Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 69 The soft fear the hard, the hard fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the mentally ill.
"Haven't seen you for over two months, and you've been promoted to major again? Such a young and promising major, you truly have a bright future..."

Hipper immediately expressed his envy upon seeing Lelouch.

Lelouch readily agreed, saying, "If the final outcome of this battle is good enough, I'll at least be a lieutenant colonel—that's what Duke Rupprecht promised me before I left the front lines. As for you, even if you help the army achieve further merit this time, you probably won't reach the rank of general so quickly; you'll definitely remain a lieutenant general after the battle."

Hipper was taken aback, then burst into laughter: "Of course, the promotion difficulty for field officers and generals is not the same. It's enough that my promotion to lieutenant general is recognized by my colleagues and everyone is convinced. I dare not even think about further promotion now."

To use a fantasy term, Hipper, who was promoted after making great contributions last year, is still only a "newly promoted lieutenant general".

But if Lelouch can help him achieve another great feat this time, although he still won't be promoted directly, he'll probably reach the level of "Lieutenant General at the Great Perfection" or "Half-Step General".

Having had a very pleasant collaboration, Hipper will be much more likely to accept Lelouch's next groundbreaking plan.

Before formally speaking, Lelouch subconsciously glanced around to make sure no staff members were present and that the secrets were not to be shared with others, before he went straight to the point and introduced the army's situation:

"Currently, neither Dunkirk nor Ypres has been captured by the Empire, and the siege has dragged on for almost twenty days."

Previously, the Bu army was terrified and wanted to retreat because of our army's rapid advance, but now their morale has probably been largely restored.

They might even become arrogant, thinking that once the weather warms up and the ground thaws and returns to muddy conditions, they can completely stabilize the situation…

Hipper listened quietly to Lelouch relaying the situation to the army, and only spoke after confirming that he had finished: "So, what's the actual situation? You must have some backup plan, right?"

Lelouch smiled smugly: "As expected, you can't hide anything from me. That's right, although the frontal assault hasn't succeeded yet, I'm confident that as long as my new tactics are implemented, Dunkirk will fall! At that time, the enemy will pay the price for their previous underestimation. They will definitely panic and try to evacuate their troops through the docks of small and medium-sized coastal towns such as Depane and Neoport."

I've already deployed some heavy firepower, including railway guns, and am attempting to capture some Frankish coastal fortresses. These can then be used to weaken the enemy navy supporting the retreating army! However, railway guns and coastal artillery ultimately have limited range; at best, they can weaken enemy ships, but they're unlikely to truly sink their capital ships.

Modern battleships cannot be sunk or completely crippled by just a few large-caliber heavy guns. At most, they can be damaged and their combat power and speed reduced in a short time, after which the enemy will immediately retreat and create distance. Railway guns and coastal defense guns cannot pursue them into the sea, and enemy ships can safely retreat as long as they are out of the range of shore-based firepower.

To truly achieve a decisive victory, we still need the cooperation of your navy! The navy is the one to finish off the enemy in the final battle! However, I wonder how much strength the general can muster to gamble this gamble with us.

Furthermore, General, you've been keeping this from the Navy Department for three months, complaining and demanding equipment to expand the Antwerp shipyard to repair your "severely damaged" warships. If they suddenly become usable again, you'll need to come up with a proper explanation.

Upon hearing Lelouch finally reveal his plan, Lieutenant General Hipper's eyes flashed with a sharp glint, along with a burning desire to serve his country.

Chasing down and finishing off enemies is such a coveted job! Your allies have already crippled the enemy for you, and you're left to finish them off and collect the kill. If you don't take advantage of this opportunity, you're practically asking for it!
We're willing to take any risk! And it's absolutely worth it!
Hipper immediately cut to the chase: "My four battlecruisers weren't actually that badly damaged three months ago. They were only hit by one or two shots from David Beatty's battlecruisers. They didn't even need to go into the dry dock; they could have been repaired just by sitting in the open."

I was just pretending to be so badly injured that I needed to go into dry dock for repairs, to show weakness. So now I can be deployed at full strength at any time!
As for whether the intelligence would be exposed, I don't think it would be a big problem. Firstly, during these three months, I did submit a report requesting the Admiralty to expand the shipyards near Antwerp in order to repair the battleships. And the Admiralty actually agreed.

They also investigated and found that Antwerp's original shipyard was not very good. Although the port there was the largest in Beligh, it was a commercial port with ships coming and going, and there was no super-large dry dock.

Ultimately, the Admiralty decided to restore the naval port and shipyard in Zeebrugge, which, although closer to the front lines, already had a large, specialized dry dock invested in by the Bretonnians in Biligin. Now, three months later, the Zeebrugge dry dock is almost fully restored, and some new facilities have been added.

Anyway, the Britannians couldn't find out the specific repair progress, and we didn't discuss these things in the telegrams. We could just be a little vague about the progress and say, "The repair and expansion work at the Zeebrugge shipyard was well-secreted, and the actual progress was faster, so they helped me repair my heavily damaged battlecruiser," which would be a plausible explanation.

Furthermore, and I think the most important point is that I can completely pretend to be 'going into battle while ill'. I can say that the battle is so intense, and seeing the army has created such favorable conditions, even though my battlecruiser isn't fully repaired, I'm personally reckless and fearless, unwilling to give up the opportunity, and I'm determined to fight to the death even with a half-crippled warship!
When the battle begins, both sides will inevitably suffer casualties. After this battle, my battlecruisers will be hit by a few more shells. Who can say whether they are 'old wounds that haven't healed' or 'new wounds' then?"

Lelouch was impressed by Hipper's certainty.

This guy is getting more and more cunning because of himself! Ever since he learned that his side could use the fact that "naval telegram codes have been broken" to deceive the enemy, Hipper's mind has become increasingly sharp, and he's even starting to devise schemes on his own!
These are great reasons! And the key point is that they are not entirely unfounded; they are all based on solid evidence!
However, the strength of the evidence is somewhat ambiguous and vague.

New or old injuries cannot be detected after treatment.

The repairs at the Zeebrugge shipyard were not something that had been done in the past. Firstly, the Demanian military felt it was unnecessary to waste resources on this, as they did not need to overhaul their largest warships off the coast of Biligin.

During the war, Demania's own shipyards were already struggling to keep up with the demand because the army was occupying steel. Why would they bother repairing shipyards belonging to other countries in occupied territories?

On the other hand, historically, the Demanian army fared worse in the Battle of Ypres than it has now, and the area occupied by the Burgh forces within Belighin was also larger, making Zeebrugge too close to the front lines. The Admiralty also feared that after repairing the shipyard, it would be vulnerable to enemy attacks or long-range artillery fire, so there was no need to build a shipyard in such a forward location.

But the situation is different now. Hipper has been operating near Antwerp for a long time, drawing out the enemy, and he has reported that his warship is "severely damaged." The Admiralty has no choice but to start a new repair shop to fix his ship. Fortunately, the shipyard in Zeebrugge was in good condition to begin with, so the repair costs were not actually high.

Meanwhile, the army is fighting better than ever before in the last remaining territory of the Belighians. Zeebrugge is now safe and won't be pushed back by the enemy, so there's no need to worry about investments there going to waste.

Once the shipyard was repaired, it was as if the shipbuilding capacity that the Britannians had built for the Bilygins before the war had become the Demacian own.

It's a good thing to have taken over the shipbuilding capacity of a small lowland country for free—Demania itself has at least five large dry docks of Zeebrugge shipyard size, or even larger, but having one more means that the country's large warship construction capacity has increased by at least 20%. Where five ships were originally being built simultaneously, six can now be built at the same time.

As for Demania's shipbuilding industry's shortage of steel and other resources, and its being squeezed out by the navy, Lelouch felt that he would have other ways to solve it in the future.

To ensure peace between Britannia and the United States in this lifetime, a navy stronger than that of the same period in history is essential.

If the navy is destined to lose to the enemy, its deterrent effect on the enemy will be insufficient.

Therefore, this plan is very worthwhile, both from the perspective of intelligence deception and from a pragmatic perspective. At least there's no need to worry about "Hipper suddenly going into battle injured and arousing enemy suspicion."

In the future, Hipper's image as a "war madman who defied orders and went his own way" will become even more deeply ingrained in the minds of enemy naval circles.

This guy not only dared to defy the Navy Department's orders, but also talked to himself.

He even dared to pick up a watermelon knife and risk his life against the enemy, despite the Navy's advice to "take good care of his injuries" and "be covered in bandages."

The saying goes, "The weak fear the strong, the strong fear the reckless, and the reckless fear encountering the mentally ill."

In the future, in the minds of the Burgundian naval commanders, Vice Admiral Hipper will definitely be regarded as someone with a mental illness, to the point that his behavior is completely unpredictable.

Since it is inherently unpredictable, there is no need to dwell on the question of whether the Demacians discovered that their military orders had been leaked.

……

"General, I truly admire the speed at which your strategies have improved."

After discussing the topic of "how to launch battlecruisers without exposing intelligence leaks," Lelouch also expressed his heartfelt respect for Vice Admiral Hipper.

Sure enough, the more they brainstormed, the more they both improved, and he and General Hipper had become close friends despite their age difference. However, to ensure a complete victory in this operation, having Hipper's surprise force alone was not enough.

"Even after our shore artillery and railway guns have weakened the enemy's forces, your four battlecruisers and two armored cruisers are still more than you can handle. Therefore, we need one main force and one surprise attack force—"

The regular army is a fleet that can appear openly and fight on the front lines against the enemy. Because of the leak of the Empire's intelligence, when this regular army goes out to attack, the enemy will definitely know, and they will know that their total strength can absolutely crush our regular army, or even our regular army plus the train guns.

In this way, the enemy will dare to let us enter the battlefield, harboring the intention of 'luring them in deep and then annihilating them.' And at the last moment, your 'surprise attack' will enter the battlefield as the decisive factor in turning the tide of battle, thus decisively changing the course of the war.

Therefore, we still need to discuss how to send out a truly dedicated force to fight the enemy to the death. Can we spare a large number of torpedo boats and light cruisers from the rear to launch a torpedo assault on the waters near Dunkirk? Could we also bolster our forces with some slower battleships?

Hipper calmed down a bit after hearing the advice and muttered to himself, "Indeed, with just my four battlecruisers and the firepower on shore, we still can't defeat the enemy. I severely damaged the 'Austria' and the 'Lion' battlecruiser in Betty before, and those two ships definitely won't be able to be repaired for at least three months; their sailing capabilities are insufficient."

But the enemy should still have 3 Invincible-class battlecruisers, plus HMS Indulgence, HMS New Zealand, HMS Princess Royal, and HMS Queen Mary, for a total of 7 battlecruisers! I can't possibly win against 7 against 4, and I can't expect to severely damage more than 3 enemy battlecruisers with shore firepower. That's impossible. We must be realistic about the enemy's strength.

Moreover, according to the latest intelligence, at least one of the enemy's high-speed battleships, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in service, while the identity of the second ship, HMS Warspite, is currently unknown. If we add two more high-speed battleships, it's a 9-on-4 situation, and even our superior firepower on land will be useless.

The enemy's slow-moving dreadnoughts are unlikely to be present in this situation; they are also responsible for blocking the Imperial high seas fleet's main force. However, given Walton's character, he would absolutely not hesitate to use slow-moving, older pre-dreadnoughts as expendable resources.

A significant portion of their pre-dreadnought battleships have already been assigned to the Channel Fleet. Currently, it's understood that the Star-class, Duncan-class, and Nelson-class are deployed globally. Meanwhile, all six of the Majestic-class, HMS Indomitable and HMS London of the Formidable-class, and eight of the King Edward VII-class are in the Channel Fleet, several of which are currently near Dunkirk, conducting artillery bombardment missions against our army.

Therefore, theoretically, the maximum force we could potentially encounter might be 2 high-speed, cutting-edge battleships, 7 battlecruisers, and 16 pre-dreadnoughts! Even if the pre-dreadnoughts are not a major threat, with 3-4 of them being equivalent to one cutting-edge battleship, that still amounts to 14 capital warships!

（注：2+7+5=14，16艘前无畏舰估计折算为5艘无畏舰的战力。）
Of course, this is only the theoretical maximum force that the enemy might deploy. In reality, it might be less. Not all 16 pre-dreadnoughts will come together; these ships are too old, and it's common for one-third to one-quarter to be under maintenance at any given time.

Not all seven battlecruisers will be able to come. HMS New Zealand was hit by two shells last time, and Hipper doesn't know the extent of the damage; it's possible the damage was to a vital area, so it won't be able to come this time either. Moreover, Beatty will probably leave one or two ships on standby to prevent problems from occurring in other directions, such as preventing the High Seas Fleet from suddenly breaking out from another direction and causing trouble while the enemy's high-speed warships have all left.

As for the final "Queen Elizabeth-class" ships, there is currently insufficient information. It is only known that one ship has definitely been built, while the information for the other ship is unknown.

Upon closer examination, the enemy's maximum force is equivalent to 14 capital ships, while the minimum force is equivalent to 9 ships.

The Demacian High Seas Fleet's dreadnoughts certainly couldn't come; dreadnoughts are too slow, and their departure would be too noisy, easily detected by the enemy. Furthermore, the Admiralty's high command was unaware of radio security issues, and sending them would only make things worse.

When our dreadnoughts arrive, the enemy's slow-moving dreadnoughts will also arrive. At that time, the enemy's troop strength will be several times greater than ours, which will be even more of a loss, turning it into an early decisive battle for Jutland.

Therefore, it's better if our dreadnoughts don't come, and the enemy's dreadnoughts don't come either. We can feign movements in other directions to keep each other occupied.

As the discussion progressed, both of them became somewhat at a loss.

In the end, Lelouch was the most daring. He suddenly had an idea: "General, I have an idea that might be a bit bold, but it will require a certain amount of sacrifice from the soldiers involved in the war..."

Hipper pressed on without hesitation: "Just tell me!"

Lelouch: "I think the reason we dare not send dreadnoughts over is because we are afraid that more enemies will come, and we will be entangled, unable to retreat due to our slow speed. Even if we force a short retreat towards Antwerp, considering the insufficient number of ships at the Zeebrugge shipyard, we will not be able to repair too many heavily damaged dreadnoughts after the war."

However, if we think about it the other way around, what if we bring in some smaller warships that don't require large dry docks, and whose loss wouldn't be a big deal or require repairs—ships that can be used as expendable resources as long as the soldiers return alive? These smaller ships could then play the role of attrition warfare against the enemy, absorbing damage and creating opportunities for our fleet. Wouldn't things change?

Hipper's ears twitched a few times, and his eyes grew increasingly solemn: "What kind of warships do you intend to use to play this 'not a loss even if they are consumed' role? You don't expect us to treat the pre-dreadnoughts as expendable resources and fight them off like the Britannians, do you? Those ships are indeed worthless and outdated, but the key question is how do you ensure that your brave soldiers will come back alive?"
Three months ago, when I sank four enemy pre-dreadnoughts and their escorting ships, I killed at least 5000 Burkina Faso sailors! The Empire's warriors cannot be wasted like this!

Lelouch immediately pointed out: "We don't need to waste resources! In the battle three months ago, the Bu army's ships sank and the men died because they didn't control the coastal positions! Even if they swam ashore, they would be captured by our army. Moreover, they knew this at the time, so before their warships were sunk, they kept fleeing into the deep sea and towards their own country."

However, our military is currently operating in coastal waters under our control, and we can even prepare for the following: if a warship is severely damaged and takes on too much water, we can simply turn it sideways and run it aground to sink! We can use the damaged former dreadnought as a beached gun emplacement and bombard it until the last shell is used up!
The pre-dreadnoughts had weak torpedo protection and flooding resistance, but their upper core fire control zone was not easy to destroy! As long as the main gun turrets and ammunition magazines remained intact, our navy could operate in coastal waters even if the bridge and fire control tower were destroyed, it wouldn't matter! We had air superiority! We could rely on shore-based reconnaissance aircraft for target location and firing correction!

As long as the pre-dreadnoughts still have backup radios to receive bomb impact points from reconnaissance aircraft, and as long as their main gun turrets haven't been destroyed, they can be used as temporary coastal defense batteries on the ground! This would increase the enemy firepower they can attract several times over! How much firepower would it take to destroy a warship that has already run aground and sunk?
Our warships will be anchored just outside the pier where the enemy will retreat. As long as they don't attack us, we can bombard the retreating enemy land forces with a barrage of 150mm and even 170mm secondary guns! No matter how much the enemy navy feels it's not worth wasting firepower on these sunken ships, they'll have no choice but to keep firing! They won't be satisfied until our pre-dreadnoughts are completely destroyed!

As long as our sailors remain in the core compartments, the number of casualties from direct artillery fire is actually manageable. As we all know, 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 sailed directly to the shore, or even swim to our army positions on the shore, where army comrades can provide support. In this way, the casualties among our naval brothers can be controlled.

Of course, such a battle still requires extraordinary courage. We need warriors willing to fight to the death, determined to fight until their warships are completely destroyed and then swim back to shore. We also need an absolutely resolute lieutenant to cooperate with you in this campaign; he will be the main force, and you will be the surprise attack force.”

Upon hearing this, Hipper was completely overwhelmed by Lelouch's boundless imagination.

That does seem to make some sense!
Although all of this exists in the realm of simulation, and the war may ultimately not occur, or may not unfold as envisioned, it is certainly wise to secretly deploy a portion of the pre-dreadnoughts to the coast of Biligin as a precaution.

Given that the pre-dreadnoughts pose little threat, if they are escorted by a sufficient number of light cruisers and torpedo boats during their deployment, and if they are used to cast a net around the perimeter to drive away enemy small boats or civilian vessels from neutral countries, thus preventing the specific routes of the pre-dreadnoughts from being leaked, they have a very high probability of being able to safely transfer to Billy King's side first.

Even if the transfer is successful, the enemy won't take it seriously, since it's just a pre-dreadnought. The enemy has more pre-dreadnoughts and knows that these things aren't very useful in a fleet battle.

At that time, they will definitely think, "It doesn't matter if we can't find them halfway, they will eventually make it to the main battlefield, and it's not too late to kill them on the main battlefield."

Hipper continued brainstorming and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

However, he eventually considered a rather frightening possibility.

He suddenly asked Lelouch, "What if... I mean, what if our last tactic of 'letting the pre-dreadnoughts flood and then running aground and sinking to fight to the death' temporarily inspired the enemy?"
"If the enemy had more pre-dreadnought battleships, and they also beached them and sank them to become fixed gun emplacements to bombard us, wouldn't their combat power have greatly increased?"

Lelouch hadn't expected Hipper to react so quickly and think so far ahead, and he pondered for a long time.

Finally, he said in a exploratory tone: "This is indeed unavoidable, but I don't think they would think of this right away, right? Even if we inspire them to think of it in the middle, they have no air superiority off the coast of Bilijin, and their fire control accuracy will be greatly reduced after their ships sink. They don't have reconnaissance aircraft to report and correct their shots, so they are not a big threat."

Finally... if you insist on asking how to completely curb this situation, there are ways... airships can't bomb warships under normal circumstances because the accuracy of high-altitude horizontal bombing is too low.

But if the enemy becomes a stationary target, a fortified artillery platform, we can simply fly our airships over them, hover, slowly aim, and then fire vertically at the stationary target. To be honest, I even had His Highness the Duke borrow airships specifically to deal with the Franks' Dunkirk coastal fortress, and I also prepared a batch of super-heavy bombs designed for airships…”

Hipper: "Hiss... Then I'm totally fine with it! You tell me what to do, I'll do it! I'll follow your lead!"

-

P.S.: This is a long chapter of over 6,000 words. I won't break it up; I'll finish writing the naval battle strategy preparations all at once.

I've already written over 10,000 words today.

(End of this chapter)