Chapter Thirteen: Those Fake Nobles (Six)

  March 3, 1915 at 7:11 am, Skagerrak Strait.

  Under the command of Admiral Inglefield, the oddly-shaped aircraft carrier HMS Argus, four Chatham-class light cruisers (Chatham, Brisbane, Melbourne and Dublin) of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron, ten destroyers (led by the scout cruiser HMS Active), and over a dozen supply and auxiliary ships slowly approached the southwestern waters of the Scandinavian Peninsula under the command of Rear Admiral T. D. Troubridge.

  "Leutnant Lübbe, although this isn't exactly a German-dominated sea area, I still feel uneasy."

  Midshipman Roderick, a young officer on the supply ship Bressey, stumbled forward along the rail with his comrades, carrying heavy hoses. Nineteen-year-old Roderick was a naval cadet who had just completed his initial sail training and was forced to undergo a three-month crash course with his classmates due to the Royal Navy's poor personnel reserve system, ending their time at the academy and dispersing them across Britain and the five oceans.

  To be honest, these newly-minted naval cadets were utterly unprepared for war. Their shallow and hasty training could not equip them to shoulder the responsibilities of a soldier. During wartime, the young men's emotions were as unpredictable as the weather in the North Sea - sometimes they would fall into an inexplicable pride and arrogance, while at other times they would be controlled by self-doubt and fear.

  Take Rodick, for example, a young cadet who was on duty on the supply ship Brest 2 days ago. He received orders to set sail in the dead of night, and he thought to himself that it was just "another routine exercise, probably we'll be ordered back to base after lunch on the 3rd day". The sailors would be lounging in the sun on deck, or cleaning their stations, embarking on a dull and uneventful return journey.

  But when old Sergeant Lune, with his wealth of combat experience, analyzed that they might be participating in an intense and world-shocking naval battle, Rodick's eyes, which had been gleaming with self-importance just moments before, were now filled with panic and confusion, and he couldn't hide it.

  Lieutenant Roderick's bewildered gaze swept across the turbulent surface of the North Sea, his head tilted in fantasy as he imagined that on the noisy sea surface, several dark shadows with fragmented white tails would suddenly appear, making a loud noise.

  "Rodick, don't worry. Compared to the vast North Atlantic, the North Sea is just a shallow pool, but this pool has enough depth and breadth to accommodate us without being easily discovered by the Germans." Reserve fleet core crew member Lu En slightly exerted himself to lift the supply hose on his shoulder, taking the opportunity to exercise his aged arm, and comforted him: "If this still can't make you confident, then open your eyes wide and take a good look at our fleet!"

  As he walked through the narrow and crowded passageway of the ship's bridge, his view opened up again, and Rodick caught sight of the Royal Navy's main battleship, which was surrounded by dozens of light warships and had been the object of day and night longing for the young officers who were stifled on the old warship.

  First was the beautifully shaped Lion-class battlecruiser, followed by the Tiger with its 15-inch main guns, and finally the Invincible and Inflexible, renowned as the world's first class of battlecruisers. In short, they were the First Battle Cruiser Squadron under the command of Admiral David Beatty, the most outstanding commander in the British Empire for nearly a hundred years since Nelson! Roddie's greedy gaze shifted from those steel giants of tens of thousands of tons to the modern light vessels attached to Beatty's fleet, and so Roddie saw the Southampton-class, Birmingham-class, and Chatham-class light cruisers, as well as the E-class and F-class destroyers.

  Three Weymouth-class light cruisers (Weymouth, Dartmouth and Falmouth) of Rear-Admiral Trevylyan Napier's Third Light Cruiser Squadron and one Chatham-class light cruiser (Sydney) were dispersed around the First Battlecruiser Squadron on patrol, while the outer screen was provided by Captain M. L. Goldsmith's Ninth Destroyer Flotilla led by the light cruiser Retribution with eight destroyers, and Captain J. U. Farie's Thirteenth Destroyer Flotilla led by the light cruiser Champion with ten destroyers.

  "Commander, the 13th Destroyer Fleet has discovered a batch of trawlers flying the Norwegian flag in the direction of the Skagerrak Strait off the coast of Norway..." The chief of staff of the fast fleet rushed onto the bridge with a telegram from Navy Colonel M-L-Goldsmith, looking tense.

  As was his habit, David Beatty stood on the bridge of Lion, wearing a soft cap at an angle and with his arms folded. Under the loose brim of his cap, his eyes gleamed with intensity and his eyebrows were slightly furrowed. "Tell Goldsmith to board her and search her at once; don't worry about any damned international complications! If those men are German agents, and they've discovered the presence of our second battle cruiser squadron..."

  Regardless of whether it was the original plan to sweep Heligoland Bay or the modified North Sea Battle, or Jellicoe's final decision not to comply with the order, they were all based on the asymmetry of naval information between Germany and Britain. Scheer was not a fool; if there were only five battlecruisers plus two unformed fast battleships, Scheer would never have given up the opportunity to compete with Beatty, but that doesn't mean that when Beatty's main force increased to ten ships, Scheer would still be arrogant. Therefore, Beatty had to find a delicate balance between exposing his first battlecruiser squadron and hiding the five fast capital ships led by Admiral Moore: if Scheer couldn't discover his first battlecruiser squadron, the cunning Scheer might not dare to confirm his judgment, persuade his German colleagues, and thus Jellicoe's carefully planned deception plan would be in vain, and there would be no chance of luring and killing Scheer's fleet; if Scheer discovered the first battlecruiser squadron, the route of the second battlecruiser squadron would also be revealed, and the deception plan could not be implemented.

  The dashing and debonair Beatty's laconic words trailed off, but the bloodthirsty and tense atmosphere did not dissipate. General Osmond Brock, the Chief of Staff, involuntarily shivered, slightly raised his head to steal a glance at the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, whose future, fate, and honor as a career military man were all staked on this unpredictable naval battle, and strode swiftly towards the telegraph room.

  "It seems I really can't shake off the thrill of sword fighting and adventure...". Colonel Osmond-Brock had already walked away, and Betty's stern face finally collapsed, crumbling to pieces. "God, please...please let them just be Norwegian fishermen!"

  ****

  "Seal, we lost contact with our disguised trawler deployed along the Norwegian coast after it sent us intel about 'First Battlecruiser Squadron spotted in the Kattegat Strait'..." Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Lewin paced back and forth within the cramped command tower, hesitating for a while before voicing his inner fears.

  At 1:00 on the morning of the 3rd, the five main warships of the First Reconnaissance Fleet gathered outside the Holtnaum lock in Kiel Canal. At 6:30 on the 3rd, the Westfalen fleet entered the North Sea 10 nautical miles north of Heligoland to replenish supplies. Meanwhile, the Zeppelin airship mother ship, and the first, second, and third destroyer fleets under the leadership of the light cruiser Rostock successively joined the battle sequence. By this time, Wang Haitong had five battle cruisers, six light cruisers, 29 destroyers, and one airship mother ship at his disposal.

  In the early spring, the North Sea was still below zero temperature. The robust and agile German young men took off their thick outerwear, exposing their sturdy upper body to the air, carrying soft pipes delivering fresh water to the main battleship's replenishment port. The replenishment ship and transport ship's small davits on the side of the hull and stern piled up tons of high-quality coal on the destroyer with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons, which was immediately swept away by the boiler soldiers; The logistics soldiers working in the kitchen faced the green-eyed gaze of the sailors, carrying those long-expired fruits, flour, and seasonal vegetables onto Admiral Mas's light cruiser squadron. Although the replenishment time left for the Silem fleet was not ample, effective training made everything go smoothly.

  At 7:55, the replenishment task of coal, water and ammunition for the Western Fleet was nearing completion. In the command tower of the cruiser Lev Trofimovich, a faint worry and melancholy were still spreading.

  "We have deployed unarmed disguised intelligence ships, trawlers in the Norwegian Sea and North Sea. Betty is not a butcher or a killer, the British will at most only seize these fishing boats, once the war ends we can pick up those hot-headed young men from the prisoner-of-war camps." Wang Haitian drew a heavy check on the red line close to the Jutland coast on the sea chart stained with Bihannick's strong coffee, his thick fingers tracing that bright red line southward, briefly stopping in the calm Heligoland Bay before moving to the central North Sea.

  "But, Commander, it seems the lads' reconnaissance hasn't been thorough enough." Fleet Chief of Staff Ingrell flipped out the last intelligence report, puzzled: "Half an hour ago, a Norwegian intelligence ship reported to Ryazov that a large number of smoke columns were spotted northwest of Beatty's First Battlecruiser Squadron..."

  "That's Betty's trump card - two Queen-class battleships!" Admiral Heidemarie spent a moment studying the stained and scribbled sea chart, then picked up the white gloves from the table and headed towards the warship's dining hall, tilting her head in self-muttering. As she stepped out of the command tower, Heidemarie, known as the number one and two naval strategist of Germany, smiled wryly to herself, relaxing her tightly furrowed eyebrows with a stubborn choice to trust her own judgment.

  "Seven British fast battleships annihilate five German battlecruisers, a repeat of Dogger Bank? Impossible, the two unready Queen-class were all Beatty had, and one or two Indefatigables would not arrive at Scapa Flow until mid-month at the earliest!"

  After watching Denmark's setup, give me some feedback so I can adjust...