Chapter 1636: Chapter 1553: The Baffling Retreat
The Tang Army’s Type 96 main battle tank uses an autoloader, boasting a high firing rate and fast reloading, advantages that need no further elaboration. However, it only carries 41 rounds, which isn’t considered a large amount.
This ammunition count is not small for modern main battle tanks, but it seems somewhat insufficient when compared to the World War II era, where the mainstream ammunition count for 75mm and 88mm cannons was around 70 rounds…
Why do modern main battle tanks only carry four or fifty rounds of main gun ammunition? Because, on modern battlefields, rarely will tank units engage in high-intensity continuous charges. Everyone uses anti-tank weapons, including armed helicopters and anti-tank missiles, to stop tank advances.
Under the delay of anti-tank mines, the disruption of anti-tank missiles, and the effective strikes from enemy artillery and armed helicopters, modern tanks rarely manage to hold out until they exhaust their ammunition before needing to retreat. Often, they are destroyed after only firing a few rounds.
But at this moment, there were very few weapons capable of destroying the Tang Army’s Type 96 main battle tanks, and the Tang Army’s tactical skills were superior to their opponents, so as they fought, they found themselves out of ammunition…
They nearly pierced through the entire 1st Armored Division of the Dwarf Troops, destroying over a hundred tanks and armored vehicles, and demolishing over a hundred cars, as well as a dozen or so artillery pieces…
Just as they were preparing to continue their attack, they discovered only a few shells were left in their tanks.
Liu Guozhu, frustrated, hammered a piece of equipment in front of him with his fist. At this moment, he couldn’t help but nostalgically think of his old Panther tank buddies that could stack over 70 rounds of shells.
Even though he knew the Panther tank couldn’t fire while moving, nor could it help him see distant targets at night, and certainly couldn’t travel safely over such long distances… but the 70 rounds of ammunition capacity was truly appealing.
When Haralick personally went to the front lines to supervise the battle, the Tang Army unexpectedly stopped their attack. This result made him look good, as from the outcome, his supervision seemed extraordinarily effective.
He did not know why the Tang Army’s tanks had halted their assault; his 1st Armored Division had clearly collapsed, with the entire unit almost entirely penetrated, but he knew that the Tang Army might be at the end of their strength.
To have achieved an advantage yet unable to expand upon it, wasn’t this the sign of an exhausted force? After making this judgment, he immediately ordered his troops to launch a large-scale counterattack.
However, before his orders could be relayed, the Tang Army’s massive airstrike began. The Great Tang Empire Navy’s carrier-based aircraft, after refueling and replenishing, took off again, this time supporting the Tang Empire’s 1st Airborne Division battling east of Ben.
Countless bombs rained down, and this time, the Dwarf troops finally realized that everything they had experienced before was merely an appetizer.
Now, the true main course was served, and they found themselves unable to swallow it! The heavy weapons and crowded troops were instantly paralyzed, and an entire reorganized division lost their combat capability before receiving their orders.
Within ten minutes, the battlefield was littered with exploding ammunition, burning trucks, and paralyzed tanks and armored vehicles. The subsequent troops of the Dwarf 1st Corps, reminiscent of the Iraqi forces during the Gulf War, were engulfed in a sea of fire.
The base level troops couldn’t find their superior commanders, as the higher-ups had turned to ashes inside their armored vehicles. The Dwarf Troops, bereft of supplies, command, and intelligence, collapsed completely, flailing aimlessly like headless chickens on the battlefield, unable to form any combat effectiveness.
It was already past three in the morning, very close to General Moss’s deadline. General Haralick issued an order to continue the attack, no longer daring to imagine what fate awaited him should he return without any success.
These were the Dwarfs’ most elite troops under his command. If, after attacking for an entire night, they suffered more than half their casualties without breaking through the Tang Army’s defenses, how could this war continue?
Therefore, he had to provide an account to the Emperor, to the Empire, and to himself: no matter the sacrifice, he must accomplish the mission of retaking Ben!
Unbeknownst to him, at the same time he was ordering a desperate attack, General Moss, far away in Eternal Winter City, had issued an order for the 1st Corps to retreat.
Moss believed that since they couldn’t break through the Tang Army’s defenses by three in the morning, remaining in place was very dangerous for the 1st Corps. Haralick’s troops had to return to their station and move into fortifications to protect themselves from the Tang Army’s airstrikes.
Unfortunately, at this time, Eternal Winter City suffered a fierce airstrike from the Great Tang Empire Navy carrier fleet, with Lu Qianshan’s intruder attack group destroying the power plant, telegraph building, and various facilities in Eternal Winter City.
When Moss realized his orders hadn’t been sent out in time, he was so furious he nearly vomited blood. He immediately commanded a reissue of the order, but this second order never reached General Haralick.
That’s the peculiar nature of luck on the battlefield—on that day, communication issues troubled the Tang Army, and as a result, the Dwarfs soon fell into a crisis due to similar issues.
Around 3:50 in the early morning, this crucial order was finally delivered to Haralick, but by then his new round of attack had already begun.
Having received the retreat order, Haralick initially considered “the general in the field disregards all orders,” but another message made him immediately change his mind.
General Harev of the Ice Cold Empire’s 2nd Corps called, reporting that his counterattack had failed, the 2nd Corps’ eastern advancing troops were encircled, and the plan to attack Ben had completely failed.
Upon hearing this, Haralick immediately realized that he was fighting alone without results, and further persistence was meaningless.
So he decisively issued the order to halt the attack and retreat immediately—this might be one of the most regrettable orders in his career.
If he had known that the Tang Army paratroopers guarding his attack route numbered only around 130, and had he known most of the Tang tanks covering these paratroopers had only two or three rounds left, who knows if he would have regretted ordering the retreat.
But history has no ifs, he indeed issued this order, and thus the Dwarf 1st Corps, fiercely attacking the Tang Army’s positions, abruptly ceased fire and began their retreat.
They abandoned their comrades’ corpses, and even left behind quite a few wounded, retreating in a disorderly manner from the battle, leaving a devastated battlefield to the bewildered Tang Army paratroopers.