Chapter 258: A Lone Journey of a Thousand Miles, Continuing to Raise the Stakes Against the Brit Nation |
At dawn on June 13.
Right as Rommel breached Beirut in the Lebanon region, several warships were speeding southwest somewhere across the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Indeed, these warships were the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau, led by Admiral Spee, along with two of the newest and fastest destroyers the Osman Navy could muster.
The four-ship formation had been sailing southwest since dropping Rommel off at Alexandretta the day before yesterday. After traveling for two nights and one day, they had managed to evade detection by any patrol ships.
The light cruiser Breslau could be considered the official partner of the Goeben. In the Earth timeline, it had accompanied the Goeben in evading the Royal Navy's pursuit, sailing together all the way to Osman. It was similar to the relationship between the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen.
The Breslau was the second ship of the Magdeburg-class light cruisers. It had been modified during the war, replacing its original, undersized twelve 105mm naval guns with seven 150mm naval guns.
In addition, it carried several 88mm secondary guns and 37mm anti-aircraft guns, along with a triple-tube torpedo launcher on both the port and starboard sides.
The fleet's mission on this voyage was to seek out combat opportunities and launch a surprise attack on targets in the waters near Port Said, at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal.
This mission was not an order from the domestic Admiralty or Lelouch. It was born entirely from Admiral Spee's own initiative and tactical flexibility.
This led Admiral Spee to a new conclusion—the main force of the Britannia Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet must have been completely lured away to Taranto, thousands of miles away. He had more than enough time to accomplish a little extra.
Furthermore, the Mediterranean Fleet lacked high-speed warships. As long as he employed hit-and-run tactics, the enemy's capital ships would never be able to catch him—unless they chose to block the exit of the Dardanelles, holding their ground to prevent him from returning home.
But in the current situation, the Brit Nation didn't have the combat power to spare for a standoff. If they went to block the straits, Spee could simply take the Goeben and roam all over the eastern Mediterranean, continuing to harass their shipping lanes. If push came to shove, he could hide in Alexandretta, Beirut, or any other newly captured friendly port, relying on coastal defense guns to protect himself while refusing to give battle.
Therefore, in the short term—at least until the reinforcement fleet from their homeland arrived—the Brit Nation could do nothing about Spee. The only vessels capable of catching him were light cruisers and destroyers, but those ships were no match for the Goeben.
This was the consequence of not deploying battlecruisers in the Mediterranean and neglecting to blockade the Dardanelles.
As for why Admiral Spee only brought the Goeben as his lone capital ship on this operation, it was because he was originally executing a maritime transport mission. All his ships were carrying less than their full capacity of ammunition and fuel to save tonnage for transporting troops and supplies.
Therefore, if he was truly going to execute a raid, it was better to bring fewer ships and have the returning warships transfer their shells and fuel to the assault force. The fleet had docked and unloaded on June 10. During the day on June 11, they were busy unloading and loading—for instance, transferring more than half of the Moltke's main gun shells into the Goeben's magazines. They moved all the high-explosive shells, leaving the Moltke with only a small portion of Armor-Piercing Shells.
The other light cruisers and destroyers also concentrated their shells and torpedoes onto the raiding vessels of the same class. Only after finishing all this on the night of June 11 did they quietly leave port and head south.
Following over thirty hours of sailing, they traveled nearly four hundred nautical miles south, arriving in the coastal waters outside Port Said before daybreak on June 13.
The fleet sailed very cautiously, not pushing for speed. The light cruiser Breslau and the two destroyers quietly scouted ahead, allowing the massive Goeben to navigate around any obstacles.
Especially during the day on June 12, the fleet hardly moved at all, afraid of being spotted by passing merchant ships.
After all, the closer they got to the Suez Canal, the denser the freighter traffic on the sea became. They could only sail with peace of mind at night.
The fleet didn't encounter any naval mines either, as Admiral Spee was incredibly prudent; he followed the safe civilian shipping lanes they had scouted out in advance.
Near Port Said at its northern mouth, the Suez Canal branched into two channels—one to the east and one to the west.
The eastern channel was for everyday use by civilian ships, bypassing the need to enter Port Said. They didn't require military pilots to guide them, and they wouldn't hit any mines even if they sailed freely (though those unfamiliar with the waters might run aground).
The western channel led straight to the Port Said anchorage. It was primarily a military port, but also a transit port for bulk energy materials like coal and oil. The shipping lane heading north from the western channel into the Mediterranean was laid with mines. It required navigation by a military pilot; otherwise, ships risked being blown up.
This made perfect sense. If they laid mines directly in the eastern civilian channel that didn't enter the port, civilian ships would be blown up and sunk without a pilot. And if they did send a pilot, there was no telling if those civilian ships harbored enemy spies posing as crew members. Once they memorized the route, the minefield locations would be leaked, rendering the mines meaningless.
Only purely military ports or heavily military-focused ports and channels warranted mine-laying. Mining heavily trafficked civilian routes was simply asking for trouble, as the level of secrecy could never be maintained.
This was common knowledge in the navy, and a seasoned veteran like Admiral Spee naturally knew it too. Thus, for this raid, he specifically targeted the eastern channel at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal.
As for the western channel and the dock area of Port Said, he had no intention of touching them, and if he did, it would only be with a long-range bombardment. The straight-line distance between the eastern and western channels at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal was only four kilometers. (One could easily measure this on Baidu Maps, as shown in the image below.)
Therefore, launching shells from the eastern channel across to the western channel was entirely feasible.
"Commander! We have arrived in the waters approximately twenty to thirty nautical miles north-northeast of Port Said. It's 4:30 AM now. If we go any further, we might be discovered."
After pinpointing their position one last time, the captain of the Goeben and the chief navigator carefully reported to Admiral Spee.
Admiral Spee lit his pipe, took a deep drag, and pondered intensely for a dozen seconds before finally ordering them to maintain their advance.
"There is no need to hesitate. We will sail forward until we can see the guiding lights of the estuary!"
"Yes, Commander!"
The fleet pressed onward. Around 4:50 AM, just as the very first faint glimmer of dawn began to lighten the sky, the light cruiser Breslau up ahead was the first to break radio silence and open fire.
"The Breslau has spotted Brit Nation patrol destroyers and torpedo boats! We have engaged the enemy!"
June 13 was just over a week away from the summer solstice. This was the season when dawn broke the earliest in the year. It wasn't even 5:00 AM, yet the sky already held its first trace of dim light.
Astoundingly, as the sky brightened, the Breslau discovered one enemy destroyer and two patrol torpedo boats at very close range—they were a mere six to ten kilometers apart.
In a normal daytime engagement, an enemy destroyer could definitely be spotted from a dozen kilometers away. Even the smallest, most inconspicuous torpedo boat would certainly be visible at ten kilometers.
It was absolutely impossible for both sides to close to within six kilometers before spotting one another; this was a bizarre situation that could only occur at the exact break of dawn.
However, the Demanian fleet clearly held the initiative. The crew aboard the Breslau were in a state of high alert, knowing they were executing a surprise attack and could encounter the enemy at any time. Their searches were incredibly meticulous.
In contrast, the Brit Nation ships opposite them were merely carrying out a routine patrol. They had been performing this task for nearly two years without a single accident.
Even after hearing in recent days about the enemy cargo transport at Alexandretta over six hundred kilometers to the north, Port Said's patrol fleet didn't think much of it. Very few expected the enemy to come charging straight for them.
"Bearing 220, distance 6,300 yards. Enemy destroyer spotted!"
"Port 30, starboard to the enemy! All main guns and starboard secondary guns, target the enemy ship and fire at will!"
With only six kilometers separating them, there was no need for strict centralized fire control. They just had to blast away.
Before the opposing Brit Nation destroyer could react, the Breslau seized the initiative and opened fire. Because the distance was so short, they zeroed in on their target within three minutes. Following successive hits from three 150mm shells and multiple 88mm shells, the Brit Nation destroyer violently exploded and broke apart.
Right up until its demise, the Brit Nation destroyer hadn't even completed its combat turn or swiveled its torpedo tubes.
Shortly after, the two Demanian destroyers also threw themselves into the fray.
From the rear, Admiral Spee commanded the Goeben to advance steadily, maintaining a distance of over ten kilometers from the enemy vessels to avoid torpedo ambushes. He simply used his 150mm secondary guns to fire plunging shots at any enemy destroyers and patrol ships that appeared in his line of sight.
At exactly 5:00 AM, the Brit Nation naval command inside Port Said erupted in chaos.
"A Demanian fleet is launching a surprise attack! Two of our destroyers and five of our patrol torpedo boats and submarine chasers have been sunk. Requesting reinforcements!"
A Brit Nation colonel in charge of the garrison inside Port Said panicked.
The main fleet had already been transferred away, and the few small ships remaining had to defend numerous ports separately. They were already stretched thin.
In the southeastern Mediterranean, the most heavily defended location was the Port of Alexandria to the west. The garrison commander there was at least a major general, while the officer defending Port Said was merely a colonel. The resources allocated to Port Said amounted to little more than a few scraps.
With just a handful of obsolete protected cruisers and a few destroyers, what could they possibly use to fight the enemy?
Of course, as a highly important military stronghold, Port Said had no shortage of coastal defense fortresses. Along the western channel, especially near the port area, there were multiple coastal batteries equipped with numerous 9.2-inch (234mm) and 150mm coastal defense guns.
However, these 9.2-inch guns were products of the late 1880s. At nearly thirty years old, their rate of fire was excruciatingly slow, managing only one round every 1.5 minutes. Their accuracy and range were also poor, and their barrel length was only 35 calibers.
After all, the eastern Mediterranean hadn't faced an enemy threat in decades. The Brit Nation's focus on port defense dated back to when relations between Britannia and France were tense. They had never once imagined that Port Said would one day be threatened by the Demanian Navy.
As for the 150mm coastal defense guns, there were some relatively updated models, many installed just over a decade ago. But their range obviously couldn't reach the Goeben.
If the Goeben insisted on attacking the Port Said anchorage, these batteries might have stood a chance.
Yet Spee had no intention of attacking the port, wishing only to inflict limited damage on the shipping channel several kilometers east of it. This conservative approach rendered the Brit Nation's coastal defense forces completely useless.
Seeing that they couldn't block the enemy fleet, and realizing that the enemy wasn't heading toward the port area at all but sailing straight south from the east, a few insightful officers inside the port's coastal defense fortresses finally grasped the problem.
"This is bad! Sir! The enemy is definitely going to attack the freighters navigating the eastern channel at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal! We can't let our destroyers shirk the fight. We must stall and intercept them at all costs! Also, tell all the freighters about to exit the eastern channel to turn around and take cover immediately! Do not sail north anymore, or they'll be sailing right into their muzzles!"
A lieutenant colonel named Andrew Cunningham hastily urged Colonel Jones Kelly, who was in charge of the port garrison.
"What? Their target isn't us? It's true, their course is further east! They were aiming to raid merchant ships instead of the port from the very beginning!"
Colonel Jones also confirmed this through his binoculars and cast an approving glance at Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham.
Half a year ago, this Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Cunningham had only been a major. But during the imperial navy's disastrous defeat in the Gallipoli campaign, Major Cunningham had performed exceptionally well as the captain of a mere destroyer. He earned a promotion and was assigned to Port Said as the commander of the port patrol fleet, placed under the jurisdiction of the highest-ranking port defense officer. (Colonel Jones was responsible for coordinating the overall defense, overseeing both the coastal defense fortresses and the patrol fleet, while Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham was solely in charge of the patrol fleet.)
At Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham's insistence, the Brit Nation destroyers that had initially been hiding under the protection of the port's batteries hastily set sail, preparing to mount a desperate interception.
But they quickly discovered that it was already too late.
"Report! Near the northern mouth of the Suez Canal's eastern channel, there are two oil tankers lined up to exit the canal. They cannot turn around! Their only option is to reverse! The widest part of the estuary is only three hundred meters, which isn't enough for their turning radius!"
Upon hearing the radio response from those two tankers, all the blood rushed to the heads of Colonel Jones and Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham.
Even in the 21st century of later generations, after multiple expansions, the Suez Canal's estuary was only five hundred meters wide. But the northern exit of the Suez Canal in 1916 had a total width of less than three hundred meters, and the main channel was only 160 meters wide, with a draft depth of fourteen meters.
This was already considered quite good. In some of the narrow, purely hand-dug sections in the middle of the canal, the width shrank to as little as seventy meters, with a draft of only nine meters. Even after later widenings, it was still only over a hundred meters wide with a fifteen-meter draft, which was exactly why a single Evergreen Marine freighter, the Ever Given, was able to perfectly run aground and completely block the canal for months.
With a main channel currently just 160 meters wide, how could a nearly 200-meter-long, 15,000-ton oil tanker possibly turn around directly? These tankers had no other choice but to either exit the estuary or reverse straight back the way they came.
Of those two tankers, the first frantically attempted to turn around, only to discover the channel wasn't wide enough, leaving it stuck there in a hopeless dilemma.
Seeing the predicament of its companion ahead, the second ship hurriedly changed tactics and opted to reverse instead.
But right at that moment, the battleship Goeben's 280mm high-explosive shells came screaming over.
At first, the shells landed at least several hundred meters away from the tankers. However, since the first tanker was essentially a stationary, broadside-facing target—stranded and unsure of how to maneuver—calibrating the firing solution was incredibly fast.
The sailors on the oil tankers were also far less elite than naval sailors. Many were terrified out of their wits by the artillery fire. They hadn't undergone training for evasive maneuvers and didn't know how to navigate the bombardment.
Just a few short minutes later, at exactly 5:20 AM, fate finally punished the Britannia forces. A single 280mm high-explosive shell smashed directly into the crude oil cargo hold of the 15,000-ton tanker.
A violent explosion hurled billowing crude oil into the air and spewed it across the sea, where it promptly ignited into a raging inferno.
From just one shell, the explosion in the crude oil hold snapped the entire ship in half, sinking it right in the middle of the channel.
Several minutes later, the second ship, which was still reversing, was also sunk. The scene was equally tragic.
Between 5:30 and 5:40 AM, a 10,000-ton grain transport ship sailing normally in the western channel and an 8,000-ton timber transport ship moored at the outermost berth of Port Said were successively sunk by the Goeben's long-range fire.
As for the light cruiser Breslau and the other two destroyers, they didn't rashly charge forward to execute such a dangerous task. Their guns were too small and their range too short; they couldn't snipe the freighters at the canal mouth from beyond the range of Port Said's 9.2-inch coastal defense guns.
All they could do was fiercely intercept the Brit Nation destroyers and torpedo boats that charged out of Port Said in an attempt to attack the Goeben.
At the same time, the Breslau didn't forget to empty all its torpedo tubes at maximum range, launching them from a distance of six to eight kilometers away from the northern mouth of the Suez Canal's western channel before quickly turning around and fleeing.
Bombardment required sustained output, meaning they would have to linger within the enemy's coastal gun firing range for far too long, which was too dangerous.
Launching torpedoes, on the other hand, only took a few minutes. They could drop their payload and run, making it well worth the attempt.
There was no point in firing torpedoes directly at the Port Said anchorage, as all the anchorages there were equipped with anti-torpedo nets.
However, the northern mouth of the Suez Canal's western channel had no anti-torpedo nets. This area constantly needed to allow merchant ships in and out, making it impossible to install them.
All the Demanian torpedoes had been custom-adjusted to a "slow-speed, long-range" mode. Essentially, they were fired as ultra-long-range lottery tickets creeping at a slow eighteen knots. Their effective range could reach over eight kilometers, and in reality, drifting for ten kilometers was entirely possible.
Such a low speed posed absolutely no threat to warships, unless it was used to execute a warship that had completely lost its mobility. But it was absolutely perfect for striking merchant ships.
Especially when firing torpedoes straight at the canal estuary, the enemy simply had no room to dodge.
A mere dozen minutes after the Breslau withdrew, a series of explosions rang out near the northern mouth of the Suez Canal's western channel, right next to Port Said, sending towering columns of water shooting into the air.
Three more freighters were taken out by this torpedo lottery, their sunken wrecks smashing haphazardly across the Suez Canal's main channel.
With three 10,000-ton ships sunk back-to-back within a span of just a few kilometers, the eastern channel was undoubtedly choked off completely. It would likely take at least three to five months of construction to clear it.
Several smaller ships had also been sunk in the western channel, which would likely block it for a month or so.
Throughout the entire battle, they also sank one Brit Nation light cruiser, four destroyers, and over a dozen torpedo boats and submarine chasers. Those ships simply lacked the numbers to break through the blockade formed by the Goeben's massive array of 150mm and 88mm secondary guns to launch their torpedoes. They had all merely thrown their lives away for nothing.
In the fierce fighting, the Brit Nation forces only managed to drag down one Demanian destroyer with them, while scoring a few shell hits on both the Goeben and the Breslau.
The Goeben had thick armor. The 150mm and 120mm shells that struck it only damaged some of the superstructure and equipment.
The Breslau lacked heavy armor and had a hole blown in it by two 150mm shells. Multiple 120mm shells had also ruined its forward main gun and starboard torpedo tubes, and its bridge had collapsed. Nevertheless, its structure remained relatively robust, allowing it to sail back for repairs.
Right before leaving, considering his position was already exposed, Admiral Spee sent an unencrypted telegram to mock the enemy, hoping to draw more aggro and alleviate the pressure on the High Seas Fleet back home: "If Admiral John Robeck doesn't come back soon, I'll just come back and block the canal again once the sunken ships are towed away."
(Note: Admiral John Robeck was the newly appointed commander of the Mediterranean Fleet who took over after the Gallipoli campaign. The previous commander, Admiral Sackville Carden, had died.)
