Chapter 116: The Pursuit

At the moment night fell, the Invincible finally adjusted its course and launched its first counterattack.

The accuracy of Invincible’s artillery was very low. Of six shells fired, the closest to the Berlin was still over two kilometers away. This was largely due to the relative positions of the two ships—Berlin was completely concealed in the darkness, forcing Invincible to fire blindly—but it was also related to the British ship’s aiming equipment and methods. The battles of Shetland and Dogger Bank had already proven that the Imperial Navy possessed the world’s finest optical sights, and its segmented aiming technique was more accurate.

At this moment, the initiative was in von Chengqian’s hands.

To concentrate fire on Berlin, Invincible had altered course to roughly fifteen degrees west-northwest. Thus, if Berlin accelerated southward, it could slip past Invincible under cover of darkness. Yet von Chengqian had no intention of retreating so quickly.

At half past six, Berlin changed course to 280 degrees.

The artillery duel continued, but neither side scored a hit. Berlin remained unscathed, and the lookouts saw no signs of damage on Invincible.

Both sides reduced the rate of fire.

Firing rapidly was useless if they couldn’t hit the enemy.

More importantly, both Berlin and Invincible had much smaller ammunition reserves than battleships. The main battery shells were already limited—Berlin had only eighty shells per gun, Invincible fewer than a hundred. If they exhausted their ammunition during the night, come dawn, even if the enemy was right before them, they would be helpless, left only to sigh.

In a way, night artillery duels were a matter of luck.

But neither side’s luck was good, for both knew that in night battles, constant adjustment of course and speed was essential to evade enemy fire.

After more than half an hour, Berlin had yet to land a single hit on Invincible.

“It’s getting late; I’m going to have dinner first,” von Chengqian’s patience had worn thin. “Be careful not to run out of shells, and don’t always follow Betty. I’ll be back in half an hour. If anything happens, send someone to call me in the dining room. Otherwise, don’t disturb me.”

Stroh nodded and then shook his head with a smile. At this moment, perhaps only von Chengqian could calmly go have dinner.

On Invincible, Betty was far from relaxed.

After the destruction of three light cruisers, Invincible had lost a turret yet failed to land a single hit on Berlin, not even inflicting the slightest damage on that damned battlecruiser, which infuriated Betty. What maddened him further was Berlin’s clear speed advantage—trying to close in for a shot might not even succeed. Besides, if Invincible charged, it could only fire with one turret, while Berlin could bring six main guns from two turrets to bear; Invincible would gain no advantage.

But if the fight dragged on, what could be gained?

The German ship had already proven that its 280-millimeter guns matched Invincible’s 12-inch guns in range and armor penetration, and were even slightly more accurate.

Prolonging the battle greatly increased Invincible’s chances of being hit again by Berlin.

As a battlecruiser, another strike from a large-caliber armor-piercing shell would be disastrous.

Unable to defeat nor catch the enemy, Betty had no choice but to call for help from Rear Admiral Hamilton, who was over a hundred kilometers away leading Australia and New Zealand in pursuit of Berlin. In fact, Betty had sent the telegram as soon as the battle began.

Betty’s mission was simple: hold Berlin at bay.

But Betty knew full well the initiative belonged to Berlin. As long as von Chengqian wished, he could always use his speed to break away from Invincible.

At that moment, Hamilton was racing at full speed.

Upon receiving Betty’s telegram, Hamilton ordered maximum speed. In fact, Australia and New Zealand had been running at full throttle all along.

According to the original plan, the two battlecruisers were supposed to head for Scapa Flow.

However, after encountering Berlin off the coast of Portugal, Hamilton was delayed.

By the time he neared Scapa Flow, Jellicoe sent orders directing him to the Faroe Islands to intercept Berlin and prevent further attacks on merchant shipping.

Of course, pursuing Berlin was Hamilton’s mission from the start.

The problem was that before entering the North Atlantic, Hamilton’s fleet had replenished coal at Alexandria after passing through the Suez Canal. When Jellicoe’s orders arrived, the coal bunkers on both battlecruisers were nearly empty, leaving less than a thousand nautical miles of range—meaning even if they encountered Berlin near the Faroes, they couldn’t pursue.

The result was that after arriving at the Faroe Islands, Hamilton spent half a day refueling.

Had he not wasted that half day, he would have met up with Betty when Berlin and Invincible engaged.

Just four hours with Hamilton could have changed everything.

Unfortunately, he did not have those four hours.

In fact, if Hamilton hadn’t concluded that Berlin had already bypassed the Faroes and was returning along the Norwegian coast—prompting his early southward movement—he wouldn’t have been able to meet Betty until the evening of the 22nd. At that time, Jellicoe had only ordered Hamilton to patrol near the Faroes, not to pursue southward, mainly because Jellicoe believed Berlin would not return to Wilhelmshaven so soon.

Even if Hamilton’s judgment was correct, he would only arrive at dawn on the 22nd.

That night, Betty had to fight alone.

Although von Chengqian was also fighting alone, Betty lacked the initiative; all he could do was try to hold his opponent.

At that moment, Jellicoe made a mistake.

Though aware the High Seas Fleet had left Wilhelmshaven—and indeed, for that reason, Jellicoe himself left Scapa Flow on the night of the 20th—he did not consider having Betty and Hamilton confront Berlin. Instead, he ordered Betty to retreat toward the fleet’s position.

In other words, Jellicoe wanted to eliminate Berlin without encountering the High Seas Fleet.

Undeniably, Jellicoe’s plan was clever. Berlin had severely disrupted British shipping over the past month. Under media propaganda, Berlin had become a notorious ship, with some newspapers even portraying it as a ruthless pirate. As a result, Berlin was seen by the British public as the foremost enemy. Jellicoe believed that if he could destroy Berlin in this battle, even without engaging the High Seas Fleet, he could give the public a satisfactory answer and convince them that the Royal Navy still had the capability to secure vital sea lanes.

The question was, would Jellicoe get that chance?

Berlin dared to return to the North Sea, and the High Seas Fleet was fully deployed—not to ensure Berlin’s safe return to Wilhelmshaven.

Anyone with a shred of sense could guess the Imperial Navy intended to use Berlin’s return to lure the fleet into battle.

In that case, Berlin would certainly avoid entering the fleet’s ambush zone lightly, while Invincible, clinging on, might actually fall into the High Seas Fleet’s trap. More importantly, if Jellicoe wanted to destroy Berlin, he risked encountering Admiral Hipper.

The artillery duel between Berlin and Invincible sputtered intermittently through the first half of the night.

Neither side ceased firing to entangle the opponent—or to reveal their position, preventing the enemy from disengaging.

In the latter half of the night, just after von Chengqian finished his late meal, the situation shifted.

“Changing course?”

“Due south, speed over 24 knots.”

Von Chengqian smiled and said, “Looks like Jellicoe and we are thinking alike. Who wants to bet? I wager the fleet is within 200 kilometers to the south.”

“Captain, I’m not that foolish,” Stroh smiled. “What’s our move now?”

“Are you confident in this ship’s speed?”

Stroh nodded, and so did Wolf. Over two months, Berlin had demonstrated its speed in action.

“Then we’ll follow. It’s not too late to withdraw once we find the fleet.”

“Well…”

“If we don’t meet Australia, then we’ll meet the fleet anyway,” von Chengqian paused briefly. “Those two battlecruisers must be north of us; if anything’s south, it’s the fleet. Jellicoe hasn’t ordered Betty to push us north but is leading us south, meaning he wants to take us out personally. That’s understandable—over the past month, we’ve done many things to unsettle Jellicoe. I bet he dreams of destroying us himself. If he manages it, he can brag on his return, and those demanding politicians won’t trouble him. So we can be sure Jellicoe won’t let us go, especially when he can reach us with his main guns; he’ll hold on tight.”

“You mean, lure Jellicoe into Admiral Hipper’s ambush?”

Von Chengqian nodded. “We must do everything right. Whether Jellicoe falls for it is his own problem.”

Stroh made no further inquiries and immediately ordered pursuit of Invincible.

“Remember, if we don’t encounter the fleet, launch seaplanes half an hour before dawn,” von Chengqian yawned. “Looks like nothing’s going to happen tonight. Take turns resting—don’t wait until we meet the fleet to be alert.” Saying that, von Chengqian left the flagship’s bridge.

He was not sleepy at all—he just didn’t want to make the atmosphere too tense.