Chapter 261: The Mutually Destructive Operation Catapult |
Morning of June 18, Potsdam Palace.
It had been four days since the terms for Italy's surrender were issued, and three days since the Demanian Army resumed its southward march from Siena, closing in on Rome.
Emanuele III had fled Rome late at night on June 16, sailing via Naples to Francia-controlled Genoa. Starting on the 17th, the remaining Italian authorities had begun contacting Demanian negotiators.
The negotiations went extremely smoothly; by the 18th, there was already a preliminary intention for a ceasefire. His Excellency Zimmermann, the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs handling diplomacy, immediately sent this good news back to Berlin via a Secret Telegram.
Upon hearing the news, Emperor Wilhelm was highly elated. He once again summoned Baron Lelouch, who had provided crucial advice regarding the ceasefire negotiations, partly to show off his own civil and military achievements.
At the time, Lelouch was preoccupied with matters concerning the Grand Duke of Baden, preparing to set up plans regarding Sweden and Norway. Summoned by the Emperor, he had no choice but to hurry over and listen to the Emperor's boasting first.
"Your idea was excellent. The Italians have indeed agreed to hand over their weapons and fleet for a ceasefire first. This will be realized very soon."
"So fast? His Excellency Zimmermann truly acts with sweeping efficiency and capability. Congratulations, Your Majesty." Lelouch offered a couple of obligatory compliments first. Then, prompted by some strange instinct, he casually decided to help check for loopholes. "However, we cannot be careless. After all, Britannia and Francia urgently sent their navies over to assist Italy. At a critical juncture, given the sheer shamelessness of the Britannians, it is highly possible they might launch a surprise attack on their former allies to obstruct this.
"The Britannians might not be able to stop the portion of the Italian fleet currently patrolling outside the ports and yet to return. But we must be careful regarding the fleet remaining in their home port of Taranto. Perhaps we can find a way to accelerate sowing discord between Italy and Britannia, and use our own methods to take some precautions."
However, considering that Lelouch's jinxing mouth was almost miraculously accurate—every bad thing he casually predicted seemed to eventually come true—it was something they had to guard against.
"The Britannians have indeed always been shameless, but how should we guard against this? By having the Italian warships patrolling the waters near Venice surrender to us immediately? And then accept our command? Would they be willing?"
The Emperor did not quite understand the specific command affairs of the navy, nor did he know how to ensure a smooth and secure transition. Thus, he simply made a phone call to have Admiral Tirpitz come over to Potsdam Palace.
An hour later, Admiral Tirpitz rushed over. After understanding the situation, he gave his prudent opinion. "Expecting the Italians to cooperate with us immediately is unlikely. Any command system or operational plan requires time to integrate.
"If we are worried about the Britannians suddenly launching a surprise attack on their former allies, we can have the Italians immediately hand over all the minefield maps for the Adriatic Sea and take responsibility for navigating for us. We can ask our ally, Austria, to send their fleet south from Trieste.
"Additionally, since attacking Port Said five days ago, the Spee Fleet has now returned to Izmir and completed its resupply. Although the Goeben still has some minor, unrepaired damage, it is capable of taking action.
"Ever since the Italians decided to surrender, the Osmans have been requesting Spee to conduct joint operations with them to recover the Dodecanese, and Spee has also sent people to apply for this. If Your Majesty is willing to assist the Osmans, you can approve this operation. Having the Spee Fleet advance to the Dodecanese would also allow them to respond faster."
The so-called Dodecanese were 12 small archipelagos in the Aegean Sea off the southwest corner of the Asia Minor peninsula. In total, there were over 150 islands, though only 26 were inhabited, the most famous being Rhodes. Centuries ago, when the Knights Hospitaller—one of Europe's three major knightly orders—fought against the Osmans, they initially used Rhodes as their base. They only retreated to Malta after it fell.
Ever since the Osmans expelled the Knights Hospitaller centuries ago, the Dodecanese had been Osman territory. However, in the Italo-Osman War that broke out in 1911, Osman was defeated, and the Dodecanese were occupied by the Italian army, with the cession subsequently confirmed in the armistice treaty.
Therefore, the Dodecanese had only been occupied by Italy for five years. Naturally, the Osmans had constantly longed to take them back. Now that Italy had finally betrayed its alliance, joined the enemy, and subsequently been crushed by the alliance leader, the Osmans immediately came to ask their leader to uphold justice.
Since Demania had already declared it would return the Veneto region to Orio in the future, it couldn't just ignore the Dodecanese right on Osman's doorstep.
Emperor Wilhelm originally hadn't had the time to bother with such trivial matters. But since it was convenient now—and the port of Izmir was only just over a hundred nautical miles from the Dodecanese—heading south along the way to control these islands would also make it easier to enter and exit the Aegean Sea in the future and stir up trouble in the eastern Mediterranean.
Moreover, if they really needed to head to Taranto later, heading south in advance would cut their journey by over a hundred nautical miles and allow the warships' main engines to warm up beforehand.
Since it was all something that could be done in passing, he approved it.
Seeing that the diplomatic obstacles had been cleared away, Tirpitz could naturally handle the military issues himself without troubling the Emperor.
Tirpitz immediately returned to the Admiralty. Through a relay of wired telegraphs and aircraft, he issued orders to Admiral Spee in Izmir, instructing him to set sail with the main fleet immediately for the Dodecanese and await further orders.
At the same time, the Emperor had the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs send a secret liaison to the Orios. He also had Marshal Leopold, commander of the 10th Army currently in the Italian war zone, contact the Orio navy to demand preparations for joint operations.
Seeing that Demania was willing to return Venice to them in the future, the Orios naturally obeyed every word at this time.
Although the Orio navy had accomplished little since the beginning of the war and had been constantly blockaded in Trieste, the current stakes were high enough. A prize as large as Venice was worth fighting for. Moreover, the Demanians had said they would coordinate joint operations if possible. Since the Italians were willing to surrender, their Adriatic Sea minefield maps—especially the minelaying maps for the Strait of Otranto—had already been handed over.
That night, the relevant emergency consultations were roughly concluded. The Austrian Emperor Franz personally issued orders to Admiral Horthy, the fleet commander in Trieste, to cooperate with Marshal Leopold's requirements for joint operations.
On June 19, Admiral Horthy urgently formulated a plan, had the warships pre-heat their boilers, and negotiated with the Italians who had handed over the minefield maps.
The Italian squadron remaining in the waters near Venice was also forced to dispatch a dreadnought to guide the Orio navy south, so they could eventually pass through the Strait of Otranto—between Corfu and Taranto—and leave the Adriatic Sea.
Evidently, the Orios did not completely trust the Italians yet. Admiral Horthy feared that the minefield maps provided by the Italians were fake, or at least had omissions. By having an Italian battleship sail at the very front to "sweep for mines," if there were any problems, the Italians would suffer first.
The Italians swallowed their pride and agreed to this request, but they stated they would only act as a guide. They would not fall under the Austrian navy's command, nor would they participate in their operations. If the Austrians could keep up with their pace, fine; if not, that was the Austrians' own problem.
The Britannians had no idea that there was someone in this world who had heard of the Operation Catapult that would take place over twenty years later on Earth, and thus could fully anticipate the shameless possibility of the Royal Navy backstabbing its allies.
The commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral John de Robeck, and Rear Admiral Osmond Brock, who had come to reinforce him, both still believed that their highly unexpected action could not possibly be guarded against in advance.
They had rushed to arrive at the Port of Taranto on June 17, followed by a day of emergency resupply, taking on fuel and coal. June 18 passed mostly without incident.
On the 19th, they learned that the Demanians and the Italians seemed to have reached an intention for an armistice the previous day, though they did not yet know the specific conditions. It was also on that day that they received orders from the First Lord of the Admiralty in the rear, Edward Carson: "In case of any unforeseen events, launch Operation Catapult."
But the Admiralty's requirement was simply to prevent the Italian navy from defecting to the enemy, even if it meant sinking them if necessary. As for how to fight exactly, the Admiralty couldn't provide a detailed plan. It required Admiral Robeck and Rear Admiral Brock to adapt to the local conditions and act according to the circumstances.
Thus, throughout June 19, Admiral Robeck urgently scouted the defensive layout of Taranto. He made targeted adjustments to the status of their own warships, determining how they should pre-heat their boilers before the battle started, how to launch a surprise attack on the former friendly warships that hadn't fired up their boilers yet, and especially how to take out the coastal defense batteries at close range in the very first moments—
This last point was particularly important. As one of Italy's most important fleet home ports, Taranto also possessed numerous coastal defense guns.
However, the Italians' coastal defense guns were quite peculiar. Their current main model was called the Obice 305/17, a short-barreled howitzer with a 305mm caliber but a barrel length of merely 17 calibers.
When designing this gun, the Italians had wanted to achieve the goal of "a single gun that can serve both for coastal defense and for future mobile combat alongside the troops." Therefore, in order to compress the total weight of the gun, they forcefully shortened the barrel to 17 calibers. As a result, even if this gun fired at a 45-degree elevation, its maximum range was only 18 kilometers, far shorter than the main guns of other battleships.
The advantage was that the gun's total weight was reduced to 33 tons, allowing it to be disassembled into several components to advance with troops in field combat. But in reality, during the more than a year since Italy entered the war, it hadn't been of any damn use. Because the previous battlefields on the Isonzo River front were all mountain warfare, even if a 33-ton giant gun could be disassembled, it couldn't maneuver in the mountains and simply couldn't be hauled to the absolute front lines.
The 17-caliber 305mm howitzer fired 300-kilogram high-explosive shells or 440-kilogram armor-piercing shells. Because the barrel was too short and the muzzle velocity too low, the armor penetration of the 440-kilogram armor-piercing shell was only between that of a 240mm and a 280mm naval gun, but its explosive power was much stronger than a 280mm gun.
"The armor-piercing power of these coastal defense guns isn't that great, but they are fixed emplacements after all. In a real fight, their hit rate will definitely be very high. Tomorrow morning, before it gets light, we'll secretly fire up the boilers to pre-heat and prepare to leave port. We'll pre-aim at the enemy's main large-caliber coastal defense gun positions based on the angles and elevations calculated before dark tonight. Specifically, the ones capable of rotating 360 degrees and firing into the port must be destroyed immediately.
"Then, we will issue a warning, demanding the Italian navy in the port to come with us. If they are willing to cooperate, we won't kill them. If they show any signs of resistance, any signs of turning their muzzles toward us, we strike first immediately!"
After finalizing the combat plan, Admiral John de Robeck briefed Rear Admiral Osmond Brock as such, dividing their tasks clearly and instructing him to act according to the circumstances.
After all, the Britannians weren't pure demons; a bare minimum of courtesy before resorting to force was still necessary. Otherwise, a pure sneak attack would be far too shameless and detrimental to their international image.
Even Operation Catapult in the Earth timeline, which backstabbed the French fleet, involved diplomacy before violence—first trying to persuade the French fleet to follow them and fight for freedom, and only opening fire to backstab them when the French refused.
In any case, there was nothing wrong with firing up the boilers and pre-aiming first; it was considered a very obvious first-mover advantage.
At the same time, when formulating the plan, Admiral Robeck also feared that the enemy's strength was too great and the aftermath would be hard to manage. So he sent a Secret Telegram requesting the Admiralty to coordinate and have the Francia navy's fleet in Marseille urgently come over as reinforcements for any contingencies. The Franks hadn't been invited by the Italian navy, but they could hurry to the Britannia-controlled port in Malta to stand by first.
The island of Malta was the closest Britannia-controlled naval base to Taranto, only 400 nautical miles away. A dreadnought traveling at full speed could get there in 20 hours. If any accidents truly occurred, having a Francia fleet waiting at the Port of Valletta in Malta meant they could provide support at any time.
The night passed uneventfully. At dawn the next day, the Britannia navy indeed began calling out to the Italian navy over loudspeakers as planned, and used uncoded radio transmissions to demand the Italian navy's surrender.
"Brothers of the Italian navy, Demania is the enemy that is destroying your motherland. The one forced to Turin by the Demanians is your true King. Those who followed His Majesty the King to Turin are the true loyal subjects, the true warriors fighting for the nation.
"Rome has fallen into the hands of usurpers. Now, at the request of the Turin authorities, we are here to take you to the port of Genoa to continue fighting for Italy. If you do not agree, then you are rebels of the Kingdom of Italy!"
When the Britannians broadcasted the message, it was quite well-crafted and placed great emphasis on righteousness and legitimacy. They didn't directly demand a surrender in their own name, but rather issued orders in the name of the King who had fled to Turin and was protected by Francia bayonets.
Moreover, they had indeed done their homework in advance; they had asked Emanuele III to give them this authorization to bring the wavering "surrendering troops" back.
The warships remaining in Taranto were currently still considered "surrendering troops" or "soldiers unwilling to continue resisting." But if the King summoned them and they still didn't budge, then they could be counted as rebels.
Furthermore, strictly speaking, Emanuele III was not yet in exile. He was still on Italian soil; he had just gone to Turin.
His current status was much like that of King Albert I of Belgin a year and a half ago. At that time, the Belgin authorities couldn't be considered a government in exile either, because the last 5% of their homeland—the Ypres salient—had not been occupied by the Demanian Army. The King was simply persisting in resistance on that final 5% of territory and had not left the country.
The current Francia protectorates like Turin and Genoa were equivalent to the Ypres salient from a year and a half prior.
But obviously, the Italian army's resolve to resist was not even as strong as the Belgin army's. Moreover, Rome already had another authority negotiating an armistice with Demania. Handing over the fleet could reduce territorial cessions; how could they possibly take the fleet away?
If the fleet was taken away, perhaps the territories of the Bologna and Tuscany regions would also be ceded to the Demanians as collateral for "failing to deliver the fleet."
The Italian navy immediately rejected the Britannians' demands. While they began negotiating to stall for time, they secretly and urgently fired up their warships' boilers to pre-heat.
During the first half-hour or so when the warships just started firing their boilers, not much activity could be seen, as smoke hadn't even begun to rise from the funnels yet, and the warships hadn't started moving.
By the time the funnels started smoking, although the warships still couldn't sail immediately, as long as power was prioritized to the hydraulic systems via isolation valves, they could get the turrets and other mechanisms to rotate and elevate first.
When the Britannians observed smoke starting to billow from the Italian warships' funnels, and those few 360-degree fully rotating turrets at the highest points beginning to turn, Admiral Robeck finally knew he couldn't delay any longer.
He had to strike first immediately!
"All ships, engage pre-aimed targets, fire at will!"
The battleships Barham, Bellerophon, and Agincourt, the battlecruiser Tiger, and the Royal Navy's last four pre-dreadnoughts—HMS Hindustan, HMS Africa, Russell, and Cornwallis—along with the pre-dreadnoughts Liberté and Charles Martel (which the Mediterranean Fleet had long since scrounged from the Francia military to provide fire support), all set sail while simultaneously opening fire on the Italian navy.
(Note: The Francia military had lent these pre-dreadnoughts when requested earlier. They were borrowed prior to the Gallipoli campaign—see Chapter 142 for details—and suffered slight losses in subsequent events, which is why the remaining ships directly appeared in the Mediterranean Fleet's lineup this time.)
With the two sides opening fire at an engagement distance of merely a few kilometers, the hit rate was frighteningly high, and the effect of the initial surprise attack was extremely apparent.
Opposite them, the Italians currently only had three relatively slow dreadnoughts in the Port of Taranto. These were the oldest Dante, as well as the Cavour-class Cavour and Cesare.
The Italians' two most cutting-edge Andrea Doria-class battleships were currently out executing patrol missions. The third ship of the Cavour-class, the Da Vinci, was along with them and had just been ordered by the Austrian navy to act as a guide.
As for the Italians' obsolete pre-dreadnoughts, there were seven in total. Six of them (four Roma-class and two Emanuele-class) had been left in Taranto because their speed was too slow to keep up with the fast dreadnought fleet's operations.
Only one, the Emanuele, had been taken away by King Emanuele and was now in the port of Genoa.
Therefore, inside the Port of Taranto, an artillery duel between three Britannia dreadnoughts, one Britannia battlecruiser, and six pre-dreadnoughts against three Italian dreadnoughts and six pre-dreadnoughts broke out at an intensely close, visceral range.
The Britannians held the initiative of a surprise attack. Right from the start, they concentrated the firepower of their dreadnoughts to obliterate the four Obice 305/17 omnidirectional coastal defense turrets located on high ground near the port. Meanwhile, the Britannia pre-dreadnoughts locked onto the Italian pre-dreadnoughts and ruthlessly unleashed a barrage. Before the Italians could return fire, they focused their attacks and directly blew up and sank the two relatively fragile Emanuele-class pre-dreadnoughts.
It couldn't be helped. The Taranto harbor was only just over 8 kilometers long from east to west, and over 4 kilometers wide from north to south. The Britannia warships' berths were closer to the outer port, while the Italian warships' berths were further inside. Thus, the maximum theoretical engagement distance was only 8 kilometers, while in reality, they were generally separated by just five or six kilometers.
In the Earth timeline's Battle of Jutland, engagement distances were all above 15 kilometers, with naval gun hit rates dropping below 3%.
The current engagement distance was a mere 5 kilometers, and it was a stationary-to-stationary shootout. The naval gun hit rate was at least 20% or higher, and the armor penetration rate was incredibly high. The advantage of having the first strike was simply too immense.
However, after weathering the initial five to ten minutes of the surprise attack, the Italians quickly mounted a stubborn resistance.
They were fighting for survival and had no choice. At a time like this, even if they surrendered, it was impossible to let the enemy know they had surrendered. A single stray shell could cost them their lives.
Although the Italian warships could not sail, their turrets could already rotate, elevate, and open fire.
The Dante locked onto the battleship Barham and fired furiously. But it soon proved through its own recklessness that it had hastily chosen the wrong target—the armor of this super iron turtle, the Barham, was far too thick. Claimed to be designed against 15-inch guns, its armor could not be guaranteed to be fully penetrated by the small guns of a first-generation dreadnought like the Dante, even at a distance of 7 kilometers.
The Dante only managed to blast apart some of the Barham's superstructure and punch a few holes in non-vital areas before it was blown open by the Barham's ferocious 15-inch guns, settling into the mud at its berth.
The Cavour and the Cesare learned from the Dante's lesson. From the beginning, they didn't stubbornly fixate on the enemy's heavily armored flagship, but instead chose to trade blows with the battleship Agincourt, which appeared to have "high offense and low defense."
The Agincourt was a monster battleship claiming to have the most main gun turrets in the world, the holy relic of the "seven-turret cult," boasting a full seven turrets with fourteen 305mm main guns.
Because it had to accommodate seven main turrets, the ship's length was even greater than the much later-built Queen Elizabeth-class. Thus, at first glance, it appeared to be the largest behemoth in the Britannia fleet today—the Barham was only 195 meters long, while the Agincourt was 205 meters long.
However, the Agincourt was merely longer and bulkier, while its tonnage was actually lighter than the Barham's. It was obviously bloated; its tonnage had been poured into firepower, leaving its armor relatively weak.
The thickest part of the Agincourt's main armor was only 9 inches, quite similar to its high-offense, low-defense peers like the Lushans' Gangut-class. The Barham's main armor, however, was a full 13 inches at its thickest, almost fifty percent thicker than the Agincourt's.
A shootout between such high-offense, low-defense vessels was like two eggs smashing each other with sledgehammers.
Within just a few minutes, both the Cavour and the Cesare suffered violent explosions. But the Agincourt had also been pierced with over a dozen massive holes. The intense explosions ultimately caused all three of these battleships to sink to the bottom of the port one after another.
The Cavour sank first, and the Agincourt went down after sinking the Cavour and heavily damaging the Cesare.
The last to sink, the Cesare, turned its guns before dying and furiously fired dozens of shells at the Bellerophon. It scored at least seven or eight hits, blowing the Bellerophon's starboard main turret right off and into the sea. It also utterly obliterated the Bellerophon's starboard secondary battery deck, destroying nearly all the starboard secondary guns, and completely collapsed its funnels and rear bridge.
In the shootout between the pre-dreadnought groups, the Franks' Charles Martel and Liberté were both sunk by the Italians. The Britannians' Russell and Cornwallis also had their waterline armor blasted through in multiple places, taking on severe flooding and suffering a drop in speed. The strongest King Edward VII-class ships, HMS Hindustan and HMS Africa, were fortunately not targeted.
The Britannia and Francia allied forces' pre-dreadnoughts paid the price of two sunk and two damaged. The Italians naturally fared worse; all six of their pre-dreadnoughts were sunk in battle, with two of them going down directly during the initial stage of the surprise attack without getting a chance to do anything at all.
In the end, the Britannians paid the price of one dreadnought sunk, one dreadnought heavily damaged, two pre-dreadnoughts sunk, and two pre-dreadnoughts heavily damaged.
They achieved the result of sinking three Italian dreadnoughts and six pre-dreadnoughts, and also destroyed all of the Italians' omnidirectional Obice 305/17 coastal defense turrets in the Port of Taranto.
But the matter was clearly not over yet. The auxiliary vessels on both sides were also frantically trading fire with their naval guns, suffering heavy losses. Right now, because the Italian warships hadn't gotten moving yet, they couldn't easily close in to point-blank range to launch torpedo attacks.
Once the Italian warships were able to sail and launched suicidal torpedo charges, it was destined to be another massive bloodbath.
Therefore, a mere half hour after the battle began, having sunk the main Italian ships, Admiral John de Robeck decisively ordered the fleet to charge out of the Port of Taranto and evacuate immediately.
During the retreat, those coastal defense guns that were previously restricted by their fields of fire—able to shoot outside the port but not inside—would obviously do everything in their power to give a parting salvo to these enemy ships that had just ransacked their home.
"I didn't expect the Italians to react so quickly. Even though their boilers weren't even fired up, they still managed to launch such a counterattack. Had I known, we wouldn't have warned them at the start and just launched a sneak attack directly!"
For some things, you never know how poor the quality is until they take a hit. Admiral Robeck obviously hadn't anticipated that the monster that was the Agincourt would have such terrible practical defense and actually sink. Otherwise, if they could have ensured that their dreadnoughts withdrew from the battle only damaged but not sunk, today's fight would have been considered a worthwhile trade.
Now, it could only be considered a pyrrhic victory.
"What? The Britannians actually sneak-attacked the Italian fleet in Taranto? They are truly that shameless?"
"To think it was successfully predicted by Lelouch's apocalyptic jinxing mouth once again!"
A mere 20 minutes after the backstabbing surprise attack at Taranto broke out, both the Spee Fleet in the coastal waters of Greece and the Horthy Fleet in the Adriatic Sea learned of the event.
Knowing that the Britannia fleet and Italy were engaged in a life-and-death struggle, the Demanian and Austrian navies naturally didn't want to let this opportunity slip by. They quickly sped up, wanting to take advantage of the enemy's mutual destruction to see if they could pick up any easy spoils.
"All ships, accelerate to 21 knots and steam out of the Strait of Otranto at full speed! Set course for Taranto!"
Horthy immediately issued attack orders to all four of his Viribus Unitis-class battleships. The auxiliary vessels also sped ahead, casting their reconnaissance net even wider.
The battleship Da Vinci, which was responsible for leading the way, became very proactive in guiding the Austrians after learning that all three of its fellow dreadnoughts had been sunk by the Britannians.
On the Demanian side, Admiral Spee appeared even more decisive. "All ships, overload boilers, accelerate to 28.5 knots! Set course for Taranto immediately—no! Set course for Malta! The Britannians are definitely going to retreat to Malta after being damaged in their shootout with the Italians! We'll intercept them directly halfway between Taranto and Malta! Have the light cruisers extend the search net 80 nautical miles ahead, and strive to discover the enemy fleet's position in advance!"
And not long after Admiral Spee ordered them to sail for Malta, he received another piece of good news from the Radio Set.
"Commander! It's a telegram from the Admiralty. The Admiralty has urgently coordinated with the Italians, requesting that they temporarily open several of their southernmost military airfields for our reconnaissance planes to land and transfer, so we can track and scout the movements of the retreating Britannia fleet! The Italian authorities have already agreed, and they stated that they will also track and scout on their own."
The radio operator of the Goeben reported to Admiral Spee as such.
"Excellent! Excellent! This time we must definitely tear another chunk of flesh off them!" Admiral Spee became increasingly exhilarated, rubbing his hands together in preparation for a major undertaking.
