When Lelouch returned to the rear at Blankenberge with the Stormtrooper Preparation Plan he had just drafted over the past few days tucked against his chest, he still felt a faint unease in his heart.
Before transmigrating, he had read plenty of transmigration novels. He knew that for many people who went back to the First World War, the opening move for climbing the army technology tree was to build tanks and sweep the battlefield.
After all, everyone on Earth could understand the advantages of tanks. Practicality was secondary; the key was that they lowered the comprehension cost for onlookers, making the war look spectacular and dazzling.
Of course Lelouch had considered building tanks too, but after careful thought, he had no choice but to set the idea aside for the time being.
For one thing, he had not transmigrated into an emperor, king, general, or minister, nor did he have vast military-industrial resources at hand, able to order his subordinates to do whatever he wanted.
When he arrived here, he had only been a corporal. Though he had won some promotions, as well as the trust of Bavaria’s crown prince, through strategic foresight and schemes,
there was a sequence to learning, and every profession had its specialties. That trust existed only on the level of strategy.
As for his vision and reputation in “guiding the direction of weapons and armaments development,” he still needed to build those from scratch.
He was not so arrogant as to think that his current self could rely on a few pages of proposals to make His Highness the Crown Prince take out several million marks and order the Bavarian engine factories to develop tanks.
So it was better to start with a few small things with lower R&D thresholds, short cycles, and quick results to prove himself.
That would also make it easier, when the time truly came to develop tanks, for him to better control the project and avoid making wedding clothes for someone else.
If he threw out the concept of tanks now, even if it succeeded, the initiative would not be in his hands. At most, he would earn credit for “making the suggestion.”
At the same time, there was an even more important reason: the upcoming Battle of Ypres truly had no use for tanks—because before the Belgian Army’s destruction, like a desperate dog leaping over a wall, they had blown up the dikes of the Yser Canal, releasing floodwaters and creating a vast muddy zone.
In the original history, over the following three years, the four back-and-forth meat-grinder battles between the German and British armies in the Ypres salient would all be fought in muddy conditions. Even after the British built tanks in history, they still failed to make them useful on this battlefield.
To fight in such a flooded, muddy region, what was needed was light equipment suited to maneuvering over complex terrain.
With the pitiful mobility of early tanks, the moment they were thrown into the Ypres battlefield, they would sink straight into the mire. They would be utterly useless.
So it was better to first work on some minor equipment improvements needed for stormtrooper tactics, earning a wave of credit and resources.
Tanks could wait until after this battle was over and they moved to some other battlefield.
Moreover, Lelouch was very clear that to win this war, it was not enough to deal with external enemies; internal problems also had to be resolved. Thus, he also had to develop and strengthen his own power.
Otherwise, if he ended up making wedding clothes for others and instead strengthened the prestige and power of Wilhelm II or those warlords among the Junker officer corps who did not treat the people as human beings, it would also increase the difficulty of internal purges in the future.
…
With such considerations in mind, Lelouch finally made up his mind. Taking his proposal, he sought an opportunity to request an audience with the army group commander.
Although he had withdrawn to Blankenberge with the 12th Division, it was still not easy to find Crown Prince Rupprecht in person to report matters to him.
That was because the 6th Army’s defense zone was quite large. Duke Rupprecht might be in Antwerp at the rear. Even if he was at the front, he might be in Zeebrugge or Bruges.
So Lelouch first asked Major General Karl, the division commander, and roughly explained his intentions.
Major General Karl made a few phone calls for him, then said, “Go directly to the coastal defense command here in the city. His Highness the Duke is there inspecting the defenses.”
Lelouch hurriedly thanked him, and Major General Karl considerately assigned him a car.
A little over ten minutes later, Lelouch was delivered to the coastal defense command.
The entrance was heavily guarded, with several MG08 heavy machine guns set up. Anyone who came would be stopped.
However, Lelouch was riding in Karl’s car, and the guard company commander recognized it as belonging to the Duke’s own younger brother. After checking his papers, he reported inside on his behalf.
A few minutes later, someone came out and led Lelouch in.
The guard company commander could not help but look askance. Just what was this captain’s background? The commander had previously instructed that today’s inspection involved an extremely confidential mission, and no one was to be received.
Lelouch turned through several bends and entered a sturdy underground tunnel area. Very soon, in an operations room, he saw Duke Rupprecht. To his surprise, even Rear Admiral Hipper, who had previously been trapped in the port of Antwerp, was present.
Seeing him, the Duke beckoned. “How did you find your way here? Do you have something important to report?”
Lelouch hurriedly handed over his plan. “I combined it with the experience from the fighting in Ostend these past few days and summarized some insights and ideas. They concern how to help our troops better coordinate infantry and artillery.
“Some of the concepts may also involve improvements to new weapons, so I wished to ask for instructions. I believe these improvements will be useful for the upcoming Battle of Ypres.”
“Is that so? You only went to Ostend for a week, and you’ve already come up with new ideas again? Good. I’ll read it when I have time in a while, and then you can explain it in detail.” The Duke glanced at it, then tossed the document onto the desk beside him for the moment.
Lelouch thought the Duke had other confidential and important affairs to handle. Feeling a little awkward, he wanted to withdraw.
The Duke also saw his hesitation and laughed heartily. “I did come here today to handle a secret matter, but you alone need not be kept in the dark—this matter also has to do with Franz. He wants to use this opportunity to verify again the conclusion you mentioned last time, that ‘the navy’s radio codes have already been broken by Britain.’”
Only then did Lelouch understand. No wonder Hipper was here as well. Curious, he turned to Hipper and asked, “Oh? May I ask how you intend to verify it, General?”
Hipper roughly described his plan. “I’ve been in Antwerp this past week. Since I was idle anyway, and those battlecruisers had more or less each taken one or two large-caliber shells earlier, they’re now undergoing secret repairs in the dockyards.
“I have already telegraphed headquarters in the rear, requesting that the Antwerp shipyard be expanded. I said my warships were seriously damaged, that the current shipyard lacks specialized repair equipment, and that the warships will be unable to move for at least half a year.
“In this way, David Beatty’s battlecruiser fleet and Britain’s Channel Fleet should relax their vigilance even further, believing our naval threat to be negligible.
“Then, since the coastal defense heavy guns here at Blankenberge have recently been installed and calibrated, I thought to ask His Highness the Duke to deliberately send several more urging telegrams to the rear, asking them to send additional construction crews and transport capacity, saying only that these coastal defense heavy guns have not yet been completed—but are close—and that the rear must urgently dispatch manpower.
“I believe that if this telegram is intercepted by the enemy, they will certainly be unable to resist the temptation. They will seize the opportunity of ‘the night before the Blankenberge coastal fortress is about to be completed’ to come and shell it, destroying what they can. They can delay our progress and allow their fleet to flaunt their might around these coastal ports for another month or two in the future.
“Because if they don’t come now, once this place is completely finished, they’ll have no chance. They won’t be able to beat it. After His Highness heard my plan, he also felt this idea was quite good. As long as the timing gap is not too extreme, then even if the enemy is tricked, if the difference is not large—only two or three days—they will think it was due to intelligence lag. They will not suspect that ‘we already know that they know our radio codes.’
“And on our side, we were not originally one hundred percent absolutely certain that the enemy had broken our codes. But if the enemy falls into the trap right on time again this time, we can be one hundred percent certain they have been broken.”
After hearing this, Lelouch finally understood.
It had not been easy. It seemed insidiousness was contagious too.
He had led Hipper into setting traps twice, and had actually taught Hipper bad habits. Now Hipper could even draw inferences and make his own adaptations!
Having trained such a disciple in the field of sinister scheming, Lelouch felt greatly gratified.
Lelouch was very curious about the details, so he pressed further. “I wonder, in your false telegrams, how long did you say it would still take for the coastal fortress here to be completed?”
Hipper smiled proudly. “The telegram said that if resources are allocated efficiently, it could be completed in one or two days. So if the enemy takes the bait, they should come today. They captured Ostend last night. If they advance farther east today to shell this place, there is plenty of time.
“We also deliberately sent another telegram as cover. Its contents requested His Highness the Duke to reprimand his second younger brother for ineffective operations and failing to hold Ostend for the planned amount of time, causing Ostend to fall before the coastal guns at Blankenberge had been fully completed.”
Hearing this, Lelouch subconsciously turned to look at Duke Rupprecht, his gaze growing even more admiring.
Even His Highness the Duke had been led astray by him! What a sense of achievement! To make the setup more realistic, the Duke had actually thought of pretending to send a telegram reprimanding his own younger brother.
If Beatty took the bait this time, he truly would not be wronged.
“In that case, I am honored to accompany you all in watching this great show first.” Lelouch did not want to dampen his superiors’ interest. For now, he would not report his own proposal. He would first accompany the leaders in watching the enemy’s miserable state.
…
The group chatted idly in the underground coastal defense works for an hour or two, speaking only of pleasant topics that built rapport and shared gossip.
When it dragged on until after four in the afternoon, enemy battleships really did appear on the sea! They had come to bombard the coastal artillery fortress at Blankenberge.
Of course, the Duke and the others would not go up into the batteries to observe. That would be too dangerous. What if they were hit while exchanging fire with the enemy?
So they hid in the underground shelter and waited for the results, using internal telephones to stay informed in real time.
“Report! Enemy battlecruiser fleet sighted, along with several old pre-dreadnoughts!”
The lookout above immediately reported the situation.
“Calculate the enemy ships’ sector coordinates. Tell the giant guns above 280 not to rush to open fire. Let the enemy come closer before shooting! The 210-millimeter guns fire first. Deliberately show weakness!” The coastal guns were also under Hipper, a naval officer, so Hipper directly issued commands.
Today’s battle was different from usual. It was meant to use an information gap to ambush the enemy, so of course they could not open fire early and scare the enemy off.
It was better to let the enemy strike first, let them bombard for a while and feel there was no danger, then move a little closer to the shore. That way, even if they eventually realized something was wrong and wanted to run, they would be much slower.
The 210-millimeter coastal guns had already existed before, but those guns could not threaten battleships. They could only deal with armored-cruiser-level targets, and their range was also much shorter than battleship main guns. If such guns opened fire, they would instead serve as bait.
…
Not long after Hipper ordered the 210-millimeter guns to fire first and show weakness,
out on the sea off Blankenberge, David Beatty of the British battlecruiser fleet and the newly appointed commander of the Channel Fleet, Rear Admiral Horace Hood, indeed began to look down on the coastal fortress here.
“As expected, they currently only have the original leftover 210-millimeter guns. The larger heavy guns have not had time to arrive and be installed. All ships, press in. Move to just outside the maximum range of the 210-millimeter guns and bombard them hard!”
If the German 210s had not opened fire, Beatty and Hood would not have dared to be so arrogant. They would certainly have felt there was a plot, just as a tiger seeing a Guizhou donkey for the first time would not dare act rashly.
But once the Guizhou donkey kicked, the tiger knew its reality. Its ability was “nothing more than this,” so the tiger could boldly open its jaws and feast.
Several battlecruisers and pre-dreadnoughts pressed into the range of twelve to fifteen kilometers, then began gradual ranging corrections. The fall of the battleships’ main-gun shells also came closer and closer to the coastal gun turrets.
But at that moment, the 280- and 305-millimeter coastal heavy guns also opened fire.
Boom, boom, boom—enormous shells began to fall around the warships that were moving at low speed while carrying out their bombardment mission.
For the sake of bombardment accuracy, Beatty and Hood had even deliberately reduced speed earlier, believing that, in any case, the enemy would be unable to retaliate.
This sudden attack made Beatty and Hood turn pale with shock, and they shouted orders one after another. “Accelerate at once! Turn around at once! Withdraw from the enemy coastal guns’ range!”
But it was already too late. The firing accuracy of coastal guns was far higher than that of naval guns. After only a few salvos, the coastal artillerymen, correcting according to their ballistic tables, gradually found the feel, and very soon sent shells crashing onto the heads of the British warships.
The power of coastal guns was astonishing. During the Second World War, the Norwegians had relied on a single 280-millimeter Krupp coastal gun from the First World War to blast a German Hipper-class ten-thousand-ton heavy cruiser into a crippled, flooded wreck that completely lost power with one shot.
Moreover, what was being used now were First World War coastal guns against First World War warships—even pre-dreadnoughts.
Very soon, David Beatty’s flagship, the battlecruiser Lion, was hit by a 280-millimeter shell. Within just a few minutes, she was struck by three or four more shells in succession. Her superstructure suffered extremely heavy damage, and a large section of her secondary gun deck was blown away. The secondary battery firepower on one side was almost entirely lost.
Her funnels were also blown away, causing boiler pressure to drop, and the ship’s speed began to fall.
She finally managed to complete her turn, but because her speed had already slowed, before she escaped the range of the coastal guns, she was still caught and had several shells hammered fiercely into her stern.
The after bridge was completely blown to pieces. The crane and lifeboats at the stern were also blown away. Several large holes were blasted through the unarmored sections of the stern, and several thousand tons of seawater poured in.
These injuries were definitely even more severe than the damage the Lion had suffered in the original timeline during the Battle of Dogger Bank. In the original history, at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, Lion had also been hit by more than five 280-millimeter shells from German ships, and in the end it took more than half a year to repair her.
With the damage so heavy this time, it was estimated she could be under repair for a full year.
The Lion class was currently the British Army’s newest and sharpest model of battlecruiser, using 13.5 British-inch main guns and possessing strong protection as well. Only because of that could she still maintain a speed of around fifteen knots under such fierce blows and escape the firing range, slowly crawling back.
But Rear Admiral Hood’s pre-dreadnought bombardment squadron, which was being shelled at the same time, did not have such good luck.
Those pre-dreadnoughts had even worse protection than the new battlecruisers. They had all been transferred to the Channel Fleet just over a week earlier by Naval Minister Warton. A few had even just been repainted, in order to quickly make up for the four pre-dreadnoughts that Hipper had wiped out and sunk earlier.
As a result, before the paint had fully dried, two more Majestic-class battleships met disaster.
Hannibal was hit by five 305-millimeter shells. Both her bow and stern flooded violently by several thousand tons, and she almost completely lost power, floating there like a dead fish waiting to die.
Victorious was hit by even more 305-millimeter shells, but was fortunate enough not to have her power system completely destroyed, so she could barely crawl back. But she had certainly lost all repair value. In the end, she would definitely be scrapped and retired outright—
For a ship built sixteen to eighteen years ago, if they wanted to repair her now, they would not even be able to find parts and turrets. They would have to manufacture them anew. With that manpower and material resources, it would be better to simply scrap her and save the resources to build a new ship.
So the difference between this ship and one that had sunk outright was only that the sailors aboard could return alive. In addition, the Royal Navy could lose a little less face, not having to admit to the outside world that she had been sunk in battle, but rather that she was “scrapped voluntarily.”
In the end, Victorious barely made it back, while Hannibal was finished off by German destroyers that Hipper had arranged in advance to lie in wait not far behind at the port of Zeebrugge.
When dealing the finishing blow, Hipper even leisurely gave Lelouch some inside information:
“Ten days ago, on the day we safely withdrew to Antwerp, at the welcoming banquet His Highness held for us, you spoke with me about the topic that ‘in the future, the precision-strike role of torpedoes will become weaker and weaker, while their role in long-range execution and finishing blows will become more and more obvious.’
“You also suggested that I make demands of the armaments department, saying that in the future, we should develop lower-speed, longer-range torpedoes for finishing blows. We haven’t been idle these past few days either. By making simple modifications to the speed regulators of existing torpedoes, we customized a batch of slow-speed torpedoes for testing.
“These slow-speed torpedoes with adjusted parameters can have their speed lowered further from thirty knots to twenty-four knots or eighteen knots, but their maximum range has also increased from five kilometers to ten kilometers or even fourteen kilometers. Today happens to be a chance to test them in actual combat and see whether they can finish off a pre-dreadnought that has almost lost power from more than ten kilometers away.
“If the results are good, I will have more confidence when making demands of the Armaments Department. After all, it will have been tested in actual combat.”
After hearing this, Lelouch could not help but praise Hipper’s efficiency. Without even the cooperation of the arsenal in the rear, relying only on shipyard craftsmen for temporary modifications, he could still adjust the parameters of a batch of torpedoes in a mere ten days.
Although this was not formal development of a new product and was only parameter adjustment, it was still very impressive, and it showed a strong scientific spirit.
Duke Rupprecht, who was watching the fun from the side and listening in, also cast Lelouch an even more approving gaze. “After I left that day, you still gave Franz such a valuable suggestion? It seems you truly do have insight in armaments as well, lad.
“Good. Then we may as well make a wager—weren’t you going to suggest some improved weapons and tactics later? As long as the slow, long-range torpedoes you suggested Franz work on perform well, I will also do my best to adopt the suggestions in your proposal.”
Duke Rupprecht had originally been worried that Lelouch was not professional in armaments, and at first had not intended to accept all of his suggestions and planning wholesale.
But unexpectedly, there was now immediately an opportunity before his eyes to witness a “real-combat test of Lelouch’s armament improvement suggestions.” Wasn’t that convenient?
Hearing the Duke’s words, Lelouch’s heart also grew fervent.
He had not expected Hipper to happen to repay a favor today, returning an assist to him.
“I hope these torpedoes perform a little better…” Lelouch also secretly began praying for Hipper.
Very soon, several German high-speed destroyers approached Hannibal, which was already floating on the sea like a dead fish. The ship’s speed had fallen to only five or six knots, almost motionless.
Most of the secondary guns on the ship had also been destroyed, but a small number were still usable. The small-caliber quick-firing guns had been preserved relatively well—if the German destroyers charged into the quick-firing guns’ range to launch torpedoes, there was still a great chance they would be taught a harsh lesson by those quick-firing guns.
But this time, Hipper’s men did not need to press so close. Two ships, at a distance of twelve to thirteen kilometers, fired several torpedoes in a fan-shaped spread from afar, then continued to keep their distance and cruise around, both observing the enemy ship and drawing the enemy’s attention.
Two other ships closed to within ten kilometers, quickly launched their torpedoes, and turned away to disengage. What they were testing was the medium-speed twenty-four-knot setting. Hannibal’s quick-firing guns also fired several rounds at them, as though seeing them off, but because the distance was too great and accuracy too low, they did not hit.
More than fifteen full minutes passed. Just when Duke Rupprecht was growing somewhat impatient and thought Hipper and Lelouch had failed,
off in the distance, water columns finally began erupting from Hannibal’s side with bangs.
“A cumulative two torpedo hits! The others missed! Enemy ship is sinking faster!”
Hearing the lookout’s report, everyone was overjoyed.
“Excellent! This proves the idea is correct! In the future, we should develop some ultra-long-range slow torpedoes for finishing blows. Perhaps after battleships exchange fire, if the enemy ship’s upper works have been blasted apart and she has no combat power left, and she can’t get away, but her watertight integrity is too good and she simply refuses to sink, then we can use this kind of torpedo to finish her off from extreme range outside the enemy secondary guns’ range!”
Hipper commented with an invigorated expression, and the thoughts in his heart became clearer and clearer.
In this battle, they ultimately heavily damaged one of the enemy’s new battlecruisers, preventing her from joining battle for at least half a year. They also sank one enemy pre-dreadnought and crippled another, equivalent to the enemy permanently losing the combat strength of two pre-dreadnoughts.
After verifying the results, Hipper did not forget to act as though he had grown clever. He quickly had people fabricate a fake secret commendation telegram, mainly “thanking the engineer troops for creating a miracle, using innovative construction techniques and continuous day-and-night effort to deploy the Blankenberge coastal defense heavy guns ahead of schedule”—if they did not have this telegram to plug the hole, the enemy would have no way to understand “why coastal batteries that yesterday were said to have no time to be completed suddenly became operational today.”
To act out the whole play, when the time came, they might even need to truly promote some officers from the engineer troops who had “received rewards without merit.”
On the other side, Duke Rupprecht looked at Hipper, then at Lelouch. Finally, he picked up Lelouch’s proposal, and his gaze brimmed with even greater eagerness.
“Explain this plan of yours properly! As for exactly how tactics should be adjusted, which equipment should be improved, and what tactical effects are to be achieved, speak in as much detail as possible! Whatever can be coordinated, I will certainly coordinate!”
Lelouch hurriedly struck while the iron was hot. “The core idea of this proposal is to strengthen communications and liaison between frontline assault troops and the rear, shorten response times, and further delegate the authority to call in precise artillery support, thereby strengthening our army’s combat power in sustained offensive operations.
“At the same time, to achieve this objective, our army must mainly make the following optimizations in equipment: first, we need to lighten our existing heavy machine guns and create a kind of light machine gun that can advance with infantry squads, to strengthen the direct support firepower of assault troops.
“Second, we need to equip the troops with large quantities of hand grenades and grenade-launching devices. We also need to further lighten and modularize radio sets for transport, allowing radio equipment to reach more basic combat units. We also need some new weapons…”
Lelouch spoke at length and with assurance. Taking advantage of the moment when His Highness the Duke’s trust was at its peak, he smuggled out a great many private items all at once.
—
PS: This chapter is over six thousand characters… I really didn’t know where to break it. In fact, it’s equivalent to two three-thousand-character updates, so I could only pile it all out at once.
New book—please leave comments, follow the updates, favorite, and vote. Many thanks.