Chapter Sixteen: The Trump Card (5)

  The previous chapter said that the rudder room and boiler of the Yamato were destroyed, but after being corrected by a certain god, it was found that some things didn't add up, so one boiler and the steering engine were kept intact.

  At 20:05, some of the Second Squadron's officers and men, who had been somewhat stiff, began to move their bodies, and the battle was declared over.

  Moult would never admit that he gave the order to turn except for reasons other than joining up with the First Battle Cruiser Squadron. As the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron made its turn under German fire, the old admiral also exaggerated the strength of the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron in his imagination: although three Inflexible-class battlecruisers were outdated, they could deal with the Germans' Seydlitz, Moltke and the heavily damaged Deutschland with ease. Moreover, he had two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships with a top speed of 25 knots and four 15-inch main guns, which was almost the commander's dream work before the appearance of the Hood-class super battleship.

  Daydreaming is not a crime, but the fact is cruel. In just five minutes, the skilled German gunners achieved their goal, and the rudder machine of HMS Acasta was destroyed. Poor Acasta had to rely on manual operation of the steering gear for turning movements, let alone emergency evasion, which could only be an extravagant hope.

  The encounter of the Warspite broke the last backbone of the old general, and the white waves stirred up by the bow were immediately cut off and crushed by the hull. The layered waves around the ship's body opened, and the red Z flag on the mast was shaken straight. Elizabeth Queen, Warspite, Australia, New Zealand, and Indomitable formed a long line, continuing to make Marsail turns under the sea fog of the Jutland coast.

  At 20:17, the sea fog slightly dispersed, and the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron awkwardly adjusted its course to southwest. The lagging Indomitable vaguely spotted a big one on her northeast side. Eager to shake off the troublesome opponent, Admiral Mullen ordered the withdrawal of the attached Seventh and Eighth Destroyer Squadrons, with 19 destroyers launching a torpedo attack.

  At 20:25, the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla was first to complete its formation and destroyers belched smoke as they passed ahead of Queen Elizabeth at 35 knots, heading straight for the German First Scouting Group.

  On a cold North Sea night, the destroyer, with a displacement of less than a thousand tons, was shaking violently as its steam engine ran at full speed, almost throwing the sailors on deck into the water. Thick smoke billowed out of the funnel, blocking out the sky and sun. Even the British lookout who had tied himself to the mainmast could only open his eyes, pinch his nose, and sigh helplessly.

  At 20:35, the British Seventh Destroyer Flotilla, still fuming from their encounter with the Queen Elizabeth, ran into the German First Destroyer Flotilla. Without a doubt, the two groups of men, each bent on fighting to the death, had met in the narrow seas.

  Compared with the British, German destroyers developed relatively late and did not manage to surpass them as they had done in the dreadnought battleship and battlecruiser races.

  Before the 1906-type destroyer entered service, the German Navy continued to use the name "large torpedo boat". When countries such as Britain began to increase the tonnage and gun firepower of their torpedo boats or torpedo boat destroyers and design a new type of ship - the destroyer, the Germans were still stuck in the constraints of the green water navy school, regarding the torpedo boat as an independent combat force, allowing it to attack enemy main warships at a small cost. However, Tirpitz's paper had a subtle influence on the Germans who had just taken a decisive step into exploring the ocean.

  In 1897, at the graduation thesis defense of the Kiel Naval Academy, Wang Haitie proposed that torpedo boats should not be used as independent combat forces, but rather as attachments to large fleets for tasks such as protecting main force ships, providing fire support, reconnaissance, and search and rescue. These forward-thinking predictions were not valued at the time, and the German Navy focused on building battleships. The 1898-type large torpedo boats continued to be small, lightly armored, and weak in firepower. However, after the world's navies entered the dreadnought era, the Germans suddenly realized the value of Wang Haitie's thesis, hastily digging out those nearly ancient papers from the dusty archives. The 1906-type destroyer was quickly designed and launched. Since Wang Haitie had named this new type of warship with a new mission "destroyer" in his thesis, the name "destroyer" became an official designation in the German Navy.

  Not surprisingly, German destroyers continued the excellent tradition of emphasizing protection, sacrificing destroyer firepower. For Germany, the epoch-making 1906-type large destroyer with a displacement of 745 tons had only a few 35-caliber 88mm main guns. The subsequent 1911 and 1913 types of large destroyers had standard displacements ranging from 800 to 1000 tons, with increasing endurance and torpedo tubes, but the 35-caliber 88mm main gun remained unchanged until just before the war when it was hastily modified to a 35-caliber 105mm main gun. Meanwhile, British destroyers were already equipped with 4-inch (102mm) and 6-inch (152mm) main guns.

  It's worth mentioning that the complexity of German destroyer types and numbers is not only enough to make even the most advanced British spies dizzy, but also occasionally makes Wang Haitie feel a little disoriented. German destroyers can be specifically divided into three types: large, medium, and small destroyers. The 1914-type and 1915-type destroyers that were successively built are small destroyers, while the large destroyers can be further divided into 1898-type, 1906-type, 1911-type, and 1913-type destroyers. However, putting all this aside, German destroyers can also be divided into three main categories: S, V, and G, which are abbreviations for the first letters of the Schichau shipyard, Vulkan shipyard, and Germaniawerft shipyard. Later on, there were also A, B, and H, a new numbering system that represented destroyers built in Antwerp, Belgium; Blohm + Voss in Hamburg; and Howaldswerke in Kiel.

  The destroyers of the two countries faced each other at a distance of less than 1,000 yards. The British 6-inch and 4-inch shells rained down on the German First Destroyer Flotilla, causing water columns to splash around the low-freeboard and poor-sea-keeping destroyers. At 20:36, the V-27 destroyer was suddenly hit by a 4-inch shell that ripped open a nearly two-meter-long gash in the engine room, exploding and severing all steam pipes, causing the main and auxiliary engines to stop immediately. One minute later, the V-27 destroyer was hit by a 6-inch shell and exploded, sinking; The V28 destroyer also took a 4-inch shell, which exploded in front of the bridge, destroying the wireless antenna, lookout tower, and searchlight.

  The British were not able to last for long, the German destroyers equipped with 105 and 88mm main guns fired in succession to suppress, the upper side armor belt of Nomad was penetrated, and a front main gun magazine exploded. The ammunition depot of Nomad destroyer burst instantly, the bow section cracked open in the darkness, under the eerie and shocking gap, a dazzling orange-yellow flame burst out, large pieces of iron and dust were thrown into the air dozens of meters high.

  The hapless Nomad, ablaze from stem to stern, lasted less than ten seconds on the icy and unforgiving surface of the North Sea before she sank, taking over sixty men with her. The Nicator was next to go; her stern was unfortunately hit, and her weakly armoured steering gear was destroyed, while shellfire started a large fire which made her an excellent aiming point for German destroyers in the darkness and fog.

  At 20:46, the British 8th Destroyer Flotilla and German 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla joined the fray. At this time, the German 1st Torpedo Boat Flotilla was only 700 yards away from the main body of the British 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron. The German torpedo boats launched torpedoes at the rapidly advancing 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron. The British realized their situation was precarious and opened fire with all guns, including secondary armaments and accompanying cruisers and destroyers, without regard for ammunition expenditure. The sea on one side of the German torpedo boats instantly churned up. Which of the two great powers rising to prominence, Britain or Germany, would gain God's favor remained a mystery that would be revealed by the white trails left behind on the surface of the smoke-filled sea.

  "Torpedo on the port bow, hard to starboard!" In the cramped command tower of a destroyer, oil-covered German captains shouted hoarsely, one order after another being issued.

  "Hard to port, emergency turn!" The small destroyer nimbly turned, its entire hull tilting slightly as a result. Barely avoiding an incoming 450mm torpedo, through the observation ports, Captain Petard of the British destroyer Petard was astonished to see another torpedo. Giving his final order, Captain Petard of the British destroyer Petard was shocked to see a 450mm torpedo burst through the futile barrage of small-caliber gunfire from the water troops, charging towards the Petard.

  The proud Royal Navy captain closed his eyes, and in the flash of a spark, he thought of the countryside manor in Wales, his wife in white fluttering dress, his little son who loved fishing, all good things flashed by like fleeting light. After the unbearable stillness, the captain vaguely found that his heartbeat was still there.

  "Thank God that damned torpedo, due to a depth-setting error, passed beneath our feet!" The navigator wiped the cold sweat from his brow, still shaken.

  No one would look down on the almost fainting Captain Petard, even if he was a brave and invincible Royal Navy man! Because that's war!

  "Damn the war!" The captain of the destroyer Petard clenched his fist, covering the breast pocket with a family photo inside, and gave a command that reeked of death: "Replenish the anti-torpedo array, Petard counterattacks!"

  "Glad to oblige..." The Gunnery Officer's British humour came back, and the various calibres of guns fired away at the German destroyer without mercy, while the lookout in the crow's nest saw the German destroyer jettison all her torpedoes and retreat on a zigzag course.

  A loud noise, and it seemed that a fiery red light was scattered from behind, dyeing the lookout's military cap red. The lookout didn't have time to turn his head, when his comrade whispered and repeated an astonishing message:

  "Yueyang was torpedoed..."