March 22nd 1918
[SIZE=-1]08:45 till 09:05[/SIZE]
Onboard the British destroyers, they knew that they had just entered hell on water when every ship in front of them seemed to open fire at the same time. Waterspouts erupted all around the lead British ships, just as their shells erupted around the light German forces. The two sides light ships were closing at 48 knots. The German ships were trying to get through the British forces to attack the battle line and the British forces were trying to stop them. The battle raged for the next 6 minutes without any other ships coming into range. Numerous ships on both sides were hit and sinking or sunk by the time HMS Tiger's gunnery officer declared that the main guns were within range of the German Battlecruisers. With that, they swung towards the SMS Hindenburg and belching flame opened fire. Once they had fired, Captain Duff ordered the ship to turn North-North-West to cross the German 'T'.
Behind him, the other 6 British Battlecruisers formed line and turned with him, all opening fire on the 4 remaining German Battlecuisers. Onboard the SMS Von der Tann, it was not hell, but it was close to it thought KzS Mommsen. HMS Repulse and Renown had been firing on her for 6 minutes without interruption, and their reputation as crack shots was well deserved he thought. For the first few minutes he had watched shell splashes get closer and closer to his ship, but that last salvo before he saw the British start to turn to open up their aft arcs of fire had hit. At 14 miles range the most of the shells that hit did not penetrate the armor, but one had hit in the vicinity of the starboard-forward castle mate gun and he had watched as it was bodily blown some 300 yards out to sea. Well he thought, at least with the British turning North-West, he will not be engaging them on that side.
On the port bridge wing, an ensign reported excitedly that the SMS Baden and SMS Bayern had opened fire! As he watched, shell splashes erupted in the sea behind HMS Repulse and Renown. At the same time, their guns fired and the same ensign dutifully reported that shell splashes had fallen off the beams and in front of the SMS Baden and Bayern. Onboard HMS Repulse, Rear Admiral Henry Oliver acted quickly. He knew that if a 15" shell hit his ship, then even at 18 miles her 9" armor belt would have trouble stopping the shell. He therefore ordered all Battlecruisers to take the necessarily evasive action while in line, and for the Repulse and Renown, as faster ships, to increase speed as they saw fit.
A minute after he gave the order, Admiral Hipper onboard the SMS Hindenburg was told that his ships were now 12.5 miles from the British Battlecruisers and that they could open fire on them. Wasting no time, he gave the order and all his ships took aim on their new targets and opened fire. Onboard the SMS Von der Tann, KzS Mommsen smiled as he watched his first salvo fall 200 yards from HMS Tiger. He would soon be scoring hits he thought, and with the Repulse and Renown no longer firing at him, it would be a while before the new ships shooting at him got their eyes in.
On HMS Tiger, Captain Duff acted quickly after seeing the shell splashes fall just 200 yards off his port beam. They already almost had him, and shooting that accurate could only have come from his target - the SMS Von der Tann. His guns then fired and the shells fell somewhere behind her. Still not good enough he thought. He will have to conduct more practices when they get back to port. His secondary guns were having better luck however and had already accounted for several light German ships. There were still many more however and they were now closing fast. Even as he lowered his binoculars he saw the first one launch its torpedoes and turn aside. Over the next few minutes a dozen more craft launched.
Admiral Hipper watched his shells hit the HMS Lion through his binoculars, an ensign yelled that one of the British ships had been hit by a torpedo. He focused on the ship, and identified the ship as an Indefatigable Class Battlecruiser. The hit had been amidships on her and had had no apparent effect oh her. As he watched the HMAS Australia (Not that he knew her name) he saw more torpedoes hit the two ships following her. They had both been identified as Invincible Class Battlecruisers and since he knew that the HMS Invincible had been sunk by his squadron at the Battle of Jutland, he knew that both the HMS Inflexible and HMS Indomitable had been hit.
The hit to HMAS Australia had been relatively severe in fact. Not that Admiral Hipper knew it at the time, but the torpedo hit below the armored belt and an empty coal bunker. It caused flooding and because the coal bunker was empty, a secondary coal dust explosion. The explosion blew into the empty coal bunker forward of the hit one and did not do any severe damage, but doubled the flooded area. The net result was that the Australia took on 1500 tons of water could only make 15 knots without dockyard repairs.
On board the HMS Indomitable, Captain Kennedy received the reports that his ship had been hit by three torpedoes calmly. The initial reports told him that all 3 torpedoes had hit the same general area. While she was not in immediate danger from sinking, due to the grouping, the damage control captain told him that unless he slowed down, the damage would worsen so Captain Kennedy gave the order to reduce speed to 10 knots and to pull out of line. Once the bulkheads in the damaged area were shored up, then he would then increase speed again.
HMS Inflexible was in much more serious trouble due to her hits. Like the Indomitable, she was suffering. Of the 3 torpedoes that detonated when they hit her, two hit below the 6" armor belt and caused severe flooding. The third hit below the 4" belt forward and caused local flooding and she took on 200 tons of water. Coupled with the massive amidships damage, she slowed to a crawl and Captain Heaton-Ellis reluctantly ordered her to retire from combat. His ship was in sinking condition and he was not about to let her be shot out from under him without trying to save her first.
Although the Germans had lost over 50 light craft sunk or sinking and another 20 or so damaged, they had effectively reduced the number of British Battlecruisers by two retiring from combat, with a third still in combat but in severe trouble. Admiral Hipper therefore gave the order that the Hindenburg was to concentrate on this third, crippled ship. He hoped that he could quickly sink her and therefore reduce the number of ships firing on him to 4. If only he could get past these ships then he would be home free he thought. Just then, an ensign reported that there were 5 more large ships appearing from behind the British ships at a range of 15 miles. They had been obscured by the smoke from the British ships up until that point. Admiral Hipper looked at these new ships and couldn't make out their class so he ordered the spotting top to identify them for him. A few minutes later the report came back that they could not identify the class of ships, but that they were flying American battle ensigns from their yardarms.
On the HMAS Australia, Captain Claude Cumberlege knew he was in more than a little trouble when shell splashes erupted from the sea directly in front of his ship. So far nobody had fired at them, but having slowed down and listing heavily, somebody obviously thought that she could be quickly finished off. He did not know that it was the SMS Hindenburg that was shooting at him, but he did know that he was engaging the only Derfflinger Class Battlecruiser present. He raised his glasses to his eyes again and watched in satisfaction as an explosion occurred between her funnels. He didn't know weather it was the Australia or the HMS New Zealand that had hit her, but either way she had been hit.
Onboard the Hindenburg, Admiral Hipper received the report that the shells had knocked out several light guns but apart from that had done no damage. All of his ships had been hit by now and with the range from his ships to the British Battlecruisers now some 6 miles. He was lucky that his ships were all still steaming at 24 knots. It was however apparent to both Admirals Scheer and Hipper that the British had much improved shells than at Jutland and that their ships were going to suffer as a result. At this range, shells from both sides were tearing through armor and causing devastation aboard all of the Battlecruisers, but the German Battleships, although firing, were still at extreme range and had not scored many hits so far.
Onboard the HMS Repulse, Rear Admiral Oliver knew that his ships were in trouble. Two were retiring, one was crippled and the other four had been hit so some degree. HMS Repulse had suffered only superficial damage, but looking out of the bridge he could see HMS Renown behind him ablaze amidships from a volley of shells that the SMS Bayern had fired. As he watched he could see the damage control crews fighting the fire and slowly getting it under control. One advantage of being under fire he thought - Near misses dumped tons of water onboard and helped put out fires!
On the HMS Princess Royal, the third ship in line, Captain Walter Cowan cursed as another salvo of shells slammed into her somewhere aft. He was being hit hard but thankfully he was hitting back equally as hard. An ensign handed him the latest damage report. The shells had hit the aft turret and disabled it. There had been no cordite explosion but the damage was severe enough to require a dockyard repair job. He cursed again and ordered a slight alteration in course to throw the German spotters. He was grateful however as cordite handling at Jutland had cost the GF 3 Battlecruisers including the Princess Royals half-sister HMS Queen Mary.
So far, the Germans had concentrated on the British Battlecruisers, but now things were going to change. Onboard the bridge of the lead American Battleship, the USS New York, Rear Admiral Rodman ordered his 14" guns to open fire on the German Battlecruisers. Feeling the ship shudder as they fired, the watch officer reported that light German forces were heading directly for his ships. No doubt they were going to try and torpedo him. Now that he was in range, he also ordered the turn that would cross the German 'T' and bring his aft guns to bear.
For 7 minutes his ships managed to fire un-interrupted on the German Battlecruisers which were now very close to the British ships, before two things happened. The first was that the surviving light German craft launched their torpedoes at him - Several more having been sunk or disabled by his guns on their approach - and also a massive explosion occurred on the SMS Von der Tann directly in front of the bridge. When the smoke cleared she was still under way at full speed, but she had swung out of line towards the British. He could not watch further as his ships had to take avoiding action against the German torpedoes at that time. Of his 5 ships, two were hit by torpedoes that detonated. The middle ship in line and the German point of aim, the USS Delaware, got hit by at least 5 torpedoes. The USS Florida behind her got hit by one. The Florida took on several hundred tons of water, but shrugged off her hit while taking avoiding action as the USS Delaware started to list heavily immediately after the torpedo impacts. The crew was witnessed jumping over the side as she slowly capsized. The Germans had done their job well with her. Her entire engineering spaces were blown out under the armor belt and that had sealed her fate.
On the HMAS Australia, Captain Cumberlege watched as the explosion rocked the SMS Von der Tann. She was obscured by smoke - partially due to her own guns firing and partially due to the hit. He never knew who hit her or where the shells hit, but the quantity of smoke was impressive. He was still watching as she burst from the smoke cloud, turning hard for the British ships. Onboard the Von der Tann, KzS Mommsen was blown into the bulkhead behind him by the force of the explosion. As he regained his senses and picked himself up he realized that he was not dizzy, but that the ship was leaning over. Staggering to the front of the bridge he was relieved to see that she was not sinking, but horrified to see that she was swinging towards the British ships! Calling down to the helmsman he got no reply and ran down to the compartment himself. He was shocked to see that there was no longer a forward bulkhead and that the helmsman was shredded by shrapnel, his dead hands still clasping the wheel. KzS Mommsen fought through his shock and grabbed the wheel and swung the Von der Tann back into line as members of the damage control party arrived. Luckily one was a helmsman from another watch, so he handed the wheel over to him.
Things were not much better onboard all of the German Battlecruisers as at 6 miles range the British shells were causing extreme damage. Admiral Hipper was just thinking that things could not get much worse when an ensign reported that the American ships were altering course and then yelled excitedly as he reported one capsizing! Good news at last thought Admiral Hipper. He could now use some more! His prayers in that instant seemed answered as the British ships again altered course and ceased firing on him. Instead they trained their guns on Admiral Scheer's battleships some 4 miles behind him or 10 miles distant from them.
Admiral Hipper was extremely grateful at this turn of events at 9:04am. If he could get past the remaining four American Battleships, he was home free. Less than 30 minutes of combat he was past the first hurdle. He therefore gave orders to engage the American ships as soon as they came into range. He was told that he was just inside gunnery range, and his forward guns swung away from the British ships and aimed at the American ships 12 miles distant. The aft guns could not bear on the American ships and continued to engage the British Battlecruisers however.
Scanning the damage reports from his four ships, he saw that they were all still capable of steaming at 24 knots, but that all of them had damage to their guns to some extent. The Von der Tann's forward turret was temporally disabled by the hit he had witnessed, and most of her secondary guns were un-workable. She had also been hit astern and her aft torpedo tube was destroyed. She had also taken on some 400 tons of water but the pumps were coping well and she was in no immediate trouble. On the SMS Moltke, it was much the same story. Numerous secondary guns were disabled, but also her 'B' turret (Starboard wing) and 'C' turret (Aft Super firing) had been hit and both were only going to fire again with dockside repairs. 'B' turret did not bother him much as it could not bear on the British ships passing to Port, but 'C' turret was a loss. The SMS Seydlitz was suffering as at Jutland. Most of her forward crew quarters had been destroyed along with both of her aft turrets. A shell had scored a direct hit on her lower-aft turret and the roof had been blown off - Directly into the aft-super firing gun barrels effectively disabling that turret as well. She had also been hit below the waterline in several places and had taken on some 400 tons of water. Again however, the pumps were coping and her speed had not been affected.
On his own ship, the Hindenburg, Admiral Hipper was aware of the damage status. Numerous light guns were out of action, she had taken on 300 tons of water, but the pumps were making headway and speed was unaffected and also several shells had gone through the spotting top so each of the main guns were under local control. Not too bad overall he thought. Things could have been a lot worse. He was lucky that one American ship had been sunk and two British ones forced to withdraw. The HMAS Australia had been identified as the crippled Indefatigable Class Battlecruiser by the flag she flew, and his stern guns were still engaging her but she was stubborn and despite being hit multiple times was refusing to sink! She had slowed to a crawl, was listing heavily, on fire in several places, but still she stubbornly fought on as if the honor of her entire nation was at stake!
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Yes, I know. 3 Allied (Soon to be 4) ships down with no German losses - yet! I want most of the BCs to get home you see. The Germans will loose one against the US traded for another US BB. The HSF BBs will suffer really badly though. If you recall where I origionally ended the story - with the QE's in range. Would Admiral Scheer engage them with all of his ships or just a few of them?
He can't our run them (QE's = 6 knot advantage) and they have bigger guns (5 ships 8x15" vs 2 ships 8x15" & numerious 12"). Simply put he is out classed.
Give he as 4 hours before the QF catches him, would he:
1) Engage the QE's with all his BBs (and win through superiour numbers) but in turn get penned in by the surviving BCs and GF.
2) Fight a running battle although he is out ranged?
3) Order one or two squadrons of 12" ships to engage the QE's so that he can get the Bayerns home at their expense?
Thanks!
