Chapter 195: Lu’s Triangle Kill
The next morning, Kharkiv, Lusha 9th Army Group Headquarters.
9th Army Group Commander Cavalry General Yakov Grigoryevich Zhilinsky, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, awoke with a start from his sleep.
General Zhilinsky was also considered a veteran elder in the Lusha Army. As early as when the war had just broken out, he had already held the rank of general, and between August and October 1914, he had commanded the Western Front Army composed of Lusha’s most elite 1st and 2nd Army Groups, serving as its Front Army Commander.
However, during General Zhilinsky’s short three-month tenure, he experienced the two disastrous defeats of the Tannenberg Campaign and the Masurian Lakes Campaign, where he was routed by Marshal Hindenburg and Chief of Staff Ludendorff, with 400,000 men annihilated.
Subsequently, he was completely removed from power, stripped of his Front Army and Army Group level positions, and transferred by the Tsar to the Frankish side as a liaison officer for Lusha-Frankish Army collaboration affairs, essentially an idle diplomatic military attaché.
However, with the recent war situation too dire, the Tsar rebuilt many new armies, and there was a severe shortage of talent, so he was fished back from the Frankish side and appointed on the front lines as commander of the newly reorganized 9th Army Group.
This was also considering his status as an old-school cavalry general, while there were a large number of Cossack Cavalry Divisions around Kharkiv, which exactly needed a general like him to lead.
Who would have thought his luck was so bad; he had just resumed his post when he encountered the full offensive of Germania’s 6th Army Group under Marshal Rupprecht, with Lelouch’s “Greater Germania” Armored Training Division as the assault vanguard.
The entire day’s battle yesterday left the Lushans dazed; before going to bed last night, General Zhilinsky didn’t even know where the enemy had broken through. Based on past experience, he tried to contact some corps headquarters and division headquarters on the front line via radio, but got no response.
This led to his severe insomnia; he couldn’t sleep well until late at night, and then overslept in the morning due to excessive fatigue, waking up after nine o’clock.
Just after waking up, he saw the sunlight outside the window and knew he was definitely late, couldn’t help exclaiming in shock:
“Where has the enemy reached? Have we contacted the 25th Corps in Karlovka and the 47th Division in Verivka? Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”
While asking, his tone was extremely stern, still blaming the adjutant and staff officers for not waking him.
The adjutant swallowed his anger and cautiously replied: “There has been no response yet, so we didn’t wake you…”
General Zhilinsky was completely agitated to the point of neurosis: “How is that possible? Why haven’t even these rear-area garrison troops responded! Where exactly has the enemy advanced to? Karlovka is already 50 kilometers from the front line, and Verivka is even 80 kilometers from the front line! Can the enemy fly, and fly non-stop day and night?”
Unfortunately, no one could answer this question; the entire morning, the Army Group command post in Kharkiv remained in chaos.
General Zhilinsky could only follow his own experience, dispatching reinforcing troops from the left and right wings’ Poltava and Shevchenkivka toward Karlovka or Verivka, fully expecting these reinforcements to help the defenders along the railway line.
But it wasn’t until 10:30 that a reply telegram finally came from the Verivka direction and reached the headquarters.
The Lushan Army’s land telegrams were even in clear code, so the radio operator’s translation workload was much lighter. After translating the telegram message, the staff officer rushed to General Zhilinsky with it in a panic:
“Commander! Urgent telegram from Verivka!”
General Zhilinsky felt his heart suddenly race a few beats: “An urgent telegram from Verivka? That means Karlovka has already fallen? Why is that idiot Petrov only replying now! What was he doing last night!”
Staff officer: “This telegram was not sent by Brigadier General Petrov, the 47th Division commander in Verivka… He didn’t have time to send one before his annihilation last night. This was sent back this morning by the vanguard of the 26th Corps that just arrived near Verivka.
Last night, you ordered the 26th Corps stationed around Poltava to dispatch some troops closer to Karlovka and Verivka for nearby reinforcement to strengthen defenses there… Corps Commander Sergei Yev mid-level general executed it immediately and sent troops on a forced march eastward overnight,
but this morning when they arrived at Verivka, they saw that the town had already been seized by the Germania Army, and they were counterattacked by the enemy garrison left in Verivka town. Under marching formation, they were covered by artillery, suffering extremely heavy casualties, and had to retreat back to Poltava…”
“…”
General Zhilinsky was completely dumbfounded, nearly fainting on the spot from anxiety.
How did the battle turn out like this?
General Zhilinsky: “This… this is impossible! You’re saying the enemy captured Verivka in just one day and one night, penetrating at least 80 kilometers into our defense line!”
Staff officer: “To be precise, they have now penetrated at least 90 kilometers into our defense line, and may already be preparing to break through a town further north of Verivka. They are only 60 kilometers from Kharkiv.”
General Zhilinsky seemed to have all his strength drained, slumping dejectedly in his seat: “This… still impossible! Even if they have those new armored cars, how did their artillery units keep up?
The 26th Corps was ordered to reinforce Verivka; didn’t they say that when approaching the town, they encountered the enemy who had already captured it using pre-deployed long-range heavy cannons to counter them, and suddenly came under fire coverage in their dense marching formation, leading to such heavy casualties?
The enemy’s 105mm and 150mm heavy cannons could advance 80 kilometers in one day and redeploy on the front line? Are you all talking in your sleep!”
Staff officer: “It’s possible the enemy used trucks regardless of cost, fuel consumption, and vehicle wear, forcibly dragging the heavy cannons to the front line…”
General Zhilinsky: “Nonsense! Along the railway between Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkiv, how many trenches did we dig! We have learned from the previous lesson of being broken through by armored cars; this time the trenches are dug right up to the railway embankment, leaving no defensive blind spots!
Even if the enemy wants to transport cannons by truck, not to mention whether they have enough trucks. Even if they do, can their trucks cross trench after trench? Don’t they need engineers to get out and fill the trenches each time? How much time would that take?”
Although General Zhilinsky lacked commanding talent, he was after all a battle-hardened old soldier; his basics were solid, and he could immediately spot many unreasonable aspects of the enemy’s actions.
The staff officer, pointed out the issues, was completely unable to respond.
How could they know that Lelouch had assembled at least hundreds of half-track tractors, specifically to transport heavy cannons for the armored division’s motorized artillery regiment.
Trenches and muddy terrain that trucks and mule carts couldn’t pass, half-track vehicles could all forcefully traverse, at the cost of greater wear.
Whether fuel consumption or transmission part wear.
……
Under Lelouch’s such furious rapid assault, on November 12th and 13th, the vanguard of Germania’s 6th Army Group was furiously advancing.
Lelouch’s own armored division really covered 150 kilometers by noon on the 14th, breaking through the defense lines of 6 enemy units along the way.
However, because he advanced too fast, a small mishap occurred in the afternoon of the 14th— the armored division personally commanded by Lelouch was of course unbeatable by any enemy, but because he charged too fast, the following infantry troops simply couldn’t keep up.
Around 4 p.m. on the 14th, a town along the railway about 20 kilometers behind Lelouch, Rokytne, was ultimately recaptured by encirclement from two Lusha Cossack Cavalry Divisions.
That town was about 30 kilometers southwest of Kharkiv. After recapturing it, the Lusha Army was slightly invigorated.
Lelouch had to immediately turn back, and around 10 p.m. that night, struck the garrison in Rokytne town again.
And because time had dragged to 10 p.m., a Germania Army infantry division further back also arrived at Rokytne under Marshal Rupprecht’s urging to rush madly, contributing a little effort to cooperate with Lelouch in seizing the town.
The battle in Rokytne town ended again at midnight that day; the next morning, November 15th, Lelouch finally returned to the southeast suburbs of Kharkiv and established a solid bridgehead.
In other words, he ultimately took more than three days and three nights to reach the outskirts of Kharkiv, with an actual precise time of about 75 hours.
But this was not due to his own inability; originally he could have completed it in 60 hours. The extra 15 hours were because the friendly forces reinforcing from the rear were not keeping up, unable to match his speed.
Even at the current pace, the infantry troops that caught up were panting like dogs; advancing 150 kilometers in 75 hours is an average of 2 kilometers per hour. If half the time each day is for rest and sleep, and the other half pure marching without anything else, it still requires 4 kilometers per hour marching continuously for three full days without interruption.
In an era where mechanized and motorized infantry units were not yet large-scale, such an advance was simply life-threatening. Drawing from Earth’s later experiences, to achieve mechanized blitzkrieg, 1 armored division needs at least 3~5 supporting mechanized infantry or motorized infantry divisions behind it to realize a deep pincer offensive over 100 kilometers.
If the iron pincer extends even farther in a single push, the “pincer arms” require more line-filling mobile troops.
……
Due to initial combat break-in, Lelouch slightly overestimated himself, but even advancing to the outskirts of Kharkiv in 75 hours far exceeded the enemy’s cognition.
The enemy’s 9th Army Group was deployed across the vast defense zone around Kharkiv; the entire Army Group had 5 corps, plus some Cossack Cavalry Divisions and miscellaneous independent divisions outside the establishment.
Normally, only 1 corps was stationed in the urban area of Kharkiv, another 1 corps in Poltava 120 kilometers to the southwest, another 1 corps in Izyum, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and other places between the southeast and Donbas, 1 corps along the key railway between Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk, and the last 1 corps as the general reserve.
Lelouch arriving so fast meant that the 2 corps in Poltava and Izyum etc. simply couldn’t reinforce in time, and the corps along his path had already been broken through and scattered.
In the short term, General Zhilinsky could only gather the forces of 2 corps to deploy defenses around Kharkiv outside the city.
So after advancing to the outskirts of Kharkiv, Lelouch immediately faced an important choice: how to proceed next? Try to completely encircle Kharkiv city, or make a larger encirclement to bag more filling? Or choose besiege the point and strike the reinforcements, trap Kharkiv and then annihilate the reinforcing enemies?
If he had multiple armored divisions today, several times more mechanized or motorized infantry divisions, then following Earth’s later World War II classic blitzkrieg tactics, he should definitely choose to bag the big dumpling, I want it all.
But after weighing the actual situation, Lelouch decided to besiege the point and strike the reinforcements, trap the enemy in the city, wait for his own reinforcements to arrive continuously, then strike the enemy armies reinforcing Kharkiv from Poltava and Izyum.
“We don’t have enough armored forces to form that small iron pincer from Donbas to Kharkiv. The troops advancing north from Donbas on our side, after the initial front-line breakthrough, can only rely on several cavalry divisions for deep infiltration.
They can’t arrive at Kharkiv along the railway from another direction in time to form a triangular big dumpling, bagging all the enemies in the Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkiv-Donbas triangular railway network for a triangular kill.
So we should play it safe, shrink the encirclement, quickly surround Kharkiv as soon as possible, cut off the railway from Kharkiv to the North, and also cut off the railways between Kharkiv and the enemy armies in Poltava and Izyum.
The enemy in Poltava may still have a sufficient scale logistics base to allow troops there to stockpile more weapons and ammunition. But frontline small towns like Izyum and Slavyansk definitely have no sustained reserves. Once we cut off the railway from Kharkiv to there, the enemy armies there won’t last long before running out of supplies.
By then, our offensive troops advancing north along the railway from Donbas can chase and pursue the enemy’s rear, quickly routing them and opening the railway line; at that point, we can concentrate forces to take Kharkiv.”
After this weighing, Lelouch discussed it this way with his deputy division commander Colonel Rommel.
Rommel also knew the commander was right, but he had to point out a few issues and consequences:
“This method is the safest, ensuring the fastest victory. But the cost is that the enemy garrisons in the Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkiv-Donbas railway triangle area will be hard to completely annihilate.
Because our friendly forces pushing from Donbas to Kharkiv move slowly, it’s hard to close the encirclement in time; some enemies can escape if they want to run.”
Lelouch: “I know this; this dumpling is too big, we can’t be greedy for all of it completely. Better to sacrifice some dumpling filling size for speed in bagging.
As long as we can complete the bagging 3~5 days earlier, letting a few divisions escape is acceptable. And you have to consider that previous lessons have already told us: bagging the dumpling is just the first step; for this kind of deep breakthrough encirclement battle, the time needed to digest the filling afterward may be more than twice the bagging action!”
Lelouch making such statements was all based on historical precedents.
Before transmigrating, he had read so much war history; for example, in Earth’s Operation Barbarossa initial Minsk Campaign, the infiltration and encirclement only took 5~6 days, closing at midnight from June 22 to 26, 1941. But digesting the dumpling filling took a full 12 days, until July 9 to clear the entire army group in Minsk city.
Lelouch now indeed reached Kharkiv in 75 hours, but he only had one wing, no other wing; he could only do besiege the point and strike the reinforcements, letting some eastern enemies escape.
After hearing Lelouch’s analysis, Rommel couldn’t help but recall the Zaporizhzhia Campaign one and a half months ago. That time, Germania armored forces also broke through singly to form an iron pincer, bagging the dumpling skin in 5 days, but then took 11 days to digest the filling.
This data also matched the conclusion summarized by Commander Lelouch. Rommel originally thought it was coincidence, but didn’t expect Commander Lelouch to state definitively that such situations would be the norm in the future.
“Does Commander Lelouch really excel so much at summarization? Why does it always feel like sometimes he has only experienced one or two new things, yet immediately summarizes unassailable truths like a veteran who has gone through dozens, seeing the subtle and knowing the whole? Is the world’s top genius really like him?”
Rommel couldn’t help but think this inwardly, even starting to doubt life.
……
After Lelouch and Rommel unified their views, they immediately sent a telegram to Marshal Rupprecht in the rear.
The Marshal also adopted his suggestion, requiring priority on achieving results as quickly as possible, allowing if necessary some minor enemy forces east of the breakthrough line to escape as the price.
Subsequently, the entire war machine of Germania’s 6th Army Group began operating according to this new thinking.
On the morning and late night of November 16th, 2 corps arrived successively outside Kharkiv city, completing the encirclement of Kharkiv city and cutting off its railways to various places.
The Lusha troops in Poltava and Izyum indeed received General Zhilinsky’s reinforcement orders and began maneuvering toward Kharkiv along the railway line.
But the routes into the city had been cut off by the siege defense lines built by the Germania Army, so the Lusha troops from Poltava and Izyum couldn’t rush in directly, only engaging in fierce battles on the siege defense lines with the Germanians.
This kind of trench warfare with both sides having over ten thousand men participating didn’t offer much opportunity for Lelouch to shine; he could only have his subordinate artillery regiment participate in the battle, contributing some effort.
As for his precious tanks and half-track vehicles, they certainly weren’t for use in this massive meat grinder.
The Lusha Army launched wave after wave of charges against the Germania Army’s siege defense lines, but fell in swathes before the Germania heavy machine gun positions, fell under the dense supporting artillery fire of the Germanians.
The corps reinforcing from Izyum suffered extremely heavy losses, and with Germania Army pursuers from Donbas chasing their rear. Just two days later, that corps from Izyum collapsed on its own and fled northeast into Belgorod territory.
Because some enemies were let escape, the purge work in the Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkiv-Donbas large triangle area progressed very quickly.
The corps from Izyum disintegrated on the 18th; by November 20th, there were no organized Lusha Army resistance left in this large triangle area, only scattered Cossack cavalry stragglers.
And with the Germania Army from the Donbas route also arriving at Kharkiv and the German rear thoroughly stabilized, Lelouch immediately proposed a new suggestion to Army Group Commander Marshal Rupprecht:
“The siege battle in Kharkiv city will definitely last more than a week to annihilate those few corps; we don’t have time to wait that long. Better for my armored troops to assault first and capture the town of Pyshochyn in the western suburbs.
Because there is the Kharkiv West Station; the railway lines from Dnepropetrovsk to Kharkiv and from Poltava to Kharkiv both converge at the Kharkiv West Station in that town before entering the urban area.
This way, we don’t have to wait to completely annihilate the Kharkiv garrison before attacking Poltava; we can first open the railway to Poltava, then immediately divide forces.
And we have a flanking force on the southern front that can go on foot directly from Dnepropetrovsk to attack Poltava; although the whole journey is nearly 100 kilometers, with Kharkiv in crisis now, Poltava’s garrison has been largely drawn to rescue Kharkiv and heavily damaged by us. So our army going directly from Dnepropetrovsk to Poltava en route should face not too fierce resistance.
By then, the northern route with armored troops leading, advancing along the railway, southern route on foot directly; perhaps we can synchronously encircle Poltava too, then we can divide forces to simultaneously surround two major cities, eating the dumpling filling in parallel time-wise, saving the entire campaign’s advance time.”
Marshal Rupprecht evaluated this opinion and found it feasible, because Kharkiv’s West Train Station was indeed not in the main urban area. If assaulting the entire main urban area was too costly and should first consume the enemy before decisive battle, but attacking the west city first was acceptable.
On November 22nd, the 10th day of the campaign, several divisions of Germania’s 6th Army Group, mainly those that had attacked from Donbas to Kharkiv before, launched a feint attack on the east of Kharkiv city, first providing fierce bombardment fire support and cover.
The Lusha defenders in the first-line defense zone east of the city suffered heavy casualties; General Zhilinsky also had to move reserves to the east city to fill the line.
And just as the Lusha defense focus shifted east, Lelouch also launched a surprise assault in the west suburbs.
Because it was suburban combat, no need to penetrate deep into the big city for urban warfare, the tank breakthrough effect was still very good; within a few hours, the town of Pyshochyn with Kharkiv West Station was cut off.
Subsequently, infantry troops entered the town to launch the general offensive, and the several Lusha infantry regiments in the town surrendered in despair.
After opening the railway hub of Kharkiv West Station, Germania’s 6th Army Group ignored the over 100,000 enemies still in the city and directly repaired the railway at maximum speed.
And had Lelouch and Rommel, who had rested for several days, lead the armored division straight to Poltava 130 kilometers southwest.
At the same time, part of the troops that had previously gone directly from Dnepropetrovsk to attack Poltava also accelerated, forming a southern pincer “iron pincer” on Poltava—in fact, for infantry troops not needing vehicles, going directly from Dnepropetrovsk to attack Poltava was actually a shorter distance than from Kharkiv.
The reason it couldn’t rely solely on this route to take Poltava was simply no direct railway connecting Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava, having to detour through the Kharkiv railway hub.
But now with two routes advancing in parallel, the southern route lacking railway was no longer important. As long as they ultimately met up at Poltava with the northern route’s iron pincer of Lelouch, the southern route army’s logistics supplies could also be supplemented via the northern route’s railway.
When two armies launch a pincer offensive, as long as the final convergence is ensured, it’s fine if one branch’s logistics route is a bit worse. This is also a valuable lesson that those accustomed to blitzkrieg in later generations can summarize.
It’s just that at the end of 1915 in this world, temporarily only Lelouch knew these lessons others had to buy with blood, without even needing combat summarization, innately knowing them. This information gap was destined to let him gain more advantage from the Lushans.
Ultimately, on November 23rd, before Kharkiv city was even captured, Lelouch began maneuvering to Poltava, finally arriving smoothly on November 25th. The cooperating southern route troops also arrived at Poltava on the 26th,
These two armies, one south and one north cooperating, formed another “railway triangular kill” encirclement, namely the “Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkiv-Poltava Triangular Kill Encirclement”.
The previous first “Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkiv-Donbas Triangular Kill Encirclement” had some flaws due to insufficient forces and seeking speed, letting a few divisions escape.
But this second one, Lelouch was no longer so rushed for time.
Plus with some enemies having escaped, enemy total forces and combat effectiveness declined; he could ensure steady digestion of the dumpling filling without indigestion, so absolutely no enemies would breakout organized.
Ultimately, these two instances of “central breakthrough, then cooperating with friendly forces on left and right wings to respectively construct triangular kill seal nets along railway lines against left and right enemies” tactical operations were recorded in later Germania military textbooks under the name “Lelouch Triangular Kill”.
“Lelouch Triangular Kill” also became the initial real combat case of human tank blitzkrieg encirclement.
After Poltava completed encirclement on November 26th, due to the small scale of troops inside the encirclement, plus having been ordered to rescue Kharkiv before and heavily damaged by besiege the point and strike the reinforcements, Poltava’s garrison didn’t hold out long and surrendered in panic on the 28th.
Before surrendering, Lelouch also sent people for psychological warfare shouting and dropping leaflets. During this, he even played a bit of destiny meme: he wrote on the leaflets that when the Germania High Seas Fleet annihilated the Lusha Baltic Fleet in Riga Bay and Hanko Cape. The 2 “Gangut-class” battleships in the Baltic Fleet named after Kievan Rus’ cities, “Sevastopol” and “Poltava”, both had mutinies where sailors spontaneously killed the Tsar’s Guard supervising on board, then switched sides to join the Germania Navy.
Since the battleship “Poltava” surrendered, why can’t Poltava city surrender? Throughout history, many cities have surrendered, but invincible ships that surrendered are only these two, so this is all destiny!
And really, although this argument was far-fetched, quite a few superstitious uneducated Lusha soldiers were indeed shaken a bit by it, at least giving their hearts an extra step down, smoothly self-deceiving with psychological suggestion.
Ultimately, all this accelerated the collapse of Poltava’s garrison.
With Poltava city’s surrender, the remaining field troops in that “triangular kill” encirclement net were all completely annihilated or forced to surrender by organized units before midnight on November 30th.
On the contrary, the garrison in Kharkiv city, although encircled several days earlier than Poltava, had after all 2 corps inside Kharkiv city with ample supplies; General Zhilinsky originally planned to hold firm and wait for a turnaround.
But after hearing on the 28th that friendly forces in Poltava had all surrendered and been annihilated, morale in Kharkiv city also panicked,
Ultimately at midnight on the 29th, some garrison troops attempted to disobey orders and breakout on their own, but were swept back by the Germania siege troops’ machine guns and artillery groups, suffering heavy casualties.
With the chance and hope of breakout for survival completely sealed, only death or surrender remained.
On November 30th, the Kharkiv garrison finally mutinied, with large numbers of garrison troops spontaneously surrendering to the Germanians.
Army Group Commander General Zhilinsky couldn’t control the situation at all; finally even people around the general advised him to surrender.
Zhilinsky was still clear-headed; he just smiled bitterly and sighed: “If I had died at this time last year, my reputation for life would have been preserved. I’m already 63 years old; why suffer further humiliation.”
Ultimately, Zhilinsky drew his pistol and committed suicide; his subordinate troops also completely collapsed.
Lusha 9th Army Group, except for the few divisions and Cossack Cavalry Divisions that escaped from Izyum earlier, the rest were all annihilated by encirclement by Germania’s 6th Army Group.
And Germania’s 6th Army Group didn’t even have time for proper rest.
They only rested one day on December 1st; starting December 2nd, Lelouch’s armored division continued west from Poltava,
This time the bypassing distance was even farther, the objective even more severe—he was to sweep all the way to Kyiv along the Poltava-Kyiv railway.
Fortunately, this time he didn’t have to accomplish this task alone.
Because on the farthest west of the entire Kievan Rus’ War Zone, von Bock’s 2nd Armored Division “Empire Division”, and behind him Old Marshal Leopold commanding Germania’s 10th Army Group, had also made very considerable progress in the past half month.
While Lelouch and Marshal Rupprecht resolved Kharkiv and Poltava, von Bock and Marshal Leopold had advanced north from Vinnytsia, successively capturing Zhytomyr, Korosten, Chernihiv, cutting off the railway from north of Kyiv via Orsha to Minsk.
In other words, the enemy on the Kyiv side had their vital railway lifeline to the positive north severed; that railway had to pass through Chernihiv, which was seized by von Bock before the end of November.
Now, von Bock was still pushing east, while Lelouch would push west.
The two had each severed one of the Lusha Kievan Rus’ major area’s railway lifelines to the North（ there are only these two in total, one north from Kyiv and one north from Kharkiv, both severed）
Although the encirclement around the Kyiv area hadn’t closed yet, the enemy no longer had the possibility of breaking out by train; even if wanting to flee, they’d have to go on foot or horseback, or mule carts.
What’s more, because the Tsar had just executed the previous Lusha 6th Army Group commander Alexei Evert for desertion. Now the Lusha generals in the Kyiv area were all hesitant and constrained; no one dared yet issue a retreat order at the entire Army Group level.
——
PS: Don’t know how to break the chapter today; because the advance was more with some running account feel, the 8,000-word big chapter was released all at once.
The following diagram shows the latest front lines as of December 1st for both sides, and the attack direction schematic for Lelouch and von Bock’s next steps.
