Chapter 18: Irish Attack

“To conquer, we must destroy our enemies. We must not only die gallantly; we must kill devastatingly. The faster and more effectively you kill, the longer you will live to enjoy the priceless fame of conquerors.” – George S. Patton.

Rome, Papal States. May 1072

Pope Alexander prayed to God and thanked him for the divine intervention. The Papal invasion of Sicily had been off to a bad start, with the local Muslim forces meeting the Papal troops on the beaches near Messina. The only reason Papal troops were not driven back into the sea was that many of them were now hardened veterans and the NCOs knew how to handle troops armed with firearms. It had been a slugging match as the Papal troops fought for every meter of sand.

The Battle for Messina took four days, but in the end, the Papal forces were victorious. Casualties had been horrendous, with Papal forces losing 3,000 dead and wounded while Sicilian troops lost 2,700 dead and wounded. In one battle, the pope lost roughly a quarter of his army, while Sicily lost a third of theirs. The plan had been to land at Palermo, but the Papal fleet was too weak to guard the transports properly.

No sooner did the Papal forces get a foothold on Sicily than the Sicilian troops started pressing hard. The papal forces were slowly being pushed back into the sea when the most miraculous miracle happened: the Sicilian troops withdrew and routed. They had received news the British had invaded western Sicily and were looting the countryside. Many Sicilian troops only wished to return home to protect their families, so they deserted.

The Papal forces were under the pope himself and didn’t dawdle. As soon as his position was secure, Alexander marched overland, and by 1 May, Palermo was in his hands. With the city of Palermo in his hands, resistance plummeted, and the spoils of war filled Alexander’s coffers. Making Palermo’s capture more important, Papal troops captured Ibn al-Ba’ba, which cut the head off the snake of Sicilian resistance.

With the western third of Sicily devoid of troops, Papal forces quickly swept through the area, and the populace welcomed the troops as the troops helped keep order, which had deteriorated rapidly after the British left.

Pope Alexander wasn’t blind to the irony of one of his sworn enemies helping him conquer Sicily. He and everyone in the army knew if it hadn’t been for the British, Papal troops would have been pushed out of Sicily again. Once again, British troops had saved the pope.

Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. May 1072

The lack of maps was killing the German advance into Poland, making the use of cavalry more critical. If it weren’t for the cavalry, the army would be blind, deaf, and dead. Thanks to the region’s lack of roads, many days, the army barely marched 20 kilometers. Behind the army, engineers used horse-drawn construction equipment and black powder to build a rail network. Rail was preferred over a road network because it was much faster and could carry more significant amounts of freight and passengers. Roads were only used to connect small towns with nearby rail stations.

Slowly, the army marched to Urbs Gyddanyzc, Gdańsk in Luke’s world, and Danzig to the Germans. It took four weeks to get there; the region’s forest and swamps had slowed the army to a crawl. By the time the German Army reached Urbs Gyddanyzc, the Polish and pagan defenders had improved the fortifications to the point where they couldn’t be taken by assault. Thanks to the non-existent roads, the Germans had no siege artillery; it was far to the rear. With no alternatives, the army dug in. General Roon ensured they had contravallation fortifications to protect the besieging army against counterattacks.

With no gunpowder artillery available, General Roon set out to defeat the Polish defenders the old-fashioned way. His army engineers soon began constructing battering rams, and while the engineers were busy, army marksmen were picking off the defenders. Every day, 10-15 Polish defenders were killed by marksmen, further eroding the defenders’ morale.

The actual moment when the defenders’ morale was crushed was when they tried to sally out and break through the German lines. With extended reach, German musketeers shredded the Polish Army, killing or wounding approximately 75% of the troops who sallied out. When the survivors limped back into town, the citizens stared at the soldiers with open mouths. With the army defeated it was only a matter of time before the town fell.

To the north of the city, the German Navy cut off trade or escape by sea. The German Navy was a recent invention, with this being their first test. The fleet consisted of small ships with two masts and a single row of cannons down both sides of the ship. To Luke, they would have been considered brigs or sloops-of-war. However, since the Polish only had a few lightly armed merchant ships, the German vessels swept them from the sea.

On 15 May, the battering rams were finished, and assault troops surged forward under constant musket fire. With most defenders dead, the assault troops quickly breached the walls, and the city fell in an hour. General Roon had a surprise for his troops when he forbade looting, pillaging, raping, or burning. Troops caught disobeying were crucified. The city was to be annexed into the Holy Roman Empire, and Henry IV didn’t want his newest subjects to hate him from the start. After the city’s surrender, General Roon had the army settle down until supplies could catch up. Having just marched through the area, General Roon knew it would take a while until trains connected Danzig with the rest of the Holy Roman Empire.

Paris, France. May 1072

Philip’s plans to send Bertha to York to have their child went out the window when the child decided to arrive earlier than expected. This meant Bertha would have to stay in Paris to give birth, making Philip extremely nervous. Everything depended on the child being healthy. By the grace of God, Bertha gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Louis IV on 10 April 1072.

With the birth of a healthy boy, Philip’s throne was secured. Now, Philip could fully focus his attention on rebuilding France. Meanwhile, Bertha concentrated on securing the best care possible for Louis.

The first area Philip needed to rebuild was infrastructure. French infrastructure was still a wreck, from lack of funding under Guiscard and the British destruction of everything. Philip knew he needed money and engineers to rebuild, but he had no money, and most of the pre-war engineers were dead or had fled.

If the lack of money and talent wasn’t bad enough, the lack of labor added to the problem. During the famine the previous winter, approximately 25% of the population of northern and central France died. The farmers needed seeds to plant so the famine wouldn’t continue into the following year. Many rural folks had taken to trapping wild boar, eating it fresh or salting it for later. With the numbers of wild boar still high, this aided the rural folks greatly. If they had extra salt pork, they sold it to city dwellers, allowing wealth to flow into farmer’s pockets.

To deal with the multitude of huge problems, Philip took a page from Luke’s playbook and broke the huge issues into many smaller ones. Philip could then focus on solving one or two smaller problems at a time. It would take longer to solve the problems, but it would make solving the enormous problems possible.

Niðaróss, Norway. May 1072

With spring returning to northern lands and her throne secure, Queen Ingegerd pushed to resume her father’s offensive against the various Scandinavian tribes East and North of Norway. Ingegerd was tired of the tribal warfare on the frontier. Using her rebuilt army and navy, her forces began moving up the east coast of Sweden. The navy made resupply much easier since the road network was non-existent outside Norse-controlled areas, and the thick forests were impassable to large groups.

Ingegerd knew it would take years to subdue the natives, but at the moment, she had time. As her army advanced, other teams would advance behind them, building a road and rail network. Like the Holy Roman Empire, all the Norse railroad supplies came from Britain. Norway would send iron ore to Britain, where it would be turned into steel. Once the iron was steel, it would be shaped into rails and engines before being returned. For this work, Britain was paid handsomely in gold and silver. The Norse tried to build rails out of iron but quickly found them brittle, especially in winter. Iron rails would work for smaller engines, but the large British steam engines destroyed iron rails.

Sunnifa’s project was also starting to bear fruit. She had found several prospects for Ingegerd’s husband in Niðaróss, especially among the city’s remaining gunsmiths. There were several eligible men Sunnifa was investigating. She figured she would find one for Ingegerd and take one for herself. Sunnifa’s task was easier because she and Ingegerd had the same taste in men.

Dublin, British Ireland. May 1072

Toirdelbach Ua Briain lay hidden under some brush as he watched the British around Dublin. So far, he had been watching for almost a week, and they hadn’t shown any indications they suspected an imminent attack. At the moment, he watched a company of British troops drilling in the fields around Dublin.

Watching the British march in unison, Toirdelbach was jealous. His army wasn’t nearly as impressive. He wouldn’t have attempted an attack if he didn’t have such a powerful army at his back. His initial estimates of numbers had proven to be accurate, and he now headed an army of just under 40,000 with 3,300 professional troops.

The only thing that bothered Toirdelbach was his foremost spy in York had gone silent. He would have been more worried if he had known what had happened, but there were other reasons for a spy to be silent besides being caught.

After watching for most of the day, Toirdelbach slipped away, satisfied he had numerical superiority. All he had left was to rally his troops and review the final plans with his commanders. The Irish camp was 15 kilometers from Dublin, deep in a forest. Toirdelbach wanted the camp there so there would be no chance the British would discover where his troops were assembling.

Once back in camp, Toirdelbach met with the other Irish kings and clan leaders in his tent. There were 20 men around the tent listening to Toirdelbach as he briefed them on what he had found. After reviewing everything they knew, Toirdelbach and the other leaders sat at a map and reviewed plans. The Irish would hit Dublin along four axes: north, northwest, southwest, and south. These attack directions were along the main roads; the Irish didn’t want to worry about landmines like the Welsh. Toirdelbach would send a few of his men with every attack group to keep everyone in line.

In line with Toirdelbach’s orders, there were no fires that evening as troops began moving out. Everyone had to be in place by daybreak. The Irish knew they would only get one chance. Since Toirdelbach would be starting from his present position, he napped for a few hours.

Soon, it was time for Toirdelbach to wake up, and Áed woke him. Toirdelbach took a few minutes to wipe the sleep out of his eyes before standing and having Áed help assemble his armor. Toirdelbach would go into battle looking like a king instead of the barbarian British who hid their officers in the ranks. To Toirdelbach and the other Irish nobles, those officers might as well hide because they were not real officers anyway since British officers came up from the ranks.

Toirdelbach stepped out of his tent and looked at the other men readying themselves. They were full of confidence, confidence in the plan, in their equipment, and in their king. Toirdelbach gave the order, and the men began to assemble at their starting point. Since Toirdelbach commanded the southwestern attack, the men wouldn’t have to deal with the sun directly in their eyes. They were close enough to British lines that Toirdelbach didn’t give a speech as he didn’t want the British to hear the cheering. To help keep the element of surprise, none of the men were allowed to wear any equipment that made noise. Everything that rattled had to be padded or left behind.

Silently, the Irish advanced, slipping through the trees. They all knew that making any noise might alert the British and make their attack much harder. By daybreak, the men were in their starting positions and eager to go. Messengers confirmed the other columns were ready, so Toirdelbach gave the order.

Again, silently, the men moved forward, but at the front of the column were the few Irish musketeers. Their job was to neutralize the British outpost before they could alert the town they were under attack.

The first outpost the Irish came to didn’t seem to have any clue hostile forces surrounded them until the musketeers opened fire. Three of the four soldiers fell without even raising their rifles. The fourth one, though, ducked behind the waist walls of the tower. The Irish didn’t know that inside the walls was a 10mm thick sheet of steel, which would stop their slow-moving musket rounds. From inside, the fourth soldier could send a message to the town using the telegraph that equipped every outpost.

Once the message was received, the soldier, knowing he would be killed anyway, began lobbing grenades out of the tower. These wreaked havoc among the Irish troops, many having never been exposed to explosives. As soon as the Irish retreated, the British soldier popped up and started firing his rifle. He could keep his body behind cover since he didn’t have to stand and reload.