by Carlo Zen
“Exactly, ma’am. It’s not just the commander; all the replacements have this problem… I think we should put them in a company together.”
You can’t get a unit to cooperate well if the members’ levels of training are all over the place. I’ll have to be aware of their very different capabilities and try to find an appropriate use for them.
“That’s probably all we can do.” Tanya sighs her lament. “So the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion temporarily becomes a battalion plus a reserve company…”
“It’s unfortunate, but let’s have Lieutenant Grantz put the newbies through the mill as planned.”
“Can we make something of them? I get that they lack experience, but the last I saw, it seemed like they couldn’t even perform basic maneuvers.”
No matter how good a teacher Grantz is…
The experience problem will still require time.
…One day is twenty-four hours.
And for reasons of physical strength as well as other military duties, it’s impossible to train for twenty-four hours straight.
The worst part is that these mages we’ve been allocated might as well have failed the flying course. They wouldn’t have made it through the skill-training curriculum Tanya knows. These newbies are so lacking in competence that if this was before the war started, she would have sent them back to redo basic.
Which is why she has to repeat her question.
“Major Weiss, I’m not doubting your opinion. Still, don’t you think inferior ability is different from a lack of experience?”
“You make a good point, but this time it’s really not an individual-level issue. I checked with Lieutenant Wüstemann, and…if anyone, it’s the instructors in rear forcing them through absurdly accelerated training who are at fault. I was surprised. These guys have less than a hundred hours in the air. We’re talking two digits.”
Tanya nearly yelps a reflexive What? Two digits of flying time…?
“You’re saying they’re so green they haven’t even logged a hundred hours yet?”
“According to Lieutenant Wüstemann and the other newbies, if you hit a hundred hours, you’re sent straight to the front lines.”
“That’s an awful excuse, but I understand… We have no choice here. Let’s just be grateful we got replacements. I heard that since this huge war broke out, the army has drafted every able-bodied person, but I didn’t know we were wasting them with such shabby training.”
In a total war, the types of new soldiers a commander will get can be broadly divided into three categories.
The first is simply people who have recently reached conscription age. To make it sound nice, it’s a human resource that renews every year. They’re a mix of wheat and chaff.
The second is draft-exempt people who volunteer.
Tanya has a hard time understanding this, but some people, despite being exempt from the draft, volunteer for frontline service. By the way, many of these people are essentially the wheat you want. The only catch is that it’s hard to get your hands on them.
When committing to a doctrine of total war, the state squeezes out every available iota of its human resources. The majority of those still exempt, then, are a tiny number of experts in science and technology or medicine, and so on. When they volunteer, the research institutes in the rear throw them into the mix without complaint.
Still, I heard that even if some researchers and doctors volunteer for frontline duty, the General Staff rejects their request directly. How I envy them. I genuinely want to trade places with them, but since it’s impossible, I’ll leave it at that.
So the final group consists of the people who are caught by the expansion of the draft. It must mean that the army needs the people who used to be exempted for age, health, or fitness reasons.
From those three sources come replacement troops who have gone through accelerated training. We have no choice but to be happy if they are eager and intelligent; this is the reality of the Empire’s human resources situation.
…Isn’t it just horrific?
“Under the circumstances, it’s great to have an armored unit in good condition. Luckily, there’s nothing wrong with their gear or discipline. The commander, Captain Ahrens, and his troops are a good unit. I can’t thank Colonel von Lergen enough for sending them to us.”
“That’s true, but…” Tanya winces. “Major Weiss, the problem is the infantry and artillery, who make up most of the Kampfgruppe’s head count.”
“…It’s unclear whether they’ll hold up in mobile warfare, huh?”
“Given a Kampfgruppe’s duties, mobile defense will be hard to avoid. But…” She stands with a sigh and walks over to the window.
Outside, an infantry unit is building a trench.
“Now isn’t the time to worry about mobile warfare. Apparently, the commanders have had the latest elastic defense theories beaten into their brains… Those guys at the infantry academy are idiots.”
Remembering when she had the two commanders draw up the blueprint, Tanya sighs. They must have learned it at school. They proposed a defensive line plan in keeping with the meticulous defense theory the Empire is so proud of and elastic defense theory.
“Colonel, with all due respect…there’s nothing actually wrong with elastic defense theory.”
“No, that’s true, Major Weiss. As long as you have the right soldiers, the right gear, and the right supply system, I can’t deny that it’s ideal.”
Elastic defense is the tactic the Imperial Army devised during its experience in the trenches on the Rhine front. Though you drive the enemy off from the front line, the assumption is that you’ll move as well.
In terms of pure logic, it’s utterly correct.
For a limited number of soldiers to defend a wide area, moving around is the one option.
After all, if you hole up in one main defensive position, you’ll get surrounded. In order to avoid that, you don’t make the main defensive position where you engage in defensive combat. Instead, you construct spider holes and simple firing positions up ahead of the lines for warning and keeping enemies at bay. You can repulse them as soon as you discover them.
It’s a clear theory, all fine and well.
If it has any issue, though, it’s that since you’re moving around, there’s no way to construct a firm line.
“But it’s uncertain whether this Kampfgruppe can even handle mobile warfare! You’re telling a regiment-equivalent force of one aerial mage battalion, two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, and an armored company…to defend an area that would take a division to cover?”
“Maybe they were half-joking?”
“Joking? When Thon and Tospan proposed constructing an advance line, their faces were dead serious.”
Just remembering it drains her energy. She even asked them if they intended to take a division and defend the whole area.
But they only stared at her, puzzled.
“They just don’t get it.”
“They still think elastic defense is the right way to go about things?”
“They must. So we have to go check the line later. Their work might not be up to snuff.”
Tanya has judged that their options right now are limited. Frankly, all they can do is convert their village into a stronghold.
She’s accepted that they’ll probably be surrounded, so they need to tighten defense in every direction.
Thus, being surrounded is now a given. She’s not interested in the argument that they shouldn’t get surrounded. There must be a limit to how much a small number of troops can cover.
No matter how sharp our watch is, there will have to be a hole somewhere that allows a sneak attack. If we can’t accept the version of the future where we suddenly get surrounded, we’ll be wiped out in the end.
“You know…even I think the idea of going under siege is ridiculous. It’s extremely irritating that we have no other option. But it’s because of that that we need to make sure our defenses are cons
tructed securely.”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“And on that point, I’m concerned that the infantry commanders are being too lax. I would feel better if you would make sure they’re doing a proper job, Major Weiss…”
“Understood, Colonel. May I borrow Lieutenant Serebryakov?”
“That’s fine. Do a thorough inspection.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tanya bobs her head and says she’s counting on him.
“That numbskull Thon still seems to be attached to elastic defense.”
“…What can we expect? I can’t deny that positional defense is vulnerable to envelopment and artillery barrages. It’s probably difficult for Captain Thon to escape the main current of existing ideas.”
Weiss’s expression is a bit tense. He continues that he feels like he can sympathize in some ways. It’s not a bad thing to look for the good points in your troops.
“But,” Tanya snaps, “if you like advocating so much, maybe you should change careers and become a lawyer.” She continues, “Listen, if we were in a situation where we could use elastic defense, he would be right. The problem is that he doesn’t acknowledge that our reality is not the right environment for it. What can we do with subpar artillery and a pile of newbie infantry who can’t handle mobile warfare besides positional defense? Ultimately,” she adds bitterly, “we need to keep the troops where they can hear their commander’s voice.”
It’s like managing part-timers at a shop.
If we had a shift leader we could trust, things might be different. By giving them some authority and having them use their discretion, the boss’s—that is, the commander’s—load would be lightened considerably.
But what if a very busy shop is allocated only inexperienced part-timers who can’t be trusted to make their own calls? Then, just like a commander leading the charge, the shop owner would have to be at the register all day.
“If he doesn’t even understand that much, he’s incompetent, and on top of that, he’s stubborn! I want to have him shot! It’s really too bad that there’s no rule allowing us to send inepts to the firing squad.”
“Excuse me, may I say something? If you want to make such scathing judgments, maybe you should have tried to become an inspector.”
“That’s a great idea, Major Weiss. When we retire from active service, let’s aim for legal circles together. Although I bet I’ll end up meeting you in court.”
It’s actually not a bad idea. Tanya smiles from the bottom of her heart.
For a retired soldier, that’d be a pretty respectable job. At least, it would be safe and stable.
“Ha-ha-ha, that’s terrifying. Well, before you get mad at me, I’d better get moving. I’ll arrange the inspection and everything…”
“Good. Make it rigorous.”
Weiss salutes and leaves the room, and as she sees him off, Tanya thinks over their situation again with a dissatisfied smile. It would be impossible to say they’ve been dealt good cards.
But they’ve already started the game. She’s not allowed to quit just because she got a bad hand. She can only try as hard as she can.
So let’s think about what’s possible with the cards she has.
“Sheesh, this just isn’t worth it. Should I apply to the General Staff for overtime pay? Mm, I guess I have to check the rules first to see if that allowance even applies to officers and commanders of combat units.”
OCTOBER 19, UNIFIED YEAR 1926, THE NORTHEASTERN PART OF THE EASTERN FRONT, THE SALAMANDER KAMPFGRUPPE GARRISON
Training, constructing the position, and more training.
What brings color to the Salamander Kampfgruppe’s days of being stationed far from the main eastern front, in the northeast, are endless training and exercises. Undertaken with the aim of increasing cohesiveness and making sure everyone acquires basic skills, they ring out in the form of shouted officer and noncom orders.
At least no one participating in the exercises is slacking off. That they’re all taking their training very seriously is…a silver lining. But even watching them do that, Tanya is terribly impatient.
The new recruits have plenty of drive but not those all-important skills to match. Not being able to rely on her subordinates for even the most natural things is eating away at her nerves.
The snail-paced improvements are already making Major Weiss and Tanya’s plan to have the newbies retrained before winter really sets in seem hopeless.
Late at night in the building requisitioned as Kampfgruppe HQ, Tanya looks over the weather team’s data and sighs, desperate for more time.
“…It’ll be full-on winter in just a few weeks? All the prep we still need to do is going to severely limit the amount of time and resources we can put into training.”
And on top of that, they’re short on equipment for exercises. At home, they could have used an exercise range or other facilities. But where they are now is the front line, albeit removed from the main conflict area. It’s great for getting the soldiers used to the atmosphere of a battlefield, but in terms of facilities, the disadvantage is inescapable.
Of course, they say one real battle is better than a hundred training sessions, but…I can say this from experience: The amount of blood shed on the battlefield is inversely proportional to the amount of sweat shed in training.
“Educate these guys with no foundation and have them ready for mobile battles by January? I think I could be more optimistic about teaching penguins to form ranks and march.”
You can decrease losses even by just making sure the troops know how to dig trenches and use spider holes. It’s also important to teach them how to distinguish friend from foe in a melee fight and when not to throw a hand grenade.
Panicked newbies often turn not only themselves but the soldiers next to them into casualties. It might benefit us more to put penguins on the patrol line than recruits who scatter in fear.
“…When I heard some countries give penguins honorary ranks, I thought that was in awfully bad taste, but perhaps it was an abstract protest that penguins or bears would be more useful than panicking rookies.”
I had thought they were merely mascots, but it’s important to gain a correct understanding of things. Well, that’s a discovery, thinks Tanya as she drains her hot coffee and slowly stands up.
When she glances at her watch, she sees it’s awfully close to the time she had planned. Soon she’ll receive Major Weiss’s scheduled report from his watch on the patrol line.
If there aren’t any issues, I can probably turn in for the night. It might not be a bad idea to get a cup of water to wash my face before I go to bed.
Despite it being the front lines, as long as there are mages around, there is never any shortage of hot water, which I’m grateful for. Obviously, I can’t unconditionally soak in a bath all day, but if I want hot water to wipe down with, all I have to do is heat it up with a formula.
“My eyes are so tired. It can’t hurt to put a towel over them and rest for a while.”
Even in the middle of a trench battle, mages benefit from a little bit of flexibility. Which makes me really feel how inestimably far a civilized lifestyle goes toward maintaining one’s humanity.
Regular, civilized habits.
When you’re experiencing the irregular series of abnormal phenomena that is war, keeping your own lifestyle disciplined is indispensable for achieving a daily rhythm.
Humanity is a stronghold of the mind secured by the routine of daily life.
“Oops, this is no good. I’m going to be late for Weiss’s check-in.”
I gotta hurry, she thinks, and just as she’s striding toward the door…
There’s a sudden knock on it. No, more like some kind of harried pounding.
Ohhh, good-bye.
Good-bye, my tranquil, wholesome, orderly evening.
Hello, shitty irregularity. Tanya braces herself.
“Come in!”
“Excuse me, Colonel. We’ve received an urgent report!”
It was her adjutant, First Lieutenant Serebryakov, who popped in looking tense. Something awful must have happened, exactly as Tanya had expected.
This is a fine hassle.
I don’t know who the hell it is, but they’ve got an awful lot of nerve if they’re disrupting my wholesome, civilized habits. I’m going to reeducate them with the order of justice and civilization.
“It’s from Major Weiss on the patrol line.”
Tanya urges her to read it, and in response to her glance, Visha nods and continues her report.
“It’s the enemy! We’ve spotted the enemy.”
“Where?”
“They appear to be coming from the enemy’s sphere of influence. It looks like two brigades of Federation infantry. They’re rapidly approaching Forward Patrol Line One.”
It makes her want to click her tongue—Tch.
She was expecting this sort of attack.
As in, We can’t avoid being outnumbered.
She knew early on that should the enemy attack, the power disparity between them would grow. Unlike the Imperial Army, which has to spread its forces along the sizable defensive lines, the Federation Army is free to concentrate its forces on a single point. It was less of a guess and more like a sure thing.
Still, though, two brigades? If they’re coming out for a scuffle, that’s practically the definition of excessive.
If they had been hanging around during the day, repelling them with an aerial attack would have been possible, but…at night, the accuracy of anti-surface attacks is awful. A melee on the ground, and in the dark at that, pretty much cancels out the aerial mage battalion’s strengths.
“These damned Communists. They want to start a fight over this backcountry? They’re too strong. Have the forward patrol guards retreat. At this rate, they’ll be swallowed up by the wave of enemy infantry.”
“Major Weiss has already ordered the retreat on his own discretion.”
Great. Tanya nods at Serebryakov’s report. Weiss took the risk of making his own call and made the right one.
Later, we may be reprimanded for this decision, but when there’s no time to lose, what you need is decisiveness. A subordinate who can resolutely make the appropriate call on their own is invaluable.