Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 25 Eliminate the Weeds and Roots, Eradicate Evil Completely

As the "Solemn" billowed thick smoke mixed with flames, the close-quarters combat between the battlecruiser and the pre-dreadnought had been decisively decided.

Before arriving, Major General Hipper was well aware that the real challenge of the battle lay in a covert raid and a successful engagement with the enemy. Once the fighting began, victory was almost certain; the only suspense lay in the cost on their side.

Lelouch, who was watching the battle alongside Rear Admiral Hipper, didn't know much about naval warfare, so he couldn't help but seize the opportunity to ask a question:
"General, just now you didn't wait for the distance measurement results of the previous shells' impact points before firing at full speed in a half salvo, shortening the sight by 300 yards per salvo. What kind of tactic is this?"

Hipper had done all he could, and now all he had to do was wait for the results. So he generously offered some advice to his young friend: "It's very simple. If it's a mid-to-long-range engagement, you definitely can't fight like this. Accurate rangefinding is very important when using lob shots."

But now we're so close, the trajectory is almost flat. Even if we aim too far when previewing the ship, we might still accidentally hit the enemy ship's superstructure along the trajectory. So as long as we're sure we've hit it far enough, we just need to close the distance as quickly as possible; there's no need to be too precise about the exact distance.

Lelouch is Lelouch after all; his math scores are so good that even if he couldn't get into the art department, he was still eligible to switch to architecture. With his solid foundation in geometry, he almost immediately grasped the essence of this tactic.

He felt he had benefited greatly and was also more impressed by General Hipper's adaptable command skills.

The German battlecruisers all entered a rapid-fire mode, unleashing a barrage of bullets.

305mm shells exploded one after another in the 228mm nickel-chromium steel main armor belt protection zone of the "Solemn". At an engagement distance of less than five kilometers, the shells could easily tear through all the protection of this type of pre-dreadnought.

The warship's core area was penetrated multiple times, and many of the steam pipes of the propulsion system were blown up. Various high-temperature and high-pressure steams of several hundred degrees Celsius were rampaging inside the ship, instantly cooking countless engine room crew members who were rushing to repair it.

The gun deck above the power deck was not spared at all. Those relatively thin sections were directly shattered by the 305mm shells, and several secondary guns and fragments of the gun deck were blown into the air.

A small number of shells stored in several secondary gun positions also detonated incidentally. However, the detonation of 152mm shells was not enough to sink the warship, but it was enough to completely destroy the upper fire control and bridge.

Vice Admiral Hastings was also blown into the air during the process, and the commander of the Britannia Strait Fleet perished.

The main gun turret of the "Solemn" was indeed remarkably well-protected, enduring several minutes of fire without being penetrated or its ammunition detonating. However, without fire control and power, the turret could neither receive aiming data nor have hydraulic power to turn, leaving it to fire futilely at a fixed position.

The ship had effectively become a floating dead fish, only its hull still had enough reserve buoyancy.

Shells of this era could quickly destroy the superstructure of battleships, rendering them combat ineffective. However, unless the ammunition magazine or boilers exploded, it was difficult to directly sever the hull and sink the ship quickly.

To rely on torpedoes or mines for rapid sinking after flooding, we still need to consider other methods.

……

Meanwhile, another enemy capital ship, the "Revenge," was also engaged in a fierce battle with two Blücher-class battlecruisers under Hipper's command.

The situation of the two sides was very similar to that of another group. After the "Revenge" was refitted with its main guns, its turret was the same as that of the "Solemn". However, the fire control system had not yet been upgraded and broken in, which resulted in the "Revenge" having lower shelling accuracy and slower aiming.

The only two differences are that the German "Blücher-class" still uses a 280mm main gun, which is one inch smaller than the "Defflinger-class".

The main armor belt of the "Revenge" is much thicker than that of its successor, the "Solemnity," with the thickest part reaching 450 millimeters! However, the type and quality of the armor are much worse. As a monarch-class ship, it uses Harvey steel from the early 1990s, not even nickel-chromium steel, so the effective protection level is reduced by about 20 to 30%.

Moreover, everything comes at a price. The thickest part of the armor is 450 mm, which means that its main armor coverage area is much smaller. It is only 450 mm in a very narrow area near the waterline, and it drops sharply to 356 mm in areas slightly above the waterline.

The 280mm guns of the Blücher-class destroyers were indeed completely unable to penetrate their waterline, but they could easily penetrate any slightly higher areas.

So at almost the same time, the "Revenge" was also blown into a floating metal shell, and apart from not sinking, it was completely incapacitated.

While two pre-dreadnought battleships were completely destroyed, on Hipper's side, only the "Seydlitz" was hit by a single 305mm main gun from an enemy ship, striking the mid-to-aft gun turret on its side.
Two 150mm secondary guns were blown off, a section of the gun deck was blown off, and the lifeboat crane and several lifeboats above the deck were also destroyed.

Apart from that, during the entire engagement, the German battlecruiser was only hit by a total of five or six 150mm secondary gun shells from enemy ships. None of these shells could penetrate the main armor; they only damaged some peripheral facilities.

……

Just as Hipper had crippled two enemy capital ships at a negligible cost and was preparing to turn his attention to the weakest of the enemy capital ships, the HMS Hood,

He suddenly realized that before his own battlecruiser had even taken action, the HMS Hood had already lost most of its combat capability—just as the battlecruiser was engaged in fierce combat, the two German Scharn-class armored cruisers had not been assigned combat missions, and Hipper allowed them to fire freely and assist the capital ships in combat.

It was these two Scharnhorst ships' 16 210mm guns that bombarded the deck, and in just a few rounds, the HMS Hood was rendered powerless.

It turns out that the "Hood" was a sister ship of the "Revenge", but it did not undergo a modernization of its main guns and still uses the 343mm open-top main guns from more than 20 years ago - that is, without a closed turret or top cover, and the top is directly exposed to the air.

With such main gun protection, even being hit from above by a 210mm gun from an armored cruiser would mean certain annihilation.

This was indeed the case in actual combat. Shortly after the fighting began, the HMS Hood was hit by the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, respectively, in the fore and aft main gun positions.

The gunners in the gun emplacement were completely unprotected and were all killed by the explosion. The four 343mm shells placed on the gun emplacement, ready to be loaded, also detonated. In this situation, even if the gun barrel was not completely destroyed, there would be no gunner to fire it.

It can only be said that this kind of garbage, which is far behind the times and is destined to only be able to carry out missions of shelling the shore, is destined to become a tragedy in the battle of capital ships.

Now that things had come to this, Hipper could have chosen to slowly finish off the incapacitated enemy ships one by one, honing his gunnery skills. However, he was in a hurry, so he ordered that while continuing the bombardment, he also dispatched three destroyers to rush towards the incapacitated enemy ships and lay torpedoes to finish them off, a swift and decisive move.

Upon receiving the order, the three friendly destroyers immediately charged forward at high speed, and when they approached the enemy ship at a distance of about 3 kilometers, they all fired a volley of torpedoes in a fan-shaped pattern.

There's no need to get too close, lest a few remaining rapid-fire guns on the enemy ships pose a threat to the destroyer. In any case, the enemy ships' speeds have generally dropped to very low levels, and they've lost their command structure; they might not even be able to dodge torpedoes three kilometers away.

Minutes later, four torpedoes exploded, sending up high columns of water on the sides of the enemy ships. The HMS Revenge was hit by two torpedoes, while the HMS Solemn and HMS Hood were each hit by one. They began to take on water and list. The HMS Revenge sank the fastest and completely, and the other two also sank.

……

"We sank three pre-dreadnoughts, three light cruisers, and two destroyers, and damaged three destroyers. We killed at least 5000 enemy soldiers. What an incredible achievement! The general is truly valiant. Should we continue to engage the western flotilla, or should we call it a day? After all, we must be mindful of the time."

As the "Revenge" sank, several trusted officers around Rear Admiral Hipper, as well as the captain of the "Defflinger," immediately began to sincerely praise and flatter him.

These people weren't necessarily flattering; many genuinely admired the enemy. Others, for their own safety, wanted to cut their losses and had to praise the victory.

After all, if the merits are not great enough, the general may become greedy for more credit and want to fight more battles.

Although winning this battle completely and hunting down the remaining enemies is definitely not a problem.

But the longer the delay, the more likely David Betty will block everyone's way home.

When considering a problem, one should not only look at the immediate situation, but also consider the overall picture.

Despite the praise from the crowd, Hipper did not lose his composure; he was well aware of everyone's thoughts.

He asked himself honestly, if he hadn't had that discussion with Lelouch and if Lelouch hadn't inspired him with the "third escape route," he would most likely have chosen to quit while he was ahead.

David Betty knew their coordinates the moment his side opened fire and was now on his way at full speed. The later they arrived, the more likely they were to be intercepted.

The remnants of the Straits Fleet in front of us are nothing, but Beatty's six or seven new battlecruisers are truly deadly!

But now that there is a new, unthinkable path—"returning to Antwerp"—the possibility of "eliminating evil completely" has become somewhat real.

Seeing that his subordinates did not understand his deeper meaning, Hipper looked around and finally ordered the ships to engage another enemy fleet to the west first, and then act according to the situation later, without rushing.

After dismissing his other subordinates, he kept only the Duke's special envoy, Lieutenant Lelouch, and asked for advice in a probing tone: "What do you think? Should we pursue them to the end, or stop while we're ahead?"

Lelouch had always kept a low profile, never commenting on battle decisions. But when Hipper directly asked him, he didn't mince words and decisively replied:

"I suggest pursuing them to the bitter end! The other generals are seeking stability because they don't know the situation in Antwerp, nor how the army can cooperate with the navy. I've only told you these things, so only you can make a comprehensive judgment."

Secondly, when I reported to you before on the alternative plan of withdrawing to Antwerp, you also mentioned that the biggest fear with this plan was that "the warships would be severely damaged in the battle, and Antwerp only has a good port but lacks a professional large naval shipyard, so they would only be able to dock there and could not be properly repaired."

But now the results are in: we were only hit by a few 6-inch guns, and only the Seydlitz was hit by one 12-inch gun. None of these were serious. Since there's no need for major repairs, the biggest threat to retreating to Antwerp has been eliminated. All that's left are advantages and no disadvantages.

Hipper, who had been somewhat swayed by the unanimous advice of his generals, regained his composure after Lelouch's encouragement.

That's right! The reason why others can't make a full judgment is because, for reasons of secrecy, I haven't told them the whole situation! Especially the information about the land and sea cooperation provided by Lelouch, which only he knows.

Because Hipper needed to continue intelligence deception after this battle, and needed to prevent the enemy from realizing that "the German army already knows that their radio codes have been leaked," he needed to portray everything today as his "insubordination and solo operation."

To ensure that his act of disobeying orders and going it alone was convincing enough, he naturally had to keep it a secret even from his closest confidants. His confidants only needed to know what he did, but they didn't need to know what he was thinking.

The objective actions can be made public, but the subjective motives must be kept secret; as many as possible, keep them hidden.

“That’s right. Only you and I can make a judgment on this matter from a holistic perspective. Others don’t even have a complete understanding of the conditions, so why listen to them? Sometimes history is changed by one or two people. I’ve decided, we’ll pursue them to the end! Kill as many as we can! Ignore Betty’s attempts to intercept us, and we’ll retreat directly to Antwerp!”

-

PS: Two updates today, about six or seven thousand words.

I promise to finish writing the naval battle today. I've learned my lesson and am trying to speed things up. Today I'll definitely bring back the land battle scenes and the protagonist's promotion strategy. Please don't skip the updates or leave comments.

I've deleted and compressed it again and again to ensure that Hastings' main force is wiped out in this chapter. Only the necessary strategic thinking and decision-making processes are absolutely indispensable, there's no other way.

The naval battle story, with its kowtows and confessions, is indeed slow-paced, mainly because it's my first time writing one. There's a lot of groundwork to lay, and I also need to make readers who don't usually read much aware of the current situation.

(End of this chapter)