Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 216 The Gilded Academy of Potsdam

In Murmansk, tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people die of cold and hunger every day amidst the blizzards.

Having traveled a long and arduous journey, Lelouch has arrived in Berlin, ready to enroll at the Potsdam Military Academy and complete his three-month pre-promotion training.

"Greetings, Baron Lelouch von Hunt, Brigadier General Chief of Staff of the 6th Army, and Commander of the 'Greater Demania' Panzer Training Division, reporting for duty."

Riding in a brand-new BMW armored car, Lelouch arrived at the Potsdam Military Academy, 40 kilometers southwest of Berlin. He went straight to the registrar's office and handed over his identification and admission invitation.

At his level, he no longer receives an admission notice upon enrollment, but rather an invitation letter.

The school invited him to study, not that he applied or took the entrance exam himself.

"Ah! You must be Baron Lelouch. I know of your splendid performance in Kiev and Gallipoli; you are truly a great hero of the Empire. This way, please. Have a cup of coffee and wait a moment; the enrollment procedures will be completed shortly."

A captain in charge of academic affairs and reception did not dare to be presumptuous. He followed Lelouch throughout the entire process, helped him complete the procedures in one stop, and finally handed the student ID card to Lelouch with both hands.

Lelouch, not one to be presumptuous, accepted the student ID with both hands and exchanged a few polite words with the other party: "Are you an instructor here? The victories in Kiev and Gallipoli were mainly won under the wise leadership of Marshal Rupprecht, and I dare not take credit for such a thing."

The captain, who was doing odd jobs, immediately clarified: "No, no, no, I'm just a captain, how could I be qualified to be considered a teaching staff member? I'm just a temporary teaching assistant. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, and I also served on the front lines at the beginning of the war."

But shortly after being promoted to captain last summer, I was transferred to the cavalry reconnaissance and communications unit as an assistant staff officer. Later, I wrote several research papers on rapid reconnaissance and communications under the new circumstances, which were noticed by my alma mater. I was temporarily seconded back to do some teaching assistant work and assist Vice Principal General Goldz in completing some research projects. After the projects were completed, I was to return to my unit. I heard that you were coming soon, and General Goldz attaches great importance to it, so he asked me to receive you.

Baron Lelouch, I greatly admire your foresight. To be honest, in Kiev and Gallipoli, military achievements are not the most important thing. The key is that your tactics have shown me the potential of a new tactic using tanks and armored vehicles for rapid reconnaissance, communication, and coordination.

Moreover, this tactic has already been tested in actual combat. With further refinement and improvement, it can be widely adopted. Based on these tactical and weapon application innovations alone, you deserve to be a senior general.

Captain Guderian, like a fan meeting his idol, seized the opportunity to speak rapidly and fluently.

If Lelouch hadn't had some basic understanding and hadn't been able to visualize Guderian's character just by hearing the name, most people wouldn't have understood this barrage of compliments.

It seems that Guderian's life story was also influenced by Lelouch's butterfly effect. Lelouch vaguely remembered that Guderian in the Earth dimension did not attend military school or serve as an assistant instructor during the entire First World War, nor did he study any armor-related topics. He always served as a staff officer in the cavalry and reconnaissance and communications units.

It was probably because Lelouch invented the tank ahead of time that more knowledgeable people in the Demacian military noticed this weapon earlier. This led Guderian to take it upon himself to do some research, submit a paper to his alma mater, and then attract the attention of the higher-ups, changing the trajectory of his life.

When Lelouch first rose to power, he naturally considered Guderian and Manstein when recruiting talent. However, these people were generally not from the four southern German states, nor were they in the 4th and 6th Armies at the time. Lelouch's reach was not that far, so he could not recruit them.

Guderian had been working as a staff officer in the cavalry's branch headquarters, and now he had finally come into Lelouch's sights. However, because he had arrived a year late, Rommel had already been promoted to colonel, while Guderian was still only a captain.

This is the price of following the right leader too late.

As for Manstein, Lelouch can't even find him now, because that guy is too closely associated with Marshal Hindenburg and belongs to Hindenburg's faction.

Unless Marshal Hindenburg suffers a setback, Manstein is unlikely to switch sides.

Seeing that Baron Lelouch seemed lost in thought and didn't respond for a long time after he finished speaking, Guderian realized that he had talked too much and smiled awkwardly: "I'm sorry, I may have said too much. I'll ask you for advice again when I have the chance."

Lelouch finally turned around: "It's okay, I understand. Are you planning to write about armor application tactics? I have faith in you. Write whatever you want, and we can discuss any questions you may have."

Guderian was quite surprised and delighted that the other party, who was four levels higher than him, was so easy to talk to.
"This... I can't accept this. You're here at the Potsdam Military Academy for further studies, so you'll definitely be doing related research. Of course, I wouldn't want to take your research topic."

Lelouch: "When I came back this time, the General Staff probably asked me to do some research on strategic topics. The people above all think that I am good enough at the tactical level, but I lack a big-picture perspective. They want me to brush up on these general military theories."

So, feel free to pursue any new applications or research directions you can think of, such as armored tactics. You're welcome to contact me anytime you want to discuss these topics.

Lelouch was very magnanimous, and he genuinely didn't care who would handle these tactical tasks. After all, he wasn't a professional researcher in his previous life, and his understanding of the so-called blitzkrieg theory was only superficial; he couldn't possibly study it in the same detail as students from military academies.

Since Guderian is an expert in this area and happens to be researching it, let him do it. Just consider it a matter of specialization, letting professionals do what they do best. Lelouch only needs to occasionally offer some general ideas.

Moreover, Lelouch is different from ordinary field-grade officers; he doesn't lack a tactical innovation thesis topic to secure promotion. He came to Potsdam Military Academy to gain prestige and go through the motions. As long as the final result is barely passable, the General Staff will promote him to major general.

But such a favor, given so easily, was enough to make Guderian, who was only a captain, extremely grateful, and it amplified his fanatical and die-hard fandom of Lelouch.

Guderian said gratefully, "In that case... I will accept your offer without hesitation. But rest assured, I will make sure you are listed first in the book. Besides, the General Staff is underestimating you. A genius like you could never be bad at strategy. You just lack an opportunity for systematic study and research."

Lelouch smiled, neither confirming nor denying the statement.

His strategic vision and overall perspective were certainly not lacking; however, he had only previously demonstrated his true strategic insight to the core generals and commanders of the Balian faction. Both Duke Rupprecht and Marshal Leopold were deeply impressed by his vision.

However, Lelouch had limited opportunities to meet the Emperor, and when he presented his memorials to Emperor Wilhelm, he always kept the strategic big picture in check, avoiding saying anything inappropriate to the Emperor. This is why the Emperor's evaluation of his strategic vision was far less than that of Duke Rupprecht.

Chief of the General Staff General Falkenhayn and other high-ranking members of the General Staff were even less aware of Lelouch's strategic vision, as they had never discussed this issue at all.

Lelouch had already roughly thought about this study trip. He wanted to find a strategic topic that was relatively shocking, but wouldn't offend too many of the current ruling faction, and could also find theoretical support from predecessors. He wanted to promote the faction he represented, and ideally, also take a hit at Hindenburg and Rodendorff's viewpoints.

But how to choose and how to proceed still needs to be discussed and planned over time; we have three months to go.

There's no need to discuss these matters with an outsider like Guderian, who is of low status.

……

After completing the enrollment procedures, Lelouch did not rush to start academic research that day. Instead, he took a good rest and spent a day or two socializing, getting to know the other trainees.

However, after walking around for a while, he discovered that he was actually the highest-ranking military officer among all the trainees! So there was no one he needed to curry favor with; he could just socialize normally. On the contrary, the other trainees needed to fawn over him.

However, upon closer reflection, this is quite normal. After all, the advanced officer training program at the Potsdam Military Academy is quite different from the gilded classes that Li Yunlong attended in "Bright Sword". The advanced training program here is generally for officers at the rank of colonel to further their studies and lay a solid foundation in preparation for the possibility of becoming a general in the future.

Similar to the Fusang people in the Earth plane, they also have a two-tiered education system of non-commissioned officer schools and army universities. Ordinary people can only enter military academies by first attending non-commissioned officer schools. Only after graduating, serving, and being promoted can they possibly go on to further their studies at the army university. Only after completing that can they possibly become generals. (This is actually a bit of a reversal of the original system. The Fusang people's two-tiered education system of non-commissioned officer and army university is actually copied from the Prossen people's military academy system. The Prossen people's system is the original.)

Therefore, Lelouch discovered that among all the students in his cohort, he was the only one who held the rank of brigadier general, while the others ranged from major to colonel, with even colonels being rare. Furthermore, most of their training programs were not short-term courses of three months, but rather longer.

In peacetime, such advanced studies could last for two or three years, but in wartime they are often shortened to a maximum of one year.

Only officers who were wounded and needed to recuperate were given a year's leave. Those who were not wounded would generally receive six to nine months of training.

The other trainees were all over 30 years old, with Lelouch being the only one over 25. Those over 35 who hadn't yet reached the rank of colonel were generally not allowed to come for further training.

Because it was foreseeable that a guy who hadn't even reached the rank of major by age 35 had virtually no hope of becoming a general before retirement. After Lelouch tried to make himself known to others, he rarely saw any familiar faces among his peers; they were all older people born in the 80s or 85s.

Including 35-year-old Georg von Küchler, an artillery major;

Also 35 years old, Major Maximilian von Wechs, cavalry commander;
Walter von Reichenau, a 32-year-old cavalry major.

What surprised him most was that there was also a 40-year-old lieutenant colonel who had been transferred back from the 6th Army for short-term academic research, named Oswald Lutz, whom Lelouch had not known beforehand. Lelouch himself was the chief of staff of the 6th Army, and if Duke Rupprecht had transferred someone to participate in the training, he would have informed Lelouch. But this time, the Duke did not say anything, and Lelouch only found out about this officer from the same faction after arriving in Potsdam.

It's unclear what the Duke is really up to, or if he has some other considerations.

As for the other students, Lelouch didn't recognize them at all; they were probably just ordinary people whose names were unknown.

Lelouch knew these people had a promising future, so he naturally wanted to focus on befriending them.

The group was flattered and quickly explained their situation to Commander Lelouch.

Lelouch then learned that Major Küchler, one of the four students, had been training in Potsdam the longest. He had been there for almost half a year before Lelouch arrived, and he was focusing on a project on artillery observation training, which was "how to optimize the existing training courses for artillery observers during wartime so that the training of artillery observers can be completed more quickly".

Before coming to the Potsdam Military Academy, he worked in the Reich Artillery Survey Bureau as a rear-area technical officer, only serving on the front lines for about half a year at the beginning of the war, that is, fighting a defensive battle against the Lussians on the Eastern Front.
At that time, it was the Russo army that took the initiative to attack Demania. Later, after the Russo army suffered a crushing defeat in the battles of Tannenberg and Lake Masurie, it was no longer able to threaten Demania. Küchler gradually moved to the second line to conduct training and research.

Judging from his current resume, Georg Küchler has not yet shown much talent in command; he is more like a talent for mobilizing and training troops.

Of the four, the one who has been in Potsdam the second longest is 32-year-old Major Walter Reichenau, a cavalry commander. He had previously fought under Marshal Mackensen in Lithuania and Latvia. After the Gulf of Riga campaign, the fighting on the northern front subsided, and he was given a break. He came to the Potsdam Military Academy last October, having already studied there for three months before Lelouch arrived.

As the two introduced themselves, Major Reichenau politely thanked Commander Lelouch for his brilliant strategy: "Commander Lelouch, if it weren't for you sending the navy into the Gulf of Riga to cut off the sea route supply of the French forces around Riga, causing their morale to plummet and their troops to fall into chaos, our attack wouldn't have been so successful."

I managed to penetrate to the coast of the Gulf of Riga with just my cavalry battalion and breached the positions of two enemy regiments! I can't help but feel proud when I think about it now. I really miss that feeling of overwhelming force. The enemy's defenses were in complete disarray back then.

"During this training, I originally intended to study how to expand the gains by using cavalry to penetrate deep into enemy territory after their heavily fortified defenses were breached. I didn't expect that after only a short time, you deployed armored vehicles in the Kievan Rus' theater, and later tanks… I feel like my research is becoming outdated, and I really want to adjust my research direction."

Lelouch encouraged him after hearing this: "No problem! I support you changing your research topic. Of course, you can also do some supplementary research. After all, the deep penetration and division of cavalry is also valuable. The production of armored vehicles and tanks will not be fast enough to equip the main force."

The Empire also lacks the fuel to support armored forces, especially since the Eastern Front is riddled with rubble and stretches too far. Cavalry still has a significant role to play until the end of this war.

Reichenau was initially hesitant, but Lelouch's encouragement solidified his resolve.

The tactics of cavalry flanking maneuvers to expand the gains of the battle can continue to be studied, but the use of armored forces can also be considered as a supplement to the research.

Of the four students, the remaining two were newcomers. 35-year-old Cavalry Major Maximilian von Wechs arrived last December. His combat record is not worth elaborating on; he was a captain before the war and was promoted to major last year.

However, because he served on the Western Front and spent the entire previous year fighting positional defense battles, his cavalry had few opportunities to distinguish themselves. Last year, he fought primarily in Champagne and Artois, the two regions the Franks most wanted to retake.

According to his description, since the second half of last year, many of the soldiers forced to participate in frontline work in Champaign and Artois have been replaced by prisoners of war captured in Lusa on the Eastern Front, from whom those willing to risk their lives for Demania in exchange for better living conditions have been selected.

These soldiers were only issued Mosin-Nagant rifles, not submachine guns or machine guns. Support fire teams were provided by Demanian supervisors, so they were not afraid of defecting in the face of battle.

After six months of fighting, there were three or four small-scale, accidental mutinies, but they were all immediately suppressed by Demania submachine gun and machine gun squads. Any soldiers who defected were shot dead on the spot to intimidate the enemy.

Overall, the use of Rosa prisoners of war to statically fill gaps in Champagne and Artois was far more advantageous than disadvantageous. Over six months, it saved the Demacian army at least 20 lives, while occasional defections resulted in only a few thousand casualties among Demacian supervisors.
So far, the biggest drawback of doing this is that the Franks on the other side have also learned to force captured Demacian prisoners to participate in filling in the lines.

However, because the number of Demacian prisoners of war was far fewer than that of the enemy, and because Demacian prisoners of war were being sent to the front lines to fight against their own countrymen, very few were willing to cooperate with the Franks. Even those who were willing were much more likely to defect, and Demacian prisoners of war frequently found opportunities to escape back to their own country's positions.

The Franks tried a few times without success, and gradually gave up.

Major Wechs's combat record is nothing special, but his background is something that Lelouch and Wechs had in common when talking about it—Major Wechs's father was the coachman and attendant of the former Duke of Anhalt in his early years, and later became the captain of the guard.

Of course, Wechs' father and the former Duke of Anhalt have both passed away. The current Duke of Anhalt, Joachim, is the nephew of the Grand Duke of Baden, because the Duchess is the Grand Duke of Baden's second sister.

Lelouch maintained a close relationship with the Grand Duke of Baden and was also familiar with Joachim and his sister, Miss Lorinta. Upon hearing Wex mention this relationship, Lelouch generously offered to protect him in the future, saying that it didn't matter that he had struggled on the Western Front without achieving any military merits; after completing this training course, he would have plenty of opportunities to distinguish himself.

Major Maximilian Wechs was deeply moved by Commander Lelouch's righteousness.

The last of the four, Oswald Lutz, arrived around the same time as Lelouch, only two days earlier.

Out of curiosity, Lelouch asked him what topic he was researching this time.

Oswald Lutz's answer was very detailed:
"I was originally a logistics officer in the 6th Army. Since I wasn't involved in combat, you probably don't remember me, Commander Lelouch. I'm here in Potsdam because His Highness the Marshal has a task for me, and he wants me to take advantage of the winter break to reorganize things."

It concerns the logistics of armored vehicles and tanks in winter operations, such as what optimizations and adjustments need to be made to the existing logistics supply system to avoid various winter accidents, armored vehicles and tanks being unable to start, or what additional precautions need to be taken for maintenance.

I don't know why His Highness the Marshal didn't tell you. He trusts you so much; he must have been too busy and forgot.

Upon hearing about this topic, Lelouch immediately understood Duke Rupprecht's good intentions.

The Duke is laying the groundwork for future logistical research on issues such as "current tank and armored vehicle engines failing to start in cold weather and the fuel potentially freezing." For example, he's considering whether future diesel fuel will require additives, whether tanks should be equipped with engine antifreeze, and whether ethylene glycol or glycerol is better.

These are problems that any private car owner would have experience with in later generations, but they were entirely new issues in 1916. At that time, who had considered the issues of preventing diesel fuel from freezing and engine freezing?

The Duke's refusal to tell him was clearly because he didn't want Lelouch to be suspected of "I knew all along that tanks couldn't be used in the coldest part of winter." If that happened, and he continued to watch Marshal Hindenburg and General Rodendorff's attack on Poland fail, he would be seen as "refusing to help those in need."

With this arrangement, even if Hindenburg fails to capture Warsaw in the future, Lelouch can clear his name and simply say that he himself did not expect this to happen.

Since that's the case, Lelouch wouldn't waste the Duke's efforts, so he continued along the lines of Oswald Lutz's speech:
"I see... His Highness the Duke is so thoughtful, even considering these issues. It's all my fault for being young and not thinking things through. Armored vehicles and tanks were only recently invented, and I hadn't even thought about the issue of environmental adaptability in depth."

This topic is very important, and you need to study it diligently and strive to produce results as soon as possible. However, it's definitely too late this winter. Fortunately, there haven't been any offensive missions requiring tanks recently, and by next year when it gets colder, we'll surely have solved these problems.

-

PS: It's a bit laggy. The map suddenly changed, and there's so much to write about: military theory, military industry, industrial infrastructure, enemy reactions, friendly forces' battles—I don't know where to start.

I will resume my usual two-chapter update schedule tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)