Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 172: A New Era of Naval Warfare



Life passed by pretty quickly while Bruno continued about his daily life within the German Reich. All he could do during this time was make the necessary preparations for the upcoming war, one which would engulf the entire world, or at least the vast majority of it, and would cause the deaths of tens of millions of people, primarily the poor souls sent to the trenches. By 1911, the German Army had completely overhauled its armament and doctrine. Every single rifleman was now equipped and trained with the Gewehr 05 semi-automatic service rifle, which had become the standard-issue weapon for the German Army and its soldiers.

The Gewehr 05, of course, being the designation given to the modified variant of the Gewehr 43, which Bruno had designed in this life. Aside from the Gewehr 05, there was also at least one man in each squad armed with an MG-05 (MG-34) general-purpose machine gun.

In addition to this, the NCO in charge of the squad wielded an MP-05 (MP-34) submachine gun, making the doctrine incredibly similar to the ones used by the German infantry units in the Second World War.

Artillery was attached to each infantry regiment, utilizing a mixture of the four gun types Bruno had designed early on in this life, and at the platoon level, there were small units of men armed and trained to use 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm mortars.

To say that the German Army was the most well-equipped army in the world was an understatement, and currently its size was bigger than it was in Bruno's life at the start of the war, with one million men actively serving and another four million reserves to be called upon and mobilized at a moment's notice.

This was in contrast to Bruno's past life, where they had 700,000 men actively serving and 3.8 million who could be mobilized within a single week. Either way, the German Army was well- prepared for the war.

In addition to these efforts, the German Luftstreitkräfte had five full wings of operational He-51 interwar-era biplanes that were capable of performing the roles of reconnaissance, attack fighter, and close air support/bomber.

The border preparations had more or less been completed and were a stark line of defense and deterrence against any potential Anglo-French invasion. When the war broke out, British and French troops would break against the wall.

While the bulk of Germany's armed forces, alongside their allies in Russia and Austria- Hungary, would push into Serbia, Italy, as well as potentially Romania and the Ottoman Empire, seeking to capitulate their rivals in a swift and decisive victory before turning their attention to the Western Front.

This was the plan, but few plans ever really went as one hoped they would, especially when facing the multitude of unknown quantities that revealed themselves on a modern battlefield. All that really remained of Bruno's preparations were the launching of his advanced submarines and destroyers.

And today, a major step forward in this regard had been made, with Bruno being called out to Danzig to discuss this matter with his naval engineers. Today, Bruno stood before the men who were responsible for designing a very important device.

Standing in front of him was a fully production-ready variation of two onboard ship computational devices. The first was meant for the destroyers and other surface ships. It was large, bulky, and resilient beyond one's imagination.

The second was much more compact and was instead designed for use onboard submarines. These were really the major devices Bruno had been waiting on before mass-producing his destroyers and submarines.

When he activated the so-called "Rangekeeper," which itself performed complex calculations at a fraction of the speed of what the average human commander was capable of, he smirked something fiercely before patting his lead naval engineer on the back.

After doing so, Bruno broke out into laughter before saying the words that would be quoted throughout the annals of human history.

"Gentlemen... It is no exaggeration to say that today you have single-handedly won the war on the seas for the German Reich."

Bruno's compliments were, of course, grand, but these men knew all too well what these machines meant. They meant a significant increase in hit probability. During the Battle of Jutland, it was said that out of all the shots fired by the infamous dreadnought battleships, perhaps three percent of them at the most hit their targets.

With these devices, the hit probability had skyrocketed, meaning that Germany held the single greatest advantage on the seas if every warship was equipped with these computational devices. Even pre-dreadnought class battleships would have the ability to sink their formidable and more advanced dreadnought opponents.

Though obsolete, most navies still fielded many of these ships, and while the dreadnought was far more formidable, if it could only land three percent of its shots, then it didn't really matter how big its guns were when the enemy was able to have a higher hit probability of more than ten times their percentage.

Was a pre-dreadnought class battleship capable of sinking a dreadnought with a single shot? Probably not, not unless they were particularly lucky. But were they able to sink a dreadnought with ten shots? Oh, most certainly.

And if they could land those ten shots before the enemy could hit them back, wasn't that just superb? Bruno was extremely happy that these devices had finally been finished, albeit a little bit later than initially projected.

Either way, his funding had not gone to waste, and the engineers were glad that he was not angry about missing the deadline they had given him of 1910. Instead, Bruno congratulated them all on their efforts.

"You have all done incredible work today, and I have no doubt that the Kaiserliche Marine will emerge victorious on the seven seas in the wars to come because of what you have all done here over these last few years!

Forgive me for not properly celebrating with you all, but reporting the completion of this project to the Grand Admirals is of the utmost importance. I will personally recommend all of you for some form of commendation suiting what you have all done here today. Though I fear it may not be until the war is won that your contributions are fully understood by those in power, so I beg of you all to be patient with me in this matter."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

After saying this, Bruno said a few last words to his engineers, promising them all a grand bonus for the year, before running off to inform the admiralty of what had been accomplished.

With the computational devices completed and the next generation class of destroyers and submarines soon to begin mass production, Germany was on its path to securing the waves

for the Reich.

But there was still one last device Bruno wanted to design and put into production. Something that was far simpler to make than the majority of what he had spent the last decade designing, testing, and producing, but was far more important than them all.

Still, that was a matter for another time. Instead, he spoke with his contact in the German Navy, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, first calling the man up and informing him that a "project which he was interested in had been completed."

It was best not to say too much over the phone, and because of that, Bruno was invited to the headquarters of the German Navy, where he stood before a board of admirals and explained what had been created by his own engineers and his minor contributions to the project.

When they heard in great detail what Bruno had spoken of, and how he had spent the last ten years investing in the manufacture of warships capable of protecting trade and hunting the enemy while remaining entirely submerged beneath the surface of the ocean's waves, they were blown away by the man's foresight into naval matters.

Only Henning really knew how capable Bruno was when it came to not only matters of army organization, strategy, tactics, and logistics, but also that of the naval persuasion as well. With this meeting having taken several hours to properly explain, the conclusion among the admiralty was that the computational devices, as well as the advanced warships that were to be introduced in the coming years, would be a classified matter of the utmost secrecy. Any ship that was damaged at sea or at risk of capture by the enemy was to be scuttled, and the computational devices onboard were to be destroyed immediately. They could not risk the enemy getting their hands on any of the advanced technology that Bruno had brought to the world decades before they were supposed to exist.

Bruno was most satisfied with this conclusion, and while everything he had spent his entire military career working towards was starting to become realized in physical form, there was still one last major innovation he had to make in preparation for the Great War. Because of this, the moment he got home and sat down at his desk, he began designing the infamous Enigma machine.