Chapter 204: Anti-tank Vanguard Model
General Allenby was blocked by Model’s resolute defense at the Isthmus of Corinth for a full two days, watching Athens just 100 kilometers to the southeast, yet unable to break through.
From December 6th dragged to the 8th, Allenby finally upgraded his tactics, launching a full-scale assault at all costs.
Every morning, artillery fiercely bombarded Mount Parnassus, continuously suppressing the Greco-German Allied Forces’ artillery and fire points on the mountain, while infantry organized multiple waves of assaults to charge up the mountain, enduring overhead bombardment from mortars and grenade launchers, closing in on the enemy for bloody close combat.
Finally, some troops were detached to take advantage of the friendly forces’ entanglement with the enemy on the mountaintop, launching a positional attack on the enemy’s trench network in the valley.
In this way, the Germanian artillery was basically pinned down by the British Army attacking the mountain. The Germanian had only that many cannons in total and couldn’t spare firepower to bombard the British Army advancing along the valley.
And the British Army could just leverage their advantage in numbers, launching all-out offensives across the entire line to pile the enemy to death.
However, this disregard for casualties meant that while the British Army seized positions, their casualties would be extremely heavy.
Those assaulting the mountain had to pay huge casualties crossing the mortar coverage zone, and after reaching the mountaintop for a meat grinder with the Germanians, they still had to pay three or four times the exchange ratio.
Overall, to assault the top of Mount Parnassus for a meat grinder with the Germanians, on average the British Army had to pay with a dozen lives to exchange for one Germanian life.
Or at least the lives of three to five Britannian soldiers to exchange for one Greek life—no matter how you looked at it, it was a massive loss.
The battle in the valley had a less brutal exchange ratio, but the Germanian defense was no slouch either.
Model did not commit the same mistake as Ma Su; he divided troops to “camp on the vital path” while defending the mountain. He left one elite mountain battalion and one Greek regiment to defend the valley.
Model feared that if the valley was quickly breached by the enemy, some enemy troops would charge through stealthily, then pincering and encircling Mount Parnassus from front and rear.
But the valley defenders had no artillery support and could only resist successively relying on the trench network and communication trenches, with little defensive elasticity.
Facing the charging enemy, they had done their utmost with ingeniously deployed light machine guns and grenade launchers to inflict crazy casualties, killing and wounding thousands, before being forced to withdraw along the communication trenches.
After fighting all morning on December 8th, the Greco-German Allied Forces lost three consecutive lines of trenches in the valley until exiting the range of the Britannians’ heavy cannons, when the British Army’s offensive gradually petered out—still that old problem: artillery deployment speed in this era was too slow, and range too short.
If the enemy retreated just a few kilometers out of cannon range, it took half a day or more to move the artillery positions forward, redeploy and unfold, before they could fire again.
Without self-propelled guns or truck-mounted artillery, artillery keeping up with fast-attacking troops was always a major headache.
The British Army artillery general responsible for fire preparation, seeing the enemy temporarily retreat, wanted to request General Allenby to end the ground offensive for the day, wait until evening to move the artillery forward and redeploy, then continue the offensive tomorrow morning.
But this suggestion was immediately rejected by General Allenby.
“No! We can’t stop now! That German general opposite is knowledgeable! I heard that two months ago in the Crimea campaign, the reason the Germanian could quickly breakthrough the Russian Army’s natural defenses on the Dzhankoy Peninsula and the northern Troitskoye Peninsula in Crimea was because the Lusha Army was reluctant to destroy their own railway, so they left gaps when digging trenches.
Now the railway from Larissa to Athens also passes through this valley, but the first few kilometers of several trench lines ahead were completely destroyed and dug up, so I couldn’t use armored cars for assault from the start.
But yesterday I checked through the artillery sight, and the enemy didn’t dig all subsequent trenches so thoroughly; it seems only the first few cut the railway, completely without blind spots. The later trenches stop dozens of meters from the railway embankment. Maybe their construction was too slow and they didn’t want to dig such hard embankment, or maybe they were reluctant, thinking it unnecessary to dig so many layers for now.
But regardless of what the enemy thinks, this is a heaven-sent opportunity now: immediately send our armored car cluster to charge through this gap! Infantry follow behind the armored cars and continue the offensive!”
The two infantry division commanders nearby and that army group artillery director, upon hearing the general’s sharp insight, immediately looked at him with deep respect:
“Commander has keen insight! You’ve seized such a fleeting opportunity! Indeed, we absolutely cannot delay now; if we give the enemy one night, they will surely dig gaps on both sides of the railway in the later simple trenches completely without blind spots.”
The British Army’s main generals were all in agreement, seeing this as a rare opportunity, so they continued the valiant offensive.
Though the cannons could no longer cover the enemy positions farther back, no problem—the British Army had armored cars!
It was said that just in the past one or two months on the Eastern Front battlefield, Germanian tanks and armored cars often did this kind of rapid advance.
In the initial stage of their offensives, the first ten kilometers relied on preemptive artillery fire to cripple the enemy, then infantry charged. But once infantry charged beyond artillery cover range, they outpaced the artillery, using tanks and armored cars to protect infantry continuing deep into the rear.
With tank protection, even without big guns it was no big issue; infantry-tank coordination could still tear open the enemy’s defense line.
Since the Germanian had already demonstrated this new tactic, if the Britannia Army didn’t follow suit and copy the enemy’s correct answer, wouldn’t that be a waste!
Dozens of Rolls-Royce armored cars soon escorted several British Army infantry regiments, continuing to charge valiantly along the valley.
Several “dead-end” trenches soon appeared before them, all half-dug and not cutting the railway embankment running through the center of the valley.
In the center of the valley, there was at least a 100-meter-wide no-trench zone where Rolls-Royce armored cars could drive straight through.
Then, like the Germanian armored counterparts, drive the armored cars to the end of the trench, turn the vehicle or vehicle-mounted machine guns to sweep fiercely along the side of the trench, clearing out a unmanned segment.
Then cover British Army infantry to enter the trench ends, search and clear laterally along the trench; wouldn’t the Greco-German Allied Forces’ valley defenders collapse!
The Germanian Army had just done this several times a month ago on the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain!
Britannian generals could also learn from the enemy’s advanced experience; today could only be called “using their own methods against them.”
……
The Britannians thus executed their anticipated tactics, fantasizing beautifully.
The lead dozen armored cars soon strutted forward under light machine gun fire and grenade launcher indirect fire, charging straight at least 2 kilometers, hard along the railway embankment to the end of the Germanian dead-end trench.
“Da-da-da~” Britannian vehicle-mounted machine guns crazily swept the trench, indeed killing several unprepared Germanian light machine gunners and several ranks of Greek soldiers.
The remaining Germanian soldiers hurriedly retreated along the zigzag trench to both sides; once past the first two trench corners, the armored cars’ machine guns couldn’t reach them.
However, the British Army infantry following the armored cars immediately seized the opportunity of the Greco-German Allied Forces abandoning the trench end, rushing fiercely into the trench, then holding Italian submachine guns and Lee-Enfield Rifles to search and kill along the trench to both sides.
Both sides erupted in fierce close combat; MP15 submachine guns and Italian submachine guns rose and fell in the trench, killing swathes of soldiers from both sides.
Later, it even came to extremely close-range grenade tossing at trench corners, even bayonet and entrenching tool melee combat.
Seeing this tactic effective and the breakthrough fast, British Army officers grew even less vigilant, hurriedly directing the armored car column not to delay and continue advancing.
“Armored cars continue forward! Don’t stop! Strive to breakthrough the entire valley fortified zone before dark! Don’t give the enemy a chance to dig more trenches!”
The British Army’s Rolls-Royce armored cars didn’t all have vehicle-mounted radios; only the command vehicle had a radio set. So after the command vehicle received rear orders by radio, it could only relay these on-the-spot commands by shouting.
A captain adjutant beside the armored regiment regimental commander on the command vehicle leaned out his upper body, yelling crazily at nearby vehicles, gesturing violently.
But just halfway through relaying, a burst of MG15 light machine gun bullets swept this way; that regimental adjutant was instantly hit in the neck, body going limp as he fell back into the vehicle.
“Damn it! From now on, every vehicle must have a radio!” The British Army regimental commander in the command vehicle watched his adjutan’s carotid artery spray blood everywhere inside the vehicle, soon lifeless, filled with rage, deeply hating the rear capitalists for cutting corners.
It was said Germanian armored cars and tanks all had radios; how come Britain’s electrical firms lacked Siemens’ integrity and cost-cutting! Taking advantage to profiteer by selling radios so expensively!
But right now he had no time to grieve his adjutant; he must immediately command all 30-plus armored cars in cluster to impact the enemy’s next simple trench as soon as possible, just 700-800 meters ahead.
He poured all his rage over his adjutant’s death into the target before him.
……
“Those armored cars in the valley are even more impatient than I expected. They actually don’t even know the basic principle Lelouch the commander privately emphasized to me repeatedly: ‘When using armored forces, pay attention to infantry-tank coordination; when countering enemy armored forces, pay attention to disrupting their infantry-tank coordination.'”
In a concealed observation post on the eastern slope of Mount Parnassus, Lieutenant Colonel Model was observing the British Army armored car group’s offensive with a periscope artillery sight.
Seeing the enemy infantry held up clearing the first few trenches while the armored cars continued charging ahead, he finally couldn’t help showing a smile.
“Was this in your plan too? You knew they would lose infantry-tank coordination? That would be too scary; if you really foresaw even this, you’d have at least half of Commander Lelouch’s calculations.” Nearby, another mountain infantry lieutenant colonel Dieter couldn’t help but comment upon hearing this.
Dieter was a Greek who came with Model, though he could only temporarily serve as deputy regimental commander.
Both were currently lieutenant colonels. But Model’s lieutenant colonel rank was about to culminate, just half a step of military merit from promotion, while Dieter had just been promoted to lieutenant colonel not long ago.
In these two days of combat, Model coordinated the overall situation, while Dieter focused on specific tactical command of the Mount Parnassus struggle; the division of labor was clear.
At this moment, Dieter was still over there finely directing how troops cleverly defended the mountaintop; Model kept a close eye on the valley battle.
Model slammed the paper scroll in his hand to the ground and stamped it out: “Of course I couldn’t foresee so much, nor that the enemy would be stupid enough to abandon infantry-tank coordination.
But designing the foremost 3-kilometer depth of the defense line with fully connected trenches without blind spots, while leaving gaps on both sides of the railway embankment in the later ones to form dead-end roads—that was a stratagem I specially designed.
With this layout, the enemy would easily conclude ‘our defense was hasty, no time to dig through the hardest-to-dig section of every trench under the railway embankment, so only the outermost layers were cut,’
Or think we simply were reluctant to destroy the railway too badly, figuring partial destruction was enough.
Regardless of how they guessed our reasons, after breaking through the outermost few kilometers, they would face artillery unable to keep up and bombard our deeper positions. With armored cars at hand and later defense lines looking passable by armored cars, they would decisively charge with them.
The anti-tank weapons Commander Lelouch temporarily taught us to use have sufficient power; the biggest problem is just too short range. Without letting the enemy advance isolated or with infantry-tank separation, where would our warriors with thrown weapons have a chance to strike?”
Anyone with a bit of later military experience knows that Iron Fist, Molotov cocktails, or sticky bombs, board-mounted satchel charges—these anti-tank weapons have enough power, but the shortcoming is range.
These can hit at most over 100 meters, closer ones just 20-30 meters, even some for direct close combat stabbing.
If the armored car’s machine gun angle is flexibly adjusted, or with dense infantry protection, these weapons have no chance to fire, or if they do, they’re immediately killed, at best mutual destruction.
But now, the British Army had just started using armored car cluster assaults, lacking ‘anti-anti-tank’ experience, finally falling into Model’s trap.
A group of armored cars boldly drove toward the next Greco-German Allied Forces-held trench.
Several Germanian MG15 light machine gun teams were originally firing here, but as enemy vehicles approached, many gun teams went silent and urgently withdrew and relocated.
Instead, from a trench farther back, some MG15 light machine guns started relay firing, attracting the armored cars’ attention, ringing the steel plates clangorously and suppressing the British Army armored cars’ vision slits.
British Army armored cars also returned fire with vehicle-mounted machine guns; Germanian MG15 light machine gun teams flexibly relocated—wherever British aimed, those German machine guns stopped firing and crouched, crawling to relocate, letting untargeted comrades fire to relay attract.
Under this intense crossfire, though no armored car was penetrated, seemingly wasting bullets, it fully attracted the British Army tankers’ attention. British vehicles couldn’t even observe through slits; some observers were even killed by ricochet bullets entering the slits.
The foremost British Army armored cars had closed to within 50 meters of the trench.
At that moment, several hand-picked strong Germanian grenadier warriors hurled 2-kilogram sticky bombs; after flying 30-40 meters, two missed, but one hit a armored car’s forward side steel plate.
This sticky bomb, to ensure explosive charge, was even heavier than standard grenades. At 2 kilograms total weight, it couldn’t be thrown as far as ordinary grenades—
For those without a sense of the number, compare to a standard shot put at 4 kilograms; the later Olympic record is only 23 meters, and in 1915 it would be even shorter.
That sticky bomb probably had insufficient landing speed and angle, scraping the armor side skirt to shatter the explosive liner, but the casing didn’t stick, rolling to the ground before exploding.
Fortunately, this sticky bomb shed force well; even if not sticking, it just slid off without bouncing. So it exploded beside the armored car’s wheel, directly wrecking one wheel.
The armored car immediately lurched from the blast, soldiers inside tumbling.
“What happened?” The British Army vehicle commander anxiously asked the situation.
“Probably Germanian in desperation threw a grenade at us!”
“Those bastards got lucky; probably the grenade went under and hit the wheel!”
Grenades damaging wheels or undercarriage drive structures wasn’t rare.
As early as two months ago on the Nogai Steppe battlefield south of the Dnieper River, the Lusha Cossack Cavalry Division had fearlessly charged enemy armored reconnaissance companies with cavalry plus grenades, really wrecking several Germanian armored cars’ wheels and drives with this trick.
The British Army tankers’ first reaction was naturally the same.
Hearing it was an accident, the vehicle commander didn’t mind, didn’t extra alert friendly vehicles, just had the machine gunner continue firing to provide covering fire for comrades and make use of remaining heat.
Other vehicles ignored the immobilized one and continued forward.
……
“Damn! How did it only wreck one wheel! Get a few meters closer before throwing! Throw with straighter trajectory, not too high arc, or if you can, lob high onto the roof, not the side armor!”
A Germanian grenadier squad’s second lieutenant platoon leader, seeing his men’s first round of grenade throwing yield poor results, hurriedly gave tactical guidance.
Fortunately, the enemy hadn’t seen this weapon before, with no extra tactical response, white-giving him chances for more rounds.
Soon, more sticky bombs and large glass bottles filled with thickened mixed explosives flew toward the armored cars closest to the trench.
This time with practical throwing experience and closer distance, everyone threw more accurately,
“Crack-crack~” successive glass liner and bottle shattering sounds; nitroglycerin blobs stuck to the armor surface, then exploded fiercely, instantly immobilizing the left-side two and right-side one, total three lead armored cars.
All armored cars looked intact externally, but explosives detonating tight against the armor outer wall shattered the inner wall into high-velocity fragments, killing and wounding the crew inside.
This was the typical armor-piercing shell killing principle.
“What happened? Did the enemy use flat-fire field guns? No field guns observed ahead!”
“Bad! Attacked again! Confirmed enemy grenadiers! Counterattack quick!”
As Germanian grenadiers threw the third round of bombs, British Army tankers finally recovered from initial panic over the unknown, confirming the attack source.
But in that short time, a total of five armored cars front and back were wrecked.
This British Army armored assault regiment was the army’s treasure, total just over 30 Rolls-Royce armored cars; wrecked five in a few clashes—how to fight now?
“Charge and take those grenadiers with us! Mow them down!”
“No! They’re using thrown weapons with short range; key now is pull back distance beyond their range!”
Without unified on-the-spot command, the front vehicles chose to continue charging, reaching the trench edge to turn turrets and blaze at the grenadiers in the trench.
These brave vehicles did charge through using grenadiers’ attack gaps, mowing down dozens of brave grenadiers, but they were also bombed into ruins by frantically thrown bombs at extreme close range.
The remaining armored cars chose to retreat, pulling back distance.
In the chaos, that armored regiment colonel regimental commander saw things wrong, regardless of personal safety, climbed out of the command vehicle, yelling to order all armored cars to temporarily retreat and keep distance from any suspicious enemy cover.
But at that moment, another burst of MG15 light machine gun bullets crossfired this way, bursting that British Army armored colonel’s head, his skull blown to bits, dying on the spot like the earlier adjutant.
With the regimental commander dead on the spot, the remaining armored cars panicked momentarily and could only withdraw first to pull back distance.
Model seized the chance to launch a counterattack, regaining the defense line.
