Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 46 The True Power of Storm Assault Team Tactics
Relying on the tear gas countermeasure tactic, which can only be effective once, the Demanian army quickly passed through the outermost 3-kilometer defensive line between Armandiel and Bayol at a minimal cost.

Unable to stand due to the gas fumes, the Bu army soldiers fled in disarray, leaving corpses in their wake, suffering a total loss of over three thousand men.

The fortifications that Bu Jun had spent more than a month building were thus left behind.

At least a dozen trenches were crossed, twenty barbed wire fences were cut and destroyed, and three layers of rammed earth bunkers were occupied or blown up. Countless earthworks were all for naught.

Major Bock's 1st Assault Battalion traversed the area in just two and a half hours. Major Lundstätter's 2nd Assault Battalion took him half an hour longer.

Laymen may not have a good grasp of this number, but it becomes easier to understand when compared to other examples. In the first Battle of Ypres, the German army spent an entire day on the first day just to advance 3.5 kilometers of the front line, but chlorine gas alone caused 5,000 casualties.

Today, advancing the same distance takes only 3 hours, but the lethality is only 60%—this is clearly because tear gas only has a deterrent effect and no killing effect. The vast majority of casualties are caused by artillery fire, grenades, and submachine guns.

Only Lelouch could have predicted this result, while Bock and Lundstätter were pleasantly surprised and even a little overjoyed.

They themselves didn't expect that they could push it so far in just 3 hours.

Seeing that the battalion commander was a bit arrogant, Lelouch knew he should apply the brakes a little, so he offered a suggestion to Major Bock as soon as one wave of attacks ended:

"Battalion Commander, the situation has changed. The progress is worse than we expected. Perhaps we should adjust the battle plan slightly and have the entire division push the defensive line forward by three kilometers."

We made an exception and rested in place for an hour to provide cover for the follow-up troops and take the opportunity to conduct supplementary reconnaissance of the enemy's firing positions at the front.

Bock hesitated for a few seconds before accepting the suggestion.

According to the original manual of assault tactics, after achieving a major breakthrough, the assault team should only allow a small number of friendly troops to fill the gaps to provide defense for the flanks of the gaps, and should never turn the major offensive into a full-scale offensive.

But the situation is clearly very different from what was expected. The tear gas has been too effective in forcing the enemy to retreat. Within 3 kilometers of the front line, the enemy is in complete retreat. So our side should naturally follow suit. Why not take advantage of this opportunity?

"Let the radio send a message. Our troops can rest in place for an hour, have lunch, and resume the attack at 12:00 noon. The offensive must not be interrupted in the afternoon; only companies are allowed to take turns attacking." Major Bock issued detailed orders.

Lelouch then reminded him, "We must not underestimate the enemy just because we made such a good start this morning. We can only take advantage of catching the enemy off guard with gas once."

The 'smoke bomb' has a range of only 3 kilometers, and its redeployment speed is very slow. Expecting it to move forward and redeploy to fire again will likely take until at least tomorrow. Meanwhile, the French army has smoke masks, and with the troops having taken precautions and borrowed masks, they will certainly be unafraid of smoke tomorrow.

Therefore, we will have to rely on our superior strength to launch any further attacks. I looked at the map, and the straight-line distance between the centers of the two towns is 13 kilometers.

Our starting position was the village of Niep, 2 kilometers west of Armandière. We advanced another 3 kilometers almost without bloodshed this morning, so we're now 8 kilometers from the center of Bayole. The first 6 kilometers are field defenses, and the last 2 kilometers are the town of Bayole, where street fighting is likely…”

Bock, who had just taken a bite of black bread, immediately took a sip of water and interrupted, "Don't think about street fighting. Today, try to break through as much of the outer 6-kilometer field defense zone as possible. Tomorrow, we'll bypass Bayole and surround it without attacking. There's no need to completely capture this kind of town. We don't use this railway, so we don't need to capture the train station. It's enough to prevent the enemy from using the railway."

After listening to the battalion commander's decisive order, Lelouch pondered it for a moment and felt that he had benefited greatly.

Their objective was to cut off the enemy's railway line, not to use it for their own purposes. Different operational objectives naturally led to different attack methods.

The assault battalion is small but elite, and must not be wasted in urban warfare. Even if urban warfare eventually comes, the main force should follow up and fight, while the assault battalion can simply infiltrate.

After a quick lunch and a short rest, the assault battalion was reinforced by the main force of friendly troops, and the assault battalion was soon back into action.

Thanks to the comprehensive reinforcements from friendly forces, the changes in the enemy and friendly lines became very clear, allowing the German army to quickly tally the changes in the frontline coordinates and formulate new artillery preparation plans.

So before the afternoon attack, the Germans prepared their firepower for another half hour, with a fairly high density of artillery fire.

After a sustained and intense bombardment, the assault battalion finally launched its attack.

The enemy's front-line positions, which had been bombed again, were quickly breached by the assault battalion using a similar method to that of the morning.

A trench and two barbed wire fences were torn open in several places, and then the follow-up troops of the assault battalion poured in swiftly and discreetly through the gaps.

They still used submachine guns to clear the way and concentrated a large number of hand grenades to deal with the corners of the Z-shaped trenches, tearing through the Bu army's defenses.

……

Meanwhile, the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Bayole.

Lieutenant General William Putney, the army commander, received a constant stream of phone calls all morning. Because the Burgundy army had been ambushed and was losing large swaths of ground, officers at all levels were continuously reporting on their retreat progress.

Lieutenant General Putney's staff officer was busy recording incoming telegram information while moving chess pieces with small flags on the map and sand table, and then redrawing the front line with a pencil.

Fortunately, as the defender, Lieutenant General Putney's perception of the changing battlefield situation was clearer and more timely than that of the German generals on the other side.

"We have retreated a full three kilometers across the entire front line! It seems the enemy is still using the old method to launch a full-scale attack. We need to prepare to increase the depth of our flexible defenses."

The gas attack made the enemy's advance too easy. I estimate they can move the entire division forward and re-establish a complete forward reconnaissance and communications network. Before their next attack this afternoon, they might have additional comprehensive firepower prepared! This battle won't be easy!

After reviewing the changes on the map, Lieutenant General Putney muttered to himself with concern.

At that very moment, at the headquarters of the 3rd Division of the 3rd Army, five kilometers east of the city, Major General Henry Rawlinson, the division commander, had already made another plea for help and a complaint to the army headquarters inside the city.

"Commander! The enemy has launched a new offensive! And starting at 11:30, they have begun intensive artillery preparation! We have suffered considerable casualties in this round of firepower preparation and are about to be overwhelmed by the enemy's strong attack."

I request a slight retreat! I've never seen anything like this before! How could the enemy have organized another large-scale artillery barrage so quickly, and with the accompanying infantry advancing so rapidly…”

Lieutenant General Putney, being far more experienced than his subordinates, quickly considered the matter after hearing it and then decisively offered words of reassurance:
"Hold on! Don't be afraid! This is a special situation today! The enemy was able to reorganize full fire coverage so quickly because their advance this morning went too smoothly, so they re-established a new and solid front line and moved their observation posts and communications units forward!"
I allow you to reserve an additional one to two kilometers of depth. If you can't hold out, you can retreat in sections, but you are absolutely not allowed to retreat across the entire front like you did this morning! We must strive to make the enemy and our positions interlocked, and make it impossible for the enemy's artillery to figure out how far their attacking forces can reach!

Then their artillery threat will still be largely neutralized! They'll be hesitant to fire for fear of accidentally hitting their own people! Then it'll be our artillery's turn to unleash its full power! As for reinforcements and reserves, I don't have any reserves to send you right now, so you'll have to rely on yourselves today!

The corps commander explained the tactical principles in detail, which finally calmed Major General Rawlinson down a bit, and he was no longer as panicked as he had been at the beginning when faced with an unexpected situation.

Their tactical discussion might be incomprehensible to laymen, but any general who had actually commanded positional warfare in World War I would understand it.

Why did the defending side have such a significant artillery advantage over the attacking side at that time? It was because of the poor communication conditions back then!
When the defenders couldn't hold their ground and began to retreat, because the communication conditions on the original positions were good—perhaps with telegraph and telephone lines—the higher command could know within minutes of losing each piece of ground.

Those who have seen the movie "The Liaoshen Campaign" in later generations know why some marshals were so angry when they heard that their troops had lost positions without reporting it, and why they said harsh words like "In large-scale military operations, military discipline must be strict!"

Because the defending side does not report the loss of positions immediately, the artillery units at the army and group levels will not know which area has changed from our side to the enemy side, and various rear support coordination will be disrupted.

You clearly had telephone lines on your position, so why didn't you make a call before losing it? During World War I, although field telephones were not widespread, there were other means of communication. In short, in terms of communication, the defending side that retreated in an orderly manner definitely had the advantage.

In contrast, during World War I, once the attacking side broke through, the artillery in the rear had no idea where the infantry had gone.

When the defenders retreat, they will definitely disrupt communication lines. The attackers cannot report their exact location by telegraph. They can only report the progress by cavalry or bicycles braving artillery fire.

However, the timeliness of cavalry delivering messages in person was very poor; by the time the information reached the rear, the actual line of control at the front might have changed.

Imagine a team playing PUBG. One teammate can call out enemy positions via voice chat, while the other team's microphone is disabled and they're forbidden from doing so. How much tactical and intelligence advantage would the team that can call out enemy positions gain?

The fact that "the front-line troops have no radio" is like having your microphone removed and being unable to report enemy positions while playing PUBG.

Therefore, during World War I, the artillery preparation for an offensive could only involve a concentrated bombardment before the charge began, after which the charge would commence, leaving the attacking artillery essentially idle.

The more intense the fighting on the front lines, the less distinguishable the enemy from the enemy, the less willing the attacking artillery was to fire, for fear of accidentally hitting their own men. Historically, this situation only improved during World War II when radio equipment was widely deployed to the front-line troops.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Putney, based on his original military common sense, thought that "the German army would only have radios at the regimental level, and the regimental level would not be at the forefront. So, as long as our army adopts a slightly flexible defense and abandons some positions, making the front line interlocked and muddying up the waters, the German artillery will be rendered useless because they do not know the precise confrontation line at the front." This was not entirely wrong.

Then it will be the turn of the artillery of the Burgh army to unilaterally slaughter the attacking German troops!
At least that was Lieutenant General Putney's plan, and he used it to encourage Major General Rawlinson, who was on the front lines.

Unfortunately, he encountered a German assault battalion that was the first to equip platoons with portable radios.

Therefore, at this moment, the German rear division and corps headquarters had an intelligence gathering accuracy and speed that was no less than that of Putney, the defending general.

Even if Putney adopted a flexible defense and made the front lines very jagged, the German artillery in the rear could still accurately know which areas were still in enemy hands and which were already in our hands.

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(End of this chapter)