Chapter 3: The Naval Battle in the Fog (5)

  "At 7:32, we were surrounded by the British. G-193 was sunk in battle, Lieutenant Frank-Belli went down with the ship! G-192 was heavily damaged, G-194 and G-195 suffered minor damage, Koln hit and damaged an old British light cruiser, my ship took one hit! Requesting support!"

  "7:36, G-192 was completely destroyed, only 12 crew members were rescued. The upper structure of G-195 was completely destroyed and lost combat effectiveness. Our ship suffered a torpedo hit, No. 1 boiler was damaged, speed reduced by half, unable to break through, requesting support!"

  "7:39, G-195 sank, losses cannot be counted. My ship has completely lost power, all officers and men have decided to live or die with the K?nigsberg, long live the Navy! Long live Germany!"

  A thick sea fog hangs over the bay, blocking out the sun and reducing visibility to less than 4 kilometers. The lookout on duty is anxiously holding up a Zeiss binoculars to observe the sea, but awkwardly discovers that the lens is covered with a pale white film.

  Commander Miklós's distress telegrams came one after another, and although Wang Haiting was not present on the scene, the intense naval battle could be seen from those anxious telegrams. The otaku was extremely anxious in his heart, but he couldn't show it in front of his subordinates, so he kept urging the rescue fleet composed of 3 light cruisers, 8 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats from the Heligoland Defense Command to speed up their journey northwest of the Helgoland Bay following the rumbling gunfire.

  After receiving the farewell telegram at 7:39, the loud noise of the telegraph machine on the stern suddenly stopped. The telegraph operator, who was still busy and panting just now, suddenly had nothing to do. He tapped the machine, preferring to believe that it was a mechanical failure.

  The intense gunfire from the northwest seemed to be weakening, a suffocating gloom spread throughout the command tower of the Maine, from Commander Wang Haitao to the helmsman, everyone was silent and avoided eye contact. Everyone knew what the interrupted telegram meant, but no one dared or had the heart to think about it.

  Wang Haitian raised his head with some worry, casting a glance at the mist outside the conning tower of the sterncastle. His narrowed eyes instantly welled up with a layer of water vapor. Perhaps in later war histories, this sea battle in the fog would only be recorded as some cold data, listing the losses on both sides and the impact it had on the naval situation of Germany and Britain. But for the officers who truly participated in this sea battle, every German ship lost meant hundreds of comrades sacrificing their lives, and countless families were about to hear the news of death.

  "Lookout reports, British fleet in sight! Kolberg and G-194 still engaging!"

  In the periscope of the lookout, only the Kolberg light cruiser was seen with thick smoke billowing, its battered hull already listing more than 40 degrees to the right. Yet even so, the twisted steel superstructure still occasionally burst into brilliant flames. Despite being beaten by a group of British destroyers, G-194 stood stubbornly upright in Heligoland Bay, never sinking!

  "Keep course, break through the British fleet!" Cheers erupted from the command tower of Mainz, and Wang Haitao regained his spirit, standing with his hands around his chest in the command tower, cruelly.

  At 7:55, the rescue fleet consisting of four cruisers with an unstoppable momentum separated and sank a British destroyer from the reconnaissance cruiser and the 1st Destroyer Squadron. The two torpedo boats S-165 and S-166 were detached from the rear of the German column formation, approaching the heavily damaged Cologne and G-194.

  "Fleet turn, left rudder 15!" Wang Haitie held up the binoculars and swept a circle aimlessly over the vast sea, giving an eerie order with full confidence.

  The signalman immediately ran out, and in a moment the Mainz cruiser's mast hung up the signal flag "Follow the flagship, all turn around". Under the leadership of Mainz, the rescue fleet began to turn left, 13 warships rolled up a layer of white whirlpools on the surface of Heligoland Bay, and the column formation quickly became a horizontal formation.

  "Captain, why didn't we take the T earlier..." The captain of the Mainz complained tactfully: "If we had changed formation earlier, the British wouldn't have lost just one destroyer..."

  Crossing the "T" and occupying the broadside of a column formation was the mainstream combat method in the era of large warships and giant guns, because by occupying the "T"-shaped column formation, one side could concentrate more firepower to attack the enemy, while the other side, due to ship design, often couldn't bring its rear main battery into play, thus being at a disadvantage in terms of firepower. Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar and Heihachiro Togo at the Battle of Tsushima both won victories by employing this tactic.

  Of course, the T-crossing maneuver was not everything in naval warfare. In the Battle of Lissa in 1863, the Austrians were lucky to win with melee and column formations, but their victory was almost impossible to replicate: in the era of large ships and giant guns, battles usually broke out at a distance of several seas, and close combat meant greater losses.

  "First, the Cologne and G-194 are still fighting, we have to go save them. Second, what's in front of us isn't the full strength of the British, I have a feeling that the main force of the British fleet is lurking nearby. Third, calculating the time, General Lebrecht Maas' second scouting fleet should be arriving on the battlefield soon!" The otaku put down his binoculars, gritting his teeth: "Reginald Tirpitz, I'm going to make sure you stay here today!"

  At 8:11, behind the rescue fleet of Heidekamp and Westfalen, a more luxurious first reinforcement fleet than expected by Heidkamp was rushing to catch up. It not only had the second scouting fleet led by Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass with three cruisers Rostock, Kolberg and Stralsund, but also the third scouting fleet led by Commodore Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz with six light cruisers Ariadne, Stettin, Strasbourg, Danzig, Stuttgart and Munich. The second reinforcement fleet led by Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper with four battlecruisers Seydlitz, Von der Tann, Moltke and armored cruiser Blücher had just sailed out of Jade Bay.

  ****

  "Commander, a German reinforcement fleet has joined the battle group. They have defeated Colonel Jones' intercept fleet and sunk the destroyer Spartan King." The intelligence staff hastily handed over a telegram, and General Tirrit, with his majestic and handsome feathered hat, only glanced at it roughly, signed his name, and waved his hand to let the intelligence staff leave.

  Three light cruisers, eight destroyers, four torpedo boats, and the flag of Harwich Defence Command... Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt stood on the bridge of H.M.S. Arethusa, a sneer on his face as he crumpled the telegram in his hand: "Heidekampf Seiler, Germany's naval genius, it seems you've used up all your strength, but the real show has only just begun..."

  "Order, strike force main fleet sortie!" William Goodnoe, Rear Admiral Tirrit's old friend, understood and gave the order loudly.

  At 08:25, the main force of the raiding fleet consisting of eight light cruisers - HMS Southampton, HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Sydney, HMNZS Achilles, HMS Sheffield, HMS Glasgow, HMS Birmingham and HMS Manchester - moved in to overwhelm the newly arrived Harwich Force.

  On the eve of the outbreak of World War I, Reginald Tyrwhitt became commander of a fleet based at Harwich on the south-east coast of England. During the war his fleet was responsible for defending the western approaches to the Strait of Dover and escorting British merchant ships and fishing vessels, so the public and newspapers affectionately called it the Harwich Force.

  Reginald Tyrwhitt laughed at the glorious and great title, he was determined to lead his fleet to achieve enough glory, so that Harwich Fleet could live up to the expectations of the British people and newspapers. However, the bloody fact and a young junior named Heide-Selheim slapped him hard. On August 6, 1914, the small-scale submarine war broke out in Dogger Bank, Harwich Fleet sank three and was heavily damaged, while the Germans only had one accidental injury (Karl D?nitz). This disproportionate loss ratio made Reginald Tyrwhitt an instant laughing stock in the British Navy, nailed to the pillar of shame of the Royal Navy for centuries. The British newspapers mercilessly renamed his Harwich Fleet as "Fleeing Fleet" (a homophone for failure), although the poor performance of the Channel Fleet shared some of the blame, but once the seeds of hatred were sown, it was a dead-end outcome.

  The main force of the British raiding fleet, lurking in the northwest direction of the battlefield, began to march towards the battlefield. At this time, whether it was their commander or the ordinary sailors on the ship, they all had a confident and proud mentality, as if the glorious victory of the Royal Navy was just around the corner. The unjust grievances suffered by the Harwich fleet could be washed away today, and the dense fog under Heligoland Bay would be the best tomb for the German Navy and their arch-nemesis Heidekamp!

  At 8:47, when the British raiding force arrived on the scene in a hurry, Tirpitz was embarrassed to find that the German reinforcements were not just three cruisers as reported in the telegram, but twelve cruisers, and the German fleet had already completed its turn. The British raiding force, which came from the northwest, happened to become the column of the "T" formation.

  "Turn, emergency turn!" Admiral Thiret was flustered, unable to recall those grand words, unable to remember those entanglements of gratitude and resentment. His mind in disarray, he blurted out orders, his only thought being to turn the fleet into a line abreast, putting both sides on an equal footing.

  The flagship of Tirpitz, the Lin Sen, was a new ship that had just been put into service, and the sailors on board were not yet mature in either gunnery or navigation training. It wasn't until the Lin Sen barely completed its turning maneuver that the signal flag "Follow the flagship, all turn" was hastily hung up. As a result, the British fleet's formation became chaotic, and the Lin Sen was the first to complete the turn and narrowly escaped the first wave of shelling from the supporting fleet of Heiti-Westheim. The Southampton, following behind the Lin Sen, saw the signal flag on the flagship, but by then it was too late for a suitable turning opportunity. However, the stubborn captain of the Southampton confirmed the signal flag multiple times before ordering an emergency turn, while the third ship, the Lützow, failed to notice the flagship's turning command and the Southampton's abnormality, and collided with the Southampton cruiser that was in the process of turning. The fourth ship, the Nottingham, took evasive action at a sharp angle and narrowly avoided the accident ships. Although the Nottingham's emergency evasion was brilliant, it also declared that the last effort of the British fleet to regain the initiative had failed, and they would face a cruel fate!

  A loud rumbling sound came from behind, the sound was not like the whistling of a shell piercing the sky, nor was it like the thunderous sound of a shell hitting its target, but rather the screeching friction sound of two steel plates entwining together. General Tirit was somewhat perplexed, he slowly turned around and immediately saw the spectacle of friendly ships colliding with each other.

  Tieri Te felt as if his head had exploded with a loud bang, and his blood seemed to be flowing backwards. Everything in front of him was pitch black.

  "Tell David-Betty to retreat, it's a trap!" Tirit opened his mouth to speak, but involuntarily spat out a big mouthful of blood foam, the scream in his heart rolled around his throat joint for several laps, and not even a single phoneme could be uttered.

  "Good heavens, Tirpitz, you're coughing blood! Don't talk anymore, let the medic take a look at you!" Although William Goodno was very concerned about his old friend's physical condition, saving this raiding fleet that was about to be swallowed up by the Germans was obviously more important than saving people. He called over the medic and had them send Tirpitz back to the commander's quarters, taking command himself as countless orders poured out of his mouth: "Order, Southampton and Lusthof report damage; each ship retreats at will, Sydney and Yarmouth take up the rear guard; notify David Beatty's battlecruisers to come and provide support..."

  "Harry's fleet is finished..." Lieutenant General Tirrit, lying on the stretcher, let out a mournful moan from deep in his throat after hearing Lieutenant General Wilhelm Goodno's orders, and immediately fainted.

  Today I'm going to explode with plot, at least two updates of 7,000 words each. This is the first update. The second one will be automatically updated at 7:30 tonight. Also, please recommend and collect, although I've signed a contract, my performance has been too poor... I don't even have 300 collections, and the recommendation tickets for the new book period haven't even reached 1,000 yet. I'm too embarrassed to tell my classmates that I'm writing...