Several hours later.
October 28th, noon, the Admiralty, London.
"Has the latest news from Groningen still not come in? Are those Dutchmen you've bribed even reliable!"
It was almost mealtime. First Lord of the Admiralty Worton Spencer, recalling that a piece of intelligence he had been waiting for all morning still had no response, couldn't help but summon the relevant intelligence officers to confirm it with them in person.
Faced with the rebuke, Lieutenant Commander Murray Shute responded cautiously: "My Lord, I apologize for making you wait so long. Those civilian aviation enthusiasts we developed in the Netherlands are very reliable. Their skills are solid, and politically they incline toward the world order led by Great Britannia. This incident should just be an accident—perhaps bad weather, a mechanical failure with the aircraft... After discovering the plane had not returned, we immediately dispatched people to investigate and conduct supplementary reconnaissance."
Lieutenant Commander Murray Shute served under Rear Admiral Thomas Jackson, Director of the Naval Intelligence Division (NID), and within the NID oversaw the Air Reconnaissance Section. He was also its founder; the Air Reconnaissance Section had been established by him in 1912, so in this field, no one was more senior than he.
Because aerial combat had not existed in this era up until now, Commander Shute naturally did not think in the direction of "the plane was shot down," and instinctively explained it as a weather-related crash.
Worton could only accept his authoritative explanation: "Have them hurry up! Notify me the moment the supplementary reconnaissance yields results! The Empire is about to undertake a major operation. We must confirm how many of the enemy's main battleships are in port and how many are wandering about outside, to ensure nothing goes wrong!"
"Yes, my Lord!" Murray Shute hurriedly acknowledged.
Worton had many matters to attend to and couldn't be bothered to wait any longer, so he went to the cafeteria for lunch first.
...
After arriving at the cafeteria, Worton got his food and casually glanced around, just happening to see Rear Admiral Horace Hood, Chief of Staff of the Channel Fleet, also eating. He walked straight over and sat diagonally opposite him.
Worton was a large man; sitting directly opposite or next to someone would feel too cramped for him, so whenever he ate with subordinates, he always sat diagonally.
Rear Admiral Hood had come to London this time to report on the Channel Fleet's combat readiness and to make final pre-battle inquiries.
Seeing His Lordship approach, he quickly stood up, only resuming his seat after Worton had sat down.
"How is Vice Admiral Hastings' preparation coming along? Can all of his battleships sortie?" Worton took a large bite of fried fish and asked while chewing.
"They can strike at any time; please set your mind at ease, my Lord. However, the Royal Sovereign-class *Revenge* has been refitting her main guns ever since the war began and has only just completed the replacement. But the corresponding fire control systems have not yet been worked in, and some observation and targeting instruments are still adapted to the old guns. If forced to sortie, she would have to rely on her gunnery officers' experience to make manual adjustments—the efficiency would be rather low.
"Her sister ship, *Hood*, had previously been decommissioned and was temporarily returned to service after the war broke out, without undergoing any modernization refit. If needed, she can also sortie immediately; emergency resupply and maintenance have already been carried out.
"The other two more advanced capital ships have remained in excellent condition, including the Formidable-class *Majestic* and *Queen*. When you previously ordered the Channel Fleet to prepare to receive the Belgican Army's retreat, they had already made ready to set sail—only the Belgicans didn't last until we could go to their aid..."
The Belgican Army had been completely annihilated a day prior, but even now Rear Admiral Hood did not miss any opportunity to explain: the destruction of the Belgican forces was not due to the Channel Fleet's tardy rescue, but because they themselves were too weak to hold out even for that short a time.
Lord Worton had notified the Channel Fleet to prepare for the extraction the day before yesterday; as a result, the Belgicans were wiped out a day later. What extraction was there left to speak of!
Lord Worton naturally understood that his subordinates wanted to shirk responsibility as much as possible, but when the water is too clear there are no fish. He couldn't be bothered to quibble, and simply waved his hand.
"Enough! Don't speak of past matters! We must look ahead! Fortunately, the sortie preparations ordered for Admiral Hastings were not in vain. Although the Belgican Army has been destroyed, the Royal Navy's face must not be swept away because of it! We must retaliate immediately!
"Yesterday, upon learning of the Belgican Army's destruction, I urgently contacted the Franks, contacted General Joffre, and had their army mass heavy troops from Dunkirk and De Panne, driving east with full force to capture Nieuwpoort and Ostend! The Belgicans were entirely wiped out at Ostend, so we must retake Ostend to prove that Lady Victory still stands on the Empire's side!
"Joffre was slow to act at first, claiming their heavy artillery had not been brought up in time. But I have already assured him: don't count on their sluggish field guns. The Royal Navy will provide full fire support throughout this campaign! So Joffre finally agreed—as soon as we open fire, they will immediately commit to a full infantry assault!
"As for minor matters like *Revenge*'s fire control not being fully refitted, it doesn't matter. This time we're going to conduct shore bombardment, blasting fixed targets—what need is there for precision fire control!"
After hearing this, Rear Admiral Hood finally understood why His Lordship, upon hearing of the Belgican army's destruction, had kept the fleet on combat alert and on standby in port for a day rather than retaliating immediately.
It turned out he needed to coordinate with the French Army for a combined naval and land operation. The coordination work involved was certainly complex; taking an extra day or two for that was entirely normal.
Moreover, in Rear Admiral Hood's view, a day or two's delay didn't matter. After all, the Royal Navy was invincible; they could go whenever they pleased.
Thus he volunteered: "Then, do we need to sortie immediately? Since General Joffre's side is all arranged."
But Lord Worton was old and wily; even at the critical moment, he was still waiting. "No rush! Yesterday I sent reconnaissance aircraft to Wilhelmshaven and other places to check the situation, and also had spies in Kiel port send back messages to verify the locations of the Germanians' main fleet.
"Kiel has already replied: the battleships were still in port yesterday during daylight. But the reconnaissance planes sent to Wilhelmshaven and Emden haven't returned. I've already dispatched another batch. We'll strike after confirmation; a little time won't hurt."
Rear Admiral Hood: "Actually, as long as the ships in Kiel are present, the remaining enemy doesn't pose much of a threat..."
Lord Worton glared at him: "Better safe than sorry!"
Because he was waiting for intelligence, Worton ate this meal very slowly. Afterward, he ordered an extra glass of Cognac to sip slowly and lit one Havana cigar after another while waiting.
Rear Admiral Hood could only endure His Lordship's secondhand smoke. Mealtime passed, yet the cafeteria manager didn't have the guts to come urge the First Lord.
No one knew how much time had passed before Lieutenant Commander Murray of the Air Reconnaissance Section and Captain Oliver of the Signals Intelligence Section suddenly arrived together. Entering the cafeteria, they hurried straight toward Lord Worton.
"My Lord! The supplementary reconnaissance situation sent back this morning has arrived. We've discovered that several of the Germanians' fast battlecruisers are not in port!"
Lord Worton and Rear Admiral Hood, upon hearing this, couldn't help but feel their hearts tighten.
Both of them simultaneously thought of the same question: The Germanian battlecruisers have sortied? Then what is their target? Could they be clairvoyant, knowing that the Royal Navy is planning bombardment operations against Nieuwpoort and Ostend, and have come to intercept?
But on second thought, such a thing seemed too fantastical. After all, the Royal Navy had not yet officially sortied.
Fortunately, Lord Worton was sufficiently sly and crafty. He immediately thought of two other potentially critical pieces of evidence, and thus confirmed with decisive swiftness:
"Today during daylight, have any enemy fleet formations at sea broken radio silence? Secondly, can we confirm the timeframe of the enemy ships' disappearance—did they set sail and leave port last night, or even earlier? For your Air Reconnaissance Section, do you conduct close aerial photography of the enemy port every day?"
Everyone present was a professional, so they immediately understood why Worton was concerned about these points.
After a fleet puts to sea, to avoid revealing its movements, it generally maintains radio silence and sets its wireless to "receive only." Thus they cannot respond to inquiries from their home port and can only passively receive orders.
If the rear needs to issue new missions or orders to a fleet already at sea, they must use wireless cipher telegrams; there is no other means of communication.
And the Britannian Navy, as far back as August 20th—over two months ago—had deciphered the enemy's naval codes by salvaging a sunken Germanian submarine and capturing its codebook.
As long as the enemy's Admiralty issued new operational orders to a fleet already at sea via radio, the Royal Navy would certainly be able to intercept and decipher it!
And Lord Worton's question soon received an affirmative answer. Lieutenant Commander Murray was the first to report: "We do not conduct aerial reconnaissance photography every day, because the opportunity is not always present, and also to avoid those neutral-country pilots being exposed because of overly frequent operations.
"However, considering that enemy ships generally sneak out of port under cover of night and rarely sortie in broad daylight, the enemy must have left port by the first half of last night at the latest, or possibly the first half of the night before, or even earlier. Because if they sortied during the day, our land-based spies might also have spotted their movements from a distance. Sortieing at night is precisely to avoid close ground reconnaissance—this is Hipper's consistent practice."
After Murray finished speaking, Worton merely nodded slightly, acknowledging his analysis, then silently turned to Oliver.
Captain Oliver also hurriedly replied: "The radio monitoring section intercepted several telegrams sent from Wilhelmshaven last night and only just finished deciphering them. They read: 'Hipper is to select his own target and execute the original harassment plan. Additionally, our spy lurking in Yarmouth has discovered that a large-scale merchant convoy departed that port today. No other valuable targets at present.'"
After hearing Captain Oliver's recitation of the telegram, the other three exchanged glances. Both Worton and Rear Admiral Hood could see the other's attitude in his eyes.
Rear Admiral Hood then cautiously served as a mouthpiece for his superior: "My Lord, in your opinion... I fear that even if Hipper has sortied, he must have been out at sea for quite some time already; it would not have been a hasty departure after learning of the recent situation along the Belgican coast.
"As everyone knows, fleet sortie preparations require a long time—at least a day or two. If the enemy only thought of putting to sea after the Belgican campaign produced its result, they definitely couldn't have made it in time. Moreover, after the enemy put to sea, the instruction telegram sent by their home port did not mention any other matters; it merely told them to select their own raid target.
"From the analysis of the telegram, Hipper should have long planned a surprise shore bombardment operation against one of the Empire's many eastern coastal ports. But the enemy spy infiltrated in our homeland, observing fleet movements within the harbor and other situations, advised them to abandon Yarmouth as a target and let Hipper select an alternate target—unfortunately, we don't know what this alternate target is."
Worton nodded in satisfaction, also revealing a trace of approval for Rear Admiral Hood's assessment.
This subordinate's thinking matched his own.
In a word, Hipper's disappearance should have been "long premeditated," and thus could not be a response to a temporary incident right before their eyes.
Hipper had already put to sea early. He was at sea; even if he wanted to receive a new mission, he had to listen to the radio. And as long as Hipper could hear the radio, the Royal Navy could intercept and decipher it too. The fact that no such order had been received all along meant the enemy's rear command had not issued such a mission.
Actually, there was still a tiny flaw in all of this—if Lord Worton and the others could have known that Hipper had, contrary to his usual pattern, only sortied just before dawn today, then perhaps there might have been a slim chance for Lord Worton and the others to think:
"Hipper could have completely received new orders in the flesh while still on land, and only then put to sea, entirely without needing to receive mission orders transmitted by radio."
But the problem was, Lord Worton and the others had no way of knowing that Hipper had just left this morning before dawn—because the reconnaissance plane that could have confirmed "the enemy ships were still in port early this morning" had been shot down, and the pilot had been executed in midair by Lelouch.
Thus, even this last one-ten-thousandth trace of suspicion was completely cut off.
Lord Worton pondered for a long time, and finally formally issued two orders:
"Vice Admiral Hastings is to immediately lead the main force of the Channel Fleet to secretly depart port after nightfall today, proceeding to Nieuwpoort and Ostend to open full bombardment upon the Germanian forces! Cooperate with the French Army to retake those two towns in one stroke!
"Additionally, have Rear Admiral David Beatty lead the fast battlecruiser squadron southward to patrol and set ambushes along Yarmouth and the other major important ports on our eastern coast north of it, and dispatch home-based reconnaissance aircraft to conduct a dragnet search of the area within 200 kilometers of the eastern coast.
"Once Hipper's battlecruiser fleet is discovered, have all of Beatty's main force pounce upon them, striving to heavily damage or even annihilate the enemy!"
Worton's thinking was clear: faced with an unknown threat, he would divide his forces into two routes—one to attack, one to defend. The slow pre-dreadnoughts would go execute shore bombardment.
The fast battlecruiser squadron would defend against possible surprise raids on the homeland.
Historically, Hipper had indeed gone to bombard Yarmouth on this occasion, but he did so very secretly, evading the Britannian fast battlecruiser squadron under Beatty.
But in this lifetime, Hipper no longer intended to go to Yarmouth. He had taken his realistic-to-the-extreme Yarmouth bombardment scrap plan and deliberately leaked minute traces of clues, throwing a feint to lure Beatty toward a battlefield to the north, far away from the Belgican coast.
—
PS: Another 4,000-character mega chapter; I won't split it today... Updating this aggressively during the new-book period—yesterday was over 7,000 characters.
Mainly, I have to write about the enemy's plans, intelligence analysis, and how they fall for the ruse. Otherwise, just writing the fight directly would be too fake.
Please don't complain about padding. When I write, I definitely want to highlight conspiracies and stratagems. If it were just about climbing the tech tree and building weapons to gain an advantage, anyone could write that.
New-book period: seeking comments, seeking follow-ups, seeking collections, seeking votes.