Chapter 50 – Artillery is King

RonTheBlackCat

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Merry early Christmas Eve! (For those in my time zone)

Merry Christmas Eve! (For those a day ahead)

"Artillery is the King of the Battlefield. Infantry is the Queen of the Battlefield. And it is well known what the King does to the Queen." - I forgot where this was from but I really liked it. 

hmmm... i think i have run out of songs...well... 

0222 April 9th, 2020 CE

0411 Sun 9th, 196 AE

Mach Imperium 

A Humvee, the term that the Americans used for their military car, slowly drove down the road. An American soldier was up on the gun and scanning around. Mettius watched it go by. American patrols were a common sight nowadays to ensure public safety. He had heard that the Americans had restricted any American companies from establishing here out of concern. He didn’t really understand what the concern was for. He knew that there were people who were unhappy with the fact that their country was defeated, but he also knew they weren’t insane enough to attack the victors. For as long as he could remember, the country had always been quite peaceful. 

0001 April 9th, 2020 CE

0300 Sun 9th, 196 AE

American frontline 

The sun was slowly coming up. After the elve’s failed counterattack yesterday afternoon, no further action was seen. They seemed to really hate night fighting.

A whistling sound filled the air. Issac and a few other soldiers glanced around in confusion. One of the experienced soldiers had a face that seemed like he knew what was going to happen next. 

“Ah… fuck.” 

“Artillery!” 

They dived to the ground as the ground shook like a 5.0 magnitude earthquake. A few seconds later, the ground shook again. 

A few miles behind the Elven frontline

The booms of the elven 15cm cannons did not stop. They lined the plains of nearly the entire front. Their goal was to hammer the frontlines to soften it so advancing forces could easily take it. They had prepared enough ammunition for an hour-long session of firing. Once the shelling stopped, elven infantry and tanks would start advancing. 

More than 10 miles back of the American frontline

Coordinates were yelled out. The wheels on the sides of the gun were spun quickly in order to adjust to said coordinates. 

“Let’s go!”

“Load!”

An artilleryman placed a shell onto the ammunition table. 

“Go! Go!’

The shell was loaded into the cradle with the touch of a button. Another soldier smashed a long metal stick to push the shell into the cannon. A propellant was placed under and the hatch was closed. 

“Clear!” 

“Fire!”

The string was pulled. The loud boom of the M777 howitzer echoed.

The hatch was opened and the interior was quickly cleaned. 

“Load!”

The earlier process started to repeat itself. An M777 next to them fired.

“Clear!”

Another M777 close by fired. 

“Fire!”

A few miles behind the Elven frontline

An explosion occurred a few yards behind the elve’s artillery position. Another one landed right on top of one of the cannons in the line. A secondary explosion occurred as the ammunition besides the destroyed artillery cooked off. 

It wasn’t long before the elven artillery fell silent. A few deaths were sustained from the concentrated amount of Elven artillery fire but there had been no significant damage. It only took multiple well-placed shots for the elven artillery position to be completely wiped out. 

Elven command post 

“Where are their observers?!”

“Our artillery units are many miles from the front. We have not spotted any form of human recon.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that they wiped out every firing artillery gun in the vicinity within a few minutes of us firing!?” 

Colonel General Eroan Faexalim, commander of the Second Wave Central Army, bit his fingers in frustration. 

“Have our recon teams found any of the human ones?”

“A couple were able to sneak through the less technologically advanced lines and discovered human artillery positions.”

A few minutes later

A different US artillery position 

<<<“The Magusians are getting their arty blown to smithereens, we are giving you the location of their artillery positions from our sound detection equipment.”>>>

The cords were quickly given over the radio. 

“Got new cords!”

He read off the cords to the ones adjusting the M777s. The wheels on the sides of the cannons started to spin. Before long the M777s started firing again.   

Elven command post 

“Sir, our artillery was wiped out by counter-battery fire again!”

He threw his pencil on the ground. 

“Begin the assault!” 

American frontline

<<<“Large formations of elven units are approaching the front.”>>>

The M3A3 Bradley CFV (Cavalry Fighting Vehicle) started to retreat from its position after spotting a swarm of elven tanks and infantry coming across the field. Smoke popped out from their M257 grenade launchers installed on the turret. The white smoke covered their retreat. The M3 Bradley’s were specifically designed for reconnaissance but had combat capabilities, however, it was not looking for a fight. 

The elves seemed to be doing concentrated attacks on the entire frontline. Instead of being spread out for their offensive, they seem to hope to achieve breakthroughs and exploit said breakthroughs in order to encircle the humans. 

25 miles behind the American frontline

After receiving the message, boxes on the back of what seemed to be trucks turned right and started to lift towards the sky. Suddenly fire started blasting out of all the boxes. A battery of M270 MLRSs (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems) lined the field. The sound of their rockets drowned out everything. 

Battlefield

The magipanzers that were charging through the plains suddenly found themselves in a literal hail of metal. 

There were 9 M270 MLRS in a battery. Each individual M270 had 12 GMLRS-AW (Guided MLRS-Alternative Warhead) warheads. The GMLRS-AW was a 200-pound fragmenting warhead that consisted of approximately 160,000 preformed tungsten fragments. That meant a total of 17,280,000 tungsten fragments were hitting the advancing elven units. Elven infantry was ripped to shreds. The top armor of the Fortress magipanzers were only 25mm thick and were easily penetrated by the storm of fragments. The other more lightly armored magipanzers had large chunks blown off them. Entire sectors were laid to waste. 

Artillery and rocket artillery was making up for the lack of air support. With the MLRSs, the US and Magus could once again prepare to mount an offensive after softening the enemy defenses. 

The lack of modern airfields was a massive headache for command. In the old world, they would just need to repossess enemy airfields and quickly fix them up so they were usable. Better yet, there were US and allied air bases spread around the world that they just needed to land in. Now, they had to modernize the Magusian airbases in order to make sure the US aircraft won’t be damaged. They had to make sure that the landing gears of their jets won’t break off when they land on the Magusian airfields. The feet of wyverns were much more sturdy than the landing gear on an F-15 or F-16. That meant that there were multiple holes and large bumps on the runways of the Magusian airfields which required engineers to smooth and pave out. It was questionable why the Magus even needed airfields. The wyverns could land basically anywhere. 

Being transported to a world where all the countries had inferior technology was both a wet dream and a nightmare. It was a wet dream in the fact that the term “peer adversary” became nonexistent. On the other hand, it was a logistical nightmare. In the old world, there were US military bases and weapon stockpiles on almost every single continent. This allowed the US to be prepared for conflicts across the world. Now all those military bases and stockpiles had all been thrown into the New Frontier. With seemingly back to back wars, the US was having a hard time transporting and supplying units across the ocean. However, a good side to this was a massive decrease in the cost of operation and maintenance. In the past, nearly half of the US military budget was spent on operation and maintenance. Now that had significantly decreased because of the closing and relocation of multiple military bases in the New Frontier. The budget was finally focusing on research, development, and procurement. 

18 US Army brigade combat teams, equivalent to about 6 US Army divisions, were covering the entire front that stretched the southern length of the Magus Imperium. There were a total of 10 divisions in the US Army. They were made up of 31 brigade combat teams. Of the 31 brigade combat teams, only 23 were at a high level of readiness. Because of how long the front was, a lot of it had to be plugged in with Magusian units. Compared to the US Army, the Magus had more than 100 army divisions. To make up for their technological inferiority, 5 Magusian divisions were placed on stretches of land that were similar in length to what a single US Brigade Combat Team was currently protecting.

There were also a total of 8 US Army National Guard divisions which consisted of 27 brigade combat teams. Of those 27, only 4 to 5 were at a high level of readiness. 1 of them was doing peacekeeping operations in the Bem Kingdom and 2 of them were in the Mach Imperium. Another 2 Army brigade combat teams were in the Mach Imperium. 

0216 April 9th, 2020 CE

0432 Sun 9th, 196 AE

American frontline

Captain John Rose listened to the orders on his radio. No damage for his company was reported from the artillery bombardment that they had just faced. Now the entire 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment was preparing for a counteroffensive along with the rest of the US and Magus Army. The elve’s offensive had completely failed. Through the use of sheer numbers, even the weak points that were protected by only Magusians had repelled the elves 

The two six-rocket pods of the M270 were quickly detached from it. Two fresh pods replaced it. The other M270s in the battery were also reloaded. 

A soldier in one of the M270s stared at a paper map. On it, targets were drawn with a red pen. Large concentrations of enemy infantry and tanks. Various types of positions. A few were marked specifically for his crew’s M270. 

The rockets started once more and the ground shook. More than 20 miles in front of them, M777s started firing too. 

Private Issac was preparing to get onto his squad’s main Bradley. His team leader, Sergeant Andrew Bennett, made a satisfied sigh as the ground shook. 

“We may not have our air support but we damn well have our artillery. I hope those elves enjoy the king of the battlefield.” 

Far behind the Elven frontline

“What is happening out there?”

Ara said to herself as she heard seemingly endless explosions at the front. Her battered division was now resting in the plains. They had been pulled far back and were replaced with a magipanzer division from the Second Wave units. For probably the first time in her life, she wasn’t looking for a fight.