Starting with the Shattering of Dunkirk – Chapter 1

Chapter 1: You Go Hold Off Two Hundred Times The Enemy!
“Ah! My eyes! My eyes, gurgle gurgle gurgle…”
Lelouch was painfully awakened by a burning sensation in both eyes.
Just as he was about to cry out, a wave crashed in, bitter salty seawater pouring into his mouth and nose, interrupting his scream.
In that life-or-death moment, he unleashed unimaginable potential, struggling to his feet while choking violently.
His eyes, washed by seawater, surged with even more tears, and only then could he gradually make out his surroundings.
He found himself on a beach under heavy bombardment.
Everywhere he looked were ruins of buildings and piers, wreckage of equipment and soldiers, and gas canisters still emitting lingering smoke.
“Corporal Lelouch? You’re still alive? Take cover quick! Enemy ships are still bombarding!”
While Lelouch was dazed, he suddenly saw a soldier prone in a shell crater ahead, waving and shouting at him.
Without time to think, driven by instinct, he ran frantically and finally rolled into the shell crater.
During the roll, he surprisingly felt no pain, only the numbness from an adrenaline surge throughout his body.
Just as he lay down, a 6-inch naval gun shell landed on the mudflat where he had been, splashing up ten meters of mud and sand.
Fortunately, he had been gasping with his mouth open, Eustachian tubes fully open, so his eardrums weren’t damaged. But his whole body still experienced a violent surge of blood and qi.
Everything felt so real. Had he transmigrated?
The comrade beside him was also splattered with mud and sand, but he seemed accustomed to it, brushing off his gray military uniform before pulling out damp matches and a captured Gilnis cigarette, lighting it and handing it over:
“Squad leader, it’s great you’re still alive! I thought you suffocated from the tear gas! Your left eye is terribly red; remember to see a doctor after the battle.”
Lelouch took several deep breaths, the ominous premonition in his heart growing stronger.
He had originally been an electrical engineer and military enthusiast, who liked playing Hearts of Iron after work. Last night, as usual, he stayed up late playing a netizen’s custom World War I scenario MOD—
The author had deliberately toned down many extreme elements in the scenario to pass Steam Workshop review. For example, neither side had gas technology, nor those lunatics who repeatedly violated the laws of war. In short, it was a world similar yet more harmonious than real history.
Later, while playing, Lelouch felt his eyes hurting, didn’t shut down the computer, and fell deeply asleep slumped over the desk.
When he woke up again from eye pain, he had transmigrated to the battlefield.
Looking at the surroundings, everyone wore gray uniforms without steel helmets, carrying 98 rifles—it was indeed like the World War I era.
He had only wanted to play the game, not risk his life in person!
But now that it had come to this, he had no choice; the enemy’s bombardment and gas wouldn’t reason with him—he had to find a way to survive first!
From this moment on, he had to adapt to his new identity!
Lelouch stayed dazed in recollection for a good while, until the half-smoked Gilnis burned his fingers; he shook them in pain, then asked with a sliver of hopeful denial:
“The gas has me a bit dizzy. Can you tell me where this is and who we’re fighting?”
The comrade didn’t think much and answered basically every question.
After a brief conversation, Lelouch learned the other’s name was Klose, a private first class.
He and Lelouch both belonged to the Army Group Signal Battalion cable laying platoon of Germania’s 6th Army Group.
It was the afternoon of October 25, 1914.
This was the town of Nieuwpoort in the Belgian Kingdom; twenty kilometers west was the Frankish border city of Dunkirk.
The World War had been raging for three months.
In the first two months of the war, the Empire tried to blitz its old rival the Franks according to the Griffin Plan but failed, blocked by the enemy at the Marne River.
Then, both sides raced north, trying to outflank each other’s wings with a war of maneuver. Only when both reached the sea with nowhere to bypass did they shift to trench warfare.
Today should be the last day of the “Race to the Sea,” as ahead lay the boundless North Sea.
The town was currently defended by a friendly cavalry reconnaissance company and their communications platoon.
The cavalry company arrived first last night and seized the town. The communications platoon was only temporarily seconded this morning to repair telegram cables.
To the west of the town were Franks, to the east Belgians retreating from Antwerp along the Coastal Highway.
“As long as we hold the town and cut off the Coastal Highway until reinforcements arrive, the Belgians will be annihilated!” As he said this, Klose’s eyes gleamed with eagerness for glory.
But Lelouch felt his vision go black.
His suspended heart finally sank.
While playing the game last night, he had reviewed World War I history, so of course he knew the Belgians didn’t perish entirely in World War I, nor was their army annihilated.
Because historically, this blocking battle at Nieuwpoort failed.
The defenders were wiped out in one day under attack from two hundred times their numbers.
The Belgians’ last three divisions nationwide charged desperately like cornered dogs, finally breaking out to Dunkirk over the corpses of Germania’s blockers.
If he did nothing, he would die here too.
Lelouch felt a surge of hot blood, immediately shaking Klose’s shoulders excitedly and saying:
“They expect so few of us to hold until reinforcements? They’re insane! Does Division Headquarters think we’re gods? We’ll all die here! Klose, take me to see the officer! I have important intelligence to report!”
Klose looked troubled: “Squad leader, you weren’t such a coward before. Besides, Platoon Leader Hanks is already dead.”
Lelouch: “Then to the reconnaissance company headquarters!”
“Alright, you’re the boss, you call the shots.”
Klose sighed, crouched low and crawled out of the shell crater, trotting through the bombardment; Lelouch followed close behind.
……
Company headquarters was by a collapsed mill on the town’s west side; along the way, they saw their own soldiers stubbornly resisting from cover in various building ruins.
Lelouch ran for several minutes; headquarters was just one street corner away, but bullets whizzed across the street, scaring him into stumbling—he didn’t dare charge across under machine gun fire.
A captain on the opposite side spotted the movement and bellowed: “Everyone, find cover in place! No reckless moves!”
With no choice, Lelouch hid behind a broken wall, raising his rifle with Klose to fire repeatedly through the gaps.
Before transmigrating, he often played real-life battle royale games; after a few bolt cycles, the tension eased somewhat, and he gradually adapted to the rifle’s recoil.
Frankish soldiers still wore bright red trousers from the fifty-year-old line infantry era, very conspicuous, charging straight down the main street into town.
Lelouch killed an enemy after just two magazines.
Seeing the enemy’s chest blasted open, flesh splattering, Lelouch’s heart rate spiked to two hundred, palms sweating profusely.
Yet he hadn’t realized it, just kept mechanically firing.
After firing who knows how many bullets, the rifle’s recoil shook the sweat-slick gun stock from his hands, smacking his cheek and making his eyes see stars.
But all comrades were busy killing enemies; no one noticed him.
The Franks were numerous, pressing closer, seemingly halfway down the street.
But at that moment, the battle situation turned.
One of their mortars, after several missed lobbing shots, finally hit the enemy’s Hotchkiss heavy machine gun position.
With the enemy’s heavy machine gun silenced, the pressure on the defenders eased greatly.
The captain seized the moment and shouted: “All units, fire at will! The enemy are cowardly rabble! Hold through today, and the Belgians are done!”
“Repel the Franks! Annihilate the Belgians!” The soldiers on the position were full of vigor, firing with all their might.
Two 1908 heavy machine guns, well-camouflaged and ambushed in rubble piles at street corners, suddenly opened fire together, forming a crossfire net that mowed down enemies on the main street in swathes.
The enemy finally collapsed, soldiers fleeing in panic, leaving over a hundred red-trousered corpses before the position.
With the fight temporarily quieting, Lelouch seized the chance to dash across the street corner straight to the captain.
The captain eyed his bruised cheek with a hint of disdain: “You’re the technical NCO, right? Never killed before? Slipped while firing?”
Lelouch didn’t argue, just saluted: “Army Group Signal Battalion cable laying platoon, Corporal Lelouch Hunt.”
“6th Army Group 12th Division Reconnaissance Company, Captain Hans Andri.” After introducing himself, the captain preemptively asked: “The cable cut last night fixed?”
Lelouch: “We ran into the battle right after arriving, haven’t had time to repair; Platoon Leader Hanks died, and the other squad leaders were knocked out by gas.”
Andri shook his head helplessly: “So now the communications platoon is under you, a corporal? Spit it out; I’m busy, and the enemy will get fiercer.”
Lelouch leaned in and whispered: “Captain, we should prepare early; this town can’t be held.”
Andri’s face darkened instantly, growling low: “Say that louder, and I’ll shoot you for undermining morale!
The enemy is numerous, but they can’t all reach the battlefield at once. If the division main force arrives tonight, victory is still the Empire’s!”
Lelouch anxiously scratched his hair, sighing softly: “But based on what we saw coming here this morning, 12th Division likely won’t make it.”
Andri flared up: “Impossible! I radioed the rear at noon; Division Headquarters is only thirty kilometers away. Can’t they cover that in half a day’s forced march?”
Seeing Andri’s anger about to erupt, Lelouch couldn’t bother refining the lie and boldly stated:
“But this morning crossing the Yser Canal to the south, we saw Belgians loading explosives on the river dam from afar! They’re definitely planning to blow it if the breakout fails, to flood and block our reinforcements!
Belgium is a lowland country; the Yser River banks are below sea level! Once the dam is breached, seawater will flood in, turning it into a ten-kilometer-wide marsh!”
At Lelouch’s words, not only was Captain Andri stunned, but Klose, who came with him, also widened his eyes.
They had indeed seen Belgian troops active downstream of the Yser River that morning, but hadn’t seen “loading explosives on the river dam.”
How could they see clearly from so far? Since they couldn’t, this was baseless.
Klose knew the squad leader was lying.
Lelouch was of course lying, but he had to tell this lie because he knew the plot—
In the later years of the great war, northern Belgium remained marshy, preventing effective offensives by both sides. The root cause was that on the last day of the “Race to the Sea” campaign, the Belgian Army blew the dam to flood the enemy.
Because of this flood, 12th Division’s main force couldn’t reach the sea and was inundated en route. The division’s reconnaissance company, arriving early, was thus annihilated by enemy pincers.
Facing Lelouch’s alarming claim, Captain Andri instinctively snapped back:
“Impossible! We’re just passing through Belgium to fight the Franks! No deep grudge! Would they destroy their own homeland and drown everyone just to stop us? Civilians on the canal banks would drown too! Don’t they have a soldier’s honor?”
Lelouch felt his scalp tingle; convincing a traditional officer like Captain Andri was incredibly hard.
It was too urgent now; he had no time to explain and could only drag Klose, signaling with his eyes: “Tell the captain you saw it too!”
Klose broke into cold sweat: Lie to the company commander for the squad leader?
Ultimately, seeing the squad leader’s blood-red left eye from gas injury and recalling their shared life-and-death bond, Klose felt a daze: The squad leader must have a reason for lying!
So he gritted his teeth and testified: “I swear on my soldier’s honor, I saw the enemy tampering on the river dam too.”
He still wasn’t used to lying, changing “loading explosives” to “tampering” at the last moment.
Andri finally believed somewhat and quickly racked his brain for countermeasures.
“Then what? What do we do now?”
Lelouch had already thought it through and promptly suggested: “Sir, I need to borrow the reconnaissance company’s radio! The most urgent is to indiscriminately warn all friendly units in radio range!
Those already across the Yser River should abandon heavy equipment and force-march at full speed! Those not yet across can withdraw nearby to high ground and hold in place.
The Belgians probably haven’t blown the dam yet, but they could at any moment. Once blown, water will fill the valley in half an hour, reaching sea level in two hours!”
Captain Andri found it reasonable but still worried, adding: “What if the intel is wrong, or you mis saw?
If they don’t blow the dam, you’ll delay reinforcements and cause supply losses!”
Lelouch said earnestly and firmly: “Without a flood, our army can securely control this sector; lost equipment can be recovered in a few days.
But with a flood, losses will be huge! As reconnaissance company commander, failing to spot the major threat on the army’s path ahead means a military court firing squad!”
Andri shuddered, weighing it and deciding for the safety of the division’s comrades, better safe than sorry.
He gritted his teeth and ordered: “You few, take Corporal Lelouch to the radio room now! Authorize him to broadcast warnings to nearby friendlies as 12th Division Reconnaissance Company!”
——
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