Chapter 82: Pre-dreadnought Close Blockade Of The Beachhead
Don’t think that this sea and land battle involving hundreds of thousands of people is just a bloody meat grinder on the front lines.
But while both sides were frantically attacking each other, a large number of inconspicuous British Army light cruisers, destroyers, and small transport ships were quietly evacuating the wounded and withdrawing British Army troops amid the chaos.
All of this was happening in parallel, but because the British Navy failed to occupy a deep-water port, the scale of this evacuation was small. No warships could dock, so they had to rely on small boats for ferrying or temporarily requisitioned fishing boats to transport people.
The British Army’s withdrawal wasn’t chaotic either. Units with combat effectiveness and troops near the Dunkirk City siege front line, of course, had to fight to the death without retreating, striving for that last chance to recapture the port.
But many already wounded soldiers couldn’t contribute much combat power if left behind, so it was better to withdraw them first. In case the army was annihilated, at least some embers could be preserved.
And to row boats and ferry these wounded soldiers, of course, some healthy oarsmen were needed as well. At this time, perhaps some officers or those with connections could manage to secure a bit of a chance to escape—though in the early 1915 British Army, there were still quite a few officers who upheld chivalry. They insisted on letting their subordinates withdraw first while holding out to the end themselves. Such noble figures occasionally appeared.
In this wave of temporary evacuation operations, the unit with the highest proportion saved was the 29th Division of the British 4th Army, which was encircled in the northwest corner of Dunkirk City—this army previously had the 29th Division and Indian 13th Division as its two divisional units, surrounded in this narrow area.
At the critical moment, of course, priority was given to saving the 29th Division, while sending the Indians—who were considered expendable—to hold the front and launch counterattacks.
So, during this night’s fighting, the vast majority of the 29th Division’s wounded, as well as the ordinary soldiers rowing boats to ferry them, successfully withdrew to transport ships and retreated to Britannian domestic territory.
Later, the frontal counterattack battlefield was firmly held by von Bock and Lelouch. After fighting for most of the night, the British Army could only capture some plain positions and never managed to advance up the mountains.
After Lieutenant General Douglas Haig realized the overall situation was hopeless and the task impossible, he decisively pulled the remaining living soldiers of the 29th Division toward the North Coast to the west. Taking advantage of the fierce melee where no one was watching that beach, he used the time before dawn to basically evacuate the remnants of the 29th Division.
Of course, because the withdrawal was too hasty and transport capacity needed to be conserved to squeeze in as many people as possible, these troops almost abandoned all their weapons, equipment, and supplies.
They even had to wear fewer clothes—anyway, on the crowded ships, it wouldn’t be cold. Cotton jackets were too bulky and thick, which would mean transporting fewer people. Better to strip off the cotton jackets altogether; after all, they’d be back home after half a day’s sailing, and new ones could be issued later for warmth.
Meanwhile, the Indian 13th Division, of course, had to cover the retreat of the British 29th Division, delay the enemy, and prevent them from reaching the beachhead.
Thus, the Indian 13th Division was ultimately annihilated. Except for a few who swam to large ships on their own, none escaped. Early the next morning, they were surrounded by the Germania Army on the beachhead like dumplings, and all survivors laid down their weapons and surrendered.
Only at this point did the fighting in the northwest corner of Dunkirk City truly end. This small encirclement area was completely occupied by the Germania Army, and all British Army troops in the urban area either fled or were pushed into the sea.
Such an outcome was not surprising at all.
In Douglas Haig’s eyes, only Britannians’ lives mattered. As for those filthy Indians, they should feel honored to serve as consumables for the Empire. Did they even deserve to consider themselves human?
……
At the same time that Haig in the northwest corner of the battlefield led the remnants of the 29th Division to abandon all equipment and supplies and successfully withdraw by sea route.
Along the coast at De Panne and Nieuwpoort, Britannia Army troops were also using small transport ships—preferably those with relatively decent speed—to evacuate as many of their own wounded soldiers without combat power as possible, along with the soldiers responsible for rowing boats to ferry them.
The remnants of the last cavalry division in the Expeditionary Force cavalry corps, lacking assault capabilities and thus useless in this campaign, were ordered to dismount and serve as oarsmen, concentrated on ferrying the wounded to transport ships.
This decision was made by Marshal French, because some infantry units had already withdrawn. Previously, the 3rd Army of the Expeditionary Force had been rotated back home for rest after suffering devastating losses from continuous combat, swapping with the 4th Army.
And the only division in the 4th Army composed of native Britannians, the 29th Division, also had hope of withdrawing with Haig.
So theoretically, even if the rest of the Expeditionary Force was annihilated here, with the 1st and 2nd Armies entirely captured, the Britannia Army would at least have withdrawn three divisional designations domestically（just designations, with personnel losses over half）
The cavalry corps’ two divisions had already been annihilated earlier, and if this last remaining division didn’t withdraw, the cavalry troops’ seed would be extinct. To keep things fair, Marshal French finally issued a remote radio order, commanding the remnants of the Cavalry 1st Division to abandon their horses and equipment and focus on rowing to transport people.
In the end, over 4,000 rowing cavalrymen carried more than 10,000 wounded from various units, withdrawing that night via dozens of small boats and destroyers.
The Germania artillery could of course redirect fire to intercept these troops, but they were busy fighting the enemy’s pre-dreadnought fleets, which were clearly higher-value targets, so they had no time for these mice.
The Germania artillery’s firepower was completely expended anyway—no gun was idle, all engaged in frantic mutual bombardment throughout, simply too many targets to hit them all.
On the other hand, the British Army was using their navy to bombard the Germania artillery fire from closer to Dunkirk, while choosing evacuation sites farther from the battlefield—De Panne Town, the British Army’s withdrawal point, was 13~15 kilometers from Dunkirk. Nieuwpoort Town was even over 20 kilometers away.
Heavy cannons bombarding docks that far away would have accuracy far lower than against nearer enemies right in front.
Since nearer enemies were frantically shelling them, of course they had to return fire on those immediate threats.
However, shore batteries not bombarding targets 20 kilometers to the east didn’t mean other firepower ignored those eastern targets.
The Germania Army had its own troops coming from the east, specifically tasked with those targets.
On the evening of February 18, shortly after dark, after the German Army discovered the British Army evacuating wounded at night, several long-range railway guns deployed in Ostend to the east began shelling the Nieuwpoort coast.
But the firepower density was too low, the distance too great, and accuracy quite poor—only enough to scare the enemy and make their transport less efficient.
Expecting the eastern railway guns to advance closer to the battlefield was impossible.
Because Ostend was already the westernmost station on the Belgian coastal railway. West of Ostend, there were no more rails, so the railway guns naturally couldn’t maneuver further forward.
However, this situation finally turned around around midnight that day.
Because Count Spee, leading 6 Germania pre-dreadnoughts that had departed Zeebrugge after dark and raced westward, finally arrived at the battlefield.
Before Count Spee arrived, the British Navy had devoted most of its energy and attention to the west toward Dunkirk, with little defense to the east.
Because Betty and Hood believed that even a damaged Royal Navy battle squadron could crush the 6 pre-dreadnoughts from Zeebrugge. How dare the Germanians send their navy to clash head-on and die?
But Count Spee came anyway.
Around 10 p.m., when still 20 kilometers from Nieuwpoort, British Army patrol ships scattered to the east first spotted Spee’s 6 pre-dreadnoughts and a large group of torpedo boats.
Intense skirmishes soon erupted between both sides’ auxiliary ships. For a time, torpedoes crisscrossed the sea surface, frantically raking each other. Many destroyers and torpedo boats fired off their loaded torpedoes, and warships from both sides were occasionally hit by lucky shots in the darkness.
Meanwhile, Spee’s main fleet, wary of the torpedo net in the dark, didn’t dare advance the pre-dreadnoughts too far forward and temporarily withdrew for half an hour, waiting for the skirmish to clarify before proceeding.
This half hour finally gave Betty and Hood time to react. They quickly detached some pre-dreadnoughts and battlecruisers, plus the Queen-class “Repulse,” to redirect fire to eastern targets—just then, the British fleet had wiped out Dunkirk’s coastal defense guns, but the duel with Dunkirk’s railway gun group was ongoing. So Spee’s arrival timing was excellent, relieving pressure on their own railway gun group and avoiding piecemeal reinforcements that would get picked off.
A considerable portion of British warships were still pinned by the railway gun group and couldn’t all rush over to deal with Spee.
And this time gap could last one or two hours.
Earlier, when Betty focused attacks on Dunkirk Port to the west, he positioned high-value warships farther from the battlefield to reduce enemy shore battery and railway gun accuracy, sending low-value ships in for close-range precise strikes.
So when news of Spee arrived, the British fleet’s formation had pre-dreadnoughts to the west, battlecruisers in the center, and the two Queen-class ships farthest east.
Now with Spee appearing from the east, the British pre-dreadnoughts became the farthest from the action. Slow as they were, they couldn’t return quickly, so the British pre-dreadnought group continued tangling with the German forces at Dunkirk Port to the east, while fast battlecruisers rushed back to defend and seek quick annihilation of Spee.
The British battlecruisers were well preserved, with 7 in total, only 2 somewhat damaged. Battlecruisers crushing pre-dreadnoughts, they raced back confident they could quickly finish Spee.
But once combat began, they quickly realized the situation wasn’t optimistic.
First, in the darkness, both sides’ numerous torpedoes were still randomly crisscrossing this sea area “lottery-style.” British battlecruisers, fearing mishaps, didn’t dare maintain formation right away.
Second, the best way for battlecruisers to fight pre-dreadnoughts was to maintain distance for lobbing fire. Pre-dreadnoughts had worse fire control and a generation-behind main gun; pull back a bit, and accuracy plummeted.
Battlecruisers were designed precisely for long-range kiting against older warships. As long as your firepower, fire control, and accuracy were superior, and you were faster, you could grind them down at a range where you output efficiently but they couldn’t.
Enemies wanting to close distance but slower couldn’t seize initiative. The engagement range was entirely up to the battlecruisers.
Betty initially planned to use this method to slowly finish Spee’s pre-dreadnought fleet.
But as soon as firing started, he realized it wasn’t that simple—if he kept distance and kited Spee, he could minimize his own losses, but with reduced accuracy, it would take all night or half a day to sink Spee.
But after Spee charged aggressively to the Nieuwpoort outer sea, he ignored Betty altogether. When Betty pulled back for lobbing fire, Spee simply turned his pre-dreadnought group’s secondary guns entirely toward the Nieuwpoort docks and beachhead, firing madly!
The docks were packed with large groups of British Army wounded waiting to be evacuated! Plus masses of small boats and transport ships ready to ferry them.
With Betty running, these became Spee’s for the taking, free to hunt them down leisurely.
……
“Betty’s got occupational disease again, heh. Let’s give him some eye drops—fleet full speed west, hug the shallows as much as possible, all secondary guns fire star shells to light up the beachhead first, then free fire!”
Lieutenant General Spee, in the bridge conning tower of his flagship “Alsace,” observed the enemy situation briefly before accurately judging that Betty was suffering from occupational disease at the start, actually wanting to minimize losses by keeping distance.
If so, give him some eye drops to force Betty over!
3 Brunswick-class and 3 Brandenburg-class formed a single column, shortening inter-ship distances to under 1 kilometer, cautiously heading west along the nearshore.
The Brunswick-class had a draft of 8.2 meters, the Brandenburg-class slightly less at 7.8 meters, so waters safe for the former were definitely navigable for the latter.
Spee’s fleet kept about 6 kilometers from the coastline—a quite dangerous distance, liable to scrape seabed sandbars at any time, but not enough to rupture the hull and ground outright.
At the same time, 6 kilometers was enough to devastate the shore docks and assembled British Army troops. Even 150mm and 88mm secondary guns could near-direct-fire the infantry massed waiting for transport.
A salvo of star shells fell, lighting up Nieuwpoort Town’s coastal area bright as snow. Then Spee’s shells rained down in volleys, blowing the waiting follow-up British Army troops into chaos.
The Britannia Expeditionary Force, used to a lifetime of “only our warships bombard enemy land forces, never enemy navies bombarding ours,” was momentarily stunned top to bottom, unable to react.
The might of the British Navy had long relaxed that string in their hearts.
Was there any justice in this? Hadn’t the world turned upside down?!
And precisely because of no defenses and no expectation, British casualties on the docks were extremely heavy.
Suddenly, radio waves filled with pleas for aid and curses saturated this sea and land area. The naval radio stations’ telegrams broke historical records for profanity levels.
Countless people cursed what David Betty was doing, still preserving strength and thinking of minimizing losses at a time like this.
David Betty finally realized the problem and could only grit his teeth to adjust tactics.
“Battlecruiser fleet, close distance, finish the enemy’s pre-dreadnought group at maximum speed!”
Battlecruisers’ greatest advantages were speed and long-range accuracy.
Once forced to close, it was like a spearman fighting a swordsman up close. The spearman could originally keep distance, but now for quick resolution, had to close to where the sword could reach for melee.
Unable to maintain distance for slow grinding, Betty still had advantage but not overwhelmingly so—the gap narrowed by at least half.
7 battlecruisers and 6 pre-dreadnoughts slugged it out fist-for-fist within 10 kilometers.
In the sky, star shells crisscrossed, illuminating both sides’ steel behemoths, followed by furious mutual barrages.
Germania Army’s old pre-dreadnought 280mm armor-piercing shells successively struck Betty’s battlecruiser side armor belts, tearing huge gashes in several of Betty’s battlecruisers.
Battlecruisers weren’t famed for defense but speed. Even with somewhat better armor than pre-dreadnoughts, it was limited; at close range, 280mm guns could penetrate each other reliably.
Betty had more than twice as many main guns available, plus accuracy advantage: on average, Betty hit Spee with 3 shells for every 1 Spee hit on Betty.
The intense bloody battle lasted over half an hour, and victory or defeat gradually emerged.
The “Württemberg” battleship under Spee, overly obsolete at nearly 20 years old, soon suffered a massive explosion under sustained concentrated fire. Even with protected magazines, it couldn’t withstand such bombardment—especially since attackers included the Queen-class “Repulse,” whose 6 380mm guns absolutely crushed pre-dreadnoughts, penetrating magazines effortlessly.
The sister ship “Grosser Kurfürst” was also concentrated by multiple enemy battlecruisers, but without “Repulse” among them, it avoided direct magazine penetration and total explosion.
It was merely repeatedly breached in the starboard main armor belt, with numerous starboard compartments destroyed, starboard secondary guns all gone, and funnels toppled.
Thousands of tons of seawater flooded in, quickly causing list. But its captain, heeding Lieutenant General Spee’s pre-attack impromptu instruction, decisively ordered:
“Flood port side immediately! Prevent excessive starboard flooding from capsizing us!”
The damage control officer anxiously protested: “Captain! Starboard flooding alone is nearing max ingress alert! Flooding port too, even if leveled, total water will sink us!”
But the captain was resolute, unmoved: “Execute! This is shallow sea—even if we sink, it’s controlled settling! Flood compartments around hydraulic pump rooms for protection, preserve pump power! Shut all isolation valves to main engine propulsion! Divert all steam power to turret hydraulics!”
The damage control chief then understood the captain’s intent—HQ wanted them to execute this perilous tactic.
But with matters at this point, without self-rescue the ship would likely sink anyway, capsizing rather than settling. So fight on! Even if sinking, make enemies pay!
“Grosser Kurfürst” soon began port flooding, hull visibly settling but tilt somewhat leveled. After sinking just 2-3 meters, the keel touched seabed sand, so even the deck stayed above water.
Moreover, with precise pre-settling power management protecting engine and pump rooms, the few remaining operable steam engines post-sinking sufficed for ship power and hydraulic turrets.
The ship’s 6 280mm guns, after settling on the seabed sand, still roared in counterfire against the British battlecruisers!
……
The Germania pre-dreadnought group’s counterattack was far from fruitless.
Though British effective firepower density was 3 times the Germania fleet’s, in shattering one German pre-dreadnought and settling another, they paid the price of 3 battlecruisers cumulatively hit by 8 280mm armor-piercing shells（German ships cumulatively hit by 20 shells, causing 1 explosion and 1 settling.）
These 8 shells worsened damage on the already heavily hit “Indefatigable” battlecruiser from shore battery duels.
It took 3 more hits: shells pierced side armor, struck engine room armor, without secondary penetration. But explosions wrecked several steam pipes, spraying high-pressure steam internally, power dropped sharply, and one side’s secondary guns nearly wiped out.
Plus prior losses of aft two turrets and aft bridge, “Indefatigable” was nearly combat-ineffective.
“New Zealand” was similarly re-injured.
The last newly injured was Lion-class “Princess Royal.” Hit twice, not severe—just some upper works destroyed.
At such close range, both sides could only side-penetrate each other, no lobbing fire to target weak deck armor. British battlecruiser turret and magazine hoist design flaws stayed hidden at this range.
This limited German results but also let British design flaw fester.
After Spee showed “willing to settle and fight to the end” resolve, David Betty was deeply shocked.
He knew this battle offered no hope of saving the army.
Enemies settled could still output as fixed forts! Unless he totally shattered their ships or knocked out all turrets, they’d sit 6 kilometers north of Nieuwpoort Town, blocking British small transport ships from entering De Panne or Nieuwpoort anchorages to evacuate the army?
“Fuck! Can’t waste precious battlecruiser fleet dueling these guys who settle and keep fighting! Army’s beyond saving! Better orderly withdraw! Just settle these ships—no need to slug to the end! Tell army to get off beaches—forget evacuating more tonight!”
David Betty’s resolve wavered inwardly, knowing army unsavable, but meat at his lips he couldn’t ignore: 4 unsunk German pre-dreadnoughts—if all settled, at least some return. Easy enough.
Meanwhile, during the British battlecruiser vs. German pre-dreadnought clash, the British remaining 7 pre-dreadnoughts arrived sequentially, joining the concentration.
Ultimately, after another hour and a half of shelling, the British sank Spee’s remaining 4 pre-dreadnoughts. 3 settled into fixed batteries; one Brandenburg sank after “Repulse”‘s 380s repeatedly penetrated, causing severe explosion—hull not shattered, but turrets and fire control nearly total loss, unusable as battery, directly capsizing.
Of the 4 settled German batteries, one sank with poor list control, turrets losing arcs, leaving only 3 still frantically firing.
During Spee’s ships settling sequentially, they counter-hit British ships over 20 times.
Sinking British pre-dreadnought “Jupiter,” damaging “Mars” and “Caesar,” and hitting battlecruiser “Indomitable” thrice.
British had to abandon “Mars” and “Caesar”—in chaos, inspiration struck: power-damaged and flooding badly, unlikely to sail home anyway, so copycat—flood to level and settle, dueling the remaining 3 German “fixed batteries,” waste not want not.
Such fierce combat raged all night. Ultimately, Betty, forced to abandon army rescue, withdrew with 2 new battleships, 7 battlecruisers, 4 pre-dreadnoughts, and masses of auxiliaries.
No point continuing—especially the two Queen-class near ammo exhaustion, fire control and turrets heavily damaged, useless to stay.
Fighting off Nieuwpoort and De Panne continued till dawn—those 3 settled German batteries and 2 British ones slugged away, battering each other’s wreckage.
British captains’ thinking simple: German batteries settled here, undestroyed, could keep shelling shore towns, causing army casualties. Since unable to leave themselves, neutralize enemy fire.
This inefficient duel ended only at dawn.
At daybreak, Zeppelin airship groups each carrying 3 2000kg heavy bombs finally appeared on the horizon, heading straight for the settled British wrecks.
Within 20 minutes, airships were overhead.
Airships’ clumsy low speed and abysmal level bombing accuracy against moving targets were harmless to normal warships.
But against fixed settled wrecks, perfect.
Airships leisurely observed, fine-tuned, hovered directly above, then dropped 3 2000kg bombs sequentially.
2 airships, 6 bombs: first had 2 misses, second 1. But hits from 2000kg bombs no pre-dreadnought could survive.
Hull penetrated top to bottom, massive explosions detonating remaining ammo, disintegrating the ship into fragments.
The settled “German batteries” still had 2 firing; British army hopes of sneaking army evac via Nieuwpoort and De Panne coasts totally blocked.
Marshal French should consider surrender.
And dozens of sea miles north of Dunkirk in distant waters, one final cleanup battle remained—Betty’s fleet withdrawing from Nieuwpoort and De Panne, pulling north to return, shortly after departure encountered the “bedridden but insistent” Hipper fleet defying orders to sortie.
Vice Admiral Hipper’s 4 pristine battlecruisers, 2 armored cruisers, and auxiliary group pursued the half-wrecked Betty.
Betty had 2 battleships and 7 battlecruisers left, but “Queen” nearly firepowerless, “Repulse” with some but bow and stern flooded, speed minimal.
Among battlecruisers, “Indefatigable” and “New Zealand” near combat-ineffective wrecks; “Princess Royal” and “Indomitable” minor damage.
Betty’s 2 near-useless battleships, 2 sliver-health battlecruisers, 2 minor-damage battlecruisers, 3 intact ones, plus exhausted crews after day-long battle—gun accuracy degraded, all consumables severe.
Encountering Hipper bluffing for kills, with German air recon spotting advantage and relative air superiority, Betty’s position extremely perilous.
——
PS: Nearly 8000-word big chapter, no padding. Guaranteed to finish Hipper vs. Betty showdown tomorrow and wrap the entire Battle of Ypres.
This battle too epic, no idea how to trim—don’t complain about bloat. Updating so much daily, no energy to refine and cut words.
