Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 130 The world in the next 15 years will still be a world where the sea is strong and the air is weak.

Lelouch will have to stay in Wilhelmshaven for at least half a month, waiting for the people at the Naval Equipment Research Institute to produce a prototype of the new minesweeping cable and to arrange actual tests of empty explosive minesweeping.

Only if everything goes smoothly can he leave with peace of mind and make arrangements for the next steps.

However, he is ultimately a restless person, and time is so precious. In the past two weeks, he naturally had to seize the opportunity to worry about other things.

Moreover, for short trips that involve leaving Port William for three to five days and returning quickly, as long as the final inspection is not delayed, there is still room to schedule them.

July 6th, the day after the key points of the research and development of the bottom-scraping drag chain mine sweeper were explained.

Early in the morning, after Lelouch woke up at the naval guesthouse, he had just finished washing up and was eating breakfast when he couldn't help but flip through his schedule and to-do list.

During this trip back to China, the arrangements for armored vehicles, tanks, and mine-clearing equipment have all been made. The remaining tasks are not particularly urgent military projects.

After reviewing his schedule, Lelouch decided to call his sister and brother-in-law, as well as Gustav, the boss of Krupp, to find out the latest developments in the electric arc furnace steel cooperation and to further explore the scope of cooperation with Krupp.

Counting the days, it's been three months since Lelouch personally supervised the construction of the three-phase electric arc furnace steel plant in Dunkirk. I wonder how far Krupp is progressing with their cannons made from Lelouch's steel.

Under wartime conditions, with Minister Baden protecting him in the occupied territories and his brother-in-law serving as the economic coordinator for the Dunkirk-Yipour district, Lelouch's steel mill was built at an extremely fast pace, much faster than in peacetime.

What would take one or two years to complete in peacetime could be accomplished in three months with sufficient resources during wartime. Any equipment or machine tools needed could be procured from local factories in Frank and Beligh.

Lelouch first called his sister Cornelia, who helped him manage the steel mill. After exchanging pleasantries, they got down to business. He learned that the first large smelting furnace, capable of producing 80 tons of molten steel per furnace, had already been completed. However, it was still in the trial production stage, and its production efficiency was not yet high; it would take time to get it running smoothly.

The investment in this large electric arc furnace, which represents the world's most advanced steelmaking technology, plus the costs of research and development, trial and error, and the time and energy invested by various engineering and scientific research personnel, amounted to a total cost of tens of millions of marks!
The money spent on this production equipment is enough to build half a battleship!

However, it was all worth it, because having such a large furnace meant that all the molten steel needed for casting could be supplied to any layer of the main gun barrel of a 380mm-class battleship in one go, without having to smelt it in separate furnaces.

In addition to the commissioning of this large furnace, several smaller furnaces that were previously in experimental production are also operating day and night. Based on the current capacity, they can produce about 5 tons of electric arc furnace steel per year, and by the end of the year, this capacity may be expanded to 10 tons or even 20 tons.

At its current production scale, this already accounts for more than 20% of the civilian electricity consumption in the Dunkirk-Yipour region. If the production capacity is truly expanded to 2 tons, it is estimated that all civilian lighting electricity in the vast area from Dunkirk to Yipour will have to be shut down to supply electricity exclusively to its electric arc furnace steel plant.

Therefore, if further expansion is needed, Cornelia also told Lelouch that the only option is for Guilford to act as the Economic Coordinator for the Dunkirk and Siberian occupied territories, to seek more coal resources domestically and to build new thermal power plants nearby.

Alternatively, they can only choose to expand their new three-phase electric arc furnace steel plant in the local coal-producing area, and try to open it next to the thermal power plant.

Lelouch thought about it and decided that if they really wanted to expand production further in the future, it would be at least next year or later.

The Dunkirk steel plant currently only produces 50,000 tons of steel per year, and even by the end of the year, it won't reach 200,000 tons per year. Any further increases would be insufficient given the existing resources in northern France and the steel resources from the shipwrecks hauled up from the Iron Bottom Beach; it's not worthwhile to continue operating there.

According to the plan discussed with Minister Baden, the Belighin region may still be allowed to remain independent as a condition for the armistice negotiations, and Dunkirk cannot be occupied indefinitely after the armistice on the Western Front.

Therefore, Lelouch needed to prepare for the future relocation of the factory. After the war ended, the factory buildings could be left to the Franks, and all the machinery and equipment could be moved away.

If that's the case, there's no need to build new factories in occupied territories. Occupied territories were only needed for initial experiments, circumventing regulations, and facilitating rapid expansion through cunning and force.

Once we have a solid foundation and can generate our own revenue and produce the equipment needed for expansion, we can return to China with dignity and integrity.

Before hanging up the phone, Lelouch gave his sister one last instruction: "Focus on expanding production according to plan this year. I'll take care of next year's issues."

After hanging up the phone, Lelouch dialed Krupp again.

When they arrived in Essen, Krupp representatives said that Mr. Gustav was not at the company and had been in Wilhelmshaven for the past two days, discussing cooperation with people from the naval shipyard. It seemed that there had been progress on the naval gun issue.

Lelouch, upon hearing this, realized it was quite a coincidence. He inquired about the other party's whereabouts, thanked them, and hung up the phone. He then had someone drive to another subordinate unit of the shipyard.

Not long after, Lelouch met Gustav Krupp, who was also on a temporary business trip, in an office building near the outfitting dock of the battleship "Barria".

"What a coincidence, how many days have you been here? I just arrived the day before yesterday." As soon as the two met, Lelouch didn't stand on ceremony and went straight to business without exchanging pleasantries.

Gustave poured him half a glass of brandy with ice, and the two sat down to drink and chat slowly.

Gustav: "I've been here for almost a week—your sister produced our first batch of 80 tons of electric arc furnace steel last month. To process the gun barrels, we even built another forging and cutting workshop in Dunkirk and brought over several sets of processing equipment from China. However, the secondary heat treatment will still have to be brought back to China for processing. It's too much trouble to do it all there; there's too much redundant equipment to build."

Brother Lelouch, not to be rude, but back then you were still relatively inexperienced. To experiment with electric arc furnace technology, you couldn't coordinate power plant resources in China to cooperate, so you had to go to the Franco-Belgian border to do it, which is understandable. But in the future, when you expand production, it would be best to bring it back to China, so that it can better cooperate with the industrial chain in the Ruhr region, especially in Essen.

After the molten steel is tapped from the furnace, it needs to be processed into gun barrels. At least the processing steps before the initial cooling and initial heat treatment are completed must be done locally, right? We can't just bring the cooled steel billets back to our country to reheat and process them, can we?

If you plan to expand production, build the large furnace for producing battleship main gun steel in Essen next year, and we'll provide you with full support. If you don't want to build it, we'll have to build it ourselves, but the patent fees you're owed will certainly not be less.

As for the factory in Dunkirk, the steel produced thereafter will be exclusively for the Navy's 140mm dual-purpose guns; the output of one large furnace will be sufficient for that.

Lelouch originally intended to discuss production expansion directly, but upon hearing the other party mention the supply of naval guns, he also wanted to take the opportunity to check on the progress, so he digressed:

"Oh? The 140mm dual-purpose secondary gun and the 380mm electric arc furnace steel main gun are already in actual production and use? Can I go and take a look?"

Gustav: "Of course, it's right next to the outfitting berth. Come on, let's walk and talk."

As he spoke, Gustav helped him put on his helmet and got off at the outfitting berth.

Lelouch finally saw a battleship about 200 meters long, imposingly moored on the dock. That was the Empire's newest and most advanced battleship, the "Baria".

According to the construction schedule, it will take about seven or eight months for the "Baria" to be fully completed. In any case, it will definitely be broken in and officially put into service within a year.

Therefore, the first new main gun turret has been hoisted and tested. After that, the remaining three turrets will be produced and hoisted in succession.

The secondary gun deck was also redesigned, reducing the number of guns from 16 in total (8 single-mounted 150mm secondary guns on each side) to 4 twin-mounted 138.6mm dual-purpose secondary guns on each side, while keeping the total number the same. Everything seems to be progressing smoothly. It hasn't been easy; Lelouch has worried about this several times, and his men have been working hard for months.

"Is everything alright?" Lelouch asked casually, looking at the turret being hoisted up and stroking the cold steel plate.

"The main guns are fine, working very well. The extra 16 old-style gun barrels can also be repurposed; both the Barria and Baden will be fitted with new turrets. It's just that the dual-purpose secondary guns still have some minor issues after installation:"

When used as an anti-aircraft gun, the current tested elevation angle is 60 degrees, and the estimated maximum elevation angle is only 70 degrees. Any higher, and manual loading of shells would be very difficult—do you think this has a significant impact? The navy personnel are a bit nitpicky, wanting to achieve perfection, and are hesitant to consider stopping there. If you think the impact is minimal, could you also help us persuade the navy's higher-ups to lower the performance requirements a bit? It would be better for both of us.”

When Lelouch heard this question, he quickly remembered that the 138.6 mm French secondary guns in Earth's history did indeed have the highest and best overall efficiency in terms of loading and firepower, as they were at the "sweet spot" of human loading power.

However, before World War II, the Richelieu-class destroyers still did not use the 138.6mm secondary guns, but instead increased them back to 150mm, and abandoned the dual-purpose guns for both anti-aircraft and anti-tank purposes. The slightly earlier Dunkerque-class destroyers, on the other hand, used 130mm dual-purpose guns for both anti-aircraft and anti-tank purposes, which were 8.6mm smaller than the guns used in World War I, and had a maximum elevation of only 75 degrees, 10 degrees less than the 85 degrees of the German 105mm guns.

If we continue to insist on using the 138.6 caliber, although the difficulty of loading at a small elevation angle is not much different from that of the 127mm gun, the maximum loading elevation angle will indeed be slightly inferior.

So the key question becomes: if we use a dual-purpose gun with a maximum elevation angle of only 70 degrees, can it meet the needs of actual combat? Does the missing 15 degrees of maximum elevation angle affect air defense combat capability?
The Navy personnel do not have a full understanding of the threats to future naval and air operations, making it difficult to assess the impact of these performance trade-offs.

Fortunately, Lelouch was aware of the future form of warfare. After racking his brains and reviewing the situation in his mind, he confirmed that an anti-aircraft gun with a maximum elevation angle of 70 degrees should have little impact on naval and air operations for the next 15 or even 20 years.

His deduction was also quite simple: because there would be no World War II in this world. And the Demanians could not possibly destroy Britannia, so the previous optimal deduction was that they would eventually win on the Eastern Front and force a stalemate on the Western Front.

Such a forced peace will only be a temporary ceasefire, and the enemy will not accept it willingly. If the ceasefire breaks down in the future, it will last at most 8 to 12 years, because history has long proven that a ceasefire where neither side has been completely subdued cannot last long.

Moreover, in a world where "there are no surrendering parties, only temporary ceasefires," it is impossible for something like the Peanuts Naval Treaty to reappear, and there would be no such thing as a "naval holiday."

Because both sides are on the verge of war, each is hoping to boost their own navy's production capacity to defeat the other. Whether it's a 8-year or 12-year hiatus, it's all about boosting production capacity to build large ships and heavy artillery, so that they have the strength to crush the other.

Historically, the development of aviation technology actually benefited from the 15-year naval leave.

The world's first fighter plane with metal skin didn't appear until 1929, built by Boeing. However, Boeing's research experts later said this was thanks to the Navy's holiday; no one could build new warships, so they had to focus on developing fighter planes for aircraft carriers. Without the Navy's holiday and the resource squeeze-out effect towards the air force, there might not have been a military aircraft with aluminum skin by 1932.

When both sides know that the ceasefire could break down again at any time, their research mindset is completely different from that in pure peacetime. The enemy will only think about delving deeper into the proven and most effective technological routes, rather than exploring a wide variety of unconventional approaches.

Therefore, without Lelouch's intervention, the development of aircraft carriers and anti-ship attack aircraft in this world might actually be delayed. Large battleships and submarines, on the other hand, could potentially flourish to a new level.

Assuming the ceasefire breaks down between 1926 and 1930, battleship technology might have reached the level of the 1940s in Earth's history (this is entirely possible if there were no naval leave for 15 years of rest and full-scale research and development), while aviation technology might still be at the level of 1925 in Earth's history.

Such a future world would be one where warships and cannons are more powerful, while airplanes are weaker.

Without a surface-to-air attack aircraft with a metal skin, it would be impossible to carry out a dive bombing mission. The aircraft simply could not withstand such a high G-force and would disintegrate.

Therefore, until 1935, 20 years later, the main aerial threat to warships in the world should have been torpedo bombers.

The biggest difference between torpedo bombers and dive bombers lies in their attack characteristics. Torpedo bombers must enter at low altitude and drop their torpedoes as close to the sea surface as possible. Dive bombers, on the other hand, enter at high altitude and attack warships at an almost vertical angle.

In a world without dive bombers, what's the point of having a maximum elevation angle of 85 degrees for dual-purpose naval guns? 70 degrees is enough to take down torpedo bombers.

Lelouch will not let the Ugly people drag on until the era of dive bombers.

The future Atlantic battlefield may become a world where both sides' aircraft carriers provide fighter cover and reconnaissance and fire correction for each other, supplemented by torpedo attacks, but ultimately the main force of the fleet will still be the "Montana" bombarding the "Hindenburg".

Aircraft carriers will still be built, but perhaps before they can be fully developed, the world will be at peace for a long time.

Lelouch's deduction might not be accurate, but he was willing to gamble on it all. Demacia's resources were limited, so he had to set his sights on a goal from the outset, on a predicted final point in time to end all the wars, and then work hard and plan for that point.

If it ultimately cannot be achieved and fine-tuning is required, then he can only accept this misjudgment and pay the price for the adjustment.

There's no such thing as fighting a war or engaging in military industry without risk. As long as you do something, there will be risks. Just face them calmly.

……

Lelouch pondered for a long time, mentally rehearsing the future aerial threats, and finally decided to help Gustav.

He said he would take some time in the next few days to meet with Admiral Tirpitz, the First Minister of the Navy, to discuss the scenario again and convince the Admiral of his vision and the main form of future air-to-sea threats. This would allow them to work together towards this vision, allocate resources accordingly, and optimize everything around the core objective.

After listening to his rough deduction, Gustav also felt that it made sense.

Given the current form of aircraft, the concept of "dive bombing" is simply outlandish. However, it's quite possible that future aircraft will be larger, have greater payload capacity, and be able to carry lightweight, short-range torpedoes.

When Gustav thought about facing torpedo bombers skimming the sea and fighter reconnaissance planes circling far away, he felt that a maximum angle of attack of 70 degrees would be sufficient.

The Empire's 138.6 mm is truly the most ingenious and optimal solution under this specific environment.

Lelouch, through this deduction, also gained many other insights. He had never before comprehensively predicted the ultimate form of future naval and air warfare, but now he at least had a goal: he knew what timeframe he needed to strive to achieve long-term peace.

Some details of the military industrial layout can also be fine-tuned based on this deduction to maximize benefits. For example, one can apply this concept to other situations, such as how thick the armor of future tanks might be, and how thick the largest tank gun might need to be. Redundant features don't need to be developed, while those that are actually useful can be stockpiled in advance.

The Empire has not yet initiated any 128mm weapon projects, and if the ultimate goal is to develop weapons in the late 20s and early 30s, such weapons are obviously unnecessary. Neither air defense nor anti-tank weapons would require such large tubes.

Perhaps the 88mm gun can already penetrate everything. At worst, modifying the existing 105mm naval gun into a tank gun would be enough to destroy the entire world. The Jagdtiger-like weapon will never have any value. Many other similar things can also be cut in the future, allowing for focused research and development and avoiding wasted resources.

Whether we can actually achieve all this remains to be seen, but let's set a long-term goal first and then work towards that goal.

Do your best and leave the rest to fate.

(End of this chapter)