Chapter 72: One Final Kick Before Victory, A New Foe Appears! Arrows Nocked, Must Release!
After Lelouch and Rommel finalized the appropriate airborne timing, he went to make the final report to Army Group Commander Duke Rupprecht.
Everything was already poised to launch, even if there were still some risks, they could only proceed according to plan.
How could there possibly be a foolproof strategy with zero risk in war!
The various units of the 6th Army Group also began operating at full speed according to the adjusted plan.
According to this plan, during the daytime on February 16th, the offensive should slow down slightly, but after nightfall, they would do the opposite, taking advantage of the darkness that hinders the enemy giant cannons’ observation and aiming, to accelerate the advance. Then slow down again before dawn, allowing the enemy to relax their vigilance after extreme fatigue and fall into complacency, paving the way for the final airborne success.
The entire timetable was originally set very well and fully matched the Germanian people’s rigorous and punctual style.
Unfortunately, the enemy would not follow your timetable.
Just 20 hours before the airborne operation, that is, on the morning of the 16th, another minor incident occurred on the front line.
In the direction of the western suburbs of Dunkirk, two German Army divisions advancing toward the sea had been progressing smoothly that morning. They pushed forward a few hundred meters more, capturing a trench, a communication trench, and destroying several layers of barbed wire.
If everything went smoothly, by nightfall, they might even breakthrough to a position only 4 kilometers from the coastline.
But at 10:30 a.m., the sound of heavy cannon fire never heard by the German Army came from the sea surface. It bombed the German Army assault troops who were advancing in leaps, throwing them into chaos, and fully two companies of soldiers suffered heavy casualties from a sudden bombardment.
“Run! It’s the battleship main gun!”
By the time the troops withdrew, more than a hundred corpses were left on the position. Dozens of wounded soldiers struggled back, some rolling, some crawling, it was extremely tragic.
Subsequently, that unprecedented bombardment even extended its fire, accompanied by a small-scale counterattack from the British Army, which surprisingly pushed back the German Army by several hundred meters.
By noon, all the new positions seized by the German Army in this direction that morning had been retaken by the British Army, and the British Army even counter-pushed 200-300 meters. During this time, the German Army’s casualties actually exceeded those of the counterattacking British Army.
The division tasked with the offensive suffered a setback and quickly reported up the chain to the corps commander, who then reported to the Army Group Commander.
After hearing about this unexpected situation, Duke Rupprecht, on one hand, summoned the involved corps and division commanders for an emergency meeting to report details in person. On the other hand, he had the air squadron dispatch airplanes for reconnaissance, and also called in Lelouch and Rommel to see if this matter would have any adverse impact on the upcoming airborne operation.
Soon, Lelouch and Rommel arrived first at the duke’s headquarters.
The duke didn’t waste words and directly asked with a somewhat grim expression: “Baria’s 3rd Division, responsible for the attack on West City, was originally the fastest advancing among our units. I even planned to ensure that the 3rd Division advances to a position only 3-4 kilometers from the coastline before your airborne drop, so they could provide stronger support for you at that time.
But around 10 a.m., a change occurred. The 3rd Division suffered unprecedented heavy cannon bombardment, not only failing to continue advancing but being pushed back a lot. If the situation worsens further, by nightfall, they might not even hold the baseline of 5 kilometers from the coastline.”
Lelouch quickly asked: “Unprecedented heavy cannon bombardment? Isn’t it from Fort Rohan’s 340 mm twin turrets?”
The Fort Rohan mentioned by Lelouch was the French Army fort on the high ground south of Dunkirk Port, with its heaviest firepower being three 340 mm twin giant cannons. There were also a bunch of relatively old French 240 mm coastal defense guns.
Similarly, Fort Malraux on the north side of Dunkirk Port also had three 340 mm twin giant cannons of the same model.
These 6 forts and 12 340 mm guns in the entire Dunkirk Port were originally built by the French Army for the lead ship of the “Normandy class” battleships.
The “Normandy class” battleships completed design in 1912, started construction on two ships in April 1913, and another two in October that year.
By the outbreak of the World War, the 1st and 2nd ships of the “Normandy class” were almost ready to launch, but fitting out hadn’t even begun, and the 3rd and 4th ships didn’t even have their hulls fully built.
Due to wartime resource shortages worse than the German Army’s, the French Army chose to indefinitely suspend all under-construction battleships to concentrate all resources on mass-producing army troops.
But the 48 main gun barrels for the first four “Normandy class” ships had already been manufactured, so it would be wasteful not to use them. Thus, they were distributed to the four major naval ports of Dunkirk, Saint-Nazaire, Brest, and Toulon, respectively, to be used as fortress coastal defense guns.
The two major forts in Dunkirk Port received the 12 340 mm guns from the “Normandy.”
But Lelouch had previously looked into the situation and knew that Fort Rohan’s guns had issues with their firing arcs; they could cover Dunkirk City East quite well, but couldn’t reach West City. How could the assault troops in West City suddenly be covered by such heavy cannon fire today? And at a location some distance from the coastline.
If they were close to the sea, getting hit wouldn’t be strange; it could be pre-dreadnoughts from the British Army on the sea surface. But according to the duke, the assault troops’ position at the time wasn’t that close to the sea, and the enemy’s battleships couldn’t approach too near the shore, so they shouldn’t be able to hit that far—
Moreover, even stepping back, if the enemy battleships could hit that far, they should have done so days ago and wouldn’t have let the German Army advance this far.
Lelouch voiced his doubts, but unfortunately, the duke didn’t know how to explain it at the moment and could only wait for intelligence from below.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long; after just a few minutes of random speculation, Lieutenant Colonel Immelmann from the reconnaissance air squadron arrived, and he indeed brought the latest aerial reconnaissance intelligence:
“Sorry! Commander Your Highness, our reconnaissance work was negligent and failed to detect and identify the enemy’s new warships in advance! The latest aerial photos have confirmed that the Britannians have brought in shallow-water heavy gunships, approaching to less than 2 kilometers from the coast, then directly bombarding inland!
Originally, the enemy’s battleships had too deep a draft; in shallow beach terrain without anchorages, they had to stay at least 5-10 kilometers from the coast for shore bombardment. But shallow-water heavy gunships have extremely shallow drafts and can approach to 1-2 kilometers from the shore, greatly increasing the depth of inland strikes!
It’s just that our pilots didn’t recognize this ship type ‘shallow-water heavy gunship’ before. Two days ago during aerial reconnaissance, they actually spotted a new deployment of this type of ship in Dunkirk Port but didn’t identify it. After today’s aerial photos, we urgently consulted experts to interpret it.”
“Shallow-water heavy gunship? When did the Britannians build such a thing? I mean, aren’t shallow-water heavy gunships all outdated relics?”
Duke Rupprecht wasn’t very knowledgeable about naval technology and was a bit confused, so he quickly had someone urgently gather intelligence.
The duke had heard of the term shallow-water heavy gunship itself. There were many at the end of the last century, commonly known as “mosquito ships,” but they had been phased out in recent years.
Lelouch on the side pondered for a moment and suddenly remembered that although the concept of shallow-water heavy gunships was outdated, historically during the World War, the British Navy had indeed improvised and built several batches by repurposing old ships.
The biggest advantage of those things was their very shallow draft, similar to light cruisers, allowing them to approach beaches closely. Although their speed was extremely slow, their firepower was fierce, and they often used surplus niche model gun barrels, quickly building a few for flexible deployment.
Unexpectedly, in this Dunkirk Campaign, as the German Army pushed closer to the core urban area of Dunkirk Port, and since West City couldn’t be hit by the enemy’s coastal defense guns due to firing arc issues, plus the pre-dreadnoughts anchored in the east couldn’t bombard the West City combat zone, the British Army racked their brains and brought out a new weapon—shallow-water heavy gunships!
And it had to be said, this weapon was indeed very suitable for such an environment. Historically, the shallow-water heavy gunships built during the World War were specifically for the Belgian coastal war zone.
While Lelouch was thinking, the intelligence collection officer also quickly brought the materials the duke wanted.
An intelligence officer hurriedly ran into the command room, saluted, and said: “Commander! It’s confirmed—the Britannians are using 14-inch naval guns to build 4 shallow-water heavy gunships. The Britannians even gave these ships Ugly Country names: ‘Grant,’ ‘Robert Lee,’ ‘Stonewall Jackson,’ and ‘Farragut Admiral.'”
The duke was still puzzled: “Why would British warships be named after Ugly Country Civil War generals?”
Lelouch on the side reacted quickly; he suddenly remembered reading in a book from his previous life about the British people’s little moves during the World War to drag the Ugly Country into the war, so he immediately spoke up to explain to the duke:
“Ah! I remember now! The Empire’s William Shipyard pre-war built a ‘Salamis’ battleship for the Greek Navy, right? But the Greeks wanted 14-inch main guns, and the Empire’s Krupp Arsenal had only produced 12-inch main guns before. So the Greeks ordered 14-inch guns from the Ugly Country’s Bethlehem Steel Company across the ocean.
After the war started, the Salamis hadn’t been completed yet. The Ugly Country people knew they couldn’t ship the custom 14-inch guns to the Empire and install them on the Greek warships. So they sold the inventory stuck in their hands to the Britannians!
The Britannians repurposed this batch of guns and hastily built several shallow-water heavy gunships. Now naming them after a bunch of Ugly Country generals is deliberately to make sure the Empire knows these big guns were sold to them by the Ugly Country!
The British Country hopes the Empire will protest the Ugly Country violating the Neutrality Law by selling weapons to belligerents! Hopes the Empire tears face with the Ugly Country, so the British can pull the Ugly Country into the water to ally with them! Too despicable!”
The duke was inwardly indignant upon learning that these guns were sold by an Ugly Country company.
Half a year into the World War, Ugly Country capitalists doing business with both belligerents was common. But previously, they at least abided by the Neutrality Law and wouldn’t sell weapons directly, only raw materials or non-weapon industrial products.
Even if the things you sold could be simply processed into weapons, you couldn’t sell weapons directly. On this matter, the Ugly Country arms dealers had absolutely seriously violated international law.
What Lelouch didn’t know was that historically, after the British hastily completed these 4 shallow-water heavy gunships using Ugly Country big guns in February 1915, they first named the warships after generals from Ugly Country history, but were immediately secretly threatened and protested by the Ugly Country Congress, forcing the British to rename them, because the Ugly Country didn’t want to be pulled in too early or leave ironclad evidence to be condemned by Germania.
Finally, under pressure, the British diplomatic departments renamed these four warships using neutral country main guns in May 1915 to the “Abercrombie class,” renaming each after four generals from British history: “Abercrombie,” “Raglan,” “Havelock,” and “Roberts.”
At the same time, since these ships were never sunk or captured by the German Army historically, after the British renamed and slightly disguised their appearance, the Ugly Country could argue that “these guns weren’t finished weapons directly sold by Bethlehem Company, just raw materials sold, then produced by British gun factories themselves.” So historically, Germania’s diplomatic departments had no ironclad evidence and couldn’t pressure the Ugly Country.
Otherwise, even a bit of ironclad evidence could potentially offset the impact of the “Lusitania” incident—if there was proof that the Ugly Country first directly sold weapons to the British, then Germania’s submarines sinking Ugly Country civilian ships later would have fuller justification, like “you were unrighteous first, so I am unrighteous.”
Lelouch thought of many things, while the duke on the side lacked this diplomatic sensitivity and was still considering pure military issues.
Finally, the duke couldn’t help asking Lelouch: “The enemy suddenly strengthened their combat power with 4 more shallow-water heavy gunships using 14-inch main turrets, and pushed back our offensive in Dunkirk West City by more than a kilometer.
The situation is more severe than planned. Do you think the airborne plan at dawn tomorrow can still proceed on schedule? At that time, it might take longer for the outer support troops to break through Dunkirk urban area, and your paratrooper troops might have to hold the forts longer after capturing them…”
Lelouch and the always silent Rommel exchanged a glance, then said in unison resolutely: “The plan is set! It cannot be delayed further!”
Rommel’s view leaned more toward the military: “Commander! Since the enemy has shallow-water heavy gunships, we cannot wait any longer. If we delay, tomorrow daytime or the day after, the enemy might push our army even further back in the West City direction! Under 14-inch main gun bombardment, our frontline troops cannot hold.
Now we can only go all out! Once we capture the north and south major forts of the port, no enemy warships will dare approach to bombard our army!”
Lelouch fully agreed with Rommel’s points but saw further, even spotting diplomatic gains: “Commander! I think these shallow-water heavy gunships have poor seakeeping and seaworthiness; I hear their max speed is only 6-8 knots, with very weak power. At night when they can’t operate, they often return to port.
Since that’s the case, we must seize the port forts at all costs! If we can catch the enemy shallow-water heavy gunships returning to port unprepared at night, turn the guns after capturing the forts, and sink the heavy gunships at the berths, then the Empire can obtain ironclad evidence of ‘Ugly Country violating Neutrality Law first’! We can salvage original 14-inch twin turrets from Bethlehem Steel Company! And salvage hulls named after Ugly Country generals! They won’t be able to deny it! We must act decisively now!”
The duke was persuaded from multiple angles, his blood boiling.
Although the frontline worsened a bit during this daytime before the general offensive, and the enemy became stronger.
But the Empire had no retreat! The 6th Army Group had no retreat!
The chips both sides piled on the table were increasing, almost overflowing.
At this point, whichever side flinched first and dared not follow would face very serious consequences.
This was a winner-takes-all situation!
“Order! Offensive plan proceeds as planned! After nightfall, launch full army general offensive! Assault until 4 a.m. Simultaneously, airship team takes off at 4 a.m., aiming to reach target airspace by 6 a.m., then begin airdrop! Ground troops switch to rest at 4 a.m., but only for 2 hours; by 6 a.m. when paratroopers land, ground support troops must immediately resume full offensive!
At the same time, have the air squadron and navy prepare as planned, entering the field at the designated times! Reconnaissance aircraft team to provide cover, must shoot down the enemy’s few twin-seat reconnaissance planes temporarily fitted with heavy machine guns! Shoot them all down even at the cost of attrition! Don’t let those enemy planes threaten our airships! Notify Admiral Spee’s pre-dreadnoughts to set sail tonight with escort torpedo boats, reinforcing bombardment here!”
The two armies participating in the battle all operated according to Commander Your Highness’s orders.
That afternoon, part of the army continued the offensive, trying to consume the British Army as much as possible and push the frontline forward.
Both sides engaged in bloody meat grinders at the urban edge; the German Army deployed over a hundred flamethrower engineer squads, using flamethrower attacks to purge buildings and ruins ambushed by enemy fire points. Countless British Army soldiers screamed, engulfed in flames, jumping out windows, but German flamethrower soldiers were also sometimes focused by enemy bullets, bursting into fireballs themselves, equally miserable.
After half a month of fierce fighting, the current British Army and French Army were no longer so afraid of flamethrower soldiers. Though they knew it was powerful, they had learned to “shoot at German flamethrower soldiers relentlessly the moment they spot them.”
The German flamethrower soldiers’ results remained impressive, but their casualty rate was rising.
Even so, the German Army continued advancing firmly.
After nightfall, the German offensive became even more ferocious.
Because at night, enemy ships and forts couldn’t observe or bombard, the British resistance weakened, so the German Army naturally seized the chance for chaotic night assaults.
In comparison, many British strongpoints were fixed targets. Before dark, the German Army had obtained more coordinate info via artillery observers and reconnaissance aircraft aerial photos; at night, heavy cannons could still fully output on these fixed targets.
The roar of giant cannons echoed all night across the broad front south of Dunkirk City. The frustrated British Army would fire back from coastal defense batteries or battleships in the port, but lacking target guidance, they could only blindly fire at “obviously enemy-occupied” positions, unsure if enemies were actually there.
Time ticked away bit by bit; finally, into the latter half of the night, it was time for the airships carrying paratroopers to take off.
Duke Rupprecht had gathered over 40 airships in total, the maximum the Empire could muster currently.
The over 40 airships all took off around 4 a.m. from Armantieres, 80 kilometers behind the front line, scheduled to arrive over the target in one and a half to two hours.
Meanwhile, the German railway guns were still thundering, exploding incendiary bombs near the north and south major forts of Dunkirk Port. Though unable to penetrate, they left patches of raging fires on the surface, enough for airships to spot from afar and adjust course.
——
PS: Third update! 13,000 words today.
