Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 135 The Largest Bombing in This World War
Two hours later, at 5:10 a.m.

An unnamed cape 15 kilometers south of Odessa port.

Lieutenant Commander Vitaly of the Navy, as usual, was fast asleep in the gunner's duty room.

Last night he even downed most of a bottle of vodka with fatty pork and pickled cucumbers, and then collapsed before finishing it.

His soldiers were also incredibly lax. Although they were theoretically supposed to take turns on night watch to observe whether enemy ships appeared on the sea and whether they would threaten Odessa port, the vast majority of soldiers chose to sleep on duty.

The war has been going on for almost a year, and the Ottoman navy has not dared to approach the area around Odessa. Only the Lusa navy knows where the safe passages are in the minefields here, and outsiders who trespass are just asking for death.

Although the Odessa region and its surrounding areas felt the effects of the war in early summer, with the Demanian army capturing some territory in the neighboring Bessarabia region, the fighting soon subsided. Located about 200 kilometers from the front lines, the situation quickly returned to normal after a period of tension.

In this day and age, 200 kilometers is enough to make soldiers in the rear complacent and lazy.

……

"They're so lax. I should have known better than to send so many airships to Odessa. We should have sent some to the Nikolayev direction beforehand. With such a lack of preparedness, and not a single fighter or reconnaissance aircraft patrolling, these targets are practically waiting for us to take care of them."

Unfortunately, after the bombs landed, the nearby enemies became alert, and the opportunity to slowly aim and stealthily attack was no longer as good.

On a 150-meter-long airship, Lieutenant Colonel Albert Kesselring observed the situation on the ground through a bombardment scope and couldn't help but remark on it.

The Lusa people were far less wary of air raids than the Britannians. There were generally no air patrols in the rear areas, and no regular reconnaissance aircraft patrolling near the port—perhaps it was just dawn, and it wasn't time for Lusa pilots to take off yet.

Since that was the case, Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring didn't hold back. He calmly ordered all the airships to be divided into three groups. He first sent out three airships to fly directly above the target gun emplacement and slowly calibrate the aim, trying to make the first few small bombs for the aiming more accurate.

The other airships went off to find other small and medium caliber turrets as targets, and bombarded them with small bombs as well, since they were just sitting around doing nothing anyway.

The airships facing the three 305mm armored turrets would wait for the small bombs used for calibration to land precisely above the turrets before dropping their 2000-kilogram heavy bombs.

今天这次航行，大部分飞艇仍然是悬挂2枚2000公斤航弹，外加20枚50公斤级的校射炸弹。也有一小半飞艇改挂了1枚2000公斤航弹、和6枚500公斤航弹。

The former was to ensure sufficient firepower to destroy the ground fortress, while the latter was a side project to see if they could bomb some ships docked in the port area later.

Carrying only two 2000kg bombs would result in too few attacks, and if they missed, the mission would be wasted. Six 500kg bombs would have a higher probability of hitting the target. Moreover, warships of this era generally lacked strong horizontal protection, and a 500kg bomb was sufficient to penetrate all deck armor and dome armor, and explode inside the hull.

The three airships gradually slowed down from an altitude of 3000 meters to 1000 meters, and finally hovered almost above the gun emplacement. No abnormalities were detected on the ground.

The clouds in the sky also cooperated perfectly. Most of the rain clouds today were between 2000 and 3000 meters high. So the airship was completely invisible at the beginning of its flight. It was only when it lowered its altitude to drop bombs that it was spotted by the ground.

Once the altitude drops below 2000 meters, ground targets can be observed in a timely manner, and the field of view for aiming is not affected at all. That's why they say the hard work is all in the preparation stage; waiting a few extra days to find suitable weather for an airstrike is worthwhile.

Since the timing, location, and people were all in such good shape, Kesselring accepted the first wave of targets without hesitation.

"Enter hovering mode, drop bombs for calibration!"

The small bombs, each weighing 50 kilograms, were initially dropped slowly at a rate of 20 seconds per round. The time it took for the bombs to land exceeded 15 seconds, so the 20 seconds was only enough to allow for a margin of 3 to 4 seconds for observation and calibration, making it easier to fine-tune the position.

"Boom boom boom!" The initial three explosions of small bombs during the calibration firing startled the dozing enemy soldiers within a radius of at least one or two kilometers.

Within seconds, a group of Rusa soldiers crawled out of the ground like ants awakened from hibernation, looking up at the sky with bewilderment and fear.

……

"Major, wake up! Enemy attack! It's an air raid!"

Several officers from Lusa rushed into the commander's duty room and dragged Major Vitaly, who was still half-asleep and had just been woken up, out of bed.

"what happened?"

"The Demacian airships are flying right over our heads and dropping bombs! They're bombing our coastal defense turrets!"

Upon hearing this, Major Vitaly grabbed his military cap and rushed out, kicking and breaking the vodka bottle that had been left unfinished by his bedside the previous night.

It took him a full minute or two to reach a suitable position for air observation, during which the enemy had already calibrated and fine-tuned at least five rounds of small bombs.

The bombs were landing closer and closer to the armored turret.

However, just as Major Vitaly picked up his binoculars and looked up at the sky, before he could even get a clear look at the airship's condition, a violent tremor came from the ground in the distance.

Everyone was jolted to the ground before they heard the deafening explosion of the bomb—seismic waves travel much faster than sound waves.

"It's the legendary 2000-kilogram heavy aerial bomb! Quick! Call in fighter reconnaissance aircraft for air defense! All machine guns, fire freely into the air! Bring out the newly delivered anti-aircraft guns!"

In the chaos, the officers tried to organize the soldiers, who were running around like headless flies, to do their best to defend against the air, but it took several minutes before scattered heavy machine guns began to fire wildly into the air.

In those few minutes, deafening explosions rang out continuously. The initial three airships had already dropped six 2000-kilogram bombs, accurately destroying two twin-mounted 305mm coastal defense guns. Another airship also suffered some auxiliary damage from near misses.

Unfortunately, the ammunition depot was not near these turrets, and it was impossible to locate the specific coordinates of the underground ammunition depot through aerial reconnaissance, so the bombing never caused a secondary explosion.

……

"Two twin-mounted 305mm coastal defense batteries have been confirmed destroyed! The third battery was also damaged, but not directly hit. Several 240mm batteries have also been observed to have been destroyed. Please provide further instructions!"

In Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring's airship, after confirming the ground situation, the observer loudly reported to the commander, requesting instructions on whether to send other backup airships to fill in and conduct another low-altitude precision bombing.

Kesselring was quite satisfied with the results so far: two out of six 2000-kilogram bombs had hit their targets directly—such precision is extremely difficult to achieve in airship bombing. Without low-altitude flight and hovering bombing, such results would have been impossible.

Just as he hesitated, he suddenly heard the sound of artillery shells whistling nearby.

Explosions, "bang~ bang~", echoed through the air one after another.

Kesselring was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered: "Abandon precision bombing! Climb! There are anti-aircraft guns deployed in Odessa port! Drop the bombs only when you reach an altitude of over 2000 meters. Ensure safety first!"

Anti-aircraft guns existed before the outbreak of World War II, but at that time they were mainly possessed by the Demacians. They were primarily used to shoot down artillery observation balloons, so direct fire was essential.

At that time, anti-aircraft guns did not have height-delay fuses; the shells would only explode upon direct impact with the target. Alternatively, if the shell's flight time was excessively long, a time-delay fuse would be used as a fallback, causing the shell to self-destruct in mid-air after the time expired.

However, the delay of such fuses cannot be adjusted during combat; instead, they are set uniformly from the beginning to prevent the shells from exploding after their kinetic energy is exhausted and causing friendly fire.

At the outset of World War II in 1914, the Allied forces had virtually no anti-aircraft guns, but they gradually began to appear in 1915. By the latter half of the year, the deployment of anti-aircraft guns had expanded significantly.

The Lusa people also developed a 76.2mm anti-aircraft gun, but essentially it was just a modified 76.2mm field gun with a 60-degree elevation mount, allowing the gun to fire upwards. The shells were still the original fragmentation shells.

The anti-aircraft gun that the Franks just built this year is also of a similar caliber. It's just a Schneider 75mm rapid-fire gun with a large elevation angle, and nothing else has changed.

The Bretonnia, on the other hand, were more focused on rate of fire, not only developing a high-angle version of the 3-inch field gun, but also a "pom-pom" gun with 2-pound shells.

At that moment, Kesselring heard the sound of anti-aircraft guns and immediately reacted, ordering the airship squadron to increase its altitude.

The range of a 3-inch short-barreled anti-aircraft gun is sufficient to cover an airspace at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, enough to reach all aircraft of that era. However, aircraft are relatively fast and targets are small, and the firing rate of the 3-inch gun is relatively slow, which is why its anti-aircraft effectiveness is low.

Airships are slow and too large a target; once they enter the range of anti-aircraft guns, they are basically finished. Airships rely entirely on their higher service ceiling, reaching 3000 meters, making them unreachable even if anti-aircraft guns aim at them.

All the airships immediately began to climb, but during this process, they were still hit by a few anti-aircraft guns on the ground.

An airship that had just dropped bombs and destroyed a coastal defense turret was hit directly by a 76.2mm shell, and its hull was blown apart.

"Jump!" Kesselring was also sweating bullets when he saw his comrade being hit from afar. He urged his airship to continue climbing while silently praying that his comrade could parachute out.

A few seconds later, he finally saw a dozen black dots fly out of the pod of the crashing airship, and then white parachutes opened.

Fortunately, the airship had already dropped all its bombs and was planning to return, so its course was south, gradually moving away from Odessa port.

These artillery positions on the southern outskirts of Odessa were only about 20 kilometers from the mouth of the Dniester River. Given that the airships had already flown back several kilometers and still had some momentum, the soldiers who parachuted should be able to move away from their positions and perhaps drift to the lagoon area at the mouth of the Dniester River, where they could temporarily hide and await rescue by the subsequent landing forces.

Kesselring knew Lelouch's follow-up plans, and knew that as long as the airship force successfully bombed and destroyed the fortifications, the fleet flying the Ottoman flag would arrive in a few hours.

If the fleet can successfully suppress the Lusa people's Black Sea fleet, the third step of the landing operation will be officially carried out.

If the airship crew members who parachute down can hide for half a day after landing, they may be rescued by friendly forces who have landed.

But none of that matters right now; the key is how to continue completing the mission.

Destroying the coastal defense batteries is the most important task at present, and we must ensure that they are destroyed as thoroughly as possible.

Six airships have now dropped their bombs, and the remaining airships have all gained altitude. During the ascent, another airship was hit in the tail by anti-aircraft fire. Fortunately, the shell did not explode directly, but instead penetrated the control surfaces and flew several dozen meters further before exploding. This only severely damaged the airship, allowing it to barely fly back. However, it is estimated that it can only safely transport the personnel back to base; once back at base, the airship will certainly be scrapped.

"The anti-aircraft guns are too much of a threat. Maintain an altitude of 3000 meters, slowly adjust the firing and bombing, and take turns dropping bombs!" Kesselring adjusted the order urgently. His potential talent as an air force general was only gradually revealed and discovered in this battle.

At an altitude of nearly 3000 meters, the hit rate drops dramatically compared to when it was at 1000 meters. Previously, the hit rate against a ground target with a diameter of 10 meters was around 30%, but now it's down to single digits.

Finally, another 10 super-heavy bombs from 5 airships and more than 40 small bombs were used to completely destroy the last coastal defense battery, and also destroyed some small and medium-sized coastal defense facilities.

During the bombing, Lusa's combat reconnaissance planes also arrived at the battlefield one after another, totaling about 20 aircraft.

All the fighter jets strafed the high-altitude airships with their rear-mounted machine guns, but the altitude of less than 2000 meters, coupled with the low range of the heavy machine guns, was insufficient to cause any damage to the airships that had climbed to 3000 meters.

However, the airships, positioned high above, were able to occasionally hit individual aircraft by spraying water down with their machine guns. During the fierce battle, a total of three Lusa fighter-reconnaissance aircraft were shot down.

"All airships that have finished dropping bombs, return to base. Airships that have not dropped bombs, assemble, maintain an altitude of 3000 meters, and head to Odessa Port!" After confirming that all threatening coastal defense facilities had been dealt with, Kesselring decisively ordered the fleet to turn due north and head straight for the port area to expand the results with the remaining bombs.

As for the port of Nikolayev, there's no chance to go there today. Let's focus on bombing the port of Odessa.

After an emergency count, it was confirmed that 11 airships had run out of bombs. Two of them were destroyed or damaged, one was the command ship that Kesselring himself was on and needed to stay on the battlefield to command, and the remaining eight all chose to return directly to base.

Kesselring then led 20 airships, 19 of which were loaded with bombs, toward Odessa port, and flew over the port area 20 minutes later.

By this time, almost an hour had passed since the air raid began, and many ships in the port area had already started to urgently heat up their boilers.

However, the steam pressure in the steam boilers of large warships does not rise that quickly, and most ships remain immobilized.

"There are definitely still anti-aircraft guns in the port area, and enemy fighter reconnaissance planes are constantly monitoring us. Be careful to maintain altitude! Based on the actual combat calculations just now, I found that the maximum firing altitude of the Lusa people's anti-aircraft guns and fighter jets' upward-firing machine guns seems to be no more than 2600 meters."

Airships 14 through 20, maintain altitudes of 2600, 2700, and 2800 meters respectively, hovering to aim and drop bombs! If a threat of enemy counterattack is detected, immediately increase altitude!

Kesselring communicated with each other via the airship's radio, relaying precise orders. The strict discipline of the Demacian officers and crew in executing orders finally paid off; everyone trusted the experience data from their commander's recent combat observations and prepared to try again.

The era of airships is coming to an end, and everyone can feel that as the war progresses, the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower is becoming stronger and stronger.

This extreme pressure campaign may result in some losses, but as long as we can verify the combat data and gain relatively reliable attack experience for our comrades in the future, it will all be worth it!
Even if it reduces the bombing height by an extra three or four hundred meters, the hit rate might increase by two or three tenths compared to the original base value.

The first batch of six airships each searched for their targets and flew overhead, dropping small bombs for calibration purposes at an average altitude of 2700 meters.

At this altitude, it would take nearly half a minute for the bomb to reach the ground, but its final landing speed would be much faster, approaching 200 meters per second.

This is already higher than the terminal velocity of most howitzers, and its armor-piercing capability should not be underestimated, but it is still far lower than the terminal velocity of cannon shells.

The bomb's delayed fuse was also set to 0.3 seconds before the battle. As long as it could penetrate armor, 0.3 seconds was enough for the bomb to penetrate deep into the warship before detonating.

The rain of small bombs quickly covered a considerable area of ​​the Odessa port area.

……

"Get the ship moving! The enemy is dropping bombs over our heads! Close all the isolation valves and make sure all the steam is going to the engine room!"

At the port of Odessa, where Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring stood, many commanders of the Lusa warships were shouting orders at the top of their lungs.

Countless sailors frantically operated the machinery, intercepting all the steam pressure that should have been allocated to the steering mechanism, turret rotation mechanism, and water pumping mechanism during normal startup by closing the isolation valves.

Every last drop of steam is conserved for the main engine, so that it can reach the minimum power required to get the warship up and running as quickly as possible.

Even if, once the ship is in motion, it cannot be steered or rotated, and can only go straight and charge around, it is still worth it.

Unfortunately, only a minority of the ships were able to move, and they were often small and did not attract much firepower.

The most obvious target in the port area was the "St. John", the second ship of the "St. Yevstabfi-class" battleships.

Although these were only pre-dreadnought battleships, due to the financial deficit of Rosa at the time, construction of these two ships, which began in 1904 and 1905 respectively, was met with internal turmoil at Rosa in 05. It was only after Stolypin came out to reform that the crisis was stabilized and construction resumed. As a result, both ships were not fully completed until 1911.

By the time these two ships were completed, six years had passed since the dreadnoughts were created. The high command of the Lusa Navy also knew that there was no point in continuing to build these two ships according to the original plan, so during those six years, the design was completely revised.

Ultimately, when the "Saint-Yevstaffi-class" entered service, its main guns had been replaced with the same 305mm 40-caliber guns as the new dreadnoughts, and its fire control system had also been changed to that of the new dreadnoughts. However, in terms of propulsion and the number of main guns, it remained the same as the pre-dreadnoughts, because the underlying systems could not be upgraded.

In other words, this is a "pre-dreadnought with only 4 main guns, but whose firepower and accuracy are no different from those of a dreadnought." If two of them are combined, with a total of 8 main guns, it is basically equivalent to the combat power of a fully-fledged dreadnought, except that it is slower (as shown in the picture below).

Shortly after the start of the major war last year, the Russo, in an attempt to cut off the Ottoman army's sea supply lines to the Caucasus front, dispatched two "Saint-Yevstafi-class" battleships to the southeastern coast of the Black Sea to bombard the Ottoman port of Trabzon. On their return journey, they encountered the German battlecruiser "Goben," which had come to provide support.

The "Saint-Yevstaffi-class" ships ganged up on the "Goben" in a two-on-one attack, managing to hit the "Goben" with one shot. The "Goben" retaliated by hitting the "Saint-John" with three shots, and both ships were damaged and returned to base for repairs.

This shows that the "Saint-Yevstaffi-class" has a good ability to withstand attacks; at least it was able to return after being hit by three shots from the new 280mm gun.

The "St. John" has only recently been almost fully repaired after more than six months of work. In order not to occupy the dry dock of the Nikolayev Shipyard, after the problems with the foundation were fixed, it was towed to Odessa instead of continuing repairs in the dry dock. Who knew that it would be bombed.

All the other ships are easy to navigate, but this one, still under repair, is absolutely impossible to escape. Even if the Demacians raise their altitude to 2700 meters to drop their bombs, as long as they carefully calibrate, they will eventually hit their target.

凯塞林中校分出了6艘飞艇、集中12枚2000公斤航弹，专门对付这条“最强前无畏”，最终仍然有1枚2000公斤航弹直接命中、另有2枚分别在20米和50米的距离上近失。

The near misses each tore through a significant portion of the underwater armor, allowing seawater to rush in. The bomb that hit directly penetrated three decks and exploded in the lower engine room, completely destroying the steam turbines and part of the boilers.

Fortunately, the ship was still in its final repair phase, so it wasn't loaded with ammunition or had its boilers running, meaning there was nothing that could cause a secondary explosion. But regardless, the ship was completely destroyed and would never need repairs.

The biggest difference between this and a direct sinking is that not many sailors died, but several hundred workers who were doing repairs at the time were killed or wounded. Besides, since the ship was wrecked while in a repair berth, at least the scrap metal could be recovered.

After destroying the "St. John", there were no longer any targets large enough in Odessa harbor to warrant a group attack by airships.

The remaining 13 airships, especially the 10 airships each carrying 6 500-kilogram bombs, began indiscriminately bombing various small targets.

Throughout the process, ground-based anti-aircraft guns and reconnaissance fighter jets also continuously fired back.

One of the airships, descending to an altitude of around 2600 meters to drop its bombs, was nearly severely damaged by the aftershocks of the anti-aircraft shells' maximum altitude blast. Fortunately, it only suffered minor damage to a few gasbags from shrapnel. The airship quickly and haphazardly dropped all its bombs and immediately began to climb.

Seeing this, the other airships also pulled back at least 2800 meters to ensure absolute safety.

Throughout the entire process, Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring remained at an altitude of 4000 meters, overseeing the overall situation and directing operations. In the heat of battle, he also discovered a weakness in the Lusa people's defenses:
"The Lusa people's anti-aircraft guns seem to be distributed across four positions in the port area, with only 16 guns in total? Such a large port as Odessa is defended by only 16 guns, that's too weak..."

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him: he could command eight of the airships, which were originally carrying a large number of small bombs weighing 50 kilograms each for fire control, to leave those small bombs for the anti-aircraft artillery positions.

Each boat immediately realized the brilliance of the idea, and they all climbed to more than 3000 meters, then came directly above the anti-aircraft gun position. After first calibrating the fire and confirming that it was roughly accurate, they began to scatter more than a dozen shells at once.

Each anti-aircraft artillery company was allocated at least 30 small bombs. The four companies had a total of 16 anti-aircraft guns. If not all of them were destroyed, at least most of them were damaged or destroyed. Moreover, almost all the anti-aircraft artillerymen on the positions were killed or wounded. Those who survived were all deserters who had fled in panic beforehand.

"The enemy anti-aircraft threat has been eliminated! Airships with remaining ammunition, attempt to descend to 2400 meters to drop bombs and test the interception limits of enemy combat reconnaissance aircraft! Also, try to achieve higher bombing accuracy!" Kesselring gave the order with pride and decisiveness, and the remaining airships with bombs strictly followed his orders.

One bomb after another landed in the port area and on the berths. Because the altitude had decreased, the accuracy had also improved somewhat.

One "Kagore-class" 10,000-ton armored cruiser was ultimately hit by a concentrated barrage of the remaining 2000 kilograms of aerial bombs, and was directly struck by one, instantly breaking it in two.

The two Prontet-class minelayers were hit by a hail of 500 kg bombs.

Because these mine-laying cruisers were all thin-skinned and heavily armored, each was in a state of combat readiness, and each mine compartment was filled with as many as 400 mines!

As a result, after being hit by an aerial bomb, the explosive force of the fragments inevitably caused them to travel in all directions, ultimately triggering the detonation of a mine.

Four hundred mines detonated inside the ship's hold, their power not only turning the Prontet-class destroyer into scrap metal, but also sinking two adjacent Novik-class destroyers and lightly damaging several Petonis-class destroyers.

The remaining 50-kilogram small bombs sank one Novik-class destroyer and finished off four Petonis-class destroyers.

When Kesselring's airship squadron had dropped all its bombs, the final results were as follows:
Three twin-mounted 305mm coastal defense gun armored turrets were destroyed, along with several 240-150mm coastal defense secondary guns.

Destroy one battleship that was at the "pre-dreadnought peak" level (the "St. John" of the "St. Yevstabhi" class).

It sank a 1-ton armored cruiser ("Kagur-class").

Two mine-laying protected cruisers (Pronnette-class) were sunk.

It sank 7 destroyers (3 Novik-class and 4 Petonis-class).
Moreover, the Prontet-class mine-laying cruisers were the mainstay of the Black Sea Fleet in mine-laying missions. They were specially designed specialized cruisers, and only two were ever built.

Now that everything has been sunk, it will be extremely difficult for the Lussa to redeploy and reinforce their defenses during the campaign. This has cleared many obstacles for General Spee's subsequent naval operations.

(End of this chapter)