Chapter 62: Plant The Flag On The Summit Of Kemmel Hill
“Boom boom boom!”
On the reverse slope on the north side of Kemmel Hill’s mountaintop, groups of British Army heavy cannons continued roaring, seemingly venting the deepest fears in Lieutenant General Haig’s heart.
From 12 BL-MK1-type 9.2-inch heavy howitzers,
To 72 60-pounder guns（ approximately corresponding to 5-inch caliber）,
And then to nearly 200 18-pounder guns（ approximately 84 mm caliber）.
The British Army had deployed more than half of the entire expeditionary force’s heavy cannons on this core battlefield on Kemmel Hill, where both sides were fighting most fiercely.
It was this massive artillery group that had kept the enemy pinned at the foot of the mountain for more than ten days, preventing them from breaking through.
On the south slope of Kemmel Hill, across a nearly ten-kilometer-wide battlefield front, there were massive explosions splitting rocks everywhere, with huge chunks of mountain stone blasted apart, flying into the air before crashing and rolling down, their rumbling echoes resounding endlessly in the valley.
“We can definitely hold them off. Even though we can’t see the enemy, as long as we cover all suspected lost positions with bombardment, indiscriminate bombardment— no matter how strong the enemy’s assault teams are, they won’t be able to infiltrate!”
In the headquarters of the Belgian Expeditionary Force’s 1st Army, Lieutenant General Haig’s face was ashen, constantly reassuring himself in his mind.
Facing his subordinates’ warnings about “worrying about friendly fire,” he ignored them all, only thinking of holding off the enemy at any cost!
This heavy snow limited visibility too much. The British Army clearly held the advantage of high ground, yet couldn’t overlook the overall situation or grasp front-line details, forced to resort to this crude method.
……
While the British Army raged impotently with their frenzied bombardment, in Major Rundstedt’s assault battalion, the observation teams that had just infiltrated were hiding in newly captured tunnels, using assembled artillery sound locators to fine-tune directions, eavesdropping on the enemy army’s firing positions.
The battlefield was actually full of massive roars everywhere; the explosive sound of artillery shell impacts was far louder than the propellant burst when shells were fired.
So without professional equipment, it was actually easy to confuse them; after listening for a short while, one couldn’t tell directions anymore.
But with professional artillery sound locators, everything changed.
The artillery sound locator’s two receivers, shaped like satellite dishes, could focus on collecting and amplifying sounds from the directed orientation while suppressing or even ignoring sounds from other directions.
So by roughly pointing those two “satellite dishes” toward the mountaintop side, they could approximately block out shell impact explosions from behind and focus only on collecting firing sounds.
Of course, this eavesdropping still couldn’t pinpoint directions as precisely as radar. It could only indicate that within a roughly sixty-degree fan-shaped area ahead, enemy cannons were firing.
So with such crude eavesdropping alone, it was impossible to directly counter the enemy artillery.
To pinpoint accurately, they still needed timing, plus multi-point rangefinding and positioning, combined to achieve wondrous results.
“A Group observation point: Within 350 to 50 azimuth, detected four extremely heavy sound patterns every two minutes! Suspected 9.2-inch super-heavy howitzer position! Sound pattern detection times: 17:55:32.8, 37.4, 42.2, 46.7 seconds…”
The eavesdropping team in the first tunnel also carried a portable radio station. The radio itself was hidden in the tunnel, but the transmitting and receiving antenna was extended out of the tunnel entrance to ensure signal. After the eavesdropper reported the points, the operator immediately sent the relevant data to the rear.
At the same time, B Group observation point and C Group observation point were doing roughly the same thing.
All the eavesdroppers wore the finest Swiss military-grade precision watches, accurate to 0.1 seconds for timing, and able to estimate tenths of seconds. While listening for firing sounds, they had to focus on staring at their watches to record the exact moment they heard the sound.
Moreover, before departure, each team’s eavesdroppers had synchronized watches to ensure everyone’s timekeeping was identical, with no margin for even 0.1-second error.
Because in winter, sound travels through the air at roughly 3 seconds per kilometer. A 0.1-second error could lead to over 30 meters of positioning and ranging discrepancy for the enemy.
“B Group observation point: Detected 9.2-inch artillery group firing times at 17:55:36.6, 41.2 seconds…”
“C Group observation point…”
Data from all three groups was precisely reported to the rear 210 mm heavy howitzer battalion position, compiled to Battalion Commander William Keitel Major.
Upon receipt, the major immediately decisively ordered: “Computors! Immediately calculate the hyperbola based on the relative coordinate differences of the 3 observation points and the time differences of detected firing sounds!”
Anyone who studied junior high math knows:
“The locus of points in a plane where the sum of distances to two fixed points is constant is called an ellipse.”
“The locus of points in a plane where the difference of distances to two fixed points is constant is called a hyperbola.”
The positions of A observation group and B observation group, with their self-reported coordinates, were the “foci” of the hyperbola in this problem.
The time difference of the British Army heavy cannon firing sounds reaching these two points, multiplied by the speed of sound, was the “difference of distances to the two fixed points” for this hyperbola.
（Note: Generally, simple eavesdropping on firing sounds to position enemy artillery distances is done by visually timing the interval between seeing the muzzle flash and hearing the sound, using the time difference between light speed and sound speed propagation for ranging, similar to determining lightning distance by the time between seeing the flash and hearing the thunder.）
But in this scene today, due to the snow blocking visibility, neither side could see the other’s muzzle flashes, so they had to use the more advanced multi-foci hyperbola solution method. Moreover, the German Army also needed the heavy snow to obscure muzzle flashes; otherwise, with the enemy holding high ground and good visibility, if you could see their muzzle flashes, they could see yours. It had to be an environment where both sides were completely blind and relying purely on hearing for the protagonists’ side to gain the advantage. Afraid the math might be too hardcore and lead to misunderstandings or arguments, here’s a special explanation.）
The computors quickly drew pairwise hyperbolas on the coordinate map based on parameters reported by the three observation posts:
“The same gun group firing sound arrived at A point 3.8 seconds later than at B point, and all four guns were 3.8 seconds late, verified across three salvos—basically confirmed; the distance difference between the two foci of hyperbola one is about 1270 meters… hyperbola plotted as follows…”
Of course, this process couldn’t be quick, and it couldn’t be determined from one salvo; verification calculations were needed.
But fortunately, the snow was heavy, and night was falling; the enemy kept firing, giving plenty of time to calculate slowly.
After several salvos, the computors finally plotted two sets of hyperbolas with AB as foci and AC as foci—the intersection of these two hyperbolas theoretically being the position of those 4 BL-MK1-type 9.2-inch super-heavy howitzers!
The computors reported the final foci coordinates to Battalion Commander William Keitel for personal review.
After confirming accuracy, the battalion commander immediately ordered their own 210 mm heavy howitzers to adjust firing data to the target coordinates.
A few minutes later, after maintaining silence for so long, the German artillery group finally spoke!
A barking dog doesn’t bite.
In the snow and darkness, those trash who impotently raged and fired wildly out of fear, those Britannia beasts too stupid at math to amount to anything, posed little threat.
The truly lethal ones were those who endured silently, biding their time without firing.
However, no one can defy natural laws; the biggest issue with this mathematical positioning for firing was the inability to correct for errors from the previous salvo. If it missed, there was no way to know which direction the deviation was.
Major Keitel’s 210 mm howitzers had already done their utmost to strike the enemy artillery positions as accurately as possible.
He could only indirectly judge if the enemy’s heavy cannons were destroyed by whether they ceased fire after his salvos or if their subsequent firing sounds grew sparser.
If destroyed, shift to the next target group, select some prominent sound patterns, track, time, report points… and repeat the entire process above.
……
With a “Boom!” a shell weighing over 120 kg exploded on the British Army BL-MK1-type 9.2-inch howitzer position on the north side reverse slope of Kemmel Hill.
Though the exploding shell wasn’t as thick as their own 234 mm, at 210 mm it was still tremendously powerful. With dozens of kg of TNT charge, it was absolutely not to be underestimated.
Landing in an open artillery position, it was enough to kill all soldiers within 30 meters.
Steel cannons within 20 meters of the impact point couldn’t withstand the flying massive fragments and would instantly twist and deform.
One 9.2-inch gun weighing 27 tons was not far from the impact point and was directly blasted into parts.
Even more deadly, the unfired shell next to that 9.2-inch gun, and the shell already loaded in the barrel, were also affected and subsequently detonated sympathetically.
Three heavy shells exploded in succession, turning the entire 9.2-inch battalion position into a horrific wreck, without even screams. Because all affected artillerymen were killed instantly, dying very quickly.
British Army troops in the neighboring position were stunned for a long time, not even realizing what happened, thinking it was an accidental ammunition detonation.
After all, in this heavy snow as night fell, they were firing from the sheltered reverse slope of the mountaintop, high above. They’d fired for days without incident—how could something suddenly go wrong?
“Probably an accident?” The brigadier general of the army direct heavy artillery brigade responsible for the specific investigation didn’t dare report enemy attack directly to Lieutenant General Haig; he decided to self-investigate as an accident first.
For such a serious accident, blindly reporting a cause could affect his career; better to confirm first.
But after delaying a few minutes, another salvo came at high efficiency firing frequency, smashing right back at the same spot.
The shells’ natural dispersion varied slightly, but the general direction was completely consistent.
“Boom boom boom!”
At this point, even the dullest British Army realized; a fear of the unknown suddenly rose in their hearts.
The German bombardment hadn’t stopped; after detecting the first 9.2-inch level British heavy artillery position go silent, they quickly shifted to a new target, opening fire on another position 15 minutes later.
In World War I, heavy artillery positions often took hours to deploy, with heavier guns taking longer.
Redeployment and movement were similarly more troublesome for heavier guns.
For the 9.2-inch super-heavy howitzers, just packing up took two or three hours. Worse, their 27-ton bulk made movement difficult without specialized heavy towing equipment.
Thus, before the British Army could adjust deployment, all 12 super-heavy guns from 3 battalions were completely destroyed by counter-battery fire!
With these heaviest firepower eliminated, the pressure on the German Army immediately eased greatly.
These 12 super-heavy guns had originally been used to blockade the railway at the mountain foot. Each nearly 200 kg shell could blast several-meter craters in the railbed, wrecking large sections of track and sleepers, greatly increasing repair difficulty.
The reason the German Army couldn’t previously use the railway was these guns bombarded too fiercely. Even if they repaired at night after daytime breaks, it wasn’t in time.
Now, all that was a thing of the past.
After confirming the 9.2-inch super-heavy howitzers silenced, the German Army quickly adjusted targets, eavesdropping and calculating a 5-inch 60-pounder artillery regiment position…
……
“Corps Commander! Bad news! The enemy has some ability we can’t understand! In the darkness and heavy snow, without visual observation, they’re directly bombarding our heavy artillery positions at locations they can’t see!
Brigadier General Rolf also died in the enemy’s counter-battery fire, martyred! And a 60-pounder artillery regiment is suffering under enemy suppression fire, with heavy losses!”
The panicked British Army artillery finally reported the bad news to Lieutenant General Douglas Haig.
“What?! Impossible!” Haig was utterly stunned upon hearing the news, even rushing out involuntarily, instinctively looking up at the sky, then quickly turning to scan around, and holding out his palm to catch a few snowflakes.
“Impossible! It’s so dark! And snowing heavily! Even in daylight, I can’t see things two kilometers away! Our artillery is blind-firing at preset coordinates! How could the enemy know where our artillery is?”
In the emergency, one of his artillery generals speculated: “Could the enemy be using sound ranging to pinpoint our heavy artillery positions?”
But Haig completely disbelieved, sternly denying: “Do you think the enemy’s ears are blessed by oracle? With the chaotic cannon fire on the battlefield, shell explosions are many times louder than firing sounds! And the explosions are much closer to them—tell me how they distinguish by hearing!”
In this era, there had been ideas about using hearing to distinguish and measure firing point distances. But such ideas had only remained theoretical.
Or only usable in extremely special cases where “the firing point is very close to the hidden observation post, but the shell explosion point is very far.”
Only by inventing directional amplification artillery sound locators could this mathematical tactic’s applicability be greatly expanded, no longer constrained by specific battlefield environments.
Haig was completely baffled and wanted to personally inspect the front-line artillery positions to see the actual situation.
Finally, subordinates dragged him back forcefully, telling him it was too dangerous.
Though the enemy artillery accuracy couldn’t compare to daytime corrected fire, in the darkness it was relatively godlike.
The British Army high command was truly thrown into chaos for a while, utterly baffled; emergency meetings yielded no results.
Finally, after another 60-pounder artillery regiment was heavily damaged, Haig’s mental state began to collapse.
He hysterically issued two orders:
All artillery positions on the north slope reverse slope of Kemmel Hill were to withdraw in batches, relocate, and redeploy elsewhere immediately.
At the same time, order front-line infantry defense troops to immediately charge down the mountain! Must retake the positions lost today!
Though he didn’t know why, instinct told Haig there was something fishy with the previously lost outer positions; because of those changes, the enemy artillery could suddenly detect their exact positions.
Following “control group” scientific thinking, reverting other variables—would everything return to normal?
He was now like a programmer facing a catastrophic BUG in the code. Though not understanding the principle, first thought was to restore all changed code; maybe the BUG would disappear.
So he crudely ordered British Army infantry to launch a counter-charge in the dark night! Fiercely attacking down the mountain!
It felt just like Ma Su, cornered like a desperate dog, suddenly ordering not to hold the hilltop but counter-charge the enemies besieging Jieting.
Several British Army regiments, under the corps commander’s orders, blindly counterattacked in the dark night, but their own artillery couldn’t provide precise support.
……
At the positions below the mountain, Duke Rupprecht personally stayed in headquarters all night without sleeping. He wanted to see how effective tonight’s counter-battery operation would be.
Because they couldn’t directly confirm results, they could only hear reports like “another enemy heavy artillery position on the mountaintop reverse slope went silent,” but how many killed, how many guns destroyed—total blackout.
They only knew the enemy’s fire density was indeed dropping, and artillery suppression growing weaker.
The duke didn’t let Lelouch sleep either, having him watch the battle all night and provide real-time staff advice. When he finally couldn’t hold out, he brought out previously captured high-end Jamaican coffee to perk up.
And in the latter half of the night, front-line combat troops finally reported shocking news:
“Commander! Don’t know what’s going on, but the British Army on the mountain went crazy!
Originally they were just holding positions in stalemate with us, but just now they charged down, trying to retake the positions infiltrated and seized by the assault battalion this evening!
Our division’s front-line troops have immediately switched to defense, but need fire support!”
The division commander responsible for tonight’s frontal assault called headquarters, reporting this heavyweight development.
“Such a thing?! Lelouch, is this another miracle from your new tactics? The enemy must be driven mad by us? Definitely—they can’t understand why we have such godlike artillery power in darkness and heavy snow! Definitely!”
The duke was wildly excited, grabbing high-powered binoculars to peer toward the distant assault positions.
Lelouch also picked up binoculars, hands trembling as he watched.
On the distant hillside, the “da-da-da” of MG15 light machine guns’ interlocking fire wove nets of fire, mowing down ranks of British Army counterattacking soldiers charging down the slope.
German artillery also received precise reports from company-level radios allocated to front-line troops, adjusting muzzles to redirect the cannons originally on counter-battery to the slopes where enemy counterattack troops were.
Heavy cannons, mortars, grenade launchers alternated explosions at the front. All British Army counterattacking from the mountain down were completely annihilated, not a single one breaking through.
One regiment of British 1st Army nearly wiped out, two ANZAC Corps regiments also completely expended in the midnight hours.
More importantly, the enemy defenders on Kemmel Hill were utterly baffled. They couldn’t comprehend this form of combat where their heavy artillery was unilaterally bombed without knowing where the enemy’s heavy artillery even was.
At any time, “only taking hits with no way to hit back” is the most morale-crushing.
The German Army dragged it out until near dawn in the latter half of the night; the British Army finally couldn’t charge anymore, chaos and low morale hitting rock bottom.
Seeing the great situation, the German Army finally ordered a full counterattack, assaulting Kemmel Hill.
Kemmel Hill, held by the British Army for over ten days—especially main peak 155 high ground—finally captured by the German Army after dawn.
Officers and soldiers of Major Rundstedt’s 2nd Assault Battalion were the first to charge the main peak, pulling down the tattered Britannia flag from Haig’s headquarters and planting a Germania Empire flag on 155 high ground.
——
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Today there will be at least 15,000 words in the paywalled chapter, plus the previous 5,000 free words, totaling at least 20,000 words.
