Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 4: War – Chapter 17: Case Yellow (Day 4 – 24 hours)

Day 4 in Case Yellow.

With Forward Operating Base Warehouse secured, we have thus been able to station most of our logistical capabilities and air assets in a secure location on the frontline. This has turned F.O.B Warehouse into a vital hub of operations, giving us the leeway and a safety net to have most of Army Group A going on an aggressive maneuver.

Army Group A, being the most active Army Group out of all three, is twice the size of a usual Army Group. This means that Army Group A has not two but four subordinate Armies attached to it, and by extension, I have direct command over all of them. In other words, I am and will be siccing more than a million men and women on the Loyalist positions. That's a lot of soldiers alongside their accompanying modern firepower. Pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, it's not like all one million of them can fight at the same time. It's just plain physically impossible. Currently, Army Group A has fourteen Corps in combat around Central Maginot. They're split into three main task groups: Attack, Defend, and QRF. As of today, I will be directing the Attack Corps, while personally taking charge of some vanguard units of my own. Namely, they're the 404th, 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th, amounting up to 150000 soldiers. The 10th Panzer Division will be in charge of holding Sedan while the 404th's 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team is undergoing some R&R at Warehouse. The 6th and 8th, however, are attacking the Northern portion of the Meuse where the river forks into the rivers Sambre and Maas. Thus far, these two Divisions have been playing it safe against the well-trained and equipped Loyalist Ninth Army that is heavily entrenched around Monthermé and Dinant. Monthermé even sports a bigger fortress than that of Bellevue in Sedan. The whole city is pretty much the fortress itself, hosting the 102nd Fortress Division with enough artillery and infantry to hold the city for days against a contemporary military force. To liberate the 6th and 8th of their duties, I am leading the rest of the 404th alongside the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions to undercut the Ninth Army's position.

Traversing through the Somme Valley before dawn, I lead the 404th with Daria as my temporary adjutant. The 2nd and 3rd ABCTs, acting as the spearhead of the 404th, swiftly dispatch key positions on the Southern flank of the Loyalist Ninth Army. These positions are artillery firebases, logistical hubs, and even command bunkers of the Ninth Army, due South of Monthermé, near Mézières. More than that, I send the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions on a hunt for the Ninth Army's reinforcements, the recently activated Loyalist Sixth Army. Still being assembled West of Sedan, the Sixth Army is very much a carbon copy of the now severely damaged Second Army. Both Loyalist Armies belong to the same classification of undertrained and under-equipped. Despite having twice the amount of manpower, the Sixth Army is losing ground rapidly against the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions. Already, there are reports of victories coming from the 1st and 2nd, with words about slaughtering fields and Loyalists surrendering. Sometimes, an entire Loyalist Battalion gave up without much of a fight.

Come morning, the Southern flank of the Loyalist Ninth Army completely collapsed with troops surrendering en masse. Without reinforcement and being severely undergunned, the Ninth Army is teetering on the edge of destruction. Near midday, the 102nd Fortress Division and the Monthermé fortress, their flanks unsupported, are surrounded and destroyed. The 6th and 8th Divisions had taken the chance created by my 404th ABCTs to eliminate Monthermé's defenses without even using air support. Using guided munition of their divisional artillery units, they systematically eliminated one Loyalist fortress gun after another. This deliberate measure cost them some time, however, they managed to seize Monthermé without inflicting many civilian casualties as a result. Honestly, their actions are commendable.

Utilizing the gap at Monthermé's bridgeheads, I task two Attack Corps of Army Group A to pursue the retreating Loyalist Ninth Army to the city of Beaumont. There, these two Attack Corps are expected to link up with Army Group B for the final maneuver against the Erusean Expeditionary Force. Meanwhile, the 404th is racing directly Northwest to the commune of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, a location one city away from the Principality of Darscen's border. Presently, the 404th is just ahead of the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions while the 6th and 8th Divisions secure our rear by seizing Montcornet and Rethel, two cities that border major Loyalist reserve units. Fearing a potential counterattack that would hamper our advance, I also started relocating the Defense Corps to support the 6th and 8th Divisions. By this point, the Loyalist Second Army is taking heavy losses around Sedan, particularly the town of Stonne where they have failed to seize the town half a dozen times. The Ninth Army is also giving way because I have broken through their rear in less than twelve hours, leaving them no time to dig in for a defensive front. The pressure on the Ninth is humongous as they also need to contend with the Attack Corps I send at them.

Knowing that this is a good opportunity to encircle the Ninth Army, I push my three Divisions fast, opting to travel nonstop. Meals and drinks are taken while on the move and there's only a ten-minute break in between long drives. We cross 40 km in mere hours, shooting up groups of Loyalists on the way. By the time the Loyalist Ninth Army realizes what happened, we've already crossed the Oise River to attack their weakly defended Southern flank once more. My three Divisions easily tear up the broken Ninth Army units, forcing them to flee in all directions, if not surrendering outright. This creates a major gap in the Ninth's battered formation, allowing us to drive straight to Avesnes-sur-Helpe, thus completing the encirclement of the Ninth Army, and choking them in Beaumont.

By this point, the day-long march has gone well into the night, resulting in a major bulge on the battle map and the endangering of an entire Loyalist Army. In less than 24 hours, we have drastically subverted a territory larger than what we gained in the last three days. Shocking, am I right? It's nothing surprising, really. You must understand that, by this point, we're riding into the home ground of the Loyalists, a part of the land that is not at all fortified unlike Sedan or the rest of the Maginot Line. There are no proper ambush positions and no heavily defended chokepoints. What the Loyalists have to slow us down are the Sixth and Ninth Armies. Armies that are being beaten are black and blue. The Sixth is basically formed of conscripts while the Ninth got a full doze of overwhelming Belkan firepower unlike their compatriot, the Second Army down at Sedan. Now that the Ninth is being chopped up into fine pieces though, one can only wonder for how long will they be able to hold. Will they raise the white flight over Beaumont by midnight, or will they stubbornly resist till the next day, owing to a more competent Army makeup?

Regretfully, it won't be a question that I will have an answer to. I have decided to send in the flyboys and girls, the sooner Beaumont and the Ninth Army fall, the faster we can advance past Northern Maginot in full force. Army Group B under General Belladonna has already broken past the main Maginot defenses. She is but one night out of threatening the capital city of Darscen, Brussel, with her Armies. If the Prince of Darscen Principality does not capitulate by then... Don't blame my General for her discourtesy.

However, I do wonder, with how swiftly we advance, how will the rest of the world see us? Rather, do they even know that our little skirmish has resumed? Everything is conducted suddenly and violently with near total information blackout on imparted on the Allies. I am the sole person able to conduct anything meaningful on this chessboard of a war, really.

Hell, the war can end in one day if I wish for it. The only reason why I don't decide on it is because of potential insurgencies. What I am doing right now is bleeding the Loyalists and Eruseans of their military units. By the time they capitulate, they won't even have anything left to perform guerilla tactics. This is my long-term plan.

So yeah, 24 hours to encircle an Army is actually Belka going at it the slow way. This war could have ended in mere minutes by virtue of assassinations or straight-up wiping their capitals off the map.