Chapter 46: The True Power of Storm Assault Squad Tactics

Relying on the tear gas counter-tactic that could only achieve a miraculous effect once, the Demanian army rapidly pushed through the outermost three-kilometer defense line between Armentières and Bailleul at a minimal cost.

The British troops, driven into utter disarray by the suffocating gas and leaving countless corpses in their wake along the route, suffered over three thousand casualties in total.

The heavily fortified positions that the British army had spent over a month newly constructing were thus left behind.

At least a dozen trenches were crossed, twenty lines of barbed wire were cut and destroyed, and three layers of rammed-earth bunkers were captured or blown up. Countless hours of earthwork labor were rendered completely useless.

Major Bock's 1st Assault Battalion took only two and a half hours to pass through this area. Major Rundstedt's 2nd Assault Battalion took half an hour longer than him.

Perhaps laymen have little concept of these figures, but a simple comparison makes it easy to understand—during the First Battle of Ypres on Earth, the German army spent an entire day on the first day just to pass through a 3.5-kilometer frontline zone, yet chlorine gas alone caused five casualties thousand.

Today, advancing the same distance took a shortened time of three hours, but the lethality was only sixty percent—this was obviously because tear gas only had a driving effect and no lethal effect. The vast majority of casualties were caused by artillery fire, grenades, and submachine guns.

Only Lelouch anticipated this outcome, while Bock and Rundstedt were pleasantly surprised and even felt a bit lightheaded for a moment.

Neither of them expected that they could push so far in just three hours.

Seeing that the battalion commander was a bit prideful, Lelouch knew it was time to apply the brakes slightly. Taking advantage of the just-concluded wave of attacks, he offered a suggestion to Major Bock:

"Battalion Commander, the situation has changed, and progress is better than we expected. Why not slightly adjust the combat plan and have the entire subsequent division push the defense line forward by three kilometers?

We will make an exception and rest in place for an hour to provide cover for the follow-up troops to catch up, and meanwhile take the opportunity to conduct supplementary reconnaissance on the distribution of the frontline enemy's firepower points."

After hesitating for a few seconds, Bock accepted this suggestion.

According to the original manual of stormtrooper tactics, after achieving a breakthrough at key points, assault teams could only let a small number of friendly troops fill the torn gaps to provide defense for the flanks, and must never turn a primary attack into a full-scale offensive.

However, the current situation was clearly very different from expectations; the displacement effect of the tear gas was simply too good. Within a depth of three kilometers on the front line, the enemy was in full retreat, so the friendly forces should naturally follow up completely. It would be foolish not to seize such an advantage.

"Have the radio send out the message. Our army can rest in place for an hour, eat lunch first, and resume the attack at exactly 12:00. The offensive must not be interrupted in the afternoon; only rotation of attack between various companies will be permitted," Major Bock issued detailed orders.

Lelouch took the opportunity to remind him: "We must never lower our guard just because we progressed too smoothly this morning. The advantage of using gas to catch the enemy unprepared can only be exploited once.

The range of the 'Smoke Thrower' is only three kilometers, and the secondary deployment speed of that equipment is very slow. Counting on it to move forward and redeploy for firing will take at least until tomorrow. Furthermore, the French army has anti-gas masks, and once the British army takes precautions and borrows masks, they will definitely not fear smoke tomorrow.

Therefore, our subsequent actions must rely on hard power. I checked the map, and the straight-line distance between the centers of the two towns is 13 kilometers.

Our departure position was Nieppe village, 2 kilometers west of Armentières, and this morning we advanced another 3 kilometers almost bloodlessly, so we are now 8 kilometers away from the center of Bailleul town. The preceding 6 kilometers are field defense lines, and the final 2 kilometers are the urban area of Bailleul town, where we might encounter urban combat..."

Bock had just taken a bite of black bread, and hearing this, he immediately took a sip of water to interrupt: "Do not consider urban combat. Today, break through the outer 6-kilometer field defense zone as much as possible. Tomorrow, we will bypass Bailleul town and surround it without attacking. There is no need to completely capture such a small town. Since we will not be using this railway, we don't need to capture the train station; just making it impossible for the enemy to use the railway is enough."

Hearing the battalion commander's decisive order and pondering it for a moment, Lelouch also felt he gained a lot.

Their purpose was to cut off the enemy's railway line, not to use the railway line themselves. Different combat objectives naturally led to different attack methods.

The assault battalion had few personnel yet was elite, and must not be consumed in urban warfare. Even if urban warfare were ultimately necessary, it should be fought by the large follow-up forces, while the assault battalion only needed to infiltrate.

The assault battalion soldiers hastily ate lunch and rested briefly before the large body of friendly troops reinforced the entire line. The assault battalion was soon thrown into a new offensive.

Thanks to the friendly forces fully reinforcing the line, the changes in the enemy and friendly front lines became very clear. The German army could quickly calculate the changes in frontline coordinates and reformulate artillery preparation plans.

Therefore, before the afternoon offensive, the German army conducted another half-hour of artillery preparation, with a fairly high shelling density.

After sustained and fierce bombardment, the assault battalion truly launched its attack.

The enemy's primary line of defense, once again blasted to pieces, was swiftly broken through again by the assault battalion using methods similar to the morning's attack.

A trench and two lines of barbed wire were torn open at several small points in succession, and then the follow-up troops of the assault battalion poured into the gaps swiftly and quietly.

Still submachine guns clearing the way, still a large number of concentrated grenades dealing with the corners of Z-shaped trenches, forcefully tearing open the British defense.

...

Meanwhile, the headquarters of the British 3rd Corps in the city of Bailleul.

The telephone of Lieutenant General William Pulteney, the corps commander, had not stopped ringing all morning.

Because the British army was ambushed and continuously losing large swaths of positions, officers at all levels had to constantly report the situation of retreat and fallback.

Lieutenant General Pulteney's staff officers were busy processing incoming call information, moving pieces with small flags across maps and sand tables, and redrawing the frontlines with pencils, overwhelmed with work.

Fortunately, as the defensive side, Lieutenant General Pulteney's perception of changes in the battlefield situation was clearer and more timely than the opposing German generals.

"Along the entire front, we have generally retreated a full three kilometers! It looks like the enemy is still using the old method for a full-scale offensive, and we must prepare to increase the depth of our elastic defense.

The gas raid allowed the enemy to progress much too smoothly. I estimate they can move an entire division forward and re-establish a complete frontline reconnaissance and communication network. Before the enemy attacks again this afternoon, there might even be additional comprehensive artillery preparation! This battle will be hard to fight!"

After viewing the changes on the map, Lieutenant General Pulteney muttered to himself with deep concern.

At that very moment, five kilometers east of the city at the headquarters of the 3rd Division of the 3rd Corps, Major General Henry Rawlinson, the division commander, had made yet another call to the corps headquarters in the city to plead for help and complain.

"Corps Commander! The enemy has launched a new offensive! And starting at 11:30, they carried out intensive artillery preparation once again! During this round of firepower preparation, we suffered considerable casualties once more, and we are running out of the ability to hold against the enemy's fierce assault.

I request a slight retreat! We have never seen this situation before! How could the enemy organize a new large-scale shelling so quickly, and how did the coordinating infantry follow up so rapidly..."

Lieutenant General Pulteney was, after all, more experienced than his subordinates. Hearing this, he quickly thought it over before resolutely offering words of comfort:

"Hold your ground! Do not be afraid! Today is a special circumstance! The reason the enemy could so quickly reorganize a comprehensive artillery barrage is certainly because they progressed too smoothly this morning, allowing them to establish a new, solid frontline and move their observation posts and communication units forward!

I authorize you to reserve an additional depth of one to two kilometers. If you cannot hold, execute a localized retreat, but under no circumstances are you allowed to retreat across the entire line like this morning! Strive to make the positions of both sides interlock like dog teeth, so that the enemy's artillery cannot figure out the furthest points reached by their attacking troops!

When that happens, a major portion of their artillery threat will still be neutralized! They will hold back out of fear of accidentally hitting their own people! Then it will be our turn for the artillery to display its power unilaterally! As for reinforcements and reserves, I temporarily have no reserves to send you; today you must rely on yourselves!"

By breaking down and explaining the tactical principles clearly, the corps commander finally managed to calm Major General Rawlinson somewhat, making him far less panicked when encountering emergencies than he was at first.

Laymen might not understand their tactical discussion, but any general who had genuinely commanded trench warfare in World War I could understand it completely.

Why was the artillery advantage of the defensive side so much greater than that of the offensive side back then? It was precisely because communication conditions at the time were poor!

When the defensive side could no longer hold and began to retreat, because communication conditions on the original positions were good—perhaps telegraph or telephone lines had been laid—every time a piece of territory was lost, superiors could know within a few minutes—

Anyone who has watched the movie *The Liaoshen Campaign* in later generations knows why certain marshals would be so furious upon hearing that subordinate troops lost positions without reporting, dropping harsh remarks like, "In large-group operations, military discipline must be strict!"

Because if the defensive side lost positions without reporting immediately, the artillery units at the corps and army levels above would not know that the color of that territory had changed from friendly to enemy, leading to a disconnection in various rear-support coordination.

You clearly had telephone lines in your position; why didn't you make a call before losing it? During World War I, although field telephones were not widespread, there were other communication methods. In short, regarding communication, the defensive side retreating in an orderly manner had the advantage.

By comparison, after the offensive side broke through during World War I, the artillery in the rear had no idea where the frontline infantry had rushed.

The defensive side would certainly destroy communication lines when retreating, and exactly where the offensive side had pushed could not be transmitted backward via telecommunications; it could only be reported back through cavalry or bicycles enduring enemy fire.

And the timeliness of cavalry reporting in person was very poor; by the time the information reached the rear, the actual frontline control line might have changed once again.

Imagine playing a battle royale game where one team's teammates could communicate via voice chat, while the other team had their microphones dismantled and were forbidden to report. How much of a tactical and intelligence advantage would the team that could report obtain?

And "frontline troops lacking radios" was equivalent to having their microphones dismantled and being forbidden to report in a battle royale game.

Therefore, the offensive artillery preparations during World War I could only involve a dense bombardment before the charge, and once the charge began, the offensive side's artillery was basically in a semi-idle state.

The more intertwined and indistinguishable the frontline combat became, the more the offensive side's artillery dared not fire, fearing friendly fire. Such a situation historically did not improve until World War II, when radio sets were fully distributed down to the frontline units.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Pulteney judged the situation based on ordinary military common sense, believing that "the German army should at least have radios down to the regiment level, and regimental headquarters cannot rush to the very front. Therefore, as long as our army executes an elastic defense and abandons some positions to make the frontline intertwined and muddy the waters, the German artillery will be rendered useless because they do not know the precise frontline confrontation line." This could not be considered entirely wrong.

At that time, it would be the British artillery's turn to unilaterally slaughter the advancing German army!

At least Lieutenant General Pulteney's wishful thinking was set up this way, and he used this to encourage Major General Rawlinson on the front line.

Unfortunately, what he encountered was a German assault battalion that had equipped portable radios down to the platoon level for the very first time.

Therefore, at this very moment, the precision and speed with which the German rear division and corps headquarters grasped intelligence on the changes in the frontline contact line were no less than those of Pulteney, the defensive general.

No matter how Pulteney conducted elastic defense or made the frontline intertwined, the German artillery in the rear could precisely know which territory remained in enemy hands and which had fallen into friendly hands.