Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 4: War – Chapter 23: Case Yellow (Day 7 – Off to a Good Start)

The Loyalist 3rd Light Mechanized Division, the Erusean 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions, supported by the Erusean 1st Army Tank Brigade. These are the names of the units the Allied forces dedicated to a counterattack against Arras. A Brigade alone can have anywhere from 3,000 to 5000 soldiers, a Division will bump those numbers up to 6000 to 25000. In total, Arras may come under siege by anywhere between 23000 to 80000 troops. These troops are then reinforced by the around 100 tanks with more than half of them belonging to the Eruseans. This sizeable composite force is dubbed the 'Frankforce', named after the 5th Infantry Division General Harold Franklyn and is its overall leader.

While scary to face against any contemporary-era defenders, owing to the sheer amount of manpower and firepower Frankforce may be able to bring to bear, the Allied counterattack is deemed to be paper-tiger than an actual dragon. The reasons here are that Frankforce is nowhere near the maximum unit cap of 80000 soldiers. Sure, they still have a sizeable force nearly half of that number but they can't even deploy all of them at once. Doing so, Frankforce risks being encircled by other Belkan units to their flanks and risk total annihilation. They're, after all, the only card Lord Gort can spare at this very moment. Then, there's also the fact Frankforce is a mixed force, and I put heavy emphasis on 'mixed'. Two nationalities, multiple ethnicities and ideologies, wholely different doctrines and equipment, wildly varied training and experience... Right, I can see this will end so well with Frankforce.

Still, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Frankforce is the Eruseans themselves. By the look of it, General Harold Franklyn is good, if not a real competent one. He's a bonafide success story in the eyes of the Eruseans. The man climbs the ranks pretty darn quickly too, ultimately being put in charge as the General of the 5th Infantry Division. As part of the Erusean Regular Army, the 5th should have been a gathering of well-trained, well-experienced, and well-armed soldiers of the Erusean Royal Army. Something that is noted by the 5th Infantry's long service life, dating back to the 1810s. Yet, the Erusean Military Command has done General Franklyn dirty by diluting this well-spring of capable soldiers, funneling them to Territorial Divisions while pumping the available spots with conscripts. While this does help in getting the Reservist units up to an acceptable standard for combats, it also means that the 5th Infantry Division has lost its prior veteran status. Something that General Franklyn understands fully, it would seem.

The combat status of the 5th Infantry is already bad enough, but Franklyn has to pair his Division with the 50th. Here's the funny part, the 50th is not a Regular Army Division, it's a Territorial Division the EEF brought along for construction works. And we all know how inexperienced conscripts react to an actual battlefield at this point. They're unreliable at best and downright team killers at worst. This is why Franklyn can't use the entirety of Frankforce, not just because of the rearguard or security reasons. Instead, the Erusean General decides on a safe approach to tackle Arras, using the competent half of his Frankforce for a two-pronged attack. The rest he seems to place them on guard duty and reserves. In his mind, this plan will save the Allied forces many lives. It isn't wrong to think like that, mind you, but it surely won't be good enough to tackle an Arras hold by me.

Not by a long shot.

Still, I am looking forward to seeing the General try his best. Maybe he can achieve a lucky break due to the possible interference of the Erusean Royal Air Force? It's the break of dawn, and if they want to fly and fight, the RAF will do so when there's sunlight. Their jammed communication doesn't allow them to reliably conduct night-fighting missions, after all.

I turn to Bryn, asking.

"Have we confirmed the deployment of the RAF inland?"

Bryn shakes her head, peering over to a force deployment display.

"Other than the scraps that were deployed to Ustio prior to Case Yellow, no. The RAF planes that flew from beyond the Channel are still escorting the Erusean Royal Navy transport to Dunkirk."

Bryn stops for a bit before adding, her eyes frowning over an update on the holographic display. "However, it doesn't mean that they won't. It is expected that the RAF will soon conduct bombing raids against our home."

Bryn then interacts with the display, bringing up images of American-made B-17 Flying Fortresses and P-38 twin-engine fighter aircraft taxing on a large airfield.

"Then they will soon fall to their doom." I respond with certainty. "Our Reichsmarine and Air Force will have a field day. Though, do remind them to cause as much damage as possible, but stop attacking when they retreat. The survivors can spread panic and chaos in the hearts of the Eruseans, something that can be of use later on."

Indeed, the Erusean populace is still very pissed that there is no prisoner exchange between the Reich and the Erusean Kingdom.

"Understood." Bryn nods before passing on my words down the chain of command.

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As the first ray of sunlight falls between the branches of nature, the soldiers of the Erusean 365th Artillery Battery are enjoying an early breakfast after a grueling march.

When General Franklyn pushes for the attack against Arras, he does so with two Infantry Brigades, belonging to the 5th and 50th Divisions respectively, and the majority of Frankforce's heavy armaments. The two Infantry Brigades are then split into two attacking columns, with each having the support of tanks and artillery. The Right Column, consisting of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, 8th Durham Light Infantry, 365th Battery, 92nd Field Regiment Royal Army, 260th Battery, 65th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment RA, a platoon of the 151st Brigade Anti-Tank Company, and a motorcycle Scout Platoon of the 4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, will have to advance through the villages of Marœuil, Duisans, Walrus, and Berneville. Their aim is to encircle Arras alongside the Left Column which will move and seize the villages from Athies to Mercatel.

It's an ambitious plan, one that can easily be riddled with holes, and General Franklyn is smart enough to see that. As a matter of fact, the General doesn't hold any hope at all in eeking out a victory on this counterattack. Unlike the other Generals in the Allied forces, Franklyn knows his men well yet little in the way of his enemy. The Belka of now is not the Belka that he fought against two decades ago. General Franklyn knows and accepts that, unlike his other compatriots. To pick a fight against a vastly superior yet unknown enemy is utter foolishness, and Franklyn doesn't have the habit of throwing his men into the meat grinder. However, orders are orders, and he must still carry them out as a General of the Erusean Crown. It doesn't mean that he will carry them out to the tee though. This counterattack of his is purely symbolic, invested with just enough manpower and dedication to escape the scrutiny of Franklyn's peers. The scrapped radio communication system, while annoying to have, gave Franklyn a perfect smokescreen to ensure the survival of his men, if not live to fight another day. This is 88 tanks and 15000 men Franklyn is sending away on a wild goose chase, after all. The General doesn't want to have their blood on his hands, if at all possible.

Special provisions have been made, guaranteeing that each field commander and officer are capable of acting independently while not in contact with Frankforce's HQ. Combat is divided into phases that are strictly timed and monitored. The first phases consist of an artillery barrage on known and possible Belkan strongholds. After that, smoke screens will be deployed to cover the attack of the two Columns. The advances of these two Columns are time-gated, if they fail to achieve any meaningful results, the commanding officers are allowed to retreat on their own volition. The important thing is to ensure overall force integrity, which is a different way of saying:

'Don't die, chucklenuts'.

As part of the right column and the opener on the first phases, the 365th Field Battery is ordered to first shelled Marœuil with their 25-pounder guns. While the payload of an 87.6 mm artillery piece isn't at all the biggest, a single 25-pounder can output up to 8 rounds per minute, and that is 96 shells per minute for a Battery of 12 guns. The amount of firepower they can dish out in that singular minute is enough to flatten a small town, something all artillerymen dream of every single day.

Explosion is an art, after all.

"Captain," An Erusean Sergeant stood up from the log he was sitting on. "I'mma need to take the loo. My tummy's hurting."

Sitting around a firepit alongside the other Sergeants of the 365th Battery, the Captain scrunches his face before waving the man away. "Go! Go! We don't need you to shat yourself when the guns start firing."

The Sergeant nods with a grin before happily skipping away, deeper into the woods. The Battery has been camping at this stretch of wood for some time, the range of their guns barely covering all the key points in General Franklyn's plan. Though preparations have been made to patrol and keep their current firebase secured, the overall security is quite lax on the eve of the plan's execution. While Franklyn is understandably cautious, not all his men share this sentiment, especially an artillery unit that is as far as they can get from the frontline. It's only when the appointed time for the shelling phases is almost upon them that some members of the 365th Battery start to notice something is off. The people that venture beyond their firebase, either on patrol or doing something else, none of them return.

Still, those that hold suspicion never get to say anything when their throats are either slit or their brains got splattered upon the floor. Something, or someone, is picking these hapless Eruseans off one by one, and these poor sods are none the wiser. By the time half of the firebase is silently eliminated, the remaining Eruseans finally wake up from their stupor when a soldier stumbles across a corpse tucked in an ammo crate. The alarm is sounded, yet, it's too little too late as they don't have the number to weather their hidden hunters.

In a flurry of motion and fierceness, Raven-A239, Emile, bodychecks the group surrounding the Erusean Captain, sending them all flying dead on impact or broken. Before the Erusean Battery Captain can even pull on his revolver, Emile drives his kukri right through the man's belly, hoisting him up high from his seat before throwing him backward and headfirst into the fire pit. If the stab wasn't enough to kill the Erusean, his neck snapping on impact and his head burning should be more than capable of doing so. Emily then brings out his sidearm, shooting the heads of the Erusean Sergeants rolling on the floor in pain. The man then wipes his kukri off the blood before looking around.

As expected, the rest of Noble Team is going to town with the Erusean remnants. All around Emile are either soldiers riddled with bullet holes or charred or flash-freezed by Kat's and Jun's special spells or rune bullets. Yeah, while Jorge and Carter may do it the old-fashioned way of lead, Kat and Jun tend to go with a flourish whenever they can nowadays. It's like their own personal competition.

As for Emile, the one true way of a man is to get up close and personal. It is direct, effective, and easy to understand. After all, the Marshal gifted the Ravens with limitless potential and an enhanced body. Emile will be doing her a disservice if he doesn't utilize everything to strike fear into the hearts of her enemies. If the enemies don't fear him, then how can they respect the Marshal when the world is to come under her rule?

Ultimately, the 365th Battery is silenced, with all of its soldiers killed and its guns disabled. By the time General Franklyn realizes that his Artillery Batteries are destroyed, the Ravens that attacked them are gone without the Eruseans catching as much as a glimpse. Already, Frankforce's move against Arras is off to a very, very wonderful start.