Chapter 166: Defecting on the Battlefield! Brothers, Fight the Tsar's Guard!

"It's over! That demon Hipper really caught up to us!"

Seeing Hipper's fleet emerge on the horizon, Admiral von Essen felt an involuntary surge of despair. He had done his utmost to guard against enemy reinforcements, yet he had still been a fraction too late to escape.

He subconsciously looked toward the northeast. Two hours further in that direction lay the Hanko Peninsula, where Peter the Great had once annihilated the Sweden fleet.

But could he still lead his men back there? Even if they reached the Hanko Peninsula, they would need to sail for at least another two hours to retreat deep into the Gulf of Finland and reach the protection of their minefields. It was already too late.

The only option left was to fight!

Hipper pursued with tremendous urgency. Pushing to an overload top speed of 28.5 knots allowed him to quickly catch up to the old 1888-built pre-dreadnought "Rostislav" trailing at the rear of von Essen's fleet.

The ship sailed far too slowly, equipped with only four 305mm 35-caliber old-style short-barreled guns—a model finalized in 1886.

Their firing rate was as abysmally slow as the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan"—or rather, they were products of the exact same era, taking a full three minutes to fire a single shot.

Hipper maintained his top-speed pursuit while simultaneously adjusting his fire, aided by ample reconnaissance aircraft overhead providing precise spotter reports on range errors. Fifteen minutes later, when the first 305mm armor-piercing shell struck the hull of the "Rostislav," it instantly blasted a massive hole into the ship, and its speed plummeted.

If converted to the equivalent of harvey armor steel, its effectiveness dropped by at least thirty percent. Converted to Krupp steel, it required another ten percent reduction. Therefore, it was actually only equivalent to a little over 180mm of German dreadnought armor.

Within a mere five minutes of that first shell hitting, the "Rostislav" was sunk by concentrated fire from three battlecruisers, achieving absolutely no counterattack results throughout the entire ordeal. Its main guns had managed to fire two volleys—eight shells in total—but not a single one hit its mark.

...

"Terrifying. Massacred without the slightest ability to fight back. If I were a Lusha man, if I were commanding those two pieces of old trash, I would definitely run right now."

Tucked away inside the conning tower of the "Derfflinger," Lelouch witnessed the entire sequence through his binoculars, muttering these words to Vice-Admiral Hipper.

The other staff officers, adjutants, and the ship's captain standing around the Vice-Admiral were already used to this. They all knew the elusive Colonel Lelouch conversed with their Vice-Admiral as a close friend, freely voicing whatever outrageous thoughts came to mind.

"Don't you have a strong sense of military honor as well? That doesn't sound like something you would say," Hipper casually teased back.

"This has nothing to do with honor; this is a one-sided, utterly meaningless suicide. How high do you think the enemy sailors' sense of honor really is? Do you think they'll fight to the bitter end even when they know for a fact they'll die?"

Lelouch casually bantered. It wasn't that he possessed some profound foresight; he was merely lamenting based on the history he had read in his previous life.

During World War I, so many collapsing monarchies had started unraveling with their sailors. When Emperor Wilhelm mocked the cruisers bombarding the Tsar, did he ever imagine that the fires of his own rebellion would be sparked by the sailors in Kiel?

Sailors were far more rational than the army, knowing perfectly well that willpower had little effect on the outcome of a naval battle. Land warfare might offer more room for triumph through sheer will, but naval warfare simply did not.

However, perhaps it was just Lelouch's good luck. He was merely reminiscing and sighing over history, but right as he spoke, an anomaly occurred within the opposing Lusha fleet.

Of the two remaining utterly garbage 1888-model pre-dreadnoughts, one of them—which Lelouch later learned was named the "Twelve Apostles"—unexpectedly broke directly away from the battle line and fled alone toward the southeast upon seeing the German ships closing in.

Judging by its course, it likely couldn't return to the Hanko Peninsula or Helsinki. Instead, it was probably heading for the southern coast around Tallinn.

Hipper's three Derfflinger-class ships hadn't originally planned to chase it down anyway; they were just sweeping forward from a rear diagonal angle along the Lusha fleet's battle line. At the time, their primary target was the "Georgy" trailing right behind it. Only after the "Georgy" was destroyed would it be the turn of the "Twelve Apostles."

But who could blame them, when this "firing squad by queue" style of warfare gave people such a highly predictable expectation of their impending doom?

The "Georgy" wasn't dead yet, but in the eyes of its comrades, it was already a dead man walking. Therefore, the "Twelve Apostles" hastily anticipated this outcome, seizing the opportunity to run while the enemy wasted time killing their ally.

By the time their ally died, it would be too late to run!

Aboard the "Twelve Apostles," there might have been some arguments, perhaps even internal strife and a firefight, as there were members of the loyal Tsar's Guard stationed on the ship. But no one would ever know for sure.

Watching the "Twelve Apostles" break formation and flee alone, the lookouts on the "Derfflinger" immediately reported the situation, prompting the captain to ask for instructions from Vice-Admiral Hipper: "Commander, should we split our forces to pursue that ship?"

Hipper raised a hand. "There's no need. Do not divide our forces and compromise our pursuit of the enemy dreadnoughts. Let those little pieces of trash run. If anything, it removes a distraction that would have otherwise drawn our fire away from the dreadnoughts."

After speaking, Hipper revealed a look of mingled doubt and awe, asking Lelouch earnestly, "Could it be that you actually predicted what just happened?"

"No, no, no, I'm no prophet. I've just read a lot of history, so I was merely sighing and using the past to reflect on the present."

Lelouch hastily explained that he was simply extrapolating the general laws of human nature through history.

Hipper sighed deeply, noncommittal. "Then I should read more history books as well. I've long heard that you are well-versed in thousands of years of Eastern history and military strategy, but I never expected you could unearth so much... adaptability and insight into the human heart from them."

During the few minutes the two men chatted, the main guns of the three Derfflinger-class ships had already taken aim at the "Georgy" and opened fire.

In the first volley, the shells landed at least 800 meters wide, but a minute later, they were calibrated down to just over 300 meters away. The margin of error was shrinking drastically.

By the time the "Derfflinger" fired its third volley, with one of the shells landing less than 50 meters from the enemy ship to score a near-miss, they quickly saw a massive white flag hoisted up the mainmast of the "Georgy"!

They wanted to surrender? Could they be trusted?

"Cease fire and observe for now! As long as the enemy ship doesn't return fire, we can hold our fire, but maintain a distance of at least 12 kilometers! Simultaneously, maintain our speed."

Hipper swiftly made his judgment, issuing precise and perfectly measured orders.

He knew the extreme maximum range of the enemy ship's 35-caliber short-barreled guns couldn't even reach 12 kilometers. By keeping that distance, they were absolutely safe, with nothing to fear from any enemy tricks.

However, merely ceasing fire wasn't enough. Hipper quickly had the ship's communications officer send two open-code telegrams:

He demanded the enemy ship turn its main guns to face directly forward and backward, immediately turn around and sail southwest, and accept a boarding party from their large torpedo boats.

The enemy ship complied with the first two demands within minutes, but because time was tight, the two sides would soon pass each other by. Hipper didn't have the time to immediately dispatch large torpedo boats to board and capture them right then and there.

Therefore, the third condition was mostly just a formality. As long as the enemy ship maintained its current course, by the time it left the sight of the Derfflinger-class ships, it would be intercepted and secured by the two Nassau-class ships following from the rear.

Three garbage pre-dreadnoughts: one instantly obliterated, one deserted and fled, and one surrendered. This overwhelming momentum sent the morale of the Demania fleet skyrocketing, while the spirits of the three crippled Gangut-class ships fleeing ahead sank even lower.

The "Sevastopol" and the "Poltava" had already begun to accelerate the moment they witnessed the Derfflinger-class annihilate the "Rostislav."

Pushing their speed up to 22 knots, they gradually abandoned the more heavily damaged "Petropavlovsk," which couldn't keep pace with the formation.

Another fifteen minutes later, Hipper finally caught up to the "Petropavlovsk."

Because its comrades had sped up and fled, this Gangut-class ship, which had only six main guns remaining, was forced to face a righteous three-on-one beating all by itself.

In his heart, Hipper knew it was to win without martial virtue, but this was a prime opportunity to flex their muscles. Thus, he repeatedly ordered all ships to fully unleash the gunnery skills they had honed during training, put on a good show, and slaughter this ship as a warning to the other two.

The spotting advantages provided by the fighter planes and reconnaissance aircraft above were to be fully exploited as well.

The fleet cautiously closed to within 15 kilometers before opening fire. Furthermore, they maintained their top speed while firing, continuously shrinking the distance.

"Compared to battleships, the biggest defensive weakness of battlecruisers is that our horizontal protection is weaker—our deck armor is thinner. Therefore, closing the distance is advantageous for us. It forces the enemy's trajectory to be flat, meaning even if they hit us, it will strike our main side armor belt.

The main side armor of the Derfflinger-class is 12 inches thick, just like the Nassau-class, though our decks are two inches thinner. We absolutely must not let the enemy utilize plunging fire to strike from above."

After issuing his commands, Hipper calmly shared this experience with Lelouch, who stood beside him. He wanted to make sure Lelouch understood both the what and the why of his tactics.

Listening intently, Lelouch obligingly nodded again and again, acting as though he had just been enlightened. He provided ample emotional validation, even though he already knew this basic common sense.

The "Petropavlovsk" desperately wanted to counterattack, but the enemy ships' sheer speed made aiming incredibly difficult. Furthermore, the Lusha forces had completely lost air superiority; they had no spotter planes in the sky whatsoever.

The Lusha ship fired blindly with its six remaining main guns. By the time they fired their sixth volley, the opposing main guns had already dialed in their accuracy. Twelve-inch shells slammed brutally against the Lusha ship's main armor belt, blasting a gaping hole with every detonation.

Thick black smoke and rolling flames belched from the ruptures. Before long, both the boiler and engine rooms were heavily damaged. Scalding steam violently vented throughout the hull. The Lusha damage control teams shut every valve they possibly could, yet they still couldn't control the furious leak of steam.

Seawater surged madly through the breaches in the pierced main armor on the port side. Already taking on massive amounts of water at the bow and stern, the "Petropavlovsk" was finally overwhelmed by this compounding, massive port-side flood. Ultimately, entirely stripped of its reserve buoyancy, it settled straight down to the bottom of the sea—

This marked the first time since the start of the World War that a ship had perished in such a manner. Prior to this, even when battleships sank from taking on too much water after being blasted by torpedoes or mines, the vast majority capsized and rolled over.

Compared to capsizing, settling straight down was far more indicative of a warship's fundamental armor flaws. It meant this wasn't merely a localized vulnerability, but rather that the entire ship was effortlessly penetrated and flooded from every conceivable angle.

Perhaps it would go down in the history of human warfare as the quintessential negative example of a "high offense, low defense" dreadnought.

A measly nine-inch-thick main side armor belt was truly unacceptable!

Even the heaviest armored cruisers boasted eight inches of armor. Being a mere one inch thicker than the heaviest armored cruiser, how could it even have the face to call itself a battleship?

...

Without paying the slightest price, the Demanians focused their fire and sank the "Petropavlovsk."

Although that ship had already been half-crippled, this outcome still profoundly shocked the officers and sailors aboard the remaining two vessels.

No matter what, it was still a dreadnought. It was one of the Lusha Baltic Fleet's only four dreadnoughts, the exact same class as the remaining survivors.

The fact that the Demanians could obliterate the "Petropavlovsk" without taking a single scratch meant they were equally capable of instantly destroying the remaining two ships unharmed, or at worst, suffering only light damage.

Just moments ago, among those three pieces of garbage 1888-model pre-dreadnoughts, the second surrendered and the third fled the moment the first was obliterated.

Now, there were only three dreadnoughts left, and the first had just been wiped out in seconds. As for the remaining second and third ships... why did this fateful script look so terribly familiar?

People were prone to drawing connections, especially concerning brutal lessons that had just unfolded before their eyes. Even the most uneducated souls would instinctively put two and two together.

Soon enough, as the Demanians closed in once more and shells began plummeting down around them, the sailors aboard the Lusha warships finally succumbed to mounting terror.

They attempted to return fire, but before they could achieve any results, the enemy's Armor-Piercing Shells plummeted down one after another. Two struck the "Poltava," and one struck the "Sevastopol."

Both ships had their stern decks pierced, causing their rears to take on water and forcing them to slow down. The "Poltava" suffered the additional severe blow of having its aft main turret destroyed.

With this, the "Poltava," which had already lost its two central main turrets, compounded by the destruction of its aft main guns, was now left with only its bow guns capable of firing.

But right now it was fleeing at full speed, presenting its stern to the enemy. Its bow guns had absolutely no firing angle. It was locked into a one-sided beating.

This crisis finally ignited the overwhelming terror of the sailors aboard the "Poltava."

"Surrender! Raise the white flag! Stop throwing your lives away for the Tsar!"

"The Tsar just murdered over a hundred of our brothers last night! Brothers, don't die for nothing! Fight the Tsar's Guard!"

The rage that had built up from the strafing and execution of seven hundred naval officers and sailors the previous night finally erupted in this moment.

The sailors manning the secondary batteries and the forward main turrets on the "Poltava" were the first to launch a surprise attack against the Tsar's Guard serving as their loaders. In an instant, they killed dozens of army soldiers from the Tsar's Guard and seized dozens of Mosin-Nagants.

A few soldiers of the Tsar's Guard, well aware that continuing to fight meant certain death and not wishing to die themselves, instantly threw off their hats and raised their hands, hoping to avoid a shootout.

Seeing the two sides at each other's throats, several naval officers had a flash of inspiration. They forced the surrendering Tsar's Guard soldiers to drop their weapons and strip, demanding they change into the uniforms of the fallen naval brothers nearby before they would believe their sincerity.

Coincidentally, because the Tsar's Guard soldiers generally understood nothing of navigation and couldn't sail a ship, yet possessed considerable strength—the Tsar loved to select large soldiers for his guard—these men had been prioritized and shoved into the various gun turrets to moonlight as loaders once aboard.

With the "Poltava" having suffered the destruction of so many of its turrets previously, the gunners had taken heavy casualties, and the Tsar's Guard had suffered catastrophic losses along with them.

Originally, an entire fully-armed company had been dispatched aboard to control the situation. Right before the sailors mutinied, there were actually less than 150 members of the Tsar's Guard left alive on the ship. With dozens taken out in the ambush and a handful defecting, only around seventy remained to put up a desperate fight.

The number of firearms held by the Tsar's Guard no longer held any advantage over the sailors, let alone the fact that the sailors outnumbered the Guard by more than five to one.

Very soon, a massive white flag was hoisted up the main bridge mast of the "Poltava." The forward main turret abandoned all attempts to rotate toward the port side and instead aimed dead ahead, its gun barrels elevated to their maximum angle to avoid any enemy misunderstanding.

...

"The enemy battleship actually surrendered? But... it looks like there's still a civil war raging on the ship? Surrendering a state-of-the-art dreadnought? Is that even possible?"

At that time, the distance between the two sides had already closed to within 10 kilometers. Under the 60x magnification of a Zeiss scope, they could just barely make out the chaos on the enemy ship from that distance, even if they couldn't discern exactly what was happening.

When Vice-Admiral Hipper saw this, he was utterly stunned, even worrying if it was a trap.

"I don't think it's a trap! Our main guns are pointed right at them and watching them anyway. Franz, quickly, send sailors over to accept their surrender and capture them!"

Lelouch, standing nearby, found it far easier to accept this outcome than Hipper. Furthermore, he was well aware of the historical accounts of navies across various nations rebelling against their own monarchs in moments of utter despair near the end of World War I. Thus, after a moment's thought, he didn't find it too surprising.

He even extrapolated the situation for them: "I think they're fighting amongst themselves because a faction on the ship refuses to surrender. The Tsar must have known for a long time that there were many rebels among the sailors.

Furthermore, for the Tsar to force this fleet out to fight a desperate battle, he likely wanted them to prove their innocence. Given the Tsar's paranoia, it's entirely possible he sent overseers onto the ships to force them to fight. They might be clashing with those very overseers right now!"

Enlightened by this insight, Hipper suddenly understood. "That does seem to be exactly the case! But if so... how do we assist them? The sailors on our destroyers generally don't carry many firearms, and we can't exactly siphon off our own crew to capture them, right?"

Lelouch instantly had a flash of inspiration. "Let my guard company go! Quickly, transfer them via small boats to a fast destroyer or large torpedo boat, then have them close in and see if the enemy intends to lower a boarding ladder for us!"

Because of Lelouch's esteemed status these days, Duke Rupprecht wanted him to prioritize his safety wherever he went, requiring him to keep his guard company by his side at all times. Since they had boarded the "Derfflinger," which was quite empty and the combat voyage wouldn't be far, he had brought them along for the ride.

To think they would actually be put to use at a time like this.

Vice-Admiral Hipper immediately found the logic sound. Every single man in Lelouch's guard company was equipped with an MP15 submachine gun. Aboard a ship, they were vastly more lethal than a Mauser G98 or Mosin-Nagant.

Thus, while transmitting radio and light signals ordering the surrendering enemy ship to avoid any dangerous moves and fully cooperate, he simultaneously summoned the destroyers V43 and V191. At the same time, lifeboats were lowered from the "Derfflinger," allowing Lelouch's guard company to transfer to the destroyers and approach the enemy vessel seven kilometers away.

Originally, he had wanted to handle this with just one destroyer, but the V43 and V191 were a smaller class of destroyer, weighing only 800 tons. Cramming in over two hundred army soldiers would be a bit of a squeeze, so he simply split them into two groups, just in case.

One slightly smaller group was sent to attempt the capture of the "Poltava," which was in terrible condition and posed less of a threat.

The other ship stood by, closing in on the "Sevastopol," but instructed to remain strictly outside the accurate range of its small-caliber rapid-fire guns to avoid being caught off guard should the enemy suddenly attack.

If the "Sevastopol" also wised up and decided to surrender, then they would charge in and capture it.

Before the guard company set out, Lelouch instructed his guard company commander, Captain Klose, "Be careful. If things look bad, fall back immediately. It's just two measly battleships; if you can't capture them, simply sinking them is fine too.

You've been with me for a year. Everyone else has soared to great heights, but you lack the knack for commanding troops in battle, so you've been stuck at guard company commander without moving up. Consider this an opportunity to scoop up some merit, so we'll have an excuse to grant you battalion-level treatment in the future."

Captain Klose immediately snapped an excited salute. "Rest assured, Commander Lelouch! I'll absolutely be careful, and I'll bring the 'Sevastopol' back as a captive to boot!"

Following that, the men transferred over and departed.

Simultaneously, Lelouch didn't forget to have the radio room use short-range open-code communications to hail the "Sevastopol," attempting to persuade them to surrender by appealing to both reason and emotion.

Lelouch also took the spur-of-the-moment initiative to mimic the rhetoric he had once used in private to persuade the captive Black Sea Fleet Admiral Eberhardt to surrender. Removing the parts that were inconvenient to voice publicly, he utilized the remainder to persuade von Essen to surrender.

Standing beside him, Hipper was in the dark. He didn't know that Lelouch had already successfully persuaded Admiral Eberhardt to surrender once before, which was why he was so well-practiced at this.

Thus, watching Lelouch draft the speech in one breathless, flawless stroke—writing a masterpiece on the spot without a single correction—Hipper was so shocked his jaw practically dropped.

"Can a person's mind really react this fast? Words of subversion and persuasion can just pour out like a spring without even needing to think? Terrifying... Thank goodness God is on our side. Oh, no, thank goodness we are on God's side."

...

Twenty minutes later, the destroyer V43, carrying a guard platoon entirely armed with MP15 submachine guns, arrived near the "Poltava."

The battle on the "Poltava" was not yet over. Dozens of stubbornly resisting Tsar's Guard members were still holed up in armor-protected compartments within the bridge, firing guns and tossing grenades outside.

Even the helm was controlled by the Tsar's men. Therefore, the warship could only elevate its gun barrels to their maximum to display its harmlessness, but it couldn't adjust its course.

If the sailors wanted to fight back, their only option was to have the engineers in the engine room reduce the main engines' output to slow the ship down, and then have the soldiers in the boiler room reduce the pressure.

When the V43 approached, it flashed light signals. Sure enough, there were sailors aboard willing to cooperate, dropping several rope ladders down from the side of the hull.

The sea was a bit rough, and the ship was still in motion. The undulating hull made it incredibly difficult to draw near and dock, not to mention the massive height discrepancy between a destroyer and a battleship.

But the sailors of the V43 were exceptionally brave. Having preemptively strapped several layers of tire-like buffers to their hull, they forcefully pushed up alongside the ship. To avoid any accidents, upon confirming the enemy ship bore no hostility, they even preemptively fired off the torpedoes in their tubes.

With a muffled "clang," followed by the teeth-setting screech of scraping metal, the side of the V43 destroyer was undoubtedly dented by the "Poltava." However, seizing that exact moment, a group of soldiers bravely scrambled up the rope ladders, gripping tight and vaulting onto the deck.

Assisted by their MP15 submachine guns and grenades, eliminating the enemies holed up inside the compartments became much easier.

Before long, all the stubbornly resisting members of the Tsar's Guard on the "Poltava" were wiped out. The ship's sailors surrendered their melee weapons to prove the sincerity of their surrender, then turned the helm and sailed toward the southwest.

The Demanians dispatched navigators to them, directing them to sail under guard to Konigsberg to undergo repairs.

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