After returning to the Ostend front and rejoining the combat troops.
Lelouch spent two or three days readjusting to life at the front.
He also took part in a few frontline defensive actions, earning a modest amount of “for show” merit—the so-called “for show” meant that these achievements were not, in themselves, enough to justify his promotion from lieutenant to captain. But since the people above all knew he actually had other accomplishments to his name, and that this was merely a formality, it did not matter.
Quite a few things had indeed happened during those two or three days.
For example, on the very night Lelouch returned, he learned that the town of Nieuport farther up the front had fallen once again—
The small town of Nieuport had once been captured by the French on the night of October 30, after the Britannian Channel Fleet carried out a ferocious preparatory bombardment. But in the latter half of the night, that is, in the early hours of the 31st, Hipper’s fleet destroyed those four pre-dreadnoughts, then left behind two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers to shell the French, allowing the German army to retake that stretch of ruins.
But on the eve of Lelouch’s return to Ostend, David Beatty, who had just pursued Hipper and bottled him up in the Antwerp estuary, received a temporary order from Britannia’s Naval Minister Warton. He was to take six still relatively intact high-speed battlecruisers and, on the return voyage, carry out another night of bombardment as well.
The Britannians had been holding in that breath so fiercely that they were willing to waste the barrel life of their new battlecruisers on a shore-bombardment mission. In that case, the German army ought to show the other side a certain amount of respect.
So in the end, Colonel List decisively withdrew aboard small boats. Leaving behind only another three thousand French lives, he allowed the enemy to retake the town without obstruction.
This was unavoidable, and there was no shame in it. After all, Nieuport had already been plowed over and shelled three times in succession by Britannian pre-dreadnoughts, German armored cruisers, and Britannian battlecruisers. Even the ruins had been blasted flat.
A mere small town only a few kilometers deep had been repeatedly plowed by three battle fleets. What virtue, what ability, had earned it such treatment? There had long since been no civilians and no living people left in the town.
After the town fell, the dozen or so kilometers of undefendable coastal road leading from the town to Ostend were also lost within a single day. The reason was likewise that Beatty’s battlecruisers lingered and refused to leave; whenever they saw anyone resisting, they closed in during broad daylight and fired directly to finish them off. There was simply no way to hold.
By the time Lelouch returned to his unit and entered the defensive fighting, Ostend had already become the foremost line of battle. He held the city with the troops for two days, went through the motions and earned a bit of merit, and then the higher-ups completed the procedure and promoted him to captain.
……
November 3, morning.
The headquarters of the 12th Division inside Ostend.
Major General Karl, the division commander, personally presided over the ceremony for Lelouch’s promotion and decoration.
“...In view of Lieutenant Lelouch’s outstanding performance in the battles of Nieuport and Ostend... the army group headquarters is hereby petitioned to promote Lelouch Hunter to captain and award him the Iron Cross First Class.”
A group of officers beside him applauded. Lelouch stood at attention and saluted. Major General Karl personally hung the medal on him and added a star to his shoulder board.
(Note: During the Second Empire period, uniforms did not have rank insignia on the collar. The different-colored cloth patches on the collar were merely used to distinguish branches of service, so rank was mainly identified by the shoulder boards. This is evident from old photographs. At the time, the style of clothing was still relatively close to old-fashioned nineteenth-century garments, and there were no small lapels suitable for attaching rank insignia.)
After the decoration ceremony was over, Major General Karl adjusted Lelouch’s post as well, first appointing him commander of the divisional reconnaissance company. The subsequent formalities and handover of duties need not be described in detail.
Once everything had been dealt with, Major General Karl dismissed the other officers and left Lelouch alone for a conversation:
“The higher-ups are preparing for the Ypres operation, but we will not enter the general offensive immediately. We still need some time to prepare. For now, the army group’s mission for our division is to hold Ostend for a few more days. Even if the enemy continues to send battlecruisers or pre-dreadnoughts to bombard us, we must grit our teeth and endure.
“Once the port of Blankenberge in the rear is fully prepared, this small city can also be abandoned temporarily. After we abandon it, our division will be pulled back to rest for a while, update our equipment, and summarize our tactical experience. When the time comes to storm the Ypres salient in the future, we will be transferred back to the front line.
“The original commander of the divisional reconnaissance company, Captain Andri, was seriously wounded by shelling at Nieuport. It has only been seven or eight days, nowhere near enough for him to recover. You were originally a wire-laying platoon commander in the army group’s directly subordinate communications battalion. Now that you have been assigned down to the division, there isn’t a suitable combat unit to place you in.
“It would be a waste of your talent to put someone like you in a regiment as an ordinary infantry company commander, so I am temporarily handing the divisional reconnaissance company over to you. A company directly under the division is a reinforced company to begin with, and a reconnaissance company also needs some personnel skilled in communications. Transferring you there is relatively appropriate.
“You have fought alongside those men before, so it should be easy for you to convince them. Just pay attention to placating the original backbone officers—after Captain Andri was wounded, some of them had been hoping for a battlefield promotion to take over his position. Now that you are being transferred there, it is inevitable that a few people will be disappointed.”
Lelouch hurriedly stated his position: “Please rest assured on that point. I will handle internal matters properly and ensure that the men accept me. However, I would still like to ask, if I may be so bold: the higher-ups are requiring us to hold Ostend for a few more days before retreating. What consideration is behind this? If it is purely to delay for time, it seems to have little meaning, and will instead only increase casualties under the enemy’s naval bombardment.”
Major General Karl said, “Of course it is not purely to delay for time—if another company commander asked, I would not answer. But you cannot be considered an outsider, and there is no need to hide it from you.
“The army group headquarters has already planned this out. As for Ostend, if the enemy’s battleships bombard it without regard for the cost, then holding it is impossible. The coastal defense fortifications here are not strong enough, and the previous coastal guns had a maximum caliber of only 210 millimeters. They cannot threaten the enemy’s battleships or battlecruisers.
“But if we withdraw another fifteen kilometers, to Blankenberge, which our army has already held firmly for many days, then we can ensure that we hold fast. The city there is larger than this one, and the coastal defense fortifications are stronger.
“In addition, our army occupied Blankenberge a full ten days earlier than we occupied Ostend. The railway between the local area and the rear has already been repaired. The Empire has already moved several large-caliber coastal guns from the Antwerp fortress, as well as super-heavy artillery transported from the rear, toward Blankenberge.
“So as long as we delay here for a few more days, we can buy enough time for the 305-millimeter coastal guns at Blankenberge to be installed and calibrated. When the time comes and the entire army withdraws there, the enemy’s battleships will no longer be able to pursue.”
Lelouch nodded. This reasoning was indeed correct.
If they simply retreated again and again without principle out of fear of enemy battleship bombardment, then there would be no end to it. Where would the retreat stop? Surely they could not abandon every port city that enemy battleships were capable of shelling.
But if they were merely striving to buy time and giving up one small port, while the next port behind it would soon have coastal defense guns installed that were sufficient to threaten battleships and bring the enemy offensive to a halt, then such a tactical abandonment was still acceptable.
Moreover, considering that Ostend was the place where the entire Belgian army had previously been annihilated, even if this place no longer held much significance for the German army—after all, the dumpling filling had long since been eaten clean and digested—
For Britannia, this place had to be retaken at any cost. After all, they had already lost four pre-dreadnoughts and a pile of auxiliary vessels for this objective. If they still could not take Ostend, the Royal Navy’s face would be utterly gone.
Relying solely on the earlier propaganda that they had “heavily damaged Hipper’s four battlecruisers” was not enough to support their “we won” narrative.
Because people within Britannia would also say, “Battle reports can lie, but the front line cannot.” They had to achieve a decisive change on the front itself and prove that “the Britannian army has once again planted its flag atop Ostend.” Only then could Britannia’s war propaganda department suppress the surging waves of public opinion at home.
Given the enormous difference in Ostend’s subsequent significance to the two sides—one side desperately wanted it, while the other did not want it quite so much—the best choice for the German army was to bleed the enemy as much as possible before abandoning it, conserving strength properly for the future.
“So that is how it is. I understand now. I will lead the divisional reconnaissance company and give it my all!” Lelouch accepted the mission and returned to his new unit.
With Ostend’s defensive strength, holding for three to five days would not be a problem.
(Note: The image above shows the expected changes in the control zones of both sides along the North Sea coast after Ostend is abandoned.)
……
A few minutes later, Lelouch returned to the headquarters of the divisional reconnaissance company and met his new subordinates.
They were called new subordinates, but in fact, quite a few of them were old acquaintances. It was only that their ranks had previously been higher than his.
After all, Lelouch had gone from corporal to captain in only ten days. It could be called a rocket-like ascent, to the point that his former superiors had all become his subordinates one after another.
Among these subordinate officers, the one most likely to be unconvinced was the former deputy company commander, Lieutenant Barak, who had already taken over for the seriously wounded Captain Andri and acted as company commander for a week.
Lieutenant Barak had even once thought that he would be directly promoted to captain on the front line and become the official commander of the reconnaissance company.
He also felt that the brothers of the reconnaissance company had indeed fought bloody battles throughout the defense of Nieuport. Whether or not they had merit, they had certainly endured hardship, and it was only right to promote some of the officers who had performed well.
But in the end, he did receive the rank promotion from lieutenant to captain, yet his post did not change at all. He was still made deputy company commander, while Lelouch was instead parachuted in to be company commander.
How could there be such logic under heaven! A single company was actually assigned two captains, and both the company commander and deputy company commander were captains!
Fortunately, before Lelouch arrived, a leader had already spoken to him privately, saying, “The divisional reconnaissance company is a reinforced company to begin with. Other companies have establishments of only a little over 240 men, while the divisional reconnaissance company has a full-strength establishment of 400 men. Assigning two captains to it is not excessive.” Only then did Captain Barak endure it.
Once Captain Barak had been settled, the others, who were lower in rank but had previously been above Lelouch, had even less to say.
Lelouch gathered all the officers under him and spoke with them sincerely, further familiarizing himself with their faces.
The deputy company commander, Barak, was an acquaintance. In addition, there were five platoon commanders, holding the ranks of lieutenant or second lieutenant.
Four of these platoon commanders were original officers of the cavalry reconnaissance company, and Lelouch was not very familiar with them. But he saw his old colleagues from when he had been in the army group’s directly subordinate communications battalion: Schweinsteiger and Klose.
Schweinsteiger had also been promoted by one rank and was now a second lieutenant, formally serving as commander of the 5th Platoon. Klose was a sergeant major, responsible for guarding the company headquarters.
In order to look after Lelouch and allow him to grasp control of the unit more quickly, the higher-ups had also taken great pains. The wire-laying platoon from the army group’s directly subordinate communications battalion, which he had previously been accustomed to leading, had also been merged into the 12th Division’s reconnaissance company on the front line.
Because replenishing personnel at the front was very difficult, the reinforced cavalry company that originally had a full establishment of four hundred men now in fact had not even two hundred left. Adding in the communications battalion’s wire-laying platoon barely brought them up to two hundred.
As for the personnel shortage in the army group communications battalion, that could be made up by recruiting and training new soldiers from the rear. At most, a few junior officers and noncommissioned officers would be transferred over to serve as the backbone.
At this point, the comrades Lelouch had seen when he first transmigrated ten days ago had, without exception, all become his subordinates. (Aside from Captain Andri, who was recovering from his wounds in the rear.)
……
P.S.: New book—please leave comments, keep following updates, add it to your collection, and vote.
This is a transitional chapter for changing maps, so the situation and the protagonist’s specific personnel transfer needed to be explained. Please don’t think it’s padding.
The second update this afternoon will start getting things moving.