Chapter 69: The Soft Fear The Hard, The Hard Fear The Reckless, And The Reckless Fear The Mad
“Haven’t seen each other for over two months, and you’ve been promoted to Major again? Such a young and promising Major, truly with boundless prospects…”
As soon as Hipper saw Lelouch, he unreservedly expressed his envy.
Lelouch, without missing a beat, replied, “If the final outcome of this campaign is good enough, then I’ll be at least a Lieutenant Colonel—Duke Rupprecht personally promised me that before I left the front lines. As for you, even if you achieve merit again by assisting the Army this time, you probably won’t reach Admiral that quickly; after the battle, you’ll still be a Lieutenant General.”
Hipper was taken aback, then burst out laughing, “That’s natural. Can the promotion difficulty for officers and generals be the same? To have my Lieutenant General promotion recognized by my peers, with everyone convinced, is enough. I don’t dare to think about further promotion now.”
To borrow a term from fantasy, Hipper, who had just been promoted after achieving great merit last year, is now merely a “newly promoted Lieutenant General.”
However, if Lelouch can help him achieve great merit again this time, although it won’t lead to a direct promotion, he’ll likely reach “Lieutenant General perfection” or “half-step to Admiral.”
They have had a very pleasant cooperative experience, so if Lelouch wants to propose some earth-shattering plans again, Hipper will be much more receptive.
Before speaking formally, Lelouch subconsciously glanced around to confirm no staff officers were present, ensuring privacy. He then got straight to the point and introduced the Army’s situation:
“Currently, Dunkirk Port and Ypres have not yet been captured by the Empire, and the assault battle has been dragging on for almost twenty days.
The British Army, previously panicked and wanting to retreat due to our rapid advance, has likely had their morale restored to a considerable extent.
Perhaps they’ll even become arrogant, thinking that once the weather warms up and the ground thaws to become muddy again, they can completely stabilize the situation…”
Hipper listened quietly as Lelouch updated him on the Army’s situation. After Lelouch finished speaking, he replied, “So, what’s the actual situation? You must have arranged some contingency, right?”
Lelouch smiled triumphantly, “As expected, you can’t fool me. That’s right, although the frontal assault has not yet succeeded, I am confident that once my new tactics are deployed, Dunkirk Port will surely be breached! At that time, the enemy will have to pay for their previous underestimation. They will surely panic and attempt to withdraw their troops via the docks of small and medium-sized coastal towns like De Panne and Nieuwpoort.
And I have already arranged some heavy firepower, including railway guns, and an attempt to seize some Frankish coastal defense gun fortresses. With these, we can then weaken the Navy that is assisting the Army’s withdrawal! However, the range of railway guns and coastal defense guns is ultimately limited. They can at most weaken enemy ships, but it’s difficult to truly sink the enemy’s main force—
Today’s battleships cannot be sunk or completely crippled by just three to five shots from their largest caliber heavy guns. In a short period, they can at best be damaged and their operational speed reduced, after which the enemy will immediately retreat to create distance. And since railway guns and coastal defense guns cannot pursue at sea, enemy ships can safely retreat as soon as they are out of range of shore-based firepower.
To achieve a decisive victory, your Navy’s cooperation is still needed! The Navy is the one that will perform the final pursuit and finishing blows! However, I wonder how much strength you can muster now to gamble on this with us, General.
Furthermore, General, you have been keeping it from the Naval Ministry all along, complaining for three months and requesting the Naval Ministry to allocate equipment to expand the Antwerp Shipyard to repair your ‘heavily damaged’ warships. If they can suddenly be used now, you’ll need to come up with a proper explanation.”
Hearing Lelouch finally reveal his plan, Vice Admiral Hipper’s eyes involuntarily flashed with a sharp glint and a fervent desire for merit and patriotic service.
Pursuing and finishing off the enemy is a great opportunity! When friendly forces have already crippled the enemy for you to finish them off, it would be a terrible waste not to seize such a chance!
No matter the risk, it must be taken! And it’s absolutely worth doing so!
Hipper immediately cut to the chase, “My four battlecruisers were not heavily damaged three months ago; they were only hit by one or two shells each from David Betty’s battlecruisers. In fact, they didn’t even need to enter a dry dock; they were repaired while berthed in the open.
I merely pretended they were so heavily damaged that they required dry dock repairs; it was a feint. Therefore, they can be deployed at full combat strength at any time!
As for whether the intelligence might be exposed later, I don’t think it’s a big problem. Firstly, for the past three months, I have indeed been reporting requests to the Naval Ministry to expand the shipyard near Antwerp for the repair of battleships. And the Naval Ministry did agree.
They even conducted an inspection and found that the original shipyard in Antwerp was not adequate. Although the port there is the largest in Belgium, it is a commercial port with constant ship traffic, and it did not have any extra-large dry docks.
In the end, the Naval Ministry decided to repair the Zeebrugge naval port and shipyard. Although it is closer to the front lines, it originally had a professional large dry dock invested in by the Britannians in Belgium. Now, after three months, the Zeebrugge dry dock is almost repaired and has had some facilities added.
In any case, the Britannians cannot spy on the specific repair progress, and we haven’t discussed these matters over telegrams. Later, we can fudge the progress a bit and say, ‘The repair and expansion work at the Zeebrugge shipyard has been kept highly secret, with actual progress being quite rapid, hence they helped me repair the heavily damaged battlecruisers.’ This should be a plausible explanation.
Also, I think the most important point is that I can pretend to ‘go to battle despite illness’! We can say that the situation was so fierce, and seeing the Army create such a favorable condition, my battlecruisers were not fully repaired, but personally, I was reckless and fearless, unwilling to give up the opportunity, and decided to fight to the death even in a half-damaged warship!
Once the engagement begins, both sides will inevitably sustain some damage. After this battle, my battlecruisers will have sustained a few more hits, so who can tell whether they are ‘old injuries not yet healed’ or ‘new injuries acquired’?”
Lelouch looked at Hipper with renewed admiration, hearing him speak with such certainty.
This fellow has also become increasingly cunning under my influence! Ever since he learned that we could use the “deciphered naval telegram cipher” to deceive the enemy in reverse, Hipper’s mind has become much more agile, capable of coming up with schemes on his own!
These reasons are excellent! And crucially, they are not entirely fabricated; there is solid evidence!
It’s just that the strength of the evidence is somewhat interpretative and ambiguous.
New injuries and old injuries cannot be distinguished after the battle.
The repair of the Zeebrugge shipyard was not undertaken in the original history. Firstly, the Germania Army did not deem it necessary to expend resources on it, as they had no need for major repairs of the largest warships along the Belgian coast.
During the war, due to the Army occupying the steel resources, the Navy’s own shipyard capacity was not fully utilized, so why bother repairing foreign shipyards in occupied territories?
Secondly, in the original history, the Germania Army’s performance in the Battle of Ypres was worse than it is now, and the British Army’s occupied territory in Belgium was larger, making Zeebrugge too close to the front lines. The Naval Ministry also feared that after repairing the shipyard, it might be attacked by the enemy or subjected to long-range bombardment, making it unnecessary to establish a shipyard in such a forward position.
But the situation is different now. Hipper has been operating in the vicinity of Antwerp for a long time, drawing the enemy out, and he reported his warships as “heavily damaged.” To repair his ships, the Naval Ministry had to open a new project. Fortunately, the Zeebrugge shipyard had a good foundation, and the repair costs were not high.
At the same time, the Army is performing better in the remaining Belgian territory than in the same period of history. Zeebrugge is now very safe and is unlikely to be pushed back by the enemy, so there is no fear of the investment there becoming fruitless.
After the shipyard is repaired, it will be equivalent to turning the pre-war shipbuilding capacity that the Britannians provided to the Belgians into Germania’s own.
Gaining the shipbuilding capacity of a small Lowland country for free is also a good thing—Germania itself has at least five large dry docks comparable to Zeebrugge’s, or even larger, but gaining an extra one is equivalent to a 20% increase in the country’s large warship shipbuilding capacity. Originally capable of undertaking five simultaneous constructions, it can now undertake six.
As for the shortage of steel and other resources for the German shipbuilding industry and the issue of the Navy being squeezed out, Lelouch believes he has other ways to solve it in the future.
In this life, to ensure a negotiated peace with Britannia and the Ugly Country, a more powerful navy than in the historical period is essential.
If the navy is destined to lose to the enemy, its deterrent power will be insufficient.
Therefore, this plan, whether from the perspective of intelligence deception or pragmatism, is very worthwhile. At the very least, there’s no need to worry about the problem of “Hipper suddenly fighting while injured causing the enemy to suspect.”
In the future, Hipper’s image as a “war-crazed individual who disobeys orders and acts rashly” will become even more deeply ingrained in the enemy naval circles.
Not only does this fellow dare to defy the Naval Ministry’s orders and act on his own.
He even dares to disregard his injuries and “bandages” when the Naval Ministry tells him to “rest well,” and instead picks up a saber to fight the enemy to the death.
As the saying goes, the soft fear the hard, the hard fear those who don’t fear death, and those who don’t fear death fear those who are mentally ill—
And in the minds of the British naval commanders in the future, Vice Admiral Hipper will definitely be considered that mentally ill person, to the point that his actions will be completely unpredictable.
Since his actions are inherently unpredictable, there’s no need to dwell on the question of “whether the Germans have discovered their military orders have been leaked.”
…
“General, your strategic progress is truly admirable.”
After discussing the issue of “how to deploy the battlecruisers without exposing the intelligence leak,” Lelouch expressed his heartfelt respect to Vice Admiral Hipper.
Indeed, the more brainstorming they engaged in, the more both sides progressed together. He and General Hipper had seemingly become kindred spirits who understood each other.
However, to ensure complete victory in this operation, Hipper’s surprise force alone is not enough.
“The enemy’s forces, even after being weakened by our coastal artillery and railway guns, are still not something your four battlecruisers and two armored cruisers can deal with. Therefore, we need a main force and a surprise force—
The main force will be the one that can appear openly and engage the enemy fleet head-on. Due to the Imperial intelligence leak, the enemy will surely know about this main force’s sortie, and they will know that their total strength absolutely crushes our main force, and even our main force plus railway guns.
This way, the enemy will dare to let us enter the fray, with the intention of ‘luring the enemy deep to annihilate them.’ And at the last moment, your ‘surprise force’ will enter as the trump card to alter the balance of power on the battlefield, thereby decisively changing the course of the battle.
Therefore, we still need to discuss how to deploy a ‘main force’ that will truly fight to the death against the enemy? Can we deploy a large number of torpedo boats and light cruisers from the rear to launch torpedo charges in the vicinity of Dunkirk? Can we also deploy some slow-moving battleships to bolster our strength?”
Hearing this suggestion, Hipper calmed down a bit and muttered to himself, analyzing, “Indeed, with only my four battlecruisers and the coastal firepower, we still cannot defeat the enemy. Betty had previously heavily damaged the ‘Australia’ and ‘Lion’ battlecruisers; those two ships are absolutely unrepairable within three months, their sailing capability is insufficient.
However, the enemy should still have three Invincible-class ships, plus the Indomitable, New Zealand, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, totaling seven battlecruisers! In a 7-on-4 battle, I absolutely cannot win. Nor can we expect coastal firepower to heavily damage more than three battlecruisers; this is impossible, we must prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Moreover, according to the latest intelligence, at least one of the enemy’s fast battleships, the ‘Queen Elizabeth,’ has entered service, and the second ship, ‘Warspite,’ is currently unknown. If we add two fast battleships, that’s 9 against 4, and even with our overwhelming coastal firepower advantage, it will be useless.
The enemy’s slow dreadnoughts will likely not be present at such an engagement; they also need to blockade the Imperial High Seas Fleet. However, with the character of Walton, he would definitely not hesitate to use the old, slow pre-dreadnoughts as expendable resources.
A considerable portion of their pre-dreadnoughts have already been incorporated into the Channel Fleet. It is rumored that the ‘Centurion-class,’ ‘Duncan-class,’ and ‘Nelson-class’ are deployed globally. The six ‘Majestic-class,’ the ‘Implacable’ and ‘London’ of the ‘Formidable-class,’ and the eight ‘King Edward VII-class’ are all in the Channel Fleet, with several of them currently bombarding our Army near Dunkirk.
Therefore, theoretically, the extreme maximum force we might encounter could be two fast new battleships, seven battlecruisers, and sixteen pre-dreadnoughts! Even if the pre-dreadnoughts are not to be feared, as three to four can only equal one new warship, the converted strength would be equivalent to fourteen capital ships!”
（Note: 2+7+5=14, with the 16 pre-dreadnoughts estimated to have the combat power of 5 dreadnoughts. ）
Of course, this is only the theoretical maximum force the enemy might deploy. In reality, it might be a bit less. Not all 16 pre-dreadnoughts will be concentrated; these ships are all so old that it’s common for one-third to one-quarter to be under repair at any given moment.
Not all seven battlecruisers will be present either. The New Zealand was hit twice last time, and Hipper doesn’t know how severe the damage is; it might have been a critical hit, meaning she can’t participate this time. Also, Betty might leave one or two ships on standby to prevent problems in other sectors, such as preventing the High Seas Fleet from breaking out from another direction while the enemy’s fast warships are all gone.
As for the final “Queen Elizabeth-class,” intelligence is currently insufficient; only one is confirmed to be completed, while the other is unknown.
Calculating carefully, the enemy’s maximum theoretical force is equivalent to 14 capital ships, with a lower limit equivalent to 9.
The Germania High Seas Fleet’s dreadnoughts definitely cannot come. Dreadnoughts are too slow, and their departure would create such a large commotion that the enemy would surely detect it. Furthermore, the high command of the Naval Ministry is unaware of the radio security issues, so their involvement would only be counterproductive.
If our dreadnoughts come, the enemy’s slow dreadnoughts will also come. At that time, the enemy will increase their forces by several tens of percent more than ours, making it even more disadvantageous, turning into an early Battle of Jutland.
Therefore, it’s better that our dreadnoughts don’t come if the enemy’s dreadnoughts don’t come. They will feign actions in other sectors to mutually tie each other down.
As their discussion progressed, both began to feel somewhat at a loss.
Finally, Lelouch, being more daring, suddenly thought of an idea, “General, I have an idea, it might be rather bold and require a certain spirit of sacrifice from the participating soldiers…”
Hipper unhesitatingly pressed, “Just say it!”
Lelouch: “I think the reason we dare not bring dreadnoughts here is the fear that the enemy will bring more, get entangled, and be unable to retreat due to their slow speed. Even if we were to forcibly retreat a short distance towards Antwerp, considering the insufficient number of dry docks at Zeebrugge Shipyard, if many dreadnoughts are heavily damaged after the battle, they cannot all be repaired.
However, if we think the other way around, and bring in some smaller warships that don’t occupy large dry docks, warships that are even ‘expendable, not worth repairing, and only need the soldiers to return alive, serving as consumables,’ to help absorb damage and create opportunities for your fleet, wouldn’t that turn things around?”
Hipper’s ears perked up, and his eyes became even more solemn, “What kind of warships do you intend to use in this role of ‘expendable and not regrettable’? You’re not expecting us to treat pre-dreadnoughts as expendable resources to trade blows like the Britannians, are you? Those ships are indeed worthless and outdated, but the key is how can you ensure that our brave soldiers return alive?
Three months ago, when I sank four enemy pre-dreadnoughts and their escort vessels, I killed at least 5,000 British sailors! The Empire’s brave warriors cannot be consumed like this!”
Lelouch immediately countered, “We don’t need to expend them! In the battle three months ago, when the British ships sank, their men would die because the coastal positions were not under their control! Even if they swam ashore, they would be captured by our army. And they knew this at the time, so before their ships were sunk, they were fleeing into the deep sea, towards their own country.
But our army is now fighting in waters under our control. We can even make preparations: if a warship is too heavily damaged and taking on too much water, we can simply turn it sideways and run it aground! We can treat the damaged pre-dreadnoughts as beached gun platforms, firing until the last shell is expended!
Pre-dreadnoughts have weak torpedo protection and poor ability to resist flooding, but their upper core firepower areas are not easily destroyed! As long as the main gun turrets and ammunition depots are intact, fighting in our own waters, even if the bridge and fire control lookout towers are blown off, it doesn’t matter! We have air superiority! We can rely on shore-based reconnaissance aircraft for aiming and spotting!
As long as there are backup radios on the pre-dreadnoughts to receive spotting data from reconnaissance aircraft, and as long as their main gun turrets are not destroyed, they can be used as temporary shore bombardment gun platforms after grounding! This will attract several times more enemy fire! How much firepower would it take to completely destroy a grounded and beached warship?
And our warships will be beached just outside the docks where the enemy will be retreating. As long as they don’t attack us, we can use our numerous 150mm or even 170mm secondary guns to bombard the retreating enemy army on shore! This way, no matter how much the enemy Navy feels it’s a waste of firepower to continue attacking these wrecks, they will have to continue their bombardment! They must destroy our pre-dreadnoughts until their firepower is completely extinguished!
And as long as our sailors take shelter in the core compartments, the number of casualties from direct bombardment will be manageable. As is well known, the most casualties in naval battles are due to the sinking of warships. As long as the ship doesn’t sink, lifeboats can be launched and rowed ashore, or even swum to the friendly Army positions. With the Army’s support, the casualties of our Navy brothers will be controllable.
Of course, such a battle requires extraordinary courage. We need warriors willing to fight to the death, who are prepared to fight until their warships are completely disabled and then swim back to shore. We also need an absolutely resolute deputy general to cooperate with you in this campaign, serving as the main force while you act as the surprise force.”
Hearing this, Hipper was completely convinced by Lelouch’s wild imagination.
It seems there’s a sliver of logic to it!
Although all of this exists only in simulations, and the battle might not even happen, or might not unfold as envisioned, it’s certainly not wrong to bring some pre-dreadnoughts over and secretly deploy them along the Belgian coast as a precaution.
Moreover, pre-dreadnoughts are not a significant threat. If, during their movement, they are escorted by a sufficient number of light cruisers and torpedo boats, and if outer patrols are used to drive away enemy small craft or neutral merchant ships, preventing the specific routes of the pre-dreadnoughts’ deployment from being leaked, they have a very high probability of safely transferring to Belgium first.
And even if the deployment is successful, the enemy will not take it seriously, because after all, they are just pre-dreadnoughts. The enemy has more pre-dreadnoughts and knows they are not very useful in a fleet engagement.
They will surely think, “It’s okay if we can’t find them halfway; they’ll eventually end up on the main battlefield, and it won’t be too late to destroy them there.”
Hipper continued to extrapolate from the brainstorming session, finding it increasingly feasible.
However, he eventually thought of a rather terrifying possibility.
He suddenly asked Lelouch, “What if… I mean, what if our final tactic of ‘intentionally grounding the pre-dreadnoughts after they take on water and fighting to the death’ temporarily inspires the enemy?
Then, if the enemy, with their own pre-dreadnoughts, also ground themselves as fixed gun platforms and duel with us, wouldn’t their combat power also greatly increase?”
Lelouch hadn’t expected Hipper to react so quickly and think so far ahead. He deliberated for a long time.
Finally, he replied in a questioning tone, “This is indeed unavoidable, but I don’t think they will think of this right away, will they? Even if they are inspired by us midway and think of it, they lack air superiority along the Belgian coast. Once their ships are grounded, their fire accuracy will be greatly reduced. They don’t have reconnaissance aircraft for spotting and aiming, so their threat is not significant.
Lastly… if you insist on how to completely prevent this, there is a way… Bombing warships with airships, under normal circumstances, is definitely not feasible due to the low accuracy of high-altitude horizontal bombing.
But if the enemy becomes immobile targets, turned into gun platforms, we can have airships fly directly overhead, hover, and slowly aim before performing vertical bombing on fixed targets. To be frank, I previously borrowed airships from the Duke to deal with the Frankish coastal fortresses of Dunkirk, and prepared a batch of specially designed ultra-heavy bombs for airships…”
Hipper: “Hiss… Then I have absolutely no problem! Do as you say! I’m in!”
——
PS: A chapter of over six thousand characters, not splitting it. The naval strategy preparations will be completed in one go.
Today’s word count has also exceeded ten thousand characters.
