The Great War (mod 1914)

When it was realised that the German fleet was entering the channel, the British fleet moved quickly. Jellicoe's Grand Fleet sailed south along the British coast, formed up in five long lines, battleship after battleship spreading through the horizon. Around them there was a complicated dance of cruisers and destroyers. It was joined by Vice Admiral Beatty’s Battlecruiser Force which had left Rosyth - six units in all : the battlecruisers Lion, which was Beatty's flagship, New Zealand, Invincible, Princess Royal and Queen Mary, plus the light cruiser Southampton.


Ironically, the main target of the German onslaught was not at sea then, as the transports which had to carry the BEF to France were still in their harbours and they would not depart until the sea was deemed safe enough for them. Ironically, the Aldmiranty did not consider the presence of the Hochseeflote in the Channel and in the Northern Sea as nothing but the beginning of the feared German invasion that Le Queux and Lord Roberts had prophesised in the previous decades: a surprise German invasion that sought to enslave Britain. Therefore, the Admiralty ordered all vessels to sea, including the East Coast Force and the Forth Patrol, and arranged for them to meet with the Grand Fleet not far from East Anglia.


Then, to the confusion of Room 40, Admiral Ludwig von Schröder appeared with the Nordflotte off of Aberdeen. Von Schroeder had replaced von Ingenohl in the command of the Kanalflotte and saw himself in command of the Nordflotte as Prince Heinrich was moved to the command of von Schroeder's former command, that is, the Kanalflotte. Von Schroeder led his fleet aboard the Hochseeflotte’s flagship Friedrich der Große and in the early hours of 4th August, the German admiral sighted the approaching Grand Fleet, faintly seeing its dark shapes move against the horizon. He deployed his fleet into line and ordered full speed. Thick jets of black smoke gushed from the funnels of the warships. Somewhere ahead, destroyers of the Aufklärungsgruppe began to engage the British battlecruisers and a few battleships. It was the opportunity for which all the Kaiserlichemarine had trained all their professional lives. Now opportunity beckoned. The German dreadnoughts began to trade long-range shots with four British battleships. The British put about and steam north at top speed.


The atmosphere on the bridge of von Schroeder's flagship Friedrich der Große was one of triumphant anticipationt. In the excitement, no one voiced any curiosity that the British were shaping a course north east instead of directly away. Moments later, some black shapes appeared in the horizon, and then began to turn, followed by another of the same size until von Schoreder saw a seemingly endless continuum of battleships. Shortly afterwards, a wall of bright light appeared before them, and a mass of shellfire plunged into the sea before von Ingenohl’s ships. Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet had arrived.

To the south five grey objects shone under the pale sun, unmistakable. When von Schroeder saw them, he simply uttered one thing: “Beatty”. The Battlecruiser Force was blocking his only chance to withdraw. The Nordflotte had blundered into the greatest ambush in naval history.


Von Schroder began to sail estwards in the hope of avoiding being surrounded and cut form its only way to withdraw. Once he had achieved that, he would decide what to do. Leading from his flagship, the German admiral was now determined to fight his way to safety, but also realised that his attempt to block the sortie of the Grand Fleet had failed. To Beatty, commander of the Battlecruiser Force, a golden opportunity had been presented. He had five ships which were faster than the Germans and more powerful than most of them. With them hey would be able to keep up with von Schroder and hoped to cause enough troubles to allow Jellicoe to catch with him. Supported by the light ships of the Forth Patrol, Beatty was to deploy his battlecruisers and utilise his ships’ firepower, crippling and sinking was much of von Schroder’s command as possible. The German commander was aware and began to turn in hope of outmanoeuvring. However, as Beatty keep closing with his ships, von Schroder decided to save his main ships by sending some of his light forces to a certain doom. As his destroyers turned to Beatty and threatened with releasing a torpedo attack, Beatty had no other option but to turn his fleet away, thus ensuring that his ships not only presented a harder target for the German torpedoes, but could outrun them too.

When the threat passed, Beatty brought his fleet back into line again, along with Jellicoe's Grand Fleet, which had finally arrived to the area, and turned to starboard, while closing on his prey, with the impetuous Beatty out in front. But, by then, von Schroder was far away. In exchange for some destroyers, he had saved his precious battleships.


In the Channel, another battle was to start.


@Enewald: That's just the beginning, young Padawan.

@Razgriz 2K9: Did I say that the battle was over?

@Nathan Madien: The dejà vú feeling comes from another WW1 AAR, by Allenby, where the first battle took place at sea, too. Apparently, the IA is used to strike hard with his navy as soon as the war begins.

@El Pip: Yes, I tend to be a bit harsh from time to time - and more to come, don't worry - with the high command, but Jutland causes me that odd feeling of being reading Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing): so many years building ships, waiting for the big showdown and ... well...

However, you're absolutely right, I must confess. The best possible trend for the Grand Fleet was to stay iddle -so much money spended on those ships to keep them chasing whales...

@c0d5579: The idea is to have all the German IC devoted to rebuild his fleet

@soulking: And that as just the beginning...

@Sir Humphrey: Jellicoe getting cocky and blundering into a trap? That would not be my Jellicoe...

With the destroyers of the 2. Aufklärungsschwadron in the van, the Kanalflotte led by Prinz Heinrich began to sail into the Channel in the hope of finding the transports taking the BEF to France. Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich Force, and Hood, commander of Dover Patrol, decided to try their luck and released their faster and powerful cruisers to launch a torpedo attack against the Germans. Meanwhile, Burney’s Channel Fleet, which was in the path of Prinz Heinrich's route westwards, was desploying his his pre-dreadnoughts into line, ready to use their firepower and to doom the German fleet. Eventually, Tyrwhitt and Hood kept pressurig on Prinz Heinrich's ships, until their superior firepower obliged them to change course and to maintain a safe distance. Finally, the German fleet came into sight of Burney's command, who gave the order to open fire. Thus started the Battle of the Channel.

Night was beginning to fall when the German fleet, having left behind the Dover Patrol and the Harwich Force saw the first columns of water rising around them. The superior firepower of the German dreadnoughts proved too much for the Channel Fleet and soon a storm of German steel rained upon Burney's ships. The guns of the German fleet began to straddle the British ships with shellfire, with the two ships heading the line line, the HMS Duncan and the HMS Caesar taking several hits to its deck and masts, while Burney began to turn his fleet to port so as to manoeuvre his fleet in the opposite direction of the Germans, hoping that the incoming night would save him from disaster.


The move had just began when another a mass of shellfire from the German dreadnoughts struck the Duncan and another battleship, the HMS Jupiter, causing the latter to list to fore and the former to stop dead, while gaping holes appeared in the deck. The rest of the Channel Fleet continued its turn to port, while another shell struck the cruiser HMS Amphion, causing it to sink. The British replied in kind to the German fire, managed to hit the SMS Königsberg, erasing thus the shame of her escapade from Tanganika to Germany, and damaging some German destroyers. Prinz Heinrich, seeing that Burney was attempting to outmanoeuvre him, began to turn too, to keep a parallel course with the Channel Fleet, as the German shellfire wrought havoc on the British ships. Then Fate intervened.

Suddenly, two hours after the beginning of the battle, Beatty's battlecruisers appeared in the mouth of the Channel and send their compliment to the German admiral. In the receiving end were two German Light Cruisers, the SMS Niobe and the SMS Karlsruhe, which just vanished after a few hits of the massive British guns. With the Grand Fleet materializing in his back, Prinz Heinrich decided to make a bold movement and turned again his fleet, determined to return to Germany and made great use of the night of August 5th to achieve that.

In the early hours of August 6th, the Grand Fleet entered in the Channel, ready to annhilate the German fiend. As dawn cleared, brighter and clearer than ever, Prinz Heinrich and managed to slip trough the Dutch coast and Jellicoe found himself fooled and slightly behind. Then, he released Beatty's fasts ships to press Heinrich and give him time to catch with the Kanaflotte.


Relishing with the orders that he had just received, Beatty thrown his ships into a mad dash against the German rearguard. Like a hungry wolf, the Battlecruiser Force attacked mercelessly its enemy and crushed the screen of light forces that were on their path. Their guns damaged the German dreadnougth Schleswig-Holstein and several cruisers, which were left behind to be finished by the Grand Fleet. It was then when Beatty found himself in troubles, as he penetrated deeper and deeper in the German confusion and faced with several of the most modern and powerful German dreadnoughts, which turned their gun against the lightly armoured Brittish ships. Nevertheless, in the confussion of the moment, Beatty managed to escape from that dangerous situation, although his flagship, the HMS Lion was severely damaged by the shells comming from the SMS Ostfriesland.

In their way out of their complicated situation, the British ships managed spread chaos and confussion among the German ships, and part of a formation made up by two German light Cruisers found itself cut from the main body of the Kanalfleet and bombed into oblivion by the Grand Fleet.


The Grand Fleet, however, did not limited herself to that, and kept following the track of the Kanalflotte, trading shots with the German ships. When night fell over the troubled waters of the Channel, the Germans had suffered the loss of an obsolete pre-dreadnought, the SMS Kaiser Barbarossa, as well as several Light Cruisers. However, the battle had took its toll upon the Channel Fleet, who lost one of its older battlewagons, the HMS Albion.


Jellicoe was willing not to allow Prinz Heinrich to escape. He thought that, after the heavy exchange of fire between the two fleets, the German ships must be quite damaged and only needed the coup de grace. Thus he attacked again, and the full brunt of the British fire fell upon the Germans, which were annhilated: eight battleships, as three heavy cruisers were sent to bottom, in exchange for a single British Light Cruiser.

By then they were near Germany, and Jellicoe, suspecting that the persecution may take his fleet into a trap involving mines and submarines, which could only result in unnecessary casualties. As Jellicoe’s responsibility was to ensure the safety of the fleet and satisfied that he had given Prinz Heinrch a beating, the British admiral ordered to break off the battle after having sustained minimal losses and inflicting a heavy defeat on the Germans.

Having suffered terrible losses and with the Kanalflotte almost decimated -its looses were six dreadnoughts, four pre-dreadnoughts, 10 light cruisers, two heavy cruisers and 2 destroyers flotillas, the Hochseeflotte was deemed to be a defeated force and hardly a threat for the incoming months.

Jellicoe and Beatty had won a great victory and treated as conquering heroes, although there was an underlying feeling that although they had reaffirmed Britain’s naval power. The popular press were content and salivated over the details of the destruction of the German dreadnoughts thus winning a morale booster and a propaganda coup that seemed to demonstrate the superiority, not only of the Royal Navy, but of Great Britain and the Entente as a whole.

In Germany, the news of the naval encounters were treated with a gloom which dampered the patriotic fervour which had swept across the country with the outbreak of war, although many newspapers tried to downplay the defeat and to point to the success at the Channel to show that the war at sea was going well. Nevertheless, Wilhelm II was outraged at the navy’s performance, and sacked the whole Navy Staff.


@trekaddict: Rules and a bit more, in my humble opinion.

@Enewald: That was just half of it. This was the other half.

@Karaiskandar: Did you say "heavies"?

@El Pip: In any case, Beatty and Jellicoe made a good team. At least in this battle. And, if it depends on me, don't worry, the Hochseeflotte will received another shoening.

@c0d5579: A bottled-up (and diminished) Hochseeflotte? It sounds nice, doesn't it? The land war... in the next chapter.

@Nathan Madien: Methinks that meagrees.

@Sir Humphrey: It was just a bit of training for the real fun, I can say now.