Chapter 154: The Outcome is Decided

It was not King, who returned to his command post at half-past twelve, that saved the Atlantic Fleet, but rather the troop transport convoy.

At twelve-twenty-five, after waiting to the verge of losing his patience, Feng Chengqian finally received a telegram from the cruiser detachment. The eight light cruisers searching from north to south had finally encountered the fleeing troop transport convoy and had already engaged in battle by the time the telegram was sent.

Without a doubt, this was a massacre.

Let us not forget that the American light cruisers tasked with screening the troop transport convoy had already been engaged prior to this by twelve light cruisers of the High Seas Fleet. In other words, the troop transport convoy had retreated northward without capital ship protection, and the transport vessels themselves possessed no combat capability whatsoever.

Upon receiving the news, Feng Chengqian ordered a disengagement from battle.

Although many captains could not understand why Feng Chengqian chose to retreat at this moment—especially since the High Seas Fleet had already gained the upper hand in the engagement with an overwhelmingly obvious advantage, having not only crippled the *Pennsylvania* and pushed the *Arizona* to the verge of losing combat capability, while the other four battleships were in no better shape—one crucial point could not be ignored: the objective of this battle was not to annihilate the Atlantic Fleet. More importantly, aside from the *Bayern* and the *Baden*, which posed a lethal threat to the American ships, the six battlecruisers were simply wasting shells unless the engagement distance was closed; they stood no chance of sinking the American battleships in the short term. Should the combat range be shortened, even if just a single American ship retained its fighting capacity, it could inflict unbearable losses upon the High Seas Fleet.

Let us not forget that looming right behind the High Seas Fleet was the massive Grand Fleet.

It could be said that as long as a single capital ship suffered heavy damage and had its mobility impaired, the return journey of the High Seas Fleet would become fraught with deadly peril.

Feng Chengqian had already accomplished his most vital mission and achieved his most significant strategic objective. His next task was to lead the High Seas Fleet safely back to Wilhelmshaven, rather than engaging in a mutual destruction contest thousands of miles from home against enemy vessels destined to spend months in repair docks.

Naturally, retreating at this juncture was timed to absolute perfection.

The troop transport convoy was nearly a hundred kilometers away; even if the Atlantic Fleet were to rush over immediately after the High Seas Fleet withdrew, it would be impossible for them to arrive in time.

According to Feng Chengqian's estimation, it would take the cruiser detachment at most two hours to complete the task.

In reality, it took less than two hours.

At twelve-forty, the High Seas Fleet broke contact with the Atlantic Fleet, leaving behind the six American ships as the eight capital ships sped away at twenty-five knots.

At the final moment, Raeder even sent a telegram suggesting that the remaining light cruisers launch a torpedo attack.

However, Feng Chengqian vetoed this proposal, as it would amount to needlessly risking the light cruisers, while those six American ships had not yet completely lost their combat effectiveness.

An hour later, at thirteen-forty, the cruiser detachment reported that the battle was over.

Out of the twenty-four troop transports, eleven had been sunk, five had escaped, and another eight had surrendered. The commander of the cruiser detachment requested instructions on how to handle the American officers and men aboard the transports.

Clearly, this was a highly棘手 (thorny) problem.

Those American troops had already surrendered, and according to the rules of engagement, the German forces were obligated to take them prisoner. The trouble was that there were tens of thousands of servicemen spread across the eight transport ships, and the eight light cruisers could not possibly accommodate so many captives under any circumstances.

Furthermore, there were simply not enough sailors to guard such a vast multitude of prisoners.

Fortunately, Feng Chengqian possessed considerable experience in this regard.

Let us not forget that before becoming the chief of staff of the High Seas Fleet, Feng Chengqian had commanded the *Berlin* on a nearly two-month-long commerce-raiding mission.

According to Feng Chengqian's arrangements, the eight light cruisers would provision the surrendering American officers and men with lifeboats, supply them with sufficient fresh water and food to last for seven days, and then scuttle the captured transport vessels.

Before departing, the lead light cruiser would broadcast the precise coordinates of the combat zone over international public channels so that American or British ships could arrive in a timely manner to rescue the American servicemen drifting on the open sea.

It could be said that this was a highly humane approach.

Later on, these thirty-some-thousand American servicemen did indeed reach Europe and participated in the European war, but the vast majority of them ultimately surrendered to German forces on the battlefield.

Regardless of how one viewed it, Feng Chengqian's actions at least made more people realize that the German Second Empire would treat prisoners of war humanely.

By dusk, the two cruiser detachments had overtaken the High Seas Fleet as it retreated northeastward.

On the morning of October 27, the Grand Fleet reached the battle zone, rescued the thirty-odd thousand American servicemen, and subsequently transferred them onto several hastily arriving cargo steamers. A week later, these American troops, having lost all their weapons and equipment, arrived in Britain and were incorporated into the U.S. Army European Corps.

Yet, this force was not immediately deployed to the front lines.

The reason was simple: out of the first batch of one hundred and fifty thousand men dispatched by the U.S. Army, only these thirty thousand had reached Britain, and upon arrival, they possessed no weapons or equipment whatsoever. More importantly, the morale of these thirty-odd thousand American soldiers was extremely low, making them utterly unfit for combat.

According to data released by the United States, aside from these thirty-plus-thousand officers and men, about twenty thousand managed to return to America.

In other words, in this battle, the U.S. Army lost one hundred thousand men, the vast majority of whom had sunk to the ocean floor alongside the troop transports.

Even before setting foot on the battlefield, the U.S. Army had suffered a catastrophic defeat of operational proportions.

In truth, the losses sustained by the U.S. Navy were even greater.

Although none of the six battleships had sunk, upon returning to Norfolk, the *Pennsylvania* and the *Arizona* were essentially equivalent to total losses.

These two battleships spent a full year in dry dock before being fully repaired. The condition of the other four battleships was slightly better, but they too had lost their capability for blue-water operations, requiring anywhere from three to five months to repair, thus causing them to miss several subsequent critical engagements.

To put it bluntly, for the next three months, the U.S. Navy was left with only medium and small warships at its disposal.

For the United States, this was not an insurmountable problem.

At any rate, with the Atlantic Ocean serving as a natural barrier, even if the German Second Empire seized command of the seas, it would be unable to pose an immediate threat to the American homeland for the time being. It must be remembered that up to this point, the Imperial Navy possessed neither an amphibious force capable of crossing the North Atlantic nor the capability to project military power across the ocean. Indeed, one could even say that the Imperial Army could not even cross the English Channel.

Without a doubt, time was on America's side.

The question was, did Britain have time?

With the U.S. Navy crippled and incapable of recovery for months, the heavy burden fell entirely upon the shoulders of the British Royal Navy. What made things even more fatal was that by the end of the year, the only vessels the Royal Navy would have operational were eight battleships procured from the United States. Across the battlefield, aside from the eight capital ships that had participated in this naval clash, the navy of the German Second Empire also boasted two already-commissioned battlecruisers and would repair at least six more battleships before the end of the year, bringing the total scale of its capital ships to a staggering sixteen.

In other words, by the end of the year, the strength of the High Seas Fleet would be double that of the Grand Fleet!

Even by early 1917, after the Grand Fleet received two *Queen Elizabeth*-class, two *Revenge*-class, and one *Tiger*-class ships, its number of capital ships would still only equal half that of the High Seas Fleet, because by that time, the High Seas Fleet was guaranteed to have acquired another eight repaired battleships.

Even if one factored in the four American battleships projected to be repaired by the end of March 1917, the Anglo-American naval forces possessed not the slightest advantage.

Without a doubt, Britain had lost the initiative on the maritime battlefield.

In fact, this was not even the most pressing issue.

American troop deployments to Europe were obstructed, and even if a European Corps were formed anew, it could not set out until the end of the year, whereas France could by no means hold out alone until the end of the year.

When news of the Battle of the Atlantic reached France, the entire nation was plunged into lamentation. Even the ultra-optimistic Foch lamented that France had been defeated, while Pétain went so far as to state directly that France would be defeated within two months, advising the French President and Prime Minister to enter into armistice negotiations with the German Second Empire.

Interestingly, a faction of the French populace still hoped to fight to the bitter end.

Naturally, this was related to wartime propaganda.

According to reports published by French propaganda agencies, although the U.S. European Corps had been delayed and could not arrive on schedule, the American Atlantic Fleet had heavily battered the German High Seas Fleet in this naval engagement, achieving a monumental victory by sinking eight battleships, five battlecruisers, and sixteen other vessels including light cruisers, thereby seizing command of the North Atlantic and completely eliminating the threat to maritime supply routes.

Clearly, French propaganda was exaggerated to a somewhat absurd degree.

At the time, the total number of capital ships the High Seas Fleet could muster out of Wilhelmshaven did not even reach thirteen.

Even so, a portion of the French public—particularly young people lacking sound judgment—believed the false propaganda put out by the French authorities. In the final days of October alone, nearly five hundred thousand Frenchmen volunteered for military service, eighty percent of whom were youths aged sixteen to eighteen.

It must be noted that prior to this, France had only conscripted young men aged eighteen and above into military service.

France had not surrendered, but neither had it abandoned the prospect of an armistice.

On October 31, the French Prime Minister transmitted a draft armistice framework agreement through the Kingdom of Sweden to the Chancellor of the German Second Empire, outlining terms for a cessation of hostilities.

At this time, Feng Chengqian was still out on the North Atlantic. He would not return to Berlin until five days later.

Upon receiving France's "petition for surrender," the German Emperor did not instruct Ludendorff to halt the offensive, but instead demanded that Ludendorff execute the operational plan without interference.

Yet, the Kaiser did not completely abandon diplomatic avenues either.

On November 2, through the King of Sweden, the Kaiser transmitted the primary terms set by the German Second Empire for an armistice to the French President.

From this moment onward, France had to fight desperately in the diplomatic arena to preserve its very last foundation.