Imperial Elite

Chapter 76 The Emperor's Offensive
When Joe learned that the Teutons had broken through the St. Quintant direction again, Joe's feelings were hard to describe.

After berating the defenders on other sides as useless, even Joe had to begin preparing for a retreat.

Although the place where the Teutons made their breakthrough was still some distance from Joe, if they didn't leave now, they might not be able to leave later.

Retreat, however, is much more difficult than attack, especially since the sun had already set when Joe received the news, and the entire Guards Armored Training Regiment was scattered across three highways.

This added considerable difficulty to Joe's evacuation efforts.

Fortunately, the troops are now equipped with Indomitable off-road vehicles, which will allow Joe's orders to be smoothly transmitted to the armored battalions stationed on the other two roads.

Joe planned to launch a surprise attack on the three roads immediately after dawn the next day, to cause some trouble for the Teutons before retreating.

Continue with the previous offensive-defensive strategy, but this time the offensive-defensive strategy does not require recapturing the previous positions. It only requires using offense to prevent the Teutons from launching a pursuit.

Then Joe encountered a very troublesome problem: due to poor visibility at night, coupled with the dynamic battle lines brought about by offensive and defensive maneuvers, the Guards Armored Training Regiment did not have a clear battle line or control zone.

So when night fell, these Teutons, having clearly learned from their experience in the Battle of Paris, began to send out small groups of troops for night raids continuously.

They even dragged out their lightweight 37mm anti-tank guns to fire sniper shots.

Faced with this situation, Joe had no choice but to order the self-propelled artillery company to fire flares into the sky all night long.

It provides vision for the mechanized infantry who have dug foxholes near the contact line, allowing them to spot the Teutonic soldiers trying to sneak up in advance.

The Teutons then bombarded Joe's controlled territory all night long, with the intense bombardment lasting all night.

This prevented the entire Guards Armored Training Regiment from getting proper rest.

There was even an unfortunate Hound tank that was hit by a large-caliber cannon and was instantly reduced to parts.

This fueled Joe's pent-up anger, prompting him to launch a swift counterattack just as dawn was breaking.

However, this counterattack was not very effective.

Taking advantage of their numerical superiority, the Teutons dug numerous anti-tank trenches on the other side of the contact line during the night raids and shelling the previous night.

Although these anti-tank trenches, dug by manpower overnight, are basically ineffective against tanks.

If there were no water accumulation, even an Indomitable SUV could easily cross this ditch with a single press of the accelerator.

However, the Teutons positioned anti-tank guns on the other side of the trench, and fired at the tanks as they slowed down while crossing the trench.

Fortunately, with the support of assault guns and self-propelled artillery, Joe's attack broke through the Teutonic defenses and drove the Teutonic troops back a distance.

Joe then began to lead his troops in retreat.

But soon, the Teutonic Air Force, which arrived as scheduled, began to cause trouble for Joe.

Although their bombing and machine gun strafing did not pose a significant threat to Joe, he still needed to halt his troops for air defense operations in order to cope with the air raids. After all, the mechanized infantry using off-road vehicles and the logistics personnel driving trucks were still quite vulnerable to such air attacks.

This airstrike effectively slowed down Joe's retreat.

At the same time, it seemed that they had discovered Joe's preparation to retreat, so more Teutonic troops began to close in, especially the half-tracks, which began to maneuver in the woods and fields outside the road, trying to bypass Joe's flank and surround him.

This forced Joe to launch several small-scale counterattacks in order to drive away the Teutons who had clung to him.

Fortunately, the Bunitania Army Air Force did not stand idly by while the Teutons did as they pleased.

Upon discovering that Joe's troops were under attack by the Teutonic Air Force, fighter units immediately rushed to provide cover for Joe's troops.

This allowed Joe to speed up his retreat once again.

After a day of torment, Joe's troops finally reached the outer perimeter of Amiens and made contact with the reorganized garrison.

Although they had retreated to the outskirts of Amiens, the situation there was not good. Their defenses had been breached twice, causing the morale of the defenders to plummet.

Meanwhile, since the expeditionary force did not expect to fight the Teutons here, the defenses outside Amiens were not very adequate.

So after meeting with General Rawlinson, who had temporarily taken command of the troops in the Amiens region, General Rawlinson thanked Joe for his hard work, but said that now was not the time to rest and that Joe had to continue fighting outside the city to buy time for the troops to strengthen the defenses of Amiens.

Of course, the defenders of Amiens are not without their advantages by relying on the railway network. Although the ground defenses still need time to be built, they currently have a sufficient supply of artillery shells.

An entire army-sized artillery group will provide support for the upcoming Battle of Amiens, so Joe can now call in long-range artillery to give the Teutons a boost during his counterattack.

Meanwhile, the First Tank Regiment and the Guards Fusiliers Regiment promised by Marshal Haig have arrived in Amiens. In the upcoming battle, these two regiments will be under the command of Joe, forming an armored task force to counterattack the Teutons.

Hearing this, Joe felt that the situation wasn't too bad.

After all, back in Paris, Joe didn't have this many vehicles or this many men, and his allies were a group of armed civilians whose fighting capabilities were highly questionable.

Even Joe managed to survive this ordeal, and now he not only has a stronger army, but his allies are also the legitimate Bonitania Expeditionary Force. Although those tough old indomitables who had undergone rigorous training before the war have been almost completely wiped out, the new recruits who have been brought in have also received complete training and are far superior to those armed civilians.

Isn't guarding Amiens much easier than it was in Paris?

Then, just as Joe said that there was no problem, General Rawlinson gave a rather awkward smile.

This made Joe realize that things were not going well and that more trouble was definitely waiting for him.

Sure enough, after an awkward smile appeared on General Rawlinson's face, he told Joe.

Joe, who commands two armored regiments, has more than just the task of defending Amiens.

There are still two tasks that Joe needs to complete.

Firstly, with the breach of Saint-Quentin, a huge pocket has formed between Amiens and Alas. Due to the chaotic situation at Saint-Quentin, no one knows exactly how many people are inside this pocket.

Although some of the routed soldiers had retreated to Amiens via the road while Joe was guarding it.

However, because Joe was afraid of being surrounded on his flanks and had to retreat, the Teutons could complete the encirclement outside Amiens at any time. Therefore, Joe could not stay in Amiens and had to rush out to open up the pocket so that the troops that were about to be surrounded could withdraw.

Although the current battle situation is very chaotic, if General Rawlinson goes to the top and Joe can get to Albert and stay there for at least three days, it will be enough for most of the expeditionary force in the encirclement to escape from Albert to Amiens on the road.

Although he had no goodwill towards the allies who couldn't hold out for more than a few days and were forced to flee, Joe still promised to stay there for at least three days until the allies in the encirclement successfully withdrew.

However, breaking the encirclement is not Joe's only task at this stage, because Amiens is right next to the border between the Bunitania Expeditionary Force and the Gallic Army's defense zone, and the Gallic Sixth Army is right next to them.

Therefore, if necessary, Joe might have to help the Gauls to prevent the Teutons from breaking through the border of the allied forces.

Faced with this request, Joe's eyes widened, and he immediately said, "No, what's this about the Gauls? Can't they hold their own lines? I remember they have tanks too, why can't they hold them up themselves?"

Hearing Joe's complaint, General Rawlinson patted Joe on the shoulder.

“If they were strong enough, we wouldn’t need to come here.”

Joe thought General Rowling's words made a lot of sense, and for a moment he found himself unable to refute them.

After General Rawlinson removed his hand from Joe's shoulder, he said to Joe, "Moreover, the Gauls are now going to fight the second Battle of Paris, and their forces are also stretched thin."

"Huh? Not again?!"

Clearly, 1918 was not a good year for the Gauls, even though they were already preparing for the large-scale Teutonic offensive that was about to be launched.

However, the shortcomings in various aspects still forced the Gauls to prepare for the second Battle of Paris within two years.

Although the Buntanians, who were being fiercely attacked by the Teutons in Amiens, were unable to send an expeditionary force to support them in this defense of Paris, the Gauls, who had recovered from the mutiny, were not facing the same predicament as before, where they could only defend Paris with three divisions.

It took General Henry nearly a year to build layers upon layers of trenches outside Paris. If viewed from the air, the density of these trenches would make even a spider say that this was a bit too extreme.

So compared to the last time when he had to use every available resource, Admiral Henry felt much more at ease this time.

However, one thing remained unchanged: General Henry, in his command post, continued to berate Joe as a bastard. Originally, General Henry's thinking was that tanks should be distributed along the defensive line to reinforce the infantry.

However, Joe's previous brilliance was too dazzling, so after learning that the Teutons had broken through the first line of defense, General Henry prepared to secretly study Joe's tactics and send the tank units to launch a counterattack.

If successful, General Henry would reluctantly admit that Joe, that arrogant fellow, did have some redeeming qualities.

However, after Charles's armored battalion was wiped out, General Henry was relieved to learn that Charles himself had escaped. He then began to berate Joe in his office, saying that he was a bastard and that the idea of ​​concentrating armored forces was nonsense.

Despite the criticism, upon learning that Charles's troops had been destroyed by several Teutonic tanks that resembled mobile fortresses, General Henry immediately ordered the reinforcement of 75mm field guns to the front lines to counter the threat of the Teutonic tanks.

At the same time, General Henry picked up the phone again and called the Lion Corporation.

After the last Battle of Paris, the engineers who witnessed how the Hound tanks crushed the Teutons quickly submitted a plan for a super-heavy tank.

In this plan, they will produce an ultra-large, ultra-heavy, and ultra-powerful super-heavy tank to cover infantry in destroying any Teutonic defenses they may encounter in field battles, or to serve as a mobile fortress in urban warfare, acting as a strong firing point to support infantry combat.

Upon hearing the description that it would support infantry operations, General Henry immediately thought it must be a good tank.

So the plan was approved. Now that the call was connected, General Henry immediately asked them how the super-heavy tank they had mentioned was progressing. The Teutons had already produced the finished product. How was theirs progressing? Could they be taken to the front lines and give the Teutons a good blast?
Perhaps it was the last time they drove the test vehicle to the front lines to support the battle that flipped some switches in those engineers, so this time these engineers patted their chests and said, no problem at all. Although we have only built the No. 0 prototype and the No. 1 test vehicle, fighting the Teutons is definitely no problem.

The only problem is whether the army currently has suitable drivers who can drive tanks in combat.
Of course there were drivers. Although an entire armored battalion was destroyed by the Teutons, quite a few survivors still managed to run back with the infantry.

So when Charles, his body wrapped in bandages, saw the two super-heavy tanks in the Lishi Company's workshop—tanks that hadn't even been painted yet and didn't even have official names, only a project code of 70T—he instantly perked up.

Although this tank didn't look as big as the Teutonic tanks, and it didn't even have two main guns, just seeing its thick, reliable armor and the sturdy 75mm field gun on the turret gave Charles a surge of confidence.

Not to mention that in addition to the main turret equipped with the 75mm cannon, this tank also has two smaller turrets equipped with machine guns below the main turret. At first glance, it looks like someone has brought a naval vessel to land.

Sure! If it were this tank, it could definitely destroy those Teutonic bastards!

However, what Charles didn't know was that just as he was full of confidence and about to destroy the super-heavy tanks that had recently destroyed his armored battalion,

Ehrlich, the commander of these super-heavy tanks, was scratching his head as he watched his soldiers trying to pull an Emperor tank that had overturned into a ditch.

Due to his good performance on the Eastern Front, Ehrlich and his proposed armor theory attracted the attention of the General Staff.

During his rest period, Ehrlich was promoted to major and was also summoned by the emperor, where he met the emperor in the palace.

The Emperor praised Erich's talent and authorized him to build a new-era force he desired, consisting of tanks, armored vehicles, infantry, and artillery.

Furthermore, he entrusted Erich with the Teutonic Empire's latest technological achievement: the Emperor-type super-heavy tank.

The Teutonic Emperor hoped that Erich could use these tanks bearing the Emperor's name to wash away the shame of the previous Battle of Paris in this offensive in the Emperor's name, open the road to Paris for the Empire, capture Paris, and thus end this long war.

When Ehrlich first saw this tank, like everyone else seeing it for the first time, he thought it was terrifying. Its enormous size and the two cannons were symbols of its combat power.

Although it was a little slower, its armor and cannons made up for it well.

Then, when Ehrlich began training troops to use this tank, he discovered that apart from its thick armor and unprecedented twin-gun design, the tank had many shortcomings.

The tank's excessive size makes its center of gravity very high, making it extremely prone to tipping over during training. In addition, the two engines crammed in to keep the tank moving and prevent it from becoming a complete fortress are even more prone to failure.

The excessively high failure rate brought the crew to the brink of collapse, not to mention the fuel consumption of this super-heavy tank was a nightmare.

In order to get these war behemoths moving, Ehrlich even had to convert six half-track vehicles into refueling trucks, specifically to refuel these war behemoths on the battlefield.

Fortunately, the Empire captured the Moreni and Borislau oil fields on the eastern front last year. Although transportation has always been a problem, the Empire's war machine has been able to continue operating thanks to the wheat and oil brought from the eastern front.

Ehrlich also developed a set of coordinated tactics around these super-heavy tanks.

Simply put, the idea is to send these super-heavy tanks to break through the enemy's defenses, and then have half-tracks and other units quickly form a breakthrough and penetrate deep into the enemy's territory.

Until they encounter the next enemy defensive line, these troops can wait for the super-heavy tanks to arrive, then break through the next defensive line, and so on.

This tactic was very successful in breaking through the first line of defense of the Gauls.

They easily crushed all Gaulish resistance, allowing the assault force to continue its advance and even destroying the Gauls' armored units that were the spearhead of their counterattack, successfully thwarting the Gauls' counterattack.

This victory brought smiles to the faces of Erich and many Teutonic officers who had experienced the previous Battle of Paris.

Tanks are no longer indestructible; most importantly, we have them now!
Then, when these super-heavy tanks began to advance on the next line of defense for the Gauls, Erich and the other Gallic officers were no longer laughing.

The continuous shelling had made the already soft soil even softer, and the numerous craters made these super-heavy tanks wobble like a fishing boat sailing in a storm when they moved across the battlefield.

Before they even reached the second line of defense of the Gauls, the engine of one of the super-heavy tanks malfunctioned due to overheating. If it weren't for the well-trained crew members who extinguished the flames in the first instance, the tank's engine would probably have been destroyed in the fire.

The other tank was not so lucky; as it crossed a shell crater, it veered off course and crashed headfirst into it.

Looking at the soldiers trying to right the Emperor Tank, Ehrlich realized that if they couldn't get this massive, multi-ton behemoth upright, it would be their first loss in this battle.

Perhaps simply pursuing armor and firepower is not a good approach?

Looking at the Emperor Tank lying in the crater, Erich thought to himself.

Especially now that it's getting dark, these super-heavy tanks are even less able to drive on the battlefield full of shell craters after dark, lest they roll over again. So perhaps manufacturing some lighter tanks with better mobility and moderate defense would be a better choice.

Just as Erich was pondering what kind of tank would be a better choice.

Joe also convened a meeting with officers from the Guards Armored Training Regiment, the 1st Tank Regiment, and the Guards Grenadier Regiment in a café in Amiens.

Joe is now having a headache because he has to complete three tasks at the same time.

He now has to buy time for the construction of Amiens' fortifications, break the Teutonic encirclement, and prepare to support the Gauls to prevent them from collapsing and fleeing.

Doing three things at once is almost not enough for Joe to keep him busy.

However, after doing some calculations, Joe realized that he wasn't completely overwhelmed.

Of these three tasks, guarding Albert, causing trouble for the Teutons, and securing the construction of fortifications for Amiens can basically be done together.

Offensive and defensive tactics are simply a matter of changing the starting position, and the troops defending Amiens need to solve some problems on their own.

Finally, and most troublesome, is preparing to support the Gauls, to prevent the Teutons from completely breaching this defensive line. Therefore, some troops need to be kept as reserves.

In short, time is tight, tasks are heavy, and work is busy, so we need to let professionals do professional things.

Therefore, Joe planned to reinforce the Guards Armored Training Regiment's self-propelled artillery company and the 1st Tank Regiment with a battalion equipped with Royal Fist tanks, making this regiment Albert's main defensive force.

The Guards Armored Training Regiment continued to conduct offensive and defensive operations near Albert, disrupting the Teutonic advance, in company and battalion-sized units.

The remaining units of the 1st Tank Regiment equipped with Hound tanks were kept in reserve, ready to support various fronts at any time.

Just as Joe was assigning tasks to the various units, preparing to lead them in another charge.

Holtz and his mechanized hussar company were observing the situation in Amiens from the woods not far away.

Originally intended to be the vanguard of the entire army, Hans, unusually, did not get lost after the attack was launched. After successfully breaking through the Bunitania's defenses in a storm assault, he led his troops to the rear of the defenses.

According to the original plan, their company was supposed to capture a section of railway hub to allow the troops to advance more quickly.

However, unsurprisingly, the mission went awry again. Fearing they would get lost, Hans led them along the railway all the way to Amiens. After re-entering the city and realizing something was wrong, they quickly fled Amiens and hid in the woods outside the city.

They originally planned to wait for the main force to arrive in the woods outside the city, but as they waited, the main force did not come, and the number of Buntanians increased. It seemed that if they continued to wait like this, they would have to start thinking about how to divide a single pea into three meals.

Therefore, all the armored hussars, including Hans and Holz, felt that they had to do something!

(End of this chapter)