by Carlo Zen
She has to make sure the disappointed-looking artilleryman next to her gets it. “Captain Meybert, you heard her. I take back that permission I just gave you.”
“…I’d like to act on my own authority…”
“Captain, the home country wants us to secure an attack route. Are you telling me you can do that even if you destroy the bridge? Is that kind of action possible on your authority?” She shoots him a glance that says, I can’t allow it. You understand, I’m sure, and then switches gears. “Captain Ahrens, defend the bridge. An armored unit defending a bridge—mm, yep, just like in the movies. It’s no fun if the villain gets beaten too easily!”
“Leave the defense of the position to us. We’ll coordinate with Lieutenant Tospan’s infantry and the airborne guys to protect the bridge.”
“Good. It feels great to have someone I can trust with things. Okay then, as for the rest of you: We got the short end of the stick. We have to hurry and support the other troops.”
So it is that Tanya takes off—Let’s go!—leading only the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, which makes rapid response such a breeze.
Putting the swift deployment aerial mage forces are known for on display and heading straight to the rescue is a job they’ve been used to ever since the Rhine. You could say it’s a skill they’ve mastered.
But the few differences from the Rhine worry Tanya to no end.
Especially troubling is the status of the air fleet. For a time, after a successful battle of annihilation, it had taken control of the eastern skies, but now it was gone. Judging from friendly radio and other communications, the fleet’s operating rate had plummeted.
Have the planes been worn down that much? Or was the preliminary plan not enough? In any case, the expansion of the air forces is so slow, it can’t even be compared to how things were during the Rhine.
Surely the eastern army’s aerial mages are out, but…it doesn’t seem like we can expect much from them. Unlike Tanya and her troops, who had it easy at the beginning of the offensive with their tank desant, those who tangled with the Federation forces head-on are utterly exhausted and suffered terrible losses. With obstacles to proper leadership mounting, their ability to respond in a rapid way is essentially about to give out.
“Our job is to prevent the enemy from withdrawing, but…we’re basically already too late.”
“So…we won’t make it in time?”
The two mid-ranking officers with dark looks on their faces discuss the situation. Tanya answers Major Weiss bitterly.
“Air interdiction is impossible without more friendlies. It’s only a matter of time before they seize the bridge.”
The Imperial Army is spread far and thin. Encirclements are inevitably that way. If the enemy concentrates on one point to wage a fierce breakthrough in an organized fashion, it’s nigh impossible to stop them completely.
And if the various factors to keep it from happening aren’t functioning…then there’s trouble.
“I agree… Shall we be the vanguard to retake it?”
Asked if they should take it back if it gets taken, Tanya shakes her head. “I thought about it, but there’s not much point. I’m confident we can destroy it, but if it’s about occupying it, that’s the infantry’s forte. So a flying aerial mage unit isn’t the right force to apply. Furthermore,” she adds, “the Federation Army, having come this close to collapse—I don’t want to think they could really arrange organized reinforcements at this point—they’re desperate, too. Trying to retake a stolen bridge would occupy them for too long and could even end in failure.”
True. The officers nodded—they have a good grasp of battlefield psychology. When it comes to securing an escape route, both commanders and their soldiers do everything in their power.
This is often misunderstood, but the existence of an escape route is only one of the factors that affect how well soldiers are able to hold out. Certainly if their retreat is threatened, that’s frightening, but having their retreat cut off can birth soldiers who no longer fear death, which is a threat of its own.
“In that case…what is being asked of us is to reduce the number of enemies who are able to escape.”
“You mean a pursuit battle, in the end, is fought best by slamming the enemy’s weak point?”
“Right.” Tanya nods at Weiss. That’s her hunting dog. The habit of sniffing out and biting into weaknesses is commendable. Tormenting the weak can be praiseworthy, but only when the weak in question are your wartime enemies.
“Enemies trying to flee have such fragile spirits, you know? Let’s beat them up.”
“If you’re the creep following them home, Colonel, I feel bad for them.”
“That’s funny—I was about to sympathize with them for being tailed by you guys.”
I guess we have that in common. The officers share a mild joke—what a cozy battlefield. The team has great vibes and an excellent drive going on. The Federation Army must be so cold and distant; I’m sure we’re in a much better situation organizationally. Tanya is proud of her personnel-wrangling ability. It’s nice to have confidence in your management skills.
“We’ll crush what remains of enemy headquarters. That’ll prevent an organized escape.” Having changed the mission objective at her own discretion, she continues, “Let’s go!” Regardless of whether she understands the enemy, she’s confident that she understands herself.
An aerial mage battalion—and an elite one at that—can consider all sorts of different tactical options. Even so, it’s still just one battalion. Even elites who can deploy swiftly, have outstanding firepower, and are always polishing their cunning combat skills can’t free themselves from the limitation of numbers.
So Tanya chooses to ditch the interdiction mission that requires ability in numbers in favor of a harassment attack with the objectives of decreasing and disturbing.
To discuss this change of plan beginning with the results it achieves, the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion once again carries out perfect decapitation tactics.
“…Given the large amount of signals coming from over there, that must be the place. Let’s get ’em, troops!”
Having gotten a ballpark idea of where the headquarters is from the formations and wireless activity, they pick out units that seem capable of operating in an organized fashion and attack once more. She leads her unit—they rampage as if to show off what aerial mages are really good for—and the one-sided throttling of the Federation troops who have lost control of the sky is the easiest job since Dacia.
Even the Federation Army, which had given us so much trouble, became a bunch of sitting ducks once deprived of air superiority. It was so frustratingly easy that Tanya is sure the air fleet would have been able to stop them if they hadn’t been running late.
As it stands, the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, which is able to respond quickly in an organized way, wreaks incredible havoc as a single operational unit. It was such a big job that when they return to the Kampfgruppe’s provisional forward base, Tanya feels the fatigue weigh on her shoulders the moment they are met by Captain Meybert of the group left behind.
“Any issues while you were here?”
“No… Captain Ahrens said he wanted some action, too.”
“Ha-ha-ha, I just had so much time on my hands.”
Outrageous. Meybert’s report makes Tanya justifiably indignant. Ahrens hasn’t the slightly idea how blessed he is. Any civilized individual vastly prefers boring guard duty to a firefight on the forward-most line.
“You mean staying behind as defense was boring? Wish you would have traded with me, then!”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Ahrens cracks up and Tanya glares at him. Ugh, you piss me off. Maybe the aerial mage battalion is being exploited.
Thanks to which, it has to work so hard during this escape interdiction mission.
She can assume that their successes will be properly valued, but…she doesn’t like noticing that the higher-ups have this scheme of working ca
pable units to the bone. The General Staff’s judgment is logical, but for those on the ground, it’s a hard-boiled logic.
Tanya would like to expect that they’ll be rewarded proper medals and leave.
Ahhh—it’s there that she switches gears. After all, it’ll be hard to get a leisurely paid break if she doesn’t finish off the work in front of her.
They’ve pulled off a major operation, achieved a lot, and they just need to make good use of the victory. I can’t imagine Lieutenant General von Zettour and the General Staff will make the same mistake they did on the Rhine front that time.
“Okay, no matter where they were breaking through, we’ve given them a solid beating… We can probably consider the Federation Army incapable of organized resistance now.”
So.
With that bit of wishful thinking mixed in, Tanya makes the mistake of dreaming of a bright future.
“Maybe the encirclement will hold, but…”
“Yeah, you’re right. Some might get away. Unfortunately, you’d be hard-pressed to call the cleanup effort perfect. Still, we set the tone. If we just wait for the good news…”
“Telegram!”
“Oh?” Tanya’s eyebrows move, and it’s only until that moment that she expects a positive report.
Once she realizes the sobered signaler is wearing a pained expression, it’s easy to tell that the news isn’t what she had hoped for.
“The left flank’s bridge has been seized!”
It’s the predictable bad news. The way multiple sighs are heaved at once is almost comical, as if they had planned it in advance.
“I guess that’s according to expectations. It’s too bad, but we can’t hold it all down.”
“Indeed,” rejoins her vice commander; he and Tanya had resigned themselves to the fact that at least one position would fall.
That’s why they’ve been able to maintain composure this whole time—and why in the next moment, they’re shocked speechless.
“…The first, second, and fifth crossings have been captured! The enemy is escaping in an organized fashion!”
“Wha—?” she gasps. To Tanya and the others, this is the rudest possible surprise. If the head is crushed, the arms and legs are supposed to fall to pieces!
“The airborne unit on the left flank is under attack from an enemy tank division…and has been breached! Multiple enemy units including armored troops are currently breaking away!”
“How?! We definitely…” …crushed their headquarters. She’s about to say those meaningless words when she realizes. “…Did they plan on that happening?”
Did they assume headquarters would be lost and use its functions as bait from the start? The Federation Army commanders prioritized the escape?
She wants to say it can’t be true. It was clear from the interviews with POWs and the survey of enemy formations that the Federation Army was a command-by-direction army!
If the encirclement wasn’t broken in reality, she would laugh this off as a delusion. But now, that’s impossible.
“So they were the rear guard from the very beginning?! Fuck! That’s some serious preparedness!”
The Federation Army is a unwaveringly strict pyramid. For…better or worse, it prides itself on its iron discipline, so its head should have been its weak point. Even Tanya believed without a doubt that if the head was crushed, the lower body would be paralyzed.
“So the lower units were able to coordinate and make adjustments without the oversight of headquarters? Shit, that makes them a thinking army!”
“A th-thinking army?”
“The same as us—the same as the Imperial Army!” A cry like a shriek stabs her throat. “They aren’t a command-by-direction army! Fucking hell, this—they’ve changed to mission oriented!”
Command by direction is a rigid system where the procedure, route, and even tactics are given in strict orders and you merely do exactly what Command tells you to. Frankly speaking, even amateurs can be a decent fighting force if they follow the instructions, so in that sense, it’s useful for armies created through mass conscription.
On the other hand, mission-oriented tactics are how extremely high-level pros do things. Command sets a “mission,” and all the details are left up to the discretion of the subordinates… To put it another way, you can’t possibly use this style unless you recognize your subordinates’ initiative and trust their judgment and resourcefulness.
Is such a thing even possible in an organizational culture like the Federation Army’s or the Federation’s Communist Party’s, where everyone is devoted to carrying out what the top decrees?
“…So it’s possible?”
Tanya murmurs and cradles her head in her hands.
It can’t be, she wants to yell.
It must be some mistake, she wants to groan.
It’s absurd, her heart is screaming.
But all you can do in the world is look at reality as it is. Averting your eyes from what’s real in search of what you want to see makes you a fool who can’t even understand what’s in front of your nose.
Guys like that deserve contempt. They’re not the type you want to have as friends.
THE SAME DAY, IMPERIAL CAPITAL BERUN, IMPERIAL ARMY GENERAL STAFF OFFICE
To the staffers belting out triumphant melodies at the successive good reports from Operation Iron Hammer, the announcement came like a face full of frigid water from the coast of Norden.
The encirclement’s been broken? Everyone’s expression stiffened in horror at the news.
The report that they’d been breached sent the General Staff, who had been convinced that victory in the east was theirs, literally reeling. This was Operation Iron Hammer, the major maneuver using the river as an anvil. If the critical river was crossed, and the enemy field army escaped, it was an utter failure.
The tension finally broke, and even the officers who had been dozing jumped up. Hanging on every word of the detailed reports that followed to explain what happened, they went through all manner of emotion and, at the next report, heaved a sigh of relief.
That is, the pocket including the headquarters was escaping, but a follow-up attack from an aerial mage battalion and armored unit got results. The rest of the pocket remained trapped.
“So for now…for now we’re fine…”
It was enough for a few people to feel better. Operation Iron Hammer may not have gone off perfectly, but it wasn’t a complete failure, either.
Still, anyone with some foresight furrowed their brow and groaned. Lieutenant General von Zettour of the Service Corps was no exception.
When he received the news from Lieutenant Colonel Uger, whom he’d been working hard as his assistant, he fell deep into thought; then, having agonized for a time, he spat in a pained tone, “…They got away?”
In a nutshell, he was stunned.
“I never imagined they would be able to operate in an organized way under these circumstances. The Salamander Kampfgruppe raided the headquarters, didn’t they…? This is a huge problem.”
“A h-huge problem?”
“If it’s true, yes.”
“We have records of their achievements as well as photographs. They definitely hit the headquarters in that pocket. There is even photographic evidence that a full general and other high-ranking officers were blown away. I can’t imagine the report was falsified.”
“Yes, of course I trust the reports from our troops,” Zettour replied with a smile.
If this was a mistake or a fabricated report, there would actually be less cause for headaches. The big issue was that the breach happened due to the enemy’s increased capabilities rather than an error on the imperial side.
“They’re not such idiots as that. We can assume the headquarters was actually attacked. So do they have an officer who could salvage the situation, then?” Zettour spat in irritation. How could the Federation Army perform an organized breakthrough while under siege? …And after multiple attacks on the top?
&nb
sp; “Sheesh, so the Federation soldiers have some talent, too.”
“…But we did win.”
Uger’s point was true. It felt like crossing thin ice, but the Imperial Army on the eastern front had pushed the lines up dramatically, and the enemy field army was annihilated.
They were occupying enemy territory and had demolished the enemy’s main forces. Now, even Moskva and other Federation cities were within reach of their attacks.
If the offensive had been even a little later…the enemy would have been able to regroup, and the Imperial Army might have been powerless. On top of that, the ground was turning from mud to dry dirt. The timing was perfect.
“Apparently, they really were able to rebuild a chain of command. It’s good we were able to hit them now. It will take time for their strength to recover. If we can figure out a diplomatic solution during that time…”
It was the rough-and-ready trumps polished-but-slow thing.
Yeah. At that point, Zettour shook his head. That Rudersdorf and I have different temperaments is simply human nature. Rather than being jealous of my old friend’s talents, I should focus on my own strengths.
“Colonel Uger, I want you to get some information from Intelligence for me. I’d like you to ask about Federation Army commanders, especially.”
“Understood. I’ll have them dig up everything they have.”
“Please do. Just because we’re getting close to negotiating a cease-fire doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.”
“I know.”
“Okay,” Zettour finally said, nodding.
“I’m counting on you.”
[chapter] V Turning Point
MAY 11, UNIFIED YEAR 1927, FEDERATION ARMY PARTING MESSAGE
From: Western Army, Political Commissar Representative Hobrov and Commander Representative Lieutenant General Markov
To: Federation Army General Staff
Headquarters has given all remaining troops strict orders to withdraw. Command wishes to act as rear guard for their comrades’ retreat. If even a single soldier can be saved, we’re satisfied.