Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 146 The End of the Black Sea Fleet - Part 1

When General Eberhardt learned that Major General Lukin was about to be annihilated, he already wanted to turn back to Sevastopol.

But by then it was too late; he was already close to engaging Vice Admiral Wilhelm Sussun's German former dreadnought squadron to the south.

(Note: Yesterday, a reader pointed out that it should be called "William Su Xiong". This is just a matter of different versions of the transliteration, so I will keep it as is. "Su Shun" is probably an older transliteration from a previous dynasty.)

When Spee's battlecruiser squadron finished off the Lusa's Odessa squadron, the distance between him and Vice Admiral Su Shun's former Dreadnought squadron was only a dozen nautical miles.

If Admiral Eberhart had tried to escape at that moment, with his speed of 21 knots, he certainly wouldn't have been able to outrun the two Moltke-class battlecruisers personally led by Admiral Spee, which were at 27 knots.

Rather than being relentlessly pursued until severely wounded or even killed, it's better to take a gamble and hope to take a few down with you before you die.

Especially in the last few days, the Black Sea Fleet has been operating at a net loss.

They were powerless to retaliate during the air raids, and even after the raids ended, the fleet dared not return to port to shut down the boilers. They had to keep the boilers running, fearing that if the airships came again, they wouldn't be able to start a fire quickly enough.

In the small battle at noon, a detachment was defeated piecemeal by the enemy's concentrated superior forces, almost completely annihilated without any casualties. After suffering such a series of calamities, even a clay figure would be stirred to anger; who would want to die a cowardly death in the end?

"All fleet, prepare for battle! Form ranks! Target: Demacian Vanguard Squadron directly ahead!"

General Eberhart gritted his teeth and gave the order to fight to the death.

Lusa's Black Sea Fleet quickly began to turn and form a battle line.

At the very front of the column, the dreadnought "Queen Maria" came face to face with Vice Admiral William Sussoon's flagship "Swabia".
The second-ranked dreadnought "Catherine the Great" faced off against the "Vidin" in the second battle line on the opposite side.
The "Saint Yevstabhi," also a former dreadnought, was last in line, facing off against the "Zaringen," the last ship on the opposite side.

Soon, the Lussa's 305mm shells and the Demanians' 240mm shells began firing at each other.

Although the Demacian naval guns were almost a decade older, their rates of fire were still roughly the same because of their much smaller caliber.

Both sides were firing shells at each other at a rate of one round every half minute.

Given the strength of the dreadnoughts, crushing the pre-dreadnoughts on the other side should have been quite easy.

Unfortunately, neither of Admiral Eberhart's two dreadnoughts were in peak condition.

The "Queen Maria" was hit by an airship during the Sevastopol port attack two days ago, suffering a 500-kilogram bomb and two smaller bombs. The bombs damaged the rotating mechanism of the No. 2 main gun turret and the aft funnel.

This resulted in a quarter of the Queen Maria's firepower being rendered useless, with only three of the four main gun turrets capable of firing, and the maximum speed dropping from 21 knots to 19 knots.

Although the damaged smokestack was sealed off in an emergency, various kinds of black smoke still leaked out and filled the deck when the ship's speed increased, which had a certain impact on observation.

The Catherine the Great was hit by six small bombs, which damaged some of the superstructure and external equipment. The rangefinder and observation instruments were also affected, and emergency repairs could not fully restore them.

After the battle began, the two sides exchanged shells in an orderly manner.

Since the Lusa's auxiliary ships no longer had a numerical advantage, they dared not charge forward. Instead, they discreetly protected the main ship on both sides, guarding against the enemy's torpedo attacks.

"Boom boom boom~"

The first salvo was fired by the Lusa fleet when they were 15 kilometers apart.

When the three French ships fired their second volley, the three German ships retaliated, only about 30 seconds later.

Subsequently, both sides fired at a low frequency, slowly calculating and correcting their shots. They fired 20 rounds of shells in 17 minutes, but still achieved no results.

The engagement distance also decreased from 15 kilometers to 12 kilometers, just like the time before.

"Damn it! The smoke leaking from the smokestack is interfering with the warship's aiming efficiency!"

"The Catherine the Great ship is the same; it must be that the sighting and observation hardware that was replaced after that bombing had problems with its accuracy and break-in!"

Admiral Eberhart, seeing that they had exchanged 20 rounds of fire without hitting each other, knew that the warships' accuracy must have been affected.

Originally, 15 kilometers should have been the maximum effective firing range for dreadnoughts in combat; at that distance, firing ten or eight rounds should have resulted in at least one hit. Now, due to precision errors in the instruments and equipment, it is necessary to shorten the combat distance by two or three kilometers.

Fortunately, when the distance was reduced to 12 kilometers, the Queen Maria finally hit the Swabian with the 23rd round of shells.

"Boom!" The 305mm armor-piercing round rammed into the 225mm main armor belt of the "Schwaben". The main armor was no match for such a fierce penetration, and was torn open with a terrible, twisted hole.

However, the Lusa people's weak metallurgical industrial base resulted in armor-piercing projectiles that were relatively brittle and hard. While they could penetrate the thick main armor of enemy ships, the projectiles themselves would often shatter.

After penetrating the first layer of steel plate, the shattered shell exploded immediately upon impacting the inner dome armor, failing to achieve secondary penetration.

German battleships are notorious for using domed armor to protect the area below the waterline in their citadel. The end result is that while the RUSSA's large-caliber armor-piercing shells can often penetrate the main armor and damage some facilities, they are consistently unable to cause flooding.

The HMS Swabian withstood a shell, which destroyed one of the lower decks and disabled the secondary guns on the starboard side, but the rest of the ship remained operational.

"It hit! And it went right through!"

On board the "Queen Maria," Admiral Eberhart witnessed firsthand how an armor-piercing shell from his own ship penetrated the enemy's armor and exploded inside the hull, blasting a large hole in the side and tearing the steel plates outwards. He was greatly encouraged.

After feeling frustrated for several days, I finally got my little revenge today!
If this trend continues, as long as I can take out the other side's three former dreadnoughts within half an hour, the outcome of the entire decisive battle might be reversed!
Even if the Moltke and Goeben arrive at the battlefield more than half an hour later, they will have already wiped out the three German Dreadnoughts, and then they can have a righteous 3 vs 2 fight!
"Empress Maria" plus "Catherine the Great" plus "Saint Yevstabhi", plus "Moch" plus "Goben".

The advantage is still with me!

This is a matter of life and death!
"Quickly, keep closing the distance! Decide the outcome as soon as possible! We must take out all three of the enemy's pre-dreadnoughts before their two battlecruisers arrive on the battlefield!"

In order to gain time, Eberhart decisively chose a more aggressive style of play. He attempted to use extremely close range to significantly improve the accuracy of both players, aiming for a decisive blow as quickly as possible.

The engagement distance rapidly decreased from 12 kilometers to 11 kilometers and then 10 kilometers.

The Russo people had a total of 25 305mm cannons, while the opposing side only had 12 240mm cannons, resulting in a complete firepower crush. The reduced engagement distance was most noticeable for the "Catherine the Great," whose observation and aiming equipment was damaged.

She initially missed her first shot, but as the distance closed to 10 kilometers, she hit the opposing "Vidin" with a total of three 305mm armor-piercing rounds!
The aft bridge and aft main gun turret of the "Vidin" were destroyed by the violent explosion, but due to the excellent structural design of the German ships and their inherent damage control capabilities, no ammunition detonation occurred.

Before being severely damaged, the Vidin returned fire, hitting the Catherine the Great with two 240mm guns. One shot hit the superstructure and destroyed some facilities, while the other hit the main armor belt and was deflected.

If, at this moment, the ship engaged in combat with the Vidin was an older vessel, the Gangut-class of the Baltic Fleet, which was even older than the Catherine the Great, then this shot might actually have had a chance of penetrating within 1 meters.

Unfortunately, it can't be replaced.

The main side armor of the Gangut-class destroyer is 227mm, while that of the Catherine the Great destroyer is reinforced to 252mm. This crucial inch of thickness reinforcement can sometimes determine life or death.

"Great! Even at 10 kilometers, the 240mm gun can't penetrate our main armor! Maintain this distance, no, get a little closer, and fire hard!"

Admiral Eberhart, seeing that the enemy ships could not penetrate his main armor, was completely at ease and became increasingly complacent as the battle progressed.

In just 15 minutes, the Lusa 3 ships hit the Demanians a total of 7 times, while the Demanians only returned fire 5 times, without causing any serious damage.

This achievement was only possible because the Demacian sailors were of high caliber and had excellent artillery skills, but even the best artillery skills could not overcome the absolute gap in hardware.

During the fierce battle, Lieutenant General William Sussoon, seeing the dangerous situation, once again sent a telegram in writing, requesting Admiral Spee to accelerate the process and get the two Moltke-class ships to the battlefield as soon as possible.

……

Minutes later, just as the situation on William Sussun's side was becoming increasingly urgent, the USS Swabia received a reply from Admiral Spee.

"General, Commander Spee has replied. He wants my troops to hold out for another 20 minutes! The telegram also says that he is aware that my main guns cannot penetrate the enemy ship's armor belt."

However, intelligence indicates that the 'Queen Maria-class' ships have seaworthiness and bow-line issues. The enemy ships have a balanced hull and may have reduced bow armor. If forced into close combat, attempts should be made to attack the enemy ship's bow as much as possible.

After reading the telegram, Lieutenant General Su Shun was at a loss for words.

The battle is already halfway through, where did you get the intelligence? If you had intelligence, why didn't you say so earlier?
But what else could he do? He might as well try anything, even if it seemed hopeless.

Anyway, the engagement distance has been brought very close, and both sides' accuracy is getting higher and higher.

Our ship, the "Vidin," was already in bad shape. The enemy seemed to realize that this ship was the most damaged, so they wanted to concentrate their fire on it first. At this moment, the "Vidin" had been hit by a total of 5 shells, and both of its turrets were almost unusable.

Thanks to the "Viding" drawing fire, the "Schwaben" and "Zaringen" maintained a decent output capability.

Lieutenant General Su Shun immediately adjusted his tactics, aiming at the front half of the "Queen Maria" from a distance of 9 kilometers, and adding a lead of several dozen meters.

Persistence pays off. In the subsequent rounds of shelling, the Swabian finally hit the bow of the Empress Maria with two 240mm armor-piercing shells, and the Zalingen also hit the bow of the Catherine the Great with one shell.

More importantly, with the engagement distance reduced to just 9 kilometers, the German ships' numerous 150mm secondary guns could begin to prove their worth.

Normally, these 150mm guns would never penetrate the main armor of a capital ship; they would only be used to clean the superstructure. However, after closing to within 9 kilometers, they could aim more precisely, focusing their fire on the bow. Within just a few minutes, the bows of both of Rosa's dreadnoughts were riddled with large holes by the 150mm guns.

"The Lusa people's warships are indeed fundamentally flawed! Their ships have poor seaworthiness! They bury their bows! The bow armor has been shredded to the point of being paper-thin, so they can be easily worn!"

When Lieutenant General William Su Shun saw this, his eyes blazed with hope.

At least our counterattack is meaningful now, and not just a matter of buying time and taking damage for the battlecruiser fleet.

Meanwhile, the two Queen Maria-class destroyers opposite them immediately experienced massive flooding in non-core compartments after being hit repeatedly in the bow.

The two boats were already slightly bowed, meaning their bows were down and their sterns were up.

Now the bow has taken in several hundred tons and over a thousand tons of water respectively, making the bow sink even more severely.

The sinking of the bow will first cause the ballistic trajectory to deflect, thus reducing the subsequent hit rate of the two main ships of the Rosa by at least 20%.

But that's not the most fatal thing. The most fatal thing is that after the bow sinks, the resistance to navigation increases greatly, and the speed will be greatly reduced.

If the stern tends to tilt upwards, part of the propeller may even spray water into the air, reducing effective thrust and slowing down the speed.

Soon, the Empress Maria's speed dropped from 19 knots to 15 knots, and the Catherine the Great's speed dropped to 16 knots. At this speed, it had no advantage over the Pre-Dreadnoughts, and was even slightly slower than them.

It was impossible for Admiral Eberhardt to close the engagement distance with William Sussun again, unless he sent the "Saint Yevstaffi" out alone at full speed to be killed.

Admiral Eberhart was furious at the turn of events and ordered all three ships to concentrate their fire on the heavily damaged and wrecked "Vidin," demanding that it be sunk as soon as possible, no matter what.

The remaining 22 305mm guns, still capable of firing, continued to bombard the "Vidin" for another seven or eight rounds. Ultimately, the "Vidin," having been penetrated by more than 20 305mm armor-piercing shells, could no longer withstand the onslaught and exploded, sinking on the spot.

Throughout the process, the Lusa people actually wasted a lot of firepower. When they had been hit by more than 15 bullets, even if they hadn't moved and had let the "Vidin" drift for a few more hours, its damage would have worsened and it would have eventually sunk.

But Admiral Eberhart was already furious. He couldn't judge whether the enemy ship would die on its own from 9 to 10 kilometers away, so he had no choice but to desperately fire shells to make sure it was completely destroyed.

Only after the Vidin finally sank did he turn his fire back to the relatively damaged Zalingen.

But before they could even exchange a few rounds, as the distance between the two sides gradually increased, their two Queen Maria-class ships became slower and slower, and more and more water entered their bows, resulting in a decrease in their hit rate. Meanwhile, the Moltke and Goeben finally arrived at the battlefield.

Even more critically, as the speed of the two "Queen Maria" class ships dropped below 15 knots and the bows took on a lot of water, making turning difficult, the opposing German auxiliary ship group finally felt they had found an opportunity.

Five destroyers and more than a dozen torpedo boats immediately launched a torpedo attack.

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PS: That's about 12,000 words for today. The second part of "The Demise of the Black Sea Fleet" will be updated tomorrow morning.

(End of this chapter)