Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 26 Even retreat can be used as a deception

Having made up his mind to relentlessly pursue the fleeing enemy, Hipper immediately ordered the battlecruiser and armored cruiser squadrons to turn west, in coordination with his light cruisers and destroyers, to engage the enemy's last pre-dreadnought and its auxiliary fleet off the coast of Neoport.

At the beginning of this second round of fighting, the battlefield situation was still in a state of attack by the Bu and defense by the De – a large number of Bu auxiliary ships in the west were unaware that the three main ships in the east had been completely destroyed, and they still wanted to rescue the enemy, so they rushed forward regardless of the consequences.

After all, they were the ones who split their forces before the battle, so they were naturally anxious to regroup, while the one that had already concentrated its forces could wait in comfort.

The German light cruisers and most destroyers (except for the three dreadnoughts that were just responsible for finishing off the enemy ships) had been strictly following Hipper's orders to conduct delaying and interception operations, maintaining an occasional frequency of torpedo strafing to keep the enemy from approaching too quickly.

Hiding from torpedoes in the dark is very troublesome. Whoever charges forward will suffer because the charging side is heading head-on with the enemy's torpedoes, which is equivalent to increasing the effective range of the enemy's torpedoes.

Therefore, when the German ships charged forward and the German ships dragged their weapons along, the German ships naturally had a huge advantage.

The Burmese forces were initially unaware of the problem until a light cruiser, the Birmingham-class HMS Nottingham, which was at the forefront of the attack, and a destroyer accompanying it mistakenly entered the intersecting torpedo array.

The successive explosions of torpedoes and towering columns of water immediately caused the HMS Nottingham to be gutted and flooded, while the destroyer next to it was blown in two and sank instantly.

The loss of the two ships finally calmed the Bu army down. They dared not charge recklessly anymore and began to carefully dodge torpedoes.

For the next twenty minutes, both sides maintained a distance and fired tentatively at each other, resulting in injuries on both sides.

Although the German auxiliary ships were far fewer in number, they used their dragging advantage to buy time and drag the battle to the main fleet to decide the outcome.

Then, the Burmese auxiliary ship group finally felt 210mm and 150mm shells flying haphazardly overhead.

German battlecruisers and armored cruisers have been freed up!

Battlecruisers' 305 or 280 main guns have too slow a rate of fire, averaging only two rounds per minute, making them unsuitable for facing a large number of light cruisers and destroyers. They can only rely on the six 150 secondary guns on each side, which results in a relatively low firepower density.

At this moment, the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, which had previously swiftly torn apart the Burgundy escort fleet, once again had the opportunity to display their prowess.

Each of its eight 210mm guns can fire five rounds per minute, making its firepower density 2.5 times higher than that of a battlecruiser! Although its 150 secondary guns are half the number of those of a battlecruiser, they are still sufficient.

Under continuous bombardment from 210mm shells, the Bulgarian army began to suffer losses.

Unfortunately, the Burghers had lost unified command at the fleet level, and Vice Admiral Hastings had been killed in action with the HMS Majesty. When the situation reversed, the Burghers' ships were unable to decisively and uniformly accept the new orders.

The commander of the light cruiser squadron, anticipating the situation was not good and realizing that his three pre-dreadnought ships were already destroyed and there was no need to save them, decisively ordered a turnaround and high-speed escape.

However, a few captains did not accept the order in time, and the commanders of the destroyer squadron and the light cruiser squadron did not agree.

The result is that some people want to cut their losses, while others want to fight to the bitter end.

The situation became completely chaotic, and it turned into a scene where the Calabash Brothers were rescuing their grandfather, and one by one they went up to deliver him to his death.

Rear Admiral Hipper was overjoyed at the sight. He had no sympathy for the enemy and quickly ordered all ships to open fire and intercept at will.

In the chaos of battle, five overly reckless Burkina Faso destroyers became victims of disunity and were successively destroyed by the Scharnhorst-class destroyers.

At this point, Bu Jun finally calmed down, and all the auxiliary ships abandoned their illusions and began to escape at full speed.

In any case, light cruisers have a speed of at least 28 knots, and destroyers are even faster.

Compared to the opposing battlecruiser with a top speed of 26.5, or even the slightly slower armored cruiser, the Bu army could still manage to escape.

Unfortunately, they still have one last weakness that the German ships will inevitably exploit.

……

"You think you can just run away because you can't beat them? It's not that easy! They still have a pre-dreadnought! Let's chase them slowly. I'll go 26 knots, they'll go 21 knots, and we'll catch up in an hour or two!"

On the command tower, Major General Hipper, seeing the enemy fleet retreat, couldn't help but put down his binoculars, a resolute glint in his eyes.

Enemy light cruisers can escape, but pre-dreadnoughts can't! That ship is too slow!
If the Burmese army is determined to run, they must leave behind their last capital ship!

All former dreadnoughts that participated in today's battle will be wiped out! Not a single one will be spared!
Thinking of this, Hipper suddenly turned to Lelouch, wanting to test him: "Although you don't understand naval warfare, your insight has always been amazing. You figure out whether the enemy light cruiser will protect that pre-dreadnought and retreat in an orderly manner, or abandon the main force and escape alone?"

Lelouch didn't answer immediately, but first glanced at the wall clock before confidently analyzing the situation:

"If I were a general in the Bu army and had no additional intelligence, I would definitely choose to retreat in an orderly manner with the entire army—it's already midnight, and if we chase westward for another hour or two, plus the time spent in battle, it would probably be dawn by then."

Therefore, the Burmese commander must have assumed that we, out of fear of being hunted down by Betty, wouldn't dare waste so much time on them. But this wishful thinking will only cost them more money!

After hearing his analysis, Hipper admired Lelouch even more.

Regardless of whether the enemy has professional naval warfare skills, their strategy and vision are definitely no worse than ours! It's such a waste of their talent to appoint them as lieutenants!

Hipper smiled smugly: "You're thinking the same thing as me. Anyway, we have a route to Antwerp that we never thought of before. We're not afraid of Betty's interception. We'll just chase them down and wipe them out!"

Thus began a fierce pursuit that unfolded in the waters that drew ever closer to the Boulevard Strait.

Hipper, leading his battlecruisers and light cruisers, abandoned the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, which were two knots slower, and pursued the Burgh fleet at maximum speed. In pursuit, they could not angle their ships to engage the enemy with their broadsides, and both sides could only exchange fire with their bow or stern guns.

They also couldn't accurately measure the distance; they could only aim to the left or right and then fire after roughly estimating the range.

However, the artillery firepower of the Bu fleet was too weak, and the disadvantage of this artillery duel was too great. Warships were frequently hit, exploded, and caught fire.

When they were driven to desperation by the attack, there were occasional instances where light cruiser captains of the Burmese army would impulsively try to turn around and launch torpedoes in a counterattack.

But such disorganized and sporadic actions will only lead to the Calabash Brothers being sent away one by one, and will not change anything.

Hipper relentlessly pursued the "Queen's" cruiser, cutting his way from Neoport all the way to Dunkirk. Along the way, he annihilated light cruisers and destroyed destroyers.

The Franks sent torpedo boat squadrons from Dunkirk to aid their allies, but due to their hasty arrival and lack of organization and scale, they were all defeated piecemeal.

尤其法兰克人1914年用的450毫米鱼雷，有效射程才2~3公里。往往还没逼近到有效射程，鱼雷艇被一发88毫米速射炮蒙到就直接炸了。

Finally, Hipper's fleet caught up with the Queen Elizabeth II a dozen nautical miles west of Dunkirk.

四艘德战巡从东北侧后方接近，渐渐与“女王号”并行，16门305炮和16门280炮，对着只有4门305炮的“女王号”疯狂齐射。

In a 32-on-4 firepower ratio, the Queen Elizabeth only withstood four or five rounds of shelling before being hit repeatedly.

The engagement range decreased from four kilometers to just over two kilometers. Eventually, all the battleships lowered their guns to a completely flat position and fired without any elevation angle, eliminating the need for rangefinding.

With each shot hitting its target and each bullet exploding, the 228mm main armor belt of the former dreadnought was torn to pieces.

In just 15 minutes of artillery fire, HMS Queen Elizabeth was hit by more than 40 large-caliber shells.

In fact, from about the tenth shot onwards, it had completely lost its fighting ability and was just a floating empty shell.

Hipper was afraid that things might get complicated if he delayed, and that they were already too close to Britannia's mainland. He was determined to finish the battle as quickly as possible, which is why he kept adding insult to injury and even desecrating the corpses.

After more than 40 shots were fired, the Queen Elizabeth's boiler and ammunition magazine finally exploded one after another, and the 305mm main gun turret was lifted hundreds of meters into the air by the "flying head".

Early that morning, it is said that Britannian civilians standing on the white cliffs of Cape Dover could see brief flashes of light dozens of nautical miles to the east—the flashes of light from the explosion of the Queen Elizabeth's ammunition depot.

Dover is at the narrowest point of the Burgess Channel, with the port of Dover and the port of Calais on the opposite shore separated by only 30 kilometers.

Destroying a pre-dreadnought in this kind of place is similar to Brother Chen blocking the door and killing Feng Kuzi in the movie "Kung Fu Hustle," and then yelling for the other party to come out and clean up the mess.

This is an absolute and enormous insult to the Royal Navy!
Of course, Hipper wouldn't be so arrogant as to order the remaining Straits Fleet to come out of Dover and collect the corpses.

After witnessing the Queen Mary explode completely, he immediately sped away, running back home.

……

Just half an hour later, the phone rang at Minister Wharton's private residence.

"What's the rush? It's three in the morning! Do we really need to see His Excellency the Minister right now?!"

The secretary's tone was quite unfriendly as soon as she answered the phone. She particularly disliked her subordinates disturbing His Excellency in the middle of the night.

But after asking only two questions, she fell silent, saying she would immediately go and wake him up.

"Sir! An urgent telegram from Dover! It's from Major General Hood!"

Walton was still half asleep: "What could Horace possibly want to call at this hour? Oh, right, the Strait Fleet has a shelling mission tonight... Could something have gone wrong?"

The minister had a bad feeling before he picked up the receiver, considering this possibility.

Even so, Major General Horace Hood's words over the microphone still far exceeded his psychological preparation limits.

"What? All four former dreadnoughts were annihilated? Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Hastings was killed in action? And an unknown number of auxiliary ships were lost?"

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Wasn't Hipper on another mission? How could he be in Ostend! I've already sent Betty to keep an eye on him!"

The minister didn't know how he hung up on Major General Hud. He only felt his mind go blank, and then, in a daze, he dialed another number.

"Order David Beatty to advance at all costs, at full speed and with all his might, towards the Dutch coast, and cut off all of Hipper's routes back to Demania! If Hipper manages to escape, Beatty is fired!"

"He dared to destroy four of my pre-dreadnoughts, so I will make sure all four of his battlecruisers are destroyed, and he will pay for this in blood!"

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(End of this chapter)