As requested:
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX - Part Three
Still mor majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
Rule Britannia
The Heligoland Bight
225 miles from Wilhelmshaven, Germany
September 9, 1939
9:58 p.m.
“I knew that the Frenchies were not the best seamen in the world, skipper,” Lt Cdr. Joseph “Jape” McKenzie muttered upon the bridge of HMS
Suffolk,
“but how is it they could have lost battleship, a heavy cruiser and two destroyers to the same Jerry task force that we took on three days ago?”
The Channel Fleet on the hunt
Tossing his cigarette from his lips and into the wind off the flying bridge wear they were standing,
Suffolk’s captain, Cmdr. Joseph Storeyville, grunted in reply. Despite wanting to correct his officer’s scorn, Storeyville was just as dismayed. Lifting his binoculars to his eyes to give him a chance to think of an appropriate reply, he grimly recalled the radio signal that was sent in the clear by the French destroyer
L'Audacieux. The screams of both incoming fire and dying men could be heard over the airwaves as the only surviving member of
L'Audacieux’s bridge crew cried for help and alerted the Channel Fleet of the loss of the
Bretagne-class battleship
Provence, the
Suffren-class heavy cruiser
Dupleix, and the running chase by the
Kriegsmarine battle group that resulted in the destruction of the
Vauquelin-class destroyer
Maille Breze, the
Aigle-class destroyers
Épervier and
Vautour, and the
Guépard-class destroyer flagship
Guépard.
What an unmitigated bloody botch job, Storeyville grumped to himself. At best the German battle group could only consist of
Graf Spee, Blücher, Nurnberg, Emden, Koln, and
Leipzig, and several destroyers. Despite the
Provence being almost twenty-five years old, she was a battleship with more guns than
Graf Spee and should have been able to pound the Germans from a distance that would have prevented the French from even getting wet from misses fired by the Germans. Lowering his binoculars and casting a glance at McKenzie he muttered,
“Well, the idiot responsible is surely enjoying his ice water mansion at the bottom the sea, Number One. Let’s just hope that the French didn’t run into anyone more than who we fought, otherwise this might get dicey.”
“Contact! Bearing 242,” called out a seaman standing above the bridge in his lookouts position.
Well, what do we have hear, wondered Storeyville as he raised his binoculars to his eyes again. In the distance, the descending sun light illuminating her superstructure brightly, sailed
Graf Spee and her consorts. Storeyville could tell from the angle of the oncoming Germans in relation to his ship that all they could see at the moment was his one solitary cruiser, the staggered formation of the rest of the Channel Fleet hiding
Suffolk’s consorts on her port quarter. Knowing he had to react quickly in order to get the German pocket battleship into his main gun’s range, the
Suffolk’s captain barked out orders to his bridge crew.
“Guns! Begin plotting firing solutions on Graf Spee. Number One, signal the Admiral that we have our prey spotted and will await his orders to execute Plan Hermes!”
Turning his eyes back to the approaching foe, Storeyville only hoped that the Admiral’s plan would allow his cruiser to come to grips with the Germans before their pocket battleship’s heavier guns pounded
Suffolk into floatsom.
Five minutes later, arriving at the same time that the flash of light alerted
Suffolk’s bridge crew that
Graf Spee had opened fire with her 11” guns came the signal from Admiral Dreyer aboard
Dorsetshire to execute his battle plan. Faintly hearing the roar of the oncoming freight train that was the shells fired by
Graf Spee, Storeyville smiled tightly and ordered,
“Come right full rudder to bearing 121, increase to full speed. Guns, have A and B turrets open fire as soon as Graf Spee comes into range.”
Opening phase of Plan Hermes
“Aye-aye, sir,” came the reply as
Suffolk and her sisters wheeled about to the right to approach the Germans directly,
Suffolk in the van with
Dorsetshire, Forbisher, Cumberland, Berwick, and
Kent in staggered behind and to her right.
Curaco and
Caledon with the Channel Fleet’s destroyers were to the left and further behind. As the ships came to their new heading the engine rooms in each ship increased the speed to their maximums, each ship racing forward to close the range with the
Kriegsmarine vessels in the distance. For five full minutes the British warships raced forward, their guns silent, their crews grimly counting the time between the flash of
Graf Spee’s guns and the arrival of the shells. Twelve salvos of 11” shells were fired in that time, a full thirty-six rounds.
Suffolk’s gunnery officer, Lt. Evan Humphrey, a notorious gambler within the Channel Fleet, began taking bets with his gunnery crew as to how long it would take the Germans to land one of the big shells upon
Suffolk. Despite several near misses that drenched the decks of the cruiser with seawater, none of the first twelve salvos found their mark on any of the British ships.
The firing of Graf Spee’s thirteenth salvo marked the moment when
Suffolk's own main batteries came into range of the German pocket battleship, and for the first time since the battle began, the guns of the Royal Navy responded.
Seconds later, Lt. Humphrey’s betting pool was nearly cashed in when two of
Graf Spee’s three rounds straddled
Suffolk close abeam. As the rest of the Channel Fleet watched on grimly, wondering if she had been struck,
Suffolk steamed through the towering geysers of water and responded by firing a second salvo of her 8” inch guns. While none of the eight shells struck
Graf Spee, it did not matter as following the plan of Plan Hermes, Captain Storeyville ordered another starboard turn, tacking in front of Suffolk’s closet companion, HMS
Forbisher, confusing the German gunners but more importantly allowing
Suffolk to bring to bear all her guns.
At the same time that
Dorsetshire was making her second turn,
Forbisher, opened fired with her foremost main guns, also targeting Graf
Spee. This point also marked the range of the German cruisers that were accompanying
Graf Spee were able to open fire, and KMS
Leipzig was the first, targeting
Dorsetshire with her 5.9 inch guns. Over-flying sea gulls watched as for the next ten minutes the two opposing fleets continued their actions, the British heavy cruisers firing a salvo before turning before the following cruiser and tacking to the right, while the German ships continued forward and bore along almost parallel to their enemies. As the combatants continued to fire, due to their evasive maneuvers neither side had yet to claim anything more than near misses that killed many fish and drenched the decks of their opponent’s ships.
After nearly one half hour of shelling, the Channel Fleet’s Captain Storeyville spotted a chance to draw blood. Without lowering his binoculars from his eyes he called out above the thunderous din of his ship’s guns,
“Number one! Bring is to heading 083 now! Guns! Leipzig is concentrating on coming to grips with Curaco and Caledon, and has presented us her backside. I want a full broadside poured upon her!”
Looking up from what was serving as his fire solution table after fragments of a near miss took out his plotting station, Humphrey raised his binoculars quickly and spotting
Leipzig, growled wolfishly,
“Aye-aye, sir!”
Grabbing the intercom mouth piece from his signal man while keeping his eyes on his prey and running through the firing solutions each turret was going to need, Humphrey announced to the gun crews.
“Ahoy all guns, ahoy all guns, this is Fire Control. Full battery fire has been ordered. Main batteries load with armour piercing, secondary load with H.E. Respond when ready.”
In the thirty seconds that it took for the individual guns to reply with a chorus of,
“Gun ready!” Suffolk’s gunnery officer continued to watch the German cruiser while plotting the correct firing solution for his ship’s guns. Just before speaking, Humphrey realized that in the heat of the ongoing battle
Leipzig’s crew had completely failed to notice
Suffolk’s stalking. “
Target bearing two eight two, heading one six two, mark...
Range 2500 yards...
On my command…
all batteries…
FIRE!”
With a bone jarring blast, HMS
Suffolk’s eight 8” inch guns and four 4” inch guns, threw several tons of projectiles into the air with aims to have those projectiles land upon her enemy, KMS
Leipzig.
Suffolk
's prey, KMS Leipzig
Aboard the unsuspecting German cruiser, her captain,
Kapitän zur See Heinz Nordmann, and his bridge crew were attempting to race their ship into position to fire upon the HMS
Caledon while overcoming the damages from a near miss that had somehow caused the cruiser’s engines to become problematic. A shout from a lookout on the aft section of the bridge caused Nordmann to turn with a scowl and an angry retort for the young seaman, a retort that died stillborn as he look past his young sailor and saw the fast streaming smoke moving past
Suffolk’s turrets.
“Gott haben gnade*,” the German muttered, not caring if the die-hards of
der Führer aboard his bridge heard. Knowing with a practiced eye that it was useless, he began yelling orders to try to save his ship.
“Left full rudder! Full reverse! Come about…”
Leipzig’s helmsman was unable to comply with his captain’s orders for at that moment the full weight of
Suffolk’s fury arrived on target, slamming into the German cruiser about the deck and hull, several of large 8” inch shells striking below the waterline and bursting through
Leipzig’s armoured belt and allowing the North Sea to rush in the former water-tight compartments with a vengeance. A minute later a second salvo of fire from the British cruiser arrived, straddling
Leipzig and causing even more damage to her upper decks and more seriously opening more holes in her hull to the hungry sea. Rapidly filling with water and completely unable to protect herself from the damages ravaged upon her by
Suffolk, the German cruiser quickly listed to port and began sliding beneath the waves. While many of the crew had been severally jolted by the explosive arrival of the Royal Navy ordnance, they were suitably disciplined to transition from attempting to save their ship to saving themselves and as many of their wounded shipmates as possible. Unfortunately, while
Leipzig slowly rolled upon her side and began to sink beneath the waves, a fire started below decks reached her main magazine and a mere six minutes after first being hit,
Leipzig exploded with tremendous fury.
The death of KMS Leipzig
Several hundred yards away upon
Graf Spee,
Konteradmiral Ciliax watched in horror as debris began returning to the sea from the funeral pyre that had been
Leipzig. While his ships were more numerous than his Royal Navy adversaries, the crews of his
Schlacht-Gruppe could not match the training nor the aggressiveness of the British ships. In two separate encounters the Channel Fleet had caused more that a fair share of damage to his
Schlacht-Gruppe and had been able to come away relatively unscathed. Realizing that discretion was truly the better part of valor, Ciliax turned to his Flag Captain.
“Kaptain Woldag, signal all ships to break contact immediately! Have the Zerstörer* make smoke and screen the Kreuzer* and the flagship. With a bit of luck, the setting sun and the gloom of the smoke screen will allow us to withdraw with no further losses.”
“Aye-aye, Admiral,” Woldag replied woodenly, clearly upset at allowing
Leipzig’s death to go unavenged.
“Also signal Marinegruppenkommando West of our location and see if they can send some U-boats or the Luftwaffe to hunt for the Englanders,” Ciliax continued, pointedly ignoring his Flag Captain’s demeanor.
“This battle is over, Woldag, but the war is far from over.”
* -
Gott haben gnade – God have mercy
* -
Zerstörer – Destroyers
* -
Kreuzer – Cruisers
Not really a defeat for the British Empire, but the French Navy sure to a beating and that really threw my plans off since the silly French AI suddenly decided that all French naval forces needed to be sent to cover the approaches to the bloody Bay of Biscay... were there were no GERMANS!!!! Thanks France, thanks a lot! Thankfully the Royal Navy is still up to lining the bottom of the North Sea with German metal!
Okay, up next: an overview of things three weeks into the war. Stay tuned!