Chapter 47: What Rommel Couldn’t Do, Lelouch Can Still Achieve
At exactly 2 p.m., the 1st Assault Battalion where Lelouch was located, on the British Army front line position on the southwest side of the railway, once again breached several gaps about one kilometer deep.
The A Company he personally commanded was also gradually exhausted and in dire need of a short rest; the soldiers all stayed in the trenches, gulping down cold water.
But the overall offensive momentum did not stop. Captain Rommel’s B Company, with great tacit understanding, passed over the position Lelouch had just seized and continued infiltrating and pushing forward.
The key to commando tactics lies in the continuity of the attack!
It is better to have fewer soldiers committed to the front line at once and narrower gaps opened, allowing the reserves to rest fully, but interruptions and disconnections must never be allowed.
As Rommel passed by Lelouch, Lelouch grabbed him and shared a few insights he had just observed:
“The enemy’s will to resist doesn’t seem that resolute; it looks like they were frightened by our midday supply bombardment’s fire support. So they dare not defend the entire line tightly, fearing our artillery will come back for another strike. You need to exploit this defensive weakness of the enemy army and see if you can make use of it.”
……
Rommel quickly took over from Lelouch and continued infiltrating northwest.
B Company was in prime condition, attacking with extreme ferocity.
In comparison, the British Army opposite was exhausted, with everyone worn out since noon without time to rest, having been tense for two hours.
Rommel had two platoons of submachine gun teams advance in a loose infiltration formation, soon infiltrating another trench and once again suppressing a group of enemy soldiers using Lee-Enfield Rifles.
In the chaos of melee combat, the enemy seemed cornered and desperate, with engagement distances getting closer and closer.
The British Army was also bloodthirsty now; seeing that trading shots was too disadvantageous, some soldiers lay in piles of corpses, letting Rommel’s vanguard platoon get close, then suddenly rose and thrust with gleaming bayonets.
The assault team member at the very front was caught off guard and stabbed to death directly. The submachine gunners behind reacted immediately, frantically spraying fire to empty their magazines, mowing down five or six enemies in the narrow space.
But he also had no time to change magazines; both sides were already in melee combat, so he could only discard the submachine gun and grab an entrenching tool to hack back.
The German Army further back also feared friendly fire and all grabbed entrenching tools and Mauser rifles with bayonets to join the fray.
Amid the dull “thud thud” sounds, British Army soldiers kept having their skulls smashed and necks severed.
In the fierce battle, the British Army also stabbed to death and wounded several German soldiers, but soon they found their bayonets could only attack, not defend.
In the narrow trench, once they tried to block the enemy’s shovel with their rifle horizontally, the bayonet on the rifle would easily get stuck in the side wall’s soil, and then they would be clumsily split open.
After the initial melee chaos, the German assault team members quickly summed up a simple lesson from this life-and-death struggle.
They spontaneously formed melee groups of two or three; some specialized in blocking, others in hacking. The British Army opposite could only thrust blindly, and the difference was clear.
After a bloody fight, the British Army remnants finally collapsed; while fleeing, they were picked off from behind by a burst of submachine gun fire, leaving a trail of corpses.
Pure infantry trench warfare simply cannot stop the assault team!
Rommel’s company thus steadily advanced at a speed of one or two hundred meters every quarter hour.
Although the breakthrough was very narrow, it was deep enough; he was not worried at all about his rear being cut off and pressed relentlessly into the depth.
……
Major General Rawlinson of the British 3rd Division, responsible for the defense line south of Bailleul, soon learned of the abnormal collapse on the front line.
The infiltration by Lelouch and Rommel’s assault teams had him at his wits’ end.
“Division Commander! The enemy’s mysterious assault teams have breached two kilometers of our positions in two hours! I’ve never seen the enemy attack so desperately! Their close-range fire is too fierce!”
Listening to the reports from front-line regimental commanders and battalion commanders, Rawlinson’s head throbbed; he slammed the table and roared: “What about the called-in artillery barrage? Why hasn’t the artillery wiped out the charging enemy!”
“Division Commander! The enemy’s assault scale is too small and too flexible! Artillery response is too slow! Expanding the bombardment area would easily cause friendly fire!” Front-line officers desperately complained, trying to prove it wasn’t their incompetence but the enemy’s cunning.
Rawlinson was so anxious his forehead veins bulged; he gnashed his teeth and roared: “Expand the bombardment area! Don’t worry about friendly fire! Tell your men to stay down! Hide in the trenches!”
Of course, this had a cost; with soldiers not showing their heads, vigilance and defense would be compromised. But Rawlinson now chose the lesser evil, hoping to expand the artillery coverage and wipe out those unknown enemies.
……
“The enemy’s artillery fire is getting more intense; they’re bombing their own people too! We need to be careful too—never show our heads, just assault along the trenches and advance along the communication trenches!”
Rawlinson’s change in bombardment strategy was immediately perceived by Rommel.
It had to be said that in terms of battlefield talent and instinct, Rawlinson, though a major general, was far inferior to Captain Rommel.
After losing just over a dozen soldiers, Rommel realized the new problem, abandoned all attempts at “shortcuts over the surface,” and switched to strictly assaulting along communication trenches.
Although communication trenches were fewer in number, sometimes requiring detours or clearing more enemy trench guards, it was still better than advancing on the surface under indiscriminate artillery coverage.
Rommel was very clear about his strengths and weaknesses. With submachine guns, he wasn’t afraid of several times more riflemen when clearing trenches!
His adaptability quickly showed results.
Rawlinson had just used “indiscriminate bombardment” to check the assault battalion not long ago, only to have it cracked by the new assault tactic of “submachine gun teams focusing on clearing communication trenches.” Rommel’s losses increased somewhat, but his advance speed held steady, and the kill-exchange ratio remained dominant.
The remnants of British 3rd Division endured another half hour of beating before Rawlinson sorted out the latest front-line bad news.
Fortunately, his basic competency as a major general was still there, and he quickly thought of another countermeasure.
“The enemy has given up surface attacks; we need to adjust heavy machine gun position deployment accordingly! Stop blocking surface routes—deploy them all laterally along our own trenches! Especially block the communication trenches between the front and rear trench lines!”
After so many losses, the British Army finally learned a lesson from blood and lives.
Since this mysterious small-unit assault wouldn’t take the usual paths, placing bulky Vickers Heavy Machine Gun teams in their original positions to “block usual routes” was meaningless.
British Army heavy machine guns also needed to adapt and deploy toward the directions where the enemy was most likely to appear!
British Army heavy machine gun teams near the assault team’s attack direction all began hastily disassembling and relocating guns.
Soon, black gun muzzles were aimed at communication trenches originally used only for friendly retreats.
……
“Attack, continue the attack! Thoroughly disrupt the enemy!”
Since taking over, Rommel had advanced another two kilometers or so; now it was four or five p.m., and he was still high-spirited, fatigued but extremely excited.
At noon, there were still 6 kilometers of enemy depth defense ahead; in the first half of the afternoon, Lelouch pushed forward 2 kilometers, and now he had advanced another 2 kilometers, so only the last 2 kilometers remained to reach the edge of Bailleul, very promising to achieve after dark.
In the era of infantry offensives, cumulatively advancing 9 kilometers in one day through fortified areas was godlike speed! Rommel felt that his battalion and this tactic would surely be written into war history.
However, as Rommel continued the attack, a sudden change occurred ahead.
Several of his submachine gunners had just cleared a corner where a communication trench met a main trench with grenades, then stuck out their guns to spray fire, and routinely advanced in a crouch to search.
But after just over a dozen steps, the “rat-tat-tat” of heavy machine gun fire rang out!
An entire assault group of eight soldiers mostly fell in agony in an instant; the few uninjured survived only by immediately dropping prone behind the dead.
A heavy machine gun had wiped out an 8-man assault group in one go! It was all because he had pushed too aggressively and gotten careless!
Rommel felt a rush of blood to the head but quickly forced himself to calm down, gritting his teeth with a ferocious expression:
“Everyone take cover in place! The British dogs have moved heavy machine guns to enfilade the communication trenches! Don’t go up!”
Immediately, a platoon leader crouched over to him for orders: “Company Commander! Should we call for artillery? How about calling the Cannon Battalion for support!”
Sweat visibly beaded on Rommel’s forehead; after a brief thought, he gritted his teeth and refused: “Calling artillery support is too slow! Reporting, spotting, calibration, bombardment—at least 20 minutes!
The enemy has only one or two heavy machine guns; no need to drag it out that long. Grenade launcher teams? Get me several more grenade launcher teams up here, not just your platoon!”
Immediately, two platoons assembled 6 grenade launcher teams and began observing the positions of the two British heavy machine gun teams cross-firing the communication trench.
“400 yards, direction 77, trial shot!”
The grenade arced through the sky at nearly 70 degrees, flying hundreds of yards before landing far behind the British-controlled trench.
“Quick, adjust! First shot too far!”
The grenade launcher teams repeatedly adjusted and fired five or six more, still short.
Ordinary soldiers didn’t understand the math, and had little experience with this new weapon, so they panicked.
Fortunately, Rommel was quick-thinking and tactically sound; he furrowed his brow in rapid thought, then suddenly got it and decisively ordered:
“Don’t worry about why it’s short! Hold the grenade launcher steady without shaking on trial shots! Directly shorten the pre-aimed range based on how much the previous shot fell short—all teams, 3 rounds rapid fire coverage!”
Following Rommel’s new orders, the 6 teams gripped their grenade launchers tightly, improvised stabilizers, and minimized recoil deviation; after the observer estimated the shortfall, they shortened accordingly and fired multiple salvos.
Nearly 20 grenades flew toward that position, finally obliterating the two cross-deployed Vickers Heavy Machine Guns.
Seeing the result satisfactory, Rommel confirmed his flash of insight and seized the moment to instruct his NCOs:
“Use this method to continue the attack! Handle heavy machine gun blocks on communication trenches the same way!
Your pre-war training method for grenade launchers was too mechanical. The training ground was flat, so you memorized standard holds to estimate range.
But the real battlefield isn’t a training ground—muddy and uneven; you can’t even find flat firing positions! So hands mustn’t shake! Stabilize the tube before firing, adjust based on previous error, ignore theoretical values!”
Grenade launchers were much lighter than mortars but harder to use, lacking a base and pre-leveling like mortars.
So grenadiers relied on muscle memory for standard actions to estimate range, leading to large errors.
One’s stance might not be level; on sloped ground, environmental error was introduced, rendering trained theory and memory mostly useless.
Like a driving test candidate memorizing rocks and trees on the flat exam yard to reverse perfectly—but on real roads with changed references, needing seven or eight tries to park.
Rommel’s battlefield insight was the most practical.
B Company’s grenadiers learned his analysis on the fly, regained confidence, and pressed on with comrades.
……
“The enemy has massed grenade launchers! Our heavy machine gun teams blocking communication trenches have been annihilated!”
“Colonel, we can’t hold! Enemy fire is too flexible and fierce; the lads are bombed senseless!”
As Rommel honed his tactics, he pushed hundreds more meters, nearing Bailleul.
The enemy had no new tricks to adapt and block him; Rommel grew bolder, with only ammunition consumption left to hinder.
Blitzkrieg or Storm Commando Units consumed massive logistics.
Rommel found rapid grenade launcher fire cleared enemy heavy machine gun nodes but burned through company grenades fast.
Such salvos to kill two cross-deployed heavy machine guns cost over a hundred rounds.
After neutralizing three to five fire points, plus prior use, Rommel’s company found its grenades nearly depleted!
Even with a dozen per soldier, it wasn’t enough for the whole company!
The same issue hit Captain Lister’s C Company.
“No choice, can’t push speed anymore. Conserve ammo from now on. Better slow—call precise artillery support, and have Deputy Battalion Commander Lelouch’s A Company hurry up to relieve us. Whether we break through Bailleul today depends on his A Company.”
Rommel compromised, halting helplessly before a rammed-earth bunker line, then had platoons report positions for Cannon Battalion fire support.
10 minutes later, Major Keitel’s 105mm cannons began firing toward the assault team’s reported areas.
First salvo missed badly, but signalmen kept correcting; 3-4 minutes per adjustment, after three, shells hit the British rammed-earth bunkers squarely, destroying a 2-pounder anti-tank gun and three heavy machine guns.
The British opposite were shocked again, unable to fathom how such deep-penetrating small assault teams could call such precise bombardment.
British panic set in; with Rommel’s desperate charge, losing strongpoints, they retreated again, tearing another defense line gap.
Unfortunately, though precise, the pace was much slower. 20-30 minutes per strongpoint—wouldn’t go far before dark.
When Lelouch brought rested A Company to relieve, Rommel had only pushed a few hundred meters further before exhaustion.
“Whether we bypass Bailleul tonight depends on you; we’ve done all we can.” Rommel sighed, regretful yet proud.
“Don’t worry, leave it to me—you’ve done great.” Lelouch reassured Rommel and Lister.
Rommel: “One more issue: bypassing Bailleul solely on rear artillery won’t work. Further ahead, we’ll exceed Major Keitel’s Cannon Battalion max range—we’ve advanced a full 9 kilometers today! Then we’d wait for Major Keitel to advance and redeploy tomorrow.”
Lelouch: “No problem—the deeper, the weaker and less fortified enemy positions. Without precise cannon support, I’ll break through with grenade launchers!”
“Grenade launchers aren’t as easy in combat as drills—I found several issues today…” Rommel quickly explained his problems.
Lelouch frowned briefly, then relaxed.
Confident in his math and geometry, he patted Rommel’s shoulder: “Relax—I’m architecture grad from Oreo Royal Academy of Arts; geometric calculation is my strength. Environmental error? No issue.”
——
PS: Battlefield details might seem trivial, causing drop-offs.
Didn’t rush—today another 8k words. Second update 5k.
Begging everyone to keep reading—don’t call it filler; book’s push and shelf depend on this.
For free period daily 8k—rare!
Even if too detailed, too much math/counting—haven’t charged yet, right.
