Chapter Thirteen: Those Fake Nobles (Eight)

  The North Sea has always been a rich sea, coveted by countless nations with iron and blood. Hundreds of years ago, the long journey to explore new continents and new routes began here; hundreds of years later, the wealth of the world converged here; hundreds of years later, cod are still there, sunken ships that buried gold and silver treasures are still there, and the struggle for the North Sea is still going on. However, the charioteer on the sea has fallen, the Gallic rooster has fallen, and no one knows which one will be the first to fall in the struggle between Germany and Britain in the North Sea.

  At 15:44 on the 3rd, south of Dogger Bank, the cream of the German High Seas Fleet, built with great effort and expense, was concentrated in this remote area of water. The struggle for supremacy in the North Sea and even the North Atlantic was about to sound its clarion call!

  "There are quite a few British ships cruising around the sea area between Dogger Bank northwest and Heligoland Bight, General Westley predicted that the British would take a shortcut from our front to go home, at most half an hour later, the British will encounter our battlecruiser squadron. If the British dare to be stubborn, we'll give them a big surprise, if the Grand Fleet also wants to join in, we'll go there and take a look, and scratch their ribs."

  The biting sea wind slapped against the steel hull of the battleship Friedrich der Grosse, and the whispers of the sailors were carried over on the cold wind to the ears of Admiral Reinhard Scheer. The admiral gazed out at the vast North Sea, a faint smile spreading across his face as he knew that behind him lay not only sixteen dreadnoughts, but also three old Prussian-class battleships (Hannover, Schlesien, and Schleswig-Holstein) of the Second Battle Squadron's Fourth Division, five armored cruisers (Roon, Yorck, Bismarck, Prinz Heinrich, and Prinz Adalbert), four light cruisers (Hamburg, Frauenlob, Stuttgart, and Berlin) of the Fourth Scouting Group, the flagship Gazelle of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Torpedo-boat Flotillas, thirty-two destroyers, three auxiliary cruisers, one seaplane carrier, and five Zeppelins.

  The Pre-Dreadnoughts of the Prussian class, although their hulls and boilers were outdated and could only reach a speed of 18 knots, and the actual defensive capability of the 240mm waterline belt main armor was not satisfactory. However, the 283CM-L/40 main gun still had room for fire support; The first armored cruiser squadron consisted of some old armored cruisers, but as the eyes and ears of the High Seas Fleet, they were sufficient; The Peter Strasser, a seaplane carrier converted from a fast oiler, could only carry four seaplanes due to its small size, but five Zeppelins were enough to provide strong air support.

  In short, this is a fleet that in some respects is equal to or even surpasses the Royal Navy, the overlord of the seas.

  First, German battleships have always emphasized survivability. Whether it was the Nassau class with its late-blooming design, the Helgoland class with its defensive capabilities, or the numerous Kaiser class and high-performance K?nig class, their waterline belt armor thickness all exceeded the caliber of the British 13.5-inch main gun. In other words, within a range of 9 kilometers, the German 305mm and 350mm guns could penetrate any British dreadnought, including the Queen Elizabeth class with its unprecedented 13-inch main armor belt, while the British 13.5-inch main gun could not penetrate the German main fleet at the same distance.

  Apart from this, the quality of young sailors in the ocean fleet was not inferior to that of the Royal Navy. In the Battle of Dogger Bank, the excellent gunnery and damage control capabilities of the German sailors had surprised the British. However, it seemed that the British did not deeply recognize this point.

  Of course, the disadvantages of the High Seas Fleet were also very obvious. The main guns of the High Seas Fleet were far inferior to those of the British in terms of caliber, with 100 12-inch main guns, 60 13.5-inch main guns, and 40 15-inch main guns, while the German High Seas Fleet had only 32 280mm guns, 82 305mm main guns, and 32 350mm main guns, with a ratio of 200:146 in terms of main gun caliber, and even 40:0 in terms of 15-inch main guns.

  Apart from this, the High Seas Fleet was severely lacking in light vessels. Because Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to build a powerful main fleet that would allow him to regain prestige in front of his British relatives, the German Admiralty had to put all its energy and resources into battleships, so that when war broke out, apart from two ships classified as "reconnaissance cruisers", the Scharnhorst class, and one battlecruiser, Blücher, the High Seas Fleet had almost no modern armoured cruisers available for service, and was also short of light cruisers.

  "Admiral, aren't you afraid of Scheer's misjudgment at all?" General Scheer stood on the bridge with his arms crossed, waiting for news from the first scouting fleet. At this time, Admiral Franz von Hipper, commander of the Third Battle Squadron and an old friend of Scheer's, climbed up to the bridge in a few strides, his blond hair disheveled by the sea wind, and asked nonchalantly.

  At 22:00 on the 2nd, the Great Ocean Fleet finally received the long-awaited naval staff order and arrived at the southern waters of Dogger Bank after more than 15 hours of tossing to lay in wait.

  Before the British Fast Squadron had left Scapa, Admiral Hipper, the German Navy's number one strategist, had already anticipated Beatty's move. While the British Fast Squadron was still making a show in Portland Bay, Hipper's First Reconnaissance Group had rushed to Heligoland Bay, and the disguised intelligence ships deployed in the southeastern waters of Norway discovered the British Fast Squadron slipping away from the Jutland coast. The First Reconnaissance Group was rushing towards Beatty's retreat route, while the High Seas Fleet was also racing at 18 knots towards the designated sea area, aiming to ambush the British fast squadron before nightfall, annihilate them, and completely blind the eyes of the Grand Fleet, opening the key to the 100-mile-wide gap leading to Scapa Bay and the Shetland Islands!

  ****

  "General Pohl, where have you taken my fleet?" Admiral Eduard von Capelle, the Minister of the Navy, stormed into the office of the Chief of the Naval General Staff, his face dark with anger.

  After a short nap, Hugo von Porzellan slowly opened the blanket that was covering him and got up from the long sofa, slightly bowing his head in apology: "General Kapell, you..."

  "General, I don't understand..." Kapell stepped forward, his boots creaking on the worn wooden floor of the office, rudely interrupting Pol's pleasantries, waving his arms in a fiery rage: "As Minister of the Imperial Navy, I was not informed that the Zeyla fleet disappeared from the Baltic and Skagerrak Strait, nor did I know that the Ocean Fleet slipped out of Jade Bay last night, nor did I know that the main force of the Scapa Flow fleet put to sea in the dead of night!"

  "General Kapeller, although I am the Chief of Naval Staff, I'm just a nervous old man who can't stay up late, so I don't know anything about what happened last night." The old general on duty seemed to not catch Kapeller's sarcasm and returned to his desk after stretching, put on his reading glasses and rummaged through the piles of documents for a long time before pulling out a file. In a hoarse voice he said: "However, General, I think this backup copy of the naval order can help you."

  General Kapeller took the still-wet copy of the document without ceremony, glanced at it briefly, and immediately stumbled backward several steps, losing his composure: "Intercepting Beatty's fast battleship fleet?! Without the Emperor's approval, without the Navy Minister's approval, how dare they...how dare they take action on their own initiative!"

  "General, I must remind you that although the young man's actions were somewhat flawed, they did not violate the Navy Department's procedures and regulations." Admiral Pole brought himself a glass of water, tilted his head back and swallowed several tranquilizers until the dizziness slightly alleviated before speaking again: "General Capelle, this is an era of old generals withering away. Perhaps young people are not as obsessed with personal prospects and power as you are."

  Bor's careless words seemed to have struck a chord in Kapellmeister, the naval minister's face was frozen with a stiff smile, trying to defend himself, but Bor leaned back against the corner of the desk and sat down on the sofa, his temples gray hair lightly resting on the cushion, basking in the March sunlight that filtered through the blinds of the office window, lazily closing his eyes.

  "The intricate steps of the Beatty fleet, the methodical advance of Jellicoe's main force, Scheer and Hipper's ambush, and Seydlitz's interception. Ah! The fearless era of **, the ultimate contest of steel and willpower, warships and wisdom, the peak battle in the central North Sea in March 1915 is indeed worth expecting. Alas, Germany was bound to the wheel of fate, alas, I am just a detached spectator, alas, I have grown old!"

  Kapelle ultimately couldn't stay in the naval office, he urgently needed to inform Emperor Wilhelm of this shocking news and take back what he wanted but never got. The Chief of Naval Staff's office fell silent again, the old general suddenly opened his eyes, his blurred vision swept across the backup files that Kapelle had thrown on the desk, his gaze changed from sharpness to hesitation, and finally turned into a kind of shame!

  "Chief of Staff, urgent telegram from the Third Reconnaissance Fleet, Betty fleet discovered in W patrol area of Heligoland Bay!" The Operations Staff Officer, Redel, rushed in, three parts anxious and seven parts excited.

  "Young people, your war has begun!" The old general's hesitation seemed to dissipate with Rodel's shout, and some irrational, uncharacteristic idea burst forth, occupying General Pol's mind like a plague. The old general seemed to have returned to decades ago, back to those passionate years of youth. "My war has also begun!"