Chapter 81: Let The Expeditionary Force See A Glimmer Of Hope, Then Cruelly Snuff It Out Completely
This is a grand melee covering dozens of kilometers in battlefield width from east to west and 20 kilometers in battlefield depth from north to south.
The entire campaign includes over 20 large warships on the British Army side, several times as many small and medium-sized escort ships, and nearly 100,000 army troops across all battle lines.
It also includes over 10 large and small caliber coastal defense gun turrets on the Germania side, over 20 railway guns, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, and several divisions of army troops.
While the fleet and shore batteries and railway guns were frantically bombarding each other,
The British Army had about 5 division-level combat units launching a counterattack on the Dunkirk Fortress area, as well as a counterattack on the relatively narrow connecting section linking the Dunkirk Fortress area and the city south—2 divisions attacking eastward from the northwest, and another 3 divisions crossing the Franco-Belgian border river westward from the east.
On the Germania side, at least one full-strength division was mustered to hold the fortress area and port area at the northeast corner of Dunkirk City. Another nearly full division was mustered to defend the port area and the connecting corridor to the rear.
It was not that the Germania Army was underestimating the enemy or liked to fight outnumbered; it was simply that the position’s depth was insufficient, and this small area could only accommodate two divisions’ worth of troops. Any more would mean insufficient fortifications and shelters, just crowding people together uselessly, merely providing more targets for the enemy’s covering bombardment, without making the defense any sturdier.
Real war is not like a game; troop deployment and deployment are constrained by the real factor of “battlefield width” and cannot blindly pile up troops.
In the current situation, the tunnels and pits under Fort Malraux and Fort Rohan were already crammed full of reserves. Once the surface position’s troops took losses in the fierce battle, reinforcements from the underground tunnels would continuously replenish them, forming sustained resistance.
……
When the British Army began its counterattack in coordination with the navy, there was less than an hour until sunset, so after fighting for a short while, the sky began to darken.
By this point in the battle, both sides had already suffered extremely heavy casualties.
At the tunnel entrance battlefield on the south side of Fort Malraux, the mutual bombardment had also reached a white-hot intensity.
Although Keitel and other officers’ railway gun group had previously taken out 3 pre-dreadnoughts and damaged 2 Queen-class ships in sneak attacks, they themselves had also sustained considerable damage.
Although at the start, the Queen-class firepower had difficulty continuously observing points of impact and calibrating, as the battle deepened, the Britannians’ pre-dreadnoughts kept rapidly charging toward the port area, and the distance between those pre-dreadnoughts and the railway gun group was actually continuously shortening—only those few 380 “Big Mark” guns kept targeting the high-value Queen-class, too many enemies to bother with those old ships.
Once those old ships closed in, the accuracy against the railway gun group positions began to rise sharply.
In the fierce battle at dusk, 2 “Big Mark” trains were successively overturned by enemy 305 shells and even 380 shells, blown to pieces, their gun barrels blasted off and then slammed heavily onto the ground, gouging several feet deep into the mud.
Railway gun barrels are not easily directly hit and destroyed, but the overall defensive power of railway guns is far weaker than coastal defense batteries, mainly because the trains serving as mounts are too fragile.
A single heavy shell landing within thirty or fifty meters can heavily damage or at least capsize the train.
Moreover, with the British Army’s frenzied ground counterattack and massive casualties, some scattered British Army fire observation posts had already infiltrated near the railway gun group positions where they could overlook the railway gun positions. These fearless army observation posts began spotting for the British Navy fleet, further increasing the risk to the railway gun group.
“We can’t keep fighting! We must relocate! Otherwise the risk is too great, and output efficiency can’t be guaranteed!”
Seeing 2 “Big Mark” guns and more 280 guns lost, Lelouch decisively issued strict orders to Keitel and other artillery officers to relocate as quickly as possible.
Keitel was seeing red and very reluctant, but he had no choice but to comply. He ordered each gun to fire three more salvoes while finalizing the relocation route.
Theoretically, he had two choices: either withdraw south along the railway to the far rear, or withdraw north directly back into the cave tunnel from which they had sortied.
Withdrawing into the cave was of course the safest, but in the earlier fierce battle, multiple enemy heavy shells had exploded on the mountainside north of the railway guns, collapsing large amounts of limestone and earth; the engineer corps had been clearing stones and earth during the battle and had lost dozens of engineers.
Keitel now had to worry whether hiding in the tunnel would lead to the mountainside surface being bombed into a landslide, directly blocking and burying the tunnel entrance.
Although such a buried entrance would not mean the total destruction of the railway gun group. Hiding in the tunnel could still hold out; the artillery personnel could evacuate via vertical shafts.
But as long as the entrance was buried, it meant these “Big Mark” and 280 guns could not participate in the rest of today’s campaign output.
But a few minutes later, the subordinate verifying the withdrawal route returned with dire news, leaving him no choice.
“Lieutenant Colonel! The southern withdrawal route is unsafe! British Army troops on both sides have counterattacked to within less than a kilometer of the railway! And several sections of railway have already been blown apart by bombardment!”
Railways are much larger targets than railway guns; railway guns require a direct hit on a specific point to destroy, but railways are cut as long as any point along the line is broken. With such intense mutual bombardment earlier, several battleship shells had already torn up the railway.
And just then, cheers erupted again from the railway gun positions.
“We hit the ‘Warspite’ with another armor-piercing shell!”
Hearing this cheer, with enemy shells growing denser and closer, Keitel gritted his teeth: “Pack up the guns at maximum speed, all withdraw into the tunnel! Leave the external spades!”
Keitel ordered the artillerymen to pack up the guns as fast as possible, abandoning any attachments in place; even so, during the process, another “Big Mark” and a 280 were destroyed, but the rest successfully retreated into the cave.
After such prolonged bombardment, the opposing “Queen Elizabeth” battleship had also been bombed to lose over half its firepower, with most upper equipment blown to bits; unfortunately, the waterline structure was still relatively intact, making it quite difficult to sink.
By contrast, the “Warspite” was the opposite: only its stern turret firepower completely destroyed, smokestacks and casemate deck, lifeboats and cranes etc. blown apart, but the other 3 main turrets, and the main bridge’s fire control and observation were still intact.
But the “Warspite”‘s bow and stern weak armor belts had each been hit by 1-2 380 shells and more 280 shells; combined bow and stern flooding already amounted to thousands of tons. The captain could only close watertight compartments as much as possible, ensuring the midship armored section stayed completely dry, barely floating on the surface for low-speed combat maneuvering.
Battleships are precisely calculated in design; bow and stern armor is thin and will definitely be penetrated by main gun shells, with a good chance of flooding.
But as long as the core “midship armored box” is not penetrated and flooded, the reserve buoyancy is enough to keep the warship afloat.
……
After Keitel led the remaining 5 “Big Mark” and some 280 railway guns into the cave, the fighting in the Dunkirk Port area was mainly left to ground combat.
The British Navy fleet’s frenzied bombardment had indeed destroyed almost all heavy artillery firepower here, and completely obliterated the surface fortifications, creating the best possible conditions for the British Army’s pincer counterattack.
But for the British Army to win the assault battle relying on two or three times the manpower was still extremely difficult.
Keitel and Leb’s artillery officers’ showtime was over, but Lelouch, von Bock, Rommel, Model and other infantry officers’ opportunities were just beginning.
Von Bock and Rommel were holding the north side’s Marloye Ban Fortress, Lelouch and Captain Dieter the south side’s Fort Rohan, while Model was sent to hold the flat ground defense zone connecting the two fortresses and the port area.
The three formed a triangular defense, relying on all advantageous terrain, fiercely resisting the British Army with light and heavy machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, and submachine guns taking turns, maximizing the utility of every tunnel.
Batch after batch of British Army infantry trying to create miracles charged uphill, only to be driven back by cunning crossfire. Occasionally reaching a tunnel entrance and charging in throwing grenades, they could only seize the outermost section.
Once deep into the tunnels encountering forks where the British Army had to split up, they were driven back by deeper heavy machine gun crossfire. In such tunnel combat without artillery support, both sides’ heavy firepower was at most grenades or satchel charges; the British Army fought bitterly.
By comparison, among the three positions the Germania Army had to hold, the relatively softest rib easiest to gnaw was the flat ground defense zone under Model. That flat area had only some buildings and ruins, plus a trench network hastily dug in less than two days.
The ground buildings were already history, because during the earlier British Navy naval gun frenzy on the railway and railway gun group, the “stray” covering shell rain alone was enough to level all buildings here.
Now with British Army infantry charging again, Model’s troops, just entering the position, could only rely on the trench network for bare defense.
Fortunately, Model had not been idle these two days. His prescient superior Lelouch had long foreseen “once the British Royal Navy launches full support, the army will definitely counterattack frenziedly at the same time,” so two days ago Lelouch had taught Model a new anti-bombardment tactic.
“This time we face massive heavy artillery; ordinary trench networks are useless. Even if we re-enter positions after the enemy’s battleship main guns finish bombarding, we’ll face secondary gun fire from numerous auxiliary ships or sustained suppression from other army firepower. For elastic defense, we must upgrade our trench network.”
Two days ago, after Lelouch told Model this, he personally taught him some digging techniques.
What Lelouch taught him was a fortification called “bomb shelter,” actually the kind used by Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War era to resist Ugly Country bombing/bombardment, commonly known as “cat ear hole.”
It is dug after completing the trench: open a horizontal hole in the trench side wall, then dig down a section, long enough for a soldier to curl up inside.
With such side holes, soldiers’ ability to withstand bombardment inside at least improves a level; trenches originally only proof against near misses from 75/105 guns can have defense elevated to withstand 150 guns, enough to endure the light cruisers and destroyers’ guns likely dense in these two days.
Lelouch was no god after all; the cat ear hole digging method he remembered could not compare in details to the final form used on Earth in the Vietnam War.
In retelling and demonstrating, there would be some discount due to communication issues, and the listening officers could not fully understand and implement.
But in any case, the defenders with “cat ear holes” had several more points of winning chance and confidence against heavy firepower covering ground assaults.
Major Model resolutely implemented his superior’s fortification concept, incorporating his own flexible defensive ideas. At this moment facing the tidal British Army counterattack, he alone with his battalion plus two friendly battalions held the port area edge positions connecting the fortresses very steadily.
The British Army left mountains of corpses before the position, only slowly forcing Model to fall back layer by layer.
Before this battle, Lelouch had told Model not to feel pressure; he just needed to delay and hold back, no need to hold firm.
So he was allowed to successively abandon positions and retreat to the tunnel fortress area. As long as he made the enemy advance slowly enough, delaying for half a night or a night would complete the mission.
Even if the port fortress area’s two forts had their retreat cut off again, severing the land route to the main city south, it didn’t matter—because in the one or two days before when the route was open, the Germania Army had frantically transported reinforcements, ammunition, and supplies to the foremost port fortress area.
So even now cut off from supply lines and surrounded in the fortress, they could hold out for several more days.
If the enemy army saw even a tiny opportunity, like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey, it might lure them to even more frenzied suicidal attacks.
Once the enemy was exhausted, the Germania Army’s reserves in the second-line area south could counterattack and retake the connecting section, at which point the British Army would completely collapse, falling from faint hope back into bottomless despair!
This is the essence of elastic defense! Don’t quibble over every position’s gain or loss; even occasionally let the enemy see a glimmer of hope then snuff it out!
Model resolutely executed this directive, using every trench network with sidewall cat ear holes to layer by layer block the enemy’s charges.
Groups of machine gunners hid in the trenches, like unkillable cockroaches, tenaciously enduring round after round of medium and light gun bombardment under 150, then popping up to sweep during enemy infantry charges, mowing down ranks of British Army infantry.
Until the enemy piled up with tenfold or hundredfold lives, even with British Army infantry risking friendly heavy shells in close assaults, hiding 100 meters or even dozens of meters behind their own bombardment cover zone, rushing up the moment the guns stopped.
Such suicidal offensives could barely seize half a trench segment from Model.
Then Model would have submachine gun teams cover, machine gun groups and other soldiers withdraw first via communication trenches to the next defense line, with the submachine gun teams alternately withdrawing last, suppressing rearward with occasional bursts, withdrawing intact.
It looked like the British Army counterattack was reclaiming positions, but looking at the absolute casualty exchange ratio, it was completely lopsided.
Under Marshal French’s distant encouragement and Douglas Haig’s harsh command, the British Army did use most of the night and finally took Model’s position.
But the British Army’s total five division-level assault troops had completely exhausted their impetus. Facing the tunnel fortresses held to the death by Lelouch and von Bock, they were helpless. Even though these tunnel fortresses had no coastal defense gun group left and could only defend with mortars and heavy machine guns, the British Army still couldn’t take them.
More critically, although the Germania Army on land seemed cut off by the British Army, separating the south main city troops from the city northeast fortress area garrison.
The rear German Army in the south main city could still support the port fortress group with army howitzers; numerous 105mm shells could still indiscriminately rain down on those two port fortress tops.
Anyway, Lelouch and Bock hiding in the tunnels didn’t care if the overhead mountain took a few more or fewer 105 hits; they just needed to hold the tunnel entrances.
The British Army assault troops, however, had to charge up the hillside, taking heavy casualties under bombardment cover.
In the end, Haig, responsible for forward command, couldn’t budge Lelouch and Bock an inch; the British Army’s final self-rescue impetus was thus completely exhausted.
And as the British Army completely failed in its struggle, on the near sea surface 20 kilometers east of these two tunnel fortresses,
A night battle between the two fleets had already begun, advancing in synchronous parallel.
——
PS: The land battle and sea battle are parallel in time, but still finishing the land battle side first, then writing the remaining sea battle in one go, to avoid too chaotic perspectives.
That’s how it’ll be.
