Chapter 5 of The Sound of the Guns Part II: Britain's Two-Front War (4)

  On November 1, in the Coronel Sea area of the South Pacific, a small-scale naval battle broke out, which was one-sided from start to finish. Although the Cradock fleet was very stubborn, the East Asian Fleet with two quasi-battle cruisers was too powerful.

  At 3:57, Cradock's squadron turned from a fan shape into line ahead, attempting to cross the head of the German column. However, von Spee took advantage of his speed superiority and easily kept his ships parallel with the British.

  At 04:01, the first salvo of Nürnberg's main armament hit Otranto. The ex-liner was struck forward of her bridge and soon a large fire broke out. She sank at 04:23 with nearly 700 casualties; only about 100 survivors were rescued.

  At 4:47, Cradock's squadron turned again to try and get across the head of the German squadron. Spee was unmoved and continued on course. Meanwhile, Leipzig had finished off Glasgow with eleven hits, her upper works almost completely destroyed. At 4:57 a large fire engulfed Glasgow's magazine and caused a severe explosion; at 5:03 this unprotected cruiser from 1911 sank off Coronel.

  At 5:35, the squadron of Cradock turned to flee, and the gradually setting sun dazzled the eyes of British gunners, Good Hope and Monmouth were almost in a desperate situation.

  At 5:55, under the onslaught of SMS Gniesenau's big guns, the fully loaded Monmouth, with a displacement of nine thousand tons, finally succumbed. The explosion of her after main turret magazine sent up a column of flame that could be seen for miles out to sea by merchant ships.

  At 6:24, with the sun dipping below the horizon, the faint afterglow revealed five warships of the East Asian Squadron in the South Pacific. However, SMS Gneisenau was unable to seize this last opportunity to escape, as the burning wreck of the doomed Scharnhorst illuminated the darkening sea around her.

  Under the premise of poor visibility, Monmouth undoubtedly became the best reference for German gunners. The East Asian Squadron concentrated its firepower and implemented a crossfire. The armored cruiser HMS Good Hope was unfortunately hit by a 240mm heavy artillery shell. In the last second before sunset, desperate Admiral Cradock sent a farewell telegram to the British Admiralty.

  "I will not surrender the ship even if it means going down with her. I intend to do what Nelson would have done. I am proud to die for my country. H.M.S. Good Hope, November 1st, 1914, 6:51 a.m., Last words of Cradock."

  "Commander, we won! After the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the Royal Navy's hundred-year glory was once again trampled in the waters off Coronel. History will remember today!" The battleship Scharnhorst had become a joyful ocean, and the German sailors, who loved to drink, brought out the long-stored large beer barrels and drank heavily under the faint moonlight. Thirty-six-year-old Bernhard von Oven sat on an empty beer barrel, pointing at the sinking HMS Good Hope armored cruiser and shouting to his crew with great passion: "Coronel is not the end of our East Asian Fleet's journey! We will fight back home, let the flames of rebellion in Ireland burn brighter, let the west coast of Great Britain be filled with the sound of wind and cranes, and let this island nation surrounded by oceans also taste the flavor of a two-front war!"

  The white-haired Maximilian von Spee slowly raised his arm, made a powerful downward gesture and said loudly: "What Oden said is right, go home!"

  November 1, 1914, while the Battle of Coronel was raging, a classic naval battle broke out in a corner of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea, far from Europe, where one battle cruiser challenged five old battleships.

  In the afternoon, the Black Sea continued to be stormy and rough in late autumn. The "Turkish" fleet commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Souchon was tirelessly searching for enemy ships near the Crimean Peninsula. Almost at the same time, General Andrei Augustovich Eberhardt, who was known for his impulsive nature, learned of the declaration of war by the Romanov dynasty and led his Black Sea Fleet to sea without hesitation.

  Sixty years have passed since the Crimean War, and those brave soldiers of England, France, Russia and Turkey who were deeply buried in the black soil and seabed of the Crimean Peninsula still cannot find their way home. The sighs left by Nicholas I, who drank that cup of poisoned wine, have not yet dissipated, and the flames of war have reignited in the waters off the Crimean Peninsula, where two fleets unexpectedly clashed at Cape Sochi in the south of the peninsula.

  Facing the "Turkish" fleet that had been accumulating poverty and weakness for decades, Admiral Andrei was extremely arrogant. Under Admiral Andrei's hasty combat orders, five Russian pre-dreadnoughts led by the flagship Evstafi, with Ivan Zaratustr as the gunnery control ship, quickly turned to occupy a favorable formation. However, Admiral Andrei overestimated the mobility of those old and dilapidated ships in the Black Sea Fleet. When Admiral Andrei's flagship Evstafi and the second ship Ivan Zaratustr had completed their turns, the famous Panteleimon, which was launched in 1898, began to turn, while the ancient relics Tri Sviatitelia and Rostislav, with their decrepit boilers, could not even perform a simple turn. The line formation that Admiral Andrei expected did not materialize, and due to the inconsistent actions of the fleet, it quickly split into two parts, causing chaos in the Black Sea Fleet's formation.

  Encountering the Black Sea Fleet, which had been declining day by day, only one battlecruiser, Svorov's Sorokin, had reason to be confident. Although the Russians had five pre-dreadnoughts and more 305mm main guns than the British battleship HMS Dreadnought, with its five turrets in a QF layout, the great sea war of the era was not simply a matter of numerical comparison. The Russian ships were too old, Evstafi, Ioann Zlatoust and Panteleimon were all elderly ironclads, while Sviatoi Pavel and Rostislav had been launched as early as the 1890s. The Black Sea Fleet's armament was outdated, morale was also worrying, the Russo-Japanese War cut off the Grand Duke's naval plan, and the Tsar's navy never recovered from this blow. The military was unstable, training was lax, and the extravagance of officials further exacerbated the turmoil within the Black Sea Fleet. Just before the outbreak of World War I, the Black Sea Fleet had just experienced the famous Potemkin mutiny.

  Looking at the Sorokin fleet, the Ottoman Empire gathered all its strength to gather a miscellaneous fleet of ships, although the types were different, but the speed was generally faster. If Sorokin decided to retreat, the Russian fleet would not be able to catch up no matter what, and could only sigh in admiration. Even if they clashed head-on with the Black Sea Fleet, Sorokin was not without a chance of winning. The Yavuz Sultan Selim was the second ship of the Moltke-class battlecruiser, after the Von der Tann was launched in 1907, Tirpitz used the excuse that the British were planning to build the Indefatigable-class battlecruiser, and proposed building a new type of battlecruiser, which became the legendary Moltke-class battlecruiser during World War I.

  The Moltke-class battlecruiser has a low forecastle design, with good wave resistance and navigability; standard displacement 23,358 tons, length 188 meters, beam 29.6 meters, power system using 24 boilers, 2 Parsons steam turbines, maximum power 73,000 horsepower, top speed 26.5 knots; equipped with 5 twin 305mm L/50 caliber main guns, 3 longitudinal distribution, superimposed structure at the stern, two inclined layout, located in the middle of the ship, 12 single 150mm secondary guns, evenly distributed on both sides of the hull. The waterline belt armor is 270mm thick, the main turret front armor is 250mm thick, the command tower gun turret is 350mm thick, and the horizontal armor is also 70mm thick. Although the Moltke-class battlecruiser has an unreasonable turret layout, with a smaller firing angle for the mid-ship guns, these flaws are offset by its 305 heavy guns, 270 main armor, and 26.5 knots speed, making it an extraordinary existence among the five old Russian battleships, not to mention another one called Heidemarie-Selma in 1897!

  "Westphalem, may your Vernian fantasy come true!" Sorokin was not a weak Turk, with the blood of the great German nation infused in his veins, he had the heart and appearance to dance with the seemingly powerful Russian Black Sea Fleet. The artful and bold General Sorokin silently recited Heiti-Westphalem's famous second-class international confidential thesis "On Asymmetric Warfare in the Era of Battleships", calmly issuing combat orders.

  At 16:44, in the northern hemisphere's western sunset, the Sochi Cape naval battle began with a near miss from a 305mm shell fired by the battleship Evstafi. The battle unfolded at a distance of nine thousand yards, and the numerous cruisers and destroyers belonging to the two fleets were useless at this distance. The main characters could only be the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the five battleships of the Black Sea Fleet.

  The battle fell into a state of frenzy from the start. The Black Sea Fleet's flagship Evstafi, the old battleship Ivan Zaratustra, and the new cruiser Yavuz began several rounds of artillery fire. Unlike the Battle of Cape Sotschi in past history books, without the interference of thick fog, the crew of the Yavuz cruiser took full advantage of the Krupp gun's firing speed accuracy and the advantages of the AP shell, and Andrei's flagship Evstafi was instantly riddled with holes, a pitiful sight.

  10 minutes later, the renowned battleship Georgios Averof finally joined the battle line, and the Black Sea Fleet's three ironclad warships with 12 x 305mm heavy guns barely managed to regain some psychological advantage. As time went on, the distance between the two fleets continued to narrow, and at a range of 7,000 yards, the 12 x 203mm heavy guns of the three Russian old battleships finally came into play. The Ivan Zaratustra fired a 203mm AP shell that hit the Yavuz Sultan Selim's midship waterline belt, but was bounced off by the 270mm main armor without mercy.

  The old-fashioned Russian armor-piercing shells had limited power against the hardened armor of the Dreadnought era, but Rear Admiral Sarcin still ordered his Yavuz to open distance with the Russian fleet. Rear Admiral Andrei wanted to engage, but the aged steam engines of the old battleship were not cooperating, and all he could do was watch as the enemy disappeared over the horizon, the initiative once again in the hands of the battlecruiser Yavuz.

  At 17:25, Yavuz still engaged the three old battleships while Tsesarevich and Rostislav finally caught up. Clearly these two old ships were helping Admiral Usedom, their main armament was out of range against Yavuz, whereas if Souchon had any interest in soft targets, Yavuz could easily have sunk these two last-century turret-ships.

  At 17:44, the turning point of the war appeared. Yavuz struck Andrei's flagship Evstafi with three consecutive hits from her 305mm heavy guns. Evstafi finally could not withstand and capsized in less than ten minutes.

  The sinking of the flagship caused panic in the Black Sea Fleet, even though Admiral Andrei's flag was soon raised on the mast of the battleship Ivan Zarevny, which had taken over as fire control ship, but the fighting spirit of the Black Sea Fleet was already almost gone.

  At 17:59, after being hit only once, the damaged battleship Pobeda, flying the signal "Battleship damaged, withdrawing from combat", retreated without regard. The Pobeda, assigned to cover the retreat, withdrew prematurely, and the hastening Tsesarevich and Rostislav, with their main armament of too short a range, were unable to provide any support to the advancing Imperator Izmail, isolating Andrei and his fire control ship instantly.

  At 16:23, the lone Izvestia-class battleship Novorossiysk could no longer withstand it. With a burst of smoke and flames in the middle section of the hull, this old battleship over 10,000 tons broke apart, with oil and iron debris flying everywhere, and the rising column of smoke was hundreds of meters high, visible even from the Sevastopol fortress.

  At 16:24, the battleship Yavuz sank at 16:24, and the Battle of Cape Sarych ended. The battlecruiser Yavuz single-handedly challenged five old battleships, sinking two of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's most "elite" battleships, and Admiral Andrei killed in action.

  This brief but brilliant naval victory seemed to have broken the only backbone of the Russian Navy, and before Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak took command of the Black Sea Fleet in late 1916, the Russian fleet disappeared from the surface of the Black Sea, and the Turkish onslaught into the Russian hinterland - the Caucasus region was even supported by their navy.

  "The Russian fleet is finished, and on the Black Sea there will be no opponent for the Ottoman Empire!" In November, the dark nights of the Northern Hemisphere always came early. The Hamidiye armored cruiser was sailing back through the dark waves. Günsel Re?it puffed on his cigarette and turned to look at the majestic Yavuz: "Lütfen, the day of revenge you've been waiting for is not far off..."

  Late at night, Rauf tightened his coat and faced the direction of Alexandria, with excitement written all over his dark face.

  The branch line battlefield will not be depicted in too much detail, to avoid everyone's aesthetic fatigue...

  Highly recommended: