Chapter 45, Battle of Wolfsboro
July 1, 1752. 1:05 PM, Wolfsboro, Great Plains, America. The first shot is fired by an American modern armor in what would become the greatist battle in French history. 7 minutes earlier (12:58 AM), Napoleon saw the units approaching, and sent out this distress call: "Generals, this is your commander, Napoleon. I am facing a force three times the size of my own, and would demand that all who are within a two hours ride come join me. That's an order. If I die, It all goes to my son. Thank you. This is Napoleon, over and out."
Immediatly, thousands of troops turned and headed for Wolfsboro. Before we get too into the battle itself, let me, your humble chronicler, explain the ground. Wolfsboro was built in 1225 on a sloping hill to commemmorate the attack of wolves on scouts there in 200 B.C. The hill itself is very small, but on the plains, is a huge landmark. Napoleon's troops occupied the high ground while the huge American force occupuied the lower.
As was said, the first shots were fired by the Americans. The ensuing onslaught was tremendous. The tanks of NApoleon hid on the broad streets of the towns and only appeared to suprise the enemy with a burst of fire. Some French SAM infantry marched around the Americans and sent a few regiments scattering, but they too were destroyed in the next few minutes of ther discovery.
The core of Napoleon's force, his modern armors, were taking heavy casualties on the upside of the hill, where American Howitzers were adept at hitting. After the battle raged for a half-hour, a phone call reached Napoleon, it was Lewes Brang in Washington. He said that the enemy had an army on the way to reinforce the already massive force. But, he also said that The two commanders, Gen. Smith and Gen. Scavader, absolutly hated each other, and to use this to his advantage.
Napoleon thanked him for the information and as soon as he hung up, he sent out another distress call. At 1:46 PM, a French army under Gen. Chamuelat arrived and helped hit Gen. Smith's force even harder. By 2:05 PM, the American line had not wavered for one moment, but Napoleon nearly lost his twice. The last thing he needed was another American army arriving within fifteen minutes!
Nevertheless, at 2:11 PM, Gen. Scavender arrived to reinforce Gen. Smith. The fighting had begun to intensify, and by half past two, the Americans had pushed their way into the heart of Wolfsboro. Napoleon was shooting at the howitzers, which had been reduced to six, when out of nowhere an enemy tank appeared. Napoleon saw it, but was too slow to react when the shell struck at the armor's core. French machinery is the finest ever made, and it proved its worth as it only dented the machine.
Napoleon recovered quickly from this unwelcomed shot, and fired his own battery back at the tank, which was promptly blown to bits. This little eencounter shook up Napoleon very badly, and before anyone could stop him, he rushed out of the armor, and into the streets where hand to handcombat was begining to take place.
A smile broke across Napoleons face as he saw the weapons of choice. As the French and Americans had run out of ammo in this very isolated part of town, they resorted to swords from two local sword stores. Napoleon was perhaps the finest swordsman in all of France, and because of which, he quickly withdrew his longsword he always carried with him, and jumped into the foray.
Forgetting the near-death incident with the tank only minutes before, he was quickly slashing away at the enemy. The sight of their 62 year-old leader fighting along side them made the French soliders cheer and fight harder. Before anyone could say 'hold on, let's have a fair fight,' Napoleon had cut down thirty or more soliders. Within ten minutes, all the Americans involved in the isolated incident lay dead or dying, with only two or three French casualties.At 2:51, his armor rounded the bend and pulled him out of the cheering soliders. "Back to shooting howitzers!" thought Napoleon.
At 3:01, Gen de Eunomphet arrived and put more pressure on the Americans. The soliders wielding swords had ammo by this time, and had gone back to patroling the streets for enemy drifters. Even till now,, prospects for the French lay dim. That is, until 3:39, when the Americans, in all their high-minded preparedness, ran out of ammo. So much had been expelled, some buildings had collapsed because their structural integrity had been weakened by the onslaught of the bullets.
Napoleon, seizing on this oppertunity, rushed at the line with all he had. Only six minutes later, at 3:45, the French themselves had run out of ammo. So, they left their tanks stay idle, and rushed at them with metal poles, swords, clubs, anything they had. Napoleon rejoined the unit he had fought with earlier in the day as they bore down against the Americans.
The uniform for the American solider consisted of a small, broad sword, not unlike the Gladius of the ancient Romans, while the French required no such weaponry be manditory dress. So, once again, the French fell to a disadvantage in the field. But, yet again, Napoleon made up for it with his presence on the field.
The skill of the 'sword-unit' as Napoleon started to call them was the deciding factor in the French victory that day. At 4:06 PM, the last of the Americans had been killed or fled the field back to the near-by city of Phoenix. The casualties for the French were: 50,000 dead, 17,000 wounded. American: 61,000 dead, 22,000 wounded. In total: 111,000 dead, 39,000 wounded. With 140,000 casualties, it was the bloodiest day of any war ever fought in history, beating out the battle of Borodino. Fought in 1532, it had 99,000 casualties between France, the Russians, and Aztecs.
After the battle, the 'sword-unit' was the only actively commissioned unit in the French army made up entirely of swordsman. It was also the most commended unitt in French History after that battle. It is also the most elite unit in the French army. After that bloody day, Napoleon was just ready to sleep a deep sleep.
(I agree! Next update within 8 days!)
P.S. This is easily the longest post I have ever had here! Yay me!