Chapter 60: While The Enemy Is Stunned, Launch A Furious Attack
With the assistance of the new flamethrowers using improved thickened fuel, the assault battle for Stenford City, which had previously been a stalemated meat grinder, finally collapsed into a one-sided rout.
On the first day after the new flamethrowers were deployed, the previously intertwined street blocks of the stalemated tug-of-war were completely purged.
On the second day, the street blocks that had been firmly controlled by the British Army were also burned terribly, with hundreds of soldiers burned to death in their hiding spots without any chance to fight back.
A few realized something was wrong and abandoned the tactic of hiding and ambushing ahead of time, fleeing to the rear with their heads in their hands.
These deserters brought terrifying rumors to the British Army in the rear, causing the entire division to waver.
Everyone realized that with the enemy having this new “close-quarters combat divine weapon,” holding the city and engaging in urban warfare meat grinders was no longer winnable.
At the moment morale collapsed, the British Army finally began to rout.
Along the way, they were pursued and bombarded by the German Army, suffering considerable casualties before withdrawing to Poperinge, further east and closer to Ypres. This meant completely abandoning the strategic goal of “directly blocking the German Army’s railway line, preventing the German Army from using the railway for supplies.”
Meanwhile, the German Army was overjoyed upon discovering how effective the new flamethrowers were for close-quarters assaults.
Army Group Commander Duke Rupprecht temporarily decided to expand the use of this weapon, accelerate the offensive speed, and take advantage of the enemy not yet reacting to assault more enemy strongpoints suitable for this type of combat scenario.
Because he knew very well that with Lelouch’s improvements—simply adding a thickening agent to the fuel right before combat—they could increase the spray range from just over 10 meters to 40 meters without almost any modification to the flamethrower itself!
Especially the thickening agent he used, which was technically not hard to make—just adding some sugar, waste rubber, or other miscellaneous excipients; the formula was very flexible, as long as it thickened.
The only drawback of this stuff was that the nozzle and spray tube would clog more easily than before after prolonged use, requiring frequent cleaning or replacement. This time, because the campaign was so urgent, Lelouch only had time to modify the fuel itself and use it first.
After this campaign, they would definitely have the Bergmann Company engineers properly study it and develop a professional nozzle and spray tube adapted for thickened fuel, reducing the clogging and failure rates after sustained use.
At the same time, Lelouch’s flamethrower range improvement actually had little impact in open field battles and trench warfare. In those environments, reaching a distance of 10 meters or 40 meters from the enemy was equally difficult.
But in urban assault battles and fortress tunnel warfare, the difference between 10 meters and 40 meters was very obvious, so Duke Rupprecht naturally wanted to exploit the time difference and gain as much advantage as possible before the enemy reacted.
Thus, after capturing Stenford, the German Army almost immediately split forces in the opposite direction and launched an attack on Cassel, the town controlled by the British Army at the other end of the railway—
In the previous days’ combat, the German Army had already wedged between Cassel and Stenford, cutting off the British Army’s railway and approaching Cassel town.
It was just that Cassel town’s strategic value wasn’t significant at the time, German Army forces were limited, and they themselves had logistics difficulties. From Armantieres northwestward, the German Army had no railway available, and the final dozens of kilometers of logistics relied on mules and horses, so they hadn’t expanded the offensive initially.
Originally, Duke Rupprecht was also afraid that playing too many infiltration battles bypassing towns would lead to his own infiltration troops going too deep, with logistics becoming overly strained and short on supplies, potentially backfiring.
But now with the flamethrowers just entering combat, plus submachine guns and shotguns, these new weapons working together would eliminate concerns about assaulting small and medium towns in the short term, and no fear of urban meat grinders against the enemy.
Whether the British Army or the French Army, it would take at least several days for them to adapt to the shock brought by this new combat method and react.
Perhaps after ten or eight days, British Army and French Army officers and soldiers would all receive widespread propaganda from high-level generals: “In the future, on the battlefield, whenever you see enemies carrying fuel tanks, concentrate all fire to kill them at any cost! Don’t let enemies carrying fuel tanks get close to you!”
Once the enemy forms this consensus, it would become difficult to gain big advantages relying on the flamethrower’s element of surprise. After all, its range was still a major shortcoming; with Lelouch’s abilities, he could only improve it from just over 10 meters to 40 meters.
So hurry and exploit the chaos!
Duke Rupprecht temporarily allocated the 2nd Division and 3rd Division of the 6th Army Group to launch a new offensive.
At the same time, during the campaign, the Bergmann Company in the rear had been producing new submachine guns and light machine guns. The output added in the past half month was enough to equip another two battalions.
The Bergmann Company also optimized the production line, formally changing many parts that originally required machining during trial production to direct stamping, greatly reducing subsequent production costs, and doubling production speed and output.
The new batch of submachine guns, based on combat experience feedback from the previous prototype, optimized the bolt weight again and finalized the design. The bolt weight increased from 470 grams to over 530 grams, ensuring absolutely stable extraction while preventing the bolt recoil startup speed from being too fast.
As a result, the rate of fire slightly decreased from about 500 rounds per minute to 450, but the propellant gas leakage and waste during firing were greatly alleviated. The barrel tail no longer visibly leaked fire and smoke, chamber pressure slightly increased, effective range improved from 150 meters to 200 meters, and accuracy also improved. Reducing the rate of fire by about ten percent was completely worth it.
With sufficient new equipment, Duke Rupprecht decided on the front lines to first fully equip the 1st Assault Battalion and 2nd Assault Battalion with their missing weapons. For example, assault groups in each squad were supposed to receive 5 submachine guns, but initially there weren’t enough, so only 3 were issued, and the extra 2 men had to use rifles.
After fully equipping them this time, they could finally ensure every squad’s assault group had the full 5 submachine guns.
After filling the equipment, there were still extras, enough to form another new assault battalion, so the Duke selected elite soldiers from the 2nd Division and 3rd Division of the 1st Baria Army, forming the 3rd Assault Battalion of the 6th Army Group on the front lines, assigned to the 2nd Division.
This 3rd Assault Battalion was just formed, without time for specialized training, and was directly thrown into the new round of offensive. Fortunately, the soldiers were elite veterans who understood the tactics after a brief explanation, and the rest could be honed in combat.
With the new assault battalion formed, it naturally needed a battalion commander; no one else knew commando tactics, and Major Bock and Major Rundstedt each had their own battalions to lead.
Thus, the final decision was natural: Although Captain Lelouch’s rank was still a bit low, he had earned merit again recently.
During the previous strong assault on Bailleul, his unit took first credit. Of course, that merit was shared among Major Bock, him, and others, not solely thanks to him, but he was at least the most prominent.
And this time, in the strong assault capturing Stenford, it was Lelouch’s improved thickened fuel flamethrower that took first credit. This merit was solidly his personal achievement, and even the new tactics guidance was personally provided by him.
Therefore, Duke Rupprecht ordered Captain Lelouch to temporarily transfer to the 3rd Assault Battalion as acting battalion commander, immediately entering combat, with his position and rank formally adjusted after this offensive wave ended.
Of course, to ensure the 3rd Assault Battalion immediately formed combat effectiveness, some backbone personnel would be drawn from the original assault battalions to train the new ones.
So from Major Bock’s battalion, most of the company originally led by Lelouch was transferred over, leaving only a small portion to continue serving as officers in A Company of the 1st Assault Battalion.
For example, Captain Barrack, who had been blocked by Lelouch before, finally waited out Lelouch’s promotion and transfer, smoothly becoming the company commander of original A Company, and the remaining dozens of men each got promoted half a grade.
Those following Lelouch included Captain Rommel, laterally transferred to the 3rd Assault Battalion as training company commander, responsible for training the new ones.
Also, Lieutenant Model, who had just been stabbed with a bayonet and shot with a pistol（stopped by body armor） and returned to duty after two days recovering from wounds, was exceptionally brought to the 3rd Assault Battalion as acting company commander in one of its companies—after Model was wounded, earned merit, and promoted, he was only a lieutenant, originally not qualified for company commander, so only acting on the front lines.
Dieter was still hospitalized and couldn’t be transferred temporarily. Captain Lister, original C Company commander of the 1st Battalion, continued with his original unit.
Even Sergeant Major Klose, Lelouch’s die-hard confidant from the transmigration beginning, finally promoted to officer, following his officer as second lieutenant to the new unit as camp guard platoon leader.
……
After Captain Lelouch was urgently appointed on the front lines and hastily formed the 3rd Assault Battalion, he quickly followed the Baria 2nd Division and 3rd Division in the latest round of rapid offensive, playing the dagger role.
He not only commanded the assault battalion but also provided key tactical guidance to the flamethrower squads participating in combat, to maximize the combat potential of these special friendly forces.
With Lelouch’s assistance, the German Army advanced quickly, and the flamethrower soldiers’ power was fully unleashed.
On January 7, the German Army had just captured the entire Stenford City, and on the next day the 8th, they took Cassel in a counter-move.
In the following days, the German Army’s western route continued advancing along the railway, launching a hard offensive of “urban warfare strong assaults on towns along the railway, no more bypassing infiltration.”
After Cassel fell, the British Army actually had no troops stationed in the two towns further back, Albeck and Wormhout—previously, due to heavy losses from the disastrous defeats in Stenford and Bailleul, they lacked manpower and had to hand these two towns to friendly French Army for joint defense.
The French Army did send troops to take over defense, but not in sufficient numbers, and it was their first time seeing flamethrowers,
Plus completely unadapted to the German Army’s sudden change in offensive rhythm, the defense line in this area collapsed after brief resistance under the German Army’s accumulated attack, directly retreating dozens of kilometers.
On January 10, the German Army captured Albeck. Inside Albeck City, a division of French Army planned to hold to the death, but after German Army artillery bombarded the city and then sent flamethrower soldiers into the city to burn resistance strongpoints, the French Army quickly panicked and collapsed.
Over a thousand French Army soldiers were burned to death or injured, the rest fell into chaos, and even over 4000 French Army in the city surrendered after being divided and encircled with morale collapse.
On the 12th, the German Army continued forward to capture Wormhout. Another thousand French Army were killed or burned, over 2000 surrendered, and the other soldiers fled faster than two days prior, directly slipping away.
On the 15th, the German Army surprisingly advanced to the satellite town of Bergues in the southern suburbs of Dunkirk, only 20 kilometers from Dunkirk City Area.
It was only after advancing here that the German Army’s offensive momentum completely exhausted—
Because Dunkirk City was heavily garrisoned and backed by the sea, it couldn’t be taken by a single rush. Flamethrowers and submachine guns were useless; the German Army’s heavy artillery units couldn’t keep up, and shells couldn’t be transported.
Dunkirk was Frankish nation’s third largest seaport and the largest in northern Frankish. It had masses of sea defense fortresses, heavy cannons, and solid bunkers, completely different from the small places along the way before.
On the other hand, the German Army’s sudden advance pushed the front line a full 40 kilometers forward! Until capturing Kemmel Hill 155 high ground on the southern edge of Ypres Highlands, the British Army heavy artillery deployed on the mountaintop could always bombard the railway, keeping it in a “I can’t use it, nor can the enemy” state.
So the German Army up to now was still in a state of “from Armantieres northwest to Wormhout, a full 80 kilometers relying entirely on mule carts to transport weapons and ammunition.”
In the 1915 early war environment and logistics conditions, the German Army reaching here was indeed temporarily exhausted, and could only pause the Dunkirk direction for now.
Perhaps some wonder why not directly do large-scale infiltration, bypass, and boldly encircle a big pocket.
But those ideas come from not understanding the German Army’s early WWI logistics difficulties— in fact, in WWI, the German Army was extremely dependent on railways for troop and supply transport, even more so than the French Army.
In the Marne River campaign, the French Army at least temporarily gathered 1200 taxis to transport troops from Paris city to the front. Later in the Verdun campaign, the German Army thought sealing the railway to Verdun with heavy artillery would collapse the Verdun French Army, but Xiafei gathered 3700 trucks to transport 200,000 reinforcements.
These were things the German Army dared not even think of. Because in early WWI, the German Army’s motorization level was almost zero, with extremely few trucks equipped. Even by 1916, “a country gathering 3700 trucks” was a huge number far exceeding the General Staff Headquarters’ imagination limit.
Before the war broke out, the German Army realized that “the Brit-Fren alliance has maritime advantage, can continuously import oil from other continents, so enemies can motorize and equip many trucks.” But once war started, they would be blockaded by the British Navy from importing oil, so pre-war they consciously avoided all combat methods requiring gasoline or diesel.
This was one reason Lelouch couldn’t start making tanks; he hadn’t solved fuel supply, motorization logistics was zero, so what use was making a tank? Even if made, without enough fuel, it couldn’t be used on a large scale.
Once the initial surprise and novelty wore off, it would be imitated by enemies. And his enemies had ample fuel; once they learned tank technology, they could mass-produce without restraint, wouldn’t that be Lelouch lifting a rock to smash his own foot?
So it wasn’t that Lelouch didn’t want to make tanks, but he knew clearly that the German Army’s baseline and prerequisites for tanks was at least first going to the Eastern Front southern sector to help ally Ollie repel the Lushans, best also counter-pushing Romania to capture the Romanian oil fields（In WWI, Romania was on the Entente side, enemy to the German Army）
Only with at least one stable oil supply source could Lelouch develop motorized logistics, then mass-produce tanks. This order couldn’t be wrong, or it would waste the tank card’s surprise element and aid the enemy.
Though, these are getting a bit far ahead.
Anyway, the current situation is that relying on the flamethrowers as a surprise force, plus the assault battalion and two main force divisions’ resolute offensive, the German Army in the Western Front northern sector finally pushed to Dunkirk’s doorstep.
On the other side, they must first strong assault to capture Kemmel Hill, the commanding point on the southern side of Ypres Highlands, to lift the British Army artillery’s railway blockade.
Then, the railway-dependent German Army could fully unseal, rolling iron streams replenishing a big breath of blood to the front-line assault troops whose supplies were almost exhausted.
After supplies were fully replenished, whether strong assaulting Dunkirk or infiltrating to divide and encircle Ypres Highlands could be discussed.
Before clearing the railway choke point of Kemmel Hill, the German Army front-line troops that had just occupied the three towns along the railway—Cassel, Albeck, Wormhout—would temporarily switch to on-site defense,
Holding the French Army’s flank counterattacks with the minimal resource consumption posture, killing French Army’s living forces, holding out until the rear cleared it.
Fortunately, with Lelouch’s arrangements, the method to clear the final railway choke point of Kemmel Hill was already prepared.
Before returning to the front on January 5, Lelouch had already learned why friendly forces’ strong assault on Kemmel Hill failed and the main difficulties.
He also ordered another piece of equipment from DWM Company, specifically to counter the British Army’s mountain defense tactics. But that thing’s production was slower, arriving a few days later than the new flamethrowers.
Plus, Lelouch’s new item needed special weather to shine, so even after delivery those past few days, with no heavy snow from the sky, it couldn’t be used temporarily.
And on January 15, just a short time after the German Army took the three downstream railway towns, the weather that had been clear for about ten days finally turned to heavy snow again.
Mid-January heavy snow was reasonable, always to be expected.
With the heavy snow returning, both sides’ aerial reconnaissance was crippled, airplanes couldn’t take off.
And the British Army originally occupying the mountaintop high ground also had visibility sharply reduced by the snow blocking sight, wasting their vantage advantage.
In heavy snow, attacking and defending mountain forces could now only see equally far.
——
PS: Today another 8000 words in one go, this second update already 5000 words.
Though a few hundred words explain strategic layout principles, since not yet on shelves and free, more military theory analysis isn’t padding.
Also, unfortunately for this book, the editor said follow-up data is about 15% short of Sanjiang lower limit, so no further resources.
Thus, tomorrow noon 12 o’clock, directly rushing to shelves.
So today I burst another 8000 words, and slightly skimmed some small goal progresses in between.
Because originally designed to take several more days to reach the climax part. Now no promotion directly on shelves, plot indeed not yet at Ypres-Dunkirk campaign’s peak.
So, planning tomorrow morning another big free update for everyone, then after noon 12 o’clock, on shelves with bursts.
Though plans can’t keep up with changes, I’ll try to write in one go to the Ypres campaign’s peak, letting everyone read a whole campaign satisfyingly. Specific word count can’t say, I’ll do my best.
Because no stockpile indeed, these days all 8000-word bursts, how to save drafts? All free given to everyone. This promotion competition loss sudden temp on shelves, unprepared, so can only say best effort.
Already rushing to shelves, still begging everyone after tomorrow 12 o’clock（to be safe can be 12:30 after） come support first sub, rush the data.
Tomorrow I’ll keep updating, however much written, everyone with time can come back check, maybe updates again. Tomorrow’s last update, if really can’t write more, I’ll clearly say at chapter end “this is today’s last update, don’t wait,” to save everyone’s time.
That’s it.
