Chapter 332 05.0331: "Montachia Mountain Position"

The second day of landing.

At dawn in the morning, the officers and staff advisers of the brigade headquarters had already washed and got up with the help of servants.

Horatio, dressed respectably, stepped on the pedal of the RV and walked out of the RV in high spirits. Louise, with her head down, smoothed out the wrinkles on her collar, followed closely behind him with a hint of imperceptible gentleness.

"Look, it's that Imperial Navy officer. I heard that the offensive at the front line was unimpeded, and he played an indispensable role."

"He became a naval captain at such a young age. He is really promising and handsome."

Several ladies who had also gotten up early and were preparing to follow the brigade headquarters to visit the battle on the front line, covered their red lips with their slender hands wearing white lace, and laughed at each other:

"Did you hear that? The whole RV was shaking from the noise last night."

"Oh my god, the whole RV is shaking? It turns out that brave men are brave in every aspect."

"That female naval officer looks so serious, but I never thought she has this side. Eh? Tell me, how did she manage to hum so melodiously and rhythmically? Hehe."

Faced with the ladies' increasingly unbridled whispers, Louise's tense expression seemed a little deliberate. She jogged shyly to catch up with Horatio, leaving the discussions behind her, and held her head high and chest high again, exuding her usual reliable and capable temperament.

"Greetings, Mr. Cochrane. I'm sorry that our conditions are limited and we can't provide you with a comfortable living space like you did on the warship, but it seems that you had a good rest last night."

"It's very good, sir. Thank you for your hospitality." Horatio smiled.

The RV had decent sound insulation, and after intense exercise with Louise, they had a very enjoyable bath-time session. After drying their bodies, they both fell asleep on their pillows, so their sleep quality was naturally good.

"Breakfast is ready, please." The man raised his hand gentlemanly, motioning him and Louise to enter the tent.

Horatio glanced at the wooden dining table covered with a white tablecloth. The food on it was clearly visible: a very English breakfast.

Drinks are hot milk tea and coffee.

The staple food is grilled bacon, soft-boiled eggs, hash browns, sausages, vegetables like grilled tomatoes, and blood pudding sausage, a symbol of British 'gourmet'.

[Oh, eating these so early in the morning, just looking at them makes me feel full for the whole day. God, this side dish is too greasy.]
Horatio, who was used to ordering his own meals on the warship, including a combination of meat and vegetables, raised an eyebrow and complained silently in his mind.

Of course, it is good to have these in a field environment. If you are picky, you will be ungrateful for what you have.

He gentlemanly pulled out a chair for Louise and sat down with her.

Not long after, Collingwood came in from the other side.

"Good morning, Archie," he greeted his roommate at Tadashi College.

"Did you hear the noise last night, Horatio? It was really a cannon battle!" Archie had dark circles under his eyes, obviously he didn't sleep well, but his bloodshot eyes still looked very excited.

"Uh... I didn't hear that." Horatio blinked, looking like he had no idea what Archie was talking about, and scratched his palm with his middle finger imperceptibly.

He glanced awkwardly at Louise, who blushed slightly and looked nervous after hearing the word "cannon battle". She was chewing grilled bacon in silence with her head down.

"Last night, the Astra Militarum and the Rebels had a major artillery battle, and it seems that there was an ammunition explosion in the enemy camp. God Emperor, it almost shook me off the bed."

"A heavy shell from our 88th Infantry Regiment's artillery, using an anti-artillery augur, hit the enemy's field artillery position.

In order to reload faster, those idiots opened the ammunition boxes one by one and piled them on the ground, even forming a small mountain. Then, BOOM! "

Sir Wellesley sat on a special chair with his legs crossed, holding the teacup in one hand and the tray in the other, smiling proudly.

"It sounds like this enemy artillery unit has been destroyed."

"Scouts report that there is not even a gun mount left on the opposite side."

"Congratulations." Horatio raised a cup of coffee and shared the joy sincerely.

Confirming that they were not talking about another artillery battle, Horatio and Louise both breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the world is quite open about sex matters, and reproductive behavior is even highly praised under the promotion of the state religion, it is still somewhat embarrassing if acquaintances see you doing it and make fun of it.

The knight took out his pocket watch and took a look. "There are still two hours and thirty minutes before the front line will launch the first round of attack on the enemy's defense line. I think you gentlemen and ladies will not want to miss this good opportunity to watch the battle."

"Of course. It sounds like you've already chosen a location for your command post."

"There is a fruit forest in front of us. The top of the mountain was flattened by our artillery in the previous artillery battle. From there we can see the front line directly."
-
80 kilometers from the initial landing site, the new front line, the 'Montachia Mountain' position.

After a night of artillery fire, the rebel frontline was now in a state of devastation.

Severed limbs, broken arms, and pieces of flesh can be seen everywhere on the charred land.

The pungent smell of burning, freezing, and high explosives filled the nostrils of the surviving rebels.

The people who were blown to pieces were still wriggling, like half-crushed beetles. Next to them were corpses that had long since lost their breath, some standing still.

On the top of the mountain, Horatio, holding a monocular telescope, carefully looked at the front line of the enemy position.

During the more than 20 hours of buffer time before the Astra Militarum's formal attack, the rebels once again urgently strengthened their positions based on the existing permanent defense fortifications.

The temporarily added frontier positions were very simple, with no quick-concrete bunkers, only spider-web-like trenches and fixed mobile ceramic steel breastworks.

There was a row of anti-tank dragon teeth built with quick-setting concrete on the road, but after last night's shelling and the Royal Engineers' risky blasting, they were already incomplete and a barely passable road was forcibly opened up.

Any enemy soldiers who tried to lay mines in the gap were sniped one by one by the riflemen hiding in the dark. There were already a dozen bodies of rebels carrying anti-tank mines lying in disorder near Dragon's Teeth.

But this line of defense had defensive depth, and Horatio could see that it was a composite defensive position.

Starting from the front line, the 30-kilometer-long plains and hills behind were part of the defensive position. The rebels did not pile up all the heavy equipment on the front line, but distributed it evenly in this 30-kilometer-deep position in accordance with the tactical canon of the Astra Militarum.

On the slope 10 kilometers behind the first line of defense, a group of quick-setting earth bunkers began to appear. These were the planet’s ancient permanent defense positions, specifically used to block Highway 54, a key transportation hub.

Although the surface of the bunker had become uneven after the curved bombardment of the Astra Militarum artillery, the camouflage nets and the laid trees had disappeared, and it looked in a mess after being burned by smoke and fire.

However, the shell equivalent and accuracy of the earth-shaking cannon are indeed difficult to remove these stubborn blackheads on the snowfield.

The high-explosive shells of the 203mm earth-shaking cannon can indeed blast apart the quick-concrete, but for the quick-concrete protective layer whose thickness is measured in meters, it only scrapes off a layer of the surface, which really seems to lack penetration.

The Astra Militarum only has three types of ammunition: high-explosive grenades, armor-piercing shells, and air-burst fuze grenades, none of which are very suitable for destroying heavy permanent defense positions.

But the Imperial Navy Air Force's high-yield bombs might be able to destroy it.

And behind the bunker group, according to the feedback from the aerial fire reconnaissance last night, the enemy should have dragged a towed Hydra or a Chimera Hydra self-propelled anti-aircraft gun to form an air defense position, but the exact location is still unclear.

According to the Imperial Naval Code, the Imperial Naval Aviation is a key asset of the Imperial Navy and can only support the Astra Militarum in close-range ground attacks when relative safety is ensured.

In other words, it is impossible for the Imperial Navy to provide close air-to-ground support for the advancement of the Astra Militarum and risk having its aircraft shot down.

As the fleet liaison officer and aviation commander, Horatio knew that he had to have a scale in his heart to weigh the pros and cons and not act rashly.

Although the navy and the army are both the emperor's currency, the values ​​are different.

Whether it is worthwhile to pay the price of a naval void fighter and the life of an elite pilot for the Star Army, which has been separated for nearly ten thousand years, remains to be discussed.

At the same time, this place is both an agricultural production area and a key transportation line, so spear strikes are naturally not allowed.

"The enemy's defense is tight. Among the multiple reconnaissance squads sent out last night, only two rifle squads and a Ranger dismounted cavalry squad successfully infiltrated 5 kilometers into the defense line. The other squads could only retreat to the nearby periphery after their infiltration failed to detect the possible movement of the enemy's reinforcements.

We don't know the military deployment behind their entire defense depth, so we can only fight and investigate at the same time." The commander of the reconnaissance battalion from the Rangers reported.

"The frontline position is very fragile. It won't take us long to break through it, but it will be difficult to break through the hill bunkers that block Highway 54.

We can try to suppress it with fire, and then cover the Grenadiers and Royal Engineers to approach and demolish it."

"Should the Makarius tank of the 1st Armored Heavy Cavalry Squadron join the first attack echelon or the reserve attack echelon? This is our assault trump card, and we must carefully decide the order in which to join the battle."

"Wouldn't it be too risky to use the Makarius tank right away? The front of the bunkers must be full of anti-tank mines.

This is our powerful weapon against enemy armor. If it is destroyed by a mine, it will be more harm than good.

I think the Leman Russ is enough, since the frontal armor of the Leman Russ tank is reliable enough anyway."

"We must have infantry escort when we advance. Once our tanks enter the main road of the bunker complex, we will be caught in a pincer attack.

The rebels can use laser cannons through the side bunkers to penetrate the side armor of the tanks. We cannot afford the risk of losing too much armor here."

There was still some time before the scheduled attack, so the officers were confident that they could successfully break through the front line with low casualties.

Breaking through the fortress group would certainly be a piece of cake for the Astra Militarum troops with such sophisticated equipment, but the officers were now discussing how to minimize casualties in the process.

Especially the loss of armored vehicles.

If people died, soldiers could be drawn from the reserve camp in the rear to reinforce the combat camp.

But if one armored vehicle is lost, it means one less vehicle.

Especially this kind of nearby route is close to the Warp Storm, and the void is filled with Chaos and Greenskin Pirate Fleets roaming in the harsh void environment.

Deploying 12 regiments at once, more than Star Army troops is already a lot.

It is not certain whether the Ministry of the Interior will approve the request for reinforcements in the short term. Even if it is approved, the Imperial Navy will still have to spend time organizing a new escort fleet.

By the time multiple services and departments coordinate and schedule support, it may take as long as 40 to 50 years, or even longer, for the next batch of reinforcements to arrive.

If you think about it this way, these 70 people are not too many, because the Ministry of the Interior has transported all the subsequent reinforcements at once.

This is not the highest priority. The Empire will spare no expense, even if it means draining the manpower and material resources of several nearby star regions, to ensure a steady supply of troop transports and supply ships in orbit. It is a rare apocalypse-level battle, but a 'higher priority' battle.

It is special, but it is not that important when viewed from the overall situation of the entire empire in the 41st millennium.

This was also a relatively common war maintained by the Imperium throughout the galaxy - no Astartes, no Titans, only the steel, gunpowder, flesh and courage of mortals, a campaign entirely carried out by the Imperial Navy and the Astra Militarum.

In this kind of battle, the cards in the hands of the Astra Militarum commanders are often revealed at a glance, and what you see is all.

Many commanders think about their plans from the perspective of how to use the military forces at hand to fight the entire war.

As for the follow-up reinforcement, the attitude is "it would be better if there is, but it doesn't matter if there is not".

Therefore, the Astra Militarum officers in this battle must control casualties, make prudent decisions, and make good use of every coin of the Emperor's currency.

"Sir." Just as the officers were discussing how to deal with the bunkers, Horatio suddenly spoke up:
"If the scouts can find out the location of the enemy's air defense positions and launch a special operation with our Hell's Vanguard to destroy more than 7% of the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery, the Navy's aviation team can help you eliminate most of the high-threat fixed fortifications on your way forward.

In addition, before the attack, the Imperial Navy will also give you a great gift."

(Hydra self-propelled anti-aircraft gun)
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(End of this chapter)