Chapter 3: Old Foes and New Enemies (Part 1)

  The thunderous cannon fire finally ceased.

  Upon learning of the Grand Fleet's sortie, the British Navy wisely chose to retreat. Pressed by the High Seas Fleet's advance to intercept and support, the German Navy also did not dare to pursue. And so, under a certain unspoken understanding, the turbulent sea finally calmed down.

  The sea fog still shrouded the ocean, although it had a tendency to disperse, but the August sun could not penetrate this thick water vapor. The humid mist, the choking smell of gunpowder and sulfur, the bloody smell of death and the smoky smell of burning objects spread over the surface of the sea, easily defeating those iron-blooded true men who faced the 343mm main cannon of the war cruiser with a smile, young German sailors covered their mouths and vomited violently at the ship's side.

  Under the golden summons of Kaiser Wilhelm's twelve successive "Disposition Orders", Admiral Hipper's First Scouting Group and Rear-Admiral Reuter's Third Scouting Group had already withdrawn to defend Jade Bay, while Rear-Admiral Leberecht Maass' Second Scouting Group and the High Seas Fleet's destroyer screen were left behind to sweep the battlefield.

  The surface was littered with debris, including tattered naval uniforms and personal belongings of sailors, oil slicks from sunken ships, and the bloodstains of brave warriors. There were also makeshift coffins barely afloat on the surface, countless wreckage of warships, and innumerable corpses.

  The lifeboat was lowered, and the young German sailor jumped onto the lifeboat. With red eyes, they held up a loudspeaker and a long iron rod, darting back and forth in the fog of Heligoland Bay. The desolate and majestic voice echoed through the fog, like a mournful dirge from northern Germany.

  "We are the German Navy, does anyone need help?"

  The sailors clenched their fists, holding the long iron rods in their hands, carefully rummaging through the wreckage, refusing to give up any hope. Time flew by, and the years slipped away from their awkward fingers like sand, simple desperation turned into stubborn resistance, and eventually became a kind of despair. The sailor used trembling hands to collect the corpses, limbs, and broken clothes that floated on the surface of the sea, regardless of nationality or age, and then continued to move forward, holding up the loudspeaker in the fog, shouting hoarsely, hoping and despairing.

  "We are the German Navy, does anyone need help?"

  The sea was as silent as death, except for the occasional cries of seagulls swooping down to scavenge and the crackling sounds of small boats still burning on the surface. The naval battle in the fog had ended with a German victory, but reality always has more sorrow than the cold words on paper. Sailors wept, turning around to look at the familiar or unfamiliar bodies of their comrades piled up like a small mountain on the lifeboat, and they knelt down on the boat, crying bitterly.

  "Orelbay-Aryev, G-192 destroyer gunner, Navy Senior Sergeant, confirmed dead..."

  "Danzel-Oden, G-192 Destroyer Engine Sailor, Navy First-Class Soldier, Confirmed Dead..."

  The command room of the Mainz was silent. The staff officer who had been counting the dead had already changed shifts several times, and Lieutenant Schiller held a long list of the dead, his hands shaking like a sieve.

  The Strasbourg and K?ln light cruisers were sunk, the Rostock and K?nigsberg light cruisers were heavily damaged, the destroyers G-192, G-193, G-195, V-196 and S-143 were sunk, the destroyers G-194 and S-140 were severely damaged, 1,156 men were killed in action, 174 were missing, and only the Heligoland Fortified Area Command had 987 casualties.

  The stack of death notices on the desk was very high, as a frontline commander, Wang Haiting had to sign every single one of them. The otaku didn't know that these symbols of death would be sent out through the Navy Department and how many German families would send off their white-haired elders to mourn for their black-haired young ones, and how many German fathers, mothers, wives, and children would secretly curse him.

  "Lauren, did I do something wrong?" The pen was crushed by the otaku, the sturdy tip twisted, and the dark black ink flowed out of the gap onto the notification of the general's death, the annoying black quickly penetrated through the paper, and soon evaporated in the humid and hot air of the cabin. Wang Haitian crumpled up the notification into a ball, raised his head to Lieutenant Lauren who was leaning against the corner of the cabin with a distant look, and asked doubtfully.

  Since Heidkamp returned to the High Seas Fleet in 1914 as Hipper's chief of staff, Oberleutnant zur See Laurenz was his subordinate. Heidkamp appreciated Laurenz's strong German spirit beneath his timid appearance, so when he became commander of the Heligoland Bight defenses, he took Laurenz with him at the first opportunity. After a disastrous sea battle, despite the victory and glory that followed, as a commanding officer responsible for the lives and honor of thousands, Heidkamp was haunted by the eerie silence that followed a triumph won at great cost in lives. He sought to find the truth from pure Germans.

  "Colonel, the German nation has stood for a thousand years in the salt marshes and swamps of northern Germany, where grain does not grow abundantly. Neither the Gauls, nor the Romans, nor the Tartars, nor the modern Anglo-Saxons or Slavs have been able to thoroughly conquer Germany. It is blood and death that have forged the German nation, shaped the young German Empire! Captain Lorenz hid in a dark corner, but his answer was infinitely bright, just like the words of the old dockworker Brant from Augsburg in Kiel: "Everyone fears death, but someone has to do some things! Rather than letting future generations suffer, let's end this nightmare with our own hands!"

  ****

  On August 23, 1914, the nineteenth day of the declaration of war between Germany and Britain, the British Empire, which had been permeated with ocean culture, and the young but daring German Empire, which challenged the ocean, burst into a sea battle in the obscure Heligoland Bay, known as the Battle of Heligoland Bight.

  Rear Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt, commanding the Harwich Force, was still smarting from the classic submarine ambush of 6 August planned by the naval genius of Heidera von Seidlitz and had gathered his friends, Commodore Jellicoe of the Eighth Submarine Flotilla and Commodore William Goodenough of the First Light Cruiser Squadron to submit an ambitious plan to the British Admiralty for a raid on Heligoland Bight, destroying the German High Seas Fleet's patrol flotillas.

  It is well known that Sir Winston Churchill was a civilian, and his romantic nature did not possess the tactical temperament of a soldier, but he was proud and arrogant. Since the outbreak of war, the Royal Navy had suffered defeat after defeat, and he, who had been criticized by newspapers and the public, supported General Reginald Tyrrell's rough plan at all costs, which led to a fierce quarrel with First Lord of the Admiralty Fisher, resulting in his resignation.

  The British plan was simple and brutal, based on the unscientific survey of the Eighth Submarine Flotilla and intelligence from spies in Germany. A raiding force consisting of Harwich Force, First Cruiser Squadron and Eighth Submarine Flotilla would enter Heligoland Bight during a window of low tide at the Jade Bay anchorage of the German High Seas Fleet, lure out Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass's scouting group into a pre-arranged ambush and annihilate it. To forestall any possible danger, the British Admiralty also sent Vice Admiral David Beatty with his battlecruiser squadron as support.

  The Germans had not been without wind of the British plans to raid Heligoland, and Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass, commanding the German defensive forces in the area, adopted a policy of holding back his main forces while sending out his fastest and most elusive units. Four cruisers of the First Scouting Group were stationed near the island of Heligoland, while six torpedo boats were positioned at the mouth of the Jade River.

  On August 23, 1914, the news of the Battle of Heligoland Bight spread throughout Europe via modern communication technology and then to America and Asia. Although both Germany and Britain claimed victory in the first post-war period, inflicting heavy losses on each other, it can be seen from the scene where the Allied bonds were ignored on the New York Stock Exchange on August 24 that who was lying.

  In a sense, this naval battle was the precursor to the era of big ships and big guns, it was a classic melee. However, the evaluation of this naval battle by later generations is not high, because this fog-shrouded naval battle was a beautiful misunderstanding from start to finish. The British mistakenly believed that the High Seas Fleet could not be mobilized, so they boldly dispatched a large number of light vessels to venture into the dangerous Heligoland Bight, while David Beatty's battlecruiser squadron remained as a support fleet in a place far away from the battlefield. The Germans mistakenly believed that the Royal Navy would underestimate Germany's defensive strength, but Churchill insisted on sending out the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron to give his beloved general David Beatty more opportunities and glory.

  It can be seen that both sides of the war had some foresight into the Battle of Heligoland Bight, but both sides also made major mistakes and omissions. In comparison to the rough plan set by the British Admiralty, the High Seas Fleet, or more precisely, Admiral Hipper's preparation for this battle was more thorough. If it weren't for that damned fog, the British raiding fleet would have encountered Admiral Hipper's head-on blow, and David Beatty, who rushed to support them, would also have collided with Hipper's battlecruisers in Heligoland Bight, staging a real-life duel between giant ships and cannons. With the support of minefields, torpedo boats, and the main force of the High Seas Fleet, as well as Germany's best tactical commander Admiral Hipper and Germany's greatest strategic genius Admiral Scheer, the possibility of a German victory was great.

  Unfortunately, history has no ifs. A sudden sea fog disrupted the German deployment, and the patrol line consisting of aircraft, airships, and destroyers was rendered useless in this bad weather. The British bombardment of Heligoland Island, the mistake of the German duty officer, and the boldness of Captain Miklós Horthy of the SMS C?ln further amplified the impact of this bad weather to an unimaginable extent. If it weren't for Heidekamp's keen perception at 7:55 that the British might have a hidden hand, issuing a farsighted strategic turn order, perhaps the history of Heligoland Bay would have been rewritten.

  The Battle of Heligoland Bight in the fog, the German Navy successively dispatched three battlecruisers, one large armored cruiser, thirteen cruisers and seventeen other light vessels. The British Navy dispatched five battlecruisers, ten cruisers, thirty-two destroyers and three submarines. The Germans finally sank two cruisers, five destroyers, two light cruisers and two destroyers were seriously damaged, at the cost of 1,330 deaths, sinking five British light cruisers (Arethusa, Southampton, L?stoft, Yarmouth, Scout), 14 destroyers, one submarine, captured a light cruiser (Sydney) and a new destroyer. According to British war records, more than two thousand people were killed in this battle, so the German victory was brilliant.

  The Battle of Heligoland Bight had a profound impact on the naval policies of both Germany and Britain. In Britain, the old guard of the Royal Navy finally began to take seriously the challenge posed by the second-ranked High Seas Fleet. Admiral John Jellicoe's theory of distant blockade gained more and more supporters within the British Navy, while criticism from the British public and press over the inaction of the Royal Navy grew increasingly fierce, prompting repeated parliamentary hearings with senior naval officers and demands for explanations to the British people. After the Battle of Heligoland Bight, Winston Churchill's Admiralty oscillated between radical and conservative policies until his downfall after the Dardanelles Campaign in 1915.

  The impact of the Battle of Heligoland Bight on Germany was surprisingly similar to that in Britain. On 23 August 1914, Admiral Sir John Fisher, First Sea Lord, did not come into the Admiralty and it was finally confirmed throughout the Royal Navy that he had resigned. At the same time, his arch-enemy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, creator of the High Seas Fleet, tendered his resignation to the Kaiser during the battle...

  This chapter is ready to fill the pit, the abusive master complex ends here, and the ultimate big boss is about to take the stage. Everyone, be prepared! Also, starting tomorrow, I'll make a small recommendation, ah, the worst kind, please collect it as a comfort for me, okay? At least let me get 300 collections!