Chapter 143: Clear The Minefield, Surprise Landing At The Dniester Estuary
The idea mentioned by Lelouch of installing small-caliber anti-tank guns on airships and clearing floating mines from the air could only be noted down for now, to be implemented later by friendly forces in the Baltic Sea.
The current Germania Black Sea Fleet definitely had no time for these fancy maneuvers. What they could do now was just to have the next few airships carry heavy machine guns, load up with machine gun bullets, and come over to take over, then use heavy machine guns to try to detonate as many floating mines as possible.
Heavy machine gun bullets might not penetrate the metal shell of the mine, but as long as they hit the mine’s fuze tentacles, they could easily cause the mine to detonate prematurely.
This makeshift solution was put into use that afternoon, and upon trying it, it proved much faster than surface torpedo boats firing one shot at a time to aim and shoot, and less likely to miss any.
Surface torpedo boats searching for surfaced mines easily missed them. But observing from the air at a lower altitude provided a very clear view with nothing hidden. The latter half of the entire mine sweeping operation thus saw a massive efficiency boost.
This trick was also an unprecedented innovation in human history, realistically conceived by Lelouch himself, not copied from any predecessor’s wisdom—
Because heavy bottom-scraping mine-clearing chains were not supposed to appear until World War II, and by then, airships had long been retired due to poor survivability, leaving the navy to rely on minesweepers for such tasks.
It was Lelouch who invented the heavy bottom-scraping mine-clearing chain ahead of time, allowing this weapon and airships to overlap in the timeline, and unexpectedly finding airships another way to serve usefully—perhaps in the future, Imperial Navy airships could, besides reconnaissance, also switch to mine sweeping, working with warships towing mine-clearing chains for twice the effect with half the effort.
Throughout the daytime of July 29, Germania’s chain-towing warships and airships cooperated tacitly, with mine sweeping progress far exceeding expectations, fully clearing the coastal channel 50 nautical miles north of Sulina, detonating over 400 mines in total!
If 400 mines doesn’t give you a sense of scale, consider this comparison—the Lusha Black Sea Fleet deployed a total of 35,000 mines throughout the World War, accumulated over several years.
So clearing 400 in one go was absolutely substantial; a fully loaded large minelaying cruiser dumping all its mines would amount to about that many.
When Admiral Spee finally heard the mine sweeping progress report from his subordinates, he was utterly stunned.
“They cleared that far? Over 50 nautical miles in one day? With old-fashioned sweeping cables, clearing a few nautical miles of safe channel per day was already good. Even testing heavy mine-clearing chains, it was at most 30 nautical miles a day. Now with airships, it’s 50? That’s how many times the efficiency!”
Admiral Spee was extremely excited and praised Lelouch even more highly.
Other subordinates around Admiral Spee, such as William Sushun, nominally now a vice admiral in the Ottoman Navy, also gained newfound respect for this miraculous army-turned-landing troops officer.
（Note: William Sushun was originally a rear admiral in the Germania Navy. After the war began, per Germania high command’s intent, he joined the Ottoman Navy with Goeben and others, and the Ottomans promoted him to vice admiral. Last year’s Battle of Cape Sarykh between Goeben and the Lushans’ two Seyyid Yusuf-style ships was commanded by William Sushun.）
Meanwhile, the enemy Lusha Black Sea Fleet remained completely unaware of the Germania Fleet’s movements even after dark on the 29th; they were busy dealing with air raids that day and sent no reconnaissance fleet south.
They didn’t even know their own minefield had been cleared over 50 nautical miles, showing chaotic fleet management and lack of unity up and down the chain.
This was a common ailment of the Lusha Navy at the time: mid- and lower-level officers had very poor initiative; if high-ranking generals didn’t think to assign a task, the lower levels would barely stir unless prodded, and wouldn’t remind anyone.
They were all like “if the teacher forgets to assign homework, the students happily skip it without a peep,” with no good students reminding the teacher to assign it.
Moreover, even when tasks were assigned, mid- and lower-level officers often disobeyed orders and refused to sortie, even mutinying. The Black Sea Fleet had the famous Potemkin mutiny years earlier, which was later made into a movie.
Over in the Baltic Sea, Baltic Fleet commander Nicholas Ottovich von Essen once ordered Gangut-class battleships to sortie proactively for battle opportunities, but soldiers mutinied and refused, deeming it suicide.
Lusha sailors’ loyalty to the Tsar during World War I was highly questionable. Even the cannon shot that ultimately ended the Tsar was fired by sailors on the armored cruiser Almir.
All this lax, sloppy attitude ultimately made the Black Sea Fleet slow to react to the Germanian mine sweeping, failing to reconnoiter for two full days.
Thus, late on the 29th and early on the 30th, Hamidiye and Medjidiye continued dragging mine-clearing chains ahead. After dawn on the 30th, airships followed up again, repeatedly scanning the sea surface and shooting to sever mooring chains of surfaced moored mines.
By evening of the 30th, the Germania Fleet had cleared up to the Dniester Estuary area, at least 80 nautical miles from Sulina.
Only then did the Germania Fleet encounter some misfortune—the shielded Medjidiye cruiser hit a mine herself.
At the time, two Lusha-placed moored mines were deployed very close together. The first hit the protective grille dozens of meters ahead on Medjidiye’s bow, blowing it apart.
The warship continued sliding forward by inertia and couldn’t stop immediately to replace the grille, thus hitting the second moored mine that slipped through the breach.
For those who can’t picture this, imagine an RPG with tandem warheads fired at a Bradley fighting vehicle with grille armor on an Iraq battlefield: the first stage blows the grille, and the second drills through the gap to hit the main armor belt.
Such bad luck was unavoidable, not a fault in battle. No mine sweeping is entirely risk-free.
Fortunately, the warship was prepared, with lifeboats ready to launch anytime, and there weren’t many sailors aboard Medjidiye at the time—many posts were unmanned anyway—so they immediately ordered abandon ship.
In any case, the safe channel to the Dniester Estuary was cleared, allowing the main fleet to advance safely, at the cost of just one 1903-built old cruiser, with all sailors escaping to lifeboats—a fully acceptable price.
Moreover, Medjidiye was just immobilized and taking water heavily but hadn’t sunk directly—the site was shallow waters anyway; towing it a few more nautical miles shoreward would beach it to settle.
Upon hearing this, Admiral Spee decisively sent two destroyers to replace Medjidiye, completing the final cleanup, and entered the Dniester Estuary lagoon area to clear the last landing anchor channel.
Once in the Dniester Estuary, cruisers couldn’t be used anyway, as it was inner-river-mouth lagoon terrain, much shallower than the Black Sea—navigable depth only four or five meters, too shallow for cruisers, only destroyers could enter.
Once inside, destroyers didn’t need fancy operations—just brute force dragging heavy iron chains along the river bottom. With less horsepower, they towed shorter chains; the estuary lagoon wasn’t wide anyway, so sufficient length was enough.
In such shallow water, any mines laid wouldn’t be moored mines, but bottom mines.
These mines were slightly denser than water on average, sinking straight to the bottom when dropped in the river. But their tentacles were longer than moored mines, one or two meters or more. When ships passed, even if draft wasn’t deep enough to hit the mine body, hitting a tentacle would detonate it.
To clear these, Lelouch’s tool was actually simpler: brute force scraping hit the mine body, and it detonated when rolling into its own tentacle.
That evening, explosions echoed continuously in the Dniester Estuary as Germanian forces used two old destroyers to fully clear the landing zone; one destroyer hit a mine and settled on the riverbank outside the dock.
The land defense zones on the Dniester River banks still had a small Lusha Army unit garrisoned, but with very weak forces.
“Damn it! Germanian warships? How did they get here—quick, organize defenses!” a panicked Lusha colonel regimental commander ordered.
“Sir, defend where? In the warehouse by the dock? The enemy has warships!”
The colonel regimental commander was stumped by his subordinate’s question—yeah, defend where? This wasn’t the front line, no artillery positions, just a second-line regiment guarding a few port towns.
No one had anticipated enemy forces coming from the estuary direction; no permanent fire points or defensive fortifications faced the estuary.
Soon, the opposing Germanian warships opened fire at point-blank range, especially the mine-hit destroyer, which grounded on the shallows by the dock. But its three 88mm guns still worked, directly aiming and firing at shore positions with resisting machine gun fire.
How could Lushans resist turreted 88mm guns with M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns?
The few sentry-like guards scattered like birds and beasts under the naval gun bombardment.
No wonder—the Lusha Army main forces here were mainly defending the Romanian Front Line and rear Odessa.
The Dniester Estuary was somewhat important, with a few bridges on the river and some docks and civilian ships on the lagoon banks. But not that important, still thirty or forty kilometers from Odessa, in the middle of nowhere.
In short, the Lusha Army’s Romanian Front Army never expected Germanian forces to appear here.
In the early hours of the 31st, a regiment from the 6th Army Independent Corps Instructional Airborne Division landed successfully first on the Dniester Estuary banks, directly seizing the docks, civilian ships, and a bridge spanning the Dniester River.
The landing troops didn’t even need landing craft, landing directly on the docks, with transport ships docking right at the berths.
At most, they bumped hard when approaching shore, denting some transport ship hulls.
And the regiment that went ashore first was directly commanded by Lelouch’s deputy, Colonel Erwin Rommel.
“Rommel did well, securing a foothold right away. Have follow-up transport convoys quickly bring reinforcements ashore to build defensive positions on the Dniester Estuary banks! Try to land more today morning.
Have them watch for counterattacks from Odessa city garrison troops! It’s over 30 but under 40 kilometers from Odessa city; once the garrison learns we’ve landed here, cutting the Dniester River, they’ll want to retake it full force. We build fortifications to wait rested and ready!”
Lelouch had originally been hiding in Goeben’s conning tower observing the distant landing zone with a telescope, but finding it too far to see clearly, he ran up to the main bridge’s top watchtower, using the 60x firing control director to observe.
Seeing Rommel successfully seize the beach, Lelouch was thrilled and immediately had the navy send a telegram to the rear, ordering the transport convoy waiting off Constanta to hurry over.
……
At the same time, inside Odessa city’s Lusha Romanian Front Army headquarters.
Front Army Commander General Evert was woken from sleep by his subordinate’s shrill ringing phone.
“Hello? What’s up.” General Evert was fairly dutiful; though still groggy, he forced himself alert and into work mode.
He knew a call at this hour meant urgent military news.
“Report to Commander! Enemy fleet bombarded the Dniester Estuary an hour ago, then troops landed directly, seizing the dock area on both sides of the estuary lagoon! Latest update just minutes ago: they seem to have gone upstream, capturing a major bridge spanning the Dniester Estuary!”
General Evert’s pupils rapidly contracted: “Impossible! At war’s start, the Black Sea Fleet laid a minefield at the Dniester Estuary! How did the Germanian forces get in?!”
Shocked, General Evert hurried to the map, comparing and measuring for a bit.
Last night’s news: Baria 2nd and 3rd Corps under the German 6th Army Group, attacking frontally from the Romania border, had penetrated over 30 kilometers into their territory. Still 120 kilometers from Dniester Estuary, over 150 from Odessa city.
Frontline corps commanders like Denikin and two others were following his orders, retreating sequentially for depth defense, trading space for time, and scorched-earth on road infrastructure, betting Germanian rapid advance would collapse their logistics in the ruined terrain.
Then they could counterattack while Germanian forces were exhausted and low on supplies, steadying the line and blunting their momentum.
But now, Germanian forces had landed in the rear!
Seizing a useful port anchorage and the key border realm river bridge between old Romania and Kievan Rus’!
“It’s over! The Front Army’s entire prior defense plan is scrapped! You navy wastes! Wasn’t it agreed no usable ports for the enemy? Wasn’t Odessa south sealed by mines? Did the Germania Fleet drop from the sky?”
Growing angrier, General Evert grabbed the telephone and called the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol.
“Hello? Connect me to Admiral Eberhardt!”
Soon, Admiral Eberhardt hurriedly answered, and General Evert immediately vented:
“What is your navy doing! The Germania Fleet suddenly hit the Dniester Estuary this morning! They even cleared mines to enter the estuary, landing there! Seizing docks and bridges!
Now our forces holding the Romanian Front against the German 6th Group’s three corps are about to be pinched from front and rear like dumplings!
I need the navy to sortie immediately, drive out the Germania Fleet at Dniester Estuary! Coordinate with my army counterattack to retake the landing zone! If navy wins, our army can definitely push the landed enemy back to sea!”
Admiral Andrei Eberhardt was stunned by the questioning for a while but could only grit his teeth and agree first.
The problem was, the Black Sea Fleet wasn’t all concentrated; some warships were at Odessa Port, most main force at Sevastopol.
Admiral Eberhardt needed to confirm enemy strength first to decide how many warships to send. Otherwise, if too many enemies and Odessa Detachment Fleet couldn’t handle it, it’d be throwing away lives.
After rapid thinking, Admiral Eberhardt called the Odessa Detachment Fleet command: “Connect me to Major General Lugin!”
Soon, Odessa Detachment Fleet commander Major General Vasily Konstantinovich Lugin answered, awaiting orders.
“Immediately send a few high-speed destroyers to recon the Dniester Estuary, confirm enemy scale. If no battleships in the attacking enemy fleet, handle it with Odessa Detachment Fleet strength!
If you spot Moltke-class, pull back immediately, have Odessa Detachment Fleet main force sail southeast to rendezvous with me, then we deal with Germanian forces together!
I’ll lead the main force from Sevastopol sailing northwest to meet you. Exact rendezvous point via radio later—but first 6 hours after sailing, maintain radio silence to avoid early interception by Germanian forces of any one group!
Only when we’re nearly meeting, send telegrams for exact coordinates and fine-tune course, understood?”
Major General Lugin immediately affirmed decisively: “Understood! Mission guaranteed!”
Soon, Odessa Port’s detachment fleet and Sevastopol’s Black Sea Fleet main force both sortied, one southeast, one northwest, rushing to rendezvous.
And under Major General Lugin, 1 Novik-class and 3 Buri-class high-speed destroyers formed the reconnaissance team.
After exiting Odessa Port, they turned due south, then southwest. Their task, naturally, was to confirm the scale of the Germanian fleet surprise-attacking the Dniester Estuary—whether the Odessa Detachment Fleet could take it alone.
Lushans had considered launching reconnaissance aircraft from Odessa, but their radio shortcomings exposed again—
Many Lusha reconnaissance aircraft lacked radios, unable to “report enemy sightings immediately by radio to rear,” requiring them to return alive for verbal reports.
With Germanian escort fighters deployed massively along the coast from Sulina to Dniester Estuary, intercepting any Lusha planes on sight, non-radio-equipped recon planes achieved nothing if not returning alive.
This poor empire, fixated on guns and cannons over radio, paid the price again.
A classical army equipping radios only at division level paid dearly in modern comms environment.
Opposite, Lelouch had radios down to platoon level in assault battalions, while Lushans only at division.
In this situation, destroyers had to serve as flesh recon to spot as many enemy ships as possible.
The 4 destroyers soon sailed south in search formation for 1 hour, then spotted the dense enemy fleet deployed in the Dniester Estuary area.
“Damn! So many Germanian forces? Is the entire Ottoman Navy out? Run! Radio warning to Major General Lugin fast.”
The lead Novik-class destroyer spotted the enemy immediately and began turning, preparing to transmit.
But they knew the enemy had spotted them earlier—airships were floating over the enemy fleet.
Airship vision was, of course, much farther than surface vessels. In fact, 20 minutes before Novik spotted enemy warships, it had already spotted the airship.
But they had no choice, sailing south another 20 minutes under airship view to confirm enemy surface fleet scale.
Result: just as they confirmed, they found themselves enveloped. Germanian forces had flanked out 20 minutes earlier with airship help, waiting for the Lusha recon fleet to blunder in.
When Lushans spotted enemy ships, enemies were already east and south; west was open only because it was land.
Germanian torpedo boats from the east immediately loosed slow torpedoes at long range onto the Lusha recon destroyer team’s retreat path. If Lusha fleet turned full speed immediately, they’d likely hit the spread-net torpedoes by lottery.
This forcing maneuver made the Lusha recon team cautiously observe and evade.
This delay let Germanian high-speed warships close distance.
Germanian forces even sent Moltke battlecruiser, firing its one-side 6 150mm guns at 10,000m-range fleeing destroyers—pitifully, Moltke could do 26 knots, while Ottoman Navy cruisers generally couldn’t match 26 knots, slower than the battlecruiser.
Without using Moltke to chase, it’d be destroyer-vs-destroyer, no advantage. So let the battlecruiser overkill; at worst, don’t fire main guns, just use broadside 150mm and 88mm to finish.
Lushans fled desperately; the lead Buri-class unluckily hit a pre-fired Germanian blocking torpedo.
A destroyer’s frame couldn’t withstand a torpedo and sank directly.
The remaining 3 destroyers, seeing direct charge unlikely to escape and likely death anyway, suddenly turned back to charge Moltke and salvo torpedoes.
But Germanian forces wouldn’t let them; as the 3 destroyers turned to charge, Moltke kited without entering torpedo range. Other German light ships continued flanking close, 150mm and 105mm naval guns splashing around the 3 destroyers.
Soon, these 3 Lusha destroyers were brutally destroyed, achieving nothing.
Their only result: radioing “enemy landing fleet has battlecruiser” before sinking.
Lelouch, hiding on rear flagship Goeben, watched the skirmish via firing control director, inwardly sighing:
“Lushans really commit, sending 4 kills for net recon; in 《Warships World》, such yolo players would’ve been banned long ago.”
