Imperial Elite

Chapter 80 Opening the Gates of Hell
The Bunitas began a large-scale troop movement, and the Teutons soon discovered some clues through aerial reconnaissance and radio communication. However, the Teutons, already deeply embroiled in the Battle of Paris, were no longer able to react.

All that could be done was to halt the Amiens campaign and prepare to use the offensive troops deployed to Amiens as reserves to support the attacked areas.

Meanwhile, the Teutonic General Staff was also urging the troops attacking Paris to intensify their efforts to capture the city as soon as possible, while simultaneously speculating about where the Bunitanias were planning to launch a counterattack, or whether they were also preparing to enter the meat grinder that was Paris.
By this time, Joe and his tank unit had disappeared from Amiens for some time.

Therefore, the Teutonic General Staff believed that the Bunitas' counterattack would definitely be spearheaded by Joe's troops. So what they needed to do was to prepare the front-line troops for anti-tank operations and, based on this, begin to speculate on where Joe would suddenly appear from.

After checking the map, the Teutonic General Staff concluded that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Bunitania's counterattack would likely take place in the Somme River basin.

The terrain here is relatively flat, which is suitable for armored forces to operate, and the armored forces of Bunitania are also more familiar with the terrain here.

Furthermore, launching an attack from here would allow them to threaten the troops attacking Paris from the flank, making it a very good option.

However, they also deployed a considerable number of troops here. Although many of these troops were already battered and broken and unable to continue the attack, based on past experience, maintaining the defensive line should not be a major problem.

Moreover, this group of troops has extensive experience in anti-tank warfare, so there shouldn't be too much to worry about.

This relaxed attitude persisted until June 7, when the defense forces stationed in the Low Countries suddenly sent a report: "Tanks! Tanks everywhere!" The Teutonic General Staff was shocked by this unexpected attack.

After all, they never imagined that the Bunitarians would launch an attack in an underground country, a place crisscrossed by waterways that was clearly unsuitable for armored forces.

Since they occupied the Low Countries, neither they nor the Buntanians have made any attempt to break through from there.

On the one hand, since that battle to the sea, the battle lines of both sides have been long enough, and their forces have been dispersed. On the other hand, fighting in the canal zone is not an easy task.

One point that many people may overlook is that in a canal area with a dense network of waterways, although there are a thousand ways to cross a river, the fastest way to mobilize troops on a large scale is still through bridges built across the river.

The Teutonic General Staff believes that the Bunitas' armored forces are indeed very strong, but what would you do if I destroyed all the bridges in the controlled area?
Since the Low Countries are far enough from Paris and have the Hindenburg Line behind them to defend against the Bunitania and prevent them from invading their homeland, they don't care if the Low Countries are destroyed.

As long as they can buy time until they take Paris, that's enough.

However, just as the Teutonic General Staff ordered the troops stationed in the Canal Zone to prepare to blow up the bridges over the canal while resisting, the troops deployed in the Canal Zone said that it was pointless to blow up the bridges now, as the Bunitans had already captured most of the important bridges in the Canal Zone.

Now no river can stop their advance. They need support, lots of support, otherwise they won't be able to withstand the Bunitania's attack.

Such rapid progress greatly alarmed the Teutonic General Staff. After studying the map for a long time, the generals of the Teutonic General Staff exclaimed, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

After all, no matter how they calculated it, Joe's troops could not have broken through and captured most of the important bridges in the canal area so quickly. Even if the local garrison did not put up any resistance and only fired three shots into the air before giving up, they still could not have marched at such a fast speed.

Even if their entire army relied on those wobble-clattering little vehicles that could speed through the mud, it wouldn't work! Are the Britannians all flying superheroes?!
Just as the Teutonic General Staff was shocked by the rapid progress of the Bunitanias, a report from the commander of the Low Country Defense Forces revealed to them exactly how the Bunitanias had done it.

Contrary to their assumption that the Bunitarian armored forces would storm ahead and seize the important bridges, this was not the case.

The Bunitas armored forces did advance quickly, but not quickly enough to capture almost all the bridges on the canal in such a short time.

Because the Bonitania Navy intervened.

Before the Bunitania armored forces launched their attack, their defensive zone had been infiltrated by Bunitania's commandos, who appeared to have landed by sea and then infiltrated near the bridges in the canal zone they wanted to capture.

On the same day that the Bunitania armored forces launched their attack, these Bunitania commandos seized the bridges over the canal.

Because the Teutons were completely unprepared, the Bunitaians captured the bridges with almost no trouble.

Of course, generally speaking, although it sounds dangerous for such small units to seize bridges in the rear, it is actually not very meaningful. After all, this is behind the front line, and even if the defense is weak, it is not difficult to eliminate some small units at the company or battalion level.

Until the Bonitania Navy brought over those shallow-draft heavy gunboats equipped with battleship-class thick pipes.

No one knows when the Bonitania Navy completed its mine-clearing operation, or whether they didn't complete it at all and simply dared to break through.

In short, with the completion of the amphibious landings by the Bunitania gunboats and a larger number of troops near the bridge, the Teutonic forces in the canal zone almost gave up the idea of ​​recapturing the bridge after being bombarded by the heavy artillery of those battleships.

After all, charging under machine gun fire is one thing, charging under the main guns of a battleship is another.

Meanwhile, the Bunitania armored forces continued their relentless advance toward the captured bridges. Since most of the anti-tank guns were prioritized for the troops in Paris and Amiens, the anti-tank capabilities of the Teutonic garrison in the Low Countries were essentially at the level of the latter half of 1916, and they were completely unable to withstand the Bunitania's advance.

Faced with this situation, the Teutonic General Staff had no choice but to make a difficult decision.

The strategy was to have the Low Countries' garrison begin retreating towards the Hindenburg Line, preserving as much manpower as possible and preventing heavy losses if the troops were cut off from supplies and surrounded, while hoping that the Hindenburg Line could withstand the Bunitarian attack.

Meanwhile, the Teutonic General Staff unsurprisingly learned that the person who spearheaded the Bunitania forces in their frantic breakthrough of the Canal Zone defenses was none other than Joe Harrison.

This left even the Teutonic Emperor and the generals of the General Staff puzzled: Wasn't this guy an engineer who hadn't received any military training before the war? How could he be so formidable? Is this reasonable? Is this scientific?!
At this moment, Joe was unaware that the Teutonic Emperor and the generals in the Teutonic General Staff were treating him like a monster.

After rapidly advancing and joining up with the majority of the assault teams that had captured the bridge, Joe finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, this tactic, which looks extremely risky, was clearly not the work of Marshal Haig or any other Britannian officer, but rather Joe's.

At first, Joe just wanted to get the Navy's destroyers to provide fire support. Then Joe discovered that the Navy was actually prepared for this situation. In order to deal with this kind of mission, they had already developed a bunch of cheap, easy-to-use, and plentiful shallow-drift heavy gunboats. Joe's ideas began to expand uncontrollably.

Now that we have shallow-water heavy gunboats, can the navy provide some more ships to build pontoon bridges? If they can build pontoon bridges, can they help us seize them?

If they can help capture the bridges, then to prevent the Teutons from blowing them up, could we capture these bridges at the very beginning of the battle?

Then, after a brainstorming session, Joe came up with the plan.

When Joe proposed the plan, everyone, including Marshal Haig, looked at him as if he were a monster.

"You know the last time we did something like this was in the Dardanelles, right?"

Because of that failed amphibious landing, people, including Marshal Haig, seemed somewhat resistant to the plan.

Qiao explained at length that the plan was not to have the bridge-seizing troops launch a landing right under the Teutons' noses, but rather to first infiltrate around the bridge, seize it when the battle began, and then defend it with the help of shallow-water heavy gunboats.

The second batch of support troops will also land under cover after the first batch has succeeded, and will definitely not be blocked on the beach like the Dardanelles.

After an explanation, Marshal Haig finally acknowledged Joe's bold and innovative idea.

It was only when the plan began to be refined that Joe, who had proposed it, realized that the plan seemed somewhat familiar. A small force would penetrate deep behind enemy lines to seize a bridge and wait for support from armored units. This scenario seemed strangely familiar.

After the plan was issued and the troops were mobilized, Joe realized that this was just a rip-off of Operation Market Garden, and just another version of The Far Away Bridge!

This thing is unlucky!

However, it was too late to regret it at this point. All Joe could do was to make the armored forces move faster and faster after the battle began, so that the Teutons would block their way and the amphibious landing troops would hold off the main Teutonic force.

However, Joe soon discovered that although the scripts seemed the same, the actual situation was slightly different.

Market Garden was where paratroopers had jumped right into the face of the armored formation, and now the Teutons not only lacked armored units here, but their firepower was also inferior to that of these landing forces.

After all, the Teutonic garrison here was just a group of unadorned infantrymen, and the thickest pipes they carried were only 105 millimeters in diameter.

However, the main gun calibers of the shallow-draft heavy gunboats that provided support to the landing forces ranged from six to eighteen inches, which was far superior to the small water pipes of the army.

More importantly, the Teutonic garrison here couldn't withstand his breakthrough either. It's not that they collapsed at the first touch, but rather that the mechanical problems with the tanks caused Joe far more trouble than the Teutonic garrison itself.

Because of continuous combat, despite major overhauls and replacement of many parts, the Guards Armored Training Regiment and the 1st Tank Regiment often encountered vehicle malfunctions during marches, forcing them to abandon their vehicles and wait for subsequent logistics units to recover them.

Although the Teutonic Air Force continued to try to cause trouble for Joe, the limited aviation technology at the time meant that these aircraft could only be strafed with machine guns or shallow dive bombs with low-yield bombs.

While such attacks can pose a significant threat to infantry units, the situation is different for armored units.

Some of the Teutonic attack aircraft were so aggressive that they flew too low during their attacks and were simply shot down by the armored forces' firepower.

In addition to the 40mm autocannon mounted on the Royal Fist tank, the Hound tank is equipped with a machine gun on its roof.

Meanwhile, the Buntanian Army Air Corps also worked hard to provide an aerial umbrella for Joe's troops, preventing the Teutonic fighters from bothering him.

Perhaps because the Teutons had concentrated their main forces in Paris, or perhaps because the pilots of the Bunitania had improved their skills considerably during the long battles, they did not encounter much harassment from the Teutonic air force during Joe's advance.

Even the terrifying bombing raids by the Teutonic Air Force, which had been witnessed once in Paris, did not occur this time.

Thus, Joe smoothly joined up with all the bridge-guarding troops and began his advance towards the Teutonic Hindenburg defenses.

While Joe was making great strides, the Gauls and Americans were having a very difficult time in Paris.

With almost the entire northern part of Paris lost, the Gare du Nord, which had remained unconquered during the last Battle of Paris, is now under Teutonic control.

This allowed the Teutons to transport supplies and soldiers more quickly, while also enabling them to deploy their various large toys near Paris.

In addition to armored trains, the Paris artillery, with its impressive caliber, was also deployed forward to the northern suburbs of Paris. Although the accuracy of the shells was not great, each shell destroyed a building, which still put considerable pressure on the defenders.

Not to mention that the Teutons now routinely send bombers to bomb the south bank defenses at dawn almost every morning, and Zeppelins also send out blimps to greet the defenders at night.

In addition to airstrikes, the Paris metro system also allowed the warring parties to engage in a deadly battle underground.

Both the Teutons and the Gauls attempted to use the subway system to bypass each other's ground defenses and launch attacks.

So, in the underground of Paris, the two sides began to fight for control of each platform one by one.

In some parts of the subway, after the Gauls realized they couldn't hold out, they simply detonated bombs, causing the subway to collapse.

Besides the subway, the Teutons also took notice of Paris’s sewer system after the Gauls launched a successful attack, and later they even discovered the long underground catacombs of Paris.

Both sides in the conflict attempted to launch surprise attacks using these ancient underground facilities. However, these ancient and complex underground systems had long lost their original appearance due to years of renovations, and even the commissioners and architectural archives of the Paris City Hall could not find complete design drawings of these underground facilities.

Not to mention the army officers and soldiers who acted on a whim.

After attempting to launch a surprise attack using these underground facilities, and finding that many soldiers got lost within them, both sides tacitly abandoned the plan. Instead, they set up watchtowers and machine guns at the large exits of these underground facilities, such as drainage ditches, to guard against the possibility that the enemy might figure out the structure of these underground facilities and launch an attack from underground.

However, these sentry posts, guarding against enemy attacks, along with some unfortunate soldiers who had received orders to enter the underground catacombs but were fortunate enough to find their way out, recounted what exactly lay beneath Paris.

Rumors began circulating among the soldiers that the Paris underworld connected to hell. Furthermore, those soldiers who never found the right path, driven to madness by hunger and forced to do certain things to survive underground, returned to the surface. These grotesque soldiers, however, were not necessarily found within their own army's controlled territory.

Rumors quickly spread that the other side wanted to open the gates of hell and summon the dead to continue the war, making the morale of both sides questionable.

In particular, during one of the bombardments of the south bank of the Seine by Parisian cannons, a shell accurately hit one of the Eiffel Towers. After breaking off the top of the tower, the falling top smashed a deep crater in the Champ de Mars, exposing part of the Paris catacombs buried underground.

The sight of those bones, buried underground for who knows how many years, being brought to light again terrified many of the Gallic soldiers who witnessed it.

Meanwhile, many military doctors discovered that a severe flu outbreak had occurred in the troops. People infected with the flu would soon feel weak all over, then develop a persistent high fever, and eventually die suddenly.

Because the flu was discovered in the troops after they arrived in Paris, the Gallic doctors thought it should be called the "American flu," while the Americans thought it started to spread in Paris and should be called the "Paris flu."

As the flu spread, although the soldiers on both sides still did not communicate, they all believed that the other must have done something, and it must be related to the corpses underground. The Gauls/Teutons were really evil! These people must be Antichrists who believe in Satan.

Compared to other previous rumors, the officers were trying to maintain morale and prevent the soldiers from collapsing in the brutal urban warfare.

After all, there have been many soldiers who, after their friends died in battle, began to feel anxious about why it wasn't them, and then chose to shoot themselves.

Or perhaps it's a situation where, even though one is alive today, one will still suffer in this cruel hell tomorrow, and since one is going to die sooner or later anyway, why not now? And thus, one shoots oneself.

They also began to tacitly approve of or even fuel these rumors, hoping that they would arouse the soldiers' religious fervor and enable their piety to help them persevere in urban warfare.

After all, just before the Teutons were about to block the Seneca River with corpses, they successfully gained a breakthrough on the south bank of Paris. Subsequently, apart from the Invalides still standing, the Teutons had surpassed their progress on the south bank during the last Battle of Paris.

The troops had even reached the industrial area southwest of Paris. Now, the workers at the Les ...

In this dire situation, news came that the Bunitarians had made significant progress on the left wing, breaking through the canal zone of the Low Countries and beginning their march into the Teutonic homeland.

The news elicited two different reactions from the French and Americans.

Some believe that the Bunitanias did a good job; their offensives on other fronts drew the Teutons' attention. After all, the Teutonic homeland had not been attacked by the army for five years, and now that the Bunitanias were bringing the war to their own territory, the Teutons were bound to react.

Their attack intensity in Paris will certainly decrease, and we will be able to hold Paris.

Once the Bunitans marched into Germania, the war was won.

Some people believe that the Bunitanias are a bunch of cowards! Cowards! Real men should come to Paris to fight a decisive battle and wipe out these Teutons head-on, then the war will naturally end.

Instead of going elsewhere to harass the Teutons and then leaving them to suffer here.

It's like during a bar fight, you've held off the toughest guy on the other side, hoping your friend can kick him from the side, but when you turn around, you find your friend attacking the toughest guy's girlfriend. That's definitely not appropriate.

Although opinions differ on the Bunitania offensive, one thing is certain: both sides have reached a tacit consensus on this matter.

That's because super-heavy tanks are really useful!
A mobile fortress is virtually invincible in urban warfare. As long as the infantry protecting the tanks aren't blind, these super-heavy tanks can easily sweep through everything in a street.

Having witnessed the power of super-heavy tanks, both sides in the conflict expressed their need for tanks, a large number of super-heavy tanks, stating that if they could acquire more super-heavy tanks, they would be able to capture or defend Paris.

Feedback from the front-line troops quickly reached the rear. Then, at the Les ...

The Teutonic General Staff, which was also preparing to place an order, encountered a small problem.

That is, after the last Battle of Jutland, the navy suffered heavy losses, and even two years later, many warships still have not been able to complete repairs.

Even after the empire seized vast tracts of land in the east and began extracting resources from those lands, this was still not the case.

However, this still cannot fill the gap left by the ever-expanding military. If these super-heavy tanks are mass-produced further now, the Navy's maintenance plans will be further delayed.

This would render the wartime navy unable to cope with the threat posed by the Bonitania home fleet.

Moreover, even if they urgently needed to build these super-heavy tanks now, they would almost certainly not be able to catch up with the Paris campaign. Judging from the map, after breaking through the Seine River defense line, they have already occupied 64% of the Paris city area. At the speed of occupying northern Paris, they should be able to occupy the entire Paris very soon.

Just as the General Staff of the Teutonic Empire was struggling with this issue, someone made the decision for them.

After being besieged for almost a year, the Russian left-wing government in St. Petersburg, with the support of reinforcements from Moscow, successfully broke through the blockade of the Teutonic siege forces, which had by then drawn away most of their troops.

Although the Luscan left-wing government did not pursue the Teutonic troops extensively after the siege forces withdrew, they did begin to follow the retreating Teutonic and Cossack troops toward Tallinn.

Without strong intervention on the eastern front, Tallinn could very well become the first city the Empire loses on that front.

So there's no time to hesitate any longer.

As the Teutonic General Staff made its decision, the Luscan military government was raising the tricolor flag, symbolizing Russia, atop the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the city the world longed for. Although the locals had other names for the cathedral, it would now be called the Hagia Sophia, just as the city would be called Constantinople.

After a long siege, the Lucia military government finally captured the city under heavy artillery and tank attacks.

The tank force's outstanding performance has led the Lucia military government to place larger orders with Bunitania and even hope that they can transfer related technologies. However, now is the time for them to celebrate their victory.

The interim president of the military government was convinced that by capturing Constantinople, the city that the Luscans had dreamed of for many years, he would join the ranks of the greatest monarchs in Lucia.

Although the world lost interest in news from the East after the collapse of the Russian Empire and the fall of the Russian Provisional Government.

After all, apart from the locals, no one was interested in knowing how many warlords and outlaws had emerged on that vast and barren land.

However, the fall of Constantinople still shocked the world. With the capture of Constantinople by the Luscan military government, the Sultanate, one of the two allies of the Teutonic Empire, also declared its dissolution. The Great Caliph, like the Tsar, abdicated and withdrew from the war.

In the once vast territory of the Sultanate, it was unclear how many people claimed the title of emperor or king.

When Joe learned of this news, he was observing the Teutonic Hindenburg Line through his binoculars.

Like most proper defensive lines, the Hindenburg Line has fortresses and bunkers of various sizes, which are strategically located, mostly in forests and on hillsides.

Some large fortresses were even built along rivers, with natural moats.

If infantry were to launch the attack, it would visibly turn this place into a slaughterhouse.

However, due to the limitations of the era, there were not many anti-tank facilities on this defensive line. After all, when the defensive line was planned, the designers did not expect to need to deal with tanks.

So Joe felt that to break through this line of defense, there was no need for a lot of jokes and laughter. It was simply a matter of the most basic and straightforward method: artillery bombardment followed by tank assault, tank assault followed by infantry assault, and then tank bombardment again.

Of course, the battle would be much simpler if there were dive bombers like the Stuka that could drop tons of bombs directly onto the tops of these fortresses and bunkers.

Alternatively, if the Hound tank could be fitted with thicker pipes, combat would become much easier.

However, considering that he had fought his way here, he had lost a third of his tanks due to mechanical failures alone.

If the tanks hadn't been abandoned in friendly territory, these tanks left on the roadside could have been towed away and repaired by the logistics personnel who arrived later.

The loss of technical weapons alone would be enough to cause them serious trouble, let alone breaking through the intimidating Hindenburg Line.

Therefore, Joe felt that the design of the Hound Tank was quite successful, at least under the current technological conditions, and he truly deserved his reputation.

While secretly praising himself, Joe had just ordered the artillery to plow the land when he received news that the Lucia military government had captured Constantinople and that the Sultanate had announced its withdrawal from the war.

Upon hearing the news, Qiao was stunned for a moment, then involuntarily muttered, "That's great, I'm so envious..."

Upon hearing Joe's words, the officers around him, including Joe's former tank commander Cecil, all believed that Joe must envy the general who captured Constantinople for being able to leave his name in history.

If nothing unexpected happens, the city gates and roads through which he entered the city will henceforth be named after him, and there will be a statue of him in the city center square.

For someone as formidable as Steve Jobs to express envy is undoubtedly because he admires his peers for achieving such remarkable success.

So his subordinates said that Old Joe didn't need to envy the Lucias, Constantinople, or the Sultanate. How could they compare to Germania of the Teutonic Empire?
We rushed through as if we were in an empty field, and it's not too far to Germania from here.

How can the mere city of Constantinople compare in value to Germania?
No one knew, Joe just lamented that some people were now able to withdraw from the war, while the war he was in showed no signs of ending anytime soon.

At least for now, the Teutons are determined to take Paris.

It depends on whether we are faster or the Teutons are faster. Hopefully, they, and George, can hold on.

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The fall of Constantinople and the Sultanate's withdrawal from the war undoubtedly poured cold water on our hopes.

No one would have imagined that Lucia's Third Army would actually be able to capture Constantinople under such circumstances.

However, this incident did not significantly affect the morale of the troops at the time.

Although rumors about the Gates of Hell have been circulating in the army, we have indeed broken through the Gauls' defenses once again, and now we are only one step away from taking Paris.

Unfortunately, I contracted the Paris flu at the time and had to say goodbye to my unit and return to the rear for treatment.

—From *Victory Within Reach* by Erich

"For a thousand years, the underground of Paris has been a den of vampires and demons. The first Romans to arrive here sealed them away with the help of ancient priests. For more than two thousand years afterward, they were unable to break the seal until the Teutons released them."

—Assassin's Creed: Gates of Hell

Anyone who says Paris is romantic is a complete idiot. All you have here is 18th-century architectural rubble and roads that are too wide to build barricades.

Although the young men fought very bravely, the battle was still very difficult.

The tank designed by Professor Qiao may perform well in field battles, but in urban warfare we urgently need super-heavy tanks like those used by the Gauls.

—From *The War I Know* by George

(End of this chapter)