Chapter 48: Master Math, Physics, And Chemistry, And Fear No One In Conquering The World
The sky gradually darkened, and Lelouch could already clearly see the rows of farmhouse bungalows in Bailleul Town through his telescope.
An hour ago, after taking over the mission from Company Commander Rommel and Company Commander Lister’s companies, Lelouch led his A Company in continuing their brave assault, advancing nearly another kilometer.
If he had chosen to directly assault the town at that time, he should have already reached the edge of the town by now.
But he chose to bypass the town, avoiding the area with the densest defensive forces, and conducted a deeper infiltration.
So up to now, he had always maintained a certain distance from the town, and the enemies and defensive fortifications directly in front of him had finally become sparse.
In the early stages of the World War, even when the British Army and French Army used elastic defense, the depth of their positions was generally only 3 to 5 kilometers, with particularly important places having 7 to 8 kilometers depth.
The German Army did the best in this regard, often setting up elastic defense positions with 10 kilometers depth.
Today, on the Ypres front line, between Armantieres and Bailleul. Because the rear of this railway sustained the lifeline of the Ypres Highlands, the fortified positions operated by the British Army here had already reached an unprecedented 10 kilometers depth, as good as the German Army.
But who would have thought that such a deep fortified zone had been breached by the German Army’s Storm Commando Tactics in just one day!
The “assault speed record” achieved by Lelouch and the others today had already surpassed at least three times the second-place record since the start of this World War!
……
After observing the enemy situation for a moment while catching his breath, Lelouch put down his telescope and retracted his head into the trench.
“Company Commander, have some cold coffee.” His guard squad leader Klose handed over a lunchbox of cold coffee that was already nearly freezing, along with a piece of black bread.
Nearby, the three platoon leaders Model, Dieter, and Schweinsteiger were also gathered together, similarly gnawing on black bread.
They had finished the sausages they carried by noon, so they could only eat bread in the evening.
Because pure pork products were really too unpalatable in their cold state, everyone was accustomed to eating them up as quickly as possible once in hand.
Black bread, on the other hand, didn’t matter if it was cold or not; even if it was snowing from the sky, it was still edible.
Lelouch swallowed a mouthful of coffee to moisten his throat and began encouraging his brothers again: “Everyone, push a little harder. Don’t think that bypassing the town means walking four kilometers; we can definitely get around it tonight!
Because we have already broken through the heavily fortified zone. Further ahead, both the density of enemy distribution and the density of defensive fortifications will drop significantly!”
As soon as Lelouch finished speaking, the clueless Schweinsteiger immediately believed him, and Klose, who had unconditional fanatical trust in him, didn’t question it either.
Only Second Lieutenant Model, who had the most solid tactical knowledge among them, couldn’t help but remind him:
“Sir, but we have also completely left Major Keitel’s cannon battalion’s fire support range. We have advanced nearly ten kilometers! The radio has become useless.”
Lelouch patted his shoulder: “This issue was already reminded to me by Company Commander Rommel during the handover earlier. I already have a countermeasure.”
As Lelouch spoke, he drank the remaining cold coffee in the lunchbox in one gulp and scooped a lunchbox of snow water into it.
Then, while pulling out the simplest clinometer from his pocket, he pointed to a rammed earth machine gun bunker three hundred meters away to the northwest and ordered the nearby grenade launcher soldiers:
“See that distant rammed earth machine gun bunker? Move the grenade launcher over the lunchbox, then use this simple clinometer to measure the elevation angle, estimate the range, and fire a ranging shot!”
The soldiers weren’t well-educated and lacked geometric visualization and physics thinking, but they at least knew to follow orders, so they carried it out step by step.
Regular artillery was equipped with a “gun quadrant” to measure the gun barrel elevation angle. That was the thing often seen in World War II black-and-white footage, placed on the gun barrel resembling a protractor.
That device had its own level tube and could easily measure the angle between the gun barrel and the horizontal plane.
But the quadrant was relatively expensive, precise, and fragile, so mortar teams weren’t equipped with it, let alone grenade launchers, which could only use a simplified “clinometer” instead, at the cost of omitting the “find horizontal plane” function.
To compensate for this, mortar teams had to level the gun mount baseplate before firing. Grenade launchers had no baseplate and could never eliminate this error on their own, which was why they were so difficult to use.
In the afternoon, Rommel’s company’s grenade launcher teams repeatedly miscalculated ranges when taking out fire points, wasting a lot of ammunition, mainly for this reason.
Talented grassroots officers like Second Lieutenant Model and Second Lieutenant Dieter originally thought this problem was unsolvable, but upon hearing Company Commander Lelouch casually explain it in a few words, their eyes immediately lit up.
Right! If the grenade launcher couldn’t find an absolutely level ground as the elevation reference surface, then just catch a lunchbox of water directly and use the water surface as the reference surface, right?
The still water surface in nature was definitely absolutely level.
And while they were pondering the principle, several grenade launcher operators had already completed aiming under Lelouch’s guidance, and three grenade launchers fired simultaneously. The grenades flew hundreds of yards, and one of them accurately hit the rammed earth bunker!
“Quickly seize the position while the opportunity is there! Light machine gun suppression!”
“The company commander’s guidance has truly turned decay into magic!”
The “infallible calculations” of their own commander had always been the best morale booster. The originally quite fatigued soldiers, upon seeing the godlike gunner take out the bunker with the first shot, all forgot their exhaustion and charged forward bravely.
The troops continued advancing with overwhelming momentum, and the soldiers gained even more trust and expectation in the strike effect of the grenade launchers.
And when Lelouch encountered bunkers or machine gun fire points blocking the way during the advance, he adapted to the terrain and continued to develop more variations on the previous tactical guidance.
“If you feel the dim visibility is poor or the lunchbox area is too small to measure, you can also make full use of natural water surfaces—we are operating in the Ypres region now! The water accumulated everywhere from the Belgians blowing up the dikes!
You must learn to observe the environment! Use the relatively calm spots of accumulated water in the trenches; before firing the grenade launcher, hold it loosely over the puddle to measure the elevation angle!
If the water surface can’t calm down, try to find spots with floating ice! It’s winter now! These little tricks won’t be written in the combat manuals; the staff department couldn’t anticipate such special environments! But those good at math, physics, and thinking must learn to adapt on the fly!”
If Company Commander Rommel’s command style was like a blazing plunder, and Model was like a steady forest,
then Lelouch’s command style was that of a scholarly general, quantifying everything that could be calculated with precision.
This posture of having everything under control not only had real effects but also made the soldiers particularly reassured, always feeling that everything was in hand, and there was nothing to fear even in the most dangerous environments.
Seeing a spot reveals the whole leopard; with such chillingly calm command, the nerves of the entire company’s soldiers were as steadfast as steel, executing the company commander’s orders without doubt, plunging deeper into the infiltration without hesitation.
When night fully fell, Lelouch had completely torn open the enemy defense line southwest of Bailleul Town, infiltrating to the side and rear of the defense line.
Subsequently, Major Bock led the entire battalion in infiltrating as well, further widening the gap in the defense line. Then, Major Rundstedt’s 2nd Assault Battalion, which had been conducting a feint attack on the north side of the railway during the day, also slipped to the south side of the railway under cover of night, bypassing to the front line.
By the early hours of the morning, even Colonel Lister’s 16th Regiment of the 12th Division had wormed through the gap, forming a semi-encirclement on the southwest flank of Bailleul Town.
The British Army’s 3rd Corps in the town’s defensive sector, if it didn’t leave now, would definitely have its railway retreat cut off tomorrow.
At that point, even if not annihilated, it would lose the passage to retreat via the main road. If it ultimately failed to hold the town, it would have to retreat northeast to the Ypres Highlands.
But if the British 3rd Corps retreated under those circumstances, it could at most evacuate personnel; much equipment would absolutely not be movable in time—heavy supplies and equipment could only be fully transferred by railway. Climbing the hillsides and hills without proper roads to the Ypres Highlands, soldiers couldn’t carry much load on their persons.
……
Inside Bailleul Town, British 3rd Corps Commander Lieutenant General Putney only truly realized the extent of the enemy’s strength and the danger of his own potential destruction around midnight.
“The enemy actually broke through over ten kilometers in one day! Completely breached our fortified zone and entered the relatively lax rear without trench networks!”
“You useless fools! You don’t even know how far the enemy has bypassed to the rear after breaking through the defense line! I need to know the threat level of the enemy’s infiltration, whether it will affect our army’s retreat route, whether it will affect the Stenford-to-Bailleul railway!”
Because the nighttime reports from lower-level units were very unclear, Lieutenant General Putney couldn’t help but fly into a rage, harshly rebuking them.
But his subordinates felt wronged and tried every way to explain: “Commander, it’s not our fault. It’s too dark; the enemy is still appearing out of nowhere, and we don’t know how they advance in the dark. Moreover, these enemies are too terrifying; they seem tireless, still attacking after fighting all day!”
How could these British Army officers know that opposite them, Lelouch ensured offensive continuity by having the assault battalion’s companies rotate rest and alternate tasks.
Although each company might only get two hours of rest per rotation before switching again, it was enough for the utterly exhausted soldiers. Lelouch didn’t let them sleep longer for fear they would freeze to death—this was the North Sea coastal area in December, with light snow falling.
In comparison, the British Army soldiers’ sleep time was more uniform; after being exhausted all day, they were nearly collapsing when facing night combat.
After understanding the true extent of the deterioration at the front line, Lieutenant General Putney felt a chill of fear.
He knew that continued passive defense would increasingly risk being cut off from retreat. After struggling internally, he finally made a decision:
“Tomorrow morning—no, 4:30 a.m. will do—have the 3rd Division switch from defense to offense and launch a flank counterattack against that enemy force infiltrating from the southwest of the town! Must cut them off, or our army’s retreat is done! Also, have the 7th Division on the north side of the railway contract rearward, detach two regiments to assist the 3rd Division in filling the line.”
Putney’s staff officer immediately went to telephone Division Commander Rawlinson of the 3rd Division.
Upon receiving the call, Major General Rawlinson immediately complained bitterly: “Commander, as you know, our division only had one-third veterans pre-war; the four newly supplemented recruit battalions have barely touched their rifles. Filling the line is fine, but counterattack is simply suicide…”
But Putney didn’t negotiate with him, forcing him to launch the counterattack to sever the enemy’s protruding pincer! Otherwise, just wait to face a military court upon return!
Rawlinson argued repeatedly on principle but ultimately couldn’t avoid the task, only obtaining a consolation prize promise from the commander:
“This mission must be executed! But I know it’s difficult for you; I won’t leave you to fight alone. I’ve already requested reinforcements from the rear; the Commander-in-Chief promised to dispatch the main force of the cavalry corps stationed in Poperinge to reinforce us! Then you’ll launch the counterattack together, catching the enemy unable to look after both head and tail! The cavalry brothers will help draw enemy fire for you.”
Hearing that the cavalry corps was coming urgently to support, Rawlinson felt somewhat relieved and promised to launch the counterattack before dawn to sever the enemy’s infiltration.
