Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 52 To achieve simultaneous success on both wings, one must deploy the railway cannon.

On the morning of December 24, Lelouch, who had just finished a two-day rest period, was summoned to a meeting at the division headquarters by Division Commander Karl.

There should be some details about the upcoming siege of Stenford, as well as the latest battle updates, that need to be shared.

Major Bock, the official battalion commander, also received a notice to attend the meeting, but he was clearly less trusted by the upper echelons of the Barea royal family than Lelouch, the deputy battalion commander.

Lelouch made some preparations, and before the meeting he brought along a few spoils of war captured in the Battle of Bayole that day—not anything valuable, but the belongings of the enemy general who had been killed.

This includes the blood-stained epaulets cut from the uniform of Major General Schubert Goff, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the Burgundy Army, as well as his cavalry sword.

In that day's battle, Major General Gough was the only Burgh cavalry division commander to be killed directly by machine gun fire. Later, when Lelouch's troops were cleaning up the battlefield, they saw the insignia on his uniform and realized that he had killed a large fish.

"Commander, these are the belongings of the cavalry division commander we killed the day before yesterday. We seized them from his body." Lelouch politely presented the spoils of war.

"War is truly unpredictable. With your achievements, you'll definitely be at least a major after this battle, no doubt about it. Here's what we'll do: after we take Stenford and cut off the enemy's lifeline, I'll submit a report for you and get the commander's approval to finalize your promotion." Major General Karl Ludbert couldn't help but shudder slightly when he saw the cavalry sword.

The opposing officer was also a major general and division commander. On his way to lead the charge, he was mowed down by a crossfire of MG15 light machine guns until he was dead.

"Thank you for your guidance, teacher." Lelouch said, giving a solemn salute.

Major General Carl waved his hand: "Don't be too happy yet. Let's see how we fight this battle. Only when we take down Stenford can we consider this a milestone achieved."

Everyone knew in their hearts that the Battle of Bayole wasn't actually that strategically significant. The reason it was so highly praised in the end was mainly due to the sheer number of enemy troops killed.

Two cavalry divisions of the Burgh army came to the rescue, but they underestimated the enemy and ran right into their trap. They gave the Germans a huge military victory for nothing, and also caused panic throughout the Burgh army, leading to the collapse of the defending allies.

Stenford, however, is the true strategic location. Taking it would mean that the entire Bulge campaign is more than halfway complete, as it would completely cut off the Ypres defenders' railway supply lines.

Lelouch had rested for two days and wasn't very familiar with the current situation, so he didn't want to offer advice rashly. Therefore, he took the opportunity to inquire:
"Commander, I heard that the Burgh Army only allowed two Canadian divisions and two divisions from the South Asian colonies to guard Stenford. These troops are numerous but not elite. Why couldn't they spare their own most elite 1st and 2nd Corps?"

Carl then took the opportunity to inform them of the friendly forces' situation: "Because these past two days, the diversionary offensive on the front of the Ypres salient has been quite impressive."

The three divisions of the 4th Army launched a feint attack on the Ypres front. The 4th Army commander, Archduke of Württemberg, concentrated most of the heavy artillery of the Württemberg and Baden armies, engaging the enemy in a sustained artillery duel. This forced the enemy's main artillery force to remain vigilant and unable to be redeployed.

Furthermore, the main flank attack force in episode 4 successfully recaptured Ostend and is currently attacking Dixmude. Once these two steps are completed, our forces on the northern coast will be able to retake Neoport—the town you fought alongside Commander Lister to block and annihilate Billy King's army, only to abandon it in the end.

After hearing this, Lelouch couldn't help but feel a little emotional. In order to minimize losses and adopt a flexible defense, they eventually abandoned Neoport and Ostend after they were completely destroyed and left only as rubble.

But a little over a month later, in order to encircle and annihilate a larger target, these places had to be taken back again.

Although the decision to retreat was not wrong, and flexible defense should be fought in this way, I still feel a little regretful.

Major General Karl seemed to notice Lelouch's emotional change, stood up, walked over to him, and patted Lelouch on the shoulder: "Don't regret it. Although we retreated a little back then, we're going to fight back now, but the situation is different."

They had no choice but to retreat initially because the empire wasn't fully prepared, but this time, in episode 4, they've returned fully prepared.

Lelouch hadn't had time to pay attention to his allies before, but after hearing his division commander's explanation, he became a little curious: "Oh? Is the situation any different from before?"

Major General Karl: "The reason we had to withdraw was because the enemy's battle fleet had an absolute advantage and posed too great a threat to the garrison of coastal towns. We simply couldn't hold our ground on the coast."

However, since taking over Blankenberg, Zeebrugge and other places a month and a half ago, the fourth episode has been working hard to build new coastal defense batteries at the front line, or to repair and expand the original batteries and replace them with heavy artillery with one that has a longer range.

The Empire's 280mm coastal defense guns have now been secretly deployed to the front lines very close to Ostend. These guns were salvaged from the port of Antwerp, where not a single large-caliber coastal defense gun remains; all have been moved forward. Therefore, the recapture of Ostend has proceeded smoothly since the general offensive began on the northern front a few days ago.

The Bu army also sent a large number of pre-dreadnoughts from the Straits Fleet to bombard our siege forces, but they were all countered by our coastal defense guns. It seems that one enemy pre-dreadnought was damaged and two auxiliary boats were sunk, and the enemy stopped and dared not come again.

After Ostend was recaptured, the enemy forces at Dixmud lacked flank cover. Furthermore, Dixmud itself is not located by the sea, being more than ten kilometers from the North Sea coastline, so it was also besieged by our forces. Progress is expected within a few days. Currently, the main force of the 2nd Army is defending the coastal area. The main force of the 1st Army, besides facing Ypres, also has to be divided to reinforce Dixmud, which is why it cannot come to the Stenford-Popperlinge line.

Upon hearing this, Lelouch finally understood why the overall situation of the battle had turned out the way it was.

It turns out that the friendly forces on the northern front were also very effective, drawing away so many enemy troops.

He pondered the map for a while, then asked for confirmation: "So, we should eventually be able to meet up with the people from episode 4 somewhere between Dunkirk and Casale? If we calculate based on the pre-war progress of each side advancing 60-70 kilometers."

When asked about this, Major General Karl shook his head slowly and helplessly: "It's probably impossible. Since the start of the war, we have also learned more details from Episode 4. They are indeed fighting very well now, but only they know the difficulties they are facing."

They are now facing a very difficult problem: their current success is due to thorough preparations, such as building coastal defense artillery. However, once the fighting begins, there will be no time to build coastal defense artillery as they advance.

The Empire has already selected the longest-range coastal defense guns for installation, but compared to the range advantage of battleship main guns, it's at most ten kilometers. In other words, after capturing Ostend, advancing a few kilometers westward will leave the range-protected area of ​​our coastal defense guns. At that point, the enemy's naval gunfire will be too overwhelming, and we won't be able to hold our ground.”

Lelouch was also knowledgeable. When the division commander explained the reason, he understood it almost immediately and couldn't help but feel regretful: "Alas, it seems that if we want to finally annihilate the Burgh army, we have to hope that we can fight all the way to Dunkirk in episode 6... It was good to capture the outermost first-line towns in episode 4 and to contain the enemy, but it is too difficult to expect to complete this coastal route."

It seems we'll still have to take the risk in the end, forcing our navy to find a way to gamble everything... If only we had more flexible coastal defense firepower.

At that moment, Lelouch's first thought was of the battlecruiser fleet that General Hipper had used to feign serious injury and retreat to Antwerp after his engagement with Beatrice during the Battle of Ostend.

This is definitely a secret force, but we haven't figured out how to utilize it yet.

If only the German army today had railway artillery like it does twenty years from now on Earth. Large-caliber railway guns, especially 280mm ones like the K5, could be rapidly deployed to the front lines, hidden in the tunnels and caves of the coastal railway, ready to retaliate against enemy fleet shelling near the shore… how awesome would that be!

That would be like being able to recreate an episode of "Anzio Express".

This would also save the huge waste of the current practice of "reconstructing coastal defense batteries every ten kilometers or so along the coastline to defend against enemy naval bombardment."

Unfortunately, a replica cannot be made; the modern German army does not possess railway guns at all.

Perhaps after this battle, we can combine the experience and merits gained to lobby the top brass of the military department to place an order with Krupp to develop a specialized railway gun that can counter warships, which will also make it easier to gain the initiative in the Taiwan Strait region in the future.

Lelouch vaguely remembered that the German army on Earth had even developed the "Paris Gun" with a range of 130 kilometers during the later stages of World War I; it was also a type of railway gun. But now, if such a long range wasn't required, a maximum range of 50 kilometers would suffice, and it shouldn't be too difficult to build it by 1915.

The K5 railway gun from World War II had a 71-caliber barrel and a range of nearly 80 kilometers. If the barrel length were reduced by more than ten times and the range requirement shortened by 30 kilometers, it could have been developed twenty years earlier without any problem…

Thinking about this, Lelouch suddenly felt that the feasibility of this matter was becoming more and more likely.

If the cannon itself doesn't need to be developed separately, is it possible to get a makeshift version working within a month?
Moreover, the lessons learned from the actual combat experience in episode 4—that "with the cover of the coastal defense guns, we can push forward smoothly, but without the coastal defense guns, we can't push forward"—we learned from the practical experience of the episode.

Making demands on Krupp would then seem perfectly reasonable.

Lelouch, feeling that the sooner the better, immediately offered a suggestion: "I have an idea. Could we slightly modify the loading mechanism of the existing single-barreled battleship main guns and combine them with the existing armored trains to place an emergency order with Krupp? Because there is a railway from Stenford to Dunkirk..."

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PS: The overall campaign was quite large, so I can only dedicate one chapter to briefly describing the progress and lessons learned by the other 4th Army.

I couldn't possibly write a separate account of the battles fought by the 4th Army, so I just touched on it through the dialogue between the protagonist and the division commander.

Actually, it's to use the experiences and lessons learned by our allies to advance the protagonist's plans, not just filler content.

Thank you for your patience. The next chapter will return to the protagonist's battles and strategies.

(End of this chapter)