Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 156 Dragging the Allied Forces Completely into the Quagmire (Daily update of 20,000 words! And it's a long chapter of 10,000 words)

Late at night on August 2th.

Nine kilometers north of the Kilitbashir Heights, on the second mountain defense line of the German-Austrian coalition, lies a command post located in an underground tunnel.

Several Demanian advisors were examining the batch of Italian submachine guns that Division Commander Kemmer had sent back.

"Is this the Italian Villeparoza submachine gun? It looks a lot like a light machine gun. The Italians even equip their submachine guns with bipods!"

Looking at this strange submachine gun, even Chief Advisor Brigadier General William Keitel couldn't help but marvel.

(Note: The image below shows a Villers Palossa submachine gun on Earth.)

Regardless, after checking the magazine, they found it contained 25 rounds of 9x19mm ammunition, the famous Parabellum pistol cartridge. From this perspective, the gun was indeed a submachine gun, not a light machine gun, and its recoil was as low as German submachine guns, allowing it to be fired from a holding position.

Furthermore, influenced by the earlier German MP15 submachine gun, the Villeret Palossa submachine gun in this world no longer features the bizarre double-barrel design. Instead, it has reverted to a normal single-barrel, single-magazine design. The trade-off is that the magazine capacity is halved, and the weight is reduced from 7.5 kg to 5.5 kg (the Villeret Palossa submachine gun on Earth has a double magazine with a total capacity of 50 rounds).
It can be said that the bolt sealing of this gun is slightly better than that of the German MP15, thus improving its effective range and accuracy. However, it also has a higher rate of jamming, is heavier, and is not as convenient for hip-firing; it is more effective when firing from a prone position most of the time.

"The bolt action and gas-pressure extraction mechanism of this gun might be worth a little reference for the Bergman company. In other aspects, it is not as good as Bergman. Take some back for research, and the rest can be used to equip the troops on the spot. Anyway, it uses Parabellum pistol cartridges, so the bullets are interchangeable."

Ultimately, the Demacian advisors reached this conclusion, disposed of the weapons, and also sent a message through the communications officer, urging Division Commander Kemmer to stop pushing through.

The number of seriously wounded wounded today has exceeded a thousand, and at least 700 require sulfonamide drugs to fight infection. With this casualty rate, the Austrian 19th Division certainly cannot hold out.

……

The following day, the Italians and the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso, as expected, launched another joint offensive.

Moreover, having learned from yesterday's experience, the Royal Navy was much more thorough in its fire preparation phase. They divided their available reconnaissance aircraft into several waves, each time briefly circling over Kilit Bashir Heights to conduct reconnaissance and fire control reporting, before quickly leaving within 15 minutes, instead of pursuing continuous reporting.

In this way, by the time the Demanian fighters arrived, the Bretonnia reconnaissance planes had already escaped. And since aircraft of that era didn't have large fuel tanks, the Demanian planes circled in the air for over half an hour before returning, only for the Bretonnia planes to come and conduct further reconnaissance.

After doing this two or three times, the Demanians learned to take off in batches and maintain air superiority. However, throughout the process, the Burkinawan aircraft had already gathered a considerable amount of useful information.

Ultimately, with the Burkina Faso losing only nine reconnaissance aircraft and the Demania losing none that day, the Burkina Faso air force successfully provided ample firing corrections for the naval guns, preventing Kemer's forces from reaching the summit.

Finally, when the firepower preparations ended and the Italian army pressed forward in full force, it was too late for Kemmer to return to defend.

The Austrian troops had barely stormed the hilltop and resisted with heavy machine guns for less than half an hour before being forced to retreat.

Thanks to the close-range indirect fire support from German grenade launchers, the Austrian army was able to delay the Italian pursuit and retreat in alternating fashion, fighting and moving on.

Ultimately, the Italians suffered over 2000 casualties, while the Ottoman army lost 600 men, and the Kilitbashir Heights finally fell.

When the Italians stormed the hilltop, they were incredibly proud—the nearly 200,000-strong army of the Burkina Families had been attacking the high ground for half a month without success, but one Italian army, after two days of fighting and suffering a total of 7000 casualties, had taken it!

This location is the narrowest point in the Dardanelles, so it still has strategic significance.

Based on this victory alone, the Italian media will surely exaggerate it as a great victory, a monumental victory, a heavenly victory!
In the following days, on the main battlefield in Gallipoli, the Burkina Faso and Italian armies used their newly refined tactics to advance steadily and gradually, averaging 500 meters to 1 kilometer per day in the mountains. In valleys, plains, and small towns, the advance was even faster.

After seven or eight days of fierce fighting, by mid-September, the Allied forces had completely captured Ejabad, a small town 5 kilometers north of the Kilitbashir Heights, and were approaching the second line of mountain defenses, which the German and Austro-Hungarian forces had already constructed with strong fortifications.

In order to advance this 7-kilometer distance, the Allied forces suffered more than 2 casualties, while the Austrian army suffered only 4 losses in total, strictly adhering to the flexible defensive tactics of preserving manpower and trading space for time.

Under the wounded command of Kemmer, the Austrian troops would not withstand enemy artillery fire but would retreat to their rear positions. They would only re-enter their positions to organize a defense when the enemy infantry began their charge, even if they were slow to advance or lost one or two trenches to the enemy, they would not waste lives rushing back.

Moreover, as the Italian-Busivan forces advanced further north, the counter-fire they encountered intensified. This was because the German-supplied 150mm cannons, positioned deep in the highlands of the peninsula, could now cover the attacking Italian-Busivan forces.

The reason why the German-supplied heavy artillery was unable to play its role in the previous battles was simply because the battle positions were too far forward, located at the very tip of a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides.

If the German-aided heavy artillery groups are deployed too far forward, they are easily countered by the guns of the Burkina Faso navy.

However, as the Austrian army's positions retreated further northwest, German heavy artillery was able to support the front-line bombardment from relatively safe positions, making it increasingly difficult for the enemy to fight.

Moreover, after more than ten days of emergency construction under the guidance of German consultants, the Austrian army's second mountain defense line was made more solid, with sufficiently deep "mountain top reverse slope tunnels" dug instead of the previous "mountain top reverse slope trench network".

But the Italians, who had just launched a successful offensive, hadn't yet realized what was happening and thought they could continue to advance one or two kilometers a day and achieve another great victory.

As a result, the all-day offensive on September 11th made no progress and instead resulted in the largest single-day loss since the start of the war.

The Royal Navy's pre-battle artillery preparations were almost entirely ineffective. As the Italians charged forward, the positions were filled with well-prepared Ottoman forces, whose firing positions were cleverly deployed.

The Italian troops were horribly harassed by the crossfire, and to make matters worse, during their advance, they were also hit by more than 30 German-supplied 150mm long-range cannons from 15 kilometers away.

The Italian army suffered as many as 9000 casualties in a single day, with several regiments wiped out. For a long time afterward, the Italians in both corps refused to fight again.

On September 12, the Allied forces had to slightly change their tactics. The Italians persuaded the Italians to give the ANZACs the surplus submachine guns of their wounded and lost troops, allowing the ANZACs to carry out assault missions. They also gave the ANZACs two days of brief training.

Lieutenant General Luigi Capello, commander of the Italian legion, was initially reluctant to surrender his trump card weapon. However, after repeated persuasion from General Hamilton, he realized that if he did not hand over the weapon, Italian warriors would have to pay the price. Therefore, it was better to temporarily lend the gun to his allies and let them pay the price.

Meanwhile, the ANZAC forces, already demoralized after their previous crushing defeat, hadn't been allowed to lead the main offensive for a long time. This time, with General Hamilton, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, personally pulling strings and securing submachine guns from the Italians, it would be unreasonable for them not to fight with all their might.

Finally, the morale of the ANZACs was boosted, and they picked up their newly issued submachine guns and launched a new offensive on the 14th. However, this offensive also failed, resulting in thousands of casualties.

……

After two consecutive crushing defeats, the Italian-Bumiputera coalition, having learned its lesson, convened another emergency meeting late on the night of September 14, with both the army and navy participating, to reflect on the gains and losses in their tactics.

On the Army side, several generals tearfully complained to Commander-in-Chief General Hamilton:
"Commander! This battle is unwinnable! When we attacked the Kilit-Bashir Heights before, that place was the narrowest point of the Dardanelles Strait, with the terrain jutting out into the strait. So our army could simultaneously bombard the heights from both the north and south of the peninsula!"
Now that we've advanced seven or eight kilometers north, if we want to attack the Kocadere and Bigali hills further north, we can only bombard them from the northwest side of the hills to the east. Compared to the previous pincer attack from the north and south, we have half the attack directions!

The enemy must have anticipated this, so they built the anti-artillery slope trench network on the east-facing side of the mountaintop! We couldn't bombard that position! So every time the enemy was shelled, they didn't even need to evacuate the mountaintop; they could stay there and hold their ground. As soon as our army attacked, they would immediately launch crossfire and artillery bombardment from their high ground, routing our attacking troops.

Therefore, to continue the offensive, we must restore our army's ability to 'attack and bombard the high ground from multiple directions'! Otherwise, the infantry will refuse to fight! Forcing them into battle will only lead to a collapse in morale! Countless soldiers and junior officers are already cursing us commanders for our incompetence, for sending our soldiers to their deaths in vain.

When General Hamilton first heard the rumors of "refusing to fight," his eyes flashed with anger, wanting to teach those who disobeyed orders a lesson and show them what "court-martial" meant.

But after hearing that there were already many soldiers with this voice, he couldn't help but back down.

If it's really that serious, it could trigger a mutiny, which would be terrible.

"It seems we must restore our artillery's ability to attack the mountaintop from multiple directions in order to convince the infantry to continue fighting to the death... But this is difficult to do. Have you thought about how to implement it in practice? It would be best to have multiple alternative plans."

Admiral Hamilton said that he already had a plan in mind, but he did not want to say it out loud to avoid escalating the conflict between the sea and the land and to avoid offending people himself.

Sure enough, immediately after he finished speaking, one of his subordinates mentioned the most obvious first option:
"The simplest solution is to have the Royal Navy send a fleet to bypass the headland of Kilit Bashir from the south and penetrate deep into the Dardanelles! In this way, our army can bombard the enemy's hilltops from both the north and south at the same time!"
"We're in this passive position because the Royal Navy doesn't dare to venture deep into the strait!"

Upon hearing this, Hamilton indeed smiled wryly but also felt a sense of relief.

This is the easiest solution to come up with and the easiest to implement, but it also poses the greatest danger to the navy.

At the location of the Kilit Bashir Heights, the strait is only 1.3 kilometers wide at its narrowest point! And even after passing through this narrowest point, the strait is only 4 kilometers wide inside.

If the enemy has secretly deployed powerful artillery on both banks of a mere 4 kilometers, wouldn't the fleet be trapped and beaten if it went in from a superior position?

But with the army suffering such heavy losses, it would be unreasonable for the Royal Navy not to even try. Even knowing the danger, they should have sent some worthless, sacrificial ships to scout ahead.

At least that would shut up the Italians and the ANZACs and Canaanites, and stabilize morale.

Otherwise, friendly forces would think that Burkina Faso is extremely immoral, only cherishing its own warships while not treating its allies and colonists as human beings.

Hamilton said, "I will try to persuade Admiral Cardin about this matter, but you can't rely entirely on the Navy. Think of other options. Having more alternatives will show the Navy that we are really trying our best and that we don't just rely on the Navy every time something happens."

The generals then came up with a bunch of even more impractical alternatives, such as "Our army should tow more heavy artillery pieces ashore and form a land artillery group that can bombard from south to north."
Or, "to open up another landing site on the south bank of the strait, ensuring that both the north and south banks of the strait are under our control, so as to cover artillery and warships."
Or, "Let the navy penetrate further into the fjords on the north side of the peninsula and bombard enemy positions from the northeast to the southwest."

In short, it listed almost every possibility of bombarding the enemy's high ground from all angles.

The core objective was to ensure that the enemy's mountaintop positions would have no "reverse slopes that can't be hit by artillery shells" to hide on.

Whether it can be done or not is another matter. In any case, they have already exhaustively listed all the ways to trap and kill the enemy, which can be considered proof of the staff officers' workload.

(Note: The strategies devised by the Italian-Bumiputera allied forces are listed in the diagram below.)
Admiral Hamilton took this document to Admiral Carden, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, and said, "Let's work together. We're not just putting pressure on your navy; you see, our army is already working very hard too."

For the sake of international image, and for the sake of the hearts and minds of allies and the autonomous territories, General Cardin had no choice but to try all these approaches.

However, before taking action, he reminded his men to be extremely careful and to retreat if they found anything amiss or suffered any losses, just to give their allies an explanation.

On the morning of September 15, the Royal Navy first carried out a reconnaissance operation "from the Kilitbashir Heights and the opposite Çanakkale, through the Dardanelles Strait, and into the depths of the Dardanelles Strait".

Fearing unforeseen circumstances, he did not load the relatively valuable pre-dreadnoughts onto the ships. Instead, he first loaded two old ironclads built in 1882, two patrol ships built in 1886, and several destroyers, torpedo boats, and minesweepers.

It's true, most of the Royal Navy's old, dilapidated ships were mothballed in the Mediterranean theater, so if Admiral Cardin wanted to use junk, he could actually find a lot. This was mainly because most of the Royal Navy's ships were designed for global operations and needed to adapt to various harsh sea conditions.

The Mediterranean Sea is the calmest place in the world. Even old ships that are thirty or forty years old and unusable in other seas can be put to use for another ten or twenty years in the Mediterranean.

As a result, the reconnaissance fleet had just rounded Cape Çanakkale and sailed less than two nautical miles before it was ambushed.

First, two scout torpedo boats and one minesweeper were sunk while clearing the way. Then, after rounding a promontory, the fleet was suddenly attacked by an enemy ship that had sunk on the edge of the strait!
The enemy ship was cleverly hidden in a rocky beach at the foot of a mountain on the north shore of the strait, not far from the mountain. The aerial reconnaissance team had not paid attention to these nooks and crannies and had been fooled by the disguise.

The sunken warship had clearly been converted into a fixed gun emplacement, and it was sunk sideways. As soon as the Burkina Faso warship appeared, its four 240mm rapid-fire guns came slamming into its face.

其左舷下层的炮廊甲板上，还有6门原装的150毫米副炮、以及从廊炮舷侧临时挖了6个洞、把右舷的6门150副炮也拆过来挪到左舷。一共12门150炮同时开火。

It's clear that this ship has maximized its firepower, because its starboard side is backed by the mountains along the strait, so the cannons were moved to the port side since they were useless on the starboard side.

With such concentrated firepower, an old ironclad warship and a patrol boat were quickly reduced to smithereens, and two destroyers also suffered damage. Although destroyers could theoretically evade low-rate-of-fire heavy artillery with their high speed, the strait was too narrow, leaving them with very little room to maneuver.

"Oh no! It looks like the 'Zarlingen' from the 'Wichelsbach-class'!"

After a fierce firefight, the Burkina Faso people finally figured out the other side's identity, and it wasn't until they returned that night that they were completely sure that the sunken ship was the former dreadnought "Zaringen," which Admiral Spee had destroyed during the Black Sea Battle by the Russa Black Sea Fleet.

The ship's propulsion system was completely destroyed, and it took on several thousand tons of water. Its armor was also badly damaged, and even the funnel collapsed. However, because it was relatively resistant to sinking, the hull managed to stay afloat and was later towed back by the Ottomans, who used it as a fixed gun emplacement.

Four 240mm rapid-fire guns are not enough to take down a battleship, but they are quite effective at blocking the entrance in a narrow strait.

The Burkina Faso people became increasingly panicked during their retreat, resulting in new collisions and landmine incidents. In the end, the bills for four more old junk boats and several small boats were written off. Fortunately, most of the sailors could be rescued in the small boats, but more than 800 people were killed or drowned.

Upon learning of the situation, Admiral Cardin, for the sake of face, also dispatched two more elite pre-dreadnought battleships, the Duncan-class USS Russell and USS Cornwallis, to engage the enemy from a distance across the mountains, and called in aerial reconnaissance aircraft for fire correction.

Ultimately, although the 305mm main guns of the USS Russell and USS Cornwallis could easily penetrate the enemy's armor, the problem was that even if they did penetrate, it wouldn't be of much value, since the enemy had already sunk.

Moreover, the Demanians were clearly more efficient in aerial reconnaissance and fire correction. After a fierce battle, the Burkina Air Force, whose pilots were mostly green recruits, lost at least three or four times as many aircraft. The Cornwallis also took five or six 240mm shells in the exchange of fire, and much of its superstructure was destroyed.

The enemy was simply more severely damaged by the bombing; many of their 150mm side guns were destroyed.

Thus, the route of infiltration through the strait was completely blocked. After the navy's plan was scrapped, the army also came up with its own backup plan—considering that the navy could not penetrate deeper than the cape of Kilitbashir Hill to provide fire support, the army should concentrate a large number of heavy artillery pieces on the reverse slope slightly behind the top of Kilitbashir Hill, and then bombard the Austrian second line of defense from a distance of seven kilometers.

Meanwhile, because the altitude of the Kilitbacher Heights is slightly higher than the mountains of the Austrian second line of defense, the artillery of the Burghers, hidden on the slightly reverse slope at the top of the Kilitbacher Heights, could evade the counter-fire of the Austrian second line of defense.

But this plan, while seemingly wonderful, turned out to be a complete mess when implemented.

While the Austrian artillery deployed on the second line of defense couldn't counter this position, the Austrians could counter it from other land areas! They could launch a long-range attack from the opposite side of the strait, from behind, on the artillery positions atop the Kilitbashir hill.

The Demanians' K16 150mm cannons had a range and accuracy far exceeding those of the Burkina Faso cannons. Combined with aerial reconnaissance, they successfully countered and destroyed the Burkina Faso artillery positions on several occasions.

After one proposal each for the army and navy was scrapped, the balance tipped fairly in favor of the navy.

The navy had to resort to a second plan, which involved sending some warships to circle around to the depths of the fjord on the north side of the peninsula and to bombard the rear of the Austrian army's second line of defense from north to south as close to the coast as possible.

Admiral Carden of the Mediterranean Fleet was not worried about the mines when he came here to fight, because he had already cleared them out at great cost.

His only concern was whether the enemy might have long-range heavy artillery lying in ambush there, because the widest part of the fjord was less than 30 kilometers wide, and if they were ambushed by the enemy's heavy coastal artillery, things would be troublesome.

On September 17, Admiral Carden tentatively dispatched several 150mm gun-equipped protected cruisers to approach the shallow waters directly north of the peninsula and bombard the Austrian defenses to the south at the maximum range of the 150mm guns.

As a result, the Austrian army did not retaliate at all, allowing the Burkina Faso patrols to bombard them.

After the initial barrage, Kanner's army launched a fierce attack on the Austrian positions, but the result was still heavy casualties. Surprisingly, the Austrian defenses were not affected much. Little did General Carden and General Hamilton know that this was because Keitel and others helped General Kemmer and General von Zanders optimize their defensive strategies.

The Austrian army has upgraded the fortifications on the mountaintop from "reverse slope trench network" to "reverse slope tunnel network". Since it is a tunnel, it doesn't matter which way you bombard it, you can just go straight into the depths of the tunnel and you won't be killed no matter how you bombard it.

This situation is very common. During World War II, the tunnels on Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima were so sturdy that "unless the main guns of U.S. battleships hit them directly and they crawled into the tunnels, it would be impossible to kill all the people inside or to collapse and bury them alive." The bombardment of other artillery was nothing to the tunnel network.

The problem is that Admiral Carden was unaware of this; he still thought his firepower was insufficient.

With General Hamilton of the Army and Lord Cannery, who had suffered heavy casualties, urging him repeatedly, he finally decided to upgrade the firepower two days later and send the pre-dreadnought fleet to carry out the mission.

After all, the bombardment from the 305mm artillery group should be quite powerful. Moreover, the patrol had come once before and nothing happened, which means that the enemy had indeed cleared the mines and had not laid any large-caliber coastal defense guns.

However, just when he thought he had thoroughly tested the waters, an unexpected incident occurred.

……

"Commodore Keitel! Today, when the enemy cruiser group circled around to the fjord on the north side of the peninsula and approached the shore to bombard our hilltop positions with 150mm guns, why didn't you order the train-gun group, whose 'turntable tracks' had already been constructed in the rear, to come out of the tunnel and counterattack them!"

"Colonel Kesselring, didn't you say that Demania's airship force had developed the technology of 'ultra-low altitude, low-speed flight for nighttime mine laying'? Wasn't this a new tactic suggested by Commander Lelouch? Why didn't you use it when the enemy fleet approached!"

After the battle on the 17th, Commander Kemer took these questions to consult the Demacian advisory group.

Although he fought very well that day, with minimal casualties among his defensive forces and the successful killing of several thousand Canaanites, he still felt that the battle had not been fought well and that he could have achieved even greater results.

Faced with Kemer's doubts and regrets, Kesselring, who was in charge of the airship unit, patiently explained: "We couldn't have laid the mines in advance. If we had laid them in advance, the enemy would have just swept them again carefully."

We need them to confirm that there are no mines in this area, that they have successfully carried out one or two missions, that they have become complacent, and that they will skip the mine-sweeping step and go straight in the next time they come, before we can lay mines!
As is well known, previous mine-laying techniques required surface ships to enter the area before mines could be laid again. The Royal Navy of Burkina Faso, however, was confident that it had completely sealed off the strait entrance and that we had no mine-laying vessels left in the Aegean Sea. Therefore, they only lowered their guard after truly realizing that an area was completely clean!

Our goal is to lure them into complacency and let them run wild, then make a killing in one fell swoop! That's how we completely destroy their confidence and leave them paranoid from then on!

Kemer thought about it carefully for a while, and finally fell silent.

That's right, he understands this principle. It's just like the "boy who cried wolf" game. You have to let the enemy taste a little sweetness first and eat the bait before they will really take the big fish.

“Alright, you’re right. Fortunately, our mountaintop tunnel network is indeed sturdy. We can withstand another day or two of artillery fire without a problem. We are willing to continue to hold out and fight to the death.” Kemer finally conceded.

……

For the next two days, nothing was said, and the Burkina Faso navy became increasingly arrogant and audacious.

Admiral Carden finally realized that he had been overthinking things at first. He decided to have the fleet circle around to the depths of the northern coast of the peninsula and bombard the enemy's rear to the south. It was a risk-free deal!

On September 20th, Admiral Carden finally went too far, towing his two "most powerful pre-dreadnoughts" of the Royal Navy, namely HMS Nelson and HMS Agamemnon, to the depths of the fjords north of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Of the two ships, HMS Nelson had already taken several hits from 240mm armor-piercing shells in a firefight with shore guns and was slightly damaged, but it was still combat-ready after simple repairs.

Besides these two most powerful warships, there were also the Edward VII-class ships "Hindustan" and "Africa", which were also powerful pre-dreadnoughts second only to the "Nelson-class", with four 305mm main guns and four 240mm secondary main guns.

Finally, there were also the three former dreadnoughts of the Italians (actually, they were given to the Italians when the Kingdom of Burkina Faso and the Italians signed an agreement) that were required to act together: the "Old Star," the "Glory," and the "Enmity."

A massive fire support fleet consisting of seven pre-dreadnought battleships, a dozen or so patrol vessels, and many more escort ships sailed into the depths of the fjords north of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The army is also well prepared today. General Hamilton has decided to gather all the armies of the five nations today and take advantage of the unprecedentedly strong naval support to launch a general offensive against the Ottomans' second mountain defense line and make sure to capture this mountain area in one fell swoop!
However, shortly after Admiral Carden confidently led his fleet from west to east into the fjord, an unexpected incident occurred.

"Bang! Bang!" Several deafening explosions rang out as the fleet stumbled into a minefield. The lead old-fashioned patrol ship and the Italian "Old Star" pre-dreadnought struck mines one after the other within a minute or two.

The mines were extremely powerful, and it was unknown how much explosive they contained. The two warships quickly began to list and take on water.

At first, General Cardon was completely bewildered, thinking it was an accident.

"What's going on? Weren't we clearing mines repeatedly before? And our fleet even sailed through this channel to bombard them a few days ago, making two safe round trips! How could there still be any mines that slipped through? Immediately have the fleet slow down and send the minesweepers forward to check again!"

General Carden still hadn't suspected that the mines were re-laid by the Demacians using airships the previous night.

Because the world had never heard of "airborne mine laying" before.

As long as enemy surface ships cannot enter this area, no new mines can be found in this cleared sea area!
Believe in science!
But soon, more unexpected things happened.

It's not so easy for a warship to slow down. Even after the main engine stops producing power, the ship can still drift forward for two nautical miles. After all, warships don't have brakes like cars.

Unless the engine and propeller reverse, it would take at least several hundred meters to stop. If you don't believe me, you can watch "Titanic".

Therefore, as the ships received orders and stopped one after another, more unexpected incidents occurred.

Two destroyers, as well as the former dreadnought USS Vengeance, were hit by explosions.

At this point, even a fool would know that it wasn't a stray mine or an accident; they had truly fallen into an ambush.

"Run! Turn the entire fleet around! Get out of the fjord first!" Admiral Carden felt a rush of blood to his head and immediately ordered a full retreat.

However, turning around a fleet also requires a turning radius, which will cause a brief period of chaos. The route after turning around will be completely different from the route taken on the way there, making it impossible to return by the same route.

When they discovered all this, the fleet had already ventured deep into the minefield, and moving to the left or right could trigger a mine at any moment.

Several more warships struck mines and collided with each other, and the entire fjord is about to become an iron-bottomed bay.

Finally, Admiral Carden didn't even dare to run away rashly. He just wanted all the battleships and cruisers to stop and the destroyers and minesweepers to quickly sweep the entire waterway.

But just as they were all stopping their boats, a group of train gunners, who usually hid inside a railway tunnel that cut through the mountains, began to fire fiercely from the distant shore.

In the sky, groups of Demania fighter jets and fire control reconnaissance aircraft guided the train artillery to their targets.

The rate of fire of railway guns is very slow, and the calibration process is also very lengthy. However, many Royal Navy warships, fearing the risk of hitting mines, chose to remain stationary. By firing at fixed targets from fixed coordinates, calibration became much faster.

Basically, by the third or fourth volley of shells, some railway gun shells would have landed solidly on the deck of the battleship.

The USS Nelson, the most powerful and fearless warship in the country, was damaged a few days ago and has now been hit on the top by a 280mm railway gun. It was quickly reduced to a mangled state and could no longer accelerate.

Meanwhile, the Agamemnon, a ship of the same class, struck a mine while trying to escape at high speed.

Despite its formidable strength, the ship struck a mine at the bow, resulting in only minor damage to the cabins. The ship's buoyancy reserves were sufficient to propel it back to shore.

However, the ship struck a mine at the bow, causing a large amount of water to enter and the bow to be submerged. This reduced the ship's power efficiency and caused a sharp drop in speed, making it a semi-fixed target for the train's artillery.

While it's difficult for a railway gun to sink a pre-dreadnought directly, it's very easy to use it to finish off a pre-dreadnought that has run out of power after striking a mine. The bombardment also encourages the enemy to run, preventing them from waiting for mine clearance and creating more chaos.

Finally, Cardin sat aboard the Agamemnon, a warship that had struck a mine and was continuously bombarded by 280mm railway guns, eventually exploding and sinking.

Admiral Sackville Carden, commander of the Royal Navy of Britannia’s Mediterranean Fleet, was killed in action on September 20, 1915, in the Aegean Sea, nine nautical miles north of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

In this battle, the Royal Navy ships HMS Nelson and HMS Agamemnon, after striking mines and losing speed, were sunk by Commodore Keitel's railway gun corps.

The Italian Navy's former dreadnoughts, "Staro" and "Vengeance," were sunk by mines.

The Glorious did not hit a mine. During its escape, it accidentally rammed and sank one of its own destroyers, and its own bow was also smashed. It was then bombarded by a railway gun corps.

In addition, nine old-fashioned protected cruisers and several smaller vessels were also completely lost under the combined attack of minefields and shore artillery counterattacks.

The Royal Navy suffered 3360 dead or drowned and 470 wounded. The Italian Navy suffered 2150 dead or drowned and 310 wounded.

Even more critically, after the fleet was severely damaged and forced to retreat, the Demacians' train gun corps, which had been hidden for several days, lost its target and turned its guns towards the Allied attack positions that were preparing to launch a general offensive.

The 280mm heavy artillery shells landed directly among the soldiers preparing to attack, causing a bloodbath.

William Keitel truly mastered the tactics of the "Anzio Express".

From then on, whenever Burkina Faso reconnaissance aircraft spotted a railway tunnel cutting through the mountains in the enemy's front lines during aerial photography, they would instinctively feel a sense of unease.
Is it possible that every tunnel contains a train gun?
The heavy losses suffered on both land and sea completely shattered the morale and fighting spirit of the five-nation allied forces. The Bretonnia dared not launch any further aggressive attacks.

The Gallipoli campaign officially entered a stalemate on September 20.

Bu's army was reluctant to give up the gains they had already achieved, yet dared not attack too aggressively. They could only slowly erode the enemy's strength, like the trench warfare on the western front, gradually wearing down each other's lives.

There shouldn't be any major changes happening here for the rest of the fourth quarter.

Commander Kemmer was promoted to brigadier general by Commander-in-Chief General von Zanders for his outstanding performance in a series of defensive battles, and was appointed commander of the Ottoman 1st Army Corps.

William Keitel, William Loeb, and Albert Kesselring also made significant contributions, and some of them may be promoted upon their return. Even if they are not promoted, they will certainly receive a Grand Medal. In particular, Colonel Kesselring, who severely damaged the enemy fleet using aerial mine-laying tactics, deserves special mention.

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PS: To fulfill my earlier promise to finish writing the first phase of the Gallipoli campaign today.

Then the scene shifts to the Baltic Sea battlefield, to the protagonist's side.

In the end, I had no choice but to update two chapters of 10,000 words each today, for a total of 20,000 words per day!

It's finally done! I'll start writing about the Baltic Sea tomorrow. The main character won't appear until the final, concluding stages.

(End of this chapter)