Chapter Fifteen: Germany and Denmark (6)

  Kavin, this chapter is written too entangled, okay, watered again.

  Lützow and Lion were engaged in a fierce battle, from 19,000 yards down to 15,600. At 18:15, the lookout on Lützow's foretop spotted an indistinct smudge of smoke among the British line of battle, between the flashes of Lion's main armament.

  Zeiss binoculars were of excellent quality, but under the increasingly thick sea fog and night color interference, the sailor couldn't confirm his inner guess. The Lion's next round of gunfire arrived as scheduled, and the lookout could only glance over, focusing on the 343mm armor-piercing shell impact points, leaning against the armored guardrail of the lookout tower to report the damage situation to the command tower and fire control tower.

  The Seydlitz had ten 12-inch guns, but the main battery's small caliber meant that even at a range of 16,000 yards, armor-piercing shells would have greatly reduced penetration power. Moreover, the ship's amidships superfiring turrets were designed with only a slight angle to fire on either side, which limited its broadside firepower. The Princess Royal and Tiger formed a wall of steel around Seydlitz, unleashing a hail of metal that engulfed the German cruiser in a maelstrom of water and smoke. At 18:14, Princess Royal even scored a straddle, although none of the shells hit Seydlitz; one 343mm shell whizzed past the ship's stern and splashed into the sea, causing damage that was not to be underestimated. One 152mm secondary gun was damaged, and the blast from the explosion was absorbed by the 300mm waterline belt armor and the 200mm upper side armor belt, but Seydlitz still suffered severe listing and shaking, with numerous pipes, valves, and sealed compartments showing fine cracks.

  Seydlitz was on the verge of collapse, but Providence and good fortune intervened - the damned eight 13.5-inch guns of Queen Mary seemed to have gone out, relieving Seydlitz's pressure so much that Moritz von Egidy exclaimed in his navigation journal: "Thank God, the dazed Queen Mary has finally found her proper opponent, whom she should give a good drubbing, and turned her guns on the idle Derfflinger!"

  The Seydlitz had clearly underestimated the fighting power of the Princess Royal, but this error was inconsequential as even the Derfflinger itself did not realize that the Princess Royal had been severely damaged and was on the verge of collapse. The Derfflinger-class battlecruiser's rangefinder could magnify distant objects 23 times, but this powerful instrument was greatly impaired in its ability to detect targets in the thickening haze and fading light. At 18:15, the spotting tower reported to the command tower that "the target ship had been hit on the forecastle deck, with unknown results", whereupon the Derfflinger continued firing indifferently, hitting the Princess Royal twice more. By 18:23, the Princess Royal had completely disappeared from view, and under the confusing interplay of nightfall and sea haze, the Derfflinger could only report to the flagship that it had lost its target.

  Not only Derfflinger lost her target, but also Lützow, which was heavily engaged with Lion, lost sight of her opponent around 18:23. Seydlitz lost sight of Tiger's silhouette through the gunnery rangefinder at about 18:21, while Moltke, in the rear, was in an even worse position; her lagging rangefinder and a distance of over 17,800 yards (16,300 m) meant that she had already lost sight of her target by around 18:15.

  The Deutschland was last in line but was the last to leave the battle. At 18:13, a hit on the Deutschland sheared off half of the aft superstructure, penetrated the horizontal armor and exploded in the boiler room, starting a large fire.

  The flames on the Deutschland's amidships became the best indicator for Invincible's somewhat outdated rangefinder, as Invincible poured several tons of explosives into Deutschland with her 12-inch armor-piercing shells, while Deutschland was unable to return fire due to the interference from the large fire and thick smoke at amidships. At 18:24, the battle ended unclearly despite the flames on Deutschland's amidships still burning, as the usual North Sea fog approached formation, Invincible had lost her target for firing into the sea fog.

  Wang Haitian's first reconnaissance fleet and David Beatty's fast fleet vanguard battle lasted for more than half an hour, the German and British sides were not satisfied, but the distance of over 16,000 yards and the sea fog made both sides lose their targets for artillery fire, and had to temporarily stop fighting to lick their wounds in preparation for another battle.

  In the midst of this turmoil, the Royal Princess sank silently. It was not accompanied by the mournful and majestic Scottish bagpipes of the Royal Navy, nor was it accompanied by a sense of camaraderie in adversity. At 18:24 on March 3, 1915, at the northern edge of Heligoland Bay in the North Sea, about 100 nautical miles off the coast of Jutland, the white sea fog was accumulating here, the light was thin and the night was thick, and time was quiet.

  The opening of the sea valve made the swallowing of seawater more fierce, and the British warship built with pounds, with its massive hull, eventually capsized due to excessive flooding on one side. After a creaking sound, the heavy three-legged mainmast heavily slapped onto the no longer noisy ocean surface, followed by the deafening splashing sound of the seawater, and then the mainmast broke open.

  The hull, covered in rust and seaweed, was exposed to the air, and muffled explosions could be heard coming from deep within the ship. Each explosion stimulated the sailors scattered around the Royal Princess. Another sealed cabin gave way under the weight of the water, bursting inward, and the sailors who had fallen into the water quickened their pace, trying to escape the whirlpool that was about to form. In less than a minute, the Royal Princess sank, creating a huge whirlpool on the surface of the ocean, swallowing up the nearby bodies, clothing, and debris.

  The surface of the sea was littered with the bodies of brave sailors who had died in battle, sweet photographs of loved ones, spilled engine oil and splintered wooden debris. Surviving sailors, clad in wet clothes, endured the North Sea's early spring temperature of only 3-5 degrees Celsius at night, navigating lifeboats through the wreckage to search for survivors. As for salvaging the bodies of their comrades, the survivors had no place to stand, let alone the luxury of collecting and burying the dead.

  Based on the reports of Lieutenant Commander Lützow, Lieutenant Commander von der Tann and Lieutenant Sedritz, Wang Hai thought that Royal Princess was only heavily damaged. Meanwhile, Betty was busy repairing the wireless telegraph antenna in the radio room of Lion to restore communication between the ships of the fast squadron, unaware of the disaster that had befallen Royal Princess.

  "Commander, backup wireless antenna is set up!"

  "Order, the First Battle Cruiser Squadron to proceed northeast by north 40 degrees, speed 18 knots." David Beatty unclenched his fist, which had been tightly clenched since the start of the battle, pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat on his palm, continuing: "Each ship in the First Battle Cruiser Squadron should complete the analysis and summary of the battle results, assess their own losses, and report to the flagship. The 9th Destroyer Flotilla will take the lead in reconnaissance, while the 1st and 2nd Destroyer Flotillas search the battlefield for survivors and collect the wounded. Also, send a message to Iron Duke and Elizabeth of the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron, asking about their positions!"

  Inside the command tower, it's filled with a sense of dullness and entanglement. In an intense naval battle, the main force warships that are engaged in a fierce duel usually have no time to care about the life or death of friendly ships, so reporting the results of the battle is something that is both eagerly anticipated yet also frustratingly inexplicable!

  The results of the battle between the Indomitable and the Moltke were tallied up first. The Indomitable's eight 12-inch main guns fired a total of 80 shells at the "unsinkable" Moltke, hitting it once and causing minor damage. The Indomitable was hit once, had five near-misses, lost one 4.7-inch secondary gun, suffered 12 dead and one missing.

  The captain of the "Perfect Cat" read out the statistics report in a low voice: In the nearly half-hour battle, the Lion fired 210 13.5-inch shells at the Levsoff, and the Levsoff was hit five times, judged to be lightly damaged. Compared to the light damage of the Levsoff, the Lion was somewhat discolored, first with the destruction of the wireless antenna and half of the signal flags, resulting in the loss of contact between the flagship Lion and other ships. Later, the mid-ship P turret was hit, and more than 70 sailors were killed.

  The report of the Lion's battlecruiser cast a shadow on the faces of the staff officers in the command tower, but fortunately good news came from the Tiger: The Tiger had fired 180 rounds of 15-inch shells at the Seydlitz, hitting her four times, one of which struck the raised main turret at the stern of the Seydlitz, judging that she was heavily damaged. The Tiger only took a few near misses and didn't even suffer light damage.

  The news of the arrival of the Lion's battlecruiser was even more exciting for the crew of the Indomitable. The Indomitable fired 104 rounds of 12-inch shells at the Derfflinger, hitting it twice and setting its hull ablaze. It was judged that the Derfflinger had been severely damaged and may have lost fighting capability. The Indomitable itself was hit once, damaging a boiler and reducing its top speed to 24 knots.

  "What about the Royal Princess?" Betty almost remembered something, bent down in a thick stack of telegraph papers to carefully copy, cold sweat dripping down. "And where did my second battle cruiser squadron go?"