The British Royal Navy was having a hell of a time with the onset of the war. Not only had the Empire of Japan attacked their colonies in the East almost immediately after declaring their entry into the conflict, forcing the British to divert their maritime forces to deal with this new threat.
Nearly a month had passed since the Great War began, and Britain had already lost over a dozen transport ships in their attempts to cross the North Sea. Any attempt to ferry troops across the English Channel was met with critical failure.
Attacks occurred time and time again without warning, resulting in devastating losses as the British scratched their heads, trying to figure out just what the hell was sinking them. Their confusion was understandable.
Submarines of the era were essentially torpedo boats that could briefly submerge to escape pursuit. However, they were still visible on the surface of the waves when they conducted attacks. But Germany had produced a far more advanced U-Boat-and in significant numbers -in preparation for this war.
These U-Boats operated in “Wolfpacks,” which were small units of up to 20 submarines each. These Wolfpacks hounded British shipping and transportation, destroying them before they could reach the shores of France.
In doing so, Germany had silently cut off any and all material supplies and troops meant to reinforce the French Army’s repeated failed attempts to break through German border fortifications.
As a result, the Royal Navy had no choice but to begin protecting their lone transport ships with armed escorts. After all, convoys had yet to fully develop as a logistics tactic, though it wouldn’t really matter in the long run.
There was just one serious problem with this: the British sailors still couldn’t detect the German submarines beneath the surface. Even so, with the mustering of the Grand Fleet, the Germans responded in kind with their High Seas Fleet, leading to the first major naval engagement of the war.
Admiral Franz von Hipper stood on the bow of the pride and joy of the Kaiserliche Marine- the SMS König, the first of a class of dreadnought-style battleships of the same name. The High Seas Fleet was behind him as he gazed upon the British Grand Fleet in the distance.
The Grand Fleet was exceptionally larger than its German counterpart, boasting a total of 28 dreadnought battleships, 9 battlecruisers, 8 armored cruisers, 26 light cruisers, 78 destroyers, 1 minelayer, and 1 seaplane carrier.
Meanwhile, the German fleet consisted of 16 dreadnought battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 6 pre- dreadnought battleships, 11 light cruisers, 22 destroyers, 61 U-Boats, and 1 seaplane carrier. The addition of the German destroyers, which were far more advanced than their British counterparts and capable of providing multiple roles such as anti-aircraft screening and minelaying, was due to Bruno’s interference in the timeline.
As was the seaplane carrier, which held over a dozen He 51B-2 seaplanes. Each carried torpedoes and was capable of launching them towards hostile ships, effectively making them the world’s first dedicated torpedo bombers.
All of these changes were not expected by the British Navy, and thus Franz von Hipper was rather smug, even while gazing upon an enemy force roughly twice the size of his own. It was no surprise that there was a confident tone in his voice when he initiated the attack on the British Grand Fleet.
“Let’s send these bastards down to the depths where they belong, shall we?”
Admiral John Jellicoe stood aboard the pride and joy of the British Royal Navy, the largest and most boastful of the Grand Fleet’s 26 dreadnought battleships. He was, needless to say, quite surprised when he saw the Germans, despite their numerical inferiority of warships, willing to exchange blows with them in an outright battle.
Normally, one would make use of some other form of tactics rather than just going straight for the naval equivalent of a slugfest, and thus the Admiral simply scoffed and shook his head before insulting the intelligence of his enemy.
“They may have built the second most powerful navy in the world, but with such fools leading them, these men might as well commit suicide, because they’re already as good as dead! Load the guns and prepare to—”
A series of hits landed on the bow of multiple British dreadnoughts, including the one Admiral John Jellicoe was standing on, completely interrupting his thoughts as he was speaking them.
The man even fell to the floor in the quake that rocked his world. It took him a moment or two to realize that their ship had received multiple hits, and they were not alone. Reports flooded in about substantial damage being dealt by the guns of the enemy ships, which fired upon their vessels with a substantially higher hit accuracy.
The British Admiral was stunned and thought perhaps this was a mere coincidence-an act of God, if you will. That is until the second volley of shots was fired by the German vessels, many of which were operating advanced maneuvers while firing.
They were, after all, using advanced electromechanical computation devices with gyro- stabilization, allowing them to maintain a fairly high level of accuracy even while the ship was turning.
This completely and utterly shocked the British Admiral, who managed to get a single statement out before the shell he was gazing upon detonated right on the bridge where he was standing.
“My God…”
The German Navy had gone out of its way to focus their guns on the largest and most powerful British warships first. Not only did they attack with their large guns, but the seaplanes, which flew through the sky with impunity after effortlessly shooting down the British aircraft, managed to drop their torpedoes within range of their targets.
Britain, after all, had yet to invest in anti-aircraft weaponry on their warships, as the very idea of using planes as anything other than reconnaissance had completely slipped the minds of the other Great Powers of the world.
But not the Germans. No, they were fully utilizing air power and its many versatile roles in battle from the start of the war, thanks to Bruno’s interference in the timeline.
Because of this, it didn’t take more than an hour for the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet to sustain heavy losses, with over half of their dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and armored cruisers sunk to the bottom of the English Channel.
The Germans did not pursue, choosing not to take such a risky venture and instead basking in their damn near flawless victory. While the Grand Fleet lost over half of its warships, the Germans sustained substantial damage on one dreadnought, which could be towed back to port and repaired.
They also lost two pre-dreadnought battleships, as well as three cruisers. Comparatively speaking, their losses were almost non-existent and limited to primarily obsolete ships
anyway.
Regardless, the German Navy would celebrate this victory, and the admirals in charge of the German High Seas Fleet would sing praises of the weapons produced by Bruno’s factories, which had won an otherwise unwinnable battle with ease.