Chapter 8: The Otaku's Fleet (Part 1)

  From sunset to nightfall, the Dogger Bank sea battle had evolved into a melee with a 30-mile front line. The Invincible was sunk first, and the Third Battle Squadron's two old ironclads and the Second Light Cruiser Squadron's two cruisers were still searching for survivors of the Invincible on the surface; Moltke was dying but still had the strength to fight back, and the duel between David Beatty and Hipper was still ongoing. The Queen Mary sank Blücher at the cost of reduced speed due to boiler damage, then pursued the fleeing Von der Tann after reorganizing; the battleships King George V, Conqueror, and Thunderer, along with the battlecruisers Tiger and Princess Royal, had already surrounded the fleeing Von der Tann from all sides.

  Given the awkward position of Lion, Beatty unhesitatingly handed over command of the eastern wing to Rear Admiral Arthur Leveson, who commanded the three battleships.

  At 19:55, the three waiting Queen Marys adjusted their ranges and firing angles, and through internal telephones and signal lamps between ships, the fifteen twin 13.5-inch turrets fired a broadside of thirty main armament guns, engulfing Von der Tann in a wall of steel.

  One high-explosive shell and one armor-piercing shell hit the Von der Tann. The high-explosive shell hit the rear of the bridge, causing the steel plate to twist into a ball, emitting a strange creaking sound, and the after-bridge, wireless antenna, telegraph room, and chart room disappeared instantly, except for the communications officer, navigator, and all personnel in the chart room and telegraph room died heroically. The armor-piercing shell hit the stern of the Von der Tann, and the already heavily damaged 50mm steel plate on the front of the K turret and the top of the ammunition loading room could no longer save the world. The magazine below the turret was unable to continue the miracle and was completely detonated.

  Accompanied by a dull hum, dozens of fine cracks appeared on the armored waterline at the bow of the ship. Half-melted iron blocks, spinning shrapnel, glistening human fragments and black smoke were thrown into the sky tens of meters high. The raging fire that broke out was enough to illuminate hundreds of meters of sea area nearby.

  "Water is being poured into Emil's (E-Gun Turret, German) ammunition depot!"

  The power of the British first salvo was not limited to this, the electrical turning room of Von der Tann was pierced by a near-miss shell fragment, the turning mechanism was locked, and the tens of thousands of tons of battle cruiser had to rush towards the three dreadnoughts in a desperate charge.

  "Turn the ship's crew to the capstan!" At the moment of life and death, Captain Marx-Haen, relying on his own instincts, gave the self-rescue order in the first time. He grabbed the communication officer and shouted: "Report our ship's position to Commander Hipper, let them join the battle as soon as possible!"

  "Captain, the wireless antenna is broken, the telegraph room is gone..." The communications officer took a few steps back, his face pale and disheartened: "The Von der Tann is finished!"

  Dense smoke and toxic gases spread through the corridors between the ammunition depots, forcing sailors to wear gas masks while fighting fires and desperately trying to stop the spread of the flames; medical personnel did their best to rescue the wounded, but the medicines they had were ineffective against burns and poisoning, and countless sailors died in agony, calling out the names of loved ones. A staff officer ordered more than 20 sailors to turn the manual capstan, when a near-miss shell hit, killing the staff officer on the spot and causing numerous casualties among the sailors.

  At 20:02, even though the pumps were pumping water into the magazines of turret E and several compartments in the bow, they could not stop the fire from spreading, and the magazine of turret E on Von der Tann exploded.

  The relentless Tiger and the Royal Princess of Wales steamed through a sea of burning wreckage, German sailors' corpses, fragments of waterproof canvas, and shattered gun turrets. As they rushed to the battlefield, the two battlecruisers saw a sight that filled them with joy: the bow of the Von der Tann was engulfed in a fierce blaze, its waterline belt armor shattered by the impact, its thick horizontal armor plate buckled high into the air before splitting in two, and tons of seawater poured in through the terrible gash.

  "Hurray for the British Empire! God save our King!" Cheers and applause resounded across the decks, bridges and portholes of the Royal Navy's main fleet, washing away the fatigue of a 13-hour long pursuit and a two-hour fierce battle. The sailors of the Royal Navy, who had been defeated time and again since the start of the war and were weighed down by shame, could finally hold their heads high with pride, waving their arms wildly to welcome the long-awaited victory!

  "What is that?" From the foretop of the battleship K?nig, Sergeant Roger, his heart racing, shifted his gaze from the towering flames on the bow of the Von der Tann battlecruiser back to a dark shape charging in from the northeast.

  "Who else but the Royal Navy with the Union Jack could be in the Dogger Bank now?" Sergeant Halle said with a mocking and teasing tone, following his comrade's line of sight to throw a contemptuous glance, when he was shocked by several dark shadows rushing from the northeast. The pale moonlight shone on Sergeant Halle's face, his proud mood collapsed, and the full moon's halo infinitely magnified his fear.

  "Grand Fleet!" Sergeant Halle, coming to his senses, grabbed the phone and connected to the King's command tower, shouting without regard: "Bearing 301, distance about 3800 yards, Grand Fleet in sight!"

  The lookout's shout shattered the lighthearted atmosphere that had pervaded the conning tower. The previous second, General Arthur Ravenel had been enthusiastically outlining the forthcoming Dardanelles landing, presided over by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, his gesticulating arm frozen in mid-air like a clown.

  According to the intelligence from the naval intelligence department, the elite warships of the German High Seas Fleet were summoned by their emperor to the Baltic Sea. The relief force composed of old pre-dreadnoughts and worn-out pre-dreadnoughts was at least half an hour's journey away from the eastern side of Dogger Bank even if they sailed at full speed. More importantly, at this time, all the main guns of his three Invincible-class ships were pointing to Von der Tann on the left beam. How dare the High Seas Fleet rush over at this time!

  Cold sweat seeped down Arthur Ravenswood's hat brim and dripped straight into his half-open collar, making the lieutenant general's already restless heart even more turbulent.

  "Halley, confirm the intelligence!" Arthur Ravenswood said into the receiver with a last shred of luck, feigning calmness.

  "Triple masts, that's the Seydlitz! A deep cutaway at the bow, low quarterdeck, four turrets with superfiring guns - it's one of those new German Derfflinger-class battlecruisers! Good Lord, when did the Germans get two Derfflingers!" Commander Haller was incoherent, his panic spreading through the telephone lines to the conning tower. The sudden appearance of the High Seas Fleet was like a giant fist crashing into the British chest, leaving them gasping and seeing stars.

  Isn't the Derfflinger class already back at the factory for renovation? With pictures and truth, the Grand Fleet in November couldn't even bring out one Derfflinger-class, where did two battlecruisers come from? Didn't the 1st Scouting Group of the Grand Fleet get transferred to the Baltic by their Emperor? When did those Junker naval officers in Wilhelmshaven who took the Teutonic Knights' creed as their motto start betraying their ancestors' oath and disobeying their Emperor?!

  "Let's not consider for now how accurate Lieutenant General William R. Holm's intelligence was..."

  At this moment, the passion of sinking the Hood faded away, the sense of honor and responsibility that had been accumulated by the Royal Navy for hundreds of years was extinguished, the ideal under the naval flag of Portsmouth Naval Academy was shaken, and the conservative and retreating mood occupied his mind like a tide.

  The First Scouting Group had sunk the Sylphs that invaded the British Empire, sinking three capital ships and killing the most outstanding commander of the young generation of the German Navy. The glory was enough, there was no need to let the naval battle slide into an unpredictable direction, and then evolve into a terrible big ship gun duel.

  Admiral Arthur Leveson, a product of the Royal Navy's staff college and a tactician, voiced his innermost fear: "The most important thing was that the first scouting force which should not have appeared at Dogger Bank had done so. Did this mean that the German Kaiser, K?nig, Helgoland, and Nassau were also lying in wait? If we became engaged with the first scouting group, our main body would be out of range, the battle cruisers could escape while the fastest speed of our own was only 21 knots, and our heaviest armor only 12 inches?"

  ****

  At 20:04, as the Queen Mary was making off at 20 knots in the direction of von der Tann, which had been hit by a shell that had caused flooding in her boiler rooms, Lion and the Grand Fleet flagship on the north-western edge of Dogger Bank received Admiral Arthur Leveson's recall signal.

  At the same time, Tiger and Princess Royal's wireless rooms received obscure and puzzling orders to withdraw from Iron Duke. Admiral Arthur Leveson, with authority from David Beatty, ordered Tiger and Princess Royal to turn right and join the main body of the fleet patrolling off the Dogger Bank.

  The sinking of the Von der Tann is imminent, so there's no need to retreat in disarray, is there? It must be remembered that the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron is a victorious fleet, having annihilated the German raiding squadron commanded by Admiral Heidekamp, which had shamelessly launched a surprise attack on the British mainland and landed marines on its coast just over ten hours ago! Everyone in the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron was still dreaming of parading through Wellington Arch and Trafalgar Square, being reviewed by the Household Cavalry at Horse Guards Parade, Westminster Castle, and the Houses of Parliament, receiving flowers and kisses from London girls, and being received by the King, Members of Parliament, and the Prime Minister!

  Tiger and Royal Princess were arguing about the command of the battlecruiser squadron when the 1st Scout Fleet made the best comment on Arthur Ravenstone's abnormality with cannonballs.

  Lützow, Derfflinger and Seydlitz had central fire control systems, under the direction of a single command tower, Hessen's main guns were aimed directly at the helpless Orion-class dreadnoughts, and the momentary gap in the dust-filled sea created by the crossfire was quickly opened.

  The 16 x 350mm main guns allowed the sailors of the ocean fleet, who had always been at a disadvantage in terms of the caliber of their warship's main guns, to experience for the first time the charm of the giant cannons of a large ship and the thrill of superior firepower. The muzzle flashes of the cannons illuminated the excited faces of the German gunners as they rushed across the ocean with the sailors' cries of "Los! Los! Los!"

  At 20:07, shells rained down on the three British battleships in column formation like meteors. The Thunderer, at the rear of the column, burst into a bright orange flame in the dark night, followed by a dull sound unlike that of a near miss explosion.

  "General, the Thunder God has taken a hit while serving as rear guard!"

  Rear Admiral Arthur L. Ravenholt had just given the order to withdraw when German shellfire began, a near miss exploding twenty yards off the starboard side of Monarch, wounding twelve sailors and smashing the sighting telescope on one of the 4-inch secondary guns. Just as Ravenholt was congratulating himself, the spotting top brought more bad news.

  "Can you see where the hit is?" Ravenston was terrified, knowing that even on the Orion-class battleship, the thickest armor at the waterline was only 12 inches, and the turret and conning tower armor were only 11 inches, while the Derfflinger-class battlecruiser's main guns had a caliber of 350mm (13.5 inches)!

  "It's the engine room!" Sergeant Halle's hoarse voice was like thunder.