Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 165 For Whom the Bell Tolls
With General von Essen finally making his decision.

For a time, the Lusa fleet continued to approach the enemy at high speed, and both sides achieved more and more hits.

At a distance of 13 kilometers and 12 kilometers, the Gangut had already been hit by five shots from the Nassau. The bow was blown up and the ship was taking on water. The main hull on the starboard side had also been penetrated and torn apart three times. The ship was listing to the starboard side and bowing.

The Petropavlovsk-Kazakhstan was hit three more times by the Westfalen-Kazakhstan, its main funnel collapsing. The main armor belt was also penetrated, and the connection between the boiler room and engine room inside the hull was subsequently damaged, causing several steam pipes to rupture and high-pressure steam to circulate wildly within the ship.

The damage control team could only immediately shut off the valves in the relevant pipelines and open a pressure relief valve to divert steam, which caused the main unit's gas pressure to drop by 20% at once.

However, these sacrifices were not in vain. While the first two ships of the Lusa were being brutally attacked by their counterparts, the Lusa's tactic of concentrating firepower from the first three ships on the Rhineland finally yielded significant results.

短短20多分钟内，露沙前3艘“甘古特级”分别命中“莱茵兰号”1枚、2枚和4枚穿甲弹。

The first three shots either only penetrated the non-core area because the engagement distance wasn't close enough, or were directly blocked by the main armor. But the next four shots all hit their targets after the armor-piercing range was reached.

Both of the Rhineland's port main gun turrets were destroyed, and a large hole was blown in the port main armor belt.

"The enemy is going all out, trying to use the 'Gangut' to forcibly replace our 'Rhineland' in order to give us an explanation. If this continues, our army will definitely be able to take down the 'Gangut', and may even be able to replace another 'Petropavlovsk', but the 'Rhineland' will definitely not be able to hold out either."

Especially since the two main gun turrets on the port side of the 'Rhineland' are both destroyed, continuing to fire on it would just make it a sitting duck...

Commander Tarry of the USS Nassau, Major General Hermann, quickly assessed the current situation.

The French ships were high-attack, high-speed, and low-defense, while the German ships were low-attack and high-defense. It was difficult to sink the Rhineland directly with naval guns, but it was quite easy to cripple it. With seven or eight more shots, or even five or six if you were lucky, the entire ship's firepower could be destroyed.

In the Battle of Jutland on Earth, German warships often appeared as "lumps of iron that were completely destroyed but stubbornly refused to sink."

Major General Hermann also pondered this question repeatedly.

After another ten minutes or so of fierce fighting, as both sides sailed further and further south, the land of Hiuma Island came into view on the horizon ahead.

Major General Hermann was then surprised to realize that the two sides had been fighting for almost an hour and a half since they started exchanging fire at 7:15.

At the start of the war, the battlefield was located at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, where the total width of the Gulf is only 90 kilometers, 50 kilometers from Cape Hanko on the north shore and 40 kilometers from the island of Hiuma on the south shore.

Now, after sailing at a heading of 30 degrees west of due south for more than an hour, I'm almost at the shore of Hiuma Island.

If we drive a few more kilometers, we could run into the shallows and reefs on the shore at any moment!
Therefore, we must find an opportunity to turn around as soon as possible.

Although turning around would be disadvantageous, affecting the warship's firepower and requiring the turrets to reorient and re-aim, the presence of land would be fair to both sides, as the enemy would also need to turn around, thus making the disadvantage less significant.

Of course, if we're talking about the details, the Lussauers could still have a slight advantage—because Admiral von Essen's fleet was already cutting towards Rear Admiral Hermann at a greater angle, with the two sides at a 45-degree angle.

Hermann's fleet was sailing 30 degrees west of due south. If he wanted to turn around, he would have to turn at least 120 degrees to 30 degrees west of north. The slower ships at the rear of the formation could adjust less, turning 45 degrees west of north, and try to re-establish the battle line.

Von Essen was originally sailing 75 degrees west of due south. To turn around, he only needed to turn 60 degrees north. This couldn't even be called a turn, because it was less than 90 degrees; it was just a small turn.

“各舰向右原地掉头！全部无畏舰从航向210调整到航向330，3艘前无畏舰从航向210调整到航向315，注意保持距离！
However, the 'Rhineland' is an exception! The 'Rhineland' does not need to turn around! Continue on its original course toward the shallow waters of Shiuma Island, pay attention to the hydrographic data, and if there is a risk of running aground, turn hard to starboard, with port facing land and starboard facing sea, and proceed gradually toward the shallow waters! Fire from starboard!

Rear Admiral Hermann's six capital ships immediately began to turn around, except for the most heavily damaged 'Rhineland', which did not turn around. After a series of difficult maneuvers, it also avoided colliding with the 'Westfalen', which was turning around ahead of it. Continuing to brave the enemy's barrage of shells, it successfully sailed south towards land.

The Rhineland was taking more and more hits, and the non-core areas of the bow and stern were flooded. The engine room was not penetrated, but the speed was reduced to 11 knots, and all the main gun turrets that could fire to the port side were rendered useless.

In the final moments, when the Rhineland felt intense friction and vibration under the hull, the captain decisively ordered a hard starboard turn. The warship, in a violent, almost drifting "side stop" maneuver, veered sideways onto the shoal and ran aground and sank.

They even exposed the two main gun turrets on the starboard side that had been previously unused, and began to retaliate with the four guns on the starboard side. This maneuver truly stunned both sides—no one expected that the Nassau-class battleship's flawed hexagonal main gun turret layout, and those two idle main gun turrets located on the other side of the engagement, would actually be put into actual combat one day.

During this process, the Lussa's "Gangut" was hit by more shells, took on a lot of water, listed heavily, and almost lost speed.

Also due to the listing, when the Gangut was hit again, its midships main gun turret finally succumbed to the enemy ship's 280mm armor-piercing shell, and its top was blown off.

In normal combat, at such close range, the enemy ship's shells should have hit the 305 steel plates on the front of the main gun turret. However, the tilt was too severe, and the shells ultimately struck the relatively weak top armor of the main gun turret at an angle of nearly 40 degrees, thus penetrating it from the top.

Having lost half of its firepower, the Gangut was finally on its last legs, on par with the Rhineland.

……

"The Demanians actually made the 'Rhineland' run aground and sink it? They actually came up with such a tactic?!"

General von Essen was also dumbfounded when he saw the enemy doing this.

But the problem was immediately thrown to his side.

Should I turn around and chase after them?

Given the current situation of the Gangut, it's probably not going back. How about we beach the Gangut and sink it, then have the other ships pull it away quickly? That would be a one-for-one exchange, a sinking achievement, and would also prove the navy's honor to the Tsar.

The remaining ships also suffered damage, with our side's damage likely being more severe. This is because our first three ships were focusing their fire on the "Rhineland," resulting in the current situation, while the enemy's first three warships were attacking our first three warships evenly.

Therefore, our second and third ships were definitely more severely damaged than the enemy's second and third ships, but what does it matter?

As long as they were all wounded but not sunk, they could easily cover it up when writing the battle report. They could portray themselves as having minor injuries and the enemy as being severely damaged, thus clearing the Navy's name.

More importantly, Admiral von Eisen couldn't help but glance at his watch. He had been locked in a fierce battle with the enemy for an hour and a half. Moreover, he had been lured by the enemy and chased them 40 kilometers, or about 23 nautical miles, from the initial battlefield in a south-southwest direction. It would take another hour to drive back.

Who knows if enemy reinforcements will arrive?

Seeing the enemy turn, this is a good opportunity to create distance.

After careful consideration, von Eisen decisively ordered: "We turn too! All fleet except the Gangut, hard to starboard! Turn from heading 255 to 15! Turn 120 degrees to the right! Continue firing! Once the distance between us and the enemy is more than 15 kilometers, then turn to heading 45!"

The ships of Lusa also began to turn. As they gradually pulled away, both sides exchanged a lot of shells inefficiently and caused some non-fatal damage to each other, but in the end they successfully completed the turn.

……

"Are the Lussa people thinking they're done with their 'Rhineland' ship and ready to call it a day? What's going on?"

Major General Hermann realized that the enemy had also turned around, but instead of chasing after him, they had instead increased the distance between them. Major General Hermann was stunned for a while.

He was unaware of the full extent of today's deception; his orders were simply to fight with all his might. Seeing the enemy trying to escape, he hesitated, unsure whether to give chase.

In desperation, he finally thought of sending a telegram to Lieutenant General Hipper, who was on his way to provide reinforcements, to ask for urgent instructions.

Before he came here, he had received instructions from Lieutenant General Hipper and Lieutenant General Scheer: for this operation, Colonel Lelouch von Ritter Hunt of the Army would be on board Lieutenant General Hipper's flagship "Defflinger", and would be carrying a high-powered Army radio and communications team.

In fact, Major General Hermann's own "Nassau" also had an army communications squad that Colonel Lelouch had lent him. Lelouch brought the squad himself, and theoretically they belonged to the German 6th Army and used the new codes that the German 6th Army had just changed.

At the time, Rear Admiral Hermann didn't understand why a warship would carry an army communications team. Did Colonel Lelouch think the navy's codes were insecure?

But in the end, Colonel Lelouch explained it to him like this:
"I didn't say that the Navy's codes are insecure. I just thought that in special circumstances, we could use the Army radio to hide the fleet's whereabouts and avoid revealing its position too early before the battle."
If a message were sent from the depths of the ocean, needless to say, any listener would recognize it as a fleet transmitting. However, the coastal region of the Gulf of Riga, where this operation took place, has complex terrain, with fjords and intersecting sea and land along the coast of Shiuma Island.

If your fleet sends a message using army radios as it approaches the island, it might deceive enemy eavesdroppers, making them believe that it's army personnel on shore sending the message. If the recipient is also sailing in the nearby waters and replies using army radios, it can also temporarily mislead the enemy, maximizing the element of surprise in the reinforcements.

Lelouch used this excuse to avoid questioning the Scheer faction about whether the naval codes had been leaked, and to prevent the Britannians from becoming suspicious. At the same time, he subtly switched to the 6th Army's codes, which also served to conceal the fleet's presence.

They can even deceive their own people, yet they manage to kill three birds with one stone: secrecy, counter-deception, and disappearance.

The backup communication system that Lelouch had assigned him hadn't been used by Rear Admiral Hermann until now, but he finally had it. The fleet was already sailing south, fighting its way up, and was not far from the shore of Shiuma Island. With the long-range radio monitoring of this era, this slight error wouldn't be detected by the flaw in the azimuth.

So he immediately sent a message using army codes and equipment, and a few minutes later Lelouch received the translated message.

And coincidentally, when the fighting just started, Hipper's fleet was patrolling in the waters southwest of Shiuma Island, near the strait between Shiuma and Saarema.

Hipper also deliberately let the remaining Lusa army at the southwestern cape of Shiuma Island see his position, so that the Lusa fleet would be alert and not worry that Hipper was too close to the battlefield and would dare to fight against Major General Hermann.

After Major General Hermann and General von Essen started fighting, Hipper immediately turned around and circled along the coastline of Shiuma Island to reinforce the battlefield.

By this time, they had been sailing for almost two hours and would be able to reach the battlefield in 50 minutes—provided, of course, that the enemy stayed put and continued to fight to the death for another 50 minutes and did not escape.

Lelouch received the telegram at this critical juncture and immediately showed it to Lieutenant General Hipper.

"Frantz! It seems like von Essen is trying to escape! When they fought all the way south to the north coast of Shiuma Island, the 'Rhineland' and 'Gangut' couldn't hold on any longer and sank after running aground. Rear Admiral Hermann wanted to turn back and fight again, but it seems that von Essen took advantage of the turning point to pull away!"

Hipper snatched the hastily translated telegram, paced back and forth several times, and then came up with a plan:

"Have our dreadnoughts, which have decent speed, turn around at full speed and give chase! I know they can't catch up with the enemy's 24-knot Gangut-class ships, but they can catch up with the slower-moving dreadnoughts. Let the Nassau-class ships keep up with the enemy's slower ships, at least crippling one of their forces! As for the remaining Gangut-class ships, weaken them if you can, and leave the rest to me if you can't!"

Lelouch immediately translated Hipper's request into code as quickly as possible and handed it to the telegraph operator to send out immediately.

After sending the message, Hipper breathed a sigh of relief: "Luckily you thought of this. Even if we change our communication strategy during wartime, the enemy won't notice. They'll just think it's our army, which is occupying the coastal positions on Shiuma Island, sending a message."

Lelouch was very busy and didn't have time to deal with Lieutenant General Hipper for the time being, so he quickly drafted a secret telegram himself.

Hipper asked curiously, "What? Do you have another idea?"

As Lelouch handed the coded message to the telegraph operator, he explained, "This is for the army airfield on the island. Originally, we were going to maintain a certain number of waves of fighter jets and reconnaissance planes to ensure relative air superiority throughout. But since the enemy is going to run away, there's no need to conserve our strength to consider the issue of sustained combat power."

Now send out all available aircraft to secure a final air superiority for the Nassau-class fleet. Then recall them for refueling and maintenance, and launch the next wave of aircraft once we reach the battlefield.

Lelouch's reason for accompanying the ship and bringing an army radio wasn't just for the one mentioned earlier. With the army radio, he could also feign cooperation with the army's micro-operation air force when the fleet's route approached shore.

The enemy, in coordinating air and sea operations, certainly wasn't as meticulous as Lelouch.

Hipper sighed with satisfaction, "Although you don't understand naval warfare, every time I take you aboard a ship, I always gain something unexpected."

Hipper then ordered that the boilers of the three Derfflinger-class battlecruisers be put into overload mode as well.

The rated power is 63000 horsepower, which can be over-pressured to a maximum of 72000 horsepower, increasing the power by a full one-seventh.

Its speed also increased from the rated 27 knots to 28.5 knots, as it frantically chased after the enemy, whose theoretical speed was 24 knots.

At this moment, General von Essen certainly wouldn't be able to run 24 quarters.

He had just fought a bloody battle with Rear Admiral Herman. Although only the Gangut was sunk, the other three ships would have lost some speed, especially the No. 2 ship, the Petropavlovsk, which should have slowed down the most and could only manage 20 knots.

……

Starting at 9:00 a.m. that day, the two sides spent more than an hour in a chase-and-fight battle.

Hipper had not yet arrived at the battlefield, but Major General Hermann, while distancing himself from von Essen's Gangut-class destroyers, also managed to exchange seven or eight shots with each other.

Especially the last few shots, because of the distance, were all lobbed shots that hit their mark. For the Lusa warship, which had weak top armor, this caused considerable and substantial damage.

The two main gun turrets in the middle of the No. 4 ship "Poltava" were also destroyed by the overhead attack, and the middle deck was blown to pieces.

The Petropavlovsk was pierced twice in the stern during its escape, causing water to enter the stern as well.

While the problem of the bow being submerged was inadvertently solved, and the ship no longer tilted, water was taking in at both the bow and stern, and the thousands of tons of water entering the ship further reduced its speed to 17 knots.

冯.埃森带走的3艘船，理论上总火力为12座三联装主炮、一共36门。实际上2和4号舰都只能发挥一半火力了，总有效炮数也下降到了24门。

Only the No. 3 "Sevastopol" had complete firepower, because it was responsible for engaging the "Rhineland" in a gun duel, and the "Rhineland" had already been severely damaged, so no one was there to deal damage to the "Sevastopol".

While von Essen's fleet suffered repeated damage, the Lussars' final barrage primarily struck Rear Admiral Hermann's fourth ship, the "Posen," severely damaging its firepower and causing its superstructure to tilt and break apart. However, the superior survivability of German warships allowed it to return for repairs.

At 9:25 AM, the capital ships of von Essen and Hermann finally pulled away from each other completely, moving out of each other's maximum firing range. But Rear Admiral Hermann's situation was clearly not over yet.

After failing to reach von Essen, he immediately turned to deal with the Lussar's pre-dreadnought.

Previously, in the battles between the pre-dreadnought groups, three Frederick III-class battleships fought against one Borodino-class battleship and two Paul I-class battleships.

After a brief engagement, the Frederick III-class destroyers discovered that their 240mm rapid-fire guns were simply unable to penetrate the main armor belt of the Paul I-class destroyers, which were touted as the "strongest pre-dreadnoughts."

In the first half hour of the intense gunfight, the Frederick III and Paul I engaged in fierce combat. The Frederick III was almost completely destroyed, with several large holes punched through it. Most of its side facilities and secondary guns were also damaged. It was just lucky that the four 240mm rapid-fire guns were not damaged.

The Frederick III only destroyed two 203mm gun turrets at the front of the enemy ship, which slightly weakened its secondary firepower.

Having learned their lesson, the valiant Demanian sailors, under the adept command of their officers, chose to concentrate all three Frederick III-class ships' fire on the Borodino-class ship Slava—because it was the only enemy ship that the German ships' 240mm rapid-fire guns could penetrate.

Ultimately, the Frederick III was gloriously sunk, while the Archduke Charles and the Barbarossa were also severely damaged.
But they managed to turn the "Slava" into a pile of scrap metal, while the "Paul I" also lost more than half of its 203 guns. Only the "San Andrew" was basically unscathed.

At this moment, with the end of the battle on the dreadnought side, Rear Admiral Hermann was finally able to bring two Nassau-class ships over to join the fight between these former dreadnoughts and reap the rewards!
On the Lusa side, the almost undamaged "San Andrei" saw the enemy dreadnought coming to help from afar and immediately chose to ignore orders and run away, letting its two injured teammates take the hits and buy time.

The "Slava," already reduced to scrap metal, was not spared. After being pierced by multiple 280mm armor-piercing shells at close range, it finally sank to the bottom.

Seeing that it couldn't escape, the "Paul I" only thought of taking one down with it before it died, so in the final stage before its death, it focused on the "Grand Duke Karl", the enemy with the most serious damage but still not sunk, and frantically finished it off.

Several 305mm shells completely destroyed the "Grand Duke Karl". Although the ship did not sink directly, it was eventually towed back for scrapping.

The only difference between this and a battle-sunken ship is that the crew members can basically return alive, minimizing the loss of sailors.

In the process of finishing off the enemy, the HMS Paul I was also riddled with holes by the 280mm guns of the HMS Nassau and the HMS Westfalen. In the end, under the combined attack, the ammunition magazine exploded and sank in two pieces.

Both Demacia and Lusa lost two pre-dreadnought battleships.
But the ship sunk in the Battle of Demania was an old ship that had entered service in 1901 and whose design had gone astray.

The Lussaurus lost a medium-to-high-ranking pre-dreadnought that entered service in 1906 and a "strongest pre-dreadnought" that entered service in 1910.
In the end, the Demacians clearly benefited the most, and they were also able to clean up the battlefield. The crew of one of the ships wouldn't drown; they could be towed back and then sunk.

With the delays caused by the "Paul I" and "Slava", Hermann no longer had time to pursue the other ships of the Lusa, and the combat missions of all the "Nassau-class" battleships came to an end.

……

Just as Major General Hermann finished his battle, a new final battle was about to begin on the battlefield 30 kilometers northeast of here.

Admiral von Essen, with three damaged Gangut-class destroyers and three dilapidated Predatory ships built in 1888 that he encountered on the return journey, was about to withdraw to the Gulf of Finland.

But they ultimately failed to escape and were overtaken by Vice Admiral Hipper, who led three Derfflinger-class battlecruisers and sped away at 28.5 knots.

Admiral von Essen had 24 305mm guns left, and two of his ships were missing 300 experienced sailors who had just been executed before the war. Although the Tsar's Guard was brought in to replace them, the decline in their tactical and technical skills and morale was obvious to the naked eye.

Hipper also had 24 305mm guns, which were of better quality than those of the Lussarts. More importantly, it was fully equipped and manned, with all its warships in peak condition.

(End of this chapter)