Chapter 158: Moonlight Landing Operation
Lelouch originally had no intention of intervening in Hipper’s naval battle planning; he primarily came to find a way to sow discord among the enemy.
After all, as the saying goes, “The heard way has its senior and junior; the profession has its specialization.” He was not a naval expert and had not received naval battle training.
However, after hearing that the operation required Hipper and Scheer to lead their respective fleets, one led by battlecruisers and the other by battleships, to cooperate in combat.
Lelouch slightly altered his original plan.
He felt that he could exercise a bit of initiative without affecting the overall naval strategy, to gain more opportunities for merit for the Hipper faction and a few more moments of glory.
Of course, national interests and the overall interests of the navy remained paramount; Lelouch would never do anything that placed the interests of a small faction above national interests.
The stratagem he devised would surely bring greater victory to the nation while also allowing his brother to benefit.
However, he still needed to think carefully about the specifics and gather more intelligence.
The two men’s cars soon arrived at the makeshift joint command post for the Army and Navy within Königsberg. Hipper got out first, then led Lelouch inside, introducing him to some influential people along the way.
Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, could be considered the “land of origin” for the Hohenzollern family of Prussia.
According to Germania’s military system, under normal circumstances, there were no such entities as “joint Army and Navy command posts”; the Army was the Army, and the Navy was the Navy.
But for this Baltic Sea operation, specifically the Riga Bay operation, because it might involve amphibious landings and the Navy would need to secure sea control first before supporting the Army, such a command post was temporarily established.
Three main figures usually convened in the command post to discuss military affairs. At the forefront was the Army’s 11th Army Group Commander, Marshal Mackensen, who was also the supreme commander of the Army for the entire front in Lithuania and Latvia.
The other two were Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper and Vice Admiral Reinhard von Scheer. One commanded the battlecruiser squadron, and the other commanded the battleship squadron, with clear divisions of labor.
Before Lelouch arrived, these three had already formulated a preliminary plan for the subsequent Riga Bay operation.
When Hipper brought Lelouch in, Marshal Mackensen and Vice Admiral Scheer looked at him with a mixture of confusion and vigilance, seemingly not understanding why Hipper had repeatedly petitioned Marshal Tirpitz for the Navy to invite such a mere colonel to impart experience in amphibious operations to fill gaps.
Although Mackensen and Scheer were somewhat aware of Lelouch’s exploits, knowing he had been involved in the Battle of Dunkirk, the Hungarian Campaign on the Southern Front, and the recent Black Sea Campaign.
They also knew of the young man who was rumored to be a chief of staff to Marshal Leopold and Marshal Rupprecht, uncle and nephew.
Yet, they still felt that Germania had too many excellent military talents, with each Army Group and fleet having its own outstanding chiefs of staff; there was no need to borrow someone from friendly forces to criticize their plans.
Fortunately, Hipper noticed the atmosphere was not very harmonious and that Marshal Mackensen and Vice Admiral Scheer did not seem to warmly welcome Lelouch. He quickly helped to introduce him:
“Colonel Lelouch is also an old friend of mine and an important staff officer to Marshal Rupprecht of the 6th Army Group on the Southern Front. The reason for inviting him this time is primarily because Marshal Rupprecht, as a veteran of amphibious operations, won the first large-scale amphibious landing operation in human history!
The 6th Army Group detached troops to outflank the Dniester River Estuary, encircling and annihilating 3 enemy army groups of the Lusha and Romanian Front Armies, achieving a great victory of 150,000 enemy casualties! The subsequent landing at Mykolaiv also contributed to the accelerated collapse of the enemy garrisons in Odessa and Mykolaiv.
The successful experience of amphibious operations on the Southern Front might be worth examining to fill in the gaps, so I invited Staff Officer Lelouch to share his lessons learned.
Furthermore, Staff Officer Lelouch was very adept at exploiting the internal disunity and mutual suspicion between the Lusha army and navy in the Black Sea Theater, further weakening the enemy’s combat effectiveness. I believe we can draw inspiration from this as well, to see if our own operational plan can be slightly adjusted to complement the overall propaganda war—after all, the great Clausewitz long ago said that war is a continuation of politics.”
Lelouch had never seen Vice Admiral Hipper speak so cautiously and meticulously, even when he was in front of Duke Rupprecht, he had seemed more relaxed and approachable.
But in front of Mackensen and Scheer, he had to try his best to be more skillful.
Even so, Lelouch could still discern their displeasure, especially from Vice Admiral Scheer.
No one wanted their meticulously planned operations to be criticized by friendly forces.
Finally, Marshal Mackensen, being older and relatively indifferent to fame and fortune, said calmly, “Hipper, then you shall introduce the current established plan on our behalf.”
“Thank you, I will start with a humble offering,” Hipper expressed his respect to the old marshal before taking out an operational plan and giving a general overview.
“Our joint operational plan with the Army’s 11th Army Group for the battlecruiser squadron and the first battleship squadron is as follows:
The Army’s 11th Army Group is currently facing the enemy’s 2nd and 12th Army Groups on the front of the Courland Peninsula and in southern Latvia. Among them, the enemy’s 12th Army Group was temporarily seconded from the Northern Front Army—
The Lusha Northwestern Front Army is responsible for the defense of all of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The Northern Front Army is responsible for the Lusha capital region around Petersburg, but Petersburg is currently not under any threat.
Therefore, the Tsar has granted permission to temporarily transfer the 12th Army Group from the Northern Front Army to the command of the Northwestern Front Army. The Northern Front Army will only retain one Army Group as its standing force, which is the Lusha 1st Army Group, also known as the Guards Army Group. If Petersburg were to be threatened in the future, and the Guards 1st Army Group were insufficient to defend the capital, the Lusha Commander-in-Chief would reassign the 12th Army Group to the Northern Front Army at any time.
Currently, the Lusha 5th Army Group is deployed in Estonia to the rear, and in eastern Latvia and Lithuania, bordering Belarus. Therefore, we do not need to consider this Army Group for this campaign; Marshal Hindenburg and Lieutenant General Ludendorff will handle it with some of their troops.
Marshal Mackensen’s 11th Army Group will focus on dealing with the enemy’s 2nd and 12th Army Groups.
Among these two enemy Army Groups, the 12th Army Group is primarily deployed in the Courland Peninsula and the important port city of Riga. Therefore, our plan is for the Navy to first utilize the advantage of new minesweeping weapons, secretly clear a channel, then break into Riga Bay, defeat the enemy fleet that comes to their rescue, and then forcibly cover the landing of some of our landing troops behind Riga Port.
Simultaneously with the landing, another part of the 11th Army Group remaining on land will advance northward, converging from north and south with the landing troops, encircling and cutting off the entire Riga Port, and incidentally severing the entire Courland Peninsula west of Riga.
In fact, with Marshal Mackensen’s combat strength, a direct assault on Riga would likely succeed even without an organized landing. However, Riga is on the sea, with convenient sea access, and since the enemy previously controlled sea superiority, they could continuously transport reinforcements and fresh troops into Riga, making our assault difficult.
The Navy’s landing is secondary; the key is to cut off the enemy’s sea supply route to Riga and also cut off reinforcements entering Riga. Once this is achieved, the enemy’s 12th Army Group can be completely annihilated!”
After hearing this summary, Lelouch did not immediately offer his opinion. He knew that Mackensen and Scheer’s fundamental approach was correct; the subsequent success would depend on execution and the staff officers’ grasp of details, and how thoroughly they had considered all possible contingencies.
Riga and the Courland Peninsula were indeed suitable locations for encirclement battles. At the end of World War I on Earth, the German Army had attempted an encirclement battle in this region, eventually entering Riga. However, it was not a flanking landing and encirclement, but a single-lane advance from south to north.
Finally, after painstakingly advancing behind Riga, cutting off the retreat, they were slow to act, and a portion of the Lusha 12th Army Group managed to withdraw beforehand, ultimately preventing a complete annihilation.
During World War II on Earth, although the early stages of Operation Barbarossa did not achieve major encirclements in the Courland Peninsula, the USSR later surrounded the German Courland Corps on the peninsula during their counteroffensive, ultimately annihilating them.
It is evident that this terrain is suitable for flanking and cutting encirclement battles, even with the cooperation of landings. Lelouch saw no need to question the staff work of his predecessors; they must have put in a great deal of effort and done solid work, and it could be used directly.
However, since Lelouch was here, and he had studied war history extensively, with thousands of hours of 《Hearts of Iron》 experience, and had read all the related historical anecdotes, he could naturally draw upon more successful experiences from later eras.
So, after a long period of thought, he picked up a pointer and indicated two entry and exit channels of Riga Bay on the map:
“As you all should know, there are two channels for entering and exiting Riga Bay.
The Irbe Strait to the west is 27 kilometers wide, with a central fairway depth of 15 meters, capable of accommodating large warships of any draft.
The Hiiumaa Strait to the north, located between Hiiumaa Island and Estonia, is less than 8 meters deep at its deepest point, making it impassable for battleships and battlecruisers.
Currently, our forces have just acquired weapons capable of clearing mines in the southern Irbe Strait, but the enemy is unaware of this.
So, shouldn’t we take advantage of the information gap where ‘our main warships can enter Riga Bay, while the enemy does not know that our main warships can enter Riga Bay’ to lure them out?
In this way, when the enemy later learns that our large ships can directly enter Riga Bay through the Irbe Strait, their suspicion and distrust will be even stronger, as they will have suffered a tangible loss.”
Lelouch’s analysis was objective and did not criticize any of the previous planning. This slightly eased Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer’s resistance.
He carefully followed Lelouch’s line of thought before cautiously asking, “Specifically, how should we lure them?”
Lelouch: “For example, as is well known, the Empire’s armored cruisers were designed for high sea state conditions, and to accommodate passage through the Kiel Canal, their draft was not a primary consideration.
The Empire’s strongest armored cruisers were the ‘Scharnhorst-class,’ but both were sunk in the Battle of Dunkirk earlier this year. The remaining ‘York-class’ and ‘Prinz Adalbert-class,’ a total of 2 classes and 4 ships, should all be unable to pass through the Hiiumaa Strait north of Riga Bay into Riga Bay.
The largest ship the Empire could send through the Hiiumaa Strait would be an ‘Victoria Louise-class’ armored cruiser, a product of the last century, armed with only 2 x 210 mm main guns and 9 x 150 mm secondary guns.
And such a ship should not be a match for the Lusha Baltic Fleet’s ‘Rurik-class’ and ‘Bayan-class’ armored cruisers specifically designed for the Hiiumaa Strait. As for the Empire’s light cruisers, they would be even less a match for the enemy’s ‘Rurik-class.’
If we were to send only a few older armored cruisers and some light cruisers to breach the Hiiumaa Strait into Riga Bay to harass and disrupt enemy shipping lanes, and sink some transport ships, wouldn’t that lure out the enemy’s armored cruiser fleet from the Gulf of Finland to intercept our light vessels in Riga Bay?
At that time, our main warships would enter Riga Bay through the Irbe Strait and execute a ‘close the door and beat the dog’ maneuver, first annihilating the enemy auxiliary fleet that was lured in, and then finding a way to engage their main fleet in a decisive battle. Although the enemy’s dreadnought fleet would not be damaged in this lure, disabling their cruiser fleet first would be enough to weaken the enemy’s overall combat power.”
What Lelouch described was another typical “lure out a portion of the enemy’s forces to take risks, then strike them down with a single blow” tactic of dividing and conquering.
Before the decisive battle, they would first strike a decisive blow against the enemy, then engage in a righteous and open battle.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, not even Hipper applauded. Instead, Reinhard Scheer looked at him with pity, as if sympathizing with his lack of common sense.
“A wonderful idea, but how would our cruiser fleet pass through the northern Hiiumaa Strait to enter Riga Bay? Don’t you know that there are coastal defense batteries on Hiiumaa Island and on Saaremaa Island to its south?
Both of these islands have 305mm coastal defense guns facing the vast waters of the Baltic Sea to the west, and 203mm and 152mm coastal guns deployed on the eastern side facing the Hiiumaa Strait. Moreover, the narrowest part of the Hiiumaa Strait is only 8 kilometers wide! One-third the width of the main fairway of the Irbe Strait west of Riga Bay.
If our warships were to follow the center line of the fairway, they would be only 4 kilometers from the island coast. Even if the enemy’s coastal guns are not directly on the coastline, they would be at most 5-6 kilometers from our route. Are you suggesting our cruisers pass through the narrow strait under the fire of coastal guns 5-6 kilometers away?”
Lelouch: “We can change the landing plan. Instead of landing directly east of Riga city, we can land directly on Hiiumaa Island! The marines can deal with the defending forces on the island. As far as I know, there shouldn’t be many troops stationed there, primarily coastal artillery crews, with not much infantry.”
Lieutenant General Scheer had no response to Lelouch’s suggestion, as it involved intelligence on the enemy’s ground forces, which he was completely unaware of.
He instinctively looked blankly at Marshal Mackensen of the Army.
Marshal Mackensen was knowledgeable, and despite his age, he still remembered many enemy situations clearly. He immediately responded, “The enemy ground forces on Hiiumaa Island and Saaremaa Island are indeed not numerous.
Theoretically, there are a few thousand infantry, but they are all second-line troops. The total strength is claimed to be 20,000, but the rest are militia, or rather, the male fishermen from these two islands who have been given rudimentary training by the Lusha military.
Lieutenant General Scheer did not know how much combat power would be needed to “annihilate several thousand enemy infantry and 20,000 militia,” so he dared not easily reject the plan. In any case, the Navy had already prepared transport ships and escort fleets for the landing operation. If Marshal Mackensen approved the elite troops of the 11th Army Group, who had already undergone landing warfare training, to change their landing destination, the Navy would still be willing to try it with them.
Moreover, fortunately, the terrain of the landing site on Hiiumaa Island is not significantly different from the landing terrain on the coastal areas east of Riga Port.
Of course, details would need to be confirmed, and maps of the target landing area would have to be distributed to the grassroots officers for them to study and familiarize themselves a few days before the operation.
Once the entire plan is slightly adjusted, at least a week of preparation time is definitely required, and this is under highly efficient preparation—thanks to the fact that these two landing sites are not far apart, both being along the coast of Riga Bay.
If they were farther apart, adjusting the staff plan would require an additional half a month or even a month of preparation time.
Marshal Mackensen thoughtfully considered the situation and then summoned several trusted staff officers from his 11th Army Group to discuss together whether they could take on a different landing site.
Those staff officers requested aerial reconnaissance photos of the enemy’s detailed deployment on the island from the Navy.
The deployment of patrol units on the island could change, but fixed facilities like coastal guns would not move. Therefore, the Army and the escort fleet primarily focused on the positions of the coastal guns.
After a final deliberation, the staff officers of the landing force and the escort transport force both stated:
“A surprise landing on Hiiumaa Island is feasible, but it must be done at night, and preferably far from the enemy’s coastal defense gun positions, landing in a relatively empty area.
It can be seen that the enemy has concentrated coastal defense guns only at the narrowest point directly facing the strait, with no heavy artillery on the other sections of the western coastline.
However, the biggest problem with this landing method is that it would be impossible to capture and occupy the enemy’s coastal defense batteries as was done in the airborne operation at Dunkirk. Because the landing site is far from the coastal defense batteries, the enemy at the batteries would have ample time to adjust their deployment.
In the worst-case scenario, they would attempt to turn their guns and bombard us, but these casualties could be withstood. Even if the landing force reaches the vicinity of the coastal defense batteries, they would have ample time to self-destruct their guns, making capture impossible.”
Marshal Mackensen heard this and did not comment, merely stroking his beard and looking at Lelouch with a playful expression.
Lelouch, however, smiled generously, “Isn’t that perfect? If our forces successfully land by surprise on Hiiumaa Island and can capture their coastal guns… then the enemy’s armored cruiser fleet, fearing for their lives, would not dare to enter Riga Bay through the Hiiumaa Strait.
It is precisely by having them destroy their own coastal defenses that they will believe there is no threat to their fleet from the shores of the strait. At that point, our cruiser fleet would enter Riga Bay first, bombard and sink all the transport ships in the bay and merchant ships in Riga Port. Only then would their cruiser fleet dare to enter the trap.”
Lelouch was very confident in this plan because he knew that in 1917 on Earth, the Germans had done just that in the Battle of Riga.
They not only successfully landed on the islands and captured these two small islands controlling the northern strait of the bay, but their escorting battleships also sank the last surviving “Slava,” a pre-dreadnought of the Lusha “Borodino-class” that came to their aid.
（Note: “Slava” is a transliteration, and some documents translate it to “Glory.” The “Borodino-class” had a total of 5 ships; the other four were sunk in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. The last survivor was sunk by German ships off Hiiumaa Island, north of Riga Bay, in 1917.）
In his previous life, Lelouch enjoyed playing online games like “World of Warships” and “Naval Action.” When he browsed historical warship data in the game, he caught a glimpse of this.
The Lusha had never expected these small islands to be targeted by the enemy and subjected to landing operations, so the troops on the islands were extremely weak and no match for them.
Despite claiming 20,000 men, they were essentially 20,000 fishermen who hadn’t even been issued firearms. It’s estimated that three or four men shared one rifle, and the others could only hold bullets and harpoons, following behind, and would pick up a rifle to fight again only after the militiamen in front had fallen.
Marshal Mackensen, seeing him explain with such meticulous detail, was somewhat moved.
After all, landing at Riga Port was not his primary objective. Marshal Mackensen’s core objective was merely to ensure that the enemy could not continuously reinforce or aid Riga Port from the sea, and also to ensure that the enemy forces surrounded in Riga Port could not retreat by sea.
Therefore, as long as they landed on those two islands, controlled the northern strait, and allowed the Germania cruiser fleet to enter, they would cut off the sea supply and retreat routes for the enemy’s 12th Army Group.
The remaining task would be for the German 11th Army Group to break through the enemy frontally on land.
Mackensen did not take the Lusha’s weak 12th Army Group seriously at all.
On the Eastern Front in 1915, it was standard operation for one German Army Group to chase two opposing Army Groups.
It would take at least a 1-vs-3 situation to make it a bit challenging, with back-and-forth exchanges.
As long as the Navy could handle the enemy’s reinforcements and retreat routes, that would be sufficient.
“Since that is the case, I believe this new plan is worth considering, and I personally support it in principle,” Marshal Mackensen stated first.
“Since Your Excellency the Marshal agrees, I have no objections in principle,” Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer reluctantly went along, expressing his initial stance before delving into the details. “However, I believe the adjusted landing plan and escort plan must be meticulously detailed.
Furthermore, although there are no mines laid within the Hiiumaa Strait, the wider sea area leading to the Hiiumaa Strait on the outside might still have mines. Our reconnaissance and minesweeping fleets will need to go further north in the coming days to scout the new target sea area.
The operational troops, meanwhile, can use this time to refine the plan.”
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PS: My apologies, the map changes were quite rapid, and it seems everyone is not very familiar with the campaign background. Today’s chapter is another twelve thousand words.
Last chapter, many people probably found it a bit confusing, with no comments. I can only slowly unfold the protagonist’s strategies and plans.
Some strategies might require more foreshadowing and explanation, so please don’t find it too lengthy.
Because many people are not familiar with World War I, the strategic background cannot be glossed over as easily as World War II, otherwise many people will not understand.
In the last chapter, there was a map of the shipping lanes near Riga Bay, along with my annotations. Those who don’t understand should pay close attention to that map.
