Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 151 The Strategic Counter-Offensive Begins

"Hurry up, it's starting in five minutes!"

"Has the system testing completed?"

"Connect the backup line to Channel Two, quickly!"

"Everything is ready!"

"Start broadcasting across all channels immediately! Countdown: five!"

"Fellow comrades of the Federation Forces, I am Jonah Ibrahim Rebil!"

At that moment, from neutral cities in Antarctica to roadside stalls in Side 7, from the banks of the Volga River to the Caribbean Sea, Rebil's voice could be heard in every area that could receive federal communication signals.

At this moment, the Supreme Commander of the Federation Army is sitting at his desk in his simple uniform, speaking to the camera.

"More than seven months have passed since the outbreak of the war. At the beginning of the war, our army went through an extremely difficult and dangerous period, and even came to the brink of defeat!"

"But in the end, we held on, because Zeon had no more troops left! They had no warships, no weapons, and no ammunition!"

The Federation commander, sitting inside the infantry fighting vehicle, quietly lit a cigarette, while the small screen in front of him flickered, playing Rebil's speech.

"And the Zeon knew this too. In order to force us to surrender and to make us tremble with fear, they ruthlessly destroyed Side 1, Side 2, Side 4, and Side 5. More than four billion humans were slaughtered by the Zeon army. Not only that, they also frantically dropped colony satellites on Earth as bombs. Girenzabi even said that he would punish the Earth Federation for its weakness and corruption. Is that a reason to slaughter four billion innocent civilians? What right does this demon have to say such a thing!"

The tank commander, with an earphone hanging from his ear, popped half of his body out of the turret, then touched his tank. The sides of his tank turret were covered with all sorts of signatures, all from those destroyed space colonies.

"Gentlemen, what we are fighting now is not just a war to defend our homeland, but a war of civilization against barbarism and fascism. Now more than ever, we are unshakable. The 7000-year-old civilization of Earth will never succumb to tyranny and dictatorship. We must stand up, as a unified Earth Federation, defeat Zeon, and win the victory!!"

The pilot, sitting in the cockpit of the mobile suit, pressed the start button. Then, the machine beneath him, which had been standing lifelessly in place, raised its head and, under the pilot's control, stepped forward, merging into the steel torrent that was gathering in front of it.

"Jonah Ibrahim Rebil, call over!"

After Rebil finished speaking, the Union Army positions fell into a deathly silence until the commanders at all levels heard the order.

"Fire!"

"Fire!!!"

With the order for the general attack given, Union artillery along the entire front from Seattle to San Diego began bombarding the Zeon positions. Along this front of thousands of kilometers, the Union forces amassed hundreds of thousands of artillery pieces of various calibers and types. To supply these artillery pieces with rations, Gop's air transport squadron even dedicated half of its transport capacity to supplying artillery shells.

Such a massive artillery barrage instantly overwhelmed Zeon's fire detection capabilities, to the point that Zeon artillerymen who wanted to launch a counter-fire didn't even know which direction to fire, because there were Federation Forces fire bases in all directions.

When they tentatively launched a counter-battery attack and destroyed some of the Federation's artillery, new artillery pieces would soon be re-emerged in the bombed areas. The Federation could even allocate additional artillery to counter-battery operations.

Less than an hour after the shelling began, the Zeon artillery was forced to cease fire and begin moving to new positions, as the Federation's counter-battery operations alone had destroyed half of their artillery in that hour.

Although the ratio of artillery on both sides may seem to be only a dozen to one, once the scale increases, this ratio becomes meaningless.

Moreover, at the same time the shelling began, the Federation's air power also rushed in. Nearly 10,000 aircraft from both sides engaged in a fierce battle in this small area of ​​sky. The Federation Air Force committed all of its combat units at once, in order to completely break the backbone of Zeon's Second Air Force in the first wave of combat.

While the fighter jets were engaged in fierce combat, a massive number of Federation bombers roared over the Zeon forces' positions. Under the powerful interference, the Zeon forces' air defenses were essentially rendered blind and crippled, and even the missile units had to rely on binoculars to visually locate the enemy. Meanwhile, the Federation bomber forces were not worried about the interference from the Mithril, and a large number of GPS-guided munitions poured down like a tidal wave, blasting the suspicious targets previously detected by satellite into the sky one by one.

While the ground artillery was raging, several large naval fleets began to approach the North American coast from the north and south. Although the Pacific Fleet had been completely wiped out in the Sydney Incident, the Federation still tried its best to rebuild it at the Gabro base. After receiving reinforcements from the Asian coastal fleet and the Atlantic fleet, the Federation Navy, led by the huge twin-hull aircraft carrier La Grande, once again headed towards its home port.

For Kalmar, who was in the underground bunker, this was destined to be the most unforgettable day of his life. All the efforts that the North American Army had made in the past seemed to have been in vain. The carefully constructed defenses and meticulously arranged reserves were useless because at this moment, all the defenses from south to north were under attack. The spies they had planted in the Federation had not given them any useful intelligence on the attack.

In fact, even the spy himself didn't know where the Union Army was going to attack. Or rather, it was a general attack without any clear focus. The more than three million troops in the entire North American battlefield were Rebil's source of confidence. There was no need for a specific target. All these three million troops had to do was to advance little by little, just like tightening the noose around a prisoner's neck.

"It's alright, it's alright. Once the Federation forces stop shelling, we can launch a counterattack!"

Karma thought this to himself, but in reality, he waited from morning until afternoon. The Federation's artillery fire lasted for a full six hours without any sign of abating. On the contrary, the Second Air Force lost over a thousand aircraft in a single day and had completely lost control of the air.

Now, the Federation Air Forces can bomb Zeon positions with even greater impunity.

By 2 p.m., the Union bombardment had finally come to an end. Then, along the line from Portland to San Francisco, the Union forces launched their offensive, deploying 5,500 Type 61 tanks and more than 2,000 mobile suits.

When the Zeon soldiers stationed on the defensive line saw the Federation tanks covering the hillsides, they felt as if their hearts were about to stop beating. "These damned Earthlings are like cockroaches, you can't kill them all!"

"Stop talking nonsense, prepare for battle!"

At this moment, facing this massive attacking force, the Zeon army had less than 2,600 Magella tanks and less than 1,000 mobile suits of various models, some even having to rely on Zaku tanks to make up the numbers.

Faced with such a huge disparity in combat strength, the Zeon army had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue fighting. Although Zeon was large, they had nowhere to retreat, because the sea was behind them.

"You damned bastard, die! Die!"

A Zaku sprang from the defensive position, which was no longer recognizable, and began firing its 120mm machine gun at the tanks in front of it. With a series of bangs, its 120mm shells quickly exploded into clouds of smoke in the enemy ranks.

Through the observation and aiming equipment, the Zaku pilot could see that several tanks had stopped because of his attack, and one of them was even on fire. The loss of these tanks was a drop in the ocean for the Federation forces and not worth mentioning. The following tanks had already seen the Zaku that had just opened fire and quickly returned fire. Whistling 155mm shells fell around the Zaku until it was hit by the enemy.

Then, dozens of armor-piercing rounds, after ballistic correction, whistled down again, blasting the Zaku to pieces.

In reality, on this broad front, defensive positions with armored firepower like the Zaku and Magella were not many. On most defensive positions, Zeon soldiers could only rely on ancient methods to deal with the Federation's armored forces, such as explosive charges and anti-tank grenades.

However, accompanying these tanks were not only mobile suits, but also countless Federation infantry fighting vehicles. These vehicles, fully loaded with heavily armed Federation soldiers, rapidly charged towards the Zeon army's positions under the cover of the tanks.

When more than a dozen tanks drove onto a Zeon undead unit's defensive position, the undead soldiers guarding the position could only crouch in the trenches and wait for the tanks to approach.

"Demolition team, move in!"

Seeing that the Type 61 tank had already crossed the trench, a lieutenant immediately shouted, and then four or five soldiers from the "Dead Men" unit, armed with improvised explosive devices, could only howl as they rushed out of the trench and threw the explosives at the tank in front of them.

With the explosion of the anti-tank grenade, the tracks of two Type 61 tanks were blown off and detached from the wheels. But this was the limit for these anti-tank teams. The upgraded M61A5 tanks had replaced their machine guns with remotely controlled ones. The commander inside the tank simply turned a handle, and the undead soldiers outside were riddled with bullets by the rotating machine gun.

Lieutenant Ke Zeon had no intention of letting the two tanks go. He continued to loudly order the follow-up teams to advance from behind the cover. Just as another group of undead soldiers rushed out of the trench, several infantry fighting vehicles drove onto the position, and their roaring automatic cannons instantly turned any Zeon soldiers who dared to move into pieces.

Then, a large number of Federation infantrymen jumped off the tanks and began to attack the Zeon troops in the trenches from their high ground.

The Zeon soldiers, unable to even lift their heads from the barrage of automatic cannon fire, were unaware that Federation soldiers had arrived. It wasn't until grenades with their pins pulled fell into the trenches and intense gunfire echoed between the artillery barrages that they realized Federation infantry had pressed forward.

However, the Zeon soldiers on the position had been separated and could not form an effective bond. On the contrary, the Federation soldiers who had undergone months of arduous training in the rear training camp were clearing every trench and every cave on the position in an orderly manner in small teams, following the training model.

Grenades cleared the way, machine guns provided suppression, and flamethrowers swept through the enemy ranks. In less than ten minutes, this company of over a hundred undead men was wiped out completely.

After completing the cleanup, the federal soldiers jumped back into their vehicles and headed to the next target, repeating the process.

Meanwhile, the Federation's mobile suit units maintained tight control over their movement speed, ensuring they did not break free from the cover of other units, while also helping other units remove obstacles they could not resolve.

With such close coordination, the Zeon mobile suits and tanks were unable to pose any fatal threat to the Federation forces. Even if they could occasionally destroy a tank or a GM, more counter-fire would then deal them a fatal blow.

Under the fierce attack of the Federation forces, countless gaps were quickly torn in Zeon's defenses. After the defenses were breached, the Federation forces charged forward relentlessly, targeting any vehicle bearing the Zeon insignia and any Zeon soldier who did not raise his hands as an enemy.

Until the tanks at the forefront suddenly saw a clear view, transforming from land into an endless sea.

Eight hours into the offensive, the Union vanguard had reached the coastline, meaning that the Zeon forces in Seattle and San Francisco were completely separated into two parts.

Although the Zeon forces reacted quickly and attempted to launch a counterattack from both sides of the Federation forces in an attempt to reopen the defensive line, the counterattacking troops were met with a head-on blow from the well-prepared Federation forces. The Federation forces, which held an absolute advantage, did not hesitate to launch a counterattack against the Zeon forces. After less than an hour of fierce fighting, the Zeon forces were forced to abandon their plan to reopen the defensive line due to heavy losses.

"No, the Federal Army is planning to divide us into small groups and then surround and annihilate us. We must not let them succeed!"

"Then why don't we hold out a little longer and launch a counterattack at night? At that time, our artillery will be able to play an effective role!"

"Then let Magasiia join the counter-attack!"

Karma looked at her subordinates beside her.

"Although they are a special unit from the 7th Division, their combat strength is considerable. I think those Ifrits can bring us enough surprises!"

"Moreover, by nightfall, we should also be able to obtain relevant intelligence on the Federal Army's deployment. As long as the Magasiyan team opens a breach, our follow-up troops can take back the fallen positions in one fell swoop!"

(End of this chapter)