Chapter 10: The Winter of Preparation (4)

  The Battle of East Prussia in 1914 exposed the weaknesses of the Double Eagle, and with the Western Front stalemated, Imperial Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad, and Eastern Front commanders urged a shift in military emphasis to the east.

  The process of decision-making is not difficult, during the time of Frederick the Great, Prussia had once single-handedly fought against three major military powers - France, Austria and Russia. The madness was no less than that of Charles XII of Sweden who provoked a war. Strangely enough, Frederick the Great emerged victorious, with Russia being the first to fall. In another cycle, the Germans are again fighting against the whole world single-handedly, pinning their hopes on the Northern Bear to shatter the illusion of protracted warfare and multi-front battles.

  The supplies and main forces stockpiled on the Western Front began to assemble in the east, taking advantage of the developed railway network, mobilization work proceeded quickly. In the spring of 1915, tens of millions of German and Austro-Hungarian troops will launch a comprehensive offensive from the Baltic Sea to the distant Caucasus Mountains.

  General von Bülow, or rather the German Emperor William, always felt a certain confusion when facing the British, but if it was a weak Russia that stood in the way of the advance of the German war chariot, the deep-seated inferiority complex would turn into a fearless audacity.

  Accompanied by the rising Z flag of Higashinomiya Hiro and the cry of "Imperial fate, this one war", the Baltic Fleet of the Double-headed Eagle was completely defeated in the Tsushima Strait. Despite the subsequent Dreadnought era shipbuilding competition, the Russians had the highest starting point, but the Polar Bear's poor economy ultimately could not support their massive shipbuilding plan. By the end of 1914, the only four Gangut-class dreadnoughts with a design displacement of 23,360 tons, a design speed of 23 knots, and equipped with four triple 305mm main guns had just been completed, but they were still far from forming combat effectiveness. The once-mighty Baltic Fleet was left with only a few old battleships and cruisers. Millions of standing armies, endless human resources, thousands of kilometers of strategic depth, and the fearsome winter, the former European steamroller is still daunting, but who remembers its navy?

  The army almost effortlessly persuaded the Navy Department, and the Operations Division of the Naval General Staff, Erich Raeder, planned an operation codenamed "Albion", which would involve four King-class battleships from the 5th Squadron of the Third Battle Squadron, the battlecruisers Derfflinger and Lützow, five Wittelsbach-class pre-dreadnoughts and two Braunschweig-class pre-dreadnoughts from the Fourth Reserve Division, five light cruisers from the Second Scouting Group, three light cruisers, three auxiliary cruisers from the Baltic Fleet, a flotilla leader and 40 destroyers from four destroyer flotillas, six submarines from a submarine squadron, as well as eleven minesweepers and supply ships.

  In terms of the scale and integrity of the fleet dispatched from the Navy, the Ministry of the Navy can be said to have spared no effort. Six main battleships and seven pre-dreadnoughts are enough to destroy the Baltic Fleet, let alone that Operation Albion did not conflict with the plan for the High Seas Fleet's Baltic Sea combat cruise training, and the fleet could increase its strength at any time.

  However, the army was not satisfied with this. Let's take a look at the naval department's calculations: The Fifth Battleship Squadron had just been formed, and the two battle cruisers were newly commissioned warships. The Fourth Battleship Squadron was a reserve fleet, and the old battleships had been mothballed for many years. The re-mobilized officers and soldiers had also been away from the battlefield for a long time.

  "The Navy almost has 'sloppiness' written on its face!" The astute and capable Admiral Lütjens tightened his belt, joking to the sleepy Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg sitting in the operations command room: "Luckily, I've got Heidekamp, the most strategically-minded and daring admiral of the Navy, into the Intimidation Fleet!"

  The Hindenburg marshal, nicknamed "the brilliant commander" by the Eighth Army officers and men, seemed to have been startled awake; the pocket watch given to him by Queen Elizabeth slipped out of his thick marshal's uniform and swung back and forth in the cold air.

  "Not bad!" The white-haired old marshal cleared his throat, grasped the marshal's staff and slowly stood up, saying to his energetic deputy Gu Jingbo: "I'll leave it to you here, I'm going back to take a nap, the winter in East Prussia is really too terrible!"

  In the spring of 1915, the offensive was imminent, but the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Hindenburg, was not enthusiastic about preparations. The deputy chief of staff of the Eastern Front command, Colonel Max Hoffmann, looked helpless, while Ludendorff shook his head and muttered to himself what he had written in his diary:

  "Will someone who is truly capable also coincidentally become a marshal?"

  The young man's murmurs and complaints floated over, and when Marshal Hindenburg was about to walk out the door, his aged figure paused for a moment, looked up at the map hanging in the command room, and a faint glint of sharp light flashed in his turbid eyes as he hesitated:

  "The army and the emperor's face also cannot let the navy go all out, is it that the peak battle between the royal fleet and the public sea fleet will be in 1915?!"

  ****

  Ibbenhausen, near Munich, Germany.

  Without the pressure of the Emperor and opposition within the Navy, without a powerful Royal Fleet, and without the personality and temperament of John Arbuthnot Fisher, "Eternally" Alfred von Tirpitz would have had a simple and easy retirement.

  In the garden, fallen leaves and thick snow accumulated. The old marshal trimmed the potted plants he had brought back from the Berlin Navy Minister's office, took off his old flower mirror, picked up the iron shovel that was placed behind the door, and leisurely went out to clear the annoying snow. At this time, the small white fence gate of the garden was pushed open, and a naval officer with a naval general rank badge walked in.

  "Maria, we have a guest!" A black sheepdog appeared from nowhere and excitedly ran to meet the soldier. Tirpitz leaned against the iron ladle and wiped away the fine sweat on his forehead, turning his head to shout into the kitchen where his wife was: "It's Rheinhard-Schell!"

  He took off his white gloves and hung his thick military coat on the clothes rack, General Reinhard Scheer, commander of the High Seas Fleet with a reputation for being brave and fierce, came to the fireplace in the living room and warmed his rough hands that were almost frozen by the warm fire.

  Before long, Frau von Tirpitz emerged from the kitchen wearing an apron, carrying a cup of afternoon tea and a small plate of freshly baked toast, and greeted Schell with a German-style kiss on both cheeks.

  "Is everything all right?" The soldiers exchanged greetings, chatted for a few sentences, and the topic eventually had to be turned back to military affairs and war. Admiral Tirpitz, wearing a marshal's uniform with no epaulets, sat on the sofa, glanced over his head and asked casually.

  The army was focusing on the Eastern Front, and to support the army's offensive, the Operations Division staff planned a demonstration action codenamed Operation Albion. Scheer was apparently a frequent guest at Tirpitz's home, as the sheepdog ran over and lay down beside him with no hesitation. Scheer stroked the sheepdog's fluffy fur, easily revealing the navy's top secret: "Although the High Seas Fleet has conducted long-distance training exercises in the Gulf of Finland every few years, we also carried out a demonstration action against Japan in 1895, but after all, we lack experience in blockading a major naval power, so this winter the High Seas Fleet is also exploring blockade warfare..."

  "Alright, it seems you've already made up your minds." Tirpitz lifted the lid of a celadon teacup he had brought back from Qing China in the Far East, allowing the fragrance of the tea to spread throughout the room. "Although I've been at odds with that old fellow Hipper for many years, I must say..."

  "What?" Through the swirling white steam, Scherr could hardly see Tirpitz's heroic face and asked in a low voice.

  "I think I can say that without Fisher, Winston Churchill is nothing!" Tirpitz said with a significant smack of his lips over his strong tea.

  ****

  The four brand-new capital ships of the Grand Fleet entered the Baltic Sea, which is not unusual. Compared to the stormy North Sea, the Baltic Sea is obviously a good place for winter training. What's strange is that the Second Scouting Group with five light cruisers, two destroyer flotillas and one submarine flotilla also entered the Baltic Sea successively.

  After the outbreak of World War I, the main force of the High Seas Fleet gathered in the North Sea, and Germany left only the Baltic Fleet composed of old ships and the re-armed Fourth Reserve Division's seven pre-dreadnoughts on the surface of the Baltic Sea. Although Prince Henry's Baltic Fleet was somewhat outdated, it was more than enough to deal with the weak Baltic Fleet. The light vessels of the High Seas Fleet went to the Baltic not to maintain world peace but for war!

  Allied agents operating in Germany pieced together scattered intelligence, combined with the German Army's reinforcement of its Eastern Front forces, and Allied naval intelligence officers reached a ridiculous conclusion: The Germans were going to land on the coast of St. Petersburg, Russia's most economically developed region!

  The Dogger Bank battle was not enough to shake the Royal Navy's superiority, with the first Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleship, HMS Queen Elizabeth already completed and the second, HMS Warspite, due to be finished in January. By spring 1915, the Grand Fleet would have twenty-three dreadnoughts and five battlecruisers. How dare the Germans ignore the Royal Navy and send their main fleet into the Baltic and land on allied Russia!

  The Russians were in a state of panic, as their Baltic Fleet was not seaworthy; the Italians were getting restless and hesitant about the olive branch extended by the Entente; the officers and men of the Grand Fleet were shouting, feeling that the honor of the British Empire's ensign and the pride of the Royal Navy had been greatly insulted. The Admiralty of the Empire breathed a sigh of relief as the battle to encircle Spee's squadron was about to unfold, and the plan for the Dardanelles campaign was gradually taking shape. The eastward advance of the High Seas Fleet gave the Royal Navy room to maneuver, but nobody noticed that at the end of 1914, more than a dozen coastal submarines were dismantled and transported by rail to be deployed in the narrow Adriatic Sea.

  December 1914, night, Heligoland Island.

  The dim dock lights could not dispel the inky blackness of the North Sea night. The submarine crew, taking advantage of the murky darkness, transported supplies to the submarine. Oberleutnant Otto Weddigen, who was called "King of Submarines" by the Allied press, patted Kapit?nleutnant Karl D?nitz on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

  Across the biting cold wind, Wetti's muttering came over intermittently, and just "sneak attack on the Mediterranean Fleet anchorage" and "flexible use of wolf pack tactics" were enough to make everyone have a wonderful imagination.

  "General, is there anything you'd like to entrust me with?" The "Wolf King" D?nitz, who had left a fleeting impression in Wang Haitian's limited historical knowledge database, walked over and said seriously.

  "Go and sink the Mediterranean Fleet!" King's laconic reply was enough to accelerate D?nitz's heartbeat, who yearned for victory.

  At the end of December, six German long-range submarines slipped out of their base at Helgoland under the command of Oberleutnant Karl D?nitz and headed boldly into the unknown.

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