Chapter Sixteen: The Trump Card (Ten)

  I finally have my first disciple, I was originally planning to add an extra chapter, but after a sudden shock, I realized there were still ten chapters of urgent updates. Alright, I've surrendered, I'll release a 4,000-word chapter as a compromise. Extra updates, this is really not possible for now...

  The miserable state of the Fourth Division is unimaginable. As a pre-dreadnought battleship with insufficient firepower but excellent defensive capabilities, the Germans thought that the Preussen-class battleships were old but still had their former prowess. However, in reality, when the Fourth Division encountered the British fast fleet's eight fast main warships concentrated fire, it was heavily damaged and sunk, leaving only the ability to retreat in disarray.

  Facing the ferocious British, F-von-Lifels, commander of the Fourth Squadron, who had lost an old-fashioned battleship, understood that his military career was prematurely declared over. The military tribunal might consider the strength of the British and their own weakness, perhaps showing leniency in judgment, but a stain is a stain, and F-von-Lifels would not be stingy about taking responsibility. However, that was something to worry about after the naval battle; for now, his duty was to salvage as much of his fleet as possible.

  After a brief and long dash, the massive hulls of the four King-class battleships of the Seventh Squadron were already in sight. Before the Bavaria-class and Mackensen-class ships were launched, the King-class battleship, equipped with 350mm heavy guns and having a 350mm waterline belt main armor, was obviously the secret sharp weapon of the High Seas Fleet. Approaching the Seventh Squadron, surviving under the wings of the King-class battleships was clearly the only way to save the Fourth Squadron.

  The Fourth Squadron is about to usher in the dawn of relief, but F-von-Lifels, the squadron commander known as "the thinker" within the German Navy, still has many doubts, such as the direction from which the British fast fleet emerged, and where Beatty got the nerve to challenge the Grand Fleet with just eight fast battleships.

  At 3 o'clock, the wireless room of the Hanover received a telegram from the flagship Friedrich der Grosse, and the doubts of the major general were resolved: The British took the poor Fourth Squadron as the first scouting squadron of Heidekampf and gave them a good beating, and the Fourth Squadron thus brought about an unprovoked disaster.

  The flagship signalled Schere's decision to the Fourth Squadron, and it was resolved that the two old battleships of the Fourth Squadron should be shifted to the safer left wing. But apparently General von Laffert had other ideas in mind; changing from cruising formation into line ahead seemed a tedious business, and perhaps while the High Sea Fleet was doing this the British fast division might have grasped everything and slipped away.

  The current situation at sea is that the British are hiding in the sea fog, their speed is generally over 24 knots, if the Ocean Fleet cannot entangle its opponent in the first time, the Ocean Fleet that can't catch up can only sigh with emotion.

  It was clear that the only way to gain time for the Grand Fleet was to send in the crippled Fourth Division to make a death-ride against the British. Without much ado, F - von - Lifels gave the order with great enthusiasm.

  "Signal to the flagship, my fleet will restore its honor, Germany above all!" F-von-Lifels took off his wedding ring and put it in a snow-white envelope along with a family photo from his breast pocket. "We must be prepared to die, no one has the intention of surviving! The 4th squadron will turn around and counterattack the British!"

  The commanders and staff officers of the 4th squadron looked at each other, seeing a faint fear and simplest hope in each other's eyes.

  After an oppressive silence, Captain von Hanover stood up first and smiled: "Commander, for Germany!"

  Inside the command tower, the voices belonging to the Germanic nation were sparse at first, but gathered into a collective roar in just a few seconds, the strongest sound of the era.

  "For Germany!"

  The heavily wounded sailors of the Westfalen were forced to board the lifeboats, and the tearful medical officer untied the ropes, giving them a chance to survive. The upper structure of the Hanover, battered by the main gun shells and 4-inch secondary guns, flashed the signal "Hard left rudder" at the top, and the Prussian-class battleship over 10,000 tons shook violently, its heavy steering machine began to work, and the bow gradually pointed towards the massive object with eight fast capital ships - the British Fast Fleet.

  No flowers, no applause, not even the understanding of the commander of the Grand Fleet, the Fourth Squadron rushed towards the last sea area where the British appeared. Taking advantage of a little leisure time, young sailors were writing what might be their last letter home; old soldiers in worn-out uniforms climbed onto the deck, carefully stroking the rusty hull of the warship with eyes full of nostalgia; Sailors on the mainmast struggled to hold back the chill that seeped into their bones, holding binoculars to gaze out at the increasingly majestic and heroic North Sea.

  The fourth destroyer flotilla was busy with a desperate attack, while the former hunter - the British fast fleet had stopped its westward pursuit and adjusted its course.

  "Commodore Brock, order the 13th Destroyer Flotilla to move west by 1000 meters. Remind those hot-headed guys that their mission is reconnaissance and not to launch a meaningless torpedo attack." In the dimly lit command tower of the Lion, David Beatty solemnly signed his name on the telegram paper, determined to outmaneuver the Grand Fleet before the storm. "Order, 5th Light Cruiser Squadron to move north by 500 meters, each ship to turn on its searchlights in sequence for five seconds, repeating five times. After completing all tactical maneuvers, the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron can withdraw eastward at their discretion, and we will rendezvous with them off the northern coast of Jutland."

  Brigadier Osmond de Beauvoir Brock, Betty's chief of staff, took the telegram with alacrity and walked out of the telegraph room at the rear of the command tower.

  "Lookout tower, watch your west side, if there's any movement, report to command tower at once."

  The lookout's strong and sonorous voice came back from the internal telephone receiver.

  The swift cruiser fleet was 3,000 yards northwest, but the fourth squadron, seeking death, was full of momentum. At this time, a faint light flashed through the melancholy fog of the North Sea.

  "Command tower, bearing 347, distance approximately 2400 yards, four signal lamps spotted."

  The Hanoverian lookout tower immediately sent the intelligence to Major General F-von-Lifels. The general sneered and turned his face to ask his staff officer, "Is the location of the light in the southwest or northwest where the British last appeared?"

  The track chart of the Fourth Division was copied by a trained staff officer, and the last known position of the British was now clear. With the calculated lead to the west, General F-von-Lifels even believed that the British were only 3,600 yards away from them.

  "Northwest direction." The position of the light was marked on the nautical chart, leaving no room for doubt. Several young staff officers gazed at the crimson dot on the chart, drawing in cold air one after another, waiting for the glorious moment that belonged to the Fourth Squadron.

  "The fourth squadron, turn southwest!" F-von-Lifels' pale face twitched once as he gave the order that seemed somewhat cruel to him.

  "General, I have to remind you that the lighthouse is in the northwest direction!" The lieutenant general's order let out a sigh of relief from many people, after all, no one likes death! However, they were professional soldiers born out of militarism, and their sense of mission as soldiers made them point out the fleet commander's command mistake even if it meant slapping themselves in the face afterwards.

  "Gentlemen, is it possible that a few months of indulgence in wealth and glory are enough to make you forget the key analysis of the Dogger Bank naval battle by the General Staff?"

  The F von Hipper's tactical genius left everyone speechless. In the Dogger Bank incident in November 1914, when he was still the deputy commander of the First Scouting Group, Admiral Franz von Hipper led three battleships to launch a surprise attack on the British mainland, facing five British battlecruisers and three super-dreadnoughts. At that time, Hipper's temporary flagship Moltke was heavily damaged and was relentlessly pursued by the British battlecruiser Lion, but it was Hipper's effective tactical deception that delayed the enemy, creating the legend of the invincibility of the Moltke, and allowing Admiral Scheer's reinforcement fleet to gain valuable time. In the night battle, they easily sank the British super-dreadnought Audacious and the battlecruiser Queen Mary.

  The Dogger Bank Sea War is an example of the pre-dreadnought era, and both Britain and Germany, as well as the United States and Japan, which are closely watching the naval powers with ambitions to dominate the ocean, attach great importance to this epoch-making sea war. The Dogger Bank Sea War, the character of the commander, every tactical move, every detail of the sea battle, the understanding and use of naval weapons, all have detailed notes and explanations that can be found today. Betty wants to use the tactics used by Xilaim, but she still has to ask him F-von-Lifels

  At 3:13, North Sea, the British fast fleet was still maneuvering, with eight main battleships drawing circles of varying sizes in a corner of the North Sea. The Fourth Division was also turning, constantly narrowing the distance with the British.

  2000 yards, but 1828.8 meters of distance, this distance even if the power of the German 88 gun and the British temporarily installed 47mm machine gun is small, there is still much to be done. However, at such a close distance, the two fleets only had a magnificent shoulder-to-shoulder pass in the sea fog and black night with visibility of no more than 300 meters.

  At 3:16, the boiler of SMS Schlesien, hastily repaired by the Fourth Division's lead ship, suffered a steam leak. Scalding white vapor spread out, and the battleship's barely maintained speed of 18 knots dropped sharply. To avoid collisions, Schlesien did not bother to consider possible British fast divisions lurking nearby, but instead quickly signaled "Following ships reduce speed". Meanwhile, in the rear of the Fourth Division, well-trained German sailors spent just over ten minutes forming a long battle line for the High Seas Fleet.

  Victory seemed within grasp, but Beatty's fast squadron had already altered course. The signal flags on the Lion's mainmast were blowing in the wind, the Indomitable was belching smoke as it steamed at full speed, and the Queen Elizabeth was again forcing the draught with her high-speed run, the whole fleet turning northeast at 25 knots.

  ****

  At 4:03, the stalled search mission was unsustainable; even if Scherr gritted his teeth, he had to admit that David-Beatty, apart from being somewhat nervous, was not inferior to Heidkamp-Sielemann, the best young man in the German Navy, and the Royal Navy's fast fleet almost escaped the battlefield at the last moment.

  Scheer's reaction was not slow. As soon as the sound of cannons between the Fourth Squadron and the enemy fleet rang out, Scheer ordered the High Seas Fleet to change formation, intending to crush the British with a thunderous momentum. The choice of F-von-Lifels' lieutenant general was not indecisive, and the fourth squadron, which had only two old battleships, dared to die and even turned around to launch a desperate attack on the British, trying to win time for the main fleet. However, Beatty was not a vain name, with thick sea fog and night covering him, Beatty relied solely on a clever reverse thinking to escape, and majestically slipped out of the German's line of sight.

  The naval battle is a complex system engineering that is full of unpredictable yet tranquil calculations. Maintaining the formation of the column fleet is unreasonable, so Scheer adjusted the formation of the High Seas Fleet to a search formation: The fourth squadron's Hannover and Thuringen, which barely escaped, were transferred to the first light cruiser squadron, forming the left wing search force with the first and second destroyer squadrons, keeping a distance of 2500 meters from the main force; The core strength of the High Seas Fleet - seventeen capital ships lined up in four columns according to the combat sequence, each column 3000 meters apart; On the right wing where the British fast fleet is most likely to appear, the third and fourth destroyer squadrons and the fourth scouting squadron became the main search force, keeping a distance of 1000 meters from the main force.

  From the initial cruising formation to the column formation after encountering the enemy, the British Fast Fleet escaped pursuit and the Grand Fleet changed formation again, deploying a search formation. After three alarms in one night, the sailors of the Grand Fleet who had been on duty all night were somewhat tired, but those young faces that had withstood the biting cold wind were filled with excitement, they firmly believed that the time for the destruction of Scheer's arch-nemesis Beatty was only postponed, no one could defeat the naval god of war, even if they were the Royal Navy!

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, at 5:47, the fog in the North Sea began to clear slightly, and an urgent telegram arrived from Heide-Wilelm at the southern end of the Skagerrak Strait: The First Scouting Group had encountered a British fast cruiser squadron!