Imperial Elite

Chapter 64 The Longest Day in Paris

As Holz entered Les Invalides, the French Flying Team also arrived in Paris.

Faced with the burning Veterans' Home, the aerial battle immediately intensified.

Gallic fighter pilots began attempting to drive the Teutons out of the airspace.

However, when those dozens of heavy bombers dropped nearly a hundred tons of bombs near the Invalides, and with the loss of the outer defenses of the Invalides, the Teutonics had already achieved at least half of their objective in this offensive.

Without the artillery barrage from the Invalides, the Teutons, while storming the Invalides, also cleared a path to the three elite divisions trapped on the north bank.

Now those three elite divisions are able to cross the Alexander III Bridge in front of the Invalides and withdraw from the north bank to the south bank, returning to the Teutonic-controlled area.

Alternatively, they could directly enter the Invalides, which was under siege, and attempt to seize this tangible symbol of Gallic resistance.

In fact, they are trying to do just that.

After the garrison on the Alexander III Bridge was bombed, it was captured by the Stormtroopers.

The assault troops from the three Teutonic elite divisions that had been trapped on the north bank immediately crossed the bridge and joined the attack on the Invalides.

If the Teutonic attack on other areas of Paris had proceeded as before, and the Teutonic stormtroopers and elite infantry had begun their siege of Les Invalides, the next scenario would have been a rout of the Gallic defenders, with the Teutons moving from one victory to another.

However, this script is quite different.

Although the Teutons managed to break through the outer defenses of the Invalides thanks to the terrifying bombing by the air force.

However, after storming into the Invalides, both the Teutonic stormtroopers and the infantry divisions discovered that something was wrong; the Gauls stationed inside the Invalides were displaying an unusually strong fighting spirit.

If it were just a matter of strong fighting spirit, that would be one thing. The key point is that these Gauls were also ridiculously skilled in tactics and equipment. In an era when infantrymen generally still use bolt-action rifles, almost every soldier guarding the Invalides had an automatic weapon.

The terrifying suppressive power of automatic weapons in urban warfare caused the Teutonic soldiers who stormed into the Invalides to suffer greatly.

They could only barely make their way through the veterans' home with flamethrowers and grenades. However, they couldn't carry enough ammunition for flamethrowers, and they couldn't transport them to the front lines as easily as bullets and grenades.

Therefore, the Teutonic advance in the Invalides was basically a three-steps-forward-two-steps-back situation, and if they were unlucky, they would have to retreat two more steps.

The reason why the Teutonic fighting in the Invalides was progressing so difficult was that the cadets currently stationed there had already received rigorous training.

Although they lacked combat experience, the fact that the Teutons had actually reached the Invalides made up for it.

The fervent cadets resolutely fought the Teutons in every corridor, every room, and even in front of every display case in the Invalides.

The Teutons were very unaccustomed to this sudden increase in the pace of battle, even though they had begun fighting for every room a few days earlier.

But in this situation, five minutes ago we captured the portico, but now the Gauls are counterattacking. We are now attacking the statue of the Great, trying to take over the Gauls' defensive line there, advancing at a distance measured in meters.

It still made the Teutonic soldiers feel as if they had returned to the terrifying trench warfare of Verdun.

Furthermore, it wasn't just the cadets who were defending the Invalides at this time. As a general skilled in defense who had won the Battle of Verdun, General Henry knew very well that in defensive operations, it was not very meaningful to send too many people into the defensive line at once, but rather to deploy the reserves at the appropriate time.

Only by having energetic troops take over the defenses and replace the exhausted ones can the defenses hold for longer.

So, just like at Verdun, General Henry did not fill all his troops in and around the Invalides, but instead kept a lot of reserves behind the Invalides.

Although at present, General Henry can only mobilize the Paris National Guard in the southern districts and the territorial troops that have just arrived.

However, as the Teutons stormed into the Invalides, General Henry began ordering the National Guard and Territorial Army troops to enter the Invalides to support the battle and to attempt to retake the destroyed positions from the outside.

After yesterday's battle, although the Teutons broke through the defensive line in one wave, the city of Paris north of the Seneca River was almost completely occupied by the Teutons.

However, General Henry also determined one thing: the Teutons who came to attack Paris were definitely not as many as 600,000.

Because if the Teutons really came with 600,000 men, then he definitely wouldn't be able to hold out until Joe returned to Paris with his armored forces; the Teutons would have already taken Paris long ago.

Furthermore, according to the Teutons, yesterday's offensive was mainly focused on northern Paris, attempting to capture the city center, rather than simultaneously capturing the station and factory areas in southeastern Paris, thus completely severing Paris's connection with the south and crippling its industrial capacity.

Therefore, the number of Teutons I am facing now should not be too large, perhaps no more than 300,000.

If the Teutons numbered 400,000, they would have already taken over the marshalling yards and industrial areas southwest of Paris.

During the Paris Commune, they entered the city from that direction, and if I had 400,000 people under my command, I would definitely have done the same.

Since the Teutons were not numerous in Paris, the next steps became easier.

The Teutons in Paris are suffering casualties every moment, while my Territorial Army and National Guard are endless. As long as they still want to withdraw those three divisions from northwest Paris, or as long as they haven't given up on the idea of ​​occupying Paris, then they will have to fight each other to the death here.

In that case, let's make the Invalides another Fort Dumont.

Although he had many complaints about Joe, General Henry believed that as long as he could distract the Teutons at the Invalides and wear them down there, he could win the war.

As long as Joe isn't blind, once the Teutons are nearly exhausted, Joe, who is right next to them, can launch an attack and severely damage them.

However, what General Henry didn't know was that, due to the gas attack, the only difference between Joe and a blind man was that Joe still had some light perception and could vaguely see some shadows.

Theoretically speaking, Joe, who was nearly blind, was no longer capable of commanding the troops.

However, there is a slight gap between theory and practice.

Because the Paris task force had been broken up into several small combat groups by Joe to act as a fire brigade, they were put out to fight fires all over the defensive line.

Therefore, this decentralized, distributed combat mode greatly reduced Joe's command pressure.

Joe didn't need to personally lead the company's vehicle crew in the charge; he only needed to issue orders, and the combat groups would figure out how to solve the problem on their own.

In addition, in order to hold back Joe's Paris detachment, the Teutonic infantry also began a feint attack on the Strasbourg Pass blockade after a heavy artillery bombardment.

Although it was said to be a feint attack, the number of infantry deployed was not as many as at the Veterans' Home.

Due to the temporary disruption of supplies, the decision was made to go all in rather than leave cannons without shells as decorations. The plan was to bombard the Bunitania with all the shells, and even if they couldn't break through the Strasbourg Avenue blockade, they could at least put enough pressure on the Bunitania. So, heavy artillery was deployed in Paris.

Faced with the Teutonic army's relentless offensive, although the battle was extremely difficult, it was still relatively easy for Joe's Paris task force, which relied on a defensive counter-offensive and flexible defense.

The Paris task force is very familiar with this.

Although Joe couldn't see the actual scene, he was still able to direct the Paris detachment and the attacking Teutons in a fierce battle near Strasbourg Avenue, based on reports from messengers.

They steadfastly maintained their defensive line as the Teutons attempted to break through the encirclement from the east and west.

Even at the height of the Teutonic offensive, the Teutonic soldiers on both sides of Strasbourg Avenue could see each other's faces.

However, the Teutonic soldiers still couldn't cross the four-lane street.

In this bloody war of attrition, the first to give way were the Teutonic Stormtroopers who attacked the Invalides.

As an elite unit, the Stormtroopers, who had always been used by the Teutonic generals as the spearhead to open up passages for their troops, had cleared the defenses near the Invalides and were among the first to break into the Invalides.

However, as Gallic reinforcements continued to arrive on the battlefield, these elite troops also began to struggle.

Even though these stormtroopers were selected and trained as Teutonic Supermen, they were ultimately not real Supermen.

Faced with a vast number of veteran territorial soldiers and armed civilians of the Paris National Guard, the Storm Commando achieved a very respectable exchange ratio, but their losses also began to soar.

In particular, the Stormtroopers, who had cleared the area around the Invalides and were attempting to cut off the other Gallic troops from the defenders inside the Invalides, suffered fierce attacks from the Gallic forces.

Although the artillery in the square near the Invalides was destroyed in the bombardment, General Henry still set up some artillery reserve positions in the surrounding buildings.

When Gallic and Buntanian pilots once again clashed with Teutonic aces in the skies over Paris, preventing the Teutonic attack planes from launching attacks on ground troops as freely as they had at dawn.

These surviving artillerymen began to enter the battlefield.

Urban warfare is essentially a complete comfort zone for 75mm field guns, which were originally designed for frontline support.

Its pinpoint accuracy and rate of fire, even faster than a rifle, left the swiftly advancing Storm Commando teams reeling.

Even with their formidable combat strength, the Storm Assault Team, whose maximum strength is only at the battalion level and which is usually not at full strength, clearly cannot withstand such attrition once the attack stalls.

Holtz, who was the first to rush into the Invalides, took control of the entrance hall. Originally, Holtz had more than half a platoon of his men, but now only less than a squad remained who could fight.

This forced Holz to abandon the entire hall and retreat to the clothing storage area to resist the Gauls' counterattack.

If it weren't for the timely support from the 2nd Company's Storm Assault Team, Holtz's platoon would have been wiped out by the Gauls at the clothing storage area.

Although they were hoping for a final all-in, after discovering that the Stormtroopers had suffered heavy losses, the Teutonic frontline commander ordered them to withdraw, rest, and replenish their ammunition.

Instead, they used regular infantry battalions with the assault designation to take over the Storm Assault Team's attacks against the Gauls.

Holtz, who received the retreat order, was carried out by a Stormtrooper he didn't recognize.

During the battle to seize a staircase leading to the second floor, Holtz was shot three times in the shoulder in hand-to-hand combat, and a chunk of flesh was bitten off his face by the Gaul. He is now essentially incapacitated.

Holtz, as the platoon leader, was already in the best condition in his platoon.

When the assault platoon entered the veterans' home, there were more than twenty men left. Now, at most, only three of them are still breathing.

Besides Holtz, who had lost a piece of flesh to his face and was shot three times in the shoulder, the other two were an assault team member who had lost a leg and half an arm to a grenade, and a combat engineer whose intestines were spilling out.

Just as the Teutons were making adjustments, General Henry, in the Invalides, keenly noticed the pause in the Teutonic offensive.

Although the closest Teutonic troops fighting the defenders in the Invalides were only two corridors away from his command post, General Henry could hear the Teutonic infantry shouting "Throw grenades!" and "Machine guns in the corner!"

However, General Henry, with a portrait of the Emperor hanging behind him, did not rush to send the outer troops into the Invalides to provide support.

Instead, the messengers were sent to tell the artillery units to ignore the Invalides and continue advancing north towards the Seine River in coordination with the infantry, to use artillery fire to block the Alexander III Bridge and close the gate that the Teutons had just opened to allow the besieged Teutons to escape.

The Teutonic commander outside the Invalides also realized that as long as the Gallic garrison inside the Invalides could get reinforcements, the battle inside the Invalides would not end.

Especially after the Gauls brought out their 75mm field guns, which were hidden in the buildings next to the Invalides, and blocked the Alexander III Bridge.

Troops trapped in the north could only support the troops on the south bank across the river with mortars.

After several attempts to send troops to destroy the Gauls' artillery positions, only to be bombarded and decimated by the frenzied firing of 75mm field guns, the Gauls were finally defeated.

The Teutonic commander decided to try a different approach and solve the problem in the simplest way possible.

Since it is impossible to break through the Gauls' defenses from here, we should further widen the front line and send troops south along the road to bypass Les Invalides and cut off its connection with the rest of Paris.

After all, as a romantic city, the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower are right next to the Invalides. Also, perhaps for the convenience of military parades, both roads are quite wide, and the surrounding buildings aren't very tall. This should allow me to capture the Invalides without paying too high a price.

As the Teutons further widened their lines, the defenders in the Invalides began to face difficulties.

The Invalides was able to maintain its defenses not only because of the defenders' unwavering will, but also because of the reserves that General Henry had prepared, which were able to continuously enter the Invalides.

For every Teutonic soldier who kills one, two more can run into the Invalides.

Furthermore, the military academy's cadets were able to band together and launch counterattacks, so the Teutonic attacks on the Invalides were consistently unsuccessful.

However, when the Teutons began to extend their battle lines, although they did not cut off the reserve forces' support to the Invalides, the expanded battle lines also forced those reserve forces to send troops to maintain the battle lines and deal with the Teutonic attacks, which reduced their support for the Invalides.

As the widest road in Paris, with enough space to build small gardens in the middle, the Boulevard de la Breteau allowed the Teutons to launch their attacks on the Gauls with ease.

They quickly made a breakthrough on Boulevard Breteau, with the vanguard even briefly penetrating the Paris Military School.

After breaking through this military school, they will reach the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower. Once they control this area, they will be able to take control of the surrounding ground area of ​​the Invalides.

Furthermore, the troops isolated in the north, if they can advance along the Seine River and capture the Naje Bridge, will be able to re-establish contact with the northern forces.

Furthermore, there are subway facilities even underground near the Veterans' Home.

However, the Teutonic commander had already decided that once the area was under control, the engineers would use bombs to destroy the subway system.

It was only a matter of time before the Invalides, which lacked supplies and support, was occupied.

At this time, General Henry in the Invalides had also discovered the movements of the Teutonic troops, and at the same time, General Henry also realized what the Teutons were preparing to do.

However, knowing what the Teutons were planning to do did not mean that Admiral Henry had a way to stop them.

If they can't win in the field, everything is for naught. The overwhelming gap in combat power between the Territorial Army and the Paris National Guard and the Teutonic Army made General Henry realize that all he could do now was pray and wait.

General Henry stood in the Invalides, watching the setting sun bathe Paris in gold.

"It's so beautiful..."

Although the fighting was still going on inside the Invalides, General Henry breathed a sigh of relief when he thought of the telegram he had just seen.

After making significant concessions on behalf of the army, the mutiny has been largely quelled, although the troublemakers who spearheaded the unrest have not yet been dealt with.

Although the troops are still unwilling to leave their lines and launch an offensive, three divisions in the Verdun direction have now agreed to return to Paris to fight for its defense, while the attitudes of several other divisions are wavering.

The general who went to quell the rebellion said he was very confident he could persuade more troops to return to the trenches or head to Paris in the coming days.

The first batch of troops will be able to arrive in Paris by train tonight.

With those field divisions as the backbone, the Teutons will no longer be able to easily break through our defenses. If we can hold out until today, Paris will... be saved!

Not only did they save Paris, but if the field troops had arrived quickly enough, General Henry would have even wanted to leave the Teutons in Paris.

Just as Admiral Henry shifted his gaze from the golden Paris outside the window back to the map of Paris in front of him, and began to consider how he should deploy the reinforcements once they arrived,

General Henry heard his captain of the guard outside the door exclaim in surprise, as if the Teutons had bypassed or broken through the defenses and were now exchanging fire with his guards just a corridor away from his command post.

General Henry instinctively drew his pistol from his waist. Then, a feeling of resentment rose from his stomach, like a cold hand gripping his throat, making him feel not only nauseous but also suffocated.

Victory is so close, am I going to fall here?
Looking at the portraits of Gallic generals and marshals hanging in the room, General Henry, filled with resentment, began to ponder whether he should fire his last bullet at the Teutons if they stormed into his command post, or shoot himself.

Admiral Henry noticed out of the corner of his eye that some fires had appeared on the other side of Seine in the distance, which looked like someone was shelling that area.

Is that bastard Joe finally here?

Just as the thought crossed Admiral Henry's mind, the captain of the guard shouted "Long live Gaul!" outside the door, followed by an explosion as the impatient Teutons hurled a barrage of grenades.

As the explosion subsided and there was no further sound from outside, General Henry cocked his pistol with his thumb and, together with the other officers in the command post, pointed his pistol at the command post door.

Meanwhile, just as the Teutonic commander, who was almost finished encircling the Invalides area, was preparing to mobilize reserves to provide more support to the troops that were stretching their lines southward, so that they could complete the massive encirclement.

The Teutonic reserves on their way to the Paris Military Academy heard the sound of engines in the streets.

Then the Teutons saw several small, black tanks, billowing black smoke, charging toward them from the southern streets.

Although no one had ever seen this type of tank before, the Gallic flags fluttering in the wind on these tanks indicated where they came from.

The fact that the Gauls produced such a batch of tanks at this time was clearly not good news for the Teutons.

However, this did not lead the Teutons to despair. After being repeatedly beaten by the Paris detachment, the flesh of these Teutons became smooth and bouncy, and the Teutonic infantry gained some experience in how to fight tanks.

In urban warfare, without artillery support, a direct confrontation with tanks is definitely not an option.

Unless someone's skin is thick enough to withstand artillery fire, a direct confrontation with a tank is certain death; the only way to destroy a tank is through an ambush.

Since these tanks were not accompanied by infantry, the strategy was based on past experience in fighting Bunitania tanks.

These tanks would never rashly charge their own positions without infantry cover; they would definitely go to the nearby buildings and rendezvous with the infantry units first!

Set up the machine gun there! Switch to K-ammunition belts! And prepare some cluster grenades!
Then the Teutonic troops who were preparing to ambush these tanks saw that these tanks had no intention of joining the infantry. They just charged all the way along Brettj Avenue toward the Invalides, and while advancing, they used the machine guns mounted on their turrets to fire fiercely at the Teutons that appeared around them.

Although the fighting looked very intense, the accuracy was poor, and the fact that they only had machine guns and no artillery left the Teutonic officers who were preparing to ambush the tanks dumbfounded. Why were these Gauls not playing by the rules? What on earth were they?
Is this thing really a tank? This performance is so poor!

Never mind! Organize an anti-tank assault team! We absolutely cannot let these tanks into the Veterans' Home, otherwise there will be no way to capture it!
In fact, there was a reason for the poor performance of the Gauls' tank forces: the tanks were not being driven and operated by the Gallic army, but by the workers and engineers at the Lilsch factory who were in charge of the FT tank production line.

Since the start of the Battle of Paris, without General Henry giving any orders, these workers and engineers have been working day and night to rush to produce these experimental FT light tanks.

It wasn't until midnight yesterday that these workers and engineers completed five prototype FT light tanks. Because the Teutons broke through the defenses yesterday, General Henry transferred all experienced soldiers to the center of Paris to rebuild the defenses.

So the workers and engineers on the FT project decided to drive themselves to the front lines to join the fight.

Fortunately, although Paris was under siege, enough fuel to start the tanks and some ammunition previously used for testing could still be found in the factory.

Finally, these tanks were armed.

Subsequently, in order to prevent these tanks from failing to reach the front lines due to mechanical failures.

The engineers then mounted the tanks on trucks and drove them to the center of Paris.

Along the way, the engineers and workers encountered many soldiers who were stationed near the center of Paris. These soldiers told the workers and engineers that the front line had now reached the area in the center of Paris, and that they might have to go there to fight soon.

But before that, they had to stay here to prevent the Teutons from breaking through to the south.

After learning that the workers were taking tanks to the front lines to fight, the soldiers, while admiring them, told them that the front lines were terrifying, that the Teutons were not only ruthless killers, but also had eyes that never dried up, so if they saw Teutons, they must not hesitate to shoot and never give them a chance to attack.

While giving instructions to the workers and engineers, the soldiers, upon learning that they were carrying little ammunition, generously gave them a considerable amount, saying that this was all the ammunition they had.

After driving to the vicinity of the Veterans' Home, where they could clearly hear the dense gunfire and explosions, the engineers and workers felt that they had reached the point where they needed to go. It was too dangerous ahead, and they should move forward in tanks.

However, although these workers and engineers went to the battlefield voluntarily, none of them had any combat experience.

So when they started the vehicles, they decided that no matter what happened along the way, all the vehicles would head towards the Invalides and open fire on any Teutons they saw.

It doesn't matter if we hit them or not, just scaring them is enough. As long as we can get the car to the Veterans' Home, that's a victory!

As for what to do after arriving at the Veterans' Home, the workers and engineers hadn't figured it out yet. They just felt that with so many officers at the Veterans' Home, which was the headquarters of the Army, there must be someone who knew more about tanks than they did, and they figured they could just listen to them.

Driven by this idea, the five tanks charged toward the Invalides like cats being chased by dogs.

And because they were so nervous, they didn't just open fire on the Teutons they saw, but after some Teutons loaded their rifles with K rounds and fired at the tanks.

Startled, the gunners immediately began rotating the turrets and firing in all directions that looked like the Orderlies and anything that was moving.

Because the FT tank used a single-person turret, and like all tanks of that era, it had no stabilization devices, the accuracy of firing relied entirely on the commander's manual control.

So, unsurprisingly, the bullets fired by these tanks all ended up somewhere unknown.

However, this method of attack actually threw the Teutonic anti-tank assault team into disarray.

Because this is completely different from the attack method of the Bunitania tanks.

The Bunitas tanks would briefly stop during an attack, and they wouldn't fire so wildly.

So their original plan was to have the commandos, acting as bait, fire at them first, and then, while the vehicles stopped and fired in that direction, rush up from behind and throw cluster grenades to destroy the tanks.

But now these tanks are not only not stopping, they are accelerating towards the Veterans' Home.

What on earth are these Gauls doing?!

Then, just as the Teutonic anti-tank assault team was thinking, 'Why don't we just forget about the plan and charge in?', a shell suddenly landed among the anti-tank assault team members who were carrying cluster grenades and preparing to blow up the tanks.

In an instant, the Teutonic anti-tank assault team was reduced to its original state as spare parts.

On the street in the distance, near the Veterans' Home, three Hound tanks were advancing under the cover of several infantry fighting vehicles.

Under the setting sun, the tanks, tinged with gold, looked like a gift from heaven.

The workers and engineers inside the FT tank unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, but as they looked at the tanks around them that appeared much uglier in comparison, something suddenly occurred to them.

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Although the final assault in the Battle of Paris may seem like a mistake today, in all fairness it was the closest we ever came to victory.

If Joe's assault hadn't arrived just in time to attack the armored battalion.

If that armored train hadn't happened to be carrying a large amount of poison gas.

If the General Staff had given the battle group a few more divisions when the campaign began, things might have been very different.

However, it was in Paris that I truly understood how a new-era military should be organized and operated.

Joe Harrison was ahead of all of us, though I wasn't quite aware of it at the time.

—From *Victory Within Reach* by Erich

(End of this chapter)