Chapter 70: Deceiving The Heavens To Cross The Sea, Closing The Great Net
Vice Admiral Hipper and Lelouch brainstormed, combing through every possible means of maritime reinforcement for the expeditionary forces trapped within the enemy’s encirclement of Dunkirk as thoroughly as possible, and roughly outlined countermeasures for the Imperial Navy, including how to dispatch forces to counter each enemy move.
Once everything was settled, Vice Admiral Hipper actually had only one last practical issue left: who to assign to lead their own pre-dreadnoughts on that dangerous mission to “support the Belgian coast,” playing the role of this “regular force”?
Vice Admiral Hipper himself could play the role of that unplanned “surprise force,” but for the sake of secrecy and suddenness, he did not want the Naval Ministry’s top brass to know all the details; he knew full well how incompetent the Naval Ministry’s intelligence bureau was, and there might be intelligence leaks beyond just the cipher breach.
To ensure victory, they had to deceive even their own high command, making the high command believe that “Hipper’s four battlecruisers are still in heavily damaged condition.” But in that case, their own high command’s assessment of the relative maritime strengths would become even more conservative, making it all the more necessary for the general directly executing the operational orders to have sufficient prestige. And sufficient courage.
Fortunately, Vice Admiral Hipper was now a lieutenant general himself, and his great victory last time had expanded his connections within the navy more and more; after combing through, he ultimately selected his old colleague he had worked with before, “Count Spee.”
Count Maximilian von Spee was a vice admiral in the Empire. Historically, as commander of Germania’s Asian squadron, he led eight warships headed by two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers on raiding operations abroad, but when trying to return to the homeland circuitously, he was intercepted by the British Army fleet off Argentina, and all over 2,000 subordinates sank and died in battle.
However, in this world, Germania had no Asian fleet; those two Scharnhorst-class ships were safely brought back to the homeland from Tanzania by Count Spee as soon as war broke out, and later temporarily seconded by Vice Admiral Hipper to participate in the Battle of Ostend.
Before the Battle of Ostend, Count Spee’s military rank was one grade higher than Hipper’s, so he naturally would not personally participate in the campaign commanded by Hipper. But the captains and senior officers of those two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers had all been Count Spee’s direct old subordinates, having worked together for many years.
After Vice Admiral Hipper led them to great merit, many senior officers on those two Scharnhorst-class ships also received promotions by one grade, and those people more or less knew some inside information about Hipper’s fleet, so they inevitably communicated and reported privately to their old leader.
Therefore, in the three months after the Ostend campaign, Vice Admiral Hipper knew it was impossible to completely conceal it from him, so he found a way to pull Count Spee into his own small circle. Vice Admiral Hipper privately shared some of his concerns and ideas with him, repeatedly urging Count Spee to keep it strictly confidential and not let it become common knowledge in the Naval Ministry.
Although Count Spee was shocked at first, seeing that Vice Admiral Hipper had solidly earned great merit and been promoted, he naturally knew the times and priorities, understanding how much benefit he could gain in the future by keeping the secret that “the Imperial Navy’s ciphers had long been deciphered by the British Royal Navy,” and how many traps he could set for the enemy.
So Count Spee also kept his mouth shut, and the two of them partnered to exploit these two secrets afterward.
In this way, when Lelouch shared his latest plan with Vice Admiral Hipper, Hipper naturally thought of bringing in Count Spee for cooperation.
Afraid that telecommunications were not secure enough, he specially took a train back to Wilhelmshaven to communicate face-to-face with Count Spee and explain the operational plan.
“…Just relying on my 4 battlecruisers and 2 armored cruisers, plus those auxiliary ships withdrawn to Antwerp, definitely won’t win this battle. I need a squadron to attract enemy fire head-on first and weaken the enemy. This mission is indeed very dangerous…”
Vice Admiral Hipper honestly explained every detail that Lelouch had envisioned.
After hearing this, Count Spee’s expression was grave for a time, but he ultimately steeled his resolve: “I just need to know these details; at the time, I won’t tell the captains and officers below; all they’ll know is ‘the Empire is having us transfer ports to Antwerp or Zeebrugge to provide fire support to our Army on the Ostend front line at any time.’ As for how it actually plays out in the end, I’ll adapt as needed.”
Count Spee immediately saw the crux of the problem; ideas like “scuttling on the beach at the end” or “fighting to the death in a gunnery duel” absolutely could not be known to ordinary sailors from the start. If the soldiers knew from the beginning how high the mission’s danger level was, morale would waver, and they might even find excuses to shirk or even leak secrets.
Germania’s naval warriors were relatively brave, but the officers and men of second-line fleets were not as fearless as those of first-line fleets, especially the battlecruiser fleet.
Moreover, the navy was a technical service, and sailors’ thoughts were often more abundant than the Army’s—historically, in the late stages of the Great War, when soldiers in various countries opposed continuing to fight for the monarch and mutinies occurred, it was often the sailors who mutinied first. Although it was far from that situation now, an experienced old general like Spee who had led troops for many years knew these issues all too well.
As a naval general, the first thing to consider was how to make the soldiers charge into the distant seas without hesitation. Once at sea facing the enemy, with no choice but to fight, they wouldn’t overthink it then.
Therefore, the true ultimate objective of this sortie only needed to be known to Count Spee himself; the tasks told to those below, even the operational tasks applied for with the Naval Ministry, could be given a different name.
Hearing how thoroughly he had thought it through, Vice Admiral Hipper was greatly grateful: “You truly are a respectable senior. I will follow procedure and apply to the Naval Ministry to dispatch a second-line old-style battleship squadron to assist along the Belgian coast, to guard against eventualities. I will also dispatch a large number of torpedo boats to spread out on patrol externally and prevent the slow-speed old-style battleships from being detected and intercepted by the enemy during transfer.
You can also volunteer after the Naval Ministry receives my application; handle the subsequent details by adapting as needed. If we can trick the Britannians again in this battle, you and I will split the merit evenly, and continue cooperating well afterward—you in the open, me in the shadows.”
In the following days, Vice Admiral Hipper and Spee coordinated with each other: one set of actions to handle the Naval Ministry’s application on the surface, another set for the true operational plan behind the scenes, securing the transfer order from the Naval Ministry’s high command.
On February 12, the Naval Ministry formally issued the secret order: Vice Admiral Spee of the High Seas Fleet’s 2nd Battleship Squadron was to lead his frontline warships then in combat readiness standby status, plus a temporarily assigned torpedo escort squadron, transferring from Wilhelmshaven to the Antwerp-Zeebrugge front line.
At that time, the High Seas Fleet’s 1st Battleship Squadron consisted entirely of new ships from the battleship era. The 2nd Battleship Squadron, however, was composed of 6 pre-dreadnoughts in constant readiness status. This was also because Germania’s navy was weaker than the enemy’s and could only make up numbers with some still-decent pre-dreadnoughts.
At this moment, the 6 pre-dreadnoughts under Spee’s command in readiness status were 3 Brunswick-class: Alsace, Lorraine, and Hesse, plus the 3 oldest Brandenburg-class: Brandenburg, Wörth, and Great Elector.
These ships were actually relatively weak in combat power, especially those 3 Brandenburg-class with nearly 20 years of service; their original 280 mm main guns could only fire once every 2 minutes, and only after a modernization refit could they reach about one shot per minute. The Brunswick-class ships had about 10 years of service, products of just before the battleship era, with their 280 mm main guns achieving one shot every 40 seconds.
The Naval Ministry did not specify the exact operational tasks, only having him transfer first to a relatively forward position to maintain vigilance and adapt as needed, cooperating with the Army. So all officers and men up and down Spee’s squadron thought these pre-dreadnoughts were just going for shore bombardment across the way, or perhaps to blockade enemy frontline ports.
In short, no matter what official reason was given for the sortie, first trick the fleet into going to a port closer to the front line. Once there, what exactly to do would no longer be up to the Naval Ministry but depend on the enemy situation and adaptability.
After receiving the transfer order, Count Spee quickly began action. He chose a midday time, had the fleet light coal and heat boilers, and only set out slowly at 16 knots after dark, proceeding along the Netherlands coast toward Belgium.
Along the way, he sent the escorting torpedo boats ahead to spread out far for vigilance, not allowing any merchant ships or enemy ships to approach the fleet, to reduce the probability of being searched and detected by the enemy.
Along the Netherlands coast, the situation was still manageable; war had been ongoing for half a year, Netherlands sea trade had dropped sharply, and merchant ships didn’t dare navigate near the coast, fearing they’d run into warships and see things they shouldn’t.
But on the side closer to the open sea—that vast Dogger Bank sea area impacted by the Thames estuary—there were still many British fishing boats and small civilian vessels plying about, which were often also spy ships for the British Royal Navy.
Spee showed no mercy; whenever their own torpedo boats detected fishing boats on reconnaissance, they quickly sank them with 88 mm guns.
The British Royal Navy would of course receive alerts and dispatch fleets to pursue, but since the British Army didn’t know the exact coordinates of Germania’s slow-speed battleships, even searching toward the seas where their own fishing boats were sunk, they’d at most encounter Germania’s high-speed torpedo boats.
Those high-speed torpedo boats could completely lead the British Army warships on a merry chase, using high speed to pull away the distance.
During the entire process, there were of course cases of failed evasion from encirclement and pursuit, which was unavoidable, but overall it was mutual losses, and Spee ultimately safely escorted the 6 old slow ships sailing at 16 knots to the Belgian coast.
Throughout the process, the Germania Navy lost 1 light cruiser Emden, and 3 torpedo boats（destroyers）, but also searched out and sank at least 15 British Army armed reconnaissance fishing boats, plus 1 destroyer that came to search and intercept, and damaged 2 destroyers.
In terms of absolute warship losses, this operation to cover the slow-speed fleet transfer saw the British Army slightly ahead. After all, they only lost 1 destroyer, while those armed fishing boats weren’t worth much. The Germans, eager to breakout, had their light cruiser, after damaging a British destroyer in gunnery, unable to pursue and finish it off, allowing the British Army to withdraw and disengage upon injury.
However, Count Spee was still quite satisfied with the result of this battle; he knew now was not the time to settle small scores—the key was that the 6 pre-dreadnoughts with large-caliber main guns had safely arrived in Belgium after a day and two nights of navigation transfer, approaching the battlefield.
Losses of individual picket vessels were unavoidable in scouting confrontations.
……
Spee’s successful transfer naturally could not escape the notice of the British Royal Navy across the way.
The situation of the two sides’ vanguard ships exchanging fire was quickly reported by David Beatty and reached Naval Minister Walton’s desk.
“The Germanians sent warships to the Belgian coast again? Are they so confident their Army can assault Dunkirk successfully, hoping these old things will bombard our shores and blockade our sea transport? Go check quickly and confirm exactly which ships have come!”
Britannia’s military intelligence departments immediately sprang into action; whether spies lurking in various ports or reconnaissance aircraft sneaking in when possible, within a single day they roughly ascertained the situation:
“Report, Minister! Our intelligence personnel have confirmed that the enemy High Seas Fleet’s 1st Battleship Squadron ships are all still in port; it’s confirmed only a few old ships over 10 years old have come, all pre-dreadnoughts.”
After confirming no battleships, Walton mentally calculated the scale of forces both sides could mobilize in the Strait theater and found their own side still had an absolute crushing advantage, with forces at least twice the enemy’s!
Since that was the case, there was nothing to worry about; worst case, their own pre-dreadnought fleets could all stand ready at any time, pulled to frontline Strait ports, and once the enemy made a move, annihilate them on the spot! Anyway, that trash was doomed wherever it went!
——
PS: The second update today will return to the Army perspective. This campaign is quite grand, requiring sea-air-land coordination, with a lot to explain; thanks for everyone’s patience.
