sirandrewd
Recruit
Hey guys, to keep things in the spirit I thought I'd put up an AAR concerning the fleet engagement that has kept me busy for the last couple of days. To set things up, I am playing the full 1916 campaign as Germany, no Room 40. Without further ado..
In the opening days of 1916 the Kaiserliche Marine found itself in a potentially untenable position. The vastly superior Royal Navy had the High Seas Fleet bottled in Wilhelmshaven, and German commerce was in danger of being cut off completely. A direct fleet engagement was not a viable option due to the vast superiority that the Royal Navy enjoyed in numbers, so a strategy was undertaken to try to draw portions of the Royal Navy out into the North Sea to be defeated in detail.
On the 1st of January, the Scouting Forces of the High Seas Fleet set sail for the British coast, intending to use its speed to avoid the Royal Navy and bombard the British coast. However, shortly after leaving port, the Scouting Force was intercepted by elements of the Royal Navy led by the 5th Cruiser Squadron. The resulting battle was a very one sided affair, resulting in the total destruction of the 5th Cruiser Squadron and 14 supporting destroyers. The Scouting Forces lost a mere 5 destroyers in the engagement. Despite the clear victory the commander of the Scouting Force, Franz von Hipper, decided to turn back to Willhelmshaven due to his lack of solid intellegence on the presence of any other British forces.
Almost immediately upon the return of the Scouting Force, the German high command had resolved to sortie yet again, this time with a smaller more compact force. German air reconnaissance had revealed several British merchant fleets passing in the North Sea, directly north of Denmark. Deciding to commit to a raid on commerce, the battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger were sent north with a small escort of four light cruisers and five destroyers. Little did the Germans know that the stage was set for the first major fleet engagement of the war.
The sortie of the Seydlitz and Derfflinger was short lived. Despite an airborne escort by German Zeppelins, they were completely unaware of a Royal Navy task force that lay directly in their path. On the evening of January 5, Hipper's destroyer escorts reported contact with Royal Navy Armored Cruisers. Knowing that the Royal Navy only had Armored Cruisers attached to their main battle fleets, Hipper ordered an immediate turn to the south to disengage. Shortly after slipping away into the darkness, Hipper's Zeppelin escorts reported that the Royal Navy's Battlecruiser Force was directly to his north, and giving chase.
Commander of the High Seas Fleet, Reinhard Scheer, immediately saw opportunity when the report of the presence of the Battlecruiser Force reached his desk. He immediately ordered the High Seas Fleet to make steam and redirected U-Boat forces to the most recently reported spotting of the British Force in order to determine if the Battlecruiser Force was alone, or was accompanied by the Grand Fleet. With no sightings of the Grand Fleet by either submarine or Zeppelin, Scheer ordered the High Seas Fleet to sortee with the objective of destroying the Battlecruiser Force, a victory that would seriously open up the ability of the German Navy to have free reign in the North Sea.
On the morning of the 6th of January the High Seas Fleet scouting cruisers made first contact with the Armored Cruisers of the Battlecruiser Force. Unfortunately, the Battlecruiser Force was directly to Scheer's North, and it immediately reversed course upon seeing the German Dreadnoughts. Hipper and the Seydlitz and Derfflinger sailed towards Wilhelmshaven while Scheer passed him, moving to engage. The speed of the Battlecruiser Force was telling however, and they managed to successfully disengage shortly after 10:30am. Only three destroyers from the Royal Navy were destroyed, falling under the guns of the scouting German light cruisers.
The Battlecruiser Force, despite a successful disengagement, was not finished. British commander Sir David Beatty, desperately intent on catching the Seydlitz and Derfflinger turned south again, and attempted to slip by Scheer and intercept the two isolated battlecruisers. Scheer's scouts reacquired the battlecruiser force again at 12:35, and this time Scheer's formations were in a prime position to block Beatty's escape, being to his northwest. Seeing the opportunity to pin Beatty against the Wilhelmshaven minefields and destroy him, Scheer ordered a turn to the northeast, preparing to cross Beatty's T from the rear.
Scheer's order was, however, short lived. Soon after commencing their turn, Scheer's scouts sighted smoke directly to the north. Within minutes, the scouts had sighted not only several British armored cruisers, but also the lead dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet. Hipper realized that the hunter had now become the hunted and he had in fact walked into a trap. Wasting no time, Hipper ordered the entire High Seas Fleet to immediately reverse course and make for the south and then for Wilhelmshaven. The result of this move would be to reverse the order of the High Seas Fleet, making the old, slow pre-dreadnought Hessen the head of the battle line. Scheer was tempted to break the fleet into component divisions and flee, but he decided that keeping the integrity of the battle line and performing a fighting retreat was the best option, a decision that likely saved much of his fleet.
The Royal Navy for their part was not willing to let the High Seas Fleet simply disengage. The Battlecruiser Force, desperate to break up the battlecruiser line and slow it down, moved in an attempt to cross Scheer's T and impede his southerly flight. Beatty also sent his destroyers out to immediately commence torpedo attacks all along the battleship line. Unfortunately for Beatty, his force became disorganized attempting to complete their maneuvers, and his battlecruisers became hopelessly scattered, leaving his destroyers and light cruisers to try to cut off the German Battleships. Only the Princess Royal, Queen Mary and Tiger were able to stay in line and they moved to harass the rear of the German line.
Scheer, seeing the British strategy, decided that the best course was to simply use the brute force of his battleships to smash through the lighter forces attempting to block them. He moved destroyers up to screen the Hessen and his now leading pre-dreadnoughts from torpedo attacks, and he put his faith in the old ships to do their duty. At the rear of the line, Scheer himself decided to break off his eight most modern dreadnoughts into two separate divisions that would use their superior speed to protect the rear of the formation. He refused to allow the rapidly approaching three British battlecruisers to harass the rear of the formation, fearing lucky hits on his dreadnoughts that could disable them and leave them to the predations of the oncoming Grand Fleet. Scheer turned his eight dreadnoughts to the north and east, presenting their broadsides to the onrushing battlecruisers, crossing their T. In a panic, the commander of the Princess Royal also turned his force to the north, trying to bring their big guns to bear quickly and run for the protection of the Grand Fleet. His strategy ended in disaster almost instantly, when shells from the König hit the Princess Royal and she exploded, going down with all hands. The Queen Mary and Tiger were now alone facing the eight finest dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet, an engagement they could not hope to win, but that they fought anyway. In mere minutes the Queen Mary's back had been broken from an explosion, and she slipped beneath the waves. Minutes later the Tiger, battered by multiple shell hits, foundered and began to sink.
With the three Battlecruisers down, Scheer turned south, sending parting shots at the HMS Australia, which was now fleeing, along with the rest of the Battlecruiser Force. Seeing that the Australia was too far, Scheer ordered his guns trained the lead armored cruisers of the Grand Fleet. As the eight dreadnoughts sailed south, they took a horrendous toll on the armored cruisers, sinking the Duke of Edinburgh, Black Prince and Warrior.
At the head of the line, the pre-dreadnoughts were being subjected to attack after harrowing attack from the light cruisers and destroyers of the Battlecruiser Force. The SMS Hessen, leading the line was the constant object of the attacks, and her crew fought for four hours magnificently. Five waves of cruisers and destroyers made runs at the Hessen. The first wave of cruisers stripped her destroyer escort away almost completely and the line almost broke up from avoiding torpedoes, but the Hessen moved straight and true, helping destroy the four cruisers that had assailed her. The third attack, led by the British cruiser Galatea was the most notable. The Galatea bravely charged the Battleship line, taking fire from pre-dreadnought and dreadnought alike, her supporting cruisers falling to the wayside under he weight of shells.
Galatea bravely and kept forward despite catastrophic damage and in her death shudders launched a torpedo salvo that caught the Hessen amidships.
The Hessen began to take on water and hope seemed to be lost for the old battleship, but the quick action of her repair crews on the pumps kept her from foundering. The venerable ship plowed on, leading the precious battleships of the High Seas Fleet towards Wilhelmshaven. The Hessen had managed to fight off two waves of cruisers and three of destroyers, all of which were sunk under the guns of the battleship line.
As darkness fell, Scheer ordered a final turn to the east, to make for Wilhelmshaven and safety. The greatest problem for him now was that many of his dreadnoughts had expended most of their ammunition fighting off wave after wave of British light ships. The eight Dreadnoughts bringing up the van of the fleeing fleet were the worst, having exhausted all of their big gun ammo. The armored cruisers of the Grand Fleet, the only ships with the speed to stop Scheer from making port, sped ahead and used the cover of darkness to make hit and run attacks on Scheer's helpless dreadnoughts. For an hour, the armored cruisers moved at will, managing to slow the Oldenberg with a lucky hit and put to put a torpedo into the Kronprinz Wilhelm, which fortunately had no effect. Desperate to remove the threat of the cruisers, Scheer signaled ahead for the Seydlitz and Derfflinger, previously unengaged, to turn to the rear of the line and engage the armored cruisers. Hipper turned his battlecruisers about and made for the High Seas fleet van inside of twenty minutes. When the HMS Shannon came out of the dark to make a run at the limping Oldenberg, she was shocked to find Seydlitz and Derfflinger protecting her, and they opened up on the Shannon with their big guns. In mere minutes Shannon was a burning wreck. The light cruiser HMS Southampton met a similar fate moments later, convincing the rest of the British cruisers to break off, conceding the flight of the High Seas Fleet.
The Battle of Emden was claimed as a victory by both sides. The British Navy had successfully put flight to the High Seas Fleet, and could claim the proverbial control of the battlefield. The High Seas fleet however had achieved at least part of its original objective. Despite having to flee, the British Battlecruiser Force had suffered greatly, having lost three battlecruisers and almost all of its supporting light cruisers and destroyers. All told forty-two Royal Navy ships were sunk in the engagement, including ten light cruisers and four armored cruisers. Despite having to flee, the German High Seas Fleet suffered only seventeen ships lost, two light cruisers and fifteen destroyers. None of the German battleships were lost, and even the Hessen, which had taken the brunt of five spirited attacks, was only lightly damaged.
The battle, although inconclusive at the time, changed the balance of battlecruiser power in the North Sea. The Kaiserliche Marine now felt much more confident sending out the Scouting Force with six to four odds replacing nine to four. The Kaiserliche Marine was confident that the next time the battlecruisers met in the North Sea, the decision would be more decisive.
In the opening days of 1916 the Kaiserliche Marine found itself in a potentially untenable position. The vastly superior Royal Navy had the High Seas Fleet bottled in Wilhelmshaven, and German commerce was in danger of being cut off completely. A direct fleet engagement was not a viable option due to the vast superiority that the Royal Navy enjoyed in numbers, so a strategy was undertaken to try to draw portions of the Royal Navy out into the North Sea to be defeated in detail.
On the 1st of January, the Scouting Forces of the High Seas Fleet set sail for the British coast, intending to use its speed to avoid the Royal Navy and bombard the British coast. However, shortly after leaving port, the Scouting Force was intercepted by elements of the Royal Navy led by the 5th Cruiser Squadron. The resulting battle was a very one sided affair, resulting in the total destruction of the 5th Cruiser Squadron and 14 supporting destroyers. The Scouting Forces lost a mere 5 destroyers in the engagement. Despite the clear victory the commander of the Scouting Force, Franz von Hipper, decided to turn back to Willhelmshaven due to his lack of solid intellegence on the presence of any other British forces.
Almost immediately upon the return of the Scouting Force, the German high command had resolved to sortie yet again, this time with a smaller more compact force. German air reconnaissance had revealed several British merchant fleets passing in the North Sea, directly north of Denmark. Deciding to commit to a raid on commerce, the battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger were sent north with a small escort of four light cruisers and five destroyers. Little did the Germans know that the stage was set for the first major fleet engagement of the war.
The sortie of the Seydlitz and Derfflinger was short lived. Despite an airborne escort by German Zeppelins, they were completely unaware of a Royal Navy task force that lay directly in their path. On the evening of January 5, Hipper's destroyer escorts reported contact with Royal Navy Armored Cruisers. Knowing that the Royal Navy only had Armored Cruisers attached to their main battle fleets, Hipper ordered an immediate turn to the south to disengage. Shortly after slipping away into the darkness, Hipper's Zeppelin escorts reported that the Royal Navy's Battlecruiser Force was directly to his north, and giving chase.
Commander of the High Seas Fleet, Reinhard Scheer, immediately saw opportunity when the report of the presence of the Battlecruiser Force reached his desk. He immediately ordered the High Seas Fleet to make steam and redirected U-Boat forces to the most recently reported spotting of the British Force in order to determine if the Battlecruiser Force was alone, or was accompanied by the Grand Fleet. With no sightings of the Grand Fleet by either submarine or Zeppelin, Scheer ordered the High Seas Fleet to sortee with the objective of destroying the Battlecruiser Force, a victory that would seriously open up the ability of the German Navy to have free reign in the North Sea.
On the morning of the 6th of January the High Seas Fleet scouting cruisers made first contact with the Armored Cruisers of the Battlecruiser Force. Unfortunately, the Battlecruiser Force was directly to Scheer's North, and it immediately reversed course upon seeing the German Dreadnoughts. Hipper and the Seydlitz and Derfflinger sailed towards Wilhelmshaven while Scheer passed him, moving to engage. The speed of the Battlecruiser Force was telling however, and they managed to successfully disengage shortly after 10:30am. Only three destroyers from the Royal Navy were destroyed, falling under the guns of the scouting German light cruisers.
The Battlecruiser Force, despite a successful disengagement, was not finished. British commander Sir David Beatty, desperately intent on catching the Seydlitz and Derfflinger turned south again, and attempted to slip by Scheer and intercept the two isolated battlecruisers. Scheer's scouts reacquired the battlecruiser force again at 12:35, and this time Scheer's formations were in a prime position to block Beatty's escape, being to his northwest. Seeing the opportunity to pin Beatty against the Wilhelmshaven minefields and destroy him, Scheer ordered a turn to the northeast, preparing to cross Beatty's T from the rear.
Scheer's order was, however, short lived. Soon after commencing their turn, Scheer's scouts sighted smoke directly to the north. Within minutes, the scouts had sighted not only several British armored cruisers, but also the lead dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet. Hipper realized that the hunter had now become the hunted and he had in fact walked into a trap. Wasting no time, Hipper ordered the entire High Seas Fleet to immediately reverse course and make for the south and then for Wilhelmshaven. The result of this move would be to reverse the order of the High Seas Fleet, making the old, slow pre-dreadnought Hessen the head of the battle line. Scheer was tempted to break the fleet into component divisions and flee, but he decided that keeping the integrity of the battle line and performing a fighting retreat was the best option, a decision that likely saved much of his fleet.
The Royal Navy for their part was not willing to let the High Seas Fleet simply disengage. The Battlecruiser Force, desperate to break up the battlecruiser line and slow it down, moved in an attempt to cross Scheer's T and impede his southerly flight. Beatty also sent his destroyers out to immediately commence torpedo attacks all along the battleship line. Unfortunately for Beatty, his force became disorganized attempting to complete their maneuvers, and his battlecruisers became hopelessly scattered, leaving his destroyers and light cruisers to try to cut off the German Battleships. Only the Princess Royal, Queen Mary and Tiger were able to stay in line and they moved to harass the rear of the German line.
Scheer, seeing the British strategy, decided that the best course was to simply use the brute force of his battleships to smash through the lighter forces attempting to block them. He moved destroyers up to screen the Hessen and his now leading pre-dreadnoughts from torpedo attacks, and he put his faith in the old ships to do their duty. At the rear of the line, Scheer himself decided to break off his eight most modern dreadnoughts into two separate divisions that would use their superior speed to protect the rear of the formation. He refused to allow the rapidly approaching three British battlecruisers to harass the rear of the formation, fearing lucky hits on his dreadnoughts that could disable them and leave them to the predations of the oncoming Grand Fleet. Scheer turned his eight dreadnoughts to the north and east, presenting their broadsides to the onrushing battlecruisers, crossing their T. In a panic, the commander of the Princess Royal also turned his force to the north, trying to bring their big guns to bear quickly and run for the protection of the Grand Fleet. His strategy ended in disaster almost instantly, when shells from the König hit the Princess Royal and she exploded, going down with all hands. The Queen Mary and Tiger were now alone facing the eight finest dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet, an engagement they could not hope to win, but that they fought anyway. In mere minutes the Queen Mary's back had been broken from an explosion, and she slipped beneath the waves. Minutes later the Tiger, battered by multiple shell hits, foundered and began to sink.
With the three Battlecruisers down, Scheer turned south, sending parting shots at the HMS Australia, which was now fleeing, along with the rest of the Battlecruiser Force. Seeing that the Australia was too far, Scheer ordered his guns trained the lead armored cruisers of the Grand Fleet. As the eight dreadnoughts sailed south, they took a horrendous toll on the armored cruisers, sinking the Duke of Edinburgh, Black Prince and Warrior.
At the head of the line, the pre-dreadnoughts were being subjected to attack after harrowing attack from the light cruisers and destroyers of the Battlecruiser Force. The SMS Hessen, leading the line was the constant object of the attacks, and her crew fought for four hours magnificently. Five waves of cruisers and destroyers made runs at the Hessen. The first wave of cruisers stripped her destroyer escort away almost completely and the line almost broke up from avoiding torpedoes, but the Hessen moved straight and true, helping destroy the four cruisers that had assailed her. The third attack, led by the British cruiser Galatea was the most notable. The Galatea bravely charged the Battleship line, taking fire from pre-dreadnought and dreadnought alike, her supporting cruisers falling to the wayside under he weight of shells.
Galatea bravely and kept forward despite catastrophic damage and in her death shudders launched a torpedo salvo that caught the Hessen amidships.
The Hessen began to take on water and hope seemed to be lost for the old battleship, but the quick action of her repair crews on the pumps kept her from foundering. The venerable ship plowed on, leading the precious battleships of the High Seas Fleet towards Wilhelmshaven. The Hessen had managed to fight off two waves of cruisers and three of destroyers, all of which were sunk under the guns of the battleship line.
As darkness fell, Scheer ordered a final turn to the east, to make for Wilhelmshaven and safety. The greatest problem for him now was that many of his dreadnoughts had expended most of their ammunition fighting off wave after wave of British light ships. The eight Dreadnoughts bringing up the van of the fleeing fleet were the worst, having exhausted all of their big gun ammo. The armored cruisers of the Grand Fleet, the only ships with the speed to stop Scheer from making port, sped ahead and used the cover of darkness to make hit and run attacks on Scheer's helpless dreadnoughts. For an hour, the armored cruisers moved at will, managing to slow the Oldenberg with a lucky hit and put to put a torpedo into the Kronprinz Wilhelm, which fortunately had no effect. Desperate to remove the threat of the cruisers, Scheer signaled ahead for the Seydlitz and Derfflinger, previously unengaged, to turn to the rear of the line and engage the armored cruisers. Hipper turned his battlecruisers about and made for the High Seas fleet van inside of twenty minutes. When the HMS Shannon came out of the dark to make a run at the limping Oldenberg, she was shocked to find Seydlitz and Derfflinger protecting her, and they opened up on the Shannon with their big guns. In mere minutes Shannon was a burning wreck. The light cruiser HMS Southampton met a similar fate moments later, convincing the rest of the British cruisers to break off, conceding the flight of the High Seas Fleet.
The Battle of Emden was claimed as a victory by both sides. The British Navy had successfully put flight to the High Seas Fleet, and could claim the proverbial control of the battlefield. The High Seas fleet however had achieved at least part of its original objective. Despite having to flee, the British Battlecruiser Force had suffered greatly, having lost three battlecruisers and almost all of its supporting light cruisers and destroyers. All told forty-two Royal Navy ships were sunk in the engagement, including ten light cruisers and four armored cruisers. Despite having to flee, the German High Seas Fleet suffered only seventeen ships lost, two light cruisers and fifteen destroyers. None of the German battleships were lost, and even the Hessen, which had taken the brunt of five spirited attacks, was only lightly damaged.
The battle, although inconclusive at the time, changed the balance of battlecruiser power in the North Sea. The Kaiserliche Marine now felt much more confident sending out the Scouting Force with six to four odds replacing nine to four. The Kaiserliche Marine was confident that the next time the battlecruisers met in the North Sea, the decision would be more decisive.
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