After firming up his resolve to pursue the routed enemy, Hipper immediately ordered the battlecruiser and armored cruiser formations to turn west, coordinating with his own light cruisers and destroyers to engage the enemy’s last pre-dreadnought and its auxiliary fleet off the coast of Nieuport.
When this second round of fighting had just begun, the situation on the battlefield was still one of Britannia attacking and Germania defending—the large number of Britannian auxiliary vessels to the west still did not know that the three capital ships to the east had already been annihilated. They still wanted to come to the rescue, and so they charged forward at all costs.
After all, they had been the side that divided its forces before the battle. Naturally, they were the ones anxiously trying to regroup, while the side that had already concentrated its strength could wait at leisure for the exhausted enemy.
The Germanian light cruisers and most of the destroyers—aside from the three that had just been responsible for finishing off the Britannian pre-dreadnought—had also been strictly carrying out Hipper’s orders, conducting delaying and blocking operations. They maintained an occasional frequency of torpedo sweeps, preventing the enemy from daring to close in too quickly.
Dodging torpedoes in the darkness was extremely troublesome. Whoever charged would be at a disadvantage, because the charging side would be moving head-on toward the enemy’s torpedoes, which in practice effectively increased the enemy torpedoes’ effective range.
So when the Britannian ships charged and the Germanian ships fought while drawing them on, the Germanian advantage was naturally enormous.
At first, the Britannian forces did not realize the problem. Not until a light cruiser at the very front, the Birmingham-class Nottingham, and a destroyer escorting it, accidentally blundered into a crossing torpedo formation.
Several successive thunderous torpedo explosions and towering columns of water immediately tore the Nottingham open on the spot, causing seawater to pour in wildly. The destroyer beside it was blown directly in two and sank in an instant.
The loss of the two ships finally made the Britannian forces calm down. They no longer dared to charge recklessly, and began cautiously avoiding torpedoes.
Over the next twenty minutes, the two sides basically kept their distance, probing and exchanging fire, with both sides taking damage.
Although the Germanian auxiliary vessels were far fewer in number, by relying on the advantage of fighting while drawing the enemy on, they traded space for time and stubbornly dragged things out until the main fleet had decided the outcome.
Then the Britannian auxiliary fleet finally began to feel 210mm and 150mm shells flying wildly overhead.
The Germanian battlecruisers and armored cruisers had freed their hands!
The 305mm or 280mm main guns of the battlecruisers had too slow a rate of fire, averaging only about two salvos per minute, and were not suited to dealing with masses of light cruisers and destroyers. They could only rely primarily on the six 150mm secondary guns on each broadside, so their fire density was not actually that high.
At this moment, the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, which had already rapidly torn open the Britannian escort fleet earlier, once again gained the opportunity to display their might.
Each of their eight 210mm guns could fire five rounds per minute, giving them a fire density two and a half times higher than the battlecruisers! Although they had only half as many 150mm secondary guns as the battlecruisers, it was still enough.
Under the sustained bombardment of 210mm shells, the Britannian forces began suffering losses one after another.
Unfortunately, the Britannian forces had also lost unified command at the fleet level. Vice Admiral Hastings had already died in battle along with the Majestic. When the situation reversed, the Britannian ships were, for a time, unable to decisively and uniformly accept new orders.
The commander of the light cruiser detachment, judging that the situation was wrong and realizing that his side’s three pre-dreadnoughts were already finished and no longer worth saving, decisively ordered a turnabout and high-speed withdrawal.
But unfortunately, a small number of captains failed to receive this order in time, and the commander of the destroyer detachment and the commander of the light cruiser detachment were not of one mind.
The result was that some wanted to cut their losses, while others wanted to fight to the end.
The situation descended into utter chaos, once again turning into the Calabash Brothers rescuing Grandpa—one after another going up only to throw themselves away.
Seeing this, Rear Admiral Hipper was naturally overjoyed. He was not about to sympathize with the enemy, and immediately ordered all ships to open fire with everything they had and freely intercept.
In the melee, a full five overly reckless Britannian destroyers became sacrifices to the lack of unified orders, being blown up one after another by the Scharnhorst-class ships.
Only when things had reached this point did the Britannian forces finally calm down. All auxiliary vessels abandoned their illusions and switched to full-speed escape.
After all, the light cruisers had a speed of at least 28 knots or more, while the destroyers were even faster.
Compared with the opposing battlecruisers’ top speed of 26.5 knots, and the slightly slower armored cruisers, the Britannian forces could still escape if they truly wanted to.
Unfortunately, however, they still had one final weak point, and it was certain to be seized upon by the Germanian ships.
……
“You think you can run just because you can’t win? How could it be that easy! They still have one pre-dreadnought left! We’ll take our time chasing. I can make 26 knots, and he can make 21. In an hour or two, we’ll catch him!”
In the conning tower, after seeing the enemy fleet retreat, Rear Admiral Hipper could not help lowering his binoculars, a flash of determination passing through his eyes.
The enemy’s light cruisers could get away, but the pre-dreadnought could not! That ship was too slow!
If the Britannian forces were determined to run, they would have to leave that last capital ship behind!
Every pre-dreadnought that participated in today’s battle would be wiped out! Not one would be spared!
Thinking of this, Hipper suddenly turned to Lelouch, wanting to test him. “Although you don’t understand naval warfare, your insight has always been astonishing. Tell me, then: will the enemy’s light cruisers protect that pre-dreadnought and retreat in good order together, or will they abandon their capital ship and flee for their own lives?”
Lelouch did not answer immediately. Instead, he first glanced at the wall clock, then analyzed with the air of one holding the winning piece in hand:
“If I were a Britannian general, and had no additional intelligence, I would definitely choose an orderly retreat of the entire force—right now it is already midnight. If we pursue them west for another hour or two, then add the time for the return trip and the engagement itself, it will probably be dawn.
“So the Britannian commander will certainly believe that, out of fear of being chased down by Beatty, we won’t dare waste that much time on them. And that very wishful thinking will, in fact, only make them stake even more chips!”
After hearing this analysis, Hipper admired Lelouch even more.
Regardless of whether the other man possessed professional knowledge of naval warfare, at least in strategy and vision, he was absolutely no worse than Hipper himself! For him to be merely a lieutenant was truly a waste of talent!
Hipper smiled smugly. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. In any case, we have the route of withdrawing to Antwerp, a path we had not previously envisioned, so we need not fear Beatty’s interception. Then we’ll pursue until we’ve killed every last one of them!”
And so, a pursuit battle with momentum like a rainbow unfolded in the waters drawing ever closer to the English Channel.
Hipper led the battlecruisers and light cruisers, leaving behind the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers that were slower by roughly two knots, and chased the Britannian fleet at maximum speed.
In a pursuit, they could not angle themselves to present their broadsides to the enemy. Both sides could only exchange fire with their bow guns or stern guns.
Nor could they measure range precisely. They could only aim left or right, roughly estimate the distance, and open fire.
But the Britannian fleet’s artillery firepower was simply too weak. In this kind of gunnery duel, their disadvantage was far too great, and from time to time a warship would be hit, explode, and catch fire.
After being driven into desperation, there were also occasional Britannian light cruiser captains whose blood rushed to their heads and who tried to turn around and charge in to launch torpedoes.
But this kind of scattered, disorganized action would only once again become a case of each one going up to die in turn. It could change nothing.
In this manner, Hipper chased the Queen all the way from Nieuport to Dunkirk, cutting down everything in his path. If light cruisers blocked him, he killed light cruisers. If destroyers blocked him, he killed destroyers.
The Franks dispatched torpedo boat flotillas from the port of Dunkirk to aid their allies in battle, but because they came in haste and lacked organization and scale, they too were defeated one by one.
In particular, the 450mm torpedoes used by the Franks in 1914 had an effective range of only two to three kilometers. Often, before the torpedo boats could even close to effective range, a single lucky hit from an 88mm quick-firing gun would blow them apart.
In the end, Hipper’s fleet finally caught up completely with the Queen more than a dozen nautical miles west of Dunkirk.
The four Germanian battlecruisers approached from the rear on the northeastern side, gradually coming alongside the Queen. Sixteen 305mm guns and sixteen 280mm guns unleashed frantic broadsides at the Queen, which had only four 305mm guns.
With a firepower comparison of 32 against 4, the Queen lasted only four or five salvos before being hit repeatedly.
The engagement distance went from four kilometers all the way down to just over two kilometers. In the end, the gun barrels of all the battleships were completely leveled for firing, with no elevation whatsoever and no need to measure range at all.
Every shot struck flesh, every shell burst apart. The pre-dreadnought’s 228mm main armor belt was torn to pieces.
In just fifteen minutes of gunnery combat, the Queen was hit by more than forty large-caliber shells.
In truth, after roughly the tenth shell onward, it had already completely lost combat capability and was nothing more than a floating empty husk.
It was only because Hipper feared unforeseen complications, and because this place was already too close to the Britannian mainland, that he pursued an extreme quick battle and decisive victory, frantically finishing it off to the point of whipping the corpse.
When the bombardment reached more than forty shells, the Queen’s boilers and magazine finally exploded one after another, and its 305mm main turret was blown hundreds of meters into the sky like a severed head.
In the early hours of that morning, it was said that Britannian civilians standing on the white cliffs of Dover and looking out to sea could faintly see, dozens of nautical miles to the east, brief specks of fire flickering in the distance—that was the firelight of the Queen’s magazine exploding and its turret-head flying off.
Dover was the narrowest point of the English Channel. The port of Dover and Calais on the opposite shore faced each other across a mere thirty-odd kilometers.
Killing a pre-dreadnought in a place like this was more or less like Brother Sum in Kung Fu blocking the doorway, hacking Feng Pants to death, then shouting for the other side to come out and clean up the floor.
It was absolutely an enormous humiliation to the Royal Navy!
Of course, Hipper certainly was not so arrogant as to shout for the remnants of the Channel Fleet to come out of Dover Harbor and collect the corpse.
After seeing the Queen explode completely, he directly fled at full speed, racing back the way he had come.
……
A mere half hour later, the telephone in Minister Wharton’s private residence rang.
“What could be so urgent? It’s three in the morning! Must you seek His Excellency immediately?!”
As soon as the female secretary picked up the telephone, her tone was rather unfriendly. She extremely disliked the people below disturbing His Excellency in the middle of the night.
But after asking only two questions, she fell silent, then said she would immediately go wake His Excellency.
“Your Excellency! An urgent telegram from Dover Harbor! It’s from Rear Admiral Hood!”
Wharton was still half-asleep and muddle-headed. “What could Horace be calling about at this hour? Oh, right, the Channel Fleet has a bombardment mission tonight… Could something have gone wrong?”
Thinking of this possibility, before His Excellency the Minister even picked up the receiver, he already had something of an ominous premonition.
But even so, the words of Rear Admiral Horace Hood from the receiver still greatly exceeded the limits of his mental preparation.
“What? Four pre-dreadnoughts have been annihilated? Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Hastings died for his country? And an unknown number of auxiliary vessels have been lost?”
“Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Didn’t Hipper have another mission? How could he appear at Ostend! I already sent Beatty to keep watch on him!”
The Minister did not know how he hung up on Rear Admiral Hood. He only felt his mind go blank, then, dazed and muddled, he dialed another number.
“Order David Beatty to spare no cost and drive at full speed and full force toward the coast of the Netherlands. He must cut off every route by which Hipper can withdraw to the Germanian mainland! If Hipper is allowed to escape again, Beatty can forget about keeping his post!”
“He dares to wipe out four of my pre-dreadnoughts? Then I want all four of his battlecruisers destroyed in return. Blood debt must be repaid in blood!”
——
P.S. New book—please leave comments, follow updates, add to your favorites, and vote. Many thanks.