Chapter 211: Five-dog Alliance Reduced To Three
December 31, 1915, 7 PM.
The last over 200,000 allied forces in Tekirdag, after mutinying and killing Commander-in-Chief Ian Hamilton, finally surrendered to the Germania Army, dragging along an Italian general.
To avoid accidental gunfire, that Italian general first sent a clear-text telegram to Lelouch notifying him of the surrender intention.
Only then did he have someone wave a white flag, cross the confrontation zone between the two armies, trudge through the shell-cratered muddy ground, and stumble into the Germania Army command post.
“Italian Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief and Acting Joint Expeditionary Force Commander, General Luigi Cadorna, surrenders the expeditionary force to the esteemed Germania general.” General Luigi Cadorna stated respectfully.
In fact, just four months earlier he was only a lieutenant general, but because he performed well in the Gallipoli Campaign, capturing several Ottoman Army defense lines that even Britannians couldn’t breach, while other armies and generals in Italy performed too poorly, he was promoted to general on the spot.
If Germania colleagues heard about this, they would be green with envy—because it’s a weak country, because colleagues performed even worse to highlight him, or simply because colleagues kept getting annihilated to free up positions, those who weren’t too bad could often get promoted.
In a military powerhouse like Germania, even poor colleagues don’t create much contrast, and promotions are much harder.
“Germania 6th Army Group Chief of Staff and concurrent ‘Greater Germania’ Armored Training Division Commander, Lelouch Ritter von Hunt, accepts your surrender on behalf of Germania 6th Army Group and Austria 3rd Army Group.”
Lelouch simply stated this, had the accompanying photographer take a few pictures, and that completed the formalities.
However, Lelouch didn’t have time to build such a large prisoner of war camp to house so many captives yet, so he let the prisoners continue living in their own camps.
The Germania Army just ceased fire and stopped shelling them first, giving them two weeks to hand over all weapons, then after verification, officially receive them, provide meals, and assign tasks to the prisoners.
This buffer period also saved a lot of trouble: first, the remaining troops in the encirclement definitely had enough military rations with them for two weeks, so having them start formal labor after two weeks avoided extra grain transport.
At the same time, because there were too many wounded and sick, the allied forces had already seen massive plague outbreaks, and Lelouch didn’t want these people bringing disease to the attackers, nor did he want to use large-scale sulfonamide to treat their wounds and infections.
Let them go two weeks first, their wounded and disabled soldiers would naturally die off without medicine, existing corpses would be burned and ashes buried as soon as possible to cut off sources of infection, and those already infected but still incubating would mostly manifest by then.
After sanitary conditions improved, Lelouch would receive those truly safe and useful people.
In the end, after actual statistics, the 430,000 troops in the Tekirdag Encirclement lost 80,000 on the first day of breakout attempts, another 63,000 drowned on the last day, and total losses during breakout attempts reached 180,000 dead.
So when Luigi Cadorna decided to surrender, only 250,000 remained in the encirclement, including tens of thousands of wounded and sick.
By January 15, when Lelouch finally received them after safety checks following their self-isolation, burning, and wound handling, only 190,000 remained, with another 60,000 dead from worsening wounds, infections, or plague.
Meanwhile, the British Army outside Hunter-Weston’s encirclement, attempting to rescue friendly forces, lost the entire Canadian Army of 40,000, plus 13,000 from the British 8th Army, for cumulative losses of 53,000.
General Allenby’s troops recalled from Greece lost 45,000 while rescuing friendly forces.
Adding these three parts, British Allied Forces total strength losses reached 528,000, plus over 5,000 navy officers and civilian ship sailors, totaling 533,000.
Of over 650,000 troops, only 130,000 escaped, 530,000 annihilated, including 340,000 total deaths（including wounded soldiers and disabled, plague deaths）, and 190,000 surviving captives.
Before Lelouch arrived, the Gallipoli Campaign had already raged from August to December, three and a half months, with total casualties and disease deaths in the first three and a half months around 200,000, plus over 10,000 navy losses at the time.
Ultimately, including the entire Ottoman-Greece battlefield from mid-August to end of December, a 4.5-month period, Entente Allies deployed 960,000 troops（including 300,000 Italians）, with 210,000 returning and 750,000 lost.
Of which Britannia homeland troops deployed 250,000 cumulative, 140,000 escaped back, 110,000 lost.
Of the remaining 600,000, Italians lost 270,000 with 60,000 escaping back. Lord Canna lost 100,000, ANZAC Corps lost 200,000, Indian soldiers lost 70,000.
Except for Britannians and Italians who escaped back. Lord Canna, ANZAC Corps, and Indian forces were completely annihilated, not a single survivor returned.
This also shows how little Britannians care for colonial troops, always letting main forces escape first in danger, sending colonial cannon fodder to die or cover the rear.
After this battle, ANZAC Corps was thoroughly broken.
These two subservient nations originally had small populations; in 1915, their combined population was under 6 million, and from war start to now, they had cumulatively lost 340,000 to the metropole, 6% of national population, 11.5% of male population.
Their 20-40 year old male population totaled 1.17 million, with 340,000 dead, 30% of that age group’s men.
With such total annihilation in battle, even the best dogs won’t work for their master; both places saw waves refusing to enlist for the metropole. Thereafter, throughout the World War, the Five Dog Alliance was reduced to three.
……
Lelouch was a man of endless duties; he didn’t have time to stay in Istanbul until all captives were fully received and settled.
He just spent the first few days planning and arranging, confirming the enemy handed over main weapons, then ordered troops to rest in place awaiting further commands.
As for himself, he took the train back north, taking his armored division with him; there might still be chances to expand victories on the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain.
At the same time, he needed to reach Kyiv to meet Marshal Rupprecht: first to report work, second to learn final battle details of the Kiev Encirclement, and also accept the duke’s rewards.
He departed by train on January 5, arrived in Kyiv on the 7th; as it was late, he rested overnight and met the duke early next morning.
Duke Rupprecht was very happy to see him back and showed him several latest battle result reports.
These figures weren’t public yet, nor formally finalized for reporting, so still classified. The duke planned to report after he reviewed them.
Lelouch skimmed them.
In the end, in the great Kiev Encirclement, a whopping 1.02 million Lusha Army troops chose to surrender!
Before they were fully encircled at the start, there were at least 1.3 million inside.
So the final battle results were roughly: the entire Southwestern Front, before November campaign start, had 1.57 million remaining total strength（including various reserve new recruits）.
From Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv areas, 240,000 escaped before encirclement, 1.33 million encircled. Later cumulative battle deaths and wound/disease deaths 310,000, captives 1.02 million.
The entire Southwestern Front had 5 army groups total; 13th and 9th Fronts escaped half an army group each, 7th escaped under 1 corps. All breakout personnel combined fell short of 1 full-strength army group.
Thus, it was nearly annihilation of the entire front, equivalent to over 4 army groups.
Additionally, the above results only counted from November, i.e., after Germania Army tank units entered combat. Not yet including September when Germania Army first had armored cars in formed units, victories from southern Kievan Rus’ Crimean Peninsula thrusting toward Zaporizhzhia, Dnepropetrovsk, Donbas, etc.
From September to early November, on the great steppe south of Dnieper River, in Donbas region, Lusha Army cumulatively annihilated 650,000.
After Southwestern Front surrender on December 25, in the last days of 1915, Germania Army continued attacking all of Belgorod, southern half of Kursk, southwestern Voronezh, etc., cumulatively annihilating tens of thousands more—this area saw little fighting, mainly re-engaging prior breakout escapees, focused on enclosing ground.
Adding both phases, from early September to end December, Lusha Army total losses 1.33 million + 650,000 + tens of thousands in Belgorod and Kursk, total annihilated troops reached astonishing 2.03 million!
In other words, full Germania 6th Army Group, bulk of Germania 10th Army Group, plus assisting Austria 3rd Army Group, line-filling assisting Austria 5th Army Group, plus Gallipoli theater Ottoman Army.
These forces, in the entire second half of 1915 Southeast Front theater, achieved annihilation of 2.03 million Lusha Army, 750,000 British-Italian allies, total 2.78 million Entente troops.
And in first half of 1915, in Carpathian-Gorlice etc. campaigns（Hungarian Campaign）, they annihilated 1.71 million Entente troops（Lusha Army 770,000, Serbian Army 780,000, Romanian Army 160,000. Romanian Army later switched sides）
So adding upper and lower halves, entire 1915 Southeast Front total annihilated 4.5 million Entente troops. Including 2.58 million deaths（including post-wound/disease deaths）, captives 1.92 million（upper half 700,000 + Kiev 1.02 million + Gallipoli 190,000）
Such great merit, even if only a tiny portion credited to Lelouch, would mean huge adjustments to his promotion, nobility title, and position.
After reviewing the report, Lelouch saw nothing needing adjustment and suggested Duke Rupprecht report it as is directly.
Lelouch only had views on subsequent spoils handling and captured goods reporting, hoping the duke be prudent and not hand over too much, so that part could be shelved and data adjusted slowly.
The duke understood, knowing Lelouch did it for the nation to avoid resource misallocation, so said no more.
After the merit telegram reached Berlin, Emperor Wilhelm was overjoyed, immediately rewarding Duke Rupprecht first, with others to be calculated and discussed slowly.
Emperor Wilhelm ordered General Staff Headquarters to expedite procedures to award Marshal Rupprecht the Grand Iron Cross!
In the first half, the empire’s first marshal to receive the Grand Iron Cross in this World War was Duke Rupprecht’s second uncle, Old Marshal Leopold.
Later in second half, Marshal Mackensen earned it through successive victories in Baltic Sea direction, total annihilation of Lusha Baltic Fleet, even forcing down Baltic Fleet’s two strongest capital ships including flagship Sevastopol and Baltic Fleet Commander-in-Chief General von Essen. So Mackensen became the second marshal to win Grand Iron Cross in the World War.
Now, past 1916 New Year, 1916’s first wave of Grand Iron Cross awards was finally coming.
Previous Old Marshal Leopold and Marshal Mackensen also received Grand Iron Cross in Earth plane, among 5 recipients. Earth plane’s other 3 were the emperor himself, Marshal Hindenburg, and General Ludendorff, usually in later rounds; for balance, some consolation prizes issued, including the emperor’s to himself.
So due to Lelouch’s butterfly effect, the emperor felt balance needed this time; ultimately in slight compromise, emperor issued 4 Grand Iron Crosses at once: one to Marshal Rupprecht, one to emperor himself, one to Chief of Staff General Falkenhayn, one to Marshal Hindenburg.
Marshal Rupprecht as top person in charge of second half Southeast Front campaigns was undoubtedly this round’s number one Grand Iron Cross recipient. After all, his second uncle as top in first half had already received one.
The other three were incidental. The emperor felt he needed one in this wave too, or else other imperial states’ leaders having Grand Iron Cross while Prussia’s king and empire’s emperor lacked would hurt prestige.
Chief of Staff Falkenhayn in Earth plane got East Front merits too late and had Verdun mess before, merits and demerits canceled out no Grand Iron Cross. This plane no Western Front Verdun yet, East Front merits before Western Front faults, so Falkenhayn got one.
Hindenburg was for faction balance; at war start, empire’s propaganda department hyped him as great war hero too long, now into third round without one would be awkward. Though this year his East Front performance was just steady, due to few resources allocated: no troop supplements or new weapons for him, no rice for empty pot cook.
But Hindenburg’s chief of staff, General Ludendorff, wasn’t so lucky. Earth plane he got third batch, this plane not.
Probably have to wait and slowly compete with youngsters like Lelouch at the table hereafter.
Hearing he wasn’t in Grand Iron Cross list, Ludendorff felt indignant inside, birthing intent to properly compete with Lelouch.
Anyway, this plane’s Grand Iron Cross total so far, due to Lelouch’s butterfly effect, became 6.
World War can go on long, future may produce new Grand Iron Crosses, who knows.
After handling Duke Rupprecht’s Grand Iron Cross, it was time for the duke to reward Lelouch.
