Chapter 44: Pincer Offensive, 240,000 Vs 190,000—this Time The Advantage Is Truly Ours!
“Major Bock, Major Rundstedt, the Army Group’s operational plan has come down, come over quickly to look at it together! It should be the day after tomorrow or so when the snow lightens a bit, then full-scale attack!”
Late on the night of December 18th, in the town of Armentieres in the western suburbs of Lille City, inside a winery temporarily requisitioned as a military garrison.
Bock and Rundstedt and others had originally planned to rest, but Captain Lelouch braved the snowstorm, drove back to the town from the Division Headquarters in Lille City, and brought a military order and several military maps.
In order to prevent news leaks before the battle, important communications between front-line units were changed to direct in-person notifications. At this time, Lelouch’s Faction’s advantage in driving was very useful, allowing him to legitimately learn high-level insider information earlier than the two battalion commander majors.
After all, Lelouch already clearly knew that the Germania Navy’s cipher had been deciphered by the Britannians, although this did not mean the Army’s cipher had also been deciphered, but it was still better to be careful.
With Lelouch, such a counterintelligence deception expert familiar with history, the 6th Army Group’s radio discipline before the major battle was also optimized a lot.
The German Army did not completely maintain radio silence—unusually quiet would also seem too fake, so just maintaining the same communication density as usual was fine. Trivial matters continued to use radio, important matters used in-person notification.
At this moment, the two battalion commanders heard the noise and immediately lost all sleepiness, simply rubbed their eyes with wet towels, quickly cleared the table, and prepared to carefully listen to Lelouch relay the superior’s deployment.
Lelouch spread out the military order and maps, and concisely introduced: “The specific attack route has been decided, let me first briefly describe the friendly forces’ movements.
The target of friendly 4th Army Group this time is to first take back Ostend and Diksmuide lost during the previous elastic defense, then in the second phase advance along the Coastal Highway, striving to take back Nieuwpoort, De Panne, and Dunkirk.
Our 6th Army Group’s goal is to set out from Armentieres, along the Lille-Armentieres-Bailleul-Stenford/Cassel-Wormhout-Bergues-Grande-Synthe-Dunkirk railway line, and keep pushing as far as possible.
Of course, this route is over 60 kilometers in straight-line distance, and considering the railway’s twists and turns, avoiding some mountainous areas and hills, the whole journey is at least 80 kilometers.
While the 4th Army Group takes Ostend, then pushes along the Coastal Highway to Dunkirk, the whole journey is 45 kilometers.
So in reality, we probably don’t need to push all the way to Dunkirk; halfway there, the 4th Army Group’s friendly forces will come around early to link up with us. This way, even without taking Dunkirk, as long as we encircle the British Army’s main force in advance and achieve the annihilation task, it would count as completing the campaign goal.
The lower limit of our advance task is to at least take Stenford and Cassel. Because Stenford has a railway branch line fork, going east from there, passing through Poperinge, and finally leading to Ypres where the British Army’s headquarters is located.
So taking Stenford and Cassel means at least cutting off the British Army’s railway line from Dunkirk Port transporting rear sea supplies into Ypres City. Even if the encirclement is not fully closed, it can make the enemies on the Ypres Highlands gradually run out of ammunition and supplies.
Even if the enemy finally abandons the city and breaks out, without the railway available, they can only go through the muddy flooded area on the north side of the Ypres Highlands, which would require abandoning all heavy equipment and supplies. At that time, we can just bite the enemy’s tail and pursue to heavily damage the enemy!”
Lelouch carefully explained it once against the map, and Bock and Rundstedt were also very professional and immediately understood.
Bock also concisely summarized and confirmed:
“So, if this plan can be smoothly implemented and both sides perform well enough. The most perfect situation is that the 4th Army Group and we link up between Bergues-Wormhout, encircling the British Army’s main force.
If our attack is frustrated and performance is not as expected, then at least reach Stenford to cut off the enemy supply railway, and hope the 4th Army Group bears a bit more to link up with us at Stenford.
If it’s the 4th Army Group’s attack that is frustrated and performance not as expected, then we have to bear more and push all the way to Dunkirk to wait for them? The gap between Dunkirk and Stenford depends on who performs better—the capable one does more?”
Lelouch: “Exactly, that’s it. The Army Group Staff Department considered both the best and worst cases when making the plan; the former is the lower limit, the latter is the upper limit.”
Bock got the answer, but still frowned tightly, looking at the map, not knowing what he was thinking.
On the contrary, Rundstedt, who had been silently listening, suddenly spoke up to add a question: “Have the reconnaissance troops figured out the enemy’s force distribution? How many enemies do we face directly? How many enemies does the 4th Army Group face directly?”
Lelouch: “Our direct attacking troops total about 15 divisions. Our 6th Army Group has 12 divisions, needing to deploy 6 on the flanks to guard against the French Army from the Arras and Lens directions, leaving 6 for the attack.
The friendly 4th Army Group doesn’t need to worry about flanks—their flank is directly the sea. So out of 12 divisions, as long as 3 hold the front of the Ypres Salient, the remaining 9 can all be used for flanking breakthroughs.
The enemy’s total forces, including the entire Britannia Expeditionary Force, are divided into 3 corps and 7 infantry divisions. British Army infantry divisions are the same as ours, full strength of 18,000 men, 7 divisions theoretically 126,000 men.
However, after several bloody battles like the Mons campaign, the enemy has also suffered quite a few losses. Especially the British 6th and 7th Divisions of the 3rd Corps, two-thirds of their living forces were annihilated. Currently, the 7 infantry divisions have about 85,000 to 90,000 remaining combat troops.
In addition, the Britannian Expeditionary Force has 1 cavalry corps under it, with 3 cavalry divisions. Cavalry divisions have half the manpower of infantry divisions, full strength 9,000 men, also somewhat depleted before, currently the 3 cavalry divisions total over 22,000 remaining.
Besides the Britannian homeland’s expeditionary force, they also have some troops from dominions and colonies.
Including Canadian 1st Division and 2nd Division, totaling 36,000 men.
And ANZAC Corps, totaling 18,000 men.
Finally, from the South Asia colonies, Lahore 3rd Division and 7th Division; these colonial divisions each only have 12,000 men, totaling 24,000 men.
So, what we face totals 7 Britannian infantry divisions, 3 Britannian cavalry divisions, 2 Canadian Army divisions, 1 ANZAC Corps, 2 Lahore divisions, also 15 division-level combat units, totaling 190,000 men, of which 110,000 Britannians and 80,000 colonials.
Our army’s 15 first-wave attacking divisions are all replenished in numbers, total force should be 240,000, plus 9 co-defending filling the line divisions, which can also be drawn up as reserves in emergencies, about 150,000 men.
According to current intelligence, British 1st Corps is deployed in the center of the Ypres Salient, enemy cavalry corps and ANZAC Corps as general reserve are also there.
British 2nd Corps is deployed on the north wing coastal line of Diksmuide and Ostend, facing our 4th Army Group.
British 3rd Corps is deployed directly opposite us at Bailleul. Additionally, the enemy headquarters probably considered that British 3rd Corps has already suffered heavy losses, so placed Canadian 1st and 2nd Divisions as second-line reserves at the railway choke point Stenford behind British 3rd Corps. If we attack British 3rd Corps, Canadian 1st and 2nd can quickly reinforce.
As for the Lahore men pulled from the South Asia peninsula, currently unknown where they are. They might even still be undergoing emergency training in the rear at Dover, not yet crossed the Strait. The combat quality of those tropical fools is probably looked down on even by the Britannians themselves.”
Rundstedt listened and concisely summarized: “So no matter the overall situation, currently our Baria 6th Division and 12th Division have to directly face the two divisions of Britannian 3rd Corps?
As for second-line troops, they have Canadian 1st/2nd Divisions as backup, and perhaps the faster-moving cavalry corps can quickly reinforce, but we also have 4 divisions in reserve.
Overall, the attacking and defending sides’ establishments are still equal, but our army is more fully equipped, this battle can be fought.”
In World War I, the defender’s geographical advantage was extremely obvious; if the attacker-defender force ratio was 1:1, based on the experience of the previous few months, the attacker had never succeeded.
Attacker full strength and defender understrength theoretically has a bit of possibility, depending on battlefield performance.
It’s not that the 6th Army Group doesn’t want to commit more forces in the Armentieres direction, but this battlefield width is just that wide, can only commit two divisions first, and the enemy can only fit two divisions.
If flanking further south to widen the attack front, it would hit the French Army’s positions, drawing in the much larger French Army. And in the current situation, the 6th Army Group has indeed detached several divisions to contain the flanking French Army.
After the three main officers of the assault battalion thoroughly understood the enemy situation, the next step was to assign specific assault positions.
The Army Group has not made final deployment for Baria 6th/12th Divisions’ specific attack positions, still allowing front-line troops to fine-tune based on actual conditions, but final decisions must be reported and filed.
Considering that between German Army-controlled Armentieres and British Army-controlled Bailleul, there isn’t much room to maneuver.
So the Army Group’s preliminary intention is to have the two divisions each select one side.
The railway connecting the two places runs northwest-southeast, so one division main attacks along the northeast side of the railway, the other along the southwest side.
Anyway, impossible to attack directly along the railway, that would have no cover and turn into live targets for the British Army heavy artillery group deployed on the edge of the Ypres Highlands to the north—
The Noir Mountain and Kemmel Hill two high grounds on the south edge of Ypres Highlands are only 7~8 kilometers from the nearest point on this railway. Considering the high ground’s elevation bonus, 75mm Schneider rapid-fire cannons can cover and blockade the railway.
So, after thoroughly laying all cards on the table, Lelouch also directly asked: “Major Bock, Major Rundstedt, the higher-ups don’t understand the front-line specifics, so no forced assignment. The divisions corresponding to our two battalions are both stationed in the Town of Armentieres, so we can go either side when the time comes.
So it specifically depends on what you two want to choose; once decided, it must be finally reported—who wants to attack along the northeast side of the railway? The remaining one goes southwest side.
The disadvantage of the northeast side is it’s closer to Ypres Highlands, more likely to draw enemy artillery fire from the highlands. The advantage is higher terrain, more hills and woodland cover.
The southwest side’s pros and cons are the opposite: farther from Ypres Highlands, less likely to be shelled, but lower and more waterlogged terrain, needing to pass through many waist-deep muddy flooded areas.”
Bock glanced at the map, already having a plan in mind, but he didn’t want to gain a bad reputation for “bullying people by relying on having a chief of staff uncle,” so he let Rundstedt choose first.
Rundstedt was also knowledgeable, and after looking briefly, judged: “If I say, better to put both assault battalions on the railway southwest side to attack. Mud isn’t a problem, heavy snow will freeze it soon. Being too close to Ypres Highlands and enemy artillery fire too fierce is the real killer.”
Lelouch: “What you say makes sense, but on the first day of attack, the enemy and our front engagement width isn’t enough, hard to stretch out space to fit two assault battalions. At least wait for some breakthrough on the first day, front lines more interlocked and able to fit more men, then consider your idea.”
Rundstedt sighed: “So, the essence of the problem is, first day needs southwest side main attack and northeast side feint to disperse enemy attention. After southwest side breakthrough, then concentrate assault troops on southwest side—
Since so, my battalion will take the 6th Division for the feint, strive to make a bit of noise on the first day, then let 6th Division’s filling the line troops consolidate my gains, and at night I’ll sneak across the railway line to the southwest side to link up with you, continue deep penetration.”
Rundstedt was very sensible and proactively took on the less glamorous feint task.
Bock, seeing this, felt a bit embarrassed instead and proactively extended an olive branch: “No matter who feints or main attacks, enemy kills and battle results count separately, but the first day’s breakthrough results, split equally between you and me!”
Bock was too lazy to take petty advantage on merits, reached out and gripped hard with Rundstedt, and the two thus reached a tacit understanding.
——
PS: Don’t complain I’m slow, today’s second chapter really starts the battle.
Mainly both sides’ 200,000-man major campaign, just enemy and our defense line force allocation deployment, main attack feint directions, battlefield geographical pros and cons, enough to introduce a whole chapter, not me padding.
