After sinking the “Queen,” Hipper immediately turned east and withdrew, showing not the slightest inclination to grow greedy for more glory or linger in battle.
Nor did he give any thought at all to just how furious and humiliated Minister Wotton would be over the results of tonight’s fighting.
Those were not things a pure soldier ought to care about.
Right now, all he wanted was to hide in port as quickly as possible and let his officers and men celebrate to their hearts’ content.
And so Hipper toured the entire ship in high spirits, even taking out several bottles of fine liquor to share with his subordinates. But he soon discovered that the men were not relaxed at all; on the contrary, they were still uneasy.
For a moment he was puzzled, but Lieutenant Lelouch, who was accompanying him, observed more keenly than he did and hurriedly leaned close to remind him:
“General, just now you only ordered us to return along the original route, but you never said we would ultimately be going to Antwerp. The men don’t know that. They think we still have to break through back to Wilhelmshaven, so of course they’re uneasy.”
Hipper froze, then subconsciously raised a hand to his forehead and mocked himself. “Look at this memory of mine. I was so focused on the battle that I forgot about that. Then I’ll announce it at once and set everyone completely at ease.”
“General, do you really want to announce it that quickly?” Lelouch kindly reminded him.
Hipper looked at Lelouch in astonishment. “What do you mean? We’ve already won a great victory. Don’t tell me you still have some crafty idea?”
Lelouch said, “There are indeed a few details I’d like to offer my view on. Perhaps it’s clearer to an onlooker, so just take it as something to consider—after this battle, I can already judge with seventy to eighty percent certainty that Britain has cracked our naval code! That is why David Beatty was misled, and why Hastings was careless and failed to notice.
“And we must do our utmost to keep this secret. Even though we know, we must continue pretending not to know, so that next time we can haul in an even bigger catch! And for that, you need to keep playing the role of ‘an accidental coincidence, disobeying orders and acting alone’…”
Hipper waved his hand a little impatiently. “You’ve said all that before! Get to the point!”
Lelouch said, “The point is that if we return directly to Antwerp, it will look as if you had already planned your retreat, rather than having ‘no other choice and being forced into it.’ It would be best if you first pretended to attempt other possibilities.
“It’s like in those common-law countries of the British sort: first-degree murder is ‘premeditated and long planned,’ while second-degree murder is ‘a sudden impulse, a crime of passion.’ Right now, you need to act as if yours was second-degree intent.
“Of course, I am merely reminding you from the perspective of intelligence deception. Everything must still put military safety first. If there is no confidence in terms of military safety, then there is no need to create needless complications.”
This time Hipper understood at once. After thinking it over from a purely military perspective, he found that the matter was genuinely feasible, and could satisfy both military needs and intelligence deception!
He could not help saying delightedly, “That idea of yours is excellent! And I can absolutely do it! In a while, I’ll pretend I still intend to return to Wilhelmshaven. Then, once I encounter Beatty’s search force, I’ll pretend I dare not face a powerful enemy and decisively turn toward Antwerp!
“That way, it will look as though I ‘fear the enemy like a tiger, bully the weak but dread the strong, and was forced back to Antwerp as a last resort,’ rather than having planned it from the beginning!
“And Beatty must be frantic to find me right now. He’s also afraid I’ll slip through the net, so he’ll have to divide his forces and spread out in a search line. As long as I concentrate my forces to break through at one point, even if I run into his warships, I won’t face too many enemies at the same time. As long as I immediately turn around, shaking him off will be all but certain!”
The more Hipper thought about it, the more he felt this measure was both bold and wildly imaginative. It was truly brilliant.
Seeing that he was confident, Lelouch was secretly pleased as well. In the end, he did not forget to add, “And in that case, we can mix in even more intelligence-deception tricks afterward!
“For example, according to our earlier discussion, the greatest risk in withdrawing to Antwerp is that ‘there are no large naval shipyards there, so if the warships are severely damaged, they cannot be repaired.’ You are willing to withdraw to Antwerp now because none of our capital ships have suffered severe damage and no major repairs are needed.
“But once you are ‘fleeing in panic after seeing Beatty, forced to go to Antwerp,’ then in the future you can pretend that ‘several battlecruisers have suffered serious damage.’ You could even use the code the enemy has already cracked to telegraph the rear, requesting ‘the expansion of Antwerp’s shipyards in order to repair large warships,’ thereby deceiving the enemy into lowering their guard even further, making them think you are already lying crippled in Antwerp…”
By the time Hipper heard this, he no longer knew how many sharp breaths he had drawn.
This was too damn underhanded!
It was practically a deadly chain of schemes, each strike hitting home!
But since it was to deal with the British, there was no such thing as being too underhanded. After all, who told them their country’s name sounded like “Yin”? This could be considered giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Hipper accepted every one of the ideas in full and was endlessly grateful to Lelouch.
…
After that, everything proceeded quite naturally.
In order to make his attitude of “stirring the waters by any means necessary” seem even more convincing,
Hipper arranged a few inexpensive little feints as well.
For example, when passing Dunkirk on the return voyage at four in the morning, he did something unprecedented: he ordered several battlecruisers, from a position fifteen kilometers off the coast, to suddenly bombard the port district, dock warehouses, and naval barracks onshore with high-explosive shells from their main guns.
The shelling was very brief, lasting less than fifteen minutes in total.
Each main gun fired twenty rounds of high-explosive shells that were not of much use in naval combat, blasting apart more than a dozen facilities, killing thousands of sleeping French soldiers, and destroying a stockpile of over a hundred thousand shells, along with several docks and piers.
These losses were enough to leave Marshal Joffre in a state of distress for quite some time.
And while Hipper’s capital ships were snatching this bonus in passing, the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers he had previously left behind because of their slower speed had not been idle either.
Those two armored cruisers, accompanied by a small number of light cruisers, had begun counter-bombarding the French positions in the town of Nieuport, which had already been captured, shortly after one in the morning—
Earlier that night, that area had been held by the Germans, attacked by the French, and covered by British battleships.
The French had finally managed to take the town after much difficulty, relying on the continued support of their allies. But who could have expected that not long afterward, their allies’ battleships would be blown apart one after another?
Then the French discovered in stunned disbelief that it was now the enemy warships’ turn to bombard them!
The French assault troops, who had only just occupied the ruins and were not very familiar with the terrain, were thus savagely worn down once more, blasted into chaos and their morale driven to rock bottom.
The Germans had been mentally prepared from the beginning. They knew how to fight a flexible defense, and had also prepared follow-up defensive lines and small boats for transferring soldiers.
The French, however, had made no preparations for flexible defense at all. The bombardment they suffered struck them squarely, and a bout of indiscriminate shelling killed at least several thousand more men.
And this entire series of actions by Hipper could also be interpreted by the enemy as “frantically muddying the waters in order to break through and conceal his true location.”
For a time, the intelligence system on the far side of the Channel also fell into enormous confusion.
Some urgent reports indicated that Hipper was at Dunkirk, and that after bombarding Dunkirk, he had turned straight northeast to return home.
But other intelligence showed that he was at Nieuport, or even Ostend, and that he intended to sail northeast from there.
The most outrageous claim even said that he had reached the port city of Vlissingen at the bend of the Dutch peninsula, and was planning to hug the coastline, violate Dutch neutrality, and force his way north.
Three pieces of news came back all at once, and each route of northward return they indicated was separated from the others east-west by at least an hour’s sailing.
Which one was David Beatty supposed to believe?
In the end, taking Minister Wotton’s fury into consideration, and considering that the minister had already made him pledge that Hipper absolutely must not be allowed to break through,
Beatty had no choice but to divide his battlecruisers into three groups, each with two to three ships, forming a search net stretching sixty nautical miles from west to east.
No matter which point on the net Hipper ran into, reinforcements from the other points could soon arrive and encircle him.
At the same time, Beatty also knew that after splitting his forces, any one group that encountered Hipper would be at a local disadvantage.
So he ordered that after each squadron discovered the enemy, they absolutely must not become entangled in battle. They were to maintain distance, steady themselves in a fighting withdrawal, and then send telegrams to summon all friendly forces, engaging in a decisive battle only after the encirclement was complete.
Compared with German battlecruisers, British battlecruisers still possessed a slight speed advantage, so Beatty could still “fight if he could win, run if he could not.” There was no doubt about that.
…
On Hipper’s side, after completing all the work of deception, he finally chose the relatively central one among the three northbound routes as his feigned breakthrough path.
It was not because this route was the best, but because he had no choice—the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers had previously been left by him in the waters near Ostend, and he had to rendezvous with the Scharnhorst-class ships before turning north. He could not let the faster battlecruisers abandon their comrades and act alone.
Of course, because he had already taken into account that he would soon have to turn back to Antwerp, Hipper paid extra attention to one detail: he deliberately placed the battlecruisers at the head, with the armored cruisers slowly following behind.
On the surface, this was because “the entire fleet is breaking through at full speed, and the battlecruisers are faster, so they are farther ahead.”
But in reality, since they would soon pretend to be no match for the enemy and flee in panic once contact was made, the “rear force would become the front force” by then, and the armored cruisers would have to sail more than a dozen nautical miles less, allowing them to return to Antwerp faster.
Every detail was perfect.
The fleet sailed until shortly after seven in the morning. Not long after the sky brightened, Hipper’s fleet actually spotted two large enemy warships patrolling on the northern horizon.
These were clearly battlecruisers from Beatty’s fleet that had rushed over through the night to intercept them.
“Two enemy battlecruisers spotted due north! Suspected Indefatigable-class! Bearing 345/355.”
With the discovery of the enemy, all four battlecruisers in Hipper’s fleet became tense and entered battle readiness.
After the fierce fighting throughout the previous night, among Hipper’s battlecruisers, two had been hit by enemy 305 mm shells and had suffered slight damage. The other two had also been struck several times by 150 mm secondary guns, destroying some upper structures or secondary guns.
Together with the shelling of the enemy port, their total shell expenditure was already close to half. Their combat condition was certainly inferior to that of the British battlecruisers opposite them, which were in full fighting form.
Combining the known intelligence, Hipper analyzed to himself, “There are only three Indefatigable-class ships in total. Indefatigable is currently with the Mediterranean Fleet, so those two opposite us must be Australia and New Zealand… Entire fleet, turn to 120, engage the enemy in line abreast!”
A heading of 120 meant thirty degrees south of due east. This was a heading that could return to Antwerp, though the final leg of the voyage would still require a further turn south.
But for now, maintaining a heading of 120 could ensure they kept an engagement angle with the enemy. The forward main turrets of each ship would all turn aft to their maximum angle, just enough to aim at the enemy ships in a “dragging blade” posture.
…
“Four German battlecruisers spotted! Bearing 75/85. Confirmed to be Hipper’s battlecruiser squadron!”
Almost at the same time, on the bridge of Australia, Beatty’s deputy, Rear Admiral Archibald Moore, also received news of the German ships’ discovery.
Rear Admiral Moore’s first reaction was also to quickly maintain distance and delay until Beatty’s other five battlecruisers all arrived. Then they could use seven against four, outnumber the enemy, and annihilate them!
Right now it was two against four. There was no way they could win. A wise man did not court immediate danger.
Although the British fleet’s total strength was greater, because they had to spread out in a search net, their ships could not gather together immediately. Therefore, they had to draw things out and buy time.
Delay for one hour, at most two, and the other ships would all be able to arrive. Then it would be Hipper’s doom.
But what Rear Admiral Moore had not expected was that not long after he also gave the order to turn and “drag the blade,” he discovered that the Germans had actually turned to do the same!
The German ships began to veer thirty degrees south to open the distance, while the British ships were veering thirty degrees north to open the distance as well. The two sides very quickly grew farther and farther apart.
“What’s going on? We’re afraid, and the enemy is afraid too? Hipper actually ran as soon as he saw me? No, turn around at once! Hard starboard! Turn to 150! Chase them! Just maintain distance. Don’t press too close, but don’t let the enemy get away either!
“Do not close to within fifteen kilometers. Then the enemy ships will be unable to penetrate our main armor belt! Fire at the enemy near maximum range and harass them! Just delay their retreat!”
Rear Admiral Moore knew very well that he could not beat them. He simply wanted to maintain distance and buy time.
As long as the other side was forced into battle, they would have to slow down in order to improve their hit rate.
At top speed, because of wind and waves causing the ships to pitch and roll, accuracy would plummet sharply. Only at cruising speed could they fire relatively steadily.
…
“How foolish. He still thinks we’re trying to go around him and break through from another angle? Heh, what I want is to return to Antwerp in the first place. Since you want to bite on, I’ll show you a little more color. Fifteen degrees north. Strive for a better broadside angle!”
When Hipper saw Rear Admiral Moore rushing up so impatiently, he knew that the other side had misjudged again.
In that case, he did not mind first slightly reducing speed from twenty-six knots to the eighteen-knot cruising speed for opening fire, while also turning somewhat northward to seek a better crossing-the-T advantage.
The so-called crossing-the-T advantage, as everyone knew, meant that in naval warfare, one side’s line of battleships arrayed itself in a horizontal line, allowing all main guns to fire broadsides toward one side. The enemy, meanwhile, entered range one ship after another in column. At the beginning, only the first ship could return fire, and only after slowly closing in and adjusting formation could the ships behind it open fire in response.
Right now, Rear Admiral Moore was the one anxious to pursue, so he fell into a formation disadvantage, becoming the vertical stroke of the T, while Hipper was the horizontal stroke.
After both sides entered each other’s range, Moore had only Australia able to open fire immediately. New Zealand would have to wait more than ten minutes before it could fire.
This meant that in the first ten minutes, the German ships could concentrate four against one on Australia.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom—”
As Australia entered range, sixteen 305 mm shells and sixteen 280 mm shells began ranging fire at it.
Because the distance was too great, all the shells missed by a fair margin, requiring a new measurement of range.
Even so, Rear Admiral Moore was still badly startled. Thirty-two guns focusing fire on his single ship—what kind of blessing was this?
He immediately ordered his own eight 305 mm guns to return fire, and for a time the two sides bombarded each other back and forth.
Two minutes later, five minutes later… As time passed, the two sides exchanged seven or eight salvos, gradually completed their rangefinding, and became increasingly accurate.
In the end, quantity was indeed needed before quality could be ensured. On the eighth salvo, Australia was the first to be hit by a 280 mm shell.
Fortunately, the distance was great enough that it failed to penetrate the citadel.
But afterward more shells fell. Two just happened to land at the bow and stern respectively, immediately blasting several large holes in these non-vital areas without main armor belts, and some compartments began taking on water. Damage control immediately sealed the internal watertight doors, ultimately controlling the flooding to within two or three thousand tons.
The flooded warship’s speed began to drop, and it was no longer possible for it to catch up to the enemy.
In the end, Australia was hit by seven large-caliber shells from the enemy. Its bow and stern were blasted into a terrible state, and its maximum speed dropped to fifteen knots.
New Zealand was also hit by two shells, which destroyed one side’s casemate gun deck and the secondary bridge lookout tower.
The counterattack from the two British ships also achieved some results, hitting two German ships once each, but because the distance was too great, the specific damage could not be confirmed.
The final result of this engagement was that the German ships hit the enemy with nine shells, while the British ships hit the enemy with two. Afterward, the two sides pulled apart.
Rear Admiral Moore had indeed bought some time. Considering that David Beatty’s other five battlecruisers were about to arrive on the battlefield, Hipper also did not dare linger in battle. He accepted the result while ahead and fled.
Moore, considering that Australia had been heavily damaged and its speed greatly reduced, did not dare let New Zealand alone pursue and harry four enemy ships, fearing that the disadvantage was too great and it might truly be counter-killed and sunk. He could only watch the enemy escape.
After David Beatty arrived with the main force and joined all seven battlecruisers together, he pursued furiously, but Hipper had already fled at least half an hour in advance. There was no catching him now.
By the time the chase reached noon, Hipper had already entered the inlet near the port of Antwerp and passed the Dutch cape of Vlissingen.
Beatty continued the pursuit, but not long after he had just pushed into the mouth of the inlet, a destroyer scouting ahead suffered an earth-shaking explosion and sank outright.
“The Germans have already laid moored mines at the entrance of the Vlissingen inlet! This place was still a defensive zone controlled by the Belgian army just a few days ago! The mines must have been laid only just now!”
Seeing that the inlet terrain was narrow, and that a warship had been blown apart by a mine, Beatty did not dare pursue farther. He could only blockade the mouth of the inlet, ensuring that Hipper had become a turtle in a jar, and then have someone telegraph Minister Wotton.
A few minutes later, at Downing Street in London, Minister Wotton received the call.
“Your Excellency, our forces intercepted Hipper’s fleet on the sea forty nautical miles northwest of Vlissingen. But when Hipper saw the strength of our forces, he immediately turned and fled.
“Our fleet pursued all the way, shelling and hitting each enemy ship multiple times. Unfortunately, the engagement range was too great, and we were unable to inflict fatal damage. The enemy fled in panic toward Antwerp. Our fleet cannot pursue into the inlet, but we have ensured that the enemy fleet is sealed inside it.”
Hearing that at the very least, the enemy had been sealed in Antwerp, Minister Wotton felt somewhat better.
Mm. In that case, at least the enemy could no longer do anything. They had become a “fleet in being.”
And since they had fled in such a sorry state, the damage to the enemy ships could be exaggerated as more serious. That could also recover a little more face for the Royal Navy.
Minister Wotton let out a slight breath, then immediately had someone notify The Times to hasten out a report of victory.
It would say that “all four of the enemy’s newest capital battlecruisers in the North Sea theater have, in today’s artillery engagement, been heavily damaged by General David Beatty’s battlecruiser fleet. To avoid total annihilation, the enemy fled in panic and without direction to Antwerp. That place has no other exit and no naval repair yard; all four German ships are already trapped in a hopeless situation.”
In short, under the pen of The Times, the Royal Navy had won an overwhelming victory no matter what.
Hipper’s four battlecruisers had all been beaten terribly. Aside from not having sunk for the moment and still clinging to their last breath, they were completely in a state of “a sliver of health / critically damaged / one shot from death.”
As for the things the Royal Navy had had sunk, those were all obsolete rubbish from twenty years ago that they had been about to dismantle and scrap themselves anyway. The German ships had merely saved the Royal Navy a little dismantling expense.
Of course, all of this was spectacle for the rabble. The internal review was another matter entirely.
—
P.S.: I won’t split the chapter today. New book—please leave comments, follow updates, add to favorites, and vote. Thank you.