Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 226 The Poles Who Wanted to Save Themselves
While Lelouch was discussing the gains and losses of the Polish campaign with Chief of the General Staff Falkenhayn at the General Staff headquarters in Berlin.

On the Polish front, the scene at this moment was still like a living hell—of course, this hell wasn't just for the Demacian army. The Demacians had only suffered a setback in their offensive, but their losses weren't yet extremely heavy.

This inferno wasn't specifically targeting the Lussa. The Lussa suffered losses several times greater than the Demacian army, but overall they fared relatively well, at least they withstood the enemy's desperate offensive.

The people who suffered the most were actually the Polish locals.

The Polish offensive on the eastern front was launched in mid-January.

In this battle, the Demacians deployed a total of three army groups.

The weakest of these, the 11th Army, served as the opposing force on the central Polish defensive line, engaging in attrition warfare with the Russa forces on the opposite side of the Poznan line.

Hindenburg personally commanded the 8th Army, which was positioned on the north side of the Polish salient and advanced southwards.

Meanwhile, Field Marshal Leopold's 10th Army in Balia was positioned on the southern side of the Polish salient, and was to advance northward.

Hindenburg's 8th Army chose a relatively remote and less pivotal location between Königsberg in East Prosen and Vilnius in Lithuania as its starting point for its penetration, precisely because the Russa's defenses were relatively weak in these junctions and there were no large forces directly holding them.

Meanwhile, Marshal Leopold's 10th Army launched a northward attack from somewhere on the western outskirts of Lviv, with its starting point approximately 40 kilometers west of Lviv. Theoretically, these two armies could eventually converge along the Bug River near Brest, cutting off the entire territory of Poland.

Of these three army groups, the 11th Army Group is the weakest, with a full complement of 22 men. The 8th Army Group is the strongest, with a full complement of 38 men. The 10th Army Group has a full complement of 27 men. Together, the total full complement of these three army groups is theoretically 87 men.

In reality, due to the low-intensity attrition during the second half of last year, although the army was constantly being replenished, it certainly could not reach full strength. Therefore, when the offensive began in mid-January, the actual troop strength was 790,000.

The Luszcz forces on the opposite side possessed an entire Western Front, comprising four armies with a full strength of 1.5 million men. Including some hardened Polish local loyalists, the Luszcz forces actually numbered only about 1.3 million before the start of the battle in mid-January due to attrition and shortages.

The Demacians, with 79 attacking 130 million, were still outnumbered.

The initial ten days or so of the offensive went relatively smoothly. Marshal Hindenburg, advancing from north to south, captured key locations such as Białystok and Khainovka.

Marshal Leopold, who fought from south to north, also captured key locations such as Vashchuv and Khaim.

Unfortunately, the Demacian army's tank numbers were ultimately too few to achieve a decisive breakthrough. With both sides possessing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of troops, the deployment of a mere two or three hundred tanks was insufficient to accelerate the overall army's advance.

Moreover, Hindenburg and Marshal Leopold only received tanks, not a complete set of matching trucks and half-tracks, or even if they did, the quantity was insufficient.

After all, this was the first time anyone had fought an armored assault operation. They had no experience and didn't know how demanding armored warfare was on logistical support.

It's not fair to blame them for not knowing how to use it. The Britannians on the other side had also made a mess of their first use of the Little Willy tank on the Greek and Ottoman battlefields, failing to bring out its full potential.

Only Lelouch, a time traveler familiar with the armored tactics of later generations, could notice all the key points as soon as he got started.

Having tanks is only half the battle; you also need capable generals, officers, and soldiers to unleash their full power.

Under these circumstances, Hindenburg's tanks could only advance relatively quickly for the first three days.

After the initial shockwave subsided, the slow pace of reinforcements' advance, the slow pace of filling in the gaps, and the slow pace of supplying tanks with ammunition and diesel fuel all contributed to the slowdown, which reduced the entire army to advancing only a dozen kilometers per day.

Of course, if this were on the western front, advancing ten kilometers a day would be a cause for celebration. Now, the western front is entirely fortified, and even after a month of fighting, it's not guaranteed that you'll find a day where you can advance three kilometers.

However, on the Eastern Front, advancing only a dozen kilometers a day in mobile warfare, it was hardly a major victory. In fact, the assault battalion tactic might have been used to achieve the same result even faster.

This was also due to Marshal Hindenburg's bad luck in running into General Brusilov, the most capable commander in Russo's army. In addition, the two sides had been locked in a stalemate for a year in the Polish theater, which had many fortified areas. It was the eastern front that was closest to the western front in terms of its shape, and the losses in the offensive were very high.

By January 30th, Marshal Leopold on the southern front had already reported that the weather was too cold and the tanks could not be started, forcing him to suspend the offensive.

Hindenburg and Rodendorff on the northern front refused to believe it and held out for a few more days. By February 3, their tanks were frozen and unable to start, leaving them to rely solely on infantry for the attack.

Rodendorff, who did not treat his soldiers as human beings, forced his troops to continue the attack until February 6 for his own glory. Finally, due to the heavy casualties and the strong voices of the soldiers from some officers, Rodendorff's atrocities of "one general's success is built on the bones of thousands" were stopped.

Rodendorff was initially taken aback; he couldn't understand how such a forced attack could lead the army to disobey orders.

After a deeper understanding, it was discovered that "it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality"—before seeing tanks, the troops had no other ideas and felt that relying solely on infantry for offensive operations was a matter of course.

The old battle tactics were simply to bombard the infantry with artillery fire, and then bombard them again after the infantry had charged.

But now, they clearly see the benefits of tanks assisting infantry in attacks. And it's not that there are no tanks available; they have already been assigned to their troops. It's just that there are many mechanical damages that require repairs, and the diesel engines are frozen and won't start. They can fight again as soon as the weather gets a little better. So why are the generals still so inhumane, forcing everyone to attack immediately?

What value does Poland offer that isn't immediately available?

The soldiers were unwilling to give up, and complaints began to arise. Rodendorff keenly sensed the abnormality in morale and had no choice but to stop.

However, due to Hindenburg and Rodendorff's erroneous attempt, it was ultimately estimated that at least seven or eight thousand soldiers died needlessly, and about forty thousand additional wounded were also caused.

This so-called additional loss refers to "the loss that could have been avoided if Hindenburg had been willing to wait for a better opportunity to attack."

Marshal Leopold in the south halted his offensive even earlier, paying an additional four thousand dead and more than ten thousand wounded for this forceful winter offensive.

Considering that some of the wounded would eventually succumb to their injuries, strictly speaking, Field Marshal Hindenburg and Lieutenant General Rodendorff should be held responsible for the unnecessary deaths of 20,000 Demanian soldiers. Of course, in wartime, not every decision can be perfect, and misjudgments are bound to occur to some extent.

Many generals of the Lussa and Britannia made misjudgments that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. On the Demanian side, a single wrong decision resulted in an additional 20,000 deaths, which is already considered acceptable.

The key is how things are interpreted and publicized afterward. If the higher-ups want to cover it up, Hindenburg and Rodendorff's minor issues won't have any serious consequences.

……

However, it would be a grave mistake to assume that the tanks were frozen and unable to attack during the coldest part of winter.

Perhaps by sheer coincidence, Hindenburg and Rodendorff's slow attack inadvertently led to another event.

It turns out that the Poles had had enough of the Russa rule that past winter.

Since the Demanian army achieved an epic victory on the southern Kievan Rus' plains and completely annexed the entire Kievan Rus' region, the food shortage for the Rus' people this winter has become extremely severe.

In St. Petersburg and Moscow, tens of thousands of people starve to death every day, and the number of those dying of hunger and cold in the vast wilderness and small cities is still uncountable. Along the Murmansk port and the Murmansk railway line, the number of laborers who die every day is in the four or five figures, and on some blizzard days, there have even been records of hundreds of thousands of deaths in a single day.

With such a shortage, the Russo people naturally exploited Poland's grain-producing areas to the fullest extent.

The Poles not only had their surplus grain confiscated, but even their own rations were taken away. To survive, they had to join the Russa army and help the Russa fight the Dmanians with guns; they didn't even get guns, just a spiked club as a reserve.

Those who dared to resist the grain collection, especially large landowners, would be falsely accused of crimes, stabbed to death with bayonets, and have their grain confiscated.

As the Demanian army approached Brest, many Poles in Brest, Warsaw, Łódź, and other places considered joining the Demanian army.

"I heard that Marshal Hindenburg promised Piłsudski that if we Poles rose up against Russa, we would be allowed to establish our own country after the war if we defeated Russa. Now I hear that the Demanians have tanks, and Marshal Hindenburg's offensive momentum is very strong."

If we don't act now, we'll miss out on the credit for driving out the Lussa, and what leverage will we have to negotiate with the Demagnesians for independence? Let's act quickly! Tens of thousands of us have been forcibly conscripted by the Lussa; we can persuade them to take up arms and mutiny on the spot!

This is what those Polish nobles, capitalists, and large landowners whose grain had been plundered were thinking about.

Finally, just before the Demanians attacked, these people successfully launched a mutiny, rallying the citizens of Warsaw and Lodz to resist, with both cities rising up one after the other.

Unfortunately, they received the news a little too late.

When they launched their attack in Warsaw, Marshal Leopold in the south had already halted his offensive.

Marshal Hindenburg in the north did not stop his attack, but his tanks were frozen in place.

In the end, Lusa's renowned general Brusilov, while fiercely resisting Hindenburg's offensive, decisively divided his forces to return to Warsaw and use swift and overwhelming Cossack cavalry to sweep away and crush the rebels.

When Nicholas II learned that the Poles had betrayed their country, he was furious and demanded severe punishments to deter them during this chaotic time.

All Polish nobles, capitalists, landowners, and almost all liberal arts intellectuals in Warsaw were arrested and executed as punishment for traitors (the punishment was not limited to Polish people, but also included other non-Russian rebels living in this area).

"This is the consequence of treason! Anyone who dares to act rashly again will have their entire family killed!"

Ultimately, the killing of approximately 100,000 Polish elites and intellectuals finally deterred resistance in the country and extended Ruza's rule in Poland by a few more months.

And it was precisely because of all this that Lelouch could comfort Chief of Staff Falkenhayn when he met him, saying, "This is a good thing."

……

And so, Lelouch spoke eloquently and confidently in front of Falkenhall:

"Your Excellency Chief of the General Staff, although our army suffered at least 2 additional casualties and 5 wounded, and ultimately failed to conquer Poland, it also means that even if our army launches another offensive and conquers Poland in the future, the enemy's Western Front may have one or two more army groups escape the encirclement. But all things considered, this is still a good thing."

First, our army has honed its skills through training and coordination. Apart from the 6th Army, other units have more or less mastered armored offensive tactics. No one is born knowing how to fight or use new weapons and tactics. Having suffered some setbacks, I believe that many officers in Field Marshal Hindenburg and Field Marshal Leopold's two armies have developed armored warfare command capabilities.

Secondly, according to the latest intelligence, the Rosário leadership has been ruthlessly exploiting Poland's food supply, resulting in mass starvation deaths daily. Furthermore, the summer harvest in Poland won't be completed until the end of May at the earliest, making an attack on Poland before May economically unfeasible.

The empire itself is also short of food. In Berlin, the price of black bread has risen to more than 1 mark per kilogram, and pork sausages have risen to 15 marks per kilogram. Under these circumstances, if the empire needs to provide food to feed the Polish farmers who have been plundered by Lusza from February to April, our own black bread may rise to 2 marks per kilogram, or even 3 marks! Potatoes may also rise to more than 1 mark per kilogram.

Now that we haven't achieved our goal in early February, it's a good time to rest. We can repair the tanks, summarize the lessons learned from the winter campaign, make some improvements and maintenance to the tanks, and at the same time, have the frontline troops retreat slightly and return to defense. When we resume the offensive in April, we will surely win in one battle! Two and a half months won't make a difference.

Finally, some things are better said than said. I've heard that some opportunists in Poland, eager to establish their own state after the war, want to steal the credit from the Empire, claiming they saved themselves. Now, the Empire's army has exhausted its offensive momentum before meeting at the Brest-Litovsk fortress and has to halt. The Lusza army has the resources to go back and kill its own internal rebels, which actually reduces the burden of ruling Poland after we conquer it.

The Lussa people may know this too, but now they are the rulers of that land. They have no choice but to do what is beneficial to both them and us, and bear the infamy alone.

There are some things that you know might benefit your enemies if you do them, but you have no choice but to do them because you're in that position.

Just like the Battle of Warsaw in the Earth dimension, the defenders may have thought, "If we kill the rebels severely, it may benefit the future occupiers' rule," but they had no choice. They couldn't stop attacking the rebels just because they saw this.

After all, the rebels want you dead right now; if you don't kill them, they will kill you. There are priorities; who can worry about the future?

Falkinham had only just received the news, so he hadn't initially thought much about it from that angle.

Lelouch's reminder finally made him realize that he could comfort the emperor from these angles and make him stop feeling ashamed.

“Now that you mention it, it makes sense… I thought you had a grudge against Hindenburg and Rodendorff, but I didn’t expect you to be able to defend them on matters of principle. I underestimated you,” Falkenhayn couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

"How could I possibly have any grudges against Field Marshal Hindenburg or General Rodendorff? It's just a difference of opinion and strategy, not a personal feud. We were all working for the country."

Lelouch also made a timely statement to show his magnanimity in focusing on the issue rather than the person, and then he casually added,

"In fact, after General Rodendorff's tanks broke down, he persisted in the attack for three to five days. Although he suffered tens of thousands of casualties, he will be able to win some reputation for the Empire in history books and propaganda materials in the future."

After the armistice, conspiracy theorists will surely emerge, claiming that the Reich deliberately halted its advance because it saw the Warsaw Pact's desire for self-preservation, allowing the Lusza army to crush the Warsaw Pact and using them as a pawn. But we have irrefutable evidence: the tanks were indeed immobilized, which drastically reduced their offensive capabilities.

Even after his tanks became immobile, General Rodendorff continued the offensive for another three to five days to save as many Polish people as possible. Those Demandian soldiers who sacrificed their lives were great internationalists; they died to liberate another people, proving that we are all one family. So this is a good thing.”

After listening, Falkin was completely dumbfounded, almost completely misled by Lelouch's propaganda.

So Rodendorff was a great transnational and transethnic philanthropist who sacrificed his own people for the benefit of other nations? I bet even Rodendorff himself didn't know he was that great.

But no matter what, that's how it has to be said in external communications.

"By the way... I remember you've always held the title of Director of the Propaganda Bureau of the Imperial War Department, right? It's just that you've been too busy, so the War Department appointed another deputy director to oversee the day-to-day operations, while you're in charge of those temporary external propaganda matters."

No wonder you have such a keen sense of smell; you can even turn something bad into something good. I'm completely convinced. I will report your explanation to His Majesty so that he can be comforted as soon as possible and stop worrying about this matter.

You'd better hurry up and finish your thesis. With your strategic vision and solid foundation, you should have graduated long ago.

Falkenhayn greatly praised Lelouch's work and copied Lelouch's words directly to report to the emperor.

(End of this chapter)