Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 6: No guns, no cannons, the enemy made them for us.

"Retreat immediately! Have the artillery regiment gather its cannons and pull them back!"

Seeing that his own artillery positions, which had been deployed ahead of the enemy, Major General Dejzel frantically gave orders, but it was all too late.

The Belgian artillerymen were blown to bits, their bodies mangled and bloodied. They didn't even have time to pack up their cannons and spades, let alone drag the cannons back.

Colonel Dejoka, commander of the 3rd Regiment of the 4th Division of the Belgian Army, who was in charge of the offensive, was personally leading his last few hundred men to hold out near the bombed artillery positions, in the ruins of several buildings in the northeast corner of the town.

He observed the dire situation of his side more closely than his superior, Major General De Gizell, and was naturally more anxious than the major general.

Seeing his own artillerymen in disarray, he quickly adjusted his deployment, urging his soldiers to hold their ground: "All infantrymen, hold your ground to the death and buy time for the artillery to retreat!"

Braving enemy fire and shrapnel, messengers moved through the ruins, inspiring officers of all ranks to carry out their regimental commanders' orders.

The Belgian infantry still had some courage left, and relying on the fact that they had already occupied part of the town's position, they were unwilling to retreat easily.

But at that moment, Colonel Djokovic vaguely noticed that, in the twilight, a number of German soldiers had emerged from the south side of these streets and were approaching in a scattered manner. It was clear that the enemy infantry had taken the opportunity to launch a counter-offensive.

"The Germans dare to launch such a decisive counterattack? Don't they plan to wear us down first, like the previous two waves did?"

Seeing this, Djokovic was also inspired and decided to hold his ground and launch a counterattack, determined to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy's forces no matter what.

Even if the enemy is skilled in flexible defense, this is not how flexible defense works! The German army was too arrogant!
They dared to launch a full-scale counterattack before they had even exhausted the attackers. Let them know how powerful machine guns are!

The few heavy machine guns that the Belgian army had just deployed into the buildings on the northernmost side of these streets immediately began to spit fire and block the streets.

The German infantry charging north from the south end of the street were indeed temporarily suppressed, and they began to find cover and disperse.

Although it was impossible to see exactly how many people were killed in the darkness, it at least greatly slowed down the German counter-offensive.

Unfortunately, their good fortune didn't last long. Just minutes after the Belgian heavy machine guns opened fire, a flash of light appeared from within the broken walls of a house across the street.
A 77mm grenade flew straight toward one of the ruins where a heavy machine gun was hidden, and with a "boom," it blew up half of the wall, burying the Belgian heavy machine gun inside alive.

Djokovic looked completely shocked, utterly bewildered by what had happened.

Indeed, he had learned a few minutes earlier that the Germans had artillery, but how could artillery be in such a location?
Even rapid-fire artillery, direct-fire weapons, shouldn't they be deployed in open artillery positions?
How can cannons be deployed inside building ruins? Does such a world even have cannons that can be flexibly deployed indoors?
Just seven or eight seconds later, another shell fired from the spot where the flash of fire had been. This time, the shell flew directly toward Dejoka's position—he was temporarily stationed in the ruins of a church in a corner of the town. Messengers were running in and out, and the enemy's hidden observation posts had long since discovered that this was a crucial location.

Colonel Djokovic, with unresolved questions that he never understood, was blown to pieces and went to another world.

The 3rd Regiment of the 4th Division, having lost its commander, was also in complete chaos. The few German artillery pieces that could fire directly at the enemy were still hiding in some ruins on the south side of the long street, firing every seven or eight seconds or every few tens of seconds, like roll call, and they always managed to get something out of them.

Without the suppression of Belgian heavy machine guns, the German infantry finally charged forward nimbly and loosely, maintaining their tactical formation well and avoiding heavy casualties from concentrated enemy fire.

The remaining Belgian troops, their morale shattered, completely lost control, scrambling out of the town in a frantic retreat, suffering extremely heavy casualties. This regiment, already weakened by continuous losses, was now almost entirely wiped out.

"Quickly, you guys bring all the horses over and mount the gun carriages! Pick two Schneider rapid-fire guns in good condition and take them back! Don't leave them here to be bombed by Britannian cruisers! Don't transport too many! We don't have many shells! Even if we have more guns, it won't be enough! But take all the 75mm shells we can find on the position!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Lieutenant Barak, the deputy commander of the German cavalry company, shouted loudly, directing a large number of draft horses and even warhorses to pull the artillery carriages, thus dragging away the two relatively intact cannons of the Belgian army.

He was strictly following Colonel Lister's orders.

Before this counterattack, the colonel had already assigned tasks:
The main force of the 16th Regiment's artillery company was responsible for countering enemy artillery positions that had been tricked into advancing. However, two guns were separated and deployed separately in the ruins on the south side of the contested area, choosing two points with good firing arcs for direct fire, so as to eliminate enemy firing points during the counterattack.

The infantry of the 4th Battalion of the 16th Regiment, which had been used as a reserve force, had now had enough rest and were being brought up to serve as the main force for the counterattack.

Meanwhile, the cavalry of the division's reconnaissance company contributed their horses to quickly clear the battlefield after the battle and haul back captured enemy artillery.

The caliber of the cannons used by the two Derby armies differed by two millimeters, and the shells were completely different. Therefore, the colonel knew that pulling back too many enemy cannons would be useless; pulling back two would be enough.

Anyway, the enemy's artillery positions only have so much ammunition temporarily stored on the ground. If they have more cannons, there won't be enough shells to go around.

Lieutenant Barak had never fought such a rich battle before. He didn't even need his soldiers to kill anyone; he could simply clean up the battlefield and take away the cannons and shells.

The more of this kind of work we do in the future, the better!

"Sir! Our unit has completed the mission perfectly! We brought back two 75mm rapid-fire guns, three hundred rounds of ammunition, and captured more than twenty artillery prisoners."

When Lieutenant Barak returned to the command post to hand over the mission, he was beaming with joy as he reported to the colonel.

The colonel nodded with satisfaction: "Well done, but Lelouch, your idea also deserves credit for such a thorough victory just now—how did you come up with the idea of ​​forcibly removing our army's 77mm bulletproof shields and then hiding the cannons indoors for deployment?"

Upon hearing this, Lieutenant Barak looked at Lelouch again, but this time his eyes only showed admiration.

It turned out that just before the enemy's attack, Sergeant Lelouch had offered the colonel a small idea, which Lieutenant Barak had overheard.

The German 77mm field gun was not originally designed for indoor deployment because all cannons of that era had frontal bulletproof shields, which were quite bulky.

The 77mm gun couldn't even push open the double doors of an ordinary civilian house, so there was no point in considering indoor deployment—unless it was a professionally designed and constructed fortress emplacement.

But just before the operation, Lelouch overheard the colonel discussing the "luring the enemy in deep and then counter-attacking to seize the cannons" strategy. He had a sudden inspiration and, adding to the plan, advised the colonel to simply select two 77mm cannons, remove the bulletproof shields, and greatly reduce the overall size of the cannons to facilitate flexible deployment.

Now that this tactic had indeed worked, Lelouch naturally wanted to seize the opportunity to offer some hindsight advice and show off his thought process:
"Actually, my idea was very simple. I thought that our army's 77mm gun clearly has a much higher muzzle velocity than the Schneider 75mm gun, but the two have similar final ranges. The problem is that the 77mm gun has a smaller maximum elevation angle."

With a lower maximum elevation angle, the gun barrel can be made lower, and the bulletproof shield area can also be correspondingly lower, which is originally an advantage for our army. But how to maximize this advantage? I thought it would be better to completely remove the bulletproof shield, and then take advantage of our low gun mount to directly advance into the interior of collapsed buildings and deploy in any available space.

This way, we can make the most of its concealment. And since it's indoor warfare, the outer walls and bunkers already provide bulletproof protection. If an attack can penetrate the brick walls, the last thin sheet of iron certainly won't stop it either. So why keep it as a redundancy?" Lelouch explained his thinking clearly, and Colonel Lister, Lieutenant Barak, and several other officers also found it quite enlightening.

This approach can not only be used this time, but can also be used as a reference for friendly forces in the future. It should be included in the urban warfare experience summary section of the artillery manual.

Thinking of this, the colonel couldn't help but casually ask, "How's your writing? Can you write a supplement to the artillery manual, introducing new tactical experiences? This would be very beneficial for you junior officers, allowing you to quickly accumulate seniority."

For people with higher education, writing articles is certainly not difficult. As long as they have substantial content and a template, they can get it done.

Without much thought, Lelouch readily agreed, "Don't worry, I'm a university graduate too."

But there's no need to rush these things; we can talk about them later.

Having just achieved a local victory, the soldiers should celebrate properly, take turns resting, and prepare for the more brutal battles to come.

Colonel Lister, also a master of military strategy, immediately announced that his soldiers would receive an extra meal:
"Barak, when you captured the town, did you check the stockpiles? Did you have any alcohol? This is the first victory since the troops arrived, so bring out all the alcohol to boost morale."

It was completely dark by now. We had also wiped out and captured the artillery of the 4th Division. Dejzel suffered a crushing defeat and probably wouldn't dare to come back immediately. We could have some peace and quiet for the first half of the night.

However, we need to be on high alert in the latter half of the night. Judging by the time, Viktor's 6th Division should be able to reach the battlefield by then.

Lieutenant Barak quickly replied, "Okay, I'll go prepare right away. That cellar, which has been converted into a communications room, was originally a wine cellar of a manor in town, containing some champagne and cognac."

"And the church where the enemy temporarily stationed themselves also has a cellar storing wine for communion."

This area is the westernmost part of the Belgian territory, bordering the Frankish Kingdom, so the local specialty wines are all quite similar.

In theory, only apple sparkling wine produced in the Picardy Champagne region is qualified to be called Champagne, but in reality, sparkling wines from surrounding provinces also use this name.

Upon hearing that there was champagne, the colonel's eyes lit up immediately: "Excellent! Champagne is perfect for this occasion, and it's not too strong. Open it all! Save the cognac for later!"

The German army in 1914 had a high level of military skill, but it also had many bad habits, mainly in terms of treating officers and soldiers equally, which was far worse than that of their enemies.

Officers frequently physically punished and beat soldiers; military law was harsh; and there was a huge disparity in the food and treatment between officers and soldiers.

Although Colonel Lister was a skilled warrior, he was not immune to such customs. When distributing champagne to the soldiers, he only gave each squad one bottle, leaving the squad leaders to distribute it as they saw fit.

Each person couldn't even get an ounce of liquor; the soldiers used their iron lunchboxes to collect the liquor, and it was gone in two sips.

However, Lelouch's platoon received special treatment because of him, with each platoon receiving two bottles.

After Lelouch received the wine, he asked his underling, Sergeant Crozier, to distribute it, and then instructed him, "Keep an eye on the other unconscious soldiers. If they wake up, call me. Also, save some wine for them. I'm the acting platoon leader now, so I need to get familiar with the team as soon as possible."

Klose immediately agreed, saying he would not make any mistakes.

During a lull in the fighting, Lelouch also learned some things from Klose. Mainly about what happened before he woke up at noon today, including why he was poisoned by the enemy's tear gas and why the other officers were also poisoned.

Klose was very forthcoming, telling him that the communications platoon had just arrived in town that morning, and that the enemy in the town had not been completely wiped out yet, with some French troops still putting up sporadic resistance.

Lelouch and several other sergeants went into the town's telegraph company mailroom (similar to the post offices in China in the 80s that could send telegrams) to check the equipment and lines.

Unexpectedly, there were still remnants of French resistance nearby who threw a few gas grenades. Because it was a closed room, several people tried to open the door and rush out, and some of them had already stopped breathing due to the fumes.

However, tear gas is generally not fatal, and those people who were unconscious for an afternoon should have woken up by now.

After giving instructions to Klose, Lelouch was treated well by the colonel and taken to dine with his trusted officers.

He transmigrated at 1 p.m., and now it's 7 or 8 p.m. Furthermore, considering he was poisoned and unconscious for a while that morning, he hadn't actually eaten anything all day.

I saw the colonel, along with two close battalion commanders, a regimental staff officer, a confidential clerk, and Lieutenant Barak, sitting around a long table. The table was laden with a relatively plentiful spread of food, including cured meat stewed with potatoes, cabbage, and fried sausage.

Lelouch's rumbling stomach finally couldn't take it anymore, and he respectfully started eating at the end of the table.

Apart from one confidential staff member who was a second lieutenant, everyone else at the table was at least a lieutenant, and he was the only one who wasn't an officer.

But none of the officers in the 16th Regiment dared to underestimate him; in fact, they were all quite kind to him.

Perhaps it was because he sent a telegram warning and saved the entire regiment from being flooded.

Lelouch devoured three whole sausages, then suddenly remembered something, but considering table manners, he waited until the Colonel finished eating before asking:
"Sir, I heard that when you led your entire regiment on a forced march to this location, you also rescued several hundred civilians from Billy King along the way? Have those people eaten?"

The colonel paused for a moment, clearly not concerned about the issue, and then quickly followed up with inquiries. Finally, a regimental logistics officer in charge of the matter answered that they had simply given those people some potatoes.

This is wartime after all. The troops themselves only brought three days' worth of rations. The meat they are eating right now is all captured on the spot in the town. Where would they find any surplus food to distribute to the refugees?

Upon hearing this, Lelouch's eyes lit up, and another plan formed in his mind:
"Sir, I have a suggestion. Since we don't have any extra military rations to give them, and they didn't have time to bring any food with them when they fled, why don't we release a group of Bilijin civilians and let them go to the Bilijin positions to seek their lives?"

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(End of this chapter)