bolitho
Member
honorable Lords of the admirality,
the following battle report is the translation of the german battle report transmitted by our secret agent "Madame X" in Berlin.
Report from the commander of the battleships of the high seas fleet:
In the late afternoon of 21.03.1916 a heavy battle was fought between parts of our high seas fleet and the british grand fleet. Our ships are at the coast of holland with course NE when in NW british light cruisers came into sight. Cruiser Wiesbaden was told to find out which forces are approaching.
The following drawing represent the situation at this time.
View attachment 29387
Shortly after this british BC (Lion and Tiger) came into sight, our BC were ordered to attack. As behind the yet known british ships the GF may be present our battleships turned to west to attack them from the south. In the following 20 minutes the GF showed up and the battle lines decreased distance on converging course 270. Our BC came under heavy fire from 4 british 38cm (15in) battleships of the queen elizabeth class.
View attachment 29388
Lateron the QE were also the first RN ships changing salvos with our battleships. The heavy calibre resulted in a number of fatal hits on Kronprinz magazine which exploded. Thüringen also suffered a number of 38cm hits which caused heavy flooding. Oldenburg got a hit in the steering which resulted in a jammed rudder. There must be a mysterious connection between the steering and the external communication which caused that no further target-commands could be given to the Oldenburg and other ships with jammed rudder. Our SES-engineers have to look at this. At this time no heavy damage could be observed on the RN side. Our ships suffered a number of destroyed turrets decreasing the strength of our fire.
View attachment 29389
After the battle we got reports from british survivors of some sunk destroyers which refused to talk first but under the influence of some bottles of white-beer (rem.: new german secret-drug?) they told us that at this time already the BB Iron Duke and Ajax were sunk. Our ship Kaiserin exploded suddenly, maybe due to a hit in the magazine. Koenig Albert was hit by a number of salvos and it was clear that the leakage couldn´t be fixed in the open waters. A few minutes later Thüringen sunk due her heavy damage from the first 38cm hits. Our DD performed a torpedo attack, the report about this will follow seperately.
Our ships were ordered for heading home at NE still targetting the enemy. As direct success our rangefinder-operators could observe one QE, propably Warspite, blowing up. Unfortunately Markgraf got a hit causing a jammed rudder and had to be left circling behind the line. A number of ships used the opportunity to target the Markgraf, even a flotilla of destroyers tried to sink her. But the brave Markgraf opened fire from all guns and the torpedo attack was annihilated. About half of the attacking destroyers were sunk by the secondary artillery. It seems that the RN torpedo targetting had difficulty getting the correct fire-solution for a circling ship. A number of british AC sent a rain of grenades to the Markgraf resulting loosing one turret from the two left. Nevertheless the leading AC Defense was hit a number of times by Markgrafs brave cannoniers.
View attachment 29390
The end of the battle was characterized by a number of fightings between RN DD and our CL, even resulting in hitting our again-maneuvrable Oldenburg by one of our own torpedos. Brave von der Tann was also hit badly resulting in her later loss.
special honors to DD B98 for rescuing the survivors of Koenig Albert and Thüringen despite badly leaking!
Also to mention that during battle all overseas communication worked fine and without problems of the secret hamachi device.
List of losses:
Kaiserin (expl)
König Albert
Thüringen
Kronprinz (expl)
von der Tann
destroyers:
V44
V45
V46
V71
B97
G104
The british may have lost about the same number of ships, we are waiting for a report from our intelligence for further details.
signed:
Admiral Hipper (light forces)
von der Tann (BC)
bolitho (BB)
- end of the german report -
honorable Lords,
unfortunately we lost a even more ships as the germans, her is the full report:
Warspite (expl)
Iron Duke (expl)
Marlborough
Erin
King George V
Centurion
Ajax
Orion
Monarch
Colossus
AC Defense
CL Birmingham
destroyers:
Ariel
Goshawk
Laurel
Lydiard
Nerissa
Pelican
Narborough
Nestor
Nomad
our special memories to Sir John Jellicoe who sunk with Iron Duke
signed for the GF
Anav
Invincible
the following battle report is the translation of the german battle report transmitted by our secret agent "Madame X" in Berlin.
Report from the commander of the battleships of the high seas fleet:
In the late afternoon of 21.03.1916 a heavy battle was fought between parts of our high seas fleet and the british grand fleet. Our ships are at the coast of holland with course NE when in NW british light cruisers came into sight. Cruiser Wiesbaden was told to find out which forces are approaching.
The following drawing represent the situation at this time.
View attachment 29387
Shortly after this british BC (Lion and Tiger) came into sight, our BC were ordered to attack. As behind the yet known british ships the GF may be present our battleships turned to west to attack them from the south. In the following 20 minutes the GF showed up and the battle lines decreased distance on converging course 270. Our BC came under heavy fire from 4 british 38cm (15in) battleships of the queen elizabeth class.
View attachment 29388
Lateron the QE were also the first RN ships changing salvos with our battleships. The heavy calibre resulted in a number of fatal hits on Kronprinz magazine which exploded. Thüringen also suffered a number of 38cm hits which caused heavy flooding. Oldenburg got a hit in the steering which resulted in a jammed rudder. There must be a mysterious connection between the steering and the external communication which caused that no further target-commands could be given to the Oldenburg and other ships with jammed rudder. Our SES-engineers have to look at this. At this time no heavy damage could be observed on the RN side. Our ships suffered a number of destroyed turrets decreasing the strength of our fire.
View attachment 29389
After the battle we got reports from british survivors of some sunk destroyers which refused to talk first but under the influence of some bottles of white-beer (rem.: new german secret-drug?) they told us that at this time already the BB Iron Duke and Ajax were sunk. Our ship Kaiserin exploded suddenly, maybe due to a hit in the magazine. Koenig Albert was hit by a number of salvos and it was clear that the leakage couldn´t be fixed in the open waters. A few minutes later Thüringen sunk due her heavy damage from the first 38cm hits. Our DD performed a torpedo attack, the report about this will follow seperately.
Our ships were ordered for heading home at NE still targetting the enemy. As direct success our rangefinder-operators could observe one QE, propably Warspite, blowing up. Unfortunately Markgraf got a hit causing a jammed rudder and had to be left circling behind the line. A number of ships used the opportunity to target the Markgraf, even a flotilla of destroyers tried to sink her. But the brave Markgraf opened fire from all guns and the torpedo attack was annihilated. About half of the attacking destroyers were sunk by the secondary artillery. It seems that the RN torpedo targetting had difficulty getting the correct fire-solution for a circling ship. A number of british AC sent a rain of grenades to the Markgraf resulting loosing one turret from the two left. Nevertheless the leading AC Defense was hit a number of times by Markgrafs brave cannoniers.
View attachment 29390
The end of the battle was characterized by a number of fightings between RN DD and our CL, even resulting in hitting our again-maneuvrable Oldenburg by one of our own torpedos. Brave von der Tann was also hit badly resulting in her later loss.
special honors to DD B98 for rescuing the survivors of Koenig Albert and Thüringen despite badly leaking!
Also to mention that during battle all overseas communication worked fine and without problems of the secret hamachi device.
List of losses:
Kaiserin (expl)
König Albert
Thüringen
Kronprinz (expl)
von der Tann
destroyers:
V44
V45
V46
V71
B97
G104
The british may have lost about the same number of ships, we are waiting for a report from our intelligence for further details.
signed:
Admiral Hipper (light forces)
von der Tann (BC)
bolitho (BB)
- end of the german report -
honorable Lords,
unfortunately we lost a even more ships as the germans, her is the full report:
Warspite (expl)
Iron Duke (expl)
Marlborough
Erin
King George V
Centurion
Ajax
Orion
Monarch
Colossus
AC Defense
CL Birmingham
destroyers:
Ariel
Goshawk
Laurel
Lydiard
Nerissa
Pelican
Narborough
Nestor
Nomad
our special memories to Sir John Jellicoe who sunk with Iron Duke
signed for the GF
Anav
Invincible