Well this was a hard update to write! I hope you guys like it!
The Battle of Dogger Bank
At 0950 hours, the fog lifted, exposing in great shock to the Russians that they were greatly out gunned and out number. Attempting to flee, Rozhestvensky on the
Borodino gave order to turn his battleships around. Unfortunately for him, however, his order was misinterpreted by the Battleships
Oryol and
Navarin, who instead kept firing at the British cruisers.
The British, utilising their superior speed, presented their broadside to the enemy, who were now identified as Russians, and the
Cornwallis, Duncan and
Russell unleased broadsides against the
Oryol, while the
Albermarle, Caesar, Jupiter and
Triumph targeted the
Navarin.
Within minutes, the
Oryol was sinking, having exploded from a direct hit to its magazine, while the
Navarin was on fire. By now, Rozhestvensky was panicking and ordered all ships to disengage. However, there ships were much slower than the British, whose battleships were picking of ships one by one. A torpedo run by several British destroyers crippled the
Imperator Aleksander II and the
Oslyaba, while the
Knyaz Surovov and the
Sissoi Veliky were left dead in the water and sinking. The
Borodino, however, met her fate fighting. By some miracle, her sporadic firing penetrated the magazine of the
Swiftsure, and destroyed it, before exploding after another torpedo run by destroyers, taking Rozhestvensky with her.
By the time the fog set in again at 1740 hours, the Russians had virtually been annihilated. Only the
Imperator Nikolai I, as well as two destroyers were able to flee back towards the Baltic. However, in securing such a victory, Beresford had lost the battleship
Swiftsure as well as the cruiser
Sapphire and several destroyers.
The newspapers in Britain that evening shouted of a criminal attack by the warmongering Russians. Crowds took to the streets in front of Parliament, demanding war with the Russians, while in Parliament debated on whether to go to war with the Russian Empire. Panicking, the Tsar (upon recommendation from his advisors) made an offer that included vague compensation and reparations, however, the debate in parliament raged on for another week. All those in opposition to the war were silenced, when there was news of the shelling of Hartlepool by the Russian ship
Kamchatka, who had appeared to have slipped past the battle unscathed. Allegedly avenging its fallen comrades, the drunken captain of the
Kamchatka had shelled the sea side town four times before slipping away into the night. 7 civilians were killed, plus several injured, which only increased the public outrage against the Russians.
The day after the Hartlepool incident (2 November 1904), parliament officially rejected the Russian offer and announced that a state of war now existed between Great Britain and the Russian Empire. Furious, the Tsar fired all of his advisors (crucially including the chairman of the ministers Sergei Witte). The Anglo-Russian War had just begun.