Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 58 is hard not to admire.

Gustav explained in detail why they initially chose a labor-saving pulley system to hoist the shells instead of an electric motor—

This wasn't due to cutting corners; it was simply that the barrel's raising and lowering was too slow, rendering even speeding up other parallel processes ineffective.

Even after all the other work is done, you still have to wait anxiously for the cannon barrel to slowly level before you can proceed with the next steps.

But now Lelouch has raised new scenarios and new demands, so these issues are worth discussing.

After considering for a moment, Lelouch commented, "It's good that you were prepared beforehand, which saved a lot of preliminary work. However, the situation and needs have changed. What we need is no longer to bombard the cities across the strait, but to flexibly deploy and intercept enemy warships near the shore."

Therefore, the high elevation angle capability can be omitted, and the elevation mechanism can be greatly simplified. We only need a maximum elevation angle of around 20 degrees, just like on battleships. The range requirement can also be greatly relaxed, reduced from 46 kilometers to within 30 kilometers.

In this situation, could you build a loading machine that can load ammunition directly at an elevation angle of 10 or 20 degrees without having to lower the barrel back to a horizontal position? Because if the most time-consuming step of lowering and then raising the barrel again can be eliminated, the rate of fire can be greatly increased. And if an electric winch is added to the ammunition loading process, it will be much faster than a manual pulley system.

As Lelouch spoke, he also scribbled and drew on the sketch with a pencil, making some indications.

Even Gustave, who was very dedicated to his profession, couldn't help but be captivated by what he saw.

Regardless of the captain's detailed design skills, his guidance on technical direction was at least very accurate and visionary.

He can easily identify the bottlenecks and key issues, and then make the best use of available resources to address those weaknesses.

This kind of ability to coordinate technical projects is something that not everyone possesses.

Gustav briefly assessed the situation, then solemnly picked up the phone to call in a professional project manager and core engineers. After a discussion, they reached a conclusion:
"Captain Lelouch, your suggestion is indeed feasible and could increase the firing rate several times over! However, there are some difficulties to overcome and some unavoidable costs involved."

Lelouch: "Let's talk about the price first. I think it's acceptable to everyone."

The summoned technical supervisor listed the issues one by one: "The barrel life of a naval gun is generally 200 to 300 rounds, after which the barrel will erode and accuracy will decrease. After switching to a railway gun, the rate of fire was reduced, but the cooling environment of the barrel improved, allowing for 800 accurate shots. Now that the rate of fire has been increased again, the lifespan will be shortened back to 300 rounds..."

Lelouch: "None of that matters. These are all cost issues. Compared to the results and victory, money is not an issue!"

It's just a matter of paying more for consumables; the military is willing to pay for it.

The Krupp people raised a few more points, wanting to add some things, such as "20-degree elevation loading" requiring a special slope rail, and also needing to be foldable so that it could be moved before firing.

These problems can all be solved; just add more money.

In the end, only a few points remained to be discussed – mainly the last step of loading the shells. The shells were already placed on the slide rails, and a group of artillerymen should have used manpower to lift the push rods and push the shells horizontally into the gun barrel.

But now it's been changed to slope loading, where the shell has to be pushed upwards at a 20-degree angle. A shell weighing a full 800 kilograms is very difficult to push upwards by manpower alone, and even with multiple people working together, accidents are likely to occur. Moreover, because it's pushed upwards at an angle, they can't use too much lubricating oil on the slide rails; they have to ensure a certain level of friction.

This problem isn't particularly difficult, but I've never encountered it before and therefore never solved it.

Lelouch glanced at it and immediately recalled the video of the Missouri battleship's main guns being loaded that he had seen on Bilibili in his previous life. By World War II, even the final step of loading these giant guns, "pushing the shell," was done by electric motors.

"Then you can add another motor, a dedicated motor for the step of pushing the shell into the barrel. When the hoist lifts the shell into place, it can be placed directly on the baffle of the pusher, and then the pusher will push it in."

Lelouch simply described the scenes he had witnessed in his previous life in words, making it seem rather understated.

But this simple reminder opened up a new avenue for Krupp's engineers.

Indeed, since three train carriages were already dedicated to serving a single cannon, it didn't seem unreasonable to have an electric locomotive haul more power loads.

The grenades hoist and grenades pusher are handled by two motors.

"This suggestion is excellent, and we will follow this approach. This way, we can guarantee to at least double the firing rate! Originally, a cannon with a 45-degree elevation angle could only fire once every 5 minutes, but after reducing it to 20 degrees, it can fire once every 2 to 3 minutes. With the fixed elevation angle for projectile propulsion, it can fire once in less than 1 minutes!"

After a brief evaluation, the Krupp engineering team concluded that the new design could increase the rate of fire from 10% to 40% of that of the battleship's main guns, but at the cost of sacrificing a significant amount of range and requiring an additional train car.

While its rate of fire was still significantly lower than that of naval guns, it was already quite impressive. On land, for a non-fixed giant cannon, achieving this level of performance was unprecedented. The military and Krupp thus finalized the requirements and technical roadmap, and the rest was up to Krupp to get the work done.

Meanwhile, since Krupp had been working on the repurposing and modification of those 380mm naval guns since October, this was merely a temporary adjustment of their purpose and plan. With these preparatory works in place, the entire project cycle could be further shortened.

Krupp promised to produce four new 380mm railway guns within a month.

If given more time, they could also process some of the old 280mm battleship stockpiles into railway guns, provided that the companies that manufacture locomotives and electric motors can also provide some support.

Lelouch, who was in full charge of coordinating the project, naturally felt obligated to do so.

He contacted Siemens by phone that day and flew there the next day to coordinate in person.

Siemens has been very cooperative. They heard that the previous "portable radio" played a significant role on the front lines and was praised by Duke Rupprecht. They expect to place a large number of additional orders. Siemens is increasingly confident in this cooperation and is willing to invest resources.

Lelouch spent three to five days coordinating and working on the whole thing, managing to get everything in order and making many connections and acquaintances.

During this time, various exchanges of gifts and favors were naturally inevitable. Fortunately, Duke Rupprecht had approved a budget of 500,000 marks before Lelouch's return, and Lelouch did not disappoint, treating all the necessary connections with proper courtesy.

He didn't need to curry favor with anyone, but as the saying goes, "It's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with his underlings." For such a complex project, ensuring smooth progress wasn't just about cultivating a good relationship with the big boss; he also had to ensure that the project managers and technical leads below didn't secretly slack off.

So Lelouch spent tens of thousands of marks out of his own pocket. Another portion was from supplies he had captured from the 3rd Army of the Kingdom of Burgundy during the Battle of Bayole.

Due to the maritime trade blockade caused by the war, flannel and Buglin tweed products are now in short supply in Demania, and many engineers and businessmen's families cannot buy imported fabrics to make clothes.

Lelouch's ability to offer spoils as gifts quickly won him the favor of many mid-level managers and key technical personnel at Krupp and Siemens within days.

Furthermore, during this trip home, Lelouch didn't forget to sell the remaining military supplies he had captured. Besides the flannel and tweed products he had given as gifts, there were still six or seven train cars' worth. After selling them all, the total value was nearly two million marks.

Adding the 80 marks he'd previously earned from selling cigars, coffee, and chocolates, the 50 marks he'd received as a reward from the Duke, and this latest sum, after deducting what he'd already spent and the compensation he'd given to his comrades, Lelouch calculated that he had nearly 300 million marks left.

……

After handling the matters related to the railway cannon, Lelouch was ready to take his leave of Krupp.

After just a few days together, Gustav Krupp had a very good impression of him, feeling that his vision for the future development of the military industry far surpassed that of most officers in the Imperial General Staff.

On the day Lelouch and his party were to leave, Gustav even took the time to invite Lelouch and Burke to his home for a family dinner, and let Lelouch meet his wife and children.

Gustav's wife, Bertha Krupp, was 15 years younger than him. The 420mm "Big Bertha" mortar, which the Empire used to bombard the Belges fortress of Liège at the beginning of the war, was named after her.

In fact, Bertha is the third-generation legitimate heir of the Krupp family, while Gustav is merely a "son-in-law" who joined the Krupp family as a professional manager and took his wife's surname after marriage.

Bertha was only 30 years old, so their eldest son, Alfred Krupp, was only 10 years old.

After spending a short time together, Lelouch discovered that Alfred was a very martial person.

So he vividly recounted many of his experiences and thrilling battles from the front lines. After listening, little Alfred became an unstoppable fervent admirer of Uncle Lelouch.

Especially after hearing how Uncle Lelouch made a decisive and brilliant decision, relying on his initial company to prevent friendly forces from being drowned by the flood, to pull up a regiment, to hold off several enemy divisions from breaking out, and finally to annihilate them all.

How could a child have ever heard of such a thrilling and bloody battle, especially since it was real? Lelouch could even show him the medals he received for that battle, and point to his injured and reddened left eye to tell him that it was from the enemy's tear gas that made it red.

When Lelouch was finally taking his leave, little Alfred took the opportunity to say to him privately, "Uncle Lelouch, if you have any more brilliant ideas about cannons that you can't directly ask my father for, you can tell me first, and I'll pass them on for you."

Lelouch patted his hair: "Thank you, yes, there will be times when I need your help."

The morning after the family dinner, Lelouch boarded a train and made a detour to DWM Company to resolve some minor issues that the allies on the front lines had encountered in the past few days. Then he prepared to return to his unit.

(End of this chapter)