Chapter 136: Sucking The Marrow To The Bone And Building Like Mad
After dropping all the bombs, the airship force safely returned. The entire army was greatly encouraged.
This air raid took out a total of 11 enemy warships, 3 armored turrets, and 4 anti-aircraft gun company positions. Kesselring only lost 3 airships cumulatively, with 2 more damaged.
Based on the cost of about 3 million marks per airship, it is roughly equivalent to the cost of 1 large destroyer, or 2 large 800-ton torpedo boats, or half a standard light cruiser.
The cost of 15 airships is about equal to one main force battleship（, roughly equivalent to a “King-class” battleship. If it is a “Baria-class”, it would cost the price of 20 airships）.
By this calculation, Kesselring made a huge profit. Moreover, airships require far fewer personnel; even if shot down, far fewer people die. A destroyer has at least over 100 crew, while an airship has only a dozen or so.
More crucially, Kesselring cleverly figured out the effective defense altitude limits of the enemy’s various anti-aircraft fires:
Against existing models of Lusha anti-aircraft guns, 2800 meters is absolutely safe. Against Lushans’ fighter jets, 2400 meters is absolutely safe.
With this data, he might even take advantage before the enemy perfects their anti-aircraft fire, exhausting every possibility to expand the results further.
Until the day the enemy is truly forced into desperation, with all ships not daring to shut down even in port, keeping boilers burning 24 hours a day, or until the enemy develops new anti-aircraft weapons, this matter is not over.
……
Kesselring’s bombing was a great success.
Upon returning to base, Marshal Rupprecht and Admiral Spee of the navy were eagerly waiting there for his news.
Originally, according to the pre-war plan, if the bombing went smoothly, Admiral Spee would dispatch the fleet to sail to Odessa for mine sweeping operations, followed by seizing sea control and landing tasks in sequence.
But the overachievement of the bombing mission changed the situation somewhat, delaying the navy’s deployment a bit. Everyone was considering if the lingering heat from the air raids could be fully exploited for a better opening.
Kesselring took off at 3 a.m., began dropping bombs around 5 a.m., returned at 7 a.m., and arrived back at Sulina airship base around 9 a.m. The entire process, including flight and bombing, took 6 hours.
Duke Rupprecht and Admiral Spee were overjoyed when they heard his report of the results.
“I didn’t expect that bombing warships at anchor, unable to cold-start, would have such a strong surprise attack effect. Unfortunately, this kind of surprise attack can only happen once. The enemy’s Black Sea Fleet had never encountered this before and didn’t realize how important it is to ‘keep boilers fired up at all times when warships are in port.’
If their boilers were kept fired and under pressure even in port, they wouldn’t have been caught so badly off guard. But this cheap shot can only be taken once; they’ll learn quickly. What a pity.”
Admiral Spee, who understood the navy, immediately sighed this.
Duke Rupprecht did not understand the navy and asked Lelouch beside him: “What do you think?”
Lelouch seriously assessed: “Any form of attack is strongest in surprise and yields the most on the first time.
But since Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring has figured out the weaknesses in the enemy’s anti-aircraft layout, knowing the maximum engagement altitudes of their various anti-aircraft fires, and has also devised bombing ground anti-aircraft gun positions first. I think this bombing can still dig out more potential later.
The longer this drags on, the more countermeasures the enemy will come up with. If we still hope for airships to achieve merits, we should use them continuously for these few days, not giving the enemy time to breathe and devise countermeasures.
But we must also prepare mentally: once the enemy comes up with countermeasures through collective wisdom and inflicts clear losses on the airships, we should immediately stop to cut losses. The key is to calculate the marginal profit clearly.”
Duke Rupprecht pondered for a moment, then turned to Admiral Spee: “I think he makes sense. Admiral Spee, how about the navy delays action by a couple more days?
It won’t matter much for operational surprise anyway. As long as the fleet doesn’t move, the enemy won’t see our intentions. They’ll just think we suddenly came up with new tactics using the airship force, taking advantage of some precise bombing.”
Admiral Spee had to admit the arrangement made sense and nodded: “Alright, then I’ll have the fleet delay action based on the situation, but as soon as the airship bombing effect drops, I’ll strike immediately.
Additionally, since Odessa Port’s coastal defense forts have been knocked out, I can at least dispatch armored cruisers pulling ‘scraper otter trawl minesweeping chains’ for nighttime mine sweeping in the Dniester Estuary Sea Area.
These are all moored mines anyway, invisible from the start. If a minesweeper is unlucky and hits one at night, it would hit the same in daylight.
I can send minesweepers deep into the minefield to trawl at night, then at dawn dispatch destroyers to visually search for mines floating up with severed mooring chains, detonating them one by one with 88 mm rapid-fire cannon aimed shots, and then the main fleet can move.”
The other army and air force officers all thought it made sense and strongly approved of Admiral Spee’s approach.
Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring suddenly drew further inferences: “In that case, our airship force can push harder and increase sortie frequency. How about flying again after noon, aiming to drop bombs around 4 p.m., then return and moor before dark around 6 p.m.
This way, we can bomb twice a day: once at dawn, once in the afternoon. Giving the enemy even less time to devise countermeasures.”
“Daytime bombing? Won’t that increase the danger?” Lelouch was directly shocked; he didn’t expect Kesselring to be so bold.
Previously, they always took off at night, arrived over the target at dawn, then dropped bombs, maximizing the enemy’s “caught off guard.” Lelouch was used to this method.
But Kesselring said matter-of-factly: “Previously, we came once every few months, so the enemy couldn’t stay alert all the time and grew lax. Now, the enemy probably doesn’t dare let warships sit in port without boilers lit. Is there a difference between flying over at dawn or afternoon? Better to shorten the cycle, increase density, bomb as many times as possible, and save the navy a few days.”
Lelouch thought about it, instantly understood, and quickly helped Kesselring convince the other higher-ups:
“I think it’s feasible! The enemy must have formed a mental habit too. A sudden afternoon attack might have the same effect!
If the cloud layer is good, we can approach at high altitude, hiding behind clouds toward the port, and the enemy’s lookouts still won’t spot us much earlier!”
Military strategy emphasizes feigning weakness when strong, strength when weak. Since it was always done that way before, suddenly doing the opposite might yield extra surprising effects.
The two general officers, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but think:
This kid is truly a damn genius!
“Alright, let’s do it! Bomb again in the afternoon, but what to bomb?”
……
After discussion, Kesselring decided to continue bombing other ports in the afternoon to see if there were ships to hit. Tomorrow, bomb the remaining fixed targets in the eastern Black Sea, mainly coastal defense forts in ports.
Because coastal defense forts can’t run; they are fixed targets that can be left for later.
Kesselring’s 30 airships, in the dawn air raid, had 3 shot down and destroyed, 2 damaged and unable to continue tasks, and another found faulty during temporary maintenance, so he took the remaining 24 operational ones, reloaded with bombs, and set out again.
At 4 p.m. on the 28th, 12 airships arrived at Nikolaev Port, while another 12 flew to Sevastopol Port, with the Sevastopol group personally led by Kesselring.
Nikolaev Port is less than 100 kilometers from Odessa, and the morning’s events at Odessa had already put the shipyards, port, and fleet here on high alert.
Plus, that afternoon there were few low clouds, unable to conceal the high-altitude airship group. The airships were spotted by lookouts 20 kilometers from the port, giving the port a full 15 minutes to prepare.
Because all warships’ boilers were pre-heated, upon spotting the airships, all ships sailed out of port one after another, leaving almost no fixed targets to hit.
In the end, they only caught the “Imperatritsa Mariya-class” third ship “Alexander III” still under construction at Nikolaev Shipyard’s berth. Over half of the 2000 kg heavy bombs were dropped on this fixed target, sinking it right in the port.
But this actually didn’t mean much, just adding some military merit—historically, this ship lacked a propulsion system until 1917, after the Tsar was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, when the Lushans finally got the propulsion system. By the time it was completed, Lusha had already exited the World War.
But regardless, sinking a ship with its hull already built still added significant military merit; the participating personnel could accumulate massive combat experience and gain promotions.
Besides this fixed target, the airship force’s remaining bombs only took out 4 anti-aircraft gun companies near Nikolaev Port, destroying over half of the 16 anti-aircraft guns, and scattering the artillery crews in flight.
Additionally, several immobilized ships under repair in the shipyard, including the old pre-dreadnought “Potemkin-class” “Three Apostles” and a very old protected cruiser “Pallada”, were also completely wrecked.
The 12 airships dropped all their bombs, destroying 3 fixed targets under repair, but 1 was shot down by Lusha Fleet’s anti-aircraft guns, 1 was heavily damaged, and during return, one force-landed on the sea surface—
After this battle, the Germania airship force had to update its assessment of enemy combat power data. It turned out Lushans’ shipboard 76 mm anti-aircraft guns had higher maximum elevation and ceiling than same-caliber land anti-aircraft guns, and some new sharp warships had just been fitted with these 76 mm high-angle guns.
After return, another suffered excessive mechanical wear and couldn’t operate soon, needing maintenance, and 1 more had mechanical failure requiring several days of repair.
……
The other group of 12 airships bombing Sevastopol was personally led by Kesselring.
Sevastopol is farther from the front line, and reachable only by crossing the sea directly.
Kesselring was only spotted when approaching 40 kilometers from Sevastopol Port, with low clouds again making long-range concealment difficult.
However, Kesselring soon discovered that the Lusha Navy’s vigilance at Sevastopol was clearly much weaker.
They surprisingly hadn’t learned from the morning disaster at Odessa; most warships in port still hadn’t lit their boilers in advance.
Perhaps the Lushans’ military order system was too sluggish, news transmission too slow, or simply because it was far from the front and never attacked since the war started, so they were lax.
Since the enemy was still so complacent, Kesselring didn’t hold back and rushed straight at the anchored fleet.
Even though from detection to overhead took half an hour, that wasn’t enough time to light boilers and start warships.
In the end, 1 “Bogatyri-class” protected cruiser, 3 destroyers（1 “Novik-class”, 1 “Burlar”-class） were lost, directly bombed in half and sunk.
These were all small targets, but more crucially: Sevastopol, as the Black Sea Fleet’s core main base, also had 2 new sharp battleships here!
Unfortunately, the warships’ anti-aircraft guns fired fully skyward, forcing Kesselring to climb above 3500 meters to drop bombs. In the end, none of the remaining 2000 kg aerial bombs scored direct hits.
Only 1 500 kg aerial bomb and 2 50 kg aerial bombs hit “Imperatritsa Mariya”. Another 6 50 kg bombs hit “Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya”.
A 500 kg aerial bomb obviously can’t be fatal to a battleship, only breaching armor and destroying some compartments.
“Imperatritsa Mariya” was directly hit amidships by the 500 kg bomb, destroying funnel No. 2 and the elevation and traverse mechanisms of main turret No. 2.
“Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya” was not hit by heavy bombs, only losing some superstructure fittings, including the radio antenna on the aft conning tower, the fire control rangefinder on the aft bridge, and lifeboat davits, all destroyed.
Kesselring was very unwilling. The next morning, he gathered all 17 remaining operational airships and returned to Sevastopol.
But this time, the Lusha Navy had finally learned completely; all ships had sailed out of port and didn’t dare stay home, all patrolling outside, giving no opportunity.
Kesselring’s final wave only destroyed Sevastopol Port’s coastal defense batteries and anti-aircraft gun positions, with excess bombs just hitting some port facilities, warehouses, and merchant ships.
This was also Kesselring’s last effective bombing; two days of continuous heavy bombing had taught the Lushans experience through the beatings.
Total results from several days of cumulative bombing: damaged 1 Lusha Black Sea Fleet battleship, lightly damaged another 1, destroyed 2 pre-dreadnoughts, 1 armored cruiser, 2 protected cruisers, 2 minelaying cruisers, 9 destroyers.
Black Sea Fleet remaining total strength: 2 battleships（Imperatritsa Mariya, Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya）, 2 pre-dreadnoughts（Svyatoy Evstafiy, Potemkin）, 1 armored cruiser（Kagoul）, 3 protected cruisers, 14 destroyers.
After the Lushans endured repeated heavy bombings, they too frantically improvised modifications to their airplanes and temporarily refitted 76 high-angle gun mount limits, trying to create more aggressive anti-aircraft weapons. They would likely achieve a breakthrough soon.
The theoretical maximum ceiling of 76 mm guns exceeds just over 3000 meters; previously, the mount elevation was only just over 60 degrees. If temporarily rigged to 70 or even 80 degrees, hitting 4000 meters is possible.
Then airships would have to climb even higher; even if still safe to drop bombs, accuracy would halve again, and against moving targets, it would drop almost to zero.
Considering anti-aircraft gun positions are easily counter-bombed by airships, the Lushans even urgently mounted high-angle guns with shields and limiters removed on trucks for mobile firing while moving.
Issues like recoil, stability, whether multiple shots would damage the truck or cause it to overturn were no longer concerns.
Moreover, this topic wasn’t just for the Lushans to research.
Because while Kesselring ravaged several eastern Black Sea ports, at the Western Front’s Calais Port against Dover Port and other Britannia east coast naval bases, Germania Western Front airship forces and other supporting units were also frantically exploiting the airships’ remaining potential for one last haul before airships were countered.
——
PS: Another 12,000 words today. Though the protagonist appears little, no choice; he can’t handle everything.
Air raid preparations before amphibious operations must be written. The curtain fall of the airship era also needs depiction.
Tomorrow we can return to the amphibious operation with the protagonist personally commanding. Thanks for everyone’s patience.
