The Finest Hour

by Carlo Zen

  As the one in charge of the operation, he also noted that having a simple-to-deploy mobile fighting force would yield the advantage of extended range of use.

  "...I need them to take out other aerial mages. Plus, if you unleash her without thinking, there's no telling how far she'll advance!"

  But anyone would want to keep such a precious asset handy. Zettour wasn't about to let it go so easily.

  "She'll lead the charge. I need her to mess them up down there."

  Let me have them. No. C'mon, let me have them. The exchange between the two generals nearly went on forever, but Rudersdorf's stubbornness finally paid off.

  "Fine. I'll arrange it. Now then, I'm off to the next meeting to give formal notification of this. What about you?"

  As Zettour complained about more pain-in-the-ass arrangements to make, Rudersdorf let it go in one ear and out the other and barreled right into the next topic.

  "Sorry, I'm leaving this up to you. I'd like to inspect our troops, assuming we're heading into a fight with the Commonwealth."

  "Got it. Let me know what you find out."

  "No problem."

  "Great. Then let's both make it happen."

  AUGUST 29, UNIFIED YEAR 1925, IMPERIAL ARMY GENERAL STAFF OFFICE, JOINT MEETING BETWEEN THE SERVICE CORPS AND OPERATIONS

  "It's the appointed hour." A young officer announced in a nervous voice that it was time to start.

  "Very well. I would like to begin the meeting to consider our plan to end the fighting on the Republican mainland and in the Entente Alliance, as well as the conflict with the Commonwealth that will entail."

  It was a meeting to decide the imperial military's basic direction.

  Naturally, all the most important figures in the General Staff from the chief on down were there.

  The agenda was simple.

  They would iron out the conflicting opinions about what the major course of action in the war should be.

  "First, regarding the end of the fighting on the northern front, please see the documents you've been given."

  It's finally over. Though that wasn't entirely accurate, it seemed the best way to describe the dispute in the north where the lines had been suppressed and a military government was in place.

  Finally, the long-awaited good news from the troubles and confusion of the northern area had come, although they couldn't deny it was a bit late. Their opponents had hung on for so long, even after their military and national strength had been overpowered.

  Of course, the fact that they had help from other powers couldn't be ignored. Even so, this had cost the Empire an awful lot of time and effort.

  For that reason, the faces of the generals in attendance looked far from happy.

  But they judged those thoughts to be sentimental and did not indulge them. Their job was to receive and approve the reports after the fact, but they were most interested in the current issues with the Commonwealth and the remnants of the Republic.

  They were already taking the practical stance that the Entente Alliance was only a matter of military governance. All that was left to do was pull together the might the Service Corps and Operations required and choose someone to rule.

  "So the military governor will be chosen after consulting with Supreme High Command and the Personnel Division in the General Staff."

  This matter was concluded quickly with no complicated debate, just a couple questions regarding the finer details.

  The meat of the conference was the next item.

  "Moving on, I'd like to discuss the operation on the southern continent proposed by Service Corps Deputy Chief von Zettour."

  After being called on by the leader of the meeting, Lieutenant General von Zettour stood. He had recently been promoted due to the success of his plan to lure in and annihilate the Republican Army.

  His next plan was another that split opinion in the General Staff---a plan to check the Commonwealth mainland using the Great Army. They would mass the Great Army in the Republic as a show of force, while continuing their struggle for supremacy.

  He proposed a simultaneous operation on the southern continent using second-string units and whatever elites they could muster as a sort of offensive.

  At a glance, it seemed like he was placing importance on capturing the southern continent.

  But actually, as it was mainly an almost-passive reorganization of the lines, and internally in the army, they took it as a defensive plan. Naturally, making the southern continent the main battlefield and waging war outside the Empire was better for the country's defense.

  The analysis that defending the colonies, removed from the mainland as they were, would strain the Commonwealth's supply lines also made sense. Still, on the whole, the imperial staff took the proposal as a way to buy the time to reorganize their main forces.

  Zettour proposed it for the purpose of conducting effective harassment.

  Some began to murmur that it was too passive. Wouldn't it be simpler to just send the main forces over to the Commonwealth mainland? There were even whispers that it could be the deciding battle.

  Naturally, the enemy had to protect both their mainland and their colonies.

  As a result, the colonies would probably be short on muscle.

  It went without saying, then, that the colonies would be easier to defeat.

  And if they succeeded in defeating the colonies, that would shave off a chunk of the Commonwealth's ability to continue fighting, and the foundations of the "Free Republic" or whatever they called themselves would crumble.

  And that was why everyone was after a decisive battle on the Commonwealth mainland.

  Still, those same men did recognize the effectiveness of an operation on the southern continent.

  For one thing, it wouldn't be so hard to get the necessary troops together.

  For another, they liked that the threat of defeat in the homeland would divide up enemy troops.

  Still, the majority wanted to avoid a roundabout operation and called for a direct strike on the Commonwealth mainland.

  "If we do that, the war will end," they said.

  But Zettour felt the exact opposite. "We'll force the enemy to exhaust themselves on the southern continent. During that time, the most pressing matters are putting down the partisans in the territory we're occupying and reorganizing the troops." He wasn't optimistic about their ability to take over the Commonwealth mainland. Ignoring the risks, even if they managed to conduct a landing operation at the end of an all-or-nothing naval battle, he could imagine that the imperial troops would be exhausted. His greatest fear was that if that happened, some other power would interfere.

  "I object! The Great Army is capable of rapid response. We should attack the Commonwealth before they fortify their defenses!"

  "Kindly recall the disparity of power between our navies. We don't have command of the sea."

  At the same time, there was the practical issue of the Commonwealth's superior navy. The Imperial Navy simply didn't match it in terms of quality or quantity. Efforts in recent years had seen their naval power rapidly expand, but they had to admit they were still behind.

  "All the more reason to command the sky with our air and mage forces."

  Of course, any general at the meeting was aware of that. Though individually its ships outperformed those of the Commonwealth, the Empire couldn't win with hardware alone.

  The elements of training and skill were important, and neither could they discount the absoluteness of numbers.

  What could compensate for those things were the Empire's air and mage forces.

  As a matter of course, they imagined the air and mage forces would be used to wear down the enemy. Achieve air supremacy and weaken the enemy with anti-ship strikes. That could be said to be a rather ordinary idea, and the imperial military was prepared for it. Having gained experience on the Rhine front, those in the rear could attempt to provide more support.

  But the channel was still a big strategic obstacle for the Imperial
Army.

  The attack required crossing water, which was a real headache for the planners.

  "Honestly, I don't like the idea of a battle of attrition on enemy turf."

  They were picking the wrong opponent if they wanted to fight a prolonged battle to wear the enemy down.

  A battle of attrition at a powerful nation's home base was a tricky proposition. One wrong move and the Empire would be the first to exhaust itself. The fighting on the Rhine front had been along the border, so the parties had been on equal terms.

  But in an air battle over the enemy mainland, the enemy's fighting spirit would be running high. And if an enemy were shot down, they could rejoin the lines immediately; fighting on their own turf, they didn't have to worry about being taken prisoner when they hit the ground.

  But if one of the Imperial Army's soldiers was shot down, they would be lucky to be taken prisoner. At that rate, even if they were downing each other at the same pace, the actual losses per side would be completely different.

  And naturally, since the imperial military couldn't endure the same rate of loss as its enemy, it would constantly have to limit attrition on its own side while making things harder for the Commonwealth side. It wasn't impossible, but doing it in real life would be a challenge, indisputably.

  "Time is what we should be worried about. Once the enemy strengthens their defenses, it will be too late."

  At the same time, an invasion of the enemy mainland once its defenses were fortified would be reckless.

  Several staffers said a short war was the only way to resolve things and insisted on an offensive. "If we don't attack now," they said, "we'll be stuck facing heavily defended enemy positions and fortifications on the scale of the Rhine front."

  "We can strengthen our defenses during that time as well. It seems to me our positions will be equal."

  Zettour's idea was simple. He believed the army was meant to protect the Empire, not the occupied territory. Therefore, the biggest priority wasn't to expand the occupied territory but to conserve troops. Of course, it went without saying that he wanted to do that while bleeding the enemy.

  "Please understand the organizational limitations inherent in the fact that our army was arranged according to interior lines strategy with national defense in mind. We've sacrificed quite a lot of our expeditionary abilities in order to have qualitatively better, stronger soldiers."

  Yes, there was also the issue that doing so was really the only way to maintain such a large area.

  "But ultimately, we can't end the war without muscling into their territory and forcing them to surrender. Your concerns are valid, General von Zettour, but please understand that staying on the battlefield forever because of them will eat away at our national strength."

  In short, it didn't matter one bit how the war was ended. In that sense, Zettour wasn't convinced it was absolutely necessary to conquer the Commonwealth mainland.

  On the contrary, he started to think it was a horrible idea that would bog them down. And the folly of going in with naval power was self-evident. He believed that their chance of victory lay not in fighting on the enemy's turf but in drawing them to the battlefield of the Empire's choosing.

  But he was vexed because circumstances wouldn't allow him to declare that openly. The others were proud of defeating the Republic and certain they could slay the Commonwealth in the same smooth motion.

  The operation planners under Lieutenant General von Rudersdorf were more understanding, but the people and the bureaucrats had a tendency to say, "Oh, the Imperial Army can handle it," and expect too much.

  So Zettour reluctantly proposed a limited offensive. He narrowed it down to an operation that gave the best return with the most limited bloodshed.

  Concealing his true feelings, he advocated for an attritional containment plan. He had no other choice.

  The front on the southern continent was a desert.

  Unlike on the mainland, a hard rule applied there.

  Survival of the fittest.

  At the time, there were three powers with influence on the southern continent: the Commonwealth, the Republic, and the Ispagna Collective. Of them, the Ispagna Collective had managed to remain neutral---mainly because it didn't have the wherewithal to intervene externally due to fierce internal political conflict.

  Complicating matters was the Kingdom of Ildoa trying to squeeze itself in and "settle." The result was an ambiguously colored map with both the group formed by the Turkman principalities and the Ildoan settlements.

  The jumble of sovereignties in the region could be described in a word as chaos. Of course, one could paint the map in broad strokes. Most of the influence and puppet governments belonged to the Commonwealth and the Republic.

  Even if the nations of the southern continent were officially neutral, their allegiance was clear because of how they sent voluntary armies and offered supplies.

  But it wasn't as if everyone took the Reich as their enemy. For instance, countries whose interests clashed with those of the Commonwealth and the Republic in the struggle to acquire colonies on the southern continent sided with the Empire.

  A representative example would be the Kingdom of Ildoa. It wasn't very difficult for the Empire to ask the kingdom to form an alliance, given their common interests. Irritatingly to Republican diplomats, neighboring rival countries hoping to expand their sphere of influence were glad to see the decline of the Republic.

  And that was why the Kingdom of Ildoa chose to ally with the Empire.

  Of course, the alliance didn't automatically mean it was at war with the Republic and Commonwealth.

  The agreement between the two countries basically provided that fighting was optional; there was no indication that joining the war was mandatory.

  At the time the Imperial Southern Continent Expeditionary Army Corps was deployed, the Kingdom of Ildoa remained officially neutral.

  It did, however, allow the "stationing" of troops there out of consideration as an allied country. The Empire, however, did not move on the offer very quickly.

  Because the Empire had made light of the southern continent, it only sent a single army corps made up of two divisions and a support unit.

  And the General Staff ended up having a heated debate about whether to commit more troops or not. The initial number of units was so few that the garrison of the Republican troops usually deployed there could have resisted them.

  Everyone thought at the time that the imperial units would work on gathering more fighting power. After all, a single puny army corps didn't pose much of a military threat. Still, they agreed there was major political significance in the Imperial Army's presence.

  The watcher analysis that Army Corps Commander von Romel was dispatched for political reasons---namely, expansion of influence and respect for the Empire's ally---was widely shared as the plausible explanation.

  Which was why everyone expected the lull to continue for the foreseeable future.

  Even the division of the General Staff involved in giving orders to the Imperial Army was half serious about that idea. In any case, they had deployed some troops, but they weren't sure if the front should really be a priority or not.

  After all, there were no apparent gains to be made by sending troops there.

  If the objective hadn't been to wear the enemy out further in this total war, sending imperial soldiers probably wouldn't have even been on the table.

  In that sense, predicting a lull was a respectable analysis.

  The betrayal of everyone's expectations occurred because of a surprising move in the field. The root cause was Commander von Romel. Neither their enemies nor their allies thought the Southern Continent Expeditionary Corps was going to move, but the moment they arrived, they jumped into action.

  The world was reminded that a capable general doesn't waste time. The Commonwealth units who had just arrived to defend the Republican colonies probably got the worst of it.

  Those fresh troops hadn't been fully bapti
zed on the battlefield, so they could think of no reason the two imperial divisions would be stationed on the southern continent besides a political one.

  Having thus discounted them, the Commonwealth didn't even really go on guard. And that's how the imperial units under Commander von Romel nailed every last one of them.

  The Imperial Army, waging maneuver warfare unparalleled in history against an enemy that outnumbered them by several times, simply bulldozed the Commonwealth troops in terms of caliber, partially because half of them were elites forged on the Rhine front.

  Hence the Commonwealth units, who hadn't dreamed they'd be fighting a mobile battle in the desert, were dealt an early brutal blow and sent scrambling in a disorderly retreat.

  It was obvious what strategy General de Lugo would adopt in response.

  He put some political moves on the Kingdom of Ildoa while simultaneously doing what he could to ensure support wouldn't reach the Ildoans.

  But Romel was quicker than de Lugo was shrewd. Future generations would rave about his clever tactics. As soon as he realized time wouldn't necessarily work in his favor, despite having barely any units, he made a feint, hit the Turus Naval Base with a sneak attack, and captured it.

  While securing a base that didn't depend on the Kingdom of Ildoa, he dealt a serious blow to Republican and Commonwealth logistics.

  The Turus Naval Base had been the Republican and Commonwealth supply base, so its fall had far-reaching effects.

  In the end, contrary to initial predictions, the Imperial Army Southern Continent Expeditionary Corps asserted its presence. Most importantly, imperial citizens went wild when they saw the string of successes.

  The people had been convinced the Empire had defeated the Republic on the Rhine lines after investing a vast amount of money and lives.

  To then continue the war risked the people starting to hate it.

  The General Staff weren't the only ones worried about that, but contrary to their estimates, the troops dominated on the southern continent. The winning streak continuing after Dacia and the Rhine sent the people into a frenzy.