Chapter 53: Christmas Eve Offensive

"Are you expecting to use railway-transported battleship main-gun-tier heavy artillery, pulling them directly into coastal railway-accessible cities that our army can capture—such as Dunkirk—to provide the infantry with anti-sea denial firepower?"

When Major Karl heard Lelouch's wildly imaginative suggestion, his eyes lit up involuntarily, realizing this was a flexible tactical concept that had never been conceived before.

To prevent fleet shore bombardments by building a continuous chain of coastal defense artillery fortresses all the way along the coast was simply too cumbersome and sluggish, while also consuming massive amounts of resources and time.

If they could maintain a flexible and mobile deterrence that kept enemy fleets from daring to approach the coast, that would be the absolute best outcome.

This issue had never been taken seriously among the German military leadership prior to this, mainly because they lacked such a battlefield environment and urgent practical demands.

High-ranking generals from the South German federal states, such as the Badonian and Württemberg factions, had previously struggled to influence the General Staff's armaments planning or bypass the Junker officer corps to directly dictate things to the Krupp company.

Yet the situation was different now. Because of the offensive operations over the past few days, the 4th Army had encountered genuine difficulties in the direction of Ostend. The inability to execute "anti-access/area denial" against the enemy fleet had made it difficult to carry out the Empire's overall strategic plan.

At a time like this, when front-line troops put forward well-founded and urgent rectification plans, Krupp had no choice but to accept them whether they liked it or not; otherwise, they would chill the hearts of the soldiers on the front lines.

Those within the General Staff and the Junker officer corps who might have originally resisted the South German faction's "level-skipping reports and cross-circle scheduling" would now turn a blind eye due to the front's urgent needs, considering the matter "understandable."

After working through the logic, Major Karl could not help but think: this kid Lelouch was simply a lucky charm for the Badonian faction!

Having straightened out his thoughts, Major Karl decisively instructed: "Your suggestion is exceptionally good. In a moment, draft a brief outline of the requirements, and I will report it to the commander. We will submit the requirements to Krupp so they can start preparing, while simultaneously filing it with the General Staff for the record—"

"By the way, isn't your battalion commander, Major von Bock, the nephew of the Chief of the General Staff? For the sake of the Empire and to ensure this proposal receives prompt approval and attention, I believe you and he should co-sign the final formal report."

Major Karl's subtext was quite clear: this was an opportunity to share the credit for the proposal with von Bock, as well as a maneuver to make subsequent developments run more smoothly.

As for Lelouch, he did not care about monopolizing the fame of "contributing a strategy." This was hardly a major merit anyway, merely an idea. Connecting with the people at Krupp and becoming a familiar face through this opportunity was what mattered most.

He readily and modestly accepted Major Karl's suggestion, and the topic was temporarily laid to rest.

***

The discussion concerning railway artillery was merely an interlude in this meeting; the core agenda for today remained the imminent battle for the St. Aufford stronghold, figuring out how to capture the enemy's railway hub.

The preceding discussion had helped Lelouch and the others clarify the current reality:

Presently in the St. Aufford sector, the German forces could pull together two divisions of rotating offensive troops, along with two assault battalions. Meanwhile, due to distractions from other directions, the British forces only possessed the 1st Canadian Division, the 2nd Canadian Division, and Indian troops from South Asia, with no actual British home-country units present.

Judging from the scale comparison between the two sides, the enemy held a numerical advantage with four divisions against two, but their combat quality was relatively low, leaving high hopes for the upcoming battle.

Tactical details actually required little discussion; they would simply fight the way they had fought four days ago at Bayle. In such a short span of time, no radical new tricks could be conjured up anyway.

After roughly sorting things out, Lelouch merely offered some supplementary suggestions regarding the timing of the offensive:

"In my view, today's assault should be as unexpected as possible, choosing to strike after dark. During the day, we can routinely conduct two or three artillery preparations and bombardment barrages to build up momentum. However, right before the general assault at night, cease firing altogether and advance directly under the cover of darkness."

Major Karl instantly caught Lelouch's underlying meaning: "You intend to take advantage of the enemy's relaxation on Christmas Eve to launch the attack? Well, doing so is indeed a bit underhanded, but it's hardly a breach of faith; our two armies never had an established convention of a Christmas Eve truce—though I did hear that on the western front today, the French forces showed a tacit understanding with us, neither side initiating charges, merely firing rifles and artillery across the trenches."

In Earth's history, during the first year of the World War, brief truces did occur between German and French troops on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, not permitted from above, but spontaneously among the rank-and-file soldiers.

By the second year, however, the war had grown so bloody that both sides were utterly tearing each other's throats out, and such frivolous displays vanished.

Since this was currently the first year, theoretically achieving a temporary tacit truce on Christmas Eve was possible, but choosing not to cease fire was entirely reasonable as well, given that no prior commitments had been made.

Yet exploiting the enemy's psychological relaxation, inducing them to let down their guard under the assumption that no one would charge tonight, was entirely sound.

Similar occurrences had happened numerous times in subsequent military history, particularly in the Middle East where combatants held differing faiths; many nations would escalate the intensity of their attacks on days when the opposing side's religious vigilance was low while their own remained high, all of which were entirely legitimate.

Possessing the soul of a transmigrator, Lelouch had changed physical shells, but nothing dictated that he had to adhere to Western customs. He had no desire to celebrate Christmas Eve, so he might as well use the opportunity to get down to business.

Thus, following this train of thought, he planned out several more details: "We don't need to negotiate with the enemy about whether to truce or not. Without any prior contact, we will simply shell them at 9:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 5:00 PM, with four-hour intervals between each round, and then launch the raid at around 7:00 PM. The enemy will certainly be unprepared..."

"Furthermore, now that the enemy has received reinforcements of two Lahore divisions from South Asia, I believe those Canadians will grow even more lax. They will surely assume that among their allied forces, two divisions do not share our religious traditions and will celebrate their own South Asian national holidays, maintaining vigilance tonight."

"Consequently, as evening approaches and no battle has materialized, the officers and men of the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions will undoubtedly become even more relaxed, gathering for meals or even drinking a bit of alcohol. We will launch our assault under the cover of darkness while those Canadians are eating dinner..."

Major Karl felt that all of this was quite logical and highly credible, and he approved it on the spot.

Let the sole instance of Christmas Eve laxity in this world be bestowed upon St. Aufford, the British railway hub!

The German ranks swiftly began emergency deployment and preparations, maintaining radio silence and relying on mounted couriers for physical notifications.

To boost morale and reduce the soldiers' resistance to fighting through today and tomorrow, the high command of the 6th Army was quite willing to spend heavily.

All soldiers received extra rations in the morning. Although breakfast had already been consumed, every man in the two divisions slated for the evening operation was issued a large block of chocolate.

At midday, the generals distributed all the confiscated canned cured meat seized from the enemy at Bayle a few days prior, ensuring every soldier received two substantial portions of meat. They were even permitted a little whiskey at lunch, though alcohol was strictly forbidden at dinner to prevent any lingering intoxication during the assault.

When Lelouch had seized that massive batch of supplies and reported them as combat losses a few days earlier, he had originally intended to find enough railcars to ship them all to the rear and sell them. Due to transport bottlenecks, however, that task remained unfinished.

Then came the Christmas Eve offensive, where the higher-ups were desperately requisitioning chocolate and coffee. After careful consideration, Lelouch found an opportunity to temporarily use a local merchant as a white-glove proxy to unload the goods—

Fortunately, neither Major Karl nor Prince Rupprecht cared where the items came from. Upon seeing high-quality imported chocolate and coffee from the New World, they accepted the entire lot as listed and paid the standard price.

Even though the packaging made it immediately obvious that these were British military rations, they asked no questions.

In times of war, for the sake of the greater objective, one could not haggle over money. If one were too meticulous about certain matters, no one would lend a hand next time.

Lelouch saved three railway cars' worth of transport capacity, selling 150 tons of chocolate, coffee, and cigars for a full 800,000 marks. After distributing a modest tens of thousands of marks to runners and auditors as grease money, he pocketed a neat 800,000 marks himself.

They say war is the fastest way to make money for a reason. Previously, when collaborating with the Bergman company on submachine guns, the firm had only paid 5万 marks in "technical equity" for his ideas; this time, the payout multiplied more than a dozen times.

Once the campaign concluded, he would only need to haul away the previously stashed flannel and woolen textile goods to sell. Aside from black tea, all other luxury-item spoils had been cleared out.

The soldiers received ample extra rations and were even issued cigars to refresh themselves before the operation, successfully maintaining morale and dissolving any underlying resentment into nothingness.

The fierce artillery bombardments at morning, noon, and evening were handled as routine procedures—each lasting half an hour, halting precisely on the hour.

Many buildings in the city of St. Aufford were blasted into ruins, but casualties among the defenders' vital forces were not particularly noticeable. The garrison seemed to believe the Germans were merely flexing their muscles and failed to maintain adequate vigilance.

During the Germans' second bombardment, the defenders' reconnaissance units and artillery observation posts reported the front-line situation to Major General Edwin Alderson, commander of the 1st Canadian Division.

Major General Alderson was also the fortress commander of St. Aufford and the highest-ranking officer of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Because the two Canadian divisions had not been organized into a higher corps-level combat unit, the commander of the 1st Division was simply left in charge of coordinating and commanding all Canadian forces, which alone demonstrated how makeshift those Canadians truly were.

Major General Alderson failed to give the enemy's bombardment sufficient weight, even instructing:

"Aren't the enemy's bombardments quite regular? It seems they strike every three or four hours. It must be those Darmanians showing bark without bite; knowing they currently lack the strength to organize an offensive, they are just firing a few extra rounds to make threats. Order the men to withdraw from the frontline fortified zones ahead of time to avoid the artillery fire; there's no sense in dying for nothing."

As night fell, Major General Alderson grew even more lax, issuing an order: "Give the men extra rations all around tonight, and permit a temporary lifting of the alcohol ban so they can have a few drinks, as long as they don't get roaring drunk. We'll swap some frontline sectors with the Lahore troops; I'll coordinate that. Just give the Indians some canned beef as compensation."

A subordinate reminded him that the colonial troops from South Asia did not eat beef.

Convinced his subordinate had misremembered, Alderson argued for quite a while over whether those allied troops ate beef or pork, eventually sending someone to verify the matter before distributing the compensation supplies, narrowly avoiding a massive farce—

In the eyes of the British white lords, the religious practices of those South Asian monkeys were far too numerous and complex; some tribes abstained from this, others from that, making it thoroughly tedious. They never regarded them as human beings in the first place, treating them entirely as tools.

Consequently, while the Canadian white lords were wining, dining, and leaving only South Asian troops to man the trenches, the opposing German assault battalions launched their assault under the cover of night.