Chapter 59: Triple-range Flamethrower, Effortlessly Purging Stenford City
The day Lelouch left the front line to return to the rear was Christmas of 1914. By the time he finished handling the project coordination work for Krupp, Siemens, and others, it was already New Year’s Day of 1915.
So on New Year’s Day, just before leaving, Gustav invited him to a family banquet at his home.
Unknowingly, it had already been the second year since arriving in this world.
Although the first year started on October 25th, it was only two months and eight days in total.
On the morning of January 2nd, Lelouch took a train and left Düsseldorf.
He was supposed to return to the front line immediately, but in reality, he had to stay an extra three days when passing through Aachen to temporarily handle some business at the DWM company—because in the days after he left the front line on December 26th, the friendly forces on the front line encountered some new difficulties during their attack on Stenford City and the 155 high ground on Kemmel Hill.
And Commander Duke Rupprecht was now accustomed to trusting Lelouch, this “miracle boy,” so whenever there was a problem, he thought of consulting him, constantly calling him these past few days.
Lelouch also seized every opportunity to think of some cost-effective emergency measures, then spent three days at the DWM company’s Aachen factory preparing two small gifts for the Britannians.
As for the specific preparation process, there was nothing worth dwelling on, because the technical difficulty of these small gifts was not great.
……
January 5th, Ypres Salient front line.
After two delays, Lelouch finally returned to the front line. He had also sent a letter in advance, telling the commander that he had brought back a “surprise” for the enemy.
The duke was very much looking forward to it and personally went to Lille train station to pick him up.
As soon as the train stopped, the duke’s driver opened the car door and waved for Lelouch to get in the car.
Lelouch quickly ran over, intending to open the passenger door, but the duke patted the seat cushion next to him, signaling him to sit in the back row together.
Lelouch knew this was for the convenience of discussion, so he didn’t make a fuss and calmly sat in the back row.
“These past few days you’ve been back at the rear, the strong assault on Stenford and Kemmel Hill has not been going very smoothly. Both sides have been locked in a war of attrition. Although our army’s casualties are acceptable and the exchange ratio is not bad, the strategic objective of capturing them has still not been achieved.”
The duke didn’t mince words with him at all and got straight to the current predicament.
Lelouch: “How is the situation in Stenford now?”
Duke: “That is a city after all, not a town, a small railway hub at a fork. The defensive forces are still very strong. After our army’s heavy cannons repeatedly bombarded, most of the buildings suitable for hiding enemies have been blown down. But that Hegge guy must have gone all out too, continuously sending reinforcements from the west into the city to fight a war of attrition with us.
Many of the already bombed-down building ruins still hide scattered enemy soldiers. It should be that Hegge pulled up all the elites of the British 1st Army. Their morale is much higher than that of Lord Canna and the Indians we encountered before, able to repeatedly engage in back-and-forth with our army.
Our army just distributed shotguns the day before yesterday, fighting urban warfare with the enemy, and also swapped some submachine guns from the assault battalion to the siege troops. The kill exchange ratio has improved quite a bit, but we still can’t completely search out and kill those mice.”
Lelouch nodded, not feeling too surprised.
The British Army veterans at the end of 1914 still had considerable will to fight. At that time, many military nobles served as grassroots officers, leading from the front. It would take for this batch of honor-seeking noble officers to die off before the British Army’s morale gradually began to falter in the later periods, making them prone to retreat.
Moreover, the duke had roughly outlined these situations over the phone before.
After sorting out his thoughts, Lelouch continued to ask: “The day before yesterday on the phone, I suggested you use flamethrower soldiers to purge the city battle ruins. How was the effect?”
The duke was also straightforward: “We tried it a little, and the biggest problem with the flamethrower is that the range is really too short, about the same as a fire hose.
The key is that the portable injector can’t provide water pressure as high as a fire hydrant; it lands after spraying ten meters. You can’t even spray the houses across the street from a distance, and it’s also easy to accidentally injure the flamethrower soldier himself.”
Lelouch nodded: “As expected, it’s still a range problem. Fortunately, I stopped by DWM this time and got a batch of new nozzles and fuel. We’ll see the effect then.”
The duke couldn’t help but be stunned: “So fast? On your way back, didn’t you just detour to Aachen for two days?”
“Two days was enough.” Lelouch patted his chest and pointed to the train he arrived on and the several freight cars at the end, signaling the duke to rest assured.
Although the duke still couldn’t quite believe it, he was happy to wait and see.
……
Many people mistakenly think that the “flamethrower” was a product of World War I, but in fact, this thing was invented in 1901 by the Germania fire engineer Fielder.
In 1912, the German Army formed the first flamethrower soldier unit, selecting 48 sturdy hose handlers from the Posen fire brigade and retraining them from spraying water to spraying oil.
However, according to the original historical trajectory, because the early war of maneuver in the great war was not suitable for flamethrower soldiers to perform, it wasn’t until the end of February 1915 that the German Army first launched a flamethrower offensive on the Verdun battlefield.
Because the Verdun fortress was solid enough to warrant the flamethrower soldiers’ debut.
Now, due to Lelouch’s butterfly effect, the flamethrower’s debut has naturally been advanced by two months.
The morning before last, the German Army first conducted small-scale combat tests with flamethrowers in several street blocks inside Stenford City that had already been isolated and encircled.
It did burn to death hundreds of British Army soldiers and cleared two street blocks, but more than a dozen flamethrower soldiers were also lost.
The flamethrower, put into combat ahead of schedule, obviously still had some major performance shortcomings unsolved.
But no matter, Lelouch was back, and these were no longer problems.
……
The next day at dawn, Stenford City front line.
Two regiments of Baria’s 12th Division were once again thrown into the siege battle.
The German and British armies were fiercely engaging in close-quarters combat in the city’s ruins.
The German Army still held a certain advantage, but it was not a crush.
Due to the German Army deploying shotguns and submachine guns, the British Army could no longer hold those relatively sturdy, intact fortifications. They could only disperse as much as possible and retreat into some already bombed ruins, rebuilding temporary firepower points.
The several days of back-and-forth had already instilled considerable psychological fear in the German soldiers searching the ruins street blocks. They didn’t know if any black guns would suddenly appear from those collapsed houses.
A captain company commander named Captain Godler was at this moment leading a company, carefully spreading out and alternately searching forward along the rubble piles on both sides of West Street at the train station.
At every moment, only a dozen soldiers advanced dispersed, while the vast majority of the other soldiers found cover to set up their guns, watching all directions with ears pricked.
Even with such caution, after searching house by house along the way and killing several groups of 1st Division enemy soldiers, the company still encountered sudden heavy firepower blockade.
The “da-da-da” sound of Vickers heavy machine guns suddenly rang out, suppressing the attacking soldiers so they couldn’t lift their heads, forcing them to find any available cover on the spot to hide.
“Northern sector of West Street at the train station, multiple Vickers heavy machine gun firepower points discovered! Have the special team come up to suppress!”
After observing the enemy situation clearly, Company Commander Godler immediately had the field messenger shout the order.
Frontline communications in this era basically relied on shouting.
Two minutes later, several clumsy soldiers carrying heavy fuel tanks arrived; they were soldiers from the German Army’s first flamethrower unit, the Ledman detachment.
They were all originally members of the Posen fire brigade, and their company commander, Captain Bernhard Ledman, was originally the captain of the Posen fire brigade.
After the flamethrower soldiers arrived at the forefront, Infiltration Troops Company Commander Captain Godler immediately reminded them: “Again, heavy machine guns deployed infiltrating along one side of the wide street in the already bombed ruins. The street is very wide; two machine guns seal off a large area. Be careful.”
The pilot use in the previous two days had already made the officers of the German search infiltration troops quite worried about their own flamethrower warriors; their weapons’ range was really too short, and maneuvering with fuel tanks on their backs was inconvenient.
Moreover, once hit by enemy fire, even if not killed on the spot, as long as the fuel tank was penetrated, the whole person would instantly burst into a big fireball.
However, these few flamethrower soldiers newly deployed today seemed to have regained considerable confidence. While observing from afar to find injection positions, they reassured Captain Godler in turn:
“Don’t worry, they’ve given us new fuel tanks up top. The width of this street is no issue. We’ll first circle inside the buildings on the east side of the street, advance to a position separated from the heavy machine gun firepower points by just one street, then suddenly spray fire. You just remember to fire and suppress.”
Captain Godler was still a bit incredulous, but since the flamethrower soldier comrades said so, he very professionally instructed his soldiers not to show their heads and just fire randomly toward the enemy-ambushed street block across to attract attention.
The Vickers heavy machine guns opposite were indeed attracted, continuously sweeping madly at the street entrance in front of Captain Godler, completely sealing off the street surface.
Both sides probed and tugged like this for two minutes, then suddenly a change occurred.
From two windows in a certain half-collapsed building across the street from the two Vickers heavy machine gun positions, two fire dragons suddenly burst out unexpectedly, shooting straight into the ruins containing the heavy machine gun positions.
The smooth flames seeped everywhere, instantly drilling into every corner of the semi-enclosed space, followed by a series of dense bursting screams. Over a dozen charred fire people jumped directly out of broken windows and wall holes, falling onto the main street.
There were a few who hadn’t died immediately, just howling miserably and rolling frantically to try to extinguish the flames on their bodies, but it was all in vain; at most rolling three to five seconds before going completely still.
Captain Godler and the other ordinary infantry seeing this scene were also dumbfounded.
They had seen their own flamethrower soldiers in action the day before yesterday, but that kind of flame could only spray at most ten meters, covering three lanes. Adding sidewalks, it couldn’t even reach the opposite street.
Moreover, the fuel oil at that time was very thin; if only slightly touched, it could be extinguished by rolling a few times.
But today’s situation was completely different. They watched as their flamethrower soldiers’ injection distance was at least forty meters! That was at least tripled! And so far, not a single burning enemy had been seen extinguishing the flames by rolling them off; all who were burned died.
German Army morale soared, and under the cover of the new flamethrower soldiers, they continued advancing to search and clear.
Several street blocks in Stenford City that were originally interlocking were thus secretly cleared one by one across the street, along with the British Army die-hard elite firepower points ambushed inside.
The miserable howls wrapped in fierce flames echoed all day without cease. Whether you were ambushing heavy machine guns or mortars in the ruins area, once discovered and encircled, it meant quick clearance.
Bombardment might not be able to bomb the ruins into more ruins, but flamethrowers could absolutely burn clean every hiding corner for people, even cellars or temporarily dug basements.
In just one short day, all the British Army soldiers in the tug-of-war zone were eliminated.
The news reached the rear, and Division Commander Karl and Commander Rupprecht were shocked once again.
“What exactly did you do to the flamethrower fuel?” The commander couldn’t help but question Lelouch closely.
“I just added some thickener,” Lelouch explained innocently,
“If the liquid sprayed out is too thin, it’s hard to pressurize it far and it quickly disperses into mist due to air resistance, like peeing against the wind and wetting your shoes. But if thickened, it can be twisted into a stream and sprayed forward.”
This principle is actually very simple, similar to the thickened formula of the Molotov cocktail, so Lelouch could easily think of it.
To shoot far, it has to be thick.
