Chapter 17: The Battle at the Summit (Part 2)

  After expending a decade of effort and exhausting the national treasury, staking the fate of the nation for a hundred years and the youth of an entire generation of naval personnel, the world's number one fleet and the world's second-ranked ocean-going fleet, with fifty capital ships and over two hundred supporting and auxiliary vessels, converged in this unremarkable sea area at the southern end of the middle line of the Skagerrak Strait off the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula.

  And not to mention the illustrious enemies, Endymion, Lion, Tiger and Queen Elizabeth, nor the renowned Moltke, Deutschland, Seydlitz and Derfflinger, there are also Fearless, Bellona, St. Vincent, Neptune, Colossus, Orion, King George V and Iron Duke; and Nassau, Helgoland, Kaiser and K?nig classes, these two fleets of dreadnoughts alone cost over ￡100 million to build, the costs for their attendant cruisers, maintenance and training are astronomical

  March 4, 1941, this day belongs to Germany and Britain, this day belongs to the shallow North Sea, this day belongs to giant warships and dreadnoughts, this day is destined to be written into history, forever etched in the memory of a generation, becoming the turning point that changes the course of history.

  As the ace of Germany and Britain, Raeder was a good friend with the commander of the British fast fleet, but on the vast ocean, there was only room for a fight to the death. The battle continued, Lütjens against Lion, Hipper against Tiger, Scheer against Indomitable, Mau against Elizabeth Queen and Australia, Deutschland against Zealandia and Indefatigable, the two fleets formed two intersecting lines of battle at a distance of 13 million yards, engaging in a fierce duel.

  "Entangle the British fast fleet, forcing Jellicoe's main battleship force to reinforce, and let the Royal Navy, which is implementing a long-range blockade, fight us ahead of schedule." Regarding Wang Haitian's order to continue fighting, the commander and staff of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, who were exhausted from running thousands of miles, had some reservations. In their view, the First Reconnaissance Fleet had already overfulfilled all its tasks, they only needed to hold down Beatty's fast fleet and wait patiently for the outcome of the main battleship line battle. "General, perhaps we should conserve our strength, after all, Beatty still has eight fast battleships in his hands."

  "Eight speedy mainstay ships?" The pain and dizziness brought by neurasthenia came like a tidal wave, but Wang Haitian didn't dare to open the medicine box in his pocket. The expensive medication would relieve symptoms in a short time, but the side effects were what Wang Haitian couldn't bear: spiritual fatigue, dullness of mind, and drowsiness.

  Wang Haitie sat stiffly near the corner of the armored wall of the command tower, an area relatively dark compared to the rest of the tower, and under the cover of shadows, his subordinates couldn't see his pale face.

  A faintly confident voice belonging to a seasoned general came through, a finger covered in age spots emerged from the darkness and swayed back and forth under the dim yellow light of the command tower. "To be honest, I don't think much of Betty's fleet with its mix of battleships, battlecruisers, and 'fast cruisers'."

  Just as Wang Haitian was tirelessly showing off his disdain, the situation at sea confirmed his confidence and was undergoing some subtle changes: in the prolonged high-speed dash and melee for advantageous shooting positions, the long-term strong pressure caused damage to the boiler, the propeller overspeed caused the main shaft to overheat, and the Queen Elizabeth was thus dragged down by the Germans, losing 25 knots of speed and gradually falling behind.

  As the product of the fast battleship theory, the British Empire citizens and Royal Navy personnel had high hopes for this design that could exceed 25 knots. However, the first North Sea combat cruise inspection of the Queen Elizabeth class five years later made the British gentlemen somewhat embarrassed, because they found that the Queen Elizabeth class couldn't run out of 25 knots in actual combat.

  Refit was inevitable, and the Royal Navy combined with the first half of the year's large fleet multi-line combat force shortages, to the shipyard's stringent indicators: Queen-class should complete all refit work and light sea trials within one month, and the refitted Queen-class should have the capability to achieve 25 knots in actual combat.

  This is a nearly impossible task to complete. Researching data parameters, finding design flaws, proposing improvement plans and conducting feasibility verification, shipyard retrofitting, and sea trials in the bay all require time to accumulate, and one month's time is far from enough. The pressure from the Navy has made the shipyard designers and technicians somewhat hasty, and the designers only made minor modifications to the boiler efficiency and piping issues, secretly replacing the Navy's technical specifications for a maximum speed of 25 knots with an overloaded operation of the boiler.

  It must be admitted that the Queen Elizabeth class is a high-performance super dreadnought, with 13-inch waterline belts giving the British their first battleship with defensive capabilities approaching those of German ships. The 15-inch main guns and actual speed of 25 knots after modernization are also enviable. Unfortunately, the British did not put the Queen Elizabeth class into the main fleet, but instead incorporated them into Admiral David Beatty's fast squadron as a protective force for battlecruisers. Although the Queen Elizabeth class had a significant advantage in terms of speed compared to German battleships after modernization, once they were classified as battlecruisers, their relatively high 25 knots "top speed" quickly became an Achilles' heel.

  The consequences of shoddy workmanship became apparent during the prolonged sea battles of the Dreadnought era, as HMS Queen Elizabeth, in position No. 5, suffered severe boiler damage from long periods of forced draft overloading and gradually fell behind during the running fight towards the Skagerrak.

  Even after shaking off the Queen Elizabeth, the British still had a numerical advantage. However, since its formation, the First Scouting Group had always been under the shadow of the British. When the Germans converted the third ship of the Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser Blücher into an almost-battleship, the British already had their Invincibles. While the Germans were still hesitating between battlecruisers and battleships, the British had three Invincibles and three Indefatigables launched, and when World War I broke out, the commander of the British Fast Squadron was urging the shipyards to deliver the last Lion-class battlecruiser and the most advanced Tiger. Meanwhile, the Germans kept their number of battlecruisers at five. Despite this, the First Scouting Group, which was naturally at a disadvantage in the naval competition, did not lose heart. In one battle after another where they were outnumbered, they tempered themselves into the elite force with the strongest fighting power and spirit in the German Navy. The British advantage of just two capital ships was not taken to heart by the officers and men of the First Scouting Group.

  "As we are the First Reconnaissance Fleet, we were born under pressure from the British. We have no choice but to rise up and defeat our opponents." Despite being exhausted, Wang Haitian's sharp tongue, honed during his gold-digging days in Turkey, quickly rallied the morale of the First Reconnaissance Fleet's officers and men.

  Young people were infected with Wang Haitao's sincere motivation, shouting and doubling their efforts at their respective posts. Wang Haitao looked at the young people who were on fire, and couldn't help but think of himself on the podium of the National Congress in 1893, with a worried and hopeful smile on his face.

  The Seydlitz engaged the British Lion and Tiger, holding her own against them with her powerful armament; the badly damaged Tiger flew the signal "I am heavily damaged, going out of action", attempting to withdraw from the battle, but the commander of Derfflinger chose to stay in the fight, drawing fire away from his comrades in the First Scouting Group. The Lützow showed no mercy to her opponent, pounding Derfflinger with a hail of shells; the Queen Elizabeth's withdrawal allowed the heavily engaged Moltke to catch her breath, and she began to return fire with her four 305mm (12-inch) guns that still had a bearing on the enemy.

  Poor Australia was hit by two 305mm shells in a very short time, one of which penetrated the armor and entered the hull through the No. 1 funnel, completely destroying the engine room and steam pipes below the No. 1 funnel. The explosion produced thick smoke, fire, and white steam that rose high into the sky, looking particularly terrifying against the light-colored North Sea. Before the British could react, another shell came whizzing in, easily penetrating the main armor belt of Australia's waterline and the coal bunker that also served as a defensive function, successively destroying two watertight compartments and the port electrical room.

  The British might have been lucky, as the second armour-piercing shell narrowly missed Australia's Q turret magazine by entering a separate boiler room. Of course, using "might" to guess the thoughts of the British is only because the temporarily escaped Australia had an undesirable ending.

  The second shell did not have enough power to destroy a 18,500-ton main battleship. Penetrating the sealed compartments and destroying one of the separate boiler rooms could only cause Australia to take on water and slow down. However, the British themselves messed this up.

  In 1906, after the Invincible-class battlecruisers were laid down, the British Admiralty believed that the existing number of battlecruisers would be insufficient for future warfare needs and therefore requested three more in the 1908 naval budget. The financially strained British government considered battlecruisers to be too expensive and only approved one, with the remaining two ships being postponed until the 1909 fiscal year. In fact, even if the construction of the next two ships was delayed until 1910, there would still not have been enough funds available, so the astute Admiralty decided to name the third Invincible-class ship Australia and "transfer" her to Australia as part of a debt repayment arrangement in exchange for funding from Australia.

  Financial difficulties forced the use of inferior materials and construction methods. The six-inch armor belt was a joke, its narrow coverage area being shocking; watertight subdivision was reduced, reserve buoyancy was insufficient, longitudinal bulkheads were non-existent, and even the limited number of transverse bulkheads only existed in the engine rooms, boiler rooms, steering gear room, and magazine.

  Seawater poured in through the holes drilled by the armor-piercing shells, and under the conditions of pump operation, the Royal Navy's damage control team's attempts to block the leaks with wooden plugs were futile. The seawater overflowed two watertight compartments and spread along the connecting corridors. The damage control team finally realized that the leak-stopping work had completely failed, and they hastily retreated from the compartment and tried to manually operate the mechanical arms of the watertight doors in the connecting corridors, dropping a limited number of watertight doors. At this time, seawater had already occupied several watertight compartments near the boiler room and was continuing to seep into the bottom compartments, causing the ship to list more than 10 degrees to the left.

  The consequences of the lack of longitudinal bulkheads and inadequate watertight subdivision were becoming apparent, as every so often a dull explosion could be heard from deep within the hull of Australia, followed by strong vibrations and heart-stopping noises that reverberated through the steel fabric of the ship, indicating to damage control parties that another compartment had been breached. Damage control parties were at their wit's end, with the large fire in the engine room below No 1 funnel being beyond control, the amount of water pouring into the hull was staggering and the poor watertight subdivision design and structural strength of the vessel only added insult to injury.

  At 7:17, Australia's hull listing increased and water was only a meter from the deck. The captain had no choice but to order "abandon ship".

  At 7:19, an E-class destroyer fired a torpedo at Australia, which broke in two amidships and sank within less than a minute, becoming the second casualty of the Battle of Jutland.

  The sinking of the Australia was not the only energy of the two fast fleets, entangled in a fight to the death. On the other end, the two main fleets of thirty-seven battleships opened fire at a distance of seventeen thousand yards, and the battle would only become more bloody. The most complete