Part Five
1602, 22 July 1916, North Seas, Flagship of Battlecruiser Force, HMS Lion.
Vice Admiral Beatty, still remaining on the exposed Flag Bridge of his flagship Lion despite his Flag-Captains recommendation to relocate to the conning tower, could not help but feel an intense satisfaction with how things had gone to date. Since intercepting the battlecruisers of Hipper's Scouting Force, and once settled into a long parallel run south, both sides had been exchanging fire steadily.
Beatty had watched in some degree of puzzlement as the battle had initially developed. The German battle-cruisers had conducted a slight turn and settled onto a course to the south, parallel to his own. Admittedly it was towards the direction of Wilhelmshaven and the security of the Jade Estuary minefields, but if he had been in command, he would have used the opportunity to cut across the British rear, effectively crossing his T in reverse and used that opportunity to whittle down the opposing force. He was satisfied to see his own ships begin gaining hits now on a more regular basis, although in his opinion, the initial standard of accuracy took too long to gain range. Still nothing to write home about, despite most ships in the 1 BCS keeping up a solid rate of fire of at least two rounds per minute. Perhaps the battle mightn't be going quite according to plan, but then the old truism, "No plan survives contact with the enemy," still applied. that much he did know. Despite this, he couldn't help but feel that the longer Germans stood to exchange fire with his force, the more could it only benefit him, as the weight of fire of his more numerous forces began to tell on the enemy. To date perhaps there were no clear indication of this yet, but he remained confident.
The clearest sign of this was perhaps the trailing ship of the opposing formation, Vonn der Tann. With the two still attached ships of the 2BCS at the rear of the line concentrating on it, he was reasonably sure that it had been hit at least four or five times to date. It appeared that one of its turrets was no longer firing, but despite this, it maintained its position in the enemy line, and continued to fire steadily and accurately with its other guns. They continue to build tough ships he mused silently to himself, recalling the battering Blucher had absorbed before finally sinking at Dogger Bank. At least once it had scored a significant hit on its opponent, forcing Australia out of the line for the moment. A glance towards the rear of his own line revealed distant smudge that was Australia, having circled away from the line a couple of times, appeared to be back under command and resuming the chase. Now visibly trailing the rest of the formation by a gap of a couple of miles, but doing its best to re-join the action. Not perhaps the most desired outcome, but the price of doing business. You couldn't expect to engage in any heavy exchange without at least taking so damage. That this was the only problem for his force to date was acceptable and now finally his own heavy hitters appeared to be gaining the correct range as a second flare of a hit appeared on the opposing flag ship. It might have taken longer than he preferred, and his own flag had been hit thrice already, but continued to fire rapidly. He was happy with this and the more his ships were firing, the sooner this weight of fire would tell.
The first hit had been shrugged off on the main armor belt, leaving little visible mark except a darkened scar marring its surface. The next two had been more significant, hitting above the after-casement guns, dismounting one and penetrating a deck before exploding, disabling the after dynamos for a brief moment before the circuits could be reset. The third shell had probably appeared more spectacular from a distance, landing among the ship's boats clustered at the base of Lions third funnel. In igniting the fuel store for these kept in that vicinity, and creating a large fire that was still raging despite the crew's best efforts to extinguish it. It looked impressive undoubtedly from a distance, but doing little real damage and hardly affecting the ships combat capabilities. He was less sure of the specifics of the exchanges between the trailing ships of both forces, seeing several hits at various times flaring on the opposition. Only the Princess Royal seemed to have avoided being hit too date of his own force and Queen Mary following had taken three hits and Invincible one, beyond the hit that had forced Australia out, as the range continued to fall. The leading ships of both sides had slowly converged and the range was now down to under 12,000 meters. Considering fully half the ships in the British line were not initially engaged during the closing phase, Beatty would have thought the results of the gunnery would have been better. Lion had been firing at the leading battlecruiser, with 2 funnels and 2 masts, certainly of the Lutzow Class. Yet no hits had been obtained up until recently, although the flagship's fire had crept closer and only the last salvo appeared to have scored twice. At this time, it was only the third German ship, that had not gained hits on his squadron. Indeed, it was HMS Invincible, Horace Hood's flagship, that had instead landed two shells from one ladder on the fourth German ship, producing a bloom of fire near her funnel, and now appeared to be burning as equally as merrily as the Lion, though hopefully to more effect. It was only as he was thinking this that Queen Mary landed two hits on the second German ship in line. To date this was developing to be a bit of a slugfest for both sides.
Evan as he was thinking this, Beatty's head whipped around as there was another crunching jar underfoot as Lion rang to another hit somewhere amidships. Peripherally he caught the movement as both Backhouse and the nearest signalman each jerking around to observe the same phenomenon as well, when for the second time in the last half hour, a masthead height candle of flame seemed to erupt from Lion's midships. Beatty just had time to see his Flag Captains head begin to lean forward to say something, and his own mind barely form the thought 'again?' when with brutal abruptness the seventy odd tons or cordite and explosive contained in the mid-ship Q-magazine of HMS Lion spectacularly detonated. Surrounding observers could only watch helplessly as a huge chocolate colored cloud rose and rain of debris falling above the two shattered halves of what formerly had been the flagship of the Battle cruiser force jack-knifed from the force of the explosion. With barely any time seeming to pass the forward half of the hull, broken off just before the second funnel, was seen to pitch forward, its momentum seeming to drive it relentlessly under, the bow dipping beneath the surface and disappearing in less than two minutes, before any of its personnel even had a chance to reach the deck. The rear half slewing to port and rapidly rolling on its side, its inexorably capsizing hull forcing the following Queen Mary to jink sharply to starboard to avoid the sudden obstacle across its bows. The upside-down hull would remain above the surface for barely a few minutes more, before with its stern raising and all four propellers still revolving, it would follow the disappeared forward portion. Even as its stunned compatriots surged past, and two escorts closed on the grave of the stricken ship, the battle continued unabated. Of the 1,143 officers and crew of the former flagship only 11 would eventually be pulled alive from the water, amongst them not a single officer including its commander Vice Admiral Beatty. (2) With abrupt finality the second Flag Officer of the Battlecruiser force had been removed from the battle.
1628 22 June 1916, SMS Lutzow, North Sea
Hipper knew all too well that it was imperative that he continue to keep drawing the British battlecruisers south it he was going to present Scheer and the HSF, hopefully now to his north-east and closing, the opportunity to impose itself between the British and their escape route. It was fine, in theory. Despite starting the engagement with an 8 to 6 deficiency in heavy ships, his battle-cruisers had shown themselves to be the masters of long-range gunnery, with the now destruction of the lead ship and withdrawal of a second at no loss to his own. Initially, his outnumbered ships were obtaining two hits for every hit in return, perhaps with only the recently commissioned Hindenburg understandably failing to meet that standard. Now, this was no longer the case, the Royal Navy ships obtaining hits on his own command at a more favourable ratio as the range had shortened. He ordered a slight adjustment to port, hopefully to open the range again, and on a more direct heading home. Thankfully, many of their shells were not penetrating. He estimated that with their edge in numbers, they were hitting his ships at least 3 times for every two of his own, perhaps more. Nevertheless, the fact remained that his ships continued to steadily accrue damage. This was made worse by the fact that initially one of his ships, the trailing Von der Tann, had been the target of multiple opponents. Despite driving one foe out of the line the fact remained she was the oldest and smallest of his capital ships. Her ability to absorb punishment was essentially less than the others and that weight of fire had been telling on the one of his ships with least capacity to absorb such damage. She now had been struck at least eleven times to date with two of her turrets were out of action. In addition, she had twice below the armored belt and was taking water as well as being on fire. She was beginning to resemble a punch-drunk fighter as her speed had slipped to 17 knots and appeared to be slowing further, dropping her off the back of his formation. If he reduced his own formation, even to 20 knots, he risked the enemy getting ahead and to be in a position to cross his own T. At least with the loss of the Lion, the numbers were at the moment equal, so it was a one-on-one fight. He would just have to hope she could struggle on for the moment and hold her pace.
She was not the only one of his ships in trouble. Moltke and Seydlitz, his other two 11-inch gunned vessels, both engaged by two of the British Invincible class battlecruisers, had taken seven and nine hits respectively by now. Seydlitz Captain reported heavy flooding after two hits underwater forward of the belt. With several hundred tons of water on board, she too was losing speed as her bow dipped. A heavy shell had hit the armored bulkhead forward at the corner and shoved it back five feet, breaking off a large piece from the armor plate in the process, and maintaining speed was forcing water in at a large rate. Another direct hit had dismounted Anton turret and sparked a turret fire, forcing the flooding of A-magazine, all conspiring to bring down the ships head for worst effect. Two of the secondary guns were disabled, and with the ammunition stores for these two guns were set on fire and the magazines had to be flooded to prevent an explosion. The ship, nevertheless, remained combat effective, though this would remain a matter of degree the longer she absorbed this level of punishment. For now, she could still steam at only a slightly reduced speed, but if the sea came up things would change drastically. Moltke in some ways was luckier, having yet to receive underwater damage and remaining capable of full speed. She was already edging past the slowing Seydlitz, but a shell had scored a direct hit on turret Dora, jamming the mechanism and creating a flash fire that had its entire crew. Fortunately, the lessons of Dogger Bank had been learned and the magazine had not detonated, but still required flooding to prevent its contents overheating. Still, this had added another 600 tons of water into the ship. His three leading Derfflinger-class ships had benefitted by the simple expedient of the British not ranging quickly on them during the opening phases, and had only suffered two or three hits each, not being seriously damaged yet. Again, though targeted by two the heavier gunned Lion Class ships, it seemed to him that their shells seemed to break up often on impact. Had this not occurred he wasn’t sure he could have been able to say the same at this point otherwise. Had their opponents had scored a number of damaging hits, the situation could have been far worse. but at the moment his force was on the whole suffering but holding its own. The biggest issue was now his two ships lagging behind, watching as now the Seydlitz, her steadily sagging bow now causing the ship to hog badly, began to lose speed further, below 20 knots. He agonized in his mind, should he reduce speed to keep his laggards within support distance?
Even as he was contemplating this drastic action, at 1645 he was heartened, as another dramatic turn of events took place. The battle-cruiser Queen Mary, now the lead ship of the British formation, was exchanging blows with his own flagship. Both ships had begun to exchange a series of heavy hits as Lutzow had to switch her fire to Queen Mary, now clearly visible to its gunnery officer as the lead ship in the British line. Queen Mary hit Lutzow again at 16:37 and knocked out one gun of her secondary armament, while in return, Queen Mary had been hit twice before 16:41 with no apparent effects. the next salvo fired struck at 1644. Targeted by Lutzow, two 305 mm shells hit forward below the conning tower near the four-inch casement guns, with after a brief pause, an initial abrupt puff of brown smoke seemed to vent from the boiler room ventilation hatches around the forward funnel directly behind the foremast. This was followed almost immediately by a far larger and vastly more destructive explosion that seemed to almost disintegrate the center portion of the hull in the vicinity of the first explosion, followed by the detonation of one or both of the forward magazines.
The subsequent eyewitness accounts provide harrowing details of their shock at the event. Dublin, the fourth ship of the 2LCS, still struggling to regain position at the head of the formation had been moving up on the disengaged side of the Queen Mary. On board William Carey saw the forepart largely intact as it swung towards his ship.
'In every detail we could see officers and signalmen with others as the ship, already doing twenty knots with the fore section blown forward, causing a higher bow wave than before only listing slightly to port, then skidding round to starboard towards Dublin. We actually ported our helm to avoid her hitting us but it proved unnecessary; with increasing list she dived, her fore turret guns at full elevation hot with firing, giving a loud hissing as they met the water. It was terrible to see those poor souls so near yet so far and being unable to help.'
Midshipman Owen emerged from Queen Mary's aft X-turret and found.
'…the ship lying on its side. She was broken amidships; her bows were sticking up in the air and the stern was also sticking up out at an angle of abort 45 degrees from the water… A few moments afterwards a tremendous explosion occurred in the forepart of the vessel. which must have blown the bows to atoms.'
Stationed inside 'Q' turret, Midshipman Storey survived and emerged.
'…there had been a large explosion forward which rocked the turret, breaking the left gun in half, the gun breech falling into the working chamber and the right gun coming off its trunnions. Cordite in the working chamber caught fire and produced poisonous fumes that nearly asphyxiated some of the turret's crew. When I arrived on top of the turret the foremost part of the ship was no more and you could see where the ship had broken off just by the foremast. The stern was coming rapidly up out of the water and the amidships portion was going down in the water. The two after funnels were lying down, the midships funnel beside Q-turret, and we climbed over the debris and had just got down to the water's edge, when the after-magazine X-turret blew up and blew us into the water, a salvo of shells having gone into the after magazine.'
It is doubtful that the initial explosion came from the forward magazines at first. Later analysis would speculate that the initial hit around the forward guns had triggered a magazine explosion in the 4-inch magazine, either by the ready use ammunition or a flash through the ammunition hoist and 4-inch handling room. This would explain the initial explosive venting seen out around the forward funnel. Unfortunately, this is located immediately aft of the 13.5-inch handling rooms and magazine of the main armament. This would explain the brief delay between the first explosion and disastrous detonation of the 150 tons of high explosive in A and B magazines that catastrophically tore the ship in half. The battlecruiser behind her, Princess Royal was showered with gruesome debris from the final explosion of the rear magazine in passing and forced to steer to port to avoid her remains, before becoming the third ship to lead the now battered British line. Beyond marking the pivotal turning point between the two forces the speed of her destruction would result in 1,266 crewmen being lost, with eventually eighteen survivors picked up by the destroyers Laurel, Petard, and Tipperary, and a final two by the Germans.
1658 22 July 1916, SMS Friedrich der Grosse; Flagship HSF, North Sea
While events were reaching a crux between the two Battlecruisers forces of the respective fleets, Admiral Scheer was doing his best to position his force to best effect a trap on the two identified British forces at sea. In this he was aided by a clearer idea of the current tactical situation of both forces thanks to the presence of Zeppelins hovering untouchable over both of the identified enemy dispositions. While L22 of the initial wave of four of the MLA airships continued to maintain contact with the Battleship force heading south, L21 of the second MLA group had used the reports from Hipper to locate the ongoing battlecruiser duel. With clear weather it was now observing from on high unhampered by the slightest sign of weather and radioing constant updates, enabling Scheer to place his own force as he wanted. The other airships were now fanning out, four to the north and three to cover the north-western approaches and provide alert on the arrival of any further forces or at worst, the Grand Fleet.
While not discounting the suffering Hipper's embattled force was enduring, he had held his course north to a point at which he swung his force of nineteen dreadnaughts to a due west heading. His intent was, if possible, to decisively engage and destroy both of the identified groups at sea. Primarily he hoped to cut between the two forces, separating them and hopefully cutting the southernmost group off from escape back towards England and pinning them between his and Hipper's ships. If he succeeded in this then there would be little chance the British battlecruiser force could survive. If the second force of battleships attempted to intervene and save the battlecruisers then he had more than sufficient force to still engage them in a stand-up fight and still destroy the battlecruisers in detail. To achieve this his force was now steaming west at 18 knots, in four columns, three of five dreadnaughts and one of four. He had his two heaviest ships, the 15-inch Bayern and Baden in the northern most column along with his flagship. These were most likely to have to fight the northern group ships if they tried to intervene. Either way he had the most flexible arrangement he thought, and could even consider double-envelopment of both opponents if the opportunity presented. Either way his force was committed to closing on the action ahead, and until arriving could only listen to updates of the ongoing fight sliding further south from his current heading.
1700 22 July 1916, SMS Lutzow; Flagship 1st Scouting Force, North Sea.
The surprise destruction of the lead ship of the enemy's line had bought a brief surge of happiness at its unexpectedness. Not so much at the death of so many men doing their duty, but it the simple fact that for the first time in the engagement he now had a parity in numbers with his opponent, removing their opportunity to 'double-team' any of his ships. Hipper's joy was short lived, as his force was beginning to fragment as the levels of damage continued to mount. With both Seydlitz and Vonn der Tann now lagging noticeably, he in effect still had four combat effective ships opposing the leading five of the British line. Vonn der Tan had dropped back to the point where she was now engaged with the last distantly lagging battlecruiser of the enemy line, both now a couple of miles behind their respective formations, and the two seemed to be settling into their own little exchange separated from the rest. That the now also noticeably trailing Seydlitz was still engaging the enemy's fifth vessel was only possible as the range was down to less than 10,000 meters and if she lagged further and dropped out of range, then the battle would be back to five to four. Even in this exchange the Seydlitz continued to suffer, hit three times in the next five minutes. At 1658, came an unexpected reprieve. While reduced now to be only able to employ four guns, less than a quarter of an hour after the loss of Queen Mary, two rounds impacted on the stern of the last vessel of the British line, and after a brief pause that ship would abruptly suffer another devastating magazine detonation, blowing off the stern. Shortly thereafter the next salvo would strike the forward portion of the ship as it reeled out of the line, as the forward magazine was to also erupt, completing its destruction. (3)
The best recollection of this destruction came from the observations of the Seydlitz's gunnery officer, Fregatenkapitan Mahrholz, (4) who was observing the fall of shot during the engagement. His recollection states:
'… Then after the opening of fire the enemy caught fatal wounds... I saw a giant explosion in the aft gun turret, a bright flash flame pushed out and ships debris was thrown in a wide arc in the air, seemingly it was the turret roof, which through pressure of the explosion inside had been thrown out. The next salvo gave the ship the rest, it hit further forward and had the result that soon after the impact a tremendous black smoke cloud climbed from the ship reaching double the mast height and the ship completely disappeared from sight. (Mahrholz, 1930)
Though various timings are given for this occurrence, the three German Torpedo Boats shepherding Seydlitz at this point all record the same time of 1658 as well. The net result of this was that even as the Seydlitz fell further behind, the engagement at the front of the line was again further reduced to a four versus four struggles, with Seydlitz now trailing unengaged, while now well to the rear of the battle, Australia and Vonn der Tann were locked in their own isolated exchange far astern. This was a vital reprieve for the now wallowing Seydlitz, which by was reduced to a largely helpless target at this stage, with the only operational main armament being E-turret on the disengaged side with the ships southerly heading.
1716 22 June 1916, Flagship 3BCS, HMS Invincible, North Sea
Since command of the Battlecruiser Force had devolved to him with the loss of the Lion, the commander of the 3BCS, Rear Admiral Horace Hood, had felt a slow but increasing unease over how the battle had been developing. Past the initial shock at the finality and unexpectedness of its destruction, his professionalism and years of experience had allowed him to adapt and analyze the changing status of the battle as it progressed. The initial source of his concern was the arrival and continuing presence of a German airship hovering some distance to the west of his line. It's ability to observe and report his actions, with no way for him to interfere, was preying on his mind as part of the larger tactical picture. That it was transmitting reports was obvious, and its ability to continue do so unhindered increasingly made him wish that Beatty had incorporated the seaplane carrier Engadine in their force when it sortied. It's availability and the calm weather were ideal conditions for the employment of its aircraft was unusual for the North Sea. Even if had been unable to drive off the zeppelin, it would have given him options to know the wider tactical picture, currently only available to the Germans. Increasingly he felt its omission had been a mistake, a thought for future planning.
He was more worried as he considered the wider implications of the moment. The continued obduracy of the Germans despite being outnumbered, had raised the tactical hairs on the back of his neck. To date there was no indications that the HSF was out, beyond the initial Room 40 reports from the Admiralty which had initiated the British forces sortie initially. But the longer the action continued, the more he felt that the German force facing him would have made some greater attempt to break off by now, or perhaps employ its torpedo boats to lay smoke or attack, unless they were expecting the arrival support. Admittedly, the continuing general south and south-easterly heading of the engagement was towards the security of their minefields, but any damaged laggards forced to drop out could become easy prey. But despite the increasing damage toll, and signs that already this was happening with two of their ships noticeably lagging, to date they had not attempted to use their screen, or use smoke or change heading as some form of relief. This and the fact that he was locked into a simple toe-to-toe contest at the moment offering little tactical flexibility also galled him. With the enemy observation above he felt vulnerable to the arrival of new forces, with little warning on the composition or direction.
These generic worries were swamped by a new shock at 1645. "Queen Mary blown up, sir" came the superfluous laconic report from one of the bridge lookouts. It was all too true, as he could see with his own disbelieving eyes the destruction of another of the most modern of capital ships two ahead in line. The shock of this second loss was reinforced with dismay as his own ship forged past the final agonies of the doomed vessel, the inability to help those clearly visible on the foundering vessel reinforcing all his previous worries. Things were not going well at all, and he felt helpless at the moment to change the calculus of battle. With the range steady at around 12,000 meters with the constant slight changes of course to throw off the opponent's fire. Despite this, hits were being obtained all to readily by both sides. In his mind, with his own ships outnumbering those of the Germans, he should be inflicting more damage on the enemy heavies, yet this did not seem the case. For all that, his own formation had taken some severe blows, and the Germans continued to exhibit admirable doggedness, as he felt his own ship shudder from another hit. For now, his only option seemed to continue to dish it out to them to the best of his ability, despite the rising damage toll on his ships.
Barely had he assimilated this loss and confirmed the retargeting of own line onto their opposites in the enemy line, when further calamity occurred. Barely 10 minutes after the previous report the same signalman would repeat an almost identical emotionless delivery, "Indefatigable blown up, sir." This time the heads and binoculars of the entire bridge staff whipped around to see events unfolding astern of them. Helplessly observing as the Indefatigable appeared distantly to real out of line, bow cocking to the sky, before with what was becoming uncomfortably all too familiar, a second massive explosion obliterated it from sight. Unknown to observers it marked the grave of all but three of its 1,019 crew. "Jesus Christ… I don't believe it," came an anonymous voice, breaking the sudden hushed silence of the bridge. Hood couldn't help but share the cathartic emotion of the speaker, but it was all too true, as he could see with his own disbelieving eyes the destruction of another of the capital ships, so symbolic of the Royal Navy and his life. Such was the shock that for the very first time ever, he felt the slightest worm of professional doubt about the possible outcome of the battle. It was quite a profoundly disturbing realization, even as he fought off its implications finding resolution in the values ingrained in his years of service. The battle would continue and it was still there to be won by their efforts. As bad as things had gone for his own ships, surely, they were just as bad for his opponents.
With the implications of the loss lingering, he would find succor in the professionalism now required of him. The brief fission of insight bought on by the loss of Indefatigable, made him realize how deeply found was his belief in victory, his own moral abhorrence that they might be forced to break off the action, for all that it may become the best course. Firstly, he directed the Yeoman to radio Jellicoe and Even-Thomas the latest update on the situation and position. Next, he contacted his remaining flag-subordinates, Admirals de Brock and Napier, and Commodores Goodenough and Alexander-Sinclair, with the light cruiser squadrons of the screen. With the man oeuvres and initial contact battle it had taken a long time for the majority of these to regain position at the head of his force. While some ships had been lost or separated, or involved in support or rescue functions, enough had finally gathered in a position ahead of his force to intervene, where the 13 light cruisers and 18 available destroyers now kept pace. With the strength of this screen, particularly its weight of light cruisers, made it more than adequate in his mind to cut through the German screen and deliver a decisive blow. He resisted releasing this attack for the moment, despite his first desire. Lingering in his mind remained the niggling potential of the arrival of another German force. For the moment he would hold it in hand for best employment in the event it was needed. An exchange of signals with the screen outlined his intent, but for now he would continue with the exchange of blows, while holding them back as his decisive weapon for whatever was to occur.
For the next half hour both sides would endure and continue, resembling two increasingly battered, punch-drunk yet relentless fighters. Hood was finding some solace in the visible evidence of the increasing toll of his fire on the Germans. The flag at the head of their line was suffering from the heavier shells of the Princess Royal ahead, now noticeably down at the bow, and speed dropping and only three turrets firing. The number two ship, his own opponent had both rear turrets silent, but seemed otherwise impervious to damage, the other two following ships both appeared to have lost turrets and be afire, but continued firing steadily and with admirable accuracy despite this. The final two ships were clearly now out of battle with his own four, lagging well behind. His own ships were taking a beating but remained in action.
Finally beginning to feel vindication that the weight of fire was having telling effect and could only lead to either their further loss or the abandonment of the action. He leant forward and called through the voice-pipe to the gunnery officer in the fighting top, "Keep firing as quickly as possible. You are doing splendidly; every shot is telling."[5] Even as he was straightening from this, the final twist of the battle would spell doom for Hood's flagship. At 1734, and a salvo of four shells from the operative Anton and Bruno turrets of Derfflinger, still relentlessly firing accurately and well, would straddle the midships of his command. One was fated to penetrated the "Q" turret of Invincible, the same mortal wound which had destroyed HMS Lion. Hood was to have a brief moment of horror before another cloud of smoke would remove the fourth battle cruiser and another 1026 officers and men, including Admiral Hood, from the battle. British observers again helplessly watched with dread as firstly a flare of fire leapt to the sky, almost immediately by the feared dark cloud of smoke marking the destruction of the ship. The British destroyers rushing to assist would only recover six eventual survivors, including Invincibles' gunnery officer, Cmdr. Dannreuther, who had received Admiral Hoods last instruction, and was to be the highest ranked survivor of the four lost capital ships that day. Beyond this it was to prove the greatest loss of flag officers for the Royal Navy in a single action since the age of sail
1714 22 July 1916, Flagship 1st Scouting Group, SMS Lutzow, North Sea
Admiral Hipper, was increasingly feeling the pressure of events for the last half-hour and recognized that the point was coming where he would soon have to act. Even with his own professional detachment the two recent ringing direct hits on the conning tower of his flagship, along with the destruction of Bruno turret directly ahead of it had been stunning. Even now whilst thanking God that neither had penetrated, his thoughts still felt almost numb with an overload of his senses. The smell of burnt meat and smoke pervading this space even though the turret fire was out, remained another assault on his abused senses, combined with the almost stunned feeling by the frequency of impacts. He knew that by now over twenty large caliber shells had struck, and no matter how well constructed, it could not take much more. The flood of damage reports was too extensive and the ship felt increasingly sluggish underfoot from the accumulated influx of water. That all of these hits had been from the largest calibre British shells and only made the damage worse. He at the moment doubted that few of his ships where in a better state. For all that none seemed to have sunk yet, he could only call the first four in any way still moderately combat capable, and the Seydlitz and Vonn der Tann were now too far back to be in contact. Derfflinger, Hindenburg and Moltke all had taken at least a dozen hits each, for all that they continued to return aimed fire at the British. He would have sought to break contact by now, but for the knowledge of Scheer and the HSF proximity, and that at least three of his opponents had sunk.
As his own motivation to keep going clung to these thoughts, he was heartened by another welcome sight. At 1732 he was lifted as yet again, a fourth British ship inexplicably erupted. Even he was shocked by this event. What on earth was happening? To his bemused mind seemed a far too unlikely and inexplicable event had come to his rescue, even as he sought to turn the sudden raggedness opposite to his advantage. Then, suddenly he felt a true fission of excitement as a commander for the first true time in several hours. Looking at the suddenly ragged enemy line opposite, he realised that inconceivably, the numbers were perhaps in his favour for the very first time in the long and supremely trying day. He had four ships in hand, still fighting to the enemies three, though everyone was suffering significant damage. This galvanised his thoughts as for the first time there was the glimmer of his role to be more than a holding action. Could he be offensive, could he double one end of the enemy line? Momentarily he felt the surge of potential for his ships to push for dominance, to unexpectedly reach for victory with their own aggression. But even as his professional mind began to juggle and analyze the scope of such potential actions. Came the alert that stilled these thoughts leaving them still born and would signal the next pivotal change in the shape of the battle. With a strident yell a lookout shouted, "Alert, Enemy destroyers approaching."
2. Narrators' remarks: Here I must admit that my personnel distaste for the egotistic leadership skills demonstrated by Beatty and some of his post-war actions have biased me to see him die in this narrative. I have condensed the battlecruiser engagements into a single very long action, largely conducted without the influence of the other major portions of either fleet. IRL the British lost three battlecruisers, Indefatigable, Queen Mary and Invincible, with the flagship Lion and Beatty lucky to escape only because Q-magazine was flooded before the smoldering fire ignited the propellant charges in the turret working room after Q-turret was hit. This was due to the heroic actions of Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey, the turret captain who, though mortally wounded, ordered the magazine flooded before this occurred. Three of the incidents occurred in the initial run south while the Invincible was lost, separately late in the day as part of the main fleet engagement.
Though I have tried to keep the details of the damage in each individual ship sinking historically accurate, and included actual eyewitness accounts of events, I have credited this to different ships to reflect the changed line-up of the respective battle lines ITTL. IRL von der Tann sank Indefatigable, Derfflinger was responsible for the critical hits on Queen Mary and Invincible, and Lutzow responsible for the hit on the Q-turret of Lion. In addition, the sequence is slightly out of true. The Lion hit (fatal in this narrative) occurred at 1614. The loss of the Indefatigable (1703) and Queen Mary (1726) occurred in rapid succession IRL, some 13 minutes apart, prompting Beatty's famous remark to his flag captain, "Chatfield, there's something wrong with our bloody ships today." This narrative retains a similar time frame, representing the rapidity that swings the balance of force away from the British. The order of loss is changed (and of course Beatty is already lost with the Lion). The Invincible was the final British battle cruiser loss. Hood's purported words are attributed to this final action at 1938. The narrative tries to reflect the ammunition, drill and safety failings that actually affected the British IRL.
Historical forensic analysis has revealed the interesting perspective of the flash fires and resulting magazine detonations and the varying time frames that seemed to occur. The destruction of the Queen Mary seems to be virtually instantaneous, indicative of some form of detonation directly into the munition handling system, most probably from the initial penetration and detonation of one of the 4-inch secondary armament, triggering the catastrophic detonation as detailed. Modern analysis of the wreck of the Indefatigable indicates a probable delay between the impact on X-turret and magazine detonation, hinting poor cordite security causes a flash fire triggering that event. The time delay between the turret hit and actual flash fire in Q-turret of the Lion was nearly 20 minutes IRL and is perhaps the only reason for the Lion's survival as many of the procedural weaknesses still existed at the time of battle. ITTL for narrative purposes the time frame is far shorter, resulting in the magazine detonation before it could be flooded and the loss of Beatty and HMS Lion.
In contrast IRL Hipper's flagship Lutzow, after absorbing a remarkable degree of punishment, was the only German battlecruiser lost. That all the German ships suffered some form of turret destruction, yet no magazine detonation is in stark contrast to the British experience and is indicative of their superior munition's security. The sole loss was, despite the extent of battle damage, due to the failure of the forward group of pumps to control flooding. That failure does not occur in this narrative, and the Lutzow survives despite the damage absorbed. The German ships as a group proved durable and capable of absorbing great punishment, as well as benefiting from the poor British shells. The Seydlitz famously survived despite its foredeck being awash with its submerged bow. With the Lutzow's survival and I have elected to sacrifice Seydlitz as its original survival was such a near run thing. The Vonn der Tann, despite the excellence of its design, is the smallest and relatively least capable of absorbing accumulating damage due to its size, in a prolonged engagement such as occurs in this narrative. The Derfflinger-class ships undoubtedly were perhaps the best battlecruiser design of either side during WW1, combining, speed, toughness and armament in a balanced and attractive package.
3. The destruction of the HMS Indefatigable occurs much as described, though IRL it preceded Queen Mary by 13 minutes rather than following it as in the narrative. British witness accounts fail to mention that it had broken in two, as the separation of the two hull sections as submarine surveys clearly revealed in 2016. This is surprising because there is no witness reference to this happening in any text referring to the battle. No detailed analysis of the fighting at Jutland makes any mention of it, and it must therefore be surmised that it was not evident to those looking at the ship at the time it occurred.
Eyewitness accounts naturally do not always report events consistently; however, the most detailed accounts are worthy of closer examination. The nearest witnesses were on the ship ahead, HMS New Zealand, and it was torpedo officer, Lt Cmdr. Lovett-Cameron, stationed in the after-conning tower, who has left us the most detailed account. Without opportunity to fire torpedoes he watched Indefatigable sink in detail through binoculars.
"… she had been hit aft, apparently by the mainmast, and a good deal of smoke was coming from her superstructure aft, but there were no flames visible...We were altering course to port at the time and apparently her steering gear was damaged as she did not follow round in our wake but held on until she was about 500 yards on our starboard quarter, in full view of the conning tower... she was [then] hit by two shells, one on the fo’c’sle and one on the fore turret. Both shells appeared to explode on impact. Then there was an interval of about 30 seconds, during which there was absolutely no fire or flame or smoke, except the little actually formed by the burst of the two shells, which was not considerable. At the end of the interval of about 30 seconds the ship completely blew up, apparently from forward. The main explosion started with sheets of flame, followed immediately afterwards by dense dark smoke which obscured the ship from view."
| This is the iconic photo detailed taken by midshipman Carne on HMS New Zealand of the sinking of the Indefatigable. Taken seconds before the forward magazine detonation it seems to reveal the stern underwater. Submarine investigation in 2016 would reveal that the stern 30-40m of the hull had separated with the earlier detonation of X-magazine. It is now believed that the separate smoke column (circled) marks the point several hundred meters away of the prior detonation of the magazine to this photo, that separated the stern. |
Although detailed, it must be borne in mind that as the ship directly ahead of Indefatigable, HMS New Zealand was not well situated to see its stern, because the initial hit occurring as it did on X-turret, would have been obscured by the rest of the ship. Although Lovett-Cameron’s account is detailed, he clearly only began to look at Indefatigable after it had it been hit aft, and only after the stern was already either separated or already submerged. He must have been situated next to Midshipman Carne who took the photograph, so that by the time Indefatigable turned, out of control, on to New Zealand’s starboard quarter, it would have appeared as if the stern of the ship was under water, rather than separated as the recent surveys revealed. The question to be asked about this account is how long did the process described by Lovett-Cameron take to play out?
Perhaps the witnesses who saw the most detail were the German gunners on Indefatigable’s actual nemesis, the SMS Von der Tann. It is known to have recorded opening fire at 15:49.
The account by the Gunnery Officer, KK Mahrholz, states that:
… Meanwhile the fire from Von der Tann was extraordinarily successful, and the enemy disappeared completely sometimes in the surrounding columns of water … Then 14 minutes after the opening of fire the enemy caught fatal wounds... I saw a giant explosion in the aft gun turret, a bright flash flame pushed out and ships debris was thrown in a wide arc in the air, seemingly it was the turret roof, which through pressure of the explosion inside had been thrown out. The next salvo gave the ship the rest, it hit further forward and had the result that soon after the impact a tremendous black smoke cloud climbed from the ship reaching double the mast height and the ship completely disappeared from sight. (Mahrholz, 1930)
It is clear in this account that Mahrholz witnessed the destruction of Indefatigable from an angle where the entire sequence of events was visible. It also offers some detail in terms of timing. Firstly, the candle like flare of a flash fire of propellant and then the explosions that sunk the ship were not immediately linked to hits but took an appreciable period of time to become apparent because they occurred inside Indefatigable and took time to build up and be visible from Von der Tann. Secondly, after the explosion of the stern, it seems it was the next salvo that created the explosion that ultimately created the black pall of smoke, also witnessed by Lovett-Cameron, but, again, there remains the question of how long this took to play out.
One point on which there seems to be agreement among witnesses is the time of the explosion of the stern to have been around 16:02, witnessed by three German torpedo boats B98, B97 and V30 all individually recorded the stern exploding at 16:02 So Von der Tann initially must have hit Indefatigable some time before this with the deadly hit taking an undetermined period of time to develop into the ‘X’ magazine explosion, witnessed by all. How long this explosion took to develop is difficult to evaluate, but it may not have been immediate. Analysis of the hit on ‘Q’ turret of HMS Lion reveals that a period of time, possibly nearly 20 minutes, elapsed from the time the turret was penetrated until the charges in the working chamber and then the handling room ignited. Accounts differ in how long it took, but it was certainly far from immediate. From the Mahrholz account, it is known that Von der Tann was straddling Indefatigable from its third salvo, when a hit was seen. How long these took to develop into ‘A’ magazine detonation, if related, can be estimated based on Lovett-Cameron’s account that it occurred at least 30 seconds later. What is clear is that both of the explosions which sank the Indefatigable were not instantaneous of the hits that caused them. In both instances it is clear that the major detonation of the magazine occurred after some delay, perhaps at least 30 seconds, from the detonation of the impacting shell. This delay, along with the indication flare up, strongly hints that the major detonation of both magazines was probably as a result of a flash fire proceeding from the turret, ammunition trunk, handling room, magazine sequence, which was only possible due to unsafe handling, security and storage practices historically recorded. Archaeological investigations of the wreck-site confirmed in 2016 that the ship broke into two distinct portions and that the cause was the hit aft reported by eyewitnesses, none of whom noticed it breaking off at that time. Indefatigable definitely blew up at 16:02. There are too many witnesses recording the time to comfortably suggest they got it wrong. Moreover, the ship may have then taken a few minutes to sink entirely. One possible explanation is that an early hit by Von der Tann took 2–3 minutes to develop into the 16:02 explosion, which fits with a delayed flash fire. The discovery that the wreck is in two parts separated by some hundreds of meters does however help resolve this question satisfactorily.
4. As detailed in the above point the destructive hit was scored by the Vonn der Tann IRL, whose gunnery officer (KK Mahrholz) witness remarks are previously included, not Seydlitz as the narrative describes. The time separating the loss of both vessels was 13 minutes though the order reversed. IRL the loss of the Indefatigable was to precede that of the Queen Mary.
5. Lt-Cmdr. Dannreuther was senior survivor for the British Battlecruiser losses IRL. His recollection was that this was the last message received from Hood, called through the voice pipe to him as the gunnery officer in the foretop, "Keep firing as quickly as possible. You are doing splendidly; every shot is telling." Five of the six survivors were stationed in the fore-control top located on the tripod foremast,30 meters above the water including Dannreuther himself. Anecdotally the sinking was so quick that they virtually stepped straight out of the top into the water itself.
