Chapter 166: Defection On The Battlefield! Brothers, Let’s Fight Those Tsar’s Guards!
“It’s over! As expected, we’ve been caught up by that demon Hipper!”
When Hipper’s fleet appeared on the horizon, Admiral von Essen’s heart involuntarily filled with despair. He had already done his utmost to guard against the enemy’s reinforcements, but unexpectedly, he was still a bit too late in escaping.
He subconsciously glanced toward the northeast; two more hours of sailing in that direction would bring them to Hanko Cape, where Peter the Great had once destroyed the Swedish fleet.
But could he still lead his subordinates back there? Even if they reached Hanko Cape, to retreat into the depths of the Gulf of Finland, under the protection of their own minefield, would require at least another two hours of sailing. It was already too late.
They could only fight!
Hipper was pursuing very aggressively; his 28.5-knot overload maximum speed allowed him to quickly catch up to an old pre-dreadnought “Rostislav” from 1888 at the rear of von Essen’s fleet.
This ship was really too slow, and it was armed with only four 305 mm 35-caliber old short-barrel guns, a design from 1886.
Its firing rate was as slow as that of “Dingyuan/Tingyuan,” or rather, they were products of the same era— one shot every 3 minutes.
While pursuing at maximum speed, Hipper was also calibrating fire, with plenty of reconnaissance aircraft in the air providing him precise reports on range errors. Fifteen minutes later, when the first 305 mm armor-piercing shell landed on the “Rostislav’s” side, the ship was immediately blasted with a huge hole, and its speed sharply dropped.
These ships did have 305 mm thick armor, but it was wrought iron armor, a product from an era before even Harvey steel existed.
Converted to equivalent Harvey steel, it would be at least 30% less effective. Converted to Krupp steel, another 10% reduction. So in reality, it was only equivalent to just over 180 mm of German dreadnought armor.
Just five minutes after the first hit, the “Rostislav” was sunk by concentrated fire from three battlecruisers, without achieving any counterattack results throughout. Its main guns did manage to fire two salvos, a total of eight shells, none of which hit.
……
“Too terrifying, just massacred without any power to resist. If I were a Lushan, if I were commanding those two pieces of old junk, I’d definitely run by now.”
Lelouch, hiding in the conning tower of “Derfflinger,” witnessed all this through his telescope and muttered to himself as if speaking to Vice Admiral Hipper.
The other staff officers and adjutants around the vice admiral, as well as the captain of this ship, were already used to it. They all knew that this elusive Colonel Lelouch always treated their vice admiral as a friend and could say anything outrageous.
“Don’t you have a strong sense of soldier’s honor too? That doesn’t sound like something you’d say.” Hipper casually quipped back.
“This has nothing to do with honor. This is just unilaterally throwing away lives with no value. Do you think the enemy sailors have that high a sense of honor? Fighting to the end even knowing it’s certain death?”
Lelouch casually joked; he wasn’t really seeing through anything, just sighing from history he’d read in his previous life.
During World War I, how many collapsing monarchies started with mutinies from the sailors. When Emperor Wilhelm mocked the cruiser shelling the Tsar, did he ever imagine his own sailors in Kiel Harbor would ignite the fire of rebellion.
Sailors are far more rational than soldiers, and they know willpower has little influence on naval battle outcomes. Land battles allow more room for pure willpower, naval battles do not.
However, perhaps Lelouch was just lucky. He had only been reminiscing about history, but as he sighed, the opposing Lusha Fleet showed signs of unrest.
Among the remaining two utterly junky 1888 pre-dreadnoughts, one—later learned by Lelouch to be called “Twelve Apostles”—directly left the battle line and fled southeast alone as the German ships closed in.
Judging by the course, it probably couldn’t make it back to Hanko Cape or Helsinki; it was likely heading for the coast near Tallinn in Estonia on the south bank.
Hipper’s three “Derfflinger-class” ships weren’t originally planning to chase it, just pursuing along the Lusha Fleet’s battle line from diagonally astern. The first target was the “Georgy” behind it; only after sinking “Georgy” would it be the “Twelve Apostles'” turn.
But who could resist the high certainty of expectation from this “execution one by one” style of warfare.
“Georgy” wasn’t dead yet, but in its comrades’ eyes, it was already a dead man walking. So “Twelve Apostles” quickly anticipated this, seizing the moment when the enemy would waste time killing its comrade to run first.
It would be too late to run after its comrade died!
On “Twelve Apostles,” there were probably some disputes, some infighting shootouts—after all, there were Tsar’s Guard loyalists on board—but no one knew anymore.
As soon as “Twelve Apostles” broke formation and fled alone, the lookout on “Derfflinger” immediately reported it, and the captain asked Vice Admiral Hipper: “Commander, should we detach forces to pursue that ship?”
Hipper raised his hand: “No need, don’t disperse forces and interfere with pursuing and killing the enemy’s dreadnoughts. Let those little junk ships run if they want; at least it’ll mean fewer interfering targets splitting our fire when we kill the dreadnoughts.”
With that, Hipper gave Lelouch a look of dubious puzzlement mixed with awe and sincerely said: “Could it be… that what just happened was also within your expectations?”
“No no no, I’m not some charlatan. I just read a lot of history, so I was sighing and using the past to illuminate the present.”
Lelouch hurriedly clarified that he was just speculating on general patterns of human nature from history, nothing more.
Hipper sighed noncommittally: “Then I need to read more history books too. I’ve long heard you studied thousands of years of Eastern history books and military strategy; I didn’t expect so much… adaptability, insight into human hearts could be gleaned from them.”
In the few minutes of their chat, the three “Derfflinger-class” ships’ main guns had already targeted “Georgy,” then fired.
First salvo, shells landed at least 800 meters away, but one minute later it was calibrated to just over 300 meters, with errors shrinking rapidly.
And when “Derfflinger” fired its third salvo, with one shell landing less than 50 meters from the enemy ship—forming a near miss—they soon saw a huge white flag hoisted on the main mast of “Georgy”!
They wanted to surrender? Could they be trusted?
“Ceasefire first and observe! As long as the enemy ship doesn’t fire back, we can hold fire, but maintain over 12 kilometers distance! At the same time, keep speed.”
Hipper quickly judged and issued precise, perfectly timed orders.
He knew the enemy ship’s 35-caliber short-barrel guns’ maximum range couldn’t reach 12 kilometers, so maintaining distance meant absolute safety, no fear of tricks.
But just ceasing fire wasn’t enough; Hipper soon had the communications officer send two plain-text telegrams:
Requiring the enemy ship to train main guns straight forward and straight astern, turn around and sail southwest, and accept boarding by their large torpedo boats.
The enemy ship complied with the first two within minutes, but due to time constraints, the two sides would soon pass each other. Hipper had no time to actually send large torpedo boats to board and capture immediately.
So the third was just for show; as long as the enemy kept that course, by the time it left the “Derfflinger-class'” sight, it would basically be controlled by the two “Nassau-class” ships behind.
Three junk pre-dreadnoughts: one instantly killed, one deserted and fled, one surrendered—the overwhelming momentum thoroughly boosted the Germania Fleet’s morale, while the three half-crippled “Gangut-class” ahead fleeing had their morale plummet further.
“Sevastopol” and “Poltava” had started accelerating when they saw the “Derfflinger-class” instantly kill “Rostislav” earlier.
Pushing speed to 22 knots, gradually leaving behind the more heavily damaged “Petropavlovsk” that couldn’t keep up.
Fifteen minutes later, Hipper finally caught up to “Petropavlovsk.”
With its comrades accelerating away, this “Gangut-class” with only six main guns left had to face the enemy’s righteous three-on-one alone.
Hipper knew inwardly this wasn’t entirely fair, but it was a chance to show off muscle. So he repeatedly ordered all ships to fully demonstrate their trained artillery tactics, perform well, kill one to warn the others.
Make full use of the spotting advantage from fighter jets and reconnaissance aircraft in the air.
The fleet cautiously closed to within 15 kilometers before opening fire. And while firing, continued maintaining maximum speed to close the distance.
“Compared to battleships, battlecruisers’ biggest defensive weakness is thin horizontal protection—thin deck armor—so closing distance benefits us too, ensuring enemy trajectories are flat; even if they hit, it’s on the side main armor belt.
The ‘Derfflinger-class’ side main armor is 12 inches thick like the ‘Nassau-class,’ just with decks 2 inches thinner—don’t let the enemy use lobbing fire to hit the tops.
After issuing commands, Hipper leisurely explained the experience to Lelouch beside him, wanting him to understand not just the how but the why.
Lelouch listened attentively, nodding frequently as if gaining sudden enlightenment, providing ample emotional value—though he already knew this common knowledge.
“Petropavlovsk” desperately wanted to counterattack, but the enemy ships’ high speed made aiming difficult, especially now that the Lushans had lost air superiority, with no spotting aircraft overhead.
The Lusha ship wildly fired its remaining six main guns; by the sixth salvo, the opponents’ main guns had found the range, 12-inch shells smashing into the main armor belt, blasting a hole with each hit.
Thick black smoke and roiling flames poured from the breaches; soon the boiler rooms and engine rooms were successively crippled, boiling steam surging wildly through the ship. Lusha damage control crews closed every valve they could, but couldn’t contain the steam’s violent leaks.
Seawater madly surged into numerous breaches on the left side where the main armor was penetrated; the already bow-and-stern-flooded “Petropavlovsk” now added massive left-side flooding, finally overwhelming its reserve buoyancy and settling vertically to the seabed—
This was also the first time since the start of this World War that a ship sank this way. Previously, even battleships sunk from excessive flooding by torpedoes or mines mostly capsized.
Compared to capsizing, settling straight down better illustrated the warship’s protection issues—it wasn’t just some local area easily penetrated, but the whole ship vulnerable everywhere.
Perhaps it would become a representative negative textbook example of “high offense, low defense” among dreadnoughts in human war history.
A mere 9-inch thick side main armor was utterly unacceptable!
Even the thickest armored cruisers had 8-inch armor; only 1 inch thicker than the thickest armored cruisers, and it had the gall to call itself a battleship?
……
The Germanians sank “Petropavlovsk” with concentrated fire without paying any price,
Though the ship was already half-crippled, the result still massively shocked the officers and sailors on the remaining two ships.
No matter what, it was a dreadnought. One of the Lusha Baltic Fleet’s only four dreadnoughts, same class as the other survivors.
If the Germanians could no-damage instantly kill “Petropavlovsk,” it meant they could possibly no-damage instantly kill the remaining two, or at worst take them with light damage.
Earlier, those three 1888 junk pre-dreadnoughts: after the first was instantly killed, the second surrendered, the third fled.
Now dreadnoughts down to three, first instantly killed, the remaining second and third… how was this fate script so similar?
People make associations, especially from fresh painful lessons—even the uneducated would draw parallels.
Soon, as the Germanians closed in again and shells began falling around, panic grew among the Lusha warship sailors.
They tried to return fire, but before achieving results, enemy armor-piercing shells landed successively: two on “Poltava,” one on “Sevastopol.”
Both ships had stern decks penetrated, sterns leaking and slowing; “Poltava” also suffered heavy damage to its stern main turret.
Thus, the already midships-two-main-turret-lost “Poltava,” now with stern main gun destroyed, had only forward guns able to fire.
But now fleeing at full speed, ass to the enemy, forward guns had no firing angle—that was pure punching bag rhythm.
This crisis finally ignited the sailors’ fear on “Poltava.”
“Surrender! Hoist the white flag! Don’t die for the Tsar!”
“The Tsar just killed over a hundred of our brothers last night! Brothers, don’t die in vain—fight the Tsar’s Guard!”
The anger accumulated from last night’s machine-gunning and walling up of 700 navy officers and sailors finally erupted at this moment.
Sailors at “Poltava’s” secondary positions and forward main guns first ambushed the nearby Tsar’s Guard loaders, instantly killing dozens of Tsar’s Guard soldiers and seizing dozens of Mosin-Nagants.
A few Tsar’s Guard soldiers, knowing fighting on meant death and not wanting to die, immediately tossed hats and raised hands to show their stance, hoping to avoid firefight.
Seeing tensions high, a few navy officers had a brainstorm: force the surrendering Tsar’s Guard to drop guns, strip clothes, and change into uniforms of nearby dead navy brothers before trusting their sincerity.
Coincidentally, Tsar’s Guard soldiers generally lacked nautical skills and couldn’t sail, but were strong; the Tsar liked picking big soldiers for guards, so on board, they were prioritized into turrets as loaders.
“Poltava” had so many turrets destroyed earlier, gunners and Tsar’s Guard both suffered heavy casualties.
Originally planned a full company armed to control the ship; before the sailors mutinied, actually only under 150 Tsar’s Guard left, then dozens ambushed, a few defected, leaving just over 70 stubbornly resisting.
Tsar’s Guard guns no longer outnumbered sailors’, especially with sailors five times their number.
Soon a huge white flag rose on “Poltava’s” main bridge mast; forward main turret stopped trying to train left but pointed straight forward, barrels elevated to maximum to avoid enemy misunderstanding.
……
“The enemy’s battleship actually surrendered? But… seems like infighting on the warship? A latest-model dreadnought surrendering? Is that possible?”
By then distance had closed to under 10 kilometers; through 60x Zeiss sights, they could barely make out chaos on the enemy ship from that far, though not specifics.
Vice Admiral Hipper was stunned at the sight, worrying it might be a trick.
“I don’t think it’s a trick! Anyway, our main guns are still on them, keeping them in check. Franz, quickly send sailors to accept surrender and capture them!”
Lelouch beside him accepted the outcome better than Hipper, and knowing historical WWI endgame navy revolts against monarchs in despair, he wasn’t too surprised after a thought.
He even analogized: “I think they’re fighting among themselves because some on board refuse to surrender. The Tsar must know there are many rebels among sailors.
And for the Tsar to force this fleet out to fight, probably to prove loyalty; given his paranoia, sending overseers aboard is possible. Maybe they’re fighting the overseers!”
Pointed out by this, Hipper suddenly realized: “Seems like that’s exactly it! But then… how do we handle the takeover? Our destroyer sailors generally have few guns; can’t pull crewmen for capture, right?”
Lelouch immediately had a flash: “Send my guards company! Quick, transfer by boat to a fast destroyer or large torpedo boat, then close in—see if they’ve dropped accommodation ladders!”
Lelouch’s current status was important; wherever he went, Duke Rupprecht hoped he’d stay safe, so he always kept his guards company nearby. This time boarding “Derfflinger,” ship had space and short combat transit, so brought them along.
Unexpectedly useful now.
Vice Admiral Hipper immediately saw the sense; Lelouch’s guards company were all equipped with submachine guns, far superior to Mauser G98 or Mosin-Nagant on board.
So he immediately sent radio and signal lights warning the surrendering enemy not to make dangerous moves, must cooperate; meanwhile called up V43 and V191 destroyers, and lowered lifeboats from “Derfflinger” for Lelouch’s guards company to transfer to the destroyers, then approach the enemy 7 km away.
Originally planned one destroyer, but V43 and V191 were smaller 800-ton types; cramming 200+ army soldiers was tight, so split into two batches, better safe.
First a smaller batch to try capturing the worse-off, lower-threat “Poltava.”
The other on standby, approach “Sevastopol” but stay outside small-caliber rapid-fire cannon accuracy range, lest sudden enemy action cause harm.
If “Sevastopol” decided to surrender too, rush in and capture.
Before departure, Lelouch instructed his guards company commander Captain Klose: “Be careful; if situation turns bad, withdraw immediately. Those two mere battleships—not capturing, just sinking them is fine.
You’ve followed me a year; others have risen fast, but you lack command talent, stuck as guards company commander. This is a chance to earn merit, for a future battalion-level treatment excuse.”
Captain Klose saluted excitedly: “Rest assured, Officer Lelouch! I’ll be careful and capture ‘Sevastopol’ back!”
Then they transferred off.
Meanwhile, Lelouch didn’t forget having the radio room short-range plain-text call “Sevastopol,” reasoning and appealing emotionally to negotiate surrender.
Lelouch improvised, mimicking his earlier private negotiation script for captured Black Sea Fleet Admiral Eberhardt—but omitting sensitive parts—using the rest to negotiate von Essen’s surrender.
Hipper beside him unaware Lelouch had already successfully negotiated Eberhardt’s surrender, so was so fluent.
Seeing Lelouch compose without pause, fluid and eloquent, Hipper was jaw-droppingly shocked:
“People can react this fast? Counterintelligence negotiation words flowing like a spring without thought? Terrifying… luckily God is on our side, oh no, luckily we’re on God’s side.”
……
Twenty minutes later, V43 destroyer carried a guards platoon all equipped with MP15 submachine guns near “Poltava.”
Fighting on “Poltava” wasn’t over; dozens of Tsar’s Guard holdouts barricaded in armored bridge compartments, firing out and throwing grenades.
Including the steering room controlled by Tsar’s men, so the warship could only elevate guns to show harmlessness but couldn’t adjust course.
Sailors resisting could only have engine room crew reduce main engine output to slow the ship, and boiler room soldiers depressurize.
As V43 closed, it signaled with lights; sure enough, sailors cooperated, dropping several rope ladders from the side.
Some sea swell, ship still moving, hull pitching; hard to close for alongside. Plus huge height difference between destroyer and battleship.
But V43 sailors were very brave; they pre-tied tire-like buffers on the side, forcefully closed in. To avoid accidents, after confirming no enemy intent, they pre-fired torpedoes from tubes.
A dull “clang,” then teeth-grinding metal scrape; V43’s side surely dented by “Poltava,” but seizing the moment, a batch of soldiers bravely climbed ladders, clinging tight to gain the deck.
With MP15 submachine guns and grenades, clearing compartment enemies was much easier.
Soon, all holdout Tsar’s Guard on “Poltava” were killed; sailors handed over close-combat weapons, showed surrender sincerity, then turned rudder southwest.
Germanians assigned pilots to guide them under supervision to Königsberg for repairs.
——
PS: Over a thousand words for many consecutive days.
Maybe not tight enough, polishing not fine enough, but due to updating too fast. 28 days this month, already updated 340,000 words; brain can’t keep up.
Next month slower pace might mean more plot; thanks for understanding.
