Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 67 Paratroopers and Sulfonamides
Grand Duke Baden, who was almost fifty years old, ended up chatting with Lelouch, a prodigy, until two or three in the morning before finally going back to rest.

Fortunately, apart from Lelouch, the other passengers in the sleeper car were all members of the Duke of Baden's entourage, so the innocent passengers' rest was not disturbed.

The attendants didn't dare eavesdrop on the conversation, but they were all quite astonished. They had followed the Grand Duke for many years and had never seen him discuss matters so late.

"That major must be an unparalleled genius. You can meet all sorts of people if you live long enough." Everyone thought to themselves.

Nothing more was said that night. Because he had gone to bed so late, Lelouch was only woken up by the train conductor after the train had reached its destination.

When he got up, rubbing his sleepy eyes, it was already bright outside.

The train stopped at Frankfurt station, and a group of workers had already begun loading goods onto it—this train was originally a special train for transporting medicine. Every time it was unloaded, it would take wounded soldiers back to their home countries, and then load medicine from Frankfurt and send it to the front lines, in a continuous cycle.

Looking at the tens of thousands of medicine boxes on the platform, Lelouch's impression of the city couldn't help but change.

This is completely different from the city he saw in his previous life when he was an electrical engineer and came to the Frankfurt Industrial Exhibition.

A century later, Farben Chemicals has long been dismantled and no longer exists, and the character of Frankfurt has changed drastically as a result.

Today, it is also home to the world's number one chemical giant.

However, his priority today is dealing with the parachute issue; the sulfonamide drugs and the visit to Faber can wait a few days.

Lelouch quickly tidied himself up, got off the train, and was about to find a place to get a horse before heading to the parachute factory. Due to wartime restrictions, Demania's oil rationing was extremely strict, and nowadays, cars were almost nowhere to be seen on the road; city transportation had to revert to horseback riding, carriages, or bicycles.

Towards the end of the war, when they were truly forced into a corner, the Empire devised a way to convert most of their automobiles into vehicles equipped with gas cylinders. Carbon monoxide was produced by the initial combustion of firewood or coal through a "gas generator," and then injected into the internal combustion engine to provide power. However, these devices were not yet available by early 1915.

But just as Lelouch was looking for a carriage, an officer jogged over from the end of the platform to greet him:
"Major Lelouch, is it? His Highness the Grand Duke sent me to receive you. During your stay in Frankfurt, please feel free to tell us about any needs you may have regarding your itinerary and accommodations."

Lelouch was slightly taken aback, but quickly accepted the situation. It seemed that his eloquent conversation with the Duke of Baden last night had already earned him the respect due to a top talent.

He didn't want to be hypocritical, so he readily accepted the offer: "Then you can send me to Dassler Garment Factory. I have an order to place with them... Is there such a factory? I don't remember clearly. If not, we can find another one."

The officer from the Duchy of Baden immediately invited him into a Mercedes parked nearby, and then drove him to the Dassler garment factory in the suburbs.

Lelouch originally intended to find one himself, since making parachutes wasn't technically difficult and many textile companies could do it.

But since someone was being so attentive in picking him up and asking where he was going, he couldn't refuse, so he casually mentioned the only garment factory whose name he remembered.

Fortunately, judging from the driver's reaction, the factory had already existed since 1915.

The car quickly arrived at the Dassler factory. After getting out of the car, Lelouch only glanced around and found that the factory was not very large.

But since he was already there, he didn't want to waste his time, so he just casually asked to see if the other party had the technology and production capacity, and whether the quality was up to standard.

A Mercedes was parked at the factory gate. These days, anyone who can still get gasoline rations and drive a luxury car is definitely a big customer. So the factory owner quickly brought a few people to personally greet them at the gate.

"May I ask you are……"

Lelouch: "I'm here on behalf of the 6th Army. I have a special order for you. After you've reviewed it, whether you can do it or not, you must keep it a secret. I'll reveal the specific blueprints and details to you once I confirm that you can accept the order."

The other party immediately showed him great respect and led him inside for a detailed discussion.

Lelouch didn't know much about supplier evaluation, so he just chatted casually on the spot and looked at the garment factory's products. After discovering that they actually produced parachutes, Lelouch felt even more reassured.

After a brief discussion of the details, Mr. Dassler said that he would immediately arrange for workers and raw materials to produce trial samples that same day, and a confidentiality agreement was signed.

Anyway, the production process mainly involves sewing the fabric, plus some surface treatment, and production can start on the spot.

This factory has a comprehensive supply of raw materials; they have everything you need. They can also professionally verify Lelouch's design intentions and ensure structural strength, demonstrating a high level of professionalism and meticulousness.

Lelouch watched for a while and then felt relieved.

Given the limited time, he couldn't possibly have more refined quality control capabilities and could only trust the company.

Fortunately, he knew that the quality of products from the Dassler factory was generally reliable.

Right now, he sees his boss, Mr. Dassler's two sons, 19-year-old Rudolf and 17-year-old Alfred, diligently sewing a parachute for him.

The two boys later split up and started their own businesses. The older brother started PUMA, and the younger brother started Adidas, taking over the factory left by their father.

While these people were making prototypes, Lelouch took the opportunity to look through the old-fashioned parachute samples they had previously produced.

During the inspection, Lelouch also discovered another problem: the parachutes of this era, even the foldable ones, did not have a vent at their round top for the stable discharge of gas.

This design is actually quite problematic because there is no vent. After the parachute is filled with air, the air has to flow out during descent. The only way to get out is to randomly pick a relatively weak spot on the edge of the canopy to form a "rolled edge". The air then flows out through this gap.

Due to factors such as wind direction and airflow, the location of this temporary gap is uncertain and random. The reaction force when the gas is expelled can also easily push the parachute to the side.

Some people in later generations felt that "winged parachutes" were less safe than "round parachutes," largely because "winged parachutes," being rectangular, inherently do not need vents, as the air in a winged parachute is expelled from the rear. If a winged parachute descends vertically with no height difference between the front and rear edges, it is also prone to generating turbulence.

However, in this era, even round umbrellas lack a central top vent, which can create turbulence. Therefore, in any case, a round umbrella is inevitably inferior to a winged umbrella; it has all the disadvantages of a winged umbrella but lacks its advantages.

(Note: As shown in the picture above, after the end of World War I, it was not until 1919 that the American Leslie invented the round umbrella with vents.)
However, after discovering these new problems, Lelouch thought that he could also order some round umbrellas with central top vents, make both kinds of samples, and use them for training soldiers on the parachute tower to compare which one was more effective.

If training time is too short and most soldiers won't be able to master the wing parachute, then to save time, they'll have to use round parachutes with vents. As for the dispersion issue, they'll have to hope the airship flies lower to solve it. It's always better to be prepared.

The parachute business isn't very profitable; as long as it meets the needs of military operations, that's enough. So Lelouch didn't plan to get involved in sharing the profits and left it to the Adidas family to handle.

In the following days, the Adidas father and son brothers indeed performed admirably, quickly producing the first batch of samples and sending them to Aachen, which was relatively on the front lines.

There was already a military pilot parachute training base there, which Duke Rupprecht had arranged to borrow in advance.

Some elite soldiers from several assault battalions had also been transferred there in advance to participate in some assault training.

Lelouch didn't intend for all assault battalion soldiers to master airborne skills, because it wasn't necessary—there were simply fewer airborne units than ground assault battalions. The fire support teams that assault battalions were assigned to during ground operations wouldn't be needed for this airborne mission.

Because Lelouch wanted them to launch an attack on the two relatively compact fortress batteries on the north and south sides of Dunkirk. The combat distance was very short, so they didn't need light machine guns and grenade launchers; submachine guns would be sufficient.

Moreover, in this era, the only weapons that could be airdropped with soldiers were light weapons such as pistols or submachine guns. To avoid accidental discharge, the submachine gun body and magazine had to be loaded separately during airdrops.

Rifles and machine guns, long weapons, were airdropped separately from personnel until World War II. Long guns were packed in separate crates. Otherwise, there would have been no need to develop the FG-42 paratrooper rifle.

This is the first-ever airdrop operation in human history, and everyone is a newcomer. Lelouch, of course, must adhere to Occam's razor principle and strive for minimalism, reducing as many steps as possible. Fewer steps mean fewer accidents.

In the end, all you need are a few simple weapons like submachine guns, pistols, and grenades to be able to parachute in.

At most, a small amount of explosives and flamethrowers could be added. These heavy items would need to be packed in a shock-absorbing box and parachuted in separately.

These are used as a last resort, for targeted blasting of the internal gates or adjacent walls of certain fortified fortresses.

Therefore, in terms of military branches, those participating in this parachute training are submachine gunners, flamethrower soldiers, and demolition engineers from three assault battalions.

The machine gun crew and grenade launcher crew do not need to be trained, nor do they participate in combat.

This plan also takes into account the soldiers' proficiency in using weapons.

Lelouch could certainly have more soldiers temporarily switch to submachine guns and join the battle. But that would mean they would have to practice submachine gun marksmanship again, and he didn't have that much time.

By directly selecting submachine gunners and engineers for training, you can ensure that they practice only parachuting day and night, while other sub-skills are readily available.

Many people think that paratrooper training is slow, often taking a year or two, but that is based on the premise that "paratroopers need to be trained in all aspects of their skills."

If you cut all the other subjects and focus solely on skydiving, without any fancy tricks, you can master it in just half a month.

……

Lelouch didn't have time to personally oversee the entire paratrooper training process, and besides, he wasn't an expert in training soldiers.

The only option is to build the parachute first, and then draft a training proposal. The actual training will be handled by other professionals.

For the personnel he needed to coordinate, Lelouch would ask Major Immelmann to handle it. Immelmann was now a rising star in the Army Air Corps. As the first ace pilot, he had plenty of resources at his disposal, and finding some parachute instructors would be no problem for him.

After arranging the paratrooper training mission, Lelouch spent the rest of his days in Frankfurt mainly discussing cooperation on sulfonamide drugs with Faber Chemicals.

Lelouch is currently unable to find the engineer who invented sulfonamides in 1932, possibly because it was nearly 20 years earlier and the engineer is still too young and unknown.

However, it didn't matter. With the Grand Duke of Baden's coordination, Lelouch could directly access the upper echelons and find Fritz Haber, one of the shareholders and chief scientist of Farben Chemicals.

This Fritz Haber was no ordinary man. He invented ammonia synthesis technology in 1909 and, just before the outbreak of World War II, built a series of ammonia synthesis plants in Demand, enabling Demand to fight a protracted world war.

Before the war, countries around the world believed that the war would not be protracted, because either Demania would quickly defeat the Franks, or it would drag on for a few months and Demania would be unable to purchase saltpeter by sea due to economic blockade, resulting in a lack of raw materials to make explosives, and thus be forced to surrender and end the war.

But with Haber and his Farben Chemicals' artificial synthesis of ammonia, the production of explosives was no longer limited to natural nitrate minerals. Even with international trade cut off, they could still produce explosives in unlimited quantities and continue the war.

Of course, Haber's original intention in inventing the technology to synthesize ammonia was not to make explosives without restrictions; he only wanted to use ammonia to make fertilizers.

However, later, extreme warmongers like Rodendorff, disregarding the people's livelihood, diverted almost all of the synthetic ammonia production capacity to manufacture explosives. Demania's fertilizer plants were forced to shut down across the board, leaving farmers without fertilizer, resulting in reduced grain production and forcing the people to endure hunger.

To be fair, Rodendorff did not act humanely in this matter, which was one of the main reasons why the people later opposed the emperor.

Regardless, Haber was a great chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the same year the war ended.

Given Lelouch's original status and resources, he certainly wasn't qualified to directly request an audience with such a highly respected Nobel laureate. Besides, the man was not only a scientist but also a top-tier business tycoon.

Fortunately, thanks to the connections of the Grand Duke of Baden, all obstacles were cleared.

After meeting Haber at the Farben headquarters, Lelouch got straight to the point: "I hope your company can set up a production line specifically for sulfonamides, the intermediate product of the azo dyes that we successfully produced 6 years ago, and also establish another company to produce sulfonamide drugs that can slow down the release of their effects."

"And I can help you secure sales channels with the military, and get your products through expedited wartime clinical trials and all approval processes. Therefore, I'd like to discuss specific cooperation models. I'm not just after money; I want to ensure the Empire's sulfonamide supply chain remains stable and controllable, preventing the drug's sales channels from falling into enemy hands—this is wartime, and a controlled supply chain is crucial. I believe Mr. Harper understands the military's concerns."

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P.S.: That's all for today, 8,000 words. I'll start writing again tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)