Chapter 139: Sitting and Waiting for Death

By the evening of May 10, the High Seas Fleet had turned and was heading south.

Having received a reply from Hipper confirming that imperial vessels operating in the North Atlantic, along with enemy tankers captured by commerce raiders, possessed sufficient fuel, Feng Chengqian did not pay much attention to the rate of fuel consumption and set the High Seas Fleet's cruising speed at sixteen knots. This speed was clearly not the most fuel-efficient.

Meanwhile, Jellicoe was in a difficult position.

On the night of May 8, a British disguised merchant ship flying the Dutch flag had spotted the High Seas Fleet from a great distance and transmitted a telegram after losing sight of them. Consequently, Jellicoe became convinced that the High Seas Fleet had entered the North Atlantic and was operating near the main shipping lanes. The problem was that, thereafter, Jellicoe received no further intelligence regarding the High Seas Fleet.

By May 9, the situation had become more complex. The New Fleet had reached the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, and Hamilton had sent a telegram requesting instructions from Jellicoe so he could determine how much coal to replenish and whether a stop at Port-au-Prince was necessary. This was part of the overall plan: Jellicoe had to arrange a return route for Hamilton based on the movements of the High Seas Fleet and decide whether the Grand Fleet should head to the central Atlantic to rendezvous with the New Fleet. The issue was that, at the time, Jellicoe could not confirm whether the High Seas Fleet was still west of the Faroe Islands.

That evening, Jellicoe was forced to reply to Hamilton, telling him to proceed according to plan. In other words, Jellicoe could only trust that the High Seas Fleet was still in the north, waiting for an opportunity. In fact, by this time, the High Seas Fleet had already turned south.

Interestingly, Jellicoe did not lead the Grand Fleet toward the Azores that evening; instead, he remained outside the port of Portsmouth. Perhaps in Jellicoe’s view, if the High Seas Fleet were waiting for an opportunity near the Faroe Islands, it would not have enough time to head south and intercept the New Fleet, rendering a deployment of the Grand Fleet to the Azores unnecessary. Even if the High Seas Fleet had already moved south, Hamilton could adjust his course to avoid the Azores, heading instead toward North Africa and then to the fortress of Gibraltar, at which point it would not be too late for the Grand Fleet to provide support.

Furthermore, Jellicoe had another wishful plan: if the High Seas Fleet lingered in the North Atlantic for too long and consumed too much fuel, it would surely return to Wilhelmshaven. In that event, he could lead the Grand Fleet from the English Channel back to the North Sea and arrive outside Wilhelmshaven before the High Seas Fleet to intercept them. Success depended entirely on whether the High Seas Fleet would attempt to intercept the New Fleet.

For this reason, Jellicoe decided to wait two more days. In his view, a two-day delay was not a major problem, as the New Fleet would not reach the Azores until May 17. If intelligence on the High Seas Fleet could be obtained by May 11, Hamilton would have enough time to evade them, and the Grand Fleet’s next move could be determined.

As it turned out, this wait created a problem. On May 11, Jellicoe still had not received any news regarding the High Seas Fleet. This was not surprising; Feng Chengqian had chosen a "very safe" route, passing through waters blockaded by commerce raiders. After months of blockade, few British ships dared to enter this exclusion zone designated by the Imperial Navy on their own.

By evening, Jellicoe was restless. If he did not take action, the Grand Fleet would be unable to provide support when Hamilton reached the Azores, and the New Fleet would likely be ambushed by the High Seas Fleet.

On the early morning of the 12th, a piece of intelligence startled Jellicoe: a light cruiser responsible for reconnaissance near the Azores had encountered a fleet consisting of four light cruisers and several transport ships less than two hundred nautical miles from the islands—a fleet of the German Empire’s Navy, though no capital ships were spotted.

Jellicoe immediately surmised that the High Seas Fleet had also designated the Azores as a supply point. Clearly, Feng Chengqian must have known that the New Fleet had gone to the Caribbean and concluded that it would return to Britain via the Azores. More importantly, the High Seas Fleet was undoubtedly racing toward the Azores, preparing to intercept the New Fleet there and replenish its fuel.

Jellicoe did not delay and immediately ordered the Grand Fleet to set sail. Time-wise, as long as the Grand Fleet maintained a speed of fourteen knots, it could reach the Azores before the New Fleet. If they encountered the High Seas Fleet at this time, Jellicoe was not without a chance of victory, as the arriving New Fleet would provide strong support. If they did not encounter the High Seas Fleet, the Grand Fleet could rendezvous with the New Fleet and then engage the approaching High Seas Fleet in a decisive battle. At the very least, he could have the New Fleet adjust its course to avoid the Azores and escape an ambush.

Accordingly, Jellicoe sent a telegram to Hamilton, ordering him to continue toward the Azores, but to change his destination to Casablanca and then to the fortress of Gibraltar if no new instructions were received by the night of May 16. Calculating by time, if the High Seas Fleet went to the Azores, it would encounter the Grand Fleet on the 16th.

Jellicoe did not know that the High Seas Fleet had already rounded Ireland and was sailing south, and that Feng Chengqian had already deduced that the Grand Fleet was in the vicinity of the British mainland. While Jellicoe led the Grand Fleet toward the Azores, Feng Chengqian had already dispatched a reconnaissance detachment. At that time, Feng Chengqian had done something very important: he had incorporated all the commerce raiders encountered along the way into Raeder’s reconnaissance detachment.

As a result, Raeder’s detachment now included, in addition to five battlecruisers, eighteen light cruisers. Furthermore, the *Von der Tann*, *Seydlitz*, and *Moltke*—which had been performing commerce raiding missions in the North Atlantic—were also approaching at full speed. These three battlecruisers, converted into commerce raiders, belonged to Spee’s oceanic fleet but were under the direct command of Feng Chengqian during the operation.

Ahead of Jellicoe were a full fifteen battleships, eight battlecruisers, and twenty-six light cruisers. At that moment, the Grand Fleet possessed only eighteen battleships, three battlecruisers, and fourteen light cruisers. Even more disastrously, Jellicoe believed Feng Chengqian was rushing to the Azores, so on the morning of the 12th, he did not order his reconnaissance detachment forward. In effect, the Grand Fleet was sailing blindly into the waiting High Seas Fleet.

Just before ten o'clock, a Fokker biplane seaplane spotted the Grand Fleet sailing west at fourteen knots. Interestingly, when lookouts on the British warships spotted the plane, they were not suspicious, believing it to be a reconnaissance plane from the mainland. Using the intelligence provided by the seaplane, Feng Chengqian immediately adjusted his reconnaissance deployment.

An hour and a half later, a light cruiser in the reconnaissance detachment spotted the black smoke from the Grand Fleet’s capital ships twenty-four kilometers away. At this point, the distance between the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet was less than sixty kilometers. Jellicoe still had not discovered the impending threat, as the lookouts on the British ships had not seen the German light cruiser.

It was not until after twelve o'clock that a British ship performing anti-submarine patrol duty on the perimeter spotted the German ship tracking and monitoring them from a distance. Unfortunately, this crucial discovery was not treated with importance by Jellicoe. The reason was simple: Jellicoe believed it to be a lone light cruiser performing a commerce raiding and blockade mission. This was not surprising, as for the past several months, imperial light cruisers had been operating near the British mainland, and there were several important shipping lanes south of Great Britain that had always been primary areas for commerce raiders. At the time, Jellicoe only dispatched two light cruisers to drive off the "raider."

This inadvertent move by Jellicoe nearly changed the naval battle about to unfold. After being besieged by the two British light cruisers, the *Wiesbaden*, which had been tracking the Grand Fleet, immediately turned to flee. Unfortunately, this light cruiser, which had only been commissioned two months prior, could not shake its pursuers, as they were also two light cruisers commissioned in 1915. Worse still, the captain of the *Wiesbaden* was an absolute "novice." After being hit several times by the British ships, he did not follow basic engagement rules but instead steered directly toward Raeder.

At 1:45, the British ships sighted Raeder’s reconnaissance detachment and identified five capital ships among them. Upon receiving the news, Jellicoe was stunned. Although he immediately concluded that it was only Raeder’s reconnaissance detachment, it meant that Feng Chengqian’s main fleet was nearby.

Jellicoe’s assessment was highly accurate. At that moment, Feng Chengqian’s main fleet was approximately thirty kilometers ahead of the Grand Fleet and occupied the most advantageous position for a line-of-battle engagement. If the Grand Fleet did not adjust, it would sail in column formation straight into the High Seas Fleet, which had already deployed laterally. In a line-of-battle engagement, this was tantamount to suicide.

In fact, it was already too late for Jellicoe to react. Besides performing reconnaissance, Raeder’s detachment had another mission: to charge the Grand Fleet and, after encountering them, turn east to force the Grand Fleet into a line-of-battle state prematurely, ensuring that the Grand Fleet would remain in column formation when it entered the striking range of the High Seas Fleet.

At 2:30, Raeder completed his second objective. Upon sighting the Grand Fleet, Raeder did not immediately order a turn but closed the distance to approximately twenty kilometers. Only after being fired upon by the Grand Fleet did he order a turn to the east, increasing speed to twenty knots to lead the Grand Fleet into the High Seas Fleet’s ambush circle.

The problem was that Jellicoe did not take the bait. Upon discovering that Raeder had turned and accelerated, Jellicoe immediately suspected that Feng Chengqian was likely to the east. Therefore, he only dispatched three battlecruisers to pursue Raeder, while the Grand Fleet maintained a speed of fourteen knots, with the three battleship divisions remaining in column formation.

This was the final deployment Jellicoe made before encountering the High Seas Fleet, and in doing so, he lost his last opportunity.