“Franz, it’s been several years since we last met, hasn’t it?”
“Your Highness, thank you for providing the navy with such important intelligence, and for enabling the officers and men to render such great service!”
That evening, in a former Belgian royal estate within the city of Antwerp, the commander of the German Sixth Army, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Duke Rupprecht, held a grand reception and victory banquet on short notice.
The guest of honor was, of course, General Hipper, who had just returned in triumph. The moment the two sides met, they exchanged greetings with great warmth.
Hipper had once served as the duke’s adjutant, so they were already quite familiar with each other.
However, in order to keep their discussions confidential, Duke Rupprecht had deliberately arranged today’s reception and celebration as a cocktail party, so that everyone could move about freely instead of sitting around a long table to talk.
The duke had the other staff officers receive the various meritorious captains, while he himself called over only Rear Admiral Hipper and Lieutenant Lelouch, who was serving as a temporary liaison officer between them.
The three of them hid away in a corner of the room, drinking cocktails and chatting while eating roast squab and lamb stewed in red wine. Lelouch, being the lowest in rank, even had to pour wine for the generals.
The duke first took out a document and pushed it in front of Hipper.
As soon as Hipper saw the cover, he hurriedly stood at attention and saluted before solemnly opening it.
“In view of General Franz von Hipper’s merits in the Battle of Ostend, he is hereby enfeoffed as a hereditary knight of the Kingdom of Bavaria…”
This meant that from today onward, Franz von Hipper would have to change his name to Franz Ritter von Hipper. (Franz Ritter von Hipper—the extra “Ritter” was the inserted title added after being enfeoffed as a hereditary knight.)
Hipper was so moved that tears welled in his eyes.
Although a hereditary knighthood was not especially high, it was already the limit for a title earned through military merit. The ranks above it—duke, marquis, count, viscount, and baron—could only be obtained through bloodline.
Lelouch, standing at the side, thought to himself: In history, Hipper seemed to have only been granted a hereditary knighthood by the crown prince after covering the main force of the High Seas Fleet during the Battle of Jutland. From the looks of it, because he has rendered great service ahead of schedule, he’s been ennobled a year and a half early…
Hipper wiped his eyes and hurriedly pledged his loyalty in private. “Your Highness! If your army has any need for my cooperation in the future, I will do my utmost. It is all for the empire; this is only what I ought to do.”
His wording was very cautious. He said “your army,” meaning that he would only exert himself for the duke’s Sixth Army, or at most also for the future Eighth Army, which would likewise belong to the Bavarian faction.
As for the other five armies controlled by those Prussians, Hipper had no intention of giving them any special treatment.
Moreover, he was also very clear in his heart that this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The duke definitely had another intelligence network in his hands, and an extremely efficient one at that, which could help him seek advantage, avoid harm, and grasp the enemy’s situation. Thus, working for the duke would certainly also allow him to achieve merit for himself. It was mutually beneficial.
After Lelouch’s matchmaking this time had produced a win-win cooperation between the army and navy, this secret cross-service channel of cooperation and communication within the Bavarian faction could be considered established.
Seeing General Hipper thump his chest and make such assurances, Lelouch tactfully refilled all three of their glasses with champagne.
Then this strange combination of a duke, a rear admiral, and a lieutenant raised their glasses and drank together.
After they finished their wine, the duke patted Hipper on the shoulder again. “Still, this time you did, after all, ‘disobey orders and act on your own.’ I’ve already urgently entrusted someone to sound out the higher-ups at the Naval Ministry. Although you sank four enemy pre-dreadnoughts, in order to avoid losing face, those above still have to reward and punish clearly.
“I estimate that you can be promoted to vice admiral, but it probably won’t be this year. It may have to wait until after the year-end review. By then, the storm over your disobedience will have passed as well. The Blue Max won’t run away either, but that too will have to wait until after the new year.
“I was also afraid you would feel wronged. Since the promotion and medal cannot be fulfilled immediately, I’m fulfilling a title for you first. Everything is for the sake of keeping the intelligence confidential. The act we need to put on still has to be performed properly from beginning to end. This will also help the Britannians misjudge our internal situation, making them mistakenly believe that factional struggles and grudges within our Naval Ministry are very intense.”
“I can understand all of this. In any case, it will soon be November. There are only two months left this year. Being promoted to vice admiral at the beginning of next year is already very good,” Hipper said, indicating that he could fully accept it and would not harbor any resentment.
After the duke had reassured Hipper, he immediately turned to Lelouch. “Lieutenant Lelouch, this matter was all thanks to your planning and your coordination in the middle. However, much of this cannot be brought into the open. For the sake of confidentiality in intelligence work, I will find another pretext to promote you.
“In the next few days, I will first transfer your affiliation from army headquarters to the 12th Division, and you will also return to the front-line troops at Ostend. There, you will put on a show and participate in some basic-level defensive fighting. Once there is a pretext, Karl will immediately promote you to captain first.
“After some time, Karl will step forward again and give you another mission. As long as you perform well, you can go through the regular promotion recommendation process and submit it to army headquarters for approval. Before that, do not publicize to outsiders that you know me.”
Many achievements in intelligence and plotting could not see the light of day for the time being.
Previously, the duke had only met Lelouch once at the airport when Lelouch flew overnight to Wilhelmshaven, but he clearly hoped that in the future there would be a suitable opportunity to “formally” get to know Lelouch—preferably after he rendered another service, with his younger brother Major General Karl publicly recommending him.
In that case, Lelouch’s record would also stand up better to scrutiny in the future. Even if he were noticed by Britannian spies, it would not be easy to discern useful information.
Lelouch could completely understand this concern and immediately said there was no problem.
“Thank you for Your Highness’s appreciation. Being able to be promoted to captain first is already very good. I merely wonder what arrangements there will be next for the unit I am in?”
The duke subconsciously looked left and right, confirming that there were no outsiders. He was not stingy about privately giving a few pointers.
“If the Britannians insist on regaining the field and saving face, attacking to the death, then Nieuport and Ostend still cannot be held in the end—although Hipper sank four of their pre-dreadnoughts, as long as the enemy is willing to pay the cost, they can transfer even more ships over, and even have Beatty conveniently blockade the Antwerp estuary for a few more days.
“But those are all minor issues. We have no need to obsess over the gains and losses of a single city or place. That coastal strip temporarily no longer has much strategic value. Now General Headquarters has noticed that, with the flood the Belgian army released before its destruction, many low-lying areas in northwestern Belgium will remain waterlogged for a long time.
“On terrain like that, it will be extremely difficult to launch another decisive offensive. Whoever attacks will suffer. But on this last piece of Belgian territory, there is one exception, and that is the city of Ypres, now occupied by the Britannian Expeditionary Force.
“Ypres is one of the few highland cities in western Belgium. The Britannian Expeditionary Force is continuously strengthening its defenses there and committing more troops. In the foreseeable future, an enemy salient will form there, wedged into our lines.
“So the empire is preparing to plan an operation of penetration and cutting off, bypassing those low-lying flooded areas and completely severing the high ground around all of Ypres!
“Of course, all of this is still in the initial preparation stage and has not been completely finalized. If we can truly accomplish this, we will be able to achieve three strategic objectives.
“The first is that we will be able to completely occupy all the remaining territory of Belgium—although the Ypres Salient accounts for only five percent of Belgium’s total area, it is still Belgium’s last territory. King Albert, who escaped earlier, is there now as well. In short, taking it will have major political significance.
“Second, the French army on the Western Front is already very exhausted. In the previous phase of their counteroffensive, at least more than two hundred thousand men died before they pushed all the way back from Paris. So the French army has already begun to gradually hand over the northernmost section of the line—that is, the portion centered on the Ypres Salient and close to the Channel—to the recently arrived Britannian Expeditionary Force.
“Including the Dunkirk and Calais areas where there are still French troops now, they will all be handed over to the Britannian forces to defend. Therefore, as long as we can cut off the Ypres Salient, we may be able to attract the main force of the Britannian Expeditionary Force into defending it to the death, and in the end annihilate the main force of the Britannian army here!
“Lastly, as long as we take this salient, the empire can straighten out its defensive line on the Western Front, save a large number of troops filling the line, and convert them into mobile reserves.
“So the General Staff has recently been planning to redraw the defensive zones. In a few days, our entire Sixth Army will be transferred back to the southern side of the Ypres Salient, while Grand Duke Württemberg’s Fourth Army will all be transferred to the northern part of the salient.
“When the time truly comes for a strong assault, it will be these two armies of ours that take responsibility. You, boy, have plenty of clever ideas. When you return to the front line, you can also think more about whether there are any tactical-level aspects that can be optimized. Perhaps they can be used during the general offensive.”
Out of trust, Duke Rupprecht summarized the approximate strategic arrangements to follow.
If it had been another subordinate, he would not have said so much. But Lelouch always had strange and brilliant ideas that could bring him advantages, so giving him an early outline could be considered beneficial and harmless.
Lelouch also immediately declared that once he returned to the troops, he would quickly integrate with his new comrades and think of suitable solutions based on local conditions.
Once the serious matters were finished, the few of them drank another glass. The duke still had other generals to entertain, so he went off on his own, leaving only Hipper and Lelouch to drink some more.
Hipper was rather reluctant to part with Lelouch, who was about to return to the army, and pulled him along to toast a few final glasses.
“Looks like the fact that your brain works well is already known to both His Highness and General Karl. Every one of them comes to you to check for gaps and fill in the omissions. We can also be considered to have worked together for a while. Before you leave, have you thought of any suggestions for optimization that you can give us in the navy?”
Lelouch also knew that if he did not reveal a little substantive material today, Hipper would probably not be satisfied.
Fortunately, as a transmigrator, he knew more than enough military common sense. Having fought a naval battle together for two or three days, he did indeed have some thoughts.
So he straightforwardly gave Hipper two points for free. “Time was too tight, and I didn’t observe that many problems, so I’ll mention two.
“First, the actual combat speed of our capital ships is all slightly slower than Britannian vessels of the same class. I saw that the enemy no longer carries anti-torpedo nets during cruising operations, only installing them in port to prevent sneak attacks. Yet we still hang nets while underway. This affects speed and flexibility far too much, and it’s not of much use. Hurry up and remove them all.
“Also, the empire’s destroyer technology and torpedo technology are truly out of step with the times. These plans are all products of ten years ago, or even of the era before dreadnoughts appeared. At that time, gunnery did not hold such a great advantage over torpedo attacks. The French army was also misled by this ‘torpedo victory theory,’ which was why they thought of building a green-water navy.
“In the future, the accuracy advantage of gunnery will become greater and greater. According to this trend of development, torpedoes will gradually transform from core decisive-battle weapons into tactical auxiliary weapons—unless a new, epoch-making torpedo delivery platform appears, only then might this be reversed.
“And so-called tactical auxiliary weapons are mainly for intercepting enemy pursuit and disrupting enemy formations. Or, like last night, for finishing off immobilized capital ships from long range.
“In that case, the speed of the torpedo is not so important. The empire should change its thinking. Under existing conditions, it should develop torpedoes that are relatively slow but save fuel and are not easy to detect in advance, while greatly increasing their maximum range. With this kind of torpedo, one does not seek to ‘hit whoever one aims at,’ but only to deliver an ultra-long-range finishing blow and gamble on a lucky kill. This can also let torpedoes continue to make use of their remaining value for a few more years.
“In addition, capital ships now under construction should all have their torpedoes canceled in the future. Even if doing so only saves a little tonnage, optimizes the lines of the surface hull a bit, and improves system reliability, that would be good. It would still be better than installing useless junk.”
Hipper drained the last of the wine in his cup and seemed to fall into thought.
These principles were things he himself had vaguely realized as well; he simply had never organized them comprehensively from such a macro perspective.
The defensive effect of anti-torpedo nets was indeed poor—better than nothing at most. But once they were hung, they generally caused warships to lose two to three knots of speed. That price was still far too obvious. With the test of this actual combat experience, it was indeed time to push the High Seas Fleet to remove the nets ahead of schedule. (In the original history, by 1915, the navy also realized this problem and gradually removed the nets while in combat sailing conditions.)
And in recent years, the rate of progress in artillery and fire-control technology had also been much faster than the progress in torpedo technology.
The era when torpedoes truly slaughtered all before them was actually from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. At that time, beyond five kilometers, main guns might completely fail to hit accurately, and torpedo craft could easily withstand gunfire and close to within torpedo range.
But after the dreadnought era arrived, the space for torpedoes to play a role was indeed becoming smaller and smaller.
Once main guns could accurately hit at ever greater distances, torpedo craft could not even charge to a position where they could launch torpedoes. The precise strike capability of torpedoes thus lost its meaning.
Of course, if they were torpedoes for submarines, considering that submarines could secretly approach very close to the enemy before suddenly launching a sneak attack, torpedo speed was still a very useful metric.
But for torpedoes used on future surface vessels, perhaps they really ought to change the direction of their efforts.
Capital ships should also comprehensively remove plans to install torpedoes.
“I will consider these things, but the navy higher-ups may not necessarily listen to me. To solve this matter, we still need naval weapons factories that we ourselves can control.
“We are all pure soldiers with no money, so we can only count on the Bavarian royal family and see whether His Highness the duke is interested in finding money to invest.
“Moreover, as for those capital ships currently under construction, who knows whether the empire will still invest enough resources to complete them on schedule. Right now, those army people are fighting far too fiercely over steel and other resources. In fact, the shipyards are often only operating at half capacity. Still, I will push forward the plan you raised to cancel torpedoes on capital ships.”
In the end, Hipper could only helplessly express himself in this way.
Considering that today was originally just a victory reception, Lelouch giving these two suggestions for free was already quite a gain. Hipper therefore knew when to stop and accepted the favor.
Historically, the German army actually had the opportunity to finish building the “Bayern-class” battleships in 1916, and even had a chance to build the “Mackensen-class” battlecruisers before the end of the war. The reason they were not completed was not because the shipyards were slacking off, but because resources and steel had been too heavily seized and diverted by the Army General Staff.
Of course, on the other hand, resources really were tight during wartime, and everyone had to fight over them. In the original history, the navy’s performance was indeed lackluster and it had no particular military achievements, so it was only natural that its resources were seized.
In this life, if Hipper became a rising star in the navy and proved that he truly could fight, that the resources spent were worth it, perhaps the situation would be different.
In the future, they might also have to consider investing a little into propaganda and lobbying to better compete for resources. It was just that at present, there were no talents within the imperial navy who were skilled in this area.
……
After the reception ended, Lelouch slept soundly in Antwerp that night. When he woke again, it was already noon the next day, November 1st—
Ashamed though it was to say, this was also the first full night of uninterrupted sleep he had gotten on land since transmigrating to this world.
He had arrived on October 25th. Until the 27th, he had spent his nights in the artillery cellars of Nieuport, waking with a start from time to time to handle matters.
Later, on the night of the 28th, he had dozed for a few hours in the back seat of Immelmann’s airplane, chilled by the cold wind.
The next two nights after that were spent aboard Hipper’s battlecruiser Derfflinger. Although there had been no lack of time to sleep during those two days, the rocking of a warship could not compare to being on land after all.
Now he had finally returned to land. In the entire first week after transmigrating, he had only slept normally for one day. This life was truly too difficult.
No wonder he had overslept so badly.
Considering that he still had to return to his unit as quickly as possible, fulfill the matter of being promoted to captain, and have his position adjusted, he did not dare delay any longer.
After hastily eating a large meal that combined breakfast and lunch, he got into the BFW sedan temporarily assigned to him by His Highness the duke, which took him all the way back to the Ostend front.
Before he left, the duke had also privately gifted him a 1903-model silk bulletproof vest imported from America, encouraging him to work hard once he reached the front line.
As soon as he arrived in Ostend, he was received by Major General Karl, commander of the 12th Division, and once again saw Colonel List and the others.
The division commander specially arranged his handover of duties, having him symbolically follow the troops in defending for two days. When the time came, they would find a pretext and formally go through the procedures to promote him to captain.
Major General Karl also said to him earnestly, “Lieutenant Lelouch, the commander personally discussed your situation with me. Your future prospects are limitless, but you also cannot hide in the rear staff headquarters from the very beginning, offering plans and schemes. The empire still places great importance on the completeness of an officer’s record.
“While your rank is still low, you should make up a little of the record of a junior commanding officer. The recent defensive battles, as well as the possible counteroffensive against Ypres afterward, are both good opportunities. Moreover, I will not have you take part in especially dangerous missions.”
By this point, Lelouch was no longer averse to the risks of serving as a junior commanding officer. After all, those above appreciated him and would provide him with certain conveniences. His personal safety would definitely be much better guaranteed than that of other front-line officers.
He immediately accepted the goodwill and said, “Thank you, Division Commander. I remember an old saying from the East: ‘A prime minister must arise from the provinces and departments; a fierce general must emerge from the ranks.’ Command experience in front-line grassroots combat units will be a precious asset. I will cherish this opportunity.”
——
P.S. New book—please leave comments, keep reading, add it to your favorites, and vote. Thank you very much.
That’s it for the transitional chapter after the naval battle, taking stock of merits and rewards. Tomorrow we return to land warfare and the layout for training troops.