Chapter 13: Those Fake Nobles (Part 1)

  I said I couldn't hold on, so I checked with the almanac and found that on March 1st, 1915, you were wandering around, hehe...

  Kapelle's attempt to seize power by stirring up a political storm at the wrong time was based on the Emperor's mistaken belief that he still controlled the High Seas Fleet. In reality, the enforced resignation of Tirpitz, Ingenohl and Heeringen, those old-style Junker admirals with their various ailments, seemed to uphold the Emperor's authority but actually dealt his influence within the Navy a devastating blow, for the young and ambitious newcomers who had taken their place were not only imbued with the same disciplinary ideas as their predecessors but were even more daring and determined to win.

  When the shortsighted Capelle and Müller obstinately chose to attack Heidekamp-Saint-Leon, the old era's dead end had already been exposed. When Heidekamp-Saint-Leon resigned from Emperor Wilhelm on February 18, the old era ended. However, neither Wilhelm himself nor the Imperial Navy could see this point until after the naval political storm that followed, and the Battle of Jutland, the strongest sound of the Dreadnought era, which was planned by Heidekamp-Saint-Leon and paved the way for David Beatty's hidden counterattack.

  At the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Dogger Bank, Admiral Wolfgang Wegener, who had retired from his position as Inspector of Training in the Navy, delivered his famous speech "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away", which gave a piercing review of the high-level naval struggle that took place in Berlin in February 1915 and lasted for nearly a month.

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  "General..."

  On March 2, after completing the complicated handover task, the new commander of the blockade fleet, Rear Admiral Paul Behncke, took a step back and gave a military salute to his idol, Admiral Heidekamp, saying: "I have taken your place, you won't resent me for that, will you?"

  In late February, Wang Haitie set out to attend the accident hearing presided over by the Navy Staff Headquarters. The naval department's civilian investigation team members who had suffered enough hardships in the days-long accident investigation criticized and accused Wang Haitie with overwhelming momentum. Wang Haitie's position as commander of the fleet was revoked, and innocent General Paul Beihanic took over Wang Haitie's position under the hateful eyes of the officers and soldiers of the blockade fleet.

  "That's just an order from the Admiralty, these intrigues and machinations can't be pinned on you, let alone me. Besides, being relieved of my duties as commander of the blockade fleet is a liberation for me!" Commander Hetty von Seydlitz ordered her sailors to move her personal belongings to the transport boat, then turned around and said to Generalmajor Bihari with a hint of irony: "The Gulf of Finland can't contain my ambition, the lads are struggling in German Southwest Africa, fighting bloody battles in Dardanelles, and I, Hetty Seydlitz, have my own mission to fulfill!"

  In March, the Dardanelles campaign became bogged down. The Turks lost three coastal forts and more than a dozen outer forts, 28 guns were destroyed, and ammunition reserves plummeted. After the sinking of the old battleship HMS Irresistible, the British suffered another setback on February 24 when the old battleship HMS Ocean struck a mine and sank off the southeast coast of Turkey, killing over 500 sailors. Despite the dismissal of Admiral Carden and his replacement by Rear Admiral John de Robeck, the minesweeping operation dragged on interminably, and the prospect of opening up a landing area seemed remote.

  March 2, Mudros Bay, Lemnos Island.

  In the stillness of the night, a full moon hung in the sky, casting a pale glow that shrouded the vast waves in a thin veil of mystery. The captain of the destroyer HMS Devrient stood on the bridge, removing his military cap and saying to his deputy with a hint of humor: "Hunter, this isn't exactly the kind of weather suitable for submarine and torpedo boat raids. Perhaps tonight we can take it easy, as I still have a bottle of Scotch whisky hidden away in my quarters..."

  "In fact, the Turkish Navy is not worth our vigilance, they don't even have the spirit of taking the initiative to attack!" Vice Admiral Hunter sneered with a smile, clenching his fists and wiping his palms, as he jeered at the vast ocean.

  Tearing open the Aegean Sea's white waves, following the patrol light on the mast of the Winter River destroyer in the outer bay of Mudros, the spotlight chased after the ripples that gradually receded into the distance. At this moment, a turbulent wave suddenly appeared on the calm sea surface, and a cylindrical object jumped out of the water, cautiously probing around the icy bay.

  "Captain Bok did a good job, the anchor positions and intelligence of the British and French combined fleet's battleships are basically consistent." After carefully comparing the identification chart brought by Captain Bok of the Turkish Naval Aviation Corps, Karl D?nitz corrected several errors with his experienced eyes, then bit his pen and forced his gaze to move away from the cumbersome periscope, saying softly to his navigator: "The British must not have thought that we would launch a surprise attack on the night of the full moon. The southern submarine squadron will break into the bay from the southwest, covering General Rauf's torpedo boat fleet. The general's plan is too perfect!"

  On the other side of the gulf, a Turkish surface raiding squadron disguised as an Anglo-French patrol squadron cautiously approached the outer reaches of Lemnos Island, waiting for the sound of gunfire from Mudros Bay. The British had deployed several light vessels in Mudros Bay, and to facilitate their infiltration into the bay, the Hamidiye armored cruiser and seven German destroyers were modified to disguise themselves as British destroyers, while the four French-built destroyers naturally appeared in their original form.

  "Lüttens, this surprise attack, whether it's the fleet strength or weather conditions, are all unfavorable to us. The heavy losses of surface ships can be foreseen. Although Germany is our ally, I'm still very grateful that you're willing to stay and fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the Turks!"

  The great war is approaching, and the command tower of the aged Hamidiye armored cruiser is filled with suffocating silence. Lieutenant Günsel Lütgens, who volunteered to join the surface raiding squadron, appears calm in front of the Turkish sailors, but his heavy breathing and trembling hands that can't find a place to rest reveal his tension and anxiety. Rauf is not old, but he has already been tempered by the flames of the Balkan War, and has made a great name for himself in the Aegean Sea. As someone who has been through it all, he understands Lütgens' dilemma very well.

  "As allies, it's only natural to entrust each other with our lives. I, Lütjens, will not shirk this responsibility!" After a brief, awkward interruption by Raeder, Lütjens' tense nerves finally relaxed somewhat, and the young man spoke firmly, buoyed by the pride of the German Navy.

  At 2 am, intense gunfire, heart-wrenching sirens and dull explosions suddenly came, echoing through the quiet bay.

  "Damn it, the British are practicing again!" The man of a fisherman's family who was sleeping with his wife got up and grumbled, putting on thin outerwear to go to the window. "They should all go to hell!"

  Across the stone wall, the shockwave from the explosion in the harbor still penetrated recklessly, shaking the houses. The glass windows trembled, and fine dust poured down in strands, the woman wrapped in a quilt shouted loudly, the iron-blooded man with bronze skin threw down a sentence to shut up, and still walked towards the window sill.

  The crimson light was imprinted on the wall opposite the windowsill, and the man trembled, hesitated, and moved his feet cautiously, carefully merging himself into that patch of blood light. Suddenly, he found that the calm and clear Mudros Bay had become a boiling sea and a human purgatory. The British and French ironclad warships, which were once invincible, were like frightened children, either rushing left and right in the vast bay, wildly pouring ammunition from 6-inch guns and hastily installed 47 guns onto the empty sea surface, or lying horizontally at anchor, with thick smoke billowing and flames soaring into the sky.

  "Damn it, they're Turks!" The man of the fishing family grabbed a hunting rifle, fiercely drew a cross and turned to his wife, "Lisa, the infidels are attacking, the descendants of the Crusaders must defend their home!"

  "Commodore Robeck, the situation is not good. The combined fleet has been torpedoed by submarines, HMS Queen Mary has been hit and the captain has ordered to abandon ship. HMS Glory and HMS Albion have also been hit one after another, specific losses are still being counted. Moreover, according to the lookout's report, there is a fire on the bow of the battleship Dunkerque!" The fleet operations staff officer rushed into the command tower of the flagship Ireland, reporting to Commodore Robeck in a terrified tone.

  "Could the Austro-Hungarian submarines not have reached Lemnos, or... were we attacked by Italians?" General Robeck was taken aback for a moment, his suspicious gaze unconsciously focusing on Austria and Italy, his indignation pouring out in a torrent as he blamed the inept naval intelligence department, shouting: "Order all ships to get steam up and move, heading southeast into the gulf, using our speed advantage to shake off the Turkish submarines! Summon the light squadron for reinforcement, find them, annihilate them!"

  Submarines sneak up on surface ships, and speed is their natural disadvantage. Surface warships can easily run at speeds of over ten knots, while submarines have a underwater speed of only a few knots, and even less than 100 kilometers in range. Under the pale moonlight, more than twenty British and French battleships wrapped in thick anti-submarine nets were neatly lined up in the anchorage area, although the weather was not good, it was enough to soothe D?nitz's hot-blooded heart.

  The old battleships of Britain and France, although protected by anti-submarine nets, were vulnerable to the 500mm G7e torpedo used by German U-boats, which had a warhead of 195kg and could penetrate the clumsy anti-submarine nets and sink the poorly armoured and structurally weak old battleships of both countries. In less than half an hour, HMS Audacious was sunk due to magazine explosion, HMS Albion capsized and sank due to excessive flooding, while HMS Glory and HMS Nelson were damaged and barely afloat on the surface.

  However, with only six torpedoes on board, the German submarine's torpedo supply was quickly depleted and D?nitz had to order his U-boat fleet to retreat.

  Commodore Robeck's orders were executed, but it was not easy to get the coal-fired boilers of the old battleships going, some of which had been in service for over a decade. Fortunately, the Agincourt and Erin, along with the Venerable, Implacable, and Prince of Wales, older battleships, had just returned to their anchorage and their boilers were still warm. While British and French light vessels were busy searching for German submarines, Commodore Robeck led his two dreadnoughts and two old battleships southeastward, when lookouts spotted several fast-moving shadows approaching them.

  Four genuine French-built D'Iberville-class destroyers, acting as the vanguard of the torpedo boat flotilla, completely fooled the lookouts on the three capital ships. The rough and clumsy camouflage of the following German S-type destroyers was not noticeable in the darkness, and both British and French thought they were a reinforcing patrol squadron. By the time the lookouts noticed that the approaching destroyer squadron had formed an attacking formation, it was too late.

  As the leading ship, Hamidiye carefully fell back, under Rauf's shouting, 4 Diran-class destroyers with 2 x 450mm torpedoes and 7 S-165 class destroyers with 3 x 450mm torpedoes fired in succession. Three lucky torpedoes hit the leading battleship Akin Kur.

  In order to compete with their German counterparts, the British fitted the battleship with seven turrets, but in order to save weight and maintain speed and firepower, the structural strength of the hull and armor protection were lavishly ignored. The armor thickness of the seven-turret battleship was only equivalent to that of the Invincible-class battlecruiser at the time.

  The Akinci's anti-submarine net, which had just returned to its anchor position, was not yet deployed, and this was almost disastrous. The first torpedo ripped through the Akinci's underwater armor, and the second one followed immediately, enlarging the gaping hole. Because it was a export version of the main battleship, the British had cut corners on the construction materials for the seven gun turrets, reducing the number of watertight compartments and reserve buoyancy. However, the British did not expect that an export version of the main battleship would be seized and reinforced into their own fleet, nor did they expect that Turkey, which they looked down upon as a "Sick Man of Western Asia", would stage a brilliant counterattack from a desperate situation.

  Seawater poured in, flooding the lowest deck, and Ark Royal was on the verge of capsizing. At this point, a third German C7 torpedo struck home, exploding the forward magazine of Ark Royal's main armament, which immediately broke in two. From the first hit by the torpedo and near-miss by the anti-submarine net to its final sinking, the unprecedentedly powerful capital ship that had been solemnly promised to Brazilians, Greeks, and Turks was declared unsalvageable in less than ten minutes, lost at sea in the Aegean!