Peninsula before the start of hostilities. In the future, we can also utilize the Shipping Conditions of the Dnieper River. Until we capture Zaporizhzhia, we can rely on Water Transport and Railway for our Logistics Transport, so there is no need to worry about a lack of supplies when deep in enemy territory.
Only after reaching Yekaterinoslav, in the second phase of the future campaign, will we need to worry about the issue of not being able to utilize water transport for logistics. Logistics might be slightly more difficult then, and we will primarily have to operate along the Railway. But I believe it will not be a major problem, and the second phase will not last too long.”
Lelouch first summarized the overall plan and outline for his division’s operations in a single breath.
（ Note: The map corresponding to the plan just described is shown below. Readers unable to see the illustration can refer to the “Chapter Comments” section of this paragraph. ）
There will certainly be many details that are difficult to understand immediately, but that’s alright, as Lelouch has allocated time for questions.
Indeed, soon Brigadier General Keitel, who was responsible for providing heavy artillery support to the Greater Germania Armored Division, and several regimental commanders who had recently arrived in Dzhankoy and were not yet familiar with the surrounding geography, raised their questions:
“We understand the enemy and our deployments in other directions. But if our division can attack Troitske from Dzhankoy and achieve a major breakthrough, subsequently threatening Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia, then why does the enemy only deploy a mere one division in Troitske?
Do they not know our combat effectiveness? Or have they underestimated the scale of our forces deployed in the Dzhankoy direction? Or is it simply poor intelligence work, and they have been deceived by some of our deception plans?”
This was a natural question: if there was a loophole, why didn’t the enemy plug it? It couldn’t be because they were stupid.
Lelouch did not mind their straightforwardness and nodded: “An excellent question, but I believe those who asked it are mainly those who have recently arrived here and have not had time to understand the geography. You will understand once I explain.
As previously stated, the enemy has deployed a full 7-8 divisions between Kherson and Yevpatoria, while only deploying one division at Troitske. This is because the offensive geographical difficulty between these two routes differs greatly.
The main passage connecting the Crimean Peninsula and the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain is the Perekop Isthmus, located at Yevpatoria.
Therefore, even if our army captures important ports and railways on the Crimean Peninsula, and stockpiles large amounts of troops, weapons, and supplies here, and the enemy has anticipated that we might launch an offensive from the peninsula back onto the mainland, they will still judge that we will attack northeast from Yevpatoria through the Perekop Isthmus. Thus, they will commit large forces to that front line.
However, between Dzhankoy and Troitske, there was actually no land connection—the Perekop Isthmus does not extend to Dzhankoy. Between Dzhankoy and Troitske on the opposite bank, there is actually the sea, or more precisely, a ‘lagoon’.
In 1905, the Tsar, to strengthen railway links with the Crimean Peninsula, built a railway bridge across a 400-meter stretch of water at the narrowest point of the lagoon between Dzhankoy and Troitske.
After all, the engineering difficulty of this span was not high, and it was built on relatively shallow, still water. This then created the railway line from Zaporizhzhia, through Melitopol, then through Troitske to Dzhankoy, and finally to Sevastopol.
However, even with this railway bridge, it would normally be very difficult to attack Troitske from Dzhankoy because south of the bridge, there is a 15-kilometer long and narrow peninsula. The slightly wider areas on both sides of the peninsula are actually full of lagoon mudflats, and only a very narrow section along the railway can be used for an attack.
North of the main bridge, there is another 20-kilometer long and narrow strip, where movement is only possible along the railway. More than one kilometer to the left or right of the railway, it is all lagoons and swamps, formed by the erosion of seawater in the low-lying isthmus.
Moreover, the water level in the surrounding lagoons is neither too shallow nor too deep. Even if the Navy’s warships bypass the Kerch Peninsula and enter the Sea of Azov, they cannot enter here from the Sea of Azov.
However, if they do not use boats and rely solely on personnel wading across or carts and cars driving through the water, it is also impossible. The water depth here ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 meters. So, this is the most infuriating water depth: shallow enough to prevent vehicles, but too deep for large ships.
The Lushans believe that there are as many as 35 kilometers of natural defenses here, so they think stationing one division here to lure us is sufficient, believing we can never break through the layered defenses.
Furthermore, even if our army breaks through the 15-kilometer deep defense line on the peninsula south of the bridge, so what? The enemy can still blow up the ‘400-meter cross-sea’ bridge connecting the north and south peninsulas. Then, our efforts will be in vain, and everything will be for naught.
But precisely because the risk is so huge, the reward is also very significant. The enemy’s eight divisions are piled up between Kherson and Yevpatoria. And this crossing point between Dzhankoy and Troitske is located 70 kilometers east of Yevpatoria.
Therefore, once we break through this point, we will directly appear 70 kilometers behind the enemy’s frontline main defensive forces, using the enemy’s emptiness to advance furiously northward. Capturing Melitopol will surely not be a problem. Whether we can capture Zaporizhzhia is another matter.
But by breaking through this point, encircling 3-4 enemy armies like dumplings will be easy. Therefore, I suggested to the Commander that we try this route.
We can concentrate our heavy artillery units, supported by a surprise force that secretly crosses the lagoon by small boat to capture the bridge, combined with the unprecedented rapid breakthrough of enemy layered defenses by our armored units, and then they will see that the so-called 35-kilometer deep defense line is nothing more than that!”
Without the breakthrough power provided by armored units, Lelouch would not have dared to use this plan.
Without confidence in using small boats to bypass the Perekop Isthmus and find another location for a flanking landing to capture the bridge, Lelouch would also not have dared to use this plan.
But he happened to have both conditions—especially the latter, the plan to use small boats to cross the marshy lagoon area east of the Perekop Isthmus to launch a surprise attack to capture the bridge. He even had to thank a war that was being fought in a later era before his transmigration.
Those Kievan Rus’ special forces, during the Kherson counteroffensive campaign, provided him with “practical experience on how to use small boats to stealthily cross the isthmus marshland and launch a surprise attack on the Dzhankoy area of the Crimean Peninsula.”
Of course, this time Lelouch needs to take the opposite route. In that era’s Kherson counteroffensive, the attack was from the north bank across to the south bank via small boats for a surprise attack. Lelouch this time is going from the south bank to the north bank.
For this special mission, Lelouch briefed Major Student, who was in charge of special deployment tasks, and Captain Falkenhorst, who had just been seconded from Marshal Mackensen in the north—
Captain Falkenhorst had, half a month prior, successfully executed the Hiiumaa and Saaremaa landing operations in the Gulf of Riga, marking the first successful landing operation for the Germania Army and capturing two large islands.
Although those individuals were not subordinate to the 6th Army Group, nor were they part of Marshal Rupprecht’s forces, Lelouch had wide connections. He had assisted Marshal Mackensen in the previous Riga Bay campaign, and now it was only reasonable for Marshal Mackensen to reciprocate by temporarily seconding a team of experienced personnel from successful landing operations for mentorship.
Marshal Mackensen would not be unwilling to part with a few major or captain-level company commanders.
At this very moment, hearing that their division commander had prepared so thoroughly, the confidence of the subordinate officers greatly increased, and they no longer harbored any fear of overcoming the natural defenses.
From the surprise tactics of flanking landings to capture the bridge, to the specially prepared fleet of small boats,
To how the Army Group’s direct heavy artillery brigade would assist their forces in blasting open the enemy’s initial 15-kilometer defense line on the peninsula south of the bridge,
To how the armored car units would quickly break through the successive ruined defenses, push across the bridge, and cross the mere 400-meter “sea” to establish a bridgehead on the peninsula north of the bridge…
Lelouch had meticulously planned all of these. His subordinates only needed to strictly execute the plan and adapt to unforeseen circumstances, responding to enemy counterattacks and suppressing them as best as possible.
There is never a 100% certain victory in war. As long as the potential rewards are great and the risks are controllable, it is worth taking a gamble.
“Does anyone else have any questions?” Lelouch had elaborated on his plan and considerations, finally urging everyone to ask all their questions clearly now, because if they didn’t ask now, they would have to execute it obediently and could not question it later.
“No questions! We will resolutely execute the Division Commander’s plan! We will definitely break through the enemy’s coastal defenses and appear in their deep rear!”
——
PS: The following is a detailed map of the terrain between Dzhankoy and Troitske, explaining why this location is a natural stronghold. Those who cannot see the illustration can open the “Chapter Comments” section of this paragraph, where I will repost the image.
