Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 102: Wolfpack



After his phone call with the German Admiral, Bruno approached Heidi and told the woman the good news. She, like Bruno, had a more common and modest sense of fashion. Though they were technically noblemen, both in Germany and now Russia, as Bruno had gained hereditary nobility in the Russian Empire after his exceptional performance on the battlefield.

Neither of them really acted that way. Their wealth was exceptional, but they lived like the working class. There were no servants in Bruno's home, his children were raised to do daily chores like any other middle-class family, and his wife did the lion's share of the cooking and cleaning around the house.

Compared to the extravagant way which Bruno had grown up in this life, this was a far more comfortable way to live out his days, and Heidi had never once complained about not living in a grand estate like Bruno had grown up in. Or for that matter, like she had.

Perhaps it was because she had traumatic memories of being alone in a large house, one in which she seldom had interaction with anyone within, that Heidi preferred a much smaller, and more cozy home environment like the one she had.

However, despite the fact that they lived a more comfortable and down-to-earth life, that did not mean that Bruno and his family did not have attire to attend more lavish noble gatherings, nor that they were lacking in the refined manners that the upper class of German society was so well renowned for.

And because of this, Bruno and his family gathered on the appointed day outside the Admirals' home dressed in their most lavish attire. Heidi had been quite stern with her children, making them know that this was not an occasion for them to act out on, and because of that, the children were both silent and docile.

After all, the Admiral was much older than Bruno and Heidi were, and his children were by now adults, perhaps even older than the young couple. Hence, there would really be no children the same age as theirs for Eva, Erwin, and Elsa to interact with.

Bruno and his family were welcomed into the home by the servant staff, where he found the man who owned the spectacular estate waiting for him personally in his study. The servants were busy preparing the meal for the night, and thus, Heidi was left to look after the kids, along with the Admiral's wife, while the two men engaged in more important business. Once inside the thick walls of the Admirals' office, Bruno was offered a seat in front of the man, one he was quick to accept as they quickly got down to business over some drinks. The Admiral had preference for fine French cognac, something Bruno truly did not care for himself.

It was, after all, a distilled wine, and Bruno was not exactly a fan of wine in general. Nevertheless, it was what the Admiral offered, and it would be rude to refuse. Thus, he drank it. After all, he could stomach any alcohol, if need be, even if it was not his preference to drink.

Once the two had a glass of cognac in their hands, and a cigar in the other, the Admiral finally began to speak.

"I have heard great things about you, young man. Great things from some very important people, no less. The General Staff of the German Army speaks of you as if you are the second coming of Napoleon. While the Kaiser treats you more like you are, Alexander reborn.

Your opinion is highly valued among those in the Army. Especially those at the top of its hierarchy. And I can see why. You are what? Twenty-Five? Twenty-six? And yet you already hold the esteemed rank of General der Infanterie. One more major campaign, and you will be a Generaloberst. At your age, that is simply unprecedented.

At this rate it will be no less than ten years before you are a Generalfeldmarschall. And when that happens, I fear that our enemies will not know what they are dealing with before it is far too late for them.

Even so... While you may have an exceptional ability to command the men beneath you on land. Naval Warfare is an entirely different beast. So, I am curious what an Army General like yourself thinks is such a grand idea of Naval Warfare that an established admiral like myself would instantly bite at the chance to make use of it."

Bruno was naturally aware that the man would be skeptical of his claims. It was not exactly common for a man to be both adept at Land based and Naval Warfare. And once air power came into play, it would be even rarer for a man to be exceptional in all three aspects of warfare.

But Bruno was not cut from the same cloth as most men. In fact, there were few men in history who could match his mastery of warfare. Whether that be by land, air, or sea. It was, after all, a pursuit he was obsessed with in his past life and spent an exemplary amount of time studying during his youth in this life.

Because of this, when he introduced the concept of wolfpack tactics to the Naval Officer, he was surprised to say the least. Wolfpack tactics would be exceptionally capable of dealing with hostile maritime trade, no doubt.

Especially when they began to counter lone wolf submarine attacks by travelling in convoys. Which itself would be a tactic that would appear during the upcoming Great War. However, despite this, the attempts to deal with these trade convoys via wolfpack tactics would not succeed until the Second World War.

Despite this, Bruno had devised wolfpack tactics to deal with enemy fleets as well, making some minor adjustments. After all, if his improved variants of the Type XXI Submarine were mass produced and employed during the war, even the naval warships would not be able to easily detect them.

Allowing them to gather beneath the enemy fleets in critical battles like Jutland and obliterate them with surprise and sudden torpedo attacks. Bruno, of course, explained why his submarines would be capable of such tactics against naval ships, while others of the Era would not be.

Citing multiple times how advanced his submarines and destroyers would be when they were finally capable of being mass produced. After all, U-Boats and destroyers were far easier and quicker to build than cruisers and battleships.

For example, by the end of the Great War Germany had built 334 U-Boats of varying classes in their employ, and another 226 under construction, that were ultimately scrapped as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and its specific prohibition against Germany from manufacturing

submarines.

Granted, many of these U-boats were lost during the war, and Germany at the time really only had a maximum of about 60 at sea during a single time. But that was not an issue for Bruno's U-boats, which could evade detection and quickly abscond after launching their surprise

attack against the enemy.

Pursuing and destroying a Type XXI would have been extremely difficult had they been employed in combat during 1944 when the few of them that ever existed were manufactured. Let alone in 1914 at the start of the Great War.

The fact of the matter was Bruno had single-handedly revolutionized the use of two types of naval vessels and their use in warfare. Not only that, but he had unknowingly introduced two far more powerful tools that would be employed across all German Naval Vessels which would accidentally see major gains in the Naval Battles fought during the Great War.

And these two devices were advanced radars and targeting systems. Bruno hadn't really thought that these two things would be employed on the battleships and cruisers of the German Reich after he had built the first prototypes and confirmed the validity of their use.

But when compared to the battle of Jutland where the British Navy had the highest percentage of successful hits in combat, which was a miserable 3% the vast increase in detection and targeting capability which Bruno had as a mere byproduct given the German Navy alone was an advantage that could potentially win them the war on the seas, even if the German High Seas Fleet was outnumbered and outgunned by British vessels.

After all, this rule applied both on land and on sea. No matter how much firepower an armed force might have, it was utterly useless if they couldn't hit their targets with it. And it was only after Admiral von Holtzendorff alerted Bruno to this possibility did the man realize himself just how significant his contributions to the Imperial German Navy would be in this

life.