Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 162: Annihilation of the Rusa Cruiser Fleet, and a Counter-Espionage Scheme

"boom!"

A 430-kilogram 305mm armor-piercing shell slammed into the main armor belt of the armored cruiser "Bayan".

Just 20 minutes into the battle, as the Lusa fleet raced southwest, the Demacian fleet pursued relentlessly, firing and harassing. The shells landed closer and closer to the Lusa armored cruiser group, ultimately resulting in the first direct hit.

The "Bayan" had a main armor belt that was 203 mm thick, making it completely immune to the main guns of any light cruiser.

Unfortunately, it encountered the 305mm main guns of a German battleship today, an overwhelming enemy that it should not have to face.

The 203mm main armor belt was torn apart as if it were made of paper, and the shells pierced into the inner compartments and tore through the vertical armor of the engine room.

The armor-piercing projectile, having penetrated two layers of thick steel plates, continued its momentum, piercing directly into the 8250-horsepower triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine responsible for powering the warship's right shaft, before finally exploding.

The explosion of tens of kilograms of explosives inside the engine is an experience of extreme violent aesthetics.

Although the "Bayan" was not directly hit, it suddenly spewed out a large cloud of thick black smoke mixed with flames and metal fragments.

It was as if the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort) of the Fuwei镖局 (escort agency) had been hit hard by Yu Canghai's "Heart-Shattering Palm" move. His heart was shattered into pieces, but the external injuries were not obvious. He just vomited a mouthful of foul blood mixed with fragments of his heart and lungs.

Some ships haven't sunk yet, but they're already drifting corpses.

Lieutenant General Basilev, aboard the nearby armored cruiser "Ryurik," was also chilled to the bone upon seeing the dead bodies of his comrades.

The Bayan-class is a class of armored cruisers specifically designed for the sea conditions of the Baltic Sea and the terrain of the Gulf of Riga.

Its prototype was modeled after the Frankish “Geudon-class” armored cruiser design, but with reduced tonnage and firepower, so that its draft was reduced from 7.8 meters in the original Frankish version to 6.7 meters in the Luftwaffe version.

In other words, this warship is willing to sacrifice some firepower and speed in exchange for the barely enough passage through the Strait of Shioma into the Gulf of Riga.

This kind of warship design philosophy is common in Rusa's history. They knew their fleet couldn't reach the open seas and would be blockaded by the enemy.

Warships designed under this approach are often extreme; they don't care if their performance deteriorates to scrap metal after leaving the Baltic or Black Sea, as long as they can win a battle near home by taking advantage of favorable weather, terrain, and human factors.

The Bayan-class destroyers were designed with the idea that "once the Strait of Ilbe is blocked with mines, no enemy ship that can enter or leave the Gulf of Riga will be able to defeat me, and no enemy ship that can defeat me will be able to enter the Gulf of Riga."

Then it can reign supreme in the Gulf of Riga, invincible.

Unfortunately, what they are facing today is the very thing that comes into play in and out of the Gulf of Riga through the Irbe Strait.

The fundamental premise of all the Lusa people's assumptions, "as long as the Ilbe Strait is blocked with mines," was never achieved at all.

Their minefield was broken by the "malicious" Colonel Lelouch von Ritter Hunt.

……

The death of the "Bayan" finally made Lieutenant General Basilev see reality clearly and completely woke him up from his escapism.

He had realized that simply running away and relying on the cruiser's speed to outrun the battleship was not an option to shake off the enemy.

In the past 20 minutes, I turned around and ran as fast as I could, but the enemy got closer and closer and their artillery fire became more and more accurate.

The only chance right now is to use the light ships that still have torpedoes to turn around and launch a desperate torpedo charge to stop the enemy.

"All ships with remaining torpedoes, prepare to launch a torpedo charge against the enemy battleships! Fire all torpedoes at their maximum range, then immediately turn around and disengage. Do not linger in the battle!"

Following Vice Admiral Basilev's order, more than a dozen light cruisers and destroyers equipped with torpedoes turned around and charged toward the enemy battleships without hesitation.

Many of these destroyers had already fired their torpedoes last night. Destroyers of this era cannot reload torpedoes at sea; they simply lack the technology. Even returning to port to reload torpedoes would take several hours.

However, many ports along the Gulf of Riga are still controlled by the Lusa Army, so after dark last night, Basilev ordered the destroyer to dock and reload torpedoes, and then used its speed to catch up, so that it could be put into battle again after dawn.

Looking at the tragic scene before him, Lieutenant General Basilev was filled with mixed emotions, both praying and cursing silently.

"Damn Demanians! They lied about the speed of their warships! Wasn't it supposed to be 22 knots for the Heligoland-class and 21 knots for the Caesar-class? Those Heligoland-class ships were going at least 24 knots just now! Even armored cruisers couldn't outrun them! Those damned liars!"

When Demanding battleship power levels, the Demacians often deliberately downplayed them, reporting only a normal rated speed. In reality, however, their warships' boilers were capable of being "overloaded."

By sacrificing some of the boiler and piping lifespan and overloading the steam pressure by 15% to 20% above the rated design maximum pressure, Demagna's metallurgical processes and sealing technology can actually withstand it. At that point, the warship can accelerate two knots further.

Of course, such overloads are time-limited, generally only allowing continuous overload for a dozen hours. If the boiler is continuously overloaded for 48 hours, it may spontaneously combust, which is tantamount to suicide.

It was this "low profile" that initially gave Lieutenant General Basilev the illusion that "I can escape," and he was chased for half an hour without inflicting any damage on the enemy. Only now has he learned that "even a rabbit will bite when cornered."

……

"The Lusa people's torpedo boat group is desperate. Don't panic, all ships turn to engage the enemy on their sides and fire freely, prioritizing the targets that are approaching. Don't worry about those armored cruisers in the distance, they can't escape."

After observing the Lussars turn around and launch a torpedo attack, Vice Admiral Tari Scheer, commander of the battleship "Helgolan", immediately and calmly ordered all ships to abandon the pursuit and instead intercept them.

He knew very well that the enemy couldn't escape; it was all a trap. Even if the enemy fled west to the entrance of the Irbe Strait, they couldn't leave the Gulf of Riga, where there were still two battleships lying in wait.

In that case, safety should be the top priority; there's no need to rush.

Those poor light cruisers and destroyers thought their charge would buy time for the main force to escape. But in reality, they couldn't even make that insignificant contribution.

The Heligoland and East Friesland quickly turned their hulls to the side, and the ten 150mm guns and twelve twin 88mm dual-purpose guns on each side spewed fierce flames at the attacking enemy ships.

Because the Heligoland-class destroyers in this world adopted a twin-turret layout with superfiring main guns at the fore and aft, eliminating the main guns on the sides, the secondary gun positions on the sides were also strengthened. The number of 150mm and 88mm guns on each side was also 3 and 5 more respectively than the Heligoland-class destroyers on Earth.

A hail of shells rained down on the Rosa light cruiser and destroyers, and at a distance of about 12 kilometers, the German 150mm guns began to hit their targets one after another.

For the Lussa people to launch a torpedo, they would have to advance at least five or six kilometers under such firepower.

If you still expect the launched torpedoes to have some hit rate, you'll have to get close to seven or eight kilometers.

The Heligoland-class destroyers did not operate alone; they were accompanied by several light cruisers, which could also unleash a barrage of shells.

This is already an impossible task.

When the Lusa light cruiser group approached to within 11 kilometers of the Heligoland-class battleship, with a deafening roar, the 6700-ton cruiser Avrul was directly hit by a 305mm main gun shell from the Heligoland.

The battleship's main guns hit the light cruiser directly, and the outcome was predictable. The Avrall was penetrated from the front of the bridge by an armor-piercing shell, which smashed through five or six layers of bulkheads before exploding inside the hull. This immediately detonated the forward ammunition magazine, breaking the cruiser in two and causing it to sink within three minutes.

The same type of ship, the "Diana", was also hit directly by a total of seven 150mm secondary guns within minutes, all of which penetrated the armor, and eventually exploded and sank.

In addition, five other destroyers were also blocked by the fire net at a distance of at least 8 kilometers from the German ships, and were detonated one by one. None of them were able to break through this dead end.

The Heligoland-class destroyer is like an absolute defensive barrier set up 8 kilometers in front of it; any small enemy boat that doesn't even touch the barrier is doomed.

The few remaining enemy ships, seeing that this was simply suicide and a pointless death, finally lost their morale, and the captains of each ship ordered themselves to scatter and flee.

In the end, only two light cruisers and four destroyers broke away from the pursuit and scattered on their own.

……

Vice Admiral Basilev managed to distance himself from the two Heligoland-class battleships by using light cruisers and destroyers to delay them, and then fled westward.

He still knew in his heart that there was one last way to escape: a narrow, safe passage in the Irbe Strait where he could escape westward.

At the outset of the war, the Lusa Fleet began laying mines in the Irbe Strait, the main shipping lane leading to and from the Gulf of Riga.

However, mines could not be laid too densely. To facilitate the movement of their own personnel in emergencies, the Baltic Fleet left a very narrow safety passage when laying mines. Only senior officers with detailed mine layout maps could pass through safely.

In the Baltic Fleet, even ordinary captains of capital ships were not qualified to know such secrets; only generals at the fleet commander level or fleet chiefs of staff were authorized to access them. And only generals could utilize these sea lanes—

Of course, the Russo people didn't just give special treatment to the Gulf of Riga and leave such a backdoor there. In fact, the Gulf of Bodennia and the Gulf of Finland also had similar exceptional backdoor channels, which were reserved for use by their own high-ranking generals.

Today, that time has come.

Lieutenant General Basilev, with his three armored cruisers that could still barely maintain speed, fled hastily southwestward. About two hours later, they finally arrived at the Irbe Strait, the western exit of the Gulf of Riga.

It was around 11 a.m. at the time.

However, when he arrived here, he noticed something was wrong from afar.

"Damn it! There are battleships here too! The enemy's battleships sneaked into the Gulf of Riga through the safe passage we reserved!"

Because it was broad daylight, Basilev could see the enemy ship's towering lookout mast and the large rangefinder unique to battleships from 15 nautical miles away.

He didn't even need to see the enemy ships emerge from the horizon; just by looking at their superstructures, he knew they were two Heligoland-class battleships!

"Run! Run! Forget everything else, the remaining three armored cruisers should all split up and escape! Every one that survives is a victory. Turn around and head back to the Shiuma Strait to the north! Maybe the enemy battleships will be disoriented by our attacks and give way!"

In a moment of desperation, Lieutenant General Basilev issued such an order, even though he knew it was absurd and that even if he went, there was a high probability that he would die.

But if you try it yourself, at least you have a chance of survival. If you don't even try and just charge straight in head-on, you're guaranteed to die.

It was too late for him to turn around. The Heligoland-class destroyers behind him were closing in, and the Heligoland-class destroyers in front of him were also attacking him head-on.

A hail of 305mm shells rained down, and the armored cruiser HMS Gromboy was quickly torn apart by concentrated fire. Another armored cruiser also succumbed to the onslaught.

In the end, only Vice Admiral Basilov's flagship, the "Rurik," which was also the flagship of the Baltic cruiser squadron, managed to escape by using its speed of 22 knots and towing its four 254 mm main guns, eight 203 mm guns, and twenty 120 mm guns, while taking advantage of the time it took for its two comrades to be killed by the enemy.

During the breakout, the Rurik-class cruiser was actually hit by two 305mm shells. However, with its 203mm armor thickness and a total displacement of 17,000 tons, the Rurik-class cruiser was more than half again as heavy as other armored cruisers.

The German bombardment destroyed its rear 254mm main gun turret and two 203mm twin-mounted gun turrets, virtually eliminating the warship's rearward firepower.

However, the warship's propulsion system was not damaged, and its main waterline armor belt was not penetrated. Ultimately, with its firepower halved, it managed to escape with difficulty.

The ship directly pursuing the Rurik was the fourth ship of the Heligoland class, the Oldenburg.

The captain of the HMS Oldenburg originally intended to pursue the enemy to the end, but halfway through the pursuit, he suddenly received a telegram from Vice Admiral Scheer, the commander of the squadron, saying that a more important target had been discovered and that the ship should immediately move towards the main force.

The captain of the Oldenburg was full of doubts and could not imagine that there could be a more valuable target in the Gulf of Riga than the Rurik.
But the Demacian officers' inability to disobey orders prevented him from being greedy for credit or acting rashly; he did exactly what the lieutenant general told him to do.

Ultimately, the four Heligoland-class destroyers successfully met up. Vice Admiral Scheer briefly reviewed the results of each ship's battle.
最终确认敌舰队只有1艘半残废的“留里克号”、2艘类似于“曙光女神级”的轻巡洋舰，2~3艘驱逐舰逃脱了。逃走的敌舰数量应该不会超过6艘。

The armored cruiser "Rusa", which was hit by a torpedo last night and had its speed greatly reduced, was later found and sunk.

At least 70% of the enemy's forces were annihilated in this attack; if we were to be more aggressive, the figure would be between 70% and 80%.

"Very good. Leaving Basilev himself behind will create panic among the enemy and let them know that the minefield secret passage in the Ilbe Strait has been leaked to our army... I must say, Lelouch's plan, though vicious, is damn effective!"

Lieutenant General Sher silently considered the situation; everything was proceeding according to plan.

Basilov was, after all, a lieutenant general and a paragon of loyalty who fought to the death. He still had six warships that had survived the bloody battle and brought back important information that "there might be a traitor on our side who leaked the mine deployment information to the enemy."

If Your Majesty doesn't save him, then the navy has no reason to exist.

If the other warships of the Baltic Fleet came to rescue the Basileffe, they would be rescuing more than just a few armored and light cruisers.

It wasn't just because "there were only a few Nassau-class destroyers at the northern entrance of the Siuma Strait, and the Baltic Fleet could win if it went all out with its main force."
They were also trying to prove that they weren't the traitor who leaked the information.

This already presents three compelling reasons for him to fight, all combined.

"Commander, it seems the enemy has escaped. What should we do now?"

With the naval battle temporarily over, Lieutenant General Scheer's staff began to consult on the next steps.

Lieutenant General Scher merely glanced indifferently at the mediocre staff members who lacked imagination and were clueless about intrigue, and sighed.

"Take all four Heligoland-class battleships and head south to bombard Riga port. Don't get too close, about 20 kilometers away, and fire at maximum elevation with your main guns. Make sure the enemy defenders in Riga can barely make out that we are Heligoland-class, that we are genuine."

Marshal Mackensen on the shore will also cooperate with us in launching a ground offensive on the outskirts of Riga. Hmm, in a little while we will especially focus our artillery bombardment on the city of Tsarnikava, which is about 20 kilometers east of Riga. That small city is the key breakthrough point chosen by Marshal Mackensen for infiltrating and encircling Riga.

Now, with the firepower support of the naval gun corps, Field Marshal Mackensen should be able to take it in one fell swoop and cut off the land link between the Riga defenders and the enemy forces to the east.

"Yes! Commander!"

All four battleships and auxiliary vessels of this battleship squadron were immediately mobilized according to Vice Admiral Scheer's orders.

Later that day, the massive battleship appeared outside the port of Riga.
This put the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city, as well as the three corps of the 12th Army of the Northwestern Front of Rusa, which was defending Riga, on high alert.

The massive high-explosive bombs bombed the port area, warehouses, and barracks, causing enormous losses to the Lusa people.

After bombing Riga port, a large number of high-explosive bombs also landed in the cities of Tsarnicava, Saulkrastie, and Garcarne, all east of Riga.

On the ground front, Field Marshal Mackensen's 11th Army had already been fighting the Northwestern Front of Rusa for many days and was already close to Riga.

Now, with the battleships launching surprise attacks from behind, the fierce firepower has shaken the Lusa defenders to their core.

The key issue was that German battleships appeared in locations that the Russa people thought were impossible, and this very presence greatly damaged the morale and cohesion of the Russa army.

Ultimately, both the cities of Tsarnikava and Garkarne were breached in a single day by Marshal Mackensen's well-prepared ground offensive.

Marshal Mackensen's army captured large numbers of demoralized Lusa soldiers.

Then they had the guards watching over the defeated soldiers of Lusha spread rumors.

"If it weren't for the traitor within the Baltic Fleet of the Lusa people who provided General Scheer with information on the safe routes to and from the Gulf of Riga and detailed minefield maps, General Scheer wouldn't have been able to suddenly appear inside the Gulf of Riga and behind the enemy's back."

"This was truly exhilarating! I've been fighting alongside Field Marshal Mackensen for a year now, and I've never seen the enemy collapse so quickly and completely. Are battleship guns really that powerful?"

"Are you stupid? The key isn't the high-explosive shells from the battleships, it's that the enemy saw our battleships appear outside their port! The impact of that is enormous. Now everyone in the enemy ranks knows that their supplies from the Gulf of Riga have been cut off. It's this expectation of being cut off from their support that has shattered their morale! That's the most valuable thing!"

Among the prisoners of war in Lusa, there were always some who understood German. After listening to them, they basically understood how their side had been defeated.

That evening, the Demanians seemed to have relaxed their guard over the prisoners of war. Many guards, in high spirits after the victory, drank too much, resulting in a significant number of prisoners who understood German escaping back to Riga.

Then, General Nikolai Ruzsky, commander of the Northwestern Front of Russa in Riga, and his subordinate commander of the Russa 12th Army, also quickly heard about these rumors.

Of course, General Nikolai Ruzsky would never believe these to be rumors!
His army collapsed so quickly in a single day, wasn't it because the enemy cut off the Gulf of Riga shipping route? The key point is that his own soldiers saw enemy battleships appearing so close, asserting absolute naval control, which caused his troops' morale to collapse!

Now, General Nikolai Ruzsky desperately needs a reason to shift blame and prove that the land battle losses around the Gulf of Riga were not his fault!

It was because his allies were so incompetent that their morale collapsed!
Thus, a telegram was sent stating that "the Demanian fleet, having bribed a traitor within the high command of my Baltic Fleet, was able to safely cross the Ilbe Strait minefield, leading to enemy battleships bombarding the coast of the Gulf of Riga and causing our troops to know that our sea supply lines had been cut off, resulting in a collapse in morale and repeated defeats."

The message was sent by General Nikolai Ruzsky, commander of the Northwestern Front, and delivered to His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II of St. Petersburg for his personal perusal.

"What? Demanian battleships have stormed into the Gulf of Riga and even bombarded the city of Riga? More than 100,000 soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians in Riga witnessed enemy battleships blocking their doorsteps and opening fire?"

"There are traitors in the navy? I should have thought of that long ago. Those navy men are well-read, but they often have wild ideas and are even colluding with those traitors!"

Nicholas II was absolutely furious. He wanted to force the Baltic Fleet to launch a rescue operation immediately to see who was truly patriotic and willing to fight to rescue their comrades, and who was a traitor colluding with rebels and enemy countries.

Those who refuse to fight are definitely traitors; we should find an opportunity to execute them all!

Nicholas II's determination to force the navy into a decisive battle was even more fervent than Li Longji's determination to force Geshu Han out of Tongguan and to fight An Lushan.

(End of this chapter)