Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 57 Lelouch Dares to Sign What Others Dare Not
In later World War II, there was a giant railway gun with an 800mm caliber named "Gustav" in honor of the former owner of Krupp, who shared the same name.

But it was only 1914, so Gustave Krupp was still alive and a businessman in his forties in his prime.

On the morning of December 26, Lelouch and Major Bock met this energetic gentleman at the Krupp headquarters in Düsseldorf.

Given Gustav's current standing in the political arena, his interactions with the military have always been limited to the highest levels.

Normally, if a low-ranking military officer came to visit, even if he had an invitation from Duke Rupprecht, he would simply have the manager in charge of the specific business receive him.

But early this morning he received a phone call from the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

“I have a nephew who is serving in a pilot unit at the front. Young people tend to have a lot of ideas and often misbehave in my name. I'm busy and may not be able to control him. He might come to your company today to bother you. Mr. Gustav, please handle this as a business and don't worry about my feelings.”

His Excellency the Chief of the General Staff remained as selfless as ever, but Gustav still had his servant prepare a perfectly pressed suit, carefully groomed his mustache, and sent his driver to pick him up at the train station.

At 10:00 AM, Gustav's driver arrived with Lelouch and von Burke.

Gustav stood about ten paces away, watching the two get out of the car before going to greet them, while also taking the opportunity to observe them.

The young man who got off the train first looked to be in his early twenties, yet he already held the rank of captain. The one who got off later, though a major, was at least in his thirties and clearly less promising than the young captain.

Moreover, the captain was tall and handsome, standing at 1.88 meters, with dark brown hair. What was most impressive about him was his bicolor pupils, one red and one blue, though he was a bit thin.

In short, he gives people the impression of being very confident, a natural leader, and very charismatic.

Gustav couldn't help but greet him with a smile, while at the same time feeling a sense of solemnity.

Upon seeing the other person's expression and posture, Lelouch realized he had definitely mistaken him for someone else. He quickly and subtly moved aside, introducing himself as follows:

“Mr. Gustav, it’s a pleasure to meet you. This is Major von Bock, commander of the 6th Army’s pilot assault battalion. I am just the deputy battalion commander, Captain Lelouch Hunt.”

Gustav was momentarily dazed, feeling ashamed in his heart, and quickly shook hands with the two of them.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two sides quickly got down to business.

Gustav initially assumed that Major von Bock would be the guest of honor, and that any new ideas the military wanted to propose would likely originate from Bock.

Although Lelouch talks a lot, he's probably just there to give reports for his superiors.

But as the conversation went on, Gustav realized that Major Bock didn't seem to have many unique insights into the topic of "train guns"...

Captain Lelouch, on the other hand, spoke fluently throughout, and when he encountered questions, he didn't need to consult his superiors; he explained them himself.

Gustav then realized: the Chief of the General Staff's nephew was just there to bolster his resume. The real idea came from that seemingly confident, assertive, and charismatic young man…

Meanwhile, Lelouch had already stated his goals and needs: "...So, the situation is this: the commanders of the two army groups currently engaged in fierce fighting on the front lines agree that the Empire urgently needs a heavy artillery piece that can be rapidly deployed and moved by train! To serve as a 'flexible and mobile coastal defense gun'."

If the Empire's army continues fighting, it will face the Burghili Strait and the enemy's superior fleet. Without a flexible deployment of heavy artillery to create an "area denial" deterrent against enemy battleships, the army will never be able to gain a foothold in important coastal port cities, let alone withstand artillery fire to launch assaults.

The General Staff has also assessed the practical needs of the 4th and 6th Armies. These needs are derived from the bloody lessons of actual combat, not mere wishful thinking. Therefore, we earnestly request Krupp to take this seriously and expedite research and development and trial production as the highest priority.

The final part of Lelouch's report mentioned the General Staff's assessment.

It was only at this point that Major Burke, sparing with words, spoke up to help prove that it was indeed true.

That's right, this assessment was approved by his own uncle.

Hearing that the General Staff had already approved it, Gustav couldn't help but grumble to himself: General Falkenhayn really is... He clearly signed and approved it personally, yet he just told me to "handle it strictly" and that "young people have too many ideas."

“I see. It seems to be very urgent. We at Krupp will do our utmost to respond as quickly as possible. In fact, after receiving the call yesterday, I started having people compile the information.”

Gustav quickly echoed his sentiments to show respect for the army's needs. As he spoke, he gestured for his secretary to fetch some documents, which he then spread on his desk and began explaining to Lelouch and von Bock.

"Krupp has been developing and producing armored vehicle trains for many years, so the problem with the carriages is not significant. A few structural modifications and the addition of a few support legs to resist the recoil of the giant cannons will suffice. This part can be completed within one or two weeks."

The real time-consuming part was equipping the cannons with specially customized elevation and mortar mechanisms. If you're aiming for speed, developing the cannons themselves on the fly is impossible. The quickest solution would be to simply transfer existing battleship main guns or coastal defense guns directly to armored trains. However, the hydraulic rotation and elevation mechanisms on battleships and coastal defense guns are too cumbersome for railway guns. On trains, the hydraulic mechanisms would have to be converted to electric, but the electric motor's output is low, making the gun's elevation speed several times slower than that of naval guns.

Similarly, the ammunition hoisting mechanism also requires a motorized crane. For smaller caliber ammunition, it can be lifted manually with multiple sets of labor-saving pulleys, which is more flexible, but the loading speed is slower—we've already had our engineers conduct a preliminary analysis of these technical advantages and disadvantages after hearing about the requirements yesterday.”

Gustav didn't want to take any unnecessary detours, so he immediately brought up the issue of the technical approach.

In this way, as long as the military representative nods and selects a route, the military cannot say anything if the products made according to this route have performance shortcomings.

This is the option you chose yourselves.

Von Bock had never experienced such an occasion before, nor had he ever participated in the work of initiating weapons requirements projects. He was a little lost for a moment, so he looked at Lelouch, hoping that Lelouch would express his opinion.

This subtle expression, observed by Gustav, further convinced him that Lelouch was the one who truly knew what he was talking about.

Often, the actual setters of the requirements put forward by the army's top brass are deputy directors or even section chiefs; those at the top don't understand the specific technical aspects.

Of course, this is also because the project was too urgent. Normally, according to the proper procedures, there would be repeated meetings and discussions, and it would not be Lelouch's place to make a decision directly.

With the opportunity presented to him, Lelouch seized it without hesitation: "Mr. Gustav is truly experienced, a leader in the field. What the Empire needs is a train gun with fully electric elevation and firing capabilities."

The electric layout is more flexible; you don't have to cram everything into one carriage. The generator and electric crane can be in one carriage, the cannon in another, plus a locomotive—three carriages to power one cannon. When deployed, they can be temporarily connected by cables.

As a seasoned military enthusiast and an electrical automation major in his previous life, Lelouch possessed solid basic engineering skills and was also aware of the major trends in technological history.

The biggest advantage of electric transmission over hydraulic and mechanical transmission is its flexibility; it doesn't require many rigidly connected, integrated components.

In the future, when we have more time and want to mass-produce, we can then find ways to refine and improve the system, developing systems with higher overall efficiency. But in the short term, pursuing a simple and crude prototype is best done as it is now.

As for Gustav's mention of "human power plus multiple sets of labor-saving pulleys to lift the springs," it is clearly a "cutting corners" approach, sacrificing performance unnecessarily in order to save time.

Lelouch directly rejected this point, which was also a way of giving Gustav a warning and letting him know that he was knowledgeable.

Seeing how knowledgeable he was, Gustav dared not hold back any longer and quickly said:

"In that case, please sign these project requirement documents. Only when the military's needs are clear can we get started. In addition, since we have chosen a fully electric pitch and missile lifting solution, we also need the cooperation of Siemens."

If it were someone else today, they might not have dared to sign so readily.

But Lelouch was not afraid. He knew that as long as he could build the cannon as soon as possible and it would prove its worth in actual combat, no one would care about the decision-making process.

He responsibly pulled out a pen and quickly signed his name:
"You guys put out an application for Siemens first, and I'll get the coordination letter. I'm familiar with Siemens too—last month, I was commissioned by the Duke to get a project from Siemens to develop portable radios."

The project was quite successful. Now, the frontline assault troops can accurately call in artillery support from the rear, which played a significant role in the victory at Ypres.

Lelouch subtly demonstrated his previous "military project guidance achievements," which made Gustav even more respectful.

He even has a verifiable track record! No wonder the higher-ups trust him so much.

Having said all that, Gustav no longer held back. He pulled a drawing from the table and spread it out:
"Actually, we had already made similar attempts with the pure electric elevation and missile lifting scheme you wanted. In mid-October, when the Antwerp campaign had just ended, the General Staff made a request to us. The original plan was to be able to shell Dover across the strait after capturing Dunkirk and Calais, so as to deter the Britannians' homeland, make them fearful, and be willing to negotiate."

At the time, we had four 380mm 45-caliber main guns that were originally intended for the battleship Baria, but the construction of the battleship was delayed and they were not used for the time being, so we temporarily used them for testing.

When used on battleships, this gun's maximum elevation angle was limited to 20 degrees. Any greater would have resulted in an excessively high turret, a large surface area exposed to shells, and would have interfered with the superimposed arrangement of the double-turret. Its theoretical maximum range was also limited to only 27 kilometers.

Therefore, in order to reach the other side of the strait, when we transferred it to the railway gun, we completely lifted the maximum elevation angle limit. On the train, this gun can be raised to an angle of 45 to 50 degrees, and the maximum range can reach 46 kilometers, which is enough to hit Dover on the other side of the strait from Calais.

However, the cost was a drastic reduction in rate of fire—on a battleship, two shots could be fired per minute, but on a train, it took five minutes to fire one shot, a full ten times slower. The main bottleneck wasn't actually the ammunition hoist, but rather the gun barrel elevation mechanism.

The main gun on the train couldn't be loaded with ammunition at a large angle. After firing a shot, it had to be leveled again, or at least basically leveled. Each time the gun barrel was lowered and raised back to its original firing angle, it took 3 and a half minutes. Then, after fine-tuning and calibration, it took another 4 to 5 minutes.

That's why we initially used a manually operated pulley system for the projectile hoist, because electric acceleration in the hoisting process was pointless; the bottleneck was in the pitching phase.

(End of this chapter)