Chapter 145: Write An Ending For The Warship Potemkin
Rommel’s bold decisiveness, Lelouch’s battlefield awareness and overall sea-land coordination,
ultimately caused the entire Lusha Army sent by the Lushans to counter-push the landing field to suffer a decisive heavy blow. Thousands of soldiers died directly in battle, and even more soldiers scattered or were captured.
Corps Commander Franger Major General was also panic-stricken like a homeless dog, and barely managed to ride away on horseback.
Rommel and Lister smoothly consolidated the landing field, then the two discussed and began advancing upstream along the Dniester River against the current, attempting to block the retreat route of the 3 Lusha Armies deployed at the former Lusha-Romania border back to Odessa.
For this step to take effect, it would take at least several days, or even more than a week; it wouldn’t be that fast.
But the collapse of the Lusha counter-landing troops also brought an important piece of information back to General Evert, commander of the Romanian Front Army in Odessa city.
And this important information would immediately have a direct and visible impact on the next actions of the Lusha Army.
……
Two hours after the defeat of the counter-landing troops, at the Romanian Front Army headquarters in Odessa city.
General Evert’s office was pushed open again, and a communications officer rushed in holding a telegram, reporting to the commander:
“Report to the commander! Corps Commander Franger, executing the counter-landing mission, sent an urgent telegram: the counter-landing mission failed, the 27th Army suffered heavy losses. Corps Commander Franger emphasized in the telegram that the Germanias concentrated a large number of pre-dreadnoughts, approaching the coast for bombardment, which caused him to suffer huge losses and led to the collapse under immediate counterattack by the enemy beachhead troops.”
General Evert was shocked: “What? Didn’t I tell the Black Sea Fleet to hold back the Germania Navy? Even if Admiral Eberhardt was wary of the size of the Germania Fleet and didn’t dare to immediately engage the Odessa Detachment Fleet, he should still be able to draw away the Germania’s main fleet!
Now there’s neither a decisive battle nor a diversion—what the hell is their navy doing! These cowards said laying mines could stop the enemy at first, but they didn’t achieve that either; this is already the third consecutive mistake! Those navy cowards are total trash!”
Enraged, General Evert immediately called the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol again,
but was told that the commander had personally taken the flagship ‘Imperatritsa Mariya’ and the fleet’s main force out to sea, so he was probably at sea now and unreachable by telephone.
With nowhere to vent his anger, General Evert had the Front Army headquarters radio directly send a radio telegram calling the Black Sea Fleet main force, which might now be anywhere on the sea between Odessa and Sevastopol.
Tell Admiral Eberhardt: All of the Ottoman Navy’s pre-dreadnought formation is bombarding our Army near the Dniester Estuary! Why aren’t you navy trash seizing this opportunity to seek a decisive battle with the enemy patrol blocking fleet!
The telegram should have been sent in cipher, but General Evert was already furious.
Plus, the Lusha Army and Navy cipher book systems are different; temporarily getting the navy cipher from the navy intelligence person in charge in Odessa Port, then translating it again would delay time.
So in the end, General Evert actually sent it in plaintext, and the telegram was full of maternal insults, basically cursing the navy incompetence from beginning to end.
The Black Sea Fleet did deserve to be cursed, after all, they had failed three times in a row to fulfill the promises they should have kept in sea-land coordination.
……
The plaintext telegram had just been sent out, and the Black Sea Fleet main force, which had departed Sevastopol Port and been sailing northwest for 5 hours, immediately received it.
This fleet was still maintaining radio silence, with the transmitter set to “receive only” mode, so receiving was no problem, just couldn’t reply.
When the radioman saw the telegram from friendly forces was in plaintext, he was shocked for a moment, but quickly delivered the content to the commander.
“Report to the commander! Received a telegram from the Romanian Front Army headquarters in Odessa! Condemning our fleet for avoiding the enemy and cowardice in battle.
The telegram mentions: All 5 ‘Vichersbach-class’ pre-dreadnoughts of the Ottoman Navy are suspected to still be lingering in the Dniester Estuary Sea Area, executing bombardment missions against the Romanian Front Army’s counter-landing troops.
Questioning why our unit isn’t taking advantage of the enemy fleet splitting up to seek a decisive battle.”
Upon hearing this, Admiral Eberhardt frowned: “Early this morning, when Major General Lujin sent the Odessa Detachment Fleet’s reconnaissance destroyer detachment to scout, he reported discovering heavy Germanian fleet concentrations near the Dniester Estuary, with both ‘Moltke-class’ and ‘Vichersbach-class’.
That’s why Major General Lujin didn’t dare act rashly, didn’t dare directly counterattack toward the Dniester Estuary, but instead took a detour southeast to first join up with us. I remember he also said the Germanias seemed to have spotted his trail and wanted to pursue him……
Could it be that the Germanias only used 1 to 2 high-speed battlecruisers to try tailing him? While the other low-speed old-style battleships are still in the Dniester Estuary Sea Area? The Germanias are that arrogant and still split their forces?!”
Before confirming this, Admiral Eberhardt had still been hesitant about whether to seek a decisive battle today.
If the enemy was truly superior, the Black Sea Fleet should prioritize preserving strength. Even if friendly land forces were sacrificed, leading to heavy Army casualties, there was no choice.
Naval operations must be rational, not decided by impulsive hot-blooded courage. The construction cycle of large warships is at least in years; any loss is enough to cripple.
But at this moment, realizing the Germanias were so arrogant and underestimating the enemy, wanting both absolute fire superiority at the Dniester Estuary landing field and to split forces to pursue the Odessa Detachment Fleet……
Then he must seize this opportunity to give the Germanias a lesson!
Originally, both sides were evenly matched, and the Lusha Black Sea Fleet might even be stronger. Now that the enemy split forces, not seizing this chance to beat them to death would be failing to take what heaven offers, and instead bringing blame upon oneself?
“Order the fleet to maximum speed! No more cruising speed, full speed ahead, rendezvous with Major General Lujin as soon as possible, and decisively engage that part of the Germanias pursuing Major General Lujin!” After figuring this out, Admiral Eberhardt immediately ordered decisively.
The 2 “Imperatritsa Mariya-class” battleships, 1 “Svyatoy Evstafiy”, all pushed their speed to the max, chugging toward the northwest.
But how could Admiral Eberhardt know that the Army’s earlier maternal-insult-laden telegrams had exaggerated.
The “Vichersbach-class” pre-dreadnoughts at the Dniester Estuary weren’t all 5, but only 2: “Vichersbach” and “Mecklenburg”.
But this misinformation issue was unknown even to Romanian Front Army commander General Evert himself, as he too had been deceived by his subordinates.
Who could blame the defeated corps commander, Major General Franger, for reporting to the Front Army commander: “My unit was bombarded by the enemy’s entire ‘Vichersbach-class’ battleships, leading to the disastrous defeat”?
And Major General Franger’s motive for reporting this way was easy to guess. He just wanted his disastrous defeat to seem less reckless, less incompetent.
Which general, after a defeat, doesn’t want to exaggerate the enemy’s strength a bit? Collapsing under auxiliary gunfire from 2 battleships is too embarrassing; saying they narrowly lost to bombardment from 5 battleships makes it an honorable defeat.
Back then, Lincoln mocked that Federal Army generals always claimed the enemy was at least three times their number after every defeat. By that logic, with the Federal Army at 400,000, Robert Lee would have 1.2 million troops?
But regardless, the Lushans were stepping toward the abyss amid this sea-land distrust.
……
“The Lushans actually really think all our 5 ‘Vichersbach-class’ are still in the Dniester Estuary Sea Area? Odessa’s Army headquarters really helped us big time!
I originally thought the enemy Army exaggerating by one or two enemy ships for face-saving was enough, but I didn’t expect them to blow it up so much!”
In the conning tower of “Goeben”, Admiral Spee received the plaintext telegram from Odessa’s Romanian Front Army headquarters almost at the same time as his Lusha counterpart.
After seeing the content, Admiral Spee was overjoyed, immediately took the telegram to show Lelouch aboard, and didn’t forget to glance at the several Lusha Warships on the forward sea horizon.
Lelouch, as an Army officer, should ultimately have gone ashore today to command troops with Rommel.
But for better sea-land coordination, Lelouch chose to stay on “Goeben” for real-time coordination. Anyway, with a tactical genius like Rommel micro-managing troops on shore, Lelouch could focus on the big picture.
Plus, he felt “Goeben” had a halo. Historically, this ship survived two world wars, decommissioning in the 1950s and scrapping in the 1970s; planning the entire campaign from this ship surely added a safety bonus.
At this moment, Lelouch looked at the telegram handed over by Admiral Spee, merely smiled faintly, not appearing too surprised.
Admiral Spee noticed his reaction and was curious: “Was this within your expectations too?”
Lelouch wanted to tell the truth, that this was all unexpected good fortune, and he hadn’t anticipated the Lusha Army exaggerating the enemy’s strength to this extent.
But since his comrade had already deified and imagined it, why burst the bubble? Maintaining the mysterious persona was pretty good too.
“As expected, the enemy’s grassroots Army soldiers don’t understand distinguishing naval gun fire density at all. With 2 rapid-fire cannon warships taking turns firing, constantly adjusting firing coordinates, the enemies on shore thought they were facing a salvo from a large group of 240mm gun battleships.” Lelouch said calmly, while pacing to the nautical chart table and using a compass to measure on the chart.
And the distance between the compass legs had already been set to match “Goeben”‘s top speed on the map.
After measuring, Lelouch continued: “After sinking those 4 enemy reconnaissance destroyers this morning, we could judge that the enemy Odessa Detachment Fleet had definitely sailed out. They were just uncertain of our numbers, so didn’t dare charge directly, sending destroyers to take a look first.
So, we had ‘Goeben’ immediately cut northeast to intercept, then tail the enemy Odessa Detachment Fleet slowly. Meanwhile, part of the ‘Vichersbach-class’ showed up at the Dniester Estuary, bombarding the enemy’s Army.
The enemy would definitely misjudge that we split forces, thinking our ‘Moltke-class’ were pursuing their fleet, while the old pre-dreadnoughts stayed at the landing field.
But actually, we had 3 old pre-dreadnoughts, with calculated routes, cutting directly east, using speed differences for pincer attack, arriving at the position where the Lusha Sevastopol Detachment Fleet and Odessa Detachment Fleet were about to rendezvous—even a bit earlier than them.”
This plan wasn’t completed by Lelouch alone; he didn’t have the basics for that. So Lelouch only handled the intelligence deception and misdirection part; the solid speed calculations and flanking route details were all done personally by Admiral Spee.
Of course, some staff talents in the fleet provided auxiliary calculations.
The essence of this plan boiled down to one point: Have high-speed battlecruisers tail via detour, pursuing the Odessa Detachment Fleet just out of reach, panicking the enemy and forcing them to call for aid.
While the slower ships actually detached early, calculated distances, and went straight to the afternoon battle rendezvous point.
One “tailing”, one “flank interception”.
This way, they could reap divide-and-conquer benefits without scaring the enemy away—if directly picking them off, after the Odessa Detachment Fleet was doomed, the Sevastopol Detachment Fleet would flee seeing trouble, so how to strike the enemy main force hard?
Need part of the pursuit force visible, part of the interception force hidden, to lure the enemy in.
And all this seemed ingenious and difficult, but actually wasn’t that hard to execute—because the Germania Fleet had airships helping, with superior air reconnaissance in the nearby sea area.
If they wanted, they could have intercepted Major General Lujin’s detachment from Odessa Port that morning, but Spee didn’t want to strike too hard too early and scare off the other big fish; this timed it to kill the small fish just before the big and small fish rendezvous!
This was the natural advantage of the intelligence and reconnaissance superior side.
No wonder the Lushans lost minefield cover, lost initiative to choose the battlefield, and couldn’t seize air superiority and aerial reconnaissance rights.
Losing under such reconnaissance disadvantage was only natural, not unjust at all.
At this point, Admiral Spee was completely confident in the entire campaign plan.
He just marveled at Lelouch’s brilliant strategies, how he thought of the extra trick of “having two pre-dreadnoughts keep showing up at the Dniester Estuary to mislead enemy judgment”!
This trick boosted their winning chances by several fold.
“Increase speed, finish off the ‘Potemkin’ ahead and its escorting ships!”
With Admiral Spee’s order, he slammed his pipe hard on the nearby telescope stand. The warship quickly accelerated again, rapidly closing on the enemy ships it had been nipping at for half the morning—
Turns out, earlier that morning, the two “Moltke-class” hadn’t fully unleashed their 27-knot speed, holding back to control the field, playing cat-and-mouse with the Lusha Odessa Detachment Fleet.
Straight-line distance from Odessa Port to Sevastopol Port: 185 nautical miles.
Considering avoiding near-port shallows and not sailing straight, actual full voyage about 220 nautical miles.
Old warships at 16~18 knots need 14 hours for the full course.
New high-speed battleships at 21 knots need only 10.5 hours.
When approaching each other, speeds add up; simple second-grade math shows Major General Lujin and Admiral Eberhardt head-on would rendezvous in as little as 7 hours.
But in practice, warships don’t always maintain max speed; 8 hours to rendezvous is normal too.
But unfortunately, Major General Lujin clearly wouldn’t live to rendezvous.
……
A few minutes later, in the conning tower of Lusha pre-dreadnought “Potemkin”.
Major General Lujin heard the dire news reported via ship internal voice tube from the aft bridge lookout.
“Report! Dead astern, bearing 307, 2 enemy battlecruisers, still closing at high speed! Distance now less than 14……12 nautical miles! The enemy wasn’t at full speed this morning!”
Shocked, Major General Lujin couldn’t help rushing to the aft bridge to check himself.
Around 10 AM, he knew enemy warships had vaguely appeared on the rear sea horizon, but he still fantasized about sailing desperately to hold out until joining the main force.
The next two hours of tailing went as he wished; the enemy seemed to close less than 5 nautical miles per hour, so he thought he could hold.
But just now, the enemy sped up again; by latest estimate, the speed difference was at least 9 knots! Meaning the pursuers could do 27 knots, runners max 18 knots!
With nearly half the speed difference, how could they possibly escape?
The enemy had deliberately held back at first?
Knowing return was impossible, Major General Lujin gritted his teeth and sent another plaintext telegram, reporting his coordinate position.
“My unit pursued by 2 enemy battlecruisers, will engage within 1 hour.”
For him, radio silence had been meaningless anyway, meaningless for the past 2 hours.
The enemy could visually spot his position; what was left to hide?
Admiral Eberhardt’s main fleet still had meaning in radio silence. Hide as long as possible, at least maximize suddenness upon battlefield arrival.
After sending this telegram, Major General Lujin ordered “Potemkin”‘s aft main turret to aim at the enemy, load shells, prepare to fire.
Meanwhile, accompanying armored cruiser “Kargoo”, protected cruisers “Askold”, “Bogatyri”, destroyers “Peydonis”, “Kariaklia”, also prepare for battle.
Protected cruisers and destroyers, being slightly faster, could turn to present broadsides for full firepower and torpedo launches.
But the armored cruiser and pre-dreadnought didn’t need to turn; keep full speed fleeing. Turning would double firepower but lose escape chance.
Another short 20 minutes passed, distance shortened another 3 nautical miles to just 9 nautical miles, over 16,000 meters.
The opposing 2 “Moltke-class” battlecruisers decisively opened fire.
2 warships, each with 2 forward main guns, total 4, lobbing 4 280mm shells far ahead to “Potemkin”‘s port front.
“Moltke-class” has 5 turrets 10 main guns, all on centerline; theoretically all 10 can fire to one side.
But unfortunately, this class’s 5 turrets only 1 at bow, so pursuit ability slightly weak; rear 8 need to swing broadside for firing arcs.
Fortunately still in ranging phase, only 1 turret firing was fine; the Germanias slowly fired every 20 seconds, constantly fine-tuning, splashes gradually nearing “Potemkin”.
“Potemkin”‘s main gun caliber actually one inch larger than “Moltke-class”, but extremely slow rate, about 100 seconds per salvo.
Time for “Potemkin” 1 salvo, “Moltke-class” fires 5.
The 2 “Moltke-class” slowly ranging with 1 forward main each, efficiency low; after over ten salvos, error shrank from 1000m to under 200m, near misses imminent.
Engagement range from 16000m down to 14000m.
To cover the main force, Lusha “Askold” and “Bogatyri” protected cruisers turned, blocking ahead of main force, at 12000m using their 6 152mm guns per side to fiercely fire on “Moltke”.
“Moltke” and “Goeben” totally disdained this, too lazy to use 280s on them, just countering with 150mm secondaries. These German battlecruisers also only 6 150mm secondaries per side, fire density matching the protected cruisers’ mains.
Relying on high rate of 6-inch guns, soon the 152s and 150s armor-piercing shells hit each other.
“Moltke”‘s forward armor hit by several 152 shells, but extreme angle caused all to ricochet.
While “Moltke-class” 150 shells on “Askold” were solid hits, each penetrating side armor belt, exploding deep in hull.
How could protected cruiser steel plates compare to battlecruiser?
Just 15 minutes later, both Lusha protected cruisers destroyed; their attempted max-range torpedoes doomed to no effect.
“Enemy protected cruisers suspected turned and launched torpedoes!” On German lookout tower, experienced officers, though not seeing torpedo entry, judged from enemy maneuvers they likely fired.
Upon hearing, Admiral Spee decisively ordered battlecruiser squadron to turn, no longer max-speed chasing “Potemkin”, but 90 degrees to other side; post-turn could use all 10 broadside guns to pound enemy.
Enemy protected cruisers’ torpedoes, even if fired before sinking, were pre-aimed at prior German course. With turn, totally wasted.
……
On “Potemkin”, Major General Lujin immediately learned the enemy turned.
“They turned? Thinking they’ve closed enough, now pursuing efficient fire? My ship unchanged, continue full speed ahead, seize chance to open distance!
After enemy turns broadside to us, us stern to enemy; hold 10 minutes, escape effective range!”
At the final moment, Major General Lujin chose to flee.
“Boom boom boom!” Post-turn German battlecruisers, total 20 280 shells, hurtled simultaneously, far more imposing.
Already ranged over many salvos, most error eliminated, forming straddles. Dozens-of-meters water columns fell back to sea, waves drenching “Potemkin” deck crew.
All terrified, unable to imagine surviving 10 minutes under such bombardment to reopen distance.
Luck not with Major General Lujin; just 40 seconds later, third salvo, 1 280 shell hit aft deck, blasting huge hole in stern.
Subsequent 4th, 5th salvos also hit each, 4th even 3 hits!
“Potemkin”, hammered by 5 280 shells at stern, soon major flooding in non-core areas. Several aft compartments took over 1000 tons seawater.
Aft main turret shattered turret ring bearings; though not penetrating front armor, lost traverse. Germans could safely single-sided slaughter by avoiding pre-aim.
“Potemkin” like dead fish, firing 152 secondaries futilely.
Another 20 minutes, this 20-year-old vessel finally sent to seabed, with 750+ crew as Black Sea fish food.
Then misfortune quickly befell armored cruiser “Kargoo” and 2 “Peydonis-class” destroyers.
This 7000+ ton armored cruiser had adequate 152mm main armor belt, compared to protected cruiser kin, its biggest edge: basically immune to German battleship/battlecruiser 150 secondaries.
So German battlecruisers ended its kin with secondaries, but must respect “Kargoo” itself, bringing out 280 mains.
After several 150 armor-piercing rounds bounced, 1 280 shell at 9000m, after 4 ranging salvos, precisely hit “Kargoo”‘s main armor belt.
300kg armor-piercing head violently tore through layers, exploding in deepest core compartments.
Thanks to these old armored ships using triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, not even steam turbines; explosion wrecked engine room but no chain reactions, just left warship dead in water.
“These old ships are pretty tough; coal-fired boilers no fuel explosion risk, reciprocating steam engines no steam blasts—perfect for gunnery practice.”
Lelouch watched through telescope this game-like easy kill; enemy hit once lost power, but clung on unsinking until pounded from 9000m to 6000m, seven-eight penetrations, finally capsized from flooding.
Old ships without fuel tanks, unless magazine detonation, basically un-instant-killable.
Naval battle lasted to around 2 PM; Major General Lujin’s Odessa Detachment Fleet annihilated.
Lusha Black Sea Fleet losses: 1 pre-dreadnought, 1 armored cruiser, 2 protected cruisers, 2 destroyers.
Lusha Black Sea Fleet remaining forces: only 2 battleships（ wounded in previous air raid）, 1 pre-dreadnought, 2 protected cruisers, 7 destroyers, personally led by Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Eberhardt.
