Chapter 52: To Fly with Both Wings, You Need Railway Guns

Early in the morning on December 24, having just completed his two-day rest period, Lelouch was summoned by Division Commander Karl to attend a staff meeting at the division headquarters.

Presumably, there were some details regarding the upcoming siege of Stempleford and the latest battle updates that needed to be synchronized.

Major Boke, the actual battalion commander, had also received the meeting notice, but the higher-ups of the Valian royal family clearly trusted him far less than they trusted Lelouch, the deputy battalion commander.

Lelouch made some brief preparations, specifically bringing along a few trophies captured a few days earlier during the Battle of Bailleul—not particularly valuable items, but rather the relics of a slain enemy general.

These included the blood-stained shoulder boards cut from the uniform of Major General Schubert Gough, commander of the British 2nd Cavalry Division, as well as his cavalry saber.

During the battle that day, Major General Gough had been the only British cavalry division commander killed directly by machine-gun fire. Later, when Lelouch’s troops were clearing the battlefield, they checked the insignia on his uniform and realized they had taken down a big fish.

"Division Commander, these are the relics of the British cavalry division commander killed the day before yesterday, captured from his corpse." Lelouch politely presented the trophies.

"War is truly unpredictable. With this achievement of yours, once this battle is over, you will definitely be promoted to major at the very least. That is an absolute certainty. How about this: once we take Stempleford and sever the enemy's main artery, I will write up the report for you and have the commanding general approve it to finalize your promotion." Major General Karl Ludewig felt a slight, involuntary tremor in his body upon seeing that cavalry saber.

The other man had also been a major general and a division commander, yet in the middle of a commander's charge, he had been riddled by the crossfire of an MG15 light machine gun emplacement until he was thoroughly and irrevocably dead.

"Thank you for your cultivation, Division Commander." Lelouch expressed his gratitude while giving a solemn salute.

Major General Karl waved his hand. "Don't be in such a hurry to celebrate; let's look at how to fight the battle right in front of us. Only by taking Stempleford can we consider the phased objective complete."

In truth, everyone knew very well that the previous Battle of Bailleul had no significant strategic value. The reason it ended with such glorious battle achievements was primarily the massive number of enemy casualties.

Two British cavalry divisions had come to the rescue, only to blindly crash right into the muzzle of the German guns. They had handed the German army a massive military victory for free, while simultaneously throwing the entire British command into a panic and dragging down the friendly forces defending the city.

The Stempleford right before them, however, was the true strategic stronghold. Capturing this place would mean more than half of the entire salient campaign was complete, as it would completely sever the railway supply line of the Ypres defenders.

Having rested for two days, Lelouch was not entirely familiar with the recent situation and did not want to rashly offer advice, so he took the opportunity to inquire:

"Division Commander, I heard that the British are only using two Canadian divisions and two South Asian colonial divisions to defend Stempleford. Although these troops are numerous, they are not elite. Why haven't their own most elite 1st and 2nd Corps been able to spare forces?"

Karl then took the opportunity to brief them on the information regarding the friendly forces: "Because over the past two days, the diversionary offensive on the front of the Ypres salient has also been fought quite vigorously.

"Three divisions of the 4th Army are launching a feint attack directly against Ypres. The commander of the 4th Army, Grand Duke of Württemberg, has concentrated most of the heavy artillery from the Württemberg and Baden forces to engage in a continuous artillery duel with the enemy. This has forced the enemy's main artillery force not to slacken and prevented them from being redeployed.

"In addition, the main flanking offensive force of the 4th Army has also successfully retaken Ostend and is currently attacking Dixmude. Once these two steps are completed, our forces on the northern coastal line will be able to re-establish a presence at Nieuwpoort—the very small town where you fought side by side with Colonel List, blocked and annihilated the Belgian King's army, and ultimately abandoned."

Hearing this, Lelouch could not help feeling a sense of nostalgia. Back then, to minimize losses and conduct an elastic defense, they had abandoned Nieuwpoort and Ostend after they were thoroughly battered into mere rubble.

Yet a little over a month later, to encircle a larger target, they had to fight their way back and retake these places.

Although the decision to retreat back then had not been wrong, and an elastic defense was supposed to be fought that way, there was inevitably a lingering sense of regret in his heart.

Major General Karl seemed to perceive the emotional shift in Lelouch, stood up, walked over to him, and patted his shoulder. "Don't regret it. Although we retreated slightly back then and now have to fight our way back, the situation is different.

"Back then, we had no choice but to retreat because the Empire had not made sufficient preparations, but this time, the 4th Army has made full preparations."

Lelouch hadn't had the time to care about the friendly forces before, and hearing the division commander's explanation piqued his curiosity: "Oh? How is the situation different from before?"

Major General Karl explained: "The reason we had to retreat back then was because the enemy's battleline fleet held an absolute advantage, posing far too great a threat to the garrisons of the coastal towns; we simply couldn't hold our ground along the coast.

"However, ever since the 4th Army took over Blankenberge, Zeebrugge, and other places a month and a half ago, they have stepped up construction, building new coastal defense batteries along the front lines as much as possible, or repairing and expanding the original batteries while refitting them with heavier artillery of longer range.

"Now, the Empire's 280mm coastal defense guns have been hauled to the front lines very close to Ostend and secretly installed. Those guns were all dismantled from the port of Antwerp; currently, not a single large-caliber coastal defense gun remains in Antwerp—they have all been moved forward and deployed. Therefore, when the northern line launched its general offensive a few days ago, recapturing Ostend proved to be quite smooth.

"The British also dispatched a large number of pre-dreadnoughts from the Channel Fleet in an attempt to bombard our siege forces, but they were all countered by our coastal defense batteries. It seemed they managed to injure one enemy pre-dreadnought and sink two auxiliary small craft, after which the enemy quieted down and dared not come again.

"After Ostend was retaken, the enemy troops in Dixmude lacked flank cover, and since Dixmude itself is not on the coast and lies more than ten kilometers away from the North Sea coastline, it has also been besieged by our forces and will likely see progress within a few days.

"Right now, the main force of the British 2nd Corps is defending the coastal direction. Aside from facing the front of Ypres, the main force of the British 1st Corps also has to detach troops to reinforce Dixmude, which is why they cannot come to the Stempleford-Poperinge line."

Hearing this, Lelouch finally understood completely why the overall situation of the campaign had turned out the way it had.

So the friendly forces on the northern front were also pulling their weight, drawing away so many enemy troops.

Pondering over the map for a moment, he asked for clarification: "In that case, we should ultimately be able to rendezvous with the 4th Army somewhere between Dunkirk and Cassel, assuming we calculate based on the pre-war advance of 60 to 70 kilometers by both sides?"

To this question, Major General Karl slowly shook his head with a helpless expression. "That should be impossible. Since the outbreak of the war, we have learned more details from the 4th Army. They are indeed fighting quite brilliantly right now, but they alone know their own hardships.

"They have now discovered a very awkward problem: things are going smoothly right now because previous preparations, such as building coastal defense batteries, were very thorough. But once the fighting starts, there is no time to build coastal defense batteries all the way while advancing.

"The Empire has already selected the coastal defense guns with the longest range to install, but compared to the range advantage of battleship main guns, it is at most ten kilometers. In other words, advancing a few kilometers west after capturing Ostend will take us out of the range and cover of our coastal defense guns. By then, the enemy's naval gunfire will be too fierce, and we still won't be able to hold our ground."

Lelouch was well-versed in military matters; the moment the division commander pointed out this reason, he grasped it instantly and could not help expressing his regret: "Alas, viewed this way, if we want to ultimately encircle and annihilate the British army, we must count on our 6th Army fighting all the way to Dunkirk... The 4th Army capturing the outermost frontline towns and pinning down the enemy are all great contributions, but expecting them to complete this coastal route is simply too difficult.

"I suppose we will eventually have to take a risk and find a way for our own navy to make a desperate gamble... If only we had more flexible coastal defense firepower."

At that moment, the first thing that crossed Lelouch's mind was the battlecruiser fleet that Admiral Hipper had used—the one that had "feigned heavy damage" and retreated back into the port of Antwerp after exchanging fire with Beatty during the Battle of Ostend.

This was definitely a concealed, surprise force, though he hadn't yet figured out how to utilize it.

If only the current German army could have railway artillery, just like the earth twenty years later. Large-caliber railway artillery, specifically something like the 280mm K5 class, could be rapidly deployed to the front lines, hidden inside coastal railway caves and mountain tunnels, and roll out to counterattack whenever enemy fleets bombarded the shore... How wonderful would that be!

Wouldn't that be the equivalent of replicating an "Anzio Express"?

That would eliminate the enormous waste of the current approach, where "every dozen kilometers we push forward along the coastline requires rebuilding coastal defense batteries to withstand naval shelling from enemy fleets."

Unfortunately, a replica was out of the question; the current German army possessed no railway artillery whatsoever.

Perhaps after this campaign concluded, he could combine the campaign's experience and merits to lobby high-ranking armament authorities, place an order with Krupp, and develop a professional railway artillery piece capable of subduing warships, making it easier to gain the initiative in the Channel region in the future.

Lelouch vaguely remembered that late in the war on Earth, the German army had even built the "Paris Gun," which had a 130-kilometer range and was also a type of railway artillery. But if they didn't require such an extreme range now—just a maximum range of 50 kilometers would suffice—developing it ahead of time by 1915 shouldn't be too difficult.

The K5 railway artillery of World War II had a 71-caliber barrel and a range of nearly 80 kilometers. If the caliber-to-length ratio were shortened by a dozen times and the range requirement reduced by 30 kilometers, manufacturing it twenty years ahead of schedule would be completely foolproof...

Thinking of this, Lelouch suddenly felt the feasibility of this matter growing higher and higher.

If the gun barrel itself didn't need to be newly developed, and they cobbled together a makeshift version to use first, might it be possible to get it done within a month?

Moreover, with the practical experience and lessons of the 4th Army—namely that "with coastal defense gun cover you can push forward smoothly, but without coastal defense gun cover you cannot advance"—providing such requirements to Krupp would appear entirely reasonable.

Feeling that it was better to act sooner rather than later, Lelouch immediately offered his suggestion: "I have an idea. Could we take the existing single-tube spare barrels of battleships, slightly modify their loading mechanisms, combine them with existing armored trains, and place an emergency order with Krupp? Because there is already a railway running from Stempleford to Dunkirk..."