Chapter 21: A Feint Shot, Straight Into My Trap
Several hours later.
October 28, noon, London Admiralty.
“Hasn’t the latest news from Groningen come back yet? Are those Dutchmen you bribed reliable or not!”
Seeing that lunchtime was approaching, Naval Minister Walton Spencer recalled that he was still waiting for intelligence from the morning, so he summoned the person in charge of the relevant intelligence and confirmed it again in person.
Facing the reprimand, Lieutenant Colonel Murray Shute responded cautiously: “Your Excellency the Minister, I apologize for keeping you waiting. The civilian aviation enthusiasts we developed in the Netherlands before are all very reliable.
They have solid skills and politically align with the world order led by our great Britannia. This time it should just be an accident, perhaps bad weather or an airplane malfunction… After discovering the airplane did not return, we immediately sent people to investigate and supplemented reconnaissance again.”
Lieutenant Colonel Murray Shute belongs to the Naval Intelligence Department（NID） under Major General Thomas Jackson, and within NID, he is in charge of the aviation reconnaissance section.
He is also the founder; the aviation reconnaissance section was prepared and constructed by him personally in 1912, so in this field, no one is more senior than him.
Because air combat did not exist in this era before, Lieutenant Colonel Shute naturally would not think in the direction of “the airplane was shot down,” and naturally explained it as a meteorological accident.
Hearing his authoritative explanation, Walton could only accept it: “Tell them to intensify the supplementary reconnaissance, and notify me as soon as there are results! The Empire is about to take major action. We must confirm how many enemy main force battleships are in port and how many are wandering outside to ensure foolproof success!”
“Yes! Minister!” Murray Shute quickly agreed.
Walton had many matters and was too lazy to wait, so he went to the cafeteria for lunch first.
……
After arriving at the cafeteria, Walton got his meal and casually glanced around, just happening to see Channel Fleet Chief of Staff Admiral Hood also eating, so he walked straight over and sat diagonally across from him.
Walton is a big fat man, and sitting directly across or next to someone would feel cramped, so he always sits diagonally across when eating with subordinates.
Admiral Hood was in London this time to report on the Channel Fleet’s readiness status and for the final pre-war consultation.
Seeing Your Excellency the Minister approaching, he quickly stood up, and only sat down again after Walton was seated.
“How are Lieutenant General Hastings’s preparations? Can all his battleships deploy?” Walton took a big bite of fried fish, mumbling while chewing.
“Ready to strike at any time, please rest assured, Your Excellency. However, the Revenge of the King George V class has been refitting her main guns since the war began, and they were just completed. But the corresponding fire control system has not been broken in, and some observation and aiming instruments are still adapted for the old guns. Forcing a strike would require the gunnery officers to manually fine-tune based on experience, which would be less efficient.
The Hood of the same class was previously decommissioned and temporarily recommissioned after the war began, but no modernization refit was done. She can strike immediately if needed, and emergency supplies and maintenance have already been completed.
The other two more advanced main force warships have been kept in excellent condition, including the Formidable-class Majestic and Queen. When you previously required the Channel Fleet to prepare to cover the Belgian Army’s withdrawal, they were already ready to sail, but the Belgians did not hold out until we arrived to cover them…”
The Belgian Army had already been annihilated the day before, but Admiral Hood still took every opportunity at this moment to explain: The demise of the Belgian forces could not be blamed on the Channel Fleet’s untimely rescue, but on their own weakness, as they did not hold out for even this short time.
Naval Minister Walton had notified the Channel Fleet to prepare for the cover operation the day before yesterday, but a day later the Belgians were wiped out—what rescue was there to speak of!
Walton naturally knew his subordinates wanted to shift responsibility as much as possible, but clear water harbors no fish, so he was too lazy to quibble and just waved his hand:
“Enough, no need to talk about things that have passed! We must look forward quickly! Fortunately, the strike preparations Lieutenant General Hastings made were not in vain. Although the Belgian Army has perished, the Royal Navy’s face cannot be disgraced because of this! We must retaliate immediately!
Yesterday after learning of the Belgian Army’s annihilation, I urgently contacted the Franks and General Joffre, having their army assemble heavy forces from the Dunkirk and De Panne area, advance fully eastward to seize Nieuwpoort and Ostend! The Belgians were annihilated at Ostend, so we must take back Ostend to prove the goddess of victory still stands with the Empire!
Joffre was initially slow to act, saying their heavy cannons had not been brought up in time. But I assured him there was no need to rely on their dawdling land cannons; the Royal Navy would provide full fire support throughout this campaign! So Joffre finally agreed that as soon as we commence bombardment, they would immediately launch full infantry assault!
As for the trivial matter of Revenge’s fire control not being fully refitted, it doesn’t matter. This time it’s to execute shore bombardment, smashing those fixed targets—what need is there for precise fire control!”
Hearing this, Admiral Hood finally understood why Your Excellency the Minister, upon hearing of the Belgian army’s destruction, had the fleet maintain readiness and stand by in port for a day instead of retaliating immediately.
It turned out he needed to coordinate with the French Army for combined sea-land operations. The coordination work involved must be very complex, so delaying an extra day or two was completely normal.
Moreover, in Admiral Hood’s view, delaying a day or two made no difference anyway, as the Royal Navy was invincible and could strike whenever it wanted.
So he proactively requested: “Then, do we need to strike immediately? Since General Joffre has agreed.”
But Naval Minister Walton was an old fox, still waiting even at the last moment: “No rush! Yesterday I sent reconnaissance aircraft to Wilhelmshaven and other places to check the situation, and had spies in Kiel Harbor send back messages to verify the positions of the Germanian main fleet.
Kiel Harbor has replied: yesterday daytime all battleships were still in port. But the reconnaissance aircraft from Wilhelmshaven and Emden haven’t returned yet; I’ve sent another batch. We’ll strike after confirming the news—no need to rush that little bit of time.”
Admiral Hood: “Actually, as long as the ships in Kiel Harbor are there, the remaining enemies pose little threat…”
Naval Minister Walton glared at him: “Caution prevents great mistakes!”
Because he was waiting for intelligence, Walton ate this meal very slowly, and after finishing even ordered an extra glass of cognac brandy to sip slowly, lighting up Havana cigars one after another while waiting.
Admiral Hood could only endure Your Excellency the Minister’s secondhand smoke until past mealtime, and even the cafeteria staff didn’t dare urge the Minister.
It was unclear how much time passed when Lieutenant Colonel Murray from the aviation reconnaissance section and Colonel Oliver from the signals intelligence section suddenly arrived together, rushing straight toward Naval Minister Walton upon entering the cafeteria.
“Your Excellency the Minister, the supplementary reconnaissance results from this morning just came in: several of the Germanian main force high-speed battlecruisers are not in port!”
Hearing this, Naval Minister Walton and Admiral Hood both felt a chill in their hearts.
Both of them simultaneously thought of the same issue: Have the Germanian battlecruisers sortied? What is their target? Could they have foreseen that the Royal Navy would conduct bombardment operations on Nieuwpoort and Ostend, so they came to intercept?
But on second thought, it seemed too far-fetched, after all, the Royal Navy had not even formally sortied yet.
Fortunately, Naval Minister Walton was cunning enough; he immediately thought of two other potential key pieces of evidence and decisively confirmed:
“Today during the day, was there any enemy fleet at sea breaking radio silence? Secondly, can you confirm the time point when the enemy ships disappeared—did they sail from port last night, or even earlier? Does your aviation reconnaissance section conduct close-up aerial photography of enemy ports every day?”
Everyone present were experts, so they immediately understood why Walton was concerned about these points.
After a fleet sorties, to avoid exposing their whereabouts, they generally maintain radio silence and set radios to “receive only” mode. Thus, they cannot reply to queries from the home port and can only passively receive orders.
If the rear wants to issue new missions or orders to the fleet at sea, it must use wireless cipher telegrams—no other communication method is possible.
And the Britannia Navy had cracked the enemy naval cipher as early as August 20, over two full months ago, by salvaging a sunken Germanian submarine and seizing its cipher book.
As long as the enemy Naval Ministry notifies fleets already at sea of new combat missions via radio, the Royal Navy will inevitably intercept and decipher them!
And Walton’s question soon received a direct answer. Lieutenant Colonel Murray reported first: “We do not conduct aerial photography reconnaissance every day, because opportunities are not always available, and we must avoid exposing those neutral country pilots due to overly frequent operations.
However, considering enemy ships generally slip out at night and rarely during daytime, the enemies must have sortied at least last night early hours, or possibly the night before or even earlier. Daytime sorties could be spotted from afar by our land spies. Night sorties are to avoid ground spies approaching for reconnaissance—this is Hipper’s consistent practice.”
After Murray finished, Walton just nodded slightly, acknowledging his analysis, then silently turned to Oliver.
Colonel Oliver quickly replied: “The radio eavesdropping department intercepted several telegrams from Wilhelmshaven last night, just deciphered. They read: ‘Expect Hipper to select target independently and execute original harassment plan. Separately, our spy embedded in Yarmouth discovered a large merchant fleet departing the port today; no valuable targets for now.'”
Hearing Colonel Oliver relay the telegram message, the other three exchanged glances, and Walton and Admiral Hood both saw agreement in each other’s eyes.
Admiral Hood tentatively spoke for the leader: “Your Excellency the Minister, in your view… even if Hipper has sortied, he has likely been out for some time and did not sortie hastily upon learning of the situation along the Belgian coast.
As we all know, fleet departure preparations take a long time, at least a day or two. If the enemy decided to sortie only after the Belgian campaign concluded, it would be too late. Moreover, the instructions sent from the home port after sortie made no mention of other matters, just telling them to select their own attack target.
From the telegram analysis, Hipper should have long planned a surprise attack bombardment on one of the many ports along the Empire’s eastern coast. But the enemy spies embedded on our homeland infiltrated the port, observed ship movements and such, and recommended abandoning Yarmouth as a target, letting Hipper select an alternate—unfortunately, we don’t know what that alternate target is.”
Walton nodded in satisfaction, revealing a hint of approval for Admiral Hood’s statement.
This subordinate’s thinking matched his own.
In short, Hipper’s disappearance was “premeditated,” so it could not be for the immediate sudden event.
Hipper had sortied in advance and was at sea; even if he wanted to receive new missions, he had to listen to radio. And as long as Hipper could hear radio, the Royal Navy could also intercept and decipher it. Since no such orders had been received, it meant the enemy rear command had not issued such a mission.
There was actually still a slight loophole in all this—if Naval Minister Walton and the others knew that Hipper unusually sortied just before dawn today, then Walton and the others might still have a tiny chance of thinking:
“Hipper could have received the new orders in person on land before sortying, avoiding receiving mission instructions via radio the entire time.”
But the problem was, Naval Minister Walton and the others could not know Hipper had just left before dawn this morning—because the reconnaissance aircraft that could confirm “enemy ships were still in port before dawn this morning” had been shot down, and the pilot had been shot dead in the air by Lelouch.
So even this last one-in-ten-thousand sliver of suspicion was sealed off.
Naval Minister Walton pondered for a long time, finally issuing two formal orders:
“Have Lieutenant General Hastings immediately lead the Channel Fleet main force, secretly sortie after dark tonight, proceed to Nieuwpoort and Ostend, and launch full bombardment on the German Army! Coordinate with the French Army to seize back those two towns in one stroke!
Additionally, have Major General David Betty lead the fast battlecruiser squadron south to patrol and set ambushes at Yarmouth and major important ports on our east coast north of there, and dispatch homeland reconnaissance aircraft for a dragnet search within 200 kilometers of the east coast.
Once Hipper’s battlecruiser fleet is discovered, have Betty’s main force pounce entirely and strive to heavily damage or even annihilate the enemy!”
Walton’s thinking was clear: Facing an unknown threat, he would divide forces into two routes—one to attack, one to defend; the slow pre-dreadnoughts to execute shore bombardment.
The fast battlecruiser squadron to defend against possible enemy surprise attacks on the homeland.
Historically, Hipper did bombard Yarmouth this time, but he did it very secretly and was not caught by Betty, who commanded the fast battlecruiser squadron for the Britannians.
But in this life, Hipper had no intention of going to Yarmouth; he used the highly realistic feint plan of bombarding Yarmouth, deliberately leaking a trace of clues to lure Betty to a battlefield north, far from the Belgian coast.
——
PS: Another 4,000-word big chapter, so no splitting today…… Ferocious updates during new book period, over 7,000 words yesterday.
Mainly, the enemy’s plan, intelligence analysis, how they fell for it—these must be written, otherwise jumping straight to battle would be too fake.
Don’t complain about padding; my books definitely emphasize conspiracies and stratagems. If it’s just climbing tech to build weapons for advantage, anyone could write that.
New book period: seeking comments, seeking follows, seeking collections, seeking votes.
