The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 1130: Chapter 848: Infantry Regiment, Attack!

Such air raid scenes were not only happening here.

In fact, the German Air Force bombed multiple railways in Poland with the intention not only to annihilate the Polish support forces at the front line but also to sever Poland’s railways and cut off any support to the front line.

Apart from a few areas where the German Air Force and the Polish Air Force fought back and forth, most of the German air squadrons completed their missions successfully.

On October 18, 1935, at the Polish front line, the 35th Division, 8th Infantry Regiment of the Army’s 3rd Army Group was engaged in a rather arduous defense task.

So far, the 8th Infantry Regiment of the Third Army Group had bravely resisted the Germans for more than three days.

Of course, the entire Third Army Group was fighting while retreating, and now had been forced to let the Germans advance at least 20 kilometers.

The main reason was that after the brutal war consumption, these elite Polish soldiers suffered heavy casualties, with units having less than half of their soldiers left, or slightly more than half in some cases, desperately needing reinforcement of living forces.

Although the 8th Infantry Regiment, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, heroically launched a counterattack against the German Army.

But the dwindling numbers were a severe disadvantage. If reinforcements from the rear did not arrive, it was only a matter of time before the front line collapsed, and it might even happen soon.

“Damn it! Where are the reinforcements promised by the division? When on earth will the reinforcements arrive?” the commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment, Andre, spat out the mud in his mouth and loudly inquired to the messenger next to him.

“The division says that the reinforcements will arrive soon and tells us to hold on for another five hours,” the messenger immediately shouted back.

“Damn! Another five hours! How many five hours have we already held on? Tell the division that we not only lack reinforcements but we’re also running out of a great deal of weapons and ammunition. If reinforcements and supplies do not arrive within five hours, we will have no means to stop the enemy’s advance,” said Andre somewhat discontentedly.

Since the outbreak of the war, Poland’s war machine had still not fully swung into action.

For the Polish forces at the front line, this war, which erupted suddenly, caught the vast majority unprepared.

Luckily, the troops stationed at the eastern and western borders were Poland’s elite forces. It was precisely these veterans whom Poland relied on to bravely resist the German Army.

However, it was regrettable that after four days of fighting, the veterans had nearly all been expended. Most of the veterans sent to the front line by the Polish government had been intercepted, and relying on the few new recruits who actually made it to the front line clearly was not enough to sustain the defensive needs.

On the other hand, the German Second Group Army’s Sixth Corps, Division Four’s 5th Infantry Regiment was in a completely different situation from the struggling Poles.

The commander of the German 5th Infantry Regiment, Richard Sternman, wore a smile as he issued an order to his soldiers: “Infantry Regiment, attack!”

Following Richard’s command, the soldiers of the 5th Infantry Regiment, like wild horses breaking free from their restraints, recklessly charged toward the Polish positions ahead.

In order to cover these soldiers, the artillery in the rear carried out a full-scale bombardment without any intention of conserving shells.

Under the cover of artillery firepower, a large number of German soldiers quickly approached the Polish positions, and a more brutal battle of offense and defense thus erupted.

Ratatata!

The Poles’ heavy machine gun swiftly counterattacked, attempting to push the Germans back.

“Damn it, Hank, get rid of that damned heavy machine gun,” the commander leading the attack ordered in fury.

Just a moment ago, because of this heavy machine gun’s attack, several German soldiers at the forefront were instantly brought down, with a great number of German soldiers still in danger.

“Understood, buddy,” Hank said with a smile as he nodded, pulling out several hand grenades, pulling the pins, and then aiming at the machine gun position not far ahead.

Because the war came about so abruptly, the Poles did not have enough time to construct fortified defensive positions.

This resulted in their machine guns being generally deployed in simple trenches, without solid concrete facilities to protect the machine gunners.

For such machine gun positions, blasting with specially designed hand grenades was the simplest method. There was no need for a particularly accurate throw; just landing within 5 meters was enough to effectively kill the machine gun operators.

Of course, in these kinds of offensive and defensive battles, it was still necessary to avoid the hand grenades hitting nearby obstacles, possibly being deflected, or even worse, being bounced back, causing accidental injuries to allies.

Therefore, the farther the hand grenades were thrown, the safer it was for one’s own side.

In the German Army’s deployment, there were indeed specialized grenadiers whose role was to throw hand grenades.

Boom!

The explosion of the first hand grenade was a bit far from the machine gun position, but the opposing gunner seemed startled, and the shooting suddenly stopped.

Seizing this opportunity, the grenadier named Hank quickly threw a second hand grenade, and this time it landed exactly in the trench where the machine guns were positioned.

Boom!

Accompanied by the second explosion, crimson soil was blasted into the air and fell not far in front of the German soldiers.

Looking at the Polish position ahead, the machine gun had shifted from its original spot, and with a faint trail of gunsmoke, the scent of blood and earth mixed and carried through the air.

“Well done, Hank,” the commander who had earlier ordered Hank to act praised, before commanding the soldiers to seize the position ahead.

With that heavy machine gun gone, the Polish position’s firepower was greatly weakened. Although it had caused significant casualties to the German army, after losing over 50 men, the 5th Infantry Regiment still successfully captured the position.

“The progress is still too slow, gentlemen,” Richard, the commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment, said dissatisfied to his staff: “We need to pick up the pace. Our task for today is to completely take over the position ahead; we have to be home before Christmas.”

Talks of securing victory and returning home before Christmas had been used by many countries since World War I.

However, there weren’t many countries that managed to fulfill such an expectation successfully, especially for a war that had only broken out in mid-October.

Strictly speaking, there was only a little over two months until Christmas. To resolve the conflict with Poland, which had a 700,000-strong army and was still expanding, was undoubtedly a challenge.

But this order did not come from the German General Staff; it was issued by Germany’s ruler.

For most of the German people and soldiers, this order, no matter how difficult, had to be executed.

This was also the reason why the German army was so fearless in death and even willing to assault positions at the cost of casualties.

“I heard that the Air Force has already successfully cut off the enemy’s reinforcements, which has spared us quite a bit of trouble,” one of the 5th Infantry Regiment’s staff officers, Andrade Maxwell, nodded with a smile, saying:

“If we could take the enemy’s position today, then our pace would probably be the fastest in the whole division.”

The Division Four of the infantry, to which the 5th Infantry Regiment belonged, was a new unit added after Germany expanded its army.

As a result, most of the German soldiers in the 5th Infantry Regiment were new recruits enlisted within the last year.

This was the reason why the 5th Infantry Regiment had been delayed for so long. Even with a certain advantage in firepower, they were facing the elite forces of the Poles.

The good news was that the Polish elite forces were becoming fewer as the conflict persisted, while the German army was evolving into an elite force with each battle.

Especially since the Germans already blocked Polish reinforcements, the balance of the frontline warfare was surely tilting towards Germany.

But the German army had more radical ideas. Compared to gradually depleting the enemy’s living forces and slowly pushing forward the front line, the German army preferred to rapidly conquer enemy positions and push the battlefield all the way to Warsaw before the Polish defenses were fully constructed.

Battlefield engagements like the one between the German 5th Infantry Regiment and the Polish 8th Infantry Regiment happened along the borders of Poland.

Although the German army was well-prepared, they had to face Polish forces that were equal or even larger in numbers.

Moreover, these Polish soldiers were generally veterans. Even if their overall combat effectiveness might not match the German army, if it came to holding a position, they could engage the German forces in a give-and-take conflict.

If it weren’t for having the upper hand in both air power and firepower, the German advance would not have been so smooth.

Of course, as mentioned before, the tide of war was still gradually shifting towards Germany.

Both Germany and Poland were frequently mobilizing troops to the battlefield, but the Polish railway was intermittently harassed by the German Air Force, greatly hindering Polish support.

So far, Poland had sent more than 150,000 soldiers to the front line, with about 100,000 arriving safely.

Aside from the more than 50,000 intercepted, a large quantity of supplies had been directly destroyed or held up on the railway by the Germans.

The severe consequence was that the routes to the battlefield were almost destroyed. The railways were littered with the wreckage of bombed trains, supplies, and corpses.

If they couldn’t clean up and repair the railways in time, the number of Polish soldiers and supplies reaching the front line would only dwindle.

But under the dense aerial monitoring, it was hard for the Poles to effectively repair the railways and restore the logistics supply lines to the front.

Without the highly efficient trains as a mode of transport, the Poles had to rely on small-scale horse carriages and trucks to move supplies.

Though this effectively avoided enemy attacks, the transport efficiency of a truck or horse carriage could never match that of a train.

As a result, the Polish reinforcement effort to the front line was inevitably weakened a bit.