Chapter 26: Even Retreat Can Be Used To Deceive
After firming up his resolve to relentlessly pursue the routed enemy, Hipper immediately ordered the battlecruiser and armored cruiser formation to turn west, coordinating with his own light cruisers and destroyers to intercept the enemy’s last pre-dreadnought and its auxiliary fleet off Nieuwpoort town.
At the start of this second round of engagement, the battlefield situation was still in a state of British attack and German defense—the large number of British auxiliary ships on the west side still didn’t know that the three main force ships on the east side had been completely annihilated; they still wanted to rescue them, so they charged forward recklessly.
After all, they were the side that had divided forces pre-war, so they naturally had to anxiously regroup, while the side that had already concentrated its forces could wait at ease for the fatigued enemy.
German light cruisers and most destroyers（ besides the three that had just finished off the British pre-dreadnoughts earlier） had also been strictly carrying out Hipper’s orders, conducting delaying and blocking operations. They maintained an occasional torpedo sweep frequency to keep the enemy from approaching too quickly.
Dodging torpedoes in the darkness is very troublesome; whoever charges will suffer, because the charging side moves head-on toward the enemy’s torpedoes, effectively increasing the enemy’s torpedo effective range.
So when British ships charged and German ships kited, the German ships naturally had a huge advantage.
The British forces didn’t realize the problem at first, until a light cruiser charging at the forefront, the Birmingham-class “Nottingham,” and an accompanying destroyer, blundered into a crossfire torpedo spread.
Successive thunderous torpedo explosions and towering water columns immediately ripped open the “Nottingham” on the spot, causing it to flood wildly, while the destroyer alongside was blown in half and sank instantly.
The loss of these two ships finally sobered the British forces, who no longer dared to charge blindly and began to cautiously dodge torpedoes.
For the next twenty minutes, both sides basically kept their distance, probing with mutual fire, each suffering damage.
Although the number of German auxiliary ships was much smaller, they relied on their kiting advantage to trade space for time, dragging it out until the main fleet battle was decided.
Then, the British auxiliary ship group finally felt 210 mm and 150 mm shells starting to fly wildly overhead.
The German battlecruisers and armored cruisers had freed up their hands!
The battlecruisers’ 305 or 280 mm main guns had too slow a rate of fire, averaging only two salvos per minute, unsuitable for facing vast numbers of light cruisers and destroyers; they could only rely mainly on the six 150 mm secondary guns per side, with firepower density not particularly high.
And at this point, the Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser, which had previously quickly torn through the British escort fleet, once again got the chance to shine.
Its eight 210 mm guns per ship could achieve five salvos per minute, with firepower density 2.5 times higher than battlecruisers! Although the number of 150 mm secondaries was half that of battlecruisers, it was still sufficient.
Under the continuous bombardment of 210 mm shells, British losses began to appear one after another.
To make matters worse, the British had already lost unified fleet-level command; Lieutenant General Hastings had died with the “Majestic.” When the tide turned, British ships momentarily couldn’t decisively and uniformly accept new orders.
The light cruiser detachment commander, foreseeing the situation was wrong and that their three pre-dreadnoughts were done for and not worth saving, decisively ordered a turn and high-speed withdrawal.
But some captains didn’t receive this order in time, and meanwhile, the destroyer detachment commander and light cruiser detachment commander weren’t in agreement.
The result was that some wanted to cut losses, while others wanted to fight to the end.
The situation became utterly chaotic, turning once again into a gourd baby saving grandpa scenario, with ships going up one by one to be sacrificed.
Major General Hipper, seeing this, was of course overjoyed; he wasn’t about to sympathize with the enemy and quickly ordered all ships to go full fire, free-fire interception.
In the melee, fully five overly reckless British destroyers became victims of disjointed command, successively detonated by the Scharnhorst-class.
At this point, the British finally calmed down; all auxiliary ships abandoned illusions and turned to full-speed escape.
In any case, light cruisers had at least 28 knots speed, destroyers even faster.
Compared to the opposite side’s top speed 26.5 knot battlecruisers, or the slightly slower armored cruisers, the British could still escape if they wanted.
However, unfortunately, they still had one last Achilles’ heel that the German ships would inevitably exploit.
……
“Can’t beat them so want to run? Not that easy! They still have one pre-dreadnought! We’ll chase slowly; my 26 knots versus his 21 knots, one or two hours and we’ll catch up!”
Major General Hipper on the conning tower, seeing the enemy fleet withdraw, also put down his telescope, a flash of resolve in his eyes.
The enemy’s light cruisers could escape, but the pre-dreadnought couldn’t! That ship was too slow!
If the British were determined to run, they’d have to abandon that last main force ship!
The pre-dreadnoughts that participated in today’s battle would be completely wiped out! Not one left!
Thinking of this, Hipper suddenly turned to Lelouch, wanting to test him: “You may not understand naval battle, but your insight is always astonishing. Tell me, will the opposite light cruisers escort that pre-dreadnought in orderly withdrawal, or abandon the main force and flee alone?”
Lelouch didn’t answer immediately but first glanced at the wall clock, then analyzed with full confidence:
“If I were a British general without additional intelligence, I’d definitely choose an orderly full-fleet withdrawal—it’s already midnight now; chasing west another one or two hours, round trip plus engagement time, it’ll probably be dawn.
So the British commander surely thinks we’ll be too fearful of pursuing Betty to waste that much time on them. And this fluke mentality will in fact cost them even more chips!”
Hipper, hearing this analysis, appreciated Lelouch even more.
Regardless of whether the other had naval battle expertise, his strategy and vision were absolutely no less than his own! Being a lieutenant was a real waste of talent!
Hipper grinned smugly: “Thinking the same as me; anyway, we have the previously unconsidered path to withdraw to Antwerp, not afraid of Betty’s interception, so chase to total annihilation!”
Thus, a momentum-like-a-rainbow pursuit battle unfolded in the waters increasingly close to the Strait of Dover.
Hipper led the battlecruisers and light cruisers, leaving behind the slightly slower two-knot Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, pursuing the British fleet at maximum speed.
In pursuit formation, they couldn’t maneuver to bring broadsides to bear; both sides could only exchange fire with bow or stern guns.
Nor could they precisely rangefind, only aiming left-right direction then roughly estimating range and firing.
But the British fleet’s gunfire was really too weak; this gunnery disadvantage was too great, with warships frequently hit, exploding, and catching fire.
After being beaten into a frenzy, occasionally a British light cruiser captain would get hot-headed and want to turn and charge with torpedoes.
But such disorganized sporadic actions only turned into gourd babies going up one by one again, changing nothing.
Hipper thus chased the “Queen” all the way from Nieuwpoort to Dunkirk. Along the way, light cruisers blocking were killed, destroyers blocking were killed.
Franks sortied torpedo boats from Dunkirk Port to aid friendly forces, but due to hasty arrival, lacking organization and scale, they were all defeated individually.
Especially the Franks’ 1914 450 mm torpedoes had an effective range of only 2~3 km. Often before closing to effective range, the torpedo boats were directly blown up by a blind 88 mm rapid-fire cannon hit.
Finally, Hipper’s fleet completely caught up to the “Queen” some ten nautical miles west of Dunkirk.
Four German battlecruisers approached from the northeast rear, gradually paralleling the “Queen,” with 16 305 mm guns and 16 280 mm guns madly salvoing against the “Queen” with only four 305 mm guns.
32 against 4 firepower ratio; the “Queen” endured only four or five salvos before taking multiple hits.
Engagement range from four km down to over two km, finally all battleships’ muzzles completely flattened for direct fire, no elevation, no rangefinding needed.
Just shell after shell hitting flesh, round after round exploding; the 228 mm pre-dreadnought main armor belt torn to shreds.
The “Queen” was hit by over 40 large-caliber shells in just 15 minutes of gunnery battle.
Actually from about the tenth hit onward, it had completely lost combat effectiveness, reduced to a floating empty shell.
But Hipper feared prolonged night bringing trouble, and being too close to Britannia homeland, pursued utmost quick decision, thus madly finishing off even overkilling.
Blasted to over 40 hits, the “Queen” finally had boilers and ammunition depot explode in succession, 305 mm main turret “decapitated” and flung hundreds of meters into the air.
That early morning, Britannia civilians supposedly standing on Dover’s white cliffs watching the sea could glimpse sporadic twinkling firelight dozens of nautical miles to the east—that was the “Queen” ammunition depot explosion and turret decapitation firelight.
Dover is the narrowest point of the Strait of Dover, with Dover Port and opposite Calais Port just over 30 km apart.
Sinking a pre-dreadnought in such a place was like《 Kung Fu》’s Brother Chen blocking the door to hack Feng Kutzi to death, then yelling for the others to come out and mop up.
Absolute massive insult to the Royal Navy!
Of course Hipper wouldn’t be crazy enough to yell for the Channel Fleet remnants to sortie from Dover Port to recover bodies.
After seeing the “Queen” completely explode, he directly full speed slipped away, racing back.
……
Merely half an hour later, the telephone rang at Minister Walton’s private residence.
“What’s so urgent? It’s 3 a.m.! Does it have to be Your Excellency the Minister right now?!”
The female secretary had just picked up, her tone already quite displeased. She really hated subordinates disturbing His Excellency the Minister in the middle of the night.
But after just two questions, she went silent, saying she’d immediately go call His Excellency.
“Your Excellency! Urgent wire from Dover Port! From Admiral Hood!”
Walton was still groggy from sleep: “What could Horace want at this hour? Oh, right, the Channel Fleet had a bombardment mission tonight… Did something go wrong?”
Thinking of this possibility, Your Excellency the Minister already had a somewhat ominous premonition before picking up the receiver.
But even so, Lieutenant General Horace Hood’s words on the line still far exceeded his psychological preparation.
“What? Four pre-dreadnoughts annihilated? Fleet commander Lieutenant General Hastings killed in action? And unspecified auxiliary ship losses?”
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Didn’t Hipper have another task? How could he appear at Ostend! I’ve already sent Betty to watch him!”
The Minister didn’t know how he hung up on Admiral Hood; he only felt his mind go blank, then dazedly dialed another number.
“Order David Betty at all costs, full speed, full force to cut toward the Netherlands coast, absolutely intercept all paths for Hipper to withdraw to Germania homeland! If he lets Hipper escape again, Betty’s done!”
“He dares to annihilate my four pre-dreadnoughts; I’ll have his four battlecruisers completely annihilated, blood debt paid in blood!”
——
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