Tyranny of Steel

Word came over Telegraph that a war was declared against the Catholic world. The time to put an end to the Papacy's stranglehold over Europe had finally come. The officer in charge of the forces in the Sinai Peninsula was Field Marshall Heimerich von Graz, whose fifty thousand Reichsgarde acted as the main forces in defense of the region.

Under his orders, the defenses that had been constructed to secure the Kaiser's Pass were rapidly expanded in anticipation of an enemy invasion. Large trench lines containing 25,000 men each were set up on both sides of the Canal in between the reinforced concrete bunkers which housed the artillery guns. A no-man's-land was established with barbed wire and land mines to make any attempt to storm the trenches into a suicide mission.

Large bridges were already constructed over the Kaiser's Pass to allow transport trucks to cross, even if such vehicles were only in the development phase. This meant that the soldiers on either side of the Canal could rapidly cross over and reinforce the other if necessary.

While the Crusader Kingdom may have officially gained control over Egypt, the Timurid Army was still located in the region, and if they wanted to press forward into the Kaiser's pass, they would first need to defeat the Sultan and his army.

Because of this, Heimerich coordinated with Colonel Arnwald Gerwig and confirmed that the most likely region of attack would be coming from Syria-Palestine, where the bulk of the Crusader Army was still present.

Though many of them had begun to set sail for the shores of Hungary and Italy. It would take a long time for all of them to do so. After all, nearly a million men had embarked on the crusade to the Holy Land. The Catholic World had gone all out on their attempts to conquer the region and had emptied their fields to do so.

However, that did not mean that every soldier would be heading back to Europe. A combined army of roughly one hundred thousand men. Consisting of soldiers from the English Army and the Order of the Red Dragon, under the command of King Lawrence Lancaster, were tasked to take the Canal. Because of this, his army was marching towards the German position.

Heimerich gazed through his binoculars and spotted the enemy. They had reached roughly sixteen kilometers away in the distance. That meant they were in firing range of the German Reichsgarde's heaviest guns, which had painstakingly been moved from the Iberian theater to the Sinai Peninsula over the past few weeks. With a sadistic grin on his face, Heimerich gave the order to welcome the English and Welsh invaders, by revealing the true extent of Germany's firepower.

"Open fire with the ten centimeter guns. I want to give these bastards a hell of a welcome!"

The artillery crews saluted the Field Marshal before loading the 105 x 504 mmR high explosive shells into their guns. Once the shells were loaded, they adjusted the aim of the artillery into the enemy army's direction and fired at them.

A crack of thunder echoes in the air above the English Army's position. At first, King Lawrence thought that perhaps a rain storm had begun. After all, they were so far away from the German Canal that they could barely see it on the horizon. He called out to his troops immediately upon hearing the sound.

"Haha! Look at that, God is showing his wrath to those filthy Ger-"

Before he could even finish speaking, explosions detonated among the ranks of the English army. Though the number of 10cm K 25 Guns that the Germans had at their disposal were limited, it was enough to claim the lives of hundreds of the enemy soldiers with a single barrage.

Blood and guts splattered across King Lawrence's face as he stared into the distance with a panicked expression. How was this even possible? The enemy was close to ten miles away, and yet they had attacked him from such a distance? He could only stammer as he expressed his disbelief, all the while artillery continued to pound his position.

"D...De...Demons!"

Ultimately, it was the Grandmaster of the Order of the Red Dragon who gave the order to charge through the explosive fire and attack the enemy position!

"We have no choice. We must charge the enemy! If God is with us, we will prevail! If not, I will see you all in heaven!"

After saying this, the Grandmaster charged forward with his retinue of knights, inspiring the rest of the army to do the same. Only Lawrence sat back, petrified in fear. He watched his army rush forward as fast as they could to cover the distance, but no matter how far they ran, the distance was too great, and the number of shells that dropped upon them continued to batter away at their ranks. By the time his army reached the enemy's position, its numbers would be quartered from one hundred thousand men to twenty-five thousand.

Heimerich gazed in the distance through his binoculars and witnessed the spectacular sight of the explosions batter away at the Crusader army. With every barrage, hundreds of men were turned into meat paste, and yet they still charged forward.

Eventually, their momentum slowed as the heavily armored men became tired and slugged as they marched through the artillery fire. Though their hearts and minds were filled with zeal, their bodies could not handle the excessive exercise.

Once the enemy passed the 12 kilometer mark, the 7.5cm FK 25 guns among Heimerich's forces opened fire, unleashing even more artillery upon the enemy ranks. Through the binoculars, he witnessed the heavily armored Knights blasted to bits by fiery explosions. The blood-curdling screams mixed with the zealous war cries and the thunder of artillery were like a symphony of war.

Still, despite their losses, the enemy continued to march forward. Their willingness to die for this Canal was admirable in Heimerich's eyes, and because of that, he did not unleash what few chemical weapons he had available to them. Rather, giving these men a chance to die with glory.

Eventually, a lake of blood and entrails was left on the pathway to the canal. Three-fourths of the Crusader army was thoroughly wiped out by the time they arrived in range of the German defenders' machine guns. Heimerich immediately gave the order to the heavy machine guns to open fire on the enemy's position.

"Give them hell!"

The enemy was now four kilometers away, and despite being too far to accurately aim, it was not a problem for the MG 25s which loaded the 7.92x57mm belts into their guns and chugged away randomly towards the general direction of the Crusader Army.

Berengar had commonly referred to this gun as the devil's paintbrush, which was a nickname given to the weapon in his past life, and finally Heimerich understood why. Through a combination of artillery and machine gun fire. The remaining fifteen thousand men were cut down before they could even step foot in the no-man's-land. Painting the desert landscape of the Sinai Peninsula red as they did so.

While Lawrence had stayed behind and run away in fear. The Grand Master of the Order of the Red Dragon continued to march forward, despite the weary state of his steed. As a man who had tried to understand and replicate German firearms for years, he was truly astounded and terrified of how much he had underestimated the German Army.

He gazed in horror as the English and Welsh forces were ruthlessly slaughtered around him. The continuous echoes of machine gun fire erupted in the air, and the men among his ranks who were now drudging through the sand fell to the floor lifeless after being stricken by the spray and pray of the enemy forces.

The English and Welsh Knights who had survived until this point screamed in terror as their horses were struck by stray bullets, and their armored shredded. It was as if the plate armor they wore was made out of wet tissue paper, because the bullets went right through it, and out the other side. Multiple bullet holes found their way through every man's body as more and more men fell to the ground, dead on the spot, or, if they were unlucky, bleeding out slowly.

It was a massacre the likes the Grandmaster had never seen, and his army had not even gotten close to the enemy's position. He cursed the Pope's name out loud as he witnessed his men blasted and shredded apart by artillery and machine gun fire alike.

"Julius, you crazy bastard! What have you done? You have condemned us all to the depths of hell! What kind of devil have you provoked?"

Immediately after saying this, a stray bullet penetrated through the Grandmaster's forehead and out the other side, killing him on the spot. His lifeless body slumped off the side of his horse and fell into a pile of bodies that would act as fertilizer to the sands of the Sinai Peninsula. The Germans continued to open fire until not a single enemy soldier was left standing.

Only after tens of thousands of rounds had been fired, and thousands of artillery shells, did the Germans cease their fire. Gazing in awe at how easy it was to wipe out an enemy army of hundred thousand men. Heimerich shook his head in disappointment as he voiced his complaints aloud.

"His Majesty never should have sent so many of my men to this desolate region. In a single battle, I have eliminated the enemy completely. I can only imagine the senseless slaughter that is occurring on the borders of the Empire right now... Or perhaps this was his intention all along?"

With this, one tenth of the Crusader Army was wiped out before they could even return to Europe. King Lawrence was in the wind, where he ended up, and what he did for the remainder of his life nobody knew. They just assumed he was killed in action with the rest of his army. After all, too many of their corpses were unrecognizable.

In reality, the King of England was so terrified by what he had witnessed that he had abandoned his crown and fled to the Arabian peninsula where he married a bedouin woman and assimilated into their tribe. Nobody in the west would ever hear from him again.