Chapter 17: The Battle at the Summit (5)

  The HMS Ruby was a British H-class destroyer, an improved version of the Hunt class. It had a standard displacement of 730 tons, oil-fired propulsion, and a top speed of 27 knots. The ship was equipped with two 4-inch guns and two 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes. As a moderately priced consumable with balanced performance, the Ruby was assigned to the 11th Destroyer Flotilla, along with the 12th Destroyer Flotilla, to perform tasks such as escorting capital ships, rescuing and capturing personnel from both sides who had fallen overboard, intercepting German destroyers and submarines, and being prepared at all times to launch a death blow against the main German fleet.

  The thick fog dispersed over the North Sea, and the wind and waves gradually showed a trend of rising. The low bow and gunwale of the Ruby-class destroyer could not withstand the blue and white waves of the Jutland coast, and the wave crests surged onto the deck, violently shaking the less-than-1,000-ton destroyer, and immediately shattered in front of the fragile steel bridge of the destroyer.

  Gunner's Mate Third Class Glenn Johnson and Seaman John Tritchler tie themselves to the low mainmast of the USS Ruby as the small destroyer pitches and rolls in heavy seas. The brilliant sunlight from the east casts a tiny angle, making it difficult for the lookouts to keep their eyes open.

  "How great it would be if I were on duty in the lookout tower of Iron Duke..." The young private finally shifted the topic after a long period of complaining, gazing greedily at the flagship of the fleet, Iron Duke, which was shrouded in a thick layer of grey smoke.

  "If you were on the Iron Duke, I suppose you'd be pining for the idle days on a destroyer!" Old sailor Glen-Johnson, who had served in the Royal Navy for eleven years, saw through the young man's restlessness, his thin mustache slightly raised as he joked.

  Serving on a battleship is naturally an honor that naval personnel cannot have too much of, but to Glenn Johnson, who was no longer passionate in his middle age, the job of a spotter on Iron Duke was daunting. When the main fleet engaged in battle, the smoke from the continuous firing of the A and B turrets would block out the sun, forming a wall of smoke that obstructed visibility around the ship. At this time, the optical lens of the rangefinder tower, which could magnify the target ship by more than 20 times, would lose its effect, and the work of ranging, judging the fall of one's own shells, and evaluating the results of the battle naturally fell on the spotter. Guiding fire control and evaluating the results in extremely poor viewing conditions was a daunting task.

  "There's nothing to regret!" Across the iron wall of the warship fleet, John Terry, a middle school student who had just been promoted from the recruitment station in London to a naval soldier, couldn't confirm the outcome of the fierce battle that lasted for over ten minutes. However, this didn't stop him from using his youthful brain to imagine the most wonderful and romantic scenario: "The Grand Fleet would normally take seventeen or eighteen minutes to complete its turn and deploy its warship formation. The commander-in-chief used four battleship divisions to deal with a lone German battleship division, it's unreasonable that they can't take down just four King-class ships!"

  Glen-Johnson took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Battle of Dogger Bank, where Glen-Johnson made two abortive and exhausting runs with the Grand Fleet. Glen-Johnson was not a young man just out of high school.

  "Listen up, soldier. Don't underestimate our opponents. The German main fleet, apart from their short legs, has a comprehensive performance that's quite good. Their Seydlitz-class and Derfflinger-class battlecruisers are even comparable to our Invincible-class battleships. The German Navy also has some excellent commanders, such as Bernhard von Oven, who unfortunately died in the Battle of the Falkland Islands, Franz von Hipper, former commander of the First Scouting Group, and his deputy, David Beatty's namesake, Heideckel von Seydlitz. In short, although the German Navy is young, its strength should not be underestimated..."

  "Are you, sir, abandoning the spirit of being a Royal Navy man of the British Empire?" Facing the old soldier's untimely warning, Private John Tree naturally had his pride, pointing in the direction where the 7th squadron was roughly located, with an increasingly sarcastic expression. "The crippled German Emperor thinks that having a relatively objective number of main battleships and being able to gain a slight advantage in several low-intensity naval battles means his toy fleet can dominate the ocean. In fact, the Germans will never use their navy, victory and glory belong only to the British!"

  The young man was still talking nonstop, the good-natured warrant officer desperately holding back his laughter, turning away to pretend to listen. However, the warrant officer couldn't suppress his emotions after all, and a complex expression built up on his face, from playful smiles to unknown confusion, and finally unsolvable fear. Just then, the old soldier pushed aside the young man who was pointing at the scenery, untied the waterproof rope tied around him, grabbed the phone equipped with the lookout tower, and shouted towards the destroyer's command tower without caring about anything else.

  "Captain, German First Scouting Group in sight! Good God, the indestructible Ariadne is coming back!"

  The invaluable treasure of the German Navy, the undefeated General Aresheit-Silem of the Imperial Navy temporarily took over the command of the bridge of Lützow, standing near the helm on the bridge, his profound eyes darting back and forth between the low and narrow observation ports of the bridge and the pocket watch on his chest.

  After the Battle of Dogger Bank, Lieutenant Rolfe, the navigation officer of Lützow, blended in with the fleet staff, and the young man's eyes, like sapphires, were not directed at Heidebrandt-Sielemann, but rather a complex mix of admiration, envy, and fear.

  The general was only thirty-seven years old, but his face, worn out from insomnia and depression, looked at least over forty. The general was not particularly tall, not even reaching the common German height of 1.8 meters, and did not have the handsome appearance of his arch-nemesis David Beatty, as depicted in imperial newspapers. He could only be described as having a very ordinary European face. It is said that the general had a free-spirited and flirtatious nature, entangled with many women, but Lieutenant Colonel Lauren, who was close to the general, widened his eyes and told him that it was just a rumor. The empire's most outstanding naval general had once lost his helmet in the red-light district of Beijing's Eight Great Alleys in the Far East, and his marriage life and underground love affairs were also a mess. The general was not born to be a soldier, except for his extremely high language skills, philosophical and natural science attainments, and ghostly strategic vision, the general's military literacy could only be said to be mediocre at best. At least his abominable record at the Kiel Naval Academy had been widely circulated and became an enduring topic in the navy. The general's resume was not impressive either, except for being promoted to imperial naval lieutenant at the fastest speed, the general had only been promoted one level in his sixteen-year military career. If it weren't for the efforts of Admiral Hipper and Colonel Raeder, the general would probably still be lingering in the "naval graveyard" of Ottoman Turkey.

  However, it was this almost unassuming naval officer who perfected the Imperial Navy's preparations for war with his tireless efforts. After the outbreak of war, when the navy's morale had sunk to a low ebb, he single-handedly turned the tide of events at sea, leading his fleet to victory in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Battle of Dogger Bank, masterminding the classic raid on Moudros Bay and pioneering new tactics for cruiser warfare. Under intense pressure from the conservative Naval Ministry, he weathered the storm of naval politics that swept Berlin, steadfastly leading the navy independently until the North Sea Battle in March 1915!

  "Command, turn the helm to starboard three, full speed ahead, cut through between the main fleet and the Seventh Squadron!" Wang Haitian seemed to have forgotten the British fast fleet that was still pursuing from the side rear, with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes fixed only on Jellicoe's main fleet. "First Scout Fleet, all ships follow the flagship, General release smoke, cover the withdrawal of the Seventh Squadron!"

  Xilaim's order made Major Rolphes, who was lost in thought, jump with fright. He found that everyone's eyes in the cockpit were focused on his face. Major Rolphes, who had graduated from the naval academy for more than five years, couldn't help but blush and transmit the commander's order with some confusion.

  The general always issued some orders that were inexplicable and even maddening at the time, but later proved to be strokes of genius. It was as if he had discovered a British rapid fleet gathering at dawn, and instead of avoiding their sharp edge, he charged forward head-on.

  The admiral's order had long puzzled Major Rolfe. The British fast fleet had ten capital ships, and the First Scouting Group, with only half as many battlecruisers as the British, had not suffered a major defeat in a whole night of fighting, thanks to the cover of darkness and sea fog, David Beatty's mistake in dividing his forces, and the speed advantage of the battlecruisers. By dawn, when they encountered the British fast fleet, two battlecruiser squadrons had already joined forces; even if the Empire had five advanced battlecruisers with high crew training, the First Scouting Group would not have been able to engage them head-on.

  Rolfes, with a hint of resistance, reluctantly executed the commander's order, which proved to be just his own self-deception. Scheer's abandonment of the T-shaped formation forced the British fast fleet to turn eastward, and this bold decision was richly rewarded in the subsequent main fleet battle line: The British advantage in numbers of fast battleships collapsed under the high-speed impact of the First Scouting Group, the strongest Queen Elizabeth-class battleship unknowingly fell behind, and the Australian cruiser sank first at the peak of the battle.

  This was not the end of the rewards. The eight capital ships of David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet were held fast, forced to split from the Grand Fleet and stay ahead, where the British had an advantage in fast capital ships. When Beatty had the opportunity to join the battle line of the Grand Fleet and break the stalemate, he could only awkwardly discover that his ammunition reserves had fallen below the warning line.

  The facts of the matter forced Rolfes to put aside his unrealistic hopes, and the reinvigorated major thought that General Heidemarie Weissenberg would lead the First Reconnaissance Fleet in a dogfight with David Beatty, staging a classic battle rarely seen in naval history where the weaker side emerged victorious. However, it seemed that the general had made another blunder - he ordered the First Reconnaissance Fleet to make a 180-degree turn!

  The newly sprouted sense of reverence vanished into thin air once again, and Major Rolfes was bewildered. The general's orders conflicted with the knowledge imparted to him by his professors at the Kiel Naval Academy. In a scaled-down version of the Battle of Trafalgar, the First Reconnaissance Fleet outran its opponent at high speed. According to the naval academy's tactical theory, abandoning the advantage in hand was a crime against sailors, the fleet, and the empire. The First Reconnaissance Fleet should have cut inside, reoccupying the T-head with a small angle.

  With the experience of before, Major Rolfe didn't completely follow his inner preconceptions, because he began to have doubts about the stereotyped knowledge of the Naval Academy. Maybe the instructors' theories were rich and exquisite, but no matter how exquisite the theories were, they had to consider the complex and changeable situations in sea battles. As General Heiti-Silem was one of the most experienced new leaders in steam warfare in the Ocean Fleet, there must be reasons for his unusual orders that he had to carry out.

  As Hipper had surmised, the First Scouting Group suddenly turned at the most inopportune moment in a most unexpected manner. Hard over to port, the German battlecruisers heeled sharply to starboard under the influence of momentum and centrifugal force, opening up huge circles on the surface of the North Sea. Completing their 180-degree turn without incident, they steamed at high speed along their original course for ten minutes before Hipper finally grasped Admiral Scheer's plan.

  In the far distance, Jellicoe's main fleet of twenty dreadnoughts formed a battle line that stretched to the horizon, their 15-inch, 13.5-inch and 12-inch guns trained on the south, firing shells of all calibers like June rain in London. The British were not shooting at anyone else, but at the solitary, seemingly fragile Seventh Division.

  "Dash across, between the Seventh Squadron and the Grand Fleet!" Rolfe's limited tactical reserve and naval experience made his thinking unable to keep up with the commander who could always anticipate everything in advance according to subtle clues and react in time. This dash was very dangerous, but Major Rolfe had nothing to fear, Heidi-Sylheim was one of Germany's best strategists, second only to Siegel's tactical commander, the undefeated Aris of the Imperial Navy, more importantly, the commander's glory was not the recognition of the Emperor and the Minister of the Navy, nor the baseless hype of the Berlin propaganda machine, but in Heligoland Bay, at Dogger Bank, in Moudros Bay, with life, courage and wisdom to fight back against the Royal Navy, which was ranked number one in the world and claimed to be invincible!

  The overloaded operation of the boiler and the ultra-high speed rotation of the main shaft made the tens of thousands of tons of steel giant ship's hull vibrate finely, the strongest combat power of the German Navy's First Reconnaissance Fleet approached the British Grand Fleet at a speed of three-quarters of a kilometer per minute, rushing towards the Grand Fleet with momentum.

  The cabin was very quiet, so quiet that you could hear the sound of fine sweat dripping from Heidi-Sylem's nose and hitting the floor. Although General Heidi-Sylem, the mainstay of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, had a calm face, it couldn't alleviate the tense atmosphere on board the Levushov. After all, after all, young people were facing twenty main battleships! The dense gun barrels, the long firing line, everything was so intimidating!

  "Young man, do you know what I want to do?" The thirty-seven-year-old commander of the main fleet seemed not to notice the suppressed tension and fear beneath the calm, and with great interest began to examine Lieutenant Rolfes, navigator of the Lev Sofiev, who had been stealing glances at him and occasionally making an expression as if he understood something.

  Wang Haitian's junior, Rolfe, was somewhat nervous and straightened his body, stuttering: "Cover the safe withdrawal of the 7th squadron of the 3rd Battle Fleet..."

  "There are many ways to cover the retreat of the Seventh Division, even if we do nothing, as long as the First Scout Fleet appears in the line of sight of the Grand Fleet, the British will definitely allocate a lot of firepower to deal with what they consider to be a soft persimmon - the German battlecruiser squadron..." Wang Haitian made a not-so-big-or-small joke, which caused the officers and men in the driving cabin to burst out laughing. The tense atmosphere was instantly swept away, and Wang Haitian's face hung with a calm smile until the laughter subsided before continuing the topic, speaking seriously: "I am not a madman who despises natural laws, but I still decide to pass through between the Seventh Division and the Grand Fleet's battle line! Maybe you will fear the twenty British main battleships, maybe you will worry about the First Scout Fleet being sandwiched between the Grand Fleet and the Fast Fleet, but I want to tell you, never be blinded by the strong enemy created by your own heart!"

  "What a fine bunch of seedlings!" Wang Haitian's words caused the officers in the driver's cabin to fall into deep thought. When humans think, God laughs. Wang Haitian gazed at the young people inside the cockpit, pure as a blank sheet of paper, and sighed.

  The era of Scher, Hipper and Schmidt will eventually pass away, and the three swordsmen of Kiel and the twin geniuses of naval strategy will also enter their prime years after the brutal European war. The prime of life will never stop because of personal nostalgia, and the new journey of Germany's ocean exploration still needs these fearless young people. Wang Haitian patted the arm of the young man who was destined to take over the command baton and returned the temporary command authority.

  "Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Rolfe of the Levathian Navy takes command of the bridge!"

  It was a long time after the fleet commander left that the atmosphere in the cockpit was still very depressing, until Major Rolfe's excitement and enthusiasm broke through all of this!

  "I see!" Young Rolfe's face was filled with excitement, and he hastily presented his views: "The main fleet's line-of-battle has been fighting for over ten minutes, and the gun smoke from the British main battleship's muzzle will undoubtedly form a wall of smoke around the ship, causing the British warship's observation conditions and ranging ability to drop sharply. Under these conditions, not only will the First Reconnaissance Squadron's crossing of the firing line not be too dangerous, but our released smoke will also completely cut off the British last observation and shooting sight. In this way, supporting the return of the Seventh Detachment to its own unit and covering the deployment of the Grand Fleet's line-of-battle can be favored."

  Rolfes' explanation made everyone suddenly enlightened, and everyone couldn't help but turn their heads to look at the general's disappearing back, and their interpretation of the naval war god deepened a bit.