Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 27 Both sides are winning big and getting numb.
After killing the "Queen", Hipper immediately turned east and retreated, showing no intention of seeking further glory or lingering in battle.

He hadn't even considered the extent to which his victory tonight would anger and humiliate Minister Wharton.

Those are not things that a pure soldier should care about.

All he wanted now was to get into the harbor as soon as possible so that his soldiers could have a good victory celebration.

Hipper then triumphantly toured the entire ship, even pulling out several bottles of fine wine to share with his men. But he soon discovered that the soldiers were not at ease; on the contrary, they remained uneasy.

He was puzzled for a moment, but Lieutenant Lelouch, who was traveling with him, was more perceptive and quickly whispered in his ear to remind him:
“General, you only ordered us to return the way we came, but you didn’t say that we were ultimately going to Antwerp. The soldiers didn’t know that, and they thought we were going to break through back to Wilhelmshaven, so of course they’re worried.”

Hipper paused, then instinctively rubbed his forehead and chuckled to himself, "Look at my memory! I was so focused on the battle that I forgot about this. Well then, I'll make the announcement right away so everyone can rest assured."

"General, do we really have to announce it so soon?" Lelouch kindly reminded him.

Hipper looked at Lelouch in surprise: "What do you mean? We've already won a great victory, do you still have some tricks up your sleeve?"

Lelouch: "There are indeed some details that I can see more clearly from the outside, but please take them with a grain of salt—after this battle, I can now conclude with a high degree of certainty that the Kingdom of Burma has cracked our naval code! That's why David Beatty was misled and Hastings was careless."

We must try our best to keep this secret, pretending not to know even if we do, hoping to make an even bigger profit next time! And this requires you to always play the role of 'coincidence, defiance, and going it alone' well..."

Hipper waved his hand impatiently: "You've already said all that! Get to the point!"

Lelouch: "The point is, if you go straight back to Antwerp, it will seem like you've already planned your escape route, rather than that you're 'forced into this situation because you have no other choice.' You'd better pretend to try other possibilities first."

Just like in common law countries like Bologna, first-degree murder is "premeditated and long-planned," while second-degree murder is "impulsive and passionate." You now need to portray yourself as having second-degree intent.

Of course, I'm just offering a reminder from an intelligence deception perspective; military security should always be the top priority. If military security isn't secure, then don't create unnecessary complications.

Hipper immediately understood. Then, after thinking about it from a purely military perspective, he realized that it was indeed feasible and could achieve both military and intelligence deception!
He exclaimed with delight, “Your idea is brilliant! And I can definitely do it! In a moment, I’ll pretend to be heading back to Port Wilhelmshaven, and once I encounter Betty’s search party, I’ll pretend I’m too afraid to face the formidable enemy and decisively turn back towards Antwerp!”

That would make me appear as someone who "fears the enemy like a tiger, bullies the weak and fears the strong, and was forced to return to Antwerp," rather than someone I had planned from the beginning!
"Betty is definitely in a panic looking for me now. He's afraid I might slip through his net, so he'll spread out his fleet to conduct a wide-ranging search. I just need to concentrate my forces on one point to break out. Even if I encounter his warships, I won't be facing too many enemies at once. I can just turn around immediately and shake him off—it'll be a sure thing!"

Hipper thought about it more and more and felt that the measure was both bold and imaginative, and it was really brilliant.

Seeing his confidence, Lelouch was secretly pleased, and added, "Moreover, this way we can incorporate even more information-deceiving tricks later on!"
For example, according to our previous discussion, the biggest risk of withdrawing to Antwerp was that "there are no large naval shipyards there, so warships that are severely damaged cannot be repaired." You are now willing to withdraw to Antwerp because we do not have any capital ships that have been severely damaged and do not require major repairs.

But if you 'flee in panic after meeting Betty and are forced to go to Antwerp,' you can later pretend that 'several battlecruisers are seriously damaged,' and even use codes that have been deciphered by the enemy to send a telegram to the rear requesting 'expansion of the Antwerp shipyard to repair large warships,' to deceive the enemy into further lowering their guard and thinking that you are already laid up in Antwerp..."

Upon hearing this, Hipper gasped in shock countless times.

That's so sneaky!
It was an absolutely deadly series of attacks, every move of which was unerring!

However, since it's dealing with the Burkina Faso people, being as cunning as possible is not excessive. After all, its name means "cunning," so this can be considered a form of giving them a taste of their own medicine.

Hipper accepted all of Lelouch's ideas without question and was extremely grateful to him.

……

Everything that followed followed naturally.

In order to make the mentality of "using any means to muddy the waters" more realistic.

Hipper then devised some cost-effective diversionary tactics.

For example, when he was returning to port at 4 a.m. and passing by Dunkirk, he unusually ordered several battlecruisers to suddenly bombard the port area, dock warehouses, and naval barracks with high-explosive shells from their main guns at a distance of 15 kilometers from the shore.

The shelling was very brief, lasting less than 15 minutes in total.

Each main gun fired 20 rounds of high-explosive shells, which were rarely used in naval battles, destroying more than a dozen facilities, killing thousands of sleeping French soldiers, and destroying a stockpile of hundreds of thousands of shells and several docks and piers.

These losses should keep Marshal Joffre busy for quite some time.

While Hipper's main ships were taking advantage of the situation, the Scharnhorst-class cruisers, which he had previously left behind due to their slow speed, were also not idle.

These two armored cruisers, accompanied by a small number of light cruisers, began counter-bombing the French positions in Neoport, which they had already captured, starting around 1 a.m.

In that area, during the first half of the night, the Germans were defending, the French were attacking, and the Burgundian battleships were providing fire support.

The French army finally captured the town with the help of continuous support from allied forces, but before long, allied battleships were destroyed one after another.

Then the French army was astonished to find that it was the enemy's turn to bombard them!
The French attacking force, which had just occupied the ruins and was not yet familiar with the terrain, was severely weakened and its morale was extremely low.

The German army was prepared, knowing how to implement flexible defense, and had prepared follow-up defensive lines and small boats for transferring soldiers.

The French army had no flexible defenses prepared, and the bombs they took were all solid, resulting in at least several thousand more deaths from the indiscriminate bombing.

Hipper's series of actions could be interpreted by the enemy as "stirring up trouble in order to break through and cover up his true location."

As a result, the intelligence system on the other side of the strait was thrown into great chaos.

Some urgent reports indicated that Hipper was in Dunkirk, and that after shelling Dunkirk, he turned northeast to return to his homeland.

But other intelligence indicated that he was in Neoport, or even Ostend, from where he was heading northeast back.

The most outrageous claim goes so far as to say that he reached the port city of Flissingen, at the turning point of the Netherlands peninsula, and then forcibly headed north close to the coastline, undermining the Netherlands' neutrality.

Three messages were sent back at once, each showing a northward route that was at least an hour's flight apart in the east-west direction.

Which one should David Beatty believe?

Ultimately, Beatty took into account Minister Walton's anger and the fact that the minister had made him sign a pledge not to let Hipper break through.

Betty had no choice but to divide his battlecruisers into three squadrons, each with two to three ships, forming a search network spanning sixty nautical miles from west to east.

No matter which point in this network Hipper crashes into, reinforcements from other points can quickly arrive to surround and kill him.

At the same time, Betty also knew that after he split his forces, any team that encountered Hipper would be at a local disadvantage in terms of troop strength.

Therefore, he demanded that each fleet, upon discovering the enemy, should not linger in battle, but maintain distance, hold their ground, and then send telegrams to all friendly forces to come over, and then engage in a decisive battle after being surrounded.

The Burgh battlecruisers still had a slight speed advantage over the German battlecruisers, so Beatty could still "fight if he could win, and run if he couldn't," there's no doubt about that.

……

On the other side, after completing all the deception, Hipper finally chose the relatively central of the three northward routes as his feigned breakout route.

It wasn't because this route was the best, but because he had no choice—he had left the two previous Scharn-class battlecruisers in the waters near Ostend, and he had to rendezvous with the Scharn-class before returning north; he couldn't let the faster battlecruisers abandon their comrades and go their own way.

Of course, since he had already considered that he would have to turn back to Antwerp later, Hipper was extra careful: he deliberately let the battlecruiser lead the way, and let the armored cruiser follow slowly behind.

On the surface, this is because "the entire fleet is breaking out at full speed, and the fighter-bombers are faster, so they are ahead of the pack."

In reality, they would feign defeat and flee in disarray after encountering the enemy. This would allow the rear guard to become the front guard, saving the patrols over ten nautical miles and enabling them to return to Antwerp more quickly.

Everything was perfect.

The fleet sailed until a little after seven in the morning. Shortly after daybreak, Hipper's fleet indeed spotted two large enemy ships patrolling on the northern horizon.

These were clearly the battlecruisers from Betty's fleet who had rushed to intercept them overnight.

"Two enemy battlecruisers spotted due north! Suspected to be 'Indulgence-class'! Bearing 345/355."

Upon detecting the enemy, all four battlecruisers in Hipper's fleet tensed up and went on high alert. After a night of fierce fighting, two of Hipper's battlecruisers had been hit by enemy 305mm shells, sustaining minor damage. The other two had also been bombarded several times by 150mm secondary guns, damaging some superstructures or secondary guns.

In addition, they also bombarded the enemy's port, and their total shell usage was nearly half of what it used. Their combat condition was definitely not as good as that of the enemy's battlecruisers, who were in full force.

Based on the intelligence he had, Hipper muttered to himself, "There are only three Indulgence-class ships in total. The Indulgence is currently in the Mediterranean Fleet, so the two ships opposite must be the Australia and the New Zealand... The entire fleet turns to 120 degrees and forms a line to meet the enemy!"

Heading 120 is 30 degrees south of due east, which is the heading that will take you back to Antwerp, although the final leg of the journey will require you to turn slightly further south.

However, maintaining a 120-degree heading at present can ensure that the ship maintains the engagement angle with the enemy ship. All the forward main gun turrets of each ship are turned to the rear at the maximum angle, which is just right to "drag the blade" and aim at the enemy ship.

……

"Four German battlecruisers spotted! Heading 75/85, confirmed to be Hipper's battlecruiser fleet!"

Almost at the same time, on the bridge of the HMS Australia, Rear Admiral Archibald Moore, Beatty's vice admiral, also received news of the discovery of the German ship.

Rear Admiral Moore's first reaction was to quickly maintain distance and wait for all of Beatty's other five battlecruisers to arrive, so that they could defeat the enemy outnumbered and wipe them out!

It's two against four now, there's no way we can win. A wise man doesn't fight a losing battle.

Although the Bu army had a large total force, because they needed to conduct a net search, all the ships could not be gathered together immediately, so they had to drag things out and buy time.

If they delay for an hour, or at most two hours, all the other ships will arrive, and that will be Hipper's death day.

But to Major General Mur's surprise, shortly after he also gave the order to turn to "drag the blade," he discovered that the German troops had also turned to drag the blade!
The German ship began to veer 30° south to increase the distance, while the Brigadier-Jackson ship veered 30° north to increase the distance as well, and the two ships quickly drifted further and further apart.

"What's going on? Are we afraid of the enemy too? Hipper actually ran away as soon as he saw me? No, turn around immediately! Full right! Turn 150! Chase after him! Keep your distance, don't get too close, but don't let the enemy get away!"
Don't get within 15 kilometers; otherwise, the enemy ships won't be able to penetrate our main armor belt! Just harass the enemy by firing near maximum range! Delay their retreat!

Major General Mur knew very well that he couldn't win, so he wanted to maintain distance and buy time.

If the enemy is forced into a state of combat, you must slow down to increase your hit rate.

At high speeds, warships experience a sharp drop in accuracy due to the turbulence of wind and waves; only at cruising speeds can they fire relatively steadily.

……

"How foolish! Did you think we were trying to bypass him and break out from another angle? Ha! I just want to get back to Antwerp. Since you're going to bite me, let's show you what's what. Fifteen degrees north, try for a better salvo angle!"

When Hipper saw Major General Mur chasing after him in such a hurry, he knew that the other side had misjudged the situation again.

Since that's the case, he didn't hesitate to slightly reduce his speed, from 26 knots to a cruising firing speed of 18 knots, while turning slightly north to gain a better T-shaped heading advantage.

The so-called "T-formation advantage" is well-known in naval warfare, where a battle fleet forms a line, allowing all its main guns to fire simultaneously from one side. The enemy, on the other hand, enters the firing range one ship at a time in a column formation. Initially, only the first ship can retaliate; it must slowly approach and adjust its formation before the following ships can fire back.

Now Major General Mur is in a hurry to catch up, so he has fallen into a formation disadvantage, becoming the vertical part of the T, while Hipper is the horizontal part.

Once both sides were within each other's firing range, only HMAS Australia could fire immediately, while HMAS New Zealand would have to wait another ten minutes or so before it could open fire.

This means that in the first ten minutes, the German ships could engage Australia with a four-on-one concentrated attack.

"Boom boom boom~"

As the HMS Australia came into range, 16 305mm shells and 16 280mm shells were test-fired at it.

Because the distance was too far, all the shells were off-target, and the distance needed to be measured again.

Even so, Major General Moore was still quite startled. To have 32 guns concentrated on his ship was a great blessing.

He immediately ordered his eight 305mm guns to fire in retaliation, and for a time the two sides were exchanging fire back and forth.

Two minutes later, five minutes later... As time passed, the two sides exchanged fire seven or eight rounds, gradually completing the ranging and becoming more and more accurate.

Ultimately, quantity proved to be the key to quality. During the eighth round of shelling, the HMS Australia was hit first by a 280mm shell.

Fortunately, the distance was far enough that they were unable to penetrate the core area.

But more shells followed, two of which landed precisely at the bow and stern, immediately blasting large holes in the non-core areas lacking main armor belts, causing some compartments to flood. Damage control immediately sealed the internal watertight doors, ultimately limiting the flooding to within two to three thousand tons.

The flooded warships began to slow down and could no longer catch up with the enemy.

Ultimately, the "Austria" was hit by seven large-caliber shells from the enemy, and its bow and stern were severely damaged, reducing its maximum speed to 15 knots.

The HMAS New Zealand was also hit twice, destroying one of the gun decks and the lookout tower on the secondary bridge.

The two Burgundy ships' counterattack was somewhat successful, hitting each of the two German ships with one shot, but the exact damage could not be confirmed due to the distance.

The final result of this battle was that the German ship hit the enemy with 9 shots, the Briton ship hit the enemy with 2 shots, and then they pulled away from each other.

Major General Moore did buy some time. Considering that David Beatty's other five battlecruisers were about to arrive at the battlefield, Hipper did not dare to linger and retreated while he was ahead.

Moore considered that the "Austria" was severely damaged and its speed was greatly reduced. He also dared not let the "New Zealand" chase after four enemy ships, fearing that the disadvantage would be too great and that the enemy would be counterattacked and sunk. So he could only watch the enemy escape.

After David Beatty led the main force to the scene, he joined forces with all seven battlecruisers and pursued them aggressively. However, Hipper had already fled at least half an hour earlier and could no longer catch up.

By midday, Hipper had entered the fjords near Antwerp and passed Cape Fliessingen in the Netherlands.

Betty continued the pursuit, and shortly after they entered the fjord, one of the scouting destroyers suffered a massive explosion and sank.

"The Germans have already laid moored mines at the entrance to the Fjord of Frissingen! This area was under the control of Billy King's troops just a few days ago! They must have just laid the mines!"

Seeing the narrowness of the fjord and the fact that her warships had been destroyed by mines, Beatty dared not pursue any further. She had no choice but to blockade the entrance to the fjord, ensuring that Hipper was trapped, and then sent a telegram to Minister Wharton.

A few minutes later, in Downing Street, London, Minister Wharton received a phone call.

"Your Excellency, our forces intercepted Hipper's fleet 40 nautical miles northwest of Frissin. However, seeing our overwhelming strength, Hipper immediately turned and fled."

Our fleet pursued relentlessly, landing multiple shells on enemy ships, but unfortunately the engagement distance was too great to inflict fatal damage. The enemy fled in panic towards Antwerp. Our fleet was unable to pursue them into the fjord, but we had secured the enemy fleet within the fjord.

I heard that Minister Walton felt a little better after at least the enemy was contained in Antwerp.

Well, in this way, at least the enemy can't do anything anymore, and has become a "fleet in existence".

Moreover, since they were fleeing in such a sorry state, they could exaggerate the extent of the damage to the enemy ships, which would save face for the Royal Navy.

Minister Walton breathed a sigh of relief and immediately instructed someone to inform The Times to publish a report of victory.

It is said that "all four of the enemy's new and main battlecruisers in the North Sea theater were severely damaged by General David Beatty's battlecruiser fleet in today's artillery battle. In order to avoid total annihilation, the enemy fled in panic to Antwerp. There was no other way out there, and no naval shipyard. All four German ships were in dire straits."

In short, according to The Times, the Royal Navy simply won.

Hipper's four battlecruisers were badly damaged. Except for those that hadn't sunk yet and were barely hanging on, they were in a state of "low health/deadly/one shot away".

The ships sunk by the Royal Navy were all obsolete for twenty years and were scrap that they had to dismantle themselves. The German ships merely saved the Royal Navy some dismantling costs.

Of course, all of this is just for show for the mob; the actual internal review is another matter entirely.

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(End of this chapter)