Chapter 7: The Horror of Dogger Bank (6)

  After reading this chapter, everyone might scold why it's not the Great Country Sea Soul of China, why a Chinese man would go to Germany to talk about the Great Country Sea Soul. I just want to say that first and foremost, one must be a great country in order to have a Great Country Sea Soul on a spiritual level. People say this book is too historical, but I think it's too YY (fantastical), because Xi Yi's self-strengthening and painstaking efforts are just a clumsy work of YY!

  "My God, that's where the boiler room of the Mauritius is..."

  At 18:30, the crew of the Von der Tann-class battlecruiser and the armored cruiser Blücher saw a heartbreaking scene. A 381mm armor-piercing shell hit the flagship of the decoy fleet, Moltke, easily tearing open the left side of the 270mm waterline belt main armor on the sturdy hull, ripping out a several-meter-long gash. The dark and icy waters of the North Sea poured in, causing the speeding Moltke battlecruiser to stumble, its forward momentum quickly faltering.

  Captain Alexander Edmann of the Blücher turned his back, silently making a cross: "God save the Moltke, God save Germany's greatest strategic genius!"

  Tiger and Queen Mary's battlecruiser gunfire was still fierce, the veteran Blücher and the stumbling Moltke were getting closer and closer, with a tendency to overtake. At this time, the searchlight signal on the cylindrical mainmast of the Moltke flashed, Captain Edman hastily turned his head to look at the signal soldier.

  "Blücher and Von der Tann completed the turn and opened fire to the east, Moltke..." The stiff German signalman's eyes moistened as he translated the flagship's lantern signal: "Moltke boiler damaged, unable to keep up with the fleet, immediately take over the rear guard position to cover the retreat!"

  "Xilem, Principal Laike wasn't wrong about you!" Colonel Edman said in a low, clenched fist.

  As a student of Ernst von Reischach, Alexander Edmann had the good fortune to attend the 1897 thesis defense of naval academy cadets in Kiel, where the young and impetuous Heide presented his sensational concept of "asymmetric warfare". After the defense, old Reischach spoke bluntly to him and Hipper: this young man from Kiel may have had some minor flaws, but he had a broad vision and a keen sense of smell, and what was even more valuable was that in his heart there was a certain passion that even he himself had not noticed, a power that would enable him to shoulder the mission and save the crisis! In the rising map of the German Navy, Heide-Silemann's importance far surpassed that of Wolfgang Wegener, the genius of the Pl?n school who was on par with him, and Bernhard von Odenstein and Erich Raeder, the three musketeers of Kiel.

  The dazzling 1897 thesis defense, the tumultuous and defeated 1898, the desperate end of German East Africa in 1912, the mysterious Turkish order in 1914, Colonel Edmann witnessed Heidemann's transformation from initial ignorance to rebirth after returning home in 1914, and then to the thrilling Battle of Heligoland Bight on August 23.

  "Signalman, to the flagship lantern: Long live Moltke!" The cannon fire outside the command tower thundered, and the collapsing situation could not tolerate any hesitation or pretentiousness. Colonel Edmann turned his body to face the gradually falling behind Moltke, stepped back with his heels together, and raised a white glove stained with dust to give a solemn military salute.

  ****

  The wounded Moltke was an easy target, and the British shells were increasingly aimed at her, mercilessly pounding her into a wreck.

  "Deputy Commander, you can actually choose Brünnhilde as your new flagship. Moltke will never consider you a deserter..." Captain Magnus von Levetzow of the Moltke had worked with the young man in front of him for half a year and couldn't bear to let this brilliant naval officer die at Dogger Bank, trying his best to persuade Wang Haitian to leave the ship.

  "Captain, do you see that flag?" The dark North Atlantic night sky was thick with the choking smell of gunpowder and the stench of blood, under the faint moonlight, the Blücher cut through the British artillery fire, narrowly avoiding a collision with the stumbling Moltke. Wang Haitian pointed at the naval flag bearing the German Iron Cross and Black Eagle hanging from the mainmast of the Blücher, looking up at the night sky filled with gunfire, as if trying to see through the fabric of time: "A long, long time ago, when the Empire was unified, songs and dances flourished, desires flowed freely. As a child of peaceful times, I didn't understand what war was, what responsibility was, what bloodlust and persistence were. The first time I heard Frey recall the painful Six Weeks War, I listened to Brant's tale of his reserve, I was detached, making jokes on the side; after finishing the not-so-thick naval history course at Kiel Naval Academy, my gradually numbing heart trembled with understanding for my predecessors; in 1894, a few desolate days in West Africa's Guinea Bay, Sherman's death and Oden's pride stirred the strings of my heart; in 1914, I returned to my homeland on the orders of Turkey, and went to report on the Sedritz number war cruiser, truly standing under the naval flag of the Sedritz number, listening to the deep horn of the Grand Fleet, only then did I awaken from my dream. In 1914, war, countless military victories and the ensuing political entanglements, I wandered at the crossroads of life, irreparably choosing to fight with all my might. Captain, now that I've figured out what I didn't understand before, or rather, what was obscured by false national politics, there's no going back!"

  The Mary Queen fired a 343mm armor-piercing shell that hit the Moltke's mid-ship. The structural problem of the turret and gun seat had always been a chronic disease of the German Navy, and the impact force generated by the semi-armored shell explosion completely destroyed the mid-ship twin 305mm B main gun and a single 150mm secondary gun.

  "All damage control personnel, report to the amidships area. Flooding of Bruno turret magazine is in progress!" Faced with Zhang Huang's helpless staff and damage control officer, Lieutenant Colonel Leiwentz remained expressionless and continued: "Commander, do you understand what I just said?"

  "A land nation's sea soul, a great maritime power's sea soul that dares to explore the ocean!" King Haitai said word by word with bandages wrapped around him.

  Lieutenant Colonel Leivin's mustachioed face twitched slightly, and he let out a heavy sigh, finally giving up on his futile persuasion.

  ****

  The naval battle continued, at 18:49, Lion, Princess Royal and Queen Mary joined the fray, with the three battleships of the First Battlecruiser Squadron cutting off the escape route to the east. David Beatty's flagship Lion targeted Moltke, while Princess Royal, Queen Mary, Tiger and New Zealand engaged their chosen opponents under Beatty's direction.

  At this time, the Von der Tann and Blücher completed their turning maneuver, forming a 45-degree angle with the four battlecruisers of the First Battlecruiser Squadron approaching head-on. This also means that Von der Tann and Blücher can exert all their broadside firepower, using 16 main guns (in fact, the A turret of Von der Tann has been damaged) to counterattack the First Battlecruiser Squadron with only 16 bow main guns available (Invincible's bow A turret and midship P turret), and the situation of the decoy fleet has changed greatly.

  At 18:50, the Feng-De-Tanen's siren let out a heart-wrenching alarm sound. The officers and soldiers on board involuntarily opened their mouths wide or covered their ears. A pair of eyes filled with vengeful anger stared intently in the direction where the British fleet was located, waiting for the Feng-De-Tanen to unleash its fury!

  At 18:51, the German fleet finally launched a fierce counterattack after more than half an hour of silence. The first salvo from Von der Tann hit Invincible. The 305mm capped armor-piercing shell easily tore through Invincible's waterline belt armor and less than 4-inch thick watertight subdivision bulkheads, burying itself deep in the ship's hull amidships.

  Invincible was the first battlecruiser in the world, with the main armament of a battleship and the speed of a cruiser. Since Invincible began construction on April 2, 1906, this warship has attracted attention from all over the world, and for a time, it was unmatched. However, good times did not last long, and just one week after Invincible began construction, arch-rival Germany quickly launched a knockoff battlecruiser - Von der Tann.

  For battlecruisers, the design concepts of the German and British navies were diametrically opposed. Under similar main gun calibers and full-load displacements, the British chose speed at all costs, with a top speed of 26 knots sufficient to make those unprotected cruisers serving in the colonies of the British Empire lose face, while the Germans put all their energy into defensive capabilities, with armor thickness on the waterline belt, conning tower, and turrets not inferior to that of the British Dreadnought battleships.

  Since the launch of the Von der Tann, British and German newspapers have been engaged in a war of words, accusing each other of being inferior products, while their own were the world's best. After years of endless insults, the Invincible and Von der Tann had an eight-year feud. On November 14, 1914, at 19:21, off Dogger Bank in the North Sea, the brutal Von der Tann ended this vendetta with a single 400kg 305mm armor-piercing shell.

  The shell hit the Invincible's port side, blowing a large hole in it. The North Atlantic waters rushed into the ship's interior with great enthusiasm, swallowing everything along the pipe doors. It can't be said that the Royal Navy's damage control personnel didn't work hard. Inside the Invincible's hull, countless Royal Navy sailors shouted "God save the King" and the Royal Navy anthem "Rule Britannia", jumping into the icy waters and terrible whirlpools, desperately stuffing plugs, tarpaulins, and rigging into the hole. However, the Invincible's poorly made armor and poor damage control design made the situation irretrievable.

  At 19:01, the British damage control efforts failed and seawater flooded over the second deck of Invincible; all pumps stopped working.

  At 19:12, Captain Indomitable ordered the crew to abandon ship.

  At 19:21, the captain confirmed that the last crew member had left and then locked himself in his cabin. With no other choice, HMS Nottingham launched two torpedoes at Invincible to the mournful tune of "The Song of the Englishman" sung by the sailors in low tones.

  At 19:25, Invincible, as the first capital ship to be sunk in the Battle of Jutland, sank with her captain into the icy waters of the North Sea off Jutland, in about 30 meters (100 ft) of mud.

  Thanks for all book friends' support, haha, try to make this book more perfect and less buggy.