Chapter 253: A Big Surprise for the Italians |
After receiving personal instructions from Lelouch and taking delivery of the latest secret equipment, mountain division commanders like Model and Dieter spent a few days integrating their units. They then rushed to the frontline town of Lavis, ready to launch their first wave of fierce attacks against Italy.
Demania's war machine continued to run at full speed. The 150-kilometer single-track mountain railway from Innsbruck to Lavis was operating at maximum capacity.
Because it was a single-track railway, trains could only travel in one direction; they had to reach the end of the line and return before the next batch could depart. Under these circumstances, increasing the transport capacity of each train batch became crucial.
Starting on May 14, every train convoy that departed was a massive fleet consisting of 20 trains, 40 locomotives, and 600 railcars, forming a long line stretching southward to transport troops, weapons, ammunition, and supplies. Each train had 30 railcars, with a locomotive at both the front and rear—one pushing and one pulling—shuttling through the Alps.
With a five-hour travel time, plus an hour for emergency unloading and maintenance, they could begin the return trip after six hours. A full round trip took twelve hours. Running two round trips every 24 hours allowed them to transport the contents of 1,200 railcars to the frontline daily.
Fortunately, the Brenner Pass between Innsbruck and the Tyrol region was already the highest elevation point in the Alps along this railway line (Brenner Pass is on the modern Italian-Austrian border, but in 1916 it was on the provincial border of two provinces within Austria). Heading south from the Brenner Pass, the route was generally downhill, despite a few inevitable uphill sections.
The heavily loaded trains transporting supplies south could slowly coast downhill, while the trains climbing back north were essentially empty, further reducing the logistical difficulty.
By May 20, the assembled troops and supplies at the front line had reached a scale equivalent to 6,000 railcars.
A single railcar could transport a company of soldiers (packing men into boxcars without seats, everyone standing) or about 60 tons of supplies.
The German 10th Army, mobilized for this operation against Italy and reinforced, consisted of over 20 combat divisions with a full complement of more than 300,000 men. Yet, they required a full 8,000 railcars just for preliminary support.
The preparations for the offensive against Italy were completed swiftly and covertly, while the Italians on the opposite side were still lost in a drunken stupor, lulled into careless complacency and war-weariness by the year-long war of attrition at the Isonzo River.
At dawn on May 22, from several high peaks near the Austrian-controlled border town of Lavis, batteries of 210mm heavy howitzers unleashed a roaring volley, catching the Italians on the opposite side completely unprepared.
Artillery shells weighing 130 kilograms and packed with over 30 kilograms of explosives whistled through the air over a distance of roughly eight kilometers, slamming into Pomarolo, the frontline valley town of the Italians.
Other shells flew roughly 12 to 13 kilometers, raining down on the Ceriati Fortress, an Italian mountaintop stronghold located southeast of Pomarolo.
It was true that the Demanian Army had launched a sneak attack, though it didn't fully count as one since the two nations were already at war. The enemy had simply been too careless, never expecting that after a year of silence, heavy artillery would suddenly bombard them from across this Alpine pass.
In an instant, the earth shook and mountains shattered as dirt and rocks flew in all directions. Pomarolo, a valley town with a population of less than 20,000, was plunged into apocalyptic ruin. The military barracks and warehouses in the town were thoroughly leveled by the sudden, fierce bombardment.
"The self-propelled Nebelwerfer rocket artillery you proposed might indeed be effective, but they aren't suitable for the first wave of the offensive. Their advantage lies in their mobility—their ability to advance alongside the troops. However, their range is too short. We still have to rely on traditional artillery for the initial firepower to crush the enemy's outer defenses. Save those self-propelled rocket launchers for the later defensive lines."
On a high ground northeast of Lavis, inside an artillery observation post set up far beyond the maximum range of Italian guns, the septuagenarian Marshal Leopold pulled his eyes away from the trench periscope and imparted this guidance to Major General Lelouch, who was standing beside him in charge of liaison and coordination.
Lelouch was now the director of the Joint Army-Navy Operations Coordination Office, no longer managing the combat staff affairs of the 10th Army. However, since the Italian operation was also part of his plan, he wanted to personally visit the Italian front during this time to conduct research and monitor the progress.
The Emperor was happy to see him so diligent and allowed him to run around wherever he deemed it necessary.
Therefore, at this very moment, Lelouch was playing the temporary role of an observer, occasionally offering suggestions to Marshal Leopold.
In the final days before the battle officially began, Lelouch had even suggested adding the "walking Stuka" self-propelled rocket artillery into the initial fire preparation, but the old Marshal had vetoed it. His reasoning was that there was ample preparation time for the first barrage, which could be handled entirely by the hard-to-maneuver heavy artillery.
Take the 210mm heavy howitzers, for example. When advancing dynamically, redeploying them was indeed extremely difficult, making them unable to keep up. But before the battle commenced, they had a full week to tow and position the guns, completely bypassing this problem.
Looking at it now, although the old Marshal's views were old-fashioned, they were undeniably correct.
The Italians on the opposite side never imagined they would be relentlessly bombarded by 210mm-class howitzers in such a location. They were instantly bombed into a daze, entirely unable to organize an effective counterattack.
"Experience really is the best teacher. I was a bit too obsessed with new technology and equipment." Seeing how miserably the enemy fortress and town were being hammered, Lelouch tactfully expressed that he would eagerly learn from the old Marshal.
He was still too young, after all, and had many fundamental skills to slowly and solidly build up.
Meanwhile, 13 kilometers to the south, inside the Ceriati Fortress, the Italian defending commander, Major General Leonardo, was being bombed into dizzy confusion by the sudden, intense artillery fire, entirely unable to grasp the situation.
"What's going on? Why aren't our 150mm howitzers returning fire? Where did the enemy get so much heavy artillery? What about the garrison in Pomarolo? Why can't we reach them on the radio? Keep wiring them!"
Major General Leonardo roared out orders in impotent rage, but they couldn't change reality in the slightest.
On the north-facing side of his fortress, many artillery positions, bunkers, and firepoints had been destroyed under the blanket of the enemy's heavy firepower. To make matters worse, the surviving firepoints were also unable to mount a counterattack, driving him mad.
"General! The enemy's firing positions are 13 kilometers away, and their peaks to the north are slightly higher than ours, giving them an elevation advantage. Our 150mm howitzers simply can't reach that far, and we don't have long-barrel cannons!" A colonel commanding an artillery regiment, his face covered in blood, scrambled over to report to Major General Leonardo, explaining the reason for their lack of counter-fire.
"So it really is 210mm heavy howitzers? I knew these shells looked too powerful. But how is that possible? The Demanians' 210mm heavy artillery start at over 10 tons. How did they haul those guns to the mountain peaks?
"Could it be those legendary Half-Track Tractors of theirs again? Did they create a model with even stronger towing capacity? Damn it! What are the people at Fiat doing?! Why can't the Kingdom's automotive companies build tracked vehicles with that kind of towing power and climbing ability!"
Watching his fortress being steadily blasted into ruins, Major General Leonardo felt his heart bleed.
In mountain warfare, equipment was always one size smaller than in plains combat due to the difficulties of transportation. The strongest artillery the Italian forces had in the Alpine theater were only 150mm howitzers.
On one hand, the engagement distance in normal mountain warfare was closer than on the plains. With the obstruction of rolling mountains, there often weren't opportunities to fire at enemies ten or twenty kilometers away like on the plains.
Moreover, because of the rolling terrain, mountain warfare required artillery trajectories to be more curved to reduce the blind spots in strikes. Cannons had too long a range and their trajectories were too flat, making them unwieldy in mountainous regions.
At the same time, 150mm heavy artillery was the tested limit for the Italians to manually carry shells over the mountains. A 150mm shell, excluding the propellant charge, weighed between 50 to 70 kilograms.
On rugged mountain trails impassable to carts and horses, such as places requiring climbing stairs, it was possible for manpower to scale the peak and transport the ammunition by carrying a single 150mm shell in a back basket.
However, 203mm or 210mm shells generally weighed over 120 kilograms. If loaded into a back basket, the basket itself would need to be sturdy enough, bringing the total weight to at least 130 kilograms.
Soldiers simply couldn't lug a 130-kilogram basket up a mountain using human strength alone. Thus, heavy artillery of 203mm and above were virtually non-existent in mountain warfare. Additionally, building fortresses in the mountains was incredibly difficult for both sides. Since it was known that the enemy could generally only use 150mm guns for their offenses, designing a fortress's defenses to be "capable of withstanding direct hits from 150mm guns" was deemed sufficient.
The Italians claimed to have operated in this area for 40 years, but their early works were all built to the construction and technology standards of the 1880s. Take the Ceriati Fortress before them, for example; its foundation was completed in the late 1880s. While it had undergone renovations, modernization, and reinforcements later on, it was ultimately entirely different from a fortress newly designed and built in the current century.
There was nothing in the world more damaging to morale than being one-sidedly pummeled without being able to fight back.
The Demanians' fire preparation this time also lasted an exceptionally long period. They bombarded for a full two hours without any sign of stopping—primarily because Marshal Leopold had too few 210mm heavy howitzers at his disposal, and dragging them to the high-ground peaks to deploy was quite difficult.
With a low number of artillery pieces, the only way to increase the volume of fire was to extend the duration of the bombardment. This slow strike—where only a few dozen super-heavy shells fell per volley, with merely two volleys a minute—kept the nerves of all the Italian officers and soldiers strung tight, terrified that the next volley would land on their heads.
The shelling started at 3:30 in the morning and continued until nearly 6:00. The valley town of Pomarolo was the first to be abandoned by the Italians; the remnants of the several regiments stationed there immediately fled, swarming back in retreat.
They were only eight kilometers from the front line and were poised to suffer an even more severe beating. Not only could the 210mm guns hit them, but the 150mm and 105mm guns could as well. Furthermore, the town's defensive fortifications were certainly nowhere near as strong as a professional fortress, making it impossible for them to endure such torment.
Subsequently, the Demanians' artillery fire began to extend forward. The firepower of all the 210mm howitzers concentrated on the Ceriati Fortress.
Meanwhile, Demania's vanguard ground forces began advancing along the valley, attacking the frontline contact positions of the two armies, as well as the ruins of Pomarolo.
Any occasional Italian soldiers remaining in the trenches or ruins to resist were cleared out by the attackers at maximum speed.
By 9:00 a.m. that day, the Demanian Army had advanced eight kilometers from Lavis, occupying eight kilometers of the valley road and a frontline town.
"General, why don't we retreat too? The Ceriati Fortress definitely can't be held. We're just being bombarded for nothing!" Beside Major General Leonardo, several colonel-rank infantry and artillery regiment commanders all offered their counsel, trying to persuade him to fall back.
They truly couldn't bear to see an entire division senselessly bombed to death inside a single fortress.
The commander of the fortress artillery regiment, in particular, leveraging his technical expertise, tried a different angle to persuade him. "The enemy must have secretly spent many days preparing in advance to get so much heavy artillery onto the peaks. If we can retreat a few more kilometers back to the Monteverde Fortress, we will absolutely be able to escape the range of the enemy's super-heavy artillery.
"By then, even if they have those heavy half-tracks you mentioned, dragging those heavy guns down from the mountaintop, advancing a few kilometers, and hauling them up another peak—how many days would that deployment take? Moreover, as we retreat southward, the subsequent peaks along the way might not happen to have suitable elevations and distances.
"We'd be trading space for time. By then, having two divisions join forces to defend the Monteverde Fortress is far better than being senselessly defeated piecemeal like this."
The artillery regiment commander's words were purely objective technical analysis, stripped of any emotion and devoid of considerations regarding morale and willpower.
Major General Leonardo knew the man's logic was perfectly rational, but he also deeply understood that fighting a war couldn't rely solely on rationality; it also required zeal and courage. Therefore, he still intended to hold out a little longer. "What are you panicking for! The enemy can't bombard us forever. If we just abandon our post before the enemy even launches a ground assault, won't we become the shame of the Kingdom? Even though the fight on the Isonzo River front hasn't gone well and hundreds of thousands have died, at least they are still striving to attack!
"Although we've been battered quite badly, our loss of effective manpower isn't significant. I already ordered the soldiers to withdraw to the peak's reverse slope at the first sign of trouble to avoid the shelling. It's only some fortifications and weapons that were destroyed. No matter what, we must repel at least a few ground assaults!"
After enduring another senseless pounding, the bombardment finally came to a temporary halt around 10:00 a.m. The opposing Demanian forces likely didn't know how many troops in the fortress had been bombed to death or whether the survivors had fled, so they dispatched a small search unit to feel their way up the mountain.
The attacking force wasn't large; combined, they numbered less than a battalion, splitting into companies to creep up the mountain toward the Ceriati Fortress from several directions.
Finally finding an opportunity to vent his frustration, Major General Leonardo ordered his men to wait until the enemy was close before firing.
The Italian troops under his command were considered rare frontline elites within the Italian army. Their morale hadn't completely collapsed under these circumstances, and they could still return to the forward positions to hold the line.
After a brief and bloody firefight, the Demanian reconnaissance unit that was searching up the mountain also suffered considerable casualties. Leaving behind dozens of corpses, along with even more lightly wounded men, they hastily retreated.
Following the retreat of the reconnaissance unit, more artillery batteries began fiercely bombarding the Ceriati Fortress. The shelling continued until the afternoon, expending an unknown number of 210mm howitzer shells. This essentially ensured that all the turrets on the fortress's north-facing side were wiped out, and every immovable fixed installation was blown to pieces.
Then, the Demanians organized another probing offensive, with another two companies sneaking up. Yet the Italians were once again able to move from the reverse slope into the frontal positions and desperately defend the peak with light firearms. The web of crossfire from heavy machine guns and Italian submachine guns pinned the Demanian reconnaissance unit down, keeping them from even lifting their heads.
Watching this scene from afar, the old Marshal Leopold frowned slightly. "These Italians are quite stubborn. The north face of their fortress has clearly been blown to bits, yet they hide on the south side of the mountain and rush back to the north to block us only when we stop shelling to mount an assault."
Beside him, Lelouch had spent most of the day observing and learning from the old Marshal's actions without voicing any opinions. At this moment, however, a spark of inspiration hit him; there was room for optimization.
"Marshal, why not have the self-propelled rocket artillery close in, then fire a volley using the maximum elevation mode?
"I've observed that the enemy fortress's north-facing side is completely destroyed, and their north-facing heavy artillery has been taken out. Such fortress artillery is mostly fixed; they won't dismantle the south-facing ones to point north just to get bombed by us again.
"Right now, the enemy only has flexibly deployable light weapons, which pose no threat to lightly armored half-tracks. Besides, across a distance of over two kilometers, the range of their light weapons falls short. High-elevation rockets, on the other hand, can act like mortars and directly bombard the rear side of the fortress."
Marshal Leopold's furrowed brows finally relaxed a bit, and he smiled with self-deprecation. "I admit you're right this time. Under these circumstances, we should let your new toys have a go."
Soon, another round of fire preparation covered more than twenty SDK-2 "walking Stuka" units as they pushed forward along the valley.
Lieutenant Colonel Dieter's 16th Mountain Infantry Division was also requested to deploy two battalions to cover the advance of these vehicles.
The Italian forces atop the Ceriati Fortress across from them had no idea how these things shaped like tracked trucks were any different. Their north-facing artillery had indeed been destroyed in the earlier fierce fighting, so they didn't specifically try to stop these strange tracked vehicles.
Only a few scattered heavy machine gun positions fired wildly in this direction, but across a distance of nearly two kilometers, heavy machine guns were completely powerless against the 8mm steel plating of the half-tracks.
Finally, as these "walking Stuka" launchers were deployed into position, the six 320mm rocket launch tubes on each vehicle were raised high. Following electronic ignition, the rockets packed with 80 kilograms of TNT soared into the air.
The shape of these rockets wasn't even the classic missile-style rocket of later generations. Instead, they had the pure shape of aerial bombs, or rather, they looked much like mortar shells with tail fins.
To put it bluntly, it was a 150-kilogram aerial bomb with an 80-kilogram TNT payload. It was just that its kinetic energy upon landing wouldn't be very high, essentially equivalent to an aircraft dropping a bomb horizontally from an altitude of 1,000 meters. This was why this thing was called a "walking Stuka" on Earth.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Over a hundred massive bombs, each packed with 80 kilograms of explosives, detonated closely together near the southern slope of the Ceriati Fortress's peak within a short span of just over half a minute.
The Italian fortress defenders, who had initially thought they were safe hiding on the reverse slope of the peak's south side, had their will to resist completely shattered by this sudden, unforeseen strike.
The vast majority of the soldiers didn't even have the chance to scream before they were directly sent flying by the enormous blast pressure.
Only the soldiers stationed farther away were left screaming in agony.
"Damn it! What kind of firepower is this? Why does it feel so much stronger than the blasts from those 210mm howitzers earlier!"
"Damn it! How could they bomb the south slope? Is this a super-heavy mortar?"
"How can we even defend this mountain anymore? Hurry up, break out and run!"
The tragic state of the peak's south slope instantly resembled an Asura hell. Flesh and blood flew everywhere, and as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but dismembered corpses.
But at this point, how could the Demanians easily let them run away? If they had run right from the start, that would have been one thing. But after repelling two reconnaissance assaults and only fleeing now upon realizing they couldn't win, they were going to pay a heavy price.
Dieter's two mountain battalions were originally only meant to cover the advance of the "walking Stuka" units and hadn't been ordered to directly assault the mountain.
Now, seeing that the defenders on the mountain were destabilized and seemed to be fleeing in chaos, Dieter immediately ordered his troops to switch to a mountain-encircling interception mission. They leveraged the local terrain, shifting from offense to defense right where they stood.
"Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!" The MG15 light machine guns and MP15 submachine guns erupted in an endless, furious roar, as if crying out in grief for their fallen comrades.
On the opposing side, Major General Leonardo failed to rein in his troops and was forced to join the attempted rout, which swiftly deteriorated into a hopeless breakout.
Rows upon rows of escaping soldiers were mowed down by the Demanian soldiers' MG15 light machine guns as they blocked the valley and surrounded the mountain.
Major General Leonardo had already been internally injured by the concussive blasts of those massive bombs. Now, struck by a stray bullet in the chaos, he was killed on the spot.
Seeing that the general who had staunchly resisted was dead, and that the enemy was leaving them no way out, the remaining Italian forces invariably chose to shout their surrender.
Upon learning of the enemy's surrender, the old Marshal Leopold finally smiled. "Not bad. At least we've taken the town of Pomarolo and the Ceriati Fortress on the first day of battle, advancing over a dozen kilometers.
"Next, we'll breach the Monteverde Fortress and the town of Avio. Pushing another dozen or so kilometers forward, we can break out of the Alpine region, enter the plains, and lay siege to Verona.
"At this pace, it shouldn't take more than a few days. Once we capture Verona, everything will be much easier. What do you think?"
Lelouch replied, "I think this rhythm is just right. Spending a few days, but not too long, is perfect for ensuring that the Italian forces on the Isonzo River front are shaken, yet leaving them no time to retreat. If the enemy on the Isonzo River front wavers, we can have the Austrian army accelerate their assault and advance to expand the combat results."
