Chapter 57: The Signature No One Else Dares To Make, Lelouch Dares
In the future during World War II, there was an 800 mm caliber giant railway gun named Gustav, in memory of its namesake former Krupp boss.
But now it was only 1914, so Gustav Krupp was still alive, and he was an industrialist in his prime at around 40 years old.
On the morning of December 26, Lelouch and Major Bock met this energetic gentleman at the Krupp Company headquarters in Düsseldorf.
Given Gustav’s current status in the industry, his dealings with the military had always been limited to the highest levels.
Normally, if a low-ranking officer came to visit, even with a card from Duke Rupprecht, he would just have the manager in charge of specific business receive them.
But early this morning, he received a phone call from the Chief of Staff of the Empire.
“I have a nephew serving in a pilot unit on the front line. The young man has a lot of ideas and often acts recklessly using my name. I’m busy and may not be able to keep him in check. He might come to disturb your company today. Just handle it officially, Mr. Gustav, no need to worry about my face.”
His Excellency the Chief of Staff was still so impartial, but Gustav still had the servant prepare a particularly well-ironed formal attire, carefully groomed his little mustache, and had his own driver go to the train station to pick them up.
At ten o’clock in the morning, Gustav’s driver brought Lelouch and von Bock to the place.
Gustav watched from a dozen steps away as the two got out of the car, then went up to greet them, taking the opportunity to observe.
The young man who got out first looked to be in his early twenties and was already wearing the rank of captain. The one who got out later was a major but at least in his mid-thirties, clearly not as promising as the young captain.
Moreover, the captain was tall and stern, 1.88 meters tall, with deep brown-black hair. What was most impressive was his pair of heterochromatic pupils, one red and one blue, though his muscles were a bit lean.
In short, he gave the impression of being extremely confident, a natural leader with great charisma.
This made Gustav involuntarily greet them with a smile, while a sense of awe rose in his heart.
Lelouch saw the other’s expression and posture and realized he must have mistaken him for someone else. He quickly stepped slightly to the side without making a fuss and smoothly introduced:
“Mr. Gustav, it’s truly an honor to meet you. This is Major von Bock, battalion commander of the 6th Army Group’s pilot assault battalion. I am merely the deputy battalion commander, Captain Lelouch Hunt.”
Gustav was slightly stunned, feeling inwardly ashamed, and quickly shook hands with the two.
After some pleasantries, both sides quickly got to the main topic.
At first, Gustav thought Major von Bock must be the main guest, and the new ideas the military wanted to propose should all come from Bock.
Although Lelouch talked a lot, he was probably just speaking on behalf of his superior to make the report.
But as they talked, Gustav realized: regarding this “railway gun” topic, Major Bock seemed to have few unique insights…
On the other hand, Captain Lelouch spoke eloquently throughout, and when questions arose, he didn’t need to consult his superior but explained directly himself.
Gustav then realized: so the Chief of Staff’s nephew was just here to build his resume and gild himself. The real ideas came from that young man who looked confident, opinionated, and charismatic…
Meanwhile, Lelouch had already stated his goals and needs: “…So, the situation is like this. The commanders of the two army groups currently engaged in fierce combat on the front line unanimously believe that the Empire now urgently needs a heavy cannon that can be quickly maneuvered and deployed via train! To serve as a ‘flexible and mobile coastal defense gun.’
Because the Empire’s army, if it continues fighting, will have to face the Strait of Dover and the enemy’s superior fleet. If it cannot provide a flexibly deployable heavy cannon that forms an ‘area denial’ deterrent against the enemy’s battleships, the army will never be able to gain a foothold in important coastal port cities, let alone assault under bombardment.
The General Staff Headquarters has also assessed the real needs of the 4th and 6th Army Groups. These needs were exchanged for bloody lessons from actual combat, not empty fantasies. So we earnestly request that Krupp Company take this seriously and accelerate research and development and trial production with the highest priority.”
In the last part of Lelouch’s report, he mentioned the General Staff Headquarters’ assessment.
And it was only at this point that Major Bock spoke sparingly to confirm that it was indeed the case.
That’s right, this assessment was personally approved by his own uncle.
Hearing that the General Staff had already approved it, Gustav couldn’t help but inwardly complain: General Fakinhhan really… He had clearly personally signed and approved it, yet earlier he said to handle it “officially” and that the “young man has many ideas.”
“I see, it does seem extremely urgent. We at Krupp will do our utmost and respond at the fastest speed. In fact, after receiving the call yesterday, I already had people start organizing materials.”
Gustav also quickly expressed his stance to show respect for the army’s needs. As he spoke, he waved to summon his secretary to fetch some documents, then spread them out on the desk and explained them on the spot to Lelouch and von Bock.
“Krupp Company has researched and produced armored trains in the early years, so the carriage issue is not big. Just slightly modify the structure and add a few support legs to resist the giant cannon’s recoil, and this part can be completed in one or two weeks.
What really takes time is how to equip the cannon with specially customized elevation mechanism and loading mechanism. If you want speed, temporarily developing the artillery itself is definitely impossible. The fastest way is to directly transplant existing battleship main guns or coastal defense guns onto armored trains.
But the hydraulic rotation and elevation mechanisms on battleships and coastal defense guns are too bulky for railway guns. On trains, they definitely need to be changed from hydraulic to electric. Electric motors have less power, so the gun barrel elevation speed will be several times slower than naval guns.
Similarly, the loading mechanism also needs to use an electric motor crane. For small calibers, it can rely on manpower plus multiple sets of pulley systems for lifting, which is more flexible, but the loading speed is also slower—these are the trade-offs of technical advantages and disadvantages. After hearing the requirements yesterday, we already had engineers do a preliminary analysis and sorting.”
Gustav didn’t want to take detours, so he directly threw out the technical route issues right away.
This way, as long as the military representatives nodded and selected a route, if the resulting product had performance shortcomings, the military couldn’t complain.
This is the plan you chose yourselves.
Von Bock had no experience in such occasions and hadn’t participated in weapon requirement initiation work, so he was momentarily at a loss and looked to Lelouch, hoping Lelouch would take a stand.
This subtle expression fell into Gustav’s eyes, further confirming that Lelouch was the real expert.
Many times, some demands from army high-level, the real metric setters are some deputy directors or even section chiefs; the higher-ups don’t understand specific technical routes.
Of course, this was also because the project was too urgent. Normally, following formal procedures would require repeated meetings and arguments, and it wouldn’t be Lelouch’s turn to make the decision directly.
With the opportunity in front of him, Lelouch didn’t hold back: “Mr. Gustav is truly experienced, as expected of an industry leader. What the Empire needs is a railway gun with pure electric elevation and loading.
The electric layout is also more flexible, without stuffing everything into one carriage. At that time, one car for generator and electric crane, one car for the cannon, plus one locomotive—three cars for one gun. When deploying, temporarily connect with cables.”
As a senior military enthusiast, and having studied electrical automation in his previous life, Lelouch had solid basic engineering literacy and knew the major trends in technical history.
The biggest advantage of electric over hydraulic and mechanical transmission is distributed flexibility, with not too many components that must be rigidly connected or integrally designed.
In the future, with time, for large-scale mass production, they could think of ways to refine and integrate, developing systems with higher overall efficiency. But for short-term pursuit of simple and crude prototypes, this is the best.
As for the “manpower plus multiple pulley systems for loading” mentioned by Gustav, it was obviously a “cutting corners,” unnecessarily sacrificing performance for convenience.
Lelouch directly rejected this point, also to remind Gustav that he was knowledgeable.
Seeing how knowledgeable he was, Gustav indeed didn’t hold back anymore and quickly said:
“In that case, please sign these project initiation requirement documents. Only when the military’s requirements are clear can we start working. Additionally, since we’ve selected the pure electric elevation and loading plan, we will also need cooperation from Siemens Company.”
If it were someone else today, they might not dare to sign so decisively.
But Lelouch wasn’t afraid. He knew that as long as the gun was produced quickly and proved itself in combat, no one would mind the decision-making process.
He confidently took out his fountain pen and signed his name with a flourish:
“For Siemens side, you first submit an application, and I’ll get a coordination letter. I’m familiar with Siemens too—last month, entrusted by the duke, I initiated a project with them for portable radios.
That project was quite successful. Now the assault troops on the front line can precisely call for rear artillery fire support, which played no small role in the victory at Ypres.”
Lelouch subtly showed off his previous “military industry project initiation guidance achievements,” making Gustav even more respectful.
He even had verifiable battle records! No wonder the higher-ups trusted him so much.
With the conversation at this point, Gustav no longer held anything back. He pulled a blueprint from the desk and spread it out:
“Actually, for the pure electric elevation and loading plan you want, we had already attempted something similar before. In mid-October, right after the Antwerp campaign ended, the General Staff mentioned this requirement to us once. The original plan was, after capturing Dunkirk and Calais in the future, to be able to bombard Dover across the strait to intimidate the Britannians’ homeland and make them fearful and willing to negotiate.
At that time, we had 4 380 mm 45-caliber main guns originally planned for the Baria battleship, but the battleship construction was delayed and they weren’t used yet, so we temporarily repurposed them for testing.
When used on the battleship, this gun’s maximum elevation was only 20 degrees, because any higher would make the turret too tall, increase the hit area, and affect the superimposed twin turret arrangement. The theoretical maximum range was also limited to only 27 kilometers.
So to hit the other side of the strait, when transplanting to the railway gun, we completely removed the maximum elevation limit. On the train, this gun can be elevated to 45 to 50 degrees, with a maximum range of 46 kilometers, already enough to hit Dover Port across the strait from Calais Port.
But the cost is a drastic reduction in rate of fire—on the battleship, 2 rounds per minute, but on the train, only 1 round every 5 minutes, ten times slower. The main bottleneck is actually not the loading mechanism, but the gun barrel elevation mechanism.
The main gun on the train can’t load ammunition at high elevation angles; after firing, it must be lowered flat, at least basically flat. Each time lowering the barrel and raising it back to the original firing angle takes 3.5 minutes, plus fine-tuning and calibration, it’s 4 to 5 minutes.
So that’s why we used the manpower pulley system for loading at first—because accelerating the loading phase with electric power makes no sense when the bottleneck is stuck at the elevation phase.”
