Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 242 A Pretended Assassination Attempt, But a Secret Plot Is Being Lay

A few hours later, in the city of Tsaritsyn, at the headquarters of the Southern Front Army of Rusa.

"Commander! A secret report has been sent from the Britannia intelligence liaison office in Armenia. We have had our intelligence officers confirm the information, and it should be true."

A colonel intelligence officer from the French Army respectfully presented several pages of translated telegrams and an analysis report to General Nikolai Yudenich, the commander of the army group.

General Yudenich took the document, read it carefully for a while, and his expression became increasingly serious.

"The Demanians' fighting prowess is terrifying, and the morale of the local population in the Caucasus is surprisingly low. They've only been on the ground for a week, yet they've already advanced from Batumi to Tbilisi! That's incredible speed, and they've already been besieging Tbilisi for two days..."

No wonder Marshal Rupprecht was so eager to get to the front lines. Haha, a marshal and army commander, just because he was a duke and crown prince, staying in the rear on the eve of a major battle to take a honeymoon and have fun. If ordinary soldiers noticed this, it would greatly affect their morale.

If even a marshal cannot share the hardships with his soldiers, and relies on an army group chief of staff to actually command operations on the front lines, where is the marshal's sense of honor?

General Yudenich calmly offered a few words of criticism.

The intelligence officer standing nearby quickly chimed in:
"Commander, I don't think Marshal Narprecht intentionally took such a long honeymoon in the rear. He must have underestimated the speed of the Demacian army's advance. I didn't expect that in less than half a month, the Demacians would have seized so much territory again..."

"You have the nerve to say that... I mean, you have the nerve to remind me! This is all our dereliction of duty and incompetence. We're the ones who got beaten up. Is it something to be proud of to be beaten up and run away so quickly?"

General Yudenich was furious and immediately gave the colonel intelligence officer a severe scolding.

These heartless and corrupt intelligence officers don't treat the frontline troops as their own. When they talk about the frontline troops' disastrous defeats, they act as if it's someone else's business, completely detached from any concern.

It was our own country's army and our own compatriots who were defeated. How dare you even mention it after such a crushing defeat?

The colonel finally realized he had said the wrong thing and quickly corrected himself, managing to dodge the question with great difficulty.

After his outburst, General Yudenich didn't want to dwell on the matter any longer and quickly focused on looking ahead. He stroked his long beard, pondered for a while, and then sighed regretfully:

"This Marshal Rupprecht, with his 6th Army, has annihilated at least 200 million of our comrades! If we could take him down, it would be a great blessing for the Empire. It would be even better if we could take down his chief of staff, General Lelouch! Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance."

This intelligence was obtained by the Britannians, who emphasized that we must not reveal the fact that they have deciphered the Demanians' code, and demanded that we act with extreme caution, and not take action unless we are certain of secrecy... This is a bit difficult.

Are we really going to let this assassination opportunity slip away? You're in intelligence; tell me yourselves, isn't there a way to assassinate someone without revealing your intelligence sources, and ideally, to make it look like a normal combat operation, not an assassination?

Lieutenant General Yudenich, realizing his own lack of professionalism, gave up after a moment's thought and ultimately passed the problem on to the colonel intelligence officer who came to report.

Yudenich's stance is clear: he wants to assassinate him, but he wants to do it discreetly, so it doesn't seem like an assassination. If the intelligence services can handle it, then they will act; if they can't, then they will have to refrain from acting.

The colonel, an intelligence officer, immediately looked troubled; this was truly a case of wanting the horse to run but not wanting it to eat grass.

Fortunately, he had done some research before he came, and had already racked his brains to come up with contingency plans.

Now, with even more stringent preconditions in place, he racked his brains for a long time to come up with a solution, and finally managed to come up with a vague plan.

He carefully considered his words and cautiously suggested to General Yudenich:

"Or... if we want to pursue secrecy, then our assassination squad cannot be afraid of losses. According to the latest report from our intelligence personnel who are lurking in Batumi Port, another batch of enemy ships unloaded cargo in Batumi Port today."

The enemy's first wave of troops landed on April 10th, and the second wave arrived on the evening of the 13th. This time, the fleet on the 16th didn't bring any troops, but rather a lot of supplies, including weapons, ammunition, and military rations. However, because it was mainly carrying cargo and not many people, loading and unloading was quite slow.

According to intelligence reports from Batumi, these ships will not leave port tonight and may continue unloading cargo tomorrow. Batumi port is piled high with cannons, shells, rations, and clothing needed by the enemy for their subsequent attack on Tbilisi.

Since the Demacian marshal is also arriving in Batumi by airship tomorrow morning, why don't we pretend to organize a bomber squadron to bomb Batumi and destroy the fleet and supply depots?

Then we can legitimately assign as many escort fighters as possible to this small bomber squadron. In reality, we can issue separate combat orders to the fighter units, telling them that they also have the mission of 'luring enemy fighters into the air for escort, and then our forces, taking advantage of concentrated strength, sweeping away the enemy's airborne forces and shooting down as many enemy aircraft and ships as possible'.

If Duke Rupprecht's airship doesn't appear, we can consider it a risky bombing of Batumi's port supply depot, which will alleviate the pressure on the defense of Tbilisi.

If Duke Rupprecht's airship appears, have the fighter escorts for the bombers swarm it and shoot it down! If anyone parachutes, straf them as much as possible! In any case, tell the pilots before takeoff that if a transport airship appears, shoot it down at all costs!

As soon as the French colonel finished explaining his plan, it immediately drew the delight and praise of General Yudenich.

"Brilliant! Excellent! Such a comprehensive plan is perfect! I will immediately mobilize all the air power of the front and deploy it as you instructed. Hmm, commit all the Ilya-Muromets heavy bombers in this theater to the battle, make it look convincing, and provide them with as many available fighters as possible to escort them!"

The heavy bomber mentioned by Admiral Yudenich might pique the curiosity of some readers who are not familiar with the strength of Rusa's aviation industry—how could the Rusa people, with their limited industrial capacity, produce heavy bombers? And even mass-produce them for combat?
But in fact, despite Lusa's relative weakness in other industrial sectors, it does have a unique skill in the field of crude and heavy machinery.

Historically, Russo was the first country in the world to build a heavy bomber. Its first prototype was built in May 1913 by Igor Ivanovich Sikos, a brilliant aeronautical designer born in Kyiv and studying at the St. Petersburg Engineering Academy.

In the Earth dimension, this Sikorsky later immigrated to the United States in 1919, during the Lusa Uprising, and later built the first helicopter for mankind for the United States during World War II.

The first prototype built by Sikorsky in May 1913 had a range of only 100 kilometers and a bomb load of 400 kilograms, but he quickly made improvements. By the end of 1913, the second prototype had increased the speed to 140 kilometers per hour and the bomb load to 800 kilograms.

By the time the war broke out in July 1914, the Russo Empire possessed a total of four slightly different Ilya-Muromets heavy bombers. After the outbreak of war, the Tsar ordered a full-scale expansion of production.

In its original history, during the entire World War I, the Russo Empire built a total of 73 such heavy bombers over four years, from 1914 to the end of 1917.

Of course, it was only April 1916, and the entire Rusa Empire had only produced 48 bombers since the start of the war, losing 9 in various battles, leaving 39 remaining.

The Southern, Western, and Northern Fronts were all considered important directions, and a considerable number of bombers were concentrated there. General Yudenich was given 12 Ilya-Muromets heavy bombers by the High Command because of the recent intense fighting. Theoretically, all of them could be deployed at once and carry 10 tons of bombs.

Normally, he wouldn't be so willing to go to such lengths, sending out a large air force to bomb the city. But now, a large batch of supplies has just landed at Batumi, intended to resupply the three Dmanian corps advancing into the Caucasus. Destroying these supplies is of great strategic significance and might even halt the Dmanian offensive on Tbilisi for a period of time.

Moreover, if this bombing operation can cover the assassination of Marshal Rupprecht, killing the enemy marshal who annihilated the most Rupsal troops, then it would be worth risking 12 of our most valuable heavy bombers!
Since all 12 bombers of the entire army group have been mobilized, there is no need to be stingy with the fighters.

General Yudenich searched through all his available resources, assembling nearly two hundred fighter-reconnaissance aircraft, and even some old-fashioned reconnaissance planes temporarily equipped with machine guns and lacking firing coordination devices, all of which were deployed to the battlefield in preparation for a desperate gamble.

Anyway, if we can't take down these two targets, the Southern Area Army probably won't be able to hold out either. Let's just gamble with our whole family's lives.

……

The following day, April 17, 1916, at 7:4 a.m., over Batumi Port.

More than 30 Demania fighter jets have already taken off ahead of schedule.

The elite fighter pilots and the newest fighter planes from the entire Eastern Front were secretly brought to the vicinity of Batumi Port in advance.

Lieutenant Colonel Richthofen, known as "Red Baron," was piloting his red-painted Fokker-D triplane fighter, along with 17 other fighters of the same type from his squadron, heading west into the depths of the Black Sea in an attempt to locate the airship carrying their VIPs that was scheduled to arrive in Batumi.

Meanwhile, Richthofen's direct superior, Colonel Oswald Polk, the commander-in-chief of the entire Eastern Front air force, was also flying his well-trained Albatross 3 monoplane fighter, along with 17 other aircraft of the same type from the same squadron, circling over Batumi to ensure air superiority near the airport.

The airfield beneath their feet had just been repaired in the past week, converted from a field airfield left behind by the Lusha army and urgently expanded. The fuel and other large quantities of air combat supplies stored at the airfield were transported by the supply fleet that arrived in port yesterday, then urgently stored and distributed to the air force.

Neither Richthofen nor Polk knew the truth about the overall mission.

The orders they received from Chief of Staff Lelouch were to escort Marshal Rupprecht's airship, which was coming to inspect the front lines, and to ensure the Marshal's safe landing.

On the ground, there are actually many more planes ready to take off at any time. The pilots are required to be on standby at all times and are treated to good food and drinks in advance. Two more backup runways have been temporarily laid at the field airfield to avoid the competition for runways when there is a rush to take off.

Everything is ready.

"Report, Captain! Airship spotted to the northwest!"

One of Richthofen's pilots spotted the target and immediately signaled that he had found the target to be picked up by shaking his wing and then turning around.

Richthofen quickly looked in the direction his friendly plane had turned and, sure enough, he could vaguely see an oval-shaped black dot. He estimated it was still about 40 kilometers away; his subordinate's eyesight was truly excellent.

Even with excellent eyesight, a pilot wouldn't be able to see a plane 40 kilometers away, but an airship is different.

It was a colossal object over 100 meters long, almost the size of a warship. With good eyesight and a clear, cloudless sky, it was normal to see an airship 40 kilometers away.

The escort fighters and airships flew head-on, and within just over ten minutes, the two sides successfully met up. Then Richthofen made a U-turn and flew back alongside the airship.

Compared to monoplanes, the biggest advantage of triplanes is their enormous lift, which gives them excellent vertical maneuverability.

More wings mean greater lift and better maneuverability in air combat. However, it also increases drag, affecting the aircraft's top speed.

In other words, aircraft with more wings have faster cornering and climbing speeds, but slower top speeds. Aircraft with fewer wings have slower cornering and climbing speeds, but faster top speeds.

When airplanes generally exceeded 300 kilometers per hour in later generations, triplanes ceased to exist. And when speeds exceeded 500 kilometers per hour, biplanes almost disappeared as well.

Richthofen's squadrons did not need high-speed cruise control; they only needed to escort the slow-moving airships. Therefore, the Fokker D triplane squadron was the most suitable for this mission.

Polk's squadron was responsible for high-speed patrols and perimeter surveillance, making the fast but poorly maneuverable Albatross 3 a perfect fit. Both aircraft were utilized to their fullest potential and deployed very cleverly.

Just as Richthofen was flying his triplane back, an aerial battle broke out in the distant eastern sky.

"What's going on?" Richthofen immediately tensed up. Unfortunately, airplanes of this era did not have intercoms, so there was no way to communicate in the air. Everyone could only guess and act on their own.

"It looks like an enemy air raid! Good heavens, the Russa have sent Ilya-Muromets heavy bombers to bomb the port warehouses!"

The wingman immediately flapped his wings, hoping to get instructions from Richthofen on whether to scramble up and attack the enemy bombers.

Richthofen, however, shouted firmly, regardless of whether his wingman could hear him: "No rash movements! Maintain formation! Our duty is to protect the Marshal's airship!"

At Batumi Airport, more fighter jets were also scrambling to take off, as if they had just received a warning.

Although the battle had actually begun more than 20 kilometers east of Batumi Port, led by Colonel Oswald Polk.

While Richthofen firmly held his position and protected the airships,
He was surprised to see a large group of Lusa fighters on the other side, abandoning the Lusa heavy bombers they were supposed to protect, and turning around to rush towards the airship.

"Quickly turn the airship around and create distance! We'll intercept these RUSHA fighters! We can't let them hit the Marshal's airship!"

Seeing that there was no hope of avoiding battle, Lieutenant Colonel Richthofen finally broke free of his inner restraints, stepped on the gas, and charged into the enemy ranks, wreaking havoc on all sides.

The Lusa fighter jets on the other side seemed not to see him at all, completely ignoring the attacks from the Demacian fighter jets and not engaging them in combat, instead charging straight towards the airship.

Richthofen shot down two enemy planes in just over ten seconds, but the enemy planes didn't even glance at him, strafing the airship from several kilometers away.

(End of this chapter)