Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 166 Defection on the Front Lines! Brothers, let's fight those Tsarist guards!
"It's over! As expected, that devil Hipper caught up with us!"

When Admiral von Essen saw Hipper's fleet appear on the horizon, a sense of desolation welled up within him. He had done his best to guard against enemy reinforcements, but he hadn't expected to be a little too late.

He glanced instinctively to the northeast. Two hours further on was Cape Hanko, where Peter the Great had annihilated the Swedish fleet.

But could he still lead his men back there? Even if they escaped to Cape Hanco, it would take at least another two hours of sailing to retreat into the depths of the Gulf of Finland and into the protection zone of their own minefield. By then, it would be too late.

We can only fight!

Hipper was in a very fast pursuit, and his overload speed of 28.5 knots allowed him to quickly catch up with the old pre-dreadnought ship "Rostislav," built in 1888, at the end of von Essen's fleet.

The ship was moving far too slowly and was only equipped with four old-fashioned short-barreled 305mm guns of 35 caliber, the type that was finalized in 1886.

The firing rate was as slow as that of the "Dingyuan/Zhenyuan" ships, or rather, they were products of the same era, firing only once every 3 minutes.

While pursuing at high speed and correcting his shots, Hipper had plenty of reconnaissance aircraft in the air to provide him with accurate distance and error reports. Fifteen minutes later, when the first 305mm armor-piercing shell landed on the side of the "Rostislav", the ship was immediately blown up with a large hole, and its speed was reduced sharply.

These ships did have armor that was 305 millimeters thick, but it was all wrought iron armor, a product of an era before Harvey steel was even invented.

When converted to Harvey steel, the equivalent thickness is reduced by at least 70%. When converted to Krupp steel, it's reduced by another 90%. So, it's actually only equivalent to about 180mm of German dreadnought armor.

Just five minutes after the first shot hit, the Rostislav was sunk by concentrated fire from three battlecruisers, without achieving any counterattack. Its main guns did fire two volleys of shells, a total of eight, none of which hit their target.

……

"It's terrifying. They were brutally murdered without any resistance. If I were a Lusa, if I were in command of those two old junk ships, I would definitely have run away by now."

Lelouch, hiding in the command tower of the "Derfflinger," witnessed all of this through a telescope and muttered these words to Vice Admiral Hipper.

The lieutenant general's other staff officers, adjutants, and the ship's captain were already used to this. They all knew that this elusive Colonel Lelouch and their lieutenant general had always considered each other friends, and that they could say anything outrageous.

"Aren't you also very much a soldier with a strong sense of honor? This doesn't sound like something you'd say," Hipper retorted casually.

"This has nothing to do with a sense of honor; it's just a one-sided, pointless suicide. Do you think enemy sailors have much of a sense of honor? That they'd fight to the bitter end even knowing they're going to die?"

Lelouch made a casual remark, not because he had seen through anything, but simply out of a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions or reflections) about the history he had read in his previous life.

During World War I, many monarchies that ultimately collapsed began with rebellion started by their sailors. When Emperor Wilhelm mocked the cruisers for bombarding the Tsar, did he ever imagine that he himself would be ignited by the sailors of Kiel?

Sailors are far more rational than army soldiers, and they know that willpower has little impact on the outcome of naval battles. Land warfare allows for greater room for the application of willpower, but naval warfare does not.

However, perhaps it was Lelouch's good fortune. He was originally just reminiscing about history, but as he was reminiscing, the Rusa fleet opposite him made unusual movements.

Of the two remaining utterly worthless dreadnoughts from before 1888, one of them, which Lelouch later learned was called the "Twelve Apostles," actually broke away from the battle line and fled southeast alone when the German ships were approaching.

Judging from the course, it's unlikely to return to Cape Hanko or Helsinki; it's probably heading towards the coast of Tallinn, Estonia, on the south shore.

Hipper's three "Defflinger-class" ships were not originally intended to pursue it, but were simply following the battle line of the Lusa fleet from the rear. Their primary target at the time was the "Georgie" behind it, and the "Twelve Apostles" would only be pursued after the "Georgie" was destroyed.

But who can blame them when this form of warfare, characterized by "shooting one by one," offers a high degree of certainty in the anticipation of victory?

The "George" wasn't dead yet, but in its comrades' eyes, it was already a doomed vessel. So the "Twelve Apostles" quickly anticipated this and, taking advantage of the enemy's wasted time killing its comrades, hurriedly ran away.

It will be too late to run if we wait until our comrades are dead!

There may have been some disputes and infighting on the Twelve Apostles, after all, there were Tsarist guards loyal to the Tsar on board, but no one knows about them now.

Seeing the "Twelve Apostles" break formation and escape, the lookout on the "Defflinger" immediately reported the situation, and the captain also asked Vice Admiral Hipper: "Commander, should we split up our forces to pursue that ship?"

Hipper raised his hand: "No need. Don't scatter our forces and interfere with the pursuit of the enemy's dreadnoughts. Let those little trash get away. At least it will reduce the number of distractions that interfere with our firepower when we're killing the dreadnoughts."

After saying that, Hipper looked at Lelouch with a mixture of doubt and awe, and said sincerely, "Could it be that what happened just now was also within your expectations?"

"No, no, no, I'm not a charlatan. I just read a lot of history, so I'm just reflecting on it and using the past to learn from the present."

Lelouch quickly explained that he was merely speculating on the general laws of human nature through history, and that it was just wishful thinking.

Hipper sighed noncommittally, "Then I need to read more history books. I've heard that you're well-versed in thousands of years of Eastern history and military strategy, but I never imagined that you could find so much... adaptability and insight into people's hearts in those books."

During the few minutes the two were chatting, the main guns of the third Derfflinger-class ship had already been aimed at the Georgie and then opened fire.

In the first round, the shells landed at least 800 meters away, but within a minute the distance was corrected to just over 300 meters, with the error decreasing rapidly.

When the Derfflinger fired its third volley, with one shell landing less than 50 meters from the enemy ship and nearly missing, they soon saw a huge white flag being raised on the mainmast of the Georgie!
Are they trying to surrender? Can we believe them?

"Cease fire and observe! As long as the enemy ships don't fire back, we can cease fire, but we must maintain a distance of at least 12 kilometers! At the same time, continue to maintain our speed."

Hipper quickly made a judgment and issued a precise and timely order.

He knew that the enemy ship's 35-caliber short-barreled guns had a maximum range of less than 12 kilometers, so maintaining distance meant he was absolutely safe and not afraid of the enemy playing tricks.

However, a ceasefire alone was certainly not enough, and Hipper quickly had the ship's communications officer send two plaintext telegrams:

The enemy ships were ordered to turn their main guns forward and backward, turn around and sail southwest, and allow their large torpedo boats to board them.

The enemy ship repeated the first two steps within minutes, but due to the time constraints, the two sides would soon pass each other. Hipper also didn't have time to immediately send large torpedo boats to board and capture the enemy.

So the third point is just a formality. As long as the enemy ship maintains this course and leaves the Derfflinger-class's line of sight, it will basically be controlled by the two Nassau-class ships behind it.

The three junk ships were fearless in the face of death, one abandoned its fleet and fled, and the other surrendered. Their overwhelming momentum completely boosted the morale of the Demacian fleet, while the morale of the three half-damaged Gangut-class ships fleeing ahead continued to decline.

The Sevastopol and Poltava started accelerating as soon as they saw the Defflinger-class destroyers easily defeat the Rostislav.

They increased their speed to 22 knots and gradually pulled away from the Petropavlovsk, which was suffering from more serious damage and was unable to keep up with the fleet.

Fifteen minutes later, Hipper finally caught up with the Petropavlovsk.

Because its comrades sped away, this "Gangut-class" ship, with only 6 main guns left, was left to face the enemy's righteous three-on-one attack alone.

Hipper knew in his heart that this victory was dishonorable, but it was an opportunity to flex his muscles. So he repeatedly ordered each ship to give full play to the gunnery skills they had practiced in their daily training, to perform well, and to make an example of one to deter others.

The air superiority of fighter jets and reconnaissance aircraft in fire correction should also be fully utilized.

The fleet cautiously approached to within 15 kilometers before opening fire. And while firing, it continued to close the distance at breakneck speed.

"Compared to battleships, the biggest weakness of battlecruisers in terms of protection is their weaker horizontal protection and thinner deck armor. Therefore, closing the distance is also advantageous for us, as it can ensure that the enemy ship's ballistic trajectory is straight, and even if it hits us, it will hit the main armor belt on the side."

The Derfflinger-class corvettes have 12-inch thick main side armor, the same as the Nassau-class, but their decks are 2 inches thinner. They must be protected from enemy lob attacks on the top.

After giving his orders, Hipper calmly shared his experience with Lelouch beside him, wanting Lelouch to understand not only what to do but also why.

Lelouch listened attentively, nodding repeatedly as if he had just received a profound awakening, offering plenty of emotional support, even though he already knew these common-sense facts.

The Petropavlovsk-Kazakhstan wanted to retaliate, but the enemy ships were too fast, making aiming difficult, especially since the Russa had lost air superiority and there were no gunnery-correcting aircraft in the sky.

The Japanese ship fired haphazardly with its remaining six main guns. By the sixth round, the enemy's main guns had gradually found their rhythm, and 12-inch shells slammed into the Japanese ship's main armor belt, creating holes with each shell.

Thick black smoke and billowing flames emerged from the breach. Soon after, the boiler room and engine room were severely damaged. Boiling steam raged wildly throughout the ship. The damage control crews shut off all the valves they could, but they still couldn't control the violent steam leak.

Seawater surged wildly through the breaches in the port side, which had been pierced by the main hull. The Petropavlovsk, already taking on massive amounts of water from bow to stern, finally succumbed to the loss of its reserve buoyancy and sank straight to the bottom of the sea.

This is the first time such a death has occurred since the start of this world war. Previously, even when battleships were sunk by excessive flooding caused by torpedoes or mines, they mostly capsized and listed.

Compared to capsizing, sinking is a better indicator of a warship's protection issues, because it means that not just a certain local area is easily breached, but the entire ship is vulnerable to being breached and flooded.

Perhaps it will become a negative example of "high attack and low defense" among dreadnoughts in the history of human warfare.

A mere 9-inch thick side hull trim is simply unacceptable!
The thickest armored cruisers have 8 inches of armor, and this one is only 1 inch thicker than the thickest armored cruiser. How dare it call itself a battleship?

……

The Demanians sank the Petropavlovsk-Kazakhstan with concentrated fire without paying any price.
Although the ship was already half-destroyed, this result still greatly shocked the officers and sailors on the remaining two ships.

Regardless, it was a dreadnought. One of only four dreadnoughts in the Russa Baltic Fleet, and of the same type as the other survivors. The fact that the Dmanians could destroy the Petropavlovsk-class destroyer without taking damage meant they could also destroy the remaining two without damage, or at most, with minor damage.

Those three 1888 model junk ships were fearless before the first one was destroyed in an instant, the second one surrendered, and the third one escaped.

Now there are only three Dreadnoughts left, and the first one was destroyed instantly. The second and third ones... How come the script of fate is so similar?

People are prone to making connections, especially when faced with a painful lesson that has just occurred. Even someone who has never been to school will try to apply what they've learned to other situations.

Soon, as the Demacians caught up again and cannonballs began to fall all around, the sailors on the Lusa battleship grew increasingly panicked.

They attempted to retaliate, but before they could achieve any results, enemy armor-piercing shells rained down, hitting the "Poltava" twice and the "Sevastopol" once.

Both ships suffered damage including a hole in their stern deck and water leakage at the stern, which slowed them down. The Poltava also suffered additional serious damage, with its stern main gun turret being damaged.

As a result, the Poltava, which had already lost two main gun turrets in the middle, was now left with only the guns at the bow capable of firing after the destruction of a stern main gun.

But now it's running away with all its might, facing the enemy with its rear end exposed, and the bow cannons have no firing angle at all, so it's just going to be beaten.

This crisis finally ignited the fear among the sailors aboard the Poltava.

"Surrender! Raise the white flag! Stop serving the Tsar!"

"The Tsar just killed over a hundred of our brothers last night! Brothers, don't die in vain, fight the Tsar's guards!"

The pent-up anger from last night's shooting and killing of 700 naval officers and sailors finally erupted at this moment.

The sailors at the secondary gun positions and forward main gun positions of the "Poltava" launched a surprise attack on the Tsarist Guards who were serving as loaders, killing dozens of Tsarist Guards soldiers and capturing dozens of Mosin-Nagant tanks.

A few soldiers of the Tsar's Guard, who knew that continuing the fight would mean certain death and did not want to die, immediately threw down their hats and raised their hands to show their attitude, hoping to avoid a bloodbath.

Seeing the tensions between the two sides, several naval officers had a sudden inspiration. They forced the surrendered Tsarist guards to lay down their guns and take off their clothes, and to put on the uniforms of the naval brothers who had died in battle next to them, before they would believe in their sincerity.

Coincidentally, because the soldiers of the Tsar's Guard generally did not know any navigation skills or how to sail, but they were all very strong, the Tsar liked to select tall soldiers to serve as guards. So after these people boarded the ship, they were first stuffed into the various gun turrets to serve as loaders.

The Poltava had previously suffered heavy casualties from the destruction of so many turrets, gunners, and the Tsar's Guard.

The original plan was to send a full company of armed men to the ship to control the situation. However, before the sailors defected, there were actually less than 150 Tsarist guards left on the ship. Dozens of them were ambushed, a small number defected, and only about 70 remained to fight to the death.

The Tsar's Guard no longer had an advantage in the number of firearms compared to the sailors, especially since the number of sailors was more than five times that of the Tsar's Guard.

Soon a huge white flag was raised on the main bridge mast of the "Poltava". The forward main gun turret no longer tried to turn to port, but turned back to face forward. The gun barrel elevation was also raised to the maximum to avoid misunderstanding by the enemy.

……

"The enemy's battleships surrendered? But... there seems to be a civil war going on on board? Even the newest dreadnoughts surrendered? Is that even possible?"

At that time, the distance between the two sides had been reduced to less than 10 kilometers. Under the Zeiss sight with a magnification of 60x, it was still possible to see that the enemy ship was in a state of chaos from that distance, although it was unclear what exactly they were doing.

When Lieutenant General Hipper saw this, he was shocked and worried that it might be a trap.

"I don't think it's a trap! Anyway, our main guns are still pointed at them, and we're still seeing what they're made of. Franz, quickly send sailors over to accept their surrender and capture them!"

Lelouch, standing to the side, was more accepting of the outcome than Hipper. Moreover, he knew about the events at the end of World War I, when the navies of various countries opposed their monarchs in despair, so after thinking about it, he wasn't too surprised.

He also drew parallels to help deduce: "I think that their fighting might be because some people on the ship refused to surrender, and the Tsar should have known long ago that there were many traitors among the sailors."

Moreover, the Tsar's decision to force this fleet into a desperate battle was most likely an attempt to prove their innocence. Given the Tsar's suspicious nature, it's possible he sent someone aboard to supervise the battle. And who knows, they might even have ended up fighting with those supervising them!

Hipper, after being reminded of this, suddenly realized: "It seems that's really the case! But in that case... how do we provide support? Our destroyer sailors generally don't have many guns, we can't just send crew members to capture them, can we?"

Lelouch immediately had a flash of inspiration: "Let my guard company go! Quickly, use small boats to transfer to a fast destroyer or a large torpedo boat, then approach and see if they intend to lower the gangway to provide support!"

Lelouch's status is now very high, and wherever he goes, Duke Rupprecht wants him to be careful, so he always insists that he bring his guard company with him. Since the ship was empty and the combat voyage wasn't far, they were brought along.

I never expected to need it at a time like this.

Lieutenant General Hipper immediately agreed, as Lelouch's guard company was equipped with submachine guns by everyone, making them far more formidable than Mauser G98s or Mosin-Nagants on the ship.

He immediately radioed and used lights to warn the enemy ships that were about to surrender not to do anything dangerous and to cooperate. At the same time, he called for the two "destroyers" V43 and V191. He also lowered lifeboats from the "Derflinger" so that Lelouch's guard company could transfer them to the destroyers and then move towards the enemy ships 7 kilometers away.

He originally intended to handle the matter with one destroyer, but the V43 and V191 were relatively small destroyers, only 800 tons each, and it would be a bit cramped to fit more than 200 army soldiers, so he simply split them into two groups, just in case.

First, send a smaller batch to try capturing the "Poltava," a ship in extremely poor condition and posing relatively little threat.

The other ship was to stand by and approach the Sevastopol, but it had to be outside the accuracy range of the small-caliber rapid-fire guns to avoid being damaged by a sudden attack from the enemy.

If the Sevastopol also decides to surrender, then charge in and capture it.

Before the guard company set off, Lelouch instructed his guard company commander, Captain Crozier: "Be careful. If things don't look good, retreat immediately. We can sink two battleships without capturing them."

"You've been with me for a year. Everyone else has risen to great heights, but you don't have much of a fighting ability. You've been stuck inactive since becoming the guard company commander. This is a chance for you to earn some merit, so you'll have an excuse to enjoy battalion-level benefits in the future."

Captain Crozier immediately saluted excitedly: "Commander Lelouch, please rest assured! I will be careful and I will bring the 'Sevastopol' back!"

These people then left.

At the same time, Lelouch did not forget to have the radio room call the "Sevastopol" using short-range plain code, trying to persuade the other side to surrender with reason and emotion.

Lelouch also had a sudden inspiration to imitate his own words when he privately tried to persuade the captured Black Sea Fleet Admiral Eberhardt to surrender, but he removed some of the inconvenient parts and used the rest to persuade von Essen to surrender.

Hipper, unaware of the situation, didn't know that Lelouch had already persuaded Admiral Eberhard to surrender once, so he proceeded with ease.

So when Hipper saw Lelouch write without any corrections, composing a masterpiece in one go, ready to be written at his desk, he was so astonished that he couldn't close his mouth:

"So people can react this quickly? Words of counter-espionage and persuasion to surrender can just flow out like a spring without any thought? That's terrifying... Luckily, God is on our side, or rather, luckily we are on God's side."

……

Twenty minutes later, the destroyer V43, carrying a platoon of guards fully equipped with MP15 submachine guns, arrived near the "Poltawa".

The battle on the Poltava was not over yet; dozens of Tsarist guards were still hiding in armored compartments on the bridge, firing shots and throwing grenades.

The helm room was also controlled by the Tsar's people, so the warships could only raise their gun barrels as much as possible to show that they were harmless, but they could not adjust their course.

The sailors could only resist by having the engineers in the engine room reduce the engine output to slow the ship down, and by having the boiler room crew reduce the pressure.

When V43 approached, it signaled with its lights, and sure enough, some sailors on board were willing to cooperate and even lowered several rope ladders from the side.

The sea was rough, and the ship was still sailing, its hull heaving, making it difficult to approach and board. Moreover, the height difference between a destroyer and a battleship was too great.

But the sailors of V43 were incredibly brave. They had strapped several layers of tire-like cushioning to the sides beforehand and managed to get close enough to the enemy ship. To avoid any accidents, after confirming that the enemy ship was not hostile, they even fired the torpedoes from their torpedo tubes beforehand.

With a muffled thud, followed by a sickening metallic scraping sound, the side of the V43 destroyer was definitely dented by the "Poltava". But taking advantage of the moment, a group of soldiers bravely climbed the rope ladder and gripped it tightly to climb onto the deck.

With the help of the MP15 submachine gun and grenades, taking out the enemies inside the cabin became much easier.

Before long, the Tsar's guards who were putting up a stubborn resistance on the "Poltava" were all killed, and the sailors on board surrendered their melee weapons to show their sincerity in surrendering. Then the ship turned and headed southwest.

The Demanians sent them navigators to guide them to Königsberg for repairs under surveillance.

-

P.S.: I've written 12,000 words for several days in a row.

It might not be written tightly enough, and it hasn't been polished enough, but that's because I've been updating too quickly. I've already updated 34 words in 28 days this month, and my brain can't keep up.

Next month will be a little slower, so there might be more plot twists. Thank you for your understanding.

(End of this chapter)