Every once in a while, The soul of Horatio Nelson chooses a man with a similar personality to possess, and in the 1870s, the great Nelson weighed it up and finally chose a child named David Betty.
The secret behind the rapid promotion
David Betty was born on January 17, 1871 in a small village called Howbeck in Cheshire, Ireland, his father David Longfield Betty was a famous local captain, David Betty was his second son, with this relationship Betty showed an innate yearning for the sea from an early age, and the old Captain Betty, who had dealt with the sea all his life, naturally supported the ambition of this second son.
In 1884, thirteen-year-old Betty Jr. was aboard the training ship HMS Britain and officially became a member of the Royal Navy. The young betty soon rose to prominence among her peers with his bravery and devotion, and in 1896, at the age of twenty-five, Betty was promoted to rear admiral and became deputy commander of the Nile Fleet, leading the fleet to cooperate with the Army in suppressing the national uprisings and uprisings in Egypt and Sudan, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1898 at the age of twenty-seven; From June 1900 to September 1901, Betty was transferred to China to participate in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, directly as the commander of the landing Marines to attack Tianjin and twice, after this war he was promoted to captain, this year he was only thirty years old, becoming one of the youngest naval colonels in the Royal Navy at that time.
After returning home, Betty married his "little sister", The daughter of an American millionaire, Ethel Field. At the same time, "financial freedom" was achieved, which became the envy of everyone at that time (at that time, it was not an isolated case for young officers in the British Royal Navy to marry a rich American merchant lady to achieve "financial freedom").
But Betty is clearly not the kind of person who indulges in the gentle countryside of "white rich beauty", and her enterprising ambition has not diminished in the slightest. In 1910, at the age of thirty-nine, Betty was promoted to rear admiral, becoming the youngest non-aristocratic admiral in the Royal Navy after Horatio Nelson, and met his "nobleman" on the way, winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Navy.
In 1911, Churchill transferred the forty-year-old Betty to his side as a sea undersecretary, and two years later, in 1913, at the age of forty-two, Betty left the office and again took command of the fleet commander, the Great Seal, after seventeen years, becoming the star main force of the Home Fleet, the Battlecruiser Squadron (under the command of the first, second and third battlecruiser squadrons, with all nine active battlecruisers of the Royal Navy) and promoted to vice admiral. The speed of his promotion is comparable to that of a helicopter, which is jaw-dropping. The reason for this is, of course, the promotion of Churchill and General John Abbasnot Fisher, then Britain's First Secretary of State for The Sea, but mainly because Betty's open-mindedness, outstanding ability, youthful strength and aggressive offensive spirit are in line with the historical tradition of the "attack first" Royal Navy. And soon, David Betty proved that his career was on the "helicopter" for a reason.
David Betty, who became a vice admiral
After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, which was the first to complete its combat readiness, tried to implement the operational intention of sealing the German High Seas Fleet in the local harbor, and on August 28, 1914, Betty personally led the First Battle Squadron, together with Commodore Tillett's Second Destroyer Fleet, Brigadier General Case's submarine force, and Commodore Goodenave's Second Light Cruiser Squadron, hit the door of the German High Seas Fleet, intercepted the German Navy's patrol fleet in Helgoland Bay, and sank the Mainz Three light cruisers,"Coron" and "Adriane", and the flagship of the Fifth Destroyer Squadron, V-187, wounded several German ships, killed 712 men, including Rear Admiral Richbert Maas, commander of the patrol fleet, wounded 132, and took 318 prisoners. Only one light cruiser and three destroyers of the Royal Navy were seriously wounded, with 32 killed and 55 wounded. Undoubtedly, it was a big victory, especially this battle was the British fleet hit the door and beat the Germans at their own doorstep, which made the German Navy lose face and make the aura of victory in this battle more dazzling.
Germans who want to get back on the field
The fiasco at the First Battle of Helgoland Bay enraged Kaiser Wilhelm II and ordered the German Navy to return to the battlefield. The German Navy was still contentious: on 22 September 1914, captain Captain Vittingen, the Submarine U9, sank three 12,000-ton armored cruisers of the Seventh Cruiser Squadron of the Royal Navy, Aboukir, Hogg and Cressy, in less than 90 minutes off the coast of Belgium, killing more than 1,500 Royal Navy officers and men.
Fine Art: The End of Aboukir, Hogg and Cressy
Artwork: Triumph's U9 submarine
On 27 October, a german navy mine in the waters off northern Ireland sank the battleship HMS Bold of the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. On 2 November and 15 December 1914, a detachment of German Navy battlecruisers led by Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper used its high speed advantage to shell the British coastal cities of Yarmouth and Scarborough, killing 122 British people and wounding 443 people, including a considerable number of children (Hickper thus gained the notoriety of "baby killer"), causing some panic in British society. Although these achievements are brilliant, after all, they were not achieved in a dignified duel on the sea, and what the German Emperor needed was a knight-like victory, which was the real "field" to find the fiasco in the Battle of Helgoland Bay.
In early 1915, several reconnaissance operations by the Zeppelins of the German Navy found that British light ships (to protect the British trawlers operating in the area) were found in the waters of the Doger Sandbar, so the High Seas Fleet Staff, under the auspices of The Minister, Rear Admiral Eckmann, planned a raid on the British patrol ships on the Doger Sandbar, and Admiral Ingnor, then commander of the High Seas Fleet, did not approve the plan, but approved the plan out of the Emperor's "shame in the snow".
Zeppelin
At 16:45 on 23 January 1915, the First Reconnaissance Squadron (battlecruiserS "Sedlitz", "Moltke", "Deflinger" and the armored cruiser "Blücher") and the second reconnaissance squadron led by Major General Berdyk (the light cruisers "Coleburg", "Graudenz", "Stralsund" and "Rostock") left Wilhelmshaven under the escort of nineteen destroyers and killed the Dogle Sandbar, Prepare to sweep up British naval vessels and fishing boats there at dawn on the 24th. Hipper is full of ambition and ready to make a name for himself. But what he did not expect was that the destination of his fleet was not the Altar, but the Ghost Gate.
The first reconnaissance squadron that set sail
The Royal Navy waiting for the rabbit
The German attack was first known to the British (on 26 August 1914 the light cruiser Magdeburg was damaged in the Gulf of Finland, and the codebook carried on it was captured by the Russian Navy and handed over to the British, giving the British control of the general direction of the German Navy), and the overjoyed British Admiralty quickly raised its troops and ordered Betty to assemble a powerful fleet and drive out of Port Roses at 17:00, only fifteen minutes after Hipper's departure. The overall strength was the first battlecruiser squadron led by Betty himself (with jurisdiction over the battlecruisers Lion, Tiger, and Grand Princess), the World War II cruiser squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Archibald Moore (with respect to the battlecruisers New Zealand and Indefatigable), the squadron of the first light cruiser commanded by Commodore Goodenough (with jurisdiction over the light cruisers Southampton, Birmingham, Nottingham and Lowtoft), and the Harwich squadron commanded by Brigadier General Tillett (with jurisdiction over the HMS Linxian, "Dawn goddess", "fearless" and thirty-three destroyers). A large net was opened for Hipper, ready to gather and annihilate.
At 7:14 a.m. on January 24, the light cruiser "Coleburg" of the German Second Reconnaissance Squadron found a strange shadow of the ship, and in the face of the identification signal from the other side with the searchlight, which was obviously not the identification signal of its own signal system, the ship preemptively attacked, directly turned on the searchlight, fired with a 105 mm naval gun and received two hits, and was attacked by the light cruiser "Dawn Goddess" of The Harwich Sub-Fleet under Brigadier General Tillett, who quickly returned fire with a 152 mm main gun after being attacked. Before it could celebrate the joy of hitting the enemy ship, the hull of the "Fort Cole" was pierced by a 152 mm shell, and quickly lost the winner's style of taking the lead, and sent a message to Hipper for help while dodging.
After receiving the report, Hipper took it for granted that this was only a light ship of the British Navy protecting fishing boats on the Doger Sandbar, and immediately ordered the four battlecruisers of the First Reconnaissance Squadron ("Blücher" counted "pseudo-battlecruiser") to move quickly towards the "Kohlburg", and in his mind' mind: a picture of a one-sided and beautiful battle of slaughter had been formed, and he even began to think of the boiling welcoming crowd on the dock after his triumphant return to the victory, the applause of flowers, and the personal award of His Majesty the Kaiser" The Blue Max Medal was beckoning to him.
Blue Marks Medal
Before Hipper could enjoy his "beauty", the light cruiser Stralsund, who was the outpost of the fleet, suddenly sent a telegram: a column of smoke for a large battleship appeared in the north-northwest direction! And the radio listening department reported that when he heard the names of "First Battlecruiser Squadron" and "Second Battlecruiser Squadron" in the telegram call sign of the British, Hipper's heart was half cold, and he immediately ordered the whole fleet to turn to retreat.
"The emergence of such a powerful fleet foreshadows the possibility that other parts of the British fleet may be approaching, especially after the discovery of the call sign of the Second World War Cruiser Squadron in the intercepted wireless telegraph, and I have decided to inform the fleet to turn to retreat."
But it's too late!
Can't beat it! Can't run away!
Due to the use of the old three-up reciprocating steam engine, the armored cruiser "Blücher" in the first reconnaissance squadron could only run at a maximum speed of 24.5 knots, and because of its perennial use, the speed at this time did not exceed 23 knots. The five battlecruisers of Betty's two squadrons each had a formation speed of more than 27 knots; Moreover, the combination of the British twenty-four 343 mm and sixteen 305 mm main guns also completely overwhelmed the combination of the German side's eight 305 mm, twenty 280 mm and twelve 210 mm main guns in terms of firepower, and the Hipper fleet suddenly fell into an embarrassing situation that could not be defeated and could not run.
HMS Brücher
At this time, Hipper had two choices: either simply leave the "Blücher" and the remaining German ships drive full force to desperately "pull and call". Naturally, it is possible to escape before being chased by the British, but the "Blücher" and more than 1,000 people on board the ship will undoubtedly die, not to mention the escape before the battle has begun, as a soldier of the Imperial German Navy, he cannot accept such a great humiliation under any circumstances; Hickper did not hesitate to choose the second option: to take the Blücher with him – to escape! If you really can't run away, you can only fight.
After more than an hour of pursuit, David Betty's flagship, the battlecruiser Lion, had approached a distance of 20,000 yards from the Blücher behind the first reconnaissance squadron, the distance of the maximum effective range of its 343 mm main gun, and at 8:52 began firing at the Blücher with the four 343 mm main guns of the bow A and B turrets, and a few minutes later, the Tiger and the Grand Princess, also equipped with 343 mm guns, also began to use the ship's bow turret to fire at the stern turret. The Blücher opened fire, and this slow, long-range fire lasted for more than an hour, and the crosshairs grew higher and higher as the distance got closer (close to 18,000 yards), and at 9:09 the Blücher began to catch fire.
Lion battlecruiser
Battlecruiser Tiger
Grand Princess battlecruiser
In order to save the Blücher (whose main gun was equipped with a 210 mm main gun that could not be fired due to limited range), at 9:11, Hipper ordered the flagship "Sedlitz" to fire on the "Lion", and a few minutes later the "Moltke" and "Deflinger" also began to fire, the target was concentrated on the "Lion" and "Tiger", because of the close distance, the Germans were slightly better than their British counterparts, and after 17 minutes of fire, they hit the "Lion": a 280 mm shell hit the "Lion". The hull under the watershed of the Ship, but had little effect on the combat effectiveness of the Lion.
Battlecruiser Sedlitz
USS Moltke battlecruiser
HMS Deflinger
When the distance was shortened to 17,500 yards, Betty ordered "each ship to fire at the corresponding battleship in the enemy line", but Lieutenant Colonel Seymour, the chief of communications who was in charge of the signal transmission, made a mistake when the order was transmitted, and did not count the battlecruiser "Indefatigable" that had not yet entered the range of the main gun when issuing the signal, resulting in the captains of both the "New Zealand" and "Indefatigable" ships believing that the ship should shoot the "Blücher". At this time, the artillery officer on the battlecruiser "Tiger" was busy making a mistake, mistakenly using the water column aroused by the shell fired by the "Lion" at the "Sidelitz" as the shell of the ship, so using these water columns as a reference to determine the distance, resulting in all the shells fired by the "Tiger" without exception falling into the sea away from the "Cederitz" as far as 3,000 yards away, while the "Moltke" battlecruiser, which was supposed to be in charge of the "Tiger", was not attacked at all (the "Grand Princess" was responsible for shooting "Deflinger"). no.
Desperate for success, Betty ordered the Lion to increase its speed to 29 knots to continue to increase the hit rate at close range, and the order paid off at 9:40: a 343 mm shell hit the Y turret of the Saidlitz, pierced the gun mount and exploded inside the ammunition lifting shaft, detonating the firing cartridge that had risen in half of the lifting channel to cause a raging fire, splitting into two streams and spreading into the turret operation room and the ammunition depot. The gun crew in the turret's operating room were instantly burned to coke, and some panicked personnel in the ammunition depot opened the armored contact door with the adjacent X turret in order to escape, causing the fire to spread to the X turret with the fleeing crowd. Fortunately, the loss management department injected water into the ammunition depot of the two turrets X and Y in time, and did not let the ammunition depot detonate and destroy the entire warship, but the two gun groups of the two turrets, a total of 159 people, did not survive, and at the same time, the "Seidlitz" lost half of the side firepower, and the combat effectiveness was greatly affected.
The situation was good for Betty, believing that as long as it continued, the entire Hipper fleet would be his meal.
A sea battle
However, an accident on the Lion shattered Betty's wishful thinking: at 10:18, a salvo of eight guns from the German ship "Deflinger" at the Lion made two hits, one of which bounced off the thicker left side of the main armor belt and did not cause much damage; Another shot plunged into the water in front of the side of the "Lion" approaching the side of the "Lion", "traveled" a short distance in the water and then broke through the thinner underwater armor belt, causing a boiler cabin on the starboard side to enter the water, the boiler water was seriously polluted by seawater, and half an hour later, the starboard boiler that could not withstand seawater pollution "went on strike", and even the starboard host was forced to "stop", causing the speed of the "Lion" to fall from 29 knots to 15 knots at once.
To make matters worse, the ship's three generators were damaged by a 280 mm shell of the "Seidlitz" at 10:01, and the last one was also stopped at this time due to overwhelm, resulting in the power supply of the "Lion" being interrupted, and the combat ability was immediately incapacitated (the rotation and pitch of the turret needed to be driven by electricity), and had to withdraw from the battleship to save itself, and Betty was forced to temporarily transfer command to Major General Moore, commander of the Second World War Cruiser Squadron sitting on the New Zealand.
USS New Zealand, a battlecruiser
Before handing over command, Betty ordered Moore to "attack the enemy's tail" through the signal semaphore, which Betty had intended to give was "close enemy attack", but there was no corresponding snub for this word in the semaphore system. As a result, Major General Moore understood the "attack on the enemy's tail" that was supposed to attack the "Deflinger" according to Betty's orders as an attack on the "attack tail enemy ship" of the "Blücher", which was already full of fire and was tilting, and when Betty on the "Lion" saw in the telescope that Moore was leading the team to pounce on the Blücher, he was suddenly out of breath, but he had no choice but to watch Hipper escape with three battlecruisers.
In fact, Hipper really did not want to abandon the "Blücher", originally Hipper observed that the "Lion" was injured and left the queue, he planned to turn around and save the "Blücher", but he was afraid of the heavy artillery fire of the British ships and the threat of the lightning strikes of the destroyers and could not get close, and the remaining ammunition of the ships on his side was already insufficient (the average of the main gun shells on the three battlecruisers was less than two hundred rounds), and if he wanted to save the "Blücher", not only could not save, but would lose the entire fleet. Hipper ordered the entire fleet to sail southeast and withdraw from the battlefield with full horsepower.
The poor 17,200-ton Blücher, on the other hand, was overwhelmed and sunk to starboard after being hit by more than fifty 343 and 305 mm shells and two torpedoes at 12:10. The surviving officers and men of the ship fell into the water like dumplings, and the British ships put down their sampans to rescue the Germans who fell into the water, and at this time, the L5 Zeppelin airship that reached the battlefield saw the red bottom of the "Blücher" exposed to the sea, thinking that it was a sunken British ship, and the British ships around them were rescuing "their own people", and in line with the principle of "beating the falling water dogs", the L5 airship randomly dropped bombs on the sea surface to carry out "indiscriminate bombing", killing many German officers and men.
The Blücher in a sinking
Furious and swearing at Hipper, Betty returned to the battlefield at 12:20 a.m. on the destroyer Attack and boarded the battlecruiser Grand Princess, returning to command. But at this time, Hipper had long since disappeared, but after witnessing the "indiscriminate bombardment" of the L5 airship, his hatred for Moore suddenly deepened.
At first he also gave the order to pursue Hipper, but soon he changed his mind, even at full speed, it would take 2 hours to catch up, in case the main force of the High Seas Fleet left port to meet Hipper, then he would soon fall from hunter to prey, and the reluctant Betty ordered the Tireless to be summoned and the "lame" Lion returned to Roses. When the fleet entered the harbor, it was said that a sailor who was so excited that he excitedly grabbed winston Churchill, the secretary of the navy who was present to greet the triumph of the fleet, pointed at Betty and shouted: "Nelson is back!" ”
In fine art, the Lion is dragged back by the Indefatigable (the Indefatigable in the picture is painted as the Indomitable)
Awards and liquidations
When the battle is over, the next thing to do is naturally the reward that should be rewarded, the punishment that should be punished.
On the German side, due to the credulous belief in the report sent back by the L5 airship that "a British ship (in fact, the "Blücher)" had sunk," the German public had heard the news that His Majesty the Great Kaiser's navy had won a "great victory" at the Doger Sandbar. In fact, the German Navy lost the large armored cruiser Blücher, and Hipper's flagship, the Sedlitz, was severely damaged, with 1,034 casualties (945 of whom were killed) and 189 captured; Admiral Ingnole, commander of the High Seas Fleet, removed the enraged Wilhelm II from his post.
On the British side, what the public heard was naturally a "great victory" without doubt, and in fact it could indeed be called a "victory", after all, one enemy ship was sunk and another was seriously damaged, while he only suffered serious injuries and minor injuries to one battlecruiser, 15 dead and 80 wounded. David Betty became a hero in the public mind, "Nelson Reincarnated."
Major General Archibald Moore, who finally let go of the German because he understood the wrong signal and was satisfied with the siege of the "Blücher", was "baptized" by the spit stars from all sides, and finally his future was ruined and he was forced to retire early. Betty, who had been haunted by the Battle of the Dorgle Sandbar for Hipper's escape, recalled in her memoirs: "The disappointment of that day made me look back. I was determined to sink all four (enemy ships), and I could have done it completely! ”
Artwork: David Betty