Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 80: The Great Chaos That Drags Everyone Into It
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Four loud explosions, and four jets of water, tens of meters high, shot up from the sea.
This left Vice Admiral David Beatty, commander of the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet, in a state of utter shock.

All four shots hit close range, and quite close at that, exploding more than a thousand meters in front of Betty. However, the aiming to the left and right was extremely accurate, with almost all the errors occurring at different distances.

"What's going on? Is the enemy so frustrated by being constantly attacked that they're letting their previously dormant hidden firepower open fire even though they know they can't hit their targets?"

His brain raced, and after a moment of stunned silence, he finally came to his senses in just a few dozen seconds:

"No! It's not that we have to fire even if we can't hit them, it's that the rangefinder is too close! I've been tricked by the enemy! The power of these shells is definitely no less than that of the Queen Elizabeth-class 380mm main guns. This is the enemy's latest weapon! A weapon we've never seen before! It's not comparable to the captured Frank 340mm guns!"

Betty suddenly felt a rush of blood to her head.

What should we do? Should we immediately create distance again, or should we all charge in and fight?
If we create distance, will we have enough time? Who knows how far this unprecedented super artillery actually is in terms of its maximum range and accuracy? If I escape but it takes a long time to get out of the enemy's range, wouldn't that be a complete waste and an unnecessary beating?

However, if we charge straight in, putting all our forces on the line and admitting that we've fallen into their trap, then it's destined to be a very bloody and deadly battle!
Such a significant decision, even with Betty's extremely quick reaction, could not be made in just a minute or two.

This involves the lives of tens of thousands of sailors! Today he has dozens of large warships under his command!
Just as Betty was thinking rapidly, a minute and a half of interval quickly passed, and the second round of shells came flying in.

This time it was actually farther, but the error had been reduced from nearly 1200 meters in the first round to only 300 meters farther—the enemy had raised the gun barrels and moved them 1500 meters farther after firing the first round.

At this moment, Betty was completely convinced that the enemy was not "fighting even though the range was too short," but had come prepared to scheme against him!
Since the enemy has been plotting this for so long, this tactic is not something they can easily overcome by fleeing. At this point, the only option is to use overwhelming force, a full-scale war of attrition, and fight to the death! Especially since this battle is a coordinated land and naval operation, and prior coordination was already in place; after the navy's firepower preparation, the army would also launch an attack on the port area. This isn't something Betty can simply stop at will. A hasty change of plans would be seen as betraying allies, and a retreat might completely jeopardize the chance to rescue the army. At this point, everyone must advance with all their might, urging allied forces to join the fight as quickly as possible.

"All pre-dreadnoughts, approach at full speed! Queen Elizabeth-class destroyers, maintain your distance. Battlecruiser fleet, follow behind the pre-dreadnought fleet and enter effective firing range! Each ship, select the most threatening target nearby and open fire freely!"

Betty decisively issued the order, and the massive fleet sprang into action, quickly switching from the initial strategy of "using long-range attacks to deal damage" to the idea of ​​"most of them rushing in for close combat."

But despite his recklessness, Beatty still had a backup plan: he knew the enemy would definitely consider his two Queen Elizabeth-class destroyers as the most valuable targets, and the battlecruisers as relatively valuable targets as well. The pre-dreadnoughts, however, would certainly be seen as less desirable and less worth discarding.

Therefore, by keeping the "Queen-class" tanks as far away from the enemy as possible, you can draw the enemy's heavy firepower to fire at the furthest target, reducing their hit rate and greatly decreasing their output.

Positioned further back in the battleline compared to pre-dreadnoughts, battlecruisers could also force the enemy's remaining 340mm coastal defense guns and 280mm railway guns into a dilemma:

If you want to target high-value goals, you have to accept the cost of those goals being farther away and harder to hit accurately.

At the same time, the enemy's worthless warships will get closer, and their attacks on shore-based firing positions will be more accurate and threatening.

While turning the guns around to attack the relatively worthless old warships would certainly allow for more accurate shots, it would also ensure the safety of the enemy's high-value, newer warships.

This wasn't a particularly brilliant move, but it was the best solution David Beatty could come up with in the heat of the moment.

The massive pre-dreadnought fleets of the Britannians and Franks charged forward at breakneck speed.

The battlecruiser, however, advanced a few kilometers before turning sideways.

The Queen-class ships maintained their original positions, changing direction and speed slightly every few rounds of firing in an attempt to increase the difficulty for the enemy to continuously aim.

Dunkirk Fortress and the sea immediately became lively. Within minutes, the sound of cannons boomed, with dozens or even hundreds of giant cannons on both sides roaring wildly, shaking the heavens and the earth.

……

"What's wrong with you guys? We gave you so much time to calculate before the first round of firing, and you still managed to get more than a thousand meters closer!"

"Luckily, we adjusted quickly, and the second round went 300 meters further. Keep adjusting! Your railway guns are inherently slower than naval guns. Naval guns fire one shot every 30 seconds, while yours takes more than 80 seconds! If we can't show an advantage in accuracy, how can we fight this battle!"

On the Demanian side, at the tunnel entrance behind the Maroleban fortress, Lelouch watched as Lieutenant Colonel Keitel's train gun corps failed on its first attempt, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. Fortunately, everyone's improvements were very rapid, and they were already significantly reducing the error at an extremely fast pace.

After Lieutenant Colonel Keitel ascertained the situation within a minute, he reported back with a serious expression:
"I have confirmed that the initial intelligence was incorrect! The intelligence department's estimate of the length of the 'Queen Elizabeth-class' was much longer than the actual length! We used the incorrect length as a distance measurement reference, so the difference was proportionally about 5%!"

Previously, the intelligence department assumed that the Queen Elizabeth-class ships, due to their high speed, would have significantly longer engine rooms than the Iron Dukes, but that wasn't the case! Briggs's engine technology is truly impressive; by only lengthening the hull by 6 meters, the speed increased by 4 knots. I wonder if they used some new engines or boilers!

Lelouch listened to the explanation but didn't say much. Fortunately, this bloody battle would last a long time, so the effect of the first two rounds of cannon fire was not important. As long as it could quickly reduce the ranging error, that would be fine.

He looked up at the sky. After the railway guns opened fire across the board, the number of Demacian reconnaissance planes in the air increased, and they flew more and more aggressively, even approaching the enemy ships to provide more detailed observation data on the impact points.

Enemy battleships also continuously launched seaplanes, which were temporarily equipped with heavy machine guns. The reconnaissance planes of both sides would fire at each other as soon as they met, but in the end, Immelmann's air force had the upper hand and was better able to maintain the advantage of observing and aiming at the point of impact.

Five minutes into the battle, the impact points of the eight "Big Mark" guns were getting closer and closer to the two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. The Queen Elizabeth-class retaliatory shells also began to fall, but because they could not directly observe the location of the Big Mark positions and their view was blocked by the hillside of the Maroleban battery, the Queen Elizabeth-class shelling was very inaccurate. They could only observe the trajectory of the incoming shells to roughly aim in the left and right directions, but they could not aim at the near or far distances.

Even a queen-level lookout couldn't see the impact points of their own troops. They could only report, just like Chu Yunfei's observer, that "the enemy's train gun is located in a depression, blocked by the fortress's mountains, so the impact points are not visible."

Upon receiving the report, Betty hurriedly tried to send all of her seaplanes, as well as any reconnaissance aircraft the army could muster, toward that position, hoping to use the aircraft to observe the impact points.

Lieutenant Colonel Immelmann had already received advance notice from Lelouch, and had concentrated a large number of his own light machine gun reconnaissance aircraft to form a patrol network in the air, a seemingly invisible iron wall!

Immelmann personally piloted his plane in a relentless pursuit, repeatedly entering and exiting the enemy's airspace, and single-handedly shot down four enemy reconnaissance aircraft.

One of his newly trained second-in-command pilots, Oswald Polk, also risked his life to relentlessly intercept and shoot down three enemy reconnaissance planes.

Even if the Burmese reconnaissance planes managed to break through the encirclement, fly near the railway gun positions, and quickly transmit a message via radio indicating that the enemy was "far away/nearer," they would be shot down very soon, offering little help to the Burmese ships in their fire control efforts.

On the main battlefield, with this well-intentioned ambush and the inherently high accuracy of the railway guns, Keitel managed to overcome the huge disadvantage that "the firing rate of the railway guns was only 40% of that of the main guns of the same caliber battleships." After 20 minutes of bombardment, Keitel achieved the first hit before the enemy!
A 750-kilogram armor-piercing shell, the same type used on the Baria-class battleships, finally hit the HMS Queen Elizabeth after flying 22 kilometers.

The ballistic trajectory at a steep angle unsurprisingly struck the main funnel, which has the largest projected cross-sectional area on the ship's hull.

Since the chimney walls were not specially armored, the shells penetrated the left and right sides of the chimney from the left before deflecting and hitting the secondary gun deck on the starboard side. After the explosion, the side armor of the secondary gun deck was blown off from the inside, destroying the three 152mm single-mounted secondary guns on the starboard side.

炮位里的6枚152炮弹也都被引爆，造成了一定的连环伤害。所幸6枚152的伤害都不如一枚380，最终只是把廊炮甲板上面一层的救生艇起重机连带救生艇一起炸飞。

The smokestack was blasted through, and billowing black smoke immediately poured out from its base, enveloping a large area in the middle of the deck. The lookout and observation positions on the aft bridge were also completely obscured by the black smoke rising from below.

"Commander! We've been hit by an unknown giant enemy cannon! The power and structure are fine, but fire control and observation are severely limited!"

"Keep firing! We still have so many warships; enemy shells won't inflict fatal damage so easily!"

The exchange of fire between the 380mm railway guns and the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships continued for about 20 minutes, with both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Warspite taking another hit. HMS Queen Elizabeth's foredeck was penetrated, and its No. 1 turret became jammed. HMS Warspite, on the other hand, was hit in the bow, the shell penetrating the bow armor and exploding internally, tearing open several compartments and causing hundreds of tons of water to enter the bow.

The Bu army's countermeasures against the railway artillery were still ineffective—don't blame the low hit rate, it's just that the engagement distance between the two sides had far exceeded the limits of this era.

During World War I, the engagement distance between mainstream battleships was around 15 kilometers, while today the engagement distance is 22 to 23 kilometers.

……

While the "Big Mark" railway guns and the "Queen"-class battleships were exchanging fire.

Throughout the battlefield, the fighting between other warships of various levels, shore artillery, and railway artillery also intensified.

The second wave of fire first occurred between the two remaining 340mm armored turrets of the Marlolesbans battery, which Lieutenant Colonel Loeb was holding, and the former dreadnought that Betty later dared to order a "desecration" of. Lelouch's earlier "feigned death" tactic had finally partially succeeded. The two turrets pretended not to fire, remaining unresponsive to long-range rappelling, successfully luring some follow-up enemy warships closer.

As the Queen-class destroyers took the bait, the two 340s on this side also ceased their silence and began firing at the two Frankish pre-dreadnought battleships, the Suffren and the Joregiberry.

Having aimed for a long time and feigned death for a long time, these two turrets achieved a hit after only a few rounds of firing.

Of course, they also suffered a fierce close-range artillery barrage from the enemy.

After the B turret of the Malorleban Fortress bombarded the Suffren for seven or eight rounds, hitting it twice, the Suffren then sailed out of the B turret's firing range. The previous "feigned death" tactic had not been entirely without damage to the two armored turrets. The B turret, under the enemy's continuous "whipping the corpse," was damaged and stuck in its turning angle. Its hydraulic system was also damaged, and with the slightest turn or pitch, hydraulic oil would leak out, resulting in an extremely narrow firing range.

At first, it was able to perform well, but that was entirely due to good luck. It managed to survive until the "Suffren" entered its firing arc. Once the "Suffren" moved out, the B turret could no longer hit anything.

After confirming the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Loeb ordered Captain Kurt, who was in charge of the turret, to retreat with all the gunners, as they were no longer able to fight.

But Captain Kurt refused to carry out the order directly and argued: "Sir! The enemy doesn't know that we've lost the hydraulic system, and we can still fire! Even if we don't hit the target, scaring the enemy will draw their fire, preventing the half of the firepower meant for us from being redirected to the C turret! This will give our comrades in the C turret more opportunities to fire!"

After Loeb repeatedly tried to persuade him, seeing that he was very determined and that what he said made some sense, he did not insist any further.

In the following rounds, although the B turret did not achieve any results, because Lelouch had previously led them to "fake death" once, the enemy dared not take any chances this time. So even if they found that the B turret had fired several rounds without any results, they assumed that there was another reason or another conspiracy, and they were determined to blow it up to death.

There's no way around it; a being that has already "faked death" once and then "came back to life" always attracts far more criticism and attacks.

In the end, Captain Kurt and his few loaders and gunners held out until the very end, dismissing the observers and firing haphazardly until the very last moment, drawing the concentrated fire of hundreds of heavy artillery shells from the enemy.

They fought for another 30 minutes before the B turret was hit multiple times, blasting it into pieces with flying steel shavings. The last dozen or so artillerymen, who were only responsible for loading and firing, were also killed inside the turret.

However, their sacrifice bought more time for the C turret to fire, delaying its destruction by at least 15 minutes.

During this time, the C turret fired wildly, riddling the "Roregiberry" with holes and hitting the pre-Frankish dreadnought with more than 5 shots. It then turned its guns around to try to finish off the half-crippled "Suffren", and hit it with two more shots before being destroyed by the enemy's concentrated fire.

It has to be said that it is a huge loss for the fleet to fire at shore guns, especially those shore guns with a small field of fire but strong protection.

It must be admitted that Lieutenant Colonel Lelouch's "fake death" plan that morning allowed the turrets on the Marlosbans fortress to play a longer role. Instead of being casually damaged and killed by the "Queen-class" ships from beyond their range, they "at least dragged down two Frankish pre-dreadnoughts before they died, winning one sinking and one heavily damaged."

The key to all of this was Lelouch's feigned death. Those artillerymen who fought to the last moment and sacrificed their lives also deserved the highest honors.

……

Before its complete annihilation, the Malolaban fort successfully dragged two enemy soldiers down with it.

At Ronan Battery, the southernmost point of the battlefield, while the railway gun corps and the Queen Elizabeth-class destroyers were engaged in firefights, they also engaged in fierce firefights with the enemy's pre-dreadnought and battlecruiser groups.

罗南炮台上同样有2座双联装340毫米装甲炮塔，而且这里比马洛莱班炮台还多了4门单装240毫米炮和20几门140炮。

In the fierce firefight, the 340 armored turrets kept their eyes fixed on the David Beatty battlecruiser at medium range and opened fire. They had considered focusing their fire on the Queen Elizabeth-class battlecruiser, but the Queen Elizabeth-class was too far away and beyond their range, so they had to settle for focusing their fire on the David Beatty battlecruiser to share the damage.

The range of the battlecruiser was also over 15 kilometers, approaching 20 kilometers, making the hit rate low. But these were high-value targets after all, and the 340mm gun group was determined to concentrate fire on them at all costs.

Moreover, it is unwise to switch targets halfway through a engagement, as it will only lead to a waste of fire control resources, requiring re-range measurement, aiming, and calibration. So once the engagement begins, stick to it.

The two 340mm gun turrets of Ronan Battery selected the battlecruisers HMS Indomitable and HMS New Zealand as their opponents.

The HMS New Zealand had taken two hits when it engaged Hipper's fleet more than three months ago. Fortunately, the number of hits was small, and it was hastily repaired before going into battle this time. During the fierce battle, the HMS New Zealand was hit by a total of three 340mm shells, which caused some flooding and damaged the superstructure. Its speed and firepower were significantly reduced.

HMS Indomitable was older than HMS New Zealand and was the third ship of the Invincible-class, the first class of battlecruisers in Burkina Faso. Its performance was also poor and it had certain design flaws. After being hit by a few shots, the two main gun turrets in the middle of the ship were destroyed, and the bridge was also destroyed.

However, these two battlecruisers were quite far from Ronan Battery, resulting in a low hit rate for shore guns. After achieving these damage results, the 340 armored turrets of Ronan Battery were subsequently destroyed by concentrated fire from a group of former dreadnoughts of the Burkina Faso Navy.

The artillery personnel also suffered considerable casualties, but after the turret was damaged, the wounded who could be evacuated were evacuated as much as possible, and they did not abandon any of their comrades.

During the same period, the remaining four 240mm guns and numerous 140mm guns of the Ronan Battery exchanged fire with the enemy's pre-dreadnought fleet. Before being destroyed, they sank one of the oldest "Majestic"-class pre-dreadnoughts, the "Magnificent," and bombed another ship, the "Victory," causing it to take on water and run aground.

While the Burghers' battleships and the numerous coastal defense guns of the Ronan Fort were exchanging fire, Demania's dozen or so 280mm railway guns were also engaged in combat.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when the coastal artillery groups drew enemy fire, they frantically fired from the sidelines, and at one point destroyed several old and outdated ships, including the "Prince George" of the "Majestic" class, as well as the Frankish "Bouve" and "Masena".

By this point, although the heavy artillery on the coastal fortresses had been almost completely wiped out by the Bu army in a bloody battle with no regard for cost, the Bu army also paid an extremely heavy price, with the exchange being completely disproportionate.

The Burmese army lost seven pre-dreadnoughts, and also damaged two new battleships and two battlecruisers, half of which were seriously damaged and their combat effectiveness greatly reduced. Among the pre-dreadnoughts, two or three were damaged by small guns, and more or less lost some of their combat capability.

As a result, the remaining total strength of the Burkina Faso army was also drastically reduced on the Dunkirk battlefield.

如今还剩下7艘前无畏舰（“威严级”3艘、“爱德华七世级”4艘）、战巡7艘（两艘受伤）、新锐战列舰2艘（全部受伤）。

Although the shore artillery had been wiped out, and the railway artillery was about to face intense retaliation, the Demanians actually had another trump card—Count Spee's six pre-dreadnoughts, which had been lurking near Zeebrugge. The Britannians had known this beforehand, but they had underestimated Count Spee's fighting strength and hadn't taken it seriously.

Just before the Queen Elizabeth-class was hit, Lelouch had already realized that the time for the general offensive was approaching. So he used the telegraph cable that had been laid in advance to send a message to the rear, requesting that the army group commander, Duke Rupprecht, contact Hipper and Spee as soon as possible so that they could launch attacks one after another!
Count Spee did not hesitate and immediately led the former Demanian Dreadnought fleet from Zeebrugge to the battlefield.

Although it would take them several hours to get to the battlefield, this protracted artillery battle could easily last a whole day. So when Spee arrived, he was just in time to arrive while the shore artillerymen were still fighting desperately in the latter part of the battle, so that they wouldn't be picked off piecemeal. Instead, they could take advantage of the enemy's weakness and make a high-speed approach to fight back.

Just hours after Spee launched his attack, Vice Admiral Hipper, who was in charge of finishing off and pursuing the wounded enemy ships, also led his four battlecruisers and two armored cruisers into battle.

On the other hand, shortly after the fierce fighting began, Beatty sent a telegram to the rear, hoping that the War Department would coordinate and allow Field Marshal French to launch a ground counter-offensive against Dunkirk ahead of schedule.

While the fleet frantically eliminates enemy fortifications, and within two hours of the navy's massive artillery preparations, it is most cost-effective to have the infantry on shore launch a simultaneous and fierce attack, leaving the Demacians vulnerable from both sides and unable to defend themselves.

However, adjusting the battle plan and communicating with the army and navy took a lot of time, so when Marshal French launched the ground offensive ahead of schedule, it was already afternoon, with only one or two hours left before dark.

Tens of thousands of Burgundian infantry, and even colonial troops, crossed the Franco-Belgian border river and launched a fierce attack on the fortress controlled by the Demanians, and on the German-controlled area in Dunkirk that was only two or three kilometers wide and connected the fortress to the rear positions.

Even the 29th Division of the 4th Army of the Burkina Faso and the 13th Division of the Indian Army, which were originally trapped in the northwestern part of Dunkirk, mustered their remaining strength and launched a rapid offensive in coordination with friendly forces against the weak points of the Demanian Army, especially the railway line leading to the port, without any regard for the cost.

The combined efforts of land and sea, though chaotic, were at least coordinated. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been caught in the vortex, and no one can yet discern who will win or lose.

The entire Northwest and Dunkirk were in complete chaos.

-

PS: After this battle, I will post a picture listing the remaining fleet size and names of the Burkina Faso and French navies.

I didn't post it before because there was just too much junk. After this battle, the junk has been mostly cleared out, and the table will be much simpler.

(End of this chapter)