Chapter 118: Retiring at the Peak

The Invincible could not hold the line, and Jellicoe had no choice but to lead the main fleet to engage. If the Invincible suffered a fatal blow and failed to destroy the Berlin, Jellicoe’s naval career would effectively be over. Neither the public nor the politicians in London could accept such an outcome.

The main fleet sped toward the battlefield at full throttle, thereby ruining Jellicoe’s planned ambush.

The reason was simple: the fleet was inherently slow, capable of only twenty knots at full speed. Since the battlefield lay to the east of the fleet, by the time they arrived, dawn had already broken, eliminating any chance of concealment under cover of darkness.

Just after six o’clock, Feng Chengqian ordered the Berlin to slow down and launched four seaplanes.

Although the main fleet had not yet been spotted, Feng had ample reason to believe it was close and likely to arrive soon.

Whether the fleet could be spotted in time would determine whether the Berlin could escape safely.

This deployment yielded immediate results.

At 6:20, a seaplane flying west spotted the main fleet sprinting at full speed, identifying more than a dozen battleships among them.

At this point, the fleet was less than forty kilometers from the Berlin.

“We must retreat within half an hour, or we will be attacked by the main fleet,” Strang said, spreading out the naval chart. “Turn south; perhaps the fleet will follow behind us.”

“What if the fleet doesn’t follow?” Wolf asked.

Strang gave no reply but instead looked toward Feng Chengqian. As first officer, his priority was the safety of their own ship, not the fleet’s tactics.

“Whether the fleet pursues is beyond our control; we only need to do our part,” Feng exhaled deeply. “Use this half hour wisely. Turn at 6:45. Also, send a telegram to Hipper, reporting our status and that of the main fleet.”

The bombardment on the Invincible continued.

By this stage, the Invincible had almost lost the ability to retaliate, with only one main gun turret at the bow still firing. Likely due to damage to its main targeting optics, its fire was wildly inaccurate, with shells falling kilometers away.

Since the Invincible no longer posed a threat, the Berlin could afford to close in somewhat.

However, the shelling did not last the full half hour.

At 6:35, seaplanes flying north spotted two battlecruisers steaming south—identified as the Australia and New Zealand—traveling at roughly twenty-four knots, the maximum speed for the Indefatigable-class battlecruisers.

These two battlecruisers were less than one hundred kilometers from the Berlin.

It was clear that the British Royal Navy was making a full-scale effort to encircle the Berlin.

Continuing the fight was obviously unwise.

The problem was, retreating now might prompt Jellicoe to leave the main fleet behind and dispatch Hamilton with two battlecruisers to pursue the Berlin.

As Feng hesitated, a twelve-inch shell fired from the Invincible splashed into the sea not far off.

If anything happened to the Berlin, escape would be impossible.

At 6:40, Feng issued the order to retreat. After firing one last broadside at the Invincible, the Berlin sped southward.

By then, Jellicoe’s main fleet was only thirty kilometers away.

Under ideal weather, the Berlin should have seen plumes of black smoke from over twenty major ships of the fleet.

Unfortunately, the conditions were far from ideal.

When the Berlin turned, it saw no sign of the fleet approaching from the west; likewise, Jellicoe did not spot the Berlin turning away.

More importantly, the Invincible failed to send a timely telegram.

Its radio station had been destroyed, severing communication with the fleet and preventing timely battlefield reports.

Around 7:30, Jellicoe finally contacted Betty and learned that the Berlin had withdrawn fifty minutes earlier.

Though only fifty minutes apart, this meant the Berlin had sailed more than twenty nautical miles, increasing the distance to about fifty kilometers. With a clear speed advantage, the fleet could not catch the Berlin.

As Feng had anticipated, once the situation became clear, Jellicoe abandoned the pursuit.

At 7:50, when Hamilton arrived, Jellicoe ordered him to continue the chase southward, reinforcing him with four light cruisers.

Ten minutes later, Jellicoe led the main fleet westward.

Jellicoe’s refusal to engage decisively left Feng helpless; Hipper’s High Seas Fleet remained over two hundred kilometers away and could not catch up.

That afternoon, Feng met with Hipper’s fleet.

Though Hamilton pursued for nearly ten hours, upon locating the High Seas Fleet, he wisely called off the chase and withdrew.

In the end, this grand operation ended without the two main fleets meeting.

On the morning of February 24, the Berlin returned to Wilhelmshaven escorted by the High Seas Fleet; Feng and several hundred officers and sailors were hailed as triumphant heroes.

Two days later, Feng received word that the Invincible had been towed back to Scapa Flow.

Though it had not sunk, after enduring almost thirty hits from 280mm shells and hundreds more from 150mm shells, it was completely incapacitated.

Two months later, the Invincible was towed to Portsmouth and subsequently lay in drydock for the next two years.

It was not until early 1917 that the Invincible rejoined the battle line after repairs.

On February 28, Feng returned to Berlin.

Though the Berlin’s raiding operation had sunk only a dozen or so merchant ships, it dealt a heavy blow to British shipping.

One could even say that the difficulties faced by the Anglo-French forces on the Western Front owed something to the Berlin’s actions, as its raiding sharply reduced the war supplies reaching Britain, which in turn drastically lowered the aid sent to France, increasing Britain’s wartime burden.

The Berlin’s campaign also demonstrated a crucial point: when naval strength is evenly matched, commerce raiding is an effective way to strike at Britain.

This became Feng’s foremost issue upon returning to Berlin.

The Berlin’s success in the North Atlantic led some Imperial Navy officers to believe that commerce raiding should be expanded and diversified.

At the time, besides dispatching raiders deep into the North Atlantic, the most effective weapon was the submarine.

Tirpitz neither opposed nor fully supported submarine use.

His main concern was that employing submarines required lifting all restrictions, which could lead to unpredictable consequences.

Feng had an even clearer understanding on this matter.

When the war broke out, the Imperial Navy had fewer than thirty submarines, mostly small coastal types, with fewer than ten large ocean-going subs capable of breaching the North Sea.

In 1914, these submarines mainly operated in the North Sea and achieved some successes—for example, during the Belgian campaign, a submarine sank a Royal Navy cruiser near Flanders.

The problem was, the submarines did not fulfill their potential.

At the end of 1914, Tirpitz orchestrated a submarine commerce raiding campaign, sending six long-range subs into the North Atlantic.

During a month of combat, these six subs sank or captured over thirty merchant vessels, a remarkable achievement, but at great cost.

Only one submarine returned home; the other five were lost in combat—three sunk by warships disguised as merchant ships or armed merchantmen, and one sunk by anti-submarine vessels on the return journey.

The problem lay not with the submarines but with the tactics employed.

At the time, Tirpitz forbade unrestricted submarine warfare, requiring submarines to surface and warn merchant ships, allowing crews to abandon ship before sinking the vessel.

The Royal Navy exploited this loophole by using armed merchantmen or warships disguised as merchant ships to counter the German submarines effectively, greatly reducing the submarine threat.

The only solution was unrestricted submarine warfare—sinking merchant ships without warning.

This, however, created new problems.

Without warning, submarines would not surface and would have to rely on periscopes to identify targets, often unable to determine the ship’s identity or nationality.

Thus, unrestricted submarine warfare risked sinking neutral vessels, causing diplomatic disasters.

This was Tirpitz’s chief concern.

Feng also knew that initiating unrestricted submarine warfare could give Britain a pretext to draw neutral powers like the United States into the Allied camp.

In fact, this was Feng’s greatest worry.

Although he viewed the United States as Britain’s natural ally, the reality was different.

While Britain viewed the German Empire as a threat, it also regarded the emerging power of the United States with suspicion, even considering it a threat comparable to Germany.

Once the war began, America’s stance became crucial.

If the United States joined the Allies, Germany’s chances of victory would plummet.

While the U.S. might eventually side with the Allies, Feng understood that at least until France’s defeat, American neutrality had to be maintained; otherwise, the Empire would lose this war.

Hence, it was imperative not to provoke the United States.