Chapter 27: Both Sides Win Big, Winning Like Crazy
After destroying the “Queen,” Hipper immediately turned and retreated eastward, showing no desire to press his advantage or prolong the fight.
He had no thought at all about how furious and humiliated Minister Walton would be by his night’s achievements.
Those were not things a pure soldier should care about.
All he wanted now was to reach port as quickly as possible and let his officers and soldiers celebrate their victory.
So Hipper proudly inspected the entire ship and even took out some good wine to share with his subordinates. But he soon found that the mood of his officers and soldiers was not relaxed; instead, they were still anxious.
He was momentarily puzzled, but Lieutenant Lelouch, who accompanied him, was more perceptive. He quickly leaned in and reminded him:
“General, you only ordered us to return the way we came, but you didn’t say our final destination was Antwerp. The soldiers don’t know this and think we still have to break out back to Wilhelmshaven, so of course they are anxious.”
Hipper was startled and instinctively put his hand to his forehead, mocking himself: “Look at my memory, I was so focused on the battle that I forgot this. I’ll announce it quickly to put everyone’s minds at ease.”
“General, should we announce it so soon?” Lelouch kindly reminded him.
Hipper looked at Lelouch in surprise: “What do you mean? We’ve already achieved a great victory, do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?”
Lelouch: “I do have some insights on the details, perhaps it’s clearer from an outsider’s perspective. Just humor me for a moment—after this battle, I can determine with about 90% certainty that Britain has deciphered our naval cipher! That’s why David Betty was misled and Hastings was negligent.
And we should try our best to keep this secret. Knowing it, we should continue to pretend we don’t know, so that we can gain something even bigger next time! This requires you to continue playing the role of ‘acting on your own initiative by chance and disobeying orders’…”
Hipper waved his hand impatiently: “You’ve said all this before! Get to the point!”
Lelouch: “The point is, if we return directly to Antwerp, it will appear that you had already planned your retreat, rather than being ‘left with no choice and forced to do so.’ You’d better pretend to explore other possibilities first.
It’s like in those common law countries like Britain, where first-degree murder is ‘premeditated and intentional,’ and second-degree murder is ‘impulsive and passionate.’ You need to act like a second-degree offender right now.
Of course, I’m just giving you a heads-up purely from an intelligence deception perspective. Military security must come first in all things. If there’s no certainty regarding military security, then don’t add any complications.”
This time, Hipper understood immediately. Then he pondered it from a purely military perspective and realized that this plan was indeed feasible, allowing for both military objectives and intelligence deception to be achieved!
He couldn’t help but say joyfully: “Your idea is brilliant! And I can do it perfectly! I’ll pretend to be heading back to Wilhelmshaven for now, and when we encounter Betty’s search party, I’ll pretend to be afraid of the strong enemy and decisively turn towards Antwerp!
That way, it will seem like I was ‘terrified of the enemy, bullying the weak and fearing the strong, and forced back to Antwerp,’ rather than having planned it from the start!
Moreover, Betty must be in a frantic state now, wanting to find me, and fearing that I might slip away. He’ll have to split his forces to search, spreading his fleet wide. As long as I concentrate my forces at one point to break through, even if I encounter his warships, I won’t face too many enemies at the same time. If I turn immediately, I’m absolutely sure to shake him off!”
The more Hipper thought about it, the more he found this measure to be both bold and imaginative, truly brilliant.
Seeing that he was confident, Lelouch was also secretly pleased, and finally added: “Moreover, with this approach, we can incorporate more intelligence deception tactics later on!
For example, as we discussed before, the biggest risk of retreating to Antwerp is ‘that there is no large naval shipyard there, so warships that are severely damaged cannot be repaired.’ You are willing to retreat to Antwerp now because none of our main ships are severely damaged and require major repairs.
But once you pretend to have been forced to retreat to Antwerp after encountering Betty, in the future you can pretend that ‘several battlecruisers have been seriously wounded,’ and even use the cipher that the enemy has already deciphered to send a telegram to the rear requesting ‘expansion of the Antwerp shipyard to repair large warships,’ to further lull the enemy into a false sense of security, making them think you are already crippled in Antwerp…”
Upon hearing this, Hipper couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.
This was too devious!
It was a deadly series of deceptions, with every move hitting its mark!
However, when dealing with the British, no amount of cunning is too much. Since their name implies deception, this could be considered a case of using their own tactics against them.
Hipper accepted all the proposed ideas and was extremely grateful to Lelouch.
……
Everything that followed was only natural.
To make the mindset of “stirring up trouble by any means necessary” more realistic.
Hipper arranged some inexpensive but effective feints.
For example, at four in the morning, while returning to port and passing Dunkirk Port, he unprecedentedly ordered several battlecruisers to suddenly open fire with their main guns, using high-explosive shells, at the port area, docks, warehouses, and barracks on the shore from a distance of 15 kilometers.
The bombardment was very brief, lasting less than 15 minutes in total.
Each main gun fired 20 rounds of high-explosive shells, which are not commonly used in naval battles. They destroyed more than a dozen facilities, killed thousands of sleeping French soldiers, and destroyed over a hundred thousand artillery shells in stock and several dry docks and piers.
These losses would be enough to give Marshal Joffre a severe headache for quite some time.
While Hipper’s main ships were conveniently plundering, the “Scharnhorst-class” armored cruisers, which he had left behind at the rear due to their slow speed, were also not idle.
These two armored cruisers, along with a small number of light cruisers, began bombarding the positions of the town of Nieuwpoort, which had been captured by the French army, from just after one in the morning—
That area had been defended by the German army and attacked by the French army in the first half of the night, with British battleships providing fire support.
The French army, having finally captured the town with the continuous support of their allies, unexpectedly found themselves being bombarded by enemy warships not long after.
The French attacking force, which had just captured the ruins and was not yet familiar with the terrain, was once again severely depleted, thrown into disarray, and their morale was extremely low.
The German army, at the time, had been prepared; they knew how to execute an elastic defense and had prepared subsequent defensive lines and small boats for troop transfer.
The French army had no preparations for an elastic defense. The shells they took were direct hits, and the indiscriminate shelling killed at least several thousand more people.
And Hipper’s series of actions could be interpreted by the enemy as “desperately stirring up trouble to break out and cover their true location.”
For a time, the intelligence systems on the other side of the strait were in great confusion.
Some urgent reports indicated that Hipper was in Dunkirk and was heading back to his home country to the northeast immediately after bombarding Dunkirk.
However, other intelligence suggested he was in Nieuwpoort, or even Ostend, and intended to return northeast from there.
The most absurd claim was that he had reached the port town of Vlissingen at the turning point of the Netherlands peninsula and intended to sail north along the coast, violating the neutrality of the Netherlands.
Three messages were transmitted simultaneously, each indicating a return route to the north that was at least an hour’s travel apart in the east-west direction.
This made it difficult for David Betty to know which one to believe.
Ultimately, Betty, considering Minister Walton’s fury and the fact that the Minister had made him give his word that he would not let Hipper escape.
Betty had no choice but to divide his battlecruisers into three squadrons, each with two to three ships, forming a search net spanning sixty nautical miles from west to east.
No matter which point of this net Hipper encountered, reinforcements from other points could quickly arrive to encircle and destroy him.
At the same time, Betty knew that by dividing his forces, any squadron that encountered Hipper would face a local disadvantage in numbers.
Therefore, he ordered that upon spotting the enemy, no squadron should engage in prolonged combat. They were to maintain distance, stall, and send a telegram for all friendly forces to converge for a decisive battle once surrounded.
The British battlecruisers still had a slight speed advantage over the German battlecruisers, so Betty could still achieve “fight if you can, run if you can’t,” there was no doubt about that.
……
On the other side, after completing all the deception work, Hipper ultimately chose the middle route among the three northward passages as his feigned breakout route.
Not because this route was the best, but because he had no choice—the two “Scharnhorst-class” armored cruisers had been left by him near Ostend. He had to rendezvous with the “Scharnhorst-class” before returning north and could not abandon his comrades and proceed alone.
Of course, having already considered that he would have to turn back to Antwerp later, Hipper was extra cautious: he deliberately put the battlecruisers at the front, with the slow-moving armored cruisers trailing behind.
On the surface, this was because “the entire fleet was breaking out at full speed, and the battlecruisers, with their faster speed, were at the front.”
In reality, since they would have to feign defeat and flee in disarray upon encountering the enemy, the “rear would become the front,” allowing the armored cruisers to travel ten nautical miles less and return to Antwerp more quickly.
All the details were perfect.
The fleet sailed until after seven in the morning. Shortly after dawn, Hipper’s fleet indeed spotted two large enemy ships on the northern horizon.
These were clearly battlecruisers from Betty’s fleet, which had rushed to intercept them overnight.
“Two enemy battlecruisers detected due north! Suspected ‘Invincible-class’! Bearing 345/355.”
As the enemy situation was discovered, all four of Hipper’s battlecruisers became tense and entered combat readiness.
After the fierce engagement of the previous night, two of Hipper’s battlecruisers had been hit by the enemy’s 305mm shells and were slightly damaged. The other two had also been hit by several 150mm secondary guns, damaging some upper structures or secondary guns.
In addition, they had bombarded enemy ports, and the total ammunition expenditure was nearly half. Their combat status was certainly not as good as that of the full-strength British battlecruisers opposite them.
Hipper, combining the known intelligence, muttered to himself as he analyzed: “There are only three ‘Invincible-class’ ships. The ‘Invincible’ is currently with the Mediterranean Fleet, so these two opposite must be the ‘Australia’ and ‘New Zealand’… All ships turn to course 120, form line abreast to meet the enemy!”
Course 120 is 30 degrees east of due north, which is a course that can return to Antwerp, although the final leg would require a further southward turn.
However, maintaining a course of 120 at this moment would ensure an engagement angle with the enemy ships, with all the front main turrets of each ship turned to their maximum rearward angle, perfectly positioned to “drag anchor” and aim at the enemy ships.
……
“Four German battlecruisers detected! Bearing 75/85, confirmed as Hipper’s battlecruiser fleet!”
Almost at the same moment, inside the bridge of the “Australia,” Betty’s second-in-command, Rear Admiral Archibald Moore, also received the news of the German ships’ detection.
Major General Moore’s first reaction was to quickly maintain distance and stall until Betty’s other five battlecruisers arrived. Then, seven against four, they would annihilate the enemy by superior numbers!
Right now, it was two against four, impossible to win. A wise warrior knows when to retreat.
Although the British forces were superior in total numbers, due to the need for a search net, all ships could not be gathered at once, so they had to stretch and stall for time.
In an hour, at most two hours, the other ships would arrive, and then it would be Hipper’s doom.
But what Major General Moore did not expect was that shortly after he also issued the order to turn and “drag anchor,” he discovered that the German ships were also turning to “drag anchor”!
The German ships began to move south by 30 degrees to increase distance, while the British ships moved north by 30 degrees to increase distance, and the two sides quickly grew farther apart.
“What’s going on? Are we afraid of the enemy too? Did Hipper really turn and flee upon seeing me? No, turn back quickly! Hard to starboard! Turn to 150! Chase them! Just maintain distance, don’t get too close, but don’t let the enemy escape!
Don’t get within 15 kilometers, and the enemy ships won’t be able to penetrate our main armor belt! Fire at the enemy from maximum range to harass them! Just delay their retreat!”
Major General Moore knew he couldn’t win; he just wanted to maintain distance and stall for time.
As long as the enemy was forced into an engagement, they would have to slow down to increase their accuracy.
At extreme speed, due to wind and waves, accuracy would drop sharply. Only at cruising speed could they fire steadily.
……
“How foolish, they thought we were trying to bypass them and break out from another angle? Heh, I simply want to return to Antwerp. Since you want to chase, I’ll show you some more color. Fifteen degrees north, to gain a better salvo angle!”
When Hipper saw Major General Moore chasing him so eagerly, he knew the other party had misinterpreted his intentions again.
In that case, he didn’t mind slightly reducing his speed from 26 knots to the cruising speed of 18 knots for firing, and simultaneously turning slightly north to gain a better T-crossing advantage.
The so-called T-crossing advantage, as is well known, is when one fleet forms a line abreast in naval warfare, with all main guns able to fire in salvo on one broadside. The enemy, on the other hand, enters the firing range one by one in column. Initially, only the first ship can counterattack, and only after gradually approaching and adjusting its formation can the subsequent ships retaliate.
Since Major General Moore was in a hurry to chase, he fell into a formation disadvantage, becoming the vertical line of the T, while Hipper formed the horizontal line.
Once both sides entered each other’s range, only “Australia” could fire immediately, while “New Zealand” would take another ten minutes to fire.
This meant that in the first ten minutes, the German ships could concentrate their fire, four against one, on the “Australia.”
“Boom, boom, boom, boom~”
As the “Australia” entered range, 16 305mm shells and 16 280mm shells began to be test-fired at it.
Due to the extreme distance, all shells fell short, and rangefinding had to be redone.
Even so, Major General Moore was startled. A salvo of 32 shells aimed at his single ship was quite a reception.
He immediately ordered his 8 305mm guns to fire back, and the two sides exchanged fire back and forth.
Two minutes later, five minutes later… as time passed, both sides exchanged seven or eight rounds, gradually completing rangefinding and becoming more accurate.
Ultimately, quantity did indeed ensure quality. During the eighth volley, the “Australia” was hit by a 280mm shell first.
Fortunately, the distance was great enough that it did not penetrate the core area.
However, more shells then landed, with two hitting the bow and stern respectively, immediately creating several large holes in these non-core areas without main armor belts. Some compartments began to flood. Damage control immediately sealed the internal watertight doors, ultimately limiting the water ingress to two to three thousand tons.
The flooded warship began to reduce speed and could no longer keep up with the enemy.
Ultimately, the “Australia” was hit by 7 large-caliber shells, its bow and stern were heavily damaged, and its maximum speed was reduced to 15 knots.
The “New Zealand” was also hit by 2 shells, which destroyed one of its casemate decks and the auxiliary bridge lookout tower.
The counterattacks from the two British ships also had some results, hitting two German ships each once, but the specific damage effects could not be confirmed due to the distance.
The final result of this battle was that the German ships hit the enemy 9 times, and the British ships hit the enemy 2 times, after which they broke contact.
Major General Moore had indeed bought some time. Considering that David Betty’s other 5 battlecruisers were about to arrive on the battlefield, Hipper dared not prolong the fight and retreated with his gains.
Considering that the “Australia” was heavily damaged and had greatly reduced speed, Moore did not dare to let “New Zealand” chase four enemy ships alone, fearing a disadvantage that could lead to being counter-killed and sunk, so he could only watch the enemy escape.
After David Betty arrived with the main force, the combined 7 battlecruisers pursued furiously, but Hipper had escaped at least half an hour earlier and was now beyond reach.
By noon, Hipper had entered the fjord near Antwerp Port, passing the Vlissingen headland in the Netherlands.
Betty continued the pursuit, but soon after entering the fjord, a scout destroyer exploded spectacularly and sank immediately.
“The Germans have laid moored mines at the entrance of the Vlissingen fjord! This area was controlled by Belgian forces just a few days ago! These must have been laid recently!”
Seeing the narrow fjord terrain and a warship destroyed by a mine, Betty dared not pursue further. He could only blockade the fjord entrance, ensuring that Hipper was trapped like a turtle in a jar, and then sent someone to send a telegram to Minister Walton.
A few minutes later, in Downing Street, London, Minister Walton received a phone call.
“Your Excellency the Minister, our fleet intercepted Hipper’s fleet approximately 40 nautical miles northwest of Vlissingen. However, upon seeing our superior force, Hipper immediately turned and fled.
Our fleet pursued, hitting enemy ships multiple times, but due to the long engagement distance, fatal damage was not inflicted. The enemy fled in panic towards Antwerp. Our fleet could not pursue into the fjord, but we have ensured that the enemy fleet is trapped inside the fjord.”
Hearing that the enemy was at least trapped in Antwerp, Minister Walton felt slightly better.
Well, with this, at least the enemy could do nothing more and had become a “fleet in being.”
Moreover, since they had fled in such a sorry state, they could exaggerate the damage to the enemy ships, which would also help the Royal Navy regain some face.
Minister Walton’s mood slightly eased, and he immediately instructed someone to notify 《The Times》 to quickly publish a victory report.
It would state that “all four of the enemy’s new flagship battlecruisers in the North Sea theater were heavily damaged by General David Betty’s battlecruiser fleet in today’s artillery battle. To avoid total annihilation, the enemy fled in panic to Antwerp. There is no other way out of that location, nor is there a naval repair yard, and all four German ships are in a desperate situation.”
In short, in the hands of 《The Times》, the Royal Navy had won a tremendous victory.
Hipper’s four battlecruisers were all severely beaten, and apart from still being afloat on their last breaths, they were in a state of “critical health/severely damaged/one shot away from death.”
As for the ships sunk by the Royal Navy, they were all garbage that was twenty years out of date and scheduled for dismantling and decommissioning. The German ships had merely saved the Royal Navy some dismantling costs.
Of course, these were all spectacles for the masses. Internal reviews would be a separate matter.
——
PS: No split updates today. New book seeking comments, follow-ups, collections, and votes. Thank you.
PS: I will not be posting an additional update today. Seeking comments, follow-ups, collections, and votes for the new book. Thank you.
