Rear Admiral Hipper made full use of the advantage that the enemy was in the open while he remained concealed, closing the distance between the two sides at high speed.
The captains under his command were still somewhat afraid—if, in the darkness, they were noticed in advance by enemy destroyers that then rushed in stealthily to launch torpedoes, the threat to the German battlecruisers would be no small thing.
At night, torpedoes were far too difficult to warn against, and far too difficult to evade in advance.
However, October 29, 1914, converted to the lunar calendar, was the twelfth day of the ninth month; the moonlight was still relatively bright. It was impossible for them to be forced to an extremely close range before being discovered.
The two sides drew closer and closer. When they were about fifteen kilometers apart, Hipper discovered even more details of the enemy situation.
“Commander, judging from the distribution of muzzle flashes from the enemy fleet, our preliminary assessment is that the enemy ships are divided into two groups. The eastern group appears to have three capital ships and a small number of auxiliary vessels, and is bombarding the city of Ostend!
“Ten kilometers west of the main group, there is another capital ship and a large number of auxiliary vessels! They are bombarding the town of Nieuport and the coastal road positions!”
Hipper’s spirits lifted again. The enemy had actually divided their forces? If he moved quickly enough, he might be able to defeat them in detail and prevent the enemy from bringing all their forces to the battlefield at once!
But he still had one point he did not understand, and could not help muttering to himself, “Why did the enemy split their forces? Are they really in such a hurry to bombard both Ostend and Nieuport at the same time?”
Fortunately, Lelouch, who was at his side, happened to be very familiar with the army’s situation, and immediately judged the possible reason:
“General, I think I know what’s going on! It must be that Colonel List’s elastic defense has made the enemy miserable, so the enemy wants to rely on their superior strength to crush our army along the entire line.
“And look, there are two great fires on the sea outside Ostend! Those must be damaged enemy ships! The Britannians may not know this, but in the process of our capture of Ostend, the Belgian army surrendered too quickly, so they did not destroy the city’s defensive facilities!
“When Colonel List and I fought our way in, the colonel also took over the coastal defense fortress. There are eight 210-millimeter coastal guns there! The Britannians must have underestimated us at first and wanted their light warships to move in close and pick up an easy advantage with direct fire. In the end, they were badly mauled by the colonel’s coastal guns!
“The enemy must have suffered a loss before withdrawing all their light vessels farther away from Ostend and transferring them west to Nieuport to focus on striking our troops, who have no means of fighting back.”
Coastal guns were still very accurate against warships, because they fired from fixed positions, and in peacetime their fire had already been calibrated and their ballistic tables worked out. In actual combat, all they needed was a reported coordinate, and then they could open fire according to the table. The anti-ship effect of a single 210-millimeter coastal gun might even be fiercer than that of an armored cruiser with four 210-millimeter main guns.
It was only because Ostend was not large enough that it was equipped merely with 210-millimeter coastal guns. If the enemy today had been facing a great city like Antwerp, then perhaps it would have been 280- or even 305-millimeter fortress guns taking the stage.
With 210-millimeter coastal guns present, the enemy’s smaller ships already did not dare approach. They could only first use battleships to lob shells from long range and eliminate the coastal guns.
After listening to Lelouch’s analysis, Hipper’s final doubts and hesitation were swept away, and his thoughts became completely clear.
The reason no longer mattered. In any case, this was the situation that had now formed. What he had to do was seize this heaven-sent opportunity and strike hard!
“Since most of the enemy’s auxiliary vessels have avoided Ostend, we no longer need to worry about our capital ships being secretly attacked by enemy torpedoes when they approach. All battlecruisers and armored cruisers, target the three enemy battleships at Ostend and approach at full speed. Attention! Change from column to line abreast for the approach!
“The armored cruisers are responsible for driving off the small number of enemy auxiliary vessels to the east and preventing the enemy from entering torpedo attack positions. The battlecruisers will divide into groups and aim at the enemy capital ships!
“All light cruisers and destroyers, engage the enemy’s secondary group to the west. You may fire at will. It is enough to create chaos in the darkness and delay the speed at which the enemy’s western detachment closes on this side!”
The ships immediately began turning according to Hipper’s orders, and their formation quickly changed from column to line abreast, advancing shoulder to shoulder.
By the time the formation adjustment was complete, the distance between the two sides was already less than ten kilometers.
After they advanced another two kilometers or so while settling into formation, and the two sides were roughly six to seven kilometers apart, the lookout on Derfflinger sent back another important piece of information:
“Enemy Ship A’s main guns have stopped firing! It has been one minute since their last salvo!”
Hipper had been fully focused, waiting for news. His original plan had been to press in to a range of five kilometers; if they still had not been discovered by then, all the better, for he could turn and open fire at leisure.
Now, suddenly hearing this information, he decisively issued the order: “The enemy must have discovered us! All capital ships, hard to port! Course due east, enter line of battle! Reduce to cruising speed! The two Derfflinger-class ships, aim at the enemy’s easternmost capital ship! The two Blücher-class ships, aim at the enemy’s number two capital ship! Fire at will!”
……
Why did Vice Admiral Hastings, seven kilometers south of Hipper, suddenly cease fire?
Naturally, it was because as he bombarded on and on, the lookouts in the fleet finally discovered a cluster of black silhouettes appearing to the north.
“Admiral! Unidentified warships to the north! Number unknown!”
Vice Admiral Hastings, who was on the bridge of the pre-dreadnought Majestic, was also slightly startled when he heard this.
It absolutely could not be friendly forces appearing at this time, because he had received no notification.
So he immediately ordered the main guns to cease fire. All three pre-dreadnoughts that were bombarding the coastal defense fortress of Ostend turned their hydraulics up to maximum and frantically rotated their turrets.
Ostend lay on the southern coast, Hastings’s fleet was in the middle, and the mysterious visitors were to the north. To switch targets, the warships’ main turrets had to make a 180-degree turn, enough to take the old hydraulic mechanisms two full minutes.
This interval in their fire thus became extremely obvious.
Two minutes later, the Formidable-class Majestic and the Royal Sovereign-class Revenge finally brought their 305-millimeter main guns around to face north.
As for the oldest of the three ships, the Royal Sovereign-class Hood, because she had not even been refitted with fully enclosed 305-millimeter turrets and was still using old-fashioned 343-millimeter main guns from the late nineteenth century, she needed five minutes to complete a 180-degree turn.
Seeing that there was not enough time, Hastings ordered the few auxiliary vessels around him to charge out and engage at any cost, attempting to intercept and delay the enemy while the battleships’ main guns turned.
The Arethusa-class light cruiser Daring, the Bristol-class light cruisers Glasgow and Gloucester, and five destroyers immediately charged toward the black silhouettes from the east, west, and north sides of the capital ships almost in unspoken agreement.
But very quickly, the German forces opposite them used secondary guns to fire two rounds of star shells over the heads of those light cruisers and destroyers.
With the technology of 1914, star shells were generally fired by auxiliary vessels; large-caliber main guns were not used to shoot such things. But the secondary guns of battlecruisers and armored cruisers also met the requirements for firing them, so the star shells at present were all fired by the secondary guns of the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
Scharnhorst-class armored ships possessed eight 210-millimeter main guns in four twin turrets, six 150-millimeter secondary guns—three single casemate guns on each side—and sixteen 88-millimeter quick-firing guns.
A broadside of star shells from three 150-millimeter secondary guns could ensure the target sea area was illuminated for about one minute.
The Britannian auxiliary vessels were quickly covered and lit up, but they could not immediately launch torpedoes. They could only grit their teeth and continue charging forward—torpedo ranges in 1914 were likewise pitiful. The 533-millimeter torpedoes of Germany, Britannia, and other countries had a range of only four kilometers in high-speed mode above thirty knots, while the 450-millimeter torpedoes of France, Russia, and others had a range of only two to three kilometers.
If they wanted to ensure a hit rate, they had to close to within two kilometers before launching torpedoes.
And right now, there was still at least five to six kilometers between the two sides. The torpedoes had not yet entered range, and the Scharnhorst-class 210-millimeter guns, firing once every twelve seconds, poured fire at full speed toward the Britannian light cruisers. The 88-millimeter quick-firing guns also began freely sweeping the destroyers.
The cruiser Daring, which had only a few days earlier rendered great service by rescuing King Albert I of Belgium, was the first to be focused on at a range of five kilometers by the combined sixteen 210-millimeter guns of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The first salvo fell all around Daring, straddling her.
Only twelve seconds later, Daring was struck by the effects of a near miss exploding in the seawater beside her, which tore away some of her upperworks.
Another twelve seconds passed, and two 210-millimeter shells slammed bodily into her hull, directly setting the Arethusa-class cruiser ablaze from end to end and blowing two large holes in the hull. Although the damaged areas were not near the waterline and did not directly cause major flooding, the upper firepower systems had already been completely ruined.
The German armored cruisers refused to let up and continued pouring fire into her for another half minute. Three more 210-millimeter shells struck one after another, and Daring finally broke directly in two amid a massive explosion. The captain, who had still been chatting cheerfully with the King of Belgium three days earlier, was utterly torn to pieces as well. Of the nearly four hundred crewmen, scarcely any survived.
Yet Daring’s fate still was not enough to serve as a warning to the other Britannian ships. They were still charging with their heads down.
In truth, this was also because they had no other choice—the surviving Bristol-class light cruisers likewise had only two 150-millimeter guns. With such feeble main-gun firepower, the difference was merely that when charging head-on, only one 150-millimeter gun could fire, while if they turned broadside, two could fire. Did that small difference mean anything?
Since that was the case, they might as well simply not count on the additional output from the 150-millimeter gun at the stern, and focus solely on closing as quickly as possible to launch torpedoes.
Unfortunately, courage could not make up for the laws of nature.
What did it mean to charge into sixteen 210-millimeter guns firing once every twelve seconds? Especially when the distance between the two sides was already so close that elevation could be ignored and the guns fired almost level; as long as the Scharnhorst-class found the correct left-right bearing, they were almost guaranteed to hit.
Glasgow and Gloucester likewise exploded in this desperate charge.
The former ultimately failed even to enter torpedo range. The latter did enter range, but while turning to find a firing angle for her torpedoes, she had just exposed her broad waist when the 210-millimeter guns opposite set her alight like a beacon.
As for those five destroyers, there was not even any need for the German captains to directly command focused kills. The free fire from the 88-millimeter quick-firing guns aboard the ships was more than enough for them to choke on.
Each Scharnhorst-class ship had sixteen quick-firing guns, eight to a side, each able to fire once every three seconds. Although 88-millimeter shells could not sink a destroyer’s hull, they could still cause severe damage, loss of speed, loss of command, and loss of firepower. Several destroyers either had fires break out on their decks or had their superstructures blasted to pieces, losing their ability to attack, and then turned and fled into the distance.
Because even if they continued charging, they no longer had the ability to launch torpedoes. Their combat command systems and firepower systems had already been destroyed.
Choosing to flee might at least let them sink a little more slowly, and thus draw enemy fire for their capital ships for a while longer.
“If the Britannians had two to three times as many close escort forces, then tonight, relying on a do-or-die torpedo charge, they might indeed have been able to break through.
“But unfortunately, Heaven aids our army. Because of the threat from Ostend’s coastal defense guns, most of their auxiliary vessels had nothing to do even if they stayed to the east, so they were transferred west!”
Aboard Derfflinger, Hipper watched as the two Scharnhorst-class ships in the vanguard, together with the six 150-millimeter secondary guns and six 88-millimeter secondary guns on one side of his own class of ships, harvested the small number of enemy auxiliary vessels making mad torpedo charges until none were left. In his heart, he was moved by the enemy’s courage, but he also knew that what they were doing was futile.
A torpedo charge had to be conducted on a large scale to have any chance of success. Feeding in small numbers piecemeal was simply throwing lives away.
And the result of throwing those lives away was merely to buy the friendly capital ships a scant dozen or so minutes in total, enough for their own capital ships to turn their turrets around, adjust their positions, and at the same time conduct preliminary sighting and observation on the enemy ships’ locations.
The problem was that in the nighttime environment, before the Demanian battlecruisers’ main guns opened fire, the Britannians could only complete lateral alignment, not rangefinding. In other words, they could only roughly adjust the left-right angles of their main guns first, but still did not know how far or near to set the range.
Because at night, judging distance mainly relied on using the rangefinder to observe the spacing between the muzzle flashes of an enemy ship’s forward and aft main turrets, thereby calculating the enemy ship’s size and distance.
If the enemy capital ships in the distance did not fire their main guns and did not emit muzzle flashes, then the spacing between their forward and aft main turrets could not be measured.
By contrast, the Britannian battleships had already fired many rounds from their main guns earlier, and Demanian observers had repeatedly measured their range well in advance.
It was true that the Demanians’ Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers had been continuously firing their 210-millimeter main guns just now, so in theory, the Britannian capital ships could also complete rangefinding against the Scharnhorst-class and concentrate fire on them—but the problem was, everyone knew that the Scharnhorst-class 210-millimeter main guns posed no threat to pre-dreadnoughts. In a decisive battle, who would dare waste firepower on secondary targets that posed no threat to one’s own capital ships?
It was like when Hood fought Bismarck one-on-one: knowing full well that the enemy’s lead ship was Prinz Eugen, would she continue wasting her main-gun firepower on Eugen?
Thus, when Hipper finished dealing with the enemy auxiliary vessels and shifted all his attention back to the gunnery duel between capital ships, the Britannians still had not gained the initiative, and had to start again from the same starting line.
“Boom—boom—boom—”
Twelve-inch and eleven-inch German naval shells rose into the air in alternation, sending up four dense clusters of muzzle flashes across the sea.
Only a dozen seconds after the muzzle flashes were seen, a cluster of shells flew over Majestic!
Listening to the whistling overhead, Vice Admiral Hastings could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.
“What? How is the enemy’s gunnery so precise? Just how long were they secretly observing us before this?”
As a veteran naval officer, Vice Admiral Hastings naturally knew that in naval combat, finding the correct left-right bearing was relatively much easier. What was truly difficult was accurate rangefinding.
But the enemy’s first salvo had flown over his head. That at least showed they had found the correct left-right bearing from the very beginning, and had merely overestimated the range.
“Return fire at once! Then adjust the range as quickly as possible!”
Hastings was frantic with urgency, and the twelve main guns of the three pre-dreadnoughts also thundered toward the enemy.
Their left-right bearings were likewise passable, but their ranges were even farther off than the enemy’s. They still had to urgently make small adjustments to their rangefinding results based on the spacing of the muzzle flashes revealed by the enemy’s main guns.
Even worse, the three ships in Hastings’s hands had only 3 x 4 = 12 main guns. Hipper on the opposite side had 4 x 8 = 32 main guns.
Hipper did not even wait for precise rangefinding results to come back. Merely estimating from experience that the first salvo had gone long, he immediately ordered, “Don’t wait for calibration results! Shorten the range by three hundred yards with each salvo, in half-salvos! Keep going until we luck into a hit!”
Some of the more rigid officers did not yet understand Hipper’s deeper intent, but that did not prevent them from strictly carrying out orders.
The German ships quickly executed as required. Half-salvos could shorten the interval between each round of fire by another small half; what had originally been three rounds per minute could now be increased to five.
Only one minute later, as the pre-aimed range was shortened by more than another thousand yards, a twelve-inch shell finally lucked into a hit on Majestic’s superstructure, blasting her funnel off at the base with a boom.
Black smoke mingled with firelight poured straight out from within the hull, turning Majestic into an incomparably conspicuous live target in the dark night, no longer needing illumination for marking.
——
P.S. It’s the new book period, but today somehow already reached nine thousand words...
Everyone, touch your conscience and think about it. Is this the kind of update speed a new book that’s been out for less than two weeks could possibly have? I just want to get through a battle as quickly as possible.
And this is such a niche subject that if I don’t write it, there won’t be a second person on the entire site writing it.
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