Chapter 187: Conquerors Of Sevastopol And Kerch
“Officer Lelouch really squeezed every last bit of potential out of the Airship Force. Ever since that big air raid on the Britannia naval port on the Western Front at the end of July, after the enemy thought to use white phosphorus anti-aircraft machine gun rounds against airships,
the Empire has not built any new airships. The production lines, equipment, and resources originally planned for airships have all been repurposed to produce other things.
At that time, the Empire still had 52 usable airships. Now, after more than three months of wear and tear, carrying out several dangerous missions, only 45 are still operational. Officer Lelouch always demands ‘special treatment for special cases,’ saying they can bomb the enemy without losses, but in the end, they always lose one or two.
These are all rare items now—use them sparingly. In the future, they’ll still be needed for ocean reconnaissance over vast seas, searching for enemy main fleet movements, and aerial minelaying. The production lines have already been dismantled.”
When Albert Kesselring arrived at Sevastopol with his airship group to support von Bock’s siege, as soon as he got off the airship, he remarked to Bock something like this, hoping Bock would use them sparingly.
In the past three or four months, white phosphorus shells have already been developed, but Lelouch has continued to find ways to squeeze out the remaining value of airships in air raids. He seeks out special situations where the enemy has no anti-aircraft forces or their anti-aircraft forces can’t arrive in time, unilaterally beating up elementary school kids with white damage.
Take the Dzhankoy and Troitskoye Peninsula campaign from about a month ago—for the armored troops to break through the natural barrier to Troitskoye in one day and achieve the blitzkrieg’s rapid breakthrough, Lelouch paid the price of two bomber airships being shot down.
However, compared to achieving the campaign objectives and encircling the main force of the enemy’s 6th Army Group before they could react, these costs were worth it.
Von Bock was also sincere and frank with Kesselring: “Today’s risks are also worth it. The enemy has no fighter jets left, at most a few high-angle 3-inch anti-aircraft guns. Taking down the entire Crimean Peninsula as quickly as possible will greatly help the overall campaign. Albert, just work a bit harder.”
Kesselring then said nothing more and prepared according to plan that day: “Alright, I can complete all preparations and take off at dawn tomorrow, then conduct deep bombing before sunrise, coordinating with the ground troops’ artillery fire preparation.
This city should still have some defensive depth; the outermost 10 km positions will mainly rely on ground artillery bombardment for suppression. I’ll handle suppressing the enemy’s deep positions, not letting their follow-up reserves quickly return to the front line. How does that sound?”
Bock: “No problem, let’s coordinate like that.”
……
The next day at dawn, everything unfolded just as the two had planned.
A little after 3 a.m., von Bock organized a batch of heavy cannons to bombard the northeastern outer defense line of Sevastopol city.
The number of cannons wasn’t very large, just two or three hundred, so they extended the bombardment time to increase the total ammunition expenditure, firing for a full hour and a half.
At 5 a.m., the ground troops launched the charge. There were hardly any living people left on the Lushans’ outer positions; the sustained bombardment had already forced the survivors to retreat to the second and third line positions behind.
Only when the cannons stopped and the Germanias began charging did the Lusha soldiers try to return to their positions and organize close-range defense—actually, the Lusha garrison commander knew that this re-commitment couldn’t retake all the positions; the outermost 1 km would definitely not be recoverable and would be seized by the enemy.
But the actual situation was worse than they had anticipated, because the Lusha troops’ plan to return to the positions encountered even more firepower obstruction.
About ten airships flew over the second and third line positions, dropping 50 kg small bombs, or even the newly developed 5 kg micro-bombs meant for fighter pilots to throw manually, covering the Lushans’ counterattack positions like a goddess scattering flowers.
The airships flew at over 5,000 meters—super high altitude for 1915（, completely disregarding bombing accuracy, just roughly estimating the area.
But the sheer number of small bombs made accuracy irrelevant.
The Lusha defenders who had thought they were safe outside artillery range, waiting only for the cannons to stop before counter-charging, were suddenly ambushed and thrown into chaos on their staging positions.
With air-ground coordination, plus assault battalions using portable radios to search for breakthroughs and calling in precise artillery support when encountering enemy remnant fire points, in just one morning, von Bock cleared the northeastern outer defense positions of Sevastopol city to a depth of about 7-8 km.
Pre-war, the Germania Army had advanced to the town of Bakhchisarai, halfway between Sevastopol and Simferopol; from Bakhchisarai to Sevastopol’s port district, there was only about 30 km depth left.
Breaking through 7-8 km in one morning—this pace was incredibly swift, equivalent to shaving off a quarter of the enemy’s defense zone thickness in one go.
That afternoon, von Bock pressed the advantage, redirecting the siege troops due south to seize the mountainous high ground east of the city, the area where the Lusha Army had originally placed a Coastal Defense Gun Fortress.
This gave the siege troops commanding heights near the urban area, making it even easier to deploy artillery forward and for fire observation.
Deploying cannons from that mountain southeast of the city could cover Sevastopol urban area to the west and the small town of Yalta to the east—yes, the same Yalta where the Yalta Conference was held on Earth in later years. That place is less than 50 km from Sevastopol.
Two days later, with heavy cannons hauled up to the high ground and further air-ground coordinated advances, the garrison inside Sevastopol finally collapsed.
They could no longer withstand the top-down artillery slaughter and ultimately, the remnants of five divisions surrendered on October 20.
Von Bock received 75,000 prisoners of war, plus about 35,000 enemy troops killed or wounded cumulatively in the prior siege and encirclement phases, so the Sevastopol campaign annihilated 110,000 Lusha troops, two full-strength armies.
Throughout the campaign, the Germania Army suffered 12,000 casualties, of which about 5,000 were from the two months of continuous small-scale encirclement battles prior, and the final 7,000 were incurred during von Bock’s assault to breach the city.
However, among these 12,000, at least over 4,000 wounded could be saved through anti-infection drugs and restore labor capacity later. Even if they couldn’t serve as soldiers, they could return as workers. Some lightly wounded who didn’t need anti-infection drugs could recover on their own over time.
Throughout the city breach, just as von Bock predicted, no bomber airships were lost; the garrison inside Sevastopol couldn’t organize any threatening anti-aircraft forces.
……
After Sevastopol fell, von Bock didn’t rush to withdraw his troops but applied to Marshal Rupprecht, the Army Group Commander, to temporarily second the siege army to the Kerch direction to assist Rundstedt in breaching the city.
The Kerch Peninsula is too close to the strait, and the Lusha-occupied area across has airplanes, so airships can’t be used for the siege, but airplanes can be used in limited numbers.
When von Bock arrived, Rundstedt had already made some deployment suggestions based on local conditions.
After Bock arrived, he first gave a brief report:
“The enemy-occupied area on the Kerch Peninsula is even larger than Sevastopol’s. It’s 80 km east-west, 45 km north-south at widest, with a total area approaching 3,000 square kilometers.
This area is about five times larger than the previous Sevastopol enemy-occupied zone, but the terrain here isn’t as rugged as Sevastopol’s—mostly coastal alluvial plains, no high mountains.
The enemy can hold out here long-term mainly because the terrain is too narrow and elongated, allowing layered defense lines; after one is breached, they can retreat into depth to continue holding.
I think we shouldn’t keep grinding against the enemy. If we exploit our absolute sea control advantage, we could bypass their defense lines, land again behind them, strike from both sides, and disrupt the entire rear of the peninsula. Then, even if the enemy still holds some isolated defense line fortress zones, they could only surrender.”
If anyone could have a God’s-eye view, it wouldn’t be hard to see that Rundstedt’s insight in 1915 closely resembled Manstein’s in 1942 on Earth.
It can only be said that facing the Kerch Peninsula’s terrain, great minds think alike. The difference is that in 1915 there weren’t as many tanks for assault troops to advance quickly, but the Germanias had absolute sea control in the Black Sea, allowing them to drill freely into enemy rear voids.
In the past few days, Rundstedt had actually been preparing ferries for this plan, which was why there’d been no frontal breakthrough yet—sharpening the axe before chopping wood.
After hearing this, von Bock greatly praised the plan but added a slight supplement: “Infiltrating the enemy rear voids along the south bank of the peninsula has one big problem: our heavy cannons can’t follow up quickly.
In such narrow positions, the deeper we push, the more we’d lack artillery cover. The enemy’s rear depth artillery isn’t numerous, but it exists. We can’t let our troops fall into a disadvantage of ‘enemy has supporting fire, we have none.’
So, we need to learn from Officer Lelouch’s experience in the Dzhankoy breakthrough battle, introducing some aerial fire support to compensate for the artillery’s inability to keep up.”
Von Bock said this because he was thinking along preconceived lines; Lelouch’s “air-ground coordination” method of breaking through two narrow peninsula natural barriers a month ago had left too deep an impression on him.
And von Bock had just taken Sevastopol with airship bombing white damage. Naturally, he thought if airships couldn’t be used, switch to airplanes.
Rundstedt’s eyes lit up; he had to admit his old superior had thought it through thoroughly.
Von Bock also had several subordinate officers by his side—old classmates he had just recruited for this campaign—who joined the discussion.
One of them, Major Battalion Commander Günter Krüger, seized the chance to offer advice to his old classmate: “Fiedler, since the Kerch Peninsula is flat and so narrow, if we break through from the south, battleship bombardment would work just as well… Can we second some pre-dreadnoughts from the Navy for shore support?”
Von Bock immediately realized his thinking had been path dependent and decided on the spot: “Yes, my ideas were limited by air-ground coordination; how did I forget we have complete sea control. Battleships might not be callable on short notice, but other warships definitely can.”
Meanwhile, von Bock’s other classmate, Paul Hausser, also proposed a complementary suggestion: “Looking at the current front line, the enemy’s defense lines run north-south, with several from west to east, and our previous offensives have penetrated deeper on the southern front, forming a salient on the north side of the enemy’s line.
By common sense, most would first eliminate the enemy salient on the north contact line, straighten the front, then continue attacking. But since we plan to completely bypass from the south, even landing to open a new rear position.
Why not, before the main assault, feint an attack on the north salient to draw the enemy’s defensive focus there, while actually ignoring the north salient, securing the entire south coastline, then pushing north in a straight line to wipe out all enemies.”
After hearing this, von Bock didn’t decide unilaterally but had everyone discuss; finally Rundstedt and the others agreed, so they executed according to this plan.
Perhaps by Heaven’s Will, this plan—aside from changing ‘armored breakthrough’ to ‘naval warships providing shore bombardment support fire’—was otherwise very similar to Manstein’s Kerch Peninsula campaign approach on Earth in 1942.
（Note: The following figure is the tactical situation map for Manstein’s 1942 attack on the Kerch Peninsula, also breaking through along the south bank ignoring the north）
It can only be said that the Germania generals’ basic command qualities are solid; even without Lelouch directly intervening, as long as these generals and officers absorbed Lelouch’s military thought, they could perfect the rest of the details themselves.
……
With the plan fully prepared, the subsequent assault proceeded logically.
Admiral Spee from the Navy was very cooperative, dispatching the Vichersbach-class pre-dreadnought Mecklenburg, plus several old cruisers armed with 150 mm guns, to provide bombardment fire support for the Army.
On October 22, the Germania Army on the Kerch Peninsula feigned an attack east and north along the contact line to eliminate the naturally formed north salient on the Lusha Army’s defense line.
The Lushans were indeed drawn in, committing about one army’s main force to the north salient on the contact line, creating a void on the south line.
Then, Rundstedt suddenly turned, concentrating forces to continue east from the Germanias’ own south salient.
At the same time, small landing troops were organized, entering inland along several small rivers on the south side of the Kerch Peninsula, appearing behind the enemy front lines. With Mecklenburg’s 240 mm main gun bombardment support, they immediately established a small landing zone.
Subsequently, the Germania Army pincered the Lusha troops on the southern segment of the contact line, where the Lushans quickly collapsed.
Entering the void areas without tight enemy defenses, the Germania Army fully committed to the ‘south side breakthrough,’ advancing with continuous warship cover and push.
Though without tanks and on foot, the troops were basically in continuous marching state.
Even if there was a small river 10-20 km ahead, they could ride small boats for a stretch, using water transport instead of walking.
Though boats weren’t as fast as light tanks, they were over 10 knots per hour, more than enough for army marching advances.
In just one day, the south side of the Kerch Peninsula was breached all the way to the strait.
The next day, the now-vacant Kerch city was also occupied by the Germania Army, as the Lusha garrison was mostly on the front defense lines and couldn’t return in time.
The Lushans were already short on supplies; now they even lost their hub city, with a bunch of troops encircled in field fortified defense zones, holding empty trenches that were worthless.
Thus, the garrison on the Kerch Peninsula formally surrendered on October 25. The Lusha Army was annihilated 80,000 in total, with 60,000 captured and 20,000 casualties.
The Germania Army even took advantage of the Navy’s help to establish a bridgehead on the tip of the Taman Peninsula across the strait, where the Lushans were equally powerless to resist.
This way, the Germania Army could control both shores of the Strait of Kerch simultaneously, then minesweepers could begin clearing the Strait of Kerch, which the Lushans had sealed with mines, and enter the Sea of Azov in a few days.
