Although he felt uncertain about this first Motorized March, and the sun was only two hours from setting… But urged by Ludendorff’s phrase, “speed is key in war,” Morin still issued the command for the entire battalion to board the vehicles and depart once all preparations were complete.
He himself sat in the passenger seat of a truck positioned in the middle, looking at the friendly units lining the road to send them off, and couldn’t help but lean half his body out the window and shout at the top of his lungs:
“Sturmbataillon, geht voran! (Assault Battalion, advance!)”
The friendly soldiers lining both sides of the road heard this shout, and their emotions were instantly ignited.
Initially, only the soldiers closest to him cheered along, but this enthusiasm quickly spread, finally converging into a wave of sound that shook the heavens.
“Sturmbataillon, geht voran!”
“Sturmbataillon, geht voran!”
Amidst this earth-shattering roar of farewell, the massive convoy, composed of sixty Military Trucks and eighty horse-drawn carriages, slowly drove out of Liège City.
Lacking experience in commanding a Motorized Unit, Morin could only proceed cautiously, feeling his way forward.
Based on the knowledge he had absorbed before crossing over, he divided the entire convoy into three parts: an advance guard, the main column, and a rearguard.
The advance guard, formed by four Military Trucks, carried a platoon’s worth of troops and two extra Machine Gunners. Their mission was to provide early warning and seize critical terrain.
These four vehicles pioneered the route 1.5 kilometers ahead of the main force, providing about ten minutes of warning time for the main force—any further would be pointless due to the inability to establish liaison.
After all, the entire battalion only possessed one large radio, which Morin had ‘acquired’ from Ludendorff, intended for establishing contact with the Battle Group.
The main column itself was divided into three sections: front, middle, and rear, each maintaining a distance of about five hundred meters to allow sufficient space for deployment in case of an ambush.
Battalion Headquarters and the 1st Company were at the very front; the 2nd Company and 3rd Company were in the middle; and the 4th Company covered the rear with the horse-drawn Supply Train.
As for the rearguard, it also maintained a distance of 1 to 1.5 kilometers, following the main force not too far and not too close.
Their task was to prevent sneak attacks from the enemy’s rear and assist in handling vehicles that dropped out of the column due to mechanical failure.
Morin had originally intended to arrange flank security, having a few squads operate one or two kilometers to the sides of the column.
But the off-road capability of these Military Trucks was truly poor, meaning they could only reliably travel on the road, so this idea was ultimately abandoned.
Even after the convoy drove entirely out of the Liège Fortress cluster area, Morin’s heart remained in his throat.
Although Ludendorff had said that the enemy forces breaking out had all headed toward Antwerp, no one could guarantee that the road to Charleroi was 100% safe.
The roar of the Radiant Crystal Power Engine echoed through the silent countryside, sounding especially piercing.
The convoy traveled uneventfully for two hours at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour.
Seeing the sky growing darker, Morin still dared not risk a night march.
Communication methods in this era were simply too primitive. If they drove in the dark, he had no doubt that by the time he woke up tomorrow morning, he would be lucky if even half the convoy was still with him.
Furthermore, the fact that these delicate Military Trucks hadn’t broken down during the day didn’t mean they wouldn’t at night.
To be safe, he decisively ordered the convoy to tighten its formation and set up a temporary camp in a flat area beside the road.
Twenty observation posts and listening posts were deployed to handle perimeter security around the camp.
The Battalion Headquarters Signals Platoon also set up a tall antenna and attempted a signal-ridden liaison with the Liège command post using the foot-pedal generator radio.
Feeling that the radio was unreliable, Morin thought for a moment and had the Signals Platoon release carrier pigeons as well, double-insuring their message, though frankly, carrier pigeons weren’t that reliable either.
“It looks like I still need to write to Patricia and ask when the Magic Guided Communication Device can be made practical…”
This thought flashed through Morin’s mind, and he slowly drifted off to sleep amidst a feeling of anxious vigilance.
Perhaps the Southern army of the Grand Duchy of Flanders was truly crippled, or perhaps they were unfamiliar with tactics like night harassment.
In any case, the night passed uneventfully for Morin and his men, who were sleeping lightly.
The next morning, as the sun once again spread across the land and Morin confirmed that all vehicles and personnel were safe and sound, he finally relaxed.
After preparations were complete, the convoy set off again. This time, their destination was a predetermined assembly point three kilometers north of Charleroi City.
The Assault Battalion was not driving Armored Vehicles, after all. These Military Trucks were precious, and Morin was unwilling to risk driving them directly into the city.
He planned to have the troops disembark there and then launch a probing attack on Charleroi’s North City on foot.
Using the system map, Morin quickly found an excellent concealed parking spot for the convoy.
It was a flat wooded area right next to the road, large enough to accommodate all the vehicles and carriages of the entire convoy.
The journey of about an hour this morning was still smooth sailing. Along the way, the convoy only saw a few farmers and no Flanders soldiers.
However, after questioning a few old farmers in Netherlandic, Morin’s [Intelligence] tab updated with a new piece of information.
[Part of the Liège Fortress Battle Group breakout force (1,422 men) has headed in the direction of Charleroi.]
Just after 9 AM on August 8th, after the four advance Military Trucks arrived at the destination, the soldiers immediately disembarked.
This platoon, responsible for forward security, immediately spread out and advanced to establish the first line of defense.
The four Military Trucks first pulled into an open area by the roadside and began inspections after shutting down their engines.
Soon after, the massive main convoy began to arrive sequentially.
Morin established the temporary Battalion Headquarters in the center of the woods, and the 1st Company soldiers who disembarked first quickly spread out to construct a temporary defense line on the camp’s perimeter.
By this point, Morin was unsure whether his large convoy had been discovered by the enemy.
However, at least for now, his system map was still clean, with no red enemy unit tokens appearing.
About half an hour later, just as he was commanding the companies to disembark in an orderly fashion and preparing to arrange the next task…
The Dispatch Rider from the forward reconnaissance and security platoon ran back from the front, breathing heavily, with an expression of disbelief on his face.
“Reporting, Battalion Commander!”
“Charleroi… Charleroi North City…”
The Dispatch Rider, leaning on his knees and gulping for air, finally managed to complete the sentence after a long pause.
“The city seems… to have no soldiers at all!”
“No soldiers at all?”
Morin’s first reaction upon hearing this news was not surprise, but a tight frown.
Where in the world is there such a good thing?
An important border city, a transportation hub connecting to the Gallic Republic, is undefended?
‘No way, isn’t this ‘Empty Fort Strategy’ too obvious?’
“Are you sure?”
Morin stared at the Dispatch Rider, questioning him with a serious tone:
“How far did you reconnaissance? Did you see any fortifications?”
“Reporting, Battalion Commander! Our Platoon Leader led us all the way to the first street on the edge of the city, and we truly couldn’t see a single soldier inside! Only some civilians hiding in their homes!”
“There are fortifications… but they are all very primitive—just sandbag barricades—and they are empty behind them!”
The Dispatch Rider, after taking the water offered by Morin and gulping it down, added:
“We also found some abandoned ammunition crates and supplies. It looks like they retreated in a great hurry, so the Platoon Leader immediately sent me back to report the situation.”
Retreated in a great hurry…
Why does this scene look so similar to Liège City?
Could it be that the news of Liège’s capture has already spread here, scaring away the Charleroi garrison?
This possibility was not nil, but Morin still dared not let his guard down. Furthermore, the previous intelligence from the system had mentioned a Liège Fortress Battle Group force of over 1,400 men breaking out in this direction.
Morin opened the system map, zoomed the view to the Charleroi urban area, and carefully scanned it back and forth.
Charleroi is bisected by the Sambre River, dividing it into North and South cities.
The importance of this city, besides its geographic location, lies in the bridges used to cross the river within the city.
If the ‘Ludendorff Battle Group’ and the main force of the Second Army Group were to cross the river quickly here, then controlling the bridges in the city was crucial.
Once the bridges were destroyed, the entire army would have to rely on crossing the river via less efficient pontoon bridges, which would also slow the advance…
Thinking of this, Morin immediately called for Kleist and Manstein to organize the parking of the follow-up convoy and the assembly of the troops.
Then, under Kleist’s rather ‘resentful’ gaze, he took the 2nd Company, who had just disembarked and completed assembly, and quickly rushed toward Charleroi.
The 2nd Company, a unit composed of former Imperial Guards soldiers, was quite excited about this.
“It’s finally our turn!”
2nd Company Commander Wolff was ecstatic and sternly demanded that the 2nd Company soldiers make a good impression on Morin during the forced march.
After all, operating alongside the Battalion Commander was a rare privilege.
The Company Commanders of the four companies in the Instruction Assault Battalion all regarded such operations personally commanded by Morin as a kind of ‘reward.’
Soon, the 2nd Company’s forward security detachment linked up with the reconnaissance platoon. By then, they were holding a position on a main thoroughfare in Charleroi’s North City.
When Morin arrived with the main force of the 2nd Company, he did indeed find that the North City was completely in an ‘undefended’ state.
However, this did not strike Morin as a good sign. Instead, he felt an increasing sense of foreboding.
“North City is undefended… Damn it, they aren’t planning to blow the bridges and hold the South City, are they?!”
An alarm blared in Morin’s mind. He immediately ordered the 2nd Company to advance toward the Sambre River bank.
After issuing this order, Morin sent a Dispatch Rider back to instruct Kleist to bring the main force of the Instruction Assault Battalion forward immediately.
Just then, intense gunfire suddenly erupted from the direction of the river.
(End of this Chapter)