Chapter 18: Have Immelmann Fly Us To Wilhelmshaven
After being completely convinced by Lelouch’s plan, Major General Karl also knew time was urgent, so he didn’t ask for more details, but directly arranged for a reconnaissance aircraft,
preparing to first send Lelouch to Army Group Headquarters to meet his older brother Duke Rupprecht, striving to obtain an endorsement from a handwritten secret letter by Your Highness the Duke, and also to have it on record.
Then they would fly to Wilhelmshaven to meet Rear Admiral Hipper to discuss specific operational plans and intelligence verification plans.
After all, the Britannians wouldn’t be idle either; Naval Minister Walton, who had suffered a major loss and lost face, was probably already planning to get revenge.
With the Britannians’ decision efficiency, they might soon make a strike decision and adjust their fleet force deployment.
Moreover, Dover, the home port of the Britannia Strait Fleet, was only a mere 150 kilometers from the Nieuwpoort and Ostend area.
Whereas the Germania Navy coming from Wilhelmshaven had to take a slightly longer detour over open sea to avoid detection off the Netherlands coast, requiring a full 500 kilometers.
Converted to nautical miles, these two figures would each need to be divided by 1.8.
An old-style fleet at 20 knots maximum speed would take only 5 hours from Dover to Nieuwpoort.
A high-speed battlecruiser fleet at 26 knots maximum speed would need at least 12 hours to reach the battlefield from Wilhelmshaven.
Of course, fleets rarely maintain maximum speed the entire way, and even upon arriving in the combat zone, they wouldn’t strike and immediately flee; there would still be considerable battlefield loiter time.
Especially since Britannians were very confident in their naval intelligence collection work and in their own total forces, they generally wouldn’t worry about being surprise-attacked by the German side, so fleets often dared to engage in wars of attrition after arriving on the battlefield.
But no matter how you calculate it, the Germania Navy’s decision efficiency needed to be as fast as possible to have a greater chance of seizing the opportunity; they absolutely couldn’t dawdle.
……
Late at night, Major General Karl had just finished writing two handwritten letters and affixed his seal.
He then had his personal car speed Lelouch to the airport and beforehand instructed a reconnaissance aircraft pilot with absolutely reliable technical skills to stand by.
“Wear more layers on the road; try to nap on the airplane if you can, as you probably won’t have time to sleep tonight either. Luckily, young people have good stamina.”
When handing the items to Lelouch, Major General Karl specially got him a thick lieutenant’s winter clothing set and a reindeer leather military coat.
Lelouch wasn’t polite either and directly got in the car, waving goodbye.
As he got in the car, Lelouch vaguely saw, under the faint light at the division headquarters entrance, several abbreviated letters “BFW” engraved on the hood of the division commander’s personal car.
Historically, this private startup small factory within the Baria Kingdom wouldn’t receive royal family investment until over a year after the war began, requiring expansion and upgrade, and simultaneously renaming to “Baria Engine Manufacturing Factory,” with the “F” in the abbreviation changed to “M”.
“BFW in 1914 is indeed still a makeshift small factory; the car engines they make vibrate so badly. Is Major General Karl doing this to ‘support domestic products’?”
Lelouch sat in the car, bouncing along while thinking this with some mischievous amusement.
At least at this current point in time, BFW’s engine quality was noticeably inferior to the Benz engines which already had over thirty years of history; who let BFW have just been established.
Benz cars were located in Stuttgart of the neighboring Württemberg Duchy. Württemberg was also one of the Four Southern German States and should have very close relations with the Baria Kingdom; everyone were neighbors. However, on the matter of engine manufacturing, every kingdom under the Empire liked to support local brands.
Half an hour later, the car arrived at the airport. It was also Lelouch’s first time seeing a field airport of this era; the environment was really primitively rudimentary.
It was just a compacted dirt road, without even cement or asphalt paving, and that counted as an airport. Both sides were dense grasslands, probably to reduce wind-blown dust.
The wooden biplane was directly parked on the grass, with the engine cover on the nose also painted with three abbreviated letters “BFW”.
Lelouch took one look at this brand and felt a bit uneasy inside.
In the early stages of the Great War, aircraft engine development was still very unprofessional, with a large number of aircraft engines simply being lightweight modifications from car engines. Mainly, they replaced as many original steel structural parts on the engine with aluminum as possible.
Fortunately, if hardware was lacking, software could compensate; Major General Karl also knew the quality of his own airplanes, so he specially found a very reliable pilot for tonight’s mission.
Lelouch trotted all the way to the airplane and saw a captain officer friendly extending his hand to him; Lelouch also hurriedly shook hands in return.
The captain officer proactively introduced himself: “Mark Immelmann—you’re Lelouch Hunter Lieutenant, right? Rest assured, I’ll get you safely to Duke Rupprecht.”
“So it’s Captain Immelmann, I’ve heard so much.” Lelouch politely shook hands with him and climbed into the rear seat of the reconnaissance aircraft.
Captain Immelmann went to the nose, first inserting a crank into a small hole on one side of the aircraft engine cover, vigorously rocking it several times, just like those hand-crank started tractors from the 1980s in later generations.
Only then did the airplane slowly start up; afterward, Immelmann jumped into the cockpit, began the takeoff roll, and lifted off.
As the nose lifted and turned to align toward Antwerp, Immelmann secured the rudder and then leisurely turned back to chat with Lelouch: “Lieutenant, you just said you’ve heard so much; may I ask what you’ve heard about me.”
Lelouch: “Of course, I’ve heard about your bold flying style—rumor has it you do vertical rolls; today’s mission is just to get me there safely, so don’t do any of those fancy dangerous maneuvers.”
The first maneuver in human air combat history named after a pilot, is the Immelmann turn（ also translated as Immelmann roll）,
Although in later generations this maneuver is the most basic entry-level one that every pilot can do. It involves pulling the airplane up into inverted flight while rolling half a turn sideways to achieve the fastest 180-degree vertical turnaround.
But at the end of 1914, this was absolutely still Mark Immelmann’s personal unique skill.
Immelmann had originally thought Lelouch was just exchanging polite formalities with him, but unexpectedly the other really knew his stuff; Immelmann was quite pleased and thus put away his teasing intent:
“Didn’t expect you actually know flying; alright, I guarantee I won’t scare you midway.”
As Immelmann spoke, his flying movements also became smoother, no longer showing off.
However, along the way the airplane was still tossed up and down by turbulent airflow; Lelouch couldn’t help complaining: “They really should equip all pilots with waist seatbelts, strapped to the seats! That way it’s harder to fall out, and in the future they can use more aggressive flying maneuvers in combat.”
When Immelmann heard the first half of Lelouch’s sentence, he wanted to retort. He knew well that airplanes didn’t need seatbelts; even during high-G maneuvers, centrifugal force would pin the pilot firmly in the cockpit.
With seatbelts, in the event of a crash or forced landing, it would instead affect escape efficiency, making it hard to release them quickly.
However, the second half of Lelouch’s sentence immediately changed Immelmann’s view and dispelled his intent to retort, instead piquing his curiosity:
“You mean… using airplanes for combat? Shooting at each other with pistols? Directly killing the enemy pilot—isn’t that a bit lacking in chivalry? But your thinking is quite inspiring; if it’s for combat, adding a seatbelt to avoid sliding around during violent maneuvers does add some necessity.”
Lelouch: “Who said combat between airplanes has to use pistols? Remove the rear seat of a two-seater reconnaissance aircraft, repurpose the payload for the second crewman to mount a fixed machine gun, letting the pilot directly operate the trigger to strafe enemy aircraft ahead—wouldn’t that be good?
If you don’t want to aim at the pilot to shoot them down, just spray indiscriminately; there’s a high probability of hitting the fuselage or wings, downing the enemy aircraft while letting the pilot glide to safety—that should be chivalrous enough.”
Lelouch didn’t plan to immediately intervene and change the development of air combat doctrine; mainly, his own military rank was still too low now, and his position insufficient, without any say. If he brought out certain things, the merit wouldn’t be his anyway, so it was better to take it slow.
It was just that he happened to meet Captain Immelmann today and casually gave some guidance, letting the other grasp it more quickly, which could be considered forming a good connection.
When Immelmann made his name in the future, he would naturally remember Lelouch’s foresight, and come to consult him then.
Captain Immelmann indeed fell into brief contemplation; fortunately, Lelouch reminded him to focus on flying, so they didn’t miss the stop.
……
After a short flight of just over an hour, Immelmann, relying on his absolutely solid flying skills, steadily completed the night landing, guided by lights on both sides of the runway, with an extremely precise touchdown position.
As soon as Lelouch climbed out of the cockpit, he saw several senior officers in splendid uniforms standing by the tarmac.
The leader appeared to be in his forties or fifties, with a flat-top short haircut, thick handlebar mustache, coarse brow bones, deep-set eyes, and a square face,
wearing a general’s military uniform, with a fire fox fur robe over it, embroidered with the Wittelsbach dynasty’s double lion crown emblem.
Evidently, this person was Major General Karl’s older brother, the commander of the 6th Army Group, the crown prince of the Baria Kingdom, Duke Rupprecht.
Lelouch hurriedly stepped forward to salute: “Direct Communications Battalion Cable Laying Platoon Leader Lelouch Hunter Lieutenant reporting to Commander Your Highness.”
The duke just nodded slightly, sizing him up a few times. Lelouch’s injured and reddened left eye similarly left a deep impression, instinctively making him think the other was a loyal and righteous man.
Thus, the duke didn’t make things difficult for him: “Karl just kept emphasizing in the telegram that he found a genius who, if used well, could make a huge contribution to the Empire. But he didn’t say too much specifically, saying we could learn more in the future when there’s opportunity. I believe he values you so highly for a reason; I’m also somewhat aware of your previous foresight.
This is my handwritten letter to Rear Admiral Hipper; it says for him to assist you as much as possible without violating soldierly duties. Time is pressing now, and I don’t want to miss the opportunity; as long as you answer one question for me, you can take this letter.”
The duke’s attitude clearly was to grasp the big and release the small; with time short today, he believed Karl had already vetted the specific details.
The duke only wanted to personally ask Lelouch one major question of right and wrong; if Lelouch gave a satisfactory answer, the matter could proceed.
Lelouch also knew this was unavoidable, just like how in ancient times even if the emperor didn’t understand literature, after the Ministry of Rites’ provincial exam, there would still be a palace examination as a formality to ask one question.
“Please ask away, Commander Your Highness.” Lelouch stood at attention solemnly, his expression as calm and composed as ever.
