Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 243 Emperor William: The people in the Navy's cryptography department are all useless!
The Lusa fighter jets fearlessly swooped down on the airship.

Completely disregarding the Demania fighters intercepting them along the way, and ignoring the Red Baron's iconic bright red Fokker D triplane.

To be honest, this eagerness was a bit of an overacting performance. But who told these Lusa pilots that the airship might be carrying Demacia's top war marshal before takeoff?

However, airships are high-value targets; the cost of one airship can be equivalent to thirty or forty light fighter jets. It's quite normal for them to be prioritized and attacked by desperate enemies on the battlefield. If the Lusa aircraft were to engage in dogfights with the Demacian fighters for their own survivability, they might ultimately lose the opportunity to attack the airships altogether.

In the Earth dimension, during World War II, when Ukrainian fighter planes intercepted Isoroku Yamamoto, they immediately dove towards Yamamoto's aircraft, disregarding the consequences and prioritizing a single, decisive strike, thus securing their victory. Long after Yamamoto's death, the Japanese never suspected the code had been broken, treating it as a mere accident.

In war, it may be acceptable to ask intelligence personnel in the rear to remain calm and rational, but frontline pilots who are fighting for their lives cannot remain calm.

……

"Rat-a-tat-tat~ Rat-a-tat-tat~" The Demacian fighter squadron's machine guns fired wildly, giving them only one chance to circle and dogfight each time before having to chase after the passing Lusa fighters and keep firing.

But this one opportunity to circle and strafed reduced the density of the Lusa people's aircraft by several times.

Because the Lusa people didn't give them any more chances to circle and dogfight, and kept moving forward without looking back.

The Lusa fighters that participated in the Battle of Batumi consisted of three different models.

This includes the Newport 17 and Spad S7, which were produced using French production lines, as well as the domestically developed S-16 by Lusa. The S-16 was also designed by Sikorsky, the same Sikorsky that designed the Ilya Muromets heavy bomber mentioned earlier.

Of these three aircraft, the Spad S7 and Sikorsky S-16 are traditional low-speed, high-maneuverability biplanes, suitable for circling and dogfighting.

The French-made Newport 17 is a unique "one-and-a-half-wing" aircraft, meaning that although it has two wings, the lower wing is about half the length of the upper wing.

This can minimize the aircraft's drag and increase its speed, but the trade-off is that, like a monoplane, its hovering and climbing capabilities are weaker.

Therefore, in today's battle, the DPRK commander deployed all of the Newport 17 high-speed fighter squadrons specifically to carry out the airship interception mission.

Just like how the aircraft used to intercept strategic bombers in later generations were often not air superiority fighters, but specialized high-speed interceptors, such as the F-14 Tomcat or MiG-25.

The Lusa pilots, who had broken through the blockade of German triplanes, quickly approached the airship by taking advantage of the Newport 17's super-high speed of nearly 200 kilometers per hour, and then spat out white phosphorus bullets.

The opposing airship was not to be outdone, and from a greater distance, it used the six heavy machine guns on both sides to fire back furiously, causing several approaching Newport 17s to break their wings in mid-air or be destroyed on the spot.

However, soon, some of the gasbags on the airship began to catch fire, and the hydrogen ignited by the white phosphorus bomb spread rapidly.

The most vicious thing was that two Newport 17 fighters, which had been strafed and were already damaged and smoking by the airship's defensive fire, knew that they could not return and would definitely die. This aroused the ferocity of the pilots, and they crashed straight into the airship.

Within just five or six seconds, it was struck by two wrecked fighter jets. The aluminum alloy keel frame of the airship broke directly, and even more hydrogen leaked out. It mixed thoroughly with the oxygen in the air and caused a large-scale explosion.

The entire airship was estimated to have burned out in less than half a minute. The surviving crew members did not hesitate and immediately parachuted to safety within seconds of the airship being hit.

Five or six parachutes quickly fell from the sky, a number significantly less than the airship's rated crew.

It is estimated that some crew members were injured or killed or rendered unconscious during the fighting and collision, making it impossible for them to perform the parachute maneuver.

"Don't stop! Strafe the parachuting enemies too!" The remaining twenty-odd Lusa fighter pilots also shouted, completely disregarding the fact that no one could hear their shouts; they were just trying to encourage themselves.

A barrage of bullets ripped through the sky, indiscriminately firing at the descending parachute.

The only problem was that the human targets floating in the air were too small to hit, and I don't know how many shots I got hit in the chaos. However, three of the parachutes were riddled with bullet holes, and some were even torn apart. The survivors on them plummeted rapidly and soon fell into the sea.

"Avenge the Marshal! Don't let a single one of those RUSHA fighters escape!"

Red Baron Lieutenant Colonel Richthofen was in a frenzy. His Fokker D triplane fighter was more than 30 kilometers per hour slower than the enemy planes. He had only shot down 3 enemy planes before the enemy group escaped. He only managed to catch up with them after the enemy finished their attack.

But now, without the burden of airships, the outcome of air combat between high-speed, low-maneuverability interceptors and low-speed, high-maneuverability air superiority fighters is already quite clear.

Moreover, many of the Lusa aircraft were distracted by the parachuting enemies and did not focus their energy on air combat counterattacks.

"Da da da~ da da da~" Richthofen's trigger was almost inside the gun. He charged in and out of the enemy formation seven times. In today's battle, he had indeed shot down a total of seven Newport 17 fighters.

His comrades-in-arms also sought revenge, fighting with extreme speed.

Finally, after a 15-minute aerial chase, the group of 32 Newport 17 fighters that were carrying out the assassination mission were all shot down on the Black Sea by 18 aircraft under Richthofen's command and another 18 fighters that had just taken off. None of them escaped back.

On the Demacian side, five fighter jets and a large airship over 100 meters long were also lost. Considering only the cost-to-exchange ratio of this item, the Lussa people still made a slight profit.

毕竟光是一艘飞艇的造价，就抵得上全部32架“纽波特17”还略有富余了，德玛尼亚人折损的3架“福克D”和2架“信天翁3”则算是添头。

On the sea, several destroyers are frantically heading towards the direction where the airship crashed, attempting to rescue the people who fell into the water.

The Demacian naval warships reacted swiftly upon seeing the enemy aircraft hurtling towards their airships, speeding towards them at full speed. They had clearly anticipated that the airships might not withstand the attack and that they would need to rescue the passengers and pilots who had fallen into the water.

However, the air combat and bombing missions over Batumi were far from over.

After annihilating the enemy's Newport 17 formation, the two Richthofenna squadrons quickly rushed toward the remaining Spad S7 and S-16 fighters and Ilya Muromets heavy bombers, attempting to use their last remaining bullets to help their allies achieve more results.

On the ground, the Demanians' 75mm anti-aircraft guns were also specifically targeting the Ilya-Muromets heavy bomber, which had a wingspan of over 30 meters.

Anti-aircraft guns take 5 to 6 seconds to fire a single shot. This firepower density is far too weak to deal with high-speed, small fighter jets, but it is just right for large targets such as bombers.

The wingspan of the Ilya-Muromets bomber was more than a quarter the length of the airship, making it an absolute behemoth for its time.

During the fierce battle, five heavy bombers were hit directly by ground anti-aircraft guns and blown to pieces, but all of them managed to drop their bombs before being destroyed.

A total of 20 260-kilogram open-air bombs and hundreds of smaller bombs weighing around 50 kilograms and 100 kilograms were dropped on the unloading warehouses and berths of Batumi Port. A few smaller bombs also landed on the anti-aircraft artillery positions.

Several large supply warehouses and open-air warehouses covered with tarpaulins were bombed and collapsed, igniting raging fires, resulting in significant damage. Two Ottoman merchant ships that were anchored were also hit by bombs and sank immediately after taking on water.

The fighter jets of both sides continued to hound each other in the air. After dropping their bombs, the Lusa people gradually calmed down and finally realized that something was wrong. They were also filled with deep fear.

The Demacians have too many fighter jets! And they keep taking off from nearby airports, and the number keeps increasing.

They also have at least a hundred aircraft concentrated in the airspace near Batumi! Were these all moved here for the latest combat mission in the Caucasus theater? Or to protect the Marshal?
"Mission accomplished! Retreat!"

The commander of the Lusa fighter group shouted a retreat signal, regardless of how many people saw his signal or heard his voice.

Anyway, the airship had already been shot down; even from 20 or 30 kilometers away, the burst of hydrogen gas, hundreds of meters in diameter, was clearly visible in mid-air. Although the Newport 17 interceptor group was wiped out, and no one returned alive to report the assassination results, the other fighters considered the kill a success as long as they saw the huge fireball from the airship's explosion.

The Lusa planes began to retreat, but the Demania aircraft continued to pursue relentlessly. Richthofen's Fokker Ds were too slow to catch up with the fleeing enemy, and only Colonel Polk's Albatross IIIs were able to catch up and pick off a bunch more enemies. In the end, they shot down two heavy bombers and more than a dozen fighters in the pursuit.

……

The air battle ended around 8 a.m., but the results and losses were not fully tallied until near noon.

The damage to the dockyard, warehouses, and storage areas was actually minimal. Lelouch had already ordered people to work overtime last night to expedite the removal of all the goods unloaded yesterday. It's just a bunch of flammable, worthless items left standing there, a mere empty shell for show.

Of course, there were some things that couldn't be moved in time, so they were placed on the surface to make it look real; otherwise, it would have been too fake to bomb all the haystacks and firewood piles.

The sinking of those two Ottoman cargo ships was a real loss, and there was indeed some cargo left on board.

另外就是一整个早上的空战，总计损失1艘飞艇，8架“福克D”型战斗机和11架“信天翁3”型战斗机，总计1飞艇19战斗机。还有8门75毫米防空炮被炸毁、炸伤。

击落敌人全部12架“伊利亚-穆罗梅茨”重型轰炸机、32架“纽波特17”高速截击机、25架“斯帕德S7”法系战斗机、47架S-16国产战斗机。

The Lusa Air Force lost a total of 12 heavy bombers and 104 fighters, for a total of 116 aircraft.

生还逃回战斗机51架（含“斯帕德S7”型22架、S-16国产货29架）
The ratio of aircraft losses between the two sides has exceeded 1 to 6. This is partly due to the technical advantage of Demacian pilots, but also because Demacian air forces came prepared and had taken off a considerable number of aircraft in advance to protect their airspace.

Furthermore, the Lusa people's eagerness to assassinate and bomb, while relatively neglecting air combat, also led to heavy losses.

While the performance gap between the two fighter jets still exists, it is no longer the main factor.

1915 was the year with the greatest performance gap between enemy and friendly fighter planes. At that time, the Demanians had just developed the "Immelmann maneuver" and were the first to develop the coaxial machine gun with a firing coordinator, which once made the Buffalo pilots lose their bearings.

However, as the wheels of history rolled into 1916, the Demanian Air Force did not have any new epoch-making technological innovations, and the enemy gradually began to imitate them, so there was no longer a significant generational gap in fighter planes.

After this battle, the heavy bomber force of the Southern Area Army of Russo was completely wiped out, and it would never be able to launch strategic bombing again. Given Russo's current national strength, it is estimated that it will not be able to build such large aircraft. It is truly a case of every one lost is one less.

The complete annihilation of the bomber force will certainly affect the morale of the entire army. The only positive news they can look forward to to offset this impact is the death of Marshal Rupprecht.

……

At noon that day, in the port of Batumi, in the makeshift command post set up in the basement of a church, Chief of Staff Lelouch, after confirming the results and losses, immediately made a decision:

"Immediately send a plane back to Odessa to request that the Duke feign serious injury and be hospitalized in Batumi Port Hospital, and not show his face for the time being."

Meanwhile, they publicly claimed to have repelled the Lusa Air Force's bombing raids on civilian ports and civilian storage buildings, shooting down a large number of enemy aircraft. "Don't mention the Duke's affairs in public."

Lelouch was an expert in the art of debunking rumors. He knew that he could not admit that the Duke was seriously injured or dead at this time, because the enemy would not believe it. He had to keep things under wraps and entice the enemy to speculate and make connections.

Lelouch's orders were quickly disseminated, and by noon that day, news that "the enemy's despicable bombing had been successfully defended and all of our important targets had been spared" was urgently communicated to all departments and reported to the rear. It was believed that the newspapers would soon report on this "great victory in repelling the enemy's air force."

Lelouch was sick and tired of these press releases that claimed the bombs hadn't hit anything when he was actually bombed, especially in the years before his time travel. Just borrow a few phrases and you could easily fool those ancient people in 1916 who hadn't yet experienced the horrors of media warfare.

Duke Rupprecht received a report from Lelouch, sent across the Black Sea by plane, on the front lines before nightfall on April 17th, along with Lelouch's handwritten letter of advice.

Lately, the Duke has developed a habit of first reviewing paper documents transmitted by plane, while radio communication is mostly for show to the enemy.

According to the original plan, the Duke should wait for the battlecruiser "Goburn" to arrive in Hong Kong on April 18th to go to the front line, and it is expected to arrive on the 20th.

Looking at it now, well, that saves us the trouble; we don't even need to go to Batumi.

Pretend to be injured and stay out of sight, then go back to Berlin and complain to the Emperor.

The lines for complaining are all ready-made: "The navy's codes are too lax and have definitely been cracked by the enemy. So my notification to the navy to pick me up was leaked, and I was assassinated by the enemy. Now I'm pretending to be seriously injured and lying in wait."

"Alright, I'll listen to that kid. If we capture Tbilisi, and even Batumi in the future, I won't personally attend the entry ceremony. Send the special train back to Berlin immediately; I want to personally meet with His Majesty to plead my case!"

That very night, the Duke's train turned back from Odessa, meaning he had made a wasted trip over the past few days, traveling from Munich to Odessa and back, only to return to Berlin in the end.

On the morning of April 19, 48 hours after the “attack,” Duke Rupprecht quietly appeared at Potsdam train station on the outskirts of Berlin. He then got off the train, boarded a BMW armored car, and went straight to Potsdam Palace to request an audience.

Emperor William was greatly surprised to hear that the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Balia had suddenly returned from the front lines and requested an audience.

Emperor Wilhelm even subconsciously asked his attendant, "Did he come back by himself? He didn't bring any troops with him, did he?"

If the commander of the most capable army group in the empire were to lead his troops into the capital, even the emperor would tremble.

The aide-de-camp was somewhat puzzled, but still answered truthfully, saying that the soldiers of the 6th Army were all on the front lines in Tsaritsyn and the Caucasus.

The emperor was then relieved and allowed Duke Rupprecht to have an audience.

Upon meeting, the emperor, unusually, sized them up a few times before initiating a conversation:

"I heard that Batumi Port was bombed by Lusa planes the day before yesterday morning? But the frontline troops reported that they had defended the area and the bombs didn't hit any vital points? You came back from the front, what was the actual situation? Were they really defended the area, or were they just saying that to maintain morale?"

Duke Rupprecht, unusually assertive, composed himself and then addressed the Emperor with composure: “Your Majesty! The actual situation is that our naval codes have been leaked. I contacted the navy to request a warship to escort me to the Batumi front, but they couldn’t spare any warships at the moment, as they were all at sea and couldn’t make it in time. So the navy dispatched airships to transport me.”

Fortunately, the navy provided two airships. I rode in one, and the other was carried by my aide-de-camp and others. The two airships flew several tens of kilometers apart. When the first airship approached Batumi port, it was fiercely intercepted by escort fighters from an enemy bombing squadron! It was shot down!
At the time, the destroyers in Batumi desperately tried to rescue the officers and crew members who had parachuted into the water, but to no avail; all nine men died. Several were killed in the air by enemy strafing, their bodies riddled with bullet holes when recovered. Others had their parachutes torn apart by strafing fire, causing them to fall into the sea and die—clearly, this was a meticulously planned assassination based on intelligence! The so-called bombing of Batumi port and the destruction of a large quantity of combat supplies transported to Batumi by our forces were merely a cover operation by the Lushars!
Moreover, this incident reminded me of Admiral Hipper's two naval victories more than a year ago. At that time, whether it was the Battle of Ostend or the later Battle of Dunkirk, Admiral Hipper was able to inflict heavy losses on the enemy's Strait Fleet and battlecruiser fleet because he "disobeyed orders and went his own way," failing to act according to the Navy's original plan.

If things had gone according to plan, we might still have lost! The Empire's naval codes may have been cracked as early as 15 months ago!

In fact, the naval code was cracked 18 months ago. Lelouch was being conservative when he told Marshal Rupprecht that it was 15 months, because the existing evidence could only prove the anomalies up to 15 months ago.

When it was first deciphered 18 months ago, it did not cause any damage immediately, so there was no evidence or reasoning.

Therefore, when the Duke complained to the Emperor, he could only follow the same line of reasoning that had been used 15 months prior.

The emperor was utterly shocked this time.

So, how do we take advantage of this, and how do we counter it?
The emperor was completely bewildered and had no choice but to consult the well-prepared Duke Rupprecht for help.

The Duke then naturally produced Lelouch's proposed reform plan for the intelligence and cryptography department, as well as a temporary anti-fraud plan.

(End of this chapter)