Isekai Tensei Soudouki - Ch. 49 - The Suffering Secretaries

[Scrwd]

Thanks a lot for the translations!
@Goldenzeal Most of armies back then don't have full plate, since making plates aren't an easy task. The wear Gambesons with plate covers, which are essentially layers of cloth that can stop blades and such.
@Bramia Then it would still be spending resources to remove the entrenchment. The best way to deal with trench warfare is mainly bombardments or armoured warfare, both of which are still not developed at all in this time.
But still, unless he intends to rush hot weapons development, trenches wouldn't be as effective as they could be. They will hinder both your retreating defensive line as well as the enemy, so unless you have the way to absolutely wreck the enemy as they traverse, all it'll do is just buy more time

 

[Antairan]

@ Goldenzeal As flawed as my knowledge is, I will try to answer your question.
Barb wire is an incredibly nasty thing, it can even disable tanks, let's not even talk about cars. Full-body plate armor has a lot of joints, like, A LOT, and the wires will get caught in those joints and coil around them if the person moves. Also, keep in mind that most plate armors had cloth in them on the inside as well as all the joints, otherwise the soldiers would get pretty bad rashes from using it, and cloth will get very tangled with the barbs, immobilising anyone unlucky enough. Summing up, Barb wire is dreadful and something you don't want to have to deal with, ever; even setting it up requires specialised skills.

As for trenches, they serve a triple purpose as far as I am aware of.
First, they are obviously used to serve as protection by keeping your soldiers or anyone out of the enemy's sight and weapons
Second, they make advancing incredibly dangerous for enemies, most trenches are quite wide and can't be jumped over, so you have to set up bridges or find alternate routes so as not to slow down your company and become sitting ducks for projectiles. Going down to the trenches also poses a great risk, and it's related to the third reason, but you don't know what trenches are "safe", there could be mines, booby traps, pits, as well as hidden enemy soldiers.
And third, they are made to confuse the enemy, since they can't see what's in the trenches, they never know where the enemy soldiers are, if it's a target or not, if the area can be used to proceed forward, or even if the objective is close or not, for all they know it could be far off in another direction.
The overall final objective is obviously to stall the enemy as much as possible and secure supply routes in order to keep advancing, waiting for an air raid to blow the other side up and make more trenches, taking more terrain for your side.

As for the arrows, they're mostly useless since trenches have a good view of what's going on on the field, so if there's an arrow volley, they can simply hide in the underground parts or use shields with more than enough time. Some trenches had additional moving parts in the front side, to make a metal cover with holes so you could peek at the field without exposing yourself, those could also be used to get shielded from mortars (though let's be honest here, they were probably blown away unless they deflected the mortar elsewhere), so arrows would be zero risk.

 

[Ravezta]

@Goldenzeal the simplest way to put it, it's annoying
You will be slowed down and lost the momentum, horses might be injured so cavalry charge will be pretty much impossible, while the enemy will keep attacking from safe distance
Also do you really wanted to use the most expensive force you have to pulling off the wire?

 

[Misticsan]

Has barbed wire been mentioned before? More than the trenches (which have been a staple of warfare for centuries), I'm more surprised by the wire's appearance in this setting. While barbed wire seems ubiquitous today, it wasn't invented until the second half of the 19th century.

 

[Goldenzeal]

@freelance
@Epicredeemer

Thanks for the info both of you.
Yes i have actually seen trenches in real life, not just on pictures.
As for the limited supply of plate armor only the first once need to have plate as it would break off the wire from the holdings, but yeah...
I did not consider the entanglement effect on people with full plate as i guess it's unlikely you would have time to remove it by hand in the middle of a warzone if it got stuck...

Full plate armor is surprisingly agile and don't limit your movement nearly as much as people think it does...
A well made armor is not much harder to move in then your everyday cloths, but it is too heavy and drains your energy alot so you are not going to be marching to war in it.
Becouse actually transporting the wepons and armor have allways been a huge problems for any type of army in any era.
That do not mean you cant march to a battle and equip it from a horse drawn wagon or other transport if you are the one attacking tho.
what i want to say is that you dont NEED horses in battle to use full plate armor effectively but it helps alot to have mounts.

As for how attacking into a trench works.... i have no idea how that works...
I know the high ground on a hill is an advantage because of easter defense and it making sword fighting drain less energy but a hill and a trench is verry diffrent so i don't think that applies xD

 

[Goldenzeal]

@Scrwd

Yeah one full plate armor took huge amount of resources but if your opponent is a whole kingdom is dont see the problem with having a few of them.
Only the first once would need plate armor to remove it.
I know what gambersons armor is, but thanks for the info, good to see someone who apresiates good old gambersosns.
Also love your profile picture 😘

 

[RC21]

@Goldenzeal From what I saw, they're not kingdom vs kingdom, but more like Territory vs Territory. Marquis Selvy, the one most zealous in attacking Mauricia, won't do full assault on Antrim knowing Cornelius may attack them in middle of that. So I wonder how much force Haurelia can really muster, if they can't defeat Cornelius alone 3 times in 10 years

TLDR: Attacking Antrim may not worth the resource and the hassle of doing that. Trench warfare with barbed wire is best for defensive warfare from what I know after all

 

[Kisato]

@boag what if it's an arquebus?

 

[Ironclad]

Well it'll stop cavalry and he can set up artillery placements.

 

[Mnuchinboo]

Oof we are so close to WW1 now boys and girls I can already feel it.

 

[Carjiga]

now to take the barb wire out and replace is with razor wire

 

[Kamelpov]

to beat that you need gas weapon or rolling artillery or armored breakthrough that can be done by using barrier magic or ghost one as alternative.

 

[Jozilla]

Zirco best girl

 

[musicfreak12]

How does trench warfare even work for melee-oriented combat like in this manga? It's literally sword vs sword, the defender ALSO needs to cross the wire and trench to close the gap because its a sword so its not really an advantage for the defender. It only works with a gun or artillery, I mean sure they can use a bow but then an arrow is slower than a bullet and the enemy soldier can just duck inside the trench when the arrow starts to rain.

They never mentioned gun or cannon do they? Explosive magic is not a thing too, so at this points, it just makes no sense (except when the MC just "remember" the technology of gunpowder and explosive)

 

[svnhddbst]

you use long spears, bows, and magic. or poison.

 

[jackty89]

Crossbows, Javelins,... they didn't say that the trenches and barbed wire are far apart

 

[Trident]

Agatha's brother seems like the kind of idiot that would betroth her to the lord of Antrim without asking and tell her through a letter.

 

[kwendy]

Was this supposed to be impressive? Weren't trenches exactly overruned in melee? You voluntarily giving your enemy advantage of elevation, you know. As for barbed wires - I don't think you can produce something that will withstand cutting tools, that are quite prevalent on freaking medieval battlefield. Not to mention wire would be trampled by infantry in metal armor wich is quite prevalent in that world.
Normal medieval field fortifications were efficient enough. Ah, and do you want to surround your whole border with entrenchments? Good thinking, french would be proud. Except french had the budget of whole country and they still failed.
Seriously, I admire that you managed to counter line infantry, Balud, but I have sad knews: enemy has no freaking line infantry >_<
Out of all isekai tropes, when progressor is praised like he did something genious it feels especially dumb.
Just introduce flush toilets or something - that would be something actually useful.

 

[Talith]

@kwendy The Maginot Line failed because they just ran around it through Belgium and the Netherlands. Here it seems that they have natural terrain preventing any such run around, so any advancing army has to go through the defense works he set up. They are vanguard territory, the most important thing for them to do is delay an enemy advance as much as possible until the kingdom responds; not to fight off the entirety of a foreign army themselves. The trenchworks most important role would then be to prevent enemy cavalry from having their way with the territory that open fields would allow. There are also the scout towers which will presumably have archers and possibly ballistae or small cannons overlooking the trenchworks so it's not just melee infantry stuck in a hole in the ground.

 

[Northern]

@kwendy
Except french had the budget of whole country and they still failed.
Because they didn't extend the Maginot Line around the whole Belgian Border. If the Germans hadn't the undefended Ardennes to zip through, La Guerre de Longue Durée tactics would have negated Blitzkrieg tactics.