“…… Clarke. Robertson was a good politician, his political achievements were far higher than his military achievements, and as the leader of a non-oil association faction, he balanced the contradictions between the evolutionaries and the conservatives well, and was very clever at beating the less obedient side with one side, which brought him great prestige in the ACA cabinet. A good analogy is that Clark. Robertson is the glue between the two factions of the ACA, and once he does not cease to exist, the ACA will inevitably fall into a divide......"

-- An article on the League's largest social networking site "Contect", "Nine Commentaries on ACA-Characters: Society President Clark. Robertson

***

In fact, the ACA had their chances of crushing the league in one fell swoop, that is, achieving the best tactical results they expected.

How much of a commander's order can affect the outcome of a battle, battle, or even war? This view has been an enduring topic in the field of history.

During Operation "Candlewax", the Supreme Commander of the ACA, Clark. Robertson's "Order Zero" is one of them.

In order not to bury its elite troops, it was not the real 54th Armored Division, the 36th Armored Division and the 107th Armored Division that appeared in Washington, in fact, this assault force was almost entirely composed of volunteers drawn from various units, and most of these fanatical volunteers came from the elite units of the ACA, and for various reasons they had a strong hatred for the Alliance.

Generally speaking, this kind of improvised patchwork of troops is also to be discounted in terms of combat effectiveness, although after several months of secret running-in training. Nor can it be compared with the real ACA elite armored division.

Robertson, who was well aware of this, naturally understood that in this case, the probability of this force breaking through the Alliance's defenses and hitting Pittsburgh directly was almost zero.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Robertson formulated two sets of plans for the command of the Washington Assault Force, the first plan was naturally to capture Pittsburgh, and the B plan was to disband the troops on the spot after the night of May 7. As much as possible, the rear facilities of the alliance were destroyed.

However, these two orders are fundamentally contradictory, especially after nightfall, if the ACA's forces have achieved key results, should they continue the attack or disband on the spot? This authority was delegated to the cluster commander.

In fact, unlike the southern attack force that completely blew up on the plains, the ACA's attack on the northern front put a lot of pressure on Yang Chengze, because although the 4th Royal Rapid Reaction Division was also a rapid reaction division, it was not the same as the 82nd Rapid Reaction Division, which often fought to the death on the Caribbean front. It is a well-known 'fishing unit', although as the only permanent rapid reaction division in northern North America, although the combat effectiveness is really not mixed with water, and the individual equipment is not much different, but the reaction speed is certainly not comparable to that of the 82 rapid reaction division.

The rapid response division does not mean that you have formed it and can react quickly when you are trained, this kind of unit requires a lot of ground support, such as whether there is a ground crew that can support rapid response for loading and unloading heavy units. Whether there are enough airfields and tower systems to quickly lift these loaded delivery forces into the air, and so on, you throw the most elite rapid reactor into the desert. They still had to crawl out on two legs.

However, the Fourth Royal Rapid Response Division encountered such an embarrassment, although the Ottawa Command had a sufficiently complete ground system, but the Fourth Royal Rapid Response Division was cut at the time of last year's budget, and a batch of C292 transport planes that should have been delivered last year were still lying on the production line until the outbreak of war. But it was still delayed for several hours.

As a result, when the two armored divisions of the ACA on the northern front reached Hagueston, the 4th Rapid Counter Division delivered only one regiment, and the vanguard lacking heavy equipment reached Hagueston, and the defensive battle turned into a battle. And it was also a battle between light infantry and armored assault infantry, where equipment was not delivered in time.

In other words, the 4th Rapid Reaction Division did not prevent the ACA from entering the town like the 82nd Division, so the Allied air and missile attacks did not bear fruit, and Yang Chengze once pondered for a full ten minutes whether to blow up the whole of Hagerston to rubble, but finally rejected this suggestion.

The alliance is far from the time to fight in scorched earth.

At the same time, under this absolute disadvantage, the officers and men of the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Rapid Reaction Division showed no less combat skills than the 82nd Rapid Reaction Division, and after suffering a large number of casualties, they showed amazing courage and will to fight, every building and every street in the entire Hegerston was repeatedly contested, and the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Royal Rapid Reaction Division also suffered amazing losses, 85% of the officers of the regiment were killed or seriously wounded, and the casualty rate of the soldiers was as high as 65%, but they still did not collapse, and persisted until the reinforcements arrived at 10 o'clock in the evening. According to post-war statistics, the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Rapid Response Division was the second heaviest unit in losses, after the 117th Air Assault Brigade, which had been resisting from Andrews Air Force Base to the end with complex underground tunnel installations.

However, in fact, many analysts believe that due to the existence of the AB order, the ACA's strategic objectives are unclear, and there is no resolute and continuous attack, so that Hegerston's defense line did not collapse, in fact, the real fierce attack of the ACA was from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and in the next two hours, the top management of the two ACA forces attacking the northern front had a disagreement, some officers believed that continuing to maintain the offensive could break through the defensive line, while the other part believed that Plan B should be implemented, Disbanding forces on the spot and beginning to infiltrate and sabotage the east coast, a dispute that greatly reduced the intensity of the attack.

However, at this time, Roberson issued a zero order that ended the outcome of the battle.

Order Zero was a secret order, which was received only by a few major senior officers of the task force command, and a portion of the relatively elite paratrooper officers, as well as all the TFs.

The content of the order is also simple, that is, all officers retreat according to a predetermined plan, and the TF is chosen by itself. Retreat no later than the evening of May 8.

This order directly cut off the last hope of the ACA assault force to break through Hagerston, and the assault force without command could not make any meaningful decisions, and time was wasted in precious quarrels.

After losing air supremacy, the ACA's supply lines in Baltimore were completely cut off, which made the Northern Front attack force, which had almost touched the gates of Pittsburgh, choose to carry out Plan B on the spot.

Even the commander of the 4th Rapid Reaction Division later admitted. When the battle entered at 7:40, the 2nd Regiment had already lost its organized command, and was almost on the verge of collapse, and the ACA had every chance to break through the defensive line, and then take advantage of the night to kill all the way to Pittsburgh, when the troops from Pittsburgh had just arrived, and the imposing ACA could take advantage of the interval of the alliance's air blockade, break it into pieces, and drive to Pittsburgh and control the city in two or three hours.

And the mass evacuation of TF was a fatal mistake. Many TFs in the ACA have a strong ability to sabotage and harass the rear of the Alliance, and more importantly, if Robertson has the courage to send a part of the TF to support Marshall, then it is very likely that the entire "Candlewax" plan will end in the complete collapse of the Alliance.

But he didn't have the courage to send more TF to that dead place, and he had lost the courage to rebel and seize power in the desperate past.

But anyway. This was his last order.

***

"Marshall. Colona's 'Venom' contingent has made its way into Pittsburgh, and they've begun to set up the necessary 'control' gear. The current progress is smooth. ”

ACA President Clark. Robertson looked at the report in his hand and the secretary's explanation, nodded slightly, and looked at his watch with his backhand, the hour hand pointed to the position of 9 o'clock in the evening.

"How about offensive operations on the Northern Front?" Seemingly a little regretful of the order he had given, Roberson furrowed his white eyebrows and asked.

"The assault force is already carrying out Plan B." The secretary also seemed to realize what his chief was worried about. It was added, "The Confederacy has begun to blockade our assault forces around the clock, supplies cannot be sent from Baltimore to Hegelton, and even if there is a breakthrough, the assault forces will not be able to move from Hegelton to Pittsburgh." The lower officer thought that this was a reasonable order. ”

"Hmm......" Robertson nodded slightly, a relieved smile - after all, the order had already begun to take effect, and there was no room for change, so there was no need to think about it.

"Besides, Marshall, is there any new report from you?" He raised his hand to comb the gray hair from his head, then asked.

"Nope." The secretary shook his head slightly, "Admiral Colona has already cut off all contact as agreed, and we can't interfere with him at all. ”

"So, I see." Robertson nodded, and turned to look at the captain next to him, "Let's leave the search range of the Alliance's surface ships." ”

"Yes," the captain turned and nodded at Robertson, "we took a detour to avoid possible Allied ships, but just three minutes ago, we were out of the theoretical maximum search range of Allied ships. ”

"According to the original plan, let's stop in Chile." Robertson breathed a sigh of relief and handed the electronic board back to the secretary, "I'm going to take a break, the situation in Pittsburgh should come in two days, and the whole plan has been more than half successful." ”

"Okay." The secretary nodded, then gave a military salute.

"Lord Robertson, don't you mind spending a little longer in the bridge, do you?"

Just as Robertson turned around and was about to walk out of the bridge, a slightly immature voice pierced the air with the ding-dong sound of the electronic door opening. Colona, "Snake Eyes", dressed in a military coat similar to his father's, walked onto the bridge.

"What's the matter? Grant? ”

The confusion on Robertson's face flashed, and then a warm smile appeared, "The news of your father will not come until the day after tomorrow." ”

"I'm not here for General Colona's business." Marshall took off his large-brimmed hat, revealing a head of aqua blue hair inherited from his mother's genes, "I have some personal matters and would like to talk to Lord Robertson. ”

"Do you need to go to my room?" Robertson nodded, "Yes." ”

"It's good to be here." Snake Eyes shook his head slightly, and then slightly hooked the corners of his mouth, "I just want to ask about my father's generation." ”

"Okay." Robertson raised his hand to block the secretary who wanted to speak, then pulled a chair from the side, turned and sat down, "You ask, just let me tell stories to children as an old man." ”

"Thank you for your patience." Snake Eyes nodded, turned around and walked to a table on the side, put the military hat on the table, picked up a water glass, but didn't drink water, he was silent for a moment, and then spoke, "If you can, don't mind telling me how the ACA was established." ”

"It's not something you can read from a book." Snake-Eye's words finally made the kind smile on Roberson's face disappear, and the 16-year-old boy playfully watched the expression on the face of the Supreme Commander of the ACA change, and then showed a grim smile.

"How about starting with the ACA and getting rid of the Seven-Person Society?" (Want to know more about Real Force?) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner, select Add Friends to add an official account, search for "Qidianzhongwenwang", follow the official account, and never miss every update! (To be continued......)