Chapter 360: A Contest of Speed

On the vast sea, to gallop freely, one often relies on the courage to ride the wind and break the waves, as well as on a speed that overwhelms the opponent. Therefore, while the countries of the world were desperately developing the battleship, the representative of “big ships and giant guns,” more cruisers and battlecruisers were also launched at the same time, forming the backbone of the navies of various countries.

To the ocean, a warship is very small. So no matter how many warships you have, in the face of the vastness of the ocean, it is but a drop in the bucket. Therefore, to have warships patrol more of the sea at a higher speed, to control a larger sea area with fewer ships, has always been the unremitting dream of the maritime empires.

Driven by this great dream, the world’s naval powers have been scrambling on the road of exploring high-speed warships, developing one generation after another of the “strongest warship in history.” At the very least, among the warships of the British Navy, the Hood and others were all warships with very high-speed maneuverability and first-class firepower.

After the attack order was given, in the British fleet, the slower battleships, the King George V and the Howe, were immediately left behind. After all, the battlecruiser Hood had an extreme speed of up to 30 knots, so now it could easily push its speed to a terrifying 26 knots.

The top speed of a King George V-class battleship was only 28 knots, so in a pursuit, it could only go at about 24 knots. After all, no madman would be willing to run the power boilers of a battleship at full load before even getting close to the enemy. That would cause the terrible consequence of the power plant overheating.

The speed of cruisers and destroyers was generally higher, but according to the fleet’s deployment orders, many of the ships were left behind to accompany the battleship force. Only a small number of ships were charging forward with the Hood and the Renown.

And so after an hour of tense sailing, the British fleet had gradually pulled apart, forming two fleets, one after the other, sailing in a straight line. At this time, the distance between the British fleet and the German Navy’s High Seas Fleet was only 79 kilometers.

But now, one side was chasing and the other was fleeing, so this seemingly not-so-distant distance was actually still very far. Because the age of the German Navy’s ships was generally not long, they were not at a disadvantage in terms of speed.

At this very moment, Lütjens was nervously looking at the sea chart, estimating the possible location and time of the encounter between the two sides. Around him was the massive fleet composed of the German naval formations. Even with such a massive fleet, their current speed was still not slow.

It should be said that it was more than just not slow; they had almost reached the limit of fleet formation sailing in this world. The entire carrier fleet was cutting through the waves at a speed of 23 knots. For an aircraft carrier formation, this speed could be said to be at a world-record level.

Now the problem for the German naval fleet had become somewhat serious. Counting from 7 PM on the first night, when it was completely dark, to 5 AM the next morning, the British Navy had at least ten hours to shorten the distance. It seemed that the German Navy was doomed.

The two fleets were thus playing a game of speed on the vast sea. At 8:03 PM, Lütjens ordered the fleet to adjust its course, deviating a few degrees toward the open sea, in an attempt to avoid the British fleet.

But soon, the British fleet, as if it had eyes, had adjusted its own course and had cut into the German fleet’s course, even shortening the distance by one kilometer. And at this time, Lütjens could still only rely on his own judgment to determine the position of the British fleet.

“This isn’t right! I feel there’s a problem!” Lütjens walked around the chart table, and then suddenly, as if he had realized something, he clapped his hands. “I know! I know where their eyes are!”

He walked to the front of the sea chart and pointed to the surrounding area to his first mate. “They are using submarines to follow us! Although the speed of the submarines is not enough, and they can’t follow for long, they are risking surfacing and following us in a surface sailing state! Our radar system is suffering from a ‘blind spot under the lamp,’ and no one has noticed anything wrong!”

“Order the navy’s special air units to launch an emergency night takeoff!” Lütjens slammed the table fiercely. “It’s time for them to see our preparations! Drive away all of these enemy submarine tails!”

“Yes, sir!” an air arm liaison officer saluted at attention and walked out.

Soon, on the German aircraft carriers, under the guidance of several searchlights, two helicopters took to the air. These planes were carrying one depth charge and a high-power searchlight. They were a special weapon that the carriers had only recently been equipped with, and also a secret weapon for search and rescue and night anti-submarine warfare.

These planes soon had news. The two British submarines that had been following on the perimeter of the fleet were forced to dive and flee. The British submarine picket line that had been deployed in advance was thus shaken off by the German fleet. But this was already after 11 PM.

At midnight, Lütjens received a telegram that was as disgusting as swallowing ten flies. The telegram was sent by a German submarine. This submarine had discovered a British fleet in the waters near Denmark, that is, the fleet that had gone north to Norway. Now this fleet, with two old-fashioned battleships, was positioned in the waters near Wilhelmshaven, waiting for the fleeing German High Seas Fleet to walk into the trap.

In this way, Lütjens, who had originally been preparing to risk changing course again, was now undecided. He did not dare to risk returning to Wilhelmshaven, so he did not dare to change course again and have the fleet move toward the coastline. Now there were only two ways: one was to risk fleeing to the Netherlands, and the other was to risk continuing to penetrate deeper into the North Sea.

The road of fleeing to the Netherlands seemed to be foolproof, but after careful thought, Lütjens knew that this road was also fraught with danger. The Dutch ports were fine for replenishment on normal days, but if they were to flee in there and then be blocked by the British Navy for a close-range battle, then it would truly be a point of no return. If the British were to exchange a few battleships for the entire High Seas Fleet, it was a deal that the Royal Navy would be willing to make.

And to maintain course and continue to flee into the depths of the North Sea, at least he could still estimate the time of the fleet’s encounter. But if he were to make a right-angle turn and flee to the Netherlands, what if the pursuing British fleet took a shortcut and cut a short side to catch up… If the two sides were to encounter and start a battle between 2 AM and 4 AM, the German Navy might have nothing left.

Fleeing into the ocean was not safe either. At the very least, they had to last until dawn to be able to fight back. And in the current situation, it was estimated that dawn would be about the time the British Navy opened fire. At that time, it was really hard to say who would have the advantage. And Lütjens also had to be on constant alert for the third British fleet, led by the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which had disappeared in the North Sea.

“It’s really true that you can play however you want when you have a thick family fortune!” Lütjens couldn’t help but say with envy. It wasn’t his fault for being so envious, because even after repeated disastrous defeats, when the British Navy moved, it moved. They had actually set up a dragnet with three fleets. In terms of fleet numbers, the two sides seemed not to be opponents of the same order of magnitude at all.

“Maintain course! Continue sailing north!” Lütjens finally said, gritting his back teeth and mustering the greatest courage of his life to give this order. At this moment, he seemed to see a vision. In the vision, he was commanding a huge and beautiful battleship, entering the North Sea in the biting cold wind, and completing his own tragic battle.

“A year ago, I would have only dared to run in the face of the British Navy. Perhaps I would have just fled back to the Netherlands. But the Führer taught me a lesson—an army that does not dare to draw its sword has only one possibility: defeat! This time I choose to draw my sword! As the frontline commander of the Imperial Navy, today I will draw my sword!” Lütjens said calmly, standing on the bridge.

This was his choice. This was the choice of the Third Reich’s High Seas Fleet that he led. This road was full of hardships and dangers. A single misstep would be a point of no return. It was also an opportunity for the German Navy, an opportunity to soar.

This was a huge gamble. If the German Navy could launch its carrier-based aircraft after dawn, then the British Navy would most likely be defeated. And this defeat would seem to be even more devastating than the previous few times. It was possible that they would truly be unable to recover.

And if the German Navy were to be caught up before dawn, then in the entire fleet, there would be almost no warship that could contend with the Hood and the Renown. In at most two hours, they would suffer the fate of being completely wiped out.

It was a very fair battle. The winner would control the North Atlantic and become the new and most powerful hegemon of the European seas. The loser would lose sea power, face a cruel blockade, and might ultimately even lose the fate of their country.

At the moment Lütjens had made this decision, the commander-in-chief of the British fleet, Vice-Admiral Holland, was also facing an important choice. At this moment, full of variables, the German Vice-Admiral Lütjens and the British Vice-Admiral Holland had both made the most important decisions of their lives.

The submarines that had been ambushing had all been driven away by the German Navy. Vice-Admiral Holland, now, like Lütjens, had become a blind man. Having lost his intelligence support, he could now only rely on guesswork to judge the movements of the German Navy, which made it considerably more difficult for the pursuing British Navy.

“Order the fleet to maintain its course unchanged!” Vice-Admiral Holland finally gave the order to continue the pursuit along the current route. But at the same time, he gave another crucial order. “Order the two trailing battleships to sail toward the waters off the coast of the Netherlands. If the Germans flee into the Netherlands, then we will charge directly into the port and sink them! At any cost!”

For the British Navy, this decision was undoubtedly the safest. The only two choices the Germans had were both blocked by Holland’s fleet. Now Holland could be sure that the Germans could not escape this time and had to fight him fair and square.

But the variable in this speed race still had not changed. This variable was the time of the engagement. Whether the Germans could drag the start of the battle until after dawn, no one knew this question yet.

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