Re: Blood and Iron

Leon stood on the edges of the French and Luxembourgish Border. Frankly speaking, the German troops in the Grand Duchy had been focusing more on building defenses around the capital, which was the most strategically important region of the minor and neutral European nation.

While this gave the French time to rearm, and resupply, as well as tend to the wounded. Few reinforcements were provided to them. With the losses sustained currently, and their focus being primarily on invading Belgium, what with Luxembourg already being a lost cause.

The French Republic only gave Leon a few brigades worth of men to replenish his losses, but no more than that. His orders hold the line no matter what the cost. Once victory in Belgium had been achieved, 250,000 men would be sent to aid him.

So, he dug in deep just outside the city. However, time and time again, small raiding parties would harass the French lines, allowing for a greater number of German troops to break into their trenches with minimal effort. The French in Luxembourg had been trounced by stormtroopers armed with semi-automatic trench guns, semi-automatic rifles, automatic sub-machine guns, and general-purpose machine guns.

There was, however, another introduction into Luxembourg that served as the first use of its kind on a battlefield. The German stormtroopers, whose bodies were protected by hardened steel plate armor similar in design to those issued to German soldiers at the end of WWI, came running into the trenches with a terrifying new killing machine.

41 was a man portable, lightweight flamethrower that Bruno had specifically designed for use in the upcoming Great War in years past. The weapon was modelled after those used by German soldiers during the Second World War of his past life, with one major difference. He introduced napalm as its primary incendiary, though it was capable of using more conventional flames. This was an incredibly nasty thing to do, as napalm when touching the flesh could not be put out through normal means, and if one dared to try to pat out the fire, it would spread and burn brighter.

The bursts of napalm flame tore through the French trenches by the men who wore Stahlhelms marked with the fabled Totenkopf, not the design from the Second World War, but the one that Bruno had adopted for the iron division.

Supported by lightweight 60mm mortars from men hiding in no-man's-land, as well as the overwhelming rate of fire from the MG-34, these stormtroopers obliterated the Front lines of the French in the midst of night without any need for an armored column to advance before them.

Once the French soldiers had either been killed or charred into dust, an entire Brigade of German Infantry would advance through the choke point the stormtroopers created thoroughly breaking the French lines until they were forced to retreat, leaving behind artillery and machine guns as they fled further back.

The result of these repeated skirmishes that turned into significant retreats was that even Leon, a General who refused to get his hands dirty was covered in mud, oil, and blood, some of it his own, after being personally shot by an MP-34 machine gun in the arm.