Chapter 178: Armored Division’s First Battle
Fire preparation began at 5:10, extending into the depths starting at 5:30 when the sky was just beginning to lighten, and ground troops also began their attack.
And now it was just 5:50, 40 minutes since fire preparation began, 20 minutes since the ground attack began.
Rommel had already penetrated 5 kilometers into enemy positions, breaking through one reinforced trench and three simple trenches. He was now launching an attack on the enemy’s second reinforced trench.
There were still no surviving enemy heavy cannons here; all the 76 mm Russian Army field guns deployed in those deep pits connected to the trenches had been destroyed by Germania Artillery fire preparation.
Only a very few heavy machine gun fire points had surviving soldiers. When they saw the enemy charging up, they “rat-tat-tat” manned their machine guns, spewing tongues of fire, while some stragglers pulled out Mosin-Nagants and fired bullets wildly.
But soon these machine gunners and infantry despairingly discovered that those large black shadows charging out of the dawn were actually clumps of iron lumps.
“Damn it! What is this thing? God…”
“Too terrifying, is it an armored car? It looks similar to the Rolls-Royce armored command vehicle I saw at corps headquarters that time… But how do the enemy have so many armored cars?”
The armored cars pressed forward amid the ping-ping-pang-pang of ricocheting bullets, driving right up to the side of the trench, then turning to aim their fronts, their onboard heavy machine guns raking laterally along the side of the trench, turning all the soldiers still stubbornly hiding in the trench into sieves.
Soon, the end sections of the trenches on both sides of the railway had no living things left.
However, trenches were often Z-shaped and zigzag, so the machine guns on the armored cars could only clear the last one or two segments of the trench.
For the deeper trenches, the armored cars with poor obstacle-crossing ability had no way to deal with them.
But fortunately, as long as the initial two segments of the edge trench areas were cleared, a foothold was secured, and the machine gun fire points near the trench network were suppressed.
Germania infantry could then follow up, enter the trench, and use submachine guns and grenades to clear enemy soldiers laterally along the trench.
Everyone was hiding in the trench, fighting along the ditch—that difficulty was always ten times simpler than charging from open ground against the trench network. Achieving this step already satisfied the infantry troops’ brothers.
On the current Western Front battlefield, whether Franks or Italians, or Britannians on the Gallipoli Peninsula, they more or less had some submachine guns equipped. The gap in close-combat firepower with the Germania Army was no longer as crushing as at the start of the war.
But unfortunately, the Eastern Front’s Lusha was a poor empire with too weak an industrial base, and almost all sea transport aid routes into Lusha had been cut off by Germania.
Lushans couldn’t produce submachine guns themselves, and allies’ submachine guns couldn’t be shipped in, dooming them to always use Mosin-Nagants, or at most some old shotguns, to fight trench close combat against the enemy’s assault troops.
Rommel’s directly commanded armored regiment didn’t need to carry out these trench-clearing tasks; they were left to the accompanying infantry regiment, and everything went very smoothly.
After Rommel’s armored car column helped friendly forces seize the end foothold of the trench, they could continue pushing deeper.
Soon, they would notice hundreds and thousands of Lusha routed soldiers fleeing along the railway line from Dzhankoy to Troitskoye—these were people who had previously discovered the Germania Army bombardment, avoided the railway line that wasn’t shelled, and with a fluke mentality, left the trenches trying to withdraw along the railway.
But unfortunately, Rommel didn’t get the chance to claim these kills, because just before he continued advancing, friendly aircraft from the sky snatched his victories.
……
Vasily Blyukher, acting battalion commander of a certain battalion in the Lusha 6th Army Group’s 21st Division and Second Lieutenant, was gasping for breath, fleeing north with the support of soldiers around him; they had already run several kilometers.
Behind him on the railway, thousands more were fleeing together.
Many at first didn’t believe it, thinking running along the railway with no cover was suicide. But later they saw Blyukher leading the way and it really was safe all along, so more and more people realized that Germania heavy cannons had indeed avoided the railway.
After discovering this new escape route, routed soldiers from other companies and battalions gradually followed, trying to escape the coverage of enemy heavy cannon fire and reorganize a defense line to the rear.
The Dzhankoy Peninsula, this natural strongpoint, had a full 15 kilometers of north-south depth, with Lushans digging 7 reinforced trench defense lines and 4 forward simple trenches for delaying time, totaling 11 ditches.
Even if abandoning the outermost 5 or even 10 kilometers, as long as they could escape Germania heavy cannon coverage, there was still a chance to firmly hold!
“I… I can’t go on, tell the brothers to stop too, we’ve withdrawn to the 4th reinforced trench position, at least 8 kilometers from the front line, absolutely beyond the enemy’s entire howitzer range! The enemy’s howitzers can’t reach the first-line deployments!
Quickly find the regimental commander! Have the brothers go into local defense, supplement into units with heavy combat losses!”
Blyukher, whose left leg had an old injury, had run so long he completely couldn’t hold out, the shrapnel-embedded leg even starting to seep blood again. But his suggestion wasn’t selfish; it was his genuine judgment.
Reaching here, it was still possible to be hit by enemy artillery, but only a few cannons could reach that far; howitzers, making up eighty percent of enemy artillery, couldn’t reach that distance.
If waiting to retreat to a position beyond even cannon range before stabilizing the defense, too many positions would be abandoned, leaving the remaining defense depth too thin.
At this point, choices had to be made; officers and soldiers needed the courage to hold firm under cannon fire.
Several soldiers around him, on good terms with him and trusting his judgment, supported his limping into the trench, trying to find the regimental commander to report back and rejoin the fight.
But more soldiers already accustomed to routing ignored his orders and continued fleeing blindly like headless flies.
Once routed soldiers gained momentum, stopping them wasn’t so simple.
No matter how he shouted himself hoarse trying to steady them, it was completely useless.
“You really think you’re still battalion commander? We’ll recognize you as battalion commander only if you lead everyone back alive! You still expect everyone to die with you?”
“Isn’t it because your leg’s lame and you can’t run, wanting to drag everyone to die holding here so you survive! What a vicious heart!”
Some sharp and caustic words came from the mouths of passing fleeing soldiers, drilling into Blyukher’s ears, leaving him furious but powerless.
Thousands had seen his example, imitated his running to withdraw; now that he had reached the defense line and wanted to stop and hold, only a few hundred chose to halt. The rest were completely out of control.
His regiment’s regimental commander soon noticed the situation here and tried to come suppress it. After hearing Blyukher’s report, the colonel regimental commander was so angry he directly drew his pistol, wanting to execute a few routed soldiers to establish authority and steady the line.
“Regimental commander, no! Several thousand are routing, firing will incite mutiny!” Second Lieutenant Blyukher hurriedly grabbed the regimental commander’s arm to plead.
However, before the regimental commander could respond, the strange noise soon coming from the southern sky once again disrupted the battlefield rhythm.
Over a dozen Germania air force fighter jets precisely followed the railway line’s direction, flying from south to north.
The crowd hadn’t reacted yet, thinking these planes were routinely coming for reconnaissance or to gain air superiority by shooting down possible Lusha reconnaissance aircraft.
But at that moment, the formation of Germania fighter jets had already lowered their noses and began strafing along the railway.
Thousands of withdrawing Lusha soldiers were jammed on the railway area, and under this dense ground attack, hundreds of soldiers were instantly mowed down.
The fighters passed at high speed; as they flew over the crowds, pilots even threw small hand-dropped bombs pre-hooked on cockpit-side hooks downward.
These bombs were generally only 5 kg each, like the smallest dumbbells in a gym, so they could be operated single-handed and easily thrown by manpower.
This batch of bombs was also recently custom-made by the DWM arms factory; they could be used as heavy grenades in land combat or hand-thrown from aircraft. Perfectly ergonomic, small charge with minimal terrain damage.
Each with only 1.5 kg TNT charge, the remaining seventy percent weight was grooved iron casing and steel ball iron slag.
And making the bombs so small had the greatest advantage that ordinary fighter jets could carry plenty.
Germania fighter jet engines in 1915 had improved much over a year ago, with increased takeoff weight. Each fighter cockpit side could hold 5 hooks, carrying 10 small bombs at once.
At this moment, the formations all flew along both sides of the railway over the battlefield, plucking a small bomb off a hook every one or two seconds and casually tossing it aside.
In less than 30 seconds, one pass was complete, all 10 small bombs per aircraft dropped. Then they could circle up, pull out another 10 small bombs from under the seat, and hook them on one by one.
Then come back for a reverse low-level pass, repeating all actions, dropping them all and smoothly returning.
Each aircraft’s payload could carry 20 5-kg small bombs, total bomb load of just 100 kg, about the weight of a radio operator plus radio.
As long as no radio was carried, 20 small bombs could be hung.
The entire attack took just two or three minutes; when it ended, the railway sides were littered with corpses, at least four-digit numbers strewn everywhere.
Some survivors, when the planes came for the strike, chose to hit the dirt immediately and weren’t directly hit by bombs or strafing. Now seeing the planes leave, they got up wanting to continue fleeing.
But soon, several big guys appeared in the sky.
That was 3 airships, with several side-firing heavy machine guns under their gondolas. After arriving over the battlefield, they began slowly flying along the railway, loitering, using machine guns from afar to strafe the ground from above.
The airships’ speed was only 90 km/h, far slower than the slowest postwar AC-130 gunboat, and they didn’t need any bomb firepower, just using heavy machine guns to continuously blockade the road. Because of the slow speed, no circling needed; they just slowly stayed above the target side, outputting continuous fire.
They could even occasionally rake laterally into trench sides; anyway, soldiers hiding in trenches couldn’t escape bullets shooting down from overhead.
The ground Lusha soldiers were utterly despairing; what multidimensional strike firepower, nowhere to hide. Running along the railway meant death, lying in trenches might mean death too; more and more soldiers completely collapsed, the defense line total chaos.
And just as the Lusha defenders were completely in disarray and frontline routed soldiers couldn’t stand and reorganize defense.
Rommel’s armored car regiment finally arrived late on the battlefield.
Over 70 steel-armored war vehicles rumbled along the railway, machine guns suppressing every visible fire point.
Even solid concrete bunkers just needed to drive within one or two kilometers, then top-attack with 57 mm short-barreled cannons to point-detonate and eliminate.
“Run fast! Armored cars! So many armored cars!”
“The high-end stuff only corps commanders have!”
“Our heavy machine guns can’t penetrate their armor at all!”
Many Lusha soldiers had seen armored cars before; Britannia’s Rolls-Royce armored cars had been delivered to Lusha as early as the start of the war in 1914. But numbers were few; at least corps-level officers got one as a command vehicle.
Soldiers also knew these vehicles could withstand bullets, so in today’s battle, they weren’t too shocked by the armored cars’ bulletproof attribute; they had just never seen armored cars used in combat on such a massive concentrated scale.
As heavy machine gun fire points and bunkers were precisely eliminated, batches of Lusha routed soldiers began fleeing wildly.
Soldiers no longer cared if the escape route had cover or if they could withdraw along communication trenches.
Completely jumping out of trenches to take the nearest straight-line path sprinting; anyway, airships were still strafing overhead, and lying in trenches might still get swept by overhead lateral machine gun fire.
“It’s 6:00 sharp? Our army has broken through the enemy’s 4th reinforced trench, penetrating 8 km into enemy defense depth. Send a telegram to the division commander: our army is still steadily advancing.
But please have the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment hurry up and follow, accompanying the armored cars to break through enemy follow-on defense lines! The infantry regiment soldiers are exhausted and can’t keep up! Our unit will continue advancing as planned, hoping the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment meets us at the enemy’s next trench network in 20 minutes.”
After Rommel broke through another enemy defense line, he checked his watch and so instructed the radio operator on the armored car.
Telegrams passed at the fastest speed. Some units halted to go into local defense and recover stamina. Some infiltrated forward, taking over the next wave of offensive, seamless coordination.
30 minutes later, Rommel smoothly linked up with the mechanized infantry regiment reinforcements, smoothly broke another defense line, and continued advancing. He checked the map; just another 3 km forward to reach that cross-sea railway bridge connecting Dzhankoy City and Troitskoye City.
Everything very smooth; by the clock, per the division commander’s plan, Major Student and Major Falkenhorst’s battalions should have already quietly rowed small boats across the lagoon to launch a landing on the north bank.
During the morning fire preparation, our long-range heavy cannon group had also covered the north bank as much as possible; part of the enemy’s coastal positions should have been thoroughly destroyed.
To achieve this “cross-sea” long-range fire preparation, the army group’s artillery units specially allocated 24 K16 150 mm cannons and 6 280 mm railway guns. These weapons’ ranges were sufficient to hit the north bank positions 15-20 km away.
If counting from 5:10 fire preparation start, Rommel had advanced 12 km in 1 hour 20 minutes. If from 5:30 formal ground attack start, he advanced 12 km in exactly 1 hour.
The enemy was completely stunned. Subsequent layered depth positions weren’t mentally prepared at all, suddenly seeing Germania war vehicles charging up amid rolling smoke.
……
Meanwhile, several kilometers west of the battlefield on the lagoon surface, over a hundred small boats had long been quietly approaching the north bank under the strenuous rowing of Germania soldiers.
These small boats, each carrying one infantry squad; a battalion had 4 companies 16 platoons, over 60 squads; two battalions needed just 130 small boats to transport all at once.
The two battalions’ commanders were Major Student and Major Falkenhorst. They too started rowing before dawn at 5-something, and while rowing could still see our heavy cannon group firing at the distant opposite shore enemy.
Their chosen river crossing position had Lushan defenses on the opposite shore not very dense; all reconned by pre-war aerial reconnaissance.
The long lagoon shoreline, Lushans couldn’t defend everywhere tightly; some mudflat shores had only shallow simple trenches dug.
Not that Lushans were lazy, but lagoon terrain by the sea couldn’t be dug deep anyway, or it’d seep water; could only dig just over a meter. Such trenches under heavy cannon coverage, the defenders inside naturally annihilated long ago.
Plus Lushans’ front being attacked so miserably by Rommel, the 21st Division headquarters in dispatching reserves to hold the line couldn’t attend to these minor secondary directions; the entire command system was already in total chaos.
All this enabled Student’s and Falkenhorst’s smooth landing.
“All soldiers double time forward! Don’t linger on the beachhead! Immediately enter enemy depth trenches! Hurry hurry hurry!”
On the hectic landing field, Major Falkenhorst shouted himself hoarse commanding, replicating the valuable experience from his landing operation on Hiiumaa Island in Riga Bay half a month ago onto the Crimea battlefield.
Over a thousand landing troops charged forward with submachine guns, light machine guns, and grenade launchers, seizing some positions then quickly turning east to engage Lushans farther east on the same defense line.
The Lushans fighting them had no idea Germanias would go to such lengths at this time to launch infiltration landing operations; these Lushans were completely unprepared.
Plus without radios, they couldn’t immediately inform friendly forces of the enemy surprise attack here. Could only hold locally while sending messengers on horseback to regimental headquarters for aid.
“Hold firm! Brothers hold firm! The enemy definitely wants to surprise the north side bridgehead of the Troitskoye bridge! Delay time, don’t let them succeed! Buy time for south bank friendly forces to withdraw! Buy time for division headquarters to send people to blow the bridge!”
On the shore positions, a Lusha battalion commander responsible for this defense segment still had backbone, repeatedly urging soldiers to hold to the death.
Unfortunately, ordinary soldiers had no idea how much strategic significance holding the bridgehead fort west side to prevent enemy advance to the bridgehead had.
What did strategic significance matter to ordinary soldiers? Ordinary soldiers just wanted to survive now.
As squad after squad of grenades were thrown into the trench, the rat-tat-tat of submachine guns grew closer, comrade after comrade falling dead beside them.
The remaining defenders couldn’t hold, routed step by step by Student and Falkenhorst’s surprise troops. That Lusha battalion commander still wanting to resist was also killed in the melee.
Student pressed the advantage, organizing assault teams to charge toward the north side bridgehead of the Troitskoye bridge.
Groups of MG15 light machine guns provided suppressive fire, keeping north bank bridgehead machine gunners from daring to show heads to observe, only blindly spraying, greatly reducing strike efficiency.
Grenade after grenade from grenade launchers arced in beautiful high parabolas, landing near the bridgehead positions, eliminating one after another sandbag and concrete-covered M1910 heavy machine gun positions.
Lushans had no idea the enemy would come so fast; they hadn’t planned to blow the bridge anyway, no pre-buried explosives. Now scrambling for explosives to destroy the bridge’s key load-bearing structures was too late.
Also around 6:30, Major Student and Major Falkenhorst here finally smoothly seized the north side bridgehead of the bridge.
A bunch of MG15 light machine guns were immediately moved into the bridgehead’s concrete ruins, then turned to strafe the Lushans. Several machine guns directly aimed south, firing bullets into the backs of Lushans still holding on the south bank.
Many Lusha soldiers, caught off guard, were knocked down by bullets from just 400 meters across the “sea surface” from behind. After a brief panic, no more Lusha soldiers dared show on open ground, nor run on foot across the “cross-sea bridge” as fugitives.
“Everyone hold firm! Rommel sir will definitely advance here soon. We just need to hold until sir’s armored car group charges onto the bridge; the rest is friendly forces’ job!”
“Victory! Victory! Empire victory! Lelouch sir victory!” The assault team morale soared, every soldier roaring in battle, fighting to the death without retreat.
South side bridge Lusha troops, realizing their retreat cut off, also went berserk, soon organizing large batches of suicide squads charging north along the bridge to retake the bridgehead.
This offensive had many Lusha soldiers sincerely willing to charge to the end. Because to route, to flee, they needed to cross this bridge anyway; it was their own way home, personal and national interests coinciding here, not charging for the Tsar.
But the bridge had no cover at all; under continuous crossfire blockade from dozens of MG15 light machine guns, the bridge surface soon piled with Lusha soldier corpses trying to cross, forming man-high cover blocking the bridge, later soldiers losing courage to climb over the corpse heaps to attack.
Just over half an hour later, Rommel’s armored cars finally appeared in Student’s view.
One or two kilometers from the south side bridgehead, armored cars rumbled toward the bridgehead, dense machine gun fire turning all Lushans daring to stay in open areas along the railway line into sieves.
Rommel wasn’t as reckless as Guderian; though he rode in an armored car advancing with the troops, he at least wasn’t in the lead vehicle.
Student on the opposite shore watched a long time until over twenty armored cars crossed the bridge, finally seeing one armored car stop by the road right after crossing, then open the top hatch.
Rommel emerged from the dark unlit vehicle interior, breathed fresh air, and checked his watch in the sunrise.
“Good, in just over 2 hours, pierced the full 15 km depth defense line on Dzhankoy Peninsula, seized the cross-sea bridge. Faster than the division commander originally planned.
Brief rest after crossing, then continue the attack! See if we can reach Troitskoye in one go today!”
Nearby Student and Falkenhorst, hearing this, were both shocked and admiring.
Rommel sir actually hoped to reach Troitskoye in one day?! That was advancing a full 35 km in one day! What a concept?
This wasn’t mere marching, but breaking enemy defenses with sustained offensive!
If truly advancing 35 km per day in sustained offense, it would absolutely rewrite human military history. Before mass-produced armored cars, unthinkable.
——
PS: Two 6000-word big chapters today, total 12,000 words.
Lots of details, so wrote more words.
If you think plot advances slowly, leave a message.
