Chapter 157: Ghosts On The Baltic Sea Surface
“Good! Excellent! Our Railway Gun Unit and Airship Force performed so outstandingly! They’ve cumulatively sunk five enemy battleships and over ten cruisers!”
“William Keitel, Leb, Kesselring—these rising stars are indeed the talents recommended by Lelouch, performing so well. They helped the Ottomans staunchly halt the Britannians’ offensive!”
That very night when the Britannia Mediterranean Fleet suffered heavy losses and the five-nation coalition’s assault on the Austrian Army’s Gallipoli Peninsula defense line ended in disastrous defeat.
When the good news reached Odessa city and was delivered to Duke Rupprecht, commander of the German 6th Army Group, he was so excited that he slapped the table and sighed repeatedly, shouting “good” several times.
As the side that achieved the results, he subconsciously referred to all the sunk targets as “battleships and cruisers,” without caring about detailed designations like “pre-dreadnoughts and obsolete protected cruisers from the 1880s.”
He couldn’t help but stand up and pace quickly back and forth in the command room. Then he instructed a staff officer beside him:
“Perfect, our next phase campaign on the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain is almost ready. The artillery units and fighter units previously seconded to the Ottomans should be pulled back to Odessa and Kherson for redeployment.
Hmm, the railway guns and airship groups can be left with the Ottomans. Anyway, the Lushans’ railway gauge is different from ours, so the railway guns can’t be deployed timely on this battlefield. Some navy warships can also be left with them slightly to maintain pressure and harassment on the Britannia Mediterranean Fleet.
Summon back officers like Keitel, Leb, Kesselring who have earned merits, let them participate in the subsequent operations in the Kievan Rus’ Great Plain area. Before the battle, I will apply for medals and promotions for them! Have them return immediately!”
The staff officer noted the marshal’s orders and immediately went to send the telegram.
Those meritorious officers didn’t dare to delay and chose to return that same day.
Fortunately, during the past half month of break-in with the Ottomans, they had also tried to impart a lot of their respective practical combat experience, lessons, and real skills.
Even if Keitel returned, the Ottomans would know how to make good use of the fire support effects of those few railway guns.
Even if Kesselring left, there would still be people who could do airship mining, so this confidential skill wouldn’t suddenly break off.
At the time of departure, General Zanders and Brigadier General Kemmel were also very reluctant to part, holding a grand farewell banquet to entertain them.
Brigadier General Kemmel repeatedly expressed gratitude to Keitel and Kesselring, saying he had learned a lot from them, and that if there was a chance, he really hoped to meet Officer Lelouch and learn properly from him in the future.
Because through private communications during this period, he had already heard more than once that many of the ingenious strategies from these Germania advisors were initially inspired by Officer Lelouch, then thought of and gradually developed and deepened. Whether it was railway guns hiding in tunnels for combat, or airships doing nighttime low-altitude low-speed stealthy mine deployment.
But after hearing his flattery, Kesselring corrected him sternly: “Oh, Brigadier General Kemmel, you can’t call Officer Lelouch ‘officer’ anymore. You are already an Ottoman Army brigadier general, while Officer Lelouch is still just a colonel.”
Kemmel fell silent for a moment, then curiously asked: “But aren’t you also a colonel, same rank as Officer Lelouch? You still call him officer to this day. I heard Brigadier General Keitel also calls him officer privately.”
Kesselring then smiled faintly: “That’s different. We were promoted by him. If the officer hadn’t discovered our talents and placed us in positions where we could best exert them, we might still be slowly accumulating seniority. So he will always be our officer.”
Kemmel listened with growing yearning. What kind of person was this elusive master strategist who was truly fascinating to meet.
Although he hadn’t met him even once yet, legends about him were already circulating widely in the world, from both our side and the enemy side.
From the ANZAC Corps prisoners of war scared to mental breakdown, to the terrifying memories circulating in the Belgian Expeditionary Force, everything spoke of the extraordinary nature of that mysterious existence.
After the farewell banquet, the advisor group and heavy artillery unit quickly took the train from Gallipoli via Bucharest back to Odessa, an over 800 km train journey, arriving at the destination the next day.
Upon getting off the train, the advisor group went to report to Army Group Commander Duke Rupprecht.
The duke, in a very good mood, received everyone and said he had already telegraphed the homeland to secure medals for everyone. As for the promotion procedures, they would have to wait a bit longer.
“Colonel Albert Kesselring! In the Gallipoli Fjord campaign, you relied on airships’ nighttime low-altitude mining, creating new minefields out of thin air at the time and place the Britannians least expected.
Letting the Britain Mediterranean Fleet fall into the ambush circle, sinking 5 battleships and a large number of auxiliary warships. This can truly be called a rare brilliant strategy in recent years. His Majesty the Emperor has approved awarding you the Blue Max Medal. I believe it won’t be long before you can be promoted to brigadier general!”
Among these officers, currently only William Keitel was already a brigadier general, thanks to his merits in the previous Calais naval battle where he solidly sank 2 dreadnoughts and 2 pre-dreadnoughts from the Britain Channel Fleet. After all, naval merits are the easiest to quantify and most intuitive, best for helping a colonel “break through the realm.”
Kesselring’s merits this time were also very solid.
But Kesselring immediately declined politely: “How dare I accept this? The medal is an affirmation of my honor, but promotion… I truly don’t deserve it at present. I merely luckily applied one of the tactics solidly that Officer Lelouch chatted about with me during several chats before heading north to the Baltic Sea, on how to counter the enemy’s fleet in the Dardanelles Strait direction.
He shared many brilliant strategies and new tactics applications with me at the time. I just happened to use one of them solidly and earned a tiny merit. But Officer Lelouch is still just a colonel, how dare I accept promotion! Please, Commander, petition the General Staff Headquarters, don’t overlook Officer Lelouch’s merits.”
Duke Rupprecht thought about it, and the promotion matter indeed didn’t need to be too urgent.
Mainly, this rising star in front of him was indeed not very old. Kesselring was from ’85, just turned 30, so promoting to brigadier general did have a slight age barrier. Better to push him up together with Lelouch later.
This was different from the previous promoted young talents.
Among those previously promoted, William Leb was already 39, still a colonel. As long as his merits were enough, there was no age barrier to brigadier general.
Rundstedt was exactly 40. When transferred to the Eastern Front, he was just a lieutenant colonel; after half a year of fighting, he was just about to be promoted to colonel, already a bit behind.
Fedor von Bock and William Keitel were both 35; Keitel had already been promoted to brigadier general thanks to the Calais campaign.
Bock came to the Eastern Front as a colonel, then in the Gorlice Breakthrough Battle achieved the merit of being the first to break through the Lusha defense line and envelop Tarnuv. In this Romania border pursuit battle, he led a mobile infiltration unit with several hundred half-tracks, assisting the main force in capturing a cumulative 110,000 Lusha prisoners of war—although his tactical plan was devised by Lelouch, and he was just the executor.
With these two merits, plus Bock’s uncle being the Chief of Staff, his brigadier general promotion was already in process, and barring accidents, it would definitely be approved in the fourth quarter.
Keitel’s previous brigadier general merit outwardly had little to do with Lelouch. But this time, Kesselring and von Bock’s promotion merits both had Lelouch’s planning shadow. So with this string of merits piled up, it was about enough for Lelouch, this young man officially only 25, to break through half a step further.
If Lelouch himself performed well recently, crossing this step would basically be a done deal.
“I wonder how Lelouch has been doing on his half-month leave to the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, for secrecy, we can’t contact the sailing fleet, can only wait for their return…” Duke Rupprecht grew more and more anxious thinking about it, really wanting to know this kid’s current situation immediately.
……
Meanwhile, time rewinds half a month to late August in the Baltic Sea, Königsberg Port.
Lelouch arrived at Königsberg Port dusty from the train on August 28. Upon getting off, as usual, his old friend Vice Admiral Hipper personally came to pick him up.
The two shook hands tacitly upon meeting, without excessive formalities.
Vice Admiral Hipper also knowingly relayed good news: “I heard that in Gallipoli, the Ottomans, with our advisors’ support, just won a battle. The ANZAC Corps staked everything on assaulting the Kilitbahir Plateau, but were beaten into total rout, corpses strewn everywhere—the Ottomans were equipped with submachine guns. That was your suggestion to Duke Rupprecht to supply the Ottomans, right?”
What Vice Admiral Hipper mentioned obviously couldn’t be from newspapers, but internal military news channels via wired telegraph network, so the speed was very fast.
The Ottomans won that day, and the rear high command already knew. Knowing Lelouch would care about this, Hipper relayed it to him first thing.
Train travelers have relatively closed information; these days on the road were like being offline.
“You’re really sharp, able to see my guiding hand in this?” Lelouch couldn’t help laughing upon hearing it.
That Hipper could infer Lelouch’s shadow from the internal news of “Ottomans winning a new major victory under the 6th Army Group’s advisors’ guidance” showed he understood him too well.
Hipper didn’t deny it: “Of course, your hand can reach Calais on the Western Front and here to my Baltic Sea, so reaching the Ottomans is easy to imagine? It’s much closer to Odessa than Königsberg.”
Lelouch: “No more on that, to the main topic. I’m here mainly inspired by the successful experience from the Black Sea campaign. Thinking that after our army uses new mine-sweeping weapons to break through the enemy mine blockade, we might as well use a counter-espionage ploy to make the enemy suspect each other, thinking there’s an internal traitor selling the mine deployment map.
This way we can hit two birds with one stone, making the enemy more internally consumed and paranoid. However, I can only handle the rumor-mongering and counter-espionage part; the specific naval operations are up to you. I, an outsider, won’t interfere.”
Before coming, Lelouch hadn’t revealed his specific intent, also for maximum secrecy to ensure the subsequent plot’s suddenness.
So even Vice Admiral Hipper only learned the specific plan now, chatting face-to-face with Lelouch.
Upon first hearing it, he couldn’t help slightly sucking in a breath.
This kid was really vicious…
“…So, the rumor that there’s a traitor in the Lusha Black Sea Fleet high command is fake, right? I should have realized; you could stably and efficiently clear moored mines with the new bottom-scraping minesweeping chain, without needing an enemy high-level traitor to break the mine blockade net.”
Hipper originally thought it might be coincidence or icing on the cake; now he realized there was no icing—it was all this little brother’s framing.
While chatting, they had already exited the train station. A fleet sedan was waiting there, directly taking them to a joint command post at Königsberg naval port.
On the way, Lelouch smoothly shifted topics, asking about the operational preparations on the Baltic side:
“Let’s talk about your own matters. How’s the pre-war mine-sweeping operation going? How many warships will the navy dispatch for Baltic operations? All under your command? Have you coordinated with the army on subsequent landing operation preparations?”
Hipper took the car ride to summarize the general situation: “Mine-sweeping has been secretly underway for almost a week, but for suddenness, we use old cruisers to tow bottom-scraping minesweeping chains at night and withdraw by day.
By day, only small mine-sweeping boats and torpedo boats do follow-up shots, using small-caliber rapid-fire cannons to detonate floating mines. Torpedo boats on these tasks basically don’t load torpedoes, freeing tonnage for more small-caliber shells.”
Lelouch: “Didn’t you use airships for overhead shooting of floating mines? The Black Sea side has been doing that for a long time.”
Hipper nodded: “We tried it later, but northern weather isn’t as good as southern; some days have too much wind unsuitable for airships, so only intermittently used on two or three days, very covertly, undetected by enemy reconnaissance aircraft or patrol fleets.
After a week of sweeping, results are good. We’ve stealthily found a safe channel allowing main warships to pass the Irbe Strait into the depths of Riga Bay! And it’s quite wide, at least ensuring about 10 km wide in the strait center, all safe! All moored mines there are completely cleared.
The inner waters of Riga Bay, after our checks, should have no mines. And Lusha transport ships need frequent short voyages; as long as they seal the sea area entrances, no need to mine the bay interior.
Additionally, we know the narrow strait between Hiiumaa north of Riga Bay and Estonia can pass small ships, but the Lusha Navy seems not to have mined it. Spies and air reconnaissance confirm they use ‘Bayan-class’ armored cruisers and other shallower-draft small ships freely navigating it.
Meanwhile, they have shore batteries deployed on Hiiumaa and the Estonian mainland facing the strait, so they think that channel doesn’t need mines. Any small ship passing that strait can’t withstand even 203mm guns. Ships that can withstand 203mm guns can’t pass due to draft depth.”
Hipper described the fleet’s secret mine-sweeping results before Lelouch arrived; Lelouch nodded frequently:
“That’s not bad; mine-sweeping progress is quite fast and covert. Time to execute our next plan. By the way, you haven’t said the participating fleet’s deployment. How many warships can the High Seas Fleet allocate this time to concentrate against the Lushans? All under your command?”
On this question, Hipper’s expression dimmed slightly but quickly recovered: “For the fleet, I can currently use the newest sharp ‘Derfflinger’ and ‘Lützow’ two battlecruisers; ‘Seydlitz’ can also complete repairs soon.
However, considering the Lusha Baltic Fleet has 4 ‘Gangut-class’ battleships and several pre-dreadnoughts, I alone definitely can’t beat them. This requires High Seas Fleet main battleships to join. I applied to Naval Ministry high command via formal process, without mentioning the new mine-sweeping weapon in any telegram.
I only said ‘our army attempts to sweep mines and enter Riga Bay to threaten enemy rear, forcing enemy fleet to battle.’ Finally, High Seas Fleet Commander General Hugo von Pohl decided to have Battleship Squadron’s Reinhard Scheer cooperate with me.
He leads the First Battleship Squadron’s 4 ‘Nassau-class’ battleships and 4 ‘Helgoland-class’ for possible frontal assaults, while my 2~3 battlecruisers handle flanking or pursuit. This ensures absolute crushing of the enemy’s all battleships.
Additionally, Commander Pohl is considering later deploying ‘Friedrich der Grosse-class’ pre-dreadnought fleets for shore close bombardment and fire support—if we really need to cooperate with General Mackensen’s 11th Army Group for landing operations in the enemy rear near Riga Port later.”
Hearing this, Lelouch also frowned slightly.
Indeed, Vice Admiral Hipper’s current war merits weren’t outstanding enough, rank and position not high enough. Naval Ministry and High Seas Fleet Commander-in-Chief still only trusted him with battlecruiser squadron command.
Ultimately had to introduce rival Lieutenant General “Reinhard Scheer” for cooperation.
Of course, Reinhard Scheer’s seniority was indeed much deeper than Hipper’s; he had been promoted to lieutenant general as early as 1913 pre-war, had good relations with Naval Minister Marshal Tirpitz, was the marshal’s direct subordinate, and had served as navy chief of staff.
While Hipper was just a major general at war start; without Lelouch helping him earn two major merits, he wouldn’t have risen so fast.
The time in Ostend helped him smoothly promote to lieutenant general ahead of schedule.
Later in the Dunkirk campaign, it helped Hipper accumulate a wave of merits. Though not promoted to general, it solidified his “lieutenant general realm,” from “newly promoted lieutenant general” toward “lieutenant general perfection.”
It seemed this time, need to find a way to make Hipper’s performance far superior to his colleague, so Lelouch could get his controllable iron buddy into navy top echelons, facilitating larger deception operations later.
And Lelouch estimated, as long as this time Hipper’s promotion sequence was slightly maneuvered successfully ahead, his chances of comeback overtaking in the High Seas Fleet next year would be quite good—
The current High Seas Fleet Commander Hugo von Pohl was just a very conservative mediocrity, considering only caution and preserving warships, extremely unwilling for any outnumbered adventure.
At war outbreak, the first High Seas Fleet Commander was General Friedrich von Ingenohl. But due to early war misjudgment and unaware of own radio telegram leaks, in Earth’s history he was relieved after losing the Dogger Bank Shoals battle.
In this timeline, General Ingenohl was also relieved by Emperor Wilhelm after Ostend and Dunkirk campaigns, replaced by Hugo von Pohl—the emperor’s reason for relieving him was quite fateful.
Because “many of Ingenohl’s orders, after Hipper disobeyed and acted alone, proved Hipper was right to disobey; luckily he did, or the fleet would have been ambushed by Britannians. If Ingenohl’s orders were truly executed, the empire’s battlecruiser fleet might have fallen into enemy trap early.”
In other words, historically Hipper obeyed Ingenohl’s orders, but lost due to intel leak, and Ingenohl was relieved.
This life, Hipper disobeyed on Lelouch’s reminder, and Ingenohl’s intel did leak; Britain deployed on the disobeyed fake intel, got tricked, Hipper won. But post-battle review confirmed Ingenohl’s command was indeed poor, so relieved.
Only this relief was delayed a few months to half year, with another excuse to preserve Naval Ministry and High Seas Fleet dignity.
But this change caused a problem: some in navy were unwilling, wanting to secretly give Hipper trouble, feeling his subordinating disobedience harmed the superior, such trend can’t grow.
The new Commander-in-Chief Hugo von Pohl succeeding Ingenohl showed signs of clashing with Hipper, so this time had Scheer check Hipper, also dividing command authority mutually independent.
And Hugo von Pohl, due to Ingenohl’s relief lesson, became even more conservative post-takeover; unless confirmed soft target, he basically avoided battle, fleet idling in port.
However, as a transmigrator, Lelouch knew this Hugo von Pohl wouldn’t live long; if historical inertia continued, this guy should die of illness early next year.
Moreover, rumors were already circulating that the High Seas Fleet Commander-in-Chief’s health was poor; Pohl often hospitalized consecutively.
So Lelouch didn’t bother scheming against this old stickler Pohl; he only thought how to push Hipper once more before Pohl died of old age/illness, maneuvering merits and seniority ahead of Scheer.
This way, when Pohl died, if Hipper could overtake on bend to succeed, it would be a great success.
