"Carlisle! Herald! The direct detachment departs! I personally led the team. ”

"Yes, sir! Is it finally time for us to play? ”

Weiss's young lieutenant was eager to take the plunge. He didn't have the ability to perceive the battlefield like a commander, only from the flickering light in the night and the sound of guns and cannons in all directions, he only felt that the battlefield was noisy, but he didn't know the hardships and twists and turns.

"Yes, we have reached the most critical moment, and there is no room for error." Weiss answered. At this point in the battle, there was only one center of the battlefield, and that was the Norman army that surrounded and annihilated the northern side of Russell Air Base. After constant attrition in battle, their numbers had dropped to less than 400, many of whom were wounded, and they were now desperately attacking the slope positions held by the 1909th Reserve Battalion.

This reserve battalion can be regarded as the Lorraine reserve force is in a relatively good state of preparation, and when it was put into battle, there were more than 1,000 officers and men, most of whom were deployed in this defense area, and under the repeated attacks of the enemy, it had also been seriously reduced at this time, and according to Weiss's estimates, only five or six hundred people could still be put into battle. Although they were on the defensive, with superior strength and firepower, their positions were already shaky in the face of the enemy's desperate assault, especially when the two sides closed the distance and entered the hand-to-hand combat phase, and it felt that it was only a matter of time before the defensive line collapsed. Before the direct detachment was used, Weiss had already transferred all the nearby reserve troops, but there were not many living forces, and the melee between the two sides made it difficult for the regular artillery fire in the surrounding area to play a direct role as the previous one, and if the situation could not be controlled in time, this group of enemies was likely to break through at the last moment, like the Normans on the south side of the Axel air base.

The battle has lasted for more than two hours from the beginning to now, and 200 reservists of the subordinate detachment have been waiting in the standby area. They are selected from all the units, because they have received donations and support from all walks of life in Lorraine, especially the Lorraine Industrialists Union, and their equipment is very impressive - except for machine guns, it is all assault rifles, and this equipment level beyond the front-line troops highlights their important role.

Under the direct leadership of Weiss, the subordinate detachment went straight from the mountainside to the fierce battle zone between the two sides, and the distance between the two places was more than two miles in a straight line. It can be reached in a few minutes on flat ground, but a mountain march, especially without roads, can take 20 minutes even if you go all out. In the meantime, the closer reserves have arrived in the 1909th Battalion fortified area and are engaged in battle. With the rapid change in the balance of power between the two sides, it has become more and more difficult for the Normans to break through here, and if you don't consider the question of time, the Federation Army can use siege tactics to continuously wear down the combat effectiveness of this stubborn enemy, and the battle of Russell has not officially ended, and the enemy who broke through and left and the troops who met on the periphery may still turn around at any time and launch a surprise attack to meet the evacuation of this trapped force. Therefore, Weiss intends to end the battle in the shortest possible time, and the direct detachment he leads is the "key" to solve the dilemma.

By the time Weiss arrived at his destination with the boys of his immediate detachment, the first and second lines of the 1909th Reserve Battalion had been broken through by the Normans, and they withdrew to the last line of defense together with the reinforcements, holding the place and preventing the Normans from continuing to break through. Now, the Normans had to either step over their corpses or climb up the hillside and over the top of the hill to break out of the encirclement.

Weiss immediately looked at the battlefield with a special vision, in the process of capturing the two lines of defense, the Normans paid at least more than 100 losses, and the current combat strength is only about 300, that is, the size of a reinforced company, presumably their ammunition consumption is also very huge, basically close to the point of exhaustion. So, after occupying two fronts, the attacks that were temporarily stopped were adjusted on the spot. On the side of the federal army, the 1909th Reserve Battalion has been basically disabled, and the remaining three or four hundred people can only beat the side drums, and they have to rely on the troops who rushed from around to support and Weiss's direct detachment, their available strength has reached fifteen or six hundred, occupying the absolute upper hand, but in the face of the battle of trapped beasts, the battle situation must not be easily measured by quantity. Once the enemy has suppressed the momentum of the Federation Army by bursting out with a strong desire to survive, it is not impossible to achieve a miracle of defeating the strong in a chaotic close battle.

After ascertaining the situation, Weiss summoned the officers of the various divisions and gave them a clear order to hold on to the spot and advance only when the battle situation was clear, while he led his direct detachment into the counterattack to recapture the two fronts.

From the point of view of troops, this is a battle of 200 people against 300 people, and the federal army is falling behind, but the advantages of this are also very obvious: these 200 people are the elite of the reserve force, and they have been recuperating from the beginning of the battle to the present, and they are personally commanded by Weiss, and their morale is high, and it is a relatively independent combat unit, with clear instructions and clear directions, and it is not easy to cause chaos.

As the remaining troops suppressed the Normans in front at close range with heavy firepower, Weiss took out the momentum of seeing death as if he were at home, and rushed forward with the first step. The subordinate detachment followed, and in a wedge-shaped combat detachment formation, they crossed the open area between the second and third fronts and quickly entered a state of hand-to-hand combat. The remains of the dead on both sides could be seen everywhere in this trench, which had endured artillery fire and hand-to-hand combat, and Weiss, who had been through many battles, was not distracted by these scenes. Holding a short gun in each hand, he ran quickly through the trenches, spotting the enemy's position in advance with his special vision, and constantly killing the enemy soldiers with a beat of one second ahead. This posture like a god descending to earth greatly encouraged the soldiers of the direct detachment that followed.

There is such a breakthrough in a short trench, which can basically lay the foundation of the battle. In less than five minutes. This fresh force on the battlefield drove the Normans out of the second front, or more accurately, killed most of them here, and few were able to evacuate. Read a book for a long time

By this time, the Normans had recovered from their unpreparedness and relied on the first trench to counter the Federalists' tactical counterattack. The first and second trenches are separated by a hundred feet, and each side can threaten the other by throwing grenades. Weiss decisively ordered his soldiers to throw explosive grenades and smoke grenades, and for a while the battlefield was filled with white gunsmoke, making it difficult for the Norman soldiers with accurate archery skills to give full play to their dual advantages in archery and psychological quality. Since this unit uses assault rifles as its main weapon, although it can also be equipped with bayonets, shooting in close combat is obviously more effective than combat, especially in the face of Norman Marine units with very strong individual capabilities, and they have a better chance of winning without conventional tactics. After a short wait, Weiss ordered his soldiers to launch a surprise attack, and took the lead in climbing out of the trench, lowering his body and rushing forward.

The Normans' vision was disturbed by smoke bombs to stop the Federalist assault, but as the logic of the people judged, they now had little ammunition, and the shooting was not continuous, and many of them relied on the collected Union weapons...... Without much resistance, Weiss and his subordinate detachment crossed the open belt between the trenches and rushed into the first trench that was lost first. After jumping in, there were enemies on the left and right, and he didn't hesitate to use a short spear technique that bordered on gunfighting. Kill several Norman soldiers in seconds. With no time to change magazines, he picked up a rifle directly from the trench and danced it in his hand, repelling two Norman soldiers in a face-to-face fight.

The soldiers of the subordinate detachment who followed up quickly entered the battle and helped their commander relieve the siege. The crisp sound of assault rifle fire filled the trench. The Normans were at the end of their crossbows, and they would not be able to resist at all, so they decisively abandoned their positions and retreated.

After recapturing the first trench, Weiss wanted to continue the pursuit with his soldiers in his direct detachment, but the strong intuition of the battlefield and his familiarity with enemy tactics made him change his mind at the last minute. After the smoke from the smoke bombs dissipated, the preface of the position was indeed strafed by the Norman machine guns, and if he had just led the soldiers of his direct detachment to launch a pursuit, he would inevitably encounter the enemy's resistance at this time, and lose valuable combat strength.

From a tactical point of view, driving the enemy out of his position and back to the area at the foot of the slope is already a very valuable progress. As units belonging to the 1901st Reserve Battalion recaptured the lost defensive area, the Norman forces on the north side of Russell Air Base were re-cut in two. The team that remained behind was only a hundred or so people, and after fierce battles on this side, it was further reduced to less than 200 people, and it was not too difficult to eliminate the remaining Normans of these two groups, not to mention that their position was very unfavorable.

After informing the entrenched troops to follow up, Weiss once again examined the battlefield. The fierce rival in front of him was compressed into an area no more than six miles long and wide, mostly open area with many bare rocks, and about 13 areas were woodlands with more vegetation. For now they had retreated to the woodland, where the terrain was conducive to defense. If the Union army were to swallow them before dawn, it would inevitably pay a corresponding price, and it would obviously be more cost-effective to wait until after dawn to settle the battle with superior artillery fire and aviation.

Weiss was never the kind of indecisive commander. While adjusting his deployment to prevent the enemy from jumping over the wall, he mobilized the Demoman, Spitfire, and assault forces to compress the enemy's area of activity step by step along the favorable terrain, compressing the last engagement zone to the wooded area at the foot of the mountain. The last noose was ready, and he sent a secret telegram to General Arteus, as had been agreed, asking him what strategy he was going to adopt at the moment: whether to annihilate the enemy on the spot, or to use them as bait to lure the Normans into sending troops to their aid.

This is a multiple-choice question that tests the determination and will of the commander and requires careful decision-making. If the Norman army is annihilated on the spot, it means a positive victory in the Lorraine area, which will have a more positive significance for boosting the morale of the inhabitants of the Federation and fighting the enemy, while if the latter is chosen, it means starting a new campaign, the significance of which is not only the safety of Russell Air Base, but also a bigger game of chess, which requires more troops to be invested and more weighted.

The battle around Russell Air Base has been fought from the first half of the night to after midnight. It was a rather sturring time for rear commanders who were keeping a close eye on the situation. Within ten minutes of Weiss's telegram, General Arteus sent a reply, using a secret language pointing to the option of luring the enemy deeper.

It can be seen that the veteran is not only dedicated, but also brave and enterprising enough to fight a tough battle that can change the situation in Lorraine and even on the Western Front. Now that the commander had made his decision, Weiss immediately carried it out, and he ordered the reserve troops to launch a massive attack on the remaining enemy, but they could not attack, slowing down each time he reached the edge of the woods, deliberately using demomen and flamethrowers to create an oppressive atmosphere, so that the Normans trapped in the woods felt that they could be annihilated at any time. This group of Norman troops must have carried radio equipment with them when they entered the battle, but it was uncertain whether they would be able to communicate with the outside world after a series of hard fighting, and the best way to do this was to engage in continuous firing with them, so that the battlefield was constantly filled with the sound of gunfire.

At dawn, the Normans did launch an operation on the perimeter, and hundreds of Norman soldiers launched a decisive raid on the Union cordon. As it dawned, the Union defenses deployed around Russell Air Base easily repelled the Normans with powerful artillery fire. After that, the Union Army dispatched aviation units to carry out low-altitude reconnaissance and bombing strafing in the area around Russell Air Base where there were signs of Norman activity. The Air Force also used flying ships and transport aircraft to deliver ground combat troops to important strongholds and communication arteries, either using pre-set positions to deploy in secret bunkers or improvising positions, which greatly limited the Normans' movement in the area. After setting up their positions, the Union Army sent dozens of search teams to hunt the Norman forces that had retreated the night before. At the same time, they launched a powerful psychological offensive against the Norman remnants of the woodland on the north side of Russell Air Base, forcing them to give up resistance and raise their hands in surrender in the early afternoon.

The news of the victory in the defensive battle of Russell Air Base was announced through General Arteus's Lorraine Theater Command, and it was announced that more than 1,000 Norman remnants who had escaped from the Battle of Russell would be annihilated in the next few days.

As soon as the proclamation was issued, before the sun had set, the Norman flying ships and battle planes swooped over the Monamolin Mountains and into Lorraine. Prior to this, they had repeatedly attacked Lorraine, and the federal army organized a powerful blockade. The two sides come and go, and they don't give in to each other, and this time is no exception. The Federation forces did not have much power in the air, but the characteristic of air combat was that it was difficult for either side to stop the other without absolute superiority. The Normans attacked several Union Army airfield facilities, including Russell Air Base, and attacked some important transportation hubs in Lorraine, and then Norman Marines operating from the northwest and southwest corners of Neuchâtl launched heavy attacks on targets in Lorraine.