Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 209 The Comfort Zone of the Assault Battalion
Morin's current affiliation is quite unique. He belongs to the Second Army's operational order of battle, but at the same time, he is also involved in the offensive of the Provisional Combat Group in coordination with the First Army.

Therefore, at least for now, the First Army Group and the Second Army Group have become his allies at the operational level.

It seems that because they became allies in launching the campaign, the First Army unit cards on the system map, which had stopped updating for some time, finally changed.

Currently, south of the Sambre River, the main force of the Second Army is like a heavy hammer slamming into the Gallic Fifth Army, which has retreated to the San Quentin line.

The insignia representing the L29 armored airship was flashing red above San Quentin, and it also carried a crossed sword symbol indicating 'engagement', clearly indicating that it was engaged in a fierce ground attack.

According to information Morin received from General Billo, while the Saxon Second Army was launching an attack on the Gallic Fifth Army, the Saxon Third Army would also cut off the connection between the Gallic Fifth and Fourth Armies and launch an attack from the flank.

Meanwhile, further north on the Arras front, the main force of the First Army, personally commanded by General Mackensen, launched a full-scale offensive against the Brittany Expeditionary Force.

A dense barrage of attack arrows, like a swarm of snakes dancing wildly, crashed into the expeditionary force's defensive line.

Morin could even see a special unit card representing the main force of the Teutonic Knights in the attack sequence.

As for the temporary combat group he was in, composed of elite troops from the First and Second Armies, it had already viciously penetrated the 'soft belly' of the right flank of the Brittany Expeditionary Force.

After arriving at the rendezvous point yesterday, Morin used the [Invisibility] spell he had prepared that day to conduct a daring reconnaissance before midnight, sneaking alone to the very front of the Britannian defenses.

As the spearhead of tomorrow's attack, he needs to personally confirm the enemy's defensive deployment—a crucial step in training the assault battalion and its prototype, the 'Storm Commando,' before launching an attack.

Only by completing reconnaissance can you determine which position on the defensive line is the enemy's weak point.

The results of the reconnaissance surprised, even astonished, Morin.
The trenches dug by the 5th Britannian Infantry Division, the unit responsible for guarding the flank junctions, can only be described as rudimentary and hastily constructed.

The trenches were not dug deep, and the breastwork was simply a pile of earthen mounds; in many places, even basic firing ports were not provided.

This doesn't resemble a permanent defensive fortification built by a regular army at all; it looks more like a hastily dug foxhole.

"What are these Britannians up to?"

Maureen lay prone in the darkness, wondering to himself.

He couldn't believe that the Britannian expeditionary force, sent by the world's 'superpower,' would be such incompetent fools who couldn't even handle basic civil engineering. There must be another reason behind it.

Based on Morin's stereotypes about Britannia, or rather, "British," he had reason to believe that the only explanation was that the expeditionary force never intended to hold Arras to the death.

This defensive line was a temporary position from the very beginning.

Having figured this out, Morin immediately changed his original attack plan.

He led the 1st Company of the training assault battalion through the night, taking advantage of the darkness, and quietly made his way to a depression more than 200 meters away from the enemy's position.

The soldiers of the 1st Company were all skilled in earthwork and had experience digging trenches right under the enemy's nose.

So their operation didn't cause much of a stir, and this time Morin didn't undertake any major construction. He simply had everyone dig foxholes on the spot, just big enough to hide in, and then they lay there quietly waiting for dawn.
Then, on the morning of August 20, the battle group began to unleash artillery fire on the positions of the Brittany Expeditionary Force—incidentally, this battle group also received a temporary name, 'Assault Battle Group'.

The explosions of artillery shells hitting the enemy positions were deafening.

Morin, lying prone in the foxhole, covered his ears with his hands and opened his mouth wide, praying that the artillery behind him wouldn't make any mistakes at this moment, as one shot might miss by more than two hundred meters.
However, while he felt the ground shaking beneath him, he felt a surge of excitement, in addition to a little nervousness.

"Damn, this feels like a large-scale military operation! This firepower is way better than what we had back in Charleroi!"

At 6:30, as the sound of artillery fire began to extend into the rear, clearing obstacles for the infantry charge, three red signal flares rose into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, a sharp whistle rang out across the battlefield.

"First Company! Charge with me!"

Morin put on the [Mage Armor] he had prepared in the foxhole the night before, then suddenly jumped up from the foxhole, grabbed his submachine gun, and was the first to charge out.

Klaus and the other soldiers followed closely behind. As the 1st Company of the 'forward assault team', they were now divided into more than a dozen combat groups and silently launched an attack on the enemy position that was still emitting black smoke.

After rushing a distance, Morin used the enhanced [Spell Power] to create a 40-meter-long smoke screen as cover.

Because their positions were close enough, and with the cover of artillery fire, when they rushed to the Brittany's trenches, the disoriented Brittany soldiers hadn't even had time to climb out of their bunkers.

Before they could even catch their breath, the expert grenade throwers from the 1st Company had already unleashed two volleys of grenades.

Whether or not the grenades ultimately landed in the trenches, their explosions alone slowed down the Brittany soldiers' reaction time.

"Da da da da da!"

The assault team at the forefront jumped into the trench back to back, firing their MP14 submachine guns simultaneously.

The dense barrage of 9mm bullets swept across the entire trench like a broom.

The disoriented Britannian soldiers, before they could even see where the enemy was, were riddled with bullets.

Blood and screams instantly filled the makeshift trench.

"Quickly clear the trenches! Take out their heavy machine guns first, watch out for the flanks!"

Klaus fired short bursts with his submachine gun while loudly directing his soldiers.

This sergeant major, who was acting as the company commander, had become increasingly experienced in command, and at least in company-level battles, Morin no longer needed to worry about him.

The veterans of the 1st Company, who are the backbone of the training assault battalion, already have relatively rich combat experience and do not need much command.

They worked seamlessly in combat squads, like a group of efficient butchers, advancing rapidly along the trenches and using their submachine guns and grenades to send any enemy who dared to resist to meet their maker.

The battle proceeded even more smoothly than Morin had anticipated.

This rudimentary defensive line of the 5th Britannian Infantry Division was as fragile as paper against the 1st Company of the Training Assault Battalion.

In just a few minutes, the 1st Company had already torn open a huge gap more than 300 meters wide in the enemy's defense line.

"Quickly, signal flare! Get the 2nd and 3rd companies up!" Morin shouted to a messenger who had been following him.

"call out--!"

A green flare was launched into the sky. According to the pre-war agreement, only the training assault battalion could use the green flare to indicate their location and to signal the surrounding friendly forces to move closer to provide support.

Soon, the 2nd and 3rd companies, which had been waiting in the rear for a long time, immediately split into two groups and poured in through the gap.

Like sharp weapons tearing open a wound, they launched a fierce attack on both sides of the breach, frantically expanding their gains. The commander of the Britannian 5th Infantry Division was clearly stunned by this sudden attack.

Their defenses were breached by the Saxons in just over ten minutes.

Faced with the overwhelming influx of Saxon soldiers and their almost unstoppable close-range firepower, the Britannian soldiers on the position under the command of the training assault battalion could no longer hold out, and they nimbly began to retreat to the rear.

The entire right flank defense line was torn open with an unhealable gap in less than half an hour after the attack began.

"Battalion Commander! The 2nd and 3rd Companies have successfully deployed to both flanks, and the gap is now more than one kilometer wide!"

Kraster, who was in charge of the second wave of attack, ran to Morin's side and excitedly reported the battle situation.

"This battle went so smoothly! The Brittany's defenses were as thin as paper, they broke through with the slightest touch!"

"Don't be careless. This gap is already big enough. If it gets any bigger, we won't be able to hold it in!"

Morin nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on Alas's direction.
"The Brittanyians won't let us break through so easily; their counterattack is imminent."

No sooner had Morin finished speaking than a series of urgent whistles and shouts from officers came from behind the retreating Brittany front.

Immediately afterwards, a group of Britannian infantrymen, who had not suffered any casualties, led by their officers, launched a counter-charge towards the breach in neat formation.

And at the very front of their line were those familiar 'plate armor superheroes'.

However, this time, the firepower density of the training assault battalion is incomparable to that of the past.

With just a few concentrated shots from the MG14s, several of the 'plate armor supermen' at the forefront were instantly killed.

After realizing something was wrong, the remaining "plate armor superheroes" finally stopped being as stubborn as before.

Their charge began to falter; some instinctively sought cover, while others hesitated, no longer daring to advance.

If they continued their charge, they might actually reach the position, but unfortunately, the training assault battalion was not fighting alone this time.

The veterans in the team were redistributed to the other three companies that had suffered heavy losses, while the 4th Company, which had received a lot of new recruits, was sent up as the "deep assault team" for this mission.

Beside them were two squads of armored knights led by Ludwig.

Ludwig piloted his Siegfried Type 1 at the forefront, and as his personal machine, the knight had his previous kill counts arrogantly painted on his shoulder armor.

"Teutonic Knights! Charge with me!"

Ludwig's voice echoed across the battlefield through the armored knight's built-in loudspeaker.

Ten Siegfried Type 1 armored knights formed a standard wedge-shaped charge and rolled towards the group of "plate armor supermen" who were already in disarray and the infantry behind them.

The earth trembled beneath their iron feet, and their unstoppable momentum sent shivers down the spines of everyone who witnessed it.

The Britannians, on the other hand, had clearly also noticed this suddenly appearing armored force.

From behind their chaotic lines, five armored knights adorned with the emblem of the Knights of the Garde also charged out, attempting to meet Ludwig's charge.

"Just five stations? Who do you think you are?"

Ludwig looked at the five enemy armored knights charging towards him and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

He was well aware that John French had deployed most of his elite troops on the front lines to defend against the main force of the First Army.

This resulted in the Britannians having extremely weak armored and magical forces on this flank of the battlefield.

Moreover, the Teutonic Knights of today are no longer the same as they were back in the Kingdom of Aragon, when they could only fight at a loss with their enemies.

The armored knights' short-range charging speed was completely disproportionate to their massive size.

In just a few breaths, the armored knights of both sides bypassed their respective infantry and collided violently.

"boom!"

Ludwig drove his vehicle ahead, his 'armor-piercing spear' accurately striking the chest of a Garde Knight's armored knight.

The range control fuse at the front of the conical warhead activates the instant it contacts the armor.

A jet of scorching metal instantly pierced the frontal armor of the armored knight, triggering a massive burst of flames.

The armored knight of the Garde Knights, although he had obtained intelligence before the battle that 'the Saxon armored knights possessed a new type of weapon', was mentally prepared.

But in actual combat, it still didn't even have a chance to fight back, and the other equipment in the cockpit was reduced to an unrecognizable pile of debris.

"Next!"

Ludwig didn't even glance at the unfortunate creature he had instantly killed, and charged past it, searching for his next target.

The other Teutonic Knights also easily dealt with their opponents in the same way.

With a generational gap already present between the spear and the shield, the outcome of this duel between armored knights was predetermined from the start.

This was by no means a closely contested battle.
In less than five minutes, the five armored knights of the Garde Knights that came to meet them were all reduced to burning wreckage.

"Pretty!"

Morin, who was watching from the back, couldn't help but clench his fist.

"Ludwig is getting more and more formidable!"

Having dealt with the enemy's armored forces, Ludwig and his Knights, like a flock of tigers charging into a flock of sheep, began to relentlessly reap the lives of those 'plate armor supermen' and infantry.

The enormous iron feet trampled over, turning the soldiers who couldn't dodge in time into mincemeat.

This exhilarating 'infantry-cavalry coordinated' offensive battle completely pushed the training assault battalion into their 'comfort zone'.

This is the combat style that the training assault battalion excels at—using its superior mobility and firepower to conduct rapid infiltration and deep assaults!

Instead of holed up in the city and fighting damn street battles like in Charleroi!

(End of this chapter)