The betrayal of the Kaiserliche Marine and the resurrection of the Reichsmarine

[Gudestein]

Chapter 2: Who is intercepting whom?

The aftermath of the great naval victory saw both jubilation and apprehension. It was not lost upon the Germans that the British had known they were coming out to sea, but the source of the information was unknown. It could be a spy, signals intercept or a submarine. The Germans were determined for the next action to rule out any submarine interference, change the codes and expose any spies that would be relaying information to the British. In consequence, after a 30 day period of hasty repairs that could be focused on the battlecruisers, the Germans went to see again with new codes, spies around every corner and a thorough effort at submarine sweeps, which included waiting to see if submarines would surface in the wake of the departing high sea fleet.

With the losses suffered, the British scouting forces had been reorganized under Horace Hood to include the four battlecruisers HMS Australia, invincible, inflexible and indomitable in the third battlecruiser squadron whereas the 5th battlesquadron included the recently commissioned Malaya and Valiant under Arbuthnot. The Queen Elizabeth were still undergoing repairs, but Valiant was sufficiently patched up to be included in the sortie to intercept the German fleet.

Against them, they faced the intact German battlecruiser fleet, with their losses replaced and a virtually intact high seas fleet.

When the operation commenced on June 30th, originally as an anti-convey intercept plan, there were no submarine sightings, no use of uncoded signals and yet again, the battlecruisers and the grand fleet went to sea. This time, there had not been unscheduled delays and the departures were reported by submarines on station and on picket line defense. For the grand fleet, this cost the battleship HMS Ajax to a spread of three torpedoes fired at closed range, before the sinking of the offending U-43, but the grand fleet was obviously on its way to intercept. With both the battlecruiser squadrons and the grand fleet reported heading east, admiral Scheer saw an opportunity to change from a northerly to a westerly course and engage the reformed battlecruiser squad when it was isolated.

This required a radio communication to Hipper’s battlecruisers, following which both of the German fleets changed course west. The transmission was intercepted by the British, but with the new codebooks used it could not be decoded in time. Alas, this mattered little as the German battlecruiser fleet was spotted heading west shortly after by a British submarine at 11 am. Thus began a double attempt to perform a trap. The Germans of the strengthened third British battlecruiser squadron and the British of the entire High sea fleet.

The British knew the Germans were coming right at the battlecruisers and would seek to engage and hold the German fleet, while the grand fleet deployed to the rear of the high sea fleet to prevent its escape. The obvious problem in the British tactics were that the British battlecruisers had been badly mauled no less than a month earlier and needed to remain as a fighting force until the Grand fleet could engage the German fleets. The 3rd battlecruiser squadron slowed down in order to intercept the Germans further westwards whereas the Grand fleet turned to a south-easterly course at full speed.

The German forces with Hipper in command expected to engage the British battlecruiser squadron at 2 pm, but to its surprise would not receive reports of smoke until 3 pm. This was because the British had slowed down for the preceding four hours to allow the positioning of the grand fleet. The significance of the delay was not realized by the Germans at this time as Hipper’s battlecruiser approached the British fleet.

This engagement, with reasonable weather conditions was very unlike the engagement a month earlier. Hipper’s force approached the British BC’s on a southwesterly course, with the British under Hood engaging on a parallel northeasterly course. Hipper would at the time see this as an opportunity to trap the British Battlecruiser squadron between Hippers battlecruisers and Scheers battleships and he duly signaled Scheer using wireless suggesting to turn to a northwesterly course. Unbeknownst to the Germans, this would aid in the British deployment of the grand fleet to the east of the German battle line.

 

[Gudestein]

HMS Malaya was endangered by an ammo fire in her 6” battery.

Indeed, While not the biggest explosives, I think a 6'' battery magazine would contain sufficient cordite for a lethal hit. Wouldnt do much on the outside, but it is not for internal use.

Captain was sick, and the replacement thought it a silly superstition?

A grave mistake

 

[weasel_airlift]

Interesting game of cat and mouse developing, with no clear cat or mouse. The plan for the battlecruisers to get beaten on while the Fleet deploys strikes me as very...Beattyesque. That said, given Arbuthnot's historical action, I would expect something aggressive from him

 

[trajen777]

Look forward to the next installment -- Are their any Zepps in the air -- if the weather was good i think this was SOP for the Germans

 

[Gudestein]

Interesting game of cat and mouse developing, with no clear cat or mouse. The plan for the battlecruisers to get beaten on while the Fleet deploys strikes me as very...Beattyesque. That said, given Arbuthnot's historical action, I would expect something aggressive from him

Both Hood and Arbuthnot got shot to pieces engaging superior numbers at close range iotl.... Just saying it.

 

[weasel_airlift]

Both Hood and Arbuthnot got shot to pieces engaging superior numbers at close range iotl.... Just saying it.

Arbuthnot in fact rushed in, apparently to finish off Wiesbaden, and that's what killed him. Apparently some of the watching officers were horrified watching him run into the killing zone. Admiral Hood at least wasn't trying to kill steal when he detonated.

 

[Gudestein]

Chapter 3: The end of the British Battlecruisers

The battle lines of Hipper’s Battlecruisers and the battlecruisers of Hood and the two Battleships of Arbuthnot opened fire at a range of 14 km at 3.45 pm and would gradually close to 10 km as the course plotted by the two groups were not entirely parallel. A neutral observer would come to two conclusions. Armor and shell weight reigned supreme. The battlecruisers that had been the fastest to deploy would take the lead for the british with the order of Invincible, Inflexible, Indomitable, HMS Australia, Malaya and Valiant whereas the Germans engaged with Derfflinger in the lead followed by Lützow, Seydlits, Moltke and von der Tann. Until the deployment were completed this meant an initital weight of fire on Derfflinger/Lützow on the German side and Invincible and Inflexible on the British side, the outcome of which clearly ended unfavorable for the British. Invincible received several penetrating hits exploding the conning tower, in the superstructure, frontally bending the front turret knocking it out, in the forecastle at the waterline and amidships likewise near the waterline. Her starboard list quickly became so pronounced she could barely return fire and she had to abandon the battle line. In this process she received further penetrating hits through the thin deck armor resulting in further flooding. Invincible would sink an hour later but she would resume fire after having completed her turn and with the additional penetrating hits preventing her capsizing. Eye witness would later claim that waves were awash over the deck before the main turrets on invincible was evacuated. The fate of Inflexible was less glamorous and she blew up after having taken several hits from the Moltke.

The Germans were however not invincible on this day and Derfflinger/Lützow would soon find their hits providing little damage to Valiant and Malaya while turrets blew up on both Derfflinger and Lutzow was ablaze on the stern. Ultimately, as the battle lines passed each other at 4.30 pm, Lützow would receive further hits knocking out two further turrets and resulting in uncontrollable fires from stern to bow and its ultimate abandonment. The central path of the battle line were Seydlitz found itself engaging both Indomitable and HMS Australia were a give and take were Seydlitz lost two main caliber turrets while HMS Australia followed the fate of so many of the British battlecruisers and ended in a cordite inferno.

As the lines departed Hipper changed his course to the North, attempting to cut off the British to the West while the British continued on their North westerly course attempting to drag the Germans towards the approaching grand fleet. In this action the Malaya and Valiant formed the rearguard and while several hits landed on the two fleets from the 4 pursuing German battlecruisers, a turret hit on Derfflinger was the most significant result until admiral Arbuthnot spotted smoke on the horizon. Arbuthnot, expecting it to be the approaching grand fleet continued full speed ahead, and would engage the High Sea Fleet battleships from 5.15 pm. Possibly Arbuthnot could see the futility of this action, but his orders were to hold the German fleets and damn if he would fail them. His remaining ships formed a new battle line and was rapidly shot to pieces with the battlecruisers to the west and the high sea fleet battleships to the east. Hood, perhaps more considerate of the safety of his ships, briefly formed up against the battlecruisers, but decided to disengage as clearly the battlesquadron was doomed and reduced to wreckage. To evade the high sea fleet battleship he turned west and directly into the path of Hippers battle cruisers. Outnumbered 4 to two, but with superior ships, this would result in one of the most ferocious and desperate infights in naval history with only a battered Malaya escaping clear of the German BC’s at 6 pm, and with the Germans losing Moltke from straight up multiple penetrating hits from Valiant, several at or near the waterline. Ultimately, what saved the day for the German battlecruiser seemed clearly to be the better control of the explosives. At a range of few kilometers, no ships on either side escaped multiple penetrating hits, but the German hits set off secondary explosions, the British did not.

Alas, while the German battlecruisers clearly beat the British and the Queen Elizabeths beat the German battlecruisers, the sacrifice was not for naught. At 5 pm the Germans were alerted by Zeppelins of several large ships approaching from the north, but inexplicably failed to transmit the signal to Scheer, and smoke was observed by the fleet at 5.30. At 5.45 the Germans had almost eaten the bait, but the trap had been successful and the German High Seas fleet had the entire Grand Fleet between it and home waters.

 

[Gudestein]

Before anyone accuse me of pro-german wank/ASB please consider what might be coming in the next update.
Arbuthnot does indeed seem like the commander who would act exactly like this based upon his OTL demise.

 

[Gudestein]

Look forward to the next installment -- Are their any Zepps in the air -- if the weather was good i think this was SOP for the Germans

I placed one in the last update, but decided to have the SOP not followed. The description of the British fighting IOTL is full of miscommunication, so I decided that this could happen with info from a new and untrusted branch of the KM ITTL as well.

 

[weasel_airlift]

Hm...Night action to get home? Could be fun. Poor Lutzow, she has no manner of luck at all. So...5 major losses for the RN, 2 for the HSF so far? I'm enjoying this very much, please continue.

 

[Gudestein]

Hm...Night action to get home? Could be fun. Poor Lutzow, she has no manner of luck at all. So...5 major losses for the RN, 2 for the HSF so far? I'm enjoying this very much, please continue.

I hope I don’t spoil the suspense by saying the easy pickings for the Germans are all gone now. Now it’s about survival

 

[weasel_airlift]

I hope I don’t spoil the suspense by saying the easy pickings for the Germans are all gone now. Now it’s about survival

Oh, I can believe it. That, and night fighting at the time is probably going to degenerate into a series of vicious short-range actions, with lots of torpedoes ("Friendly" and not)

 

[Petr K.]

German chances of success in the initial clash are strongly increased by the absence of the 2nd squadron (5/Deutschland + Hessen), so Scheer gets the advantage of speed. If Scheer wasn't going to help Hipper and cut off the British forces from retreating instead of a frontal collision (the odds were there), you could get bigger British losses ... but I would rather believe in sinking another battle cruiser (Tiger, New Zealand) than a tough battleship 5th Evan-Thomas Squadron.
Scheer can expose the British to the massive attack of its destroyers, there's a chance of crippling a battleship, but I wouldn't be too attached to it.
Westphalia is in the position of the last ship of the 2nd Battleship Division, most of the clash is out of jeopardy, the 5th Division is in danger (König, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, Kronprinz), you should look for victims there.
It doesn't matter which German battleship you sacrifice, but try to save Hipper's squadron, Germany must not lose any battle cruisers. They are irreplaceable ...

And please let Raeder die.
Good luck in writing the story and sorry for the bad English ..

 

[weasel_airlift]

It doesn't matter which German battleship you sacrifice, but try to save Hipper's squadron, Germany must not lose any battle cruisers. They are irreplaceable ...

I believe two battlecruisers (Lutzow and Moltke) have already been lost. That said, Salamis should be in a shape to finish relatively quickly. She was designed for 23 knots with American 14" guns...would she be any faster if you used German 30 cm guns? I don't know, but it would make a degree of sense to me. That could give you another 25 knot ship for the squadron

Westphalia is in the position of the last ship of the 2nd Battleship Division, most of the clash is out of jeopardy, the 5th Division is in danger (König, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, Kronprinz), you should look for victims there.

Honestly, I like the survival odds of the Konigs more than most ships, they were quite tough

 

[Gudestein]

Chapter 4: The HSF is caught

In the early summer there were still hours remaining when the British Grand Fleet started firing at the German at extreme ranges using their bow guns. With still some range to close before effective firing range, the Germans formed a battle line before the British and recalled their scouting cruisers that were looking for the Grand fleet to the north. The German BC’s were unable to participate as they were badly battered and more than 10 miles to the west.

Scheer decided to engage the approaching British fleet with a fully formed battle line as he knew the British would need to close the distance for effective firing and causing sufficient damage before sunset. In this phase, neither party could receive penetrating hits with the exception of the newly commissioned Bayern which focused its 8 15’ guns on the older RN battleships Orion and received a penetrating hit to the barbettes of Orion which set off secondary explosions. Alas, such a mismatch in firepower and protection was rarely found in this phase of the battle and a steadily increasing and roughly equal number of hits were landed on both sides as the ranges closed from 18-19 km down to 9-10 km and the british forces turned to form the battlelines at a highly effective firing range. At this range the British could now bring double the number of guns to bear and the exchange which followed landed more than 200 hits on the Germans for roughly 110 the other way. This finally led to German battleship losses and König, Markgraf and Helgoland were each hit more than a dozen times and on these ships, cumulative damage from fires, waterline penetrations and overwhelmed damage control crews caused the ships to abandon the battle line. Helgoland for the bottom of the sea with König and Markgraf being finished off later in the battle.

The German hits on their British foes were in general less critical, but again with Bayern as the exception. Bayern scored multiple hits on Colossus, including one straight turret penetration and colussus blew up in a massive explosion at 18:55.

The German battleships then fired their onboard torpedoes before the reemerged German torpedoboats initiated an attack to allow the German battle line to extradite itself from a losing battle. Jellicoe did not follow suit immediately, but send his destroyers into the foray. At 19:30, with the distance opened up to 18 km, the British initiated their pursuit, but this time with superiority in barrels to the Germans that could only operate their stern guns. The stern chase was not what the German ships were build for as at long range and not shooting over the sides, shells could impact directly on the armored decks at a reasonable angle for penetration. At 19:44 such a hit on Thüringen reached into the magazines below and blew her up in a spectacular series of explosions. Simulaneously with these actions, the main German battle line was receiving some respite as several British battleships were focusing on the crippled König and Markgraf . König and Markgraf would however soon be ablaze from bow to stern and the british fires returned to the fleeing parts of the High sea fleet. At 20:06, crippling hits were received on Oldenburg while again, the Bayern scored critical hits on Hercules. The German hits penetrated deep amidships and set of fires, secondary explosions from the secondary batteries and caused her to sink during a half our long agony.

Despite the soon legendary performance of the Bayern, the situation was clearly unsustainable and Scheer again signaled to form a battle line leading to another fierce engagement between the two lines between 20:30 and 21:10. During this period the German torpedo boats and destroyers would regroup for another melee. In this period, the Royal navy would close to within 9-10 km and deliver a new total of more than 200 hits, this time in return for only 90 recorded German hits. The Germans lost Nassau, Kaiserin and Prinzregent Luitpold in this action and while the Germans caused significant damage on the British ships, the British had no ship losses.

Again, Scheer needed to extradite his forces and did so with an all-out torpedo boat and destroyer attack. The British had to turn, but did not do so swiftly enough, and took a hit on Revenge which caused significant damage to her propulsion.

In this phase of the battle at around 21: 30 Scheer took a courageous decision by heading north-north-east to form a new battle line, a move mirrored by the British, but this time leading to the British gunners looking directly into the sunset. At this time the German battlecruisers re-emerged on the scene to cross-the-T of the leading British battleships to the North. This move caused severe distress for the leading Royal Oak which took more than 20 hits over the next 20 minutes and ultimately blew out her sides from a penetration of a 6’ gun magazine. The British would further lose Thunderer and Centurion at the German loss of Posen and König Albert before their lead ships were ordered to turn east thereby increasing the distance for the lead British ships that had been outnumbered by the emergence of the German battlecruisers. Further down the lines, the Germans sustained heavy losses to Kaiser with only one turret remaining. Kaiser would later be sunk by torpedo attack in the night action which followed.

As the sun set at 21:58 the Germans were to the North of the British lines and ultimately made their escape by seaking another brief engagement by turning east-south east, launching another torpedo attack and then run for home.

The night actions which followed was a fierce disorganized battle, but the British would not maintain an all ahead flank pursuit with their battle line as the Germans did on their retreat. The risk of torpedo attacks was just to great.

The German battle fleet which returned home was much smaller than what it had been before, and virtually all its ships had serious damage.


Edit: Loss of Audacious changed for loss of Thunderer

 

[Marquis]

Before anyone accuse me of pro-german wank/ASB please consider what might be coming in the next update.
Arbuthnot does indeed seem like the commander who would act exactly like this based upon his OTL demise.

straight turret penetration and colussus blew up in a massive explosion at 18:55.

Agreed, not a German-wank at this point. A bloody mess of a battle. Will just say, Colossus would not have suffered such a fate. The battleships never had the anti-flash interlocks removed from the propellant hoists. Such a hit would knock a turret out but not cause a magazine detonation.

I also suspect the same of HMS Inflexible - with Beatty dead and an Admiralty enquiry going batshit, the safety interlocks will be replaced and the stacking of charges outside the magazines banned on pain of death.

How did the 15" gunned Revenges stand up? They weren't the greatest battleships, but they were well compartmentalised to prevent the spread of fire and flooding, well armoured and mounting 8 15" guns.

 

[ferdi254]

The main question ITTL is:

Why is the RN out in force at all?

According to TTL no signals gave the HSF away, spies have been kept under silence so why on earth did the RN go out with all ships??

 

[Gudestein]

Chapter 5: The aftermath of the Great North Sea battle

Following the second inexplicable interception of a high sea fleet sortie, despite the use of new code books and no sighted submarines, the internal conclusion was clearly that a well-placed spy was at work. A thorough internal investigation at the admiralty was conducted and at the signals intelligence department. Initially, none where found although suspicious behavior of a number of individuals, ranging from engineers to admirals were noted. One thing was certain, secrecy was now all important as the High Seas fleet was in no position to encounter the Grand fleet again. As it happened, the Germans had dealt out damage as good as they took, but the Royal Navy could better afford the losses. Nevertheless, the German press would emphasize that the British BC force had been annihilated and that the high sea fleet and Grand fleet had clashed and the Germans fought bravely. While it was not as devastating for morale as could have been feared, the British were now commissioning three more Revenge class battleships and the two battlelines could no longer fight each other. The only thing that was in their favor was that only the Germans now had fast capital ships. To plan the best use of this force, Scheer and Hipper formed a minimal task force with only their most trusted staff members.

On the English side, the battle was a major boom for the signals intercept and room 40. The British had not decoded messages in time, but they had analyzed the patterns of radio traffic. The patterns of radiotraffic initially with minesweepers and submarines providing short signals (presumed “all clear signals”) followed by an unusual level of silence led to the expectations that a fleet operations was happening. As was then British practice, the Grand fleet and the battlecruisers took to the seas and the High seas fleet were only later spotted by British submarines.

Edit: High seas fleet inserted in last sentence.

 

[Gudestein]

The main question ITTL is:

Why is the RN out in force at all?

According to TTL no signals gave the HSF away, spies have been kept under silence so why on earth did the RN go out with all ships??

I didn't say "no signals", I said that new codes were used.
I do agree that it is the main question on the German side

 

[Gudestein]

Agreed, not a German-wank at this point. A bloody mess of a battle. Will just say, Colossus would not have suffered such a fate. The battleships never had the anti-flash interlocks removed from the propellant hoists. Such a hit would knock a turret out but not cause a magazine detonation.

I also suspect the same of HMS Inflexible - with Beatty dead and an Admiralty enquiry going batshit, the safety interlocks will be replaced and the stacking of charges outside the magazines banned on pain of death.

How did the 15" gunned Revenges stand up? They weren't the greatest battleships, but they were well compartmentalised to prevent the spread of fire and flooding, well armoured and mounting 8 15" guns.

I have looked into the question of the real cause of the explosive British ships, and it seems the jury is still out. Its not certian the interlocks would be strong enoughand the cordite was simply just that volatile. It has been discussed a bit further up in the thread. Obviously, getting the turret penetrations to set of such explosions is much harder versus a battleship.

The Revenge probably would have been a good match to the Bayern class, but Revenge took a torpedo and failed the chance to distinguish itself.