In the middle of the night, the Federal Air Force's Kassel air base in central Lorraine was brightly lit and busy.

On the other side, there is a vast forest sea, the mountain breeze blows through the treetops, and only the animals that enjoy the night are quietly moving.

Near the hill, a field command post of the Federal Army is hidden, which is where the battalion headquarters of the 1901st Reserve Battalion is located. This battalion is the first reserve battalion in Lorraine, and in recent years, it has been ranked in the top 10 in the federal reserve force assessment, which can be called a model battalion for the reserve force. Thanks to the non-governmental donations organized by the Lorraine government, the battalion's firearms and equipment have basically reached the level of front-line troops, the fire support/air defense company and the tank squadron are equipped with the latest models of combat equipment, and the quality and training of officers and men are also at the first-class level among the reserve forces. However, as the war progressed and the front-line troops continued to be depleted, the battalion had sent more than 1,600 additional reservists to the 1901st Regiment of the Federal Army, and provided some equipment at the latter's request. Today, although the battalion has nearly 2,000 reservists, there is a shortage of officers and non-commissioned officers, and the overall combat level has dropped a lot compared with the initial assembly in wartime.

At the time of the war, the officers of the battalion headquarters were very cautious in their words and deeds, so that the atmosphere in the command post was quite depressing. At this time, Weiss came here with a staff team composed of a group of retired officers and cadets, like a crack in the dark clouds, and the rays of sunshine could not change the general trend of the wind and rain, but increased people's confidence to survive the wind and rain and meet the sunny day.

As the administrator and commander of the reserve forces in Lorraine, Weiss was already very familiar with the officers here, and after a few pleasantries, he went straight to work. Under the dim oil lamps, they inspected the deployment of the 1901st Reserve Battalion in light of the conditions they had observed along the way, and were satisfied with the current position of the companies, so they stressed to the officers of this reserve unit that both porcelain cups and steel cups can hold water, and that porcelain cups can be broken when knocked on them, and that even if the steel cups are affected by a great external force, they are not easy to be damaged even if they are deformed, and the same is true for the troops—whether they are porcelain cups or steel cups depends mainly on the will and determination of the combatants, especially the will and determination of officers at all levels. Therefore, they must be brave, tenacious, calm and set an example for their soldiers.

At the operational headquarters of the 1901st Reserve Battalion, Weiss and his party took the pulse of the troops' operational disposition and encouraged officers of all ages, and then relied on the department's various concealment posts to probe the enemy's tracks. In the face of the highly military-trained Norman Marines, defensive night reconnaissance was usually only used at the last minute, and in order to lure the enemy into depth, the Union Army and its reserves did not lay a large-scale minefield around Russell Air Base, thus abandoning the conventional measure of detecting the enemy's direction of movement through preset mines. In order to be as anticipatory as possible, Weiss took the trouble to go deep into the defense areas, personally visit the forward areas to conduct reconnaissance, and use old reconnaissance planes to conduct low-altitude and low-speed reconnaissance at night, and these exhausting actions paid off considerably: he knew the Normans who were quietly approaching the Kassel air base, and his reserve troops were about to enter the battle with the most rational deployment and relatively ideal posture possible.

During the exploration, Weiss not only paid close attention to the enemy's movements, but also paid special attention to the combat effectiveness of the enemy in front of him. In terms of combat readings, the Norman soldiers were a notch above their regular troops, and not much better than the Union Special Forces. With the combat effectiveness of the Lorraine reserve troops, if they go head-to-head, they may not be able to win with a numerical advantage of 10 to 1, so they must formulate correct tactics and strategies and resolutely implement them. Of course, no matter how good the tactical strategy is, it is also necessary to judge the situation, and Weiss has been operating in the forward position for a long time in order to obtain as much enemy information as possible, adjust the combat deployment in a timely manner, and then finalize the final tactical strategy.

In order to lure the enemy into the operation, General Arteus coordinated the Federal Air Force to launch intensive daytime bombardment of the Norman-controlled area northwest of Lorraine, and frequently mobilized ground troops to deliberately create the false impression that the Union army intended to annihilate the enemy landing force. At the same time, the Federal Air Force continued to bomb strategic targets in Normanic territory, and after the bombing of Russell Air Base by the Normans, the damaged aviation facilities were repaired as quickly as possible, and the aviation units stationed there were replenished in time......

This battle began from the moment the Normans decided to make a move on Russell Air Base!

On the seventh day after the Norman battleship attacked Russell Air Base at night, all the Union troops that had come in were in place, and the damaged aviation facilities were basically repaired, except for the outer air defense positions and warning facilities that were in full swing. In this back-and-forth moment, the Normans finally showed their fangs in the darkness: the hunting troops that infiltrated the mountains and forests launched a surprise attack on Russell Air Base from the north and south, their attacks were still as sharp as the fangs of wild beasts, and their vision was as sharp as a nighthawk, even if the Union army relied on the defensive position to resolutely resist, they still infiltrated and even penetrated the defenders' defense line with stormy attack tactics, and in just over three hours, the Normans broke through the two layers of defense of the Union army in Russell, Its vanguard detachment arrived at the hangar area in the north of the base and the take-off and landing area in the south of the base, and the rest of the troops spread in all directions like a virus invading the human body, but it was difficult to catch traces.

For this unconventional method of warfare, the Normans seemed to be at ease, and victory seemed to be within reach, but whether it was in the hangar area in the north of the base or in the take-off and landing area in the south, the advancing Norman troops were like waves hitting a, wind and sand coming to the foot of the mountain, no matter how strong the momentum was, they could not move forward, and even quickly suffered a backlash and disappeared on the spot.

Attacking is like running, and the inertia of moving forward does not disappear because of obstacles. The vanguard detachment was sluggish, and the main attacking force quickly shifted its center of gravity forward, and the Norman soldiers were either in groups of 35 or 781, covering each other, and with tacit understanding, they used high-output light weapons such as submachine guns, flamethrowers, and grenades and explosives to fight closely, and the offensive was fierce. In previous battles, Norman forces operating in Lorraine had repeatedly used this resolute and skilful rapid advance to tear through their opponents' defenses, but at Russell Air Base, they finally kicked the steel plate - in the base's inner defensive circle, the Union forces organized an effective crossfire network based on pre-set fire points, and suppressed enemy fire with assault rifles and machine guns.

Seeing the stalemate, the Normans quickly changed their strategy and began to destroy the facilities, equipment, materials and materials that could be destroyed in the air base, and as far as the eye could see, thick smoke and flames were billowing out.

The beast entered the cage, Weiss judged the situation, and chose the right time to order "closing the net". The main battle force under his command is 5 reserve battalions of 6,000 reservists, as well as a number of garrison and alert troops around the aviation base to be deployed, and the total number of Norman troops who raided Russell Air Base is about 2,000 people, they are divided into two routes, attacking from north to south, with slightly more people on the north route and slightly fewer troops on the south route. At first glance, Weiss is a 6,000 weak reserve against 2,000 strong Norman soldiers, not to mention the odds of victory under normal circumstances, it would be good to avoid a rout, but in this battle around Russell Air Base, there are thousands of federal regular troops, they are embedded in the defense system of the entire aviation base in regiments and battalions, some are stationed in the alert defense position, some belong to the ground air defense unit, and some are responsible for the vigilance and patrol of the base, and their combat effectiveness is beyond doubt. The only problem is that it is not good or inconvenient to maneuver. According to the preset strategy of luring the enemy into depth, Weiss and his reserve troops only needed to block the passage in the regular army's defense line at the beginning, trap the Norman troops who broke into Russell Air Base, and prevent them from retreating at night. By daybreak, the Federal Air Force stationed at Russell and other air bases in Lorraine would send fighter planes, attack planes, and heavy equipment to annihilate the Norman army in an air-ground assault – as long as the Normans were strong enough, the siege would be as long as possible to lure the Normans into sending more troops to relieve the siege.

Regardless of the final outcome, as long as Weiss and his reserve forces were able to complete the first phase of the task of stopping the enemy, the Battle of Russell would be able to deal a heavy blow to the Normans and boost the morale of the Union army and civilians.

As a matter of intuitive anticipation, when the battle began, Weiss was in charge of the northern part of Russell Air Base. When the Norman forces that had broken into the air base realized that they could not achieve their intended purpose of destroying a large number of Union combat aircraft, ammunition, and fuel, the reservists who were waiting for the rest of the army had already left their concealed positions under his command and wedged between the enemy surprise force and the receiving force. In the process, they exchanged fire with small Norman forces, and in accordance with Weiss's "death order", the reserve troops engaged in fire with the enemy captured various tactical targets at any cost, and completed the encirclement of the enemy's north and south in the shortest possible time. During this period, the participating troops did not have time to count the casualties, but only from Weiss's perspective, they observed the astonishing casualties of the reservists under his command in small-scale attack operations, which is the true embodiment of the combat quality and experience and skills of both sides, and then in the face of the counterattack of the trapped enemy, the battle will only become more intense, and the only consolation is that the offensive and defensive roles of the two sides are switched, and most of the reservists only need to defend their positions, and the requirements for the technical and tactical level of officers and soldiers for resolute defense are obviously lower.

The army is like the human body, soldiers are muscle cells, officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels are like spines, whether the muscles are strong or not is important, and the toughness of the spine is even more crucial. Finding that the back road was cut off, the Normans did not fall into a panic, nor did they blindly break through, but while testing the firepower a little more, they looked for the opponent's weak position. As an old adversary, Weiss naturally did not ignore this characteristic of the enemy, and he deliberately made a deployment of "showing the enemy weakness" to induce the enemy to concentrate on attacking the defensive line set up by the 1912th Reserve Battalion in a valley. Although the Normans were able to take their position in a single attack, they were immediately suppressed by the opponent's machine guns deployed in the woods on both sides, and then fell into a minefield behind the position, and the road to breakthrough suddenly became the road of death.