Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 145 provides an ending for Battleship Potemkin.
Rommel's boldness and decisiveness, Lelouch's battlefield awareness and overall coordination of land and sea.

Ultimately, the entire army sent by the Lussa to retake the beachhead suffered a decisive defeat. Thousands of soldiers were killed in action, and even more were routed or captured.

Major General Wrangel, the corps commander, was also in a state of panic, like a dog with its tail between its legs, and managed to escape on horseback with great difficulty.

Rommel and Lister successfully consolidated their landing site. After discussing it, they began to sail upstream along the Dniester River in an attempt to block the retreat route of the three Lussar armies deployed on the former Lu-Lussar border back to Odessa.

For this step to be effective, it will take at least several days, or even more than a week; it won't be quick.

However, the collapse of the Lusa anti-landing forces also brought back an important message to General Evert, the commander of the Romanian front in Odessa.

This crucial information will immediately have a significant impact on the next steps of Lusa's army.

……

Two hours after the defeat of the anti-landing forces, the Romanian Front Command headquarters in Odessa.

General Evert's office door opened again, and a communications officer rushed in with a telegram, reporting to the commander:

"Report to the Commander! Corps Commander Wrangel, who was in charge of the anti-landing mission, sent an urgent telegram saying that the anti-landing mission had failed and the 27th Corps had suffered heavy losses. In the telegram, Corps Commander Wrangel emphasized that the Demanians concentrated a large number of pre-dreadnoughts and bombarded the coast, which caused him to suffer huge losses and be immediately counterattacked by the enemy beachhead forces, leading to his collapse."

Admiral Evert was shocked: "What? Didn't I send the Black Sea Fleet to contain the Demacian Navy? Even if Admiral Eberhardt was wary of the size of the Demacian fleet and didn't dare to immediately send the Odessa squadron into battle, he should still be able to draw away the main Demacian fleet!"
Now, with neither a decisive battle nor any attempt to lure them away, what are their navy even doing?! These cowards initially claimed that laying mines would stop the enemy, but they failed to do so—this is the third time in a row they've made a mistake! Those naval cowards are utterly useless!

Admiral Evert was so angry that he immediately called the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol again.

However, they were told that the commander had personally led the flagship "Queen Maria" and the main fleet into battle and was currently at sea, and could not be contacted by phone.

With nowhere to vent his anger, Admiral Evert ordered the army group's radio station to directly call the main force of the Black Sea Fleet, which could now be anywhere on the sea between Odessa and Sevastopol.

Tell Admiral Eberhart: The entire Demanian former dreadnought squadron is shelling our army near the mouth of the Dniester! Why don't you naval dummy seize this opportunity and engage the enemy patrol denial fleet in a decisive battle!
The telegram should have been sent in code, but Admiral Evert was furious.

In addition, the codebook systems of the Army and Navy in Odessa are different. If we ask the naval intelligence officer in Odessa Port for the naval codes on short notice, and then translate them again before sending them, it will take a long time.

So in the end, Admiral Evert actually sent a message in plain text, and the message was extremely scathing, basically cursing the Navy's incompetence from beginning to end.

The Black Sea Fleet certainly deserves criticism, given that they have failed to fulfill their promises regarding sea-land coordination three times in a row.

……

The telegram in plain text had just been sent when the main force of the Black Sea Fleet, which had been sailing due northwest for five hours after departing from Sevastopol, immediately received it.

The fleet is currently maintaining radio silence, with its transmitters set to "receive only," so receiving messages is not a problem; the only issue is replying.

When the clerk saw that the telegram from the friendly forces was in plain text, he was a little shocked, but he quickly delivered the contents to the commander.

"Report to the Commander! We have received a telegram from the Romanian Front Command in Odessa! It condemns our fleet for avoiding the enemy and being cowardly in battle."

The telegram mentioned that all five of the Ottoman Navy's 'Vichersbach-class' pre-dreadnoughts were suspected to still be stationed in the Dniester River estuary, carrying out artillery bombardment missions against the Romanian Front's anti-landing forces.

They questioned why our department didn't take advantage of the enemy fleet's division of forces to seek a decisive battle.

Upon hearing this, Admiral Eberhardt frowned: "Early this morning, when Major General Lukin sent out a reconnaissance and destroyer squadron from the Odessa Flotilla to scout ahead, he reported that a large German fleet was found gathered near the mouth of the Dniester River, including both Moltke-class and Witzelsbach-class destroyers."

Therefore, Major General Lukin dared not act rashly, nor did he dare to directly counterattack the enemy fleet towards the mouth of the Dniester River. Instead, he chose to detour southeast and first join forces with ours. I recall him also saying that the Demagnesians seemed to have discovered his whereabouts and were trying to pursue him…

Could it be that the Demacians only used one or two high-speed battlecruisers to attempt to tail him, while the rest of their slow, older battleships remained in the Dniester estuary? Were the Demacians so overconfident that they even divided their forces?!

Before confirming this, General Eberhardt had some doubts about whether the decisive battle should take place today.

If the enemy is truly powerful, the Black Sea Fleet must prioritize preserving its strength. Even if ground forces are betrayed, resulting in heavy casualties, there's nothing that can be done.

Naval operations must be conducted rationally; impulsive decisions based on hot-blooded courage cannot be made. The construction cycle of large warships is at least measured in years, and any loss can be crippling.

But at this moment, realizing that the Demanians were so overconfident and careless, wanting to "have it all"—ensuring absolute firepower superiority at the Dniester River estuary landing site while simultaneously diverting forces to pursue and kill the Odessa fleet...

Then I must seize this opportunity and teach the Demacians a lesson!

The two sides were evenly matched to begin with, with the Rosa Black Sea Fleet possibly even stronger. Now that the enemy has divided its forces, wouldn't it be a waste not to seize this opportunity and fight to the death?
"Order the fleet to accelerate to maximum speed! Stop cruising at full speed and move forward at full speed to rendezvous with Major General Lukin as soon as possible and engage the Demanians who are pursuing Major General Lukin in a decisive battle!" Admiral Eberhardt gave the order immediately after understanding these principles.

Two Queen Maria-class dreadnoughts and one St. Yevstabie were all running at full speed, churning their way northwest.

But little did General Eberhart know that the army idiots had just been exaggerating in those telegrams, which were full of exaggerated claims.

The Wichelsbach-class pre-dreadnoughts at the mouth of the Dniester River were not all five, but only two: the Wichelsbach and the Mecklenburg.

However, even General Evert, the commander of the Romanian Front, was unaware of the inaccuracies in this information, as he too had been deceived by his subordinates.

Who made it so that when the defeated corps commander, Major General Wrangel, reported to the army group commander that "our unit was bombarded by all of the enemy's 'Witchersbach-class' battleships, which led to the disastrous defeat"?

The motive behind Major General Wrangel's report in this manner is quite easy to guess. He simply wanted his crushing defeat to appear less reckless and less incompetent.

Which general, when defeated, wouldn't want to exaggerate the enemy's strength? It's shameful to be routed by the auxiliary fire of two battleships; saying that you were only narrowly defeated after being bombarded by five battleships makes it a glorious defeat.

Lincoln famously complained that Union generals, after every defeat, claimed the enemy outnumbered them by at least three. If that's the case, with a Union army of only 40, wouldn't Robert E. Lee have had an army of 120 million?

Regardless, the Lusa people gradually sank into the abyss amidst this distrust of both land and sea.

……

"The Lusa people actually believed that all five of our 'Wichelsbach-class' ships were still in the Dniester River estuary? The Odessa Army Command really did us a huge favor!"

I originally thought the enemy army would exaggerate the strength of the enemy they encountered by one or two ships in order to cover up their mistakes, and that would be enough. I didn't expect them to be so shameless in their boasting!

Admiral Tari, commander of the "Goben," received a plaintext telegram from the Romanian Front Command in Odessa at almost the same time as his colleague, Lusa.

Upon seeing the contents of the telegram, Admiral Spee was overjoyed. He immediately took the telegram to show Lelouch, who was aboard the ship, while also glancing at the few Rusa warships on the horizon ahead.

As an army officer, Lelouch should have landed today and joined Rommel in commanding the troops.

However, for better sea-land coordination, Lelouch ultimately chose to remain on the Goben to coordinate at any time. After all, there were tactical geniuses like Rommel on shore directly micromanaging the troops, so Lelouch could focus on the big picture and let the smaller tasks go.

Moreover, he felt that the ship "Goburn" had a special aura. Historically, this ship survived two world wars, was not decommissioned until the 50s, and was not scrapped and sold until the 70s. Advisors on board the entire campaign must have had a safety factor.

At this moment, Lelouch looked at the telegram handed to him by Admiral Spee, but smiled slightly and did not seem too surprised.

General Spee observed his reaction and asked with some curiosity, "Was this also within your expectations?"

Lelouch wanted to tell the truth, that it was all just a pleasant surprise, and that he hadn't expected the Lusa Army to exaggerate the enemy's strength to this extent.

But since his comrades have already filled in the blanks in their minds, why should he expose them? Maintaining his mysterious persona is not so bad.

"Just as I expected, the enemy's rank-and-file army officers and soldiers simply don't know how to distinguish the firepower density of naval guns. With two rapid-fire gun warships taking turns firing and constantly adjusting their firing coordinates, the enemy on the shore thought they had encountered a large group of 240mm gun warships firing in unison." Lelouch said calmly, as he walked to the chart table and began to trace the map with a compass.

The distance between the two legs of the compass had already been adjusted, and when placed on the map, it corresponded exactly to the top speed of the "Goben".

After gesturing for a while, Lelouch continued, "After we sank those four enemy reconnaissance destroyers early this morning, we could deduce that the enemy squadron in Odessa Port must have also set sail. They just weren't sure how many men we had, so they didn't dare to attack directly and sent a destroyer to check first."

Therefore, we immediately ordered the Goben to swerve northeast to intercept the enemy fleet, and then slowly pursue it. At the same time, we also ordered a portion of the Wichelsbach-class destroyers to surface at the mouth of the Dniester River and bombard the enemy's ground forces.

The enemy will definitely misjudge that we have split our forces, thinking that our Moltke-class destroyers are on a mission to hunt down the enemy fleet, while the old-fashioned pre-dreadnoughts have been left at the landing site.

In reality, we still had three older pre-dreadnought ships. We had calculated the range beforehand and headed diagonally eastward, using the speed difference to launch a coordinated attack. We arrived at the battlefield just before the Lussar's Sevastopol and Odessa fleets were about to meet, even arriving a little earlier than them.

This plan wasn't something Lelouch accomplished alone, nor did he possess the necessary skills. Therefore, Lelouch only carried out the intelligence deception and misleading aspects; the solid speed calculations and detailed flanking maneuvers were all handled by Admiral Spee himself.

Of course, some of the staff officers in the fleet also provided auxiliary calculations.

The essence of this plan, to put it simply, is this: have high-speed battlecruisers take a roundabout route to follow the Odessa fleet, and just before they catch up, instill panic in the enemy and force them to request reinforcements.

The slower ships had already left the convoy early on, calculated the distance, and headed straight to the battlefield they were about to reach in the afternoon.

One is "following behind", and the other is "intercepting in the middle".

In this way, we can reap the benefits of defeating the enemy piecemeal without scaring them away. If we were to defeat them piecemeal, the Sevastopol fleet would surely flee when the Odessa fleet met with disaster, and we would not be able to strike the enemy's main force.

The key is to have one part of the pursuing force in the open and another part of the interception force in the shadows, so that the enemy can take the bait.

All of this seems ingenious and difficult, but in practice it is not that difficult—because the Demacian fleet has airships to help them, and the reconnaissance mechanisms in the nearby waters are also stronger in terms of air superiority.

In fact, if they wanted to, they could have intercepted Major General Lukin's squadron that came out of Odessa Port in the morning. However, Spee did not want to act too ruthlessly or too early and scare away another big fish. So they calculated the timing well and killed the small fish first, and then the big fish, at the critical moment when the big fish and the small fish were about to meet.

This is the natural advantage of having an intelligence and reconnaissance advantage.

Who made the Lusa people lose the cover of the minefield, lose the initiative to choose the battlefield, and at the same time lose the ability to seize air superiority and aerial reconnaissance?

Given this reconnaissance disadvantage, it's only right that we lost; it's not unfair at all.

By this point, Admiral Spee was quite certain of the entire battle plan. He was simply impressed by Lelouch's ingenious strategy—why did he come up with such an underhanded trick as "keeping two pre-dreadnoughts visible at the mouth of the Dniester River to mislead the enemy's judgment"?
This underhanded tactic greatly increased their chances of winning.

"Increase speed and take out the 'Potemkin' and its escort ships ahead!"

At Admiral Spee's command, he slammed his pipe down on the binoculars stand beside him. The warship quickly accelerated again, rapidly closing in on the enemy ship that had been tracking them for half the morning—

It turns out that earlier that morning, the two Moltke-class destroyers hadn't fully utilized their 27-knot speed; they had been holding back and controlling the situation, playing cat and mouse with the Odessa squadron of the Lussalis.

The straight-line distance from Odessa to Sevastopol is 185 nautical miles.

Taking into account the need to avoid shallow waters near the harbor and the fact that the channel cannot be traversed in a straight line, the actual voyage is approximately 220 nautical miles.

An old-fashioned warship with a speed of 16-18 knots would need 14 hours to complete the entire journey.

The new dreadnought, with a speed of 21 knots, only needs 10.5 hours.

When the two are traveling towards each other, their speeds will overlap. A simple second-grade math calculation will show that Major General Lukin and General Eberhart could meet up in as little as 7 hours if they were heading head-on.

However, warships do not always maintain top speed, and it is normal for them to meet up in 8 hours.

Unfortunately, Major General Lukin was clearly not alive to meet him.

……

A few minutes later, Tarry, the former commander of the dreadnought "Potemkin", arrived.

Rear Admiral Lukin then received a devastating report from the bridge lookout via the ship's intercom.

"Report! Directly behind, at direction 307, there are two enemy battlecruisers, still approaching at high speed! The distance is less than 14...12 nautical miles! The enemy wasn't even at full speed this morning!"

Upon hearing this, Major General Lukin was greatly alarmed and couldn't help but rush to the aft bridge to check the situation.

Around 10 a.m., he knew that enemy warships were faintly visible on the horizon behind him, but he still held onto the hope that he could sail desperately and try to hold out until he could rendezvous with the main force.

The subsequent two hours of pursuit went as he hoped; the enemy seemed to be closing the gap by less than 5 nautical miles per hour, and he should be able to hold out.

But just now, the enemy has increased their speed again. According to the latest assessment, the speed difference is at least 9 knots! That means the pursuers can fly at 27 knots, while the runners can only fly at a maximum of 18 knots!
They're almost halfway there, how could they possibly escape?

Did the enemy deliberately hold back their strength at the beginning?
Major General Lukin knew there was no turning back, so he gritted his teeth and sent another message in plain text, reporting his coordinates.

"Our unit is being pursued by two enemy battlecruisers and will engage in battle within an hour."

For him, radio silence was meaningless from the start, it had been meaningless since two hours ago.

The enemy can already pinpoint his location, so what's the point of hiding?
However, the main fleet of Admiral Eberhart still had the significance of radio silence. Hiding for as long as possible was crucial, at least ensuring the element of surprise upon their arrival on the battlefield.

After sending the telegram, Major General Lukin ordered the main guns of the Potemkin to be aimed at the enemy ship, loaded with shells, and prepared to fire.

Meanwhile, the armored cruiser "Carcco", the protected cruisers "Ascold" and "Bogatri", and the destroyers "Pedonis" and "Kariaklia" that accompanied it were also to be ready for battle.

Protected cruisers and destroyers, due to their slightly higher speed, can also turn to face the enemy from the side, making it easier to exert the ship's firepower and launch torpedoes.

There's no need for the Fearless to turn around when facing an armored cruiser; just run at full speed. Turning around would allow you to unleash twice the firepower, but it would also cost you the chance to escape.

Just 20 minutes later, the distance between the two sides was reduced by another 3 nautical miles, to only 9 nautical miles, or more than 16,000 meters.

The two Moltke-class battlecruisers opposite them opened fire without hesitation.

The two warships each had two forward main guns, a total of four guns, which fired four 280mm shells that landed far to the left front of the Potemkin.

The Moltke-class destroyers had a total of 5 guns, each with 10 main guns, all mounted on the ship's centerline. Theoretically, all 10 guns could fire at the same side.

Unfortunately, of the five gun turrets on this class of warship, only one is located at the bow, so its pursuit capability is slightly weaker, and the other eight turrets have to be angled to the side to achieve a firing angle.

Fortunately, it is still in the calibration phase. It doesn't matter that only one turret can fire. The Demanians slowly fire at a rate of one round every 20 seconds, constantly calibrating and fine-tuning, and the impact point is gradually getting closer and closer to the Potemkin.

The Potemkin's main guns were actually an inch larger than those of the Moltke-class, but their rate of fire was extremely slow, taking about 100 seconds to fire a single salvo.

In the time it took the Potemkin to fire one round, the Moltke-class destroyers had already fired five rounds.

The two Moltke-class destroyers slowly calibrated their guns using only one forward main gun each, which was naturally inefficient. It took more than a dozen rounds of calibration to reduce the error from 2 meters to less than 1 meters, and they were on the verge of firing a near miss.

The engagement distance also decreased from 16000 meters to 14000 meters.

To cover the capital ship, the Lussarian protected cruisers "Ascord" and "Bogatri" had moved to the side and positioned themselves in front of the capital ship, firing fiercely at the "Mooch" from 12000 meters away with six 152mm guns on each side.

The Moltke and Goeben completely disregarded this, and didn't bother to use their 280mm guns against them, instead retaliating with their own 150mm secondary guns. These German battlecruisers also had only six 150mm secondary guns on each side, making their firepower density comparable to that of the main guns of the anti-ship cruisers.

Thanks to the high rate of fire of the 6-inch naval gun, the 152mm and 150mm armor-piercing shells soon hit each other.

The frontal armor of the "Moldy" was hit by several 152mm shells, but because the angle of attack was too large, they all ricocheted off course.

However, the 150mm shells from the Moltke-class destroyers struck the Ascord with devastating force, each shell piercing through the side armor belt and embedding itself deep within the hull before exploding.

How can the steel plates of a patrol boat compare to those of a combat cruiser?

Just 15 minutes later, both Lusa patrol boats were destroyed, and their attempts to launch torpedoes from the furthest distance were doomed to failure.

"The enemy protected cruiser has apparently turned and launched a torpedo!" On the German ship's watchtower, several experienced officers, although they did not see the torpedo enter the water, estimated from the enemy ship's maneuvering that it might have launched a torpedo.

Upon learning of this news, Admiral Spee immediately and decisively ordered the battlecruiser squadron to turn around. Instead of pursuing the Potemkin at top speed, they turned 90 degrees to the other side. After the turn, they could use all 10 guns on the side to bombard the enemy.

Even if the enemy's anti-ship patrol launched torpedoes before sinking, it would certainly have been aiming at the German ship based on its previously estimated course. Once the German ship changed course, those torpedoes would have been completely wasted.

……

On board the Potemkin, Major General Lukin immediately learned that the enemy had changed course.

"They've changed course? Do they think they've gotten close enough to my ship, so they're going to fire efficiently? My ship remains stationary, continues to advance at full speed, and takes the opportunity to widen the distance!"

After the enemy ship turns, it will face me with its broadside, while I will face it with my stern. If we can hold out for 10 minutes, we can escape the enemy's effective firing range!

At the last moment, Major General Lukin chose to flee.

"Boom boom boom!" After completing the turn, the two German battlecruisers unleashed a total of 20 280mm shells at the same time, with a much greater impact than before.

The barrage of bullets, which had already undergone multiple rounds of calibration and eliminated most of the errors, was now launched directly in a strafing motion. A column of seawater tens of meters high fell back to the surface of the sea, and the resulting giant waves soaked the crew members exposed on the sides of the Potemkin.

Everyone was terrified, and they couldn't even imagine whether they could withstand such shelling for 10 minutes and regain the distance.

Luck did not seem to be on Major General Lukin's side. Just 40 seconds later, when the third salvo came, a 280mm shell landed on the stern deck, blasting a large hole in the stern.

In the subsequent fourth and fifth salvoes, shells hit their targets in each salvo, with the fourth salvo even hitting three targets at once!
The Potemkin, hit by five 280mm shells at its stern, quickly experienced massive flooding in its non-core areas. Several compartments at the stern were filled with thousands of tons of seawater.

The rear main gun turret was also shattered by the explosion, its bearings broken. Although the frontal armor of the turret wasn't penetrated, it had lost its ability to turn. As long as the German ship avoided the angle from which the Potemkin was aiming, it could be easily and unilaterally destroyed without taking any damage.

The Potemkin, like a dead fish, continued to retaliate with its 152 guns, but it seemed so pale and powerless.

Twenty minutes later, this 20-year-old vessel was finally brought to the seabed, where it served as fish feed for the Black Sea alongside its more than 750 crew members.

Subsequently, misfortune soon befell the armored cruiser "Carcco" and the two "Pedonis-class" destroyers.

This 7000-ton armored cruiser has a 152mm main armor belt that is neither particularly good nor bad. Compared to its previous anti-cruise cruiser relatives, its biggest advantage is that it is basically immune to the 150mm secondary guns of German battleships/battlecruisers.

Therefore, German cruisers can use their secondary guns to take out their close relatives, but when they encounter the "Karluk" itself, they still have to show some respect and let the 280mm main guns show for themselves.

随着此前数枚150穿甲弹被弹开，1枚280炮弹终于在9000米的距离上、在4轮校射后精准命中了“卡尔古号”的主装甲带。

The 300-kilogram armor-piercing warhead violently tore through layers of protection and penetrated directly into the innermost compartment of the ship before exploding.

Fortunately, these old armored ships still used triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, without even steam turbines. Although the explosion destroyed the engine room, it did not trigger further secondary explosions, but simply left the warships motionless like dead fish.

"These old ships are quite difficult to kill. Their boilers burn coal, so there's no risk of fuel oil explosions. Their engines are reciprocating steam engines, so there's no risk of steam explosions. They're perfect for practicing gunnery skills."

Lelouch watched through his telescope as this massacre unfolded with the ease of a video game. The enemy ship lost power after being hit by a single shot, but stubbornly refused to sink until it was hit from a distance of 9000 meters down to 6000 meters, and penetrated by seven or eight shots before finally capsizing due to excessive water intake.

These old ships, which don't even have fuel tanks, are basically impossible to destroy in an instant unless the ammunition depot explodes.

The naval battle continued until around 2 p.m., when Rear Admiral Lukin's Odessa Squadron was completely annihilated.

The Lusa Black Sea Fleet lost one dreadnought, one armored cruiser, two protected cruisers, and two destroyers.

The remaining forces of the Lusa Black Sea Fleet consisted of only 2 dreadnoughts (which were damaged in the previous air raids), 1 pre-dreadnought, 2 protected cruisers, and 7 destroyers, and were personally led by Admiral Eberhard, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

(End of this chapter)