Chapter 194: Reach Kharkiv Within 48 Hours
“Keep moving! Don’t stop! Ignore the enemy’s infantry units!
After crossing the river, spread out your formation, maintain a search column, and if you spot enemy artillery positions, call for friendly forces to flank and destroy them!
Don’t stop for other objectives. Leave those enemy infantry units for the friendly forces following up to deal with.”
Under Lelouch’s concise orders, the tank regiment that broke through the Orel River railway bridge continued to advance triumphantly, pushing into enemy territory.
The main force of the Russian infantry division defending the town of Pereschepyne posed no threat to Lelouch. A mere seven to eight thousand infantry were broken in half by Lelouch’s breakthrough from the center, barely causing a ripple.
Lelouch didn’t even have time to detach forces to encircle them, leaving his flanks exposed to the remaining enemy as he pressed deeper into enemy territory.
Within half an hour, the troops had advanced several more kilometers, breaking through the entire town and entering open fields again.
Both sides of the road were covered in cornfields after the autumn harvest. The corn cobs had been gathered, leaving only felled stalks scattered across the fields, unattended.
Throughout the entire process, Lelouch’s troops engaged in several small, high-frequency, brief skirmishes, most of which incurred no losses.
The only significant loss occurred during the frontal assault on the enemy artillery battalion of the defending Russian division.
In an effort to speed things up, three tank companies attacked the enemy artillery battalion from different directions. The tank company attacking from the front faced fierce, direct fire from the Lusha’s 24 76mm cannons.
Four tanks were directly hit by shells, and the remaining twelve tanks in the company quickly scattered to find cover. Fortunately, the two tank companies flanking from the left and right successfully infiltrated into position, annihilating all 24 enemy cannons from the flanks.
Field guns of this era used high-explosive shells; there were no armor-piercing shells.
Because there had been no armored targets to deal with previously, medium and small caliber land cannons had no concept of armor-piercing shells; only the navy used them.
However, even with high-explosive shells, a direct hit from a 76mm high-explosive shell on 20mm thick frontal armor was enough to shatter the steel plate, creating a large hole. Countless fragments would spall off the inner layer of the steel plate, causing severe casualties to the tank’s crew.
Of the four tanks hit, two were completely destroyed, while two others had their crews killed by the explosions. Many internal components were also damaged or destroyed by the blast, leaving only the chassis and engine intact.
It was unexpected that after breaking through the Orel River with zero casualties, they would suffer some losses in the final mop-up phase. After understanding the situation, Lelouch immediately instructed the officers at all levels, who lacked tank combat experience:
“Henceforth, when each tank company advances, adjust your reconnaissance formation! Also, when you find field artillery positions, do not attack them head-on immediately. Wait for friendly forces to flank from the sides and rear!”
“Additionally, calculate how far it is to the next town or river defense line, and call for aerial reconnaissance support via radio in advance. Once you locate the general position of enemy artillery, report it using the coordinate grid codes on the map. If there’s an opportunity, have reconnaissance fighter jets suppress them with small bombs and machine-gun fire.”
Having lost four tanks, Lelouch immediately learned from the experience and had all the officers in the division take it as a lesson, self-examining and optimizing their tactics, then continuing their advance.
The two tank regiments quickly passed through this area and continued to advance. The following mechanized infantry regiments, motor rifle regiments, and regular infantry regiments followed in succession.
After advancing for about another 20 minutes, Lelouch, in the cockpit of his command tank, heard the radio operator relay a message to him:
“Division Commander! The division defending Pereschepyne, after being broken apart by us, has, under sustained pressure from our follow-up forces, sent a messenger to contact us and expressed willingness to surrender, but with one condition: they wish for us to report that they all died in battle.”
Lelouch was stunned: “There’s such a thing?”
He immediately agreed and had the radio operator send a reply, then asked for more details, hoping his subordinate receiving the surrender would clarify.
After another half hour, Lelouch continued to fight and advance, reaching nearly 20 kilometers north of Pereschepyne town, nearing the next county town.
The regimental commander of the infantry regiment responsible for receiving the surrender in the rear, who had finally figured out the situation, sent a reply to Lelouch, which Lelouch’s radio operator quickly translated.
“Reporting, Division Commander! Lieutenant Colonel Lister reports: The Russian division commander was compelled by strict military orders. The army group demanded that he hold the town at all costs, at least to ensure the Orel River railway bridge was not captured by our forces, otherwise he would face severe military punishment.
He failed in his duty to destroy the railway bridge in a timely manner, and he knew he would be shot even if he retreated. Therefore, he defected at the last moment, but he does not wish to implicate his family. He only asks that we announce externally that he and his subordinates were annihilated in battle.”
Upon hearing this news, Lelouch couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
His psychological warfare tactics prior to the start of the campaign had been too successful.
In the ten days prior to the intense fighting, the Tsar had summarily executed General Alexei Evert, the former commander of the Southwestern Front who had been reassigned as commander of the 6th Army Group.
This atrocity, combined with his previous wrongful accusations against some naval officers and his arbitrary killings, finally ignited the fear of those hastily deployed troops to the front lines.
Due to the rapid nature of their defeat, these soldiers feared further severe military punishments, leading to such a cascading effect.
Although it was only the division commander, his staff, and some surrounding troops who surrendered, rather than the entire division surrendering in a planned manner, it was enough to alleviate pressure from the rear.
At least four thousand people voluntarily laid down their arms and entered the prisoner-of-war camp. The remaining enemy elements, separated from the division headquarters, would not last long.
Upon receiving this good news, Lelouch immediately announced a brief rest for the troops and took the opportunity to convey this joyous news to the entire army.
Every soldier in the entire tank regiment and the closely following mechanized infantry regiment knew of this unexpected joy, and everyone’s morale soared, feeling exceptionally invigorated.
“Brothers! Follow Division Commander Lelouch into Kharkiv! The enemy is already demoralized and disunited by the tyrant. We have tanks and can definitely break through the enemy!”
After a brief rest, the armored division immediately launched an attack on the newly appearing county town target, Karlovka. Of course, Lelouch would not use armored units for direct urban warfare; he merely had the troops bypass the town.
Karlovka is a county town along the railway, but there are no east-west rivers nearby to impede the army, so there were no railway bridges or similar objectives to capture. Lelouch only needed to break through the field defense line west of the town.
The situation of the local garrison was even worse than that in Pereschepyne town. Clearly, the high command of the Lusha 13th Army Group had not expected the Germans to break through the defenses of the two outer county/town depths so quickly and appear in Karlovka with such speed.
Before Lelouch announced the start of the attack, he specifically checked his watch. It was only 9:30 AM, just four hours after the attack began, and he had already penetrated so deep. Compared to the start of the offensive, he had now advanced at least 45 kilometers into enemy territory.
The garrison troops within Karlovka town also had attached artillery, and there were layers of trench networks on the west side of the town.
However, those trench networks were no match for tanks. Large numbers of Lusha soldiers broke down before the tanks could run them over, and were mowed down by machine guns firing from behind.
The Lusha soldiers in the rear, seeing the tragic fate of their comrades in front, didn’t even wait for the tanks to reach them before fleeing. They abandoned their positions and ran from one or two kilometers away.
“Run! Those steel monsters can run right over the trenches! Those obstacles can’t stop them!”
Soldiers of this era did not dig dedicated anti-tank fortifications, nor did they know of “dragon’s teeth” or the prefabricated obstacles on Earth’s Normandy beaches.
When digging trenches, the width was only sufficient for soldiers to crouch inside, generally less than two meters. Before the advent of tanks, digging wider trenches was a waste of effort and increased the chance of indirect artillery shells landing inside the trenches.
The spread of panic was even faster than Lelouch had anticipated, and the defensive combat capability of the Russian infantry was suppressed to a negligible degree.
Just as the tank groups were rolling over the trenches, in the sky, over a dozen reconnaissance fighter jets flew from south to north over Karlovka.
The turret machine gunners in the tanks, wearing special helmets as thick as Level 3 helmets and clad in bulletproof steel armor, looked up at their comrades in the sky and let out invigorating shouts.
“The reconnaissance planes are going to help us locate the enemy’s artillery positions! Boys, keep your spirits up! Once the enemy artillery positions are found, flank from the sides and rear! Only tie down the front! Don’t repeat the mistake from Pereschepyne town!”
As the tank groups on the ground adjusted their attack formation, the reconnaissance planes in the sky had already located the artillery positions north of Karlovka town.
Two reconnaissance planes immediately began short transmissions by their rear-seat pilots, reporting coordinates according to the detailed maps distributed before the war, using grid square codes.
The other planes, which did not need to transmit, dove towards the artillery positions at an angle of 20-30 degrees.
The two synchronized machine guns on the nose fired together, their fiery tongues licking the artillery positions, riddling the Lusha artillerymen in their path with bloody holes.
As they flew directly over the artillery positions, the pilots manually dropped the 5kg small bombs attached to the outer walls of their cockpits one by one, quickly bombarding the artillery positions into disarray.
While such attacks could not completely destroy a divisional artillery regiment’s position with around twenty cannons, nor could they destroy the cannons themselves.
However, it was enough to inflict casualties on a significant portion of the soldiers, rendering the artillery position inoperable for a period, greatly reducing its combat efficiency.
Meanwhile, the frontal tank company had closed the distance during this time and was flanking from the rear.
When the tanks reached less than two kilometers from the artillery position and began firing their 57mm short-barreled high-explosive shells onto the position, the remaining surviving artillerymen panicked and fled towards the rear.
With air-ground coordination, this time in capturing another artillery regiment’s position, Lelouch only lost one tank, a much better result than three hours earlier in Pereschepyne town.
…
Karlovka county was quickly bypassed by Lelouch’s flanking maneuver. By the time he finished, it was just before lunch.
However, there were still a large number of infantry stationed in the county town, and the defenders here did not surrender immediately upon being cut off like those in Pereschepyne town.
This turn of events forced Lelouch to slightly slow down his advance, allowing the regular infantry following on foot to catch up and fill the defensive line, preventing his flanks from being cut off.
Fortunately, Lelouch and Rommel had jointly formulated a tactic: “Divide the armored division into two parts; one part attacks for 12 hours, the other rests for 8 hours, then spends 4 hours traveling to catch up with the friendly forces’ progress over the past 12 hours.”
Six hours had passed since the start of the battle. Lelouch ordered one tank regiment, one mechanized infantry regiment, and one motor rifle regiment to stand by in place, maintaining a semi-encirclement of the west side of Karlovka county.
Meanwhile, Rommel, with another tank regiment, a mechanized infantry regiment, and a motor rifle regiment, continued to advance, with permission to halt at night before Lelouch took over.
Simultaneously, Lelouch instructed all tank crews to urgently transfer fuel. The crews ordered to rest in place would siphon excess fuel from their tanks and add it to the troops continuing the attack. Additional machine gun bullets and 57mm shells were also moved in boxes to the advancing friendly forces.
The three regiments responsible for remaining at Karlovka to monitor the encircled Russian forces could remain in place and refuel and rearm from the supply convoy once it arrived with the main infantry force.
The entire transfer took over an hour, during which all soldiers had lunch. After lunch, they rested for a while to avoid motion sickness from the subsequent bumpy ride causing them to vomit their lunch. Rommel then continued his advance at 1 PM.
Lelouch remained in place waiting for the supply convoy and infantry to catch up. During this time, the Lusha army within Karlovka town attempted to break out but was driven back by Lelouch.
It wasn’t until after 5 PM, as dusk approached, that Lelouch saw a large number of carts and some infantry, alternating between horseback riding and running, catching up from the rear.
Seeing the late-arriving comrades, Lelouch couldn’t help but complain: “Why are you so late! I’ve already diverted diesel and ammunition to Deputy Division Commander Rommel to ensure his half of the armored division could maintain its offensive rhythm!”
The colonel in charge of escorting the logistics convoy also looked helpless, apologizing to Lelouch while speaking breathlessly:
“We’ve all taken turns riding horses. The horses have to pull carts and be ridden by soldiers, so they can’t run fast. We’ve traveled 50 kilometers in 12 hours of marching. Is that not fast enough? We’ve maintained an average of over 4 kilometers per hour without stopping, not even for lunch. Your offensive is too rapid.”
Lelouch felt a sense of sadness. This was the helplessness of logistics relying on mules and horses.
The number of trucks was still too small. It was good enough to equip infantry regiments to reorganize into motor rifle regiments, but all the trucks were almost exclusively used for troop transport, leaving no surplus for transporting fuel and ammunition.
“Alright, enough talk. Hurry up and refuel my over 100 tanks! Move the ammunition boxes quickly! Rommel might already be waiting for me in the next county town! I promised him we would advance at least 80 kilometers in a day and a night, and reach the outskirts of Kharkiv in two days.”
