Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 28 Mission Accomplished, Promotion to Captain

"Frantz, it's been years since we last saw each other!"

"Your Highness, thank you for providing the Navy with such important intelligence, which enabled our officers and soldiers to achieve such a great feat!"

That evening, at a former royal estate in Antwerp, the commander of the German 6th Army, Crown Prince of Balria, and Duke Rupprecht, held a grand welcome and victory celebration banquet.

The guest of honor was, of course, General Hipper, who had just returned victorious. The two exchanged very warm greetings upon meeting.

Hipper had served as the Duke's adjutant, so they were already quite familiar with each other.

However, to ensure the confidentiality of the discussions, Duke Rupprecht specially arranged the welcoming celebration banquet as a cocktail party, so that everyone could move around freely and not have to sit around a long table to chat.

The Duke instructed the other staff officers to receive the meritorious captains, while he himself only summoned Rear Admiral Hipper and Lieutenant Lelouch, who was acting as their temporary liaison.

The three of them huddled in a corner of the room, drinking cocktails, eating roasted pigeon and red wine stewed lamb, and chatting. Lelouch, being the lowest in rank, even had to pour drinks for the generals.

The Duke first took out a document and pushed it in front of Hipper.

Upon seeing the cover, Hipper immediately stood at attention and saluted before solemnly opening it.

"In recognition of General Franz von Hipper's meritorious service in the Battle of Ostend, he is hereby granted the title of Hereditary Knight of the Kingdom of Baria..."

This means that from today onwards, Franz von Hipper will change his name to Franz Ritter von Hipper (the extra 'Ritter' is a suffix added when he was granted the hereditary knighthood).

Hipper was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes.

Don't underestimate the hereditary knighthood; it's the limit for military merit titles. The higher ranks—duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron—are all earned through bloodline.

Meanwhile, Lelouch thought to himself: Historically, Hipper was supposed to serve in the Battle of Jutland, covering the rear of the High Seas Fleet and holding off the enemy, which is why he was granted a hereditary knighthood by the Crown Prince. Now it seems he was granted the knighthood a year and a half early because he performed a great service beforehand…

Hipper wiped his eyes and quickly pledged his loyalty in private: "Your Highness! If there is anything your army needs my cooperation in the future, I will do my best. It's all for the Empire, it's only right."

His wording was very cautious; he referred to "your army," meaning only the Duke's 6th Army, or at most the future 8th Army, which would also belong to the Balia faction.

As for the other five army groups controlled by the Prosenians, Hipper wouldn't give them any special treatment.

Moreover, he was well aware that this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Duke undoubtedly possessed a separate, highly efficient intelligence system that could help him gain information and mitigate risks. Therefore, working for the Duke would also allow him to achieve personal success, making it a win-win situation.

Thanks to Lelouch's mediation and the win-win cooperation between the Army and Navy, this secret inter-service communication channel within the Baria faction has been established.

Seeing General Hipper's confident assurance, Lelouch tactfully refilled all three men's glasses with champagne.

Then a duke, a major general, and a lieutenant—this strange combination—drank a drink together.

After finishing his drink, the Duke patted Hipper on the shoulder again: "However, this time you did 'disobey orders and go it alone,' and I have urgently sent someone to inquire with the higher-ups in the Admiralty. Although you sank four enemy pre-dreadnoughts, the higher-ups will still be clear about rewards and punishments to avoid losing face."

I estimate you could be promoted to lieutenant general, but probably not this year. It will likely have to wait until after the year-end review, by which time the controversy surrounding your disobedience will have died down. The Blue Mark Medal is also within your reach, but that will have to wait until after the new year.

I was afraid you'd feel wronged. Since the promotion and medal can't be given immediately, I'll offer you a title first. It's all for intelligence secrecy; the charade must be played out completely. This way, the Bretonnia will misjudge our internal situation, making them mistakenly believe that there's intense factional infighting within our Admiralty.”

“I can understand all of this. Anyway, it’s almost November, and there are only two months left in the year. It would be great if I could be promoted to lieutenant general again at the beginning of next year.” Hipper said he could accept it completely and would not have any resentment.

After calming Hipper down, the Duke immediately turned to Lelouch: "Lieutenant Lelouch, this whole affair was thanks to your planning and coordination. However, many of these things are not convenient to discuss openly. For the sake of the secrecy of intelligence work, I will find another excuse to promote you."

In the next few days, I will first transfer your affiliation from the army group headquarters to the 12th Division, and then you will return to the front-line troops in Ostend. There, you will pretend to participate in some basic siege warfare, and once you have an excuse, Karl will immediately promote you to captain.

"After a while, Karl will come forward and give you another task. If you perform well, you can go through the formal promotion application process and get approval from the army group headquarters. Until then, don't tell anyone that you know me."

Many of the credits for intelligence and conspiracy cannot be made public for the time being.

The Duke had only seen Lelouch once before, at the airport, when Lelouch flew to Wilhelmshaven overnight. But he clearly hoped for a suitable opportunity in the future to get to know Lelouch "formally," ideally after he had performed another meritorious service, and for his brother, Major General Karl, to make a public recommendation.

In this way, Lelouch's resume will be more verifiable in the future, and even if he is noticed by Britannian spies, it will not be easy for them to find any useful information about him.

Lelouch completely understood this concern and immediately said that there was no problem:

"Thank you for your appreciation, Your Highness. It's already very good to be promoted to captain first. I just wonder what the future holds for my unit?"

The Duke glanced around instinctively to make sure no one else was around, then offered a few words of advice in private:
"If the Britannians insist on getting back at them and regaining their pride, and launch a desperate attack, Neoport and Ostend will ultimately not be able to hold out. Although Hipper sank four of their pre-dreadnoughts, as long as the enemy is willing to spend the money, they can send in more ships, and even have Beatty blockade Antwerp Fjord for a few more days."

However, these are minor issues, and we don't need to dwell on the gains and losses of a single city or place. That coastal area has little strategic value for the time being. Now, the command has noticed that following the flood released by the Bilikin Army before its demise, many low-lying areas in northwestern Bilikin will continue to be submerged.

In such terrain, launching a decisive offensive would be extremely difficult; whoever attacks would suffer losses. However, there is one exception in this last territory of the Birygins: Ypres, now occupied by the Britannian Expeditionary Force.

Ypres is one of the few highland cities west of Biligin, and the Britannian Expeditionary Force is constantly strengthening its defenses and committing more troops there. In the foreseeable future, it will become a salient for enemy forces to wedge into our territory.

Therefore, the Empire is planning a campaign of infiltration and cutting off, bypassing those low-lying flooded areas, and completely severing the highlands surrounding Ypres!

Of course, all of this is still in the early stages of preparation and not yet fully finalized. If we can achieve this, we will accomplish three strategic goals:

First, it would allow for the complete occupation of all remaining territory of Belikin—the Ypres salient, though only 5% of Belikin's total area, is its last remaining territory. King Albert, who had previously fled, is still there. In short, the political significance of conquering it is immense.

Secondly, the French army on the western front is now exhausted. In the previous phase of their counter-offensive, they lost at least 20 men before finally pushing back from Paris. Therefore, the French army has begun to gradually hand over the northernmost section of the defensive line, which is the part centered on the Ypres salient and close to the English Channel, to the newly arrived Britannian Expeditionary Force.

The areas around Dunkirk and Calais, still occupied by French forces, will be handed over to the Burkina Faso army for defense. Therefore, if we can cut off the Ypres salient, we might be able to draw the main force of the Burkina Faso expeditionary force to defend it, ultimately encircling and annihilating the main Burkina Faso army force there!

Finally, once this salient is captured, the Empire can straighten its defenses on the western front, saving a large number of frontline troops and freeing up mobile reserve forces.

Therefore, the General Staff recently planned to redraw the defense zones. In a few days, our entire 6th Division will be transferred back to the south side of the Ypres salient, while the Grand Duke of Württemberg's 4th Division will be transferred to the north side of the salient.

When it comes to the actual assault, our two army groups will be in charge. You've got a lot of clever ideas, kid. Go back to the front and think about them some more; see if there are any tactical improvements you can make. Maybe they'll come in handy during the final assault.”

Out of trust, Duke Rupprecht outlined the general strategic arrangements for the future.

If it were another subordinate, he wouldn't say so much, but Lelouch always has ingenious ideas that can bring him advantages, so revealing some information in advance is beneficial and harmless.

Lelouch immediately stated that he would return to the army and work with his new comrades as soon as possible, trying to find a solution that suited the local conditions.

After finishing their business, the group had another drink. The Duke, needing to entertain other generals, left on his own. Only Hipper and Lelouch remained, drinking some more.

Hipper was quite reluctant to see Lelouch return to the army, so he pulled him aside for a few last drinks: "It seems that His Highness and General Karl are well aware of your sharp mind, and they've all been asking you for suggestions on how to improve things. We've worked together for a while now, so before you leave, do you have any suggestions for improvement that you could offer to the navy?"

Lelouch knew that Hipper wouldn't be satisfied if he didn't reveal some valuable information today.

Fortunately, as a time traveler, he knew enough about military matters. After fighting naval battles together for two or three days, he did gain some insights.

He readily gave Hipper two points: "Time was too short, and I didn't observe many problems, so I'll just mention two."

First, the actual combat speed of our main warships is slightly slower than that of the Britannian counterparts. I've noticed that the enemy no longer carries anti-torpedo nets during patrol operations, only installing them when anchored in port to prevent surprise attacks. Meanwhile, we're still using nets while sailing, which severely impacts speed and maneuverability and is essentially useless; we should remove them immediately.

Furthermore, the Empire's destroyer and torpedo technologies were simply outdated. These plans were products of a decade ago, even before dreadnoughts existed, when artillery fire was not as advantageous as torpedo fire. Even the French military was misled by this "torpedo-centric" theory, which led them to consider building a green-water navy.

In the future, the accuracy advantage of artillery will become increasingly significant. Following this trend, torpedoes will gradually shift from being core decisive weapons to tactical auxiliary weapons—unless a new, revolutionary torpedo delivery vehicle emerges, it is unlikely to reverse this trend.

The so-called tactical auxiliary weapons are mainly used to intercept enemy pursuit and disrupt enemy formations. Or, like last night, to finish off capital ships that have lost their maneuverability from a distance.

At this point, the torpedo's speed becomes less important. The Empire should shift its strategy and, under current conditions, develop relatively slow but fuel-efficient torpedoes that are less likely to be detected in advance, while significantly increasing their maximum range. These torpedoes wouldn't be designed for precise targeting; their purpose would be ultra-long-range finishing blows and lucky kills. This would allow the torpedoes to remain effective for several more years.

Furthermore, all capital ships currently under construction should eventually be stripped of torpedoes. Even if this only saves a tiny bit of tonnage, optimizes the hull curves, and improves system reliability, it's still better than having something useless.

Hipper finished the last of his drink, looking thoughtful.

He himself was vaguely aware of these principles, but he had never taken them to such a macro perspective to organize them comprehensively.

The anti-torpedo nets were indeed ineffective, barely better than nothing, but once installed, they generally caused warships to slow down by 2-3 knots, a cost that was too significant. This combat experience has indeed prompted the High Seas Fleet to remove the nets ahead of schedule (historically, by 1915, the navy had also recognized this problem and gradually began removing the nets while in combat navigation).

In recent years, the progress of artillery and fire control technology has been much faster than that of torpedo technology.

The era when torpedoes truly reigned supreme was from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Back then, main guns would be completely inaccurate beyond five kilometers, and torpedo ships could easily approach to torpedo range despite gunfire.

With the advent of the dreadnought era, the scope for torpedoes has indeed been shrinking.

Once the main guns can accurately hit targets at greater distances, torpedo boats will be unable to reach the torpedo launch position, rendering the precision strikes of torpedoes meaningless.

Of course, if it's a torpedo for submarines, considering that submarines can stealthily approach to a location very close to the enemy and launch a surprise attack, the torpedo's speed is still very useful.

But perhaps we should really shift our focus to torpedoes for future surface ships.

The plan to equip capital ships with torpedoes should also be completely abandoned.

"I will consider these things, but the naval leadership may not listen to me. To solve this problem, we still need to have our own naval weapons factories that we can control."

We're all just soldiers, we have no money, so we can only hope that the Baria royal family will help us see if His Highness the Duke is interested in finding money to invest.

Furthermore, it's uncertain whether the Empire will allocate sufficient resources to complete the remaining capital ships under construction on schedule. The army is currently hoarding steel and other resources too aggressively, leaving shipyards often operating at only half capacity. However, I will still push forward with your proposal to cancel torpedoes on capital ships.”

Hipper could only offer this helpless response in the end.

Considering that today was just a victory celebration, Lelouch was already doing a great favor by giving away these two suggestions for free, so Hipper decided to accept the favor and move on.

Historically, the German army actually had the opportunity to complete the Barria-class battleships by 1916, and even the Mackensen-class battlecruisers before the end of the war. The reason they didn't complete them wasn't due to shipyards being lazy or negligent, but rather because resources and steel were being excessively diverted and misappropriated by the Army General Staff.

Of course, on the other hand, during wartime, resources are indeed scarce and people have to fight each other. Historically, the navy's performance has indeed been poor, with little combat achievement, so it is normal for resources to be taken away.

In this life, if Hipper becomes a rising star in the Navy and proves that she is indeed capable of fighting, and the resources spent are worthwhile, the situation might be different.

In the future, we may need to consider investing more in propaganda and lobbying to better compete for resources, but currently the Imperial Navy does not have any talent skilled in this area.

……

After the party, Lelouch slept soundly in Antwerp that night. When he woke up again, it was noon the next day, November 1st.

To his shame, this was the first time since he transmigrated to this world that he had slept soundly all night on land.

He arrived on October 25th and spent the nights in Neoport's gunfire cellar until the 27th, waking up frequently to do his work.

Later, on the night of the 28th, I dozed off for a few hours in the back seat of Immelmann's plane, with the cold wind blowing.

The next two nights were spent on Hipper's battlecruiser HMS Derfflinger. Although there was no shortage of sleep during those two days, the rocking and rolling of a warship was ultimately not as comfortable as on land.

We're finally back on land. The first whole week after the transmigration, I only got one day of normal sleep; it was incredibly tough.

No wonder he overslept so much.

Considering that he needed to return to his unit as soon as possible, fulfill his promise of promotion to captain, and adjust his position, he dared not delay any longer.

After a hasty and hearty breakfast-and-lunch meal, he boarded the BFW sedan that His Highness the Duke had temporarily assigned to him, which took him all the way back to the Ostend front.

Before leaving, the Duke also privately gifted him a 1903 American-made silk bulletproof vest, encouraging him to do a good job at the front.

Upon arriving in Ostend, he was received by Major General Karl, commander of the 12th Division, and also met with Regiment Commander List and others again.

The division commander made a special arrangement for him to hand over his duties, letting him symbolically stay with the troops for two days, and then find an excuse to formally go through the procedures to promote him to captain.

Major General Karl also said to him earnestly, "Lieutenant Lelouch, the commander has personally discussed your situation with me. You have a bright future ahead of you, but you can't just hide in the rear staff and offer advice right away. The Empire still values ​​the completeness of an officer's resume."

"While your rank is still low, you should use this time to build up your experience as a junior officer. The recent defensive battles, and the potential counter-offensive against Ypres, present good opportunities. Besides, I won't assign you to any particularly dangerous missions."

By this point, Lelouch no longer dreaded the risks of being a junior commander. After all, his superiors appreciated him and would provide him with certain conveniences; his personal safety was certainly much higher than that of other frontline officers.

He immediately expressed his gratitude, saying, "Thank you, Commander. I remember an old saying in the East: 'A prime minister must rise from the local government, and a great general must emerge from the ranks.' My experience commanding frontline combat units will be a valuable asset, and I will cherish this opportunity."

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That concludes this transitional chapter on recognizing and rewarding meritorious service after the naval battle. Tomorrow, we'll return to land warfare and troop training and deployment.

(End of this chapter)