Nil admirari

Nil admirari is the 6th volume in the Youjo Senki Light Novel series.

Chapter I: Winter operation, "Limited offensive"
Tanya is worried about preparations for winter. Visha comments that the real threat is the spring mud. But for now winter is the main threat because the winter cold is making many of their equipment non-functional. Tanya decides to raid the Union supply depot and get their supplies and equipment.

Meanwhile Union leaders are debating whether the newly formed national committees are actually allying with the Reich. So Loliya argues for a probing attack to see how the two react, and to use an international force to do it as a propaganda measure.

Col Mikel (Union), Lt Col Drake (UK) meet privately for the first time. It turns out that Mikel can speak English fluently from his days as a Czarist officer. In their mutual hatred for political commissars they become friends.

Chapter II: Paradox
Outside the Union base Col Mikel and Lt Col Drake agree that there’s no military point to this attack but prepare to attack because the communist party ordered it and because Mikel asks Drake as a friend.

The Salamander Combat Group (SCG) receive news that Union forces are on the move. Tanya realizes that they are planning to attack a local village. Tanya also makes a political decision and heads out to defend the village. If she doesn’t then it will look like the Reich is insincere about helping ethnic minorities attain independence. So, she transmits on an open channel that the SCG is on its way to defend the village.

Mikel and Drake learn that the enemy headed their way is the Rhine’s Devil. Immediately they realize the need to retreat. But they also need to have something to show for their effort. Unfortunately the villagers resist the Union forces stubbornly. So Drake says the UK forces will take prisoners, and they capture a few villagers as “combatants.” At this point, Commissar Liliya Taneechika arrives so Mikel pretends that he wants to continue to attack, and Drake protests saying they need to withdraw. Liliya acts as a translator and “convinces” Mikel that they need to withdraw with their prisoners.

Mary Sue actually wants to stay behind and fight against the Rhine’s Devil. But her orders are to withdraw.

Loliya and others receive news that the Reich and the “separatists” have now formed a solid alliance. Solid enough that the Reich has handed over policing to local ethnic minorities and that the Reich’s forces are regaining mobility. This news is devastating to everyone but Loliya. Loliya explains to Uncle Joe that what he is going to do is to whip up nationalism inside the Union and get their nationalists to kill enemy nationalists so that in the end, only communists remain. The party will pretend to be the defender of nationalism.

Back at the Union base there’s a problem. Mary Sue transferred the prisoners to the Union because Mary Sue believed the idealistic commissar Liliya. The Union had abolished capital punishment so the prisoners should fare better in the hands of the Union rather than the UK (which hadn’t abolished capital punishment). Mary Sue believed it was the humanitarian thing to do. Drake had no intentions of actually punishing the prisoners and since he doesn’t trust the communist system at all, he has to argue against Liliya to get the prisoners back. Drake’s Christmas in 1926 was ruined.

Chapter III: Lull in the wind
Ildore Kingdom (Italy)’s Army General Igor Gusman wants to broker a ceasefire between the Reich and its enemies. Surprisingly the UK, the Free Republic, and the Union are willing to negotiate. The problem is convincing the Reich to stop fighting. In order to do this, General Gusman orders a large scale exercise on the Ildor-Reich border.

The General Staff initially panics when they hear that Ildore has mobilized troops. But Zettour and Ruderdorf realize that this is only an exercise. Unlike Dakia, Ildore army leaders know how weak their army is. So the General Staff recalls the SCG to the capital just in case it is needed against Ildore and sends Col Lehrgen to Ildore to ask what they want.

Tanya initially is surprised by the order to return to the capital. And this time, she doesn’t have high hopes that it will be a real vacation.

Chapter IV: Diplomatic deal
Col Lehrgen meets with Col Virgilio Calandro and Army General Gusman. He learns that Ildore is willing to broker a peace. Their price is the disputed territory between the Reich and the Ildore Kingdom. But they have set everything up so that Ildore and the US will jointly propose a grant cease fire settlement for all parties involved.

The UK intelligence service gets news that Lehrgen has gone to Ildore. They also have other information thanks to Ultra, their top secret code breaking program. The UK also receives a request from the Union. The Union wants a second front against the Reich. The UK can’t do a full scale invasion, but agrees that an assault on the Reich’s naval base with aircraft carriers will be done.

Tanya is in a restaurant at the capital along with the officers of the SCG. The newspapers report that the Reich has defeated a UK attack from the sea. She immediately discounts the news of victory. Since carrier-based planes must go back to their carriers, driving them away is not a victory. They are also deeply worried about the state of training. Lt Wusteman informs them that new mages undergo only 30 hours of combat flight training before they go to the front.

When the conversion turns to the topic of a possible ceasefire, Tanya explains to her men that it will fail. The Reich has won against the Republic, the Entente, and Dacia. A peace treaty with these three is possible. But the Free Republic, the UK, and the Union, will never agree to a ceasefire unless the Reich is willing to swallow some harsh terms. So, Tanya wants a ceasefire, peace to return, but for the moment she is skeptical.

Later Lt Col Tanya von Degurechaff and Major Weiss visit Lt Col Ugur to discuss possible future directions for the Reich. There Tanya explains her position that they should settle for peace, even if it means returning to prewar borders and no reparations. She even proposes a possible disarmament program for all sides. Both Ugur and Weiss disagree. So much blood has been shed, they can’t agree to Tanya’s proposal. They think its tantamount to surrender. Hearing this, Tanya is shocked. Ugur also points to Tanya that public opinion will not accept such an outcome. The public demands victory. But Tanya also explains, as Ugur knows full well, that the front lines are at a limit. The Reich’s war machine is slowly rotting away. She begs Ugur, to inform Zettour that war is but an extension of politics, and that a political solution is necessary.

Tanya also asks why the Reich is so clumsy in the war against the Union. Ugur explains that the Reich had no plans for an offensive war against the Union. In fact, it's borrowing ideas from the Republic's General Staff. Of how the Republic planned to conquer the Reich. Also creating national committees was all thanks to Zettour’s personal efforts. There was no overall planning for it or any back up from the politicians or the Army as a whole.

Chapter V: Portent
March 1926, Col Mikel and Lt Col Drake along with Mary Sue are sent to Scandinavia to fight with partisans there. Since the UK’s attack from the sea failed, (and Drake thinks that they failed, unlike Tanya) they need to do something else to ease the pressure on the Eastern Front.

They take a page from Tanya’s play book and board Union submarines to get close to Scandinavia and launch from the subs.

When the Reich’s forces receive news of Union troops showing up in Scandinavia, Tanya immediately recognizes that they copied her trick of launching from submarines. She also gets orders to go north to eliminate this threat.

Mary Sue had made a homecoming and wants to work with her fellow countrymen. Unfortunately, Mary Sue wants to do serious damage to the Reich, while the partisans are content with hit and run attacks. Drake has to convince Mary Sue, that she’s too eager, and that these partisans don’t want another massacre in a city.

Chapter VI: Structural problem
By April of 1926, the SCG has arrived in Scandinavia. And from Tanya’s perspective these partisans are a real pain. Because they only do hit and run tactics, they aren’t concentrated and it’s impossible to seriously hurt them. Moreover, chasing these partisans all over the place is exhausting her forces.

From there Tanya thinks of the overall situation and feels that the Reich is like Hannibal or Xiang Yu. It can win each military engagement. But it doesn’t know how to use the victories.

Meanwhile the General Staff receives news that Union forces are planning a massive spring offensive. Worryingly the Union army is now more competent and has higher morale. It went from an ideological army to a nationalistic army. Zettour and Rudersdorf consider unrestricted submarine warfare to cutoff Union supplies but immediately shoots that plan down. They won’t risk the US entering the war.

They also discuss Ildore’s ceasefire plan. They are not sure it will work. It’s a logical plan, but Zettour recognizes that it’s too rational. Because this war became total war, reason alone can't end it, they need to satisfy the public's emotion. The combatant countries have awakened this monster called popular opinion.

With little room to maneuver, they discuss the various possibilities and come to the simple conclusion that they must do what they can.

And so the SCG is shipped once again from Scandinavia to the Eastern Front.

That ends 420+ pages of vol 6.

Thanks to u/MSG_Johnny2 who posted the summaries at r/YoujoSenki.